Eric Lidji
March 8, 2024, 5:33 pm
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By Eric Lidji, Toby Tabachnick and Brandt Gelman
Although its entire run consists of only two issues, the Zionist Bulletin provides many insights into the dynamics of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh in 1915. (Image courtesy Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
May 15, 2019, 4:02 pm
The age-old voice of youth
You can feel the tangle of people, clubs and initiatives, but you cannot always understand how it all intertwines.
By Eric Lidji
A portion of the cornerstone of the former Labor Lyceum on Miller Street. (Photo courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center)
April 19, 2019, 11:16 am
The optimistic afterlife of the old Labor Lyceum
The Labor Lyceum opened in February 1917 and became a meeting place for at least 15 Jewish labor, fraternal, political, cultural and philanthropic organizations.
By Eric Lidji
A woman named “Eve” wrote to her friend “Dorothy” in March 1936, describing the destruction caused by recent flooding. (Image courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
March 8, 2019, 1:32 pm
Tragedy that reverberates for decades
“Provenance” is the story of an object.
By Eric Lidji
Louis Brandeis had to be nudged to answer the Pittsburgh Conference of Jewish Women’s Organizations’ questionnaire. (Image courtesy Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
February 8, 2019, 3:53 pm
Pittsburgh to world: Does pluralism matter?
The original plan for the Nationality Rooms snubbed the Jews.
By Eric Lidji
Community Day School created and held a Remembrance Vigil on the morning of Monday, Oct. 30 at the site of the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt Keeping Tabs: A Holocaust Sculpture. (Photo courtesy of Community Day School)
November 14, 2018, 2:57 pm
Help Rauh Jewish Archives document the aftermath of tragedy
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives is actively collecting original documentation of the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building.
By Eric Lidji
A photograph of the first artifact donated to what is now the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives, taken at the time of donation in 1988. (Photograph courtesy Rauh Jewish History Program & Archive)
November 14, 2018, 1:52 pm
Jewish Archives celebrates its first 30 years
Its task has remained the same: to care for objects that tell the story of the Jewish people in this one corner of the world.
By Eric Lidji
Ansel Arnold spent the final years of his life in Carlisle, Pa. and was buried in Chambersburg, Pa., while his younger brother Marx Arnold ventured further west. (Photo courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
September 13, 2018, 4:37 pm
A family standing astride the boundary of Western Pennsylvania
The Arnold family brothers mark a moment just before the story of Western Pennsylvania Jewry really gets going.
By Eric Lidji
Members of the Woodbine Boys Club pose on the steps of Colfax Elementary School in March 1948, where they met for swimming, horseplay and other good times. (Photo by Mervin S. Stewart, courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Sen. John Heinz History Center)
August 9, 2018, 6:03 pm
A summer camp that was Jewish by nature, not by design
Camp Machigon was not a Pittsburgh camp, nor really a Jewish camp, and yet it plays a part in local Jewish history.
By Eric Lidji
Through much of the 20th century, many large Eastern European Jewish families in America organized “kinship clubs” to preserve family ties. Although the clubs had a formal appearance, their activities often resembled simple family gatherings. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
July 12, 2018, 3:10 pm
Kinship clubs preserved family ties for many Jewish families
The clubs, which were filled with related family members, operated somewhat like a nonprofit corporation, with elected officers, meetings, dues and newsletters.
By Eric Lidji
Marjorie Spector documented Pittsburgh events large and small, including this ceremony to dedicate “Gene Kelly Square” in East Liberty. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center)
June 7, 2018, 3:11 pm
Recalling two encounters with Gene Kelly, 50 years apart
The Jewish community of Pittsburgh, particularly its Squirrel Hill contingent, was the most loyal patron Gene Kelly had during his apprenticeship in the 1930s.
By Eric Lidji
Rabbi Solomon Michael Neches hired local printer Joseph Selig Glick to publish his first book, a collection of sermons titled Shemen Turak. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
May 10, 2018, 2:22 pm
A meeting of Jewish minds in WWI-era Pittsburgh
A collection of sermons published by the first rabbi of B'nai Israel in East Liberty and a local printer offers a peak into local Jewish history.
By Eric Lidji
Jacob A. Cohen was a marketing whiz and used advertisements such as this one to promote his business and tell his life story. (Image courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
April 11, 2018, 6:11 pm
The story of Jacob A. Cohen, a gigantic life in a tiny place
Cohen, originally from Poland, opened a modest store on the outskirts of Pittsburgh in 1896. To him, Pittsburgh offered a market just as large as any in New York City.
By Eric Lidji
Supporters of the Hebrew Religious Academy used this doctored photograph as a promotional image for fundraising efforts. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
March 8, 2018, 2:48 pm
White-out and hand lettering reveal a 1920s crisis in Jewish education
A doctored photograph of a former Jewish academy shows what Jewish education in Pittsburgh was like in the 1920s.
By Eric Lidji
Bank runs became an iconic feature of their time, a symbol of the economic uncertainty that spread all over the world. (Photo from public domain)
February 1, 2018, 10:28 am
From the archives: A bank closing — in bronze and on paper
The closing of Merchants Savings & Trust Company was part of a regional "banking panic," an iconic feature of the 1930s that symbolized the economic uncertainty of the time.
By Eric Lidji
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