North Side Jewish Community (1920s)
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Congregation Beth Israel of Allegheny Pa. was located in the Deutschtown neighborhood of the current North Side. Jewish immigrants began settling in the area in the late 1880s, when the area was an independent municipality called Allegheny City. A group began meeting for regular prayer services in 1890. Early members included B. Patz, M. Odel, Mr. Keptner, S. Horn, J. Bennett, H. Jacob, H. Hartman, L. Chaitkin, S. Chaitkin, M. Wolfe, and M. Marks as members. The group initially met at an unidentified hall on Third Street (now Tripoli Street) and later at Mendel’s Hall on East Ohio Street.
Through a series of meetings in early 1907, the group adopted the named Beth Israel, obtained a charter, and acquired the former First German Regular Baptist Church at 801 East Street. The newly formed Beth Israel Ladies Auxiliary acquired a Torah scroll and also oversaw the creation and maintenance of a congregational religious school.
Congregation Beth Israel hired Rabbi Henry Tolochko as its first spiritual leader soon after its incorporation. He remained with the congregation until the early 1920s, when he became the cantor of Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill. Rev. Adolph Levin was hired in 1932 and remained with the congregation until his retirement in the 1940s.
With the growth of Jewish communal infrastructure in Squirrel Hill in the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish population of the entire North Side declined, as did membership at Beth Israel. By the mid-1960s, Beth Israel had 15 families and was only opened for Jewish holidays. Beth Israel dissolved in 1969 and sold its synagogue, donating the proceeds to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. It sent two Torah scrolls to the North Hills Jewish Community Center, two scrolls to Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., and one scroll to an unidentified group in Israel. Some dedicatory plaques from the Beth Israel synagogue went to Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pa.
