The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
The Jewish Women’s Center of Pittsburgh Inc. was an educational and spiritual center for Jewish women. As described in its mission statement, it was “a community of women of all backgrounds that provides educational opportunities and spiritual experiences rooted in Jewish values and feminist ideals.” Its bylaws listed five purposes: “identify the common threads that can unify all Jewish women,” “elevate the status of women to full and equal participation in Jewish society,” “be a center that awakens the spiritual voices of women in our community,” “document and advance the modern Jewish women’s movement,” and “create a library on Jewish women as we appeared in time and place.”
The Jewish Women’s Center emerged out of a Rosh Chodesh Group started in 1992 to bring the emerging national practice of women’s Rosh Chodesh (New Month) celebrations to Pittsburgh. The following year, the group expanded into the Jewish Women’s Center of Pittsburgh. The center was officially based in the Labor Zionist Building on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill but hosted events in public spaces and private homes throughout the Jewish community. The center provided a Jewish feminist approach to Jewish holidays and major religious observance, and it also created new Jewish rituals for life cycle events such as marriage, childbirth, menopause and mourning. The center often was encouraged to create rituals according to the immediate needs of its constituents, as women in the local Jewish community looked for a Jewish feminist way to prepare and respond for important moments in their personal lives.
The Jewish Women’s Center began hosting its annual Women’s Passover Seder in 1994. It included a customized Passover Haggadah with feminist texts, and it was likely the first local use of a “Miriam’s Cup” to accompany the traditional Cup of Elijah. The occasional “Shabbat with the JWC” started in 1997 and regular Mother/Daughter Bat Mitzvah Programs started in 2001. The Jewish Women’s Center sponsored an annual themed retreat starting in 1995. It organized an annual tzedakah (charity) project starting in 1999 with funds directed toward Jewish feminist organizations including Women of the Wall and the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. The Jewish Women’s Center also undertook several ambitious one-time endeavors. Using a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, it hosted a communitywide historical program in 2001 called “A Celebration of Jewish Women,” looking at notable Jewish women throughout history. The center partnered with a similar group from Baltimore on a trip to Israel in 1997.
The Jewish Women’s Center closed in September 2019, citing a decline in membership, changes to its physical accommodations, and a sense that its work had become more broadly accepted throughout mainstream establishments in the local Jewish community.