No. 43

Remembering October 27

Samuel and Sarah Gruber Family Papers [2021.0100]

Lechem Aniyum Society

Calendar: Rodef Shalom Presents: Samuel Rosenberg, Painter; JGS Pittsburgh Presents: Emily Garber



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

Remembering October 27

Thursday will mark four years since October 27, 2018, when a gunman entered a synagogue in Squirrel Hill during Shabbat morning services, killing 11 congregants from Tree of Life Congregation, New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, wounding six others including four police officers, and breaking the hearts of millions of people all over the world. The yahrzeit—marking the date of the attack on the Hebrew calendar—is the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, which falls this year on Saturday, November 12. 

We remember Joyce Fienberg, Rich Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Irving Younger, and Mel Wax. We remember that day and its aftermath.

What does it mean to remember?

In one sense, it’s personal. 

Everyone must decide for themselves how best to meet that personal responsibility. Some will choose to remember through politics and some through religion. Some will remember through art and some through scholarship. Some will remember through action and some through emotion.

Beyond those personal decisions, though, is a communal responsibility.

How can one generation pass along shared memories to future generations?

The Book of Joshua illustrates one method.

Early in the book, the Jewish people cross the Jordan River and finally enter the Holy Land, ending 40 years in the wilderness. The crossing features a miracle: the river splits as the Ark of the Covenant is carried across.

God commands Joshua to erect 12 large stones along the river. Explaining the meaning of this act, Joshua tells the people: “Should your children ask you tomorrow, saying ‘What are these stones to you?,’ you shall say, ‘That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, when it was crossing over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones became a memorial for the Israelites forever.’” [Joshua 4:6-7, from Robert Alter, “The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary,” 2019.]

The Jordan River stones were a visible and public memorial. According to tradition, one could visit them, could touch them, could analyze them. Many centuries upon centuries later, the Babylonian Talmud reports [Sotah, 34a]: “Rabbi Yehuda said: Abba Halafta, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Matya, and Hananya ben Hakhinai stood on those same stones and measured them.” 

Even the most profound experiences will not automatically be remembered beyond our lifetimes. What is unforgettable to one generation can easily become irrelevant to the next. Only through deliberate, thoughtful, proactive measures can the past become an ever-present source of inquiry and inspiration, a chance for every future generation to better understand itself.

Over the past four years, the Rauh Jewish Archives has collected thousands of objects documenting the ongoing aftermath of the October 27 attack. We have been digitizing these materials, cataloging them, and working with local stakeholders to understand how best to share these materials with the public.

In the coming weeks, we will begin making these materials available to the world, to give people one way to fulfill their desire and responsibility to remember. We look forward to sharing details about this initiative soon. In the meantime, we invite you to use this time to turn memory into action.

New Collection:

Samuel and Sarah Gruber Family Papers [2021.0100]

Zionist Council of Pittsburgh bond issued to Samuel Gruber, June 4, 1906.

—from Samuel and Sarah Gruber Family Papers [2021.0100]

Samuel Gruber (1836-1932) was born in Jassy, Romania. With his wife Sarah Haimovitz (1842-1932), he had nine children, eight of which survived to adulthood. The family immigrated to the United States around 1902 and settled in the Pittsburgh area. The Samuel and Sarah Gruber Family Papers [2021.0100] contains ephemera from several branches of the family, including two yahrzeit calendars, a naturalization form, a Zionist Council of Pittsburgh bond, and six Jewish National Fund certificates including one for the President Harry S. Truman Forest. It also includes a family tree from a Gruber Family Association reunion in 1992 with various branches of the Gruber family, including Unger, Horn, Hershkovitz, Cohen, Leibling, Finegold.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Lechem Aniyum Society

Photograph showing four women and two men standing among dozens of baskets of food deliveries at the Lechem Aniyum Society distribution center, most likely at Beth Jacob Congregation. Label reads, “In appreciation of your services during the past year. With your assistance this organization was able to carry on. Lechum Aniyum Society, “Bread for the Poor,” Chas. B. Sable, Chairman, Distributing Committee, Dec. 27, 1936.”

—from Lechem Aniyum Society Photograph [1988.0034]

The Lechem Aniyum Society (Bread for the Poor Society) was a charitable organization in Pittsburgh that provided food deliveries to Jewish families in need. The society initially prepared weekly food baskets to deliver to Jewish families in advance of the Sabbath. The Lechem Aniyum Society began in an informal capacity in the Hill District around 1917 under the direction of Nathan Goldstock, J. Mervis, and C. Abramowitz. The organization expanded its efforts in late 1920s and early 1930s, likely in response to the emerging needs during the Great Depression. With the expansion, the society was increasingly run by a group of local Jewish women from the Hill District. It also became closely affiliated with Beth Jacob Congregation, which provided meeting space.

