Keser Torah / Kaiser Torah Congregation Pittsburgh Minutes

My Supkoff and Tolchin(sky) ancestors attended Keser Torah Congregation in Pittsburgh's Hill District for several decades.  I recently got copies of fragmentary minutes for the congregation from the University of Pittsburgh, which included minutes from various groups associated with Keser Torah from 1927-1939.  The records were written in Yiddish, and they were expertly translated by Géraldine Trom.

If you have ancestors who also attended Keser Torah--or if you just want some insight into the workings of an American synagogue in the 1920s and 1930s, the full translation is below.  Enjoy!

Excerpt from the Keser Torah Congregation Minutes

Yeshaya/Josiah/Joshua/John/J. Supkoff's Permit Appeal Results!

A few weeks ago, I talked about how my great-great grandfather applied for a permit to build an extension to his home in Pittsburgh--but how the various papers gave him a different given name when mentioning his permit application.  There was a hearing to discuss if the permit would be granted, and it was denied.  And then one newspaper mentioned that he was appealing the denial.

But he didn't seem to appear again.  I wondered what happened--and some readers asked on Facebook and Twitter if I knew what happened.  Initially I was thinking that I'd need to wait for local Pittsburgh repositories to re-open post-COVID.  But I also realized that the OCR technology used to allow old newspapers to be searchable isn't perfect, so perhaps there was another mention of this case where Supkoff wasn't captured?  So I searched by the address of the home, narrowing search results to 1925 newspapers in Pennsylvania.  And there it was.

Joseph Supkoff Building Permit Appeal Decision; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; June 12, 1925

A Yeshaya by Any Other Name....

My great-great grandfather was Yeshaya Supkoff.  He was inconsistent with what name he used once in the United States.  But some of it wasn't his fault--it seems that even for one event, the newspapers used different names for him.

On March 1, 1925, three separate Pittsburgh newspapers reported on Yeshaya's application for a building permit.  But the three newspapers called him three different things.

J. Supkoff Building Permit Application; Pittsburgh Daily Post; March 1, 1925

Colwell Coincidence

My sister grew up in Baltimore; her father grew up in Baltimore and her mother grew up in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

My brother-in-law grew up in Monsey, New York; his father grew up in Monsey and his mother grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

There's no reason to think their families would have had any previous connection.

My sister and brother-in-law now live in Baltimore with their 4 children.  I've done some research on my brother-in-law's side of the tree for those 4 children.  And it turns out that these two families may have known one another a century ago.

"Yallen" Family; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; 1910 Federal Census

Pittsburgh's Jewish Community & HIAS

I had a post on a genealogy success story nearly completed, and I was planning to finish it today.  But in light of what happened in Pittsburgh yesterday, that post will wait.

I would not be here today if it weren't for the Pittsburgh Jewish Community (on my mother's side) and HIAS (on my father's).

My mother's parents were born in Pennsylvania.  My maternal grandfather was born in and grew up in Pittsburgh; both of his parents, all four of his great grandparents, and one of his great-great grandmothers emigrated to Pittsburgh.  My maternal grandmother's parents emigrated to nearby McKeesport, where my grandmother was born.

My grandfather's family was very involved with Pittsburgh's Jewish Community.  My great grandfather was president of Pittsburgh's Shpikover Society, and my grandfather's whole family was very involved in Pittsburgh's Keser Torah Congregation.

Keser Torah Silver Anniversary Committee (1935), Pittsburgh, PA
(My great grandfather is second from the left in the back row)

Finding Liba/Elizabeth/Lizzy--Found!

Yesterday, I wrote about how I'd finally found a post-1910 mention of my great-great grandmother's half sister.  This sister emigrated to America as Liba, was enumerated in the 1910 census as Elizabeth and then was married and was enumerated in 1920 as Lizzy.  In 1920, she was married to Frank Trachtenberg, and they had two children: Margery and Edward.  And then I couldn't find them again.

I'd searched for the family using wildcards in the surname to try to find them if Trachtenberg had been horribly mis-transcribed.  I tried just searching for them as a family group without a surname as well--but I found no family with a Frank, Elizabeth/Lizzy, Margery/Marjorie and Edward/Eddie/Ted.

