Cemetery History

Beth Abraham Cemetery is located at the very edge of the Carrick section of Pittsburgh on Stewart Avenue. According to some accounts the cemetery was located here when the area was Baldwin Township, a separate municipality, and Jewish cemeteries were forbidden to be located in the City of Pittsburgh. In 1888, Russian Jewish immigrants formed a small Orthodox congregation known as Beth Abraham in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. The synagogue existed from the 1880s until the 1940s when the Jewish people began to move off the Hill. The Congregation’s archives collection, housed at the Rauh, consists of several boxes of records including ledgers. These are primarily in Yiddish.

The history of the cemetery is explained by the late Arlene Adelman, past president of the Beth Abraham Congregation Cemetery, which turned the cemetery over to the JCBA in 2010. “The Polish, Romanian, and Spanish Jews all had their own synagogues in the Hill District. The Russian Jews built Beth Abraham at 23-25 Miller Street. We purchased six plots of land, over time, next to each other at until we have what now exists in Carrick. The cemetery was incorporated in 1889. However, the first burial was actually in 1883. There is a very old baby section where still-born babies and infants are buried.

In 2011 photographs by Devon Christopher Adams were displayed at the Carrick Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The Carrick Overbrook Historical Society was also involved in displaying 28 black and white photos from the Adams Collection.

The Hebrew Burial Association (also known as Chesed Shel Emeth of Pittsburgh) was organized ca. 1853 to provide orthodox burials for the deceased of indigent families. The Association was among the original beneficiaries of the JFGP in 1912.

The association's "Old Cemetery" Chesed Shel Emeth was purchased in 1853 on Seavey Road in Shaler Township. The "New Cemetery," located on Oakwood Street, also in Shaler Township, was purchased in 1913 and is still in use. Three separate burials of damaged prayer books and other sacred texts were held in 2007, 2013, and 2018.

Shaare Zedeck Cemetery is located adjacent to the Beth Abraham and Gates of Wisdom (old Shaare Torah) Cemetery in Carrick. When established, this area was the city of Pittsburgh.

In 1895, several Polish Jewish immigrants, living in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, organized the Shaare Zedeck Congregation. The Orthodox congregation first met and held religious services in a rented property at 7 Scott Street. By 1905, the congregation had grown to 200 members. Property was purchased at 14 Townsend Street where a new synagogue was built, opening in 1907. Rabbi Aaron M. Ashinsky served as the congregation’s first rabbi, and Meyer Ross as the first president. The congregation continued to grow, serving Jews mostly from Polish Russian provinces. The Ershte Warshawer Untershtitzung Verein (First Warsaw Support Society), a benevolent society which aided Polish Jewish immigrants and their families, was headquartered at the synagogue.

By the close of World War II, many Jewish families had left the Hill District for Pittsburgh’s East End neighborhoods. By 1948, Shaare Zedeck had moved to a building at 5831 Bartlett Street in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 1974, it merged with the Young Israel Congregation. The cemetery was turned over to the JCBA in 2010.

This is a family based cemetery adjacent to Shaare Zedeck. The grounds are surrounded by an early twentieth century chain. The Gomberg Family is well represented. The Marks Cemetery became part of the JCBA in 2010.

Agudath Achim Congregation was founded in 1921 in the Hill District. The congregation celebrated its founding at the home of Simon Ronick on Herron Ave. with speakers including Rabbis Ashinsky and Friedman, and Pittsburgh City Councilman James Malone Its cemetery is on Wickline Road in Hampton Township. They became a JCBA cemetery in 2009.

Jews settled in Steubenville, Ohio and in Weirton, West Virginia in the mid-19th century. On the Ohio River, these towns became thriving centers of the steel industry. Within the region, a robust Jewish community flourished as well, on both sides of the Ohio. Weirton’s Jewish community formed Beth Israel Synagogue in 1917, dedicating a new building in 1929 at the corner of West Street and Virginia Avenue. Originally an Orthodox congregation, it became Conservative over time. Long before chain stores, Weirton had no less than forty Jewish owned grocery stores. According to Sharon Bogarad, raised within a longstanding Beth Israel family, “Weirton was a special place to grow up. It was a madras of nationalities and faiths”. She proudly maintains the congregation’s records.

A highlight of the region’s Bicentennial observance was an inspiring musical program held at Beth Israel Synagogue. It was considered one of the finest tributes to America in the Tri-State area. Rabbi Max Fox was the spiritual leader at that time. The congregation closed in 1990 and Temple Beth El and B'nai Israel Congregation, merged to form Temple Beth Israel.

