No. 8 Spring/Summer 2002

Joshua PlautNamedExecutiveDirectorPhotographer, teacher, author,scholar, and soon to be Dr.,Joshua Eli Plaut has beenappointed executive director ofthe Center for Jewish History,effective September 1, 2002.Mr. Plaut succeeds Dr. LoisCronholm, the Center’s firstexecutive director, and JosephD. Becker, founder of a distin-guished law firm in New YorkCity and member of the Center’sBoard of Directors, who servedas interim executive directorduring the search for Dr.Cronholm’s replacement.

“I greatly admire all that hasbeen accomplished to date bythe Center supporters and the individual partner organizations,”

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Center Launches New Series: ‘Jews And Justice’Inaugural Event Features Lecture on Justice Benjamin N. CardozoBy Andrew Kaufman of Harvard Law School

With the generous support of the David Berg Foundation, theCenter for Jewish History has launched a new series of lecturesand colloquia that will explore “Jews and Justice,” the Jewishcontribution to the development and practice of law and legalinstitutions. Co-sponsored by the Louis Stein Center for Lawand Ethics of Fordham University Law School, “Jews and

Justice” was inaugurated May 2, 2002, with an address by Andrew L. Kaufman,Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, speaking on“The Jewish Influence on Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.”

Professor Kaufman’s address was followed by three responses from, respectively,Rabbi Marc Angel of Congregation Shearith Israel (the synagogue to which JusticeCardozo’s family belonged); Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious ActionCenter of Reform Judaism; and Suzanne Stone, professor of law at the Benjamin N.Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. Additionally, New York State AttorneyGeneral Eliot Spitzer, a former student of Professor Kaufman at Harvard, introducedthe series, and David Rudenstine, dean of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,introduced Professor Kaufman.

New York State Attorney GeneralEliot Spitzer (left) and

Professor Andrew L. Kaufman(right) prepare to address “The Jewish Influence on

Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.”

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Save the Date!“Jews and Justice” contin-ues on Monday evening,September 9, 2002, with a lecture by Aharon Barak,President of the SupremeCourt of Israel. Watch themail for further details.

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The Center for Jewish History NewsPublished by the Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th StreetNew York, NY 10011

212-294-8301Fax: 212-294-8302

Website: www.cjh.org

Board of DirectorsBruce Slovin, Chair

Joseph D. Becker, Vice ChairKenneth J. Bialkin, Vice Chair

Erica Jesselson, Vice Chair Joseph Greenberger, Secretary

Michael A. Bamberger George Blumenthal

Marlene BrillEva Cohn

Henry L. FeingoldMichael Jesselson

Leon LevySidney Lapidus

Theodore N. Mirvis Nancy T. PolevoyRobert Rifkind

Board of Overseers

The Center for Jewish HistoryJoseph D. BeckerExecutive Director

Joshua Eli PlautExecutive Director (as of September 1, 2002)

Ira BerkowitzAssociate Executive Director

Chief Financial Officer

Suzanne MaltzDirector of Development

Barbara GoldbergDirector of Public Relations

Michael WinterDirector of Operations

Lynne WintersProgram Coordinator

American Jewish Historical Society Michael Feldberg, Executive Director

American Sephardi FederationVivienne Roumani-Denn,

Executive Director

Leo Baeck InstituteCarol Kahn Strauss, Executive Director

Yeshiva University MuseumSylvia Herskowitz, Director

YIVO Institute For Jewish ResearchCarl J. Rheins, Executive Director

The Center Newsletter is made possible, in part,by The Liman Foundation.

Jessica Weber Design, Inc., NYCDesign

Stanley I. BatkinKenneth J. BialkinLeonard BlavatnikGeorge BlumenthalArturo Constantiner

Mark GoldmanSidney Lapidus

Leon LevyIra A. Lipman

Theodore N. Mirvis

Burton P. ResnickRobert RifkindArthur Samberg

Bernard SelzBruce SlovinMary Smart

Edward SteinbergJoseph S. Steinberg

Roy Zuckerberg

While stating that Justice Cardozo,who once described himself as a hea-then, “abhorred the notion that he, as aJewish judge, should behave in a particu-lar way,” Professor Kaufman noted that“the notion of duty and honor are writlarge in Cardozo’s jurisprudence.”

“Where did that come from?”Professor Kaufman asked.

The first respondent, Rabbi Angel,took a somewhat different view. Hebelieves that Justice Cardozo did notmake a break with Judaism and that itinfluenced his work to a greater extentthan Professor Kaufman allowed.

Rabbi Saperstein, in his response,posed the questions, “How do you prove one philosophical system affectedanother? One legal system affectedanother?” He went on to consider thedifficulty of these questions in terms ofCardozo’s work.

The final respondent, Professor Stone,claimed that “Jewish law may not haveinfluenced Justice Cardozo, but JusticeCardozo influenced Jewish law andJewish legal thinking.”

“Judaism is a legal system as well as areligion,” she noted. “A case can be madethat Justice Cardozo’s legal decisionshad a strong affinity with Jewish law.”

The evening was moderated by RussellG. Pearce, professor of law at Fordham,who serves as curator for the “Jews andJustice” series. The program on JusticeCardozo was presented in association withthe American Sephardi Federation. ■

above and left: Professor Suzanne Stone and Rabbi David Saperstein respond to Professor Andrew L. Kaufman’s presentation on Justice Cardozo.

Professor Russell G. Pearce (right), curator of the “Jews and Justice” series, talks with participant Rabbi Marc Angel

of Congregation Shearith Israel (left).

Continued from page 1

‘Jews and Justice’

All photos this featureby Marty Heitner

Following aprocess ofmore than ayear, theCenter hasawarded Diane

Samuels, a prominent artistand sculptor, the commis-sion to create an original,permanent artwork for thetwo-story-high wall in thePaul S. and Sylvia SteinbergGreat Hall. Described as anartist “absorbed with theembodiment of language,”Ms. Samuels submitted awinning proposal that com-bines literal elements fromthe Center’s collections witha wall-size “mosaic tablet” ofapproximately 15,000 stoneand glass tiles, suggestive ofa page of the Talmud.

The Center’s ArtCommission has been madepossible by a grant from The Joseph S. and Diane H.Steinberg Charitable Trust.Ms. Samuels, who resides inPittsburgh, was selectedfrom an original pool ofsome 80 prominent artists,nominated by a distinguishedselection committee com-posed of representatives ofthe Center as well as mem-bers of the museum and artcommunities. The Center’sArt Commission is coordi-nated by independent cura-tor Dara Meyers-Kingsley.

