Parkway Jewish Center

Parkway Jewish Center-Shaar Ha-Shamayim is a Conservative Jewish congregation founded in 1954 in the Eastmont section of the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.

The opening of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and the Parkway East in 1953 spurred population growth in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A group of Jewish families in the Eastmont section of Wilkins Township founded the Eastmont Hebrew Congregation in 1954. The congregation became Parkway Jewish Center-Shaar Ha-Shamayim as the congregation increasingly served families in neighboring Churchill Manor, Churchill Valley, Blackridge, Monroeville, Forest Hills, Crescent Hills, and Penn Township.

Parkway Jewish Center held its first services in the home of Harry Katz and subsequent services in other private homes until breaking ground for a synagogue at 300 Princeton Drive in the Penn Hills neighborhood in 1955. The congregation added a second wing in 1959 and a third wing in 1965.^[1]Parkway Jewish Center Records, 1948-2019, MSS 1391, Rauh Jewish Archives, Detre Library and Archives, Heinz History Center It sold the building in 2022 and relocated to Penn Center in Wilkins Township. ^[2]Rullo, David, “Parkway Jewish Center sells its building, but congregation remains united,”  Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Dec. 19, 2022 (online—jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com In early 1970, Parkway Jewish Center secured a section of unused burial plots at the Betty Rosenberg Cemetery in Wilkins Township.

Spiritual leaders of Parkway Jewish Center include Rabbi Pinchas Gross, Rabbi Bernard Gold, Rabbi Moshe Weingarten, Rabbi Joshua Maranof, Rabbi Dov Rubin, Rabbi Sanford Davis, Rabbi Jacob Benzaquan, Cantor Rick Berlin, Cantor Henry Shapiro, and Cantor Laura Berman.

Bibliography

Rauh Jewish Archives

• Parkway Jewish Center Records [MSS 1391].
• Harry Katz Collection [1995.0221] (catalog record)
• Parkway Jewish Center materials, from Corinne Azen Krause papers [MSS 113] (catalog record).
• Parkway Jewish Center materials, from Jewish Archival Survey [MSS 196] (catalog record).
• Parkway Jewish Center materials, from Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Records [MSS 287] (catalog record).
• Parkway Jewish Center materials, from Gerlad Sapir Papers and Photographs [MSS 775] (catalog record).
• Parkway Jewish Center materials, from Jewish Chronicle Records [MSS 906] (catalog record).
• “Dedication souvenir book / Parkway Jewish Center” (1956) [BM225 .E37 P3 1956 q] (catalog record)
• “Dedication of the educational wing / Parkway Jewish Center” (1965) [BM225 .E37 P3 1965 q] (catalog record)
• “Double chai 36th anniversary / Parkway Jewish Center” (1990) [BM225 .E37 P3 1990] (catalog record)
• Centerama [SERIAL] (catalog record)
• Lidji, Eric. “One Acre,” Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, July 21, 2025 (online).

Exhibit History

• Author: Catelyn Cocuzzi
• Created: February 4, 2026
• Current: February 4, 2026