Homestead, PA – Homestead’s Jewish history is absent from the town’s dominant industrial narrative. For a young woman hoping to uncover it, 16 boxes of records at the Heinz History Center changed the course of her life.
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Tammy Hepps, 36, grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey hearing her father Michael’s stories about his grandfather, Bernhardt Hepps, who died in 1949. According to Michael, Bernhardt was a leader, a pillar, a founder and builder of the congregation that established the town’s first synagogue.
At a talk at the Heinz History Center in the spring, Hepps said with a playful smile, “I got into genealogy because I didn’t believe a word my father said.”
No other relatives were dropping crumbs on a family trail, and her father’s practices didn’t point to an Orthodox grandfather. Then when she was 12, a letter arrived from a distant cousin seeking connections to a Bernhardt Hepps.
“We were the long lost branch of the family,” Hepps said.
Five years ago, she and her father visited Pittsburgh to find the proof she wanted. At the Rauh Jewish Archives at the History Center, 16 boxes provided a trove of information about the congregation whose last candles went out in 1993.
“Bernhardt showed up on every page,” Hepps said. “He really was there on the front lines of forming the community.
“Once I discovered those boxes, it changed everything. Researching Homestead became my passion.”
She had hit a career high as chief technology officer for a division of NBC in New York and was researching Homestead on the side. “Each time I headed back to New York” from visiting Pittsburgh, “I thought, ‘I’m going in the wrong direction.’ ”
When she decided to change directions, her friends said, “You have the best job of any of us,” she recounted. “You’re going to Pittsburgh? From a great job to having no job?”
Since last July, she has spent several days a week studying old newspapers, land records, city directories, photos, oral histories and other accounts of life in Homestead. She frequently visits Homestead and the Jewish cemetery in Munhall. Its 800 graves are etched with names of people she now feels she knows.
She has even attended services at the New Covenant Community Church on 11th Avenue just to experience the site of the former synagogue: “It means a lot to me that I can walk into that building.”
The Homestead congregation’s last minyan in 1993 included one of her cousins, Hepps said. “When there weren’t 10 men left, they said, ‘I guess that’s it.’ ”
The thing about 16 boxes of documents is that they yield exponentially.
“Every detail unlocks more stories,” she said. “Each answer reveals a new question. I am so grateful people had the presence of mind to donate this information.”
Many times in the quiet of the archives, a detail prompts a visceral longing. “I read meeting minutes and wish I could be in that room. The description will read, ‘A long discussion ensued,’ and I think, ‘What did they say?’
“I can’t imagine ever putting this down.”
She has met people who knew her great-grandfather and grandfather, Jacob “Chick” Hepps, a beer distributor. One person remembered Bernhardt as “being strict at the shul, making the kids sit down,” she said.
Bernhardt Hepps was a teamster who delivered alcohol to businesses in a horse-driven wagon. He later opened a saloon. On the congregation’s list of expenses, his name shows up as having supplied the whiskey. His name is also on the deal to purchase the cemetery land in Munhall.
With expansion of the steel mills in the early 1940s, 8,000 people had to move from the immigrant enclaves on streets that ran to the Monongahela River. Heisel Street, which ran several blocks to Fifth Avenue, was home to many Jewish residents, and is now an unpeopled segment of its former self. Hepps believes there are no descendants from the old community still living in Homestead.
“I can’t help but wonder whether the displacement didn’t contribute to the growth of Squirrel Hill,” Hepps said.
Online
http://HomesteadHebrews.com
Can this makoon kodish be redeemed? I think I hear the mikpallalim saying, “so when we have minyom again “?
Indeed, genealogy is not just about names and trees but about history. Ms. Hepps, I understand your need to do this work and may it enrich your life and the lives of others for generations!
Unfortunately, the Jewish community in Homestead does not exist anymore. They all moved to Squirrel Hill or died out. To revive the shul it would need to be transplanted. It is a shame. It’s very similar to Brownsville in Brooklyn, where you see old shuls being used for churches, rch”l. No one is thinking now of buying them back, simply because there aren’t any Yidden living in the neighborhood. השם ירחם עלינו ויוציאנו מגלות לגאולה בקרוב ממש.
It’s sad to see a beautiful shul like this now being used for other purposes. However, since all the Yidden moved away, not much can be done.
On the other hand what is even sadder to see is equally beautiful shuls with large Jewish communities that are virtually empty, because the rabbonim and some of the members literally CHASE AWAY potential newcomers and would prefer an EMPTY giant shul rather then newcomers whom they often view as a threat.
If you don’t believe me, go ahead and be brave and try out one of the old giant shuls that are struggling, SEE HOW YOU ARE TREATED.
Looks like a great building for an out-of-town Yeshiva!
Unfortunately, the Jewish community in Homestead does not exist anymore. They all moved to Squirrel Hill or died out. To revive the shul it would need to be transplanted. It is a shame. It’s very similar to Brownsville in Brooklyn, where you see old shuls being used for churches, rch”l. No one is thinking now of buying them back, simply because there aren’t any Yidden living in the neighborhood. השם ירחם עלינו ויוציאנו מגלות לגאולה בקרוב ממש.