history
A certificate from Congregation Beth Shalom for the bat mitzvah of Ruth Lieberman in 1925 — part of the first group bat mitzvah ceremony held by the congregation. Without a “bat mitzvah” certificate, the congregation was forced to repurpose the standard “bar mitzvah” certificate. (Image courtesy Rauh Jewish Archives)
May 27, 2025, 8:40 am
Proto-Reconstructionism in Pittsburgh
In the rudimentary days of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s revolution in the early 1920s, Pittsburgh appears to have flirted with some of his ideas.
By Eric Lidji
Eli Cohen (in the middle) posing as Arab merchant Kamel Amin Thaabet, with his friends from the Syrian army on the Golan Heights overlooking Israel, mid-1960s. (Credit: Syrian military personnel photo via Wikimedia Commons)
May 19, 2025, 9:20 am
Mossad retrieves official Syrian Eli Cohen archive
The recovered archive includes approximately 2,500 documents, photographs and personal effects — most of which are being revealed to the public for the first time.
By JNS Staff
Leonard Bernstein conducting a rehearsal in one of the "barns" at Tanglewood Music Center in Western Massachusetts. (BSO Press Office)
May 11, 2025, 10:31 pm
The 20th century was very good for these Jewish icons. Is the Golden Age really over?
Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, Norman Mailer and Leonard Bernstein are the “unruly” subjects of David Denby’s 'Eminent Jews.'
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Rabbi Pinchas N. Gross (left) and Harry Katz (right) at a Dec. 25, 1954, meeting to select a new name for the former Eastmont Hebrew Congregation, now known as Parkway Jewish Center Shaar Ha-shamayim. (Image provided by Rauh Jewish Archives)
April 17, 2025, 12:05 pm
The name game
Western Pennsylvania has had a lot of synagogues over the years, and so many of the most popular names for synagogue have been reused here many times.
By Eric Lidji
The Exodus from Egypt, 1907 (Providence Lithograph Company, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
April 7, 2025, 3:28 pm
It would have been enough
Fireworks, Haggadot and charity
By Tim Miller
The Afghan Liturgical Quire, which the Museum of the Bible in Washington dates to the eighth century, on view at Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York, March 19, 2025. (Photo by Vita Fellig)
March 20, 2025, 8:00 am
Exhibit of oldest Hebrew book opens at JTS library
“There is something magical about being in the presence of a historically significant object, the oldest Hebrew book ever discovered." — David Kraemer, director of the JTS Library
By Vita Fellig
Barbara Trellis works on a piece to cover Congregation Poale Zedeck's ark. Photo courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives
March 19, 2025, 4:22 pm
Upcoming exhibit details life’s work and ‘golden hands’ of local needlepointer
'This is a figure who was part of our community, and her work enriched the lives of so many synagogues and so many people who went to synagogues'
By Adam Reinherz
Synagogue-goers enjoy services at Ahavath Achim. (Photo courtesy of John Katz)
March 17, 2025, 1:40 pm
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'
By Adam Reinherz
An old photograph and letter. (Photo by Pixabay via Pexels)
March 13, 2025, 4:08 pm
UCLA professor will discuss book about Sephardic family history at Pitt
'I really like writing books where historical human dramas are the center of attention, and that is something I continue to pursue'
By Adam Reinherz
A production still from the 2013 production of “The Dybbuk” by the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, showing Leah watching the burial of Channon. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish Archives)
March 9, 2025, 12:26 pm
‘The Dybbuk’ returns
In the last of a three-part series, “The Dybbuk” is revived locally on stage through three community theatre productions in 1984, 1993, and 2013.
By Eric Lidji
“Purim” by Arthur Szyk (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
March 7, 2025, 4:11 pm
A Purim primer
A barely-avoided genocide being celebrated with costumes and drunkenness and jokes is itself a kind of celebration of life
By Tim Miller
Photograph of century-old manuscript gives details on Jewish community. (Photo courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives)
March 6, 2025, 6:44 pm
Rare Gemilas Chesed manuscript listed for $9,500 on eBay sparks inquiry
Historic item appears online then disappears, leaving questions
By Adam Reinherz
Gabe Rubin’s Art Cinema downtown hosted the Pittsburgh premier of the film adaptation of “The Dybbuk” in September 1938. An advertisement in the local Y Weekly described the movie as “a picture that oversteps all boundaries of language.” (Image courtesy of the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project)
February 27, 2025, 9:49 am
‘The Dybbuk’ again and again
In the second of a three-part series, “The Dybbuk” returns to Pittsburgh again and again from the late 1920s to the early 1990s through theater and film.
By Eric Lidji
The original Habima Players production of “The Dybbuk” was everywhere regarded as a stunning theatrical experience where the acting, sets, lighting, perfectly harmonized with the text of the play to create a stunning theatrical experience. The Jewish Criterion printed this production still from the third act to encourage local audiences to attend an upcoming performance in Pittsburgh in June 1927.
February 23, 2025, 7:55 pm
A dybbuk comes to Pittsburgh
In the first of a three-part series, program from a 1927 production of “The Dybbuk” reveals a century-long tradition of Jewish theater in Pittsburgh
By Eric Lidji
Dr. Barbara K. Shore (at podium) with (seated, left to right) Dr. Leonard A. Cohen, Norman Krochmal, and Arthur Abelson, presenting the findings of the Stanton Heights Self-Study Committee at a community meeting at Sunnyside Elementary School on April 25, 1956. (American Jewish Outlook, Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project.)
January 16, 2025, 9:01 am
The shul that wasn’t there
Stanton Heights was one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in Pittsburgh after World War II but never built institutions of its own.
By Eric Lidji
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