September 16, 2005

American Jewish Historical Society puts Boston on the map for the show

BY SHAYNDI RAICE

BOSTON - In something of a history-making feat, the American Jewish Historical Society has succeeded in bringing to Boston an exhibit chronicling the American Jewish experience in this country: "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America."

The exhibit, created by the Library of Congress for the Commission for the Commemoration of 350 Years of American Jewish Life, originally was scheduled to make stops only in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and Los Angeles. However, local Boston board members of AJHS, one of the sponsors along with the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and the National Archives, felt it was imperative that the Jewish community here have the opportunity to benefit from the exhibit as well as a chance to celebrate the contributions and history of the American Jewish community. After nearly $500,000 was raised and the original exhibit restructured, it will be open and on view to the public at the J. Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston from Sept. 20 to Jan. 27.

Michael Feldberg, director of research for the Boston chapter of AJHS, explained in an interview with the Advocate last week that the local board members' insistence on bringing the exhibit to their hometown was a matter of pride as well as a desire for historical integrity. "They are very proud of the unique aspects of the Boston Jewish community. And, the fact that we have a number of first-rate American Jewish historians here and the society is here, we feel we have a special obligation." (The society was founded in New York in 1892, and it maintains a Boston office.)

The significant amount of money and flexibility required to bring the exhibit to Boston are testament to the importance the AJHS placed on the celebration. Feldberg noted that in 1905 a celebration of the 250th anniversary was marked by the Jewish community but not recognized by the larger American community. This time, it is American institutions like Congress and the Library of Congress leading the celebration and offering the exhibit.
"This time around there is a maturity in the American Jewish community," said Feldberg. "When we had the celebration in 1905, the great majority of American Jews were immigrants or their children. This time around, we are native-born. We are less concerned about defending our reputation and much more interested in celebrating this place as a haven and as a home." But, most importantly, Feldberg emphasized, "this is a celebration of what America is about and what its strengths are, what it gives to the worlds of which we are a part. This is not a Jewish celebration; this is a Jewish celebration of America."

The exhibit will focus on all of American Jewish history, but it will have many special features of the local Jewish community. "We feel that we pioneered getting the Boston Jewish community to see its own history as a significant subject, and we want to keep that tradition going," Feldberg said.

The celebration of the 350th anniversary of American Jewish life also coincides with the 375th birthday of Boston. "It shows how closely related in time American history and American Jewish history are," said Rachel Walchak, director of programs for AJHS. Walchak noted that already synagogues and Jewish groups from all over New England have scheduled tours of the exhibit.

While the exhibit has a special focus on Boston, its main theme, viewing America as both a haven for refugees and ultimately turning it into a home, in keeping with the title of the show, comprises the bulk of the exhibit This theme fit well with the architectural design of the Moakley courthouse, whose lobby contains a grand staircase leading to a spacious second floor devoted to community uses. The "haven" portion of the exhibit will be on one side of the space, and the "home" portion on the other.

The haven portion explores the various waves of Jewish refugees arriving on American shores, beginning with a boatload of 23 Sephardic Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1654 and settled in New Amsterdam (New York City). It continues to explore the plight of other immigrant Jews - from the German-Jewish community that established itself here in the early 1800s through the Civil War, to the Yiddish-speaking Eastern European newcomers who immigrated from 1880-1920, to refugees from the Holocaust after World War II, and Soviet Jews in the 1980s and 1990s.

A piece of the "haven" section that captures in words the struggles these new Jews in America faced is a copy of Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus," which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty near Lower Manhattan. It is the only hand-written version of the document that survives today.

According to Feldberg, AJHS is especially proud of this artifact, because the society owns the copy of the poem and donated it to the Library of Congress for use in the traveling exhibit .

Other highlights of this "haven" portion of the exhibit include a letter from the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., to President George Washington, his letter in response, as well as a discussion of the "Jew Bill," passed in 1826, which removed the requirement that public officials be sworn in on a Christian Bible.

America was not only a haven for Jews because, in large measure, the Jewish community was responsible for creating a place of refuge for other immigrants besides its own. "Successive waves of oppressed or threatened Jews came to America, and, within the framework of the free institutions of the United States, the legal protections, the legal equality that Jews have had here compared to their experience in other countries, they have been able to thrive and to provide haven and, in some ways, through their politics make the whole country a haven for immigrants," Feldberg said.

The second half of the exhibit explores the ways in which Jews created a home for themselves in America, as well as the unique challenges that came along with a plethora of opportunities. "The varieties of ways to be Jewish are astounding," said Feldberg. "Jewish living created a negotiation between being just American and being Jewish and finding a balance, either through a different way of worshipping or similarly participating in voluntary organizations or charity organizations."

Opening the exhibit catalog, Feldberg pointed to a 1967 advertisement for rye bread that features a Native American eating rye bread with the caption: "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish rye." This advertisement is evidence of the way that Jewish culture influenced general society, showing how Jews turned their onetime haven for refuge into a stable, enduring home for themselves.

Time and space pose challenges for show

The effort to bring the exhibit, "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, to Boston was not easily accomplished. Numerous problems faced the AJHS - most significantly, a place to house the exhibit.
According to Michael Feldberg, the society's director of research, there were no museums available until 2007, and it was essential to the society that the Greater Boston Jewish community have the opportunity to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Jews it America with the exhibit this year, and not later.

The only available space that the AJHS could find was the Moakley courthouse, which presented its own set of challenges. The first was the insistence by the Library of Congress that the exhibit be displayed it a museum because, in any other kind of display area, there is no light or climate control, both of which are essential for displaying originals. To solve that problem, the AJHS has created copies of the entire original exhibit for the Boston show, "It is an exhibit of exact facsimiles of the exact originals," said Feldberg. "The viewer will find it indistinguishable.

The other major challenge was that the courthouse hours are limited, and the building is closed to the public on evenings and weekends. With the court-business hours of 8 a.m.-6 p.m. not exactly ideal for museumgoers, the AJHS had to pay the courthouse to keep the building open one Sunday a month.

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