Bertha Floersheim Rauh was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 16, 1865, the daughter of Samuel and Pauline Wertheimer Floersheim, immigrants from western Germany. Dedicating her life to ameliorating the condition of the poor, the oppressed and the sick, she first worked for over twenty years as a volunteer and for a further twelve years as Director of the Department of Public Welfare of the City of Pittsburgh. She began her community service as a teenager, participating in aid to the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 1888 she married Enoch Rauh (1857–1919), who was born in Dubuque, Iowa. Enoch’s efforts to reform local politics earned him a fine reputation and a seat on the Pittsburgh City Council. Both the Rauh and Floersheim families were respected members of Rodef Shalom Temple, the Reform Jewish congregation of the city.

In 1904 Bertha Rauh was elected President of the Pittsburgh Section, National Council of Jewish Women, a position she held until 1919. In this respected volunteer post, she lectured and wrote, spreading the message that it was the responsibility of women to use their “leisure” time to extend mothering beyond their own children to the needy in the community. Rauh initiated several programs that were deemed necessary for public welfare and in consequence were taken over by the city. This was true of the Penny Lunches in public schools, social work at Juvenile Court, outdoor schools for tubercular children, a labor bureau to find jobs for the unemployed, and a Committee to Aid the Blind. This last committee soon formed the Western Pennsylvania Federation of the Blind, and later the National Association for the Blind.

Rauh was a founder of the Soho Public Baths, Consumers’ League, Juvenile Court, and the “Pittsburgh and Allegheny Milk and Ice Association,” which guaranteed pasteurized milk and pure water to poor children in the city. With the cooperation of the National Council of Jewish Women, Rauh argued successfully for penal reform and local and state laws regulating fund raising.

Interpreting commitment to suffrage in terms of expressing “compassion and caring” for women, children, and the labor force through legislation, Rauh became a founding member of the Equal Franchise Society and of the Equal Franchise Federation of Western Pennsylvania. She distinguished between the contribution that women and men respectively could make, believing that women would bring sensitivity to decision-making positions, private charity, the city, and the nation. In a speech that was printed in full in the widely read Jewish weekly, she criticized the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies for “a glaring error…the barring of women from the directorate.” All the qualities that women would bring, Rauh continued, “constitute a unique contribution which deserves representation” in the work of all organizations, private or public, that make decisions affecting the people.

By 1919, Rauh was a member of thirty boards. In 1923 she was invited to serve on the Board of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies for a one-year term until January 1924.

Her experience in a wide range of civic projects and her proven executive ability made Bertha Rauh a highly qualified candidate for a responsible public position. In 1922, Bertha Rauh was the first woman appointed to a cabinet post, when Mayor William A. Magee invited her to serve as Director of Public Charities. His successors, Mayor Charles S. Kline and, later, John Herron, appointed her to two additional terms.

When Rauh assumed her position, a fellow cabinet member offered “congratulations and condolences,” warning that it would take at least fifteen years “to set right the department.” Bertha Rauh accomplished the challenging task in twelve years.

Her first significant move was to change the name of the department from “Public Charities” to the “Department of Public Welfare.” In addition, she immediately launched a program of reform, developing a detailed plan for department improvements of which she sent drafts to political, social service, and medical leaders before the work was begun. She collaborated closely with public and private charities, settlement houses, hospitals, churches, and schools. She organized a committee of dietitians and other experienced food service people to study the frequent food riots, and to recommend changes in diet. She convened a committee of nineteen doctors to help plan improved medical facilities. By way of organizing the work of the city office of the Department of Public Welfare, Rauh established a Social Service Department, a Mental Health Clinic, and a corps of District Physicians, each to serve the sick poor in his or her district.

Rauh’s greatest achievement was the transformation of the overcrowded, understaffed, unsanitary, and unsafe asylum for the insane and indigent at the Mayview Hospital into a modern psychiatric hospital. The Mayview City Home and Hospital, located sixteen miles from the city of Pittsburgh, consisted of a hospital, housing for the indigent and aging, and a working farm. The physical facilities, from infrastructure to living and service areas, were in dire need of repair and renovation. During her first year as Director of the D.P.W., she introduced new clinics and technologies at Mayview. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, hydro-therapy, oral, eye, nose, and throat clinics, a new Xray department, and new laboratories were added. A genital-urinary clinic, the first in “an institution of this kind,” was begun.

Dr. Edward Mayer, a psychiatrist, headed a survey that made recommendations for improvement. Plans were drawn up from 1922 to 1927 when construction began. By 1932, when the extensive renovations were almost completed, the hospital was headed by a medical director and superintendent, and staffed by ten physicians, seventeen visiting physicians, two visiting psychiatrists, nurses, and social workers. At that time the population of Mayview numbered 3,000 people. Rauh also introduced a professional social worker to help discharged patients adjust to life outside the institution.

In 1924 and 1925 Rauh successfully lobbied the State Legislature to provide free burials for the indigent poor and “maintenance care and treatment” for the “indigent insane.” In response to reports of many cases of rabid dogs, Rauh asked the legislature to provide free Pasteur treatment for rabies victims and to require licensing and immunizing of dogs.

The Depression brought extraordinary demands on staff and facilities, forced the closing of the recently established Bureau for the Handicapped, and involved Rauh daily in referring applicants for relief. Associated Charities, Catholic Charities, Jewish Philanthropies, The Red Cross, U.S. Veterans Bureau, Salvation Army, Children’s Aid Society, and Family and Children’s Commission did their best to meet the requests and Rauh worked hard to secure help for all who qualified, keeping notes on each difficult case.

As her term came to a close Rauh was praised in articles and letters from many people. One executive commented that greater than all of the activities of her department “was the introduction of a sympathetic, understanding spirit of friendliness in the offices of the Department.” The Director of Catholic Charities wrote, “Congratulations to you and City Council in passing the ordinance regulating the collection of money for charitable purposes. If you had done nothing else, you would have been a very successful Director of Public Welfare.”

After her retirement from public office Rauh remained active in organization and civic life. She worked for the legalization of birth control and for smoke control. She advocated for a contagious disease hospital that would care for venereal diseased persons from juveniles to seniors and urged moving the General Hospital at Mayview into the city so that the sick could receive regular high quality medical care.

Bertha Floersheim Rauh died on October 21, 1952. She was survived by a son, Richard S. Rauh, a daughter, Helen Blanche Rauh, and a grandson, Richard Enoch Rauh.