Mar 17, 2015 3 min read

While spring cleaning, you may find old family photographs and letters, family business records or other memorabilia that nobody wants.

Well, don’t throw them away. If you are Jewish and have ever lived in a small town in Western Pennsylvania, there is a place where these documents can be safely preserved and made available for research.

For the past 25 years, the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh has been collecting Jewish-related documents. Now, a new grant-funded project, administered through the Heinz History Center, is focusing specifically on small Jewish communities in Western Pennsylvania.

Susan Melnick, director of the “Small Town Jewish History Project” and formerly the archivist of the Rauh Jewish Archives, is asking anyone with documents and photographs related to Jewish life in Western Pennsylvania to contact her.

As the number of Jews living in the region’s small towns is getting smaller and congregations are closing, it is important to preserve the history of these communities, Melnick said.

“Anything having to do with the lives of Jews in Western Pennsylvania is important to preserve,” she said.

Melnick is looking for congregational and organizational records as well as photographs and personal, family and business records.

Melnick said her project has been working in tandem with the Jewish Community Legacy Project, which helps small congregations who are faced with diminishing membership plan for the future. This project will be able to assist them in preserving their histories.

“Since its founding, the Rauh Archives has collected Jewish-related records and photos from throughout the region. and will continue collecting after this project has ended,” Melnick said. “However, this project is focusing on preserving these materials now before the communities are gone.”

Each of the collections in the Rauh Archives is different. The synagogue collections often contain such records as board minutes, newsletters, rabbis’ papers, oral histories, burial information, building deeds and blueprints, Sisterhood minutes, religious school records, photographs, yahrzeit information, financial records and program materials.

Family collections may include family photographs, correspondence – including those from Jewish servicemen, diaries and oral histories – and photographs and records of family-owned businesses. Some of the records date to the 19th century.

“History is preserved through these documents, oral histories and photographs,” Melnick said. “We want to document the experiences of Western Pennsylvania’s Jews in their congregations and as part of the larger communities.

“Genealogists come through all the time and are often interested in congregational records. Because of the access provided by the Internet, use of the archives is often by remote users.”

Although the archives and library are housed inside the Heinz History Center, admission is free when doing research. Admission is charged only if a visitor wants to tour the museum.

Generation to Generation (jewishfamilieshistory.org), a new Rauh website, showcases family archival collections and provides access to regional Jewish burial records. As more family collections are donated, entries will be added.

For more information or to offer documents or photographs to the project, contact Melnick at smmelnick@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6315.