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Speaker1: His. He was a student and a teacher rather than a he didn't have
a particular show or he had a show. He he learned. With the men in the
shore. Oh, I see. It wasn't the only time I think my father ever gave a
speech. Was on Kol Nidre night. Oh. When he made a plea for giving to
charity. That's the only time I can ever remember my father making public
speeches. Oh, I see. He was not a big speech maker. He was an extremely
pious man. Never.
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And I know you.
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Speaker1: Know, all the people who who who have talked, you know, even
individuals who taught in individual homes, you know, taught taught
students to prepare them for bar mitzvah in addition. In addition to
teaching. Two classes. I. They always, you know, any stories that I ever
get back or how much they revered and respected my father. And I think that
I have a picture of a typical pose with books. Oh, yeah. That was taken by
one of the students that the institute was a snapshot in the old library.
That was that he was a handsome man that he blew up after my father died.
And each one of us have printed out a nice. How has that affected your
life, being the daughter of a rabbi? Anyway, particularly besides a lot of
Hebrew education, more than the usual, certainly, you know, what are your
religious practices? Maybe I could do it that way. Well, I guess I'll just
practice this right here. Uh, your father. He was orthodox. You said
orthodox. The whole. Very, very pious man. Was this hypocritical about him?
What he believed. Is. All of us. Not. And respectively. So although in our
own ways we might very well.
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Outside. Of which you would not have approved or been.
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Speaker1: Just please, in that context, such as, you know, putting on
lights even on Friday night, you know, we would never do anything like
that. So his orthodoxy was a was a ritualistic way of life for him, was a
real way of life and including all of the usual practices of orthodoxy in
terms of cost within the kitchen, the whole business. In fact, everybody in
the family still keeps a kosher home. Do they? Well, that's interesting.
You know, we sometimes we used to laugh. Would say my father. Wise. We
always felt he might very well have been aware of some of the things he
might have done, you know, outside. He was too smart to ask. So outside you
weren't wise as not wanting us to lie, right. And not wanting to hurt him
so that there were lots of things he never answered. So outside, you might
sometimes not be quite as strict. That's right. But inside the house,
always. There's no question about that. How about the grandchildren? What
do you mean about the third generation down? Are they or are they old
enough yet to. Oh, sure. For several. Do they keep kosher homes? Uh, do
they keep kosher? Or do you ask? No one does. No. Two of them do. And. Two
of them don't, but. They run a Jewish household, you know, and the kids
have gone to. You know, the one who. Who's. Who's the oldest? Yeah. Kids
have gone to Sunday school. Mitzvah confirmed. And, you know, there are
certainly let me put it this way, there's continuing Jewish content. That's
what I'm asking, really. However, it's filtering down. I'm asking about
how, you know, particularly from a rabbinical background, how this comes
down through the generations, I think. Well, everybody's aware of being
Jewish. And is that a problem or do they appreciate it or. No, I don't
think it's a problem. You say? How was it to be?
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From the Pinnacle family.
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Speaker1: It really has, you know, I guess as a as a kid sometimes when I
wanted to be doing other things. I couldn't quite do. I'm sure that there
were times when I wished it had been otherwise. The. Overall. I'm really
very thankful and very proud of the kind of heritage I have. You know, my
father was very well known. Despite the fact that he wasn't.
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Active in the. People are now.
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Speaker1: He was sort of an old style. That's right. You know, like some
people would say, they don't make them that way anymore. Well, that's
that's true. They don't. But he was very beloved. And, you know, they I
remember people telling stories about. You know, as pious and as religious
as he was, he really didn't make the. Some others. You know, we certainly
had expectations for his own. As far as I know, people would never do
anything to embarrass them. Los. The most discreet. Quiet. And, you know,
the students would. If they would happen to bump into him on Shabbos and.
