"Living History Plan Weds…"
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
The Western Pennsylvania Jewish History Foundation, also known as the Pittsburgh Jewish History Project, was an attempt to create a computerized database of historical records documenting Jewish institutions and families throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Walter S. Glazer and Jonathan Levine of the University of Pittsburgh History Department conceived the project in 1969 with support from the Rodef Shalom Congregation Brotherhood and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and later with a grant from the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. The project intended to collect archival materials, record oral histories, and create a computerized databank of important historical information. Throughout 1970, volunteers from the project created preliminary inventories of archival records held at the American Jewish Committee-Pittsburgh Chapter, Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, Beth Shalom Congregation, B’nai Israel Congregation, the Hebrew Institute, Hillel-JUC, the Jewish Chronicle, Rodef Shalom Congregation, Tree of Life Congregation, Temple Sinai, the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, and the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association.
The Western Pennsylvania Jewish History Foundation struggled to secure the necessary funding for its work and stalled in the mid-1970s. It was revived in the 1980s as the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Historical Society. In the late 1980s, many of the leading supporters of the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Historical Society joined the effort to create the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives, which is now called the Rauh Jewish Archives.
