The Early 1970s:
The Squirrel Hill Mikvah
Jewish Encyclopedia:
Council on Jewish Education
Databases:
Squirrel Hill Business Directory
Exhibits:
A Woman's Place
Abrams House
Calendar:
June 2: Jewish Genealogy Day
May 23: Judge Shelly Friedman
May 31: Polish Genealogy Workshop
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
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The Early 1970s:
The Squirrel Hill Mikvah
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Newspaper photograph showing the Jewish Women's League mikvah on Shady Avenue in Squirrel Hill, shortly after renovations to repair damage from a fire—December 23, 1971.
—Jewish Chronicle
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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By the early 1970s, the Jewish population of Pittsburgh was increasingly but not entirely located in the Squirrel Hill area. There was still a large Jewish population in East End, emerging populations in the South Hill and the eastern suburbs, and a small population in downtown and Oakland. In these middle decades of the 20th century, Oakland was home to several Jewish communal institutions that benefitted from being centrally located. The three best known were the United Jewish Federation offices on McKee Place, Montefiore Hospital on Fifth Avenue and Darragh St., and the YM&WHA on Bellefield St.
There was also a fourth: the community mikvah (ritual bath).
The Jewish community presumably maintained one or more mikvaot in the Hill District in the 19th and early 20th centuries, although few details have emerged in the historic record. Efforts to expand and encourage the practice date to the mid-1920s, when Rabbi Sol B. Friedman of Congregation Poale Zedeck convened a community meeting to discuss the issue.
The Jewish Women’s League for Taharath Hamishpocho was established in the early 1940s to build and maintain a new community mikvah in Oakland. The league opened the mikvah, called a “ritualarium,” at 358 Oakland Ave. in November 1942 with Lena Speevack serving as “matron” of the new institution.
With the Jewish population increasingly migrating to Squirrel Hill after World War II, the Jewish Women’s League worked to relocate the mikvah. Despite some neighborhood opposition, the group eventually obtained city approval in late 1969. The new mikvah opened at 2336 Shady Ave. in early 1971, designed with help from an engineer named Nick Weiner, who had previously worked on pipelines in the Negev desert. The new building was extensively damaged in a fire just three weeks later, forcing local women to use the mikvah in nearby White Oak until the Squirrel Hill facility reopened in December 1971.
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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:
Council on Jewish Education
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Pittsburgh teachers receiving permanent licenses from the National Board of Licenses to teach Hebrew. From left to right: Joseph Bayer of the Hebrew Institute, Dr. Aharon Kessler of the Council on Jewish Education, Joseph Baradon of Congregation Beth Shalom, Dr. Benjamin Shevach of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Boston, Harry Loewy of B'nai Israel Congregation, and Dov Henis of the Hebrew Institute—December 26, 1952.
—American Jewish Outlook
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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We looked last week at the Bureau of Jewish Education, which tried to standardize local Jewish religious education between the 1920s and 1940s.
The United Jewish Fund revived that effort in early 1950 with the Self-Study on Jewish Education. Conducted with help from two national bodies, the yearlong review of nearly two-dozen local educational entities considered everything from facilities, to finances, to curricula, to parental involvement. The final report in May 1951 leveled tough criticisms at the state of local Jewish education and also renewed calls for devising a community-wide solution.
In line with those recommendations, the United Jewish Fund created the Pittsburgh Council on Jewish Education in 1951. It appointed Judge Benjamin Lencher as president and hired Dr. Aharon Kessler of the American Association on Jewish Education as executive director. Over the next two years, Kessler met monthly with educators from the three largest Jewish movements, formed a Principal’s Council and a United Parent-Teacher Association, arranged seminars for local educators, and formed an employment bureau to help hire and train teachers for area religious schools. The United PTA also published a current events newsletter for children called “Window on the World.”
The Council on Jewish Education was unable to transcend the divisions within the local community. In December 1953, it sponsored the College of Jewish Studies, which gradually evolved into the School of Advanced Jewish Studies.
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The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania brings together numerous online resources into a clearinghouse for conducting research about Jewish history in this region. As we migrate information to this new website, we’ll be announcing new entries and resources in this section of the newsletter. | |
Databases:
Squirrel Hill Business Directory
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The 2000 block of Murray Avenue, showing Pinsker’s, M. Fogel Meats, Murray News Stand, Stern’s Café, Kablin’s Market, and other shops—November 3, 1965.
—Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
Detre Library & Archive
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The Squirrel Hill Business Database now includes 2,474 listings on Murray, Forbes, and Forward avenues between 1965 and 1973 (excluding 1966). We recently added 1,154 listings from 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969. The Detre Library & Archives does not have the 1966 directory in its holdings. | |
NOW OPEN:
A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh
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“How Mrs. Enoch Rauh ushered in the year 1913 — on Dec. 31st 1912.”
—from Richard E. Rauh Papers [MSS 301]
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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.
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Display:
The Abrams House
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Color photograph of the Abrams House on Woodland Road—undated.
—from Abrams Family Papers [MSS 1288]
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The Rauh Jewish Archives' Catelyn Cocuzzi has curated a display of photographs and documents from the Abrams Family Papers [MSS 1288] looking at the conception and construction of the former Abrams House, a post-modern residence on Woodland Road in Squirrel Hill, designed by architect Robert Venturi. The next time you visit the Heinz History Center, please stop up to the Library & Archives on the sixth floor to see the display. | |
June 2
JGS Pittsburgh Presents:
Jewish Genealogy Day
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Lara Diamond leads two dynamic sessions on Jewish genealogy.
First Session 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
“Jewish Genealogy 101”
This talk gives a comprehensive overview of genealogy resources available for Jewish genealogy. The presentation will include online sources and documents not yet online for both the United States and Europe; she will also cover some basic knowledge critical to researching one’s Jewish roots.
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Break (no lunch provided)
Second Session 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
“Defying Expectations:
The Story of a Jewish Woman Who Took on the Russian Empire.”
Chava Lefand (1797-1884) lived in a time when we’d expect a woman to not be well-represented in documentation. And in fact, looking at traditional genealogical documents gives little information about Chava and the life she lived. But Chava’s story shows how much can be learned by looking at non-traditional documentation to learn about an individual and the context in which they lived. Chava had already lost two children to mandatory conscription into the Russian Empire, and she refused to lose another. The widowed mother filed a series of petitions throughout the 1850s which went as high as two Czars and the Governing Senate (the Russian Empire’s Supreme Court equivalent). In doing this, she generated a genealogical gold mine (telling of secret marriages and here various relatives were living or hiding from the draft) and gave her perspective on family and community gossip and conflict.
While this is the talk about one woman (the speaker’s 5th great grandmother), her hundreds of pages of petitions and appeals shows how Jewish families dealt with mandatory conscription of their young children, how conscription caused strife within the Jewish community and formed a hierarchy (she felt she wasn’t part of the cool kids’ clique), and how relatively simple Jewish families were able to generate a significant amount of documentation in the mid-1800s.
The is an hybrid program, occurring in-person at the Heinz History Center and online by Zoom.
“Jewish Genealogy Day” with Lara Diamond 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. Non-members can attend one session for $10 (register by May 27) or both session for $18, which includes a free one-year membership to the JGS. To become a member of the JGS-Pittsburgh and receive a free membership code for this program, please visit its website. This program will be recorded and made available to current JGS-Pittsburgh members.
This program is possible through the generous support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.
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Lara Diamond began researching her own family around 1989. She has traced all branches of her family multiple generations back in Eastern Europe using Russian Empire-era and Austria-Hungarian Empire records. Most of her personal research is in modern-day Ukraine, with a smattering of Belarus and Poland. She has done client research leading to their ancestors in many parts of the former USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and more. She is president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland and is JewishGen’s Subcarpathia Research Director. She has lectured nationally and internationally on Jewish and Eastern European genealogy research as well as genetic genealogy. She also runs multiple district- and town-focused projects to collect documentation to assist all those researching ancestors from common towns. Learn Lara’s blogs about her Eastern European and Jewish research here. | |
May 23
Leading by Example:
How Women Shaped the Pennsylvania Judiciary
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Join the History Center to examine the career and achievements of the Honorable Rochelle S. Friedman with the Rauh Jewish Archives and Commonwealth Court Historical Society.
The Hon. Rochelle S. Friedman (Ret.) is a pioneer who blazed paths for women in the legal and judicial fields in Western Pennsylvania. From her years as a student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and legal work defending civil liberties, to her dogged political campaigns, legendary dissents as an 25-year member of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, and mentorship of lawyers, judges, and elected officials, Judge Friedman’s life and career reflect the challenges and successes of generations of women in the law.
To celebrate the recent donation of Judge Friedman’s personal and professional papers to the Rauh Jewish Archives, the Heinz History Center and the Commonwealth Court Historical Society will tell Judge Friedman’s story with the help of some of the many local leaders who joined her along the way, including Senior Judge Kim Berkeley Clark, President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer, Bonnie DiCarlo, Judge Maureen Lally-Green (Ret.) President Judge Emerita Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter, Tina Mazaheri, President Judge Emeritus Dan Pellegrini (Ret.), Robert Peirce, Jr., Justice David Wecht, and Judge Michael H. Wojcik.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Judge Friedman will not be in attendance but will instead present pre-recorded remarks about her work in the judiciary.
