Dr. Macy Levine
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Dr. Macy Levine (b.1920) was born in Johnstown, Pa. His father, Elliot B. Levine, was a Russian immigrant, and his mother, Ida Levine, was the daughter of Russian immigrants.
In 1945, after earning his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, Levine joined the U.S. Army. He spent the final months of the war in Texas, California and Hawaii and served as a medical officer in Japan during the occupation following the war.
“It was 4 a.m., 10th Aug. ’45, and someone ran through the house hollering ‘The War is Over,’” Levine wrote to his family in a letter from Oahu on August 11, 1945. “I rolled over and thought ‘Some drunken fool yelping again.’ However, this fool was rather persistent and before long noises could be heard in the nearby houses. The radio blasted with gay music, with occasionally news flashes. Then I knew something was in the air…”
Dr. Macy Levine spent most of his career as an allergist in Pittsburgh. He edited the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin and helped create a lecture series named for his colleague Dr. Leo Criep, who was a pioneer in the field of clinical immunology.
Dr. Macy Levine married Evelyn Finesman, the daughter of Charles and Ethel Shussett Finesman. The Finesmans had immigrated to Pittsburgh from Podolier, Russia, and founded the Podolier Society, a beneficial and burial organization. After the Finesmans died, Dr. Macy and Evelyn Levine assumed responsibility for the Podolier Cemetery.
