history
The home plate from Forbes Field in the floor of Posvar Hall (Photo courtesy of Eric Lidji)
May 18, 2026, 9:20 am
My own memory lane
Revisiting a core memory with help from the historic record
By Eric Lidji
Daniela Gerson is the author of "The Wanderers." Photo by Kait Lavo
May 15, 2026, 11:47 am
‘The Wanderers’ tells the story of Poland’s Holocaust survivors who fled to the Soviet Union
Daniela Gerson was surprised to learn that most survivors, like her grandparents, survived not in concentration camps, ghettos or forests, but in the mountains of Sibera.
By Shira Li Bartov
In its heyday in the 1930s, the Lechem Aniyum Society gathered weekly in the old Beth Jacob synagogue to prepare some 200 boxes of food for local delivery. (Image courtesy Rauh Jewish Archives)
April 20, 2026, 9:18 am
Meat out of the pot
Before the New Deal and the Great Society, the Lechem Aniyum Society met a simple need: delivering kosher food to those who could not afford it.
By Eric Lidji
Of the 58 volumes from the Goodwill Collection placed at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, only three are easily discoverable today. (Photo courtesy of Eric Lidji)
March 18, 2026, 9:22 am
The Goodwill Collection
In the last era of turmoil overseas and rising threats at home, one Jewish communal leader sent Jewish books to libraries across the region.
By Eric Lidji
HFLA's board of directors gather at Rodef Shalom Congregation in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Hirsh)
March 11, 2026, 8:52 pm
Anniversary brings rebrand and recommitment to Hebrew Free Loan Association
More than century after organization's start, HFLA remains 'focused on finding all the ways that we can be a valuable resource to help people in our community'
By Adam Reinherz
A view of the Great Isaiah Scroll on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Feb. 26, 2026 (Photo by Sharon Altshul)
February 27, 2026, 9:56 am
Israel Museum displays Great Isaiah Scroll
Rare four-month exhibition offers the first full public viewing since 1968.
By Sharon Altshul
The annual “Traffic Essay Contest” invited students throughout the Pittsburgh area to write about the importance of road safety. This Certificate of Merit was issued to David P. Rosenfield, who became a noted pharmacist in Pittsburgh. It was signed by committee Chairman Dr. A. L. Lewin. (Image courtesy Rauh Jewish Archives)
February 16, 2026, 1:19 pm
When cars brought chaos, chaos brought ideas
Under several Jewish leaders, the Better Traffic Committee spent the late 1920s and 1930s advancing novel ideas to educate the public about the dangers of the car.
By Eric Lidji
A ship docks in Tangier, Morocco. (Photo by Photo by Sasha P via Pexels)
February 15, 2026, 12:08 pm
From Dresden to Tangier to Pittsburgh: Survivor Jerry Guttman tells a story of escape and resilience
'You don't have to necessarily stay where you are just because you're there. There are opportunities'
By Adam Reinherz
Ohave Zedeck was the main shul in Oakcliffe. It bought a house at Craft and Niagara in 1921 and expanded into the front yard in 1936. The building is gone today. (Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish Archives)
January 22, 2026, 1:35 pm
Shai Miller’s Old Country
Dispatches from a 20-minute drive through Oakcliffe with its historian emeritus.
By Eric Lidji
At the archives of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum, the front page of the original issue of the Nazi family magazine "Sonnie ins Hous" (Sunshine in the House) shows baby Hessy Taft as the ideal German Aryan baby. (GALI TIBBON/AFP via Getty Images)
January 13, 2026, 10:05 am
A Jewish baby became the face of Nazi Aryan propaganda. Her life story outlasted the lie.
“I feel a sense of revenge,” said Hessy Levinsons Taft, who died Jan. 1 at 91.
By Grace Gilson
In its heyday in the mid-1960s, Papercraft built a massive factory at the new RIDC Park in O’Hara Township filled with specialized equipment for managing the entire production of wrapping paper. (Image courtesy of Rauh Jewish Archives)
December 21, 2025, 12:16 pm
Christmas, made possible by Jewish Pittsburgh
In the days of Jewish manufacturing, Santa always stopped in Pittsburgh.
By Eric Lidji
(Photo by YB13D via Wikimedia Commons)
December 10, 2025, 1:47 pm
The origins of Chanukah
A history of the Festival of Lights
By Tim Miller
A Yom Kippur prayer book fragment from the Cairo Genizah, circa 11th/ 12th century, National Library of Israel Collection. (Credit: National Library of Israel)
November 24, 2025, 12:08 pm
AI unlocks Cairo Genizah’s hidden world
A new automatic transcription project makes 400,000 medieval fragments fully searchable for the first time.
By Sharon Altshul
Before the property was sold to Pine Township, Shalom Farms had a lakeside “manor” and barn. (Image courtesy Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project)
November 23, 2025, 6:09 pm
Shalom Farms, almost a Jewish paradise
Ben Paul Brasley established the farm for the Salk brothers in the 1940s and later challenged the local Jewish community to develop its full potential.
By Eric Lidji
Restored synagogue interior, Lancut, Poland, 2012. (Credit: Courtesy of David Kaufman, via JNS)
November 6, 2025, 8:22 am
‘Jewish life more fragile than ever,’ says photographer of Jewish cemeteries
“Every place we went, there was someone who knew where the former cemetery or synagogue was,” David Kaufman told JNS.
By Dave Gordon
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