Herman Passamaneck

Herman Passamaneck was the executive director of the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association of Pittsburgh from 1925 until his retirement in 1954. He oversaw the growth and stability of the organization, which had struggled financially and administratively for decades prior to his arrival. Born in Louisville, KY, Passamaneck started volunteering for the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association in his hometown in 1907 under Rabbi Philip D. Bookstaber and became the executive director of Kansas City, Missouri chapter in 1917. He arrived in Pittsburgh shortly before the opening of the new Y building on Bellefield Avenue in Oakland and saw the organization through the financially difficult Depression years that followed, often working at a reduced salary to avoid laying off employees. He worked locally with presidents Harry J. Applestein, Edgar J. Kaufmann, Hyman Rogal, Judge Benjamin Lencher, Max Rogal, Elmer A. Hamburg and Dr. J. O Specter. Passamaneck was also a leader in the national Y movement and undertook organizational projects in the South and on the West Coast. He was elected president of the National Association of Jewish Center Workers in 1933.

Among his most lasting accomplishments locally, Passamaneck founded the Y Music Society in 1926. The concert series lasted until 2008, bringing hundreds of musicians to Pittsburgh. Passamaneck, known locally as “Passy,” married Dolores Jaskol in 1932. Following her death from uterine cancer in 1959, the Passamaneck Award was established in her memory to promote regional young musicians in Western Pennsylvania. The Herman and Dolores Passamaneck Endowment Fund was established in 1984 to assure the continuity of the series. Herman and Dolores Passamaneck had one son, Stephen, who was a professor of rabbinics at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.