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 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Early life

Luba Natalia Robin was born in

Uman Uman ( uk, Умань, ; pl, Humań; yi, אומאַן) is a city located in Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the historical region of the eastern Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

(then in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

), 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, is consistently ranked as a "Top Medical School" by '' ...

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

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, 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

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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, NCJW is self-described as the oldest Jewish women’s grassroots organization in the United States, now comprised by over 180,000 members. As of ...

.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 concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

. 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. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

. 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, 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 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 {{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 Women public health doctors Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States