Author Archives: Higherimages

by Higherimages | December 16, 2014 · 1:17 pm

Hungarians

Last month I told you about a controversial Holocaust memorial in Budapest. Today, on this last day before Hanukkah, let me share a photo I received this week from Budapest. It requires no explanation.

This past Shabbos we had a very nice Kiddush in honor of two members of the Sherman family: Connie and Dr. Sam Sherman. It was hosted by their daughter Patty Barnet and her husband Alan. Sam was the youngest child of Markus Sherman, our shul’s founder. I told Patty that each year on the Shabbos before Markus’ yahrzeit we have what amounts to an informal “founders day” simply by remembering Markus and his contribution to us. This year that will fall on Feb 28, and Patty said she would like to be present. Many of you know that the Carnegie Shul was founded primarily by Hungarians, and that includes the Sherman family. Most of the Hungarian immigrants came to Carnegie well over 100 years ago, but the path to Carnegie was not always direct. There were many Hungarian Jews in the Homestead-Braddock area and some of those families came to Carnegie. Others took a different path. Ike and Miriam Sax left Hungary in 1952 (not a simple feat to accomplish during the early Cold War years) and after some intermediate transit stops, came to settle directly in Carnegie. Aside from Patty, we have contact with the descendants of other original charter signers Benjamin Turk and Falk Kantor. Perhaps this year we can embellish our “founders day” remembrance by inviting them. Mark your calendar: February 28.

I hope you have a festive Hanukkah, and I welcome your comments about the Hungarian families in our shul.

GetGo Project Underway

The Giant Eagle GetGo in Gibsonia

For many months we have been reporting that Giant Eagle was in the process of purchasing property across the street from the shul. Well, things are finally happening. On Friday, October 31, they completed the property closings. Last Monday, Borough Council approved the “vacation” of a portion of Williams Street that runs through the middle of the property. And yesterday, the demolition crew started razing buildings.

What does this mean for us? Firstly, it means some parking concerns that we will need to address. The parking lot directly across from the shul had belonged to the Fulton family. About 40 years Al Fulton, who owned the Buick dealership on Main St., had given us permission to use his lot on Saturday mornings indefinitely. Fulton Buick is now long closed. Al’s son Pete owned the property in recent years. Now it belongs to Giant Eagle. In that parking lot there will soon be a convenience store. Certainly, when they open we will approach the manager about using some spaces on Saturday mornings. But in the meantime we will need to use what we can. There are generally about 6 spaces on the street near the shul. And I have spoken with the manager of CVS. She has given us permission to use available spaces in the farthest row from the store (the row next to Lydia Street). That should take care of our normal Saturday morning minyan. But we will also be talking with the new owners of the Xytec building (the glass and aluminum office building on Lydia Street just past the shul). That company is called Heyl & Patterson. They purchased the building earlier this year.

The good news is that this vacant property will now be renovated and be an asset to our community. The long term viability of our congregation depends on us being in a healthy neighborhood. Having a new GetGo across the street will bring some new life to the area, just as the CVS did.

This is the lot where we normally park on Shabbos. We may still be able to park there for a few more Saturdays, but I can’t predict.

The J&L Travel building was right there, until yesterday. Blink, and it’s gone.

A backhoe razes the Fulton Buick garage in the background. That’s where the gas pumps will be located, adjacent to Main St. The convenience store will be located in the area where this pickup truck is sitting, adjacent to Lydia St.

Budapest Holocaust Memorial

click on any picture for enlargement

On Monday I returned from a two week trip to Europe that included business, politics, and visiting with a lot of old friends. The first leg of that trip was Budapest. I was there to support my friend Andor Schmuck, President of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party. I attended a number of events during my 4 days there including this press conference leading up to municipal elections on Oct 12.

But that’s not what I want to tell you about. This press conference took place at in a small coffee shop in the center of Freedom Square, a park in the middle of Budapest that contains various political statues and memorials. On the edge of the square the government has erected a memorial to the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. This project was completed without consulting the remnant Jewish population (about 40,000). When you understand the purpose of the memorial you will understand why the Jewish community was not consulted and why they have, and continue to, protest loudly.