They would make me sick carrying the package and obviously coming from
shop, from shopping or something that might have embarrassed them and they
would stop and say hello to him. And, you know, he might jokingly or
smilingly say something about, Oh, so you have a shopping speckle. You
know, something like that to ease the tension. And because he would never
want to do anything to embarrass him. But he sounds like a very lovely
person. How old did he live to be? 78. Oh, marvellous. For everybody. Did
he ever move out of the hills? Well, he moved to when he moved. Oh, he
moved with everybody else. And who all moved? Mm. I see. So. So. Continue
remaining. The move was because of your brother in law's practice and
stuff. Really? Because he. He still had it. Just insisted that he would go.
Mm. It was a very hard wrench for my father. Yeah. I was wondering why the,
uh, was his home. Yeah.
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So. Not very long. House and.
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Speaker1: Sitting out on the front porch. Christy was. You know, part of
me to feel this was his home. He was no longer head of a school or anything
at this. Oh, yes, he was. Oh, he still was. Morning. Well, how would he get
there? What street? Yeah, well, how about on Shabbos, though? Well, on
Shabbos most of the time what he would do would be to get down on Friday
and for. Its food with them and stay in a kind of a hole in the wall in the
other shoe of the base, which was just horrible. But he thought but it was
amazing the kind of adjustment he made. Things. Is here. And I remember
driving. You know, why did I wait so long and say. It's never difficult to
get used to something. Always that is. Very, very. Here's a man who his
feelings about these. Well, did any of you ever belong to many Jewish
organizations? That kind of thing? Absolutely. Well, could you tell me
about some of those? I'm sure everybody in the family, you know all the. My
brother Bernard was. Since. What can you name some of the particular things
possibly on the boards of various. Adoration. Immigration. You are a
Zionist organization. Yes, we're very we're all Zionist. Did any of you
ever go to Israel? Yes, we go. Oh, your father. Now, that was one of his
great wishes. And he didn't make it. He died in 1952. Two years, three.
Hmm. So he didn't have a chance to go. But the rest of you all have. Akon's
daughter Miriam, is in this one. Oh, she lives there now. Oh, ever since
she graduated college.
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Speaker1: And she's in graduate. Yes. And you visit her when you go, among
other things. I just came back from visiting her for almost five weeks this
summer. Oh, and you've gone to several times. I've been. I've been to
Israel twice. What's your strongest reaction to it? I mean, I know I'm sure
it's a very emotional experience, but can you just sort of if I just hit
you with what do you really strongly feel about it? What sort of strikes
you, first off, Pride. Oh. That's the thing. Yeah. In what way does it show
itself? In what way does what show? It's my feeling of being cried. Yeah.
Being proud of. Of what? Survival. To me. I guess it's always been a.
Particularly the Jews of Europe out of World War Two could survive. Be
seen, let alone be able to do. To contribute. It contributes. Not just they
alone, but I mean, that's just one one little piece of it. Would you ever
want to live there? Certainly. Good night. For a longer period of time not
to just go as a tourist. Yeah. Tourist Yeah. Uh, whether I'd want to live
there or not, I'm too comfortable here. What about language, too? Do you
speak Hebrew? No. Oh, that's right. You said you quit too soon. I did. Do
you have any other. I could probably learn. Uh huh. How about Yiddish? Do
you speak Yiddish in your family at all? No, I. I understand. It is fairly.
Well, I use the. Expressions or phrases. Certainly many of the idioms, but
I would have a pretty rough time carrying on a full conversation in
Yiddish. Or did your parents speak Yiddish in the home? Yes.
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Speaker1: Yes, it is. Russian. What? Yiddish. But you see, you know, there
are seven of us, but there's a 23 year span in age from the oldest to the
youngest of the seven. As a result, you know, as the younger ones were
growing up, there was more. Was part of the older children so that in later
years my father himself was using more and more English. And, you know, my
whole recollection certainly is that he had and certainly even later was he
would speak to us in Yiddish and not always answering the English. Yeah,
because he understood that my father had gone to school. Which number are
you in? The hierarchy here next to the youngest. You're six, right? But. My
father could read and write English, and he didn't. He didn't write too
often. You know, when the occasion arose, he could. But what did he
frequently just as well hear when he came here? Oh, but he could. He would
just as readily. I mean, he always got the Jewish paper, you know, and the
magazine. Yeah, he would. What magazines would he read? Well, they were all
Hebrew magazines. I don't remember the names of them. Yiddish papers, The
Morning Journal. I remember the name, you know, and he would read that from
cover to cover and he would also pick up. The daily English newspaper that
we always got. I mean, as long as I can ever remember. Not daily newspaper.
