Tree of Life Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Records, 1858-1996
Arrangement
Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Tree of Life Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Records
Collection Number
MSS 1292
Extent
11.25 Linear Feet24 boxes
Date
1858-1996
Abstract
The Tree of Life Synagogue was
officially founded in 1864 at Fourth Avenue and Ross Street, Pittsburgh, PA. A new synagogue
at Shady and Wilkins Avenues was completed in October of 1952. The records of the Tree of
Life Synagogue consist of material that spans the years 1858 to 1996 including by-laws,
minute books, cemetery lists, account books, daybooks, membership lists, contributors list,
synagogue publications, and photographs.
Language
English.
Author
Frank Zabrosky, Michael B. Jacobs, Liam J. Sims, Jon Klosinski, and David Grinnell
(Archives and Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)
Gift of the Tree of Life Synagogue. The materials originally came to the Archives and Special Collections department of the University of Pittsburgh Library System in two accessions; one on March 18, 1975 and the
other in June, 1998. The collection was transferred to the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz
History Center in December 2022 at the request of the congregation (accession
2022.0183).
Arrangement
The records for Tree of Life Congregation are arranged in the following series:
I. Membership
II. Anniversaries and Special Events
III. Board of Trustees
IV. Committees
V. Death and Memorial Records
VI. Cemetery Records
VII. Financial Records
VIII. Religious Records
IX. Sisterhood Records
X. Rabbi Herman Hailperin and Family Papers
XI. Jewish Theological Seminary
XII. Mr. & Mrs. Abraham Goldstein
XIII. Assorted Publications
XIV. Historical Research
XV. Photographs
XVI. Cassette Tapes
XVII. Printing Blocks
Biographical / Historical
Tree of Life Congregation was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June, 1864 as a
breakaway group from Pittsburgh's oldest synagogue, Rodef Shalom, an Orthodox Synagogue
founded in 1854 which began adopting Reform practices following the visit of Rabbi Isaac
Mayer Wise to the city. The founding meeting occurred at the home of Gustave Grafner and
included 16 members: A. Abrams, Julius Baum, H. Hershburg, Jacob Abrams, Julius Van Raalty,
L Walter, A. Levy, M. Crone, M. Goldstein, L.W. Miller, S. Levin, Joseph Peries, S. Aronson,
S. Citron and M. Fink, with M. Grafner being elected the first president of the
congregation. Then called by its Hebrew name, Etz Chayyim (meaning "Tree of Life"), the
congregation was chartered in 1865 and acquired land in Sharpsburg for use as a cemetery.
In January 1865, a hall was rented at the corner of Market St. and Second Ave for a
synagogue and Hebrew school. Alexander Fink became the new president on September 29, 1872
and went on to serve in the position for the next 20 years. By 1876, the congregation had 28
members, 11 seat-holders and 38 children enrolled in the Hebrew school. The congregation
would continue to meet in temporary locations in the downtown area over the coming years,
including a property at fourth Ave and Wood St. that was destroyed by the 1881 flood, until
it bought a former Lutheran church property at Fourth Ave and Ross St. in downtown
Pittsburgh for $10,000 in 1883. At that point, the congregation became known by its English
name, Tree of Life.
In 1883, Tree of Life shortened the traditional Orthodox prayer service, and in 1886 became
affiliated with the Jewish Theological Seminary Association, a rabbinical training institute
which was at the time an Orthodox institution but eventually developed the Conservative
ideology in the early 1900s. Michael Fried, a young Seminary student, became the
Congregation's first ordained Rabbi on April 3, 1898.
By 1905, the congregation had outgrown its Fourth and Ross St. quarters. A committee
recommendation approved purchase of a new lot on Craft St. along with erection of a new
synagogue with the cornerstone being laid in June 1906. That same year Rabbi Fried resigned
his pulpit and was succeeded by fellow Jewish Theological Seminary alumnus Rabbi Rudolph
Rudolph I. Coffee on November 1, 1906. A ceremony marked the transfer to the new Craft Ave.
site on March 22, 1907 and included the congregation's three surviving charter members- M.
Fink, Isaac Gelder and Samuel Levin. The synagogue opened in 1907 with sanctuary seating for
750. English-language prayers were introduced the same year.
Rabbi Coffee departed for the West Coast in 1915 and was succeeded by Rabbi Morris M.
Mazure, who remained with the congregation until 1921. Mazure was succeeded by Rabbi Herman
Hailperin, who would serve both the congregation and larger community for the following 45
years. Hailperin instituted many changes to the Congregation, signaling a move toward
Conservative Judaism. Organ music was introduced during the prayer services,
rabbinically-mandated second day of festival observance was eliminated. The national
movement for Women's rights was reflected in the Congregation, as women were elected to the
temple's board of trustees, called to the Torah reading and counted as part of the minyan
for the first time in the congregation's history.
