June 2, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 22



The Early 1970s:

A New Era for Rabbis

Jewish Encyclopedia:

School of Advanced Jewish Studies

Article:

Squirrel Hill Parking (Part 1)

Resources:

Henry Ellenbogen Papers

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Judge Shelly Friedman

Calendar:

TODAY: Jewish Genealogy Day



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:

A New Era for Rabbis

[LEFT] Obituary for Rabbi Herman Hailperin—January 11, 1973

[RIGHT] Obituary for Rabbi Wolf Leiter—February 28, 1974.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Earlier this year, we looked at changes at Pittsburgh synagogues in the early 1970s: the closure of smaller synagogues in the city and the expansion of larger synagogues to include new sanctuaries, school wings, and social halls. 

The early 1970s also brought changes in rabbinic leadership. Several long and notable rabbinic tenures ended, either through retirement, relocation, or death. 

The trend began in the mid-1960s.

Dr. Solomon B. Freehof retired in 1966 after 32 years with Rodef Shalom. He became rabbi emeritus and was succeeded by Rabbi Walter Jacob.

Rabbi Herman Hailperin retired at Tree of Life in 1968 and was succeeded by Rabbi Solomon Kaplan, who stayed into the 1980s. Rabbi Hailperin remained rabbi emeritus until his death in 1973—his 51st year with the congregation.

Rabbi Joseph Shapiro became rabbi emeritus of Poale Zedeck in 1973. He had been with the congregation nearly 40 years. He was succeeded by Rabbi Eliyahu Safran, who remained with Poale Zedeck into the mid-1980s.

Rabbi Wolf Leiter celebrated his 50th year in Pittsburgh in 1971. He had come here in 1921 from Galicia to lead Machsikei Hadas in the Hill District. In the early 1940s, he started the Maimonides Institute in Squirrel Hill. A scholar with an international reputation, his acclaim crossed ideological boundaries. Dr. Freehof and Rabbi Hailperin were both admirers. Rabbi Leiter died in 1974.

Rabbi Yosef Leifer started Kahal Chassidim in the Hill District in 1926. The congregation moved to Oakland in the early 1930s and to Squirrel Hill in the late 1930s, changing its name to Ahavath Israel. Following his death in 1966, his son Rabbi Avram Aba Leifer became the “Pittsburgher Rebbe.” The Leifer family left in 1970 to create Kiryat Pittsburgh in the Israeli city of Ashdod.

All of these rabbis were closely associated with specific congregations. There were also veteran rabbis who had spent time with numerous institutions.

Rabbi Pinchas N. Gross came to Pittsburgh in 1940, followed by his family in 1945, all of them escaping Nazi persecution. Rabbi Gross worked at the Hebrew Institute, Hillel Academy, and Tri-State Mizrachi before becoming the first spiritual leader of Parkway Jewish Center in Eastmont in the early 1950s. He left in 1969 to take a national post with Religious Zionists of America.

Rabbi Joshua Weiss died in 1972, after nearly 20 years leading B’nai Emunoh Congregation in Greenfield. He had previously led congregations in Homestead and East Pittsburgh. Before coming to Western Pennsylvania, he led a congregation in Lancaster. He was succeeded by Rabbi Joseph Weiss.

The late 1960s and early 1970s was an especially important time for rabbinic leadership the South Hills. Rabbi William Sajowitz assumed the pulpit at Temple Emanuel in 1968 and remained with the congregation until 1985. Beth El Congregation hired Rabbi Aaron Micholson in 1970. He was succeeded in 1973 by Rabbi Stephen Steindel, who held the pulpit for the next decade.

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:

School of Advanced Jewish Studies

Dr. Aharon Kessler leading a class at the School of Advanced Jewish Studies, undated.

—Dr. Aharon Kessler Papers and Photographs [MSS 1261]

Following the Study of Jewish Educational Arrangements on Secondary and Teacher Education Levels, prepared by the American Association for Jewish Education, the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh merged the College of Jewish Studies with the Secondary and Teacher Training Departments of the Hebrew Institute in 1969 to create the School of Advanced Jewish Studies. 

The School of Advanced Jewish Studies was described at the time as Pittsburgh's “communal system of secondary and teacher education.” Graduates of the Hebrew Institute were encouraged to enroll at the School of Advanced Jewish Studies, where they could pursue certification that would allow them to teach in religious elementary schools throughout the community. Dr. Aharon Kessler oversaw the school as its dean for most of its existence.

The School of Advanced Jewish Studies merged with the Hebrew Institute and Community Day School in 1991 to create the Jewish Educational Institute.

Article:

Squirrel Hill Gets Parking Meters

A few weeks ago in the newsletter, we surveyed the creation of five city-owned parking lots in Squirrel Hill.

We’ve expanded that history into a three-part series in the Jewish Chronicle, looking at the ways city officials tried to balance the needs of residents, workers, and shoppers in Squirrel Hill between 1940 and 1985.

The first part looks at the introduction of parking meters in late 1940. Fair warning: things got a little bit ugly.

[IMAGE] 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

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.  

Display:

Judge Shelly Friedman

Black and white photograph of Shelly Friedman—undated.

—from Rochelle Friedman Papers

The Rauh Jewish Archives' Catelyn Cocuzzi has curated a display of materials from the Rochelle Friedman Papers, looking at her life in Pittsburgh and her career in the legal and judiciary fields. The next time you visit the Heinz History Center, please stop up to the Library & Archives to see the display.

June 2

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Jewish Genealogy Day

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.

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.

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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