I'd asked for readers to help.  And Kira Dolcimascolo came through.  She pointed out that Frank and Elizabeth's grandson had posted on an Ancestry message board back in 2008.

https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.trachtenberg/6.1/mb.ashx

Finding Liba/Elizabeth/Lizzy (A Bit More Than Before)

My great-great-great grandmother Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff was married twice and had at least eleven children (in addition to a number of stepchildren).  Five years ago, I did a series of posts about most of those children and what I knew about them at that point.  I'd managed to trace descendants of all of Mira's children who came to America--with the exception of one.  I simply could not find any trace of Liba Marienhoff (who became Elizabeth in America) after the 1910 census, when she was living in Pittsburgh.  You can click here to see what I knew at that point (and until about a week ago).

But now I've found her--and how I did this highlights how spelling of names, especially among immigrants, was simply not important to them.  So try as many possibilities as possible to try to find your family.  Sometimes it's the key to solving a long-time mystery. 

The "Levants" and Tolchinskys in the 1910 Census, Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Jacob Soupcoff/Lorenz, Insurance Fraud Organizer, Gambling House Proprietor--and Physician

Jacob Soupcoff (later Lorenz), born around 1869, was a son of Morris and Mollie Soupcoff and a sister of "beautiful Jewess" Anna.  He came to America in approximately 1886.  He became a physician--but seems to have a record of getting into legal problems.

Jacob Soupcoff Petition for Naturalization; Pittsburgh, PA; 1894

In 1894, Jacob petitioned to become a US citizen.  But the very next year he made nationwide news for insurance fraud.  Jacob and his co-conspirators would find accidents reported in the local newspaper and then claim that they had been injured in those accidents.

New York Post, May 10, 1895

Anna Soupcoff Lewis King Kehr, the "Beautiful Jewess"

Anna Soupcoff, one of the daughters of Morris and Mollie Soupcoff, made national headlines after she eloped with the son of a millionaire.

In 1900, Anna was an 18-year-old girl living with her family in Pittsburgh.  She had been born in February 1882 in "Russia," arrived in the United States in 1887, and was a "box maker," likely in her father's Keystone Box Company.

1900 United States Census; Pittsburgh, PA; Annie "Soupcof" (line 85)

But 8 years later, Anna left her family and headed west--and made the front page of the New York Press:

The Original Pittsburgh Soupcoffs

The original Supkoffs in Pittsburgh were actually Soupcoffs.  I've found allusions to them being connected to my Supkoff family but no solid connection as of yet; I haven't found anything relating to their specific town of origin.  But this family still left quite the paper trail--and I'll be posting about several of their children separately since several of them merit their own writeup.  The other versions of Supkoffs/Supcoffs/Zypkoffs, etc. can be seen here:

Morris (Moshe Aharon) Soupcoff was born in 1852 in Russia; his father was Nachman (according to Morris' tombstone).  Morris and Mollie Soupcoff arrived in the United States in 1887 (according to his naturalization papers, he arrived June 15, 1887--but I haven't found his manifest).  In 1892, Morris declared his intention to become a citizen.

Morris Soupcoff Declaration of Intention; Pittsburgh, PA; 1892

Tracking Mira's Children: David Marienhoff/Alpern

This is the ninth in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.  You can see everything in this series to this point here.

David Marienhoff (later David Alpern) was born in Nezhin, Russian Empire to Mira and Yitzchok Marienhoff on May 20, 1885--their first child in what was a second marriage for both Mira and Yitzchok.

David Marienhoff Birth Record; Nezhin, Russian Empire; 1885

Ancestor Deep Dive: Zlata Tzipra Sanshuck Supkoff

Zlata Tzipra Sanshuck Supkoff

My great-great grandmother, Zlata Tzipra Sanshuck Supkoff was likely born in Krasnoye, Podolia (now Vinnitsa), Ukraine (then Russian Empire).  The Tzipra was in memory of her grandmother Tzipra Brandman who had died in the cholera epidemic of 1849.

Ancestor Deep Dive: Hillel Tolchinsky (Part 2/2)

In an earlier post, I traced the life of my great-great grandfather, Hillel Tolchinsky, from his birth around 1865 in what is now north-central Ukraine, through the 1910 census, when he was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Hillel Tolchinsky (left), my great-great grandfather and his son Isadore Tolchin, my great grandfather

In March 1911, Hillel's wife Pesha Riva and six of their children came to join Hillel and Isadore in Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately soon after their son Naftali Hirsh died.

Ancestor Deep Dive: Hillel Tolchinsky (Part 1/2)

My great-great grandfather, Hillel Tolchinsky, was born in 1865 or 1866 (although he later used the birthdate of January 10, 1869) in what is now Lubny, Poltava, Ukraine.  His father was Shimon Tolchinsky, and his mother was probably named Chaya.  His mother died soon after his birth, and by 1867 Shimon had moved with Hillel to Nezhin, Chernigov, Ukraine and married Risha Frayda Mechansky.