Rabbi Hailperin served on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh during 1925, 1926 and
1942 and received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University in 1933 for his research in the
field of Jewish and Christian intellectual relations. He also served as professorial
lecturer on the history of the Jewish people at Duquesne University from 1937-1941. At a
testimonial dinner in his honor in 1955, Hailperin was elected Rabbi for life.
After the end of World War II, then-President Charles J. Rosenbloom made a gift of the
ground at Shady and Wilkins Ave in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, with fundraising
for a new structure beginning at Rabbi Herman Hailperin's twenty-fifth anniversary
testimonial dinner in 1947. The old Tree of Life building was sold to the Pittsburgh
Playhouse in 1951. The new 1400-seat sanctuary held High Holy Days services for the first
time in September 1963. The synagogue symbolically showed its ties to Israel with a
cornerstone hewn from limestone quarried in Jerusalem.
The building initially opened with a library, kitchen, an arts and crafts store, a stage,
and vestry rooms. The modernistic stained-glass windows of the new structure illustrated the
story of creation, the acceptance of God's law, the 'life cycle' and 'how human-beings
should care for the earth and one another. By 1951, a committee determined that the
Sharpsburg cemetery location was no longer adequate, and a land purchase was made for a new
Tree of Life Memorial Park on Reese Run Road Franklin Township.
The Tree of Life Sisterhood, founded in 1906 and known originally as The Ladies Auxiliary
of Society of Tree of Life under President Mrs. Henry Jackson, initially served as a
volunteer sewing group which donated linens to local organizations. The Sisterhood was an
integral part of the move to the Craft Ave building, assisting with furnishing and
decorating the new building, designing and sewing new covers for the scrolls, conducting
sewing classes for young girls and leading dancing classes for young people. In cooperation
with Rabbi Hailperin, the Sisterhood joined the Women's League of the United Synagogue, the
national Jewish sisterhood group, in 1922 and began sending a delegate to the annual
national convention each year. The Sisterhood remained an important source for fundraising
within the congregation, pledging $35,000 at the 25th anniversary testimonial dinner for
Rabbi and Mrs. Hailperin for the new building fund in 1947.
Membership in the Congregation began to decline by the early 2000s as the Jewish community
migrated to other suburban neighborhoods, leading Tree of Life to begin renting its space to
other congregations. In 2008, Congregation Or L'Simcha (meaning 'Light of Joy'), founded by
Rabbi Chuck Diamond in 2005, began holding services in the Tree of Life building. In 2010,
the two congregations voted to merge and became known as Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha
Congregation. The merger added 120 congregants to Tree of Life's membership rolls, bringing
the combined membership to 530 families. In April 2010, Dor Hadash, a reconstructionist
congregation, began renting space in the Tree of Life building. New Light, a conservative
congregation, left its home of 60 years in 2017 and carried its Torah scrolls to a
procession in Tree of Life, where it also began renting space.
Previous Citation
Tree of Life Synagogue Records, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1858-1996, AIS.1975.02, Archives Service
Center, University of Pittsburgh.
Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh, Pa., Records, 1858-1974,ais 75:2 ais 81:10 ADD 98:28,
Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.
Tree of Life Synagogue Records, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1858-1996, AIS.1975.02, Archives and
Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Preferred Citation
Tree of Life Congregation (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Records, 1858-1996, MSS 1292, Rauh Jewish
Archives, Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Frank Zabrosky of the University of Pittsburgh Archives
and Special Collections in 1975. Reprocessed and new finding aid created in 2017-2020 by
Michael B. Jacobs, Liam J. Sims, Jon Klosinski, and David Grinnell of the University of
Pittsburgh Archives and Special Collections.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Jamie
Shriver University of Pittsburgh Archives and Special Collections in September 2003.
Information about the collection title and the controlled access terms was extracted from
the MARC record in the University of Pittsburgh catalog Voyager ID number: 1405659
Finding aid revised by Eric Lidji on December 15, 2022.
Scope and Contents
The records of the Tree of Life Congregation document the history of the Tree of Life
Synagogue through the documentation of celebrated events and influential people of the
congregation, in particular, Rabbi Hermann Hailperin. The collection also contains
administrative records that reveal the activities of a synagogue in the late 19th and 20th
centuries.
The collection includes by-laws, minute books, cemetery lists, account books, daybooks,
membership lists, contributors list, school records, synagogue publications, and
photographs. Card files from 1870 to 1952 contain lists of members, deaths, and cemetery
lots. Publications include many anniversary booklets, which contain a full historical record
of the synagogue, along with newsletters, programs, and dedication books.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Copyright may be
retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. Researchers are therefore advised
to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or
reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that
go beyond what is allowed by fair use.
