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The Early 1970s:
Stay At Home Ball
Jewish Encyclopedia:
Solomon Schechter Day School
Databases:
Squirrel Hill Business Directory
Save the Date:
A Patchwork Life Stitching Circle
Exhibits:
A Woman's Place
Calendar:
Aug. 4: JGS Presents: Family Stories
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:
Stay At Home Ball
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“Do not shop for a new gown; do not make a beauty parlor appointment; do not have shoes dyed to match the gown you didn’t buy; do not hire a babysitter; do not take your jewels out of the safe deposit box.” | |
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Full-page advertisement announcing the National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section’s “Stay At Home Ball” and showcasing the work of the organization—Feb. 11, 1971.
—Jewish Chronicle
Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
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The National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section sent those instructions to its 2,500 members in early 1971. Instead of its usual Angel Ball cotillion party, the NCJW held a “Stay At Home Ball.” The NCJW-Pittsburgh sent books to all its members. Stay home. Read. Send what you would have spent.
NCJW-Pittsburgh leadership described the move as a response to a “crisis year” in Israel, perhaps referring to the War of Attrition that had recently culminated in a tense ceasefire. The situation for Israel only worsened over the next few years, including the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Ladies Hospital Aid Society cancelled its annual Montefiore Ball in 1973 as a result of these events, opting instead for a silent fundraising campaign.
Even though the Angel Ball had long been a highlight of the local Jewish social calendar, the Stay-At-Home Ball worked. NCJW-Pittsburgh continued the Stay at Home Ball for years, creating new home-based themes each year, like baking, gardening, cocktails, and needlepoint. Stay at Home eventually became the major fundraiser for the organization and was even copied by other non-profit organizations throughout the Western Pennsylvania area.
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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. | |
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Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania:
Solomon Schechter Day School
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Color photograph of three teachers from the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Pittsburgh—c1980.
—Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Records [MSS 287]
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Solomon Schechter Day School was a Jewish day school associated with the national network of day schools affiliated with the Conservative movement.
The idea of starting a Solomon Schechter school in Western Pennsylvania was discussed throughout the 1970s but not advanced until 1980, when the Western Pennsylvania Region of the United Synagogue of America formed an ad hoc board to advance the idea. Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Pittsburgh was chartered in 1981 and began holding classes for kindergarten and first grade in September 1981. Lisa Steindel was hired as school coordinator, and Ruth Kraft Gumerman was hired as educational director. The school started at Congregation Beth Shalom’s Halpern Center for Education in Squirrel Hill and soon relocated to Beth El Congregation of the South Hills.
Solomon Schechter Day School merged with Community Day School in 1988, and used the Community Day School facilities at the Hebrew Institute.
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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. | |
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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 3,597 listings for businesses on Murray, Forbes, and Forward between 1960 and 1973 (excluding 1963 and 1966). We recently added 1,123 listings from 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1964. The Detre Library & Archives does not have the 1963 or 1966 directories. | |
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Aug. 18:
The Patchwork Life Stitching Circle
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[LEFT] Color photograph showing a pair of hands framing a patch from The Witness Quilt reading, “Do a mitzvah.” [RIGHT] Patchwork Life Stitching Circle sewing kit. | |
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On Sunday, September 1, the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center will open a new exhibition titled, “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life,” a retrospective of the 50-year career of local quilter and fiber artist Louise Silk.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a new work called “The Witness Quilt,” a collection of 1,152 folk wisdoms embroidered onto recycled fabric from Silk’s personal fabric collection. Throughout the run of the exhibit, Silk will work in the gallery space with volunteer community stitchers to expand the Witness Quilt. Once complete, the patches will be given away to museum visitors.
On Sunday, August 18 from 1-4 p.m., Silk will host a special training session at the Detre Library & Archives of the Heinz History Center for anyone who would like to participate. No expertise or materials are required, just a desire to join a community of stitchers who will assist with this special project.
All participants will receive a special sewing kit created by Silk and will leave with an embroidery project already underway. If you are unable to attend the workshop but would still like to participate, please contact the archive.
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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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Aug. 4
JGS Pittsburgh Presents:
From Documents to Sentences to Stories:
Rebuilding Family Stories
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Turning your genealogy research discoveries into meaningful stories can be challenging. Follow the re-creation of one family’s story using hands-on, step-by-step, try-this-now story-building strategies. Turn a single record discovery into a simple paragraph, then a paragraph into a story by looking for the “plot” and other interesting elements that make up the most interesting stories.
Teaser: in the story you’ll follow, one of the heroes is a dog, Sunny's son’s favorite “ancestor.”
The program is Sunday, August 4 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.
“From Documents to Sentences to Stories: Rebuilding Family Stories” with Sunny Morton 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.
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Sunny Jane Morton is a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine and Director of Content at YourDNAGuide.com, where she teaches storytelling strategies and puts them into practice. She is author of Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy, now in its 2nd edition, and co-author of the NGS award-winning book, How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records. She is past Editor of Ohio Genealogy News. | |
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. | | | | |
