Vol. 4

No. 8

Restaurants:

Bubbles & Sherman

The Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Y Canteen

Article:

A Bit More About the Jewish Encyclopedia

Calendar:

Mar. 26: Remembering Kaufmann's

Community:

Data, Democracy and the Census

Jewish Daily Forward exhibit

Mystery portraits

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries, Memorial Plaques, Books, Newsletters

Restaurants:

Bubbles & Sherman

Black and white photograph showing the sign and façade of Bubbles & Sherman at 5841 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill, undated.

—from McBride Sign Company Photographs [1997.0097]

We looked last week at the two Richest’s Restaurants: the one downtown on Sixth Street started by Joseph P. Richest in the 1930s, and the one Uptown on Fifth Avenue started by his mother Anna Richest Mitchel in 1920s.

Over two decades, Anna Richest Mitchel grew the Uptown restaurant to become one of the largest Jewish delicatessens in Western Pennsylvania. She oversaw a major renovation of her restaurant at 1314 Fifth in 1940, and sometime around 1944, she sold the entire restaurant business to Ted Tobin and William “Bubbles” Rosenstein. Tobin and Rosenstein were brothers-in-law.

Their partnership was short and dramatic, and it ended in tragedy. 

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph article reporting on petition by local law enforcement officers to keep Richest's Restaurant open past midnight, April 6, 1945. (Full article)

The drama came during the war.

Throughout the years of World War II, local restaurants faced numerous restrictions, particularly meat rationing and midnight curfews. 

In the spring of 1945, about a year into the tenure of Tobin and Rosenstein, Richest’s applied for permission to stay open past the midnight curfew, but it was denied.

The curfew committee was only granting waivers to restaurants that served “war workers,” which mostly meant establishments near the mills along the Monongahela River. 

Seven local law enforcement officers filed a petition to the curfew committee, asking that Richest be permitted to remain open past midnight. The curfew committee granted the waiver for a one-week trial. During that week, committee representatives visited the restaurant to assess the clientele. They ultimately denied the waiver request.

Tragedy came later in the year.

Early on New Year’s Day 1946, a fight broke out among a group of diners over a missing coat. Tobin lived above the restaurant. He came down to help break-up the fight and was beaten by some of the patrons. He died of a heart attack later that night. The case became a media sensation in the spring of 1946.

These two stories show a different side of the world of Jewish delis, a world often viewed through a nostalgic lens. In their day, many of these restaurants faced challenges far beyond the usual headaches of running a small business.

Advertisement for Bubbles & Sherman at 1314 Fifth Ave., March 11, 1949.

—from American Jewish Outlook [Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project]

The partnership soon re-formed with “Bubbles” Rosenstein, Ted Tobin’s widow Maida Tobin, and a third brother-in-law Sherman Schwartz. For a while, they ran at least two businesses simultaneously—Bubble’s Bar in Market Square and Richest’s Delicatessen on Fifth Avenue. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, they gradually renamed the Fifth Avenue restaurant Bubbles & Sherman.  

Bubbles & Sherman relocated to 5841 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill in 1962, and the Fifth Avenue location became a new restaurant called Bud and Mel’s Cornbeef Kettle. Bubbles & Sherman closed its Squirrel Hill location in the late 1960s, and it became Sir Loin. Sir Loin was famous for having a table permanently and exclusively reserved for local Squirrel Hill businessmen, allowing them to grab a meal quickly and get back to their shops.

Do you remember Bubbles & Sherman on Fifth Avenue? On Forbes?

Do you remember the Cornbeef Kettle? Or Sir Loin?

Next week: A Deli Veteran

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting Jewish restaurants in Western Pennsylvania. If you would like to donate a material from a Jewish restaurant, or just reminisce, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania

The Y Canteen Lounge

Photograph showing hostess in a Y Canteen apron handing a cup to a serviceman.

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

The Y Canteen Lounge was a recreational center for World War II servicemen who were stationed in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

It opened in April 1943 at the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association on Bellefield Street and was accessible to all servicemen in uniform, regardless of religion. At its height, it fed some 750 people each Saturday evening and Sunday morning. A group of about 30 young women volunteered as “hostesses” for four-hour shifts, working the kitchen and performing basic chores. They mended uniforms, shopped for necessities, and even wrote letters home for servicemen. The lounge had a jukebox and hosted dances.

