Leah Laufe and children
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Shortly after Leah Laufe and her husband immigrated to Pittsburgh from Lithuania, about 1888, he died, leaving her to raise their three children, Abe, Anna and Myer.
Abe Laufe taught English in the Pittsburgh Public School system from 1928 to 1942, when he left for a tour of duty in World War II. He was awarded the Legion of Merit.
After returning from the service, Laufe taught English literature, American drama and American musical theater, on which he wrote several books, at the University of Pittsburgh. Among his titles were Broadway’s Greatest Musicals and The Wicked Stage.
Anna Laufe was head counselor at the Emma Kaufmann Camp for twenty years. She also held a degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh, and, in 1923, she organized a music school at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement. It was later known as the Anna L. Perlow School of Music. Among her students were the future Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra keyboardist Patricia Prattis and the painter Rochelle Blumenfeld. While working at the center, Anna Laufe met Benjamin Perlow, a young dental student. They married in 1926.
Myer Laufe married Ethel Terner, who had taught music at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement with Anna Laufe Perlow. They had two children, Esther Ruth and Leonard.