Jews from Weirton have long been involved with the Steubenville Jewish cemetery. B’nai Israel contains burials from Weirton and East Liverpool, and from the large conservative shul in Steubenville. Temple Beth Israel was central to a community that numbered over 400 Jewish families. As the area’s population declined, the Jewish community’s population declined even more. Its doors closed in 2013. The Tikkun Olam Scholarship of Temple Beth Israel, through the Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley, continues funding scholarships to support students in the health professions. A book with burial information is available at the Steubenville and Jefferson County Public Library.

The cemetery remains as a tribute to the Jewish communities of Weirton and Steubenville. Located on Sunset Boulevard in Steubenville, B’nai Israel became a part of the JCBA in 2015.

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In 1897, twelve immigrants from Galicia, in southeast Poland, organized an Orthodox congregation known as Machsikei Hadas (Upholders of Faith) in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. It was chartered in 1900. The founding members were immigrants from Galicia, which had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Polish Kingdom, now southwest Poland. They came to escape religious persecution and to seek a better life. The “Galitzianers” differed from other Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the Pittsburgh area. They were fewer in number, and being associated with the Belzer Hasidim, they followed the synagogue ritual of the Sephardic tradition rather than that of the Ashkenazic tradition which was prevalent among Eastern European Jewry.

The group first held religious services in each other’s homes and then moved to a rented space on Fullerton Street. Later, members purchased a house at 65 Crawford Street for use as a synagogue. In 1909, a new synagogue was constructed at 1849 Wylie Avenue at the corner of Wylie and Granville Avenues.

By 1917, there were just over 100 family members. Despite its small size, the shul boasted an illustrious succession of rabbis: Rabbi Moshe Shimon Sivitz, who was later associated with Shaare Torah congregation; Rabbi Samuel Zahler; and Rabbi Wolf Leiter.

In 1936, on its fortieth anniversary, the congregation consisted of 114 family members, despite the move of the Jewish population out of the Hill District, a migration that was almost complete by the end of World War II. In 1953 a house at 814 North Negley Avenue, in Pittsburgh’s East End, was purchased for the congregation. The ritual items, such as the Torah scrolls, silver mantles, menorahs, and the pulpit and ark were removed from the Wylie Avenue building, which had been sold to a church, and reinstalled in the congregation’s new home.

By 1986, however, membership had dwindled to 40 families. The congregation disbanded in 1989, and the building was sold. The synagogue’s contents and ark, and archival records were donated to the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Heinz History Center where they are on permanent display. Sidney Santman and subsequently his son Steven Santman maintained the cemetery until 2010 when it was turned over to the JCBA. In 2010, the cemetery came under JCBA’s care.

Raphael Steinfield, the first occupant of Tree of Life Cemetery, was the pioneer Jewish resident of New Brighton, and his descendants were always active in the town's business welfare. Accompanied by his wife, Rosa, and children, Raphael Steinfield (his family later changed the spelling to Steinfeld) emigrated from Prussia in 1854, and eventually settled in New Brighton where he set up shop as a butcher. The History of New Brighton 1838-1939 states that he was a doctor of medicine in Europe. It also states: "In 1868 (one of his sons), Coleman, became a partner, and Raphael devoted most of his time to the management of a men's clothing store which he had started in 1867 in the Steinfield Building, which was the old name for the Brighton Club headquarters”. He was also made and sold Steinfield's medicinal products. He passed away in 1882.

In 1864, Raphael and others established the Tree of Life Synagogue in Beaver Falls, later moving to New Brighton. He also donated the land for the Tree of Life Cemetery. The majority of the burials are members of his family and occurred between 1888 and 1919, although the most recent burial appears to have been as late as 1949. By the late 1980s, the Steinfeld Cemetery had fallen into disrepair, and a group from Beaver Falls, working with a committee of the United Jewish Federation in Pittsburgh, assumed responsibility for maintaining it.

Names were taken from the damaged stones and placed on a new monument designed by Rome Monument Company and placed in the center of what remains of the cemetery. The land was cleared and seeded with grass seed. A 10-foot tall fence with a locked gate was placed around the 4 monuments. On both sides of the new monument are the well-preserved stones that belong to the Steinfeld family. That is why it was renamed Steinfeld Cemetery. History forgot that the land was originally called Tree of Life Cemetery and that the first Jewish congregation in Beaver County was called Tree of Life. Rabbi Wilkofsky and Rabbi Greene both served the community on a part time basis.