Program attendees can also see a special display of materials from Judge Friedman’s papers, which will remain on view in the Detre Library & Archives through June 6.
The program is held in conjunction with the History Center’s new exhibition, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh, which showcases the stories of barrier-breaking Western Pa. women like Judge Friedman who helped shape our region and nation.
Prior to the program, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania will hold a special session from 1-3:30 p.m. in the History Center, providing visitors with a rare opportunity to witness the daily workings of this unique appellate court.
This program is free with pre-registration and includes special after-hours access to the History Center exhibit, A Woman’s Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh, until 8 p.m.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania session begins at 1 p.m.
The program will take place in the Mueller Education center, located on the fifth of the Heinz History Center. Doors open for the program at 4 p.m., and the program will begin at 4:30 p.m.
The program has been approved for one substantive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit for Pennsylvania attorneys, offered through the Allegheny County Bar Association (ACBA). Attorneys who wish to receive CLE credit must register through the ACBA website here.
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May 31
Polish Genealogy Workshop
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Join nationally renowned genealogists for the History Center’s first Polish Genealogy Workshop.
Genealogy experts Ola Heska and Kinga Urbanska will guide beginner and advanced family historians alike on a tour de force of genealogical records available online and in Polish archives.
Attendees will learn about the history of Polish partitions and their impact on genealogical research. Speakers will also reveal where to turn for the largest caches of Polish birth, marriage, and death records available online.
Workshop presentations include:
- Beginning Polish Genealogy
- Understanding Records during the Polish Partitions: 1772-1918
- Finding Polish Records Online: Where to Search
- Beyond Vital Records: Finding Your Ancestors in Census, Military, School, and Court Records
Museum professionals from the History Center’s Detre Library & Archives and representatives from the Archives & Records Center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, as well as other local genealogical and heritage organizations, will be on hand to share insights and best practices with workshop attendees.
Advance registration for the Polish Genealogy Workshop is required. Please register online. Your ticket includes Admission to the museum for the day.
The workshop will take place in the Mueller Education center on the fifth floor of the Heinz History Center. Box lunches are available for an additional $16.95.
For additional questions, please contact programs@heinzhistorycenter.org.
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Ola Heska grew up in Poland and received her M.A. in Russian Philology from Lodz University, Poland. Her passion for genealogy began in grade school when, after watching the movie “Roots,” based on Alex Haley’s novel, she created her first 4-generation family tree. She then learned that one of her great-grandmothers immigrated from Poland to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
Fluent in Polish, English, and Russian, as well as having a working knowledge of Latin, Ola has been researching her family roots for over 20 years. She is an honorary member of PTG (Polish Genealogical Society in Warsaw, Poland), a former member of PGSA (Polish Genealogical Society of America, Chicago, IL), and has experience speaking at conferences and the Chicago area libraries and genealogical societies. She has volunteered in vital record indexing projects and is currently working with the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland organization.
For many years, Ola was the treasurer for one of the Chicago area Polish Saturday schools, with an annual enrollment of about 1,200 students. In addition to genealogy, Ola enjoys gardening, birdwatching, photography, scrapbooking, and music.
Ola has been working as a Genealogist Researcher at Ancestry.com since 2018 and considers it her dream job.
Kinga Urbańska is a genealogist, historian, archivist and the founder and co-owner of Your Roots in Poland – the most recognizable genealogical company in Poland. Kinga is also president of Twoje Korzenie w Polsce which popularizes the idea of genealogy in Poland. She received a master degree in history, archival and historical sources at Pedagogical University of Kraków. She also manages projects to save local historical sites.
Kinga is interested in the Polish history of the 19th century and emigration. Her favorite research region is Galicia. She assisted with uncovering Polish roots in the TV show, Finding Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr, where she had a chance to work on the family research for (among others) Dustin Hoffman, Juliana Margulies, Tea Leoni, Gloria Steinem, and Bernie Sanders. Genealogy is her job and passion. More about her and her work at her website.
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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"
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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.
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From the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association
"Road Trip: The Jewish Cemeteries of Western Pennsylvania"
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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.
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Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project | |
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. | |
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Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project | |
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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. | |
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Rauh Jewish Archives Bibliography | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
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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. | |
[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 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. | | | | |