February 23, 2025

Vol. 6, No. 8

Jewish Artists:

Harry Wolkin

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Hebrew Institute Ladies Auxiliary

Family Clubs:

Zionts Family Club

A Patchwork Life:

The Witness Quilt

Calendar:

Mar. 6: "Teach Them to Your Children"

Jewish Genealogy Society:

Mar. 19: Michael Moritz



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

Jewish Artists:

Harry Wolkin

Black and white photograph of Harry Wolkin—undated.

Wolkin World

According to a family legend, Gershko “Harry” Wolkin (c1877-c1931) was drawing in the dirt one day when a passing woman recognized his talent and sponsored him to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was about 22 at the time, having recently come to Philadelphia from Brest-Litovsk.

After completing his studies, Wolkin relocated to Pittsburgh around 1903. He worked for a time at the Imperial Art Studio at 1106 Fifth Ave. as a portrait painter and is credited as a very early member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in 1910. He primarily lived in the Beltzhoover neighborhood of Pittsburgh until around 1922 or 1923, when he relocated to New York. 

Wolkin was mostly a portrait painter. In the early 20th century, Rodef Shalom Congregation commissioned him to produce a portrait of Dr. J. Leonard Levy.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish artist in Western Pennsylvania before World War II. 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:

Hebrew Institute Ladies Auxiliary

Notice for the Women’s Organization for the Beth Yakov School for Girls.

Jewish Criterion, Aug. 14, 1942

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Sol Rosenbloom was a Torah scholar from Europe who became a successful businessman after immigrating to Pittsburgh. He maintained a lifelong interest in promoting Jewish education. He was among the charter members of the Hebrew Institute, which opened in the Hill District in 1916. 

His wife Celia Rosenbloom founded the Ladies Auxiliary of the Hebrew Institute around 1920. By the following year, the auxiliary had at least 450 members throughout the city and into neighboring counties. The Hebrew Institute Ladies Auxiliary was most active between 1920 and 1924 and is best known for two initiatives. In 1922, it developed a playground at the original Hebrew Institute property on Wylie Avenue. It is believed to be the first outdoor playground in the Hill District. The second project was building up the Scholarship Fund of the Hebrew Institute with the goal of raising $5,000 to provide Hebrew Institute scholarships to 100 children who had a parent. 

Our new entry for the Hebrew Institute Ladies Auxiliary includes a map of its membership from 1921, as well as a comprehensive bibliography.

Family Clubs:

Zionts Family Club

Notice of the first meeting of the Zionts Family Club—Nov. 15, 1957.

—Jewish Criterion

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Louis and Jennie (PRETTER) ZIONTS had five children, Saul Zionts, Samuel Zionts, Martin A. Zionts, Harold J. Zionts, and Della SLATER. The extended family started the Zionts Family Club in November 1957. The club continued meeting at least through March 1966, according to newspaper notices.

Known surnames in the Zionts Family Club include Drucker, Finkelstein, Kanowitz, Krakoff, Plottel, Roth, Slater, Wagner, Weissburg, Zimmerman, and Zionts. Known meeting places for the Zionts Family Club include 5100 Fifth Ave (Rose Zionts); 799 Ridge Rd., Ambridge (Harold Roth); the Ankara; 5275 McCaslin St. (Arnold Wagner); 5818 Hobart St. (Ralph Finkelstein); Dawson Court (Della Drucker); the Hotel Webster Hall; 1204 Royal Dr., Aliquippa (Philip Plotell); Forsythe Road, Carnegie Park; the Morrowfield Apartments (Frank Krakoff); 10 Zama Drive, Mt. Lebanon (Samuel E. Zionts); the Holiday House; 1715 Murdoch Rd. (Solomon C. Zionts); the Temple Sinai Vestry Room; 1103 Grouse Dr. (David Weissberg); the Pittsburgh Hilton; Walnut St. (Samuel Zionts); Beechwood Blvd. (Frank Krakoff); and 436 Taylor St. (Joseph Slater).

