June 16, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 24



The Early 1970s:

Bickur Cholim Society

Jewish Encyclopedia:

School for Reform Judaism

Resources:

Rabbinic Writings

Articles:

Squirrel Hill parking garages

Resources:

Henry Ellenbogen Papers

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

July 7: JGS Presents: Zachary Mazur



Community:

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:

Bickur Cholim at the Angelus

Mayor Pete Flaherty cutting the ribbon on the new Bickur Cholim wing—May 17, 1973.

Scenes from the new Bickur Cholim wing—Sept. 13, 1973.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The Bickur Cholim Society entered the 1970s in a state of limbo.

Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz and a group of Jewish women in the Hill District had founded the organization around 1912 to care for people recovering from illness. After decades of fundraising, the society opened the Bickur Cholim Convalescent and Nursing Home at 4906 Baum Blvd. in the mid-1950s and then quickly relocated in 1957 into expanded quarters at 208 S. Negley Ave. As the 22-bed facility filled, and the society began looking to expand.

The Bickur Cholim Society became an affiliate of the United Jewish Federation (now the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh) in 1962. Following a study by the United Jewish Federation, the Bickur Cholim Society abandoned plans for its expansion. It instead relocated in February 1967 to a wing at Montefiore Hospital while it worked to build an independent 100-bed facility on the grounds of the hospital. The partnership ended after a few months. The Bickur Cholim Society temporarily suspended activities in 1971, as it regrouped.

Under the presidency of Ronald Kottler, the Bickur Cholim Society reorganized in 1973 by opening a convalescent and nursing home within the non-denominational Angelus Convalescent Center at 200 Amber St. in the East End. The Bickur Cholim wing of the Angelus included 20 beds and a separate kosher kitchen under the supervision of Mordchai Haalman. The facility provided “medically indigent Jewish patients” with 20 days of skilled nursing.

The partnership with the Angelus appears to have ended in 1977, when the Bickur Cholim Society made a $250,000 donation to a Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged fundraising campaign. The following year, the Home broke ground on a new four-story multi-purpose building at its Browns Hill Road campus. The new building included the new Bickur Cholim Pavilion.

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:

Pittsburgh School for Reform Judaism

Confirmands of the Pittsburgh School for Reform Judaism, including Betsy Altar, James Haber, Ellen Lehman, Nancy Oppenheimer, and Stanley Spear—May 1958.

—Ellen Lehman Papers and Photographs [MSS 1018]

The Pittsburgh School for Reform Judaism was an experimental religious school organized by families at Rodef Shalom Congregation. It focused on the ethical teachings of Judaism, specifically the tenets of Classical Reform.

According to mother and volunteer teacher Elizabeth Schuster, the Pittsburgh School for Reform Judaism emerged from dissatisfaction by students and parents with the curriculum of the Rodef Shalom religious school. Despite the split, these families remained members of the congregation. The Pittsburgh School for Reform Judaism was chartered in November 1954 for “the establishment and maintenance of a religious school offering without consideration or profit, training in the principles of Reform Judaism as a religious faith as distinguished from an ethnological concept, as well as the study of comparative religions, their philosophy and history, for the better understanding of Reform Judaism.” Signatories were Edward G. Oppenheimer, Joel Spear Jr., James D. Haber, Foster S. Goldman and Eugene B. Schuster.

The school met at various buildings throughout Shadyside and East Liberty.

Resource:

Rabbinic Writings Database

Rabbi Wolf Leiter, studying—December 9, 1971.

Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

If you poke through the bookshelves of the libraries of older synagogues in Western Pennsylvania, you are likely to find many books written by local rabbis. These books range from general interest to highly specialized scholarship, and they cover many different approaches to Judaism.

The Rauh Jewish Archives regularly gets requests from researchers who want to explore the teachings of local rabbis. While bibliographies exist for certain individual rabbis, there is currently no comprehensive bibliography of all rabbinic writing for this region. To make these writings more accessible to the community, the Rauh Jewish Archives has launched a new database of local rabbinic writings. The database currently includes 32 volumes included on the website HebrewBooks.com. The website provides free access to fully digitized copies of Hebrew and Yiddish works by rabbis from around the world.

The Rauh Jewish Archives plans to gradually expand the database. If you would like to help with this project, please email the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Article:

Squirrel Hill Gets Parking Garages

Black and white photograph of shoppers on Murray Avenue facing north toward Bartlett Street, near the current Giant Eagle—July 10, 1947. The city metered the street in 1940.

Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection

University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections

In the third of a three-part series, the city builds new parking facilities at the library, on Murray Avenue, and at the new Jewish Community Center.

Resources:

Judge Henry Ellenbogen Papers

Black and white portrait of Rep. Henry Ellenbogen—1934.

—Henry Ellenbogen Photographs [MSP 305]

The Rauh Jewish Archives has launched a new digital archive of correspondence between Henry Ellenbogen and numerous Jewish women and men who were trying to escape Europe during the Nazi era. The new collection on Historic Pittsburgh contains 574 letters between Ellenbogen, Jewish refugees, and various officials. These letters provide a detailed and intimate account of the many challenges these refugees faced as they tried to escape Europe and resettle in America in the late 1930s and early 1940s. 

Henry Ellenbogen was born into a prominent Jewish family in Vienna and came to Pittsburgh in the early 1920s to start a legal practice. He served in the U.S. Congress from 1932 until 1938, when he became an Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge. As a result of his high-profile position in American government in the 1930s, and his well-known family name, he received a large volume of correspondence from Jewish people in Germany, Austria, and other parts of Europe who were desperately seeking assistance.

NOW OPEN:

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.  

July 7

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Rabbis, Innkeepers, Tricksters:

Jewish Life in Poland-Lithuania

What do we know about the home of European Jewry?

Approximately 80 percent of the world’s Jews have a connection to Eastern Europe, and all of them once lived in a unique country called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Join Zachary Mazur to learn about the key question of why Jews settled in Eastern Europe and what their lives looked like there. While discussing the larger historical narrative, he will focus on the stories of those living in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to paint a picture of Jewish life before the Great Migration that began in the 1880s.

The program is on Sunday, July 7 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. 

“Rabbis, Innkeepers, Tricksters: Jewish Life in Poland Lithuania” with Zachary Mazur 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.

Dr. Zachary Mazur earned his PhD at Yale University. His forthcoming book is about Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles in Poland’s economy during the 1920s and 1930s. He is currently Senior Historian at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

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 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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