No. 40

Memoir: Poor Mrs. Engelsky

Baldoc Hills Country Club Photographs [2022.0003]

Young People's Zionist League [pictured]

Calendar: Yom Kippur, JGS Pittsburgh Presents: Libby Copeland on DNA



Community News: The Letters, Jakob's Torah, 1950 Census, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Memoir:

"Poor Mrs. Engelsky: Of Memory and Tragedy"

Freda Engelsky obituary, Jewish Criterion, Sept. 14, 1923

—from Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

“Poor Mrs. Engelsky” starts with a memoir. Charles Salkin reproduces two pages from the 1988 memoir of his late aunt Florence Solovey Salkin.

In those pages, Florence describes the loveliness of Sabbath preparations during her childhood in Oil City in the early 20th century, a loveliness marred only by the awkward encounters when Florence was tasked with bringing Shabbos food to a grief-stricken neighborhood named Mrs. Engelsky. 

No one ever explained to young Florence why Mrs. Englesky always wore black or why she was always drenched in tears. All they said was "Poor Mrs. Engelsky." Only decades later, while reminiscing with a childhood friend, did Florence eventually learn the horrifying tragedy that befell Mrs. Engelsky.

Charles Salkin gasped when he read that account. You might gasp, too. But then he did something you might not do. He investigated the story.

“Poor Mrs. Engelsky” details Salkin’s 25-year effort to learn everything he can about Mrs. Engelsky, her family, and their experiences in Oil City in the early 20th century. He scrolls through microfilm, interviews old-timers, compiles contextual research, and gradually weaves the facts into a new account.

The result is exactly what you would hope it would be: Salkin both confirms and complicates the original story, leading to a deeper and more human understanding of what happened and what it all means. 

All memoirs are subjective. Each comes from an individual person with individual experiences, individual memories, and an individual way of seeing the world. Like the memories upon which they are based, memoirs are only sometimes strictly factual, and yet somehow they are almost always true.

New Collection:

Baldoc Hills Country Club Photographs [2022.0003]

Jill Corey, September 1954.

—from Baldoc Hills Country Club Photographs [2022.0003]

Walter Caplan was raised in Jeannette, Pa. He was an avid golfer as a teenager and regularly used the Baldoc Hills Country Club facilities as a child. He attended the Dapper Dan Celebrities Golf Tournament at the course in September 1954, taking photographs and collecting autographs from golfers Ed Furgol, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and entertainers Johnny Weissmuller, Bob Steele, Willard Waterman, Julius La Rosa, and Jill Corey.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Young People's Zionist League

"Young People's Zionist League Third Anniversary Journal," 1919.

—from Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky Papers [MSS 222]

The Young People’s Zionist League was established June 4, 1916 as a local affiliate of the international religious Zionist organization Mizrachi. It held social and literary events and raised money for Jewish causes. In the years around World War II, it became one of the most popular and fastest-growing of the many emerging Zionist organizations in Western Pennsylvania, reaching 75 members by 1918 and 175 by 1921. Our entry for the Young People’s Zionist League includes a photograph from one of its picnics, a copy of its third anniversary journal, and links to various newspaper articles about the group.

October 5:

Yom Kippur

Child learning about Yom Kippur on computer program at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hi, September 1990.

—from Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Photographs [MSP 389]

Yom Kippur is Wednesday, October 5. The Rauh Jewish Archives phone line and email account will be closed for the day, but the Library & Archives reading room will be open for its usual hours. The Rauh Jewish Archives wishes a meaningful day and an easy fast to those who observe the Holiday. 

October 6:

JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Libby Copeland

[Left] Gertrude and Edwin Perles of Vienna. [Right] Hasele and Abe Levy of Pittsburgh.

—from A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883]

Libby Copeland will explore the extraordinary cultural phenomenon of home DNA testing, which is redefining family history. She will draw on her years of research for her book The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are (Abrams, 2020), which The Wall Street Journal calls “a fascinating account of lives dramatically affected by genetic sleuthing.” With close to 40 million people having been tested, a tipping point has been reached. Virtually all Americans are affected whether they have been tested or not, and millions have been impacted by significant revelations in their immediate families. The presentation will discuss the implications of home DNA testing for Jewish genealogy, as well as the challenges of genetic genealogy for Ashkenazim.

The program is Thursday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. ET It's free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. Please register online. 

All attendees are encouraged to log on 30 minutes early for a virtual open house. It’s an opportunity to share genealogy stories and make new friends.

This is a virtual program. It will be recorded, and the recording will be made available for JGS-Pittsburgh members who are current on their dues.

This program is possible through the support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.

Libby Copeland is an award-winning journalist and author who writes from New York about culture and science. As a freelance journalist, she writes for such media outlets as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Smithsonian Magazine. Her book, The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are, published by Abrams in 2020, explores the rapidly evolving phenomenon of home DNA testing, its implications for how we think about family and ourselves, and its ramifications for American culture broadly. The Wall Street Journal says it’s “a fascinating account of lives dramatically affected by genetic sleuthing.” The New York Times writes, “Before You Spit in That Vial, Read This Book.” The Washington Post says The Lost Family “reads like an Agatha Christie mystery” and “wrestles with some of the biggest questions in life: Who are we? What is family? Are we defined by nature, nurture or both?” It was named to The Guardian’s list of The Best Books of 2020.

[Right] Gertrude Perles of Vienna. [Left] Hasele and Abe Levy of Pittsburgh.

—from A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883]

"The Letters: A Plea for Help"

In late October 1938, Abe and Hasele Levy of Pittsburgh received a letter from Gertrude Perles, a stranger in Vienna who was trying to escape the Nazis and come to the United States. “My husband and I are both Jews,” she wrote. “I am sure you know what is going on here and I need not give you a more precise explanation. It is growing worse every day. Our only hope is to emigrate to the U.S.A. Please, if you are able to send affidavits for me and my husband, for Heaven’s sake, do it, before it will be too late for us.”

Over the next few months, the Levys worked to help this Viennese couple through the challenges and pressures of the immigration process. Their correspondence is preserved in the A. Sanford Levy and Gertrude Deutsch Perles Papers [MFF 4883] held by the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. The collection vividly shows the logistical and emotional challenges facing Jewish refugees as they navigated the immigration process.

Iris Samson of WQED recently produced a short documentary about the collection of letters titled The Letters: A Plea for Help. The moving 15-minute documentary places the eight-month correspondence into the larger context of the Anschluss, the Holocaust, and the start of World War II.

By now, you're probably expertly zipping around the new Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project platform. But if you still need a little help navigating its features and tools, you can view a virtual training workshop at the link below. Or, you can contact the archive or call 412-454-6406 with your questions.