November 24, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 47



The Early 1970s:

Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Fellowship

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Kosher SuperPantry

Article:

200 Ross St.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

City Quilt Shop

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Dec. 15: Shaping Family Stories

Dec. 16: Rodef Shalom Archives



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Fellowship

Headline reading "Send Kids to Services, Not School, Rabbis Urge"—Sept. 23, 1971.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Fellowship began in 1967, when Rabbi Walter Jacob of Rodef Shalom Congregation, Rabbi Herman Hailperin of Tree of Life Congregation, and Rabbi Baruch Poupko of Shaare Torah Congregation convened local Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, rabbis to craft community-wide Jewish position statements on important public issues.

Each member had veto power, which helped ensure that few controversial issues would be addressed. Instead, the Fellowship sought dialogue and common ground. Within this framework, the Fellowship issued at least two major statements in the early 1970s, each tied to changing practices among Jewish families that were at odds with traditional Jewish customs.

In a September 1971 statement, the Fellowship called on Jewish parents to send their children to synagogue on the Jewish holidays, rather than school. 

High Holiday absences were once so widespread within the Jewish community that public school attendance was used as a de facto Jewish population count. By the 1970s, absences were apparently becoming less prevalent. “When our young children are brought up to be oblivious to these hallowed and major Jewish festivals, we are making Judaism not only superfluous, but even a mockery in their lives,” the statement read. “We are announcing to school authorities, teachers, and fellow students that we have no pride in our religious heritage, no loyalty to American Jewry as a community.”

The statement also called on children to “desist from loitering or playing on the grounds on any public school during school hours.” There was concern that neighborhood children were mistakenly viewing the Jewish holidays as special Jewish-only “days off,” leading to resentments and even altercations.

In a June 1973 statement, the Fellowship issued recommendations for Jewish funerals. The recommendations attempted to find points of agreement among all branches of Judaism, while allowing individual rabbis to make more detailed recommendations on a case-by-case basis. The recommendation called for rabbinic involvement from the earliest moment of funeral planning, avoiding any funeral preparations on Saturday, and pursuing modest and customary funeral arrangements with closed caskets and no pre-funeral visitations.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. If you would like to donate a material from this time period, or any historic materials documenting Jewish life in this region, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Kosher SuperPantry

Color photograph of volunteers at the Kosher SuperPantry—2004.

—Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry Photographs

A 1994 report from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation identified a gap in food security. While 10 percent of families in the local Jewish community met federal poverty guidelines, only 4 percent received supplemental food services.

To address this gap, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation provided a three-year grant to establish the Kosher SuperPantry. It also convened a coalition of local Jewish organizations to assist with planning: JFCS-Pittsburgh, the Hebrew Free Loan Association, the Jewish Assistance Fund, the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Association on Aging, the Rabbinical Council of Pittsburgh, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, and Rainbow Kitchen. 

The Kosher SuperPantry opened in October 1998 at Wightman School Community Center. It initially served all families living in the 15217 zip code and any kosher-keeping family in other zip codes. It became the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry in 2007 and the Squirrel Food Community Food Pantry in 2020 to reflect its broader clientele but maintained its kosher status. It relocated to 5842 Forward Avenue in 2000 and to 828 Hazelwood Ave. in 2010.

Article:

The Jewish History of 200 Ross St.

The next time you’re entering the Parkway East from Crosstown Boulevard, glance to your right just as you’re taking the curve of the on-ramp. You can see a nice view of a historic building at 200 Ross St., currently known as the John P. Robin Civic Building. In the 1950s, the building played a short but crucial role in the history of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Black and white photograph of Jones & Laughlin building 200 Ross St.—c1917.

—Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. Photographs

Detre Library & Archives

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

City Quilt Shop

Business card for the City Quilt Shop on 311 S. Craig St.—c1980.

—Louise Silk Papers

The quilting revival of the early 1970s created a new market for supplies. 

The fabric shops in Pittsburgh mostly catered to dressmakers. Quilters wanted 100 percent cotton fabric in an array of patterns, values, colors, and designs.

There were also new tools coming onto the market. Olfa introduced the first rotary blade in 1979, making it quicker and easier to measure and cut straight lines. Before the rotary blade, quilters generally traced lines using templates and cut with scissors. It could be inaccurate and time-consuming. Combined with tools like acrylic rulers and self-healing mats, the rotary blade revolutionized quilting and encouraged more people to participate.

Eager for supplies of her own, Louise Silk and a friend from Quilter’s Triangle started a quilt shop called Patchworks in 1978. They pooled funds to purchase a large supply of fabric and operated out of Louise’s basement in Point Breeze. Patchworks became City Quilt Shop in 1979 and opened a storefront of Craig Street in Oakland. It occupied three storefronts: 214 Craig St. in 1979, 311 Craig St. around 1980, and to 414 Craig St. around 1984 under the name American Style Shop. American Style Shop later relocated to Monroeville Mall, before closing in 1989. In addition to supplies, the stores sold finished quilts and offered quilting classes. These were among the first quilt shops in Western Pennsylvania, alongside the Thread Connection and Piecing It Together. 