Did your mother read and write English too? I don't know. You know, there's
so little about my mother that I remember because she was an invalid for
several years.
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Before she died. And.
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Speaker2: Never talking to.
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Speaker1: Her in English and. But you came along later and got your
father's cooking, right? Right. You know what? My father talking to that
when she was a. Pretty good for last year, too. You know, to her bedside
with the pots and the pans and. And get directions and instructions and
recipes and so on and so forth. It's a marvelous story of survival and how
people do things and live with the things they need to. It's a beautiful
story, actually. Uh, well, I was. I was asking you a little more. Uh, one
of the particular emphases we're making here is on organizations. You said
you belong to Hadassah and other organizations. Sure. Just lots. Yeah. Can
you. Can you name a few to. Right the Jewish home for the aged and tell
me.
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Speaker3: Members belong to the.
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Speaker1: Council of Jewish Women. And let's see. This is sort of all of
you. You're talking about. Well, except that I belong to like 4 or 5. You
know, I'd have to get my checkbook out to tell you to whom I'm paying dues.
Well, is this mostly just because many of these are dues paying organs? I
mean, they. They need the money, of course. But is your interest in them
more than just that? Have you done more? Well, I guess I've, uh, probably
devoted more time to Hadassah. Many people do. Why is Hadassah one that
kind of intrigues people more, I wonder? Well, of course not, because it is
a Zionist organization. Well, there are others, too, that are. Yeah, I
know. But this is the one that I happen to have joined and, uh, I certainly
am not active in it. I never miss going to a donor. But in years gone by.
When? Extremely. That was in the latter part of World War Two when I became
active and all of us were active. You know, it was our it was really a kind
of social well, of course it was social then, but we really had a great
time. And, uh. But I guess at that point, you know, the more you put in,
the more you got out of it, too. And I don't even mean just socially in
terms of feeling in terms of learning something about what went on. And and
there were, you know, a group of us that kind of a a fairly large nucleus
where we did form, you know, long standing friendships. Are they still
friends? Some of them are still close friends. I mean, even though we all
drifted apart, it's still, you know, that close knit feeling. And and any
number of us worked on particular projects and, you know, kept spreading
our wings creatively and.
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Speaker2: Someone.
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Speaker1: These skits and putting on shows and, you know, all this kind of
thing. Do you think it's your age or hadassa or what does this do, you
know? Well, I think it was a combination of lots of things, and I'm sure
there were and and lack of other kinds of social. Yeah, well, that does
make a difference. Contributed to it at that particular time. And then
gradually I. To some extent. I used to spend so much time in regard to
that. And sometime later I just felt like, you know, I had done my bit
right. And although I've certainly never given up an interest. Guess I'm
just not as inclined to make other kinds of personal contributions to it.
Do you still belong to other kinds of organizations at this time? I do, but
I'm not really active. I'm belong to professional organizations, too, in my
own field. But neither have I become particularly active in those. I was
wondering if you could make a distinction, and this is a little tricky kind
of thing between, say, Hadassah and the what professional organization she
belonged to. What I'm trying to get around to here. They're really not.
Really not analogous. I'm just wondering if there's a difference between
belonging to a Jewish organization and professional or non-sectarian or.
I'm trying to get around a feeling of organizations as you see it,
whatever.
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Speaker1: I think there's a different kind of emotional component in your
sense of belonging. Could you expand on that at all? Is that it's tricky.
It's tricky to to even think about these things sometimes, I think. Well, I
think that when I was more of an emotional component, certainly in. There's
a difference, as I said. There's certainly. Yeah, a much greater emotional
kind of investment in such as a Zionist organization or for me, a Jewish
organization. Then I would feel about a professional organization where my
interest would be much more on an intellectual, you know, cerebral plane as
opposed to to one of the heart. So you feel rather than that the Jewish
organizations are more felt kind of. That's very interesting. I'm sure
you're right. Well, I don't know. I mean, that's the best I can tell you
off the top of my head. I think that's very good. I think that's very good.
