January 12, 2025

Vol. 6, No. 2



Jewish Artists:

Sibyl Barsky Grucci

Jewish Encyclopedia:

Jewish Home for the Aged

Ladies Auxiliary

Sisterhoods:

Beth Aaron Sisterhood

A Patchwork Life:

"Homecoming"

Exhibits:

A Woman's Place

Calendar:

Feb. 6: "Teach Them to Your Children"

Jewish Genealogy Society:

Jan. 12: Adina Newman

Jan. 19: Annual Meeting

Feb. 16: Jane Neff Rollins



Community:

URA photographs

SHHS archives

JCBA "Road-Trip"

Research Tools:

Newspapers, Cemeteries,

Memorial Plaques, Books,

Population Figures, Synagogues, Newsletter Archive,

Shul Records America

Jewish Artists:

Sibyl Barsky Grucci

When you step off the elevators on the sixth floor of the Heinz History Center to visit the archives, the first face you see is Hyman David Blum.

Blum immigrated to the Pittsburgh area from Lativa and founded the Blumcraft Company, which made architectural metalwork for buildings throughout Pittsburgh and around the world. His family gave his bust to the Rauh Jewish Archives when it donated its papers in the early 2000s.

No artist was listed.

A few years later, Sibyl Barsky Grucci was visiting the Heinz History Center and recognized the bust. She had made it for Blum in the 1940s in return for studio space and supplies. 

Bust of Hyman David Blum by Sibyl Barsky Grucci on display in the foyer of the Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center.

Barsky (1905-2007) was born in Russia and came to Pittsburgh around 1907 with her parents Morris and Jennie Barsky and her older sister Belle. In Pittsburgh, her parents had five more children, Frances, William, Saul, Sam, and Sidney. Within a few months in 1926, both parents and daughter Frances died in separate incidents, leaving Sibyl and Belle to raise their younger siblings. Their brother William was later killed in action in World War II.

Amid these tragedies, Barsky enrolled in the Department of Painting and Design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. She briefly studied painting before teaching herself to sculpt. Unable to afford professional sculpting tools, she initially used household objects, “needles, finger nail files, even knives from the kitchen,” she told a reporter in the early 1930s. Barsky joined the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and exhibited locally throughout the 1930s. She befriended fellow Jewish artists Samuel Rosenberg, William Wolfson, and Samuel Baer Filner, and she briefly lived with artist Esther Philips.

Black and white photograph of Sybil Barsky Grucci with her bust of author Fred Lewis Pattee at the entrance to the Pattee Library on the campus of Penn State University—c1950.

—Sibyl Barsky Grucci Photographs [MSP 423]

Within a few years, Barsky had become one of the most promising young sculptors in the city. Sculpture was gaining new prominence in the region in the early 1930s. The AAP initiated its annual sculpture award in 1934—Barsky won the inaugural prize—and the Society of Sculptors began in 1935. 

In the late 1930s, Barsky was one of six artists hired for the Pittsburgh group of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. The group created exhibits, assisted with museum extension work, and promoted the arts locally.

Barsky moved to central Pennsylvania in 1950 when her husband, the poet Joseph Grucci, took a position at Penn State University. She quickly became a part of the art community there, and her bust of author Fred Lewis Pattee currently holds a prominent place in the university’s Pattee Library. She purchased the old Boogersburg School in 1953 and maintained it as her private art studio until 2001, when she relocated to California.

All year, the Rauh Jewish Archives is highlighting stories of Jewish artist in Western Pennsylvania before World War II. 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:

Jewish Home for the Aged Ladies Auxiliary

Black and white photograph of Ella Alpern and E. L. Braunstein of the Jewish Home for the Aged Ladies Auxiliary at the groundbreaking for an addition to the Jewish Home for the Aged facility on Browns Hill Road—1955.

—Jewish Association on Aging Ladies Auxiliary [MSS 544]

The Jewish Home for the Aged Ladies Auxiliary was established shortly after the Jewish Home for the Aged opened its first facility at 2500 Breckenridge Street in the Hill District in 1906. It provided essential daily operations for the home, including cooking, cleaning, and transportation.

The Jewish Home for the Aged Ladies Auxiliary continued to provide institutional support after the Jewish Home for the Aged relocated to Squirrel Hill in the 1930s. By the time of a major expansion of the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged in 1964, the Ladies Auxiliary had more than 4,000 members throughout the tri-state area. Using dues, life membership fees, contributions to specific funds, and an annual dinner dance, the Ladies Auxiliary financed medical equipment, eyeglasses, hearing aids, and prosthetic devices for residents, as well as institutional supplies such as linens, clothing, drapes, furniture, decorations, television sets, and books. The Ladies Auxiliary hosted activities for the residents, including a weekly sewing circle, monthly birthday parties, arts and crafts events, and annual dinners. 