Despite interest in quilting, these shops struggled. Louise increasingly pursued a professional career through the more direct means: shows and commissions.

The next installment of our Gut Yontif! series is Dec. 28 with a fiery Chanukah celebration from Rosabel Rosalind, then on Thursday, Feb. 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and finally on Wednesday, March 12 with an all-embracing Purim party from Olivia Devorah Tucker. 

The “Gut Yontif!” series is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the SteelTree Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Exhibit:

A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh

“How Mrs. Enoch Rauh ushered in the year 1913 — on Dec. 31st 1912.”

—from Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]

From pioneering investigative journalism to leading their country to Olympic gold, Western Pennsylvania women have made an immeasurable impact in America, but too often, their stories have been overlooked.

The Heinz History Center is taking an unprecedented deep dive into the lives of these fierce and unflappable women who helped change the world inside a major new exhibition, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh.

Take an interactive, thematic journey through Western Pennsylvania women’s history from the early 1800s to modern day that will showcase the stories of entrepreneurs and activists, artists and athletes, scientists and inventors, and changemakers and barrier breakers. Through more than 250 artifacts, immersive experiences, and striking archival images, A Woman’s Place will reveal how women have made Pittsburgh and the world a better place.  

Nov. 24:

Three Rivers Film Festival and Pittsburgh Shorts

Film Pittsburgh will present the 2024 Three Rivers Film Festival (43 years strong--recently voted #1 film festival the 2nd year in a row by City Paper’s Best of PGH reader’s poll!) on November 24th at the August Wilson Center, the Harris Theater, and The Lindsay Theater. Tickets can be purchased online at https://filmpittsburgh.org/. Use the code RAUH2024 at checkout to receive a $3 discount on general admission tickets.

Questions? Call us at 412-426-FILM (3456) or go to filmpittsburgh.org/. 

Dec. 15:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story

Using the life of Moische, later known as Morris, Sana Loue will explore various strategies and resources to shape the background of our family stories of immigration and adjustment to life in the United States.

The program is Sunday, December 15 from 1-3 p.m. ET. This is an online program, occurring exclusively on Zoom. The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members. 

“Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story” with Sana Loue is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. Please register online. The program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

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

Sana Loue is a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the Department of Bioethics. She has been researching her family’s origins for several years, tracking documents and stories through Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and Russia. Her recent publication, From Public Policy to Family Dynamics: A Case Study of the Impact of Public Policy on Two 20th Century Jewish Immigrant Families, tells the stories of her brother Michael, born with Down syndrome, and the impact of Russian and U.S. eugenics policy on family dynamics, as well as that of her grandfather Moische and the effects of U.S. immigration and welfare policy on family structure and relationships.

Dec. 16:

A Stroll Through the Past:

Stories From the Rodef Shalom Archives

Community

Urban Redevelopment Authority Archives

The City of Pittsburgh Archives has launched a new digital archive containing thousands of photographs and documents spanning more than two centuries. Of particular interest to local Jewish history is a collection of more than 2,000 photographs of properties in the lower Hill District taken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in the late 1950s prior to demolitions in the area. 

Squirrel Hill Historical Society Archives

Squirrel Hill Historical Society has added a collection of 60 historic images of Squirrel Hill to the Historic Pittsburgh website. The collection contains selected images from three organizations: the Squirrel Hill Historical Society, Squirrel Hill Urban  Coalition, and Mary S. Brown Memorial-Ames United Methodist Church. The photographs document many aspects of life in Squirrel Hill, including many beloved businesses from the 1990s that no longer exist.

From the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association

"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh has released a new documentary showcasing Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.

“Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania” is a one-hour tour of the many cemetery properties overseen by the JCBA, as well as an overview of the organization’s ongoing work to care for these sacred burial grounds. The video is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these special Jewish cultural sites in our region. The video includes many historic photographs and documents from the collections of the Rauh Jewish Archives. 

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 more than 2,700 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.

Jewish Population Estimates

Looking to figure out how many Jews lived in a certain part of Western Pennsylvania at a certain moment in time? This bibliography includes more than 30 estimates of the Jewish population of Pittsburgh and small-towns throughout the region, conducted between 1852 and 2017.

Synagogues

A database of buildings throughout Western Pennsylvania known to have hosted Jewish worship services. Includes links to photographs and citations with original source material. Database currently includes 90 locations from 2 institutions

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.

Shul Records America

Online finding aid from JewishGen listing congregational archival collections held at publicly accessible repositories across the United States. Includes 63 listings from the Rauh Jewish Archives, as well as other repositories with Western Pennsylvania congregational records.

The Rauh Jewish Archives was founded on November 1, 1988 to collect and preserve the documentary history of Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania and to make it available to the world through research assistance, programing, exhibits, publications, and partnerships.

Shop | Join | Visit