Our readers look back over the years
We asked our readers what the Chronicle has meant to them over the years. Here's what they said.
The Chronicle has held a special place in the hearts of its readers for six decades. Here are some of their fondest memories — and what keeps them reading.
I met my wife, Sophia, through a personal ad she placed in the Jewish Chronicle, and 30 years later we are still together.
We were married by Rabbi Gibson at Temple Sinai and lived in Squirrel Hill before moving to Southwest Ranches Florida last year.
Laurence Landis
Southwest Ranches, Florida
Keeping up with friends, past and present
I remember the Jewish Criterion and the beginning of the Jewish Chronicle. I would wait for delivery on Fridays to see all of the “gossip” in the city. When I was young, I would read to see who I knew that got engaged, married and had children. As I am a “senior,” I unfortunately read the obituaries of who I knew in my class or were friends who have passed on. I live in the northern suburbs and happily belong to Chabad, so my involvement in the city is not the same, but I still like knowing what is “happening” around town.
Rona Mustin
Wexford
Chronicle keeps us connected and motivates us to act
The Chronicle is more than just a way to know who in our community have been getting married, having children, becoming b’nei mitzvah, or passing away. It is more than reports on what Pittsburgh Jews and Jewish organizations are doing, and more than a reliable transmission of news from Israel and around the world.
The Chronicle incites us to do what we are supposed to do: to think, to contemplate, to deliberate. It grounds us as to where we factually are now, so that we may direct our actions where they are appropriate and needed. It is a medium — an impartial vehicle of the Fourth Estate — that keeps us connected with our global community as we interact with each other and with all of our other communities in daily life.
Happy 60th anniversary to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle!
Audrey N. Glickman
Squirrel Hill
A balanced, indispensable source of news
I am a voracious reader and “political junkie” who subscribes to three daily newspapers — The New York Times, the Washington Observer-Reporter and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — and two weekly publications: Time and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.
I rarely, if ever, miss reading the Chronicle in detail. It has been indispensable to me for decades. It offers news and information for everyone within the Jewish community and it has done an outstanding job of balancing the interests and concerns of the distinct branches of Judaism.
Under varying leadership teams over the years, I have been grateful to have been consistently afforded a generous number of appearances for my lay commentary. On countless occasions over the years, friends and acquaintances have told me that they saw a letter of mine in the Chronicle, which is something that serves to stimulate discussion.
I thank my former high school classmate, Chronicle Publisher and CEO Jim Busis, and all the members of the dedicated staff of Pittsburgh’s vital Jewish newspaper for all of its efforts to publish a quality Jewish newspaper, dedicated work which continued even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s to the next 60 years!
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township
Reading the Chronicle on radio
Time flies. Sixty years. Well, I am certainly old enough to remember when the Chronicle was first published.
I have enjoyed reading it in print and online from all parts of the world. I wrote letters which were used to let Pittsburghers know how things were with me when I was deployed to Iraq and Kosovo, and traveling around the globe on military missions.
I was the longest volunteer, 33 years, reading for the blind and print-handicapped on the Radio Information Station. I managed the show and read the Chronicle for an hour. All the news, grocery specials and obituaries — in fact the entire paper. One day I pronounced Benjamin Netanyahu’s name incorrectly and a listener called in immediately!
I enjoy reading the Chronicle and look forward to it arriving weekly.
Here is to at least another 60 years, and if I can read it for half of that time, I will be happy.
Mazel tov.
Elaine H. Berkowitz, DMD
Ross Township
As a transplant to Pittsburgh from Chicago via Los Angeles more than 50 years ago, I will always be thankful for the Chronicle, which has provided a much-valued connection to Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and to the Jewish world beyond. This paper has also provided a generous showcase for my work as an artist and illustrator in service to the Jewish community through the many special holiday covers I contributed over the years, going back to 1971 when I first arrived here. You may see some of them on the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project online.
Ilene Winn-Lederer
Greenfield
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