Amid organizational changes in the early 1990s, the auxiliary changed its name to the Jewish Association on Aging Ladies Auxiliary. The auxiliary voted to disband in May 2009 and donated its remaining funds to associated causes.

Sisterhoods

Beth Aaron Sisterhood of Chofetz Chaim Congregation

Chofetz Chaim Congregation memorial board donated by the Beth Aaron Sisterhood, currently mounted in the smaller sanctuary of B'nai Emunoh Chabad in Greenfield.

Sisterhoods are usually named for their congregations. A notable exception locally is the Beth Aaron Sisterhood, which was founded in 1931 as the women’s auxiliary of Chofetz Chaim Congregation. In a 1936 article in the Jewish Criterion, Beth Aaron member Lois Hollander explained that the organization chose the name “as a tribute to their rabbi, Aaron Ashinsky, when he returned from Detroit to become leader of Chofetz Chaim Congregation.”

Chofetz Chaim was the second Jewish congregation in Squirrel Hill. It began meeting as early as 1923, obtained a charter in 1925, and rented meeting space until 1930, when it remodeled 5807 Beacon St. into a synagogue.

Those dates parallel notable moments in Rabbi Ashinsky's career.

Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky arrived in Pittsburgh in 1901 to lead Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Congregation in the Hill District. There were few Orthodox rabbis at the time, and he was soon asked to lead many other smaller Hill District congregations, in addition to his sprawling philanthropic work. 

By the early 1920s, the Jewish population of Pittsburgh was dynamic and mobile. The once dominant Hill District was losing its Jewish population to Squirrel Hill and the East End, as well as to various smaller Jewish communities throughout the city. At the same time, new immigration quotas were limiting the number of Jewish immigrants arriving in the Hill District. 

Rabbi Ashinsky left Pittsburgh in 1922 for a pulpit in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. He was forced to return when a group of Pittsburgh congregants convened a rabbinic court called a “beit din” in New York. According to one newspaper account at the time, “The court of rabbis agreed that Pittsburgh Jewry has a better claim to Rabbi Ashinsky in view of the 20 years that he spent in furthering religious, educational and charitable endeavor in this city.” 

Rabbi Ashinsky left again in 1926, this time for Detroit. He returned to Pittsburgh in 1931 to lead nine congregations, including Beth Hamedrash Hagodol and Chofetz Chaim. He remained affiliated with both congregations until his death in 1954. Between 1931 and 1954, the Jewish population of Pittsburgh definitively shifted to Squirrel Hill and a younger generation of leadership emerged, including Rabbi Goodman Rose of Beth Shalom, Rabbi Baruch Poupko of Shaare Torah, and Rabbi Joseph Shapiro of Poale Zedeck. 

According to a 1935 biography, "Fifty Years of Study and Service," Ashinsky left Pittsburgh in 1926 because he had “found himself limited in the old section” of the Hill District but had been convinced to return to Pittsburgh in 1931 “when the Orthodox element of Pittsburgh became entrenched in the newest section” of Squirrel Hill. City directories shows Rabbi Ashinsky living in the 2500 block of Centre Avenue in the Hill District until he left for Detroit in 1926 and was living at 5840 Hobart St. in Squirrel Hill upon his return in 1931. That would suggest that Chofetz Chaim became his home congregation.

What role did the Beth Aaron Sisterhood play in convincing Rabbi Ashinsky to return to Pittsburgh and to closely associate with Chofetz Chaim?

The records contain no definitive answer, but the name is intriguing.

—Catelyn Cocuzzi

Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life:

"Homecoming"

Volunteers for the Soviet Jewry Resettlement effort in Pittsburgh, including (standing, from left) Linda Silverman, Arlene Weisman, Karen Shapira, Carolyn Lebovitz (seated, from left) Marrille Weissman, Dr. Mischa Galperin, Harriet Kruman, and Louise Silk.

—Jewish Chronicle, May 2, 1991

Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project

Louise Silk had two parallel careers in the 1980s. 

The first was artistic, making quilts for sale and for exhibition. The second was communal, volunteering for organizations in the local Jewish community. 

Her most demanding communal endeavor was coordinating volunteer projects for the resettlement of several hundred Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union. One of her big initiatives was a hotline to connect volunteers to opportunities.

Louise was also learning about Judaism. She was born in 1950, making her just a bit too old to benefit from the religious educational opportunities presented to younger generations of Jewish women. She was part of the first generation of Jewish women locally to pursue these studies as adults, culminating in an adult bat mitzvah at B'nai Israel in the mid-1980s.

Throughout the 1980s, Louise was producing commissions for Jewish institutions but was not using her Jewish identity as the subject of her art.  

"Homecoming"

The art of quilting crosses many boundaries of American life. There are native and immigrant quilts, Black and white quilts, urban and rural quilts.

Oddly, there are few Jewish quilts before the 1970s. The occasional examples of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are the exceptions to the rule. 

