September 8, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 36



The Early 1970s:

The Tenth Man

Small Town Jewish History Project:

Wein Brothers Department Store

Resources:

The Status of Women (1986)

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

Thank You

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Sept. 15: JGS Presents:

Holocaust Restitution



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:

The Tenth Man

Black and white photograph from Y-IKC Playhouse production of "The Tenth Man," featuring (left to right) David Plotkin, Hy Richman, Isabel Bloom, Maurice "Tito" Braunstein, William Beck, and Jack Kelly—March 14, 1974.

Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

The Pittsburgh Playhouse staged the Paddy Chayefsky exorcism play “The Tenth Man” in early 1964. The Y-IKC Playhouse staged it again in early 1974.

In the decade between those two productions, a lot changed in local theater.

The Pittsburgh Playhouse had been founded in the mid-1930s as the decline of downtown commercial theaters left a gap in the local cultural scene. Although the Pittsburgh Playhouse was broadly civic in its mission, its development included leaders from the Jewish community, most notably the Rauh family. The Pittsburgh Playhouse grew through the next 30 years, eventually occupying a complex of interconnected buildings on Craft Avenue in Oakland.

By the early 1960s, the Pittsburgh Playhouse was facing financial challenges, the result of recent expansions and waning public interest. “The Tenth Man” was among the final plays produced under its original community theater model. The American Conservatory Theater took over the Pittsburgh Playhouse in 1965 but left after six months. A partnership with Point Park College kept the Pittsburgh Playhouse open into the early 1970s. Pittsburgh Playhouse ultimately disbanded in 1973 and sold its facilities to Point Park. Point Park managed the complex until 2019, when it moved the theater downtown.

The Y Playhouse dates nearly to the start of the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association. A group of young men staged a production of “The Typhoon” in 1917 to raise funds for a pending mortgage bill, after a fire damaged the interior of the Y building, draining a small savings account. With the move to Bellefield Avenue in Oakland in the early 1920s, the Y Playhouse became a local institution. It was a way for young, artistically inclined Jewish men and women to participate in the cultural life of the country.

By the early 1970s, though, the arts were an increasingly common part of most primary school education, and the Jewish community had become so well integrated into American society that community leaders were worried about Jewish identity. While the Jewish community had once needed a place of its own to stage American plays, it now needed a place of its own to stage Jewish plays. Eddie Steinfeld and Maurice “Tito” Braunstein led this transition starting in late 1973, working to revitalize the Y Playhouse by focusing on Jewish productions. They launched this initiative in Spring 1974 with “The Tenth Man,” followed by a fall performance of “The World of Sholom Aleichem.”

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.

Small Town Jewish History Project:

Wein Brothers Department Store

Rectangular stained glass sign installed above Wein's Clothing Store. Silver-gray metal outer border with perimeter border of yellow transparent textured glass squares. Center has silver-gray metal outer border framing white (milk glass) background of opaque white glass fragments. Center has dark red (ruby) transparent textured glass spelling business name. Glass sections are all separated by silver-gray metal edging and lead solder. Reverse has four gray metal vertical braces that are mounted perpendicular to the sign and evenly divide the sign into five sections.

Wein’s Department Store in Clarion, Pa. was likely the longest-running Jewish owned department store in Western Pennsylvania, closing in 2020 after nearly 110 years of operation by three generations of the Wein family.

Our new entry for Wein’s Department Store includes a database of all its known suppliers between 1918 and 1939 and 1978 and 1979. The database shows the national reach of small-town American retailers, as well as the geographic changes in American manufacturing and wholesaling in the mid-20th century.

Resource:

The Status of Women in Jewish Organizations (1986)

The Committee on the Role of Women was formed in 1979 to study the gender breakdown at Jewish organizations in the Pittsburgh region.

In a landmark 1980 report titled “The Status of Women in Jewish Organizations of Greater Pittsburgh,” the committee found that women accounted for half of all staff positions at Jewish organizations but only a quarter to a third of board seats and no top executive positions except at Jewish women’s organizations. 

IMAGE: Cover of “The Status of Women in Jewish Organizations of Greater Pittsburgh,” featuring illustration of a white figure in a dress with a black Star of David against a red background.

As part of its recommendations, the Committee on the Role of Women called for conducting a follow-up survey in 1985. The follow-up report found no meaningful statistical change since 1980. And yet, several of the women surveyed reported “a new awareness” of women’s issues within Jewish organizations, so that “more women are now on the ladder toward obtaining these positions.” To build momentum, Committee on the Role of Women Co-chair Eileen Lane formed the Pittsburgh Jewish Women’s Forum in 1987.

The Freida and Saul Shapira Papers and Photographs [MSS 508] has an incomplete version of the follow-up report, containing only the summary and recommendations. We are posting that incomplete version on the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania this week. If you have a complete version of the report, please contact the archive or call 412-454-6406.

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who came out on Sunday to celebrate the opening of “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life,” especially amid the distractions of the weekend. 

You can find coverage of the exhibit in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

The exhibit remains on display through April 6, 2025, and the Rauh Jewish Archives has a robust programming calendar to support the exhibit.

Watch this space for details.

In the meantime, there are several opportunities to participate.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is The Witness Quilt, a collection of more than 1,100 hand-stitched folk sayings. For the next eight-months, a team of volunteers called “The Patchwork Life Stitching Circle” will expanding this quilt while working at a special station in gallery. To join this group, please apply here. No skills or experience necessary. All supplies provided.  

The Rauh Jewish Archives is offering private, personalized tours of the exhibit to all Jewish organizations in the region. To schedule a tour, please contact the archive at rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter.org or call 412-454-6406.

Exhibit:

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.  

Sept. 15

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Restitution and Remembrance:

Finding a Thousand Heirs

Some 20 years ago, over 9,000 books looted by the infamous Nazi officer Julius Streicher were handed over to the Jewish community in Nuernberg and are now held by the Stadtbibliothek there. The owners of more than 2,000 of them could be identified. An ongoing research project coordinated by Leibl Rosenberg in Nuernberg to identify descendants has resulted in the return of over 1,000 of them. Hundreds are still in the library collection awaiting return.

Karen enlisted assistance from the Leo Baeck Institute’s staff and volunteers, as well as volunteers from the Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and a college intern, to review the list of books with heirs yet unidentified, and within a few weeks, the descendants of over a dozen original owners of the book had been located and notified. In this talk, Karen will discuss new case studies and demonstrate the research techniques she and the volunteers undertook to find the heirs.

The program is Sunday, September 15 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. 

“Restitution and Remembrance: Finding a Thousand Heirs” with Karen Franklin 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.

Karen S. Franklin, a leader in the fields of Jewish genealogy and Jewish museums, has been Director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute for over twenty years and is Consulting Director of the Peter and Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. She has served as president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, chair of the Memorial Museums Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen.org. Karen received the service citation of the International Council of Museums-US in 2012 for her work in Holocaust-era Looted Art, and the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

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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