In 1997, JCBA acquired the cemetery through the board leadership of William Stark and Louis Zeiden. The cemetery is difficult to locate in the woods where it is easy to get lost. It is surrounded by private land with no right-of-way easement. It is included in a "History of Beaver County" by Reverend Joseph Bausman.

The Workmen’s Circle (Arbeiter Ring) Branch #45 was established in Pittsburgh in 1904. The socialist fraternal organization, whose original members were from Eastern Europe, was first organized in New York in 1892 to promote Jewish culture and to support Jewish labor and unions. Advocating “equal pay and equal human rights,” the Workmen’s Circle was associated with the Jewish Labor Committee. Workmen’s Circle also founded secular Yiddish schools and camps. The national organization still exists as a progressive organization.

At one time, Workmen's Circle had four branches in Pittsburgh and six outlying branches in the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia tri-state area. The organization supported Jewish and non-Jewish labor, including coal miners, to whom they distributed food during strikes in 1919, 1921, and 1923, and steelworkers. By 1955, only two branches were left. Workmen’s Circle #45 disbanded in 1983. Responsibility for the organization's cemetery was assumed by the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association in 2009.

The original Workmen’s Circle #975 was separated into two distinct sections, one for the Communists and one for the Socialists. This cemetery, prior to 1997, was one of the first to join in with the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association.

The roots of Anshe Lubovitz are in the Russian town of Schedrin. This special seat of Jewish learning became a government center and region of commerce. It thrived for over 100 years, with a Jewish population of over 1,400. All were killed during the Holocaust.

Yosef Chaim Weiner arrived on the Hill from Schedrin in the early 1900’s, and brought a Torah with him. The first minyan was started above a grocery store on Center Avenue. From there Anshe Lubovitz took a home on Roberts Street in 1907. Yosef Weiner was president when they felt the need to establish their own cemetery. Land in Shaler Township was purchased in 1910, and unfortunately for Weiner, it was none too soon. He passed away in 1911, and was the first burial at the cemetery.

Other notable burials include Reliable Luggage Company founder and patriarch Samuel L. Weiner, who passed away in 1973. He was a leading member of the New Castle Jewish community and a distinguished member of Tifereth Israel, and Nathan Liff, Pittsburgh boxer, trainer and manager, who passed away in 2000. Anshe Lubovitz is on Oakwood Street in Shaler, and joined JCBA in 2020.

Tifereth Israel Cemetery is a Jewish burial site located in the northwest section of New Castle, Pennsylvania at the end of Maple Drive off of Wilmington Road (Route 18) and borders Jameson Memorial Hospital. A chapel stood on the grounds up until approximately 2000.

In 1897 a Chevra Kadisha (or “Holy society”), dedicated to upholding traditional burial customs was organized. In early 1898 they petitioned for the establishment of a Jewish cemetery and a lot was purchased. In July 1902 nine year-old Jacob Bennet, who had drowned in the Shenango River was the first burial.

On June 27, 1948, a memorial was dedicated to eight local Jewish servicemen killed during or just after World War II. Four were eventually interred in the cemetery. The eight men are Max Aronson, Nathan Baskind, Hyman Buntman, Emanuel Fell, Dr. Meyer Frank, Joshua Kaplan, Stanley Luxenberg, and Herbert Silverman. The memorial consists of a white wall with eight small markers with the names of the eight men.

Longtime local jeweler and Jewish community leader Jack Gerson helped unveil the memorial, while newly appointed Rabbi Jules Lipschutz officiated. Several local military veteran organizations took part in the dedication dubbed “Little Arlington”. Years later a new version of the World War II memorial, which had grown a little worn, was commissioned. Sadly, the impressive large white wall and the eight flat markers were replaced with a single gray granite memorial wall.

The new memorial contains the original inscription as well and the names of those eight men. It was dedicated during a ceremony on September 9, 2012. Itl is located near the original entrance at West Leasure Ave. and faces cemetery. Another marker commemorates the location of books and congregational artifacts buried when Temple Hadar Israel closed on December 31, 2017. A small park at the entrance to the cemetery was dedicated by Frieda Rosenblum. Tifereth Israel Cemetery became part of the JCBA in 2020.