Our entry for the Lechem Aniyum Society includes a photograph of its distribution center, correspondence, and links to newspaper articles.

November 9:

Rodef Shalom Congregation Presents: 

Samuel Rosenberg, Painter: A Vision of the Hill 1930

Rodef Shalom Congregation will host a public program on Samuel

Rosenberg, Painter: A Vision of the Hill 1930 with Barbara L. Jones, Curator

Emerita of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, and Laurence A. Glasco, Ph.D. Ms. Jones, author of Portrait of a Painter, a study of Rosenberg, is joined by Dr. Glasco, a contributor to the book. The program begins at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, November 9 in Levy Hall at Rodef Shalom Congregation located at 4905 Fifth Avenue in Oakland. Their talk will include a discussion on Rosenberg’s Watermelon Market 1933 painting. A dessert reception follows the discussion, which is free and open to the public. Reservations are requested and can be made at 412.621.6566 x140 or at rodefshalom.org/rosenberg.

Barbara L. Jones, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s first Curator, joined the museum in October 1995, was promoted to Chief Curator in 2009, and was named Curator Emerita upon her retirement after 26 1⁄2 years in April, 2022. As a member of the Senior Management team, she had overall responsibility for the Museum’s permanent collection and exhibitions. With a concentration in the primary fields of nineteenth and twentieth century American art, she holds Masters degrees in both Art History and Museum Studies from Syracuse University and has a record of published research in American and regional art.

A member of American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Curators, she juries both national and regional art exhibitions and has lectured widely. With an exceptional museum team, she completed the redesign and reinstallation of all the renovated and expanded galleries of The New Westmoreland in 2015. Jones served as a member and Chair of the Historic Architectural Review Board for the City of Greensburg from 2007 ̶ 2019. She recently joined the Steering Committee of the Westmoreland Land Trust’s Carl A. Schwarz Memorial Nature and Art Park.

Laurence A. Glasco, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the History Department of the University of Pittsburgh. Since coming to the University in 1969, he has focused on African American history, both locally and globally. He has studied the history of Black Pittsburgh for the past decade. He researched and narrated a recent exhibition on slavery in early Pittsburgh, Free at Last?. Among Dr. Glasco’s numerous publications on the history of Black Pittsburgh are The 1940s:The Best of Times, August Wilson: Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays, and Teenie Harris: A Biography.

Glasco received the Pittsburgh Courier’s Men of Excellence award, the YWCA’s Racial Justice Award and TALK magazine’s Black History Merit Award. He works toward the preservation of historic Black sites in Pittsburgh as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and a member of the Young Preservationists Association. Several round-the-world voyages with the Semester at Sea program, and regular visits to Cuba, have helped Glasco place the story of Black Pittsburgh in a global perspective.

For more information, contact Mayda Roth, CFRE, Director of Development at 412.621.6566 x140 or via email at roth@rodefshalom.org.

November 13:

JGS-Pittsburgh Presents: Emily Garber

Get on board for a guided tour through your family’s complex history! In this all-day hybrid seminar led by Emily Garber, you’ll learn where to start and how to explore your relatives’ lives. Discover clues about your family in the records they left behind. Train in the best research practices. Track your findings as you go. This course will set you up for future success in your Jewish family history journey. Seminar also includes an introductory session showing you how to find your Western Pennsylvania ancestors in the archives.

The program is Sunday, November 13 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. For a complete schedule of the seminar, visit the Heinz History Center website.

It is a hybrid event, with options for in-person and online participation. It's free for JGS-Pittsburgh members, $10 for non-members joining online and $15 for non-members joining in person. Attendees can reserve a boxed lunch from Creative Kosher for $20 or bring their own. Please register online. 

This is a hybrid program. Portions will be recorded, and the recordings 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.

An archaeologist by training (B.A., Vassar College; M.A., University of New Mexico), Emily Garber is a professional genealogy researcher, writer and speaker who specializes in Jewish genealogical research. She has researched both Eastern European and German Jewish communities and immigrants to the United States and Great Britain. She has toured family shtetlach (communities) and explored archives in Ukraine.

After retiring from her 30-plus year career in natural resources management, Emily earned a certificate from Boston University’s Genealogical Research program. She has spoken at nine International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conferences, as well as National Genealogical Society’s conferences, the New York State Family History Conference and the Utah Genealogical Society’s Summit of Excellence. She has presented talks and seminars throughout the United States, and in Israel and Poland. She coordinated two different weeklong seminars on Jewish genealogy at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She has authored four articles published in Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy and, for a client, completed two privately published volumes chronicling the 300-year history of a German Jewish family. She writes a family history blog, The Extra Yad.

Emily serves on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. She also chairs the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Group and is on the board of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. She served for about 10 years as one of the moderators of the JewishGen Discussion Group.

[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.