Memoirs: Kitty Ruttenberg
Edgar Bayers Papers
Shaare Torah Congregation
Calendar: Brownsville reunion, Shaare Torah celebration, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project workshop
Community News
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Memoirs:
"Kitty: An Uncommon Memoir of a Non-Celebrity"
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Katherine “Kitty” (Monori) Ruttenberg was born in Hungary and followed her parents to Wilkinsburg, Pa. in 1927.
The transition from Europe to America was also, at least for a time, a transition from grandeur to relatively modest surroundings. But throughout her life, Kitty maintained a grand view of the world. That view gives life to the stories and insights in her 1980 book “Kitty: An Uncommon Memoir of a Non-Celebrity.”
With relish and poise, Kitty describes her education and activism during the New Deal, her courtship and marriage to labor and business leader Harold Ruttenberg, her experiences as a wife and mother, her volunteer work with Hadassah and Temple Sinai, her life as a part-time resident of Israel during its war-torn years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and her accomplishments as an art collector focusing on Israeli artists.
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"Kitty: An Uncommon Memoir of a Non-Celebrity," by Katherine Ruttenberg. |
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Harold and Katherine Ruttenberg at their home, seen amongst some of their vast art collection, September 15, 1980.
—Jewish Chronicle Records [MSS 906]
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Throughout the book, Kitty describes moments of quiet partnership in the professional life of her husband.
In his time as a labor leader, she edits everything he writes. She is careful to note that she never changes his meaning, but she nevertheless feels “a tiny bit” of herself in his finished work. In his corporate career, she credits her social graces with helping him to land many big business deals.
Only once in her long career is Kitty paid for her time. In a pilot program in the early 1960s, the Pittsburgh Board of Education hired ten local housewives to grade English themes written by students at Allderdice High School. “I enjoyed tremendously not being a volunteer for a change, even if I was earning only $2.00 an hour at a time when the minimum wage in the country was $1.15 for unskilled labor,” she wrote. But she didn't view herself as a “housewife.” She always listed herself on official paperwork as a “homemaker.” She wrote, “To me, it is a way of making a point.”
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The positive experience of grading papers, combined with her time in Temple Sinai’s Falk Library, inspires her to apply to the Library School at the University of Pittsburgh. She is accepted into the program, but she ultimately turns down the opportunity when her husband is unexpectedly sent to Vienna for work.
In the absence of a formal career, writing becomes an important outlet for her energy and ambition. “Before my brief spell as an English theme reader, my interest in writing was confined to college term papers, reports, minutes of meetings and letters. That is, if one does not count: notes to the milkman, lists of things to pack for camp, memos on household shopping, reminders on what to discuss with teacher, pediatrician and plumber. I am a compulsive list maker. I have always been a conscientious letter writer: to those who are away from home and conversely, to those whom I leave at home; to friends as well. Whenever I have new and interesting things to write home about, my letters become minitravelougues, generously punctuated with comments and observations.” In the 1960s, she starts writing articles and essays, including many published in local outlets. In this regard, her memoir becomes one of her greatest accomplishments: broad in scope and full of her personality.
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Next week: Anarchy
All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting memoirs of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a memoir, or just chat about the stories you've read, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
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New Collection:
Edgar Bayers Papers [MSS 1231]
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(Above) Letter, Chaja Bojarsky to Edgar Bayers, 1939; (Right) Edgar Bayers outside Centre Avenue shoe store, undated.
—Edgar Bayers Papers [MSS 1231]
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Edgar H. Bayers (c1904-c1970) immigrated to the United States from Poland before 1930. He settled on Kirkpatrick Street in the Hill District before moving to a rooming house and apartments in Squirrel Hill. With his business partner Joseph Sacks, he started the Modern Shoe Store at 1707 Centre Avenue in 1933. |
The Edgar Bayers Papers [MSS 1231] contains correspondence sent to Bayers by members of his former Jewish community in Poland, including his sister Chaja Bojarsky, between 1933 and 1940. The letters are primarily in Yiddish and concern efforts to rescue Jewish family or acquaintances from Nazi prisons.
An official letter from the Jewish community of Wasiliszki (also known as Vasilishok) seems to be an attempt to allow Bojarsky to use remittance funds sent to her by Bayers or some other American relative.
Photographs in the collection show Bayers' parents and his sister Chaja Bojarsky, as well as his wedding and his extended American family.
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Shaare Torah Congregation
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Shaare Torah Congregation was founded in the Hill District int he 1880s by a contingent of Beth Hamedrash Hagodol members who supported their leader Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz against dissent within the congregation. Shaare Torah was incorporated in 1890 and initially met in a rented room at the corner of Marion Street and Fifth Avenue. Other early locations included rented space on Washington Street opposite Epiphany Street, on Old Avenue at Fifth Avenue, and at 95 Logan St.
By 1895 the congregation was occupying a renovated church at 35 Townsend Street. Over the next 15 years, the congregation launched several campaigns to construct a synagogue at that location, eventually dedicating a new structure (D. A. Crone, architect) in 1909. It moved to Murray Avenue Squirrel Hill in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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Advertisement for Shaare Torah Congregation building fund, showing illustration of unbuilt synagogue, 1895.
