Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is a central communal agency in the Jewish community of Western Pennsylvania, providing grants, programming, education, social services, and philanthropic management. It supports agencies throughout the local Jewish community, as well as local non-Jewish partners, and Jewish partners overseas and in the State of Israel.

The Federation of the Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh was established in 1912 as a central fundraising entity within the local Jewish community. It was founded to relieve member agencies of the necessity for raising funds, to collect money to support Jewish causes, to assure fair and equitable distribution of funds, to require agencies to give full and detailed accounts of funds received, and to create one organization that could represent the various aspects of Jewish philanthropic endeavors. With the Federation functioning as the central fundraising organization of the Jewish community, member agencies could focus on their mission, to “help the poor, relieve the sick, shelter the orphan, aid the widow, feed the hungry, encourage the downcast, care for the aged, [and] bury the dead,” as stated in a 1916 annual yearbook for the organization.

The National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section had advocated for the creation of a local Federation as early as 1908 but failed to get consensus for the idea. The chief opponent of the Federation model locally was United Hebrew Relief Association President Abraham Lippman. Lippman described efforts to professionalize philanthropy as “scientific business charity” with “too much head and not enough heart.” The local Federation movement gained momentum following Lippman’s death in 1910. On November 6, 1911, the “Committee of Fifty” met at Rodef Shalom Congregation for a planning meeting to organize an umbrella agency that would coordinate and facilitate the work of these organizations. The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies was formally established in 1912 with Aaron Cohen as president. The initial beneficiaries were the Montefiore Hospital Association, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, the J. M. Gusky Hebrew Orphanage, the United Hebrew Relief Association, the House of Shelter, the Emma Farm Association, the Jewish Home for the Aged, the National Council of Jewish Women-Pittsburgh Section, the Hebrew Free Loan Association, the Hebrew Ladies Hospital Aid Society, the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives, and the National Farm School.

During the 1920s the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies oversaw work across multiple neighborhoods, as the Jewish population expanded across the region and migrated to inner-ring suburbs. The organization also worked to professionalize its operations and those of its member organizations, especially in the field of social work.

With the arrival of the Great Depression in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1930s, ever greater demands were made on the Federation to fund needed social services. The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies joined the Community Chest of Allegheny County in 1932. While the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies concentrated its efforts on local needs, the United Jewish Fund of Pittsburgh was created in 1936 to raise funds for overseas beneficiaries. This overseas need increased dramatically the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. The need for international refugee aid rose dramatically again with the creation of displaced persons camps after World War II and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The United Jewish Fund also assisted local educational and cultural organizations, while the Federation focused on social services.

Between 1951 and 1955, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies negotiated with the Community Chest to change the terms of their joint agreement. The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Fund began negotiations in 1954 leading to a merger of the two organizations the following year, under the name United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. As these changes were underway, the United Jewish Federation left its longtime home downtown and relocated to a new building at 234 McKee Pl. in Oakland.

Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s the United Jewish Federation dealt with common needs for expansion, relocation, and changing services among its large, affiliated agencies. Eager to improve communication within the local Jewish community, the United Jewish Federation purchased two existing newspapers, the Jewish Criterion and the American Jewish Outlook, and created the new Jewish Chronicle in 1962. The United Jewish Federation also became a leading local agency for raising funds for Israel, especially following the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, including the creation of the Israel Emergency Fund. In the aftermath of unrest in the Hill District in 1968, the United Jewish Federation created the Urban Affairs Foundation. Around this time, the United Jewish Federation coordinated local efforts to assist Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union, eventually leading to hundreds of Soviet Jewish immigrants resettling in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.

Aware of aging communal infrastructure, the United Jewish Federation launched the Renaissance campaign in the 1990s to upgrade physical facilities in Squirrel Hill, specifically for youth and the elderly. The United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh is now known as the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh board meeting index

The Rauh Jewish Archives holds a nearly complete run of minutes of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh board of trustees including its two predecessor agencies: the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Fund. The collection also includes an index of subjects discussed at meetings between the late 1940s and the mid 1980s.

This searchable database below includes a complete scan of all the index cards, allowing researchers to more locate board discussions about 502 specific subjects. Each subject is arranged in reverse chronological order. The actual minute books have not been digitized and can currently only be accessed in person by visiting the Rauh Jewish Archives. For more information, please contact the archives.

Bibliography

Exhibit History

• Author: Catelyn Cocuzzi and Eric Lidji
• Created: September 12, 2024
• Current: September 12, 2024