It's it's a very hard thing to define. It's very hard to know what you're
doing sometimes about these things. Um, you said you moved to this
neighborhood then with, uh, you know. Well, I was already moved here. Oh, I
see. That's right. And your organizational experience has been largely, as
you mentioned, the Hadassah and many.
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Speaker1: Different organizations and you've never see, just on the
questionnaire, applied to an organization for help, that kind of thing. Are
other Jewish organizations that do this. I think there are out there that
do a lot of people who need help say now also, um, how about people coming
into the country? Have you ever been involved with an organization helping
immigrants, that kind of thing. Jewish Agency. Yeah, we're sure. Have you
been involved with the Jewish year at the Jewish Agency? I had a graduate
student field work placement at the Jewish Agency. I see. You've been
involved with the Jewish Agency? Yeah. My second year of fieldwork. Jewish
Agency. A very slight involvement. References. Where do you work now? Saint
Francis. This is with the. Right. What do you think about everybody? Of
course. That's the name you come up with. It's very interesting now at
Saint Francis, you know, a saint, and here are two Jewish people working
there in this kind of, uh, you know, more than just the two of us. Oh,
really? Is there. Then it's not really a sectarian thing. No, it isn't. And
it has not been. It is a hospital for mentally. Well, that's just one part
of it. Francis is a general hospital. It's a regular hospital, too.
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But they also have a 200 bed psychiatric hospital.
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Speaker1: And this is the area in which you work. Except that I work
primarily with outpatients in the community. Mountainside. Oh, yes. This is
their mental health mental retardation catchment area thing. Oh, I see. Uh,
who comes there? Who comes there? Yeah. People from that area. That's. I
guess it has to be, doesn't it? Well, sure. People from our area, which is
a huge area. What kind of problems would you have there? Everything. You
name it and you've got. You name it. Right. Right. Some people who are
severely mentally disturbed and.
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Woman needing hospitalization.
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Speaker1: Many chronic people who are state hospital patients really have
their lives in state institutions and are now living in the community. Oh,
yeah? Where do they live in that area? Because here they live in Atwood
Street. I know because we have quite a few of the area. There are quite a
few there. Oh my goodness. Yes. The Saint Francis serve East Liberty pretty
much. Use all of the Lawrenceville Bloomfield.
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Oh, it's nice.
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Speaker1: All that area. Oh, I didn't realise was that big all the way to
town and then across the river. Oh, I didn't realise it was that much over
time. Oh, good heavens. Fox Chapel, Aspinwall. Yeah. Everything. I didn't
realize it went that far.
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We have several satellites. Some people in the different.
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Speaker1: Communities make it a little more convenient for them, but they
can all come to the hospital if they prefer to. So the service you offer
basically is from the heart. The people who come to the hospital as
outpatients, they're right. Largely. With many kinds of problems, family
problems, people who are depressed, people who are. Anxious for reasons
they don't know. Marital problems. Family problems. Everything. Everything.
Well, it covers a large enough community. It has to include every problem,
practically. Yeah. And every every age range. And yeah, that's another
aspect of it. Yeah. Crosses socioeconomic lines across the board.
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Speaker2: Thus we do charge fees.
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Speaker1: Some people are the fees were not commensurate with regular
hospital practice. Or are they lowered or practice? No. But we certainly
see people that carry a liability but pay the full scale of whatever we
charge. So we see, you know, a pretty complete game. Now, would you see
many Jewish people in this kind of thing? Is that a new thing? Only I'm
asking because in the history books it always says, you know, Jewish people
don't have this kind of problem. What's your experience with that? That's
that's really an erroneous kind of statement because when when new things
come around, very often, uh, the, uh, many of the Jewish population are the
first to seek it. Now, I don't mean in the community mental health center.
I remember many years ago in Child Guidance Clinic.
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Really all community chest supported.
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Speaker1: Was really a private organization that could charge fees from
way back when when many weren't. And I'm sure that the large.
