Jewish Ethnicity on the Hill
Beth Hamedrash Hagodol
Family Clubs
The Story of Our Lives
JGS Presents: Adam Brown
Community News
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We're taking a break from our usual newsletter offerings this week to offer a preview of our upcoming programming calendar for July. We hope you'll join us as we look at a wide array of topics from the Hill District to Squirrel Hill, from family clubs to global genealogical initiatives, and the start of new series.
We'll return next Sunday to our usual offerings of memoirs, Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania entries, and local Jewish history articles.
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July 5:
Ethnic-Jewish Organizations of the Hill District
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The former Anshe Lubovitz synagogue at 110 Erin Street in the Hill District.
—Corinne Azen Krause Photographs [MSP 113]
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As part of New Light Congregation's summer lecture series "Pittsburgh Is Our Home," the Rauh Jewish Archives will be looking at the ethnic origins of the former Jewish organizations in the Hill District more than a century ago.
The Jewish congregations and landsmenshaftn (fraternal organizations) that organized in the Hill District throughout the late 19th and early 20th century had strong ethnic identities. They often represented countries in Europe and sometimes even specific regions or towns. By the start of World War II, that ethnic identity had faded somewhat in favor of other markers of identity.
In a hybrid talk on Tuesday, July 5 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom, the Rauh Jewish Archives will provide an overview of this early era in local Jewish history with a special focus on the facets of Ukrainian Jewry.
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July 10:
The Downtown Shul: A Hidden Gem
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Groundbreaking for Beth Hamedrash Hagodol's Colwell Street synagogue.
—Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Records [MSS 438]
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The sanctuary of the Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob synagogue—lovingly known as “The Downtown Shul”—is one of the under-appreciated architectural gems of Pittsburgh. Although the current building is relatively new, the sanctuary integrates elements from two earlier versions of the synagogue, each demolished during urban renewal activities.
The new sanctuary elegantly preserves the legacy of Jewish life at the intersection of Downtown and Uptown with the Lower Hill District, an area once home to tens of thousands of Jewish people, dozens of Jewish congregations, and hundreds of Jewish organizations, clubs, and businesses.
In this presentation for Doors Open Pittsburgh, Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation President Ira Frank and Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji will use historic materials to unveil the 150-year history of this sanctuary.
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July 12:
The Family Clubs of Squirrel Hill
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The members of the KA-EL Family Society at an unidentified gathering. Some of the faces were removed to be used in other purposes, and handwritten names fill the resulting holes.
—from Katz and Elinoff Papers and Photographs [MSS 1130]
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Family clubs were a defining feature of the Ashkenazi Jewish experience in the United States in the 20th century. These clubs had members, officers, dues, meetings, minutes, newsletters, reunions, and programs. What made them different from any other club was their membership: everyone was related.
In this program for the Squirrel Hill Historical Society, the Rauh Jewish Archives will use a newly created database of more than 110 clubs from Western Pennsylvania to consider the history and culture of the dozens of Jewish family clubs based throughout the Squirrel Hill area in the 20th century.
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July 20:
The Story of Our Lives: Why Tell Family Stories
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Whether you’re a seasoned genealogist or simply the keeper of your family stories, the Heinz History Center’s new programming series, “The Story of Our Lives,” promises to open your eyes to new ways of thinking about who you are, why your family matters, and how the work of family storytelling is essential. For the first installment, "Why Tell Family Stories," Dr. Robyn Fivush, a nationally renowned scientist, and Njaimeh Njie, one of Pittsburgh’s most engaging artists and multimedia producers, will discuss the many ways that telling family stories can positively impact people, families, and society.
This hybrid program will take place on Tuesday, July 20 at 7 p.m. at the Heinz History Center. Attendees can participate either online or in person.
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Dr. Robyn Fivush is a professor of psychology who studies the role of reminiscing and sharing family stories in the development of emotionally resilient children. For decades, Fivush and her Emory University colleagues have compiled data on the benefits of family stories on child wellbeing.
Njaimeh Njie is an artist and multimedia producer who uses images and documents of family and neighborhood history to honor everyday experiences and spark visual gateways into the past. In discussing their work, Fivush and Njie will offer insights into the many ways that telling family stories can positively impact people and society at large.
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July 31
JGS Pittsburgh Presents: Adam Brown
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The Avotaynu DNA Study is an ongoing worldwide academic collaboration of scientists, historians, genealogists and community leaders utilizing DNA to illuminate the origins and migrations of the Jewish people. Under the guidance of the Technion, the Avotaynu DNA Study has more than 8,000 participants representing all known Jewish communities from China to Curacao. Adam Brown is Project Administrator of the study. In his talk, “The Genetic Origins and Migrations of the Jewish People," he will answer DNA questions and explain how the Avotaynu study can help you understand your family origins.
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.
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Adam Brown is a frequent lecturer on genealogical subjects at genealogical conferences all over the world. In addition to administering the Avotaynu DNA study, he is the Managing Editor of AvotaynuOnline.com. He was National Chair of the IAJGS 2017 conference in Orlando. A strategic planner by profession, he has led numerous boards and commissions on municipal planning and finance, Jewish education, and scientific research in Israel.
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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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