The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
The Cremieux Society was the Pittsburgh branch of the Paris-based Alliance Israelite Universelle. Dr. Lippman Mayer of Rodef Shalom Congregation founded the local branch around 1875 to raise funds in support of Jewish refugees fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe.
With the increasing arrival of those refugees across the United States in the early 1880s, the Cremieux Society created the Emigrant Aid Society in November 1881 to oversee resettlement of Jewish refugees in the Pittsburgh area. The resettlement operation handled some 700 cases, finding housing, clothing, food and employment for approximately 300 people who remained in the region. The resettlement operation was dissolved in October 1882, although the Cremieux Society appears to have remained an active fundraising agency into the early 1900s.[1]“The Emigrant Aid Society, a Branch of the Cremieux Alliance Israelite,” American Israelite, Nov. 17, 1882 (online—Newspapers.com). [2]American Jewish Yearbook, Vol. 1 (1899-1900) (online—ajcarchives.org).