Sidlow Family photograph
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Chaim and Chia Devorah Sidlowitz lived in Suwalk, in present-day Poland. They had seven children, Bessie, Bella, Abraham, Rose, Mollie, David, and Yechial. Abraham Sidlowitz (1880-1945) immigrated to Cleveland by way of England and Canada and later brought over other members of the family. Abraham Sidlowitz married Anna Perlman (1882-1968). They had five children, Tillie, Dorothy, Belle, Nathan, and Eileen. Some of the children later relocated to Pittsburgh.
Nathan Sidlow (1914-1967) was one of the children who came to Pittsburgh. He also shortened his surname. Sidlow ran the Model Box Company at 24th Street and Penn Avenue in the Strip District.[1]“Grandparents of Belle Sidlowitz Steinberg Roberts,” undated (online). In the late 1960s, as vice president of Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill, Sidlow oversaw a $1.5 million fundraising campaign to add an educational wing onto the synagogue. He died before the project was completed in 1970. Sidlow a member of Westmoreland Country Club and chaired its finance committee. He sat on the board of Riverview Apartments and was co-chair of the manufacturing and paper division of the United Jewish Fund.
Sidlow married Georgiana Ruth Smisek. They had three children, Judith (1935-1998), Joan (b. c1941), and Alan (c1946-2012). Judith Sidlow was confirmed by the Congregation Beth Shalom Religious School in 1951 and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1953. She married Allen Hoffman, a University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy graduate. Judith and Allen Hoffman had two daughters, Terri (b.1957) and Jill (b.1961).
The Hoffman family ran HALCO Inc., which produced toys and other Halloween and Christmas-themed supplies. HALCO was once the largest manufacturer of Santa Suits.[2]History and Evolution of HALCO, Sidlow and Hoffman Papers and Photograph [MSS 1247], Rauh Jewish Archives.