—Der Volksfreund
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Our entry for Shaare Torah Congregation includes a bibliography, a link to the congregational records at the University of Pittsburgh, and various documents. |
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The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania brings together numerous online resources into a clearinghouse for conducting research about Jewish history in this region. As we migrate information to this new website, we’ll be announcing new entries and resources in this section of the newsletter. |
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Calendar: Past and Present |
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June 19:
Brownsville Jewish Community Reunion
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Group photograph of the students and teachers of the Ohave Israel Religious School in Brownsville, Pa., standing in front of the synagogue building, undated.
—Synagogue Documentation Project Photographs [MSP 317].
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The former Jewish community of Brownsville, Pa., is hosting a reunion.
In addition to celebrating the 115th anniversary of the founding of Congregation Ohave Israel in 1907, the reunion will include a rededication of the Ohave Israel Cemetery, which has recently been rediscovered, restored and documented by the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association.
The reunion will be June 19, 2022 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Nemacolin’s Castle Courtyard, 136 Front St. in Brownsville, Pa. To RSVP, or to learn more about the event, please contact Danny Greenfield or Norma Ryan.
As part of the reunion, work is underway to properly document the history of former Jewish community of Brownsville. If you have memories or materials of Jewish life in the community, email the Archive or call 412-454-6406.
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June 23:
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Wasserman Celebration
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Rabbi Daniel Wasserman and Rebbetzin Judy Wasserman were hired as the spiritual leaders of Shaare Torah Congregation in 1995 and were formally installed in 1997.
As they prepare to leave Pittsburgh for Israel this summer, Shaare Torah is hosting a weekend of learning, prayer and community in their honor.
The Rauh Jewish Archives will be kicking off the weekend on the evening of Thursday, June 23 with a historical perspective about Shaare Torah Congregation. The talk will consider previous moments of transition and renewal at the congregation over the past century, such as the creation of the Pittsburgh Hebrew School and the introduction of bat mitzvah rituals.
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[Left] Cover of program for Shaare Torah Congregation's 117th annual banquet, featuring the installation of Rabbi Daniel Wasserman, March 1997. |
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June 26:
How to Use the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project is a free, online collection of English-language newspapers covering the Jewish population of Western Pennsylvania from 1895 to 2010. Carnegie Mellon University hosts the website and recently moved it to a new online platform. To help researchers with this transition, the Rauh Jewish Archives, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle are providing a free online workshop to help researchers use the website. We’ll introduce the website, review its basic features and functions, and offer tips and techniques for conducting research. We’ll also be collecting questions and suggestions.
This vritual program is on Sun., June 26 at 1:00 p.m. ET. Please register online. The program will be recorded and made available online.
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Now Open:
“Pittsburgh’s John Kane:
The Life & Art of an American Workman”
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"Crossing the Junction," John Kane |
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The Carnegie Institute surprised the art world in 1927 when it accepted a painting called “Scene from the Scottish Highlands” into its annual International Exhibition of Paintings. The exhibit, now called the Carnegie International, was one of the longest-running and most important surveys of American contemporary painting, a showcase of world-famous painters.
The artist was John Kane, a 67-year-old immigrant laborer in Pittsburgh with no formal art training but an artistic eye and approach all his own. Through the exposure from the exhibit, Kane gained international recognition in the final years of his life. Today, his work can be found in some of the most prestigious art museums in America, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago.
The local art world has revisited Kane many times since his death in 1934, but there has never been a thorough historical examination of his life. The new Heinz History Center exhibit “Pittsburgh’s John Kane: The Life & Art of an American Workman” is the first to consider how Kane’s life and world influenced his art. Grounded in scholarship from Louise Lippincott and Maxwell King's new book “American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane,” the exhibit asks: How did an immigrant worker roaming around Western Pennsylvania at the turn of the century become an artist of national acclaim?
“Pittsburgh’s John Kane” includes 37 paintings by Kane from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Carnegie Museum of Art, American Folk Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Phillips Collection, and others collections. The exhibit also includes rarely seen archival objects, including a collection of silver gelatin photographs Kane took as painting studies. An immersive walk-through of Kane’s final painting—“Crossing the Junction”—will allow visitors to travel through a Pittsburgh landscape as Kane did and explore his artistic process.
The exhibit is now open and runs through the rest of the year.
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The 1950 Census is now online.
You can access the census data using the link below. As additional research tools become the coming weeks and months, we'll share them here.
If you would like help using these records, please contact the Archive.
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Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project |
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The home page of the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project website, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. The redesigned website is launching this month. |
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By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating the features and tools of the website, the Rauh Jewish Archives recently contributed a brief explanatory article to the Jewish Chronicle. It provides some basic tips and techniques for conducting research using the new site.
We plan to provide a live virtual training workshop in the near future to review the website and its functionalities. Until then, we are here to help you troubleshoot problems. You can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.
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[IMAGE: Marian Schreiber and employees at the Schreiber Trucking Company, c.1943—from Schreiber Family Papers and Photographs, MSS 846.]
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The Rauh Jewish Archives was founded on November 1, 1988 to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documentary history of Jews and Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania. You can help the RJHPA continue its work by making a donation that will directly support the work being done in Western Pa. |
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