Carnegie Mellon University
June 26, 2020

RESCHEDULED: Osher at CMU Lecture Series Presents "Sophie: The Incomparable Mayor Masloff"

Sophie Masloff's journey to the mayoralty of the city of Pittsburgh was both uncharted and improbable. But this child of poor Romanian immigrants rose to become the first Jewish and the first female mayor of the city. Once in office she was both praised and ridiculed.  Come hear her story.  

Barbara Burstin has been teaching in the history department of both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University for many years. She also is a popular instructor at the Osher programs in the city teaching courses on Hitler, FDR and the Jews, on the Pittsburgh Jewish community and the history of Pittsburgh.   She has written five books, three on the history of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, one on Polish Jews and Polish Christians who came to Pittsburgh after World War II and this latest on Sophie Masloff. She has also taken an active leadership role in the city being a member of the city Human Relations Committee, chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Holocaust Commission, and the Hillel-Campus Organization.