History of the Jews in Pittsburgh

Former synagogue on Miller Street near downtown Pittsburgh, August 2007.

There are no reliable records of the beginnings of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, but it has been ascertained that between 1838 and 1844 a small number of Jews, mostly from Baden, Bavaria, and Württemberg, settled in and around Pittsburgh. These communities continued to expand from 1847 until 1852. Though the first official Jewish service was held in the autumn of 1844, Jews in Pittsburgh did not officially organize until 1847, when several men worshiped in a room on Penn street and Walnut (now 13th) street, having engaged the Rev. Mannheimer as cantor. After this meeting, the men also formed a Bes Almon Society and purchased a cemetery at Troy Hill. This newly formed organization lacked homogeneity due to the varying religious views of its members, and divisions and reunions took place from time to time until about 1853, when a united congregation was formed under the name Rodef Shalom. In 1864 a small group of congregants dissatisfied with the movement toward Reform practices at Rodef Shalom formed a breakaway Orthodox congregation, Etz Chayyim (Tree of Life), and purchased a cemetery at Sharpsburg. By 1886, Etz Chayyim, now called Tree of Life Congregation, had affiliated itself with the Conservative movement.

In the broader American Jewish community, Pittsburgh is also famous for the 1885 "Pittsburgh Platform" which articulated bold and radical new ideas from the Reform movement on approaching theology and the modern world.[3]

At the turn of the century, two or three synagogues were established in or on the fringe of the area which is now called the Lower Hill District. One old building near Elm Street (called "The Old Jewish Church" by some people) was demolished and replaced. A group called Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation meets in the new synagogue. At least one old building has survived on nearby Miller Street in the area once known colloquially as "Jews Hill", although it has since been converted into a church.

Pittsburgh is notable in American Jewish history on account of the conference (see Jew. Encyc. iv. 215, s.v. Conferences, Rabbinical) held there in 1885, and is also well known as a generous supporter of all national Jewish movements, notably the Hebrew Union College and the Denver Hospital. Among the more prominent local philanthropic and charitable institutions may be mentioned the following:

• J. M. Gusky Orphanage and Home, with the Bertha Rauh Cohen Annex. The Home was founded in 1890 by Esther Gusky, in memory of her husband, Jacob Mark Gusky. The Annex was the gift in 1889 of Aaron Cohen in memory of his wife, Bertha Rauh Cohen, the only daughter of Rosalia Rauh and the late Solomon Rauh. The Home has 62 inmates, an annual income of about $10,000, and an endowment fund of $67,000.
• The United Hebrew Relief Association, a union of the Hebrew Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Ladies' Aid Society. It dispenses $10,000 yearly, and has a sinking-fund of $29,000.
• The Columbian Council School, a social settlement. It conducts a large number of classes, public lectures, a library, public baths, a gymnasium, etc. The bath-house was the gift of Alexander Peacock. The disbursements are about $6,000 annually.
• The Ladies' Hospital Aid secures and pays for hospital attention for the sick poor. It has an annual income of about $8,000, and is at present endeavoring to erect a Jewish hospital.
• The Young Ladies' Sewing Society, which dispenses clothing to the poor; income about $2,000 annually.

The Concordia Club fosters Jewish social life in Pittsburgh. The Council of Jewish Women is represented by the Columbian Council. The Y.M.H.A. has been reorganized, and gives promise of great activity. The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith has five lodges; and the Independent Order of the Free Sons of Israel, the Sons of Benjamin, Sons of Israel, and Sons of Abraham have two each. There were two weekly papers, one in English. "The Jewish Criterion" published from 1895-1962, of which Rabbi Levy and Charles H. Joseph were the editors, and one in Yiddish, the "Volksfreund" published from 1922-1924.

Some Jewish people of Pittsburgh are prominent in the professions and in commerce. Donors to non-sectarian charities include J. D. Bernd and Isaac Kaufmann, the latter of whom in 1895 gave the Emma Kaufmann Free Clinic to the medical department of the University of Pittsburgh. Among those who have held positions in public life are Emanuel Wertheimer, select councilman and member of the state house of representatives; Morris Einstein, select councilman (15 years); Josiah Cohen, judge of the Orphans' Court; E. E. Mayer, city physician; L. S. Levin, assistant city attorney. Isaac W. Frank is president of the National Founders' Association, and A. Leo Weil is a member of the executive committee of the Voters' Civic League.

Since 1882 there has been a steady increase in the number of Jewish people in Pittsburgh, the new settlers coming mostly from eastern Europe. Russian, Romanian, and Hungarian Jewish people came in large numbers, and began to display an appreciable interest in public affairs. They had six synagogues in 1906 (whose rabbis include Aaron M. Ashinsky and M. S. Sivitz), many ḥebras, and a number of small religious societies. The Pittsburgh Jewry strongly sympathized with the Zionistic movement, having a large number of Zionistic societies. The number of Jewish inhabitants in 1906 is estimated at between 15,000 and 25,000, in a total population of about 322,000.

Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood is considered to be the city's primary Jewish hub. Nearly half of the population of Squirrel Hill is Jewish.[4] Squirrel Hill has had a large Jewish population since the 1920s, when Jewish people began to move to the neighborhood in large numbers from Oakland and Hill District neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. According to a 2002 study by the United Jewish Federation, 33% of the Pittsburgh Jewish population lived in Squirrel Hill and another 14% in the surrounding area.[5] Squirrel Hill currently contains three Jewish day schools, catering to the Lubavich, Orthodox, and Conservative movements. There are over twenty synagogues. This Jewish community also offers four restaurants, a Jewish community center, and an annual festival.

On October 27, 2018, an anti-Semitic gunman attacked Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha Congregation in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, killing 11 and wounding 6.

• Media related to Judaism in Pittsburgh at Wikimedia Commons
• Jewish history in the United States (pre-20th century)
• Jewish history in Pennsylvania
• Jewish history in Colonial America
• List of Jewish Americans

• History of Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 1899
• articles in the Jewish Criterion, 1901
• American Israelite, 1893

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Pittsburg". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.