"A bit more about the Jewish Encyclopedia"

In this column in late November 2022, we considered a list of more than 200 people from Western Pennsylvania who donated to the original Jewish Encyclopedia in the early 1900s. Analyzing the list revealed a Jewish population just beginning to move away from the city center. Established families of Allegheny were moving to East End, and dozens of Jewish families were settling in certain small towns throughout the area.

There are a few other trends worth noting but only one for now…

Photograph of Rabbi Isidor Reichert of Uniontown, Pa.

—Temple Israel (Uniontown, Pa.) Records

March 26:

JGS-Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives present:

Once More Under the Clock: Remembering Kaufmann's

Photograph showing Kaufmann's Department Store on Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh, during construction, July 19, 1913.

—from "Progress Photographs, Kaufmann’s Department Store [2008.0040]

Kaufmann’s Department Store holds a special place in Pittsburgh memory.

Kaufmann’s iconic clock, its decorated window displays, its special cultural exhibits, its dynamic promotional offers, and of course its beloved Tic Toc Restaurant, Arcade Bakery, and Vendome boutique—all recall a golden age of downtown retailing history. Starting from a small menswear store on the South Side in 1871, Kaufmann’s grew to become the largest department store in downtown Pittsburgh. In the years since its flagship building on Smithfield Street passed into new use in 2015, three books have been written locally about the legendary department store and the family behind it.

In “Once More Under the Clock,” a special presentation hosted by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives, the authors of all three books will offer insights into Kaufmann’s Department Store and the Kaufmann family. They’ll also share their favorite discoveries from the vast collection of Kaufmann’s materials held at the Rauh Jewish Archives.

The program will begin with a talk from journalists Marylynne Pitz and Laura Malt Schneiderman, authors of the new book “KAUFMANN’S, The Family That Built Pittsburgh’s Famed Department Store" (University of Pittsburgh Press). The book traces the Kaufmann family’s tremendous influence in the Pittsburgh region as retailers, philanthropists, and patrons of the arts and architecture. It also tells the decades-long story of the struggles and successes of a Jewish immigrant family in Pittsburgh.

Following the talk, Pitz and Schneiderman will join a panel discussion with Letitia Savage (author of the 2016 book "Kaufmann's: The Big Store in Pittsburgh") and Melanie Linn Gutowski (author of the 2017 book "Kaufmann’s Department Store." Together they’ll trade stories and insights from their research. Each author has chosen a selection of materials from the Kaufmann’s Department Store collections, all of which we be on display for one-day only.

The program is Sunday, March 26 from 11-1:00 p.m. ET. This is a hybrid program. It is designed for in-person attendance but will have a virtual option.

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

Marylynne Pitz is an award-winning journalist covering art, architecture, books, and history. She was a member of the news team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Tree of Life shooting in 2018. She has won five Golden Quills, an Inland Press Association award for investigative reporting, and a Matrix Award. A native of Indianapolis, she has lived in Pittsburgh since 1980.

Laura Malt Schneiderman is a journalist and web developer in Pittsburgh. She has won seven Golden Quills and was part of a team that won the Scripps Howard Edward J. Meeman Award in 2011. Originally from Saint Louis, she has worked in journalism in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Melanie Linn Gutowski is a historian and museum educator based in the Greater Pittsburgh area. She is the author of the pictorial histories “Pittsburgh’s Mansions” and “Kaufmann’s Department Store” (Arcadia Publishing).” A self-professed “Gilded Age geek,” Melanie is continually fascinated by American and European history and culture from 1865-1920, especially robber barons, historic homes and decorative arts. Melanie holds a Master’s degree in professional writing from Chatham University and a Bachelor of Arts in French and history of art & architecture from the University of Pittsburgh.

Letitia Savage published her first article while still in college, a chapter for an engineering book on the effects of oil spills on marine organisms. She continued freelance magazine writing while working as an environmental consultant, primarily on hazardous waste cleanups for the military and the USEPA. In addition to contributing environmental and gardening articles to Country Journal, she wrote about horse training and horse keeping for many national horse publications, including Chronicle of the Horse and Horse Illustrated. After years of magazine writing, Letitia published her first book on Kaufmann’s Department Store in Pittsburgh for Arcadia Press in 2016. She and her husband live in a pre-Civil War farmhouse that they restored in Sewickley.

