February 18, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 7



The Early 1970s:

Synagogue Construction

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Adath Israel Congregation

Family Clubs:

Margolis Family Circle

Calendar:

March 3: Finding Maiden Names

April 14: The Future of Genealogy

"The Sofer"

Community:

Fine Fellowship

URA photographs

SHHS archives

"How We Got Here"

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Synagogue Construction

Black and white photograph of (left to right) Jill Hoffman, Allen Hoffman, Georgiana Sidlow, Judy Hoffman, and Terri Hoffman posing with five-handled shovel at the groundbreaking for the Congregation Beth Shalom synagogue addition—May 19, 1968.

—Sidlow and Hoffman Family Papers and Photographs [MSS 1247]

The local Jewish community experienced many building booms across the 20th century: 1905 to 1907, the 1920s, the late 1940s into the 1950s, the 1960s into the early 1970s, and the late 1990s. Each of these booms had distinct characteristics, reflecting the needs of the local community and the opportunities presented by the economy. The building boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s was multifaceted. Over the course this year, we’ll survey all the initiatives of that era, starting this week with synagogue construction.

Black and white photograph of Jules Karpas, Sam Feldman, Bill Weiss, architect Elkin Avner, Rabbi Pincus Miller, and New Light President Nate Landy posing on a bulldozer at construction site for New Light Congregation sanctuary addition—Spring 1970.

—from New Light Congregation Records [MSS 1230]

The building boom of the 1920s came as the local Jewish population was growing and expanding. There were more Jewish people living in more parts of the region than ever before. That boom included six large new synagogues in emerging neighborhoods: B’nai Israel and Adath Jeshurun in the East End, Beth Shalom and Poale Zedeck in Squirrel Hill, Agudath Achim in the upper Hill District, and Beth El in Beechview, as well as smaller projects to convert existing buildings throughout the city into neighborhood synagogues.

By contrast, the building boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s served a static population, increasingly fixed in Squirrel Hill and the suburbs. No new synagogues were built during these years. Instead, congregations expanded their existing buildings. Some examples: Temple David added religious school classrooms in 1968. Temple Sinai built a new sanctuary in 1969. New Light added a new sanctuary wing in 1970. Beth Shalom completed a major addition in 1970 including sanctuaries, libraries, youth facilities, and a ballroom. Tree of Life dedicated the Alex and Leona Robinson Pavilion in 1974. 

Aspects of this trend began as early as the 1950s. Rodef Shalom completed its Freehof Hall addition in 1955. B’nai Israel added its social hall in the mid-1950s. Poale Zedeck completed its Rabbi Joseph Shapiro Education Center in 1956. Tree of Life added its Hailperin Sanctuary addition in 1964. And many nearby small towns congregations undertook major remodeling or rebuilding initiatives throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In a way, this long period of synagogue construction activity from the late 1940s through the early 1970s mirrored the larger citywide Renaissance I campaign of that same era.

Color photograph showing Alex and Leona Robinson Pavilion at Tree of Life Congregation undergoing construction activity—undated.

—from Tree of Life Congregation Records [MSS 1292]

The Rauh Jewish Archives holds several collections documenting synagogue expansion initiatives in Pittsburgh from the late 1960s and early 1970s:

• The Temple Sinai Records [2023.0086] includes documentation of its entire history, including its sanctuary expansion efforts in the late 1960s.

• The Tree of Life Congregation Records [MSS 1292] includes planning documents, photographs, and dedicatory materials from the Herman Hailperin sanctuary in 1964 and the Robinson Pavillion in 1974.

• The New Light Congregation Records [MSS 1130] include photographs of the Squirrel Hill synagogue building during the sanctuary expansion project, as well as materials from the groundbreaking and dedication.

• Nathan Sidlow was chair of the Congregation Beth Shalom building campaign in the late 1960s and died before the building was complete. The Sidlow and Hoffman Family Papers [MSS 1247] include photographs, campaign materials, and memorial materials for Nathan Sidlow. 