“The heart, the soul of theCenter,” Ms. Samuels noted,“are the collections, thearchives, the libraries, andthe people who use them.For visitors, the Great Hallis like a table of contentsand preface. It is the begin-ning, the introduction to theCenter and to its mission topreserve and illuminate his-tory, culture and language.”

The Steinberg Great Hallis a familiar site to everyonevisiting the Center, as all visitors must pass throughthis elegant, versatile spaceto gain access to the LillianGoldman Reading Room,the Genealogy Institute,exhibition halls, the Leo andJulia Forchheimer Auditori-um, and staff offices. It alsofrequently is used for dinners and receptions.

As described by Ms.Samuels in her proposal, the stone and glass tilesarranged on the wall will berectangular in shape and inshades of white, off-whiteand cream, some polished,some matte. The backgroundwill be made of rubbed, pol-ished plaster that is darkerthan the stones and glass.

“The dark floor of theGreat Hall (inlaid terrazzodesigned by artist MicheleOka Doner) glimmers like anight sky,” Ms. Samuelsexplained. “The wall will belike a day sky full of lightand bright reflections. Thevisitor will get an overallimpression of the image, but to read the details, thetext, he or she will have toapproach the wall.”

Each tile will bear onealphabet letter or will beblank. The source of theletters will be text Ms.Samuels plans to extractfrom manuscripts, diaries,letters, documents, andbooks in the collections ofthe Center and from workcreated by the manygroups of children whovisit the Center for artworkshops.

Ms. Samuels hopes toinclude the entire varietyof alphabets and writingsystems found within the

Center’s collections, and will be visiting the Centerthroughout the summer andearly fall to gather hand-writing samples and othermaterials for possible inclusion on the wall.

“The arrangement of thetext will be determined tileby tile before the artwork isbuilt,” Ms. Samuels contin-ued. “Assembling the thou-sands of small tiles in thecorrect pre-determinedorder will require care notunlike the care shown by theCenter itself in ordering itscollections.”

In addition to the actualartwork, Ms. Samuels alsoplans to prepare a “hand-book” guide, cross-referencing locations in theartwork and the source foreach element. Copies of thehandbook will be placed inthe Great Hall and on thebalcony near the wall for useas reference books.

A resident of Pittsburghfor more than 30 years, Ms.Samuels was born in NewYork. She attended CarnegieMellon University, whereshe received both a bachelor’sdegree and master’s degreein fine arts. She also holds adiploma from the Institutein Arts Administration atHarvard University.

In December 2000, she was awarded theWestmoreland Society’sGold Medal in ceremoniesat the WestmorelandMuseum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.The award, which was insti-tuted in 1986, is given to aperson who has made a “significant contribution tothe arts.”

It is estimated that Ms.Samuels’ artwork will becompleted and installed atthe Center for JewishHistory in 2003. ■

Pittsburgh Artist Diane SamuelsAwarded Great Hall Art Commission

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Artist Diane Samuels

Your “Key” to the CenterCJH = Center for Jewish HistoryCGI = Center Genealogy InstituteAJHS = American Jewish Historical SocietyASF = American Sephardi Federation

LBI = Leo Baeck InstituteYIVO = YIVO Institute for Jewish ResearchYUM = Yeshiva University Museum

Mr. Plaut commented shortlybefore accepting the position ofexecutive director. “I also appreci-ate that the financial health of theinstitution is foremost in the mindsof the Center leadership.”

“To that end,” he continued, “I ameager to take on the multiple rolesof acting as a public face for theinstitution, helping the CenterBoard of Directors with fundraising,identifying and participating in thecultivation of potential donors, and developing relationships withJewish foundations.”

Scion of a prominent rabbinic family,Mr. Plaut was born in Great Neck,New York, and spent much of his youth in Israel. He receivedhis B.A. from Beloit College inWisconsin in 1979, and an M.A. infolklore and mythology from UCLAin 1982. He will receive his Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from New YorkUniversity later this year. Mr. Plautwas ordained at Hebrew UnionCollege-Jewish Institute of Religionand received the Master of HebrewLetters degree in 1986.

Mr. Plaut also studied at the Oxford Centre for PostgraduateHebrew Studies, Oxford, England,and at The Hebrew University inJerusalem. He speaks fluentHebrew, can converse in Greek, and has a knowledge of Ladino,Spanish, and Yiddish.

Mr. Plaut’s career has been particularly diverse. He interned as a rabbinic student at congrega-tions in Selma, Alabama, Sydney,Australia, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.From 1986–1993, he served,simultaneously, as director of theB’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at

Trinity College in Hartford,Connecticut, and as rabbi ofCongregation Kol Haverim inGlastonbury, Connecticut. Prior to his appointment at the Center,Mr. Plaut was spiritual leader of Martha’s Vineyard HebrewCenter and Hillel director at theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology from 1993–2001.

During his years in Massachusetts,Mr. Plaut served on the steeringcommittee of the Martha Vineyard’ssatellite program of the BostonJewish Film Festival and organizedthe Summer Rabbi’s Symposium onsuch topics as “Fact and Fiction inHolocaust Literature,” “Black-Jewish Relations,” and “FromPortnoy to Lieberman: The NewAmerican Jew.” He also taught,together with Professor William B.Watson of the Department ofHistory, MIT’s first Jewish historycourse, “The Holocaust: The WarAgainst European Jewry DuringWorld War II, 1939–1945.”

Mr. Plaut is the author of GreekJewry in the Twentieth Century,1913–1983: Patterns of JewishSurvival in the Greek ProvincesBefore and After the Holocaust,which is in its third printing. He hasphotographed and is preparing The

Jews of Greece and Turkey Today, abook of 250 photographs with anno-tated oral histories, soon to be pub-lished. His Ph.D. dissertation, SilentNight? Being Jewish at ChristmasTime in the 1990s, also is beingprepared for publication.

An accomplished photographer, Mr.Plaut, together with his wife, estab-lished Gallery Plaut on Martha’sVineyard in the summer of 2000 to showcase the work of Jewishartists. His own photographic exhibitions have included Spice of Life: Markets and JewishMerchants the World Over ; FarewellSamarkind: The Exodus of Jewsfrom Central Asia, filmed duringextensive fieldwork from 1990–92;The Star in the Crescent: TraditionalJewish Life in Modern Turkey;Fading Glory: Vestiges of Jewish Life in the American South, whichdepicts commercial, civic, and religious life in Mississippi andArkansas; and Scattered Lights:The Remnant of Israel in RuralGreece, an internationally displayedexhibition which has toured muse-ums and galleries from Tel Aviv toLos Angeles to Salonika.

