Memories of Ahavath Achim remain strong but shul’s future is less certain
'We are at a point where we are realizing it’s not being used and starting to think about what might be next for it'
Reports of a synagogue’s imminent demolition are somewhat exaggerated. Congregation Ahavath Achim in Braddock, according to John Katz, is not slated for leveling.
Katz, whose family has maintained the building for decades, was reached after a top contributor to the Facebook group Jewish Pittsburgh posted that the building would be razed.
“The building is boarded up to protect the inside,” Katz told the Chronicle.
Windows are covered and painted blue. Entrances are sealed.
Those measures were taken because “chairs were stolen off the bimah, copper was stolen,” Katz said. “Every year we would go in before the High Holidays and we would notice that the ground floor window was open or things needed repair.”
Katz moved to Pittsburgh from California in 1998. For the next 20 years he attended High Holiday services at Ahavath Achim with members of his family.
“My great-grandfather is Harry Litman. It was his congregation. I never met him, but I got to daven in there with my grandfather and my mom and two of my four kids,” Katz said.
Each year, Katz and family members would join local residents and fellow reminiscers for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Abe Salem, a Holocaust survivor who studied to be a cantor in pre-war Warsaw, often led services.
Bernard Newman used to attend High Holiday services at Ahavath Achim.
Newman called it a “legacy shul.”
“We went there every year for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Eugene Litman (Katz’s grandfather) was the president and Abe Salem was the rabbi,” Newman said.
At one time, there were about 2,000 Jews living in Braddock, according to Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives.
Braddock was “unusual” in that it had two Orthodox shuls: Ahavath Achim and Agudath Achim.
“I’ve never gotten a breakdown of it, but maybe the Litvaks and Hungarians were going to Agudath Achim and the Russian Jews were going to Ahavath Achim,” Lidji said. “Definitely, the two Orthodox shuls had a breakdown along ethnic lines.” After World War II, many Jewish residents of Braddock, including the Litmans, moved to Pittsburgh’s East End. Families maintained businesses in Braddock, but the Jewish population “dropped off pretty quickly.”
Newman’s father was bar mitzvahed at Ahavath Achim in 1948.
“He was probably the end of the line,” Newman said.
As a child, Newman and his family attended weekly services at Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill. On High Holidays, however, Newman went back to Braddock with his father.
“I remember on Yom Kippur there were about 40 to 50 people, and only a few lived nearby,” he said. The mindset was always, “Let’s keep the Braddock shul going, so let’s go down there.”
Over the years, the commitment remained.
Katz remembers about 30 people attending High Holiday services in 2000. Decline continued, however, and by 2017 only about 12 to 20 people attended.
“Mr. Litman and Mr. Salem got old,” Newman said.
Litman died in 2003, Salem in 2017. Following the latter’s passing, services basically ceased.
Still, to Katz’s credit, “he continued with his grandfather’s tradition,” Newman said. “He had the building boarded up, but decoratively. He took good care of the building.”
Like Newman, Katz spoke fondly of Ahavath Achim, of transporting Salem and his wife from Squirrel Hill to Braddock before the High Holidays, and about holiday adventures in Braddock.
One year, there was difficulty making a minyan, Katz recalled: “We went to the bar — Three Ferns — and deputized someone. It wasn’t kosher, but we took them back to the shul and made a minyan.”
Newman said he’s OK with whatever happens to the building now.
What’s important, he continued, is that “whoever used Ahavath Achim needs to be grateful that the Litman family kept it going for so many years.”
Katz, who calls himself “president of the Brotherhood,” said the building is “not currently for sale, but we are at a point where we are realizing it’s not being used and starting to think about what might be next for it. We’re entertaining ideas. It would be a great thing to see people benefit and thrive in Braddock. I just don’t know the right use for the building.”
All congregations must eventually decide “what they are going to do,” Lidji said. “If you look across the region, it’s gone so many different ways.”
Beth Israel Congregation in Washington County sold its building to AMVETS in 2024. Tree of Life Synagogue in Oil City was sold to the Oil City YMCA in 2019.
“There are synagogues that languish for decades,” and some where it’s not “feasible or sustainable” to keep them going, Lidji said. “It’s always an interesting moment: A building can’t stand forever, but while it’s standing it fills a role in history-making that you can’t replicate on paper.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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