In 1882, Hillel was 16 (backing up the 1866 birthdate) and living with his father, stepmother, and siblings in Losinovka, a village just south of Nezhin.

Tolchinsky Family, 1882 Poll Tax Census, Nezhin, Ukraine; Hillel is the 16-year-old son

The Mystery of Naftali Hirsh Tolchinsky, Solved

Naftali Hirsh Tolchinsky was a younger brother of my great grandfather Yitzchok Tolchinsky (later Isadore Tolchin).  He was born in 1905 in what is now Nizhyn, Ukraine to Hillel and Pesha Riva Lefand Tolchinsky.

Birth Record for Naftuli Hirsh Tolchinsky, Nizhyn, Ukraine

He immigrated to the United States in March 1911 with his mother and some of his siblings, arriving in Baltimore but traveling on to Pittsburgh to join his father and other siblings already in the US.

Lou & Minnie Tolchin - 1989 Interview

Thanks to my father, we have a short (16:34) interview with my maternal grandparents (Lou & Minnie Joshowitz Tolchin) from 1989.  In it, they talk about their families and growing up in Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and McKeesport, respectively) in the 1920s and 1930s.  I've converted it from VHS format, and here it is.  It even includes my grandfather's rendition of the famous (at least within our family) Schenley High School cheer.

Tracking Mira's Children: Liba/Elizabeth

This is the fourth in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.You can see everything in this series to this point here.

Liba Marienhoff was born around 1890 or 1892 in Nezhin, Ukraine.  Her birth was not recorded in the Jewish metrical records--which seemed to be not unusual for girls, as there were almost double the number of boys as girls recorded in the town's birth records of the 1890s.

The first mention of her is when she came to America with her mother, sister, brother and half-nephew in 1906:

Liba Marienhoff Ship Manifest, 1906 (line 3)

Tracking Mira's Children: Leib

This is the third in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.You can see everything in this series to this point here.

Leib Lefand was born in Nezhin, Russian Empire (now Nezhin, Ukraine) on April 10, 1882, to Mira Halperin Lefand.  His father Yehoshua Zev Lefand had died nearly 9 months earlier.

Leib Lefand birth record, Nezhin, Russian Empire, 1882

Leib had at least 4 older siblings.  His mother soon remarried, and by 1888, Leib was living with his siblings, step-siblings, and two new half-siblings.

Tuesday's Tip - Pittsburgh Jewish Newspapers Online & Searchable

The last 100+ years of Pittsburgh Jewish Newspapers are available online and are searchable here.  This collection has been invaluable in finding information about my family in Pittsburgh and McKeesport. 

Jewish Criterion, December 1944, obituary for my great-great grandmother, Pearl Tolchin (aka Pesha Riva Lefand Tolchinsky)

I learned that my grandfather's (Lou Tolchin's) nickname was "Toll Bridge Tolchin" because he "was the fastest man down the Ohio Line."  Apparently I have inherited his driving abilities.

Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff - Ancestor Deep Dive

As mentioned earlier, Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff was my great-great-great grandmother.  She was born about 1848 to Yitzchok Halperin and had at least one sister, Risha (later Risha Rubenstein).  Her parents were registered in Krasne in the Vilna District--what is modern-day Krasnoye, Belarus, northwest of Minsk.  She first married Yehoshua-Zev Lefand and had at least 5 children:

• Pesha Riva (my great-great grandmother), born 1874
• Nechemia, born 1875
• Sara-Margolia, born 1876
• Mayer, born 1879
• Leib, born 1882

Leib Lefand Birth Record, Nezhin, 1882

As Yehoshua-Zev died in 1881, Leib would have been born after his father's death; Mira would have been a young widow with 5 children.

In 1883, Mira married a widower, Yitzchok Marienhoff.  Yitzchok was 14 years older than Mira.  He had at least two sons from a previous marriage:

• Michel Marienhoff's children's births are documented in the Nezhin records
• Binyamin/Benoit/Benedict Marienhoff, who later immigrated to Belgium

Marriage Record for Mira Halperin Lefand and Yitzchok Marienhoff, Nezhin, 1883

Yitzchok had moved a lot.  He was registered and was born in Goldingen, which is currently Kuldiga, Latvia.  Binyamin had been born in what is now Mokra Kalyhirka, Cherkasy, Ukraine.  And he married Mira in Nezhin, Chernigov, Ukraine.