In January 1926 a group of Jewish religious leaders of the Reform movement founded a small congregation in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1927 they were officially chartered as the “Temple Israel of New Castle” and decided to build a synagogue of their own. The impressive-looking Temple Israel was opened on Highland Avenue in September 1927. A dedicated burial ground, Temple Israel Memorial Park, was established on Sunrise Drive in Neshannock Township in late 1955. In 1998 the Temple Israel merged with that of the Tifereth Israel to form the new congregation of Temple Hadar Israel. The congregations each had their own cemeteries and each retained their original names after the merger. The Memorial Park became part of the JCBA in 2020. Among the notable burials at Temple Israel Memorial Park are Jack Gerson (1892-1987), the Lithuanian-born jeweler and civic leader who was very involved in the local Jewish community and Dr. Alfred Devon, WW II Bronze Star Awardee and longstanding area chiropractor.

Note: A Temple Israel member purchased a section in the Oak Pak Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Lawrence County, on Neshannock Boulevard in 1913. Not a part of the New Castle Jewish cemeteries per se, these thirty Jewish grave sites represent a portion of historic New Castle.

The Kesher Israel Cemetery is adjacent to the Calvary Cemetery in Port Vue and sits between Dersam Street and Fern Alley. The ground was purchased in 1907. The congregation was formally consecrated in 1910 and located on Mulberry Street in McKeesport. Rabbi Weinberg was their longstanding leader. Kesher Israel merged with Anshe Sfard in 1935. Twenty graves, some marked only with numbers, have been cared for by a dedicated neighbor since 2004. JCBA has assumed maintenance and care beginning in mid-2020.

Located in Patterson and White Townships it is the only Jewish cemetery in Beaver County, other than the Steinfeld (Tree of Life) cemetery in New Brighton PA and holds the remains of those from Midland, Aliquippa, Rochester, Beaver Falls, New Brighton, and West Aliquippa, all towns with former Jewish communities.

Agudath Achim Congregation was formed in Beaver Falls about 1879. The synagogue was built at Fifth Street & Sixth Avenue in Beaver Falls between 1912-1914. The congregation later moved to New Brighton and then Chippewa.

Six acres were purchased by the congregation in 1906 for a cemetery. Through the years, as the need arose, land was cleared and landscaping and walks were installed. A memorial to the Holocaust is on the grounds and adds meaning to the cemetery.

Adjacent to Agudath Achim Cemetery is a family cemetery formerly owned by the Solomon/Salmon family. That cemetery was deeded to Agudath Achim in 1992, with the assistance of Barris Siegel, Esq. The Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives houses the original incorporation documents.

Notable burials include:

Three spiritual leaders - Rabbi Shlomo Amsterdamsky who died at age 30 in 1929 while serving the community; former Beaver Falls Rabbi Myer Asper who passed away in 2007; Rabbi David Shapiro who had a fifty year rabbinic career passing away in 2004.

Judge J. Quint Salmon, former Senior Judge of Beaver County lies at rest here as well, passing away at the age of 101 in 2009.

Howard Strauss of Monaca enlisted in the US Marine Corps in Pittsburgh on December 30 1964. Serving in Vietnam with Company E, 2nd Battalion his unit was on patrol in the mountains west of Huong Hoa. On October 26, 1966 harassing mortar fire was being deployed by the Marines when a round fell short of its target exploding within the patrol killing 18 year old PFC Strauss.

The cemetery is located at 1819 21st. St., Beaver Falls, PA.

Agudath Achim Cemetery, with funds housed at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation has been a longstanding and valued donor of the JCBA.

Franklin, PA was settled in the 1740s and named for Benjamin Franklin.

One of the first Jewish settlers, Abraham Burgauer immigrated to Franklin from Bavaria in 1838 and ran a grocery store in the borough until 1868, when he moved to Allegheny City. Moses Koch came to Franklin about 1839 and left for Erie in 1842, becoming an important leader in the city. Early families included the Ulmans and Reizensteins.

With the discovery of oil, the population of Franklin increased dramatically. A group of mostly German immigrants chartered Congregation Emanuel in 1865, the first Jewish congregation in Western Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh. Congregation Emanuel dedicated a synagogue on Doe St (now 13th St) during the High Holidays in 1865, with Judge Josiah Cohen of Pittsburgh delivering the keynote address. The community established B’nai B’rith Lodge No. 80 in 1866.