Community

From Carnegie Mellon University

February 23: Data, Democracy and the Census:

Tammy Hepps, historian of the local Jewish community, and Dan Bouk, historian of science, will use the publication of Bouk’s "Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them" as an opportunity for the wide-ranging discussion Data, Democracy, and the Census: History and Genealogy in Conversation.

The two will look at the ways seemingly bland statistics of the census bureau are actually a rich trove of research material for data scientists and everyday Americans alike. They will demonstrate how close-reading historical census data can acknowledge and honor lives lived at the margins of U.S. society, whether those lives belonged to Jewish people in Homestead or queer folk in Greenwich Village. 5 p.m. Kresge Theater, College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, 15213.

From the Jewish Studies Program

PRESSED: Images from the Jewish Daily Forward

Detail from front page of Jewish Daily Forward, including photograph showing President and First Lady Kennedy, 1960.

Founded in 1897 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the Jewish Daily Forward became the most widely read Jewish news source anywhere. By the 1920s, this Yiddish-language daily had more readers than the New York Times. With rigorous reporting, incisive editorials and powerful commentary, the Forward chronicled the events that affected immigrants eager to earn their place in American life. This was the paper read by congregants from its neighborhood’s many synagogues, by families squeezing into tenement apartments, by sweatshop workers and pushcart vendors. Its articles were debated on park benches and at local haunts like the Garden Cafeteria and the Royal Café, its discarded pages then used to wrap fish for Friday night Sabbath eve dinners. The Forward’s ideals have been held dear for generations of readers, not just on the Lower East Side but across the country and around the world.

The new exhibit Pressed at Hillman Library on the University of Pittsburgh campus looks into the vast Forward archive to present a selection of metal plates used to print photographs in the paper from the 1920s to the 1960s. These plates are accompanied by prints made just for this exhibition. These prints have rendered the images with greater clarity than they had as dotted, halftone prints in the newspaper. The Forward pages on which some of these images appeared are also displayed. These pages are enlarged and reproduced from microfilm and photographs because printed copies of the newspaper have not been preserved at the Forward or in any other archive, although they occasionally pop up at auction or in private collections. Together these images of strikes and activists, Yiddish theater stars and baseball players, daily life and historic moments, present the depth and breadth of this singular publication, its audience and Jewish life in America and around the world.

Pressed is organized by the Forward in collaboration with the Museum at Eldridge Street, and hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Library System and the Jewish Studies program. It will remain on display through April 2023.

From Rodef Shalom Congregation

A mystery in primary colors

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reports on an effort by Rodef Shalom Congregation to identify two people from a pair of mid-19th century portraits in the congregation's holdings. Do you recognize these two people?

Research Tools

The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project contains digitized, searchable copies of four local English-language Jewish newspapers between 1895 and 2010. It is a valuable tool for researching almost any topic about Jewish history in Western Pennsylvania. For a primer on using the website, watch our video.

Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project in 1998 to preserve burial records from Jewish cemeteries across the region. Over a period of fifteen years, the information was compiled into a searchable, online database containing approximately 50,000 burial records from 78 Jewish cemeteries throughout the region.

Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project

The Rauh Jewish Archives launched the Western Pennsylvania Yahrzeit Plaques Project in 2020. The goal was to create a comprehensive collection of burial records from memorial boards at synagogues across the region. Volunteers are currently transcribing these boards and records are being added monthly to our online database. The database currently contains almost 400 listings.

Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography

University of Pittsburgh librarian and Rauh Jewish Archives volunteer Laurie Cohen created this comprehensive bibliography of the Rauh Jewish Archives library holdings from 1988 through 2018. It lists nearly 350 volumes arranged by type and then by subject. This a great tool to use early in your research process, as you’re surveying available resources on a given subject.

Rauh Jewish Archives Newsletter

The Rauh Jewish Archives has been publishing a weekly newsletter since 2020. The newsletter contains a variety of articles about local Jewish history, including much original research not found anywhere else. You can find and read every issue—more than 150!— in our new index.