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 historically relevant materials documenting Jewish life in this region, contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:

Adath Israel Congregation (The Ward Street Shul)

Color photograph showing Adath Israel Congregation synagogue (also known as the Ward Street Shul) at 3257 Ward St. in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh—c.1998.

—from Gerald Sapir Papers and Photographs [MSS 775]

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to fill some gaps in our coverage of the former Jewish community of Oakland, looking specifically at its congregations.

As the Jewish population of Pittsburgh migrated east in the early 20th century, Oakland became a convenient central meeting place for a community spread across the Hill District, the East End, Squirrel Hill, and emerging South Hills. 

The first wave of activity started in 1906-1907, when the two oldest Jewish congregations in the city both left the downtown core to build large new synagogues at opposite ends of Oakland: Rodef Shalom Congregation on Fifth Avenue and Tree of Life Congregation on Craft Avenue. These two synagogues quickly assumed regional importance, drawing members from a wide area. For example, young Jewish men living throughout the Pittsburgh area started the Young Men’s Hebrew Association out of Tree of Life in 1910.

A second wave of Oakland activity began in the late 1910s and early 1920s, when some of the Jewish families that left the Hill District began settling south of Wilmot Street. (Wilmot Street would soon become a section of the new Boulevard of the Allies.) The neighborhood is known today as South Oakland. 

Hilly topography splits South Oakland into distinct enclaves, especially along Bates Street. Jewish families living east of Bates Street formed Adath Israel Congregation as early as 1921. They met in private homes until 1924, when they converted a house at 3257 Ward St. into a synagogue. The congregation subsequently became known colloquially as “The Ward Street Shul.”

Adath Israel Congregation grew through the 1940s but steadily declined with the growth of Squirrel Hill after World War II and eventually closed in 1993.

We’ll look next week at the Jewish families living west of Bates Street.

Family Clubs:

Margolis Family Circle

Newspaper notice for the Margolis Family Circle—February 5, 1960.

—from Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Fannie MARGOLIS married Harry SIEGEL. Her sister Anna Margolis married Samuel SIGER. Their daughter Beatrice married Ben MARETSKY. These and other members of the extended family started the Margolis Family Circle by early 1960. To date, we have only found two newspaper notices for the Margolis Family Circle. The notices both date to February 1960 and both list meetings held at the Marvin Frankel residence on Boreland Road in Scott Township. Known surnames in the Margolis Family Circle include Frankel, Lowenstein, Lubetz, Maretsky, Saunders, Siegel, Siger, and Sissel.

No known archival materials exist for the Margolis Family Circle. If you have information about the club or its members, please contact the archive.

March 3:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

"Bubbie, Who Are You? Finding Maiden Names"

Female relatives are difficult to trace but can be found.

Janice Sellers will introduce resources for tracing the women in your family, including family items, oral histories, federal and state census records, immigration records, vital records, religious records, journals, newspapers, legal and court records, library archives, and manuscript collections. Many of these resources are available online.

The program is on Sunday, March 3 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. 

"Bubbie, Who Are You?" is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives. Please register online. This program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and to receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

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

Janice M. Sellers is related to actor Peter Sellers and to John of Gaunt, son of a king and father of a king. At least that’s what her grandparents told her. Unfortunately, they were both wrong, but that’s why she has researched her family for 48 years and now helps others find the right pieces to fit their genealogy puzzles. She specializes in Jewish, Black, forensic, and newspaper research and has taught at local to international levels. Her site is ancestraldiscoveries.com.

April 14

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

"The Future of Genealogy"

What impact will technology have on genealogy?

Jarrett Ross will discuss the emerging tools and technology that may have a big impact on the future of genealogy and genetic genealogy, including AI, Facial Recognition Software, low SNP artifact testing, and much more.

The program is on Sunday, April 14 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. 

"The Future of Genealogy" is a collaboration between the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives. Please register online. This program is free for JGS-Pittsburgh members and $5 for the general public. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and to receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website.

