Jewish Pittsburgh

by Barbara Burstin PhD

Overview

By the mid-19th century, Jews from German lands began settling in Pittsburgh, later to be followed by Jews from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires and Romania. They founded businesses and organizations such as Giant Eagle, Kaufmann's Department Store, Montefiore Hospital, the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the Civic Light Opera, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sophie Masloff became the first woman and the first Jew to serve as mayor, and civic reformer and lawyer A. Leo Weil, philanthropist Leon Falk Jr., and social justice crusader Florence Reizenstein all had schools named after them. From Allegheny City and "the Hill" to Squirrel Hill and the East End, the Jewish population preserved its distinct core community and contributed to its adopted city in multiple ways. Today, it numbers more than 40,000, and their story is one of grit, determination, risk taking, hard knocks, and no small measure of success.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439651377
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/18/2015
Series:	Images of America Series
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Barbara Burstin, PhD, is an author, teacher, and community leader. She has written several books, including Steel City Jews and the soon-to-be-published Steel City Jews in Prosperity, Depression and War. She produced A Jewish Legacy: Pittsburgh and has taught courses on the Pittsburgh Jewish experience and the Holocaust for many years at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. A longtime student of Pittsburgh Jewish history, she has also served on the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission and chaired several organizations, including the Holocaust Commission, the Hillel-Jewish University Center, and the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The images for this book are primarily from the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Heinz History Center and the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center.