February 23, 2024 | 14 Adar I 5784
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL A focus on Jewish-Christian relations
Professor Ruth Langer to speak at Saint Vincent College
Candlelighting 5:46 p.m. | Havdalah 6:46 p.m. | Vol. 67, No. 8 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Rabbi James Generations speaker offers a Gibson ‘Night of Hope and Hops’ upholds civic responsibilities while ‘failing retirement’
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HISTORY Outsiders take a rare look at Squirrel Hill
1963 study of community by grad students Page 3
LOCAL
Kurt and Edith Leuchter raise a glass at a Florida brewery. Their daughter, Deborah, is now telling their survival story in local breweries around Pittsburgh.
Photo provided by Deborah Stueber
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Keep 'em laughing
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Comedian Chris Monty comes to the South Hills Page 16
LOCAL CLO and PSO collaborate for concert
"Fiddler on the Roof" at Heinz Hall Page 16
eborah Leuchter Stueber has two passions: telling the story of her parents who survived the Holocaust and craft beer. Stueber’s father and mother weren’t yet teens in Austria and Germany when Adolf Hitler rose to power and they witnessed the horrors of Kristallnacht, as well as the Nazis’ arrest, detention and murder of most of the Jewish population. Her father, Kurt, joined the resistance, battling against the German army. He and his wife-to-be, Edith, eventually made it to the United States and raised a family. It is a compelling story and one Stueber has recounted in schools, libraries and churches — a familiar circuit for those discussing the Holocaust and the story of its survivors. Now she’s combining her two passions and bringing her family’s chronicle to craft beer breweries. Pittsburgh, Stueber said, is home to a burgeoning craft brew scene, with more than 40 breweries in Allegheny County. She’s
even the administrator of a Facebook group, Pittsburgh Beer Ladies, that has more than 3,000 members. It was on a trip visiting Two Frays Brewery in Garfield that an idea struck Stueber. She approached the owner of the brewery and asked if she could speak there. Surprisingly, the owner agreed. The brewery, she said, had a series called “Thinkers and Drinkers.” “He said, ‘You will be perfect,’” she remembered. From there, the Blawnox resident traveled to East End Brewing Company’s Mount Lebanon Taproom. She’ll next bring her parents’ story to Grist House Craft Brewing in Millvale on Tuesday, March 26, a day when the space is typically not open. She’s also lined up a talk at Acclamation Brewing in Verona in November as part of Holocaust Education Month. Stueber’s passion for craft beer has helped her understand what locations make sense to visit. Please see Beer, page 11
Event Planning
Rabbi James Gibson
Photo by Dale Lazar
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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abbi James Gibson is “failing retirement.” That’s what Gibson, 69, said when describing his role with the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, a governmental agency chartered under the city’s code and answerable to the mayor’s office. Once a month, Gibson and fellow commissioners “promote justice and understanding” by investigating alleged acts of misconduct to “decrease unfair treatment and discrimination,” according to the commission’s website. Complaints brought to the commission, Gibson noted, may involve employment, housing, public accommodations or city services provided by a city employee. Within Pittsburgh there are “protected classes, which include race, religion, creed, LGBTQIA status and disability,” Gibson said. “If you are concerned that any of these factors, which are protected classes under the city Please see Gibson, page 11 JodiJacobson / iStock / Getty Images Plus
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