Rauh Jewish Archives

Genealogy Resources: A Partial Listing

The mission of the Rauh Jewish Archives (RJA) of the Heinz History Center is to collect, preserve, and make accessible the documentary history of the Jews of western Pennsylvania.

Online Resources

•Historic Pittsburgh for photographs, searchable full text books and finding aids http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/

•Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project for digitized Jewish Criterions, Jewish Chronicles http://pjn.library.cmu.edu

•Rauh Jewish Archives http://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/secondary.aspx?id=82

Archivist: Susan Melnick smmelnick@hswp.org

Burial Information

•Jewishgen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) for the records of over 60 Jewish regional cemeteries submitted by the Rauh Jewish Archives

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/

•Western Pennsylvania Jewish Cemetery Project of the RJA database of approximately

40,000 burial records from 80 regional cemeteries; records of over 60 of those cemeteries have been sent to JOWBR (see above). For information email smmelnick@hswp.org.

Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania Resource Material

All materials are available in the library and archives reading room of the Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. The library is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The collection is non-circulating.

•Archival collections include the records and photographs of synagogues, families, businesses, and organizations. RJA finding aids on Historic Pittsburgh can be linked through the RJA website (see above).

•Death notices from Pittsburgh newspapers are indexed from 1790-1910 on microfilm.

•Maps and atlases of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas include detailed maps of the Hill District wards.

•Pittsburgh city directories, 1815-1974, are in hard-copy.

•Serials:

•American Jewish Outlook, 1936-1961

•Y Weekly/Weekly/Y-IKC News, 1926-1975

•Z’Chor. V1-V5, Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh, 1983-2001

•Congregational newsletters from regional synagogues

•Books

•From Shetl to Milltown: Litvaks, Hungarians, and Galitzianers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1925. By Robert Perlman, 2002.

•Jewish Cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania. Compiled by Amy Lowenstein.

•The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania: a History, 1755-1945. By Jacob S. Feldman.

•A List of Immigrants Who Applied for Naturalization Papers in the District

Courts of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Compiled by the W. Pa. Genealogical Society.

•The Pittsburgh Tri-State Pinkas. 1949. Nathan Savage, ed.

•The Pittsburgh Jewish Society Book: Comprising the Names and Addresses of Members and the History of Jewish Organizations, also a History of the Jewish Community of Pittsburgh. 1917, 1927.

•Synagogue anniversary books including

• 75th Diamond Jubilee: Congregation Poale Zedeck, 1955.

• B'nai Israel Congregation, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Silver Anniversary, 1904-1929, 5664-5689.

•B’nai Israel Congregation, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Book, 1979.

• Banquet in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Tiphereth Israel Congregation, 1940.

• Congregation Keser Torah, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Silver Anniversary, 1910-1935.

• Golden Anniversary : 1879-1929, Celebrated August 17, 18, 19, 20., Beth Jacob Congregation, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1929.

• One Hundred Twenty Years / Rodef Shalom Congregation, 1976.

• Poale Zedeck Congregation Inaugural Banquet of the Centennial Year Celebration, 1980.

• Silver Anniversary: Congregation Keser Torah, 1910-1935.

• Silver Anniversary Rabbi Benjamin a. Lichter, 1910-1935.

• Temple Sinai / Temple Sinai. - Temple Sinai, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1969.

March 2009