The Goodman Family
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
The Jewish community of Butler, Pa., founded Congregation B’nai Abraham in 1903 then hired Rabbi Abraham Goodman to be its first rabbi and shochet. They paid him $45 per month. He oversaw the construction of a synagogue on Fifth Avenue in 1911.
Rabbi Abraham and his wife Ida Goodman had six children, Nathan, Harry, Philip, Samuel, Evelyn and Bella. Bella Goodman’s son Dr. Jack Paradise became a prominent pediatrician. He was the director of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s General Academic Pediatrics from 1970 to 1991 and helped found the hospital’s clinical research program. Paradise was a leading expert in middle ear infections in children. His research into tonsillectomies is credited with greatly reducing the need for the procedure.
