Guide to the Rabbi A.M. Ashinsky Papers, 1904-1970
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Rabbi A.M. Ashinsky Papers
- Creator
- Ashinsky, Aaron Mordecai, c. 1867-1954
- Collection Number
- MSS 222
- Extent
- 1.75 linear feet (4 boxes)
- Date
- 1904-1970
- Abstract
- Rabbi Aaron M. Ashinsky (c. 1867-1954) was a prominent religious and community leader who served Orthodox congregations in the United States and Canada for many years. Rabbi Ashinsky dedicated himself to organizing social and educational improvements for Jewish immigrants in Pittsburgh and was a lifelong supporter of the Zionist cause. He helped to found the Jewish Home for the Aged, the Jewish Home for Babies and Children, the Hebrew Institute, and Montefiore Hospital. The Rabbi A. M. Ashinsky Papers are comprised of materials relating to his life and work. They include personal correspondence, testimonials, certificates, minutes from the Zionist District of Pittsburgh, and published material about Ashinsky and some of the institutions he helped found.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English, Yiddish and Hebrew.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
Rabbi Aaron Mordechai Ashinsky was born in Lomza, in Russian Poland, about 1867. In 1887, at the age of nineteen, he was ordained as a rabbi and married Pearl Drob, the daughter of his first teacher. The couple arrived in the United States two years later. His first pulpit in the United States was in Syracuse, N.Y., and he later led congregations in Detroit, Mi., and in Montreal, Canada. In 1901, Rabbi Ashinsky came to Pittsburgh at the invitation of Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol in Pittsburgh's Hill District.
The Ashinskys arrived amidst prodigious growth in Pittsburgh's Orthodox Jewish community. The Hill District neighborhood was home to growing numbers of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe with whom the Ashinskys shared both language and an adherence to Orthodox Jewish practice. Rabbi Ashinsky was to remain in Pittsburgh, with only two intervals in other cities, until his death in 1954. In 1922 he accepted a position in New York, but returned to Pittsburgh soon after when the leaders of the Jewish community in Pittsburgh requested him to do so. He returned to Detroit in 1926, where he stayed until 1932, when he again returned to Pittsburgh.
In addition to serving Pittsburgh's oldest and largest Orthodox congregations, Beth Hamedrash Hagodol and Beth Jacob, Rabbi Ashinsky also served Congregations Shaara Tfilah, Keser Torah, Agudath Achim and Chofetz Chaim, as well as several others. Recognizing the social and educational needs of the immigrant community, Rabbi Ashinsky helped establish organizations and institutions to assist the Jews living in the Pittsburgh. Rabbi Ashinsky helped to found the Jewish Home for the Aged, the Jewish Home for Babies and Children, the Hebrew Institute, and Montefiore Hospital, all of which were supported by donations from the community.
Rabbi Ashinsky also worked to help Jews living in Europe and Palestine. During World War I and World War II, he mobilized Pittsburgh's Jewish community to donate large sums of money to help suffering and persecuted European Jews.
Rabbi Ashinsky is known for his life-long commitment to Zionism. He was one of the first Orthodox rabbis to become an outspoken supporter of the cause. While in Montreal, in 1898 he founded the Canadian Zionist organization. In 1913, he and Rabbi Rabinovitz of St. Louis established the Mizrahi Zionist Association of America. In Pittsburgh, he was involved with many Zionist organizations and with fundraising for the Zionist cause. After a trip to Palestine in 1924, Rabbi Ashinsky returned to Pittsburgh, inspired by his experience, and helped lead Pittsburgh's Jews in becoming one of the country's most active Zionist communities.
At his death in 1954, he was celebrated for his contributions to Jewish communities worldwide and for his achievements in improving the lives of Pittsburgh's immigrant Jewish community. Rabbi Ashinsky is buried in Beth Jacob Cemetery.
Scope and Content Notes
The Rabbi A. M. Ashinsky papers are housed in four archival boxes and are arranged chronologically. Materials restricted because of fragility have been placed in Box 4. Use copies have been created of the restricted materials and are integrated into the collection.
The collection includes materials that provide insight into the life of Rabbi Ashinsky, including news clippings and congratulatory telegrams at the time of his fiftieth anniversary in the rabbinate (which coincided with his fiftieth wedding anniversary); obituaries and letters of condolence received by the family when Rebbetzin Pearl Drob Ashinsky died in 1942 and when Rabbi Ashinsky died in 1954; testimonials, and correspondence pertaining to land purchases in Palestine. His professional work is also documented with certificates of credentials, marriage licenses, and sermons. Published materials from the collection contain information about some of the institutions founded by Rabbi Ashinsky, including the Jewish Home for the Aged and the Hebrew Institute.
Of particular interest are the minutes of the Zionist District of Pittsburgh from its founding in 1918 through 1935. Publications and clippings in Hebrew, Yiddish and English are included in the collection.
Accession 2008.0269 was added as Folder 8 and Folder 9 to Box 3 of the collection in 2014. Folder 8 contains a list of Yeshiva University honorary degree recipients, which includes Rabbi Ashinsky, and a transcript of a 1942 address made by Jan Masaryk, who received an honorary degree from the school in that year as did Rabbi Ashinsky. The folder also contains a bound University of Pittsburgh commencement announcement of 1923 graduates, including his daughters Esther Hadassah and Judith, and a photocopied letter from Rabbi and Mrs. Ashinsky and daughter Esther to the other Ashinsky children. Folder 9 holds clippings of news articles relating to Rabbi Ashinsky, most of which were written on the occasion of his death in 1954.
Conditions Governing Access
Materials in Box 4 are restricted because of the fragility of the materials. Photocopies of these materials can be found in Box 1, Folder 5, and Box 2, Folders 2 and 3.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Naomi Borkon Landes on October 25, 1989.
Gift of Herzl Eisenstadt on July 23, 2008.
Preferred Citation
Rabbi A.M. Ashinsky Papers, 1904-1970, MSS 222, Rauh Jewish Archives, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Rae Barent and Susan Melnick in September 10, 1998. Additions arranged and added April 2014 by Carly Lough
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Separated Materials
To print collection: Fifth Avenue High School 1918 Class Book; A little Journey to the Hebrew Institute of Pittsburgh, Fifth Anniversary 1921-1922.
To oversize collection: Contracts in Hebrew; forms issued by the Pittsburgh Council for Overseas Yeshivoth and Institutions, some filled in with the name of a representative of a specified yeshiva or institution and signed by rabbis A.M. Ashinsky and Wolf Leiter; certificates of land ownership in Palestine, and an award for Rabbi Ashinsky. Also in the collection are issues of the Jewish Criterion, March 29, 1935, and the Jewish Pictorial Leader, April 1954.
Subjects
- Beth Hamedrash Hagadol (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Beth Jacob (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Fifth Avenue High School (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Hebrew Free Loan (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Hebrew Institute of Pittsburgh.
- House of Shelter (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Jewish Home for the Aged (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Jewish Home for Babies and Children (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Mizrachi Zionist Association.
- Montefiore Hospital (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Ashinsky, Aaron Mordechai, -- Rabbi.
- Ashinsky, Pearl Drob.
- Jews -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Zionists -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Zionism -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Jews -- Charities -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.