Mr. Plaut is married to Lori EpsteinPlaut, an attorney. They are the parents of Jonas Jacob Plaut. ■

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Joshua Plaut (right) withLori Epstein Plaut and

Jonas Jacob Plaut join theCenter family. At left is

Bruce Slovin, chairman ofthe Center’s Board of

Directors.

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Joshua Plaut

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The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research hosteda special reception on April 16, 2002, to com-memorate the 100th anniversary of the open-ing of the Strashun Library in Vilna. The storyof the Strashun Library, perhaps the foremostJewish library in

Europe before World War II,weaves together a great familylegacy, the tragic destruction ofJewish life and culture duringthe Holocaust, and the effortsof one Jewish officer of theUnited States Army to see justice done.

The 100th anniversary cele-bration featured a talk byColonel Seymour J. Pomrenze,who played a major role in therescue of the Strashun Libraryand its restitution to the YIVOInstitute. Speaking first inYiddish and then English, Brad Sabin Hill, dean of theYIVO Library, provided anoverview of the collection’s history and importance. Guestswere able to tour the currentexhibition composed of hold-ings from the Strashun Library,“Mattityahu Strashun: Scholar,Leader, Book Collector.”Several of the rare books in theexhibit have never before beenon public display.

The current exhibition, aswell as the preservation of theStrashun collection, was madepossible by two descendants ofMattityahu Strashun, TanyaCorbin and Irwin Jacobs, andthe Waber Fund. In December,150 descendants of MattityahuStrashun gathered at theCenter for Jewish History for the opening of the exhibition.

Presently retired, Colonel Pomrenze spent 34 years inactive and reserve service in the United States Army, andwas a member of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s staff inEurope during World War II. Colonel Pomrenze was serving as director of the Offenbach Archival Depot in the

American Zone of Germany in 1945 when he discovered thelooted Strashun Library, which had survived the Nazis’destruction of Vilna’s Jewish community.

Colonel Pomrenze supervised the loading of the Strashunand YIVO Library collections—79,204 items in 420 cases inthree freight cars—and accompanied the collections to theBremen Port where they sailed for the HarborsideWarehouse Co. in Jersey City, New Jersey. The collectionsarrived on July 1, 1947, and were transferred to YIVO head-quarters in New York. The entire journey, plus the approvalof the State Department for restitution of the libraries toYIVO, was arranged by Colonel Pomrenze.

Following the war, Colonel Pomrenze served as distin-guished adjunct professor in records management at TheAmerican University in Washington, DC, until 1980 and,from 1950–76, as records manager/archivist for theDepartment of the Army. He received the Bronze Star

Medal for his work in Vietnamas a military archivist, theLegion of Merit, Asiatic-PacificMedal with three Bronze Stars,and The NetherlandsGovernment Silver Medal ofHonor. He has been anHonorary Fellow of the Societyof American Archivists formore than 50 years.

As a youth, MattityahuStrashun received a traditionalJewish religious education, butalso engaged in the privatestudy of mathematics and sci-ence. A leading philanthropistand communal leader, hechaired, for many years, theTsedakah Gedolah, the charityfund of the Vilna JewishCommunity. He also served asa member of the Vilna CityCouncil and a trustee of theRussian State Bank of Vilna.

In addition to his many pub-lic activities, he was a greatbook lover and a collector ofrare Hebrew books. His libraryof about 6,000 volumes becamea gathering place for the intel-lectual elite of his time. Shortlybefore his death he decided tobequeath his books and hishome to the Vilna Community.In 1892, the Strashun librarywas opened to the public inMattityahu’s former home. Itsoon became clear that the

building was too small for its purpose and, in 1899, thetrustees of the library decided to erect a new building. Thedocument authorizing construction of the new building isdisplayed in the current exhibition.

YIVO Marks 100th Anniversary Of Vilna’s Strashun Library

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Dr. Rimantas Morkvevnas, consul general of the Republic ofLithuania, was one of the guests at the 100th Anniversary

Celebration of the opening of the Strashun Library in Vilna,and spent some time viewing “Mattityahu Strashun: Scholar,Leader, Book Collector,” a exhibition mounted by the YIVO

Institute for Jewish Research.

Colonel Seymour J. Pomrenze (center), who played a majorrole in the rescue of the Strashun Library and its restitutionto the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, is joined by Dr.Carl J. Rheins (right), YIVO’s executive director, and Brad

Sabin Hill (left), dean of its library.

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In 1901, the library moved to its newbuilding and formally opened to thepublic in 1902. The Strashun Libraryvery soon became a popular place forstudy, attracting visitors from manyparts of Europe. The average dailynumber of readers surpassed 200,mostly high school and seminary students, and there was always a line of readers outside the door. In theevenings the Library served as a Jewish

cultural center. The collection contin-ued to grow, primarily through giftsand bequests. Starting in 1928, theVilna University Library began to sendall Hebrew and Yiddish books pub-lished in Poland to the Strashun collec-tion. In the 1930s, the number of bookswas reported to be 35,000.

The Nazis occupied Vilna on June23, 1941, and, soon thereafter, orderedthe Jews into a ghetto. Both the YIVOLibrary and the Strashun Library weretaken over by the EinsatzstabRosenberg, a Nazi task force assignedthe work of looting and disposing of

Jewish cultural treasures. The Nazisforced the librarians to select and cratehundreds of thousands of Jewish booksand manuscripts. The wooden crateswere shipped to Frankfurt-am-Main,where they were stored in a huge ware-house located in nearby Offenbach. In1945, the American army discovered3,000,000 Jewish books in theOffenbach warehouse, among them25,000 books from the Strashun Librarycollection and 15,000 books from theYIVO collection. Colonel Pomrenzeentered the saga at this point. ■

Continued from page 5

100th Anniversary

Genealogy InstituteInaugurates New Website

Family history research just got a lot easier—no matter where you reside!—thanks to theCenter’s Genealogy Institute. Visit the Center’swebsite at www.cjh.org (The Jewish Agency forIsrael recently named the Center for JewishHistory website among the top ten Jewish

websites in the world.) and click on “Family History.” Youwill find new web pages that provide detailed informationabout the wealth of genealogical records and resourceshoused at the Center.

“Ancestral Traces: A Virtual Exhibit,” displays some of the unique and unusual genealogical records at the Center,including a transcript from a trial conducted by theInquisition in Mexico, a page of birth records from theJewish community of Rangoon, HIAS arrival cards, a list ofmarriages in 1842 in Offenbach, Germany, a burial recordfrom a Landsmanschaft, and more.