The purpose of the memorial is to lay the blame entirely on the Germans. The inscription on the memorial disavows any cooperation by the Hungarian government or the Hungarian people. This is a total fabrication and everyone in Hungary knows it. Goebbels himself stated that within weeks of his arrival in Budapest he received thousands of letters from Hungarians giving the names and addresses of their Jewish neighbors. And the Hungarian police volunteered to round up Hungarian Jews. In this letter, Goebbels commented on how cooperative the Hungarians were. It should therefore be expected that Hungarian Jews would protest this memorial. In the pictures below you will see the nature of the protest. People place photos of dead family members, personal memorabilia, written stories, and candles. They also place stones— I think all of us recognize the significance of the stones. They have in fact created their own Holocaust memorial in front of the government version. It’s a powerful statement. Frankly, I am quite amazed that the government permits this protest. It has been going on for many months now, with no sign of abatement. In the following pictures you will see Andor explaining the memorial and the protest to me. Then we head off to the press conference.

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by Higherimages | June 16, 2014 · 4:59 pm

Birthday and Anniversary

Carl Schiffman – Bob Adler

Last month, Bob Adler celebrated his 94th birthday by leading almost the entire Shabbos morning service, including the Preliminary, Shachris, and Mussaf services. May we all be so fortunate to live to such an age and be so capable. Bob also volunteers one day a week at St. Clair Hospital and another day each week at a nursing home near the Galleria.

Bob is a long time fixture at the Carnegie Shul. Although he’s been to a lot of shuls in the Pittsburgh area, he likes Carnegie the best. Bob first came to America in the 1930s; his parents sent him to live with relatives in NYC because things were getting worse in his native Germany. He would never see his parents again. He spent most of his adult years in NYC with his dear wife Ethel; may her memory be for a blessing. There, he became a big NY Rangers hockey fan. Eventually, he and Ethel retired to Pittsburgh to be closer to his daughter Ronni, her husband Carl, and their kids. We are very fortunate to have him.

This coming Saturday, Carl Schiffman will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his bar mitzvah. Carl will lead most of the morning services just as his father-in-law did last month. And he will hope to do as well as his mentor. For those who don’t know Carl, he and Ronni are attorneys and have a practice in Pittsburgh near Mercy Hospital. Carl’s peers have voted him one of Pittsburgh’s “super lawyers”. But sometimes I think he finds his antique cars more interesting. We’re all looking forward to a joyous Shabbos morning.

Last week I sent out an email message informing everyone about some problems that we are having with this blog. It appears that not everyone is receiving the notices; and at this point we haven’t solved it. About 30 people out of 78 subscribers responded that they received that recent message. The messages may be going into be people’s junk mail folders or there may be a problem with the mail server. We will continue to investigate.

be well.

50th Anniversary Program

Friends, most of you know the basic story of our congregation’s founding. You know that services were first held in the Sherman home in 1896 and the first High Holidays that same year were held in the Husler Building, now owned by the Historical Society of Carnegie. You may not know that our congregation was officially chartered in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in 1903. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of that charter, the congregation held a celebratory dinner. I have attached the program booklet from that affair. It is quite a fascinating look at our past. Click HERE.

Not only can we reminisce about the businesses on Main St. where we used to shop or eat lunch, we get to see a lot of names and faces of past friends and family. One of the things that caught my attention was that women didn’t appear to have first names back then. They were Mrs. Irving Bendis or Mrs. Bernie Roth. Times have changed and that’s part of the joy of looking at historical documents.

Thanks to my daughter Melissa for scanning this document into the computer. Feel free to share with others in the community who may be interested in Carnegie history. PS. The shul president at the time of the original charter in 1903 was Falk Kantor. There’s a lot of history to be told about Mr. Kantor. Last year I met with his great granddaughter, Florence Bebo. I will be posting a lengthy story about the Kantors this summer. It’s going to take me a while to assemble all the story which has connections to Liverpool, England, Washington DC, Beaver Falls, PA and our home town of Carnegie.

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Author Archives: Higherimages

Hungarians

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Budapest Holocaust Memorial

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