The Perelmuter family
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
After traveling back and forth between Ukraine and the United States for nearly a decade, Benjamin Spiegle (d.1935) was finally able to bring his wife, Clara Perelmuter Spiegle (d.1963), and their children Anna, Leo and Ada to Pittsburgh in March 1914. The family traveled across the Atlantic on the Carpathia. Once in Pittsburgh, they joined Benjamin’s brother, Frank Spiegle, who had immigrated in 1894 and later brought over his wife Bessie and their three daughters. The brothers left three siblings behind in Europe.
Industrious and frugal, Anna Goldie Spiegle (1899-1996) sewed buttons onto caps in a Fifth Avenue sweatshop while taking evening classes at the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House. She later worked as a stock girl and a saleswoman for Rosenbaum’s Department Store, downtown. She was a member of the Young People’s Zionist League, where she met a fellow Ukrainian immigrant named Samuel Reingold. They married in May 1921. A month before the wedding, Spiegle’s friends threw her surprise shower, laying covers for 25 guests around a Shadyside dining room decorated in pink and white. Samuel and Anna Reingold lived in the Hill District for several years before moving to Oakland and later into Squirrel Hill. They had three children, Herbert, Vernon and Benita, known as “Bunny.”
A handsome man with blue eyes, Leo Spiegle (1901-1986) had a newspaper stand on Liberty Avenue downtown and later owned candy stores throughout the city. In the 1930s, he went into the real estate business with his brother-in-law Samuel Reingold.
In 1951, Leo Spiegle married Cyreta Hollander, in a ceremony performed by his brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. B. Benedict Glazer. They honeymooned in California and Mexico but were married only a short time. Spiegle lived with his mother and cared for her until her death. “He was very devoted to his family, and they were his life,” his relatives wrote in a family history. After his mother died, Spiegle lived in Miami Beach before returning to Pittsburgh in 1979.
Ada Spiegle (1910-1999) was the only one of the Spiegle children to graduate from high school. She worked as a secretary for Rodef Shalom Congregation, where she met associate Rabbi B. Benedict “Babe” Glazer. They married in 1938 and moved to New York City and later to Detroit.
