Digital archive of Pittsburgh Jewish community is completed

JTA — A digital archive of the Pittsburgh Jewish community from 1895 to the present was completed after six years.

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries completed the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project last week, the university announced. Three weekly Jewish newspapers and a weekly newsletter are available.

The archived publications are Jewish Criterion (1895-1962); The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962); The Jewish Chronicle (1962-present), and the Y-JCC newsletter series published by the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association, the Y-IKC and the Jewish Community Center (1926-1976).

The project was proposed by Carnegie Mellon University trustee Anne Molloy, executive director of the Posner Fine Arts Foundation and librarian at Rodef Shalom Temple, a Reform synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Molloy proposed a collaboration to digitize the historic Pittsburgh Jewish publications housed in the Rodef Shalom Library & Archive, the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center and The Jewish Chronicle office files. The paper and microfilm collections were heavily used and deteriorating, according to the university.

The university received funding for the project from contributions in memory of Henry Posner Jr. It was augmented by funding from the Jewish community through the United Jewish Federation, the Philip Chosky Charitable & Educational Foundation through the Heinz History Center and by online donations from archive users.