Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project
The Schedriner Society was an informal affinity group of people who had personal or family origins in Schedrin, a Jewish agricultural settlement in present-day Belarus.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, established the Jewish settlement of Schedrin around 1846. By the start of the 20th century, the Jewish population of the town topped 4,000. Henach Horvitz immigrated to Pittsburgh from Schedrin around 1903 and started a farm in the Hill District with a stable on LaPlace Street and a barn on Reed Street. With the arrival of fellow townspeople in subsequent years, Pittsburgh became one of the larger American settlements of Schedriners.
Harry Katz was historian for the Pittsburgh community of Schedriners. Between 1975 and the late 1980s, he organized an annual reunion in Pittsburgh or South Florida with a memorial service. At the reunion in 1987, the group dedicated a plaque at Yeshiva Schools commemorating the 1,400 Schedrin Jews who had been killed during the Holocaust.
Some of the locals with Schedriner ancestry include: Nate Alpern, Nancy Bromberg, Esther and Sid Busis, Mrs. Sam Cohen and Norm Cohen, Mollie Congress, Rose Aronson, Sog Bergad, Mrs. S. Boodman, Bob Cantor, Selma Cohen, DeBroffs, Lil Epstein, Bernie Friedman, Bernie Alpern, Marv Apple, Marshal Cherner; Abe Garrick, Jean Gottlieb, Sam Horvitz’ sons, Fanny Katz’ sons, Bess Kaufman, Mrs. Boris Kentor, Sam Horlick’s children, Mrs. H. Goldstein, Dave Horvitz, Mrs. Sandy Jacobs, Nate Katzen, Mrs. M. Landay, Mrs. Phil Goldstein, Lou Harvey, Matey, Jim and Lou Leff, lrv Leff, Lloyd Livstone, Mrs. George Levinson, Mrs. Herb Lichtenstein, Mark Livstone, Sol Metlin, Jack Meyers, Mrs. J Falk, Lillian Meyers; Marsha, Lee and Teddy Nisenbaum, Maish and Mark Oklin, Mrs. Rebecca Parkansky, Ben Plotkin, Lil Spear Rubin, Dave Shader, Rudicks and Greenblatt of Youngstown, Abe Plotkin, Art Plotkon, Howard Selekman, Mrs. Harvey Simon, Phyllis Unger, Mrs. Gil Weil, Sid Weiner, Bess Winograd and children, Ruth Strauss, Ruth Zeiden, Myrna Wolk, Stan Wymer, Mrs. Morris Zweibel. Rabbi Sholom Posner studied at the Schedriner yeshiva.
Bibliography
Rauh Jewish Archives
- Winograd, Leonard. “One of the elders of Zion: Berl Katznelson,” McKeesport, PA : Carmel Press, [198-] [DS150 .L4 W55 1980] (catalog record).
University of Pittsburgh Archives & Special Collections
- Sidney Busis oral history (Jan. 14, 1993), from NCJW-Pittsburgh Section Records [ais196440.062] (online).
- Harry L. Katz oral history (June 18, 1984), from NCJW-Pittsburgh Section Records [ais196440.223] (online).
- Rabbi Sholom Posner oral history 1974), from NCJW-Pittsburgh Section Records [ais196440.353] (online).
Websites
- “Shchedrin,” JewishGen KehilahLinks (online).
- “The Story, As It Is Best Remembered,” from Mishegas (Weiner Family) (online).
Exhibit history
- Author: Eric Lidji
- Original: April 29, 2026
- Current: April 29, 2026