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

Jarrett Ross, also known as the Genea Vlogger, began seriously researching his own family history in 2009 while finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh. Since then he has successfully connected with thousands of relatives all over the World, helped build hundreds of trees for people of varying ancestral backgrounds, and has worked on hundreds of genealogical projects of varying types.

Jarrett has found a specialty in Genetic Genealogy and Sephardic Jewish research with an emphasis on the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam. Jarrett’s other main focuses of research are in Jewish Agricultural Societies of Southern New Jersey, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in the Pale of Settlement, Jews in America, and Jews in Ukraine.

Along with his areas of focus, Jarrett also has extensive experience with research in a variety of ancestral backgrounds from all over the World, including an array of experience in genetic genealogy. Jarrett spent just under 5 years working as the Lead Forensic Genealogist at DNA Labs International, helping create investigative leads to identify unknown human remains and perpetrators of violent crimes. In October 2023, Jarrett left the Forensic industry to pursue a content creation and genealogy education full-time.

through March 18:

Rodef Shalom Congregation Presents:

"The Sofer: A Tribute To My Zayde"

The Sofer is a multi-generational narrative about Pittsburgh artist Rosabel Rosalind's relationship with Zayde, her grandfather, a retired Orthodox rabbi with whom she lived for the first twelve years of her life. (He spent part of his career in Western Pennsylvania, leading Beth Samuel Jewish Center in Ambridge.) Fragmented by time and memory, the story recounts details from the years Zayde and Rosalind lived as roommates, interspersed with historical reimaginings and stark cultural observations that span past and present. 

The book follows Zayde and Rosalind, as she came of age in a Conservative Jewish household and as she continues to come to terms with her Jewishness. The Sofer is about the haunting of memory, history, and tradition in the face of a resurgence of anti-Semitism, through an intimate and inherited perspective. 

The original manuscript of The Sofer is 185 pages and is entirely hand-painted with beet juice, citing Zayde's affinity for Manischewitz brand borscht and the complexities of diasporic Jewishness. Sofer, translates to a Jewish scribe of ancient texts, and it is also Rosalind's maternal name; her Zayde’s last name. Thus she transcribed the familial, ancestral, and historical, using an untraditional hand-made ink, per scribal ritual, with a combination of painting and comic techniques and specific Sofer lettering of Rosalind's design.

Community

The Fine Fellowship

Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center announce the inaugural Fine Fellowship for the study of the October 27 attack. This $4000 fellowship will provide funding for a scholar to travel to Pittsburgh and work with local materials related to the attack and its aftermath and to engage with the local community.

A committee of representatives from the Jewish studies faculty of University of Pittsburgh, the Rauh Jewish Archives, and the 10.27 Healing Partnership will consider the applications. They will offer the award to an outstanding scholar whose research promises to make excellent use of local materials, stands to gain from thoughtful conversations with the people of Pittsburgh, and will prove instructive to local community-members seeking to better understand the contexts and repercussions of the October 27 attack.

Applications due March 15, 2024. For more information, click link below.

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 Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh

"How We Got Here"

Each family is unique. 

Each family has its own traditions, its own spirit, and its own dynamics. 

Despite all these differences, every Jewish family in Western Pennsylvania has at least one thing in common: They all have a story about how they got here.

Perhaps your family sailed in steerage across the Atlanti in the 19th century.

Or perhaps your family drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a station wagon in the 1960s to work for the universities and hospitals during Renaissance.

Or perhaps your arrival into one of the many Jewish communities of Western Pennsylvania involves marriage, or conversion, or a surprising DNA discovery.

Each of these stories is special, and each contributes to the larger story of our community. To collect and honor these origin stories, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is launching a new initiative called “How We Got Here.” To participate, just write a short account explaining how you or your ancestors came to settle in Western Pennsylvania. All stories are welcome.

Stories will be eligible for inclusion in the JGS-Pittsburgh’s monthly newsletter Z’chor and also for preservation in the Rauh Jewish Archives. For more information about this initiative, or to contribute, contact Eric Lidji.

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.

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