JHS Testifies @ City Council Hearing

Honored to be asked to testify at an oversight hearing at the DC City Council before Councilmember Tommy Wells in support of DC Community Heritage Project grants. That's me on the left with my back to the camera.

We have twice received these small grants to fund projects that combine the humanities and historic preservation-- once to convene a public meeting with esteemed academics to discuss what stories we should tell in our historic sanctuary and then to help fund the educational panels that now grace the sanctuary with those stories.

Unfortunately our city has too few resources available for humanities or historic preservation related projects. Perhaps by our presence today we have begun advocating for more support.

Object of the Month: February 2012

Archives Record
Object #: 2002.11.2
Donor: Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington
Description: Newsclipping featuring Jewish Community Center women basketball players practicing, February 22, 1935, Washington Times, included in JCC scrapbook.
From left to right, Betty Kronman, Alto Schnitzer, Dorothy Shatzman (with ball), Sally Parker, and Helen Bushlow.

Background: This 1935 newsclipping of JCC basketball players is from a collection of scrapbooks that document the JCC at 16th & Q Streets, NW. The scrapbooks date from 1919 to 1941 and include many newsclippings, program invitations, photographs, and calendars of events documenting lectures, music recitals, and sporting events.

The photo in this clipping is featured in a documentary, Jewish Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics. Executive Producer Dr. Linda Borish of Western Michigan University visited our archives while conducting research for the film. We are proud that she selected this photograph for inclusion in the documentary. Join Dr. Borish and the Jewish Historical Society for a noontime screening of the film on Tuesday, March 6, 2012, at the Goethe-Institut.

Do you have material documenting a local Jewish athlete that you’d like to donate to the Jewish Historical Society? Contact us at info@jhsgw.org or (202) 789-0900.

Shabbat Service Honors Chaplain Alexander Goode

This past Friday, February 3, 2012, when the congregation gathered to welcome Shabbat at Washington Hebrew Congregation, the service marked the anniversary of the sinking of the WWII transport boat the Dorchester and the remarkable bravery of the Four Chaplains-- all of whom gave their lives that frigid night in the waters off Greenland so others could live.

Among the four chaplains was Rabbi Alexander Goode, who grew up in Washington and who was a member of Washington Hebrew. His name was among those on the yartzeit (memorial) list read aloud during the service. Rabbi Goode's name is the first listed on the new Jewish chaplains memorial pictured above at Arlington National Cemetery.

The story has been memorialized in many ways and guest speaker, Rabbi Arnie Resnicoff, himself a former Navy chaplain, recounted it adding details from his service in Vietnam, the Far East and Middle East.

As the service concluded, Rabbi Bruce Lustig reminded us that the Dorchester sunk in just 27 minutes--- a startling reminder of the fragility of life and the sacrifice of the Four Chaplains that cold night 69 years ago.

White House Liaison Visits!

This morning we welcomed Jarrod Bernstein, Director of Jewish Outreach in the White House's Office of Public Engagement, to the Museum.

Archivist Wendy Turman (wearing the white gloves below!) gave Jarrod a taste of the archives focusing on some of our items related to the presidency (including a panoramic photo of President Coolidge dedicating the Washington DCJCC in 1925).

We are proud that our building has presidential connections. When President Ulysses S. Grant attended the synagogue's dedication service in 1876, he became the first sitting US president to attend a synagogue service.

We are now "connected" and exploring ways to work together.

Object of the Month: January 2012

Archives Record
Object #: 1993.09
Donor: Washington Jewish Week
Description: Photograph of students standing outside the Hebrew Academy, c. 1965

Background: Two years ago, the National Museum of American Jewish History requested this photo of Hebrew Academy students from our collection to include in its core exhibition and accompanying catalog.  We proudly gave permission for the photograph’s reproduction and use in this new major museum, which opened on Independence Mall in Philadelphia in November 2010.  The photograph is featured in the museum’s core exhibition in the "Jewish Education, American Classrooms" segment, which is part of the larger section called Choices and Challenges of Freedom: 1945 – Today.

The academy, later renamed the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington, was founded in 1944.  It occupied the pictured building at 16th Street and Fort Stevens Drive, NW, from 1951 to 1976.  Coincidentally, the building continues to serve Jewish education today as home to Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital.

This photo is part of a large photographic collection donated by the Washington Jewish Week in 1993.  The collection is composed of nearly 500 photographs that had been published in the newspaper throughout the preceding years.

Do you have material documenting the local Jewish community that you’d like to donate to the Jewish Historical Society? Contact us at info@jhsgw.org or (202) 789-0900.

Surprise visitors

Yesterday, Linda Silvern came to our office with a simple request: to see the photographs of the Jewish Foster Home that her uncle had taken. It turned into a visit that touched on many elements of local Jewish history.

Mrs. Silvern's parents met while living at the Jewish Foster Home.  Her father, Bucky Rosenthal, was one of five brothers; Bucky's future wife, Ann Gnatt, was also one of five.  Bucky's older brother, Joe, who also lived in the Foster Home and possibly took the two photographs of the Home that are in our archival collection, became a professional photographer. In fact, one of his photographs became internationally famous: Linda Silvern's uncle Joe Rosenthal took the famous photograph of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.

Sol Gnatt, displaying his journal article, with me,
holding a copy of his photograph

With Mrs. Silvern yesterday was Sol Gnatt, an uncle from the other side of her family.  We'd known Mr. Gnatt to be the donor of the Jewish Foster Home photograph that was in our Jewish Washington exhibition.  Like photographer Joe Rosenthal, Mr. Gnatt spent his childhood in the Jewish Foster Home. He wrote an article about this experience for our journal, The Record, in 1989.  We were excited to have the opportunity to talk to him again and hear about his time at the Foster Home, eating ice cream with Aunt Minnie, going to religious school at Washington Hebrew, being a member of the Jewish Lions Club and one of the four men in his class at Wilson Teachers College (predecessor to the University of the District of Columbia).

Chanukah with the DC Council

L to R: Laura Apelbaum, JHS Executive Director;
Debbie Linick, JCRC;
Irv Nathan, D.C. Attorney General;
Chairman Kwame Brown

The Jewish Historical Society celebrated the first night of Chanukah at City Hall with the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and D.C. City Councilmembers.  Blessings were said, candles lit, colorful dreidels twirled, and best of all, jelly doughnuts eaten.  Attendees had a special opportunity to see two menorahs from our collection up close, including one handcrafted out of tin in Russia and brought to the U. S. in the 1880s.  If you missed your chance to snack on jelly doughnuts, join the JCRC at City Hall on the last night of Chanukah, Tuesday, December 27th, when they'll repeat the festivities.

More photos from the event!