“Frequently Asked Questions” provides answers on howto do genealogy research at the Center. Plan your researchin advance with the FAQs, as well as a complete listing ofthe Genealogy Institute’s reference collection, including his-torical atlases and books on the Holocaust, travel, and Jewishhistory. The listings may also be found on the website.

The Genealogy Institute staff and volunteers have createda series of fact sheets that list the genealogical resources atthe Center. All fact sheets now are available on the websiteas PDF files you can print at home. Was your ancestor arabbi? Click on the rabbinic records fact sheet and find alisting of the books at the Center—in Yiddish, Hebrew, andEnglish—with biographical information on rabbis. Want toknow how to access records from Belarus or Lithuania?Print out the free fact sheets and learn. Wondering whatSephardic records are available at the Center? Read the factsheets on Sephardic topics to learn that there is material inall the partner organizations, including records fromSalonika in the archives of the YIVO Institute for JewishResearch; records of the Curacao community in the holdings

of the American Jewish Historical Society; records of theHamburg Sephardic community in the collections of the Leo Baeck Institute; and records of the AmsterdamSephardic community, and much more, collected by theAmerican Sephardi Federation.

The Center Genealogy Institute (which can be reached at212-294-8324 or at gi@cjh.org) is open Monday throughThursday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Institute also is open oneSunday a month from 12:30 to 2 p.m., when the JewishGenealogical Society of New York hosts its monthly meetingat the Center. All basic services are provided free of charge.

The Center Genealogy Institute also has inaugurated a highlysuccessful series of workshops, both for beginners and for moreexperienced family researchers. These workshops, priced at $10per person, will resume in the fall. Each workshop is limited to12 participants. Please consult the Center’s printed or websitecalendar for dates and further information. ■

NEWS ALERT!Family Tree Magazine, an online publica-tion, chose the Center for Jewish History web-site its “Site of the Day” for June 25, 2002.Family Tree Magazine is a leading geneal-ogy publication about discovering, preservingand celebrating family history. The Center’swebsite (www.cjh.org) was cited as “a won-derful online resource for our readers,” byFamily Tree Magazine managing editor,Susan Wenner Jackson.

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To add to itssuccessful filmand concertseries (pleasesee sidebar,this page) the

Center filled out its culturalcalendar this spring with sev-eral theater presentationsspanning different culturesand historical periods.

The Netela Theatre ofJerusalem, on its first tour tothe United States, playedthree sold-out performancesat the Center, presented bythe American SephardiFederation and YemeniteFederation of America.Established in 1994 byEthiopian-born actors,Netela presented Bavel, aplay within a play thatexplored the hardships ofimmigration and absorptioninto a different culturalmilieu.

Each performance ofBavel was followed by a dis-cussion between the actorsand the audience. A groupof 30 students from theFrederick Douglass HighSchool in Harlem attended amatinee performance andengaged in a lively dialoguewith Netela about Israel andJudaism.

The YIVO Institute forJewish Research sponsoreda staged reading of GhettoCabaret, a drama with musicbased on documents, diariesand chronicles of the VilnaGhetto. A simultaneousEnglish translation was readand transmitted to the audi-ence via infrared earphones.

Ghetto Cabaret was writ-ten by Miriam Hoffman andRena Berkowicz-Borow, whofound all their source mater-ial in the YIVO Archives

and Library. The presenta-tion included several skitsand songs that actually wereperformed in the VilnaGhetto, interspersed by pas-sages from the Diaries ofHerman Kruk (which will bepublished in English by YaleUniversity Press in collabo-ration with YIVO inSeptember 2002).

The audience journeyedto a different part of theJewish world with Aviya deSer… (Once Upon aTime)—An Evening ofSephardic Storytelling andSong, presented by theLadino Players, the onlyLadino theater company inthe United States.Sponsored by the AmericanSephardi Federation andSephardic House, Aviya deSer… featured love storiesand humorous sketches. Theevening was presentedentirely in Ladino, with briefEnglish commentary.

The Jewish RepertoryTheatre made its home atthe Center for its spring sea-son and presented concertversions of two well-knownmusicals: Two by Two, basedloosely on the story of Noahand the flood, with music byRichard Rodgers, andVagabond Stars, a revueabout the immigration ofEastern European Jews tothe United States in theearly 1900s. Vagabond Starsconsists entirely of songs andscenes that were originallyperformed in the Yiddishtheaters of New York, trans-lated into English. Much ofthe original material can befound in the archives of theYIVO Institute for JewishResearch. ■

Theater Comes To The Center

The Center hosted a spring season filled with a multitude of exciting film and musical presen-tations. Highlights included the live, world premiere of the Yiddish Radio Project, a majorseries on NPR; two sold-out performances of“The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania” featuring Muzsikás with Márta Sebest’yen;Yale Strom and the Hot P’Stromi Ensemble in a concert bringing together Klezmer, Sephardic,Balkan, and Romanian music; and the NewYork premiere of Concorrenza Sleale (UnfairCompetition), a major new film from Italiandirector Ettore Scola. This coming fall will bringfour films on the Jewish experience in Poland,a series devoted to Jewish humor in film, and avariety of concerts. Watch the mail for yourMusic and Film Series brochure!

Infrared earphonesprovided simultaneousEnglish translationfor the audience atGhetto Cabaret, whichwas performed inYiddish.

The singers of Ghetto Cabaret, written

by Miriam Hoffmanand Rena Berkowicz-Borow and sponsoredby the YIVO Institutefor Jewish Research.

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Six outstandingyoung scholarsin Jewish historyfrom severalprominent uni-versities have

been selected to receive thefirst Center for JewishHistory Fellowships. Each of the students currently isengaged in research for hisor her doctoral dissertation,using the rich archival andlibrary resources at theCenter.

The fellowships carry an award of $10,000 for a10-month period beginningin September 2002. Each fellow is expected to spendtwo full days per week conducting research in theCenter’s Lillian GoldmanReading Room, and will berequired to deliver a one-hour presentation to theCenter’s professional staff.They also will be called uponto assist the Center and itspartner institutions with various activities in archivalresearch.

The six fellowship winners are:

■ Alisa Braun of theUniversity of Michigan.The title of Ms. Braun’sdissertation is “BecomingAuthorities: Jews, Writingand the Dynamics ofLiterary Affiliation, 1890–1940.”

Ms. Braun, a New York Cityresident, earned her B.A.from Columbia Universityand spent her junior yearabroad at Cambridge. Shealso has studied at the UrielWeinreich Program inYiddish Language,Literature and Culture at

the YIVO Institute forJewish Research, and forthe academic year 2002–03,is the recipient of the Rose and Isidore DrenchFellowship from YIVO.

