Beth Jacob Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Beth Jacob Congregation was an Orthodox congregation in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. It was created in 1879, when a group of people originally from the Litvishe (Lithuanian) towns of Kalverie and Mariampol in Suwalk province in present-day Poland broke away from B’nai Israel Congregation (later known as Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Congregation).^[1]Pittsburgh Tri-State Pinkas, p. 172 (online). Beth Jacob was incorporated in 1883 with charter members P. Cohen (president), Lazarus Levy (vice president) R. B. Visansky (secretary), D. H. Bloom (treasurer), D. Goldman (trustee), Moses Lasdusky (trustee), J. Martin (trustee) and S. Martin (trustee).^[2]Beth Jacob Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) charter (online).

Beth Jacob rented meeting spaces for its first decade. It was briefly forced to meet in the home of a member when it was locked out of its synagogue for failure to pay rent. The congregation purchased a building on Logan Street after 1890 and remained there for a decade. As membership grew, the congregation purchased the former Sixth Presbyterian Church at Townsend and Epiphany streets in 1901 and converted it into a synagogue. The social hall of the Townsend Street synagogue became a meeting place for Jewish communal organizations, most notably the Lechem Aniyum Society.

By the late 1950s or early 1960s, Beth Jacob Congregation was no longer located in the Hill District. It used 1512 Murray Avenue as a mailing address and held board meetings at Chofetz Chaim Congregation in Squirrel Hill. The congregation merged with Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Congregation in 1964 to create Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation. The two congregations also merged their neighboring cemeteries.

Spiritual leaders of Beth Jacob include Rabbi B. Meyerovitz (before 1895), Rabbi Jacob Hirsch (before 1895), Rabbi Baruch Rambach (before 1895), Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz (c1895), Cantor Julius Bloom (after 1900) and Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky (1901-1954). Presidents include P. Cohen, Gutman Caplan, M. Moskowitz, Elchanan Stein, Max Goldberg, J. F. Fisher, D.S. Osgood, Joseph Schwartz, and Louis Mervis. Gabbaim (sextons), secretaries and other lay leaders include Reuben Davidson, Z. Barach, D. Openheim, L. Zabludonsky, E. Stein, Nathan Lieber, S. D. Levitsky, Joseph Yorkansky, A. L. Abramowitz, A. Moskowitz, A. D. Rappaport, M. A. Alter, H. L. Frank, Max Enelow, Jacob Friedman, J. L. Steinsapir, Israel Parker, Joseph Katz, Lazarus Edelstein, Jacob Malachovsky, M. G. Bernstein, Abraham Goldman, L. Pincus, and Louis Whitman.

Beth Jacob Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) locations

Bibliography

Rauh Jewish Archives

• Annie Jacob Davis papers [MSS 269] (catalog record).
• Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation oversized records [MSO 438] (catalog record).
• Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation photographs [MSQ 438] (catalog record).
• Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation records [MSS 438] (catalog record).
• Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Congregation vertical file (catalog record).
• Goldstein, Samuel J. obituary file (catalog record).
• Rubb, David, Rev. obituary file (catalog record).
  Harry Levine Papers and Photographs on Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Synagogue [2019.0121] (catalog record).
• Beth Jacob Congregation Golden Anniversary program, 1929 [BM225 .P692 B562] (catalog record).
• Pittsburgh Jewish Community Book (1921) (online-Historic Pittsburgh).
• Pittsburgh Jewish Community Book (1924) (catalog record).
• Feldman, Jacob. “The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania,” Pittsburgh: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1986 (catalog record).
• Savage, Nathan, ed. Pittsburgh Tri-State Pinkas. Pittsburgh: Jewish National Fund, 1949 (online—Historic Pittsburgh).

University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections

• “Cemetery Gravestones,” Joel B. Levinson Photographs [201501.05.015.17] (online-Historic Pittsburgh).
• “Woman at Cemetery,” Joel B. Levinson Photographs [201501.05.015.7] (online-Historic Pittsburgh).

Exhibit history

• Author: Eric Lidji
• Original: March 29, 2022
• Current: March 29, 2022