December 8, 2024

Vol. 5, No. 49



The Early 1970s:

Myron Cope

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Ladies Hospital Aid Society

Databases:

Squirrel Hill directory

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

Stars of America

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Dec. 15: Shaping Family Stories

Dec. 16: Rodef Shalom Archives



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

The Early 1970s:

Myron Cope at the University Club

Myron Cope—1972.

—Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

After a successful career in print journalism, Myron Cope began daily sports commentary on local radio in 1968 and joined the official Pittsburgh Steelers’ radio team in 1970 as a commentator on WBGG-AM and WDVE-FM.

Through his heightened profile, Cope became a popular public speaker. The University Club invited him to emcee its annual Fall Sports Smoker in October 1971. The invitation led to a small but notable dust-up in the Jewish Chronicle that reveals the complex tensions of the Jewish experience in those years.

In a column on Nov. 4, 1971, Milt Susman wrote, “How [Cope] lives his Jewishness is his own affair and no one’s else. But how he comports himself publicly, since he so exposes himself, is of vital concern to every Jew in this community. That is why it was a miscarriage of judgment for Mr. Cope to m.c. a sports smoker recently at the University Club in Oakland which, since the day its cornerstone was laid, has denied membership to Jews.” Susman noted that Judge Samuel A. Weiss had once quietly refused just such an invitation to the Duquesne Club, which also restricted Jewish membership at the time.

The restrictiveness of elite private social clubs in Pittsburgh dates to the 19th century. Efforts to integrate these clubs became increasingly pressing and public in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1960s, prominent Jewish voices in Pittsburgh were opposing these restrictions as a point of solidarity with the larger Civil Rights movement, especially because these restrictive policies also applied to Black people. The Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Jewish Committee issued a call in early 1964 asking community organizations to avoid clubs with restrictive policies. In early 1965, B’nai B’rith Hillel Director Rabbi Richard Rubenstein publically declined an invitation to an Associated Artists of Pittsburgh annual dinner at the University Club in protest of these policies. The Duquesne Club admitted its first Jewish member in the late 1960s. In these years, certain clubs were allowing Jews to visit as guests of members. Susman opposed this half-measure, seeing it as embarrassing and undignified. 

Some in the local Jewish community, though, felt that this campaign was a waste of energy. In his profile of Pittsburgh in “Travels Through Jewish America,” journalist Harry Golden quotes an anonymous local Jewish businessman who criticized efforts to integrate the Duquesne Club. Why threaten the elites, when all Jews really want is “prestige, not power?” the businessman told Golden, arguing that the Mellon Foundation’s recent support of Montefiore Hospital was a far more meaningful sign of social integration.

In a letter to the editor to the Jewish Chronicle replying to Susman’s column, Cope defended the idea of private clubs. He felt that people had the right to choose their private social circle. He also felt that those who attended these restrictive clubs weren’t necessarily bigoted but perhaps just wanted “a convenient place to get a drink or a good meal or to transact business.” 

Cope claimed to be unaware of the University Club’s policies and shouldn’t be expected to make “an inspection of the buyer’s morals” for each invitation.

Toward the end of his letter to the editor, Cope added, “By innuendo, what Susman has done was to hang the ‘bad-Jew’ label on me. If… he has the slightest knowledge of the impact of words, then he knew this would be the effect of his miserable paragraphs and that a public figure can never totally shed that label once it has been fastened.” This addendum is a small, heartbreaking reminder of the ways that the questions and pressures facing a marginalized community can lead to tensions within that community.

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:

Ladies Hospital Aid Society

Black and white photograph of the Ladies Hospital Aid Society sewing circle—c1940s.

—Ladies Hospital Aid Society Photographs [MSP 32]

Over the next few months, the Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania is profiling non-congregational Jewish women’s organizations in the region.

The Hebrew Ladies Hospital Aid Society was formed in 1898 to develop a hospital in Pittsburgh where Jewish patients could receive culturally competent medical care and Jewish physicians could practice without discrimination.

Encouraged by several local Jewish doctors, Annie Jacobs Davis convened a small group a women to discuss the idea, leading to the formation of the society. The Hebrew Ladies Hospital Aid Society was chartered on May 29, 1899 with the following members: Annie Jacobs Davis, Lillian Davis, Anna Rosenthal, Fannie Goodstone, Annie Wolk, Rachel Wolk, and Amelia Edlis.  

With the opening of the first Montefiore Hospital in the Hill District in 1908, the Ladies Hospital Aid Society shifted into an auxiliary role, providing crucial fundraising and volunteer services to support the hospital. Following the sale of Montefiore Hospital to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center system in 1990, the Ladies Hospital Aid Society expanded its mission to provide grants and services to numerous organizations across the region.

The Rauh Jewish Archives holds the records of the Ladies Hospital Aid Society and Montefiore Hospital as well as the personal papers of Annie Jacobs Davis. Our entry for the organization includes the 1899 charter, minutes from 1908 and 1959 through 1963, revisions to its bylaws from 1947, 1959, and 1967, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

Databases:

Squirrel Hill Business Directory

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

The Squirrel Hill Business Database now includes 6,215 listings for businesses on Murray, Forbes, and Forward avenues between 1950 and 1973 (excluding the 1957, 1963 and 1966 directories, which the Detre Library & Archives does not have in its holdings.). We recently added 1,496 listings from 1950-1954. 

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life

"Stars of America"

"Stars of America" quilt—c1991.

The Museum of American Folk Art announced four quilting competitions in the early 1990s in association with its “Great American Quilt Festival 3,” all timed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the Americas.

The themes were “America’s Flower Garden,” “Young People’s America,” “Friends Sharing America,” and “Discover America.” “Discover America” invited quilters to present their personal take on discovering the country. Louise Silk was accepted into the show with her quilt “Stars of America.” It featured 50 five-pointed stars, each with a recognizable American symbol. It was technically demanding with many small, irregularly shaped pieces.

The quilt also presented an openhearted vision of America. It includes corporations like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, characters like the Cat in the Hat and Mickey Mouse, natural scenes like oceans and mountains, and concepts like racial harmony. The idea of America as a patchwork of influences, each with its role, is reinforced by the presence of a miniature quilt block on the rigth-hand side, a white eight-pointed star nestled in a red and blue frame.

The next installment of our Gut Yontif! series is Dec. 28 with a fiery Chanukah celebration from Rosabel Rosalind, then on Thursday, Feb. 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and finally on Wednesday, March 12 with an all-embracing Purim party from Olivia Devorah Tucker. 

The “Gut Yontif!” series is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the SteelTree Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

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.  

Dec. 15:

JGS Pittsburgh Presents:

Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story

Using the life of Moische, later known as Morris, Sana Loue will explore various strategies and resources to shape the background of our family stories of immigration and adjustment to life in the United States.

The program is Sunday, December 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. 

“Strategies for Shaping Your Family Story” with Sana Loue 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.

Sana Loue is a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the Department of Bioethics. She has been researching her family’s origins for several years, tracking documents and stories through Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and Russia. Her recent publication, From Public Policy to Family Dynamics: A Case Study of the Impact of Public Policy on Two 20th Century Jewish Immigrant Families, tells the stories of her brother Michael, born with Down syndrome, and the impact of Russian and U.S. eugenics policy on family dynamics, as well as that of her grandfather Moische and the effects of U.S. immigration and welfare policy on family structure and relationships.

Dec. 16:

A Stroll Through the Past:

Stories From the Rodef Shalom Archives

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 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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