Her dissertation willexplore the relationshipbetween four Jewish writers,Abraham Cahan, MorrisRosenfeld, Henry Roth, andFannie Hurst, and theirmentors/patrons. Herresearch efforts at theCenter will focus on theHenry Roth papers in thecollections of the AmericanJewish Historical Societyand the Abraham Cahanpapers, as well as the exten-sive newspaper and periodi-cal collections, of the YIVOInstitute for Jewish Research.

■ Jessica Cooperman of NewYork University. “TheJewish Diaspora and theFirst World War: Germanyand the United States.”

Ms. Cooperman receivedher B.A. from the Universityof Pennsylvania and also has studied at ColumbiaUniversity, MiddleburyCollege in Vermont, TheHebrew University ofJerusalem, and KingsCollege, London. A residentof New York City, she is therecipient of a fellowship, forSeptember 2001 to June2003, from The RemarqueInstitute of New YorkUniversity.

Ms. Cooperman primarilywill conduct her research inthe holdings of theAmerican Jewish HistoricalSociety and the Leo BaeckInstitute. She will examinethe challenges faced by theGerman and American

Jewish communities duringwhat was a period of intensenationalism and global mili-tary conflict, studying whatthis conflict meant to Jewsloyal to their diasporichomelands.

■ James Loeffler, ColumbiaUniversity. “The Role ofMusic as a Means ofJewish Social andCultural Modernization inLate Imperial Russia.”

Mr. Loeffler earned his B.A.from Harvard Universityand also studied at TheHebrew University ofJerusalem and the PardesInstitute of Jewish Studies inIsrael. He was the recipientof a research grant from theFord Foundation to studyYiddish musical and comedytraditions, and served as act-ing sound archivist for theYIVO Institute for JewishResearch in 1999.

Mr. Loeffler, who lives inNew York City, will conductresearch in the archives ofthe YIVO Institute forJewish Research, the LeoBaeck Institute, and theAmerican Jewish Archivesas he pursues a social historyof Jewish music and musi-cians in the later Imperialperiod of Russian history.He also will explore severalinterlocking cultural institu-tions and social structuresthat were central to the riseof Jewish musicians within the mainstream of Russianculture.

■ Avinoam Patt, New YorkUniversity. “Jewish DPYouth and Zionism inPost-War Germany.”

A resident of West NewYork, New Jersey, Mr. Pattreceived his B.A. from

Six Outstanding Young ScholarsAwarded First CJH Fellowships

The recipients of the first Center for Jewish History Fellowshipsinclude (standing, left to right) Alisa Braun of the University of

Michigan; Joshua Perelman of New York University; Avinoam Patt,also of NYU; and (seated) Michaela Raggam-Blesch of Karl-Franz

University in Graz, Austria. Not pictured are Jessica Cooperman ofNew York University and James Loeffler of Columbia.

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Emory University inAtlanta. He also spent ayear of study in Israel underthe auspices of YoungJudea, and attended classesat the Uriel WeinreichProgram in YiddishLanguage, Literature andCulture at YIVO, and at Deutsches Haus at New York University.

The unique collectionshoused at YIVO, includingthe newspapers and periodi-cals published by the JewishDPs in Germany and thefiles of the CentralCommittee of LiberatedJews, will prove of centralimportance to the comple-tion of his dissertation. Healso plans to use material atthe American JewishHistorical Society onAmerican Jewish chaplainsserving in the DP camps in Germany, as well as autobiographies found inthe Leo Baeck Institute collections.

■ Joshua Perelman, New York University.“Choreographing Identity:Modern Dance andAmerican Jewish Identity,1924–1964.”

Mr. Perelman, who residesin Brooklyn, earned his B.A.at Macalester College in St.Paul, and was a summerresearch fellow at the JewishWomen’s Archive. He alsoserved for two years as thenational director of theUniversity Student Depart-ment of the World ZionistOrganization.

His dissertation will dealwith such dancers/choreogra-phers as Sophie Maslow,Anna Sokolow, Edith Segal,Lily Mehlman, HelenTamiris, Nadia Chilkovsky,Miriam Blecher, AnnaHalprin, and Dorothy Bird.What historical events led toAmerican Jewish moderndancers’ exploration ofJudaism? What impact didtheir experiences during the

Depression have on theirreconstruction of Jewishidentities onstage? How doesthe history of these dancershelp to reformulate the his-tory of American Jewishidentity? Mr. Perelmanhopes to find some of theanswers to his questions inthe holdings of the AmericanJewish Historical Society andYIVO Institute for JewishResearch.

■ Michaela Raggam-Blesch,Karl-Franz University inGraz, Austria. “JewishWomen during Turn-of-the-Century Vienna.”

A native of Austria, Ms.Raggam-Blesch currentlyresides in Staten Island, NewYork, and is a part-timearchivist at the Leo BaeckInstitute. She received herundergraduate degree at theKarl-Franz University inGraz and also studied at the Austrian Academy ofScience in Vienna. She was

the recipient of a FritzHalbers Fellowship forresearch at the Leo BaeckInstitute for the 1999–2000academic year.

Her dissertation will focuson the lives of Jewishwomen at the end of the19th century and beginningof the 20th century inVienna, a melting pot of dif-ferent cultural influenceswithin Hapsburg Austria. Itwill investigate the impact ofan anti-Semitic and partiallymisogynist environment onthe lives of these women.She will conduct herresearch largely within thecollections of the Leo BaeckInstitute, particularly theAustrian HeritageCollection, and the YIVOInstitute for JewishResearch.

The first Center forJewish History Fellowshipshave been made possible bygrants from the Bookhalterand Rich Foundations. ■

The elegant Leo and JuliaForchheimer Auditorium isthe setting for the Center’sextensive program of films,

concerts, theater, lectures, sympo-siums, conferences, and meetings. Theauditorium seats 247 and is equippedwith state-of-the-art technology.

Events in the ForchheimerAuditorium have attractedthousands of participantssince the Center’s openingin October 2000, and it isoccupied almost everyday—and evening—of theweek. It has becomeknown as the “Jewel in theCrown” of the Center.

For those wishing tomake a commitment to thepreservation of Jewishscholarship, culture and art,endowing a seat in the

Forchheimer Auditorium is an out-standing gift opportunity. Donationsare acknowledged on a plaque placedon a seat of your choice, and may beinscribed with your name, in memoryof a loved one, in tribute to a friend orfamily member, or with another desig-nation of your choosing. Seats may be

endowed for gifts ranging from $1,800to $10,500.

