Luba Robin Goldsmith (January 17, 1879 – October 7, 1931) was a Ukrainian-born American physician and clubwoman based in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Early life

Luba Natalia Robin was born in

Uman Uman (, , ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the east of the historical region of Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River. Uman serves as the administrative c ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

(then in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

), the daughter of Nathaniel Robin and Beatrice Malamud Robin. She moved to the United States with her parents when she was a teen; she attended high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the first woman admitted to the

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is a medical school of the University of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The School of Medicine, also known as Pitt Med, encompasses both a medical program, offering the doctor of ...

, where she finished her medical degree in 1902. She pursued further study at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, and abroad in Vienna and Berlin.Corrine Azen Krause
"Luba Robin Goldsmith"
''Jewish Women's Archive''.

Career

In Pittsburgh she was an inspector of the city's tenements from 1903 to 1905,"Memorial Ward to be Dedicated" ''Pittsburgh Press'' (May 29, 1932): 22. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

and worked for improvements in the urban water supply. In 1911, she co-led a committee promoting free school lunches and building school kitchens in Pittsburgh. She chaired the United States Public Health Advisory Committee, and the public health committee of the

National Council of Jewish Women The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Founded in 1893, the NCJW describes itself as the oldest Jewish women's grassroots organization organization in the USA and currently has over 225,000 members. ...

.Luba R. Goldsmith
"Knowledge and Health"
''The Jewish Woman'' (April 1922): 11. In 1922, she was appointed to the Women's Advisory Council of the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services which manages public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The assistant s ...

. She was medical advisor to women at the University of Pittsburgh from 1915 to 1919. She taught at the University of Pittsburgh and at the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. She was president of the Woman's Medical Society of Pittsburgh, and held memberships in the Women's National Medical Society, the

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances Justice, equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide Social net ...

, and the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. Goldsmith enjoyed writing, and in 1927 enrolled as a summer student at the University of Pittsburgh to take writing courses. "Medicine is one of the most excellent preparations for literature there is," she explained. "Doctors are permitted to study the human heart at a very close range." She wrote two plays to teach health concepts, ''Who Cares?'' and ''What Next?'', and another play, ''East and West, and the Twain Shall Meet'', written for the Pittsburgh chapter of Hadassah, in which she was also active Goldsmith also wrote articles about health for national Jewish publications.

Personal life

Luba Robin married fellow doctor Milton Goldsmith in 1905. They had two sons, Norman and Albert. Luba Robin Goldsmith died in 1931, aged 52 years, after a surgery at the

Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...

to treat cancer. Since 1932, there has been a medical scholarship in her name at the University of Pittsburgh.Barbara Burstin
''Jewish Pittsburgh''
(Arcadia Publishing 2015): 32.

References

External links

Luba Robin Goldsmith
at

Jewish Women's Archive The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to document "Jewish women's stories, elevate their voices, and inspire them to be agents of change." JWA was founded by Gail Twersky Reimer in 1995 in Brook ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmith, Luba Robin 1879 births 1931 deaths American public health doctors American dramatists and playwrights University of Pittsburgh alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty Clubwomen American women public health doctors Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States