While materials exist for the Zionts family, no known collections exist for the Club. If you have information about the club, please contact the archive.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life:

The Witness Quilt

“I am Louise Silk, daughter of Sadye and Howard Shapiro.”

Louise Silk said those words and then stepped toward the Witness Quilt. She selected a patch and pulled its slipknot. She returned to her spot where she had been standing and read the words stitched onto the patch, “This is it.”

With that, the unmaking began.

The Witness Quilt is the centerpiece of the exhibit “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life.” It is an assemblage of folk wisdoms hand stitched onto personally relevance swatches of fabric. It represents collective communal wisdom.

For the past six months, Louise and the volunteer Patchwork Life Stitching Circle have been diligently adding patches to the Witness Quilt. It grew to include 1,500 patches, reflecting the work and ideas of dozens of people.

For the final two months of the exhibit, Louise will reverse the process. The Witness Quilt will be systematically dismantled and given away to the public. Louise's team will be stationed in the gallery from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday through Sunday, as well as some surprise drop-in days here and there.

To inaugurate this process, Louise organized a special ritual last week for staff and volunteers of the Heinz History Center. After an informal gathering of tea and cookies, everyone moved into the gallery to begin unmaking the Witness Quilt. One by one, each person followed Louise’s example, saying their name and their lineage, removing a patch, and announcing it to everyone. She wanted to begin the unmaking process by honoring the quiet, behind the scenes work of the many people who helped the exhibit come into being.

The final installment of our Gut Yontif! series will be 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.

March 6:

"Teach Them To Your Children"

Since the times of the Talmud, Jewish education has been a communal responsibility. How has Western Pennsylvania met this challenge? 

In a fast-paced and engaging monthly series “Teach Them To Your Children,” Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji will cover 150 years of Jewish educational initiatives in Western Pennsylvania, showing how our community has perpetuated Jewish knowledge from generation to generation. 

This series will take place monthly in the Community Day School library (2743 Beechwood Blvd.) on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.

Jan. 9—The 19th Century

Feb. 6—The 1900s

The series continues March 6 with a review of local Jewish educational initiatives between 1910 and 1920. The Jewish community created its first enduring educational initiatives, including the Hebrew Institute and the Southwestern District of Pennsylvania Jewish Religious Schools program.

The schedule for the rest of the year includes:



April 10—The 1920s

May 8—The 1930s

June 12—The 1940s

July 10—The 1950s

Aug. 14—The 1960s

Sept. 11—The 1970s

Oct. 9—The 1980s

Nov. 13—The 1990s

Dec. 11—The Future

"Teach Them To Your Children" is presented by Community Day School, Hillel

Academy of Pittsburgh, and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh.

Jewish Genealogy Society

Feb. 16:

"We Never Heard from Them Again"

Researching Relatives Who Died in the Holocaust

with Jane Neff Rollins

This talk puts the systematic murder of Jews and other persecuted populations during World War II into historical context before showing attendees how to research the fate of long-lost relatives. Resources to be covered will include the JewishGen Holocaust database, the U.S. Holocaust Historical Museum, Yad Vashem, the Arolsen database, collections of oral history recordings, Yizkor (memorial) books, newspapers, and more. Also included will be the intellectual and emotional challenges genealogists will face in doing this kind of research.

Jane Neff Rollins is a professional genealogist who works primarily with clients whose ancestors came from the former Russian Empire, providing research and translation of Russian documents. She has researched in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Washington DC, and Jerusalem. She is an alumna of ProGen Study Group 29, and a multi-time attendee of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Forensic Genealogy Institute.

Jane has lectured at the annual conferences of the National Genealogical Society, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, the Southern California Genealogical Society, and virtually and in-person for societies throughout the United States.

Jane’s genealogy articles have appeared in NGS Magazine, FGS Forum (for which she won the 2020 Forum Writer’s Award), Crossroads, and Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy: “Researching Jewish Ancestors Who Served in the Civil War.” Other writing has appeared in Roots-Key, the LA Jewish Journal, and medical trade magazines.

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.

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