The current list of donors to theForchheimer Auditorium SeatCampaign includes:

AnonymousAlbert M. Anikstein -

Cord Contracting Co., Inc.Rosalind DevonFNZ FoundationEstelle M. GuzikDr. Yale S. and Ella LewineSally and Abe MagidMrs. Pearl MeyerNancy and Martin PolevoyElaine ReissNat and Rosalie Sorkin

Please call the Center’sDevelopment Office at 212-294-8310 to discuss endowing your seat in theForchheimer Auditorium. ■

Have a Seat…In the Forchheimer Auditorium

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The spring and summer have brought an extremelyvaried group of exhibitions to the Center, featuring unique and unusual installations, cutting-edge audio-visual techniques, and stirringhistorical context.

■ ■ ■

“Persecuting Grandfathers, Interviewing Grandsons?”opened May 23 in the Clifford and Katherine GoldsmithGallery of the Leo Baeck Institute, co-sponsored by theJewish Museum of Vienna. With panoramic photographs,historical documents, and audio-visual viewing stations tolisten and study taped interviews, the exhibition is the gate-way to one of the most significant oral history projects onmodern Austrian history.

In 1995, the Leo Baeck Institute forged a relationshipwith the Austrian Gedenkdienst, an organization that fos-ters mutual understanding between young Austrians andJewish refugees who were forced to flee from the NationalSocialist regime that came to power in 1938. Each year,Gedenkdienst sends two young Austrian conscientiousobjectors (in lieu of military service) to work for the LeoBaeck Institute in New York. They conduct interviews withAustrian Jewish émigrés, listen to their life stories, and collect important documents and other memorabilia forpermanent safekeeping in the library and archives of theLeo Baeck Institute. These encounters have graduallyevolved into LBI’s Austrian Heritage Collection, encom-passing numerous documents as well as more than 2,200biographical entries.

■ ■ ■

The Yeshiva University Museum opened three major exhibitions, each of which will remain on view into the fall.

“Journey to No End of the World: Judaica from the GrossFamily Collection, Tel Aviv,” takes the viewer to 33 differentJewish communities. Architecturally and conceptually innov-ative, the exhibit features spectacular ceremonial objects, lit-erary testimony, and photographs exploring the traditions ofJewish travelers who, since the 9th century, have journeyedthroughout the world and documented their travels. The

exhibition can be found in the Museum’s Winnick andRosenberg Galleries on the Center’s mezzanine level.

■ ■ ■

Another outstanding collector of Judaica was KathrynYochelson. In the 1950s, Ms. Yochelson began collectingworks by Israeli artists as an outgrowth of her interest in the“artistic roots of the Jewish people,” a search on which shehad earlier embarked as a young college student in NewHaven. From the time of her first visit to Israel, in 1958, andfor the next 40 years, she corresponded with and met Israelipainters and art historians, amassing a significant personalcollection of artworks. In 2002, Ms. Yochelson gave this collection to the Yeshiva University Museum. Visit theMuseum’s Betty and Walter L. Popper Gallery on the mainfloor for “Fruits of a Lifetime: The Kathryn YochelsonCollection of Israeli Art” and enjoy this rare glimpse at acollector and the art she loved and treasured.

■ ■ ■

Leonard Meiselman’s paintings are stark and powerful,and in “Art Against Forgetting,” his expressionist imagesdepict prayer shawls and flags that appear to have beenshredded by catastrophic events. Mr. Meiselman has beendescribed as portraying the two sides of his identity—a Jewand an American. As he paints, the events of the past century—most notably the Holocaust—still resonate, whilenew terrors confront Jews the world over. The artist grappleswith these tensions, yet emerges victorious in his forcefulaffirmation of life. “Art Against Forgetting” can be viewed inthe Museum’s mezzanine level gallery.

■ ■ ■

On July 8, the American Sephardi Federation opened“Photographs from the Jewish Cemeteries of the Saints,Morocco,” by Gary Beeber, a tribute to a Jewish communitythat once numbered more than a quarter-million members,including revered scholars and sages.

■ ■ ■

Visitors have registered an emotional response to “AParticular Responsibility: The U.S. Army and the Creationof the Survivors Talmud,” an exhibition mounted by the

Current Exhibitions

Artifacts featured in “Journey to No End of the World.” Photos courtesy of the Yeshiva University Museum.

left: Mizrah/Kaddish reminder, Krenetz/Ukraine, 1925/26, wool, colored cotton thread, embroidered.

above: Esther Scroll, in Renaissance style, Rome(?)/Italy, c. 1750, parchment, ink, paint.

right: Rimmonim/Torah Finials (hand-shaped), Iran, c. 1920, silver.

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American Jewish Historical Society that will run throughAugust 30th. With historical documents, photographs andartifacts, the exhibit tells the story of the involvement of theUnited States Army in the printing of the Survivors’ Talmud,the only time in world history that a government has pub-lished an edition of this work.

The United States Army published the Talmud inHeidelberg, Germany, between 1948 and 1950 in response torequests by Jewish community representatives, includingRabbi Samuel Jakob Rose, a survivor of Dachau, and rabbisserving as chaplains in the U.S. Army, on behalf of the survivors of the Shoah. (In 1945, not one complete set of the Talmud could be found in Europe.) The U.S. military inthe post-World War II years evolved into a humanitarianforce to shelter Jewish survivors and reconstitute Jewish lifein Europe. President Harry S. Truman called caring for theJewish survivors America’s “particular responsibility” and

asked General Dwight D. Eisenhower to assure that the survivors’ material and spiritual needs were met. UnderEisenhower’s leadership the U.S. Army responded withexemplary compassion. Publishing the 19-volume Survivors’Talmud exemplified this caring.

The dedication on the first page of the Survivors’ Talmud,its only English words, reads as follows:

This edition of the Talmud is dedicated to theUnited States Army. The army played a major rolein the rescue of the Jewish people from total annihi-lation and after the defeat of Hitler bore the majorburden of sustaining the DPs of the Jewish faith.This special edition of the Talmud published in thevery land where, but a short time ago, everythingJewish and of Jewish inspiration was anathema, willremain a symbol of the indestructibility of the Torah.The Jewish DPs will never forget the generousimpulses and the unprecedented humanitarianismof the American forces, to whom they owe so much.

—Rabbi Samuel A. SniegChief Rabbi of the U.S. Zone

■ ■ ■

The American Jewish Historical Society also opened anexhibition featuring Harry Houdini’s world-famous watertorture cell. The exhibition was scheduled to coincide withthe Centennial Convention of the Society of AmericanMagicians, which met in New York from July 3 to 6, 2002.This is the first “appearance” by the water torture cell inNew York, and is accompanied by historic Houdini postersand other archival material.

