David and Celia Levy passport photos
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
David (1866-1947) and Celia (1885-1950) Levy immigrated to Pittsburgh from Poland. They had five children, Helen, John, Louis, Frances and Lena. They were members of Congregation Shaare Zedeck, which had been founded by Polish Jews in 1895. David Levy was a president of the congregation.
The couple lived in the Hill District and later in Squirrel Hill before moving to Palestine in 1935. “Lena asks why we don’t sell out and come back,” they wrote to their daughter Helen in 1939. “We can’t even think of selling now, not now and not before. Times have been bad ever since we returned to Palestine. Please don’t worry about us. We are getting along as well as anyone else in Palestine so there is nothing to worry about us.” After her husband died in B’nai Brak the year before Israel obtained statehood, Celia Levy moved to Los Angeles to live with a daughter. She died there in 1950.