Although formal scholarship on this phenomenon remains slim, Louise suspects that the lack of historical Jewish quilts reflects assimilation patterns. Quilting was typically passed down through immediate associations like families or religious groups. Without that exposure, the Jewish fiber artists of Europe and America instead made weavings or worked in needlepoint.

As younger Jewish people gained greater contact with neighbors throughout the mid-20th century, Jewish fiber artists joined in this craft tradition.

Louise was among the first. Coming home one day from a meeting of the volunteer committee for the Soviet Jewry resettlement project in 1990, she had the idea of combining her art and her Jewishness. Her made “Homecoming,” a diptych showing a group of Soviet Jews in a bread line in muted grays paired against a joyous wedding in Pittsburgh in vibrant colors.

The next installments of our Gut Yontif! series will be Thursday, Feb. 13 with an intimate Tu B’shvat seder from Lydia Rosenberg, and 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.  

Feb. 6:

"Teach Them To Your Children"

Since the times of the Talmud, Jewish education has been a communal responsibility. How has Western Pennsylvania met this challenge? 

In a fast-paced and engaging monthly series “Teach Them To Your Children,” Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji will cover 150 years of Jewish educational initiatives in Western Pennsylvania, showing how our community has perpetuated Jewish knowledge from generation to generation. 

This series will take place monthly in the Community Day School library (2743 Beechwood Blvd.) on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m.

Jan. 9—The 19th Century

The series continues Feb. 6 with a review of local Jewish educational initiatives between 1900 and 1910. Amid the wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, Jewish educators tried to adapt the centuries-old cheder system of Europe to the American scene and the Reform movement began addressing educational gaps in neighboring small towns throughout the region.

The schedule for the rest of the year includes:



March 6—The 1910s

April 10—The 1920s

May 8—The 1930s

June 12—The 1940s

July 10—The 1950s

Aug. 14—The 1960s

Sept. 11—The 1970s

Oct. 9—The 1980s

Nov. 13—The 1990s

Dec. 11—The Future

"Teach Them To Your Children" is presented by Community Day School, Hillel

Academy of Pittsburgh, and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh.

Jewish Genealogy Society

Jan. 12:

DNA. MPE? OMG!: Addressing Surprises in Your DNA

with Adina Newman

Many of us have had a surprise or two in our DNA results. It's important not to panic and adopt a methodology for investigating your surprising results. Using real-life scenarios, this presentation will provide appropriate strategies to tackle common surprises and apparent inconsistencies found in autosomal DNA results. Topics will include ethnicity estimates, navigating unrecognizable matches, and discussing how endogamy and pedigree collapse realistically affect your DNA results.

Dr. Adina Newman, EdD, the creator of My Family Genie, is a professional genealogist and educator. Her specialties include Jewish genealogy, genetic genealogy, social media, and New England, and she presents on these topics in a variety of venues, from major genealogy conferences to local genealogy societies. Her findings have received international media attention, such as mentions in The Daily Mail, Washington Post, AP News, TODAY, Us Weekly, People, and The Times of Israel, and she has made appearances on several news outlets such as NPR and I24NEWS. She co-founded the Holocaust Reunion Project, a program to raise awareness about the potential of DNA testing within the Holocaust survivor community and provide survivors and their children with free commercial DNA tests. She volunteers as a Team Lead for the DNA Doe Project, which uses investigative genetic genealogy to identify unidentified deceased persons and as a moderator for a popular Jewish genetic genealogy Facebook group. She was also a 2020 recipient of the AncestryProGenealogists scholarship.

Jan. 19:

Annual Meeting

The Jewish Genealogy Society will review its recent accomplishments and discuss plans for the future.

Feb. 16:

"We Never Heard from Them Again"

Researching Relatives Who Died in the Holocaust

with Jane Neff Rollins

This talk puts the systematic murder of Jews and other persecuted populations during World War II into historical context before showing attendees how to research the fate of long-lost relatives. Resources to be covered will include the JewishGen Holocaust database, the U.S. Holocaust Historical Museum, Yad Vashem, the Arolsen database, collections of oral history recordings, Yizkor (memorial) books, newspapers, and more. Also included will be the intellectual and emotional challenges genealogists will face in doing this kind of research.

Jane Neff Rollins is a professional genealogist who works primarily with clients whose ancestors came from the former Russian Empire, providing research and translation of Russian documents. She has researched in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Washington DC, and Jerusalem. She is an alumna of ProGen Study Group 29, and a multi-time attendee of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the Forensic Genealogy Institute.

Jane has lectured at the annual conferences of the National Genealogical Society, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, the Southern California Genealogical Society, and virtually and in-person for societies throughout the United States.

Jane’s genealogy articles have appeared in NGS Magazine, FGS Forum (for which she won the 2020 Forum Writer’s Award), Crossroads, and Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy: “Researching Jewish Ancestors Who Served in the Civil War.” Other writing has appeared in Roots-Key, the LA Jewish Journal, and medical trade magazines.

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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