Perhaps the world’s most famous magician and escapeartist, Harry Houdini was born Ehrich Weiss in what is nowBudapest, Hungary. He grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin,where his father was the city’s first rabbi.

Scene of Houdini’s most famous escape, the water torturecell was said to have been built in England and cost morethan $10,000. Packed with extra glass panels, it weighedabout three-quarters of a ton.

Houdini introduced the water torture cell at the CircusBusch in Berlin in 1912. He freed himself in less than two minutes, and continued to perform this escape throughouthis career. Today, only a few people know the secret of thewater torture cell. ■

General Dwight D. Eisenhower exits the synagogue during an official tour of the Neu Freimann Displaced Persons Camp.

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Chrisoph Thun-Hohenstein, directorof the Austrian Cultural Institute ofNew York, addresses the opening of“Persecuting Grandfathers,Interviewing Grandsons?”

Ruth Altmann, born in Vienna, pictured at her home in New York

in 2002. Ms. Altmann is among those whose stories are told in

“Persecuting Grandfathers,Interviewing Grandsons?”

Electronic ResourcesReceive Boost From Schapiro FundWith two generous grants from theMorris and Alma Schapiro Fund, theCenter has acquired important elec-tronic resources for its reference,research and cataloging services. Usingthese funds, internet-licensed subscrip-tion services and CD-ROM databases,recommended by the Center’sCollection Development Committee,have been purchased or leased.

Visitors to the Center for JewishHistory now can use the electronic ver-sions of important Jewish studies refer-ence tools such as the EncyclopediaJudaica, the Soncino Classics Collectionand Index to Jewish Periodicals, or readfull-text articles from scholarly journalssuch as American Jewish History, JewishSocial Studies and Modern Judaism.

These resources are provided as afree service for users of the Center’spublic computers.

ASF And Sephardic House Are OneThe merger of Sephardic House withthe American Sephardi Federation wasannounced June 6, 2002. SephardicHouse has become the cultural, pro-gramming, publishing, and distributiondivision of the American SephardiFederation.

On the Dinner CircuitThe Archive of American Jews inSports, a division of the AmericanJewish Historical Society, presented itssecond annual Hank GreenbergSportsmanship Award to David Stern,commissioner of the National Basket-ball Association, at a dinner in NewYork. “We are happy to honorCommissioner Stern and the role bas-ketball has played in the integration ofJews into America’s mainstream andthe continuing role the game plays inassimilating other ethnic minoritiesover time,” commented Dr. MichaelFeldberg, executive director of theAmerican Jewish Historical Society.

Later this year, the American JewishHistorical Society presented its EmmaLazarus Statue of Liberty Award toElie Wiesel. The Emma Lazarus Awardhas been given only nine times sincethe Society’s founding 110 years ago.The award honored Professor Wieselfor his exemplary moral, intellectualand literary leadership. Co-chairing theevent were Edgar M. Bronfman, Dr.

Henry A. Kissinger, Ambassador FelixG. Rohatyn, Beverly Sills and SanfordI. Weill. Presidents Bill Clinton,George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter andGerald R. Ford served as honorarychairs. The event was hosted by jour-nalist Ted Koppel.

On May 2, the YIVO Institute forJewish Research honored Congress-woman Nita Lowey and architect FrankOwen Gehry at its annual dinner. Dr.Leon Botstein, president of BardCollege, was the featured speaker.

Spielmann ReceivesAchievement AwardDr. Diane Spielmann, public servicescoordinator at the Center for JewishHistory—and a familiar figure toresearchers and scholars in the LillianGoldman Reading Room—was therecipient of the 2002 AlumniAchievement Award of the GraduateCenter of the City University of NewYork. Dr. Spielmann, who received herdoctorate in German from theGraduate Center, was one of seven

Center Shorts

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Gathered together at the Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Award Dinner of the AmericanJewish Historical Society are (left to right)Kenneth Bialkin, AJHS president, Honoree ElieWiesel, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Ted Koppel, andMrs. Marion Wiesel.

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right: Congresswoman Nita Lowey addresses the Annual YIVO Institute

for Jewish Research Dinner.

bottom right: Bruce Slovin (center), chairman of the YIVO Board, presents

the Lifetime Achievement Award to guest of honor Frank Owen Gehry (left), whilePresident Leon Botstein of Bard College,

guest speaker, looks on.

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individuals chosen by the CityUniversity’s Ph.D. Alumni Associationfor this award.

Blessings of FreedomPublished by AJHSSince January 1997, the AmericanJewish Historical Society has publisheda weekly feature, edited by ExecutiveDirector Michael Feldberg, entitled“Blessings of Freedom: Chapters inAmerican Jewish History” in theEnglish-language edition of TheForward and other newspapers. Thispast March, the Society publishedBlessings of Freedom, which comprises120 of the best columns, organizedaccording to subject and period.

Blessings of Freedom is not a complete history of American Jewry,but rather a collection of vignettes and episodes that, taken together, illuminate the overriding directionsand tendencies of the much largertapestry that comprises the AmericanJewish experience.

Speakers Round-UpThe American Sephardi Federationhosted a briefing at the Center on May10th with Israeli Minister of JusticeMeir Sheetrit, who addressed the issueof compensation for the 850,000 Jews

who were expelled or forced to fleefrom Muslim countries after 1948. The Justice Minister announced a newworldwide effort by his office, in whichASF is taking part, to quickly gatherand save on computer files informationabout communal and private Jewishassets that were confiscated or other-wise lost in a host of Arab countries.

Prominent author and translatorHillel Halkin spent a week at theYIVO Institute for Jewish Research asa visiting scholar and presented a pub-lic lecture entitled, “The Relationshipbetween Modern Yiddish and HebrewLiterature” in April. He spoke on topics such as the history of modernJewish literature in Eastern Europeand Israel, the identities of the writersand political movements behind thisliterature, and the proposed canon ofmodern Jewish literature recently propounded by the National YiddishBook Center.

The Leo Baeck Institute presentedseveral distinguished speakers this pastspring. Sheila Isenberg, author of AHero of our Own: The Story of VarianFry, provided a detailed portrait of theyoung Harvard-educated Americanwho rescued hundreds of individualsfrom the Holocaust, including MarcChagall, Max Ernst, Hannah Arendt

and other artists and intellectuals. Dr.Jay Winter, professor of history at YaleUniversity, presented the 3rd AnnualGeorge Mosse Memorial Lecture,speaking on “Shell Shock, Memory andIdentity in the First World War.” And,on May 8th, Bryan Mark Rigg deliv-ered a most provocative talk based onhis recently published book, Hitler’sJewish Soldiers. Mr. Rigg described themore than 2000 soldiers of Jewish ori-gin who served in the German militaryduring World War II. Mr. Rigg’s workalso was featured on NBC’s Datelineon June 9th.

