Children's Aid Society of Jewish Women members
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
The Children’s Aid Society of Jewish Women was a fundraising and advocacy organization supporting Jewish children in various settings. The organization was founded in 1917 as the Jewish Children’s Aid Society and obtained a charter in 1928. Charter members were Mary Chaban, Rebecca Drosnes, Anna Gordon, Anna Kartub, Leah Kreiger, Sara Goldstein, Ida Hansell, Katherine Pittler, Goldie Skirboll, and Ida Ruth Skolsky. These women came from across the region, including Squirrel Hill, the North Side, the East End, Oakland, the Hill District, the South Side, and McKeesport.[1]Jewish Children’s Aid Society charter [1928] (online).
In its early years, the Jewish Children’s Aid Society raised funds for existing Jewish and non-Jewish institutions throughout the city, including the Jewish Home for Babies and Children, the Gusky Orphanage, the League for the Hard of Hearing, the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, the Home for Crippled Children, and Montefiore Hospital, as well as national organizations such as the National Home for Jewish Children in Denver and the Youth Aliyah.
The Children’s Aid Society expanded and evolved its mission over time, in response to emerging needs. The organization supported dental care for immigrant families starting in the 1930s, the Cerebral Palsy Conference for Children at the Falk Clinic starting in the 1940s, and a pre-school training class in the 1950s for young children with intellectual disabilities.[2]Bernstein. “A History of the Children’s Aid Society of Jewish Women,” 1963 (online). The Children’s Aid Society chartered the Children’s Aid Home for Special People, Inc. in 1977 and opened its first group home at 6620 Dalzell Place in Squirrel Hill in 1978 after overcoming initial neighborhood opposition. By the 1980s, the Children’s Aid Society was sponsoring at least five group homes.
The Children’s Aid Society of Jewish Women continued to hold meetings into the early 21st century and still supports relevant causes through an endowment fund.
