Kehilat Sfarad Congregation is the only Sephardic Jewish congregation in Pittsburgh. It began as a group of 10 men of Egyptian, Moroccan, Israeli, Greek, and Iranian heritage. Some of the congregants are also Mizrahi Jews, or Jews of Middle Eastern descent. As opposed to Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors hail from Europe, Sephardic Jews’ ancestors were expelled from Spain and moved to places such as what once was the Ottoman Empire and countries in North Africa.
Category: Rituals
Bridge Witches Tarot Deck
Pittsburgh artist Genevieve Barbee-Turner drew from interviews, research excursions, and her own experience living in Pittsburgh to craft the Bridge Witches tarot deck. The illustrated set of 78 cards seeks to combine the long history of tarot with a representation of modern life in Pittsburgh.
Church Bells of Pittsburgh
The sound of church bells is part of the landscape of sound in Pittsburgh just like car horns honking and helicopters flying overhead to the hospital. But they are also much more than that. Bells can carry meaningful and sometimes secretive histories of the churches where they hang. And for Christians who attend these churches, the sound of church bells ringing creates time and space for prayer outside of the secular world. By doing this, church bells make themselves a vital part of religious expression in Pittsburgh.
Jessica’s Labyrinth
At 60 feet in diameter, the twisting, circular stone pathway at Chatham University’s Shadyside campus is the largest outdoor labyrinth in Pittsburgh.
Bahá’í Devotions
Pittsburgh has a long history of diverse religious groups, and one such group is the Bahá’í faith. The Bahá’í faith in Pittsburgh dates all the way back to 1909 when they officially organized as a group. Although they are only a small portion of the United States, the Bahá’í faith has a wide range of practices and devotional groups. There are about 20 different devotional groups in Pittsburgh alone, each with a different topic and structure. This diversity shows the flexibility and, at the same time, the unity of the Bahá’í faith.