On September 29, 1870, Mt. Zion Hebrew Burial Association of Franklin purchased a one acre piece of property in Sugarcreek Township near Franklin for the cemetery. The earliest dates found are a pair of burials from early 1871. There are a total of approximately 100 graves. A group of twelve men chartered the site in Venango County on November 19, 1895. The charter states that the purpose was to provide a burial location for those of the Jewish faith. Names like Marks, Brown, and Braunschweiger are found throughout the cemetery, with the latter no doubt connected to the Braunschweiger Building on Liberty Street in downtown Franklin. Most burials were well prior to 1940, yet there was a burial of ashes as recently as 2000-2001.

The Jewish population of Franklin peaked in 1873 at 175 people, according to 1970’s historian Jacob Feldman. The need to transport oil from fields in northwestern Pennsylvania to refineries in Pittsburgh created heavy river traffic in the region and allowed many Franklin businessmen to regularly move between the oil region and the urban center to the south. The first two presidents of Congregation Emanuel, Charles Zeugsmith and Abraham Klinordlinger, both moved to Pittsburgh about 1870 and became members of Rodef Shalom.

As oil fields in northwest Pennsylvania were depleted in the 1880s, the economy of the region stalled and many Jewish merchants left the area. The B’nai B’rith lodge merged with a lodge in Corry about 1899. Congregation Emanuel appears to have been dormant through the beginning of the 20th century. In 1915, a new group of residents voted to revive the congregation “after a lapse of nearly forty years” and hired a rabbi. By about 1940, though, Congregation Emanuel had dissolved for a second time and some of its members had joined the Tree of Life Congregation in nearby Oil City.

As the Borough of Sugarcreek grew, its municipal office was built directly across Fox St from Mt Zion cemetery. The cemetery has been wonderfully cared for by the Borough for over thirty years. The JCBA is appreciative and supportive of the Borough of Sugarcreek. Mount Zion records can be searched through the Find A Grave website and through the Rauh Jewish Archives Western PAJewish Cemetery Survey (see the Resources tab).

The 1859 oil boom in Northwestern Pennsylvania attracted a small number of Jews to parts of Crawford and Venango counties. Twenty-seven German Jews, mostly from Pittsburgh, organized the Jewish Reformed Society on August 2, 1863 and purchased ground that became B’nai Zion cemetery on Cherrytree Hill just south of Titusville. The first burial was in 1878, though perhaps earlier.

More Jews would come making Titusville, by 1880, the fourth largest Jewish population (500) in Pennsylvania. A second congregation formed almost immediately, B’nai Gemiluth Chesed which established its own cemetery in 1868, adjacent to B’nai Zion. In 1925, both Titusville congregations built a concrete road to better access their cemeteries. The synagogues have long since closed. One building was razed and the other a local print shop.

Oil City was one of the nearby towns that developed almost overnight as the oil boom continued. The Tree of Life congregation was founded in 1892. They rented rooms at the Second National Bank on Center St. until 1903, when it dedicated a synagogue at 17 Plummer St. The congregation grew in its early years and established its own cemetery in 1921, adjacent to Titusville’s B’nai Zion cemetery. Tree of Life dedicated a new “Shul-Center” on West First St in 1957. It closed in 2019 as they were down to only a handful of members.

Around 1900, a small group broke away from Tree of Life to form Sharith Israel Congregation, dedicating their own cemetery on Lines Lane in Oil City. The congregation was short lived, but the cemetery is a reminder of how big the Oil Region was at one time. The Oil Region has the distinction of being the area with more Jewish graves and fewer Jews than most anywhere in Pennsylvania. The three cemeteries on Old Route 8 south of Titusville are a testimony to the area’s pioneering history.

The cemeteries include several notable burials. The Weil Family owned and operated the Hotel deWeil in Titusville and are buried in B’nai Zion. Not all Jews were merchants. Solomon Katz’s grave is marked with the following inscription, “Cause of death, explosion of the boiler on the oil well he was operating”. Phil Wein, former Clarion County District Attorney and part of the large Clarion Wein Family is buried in the Tree of Life section. An 1892 flood and fire on Oil Creek resulted in the death of four Jewish residents, all buried in the Titusville Jewish Cemeteries.

The region’s history lives on through a Torah which took a circuitous route from Europe to Titusville to Oil City and now to the Hillel at Haverford College. The Oil Region’s Jewish cemeteries became affiliated with the JCBA in 2020 through the Bridge Builders Community Foundation that serves Venango, Clarion, Forest and Jefferson Counties.


Titusville (left, center) and Oil City (right)