The American Jewish HistoricalSociety marked the 50th anniversary ofits Dialogue Forum with a series of“conversations” with four notables,each moderated by Rabbi WilliamBerkowitz who founded the series in1951. Rabbi Berkowitz interviewed,respectively, Dr. Norman Lamm,President of Yeshiva University; RabbiHarold Kushner, best-selling authorof When Bad Things Happen to GoodPeople; Malcolm Hoenlein, executivevice-chairman of the Conference ofPresidents of Major American JewishOrganizations; and singer and actor,Theodore Bikel. ■

left to right: Bryan Mark Rigg,Meir Sheetrit, Israel’sMinister of Justice,Dr. Jay Winter,Hillel Halkin

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Tour groups from cities asfar-flung as Caracas,Venezuela, Marseilles,France, Seattle,Portland, Berkeley,Brookline, Danbury,

Dresher, Pennsylvania, and, mostrecently, Roanoke, as well as thegreater New York City area, have beenconverging on the Center for JewishHistory for guided tours of its manyexhibitions and facilities. The Center ispleased to accommodate group tours atany time during its regular hours ofoperation; arrangements may be madeby calling 917-606-8226.

The Center also offers open publictours every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. Individual reservations inadvance are not required.

On April 11, 2002, a delegation fromthe Union Israelita de Caracas, com-prising teachers, architects, formerpoliticians, and other community lead-ers, visited the Center as part of theirtour of various Jewish organizations

throughout the United States. The del-egation was on a fact-finding missionto further plans for the establishmentof a museum and cultural center inCaracas. Several members of the pro-fessional staff of the Center, as well as Sylvia Herkowitz, director of theYeshiva University Museum, addressedthe group.

The Center also hosted, on May 28th, a groupfrom the JewishGenealogical Societyof Maryland. In addi-tion to a tour, these40 enthusiasticresearchers madeextensive use of theresources in theCenter’s GenealogyInstitute and ReadingRoom. And, on May29th, Dr. HelenLight, director of theJewish Museum ofAustralia, came by

for a private tour and to share experi-ences and ideas with Center staff.

Tours, which are led by traineddocents, cover all areas of the Centerdedicated to public service and themajor exhibitions of the AmericanJewish Historical Society, AmericanSephardi Federation, Leo BaeckInstitute, and YIVO Institute forJewish Research. Visitors also tour the areas available for special events, including the Leo and JuliaForchheimer Auditorium and SteinbergGreat Hall, and are welcome to browsein the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller CenterShop, eat in the Date Palm Café, andtake advantage of the Center’s servicesin tracing family histories. ■

Program Of Guided ToursAttracts Groups From Across the USA And Beyond

The delegation from Union Israelita de Caracas, Venezuela,

on tour at the Center.

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The Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center Shop pre-sents visitors to the Center with an ever-changingselection of books, Judaica, jewelry, stationery,CD’s and other items. Newest additions to theshop’s inventory include:

■ Swimming Across by Andrew S. Grove. The founder andchairman of Intel was born Andras Grof in Hungary and,together with his family, survived the Nazi occupation andthe 1956 revolution before emigrating to the UnitedStates. This charming memoir spans the period of his earlyyears, in which chilling events are seen through the eyes ofa child, to his emergence as an American college studentknown as “Andy.”

■ Jewish Travel Guide 2002, edited by Michael Zaidner.Published in association with London’s Jewish Chronicle,this is the indispensable resource for the Jewish traveler.

■ Jewelry by new Israeli artist Neta Eyal has been added tothe shop’s already extensive selection of earrings,bracelets, necklaces, and pins.

■ Sports memorabilia. A unique collection of signed baseball cards, photos, and other mementos of Jewishsports notables.

The Center Shop is open Monday to Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ■

What’s New…At the Center Shop

FOUNDERSS. DANIEL ABRAHAM,

DR. EDWARD L. STEINBERG - SDA ENTERPRISES, INC.

ANTIQUA FOUNDATIONESTATE OF SOPHIE BOOKHALTER, M.D.LEO AND JULIA FORCHHEIMER

FOUNDATIONLILLIAN GOLDMAN CHARITABLE TRUSTKATHERINE AND CLIFFORD H. GOLDSMITHTHE JESSELSON FAMILYTHE KRESGE FOUNDATIONRONALD S. LAUDERBARBARA AND IRA A. LIPMAN AND SONSNEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF

CULTURAL AFFAIRSNEW YORK STATE -

GOVERNOR GEORGE E. PATAKINEW YORK STATE -

ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SHELDON SILVERRONALD O. PERELMANBETTY AND WALTER L. POPPERRELIANCE GROUP HOLDINGS, INC. INGEBORG AND IRA LEON RENNERT -

THE KEREN RUTH FOUNDATIONANN AND MARCUS ROSENBERGTHE SLOVIN FAMILYJOSEPH S. AND DIANE H. STEINBERGDR. SAMUEL D. WAKSALTHE WINNICK FAMILY FOUNDATION

SPONSORSSTANLEY I. BATKINJOAN AND JOSEPH F. CULLMAN 3RDDIANE AND MARK GOLDMANHORACE W. GOLDSMITH FOUNDATIONTHE GOTTESMAN FUNDTHE SAMBERG FAMILY FOUNDATIONTHE SKIRBALL FOUNDATIONTHE SMART FAMILY FOUNDATIONTISCH FOUNDATIONTHEODORE AND RENEE WEILER

FOUNDATION

PATRONS JUDY AND RONALD BARONJAYNE AND HARVEY BEKERROBERT M. BEREN FOUNDATIONBIALKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION -

ANN AND KENNETH J. BIALKINEMILY AND LEN BLAVATNIKGEORGE AND MARION BLUMENTHALABRAHAM AND RACHEL BORNSTEINLILI AND JON BOSSELOTTE AND LUDWIG BRAVMANNTHE ELI AND EDYTHE L. BROAD

FOUNDATIONTHE CONSTANTINER FAMILYMR. AND MRS. J. MORTON DAVISDONALDSON, LUFKIN & JENRETTEMICHAEL AND KIRK DOUGLASTHE DAVID GEFFEN FOUNDATIONGEORGICA ADVISORS LLCWILLIAM B. GINSBERGNATHAN AND LOUISE GOLDSMITH

FOUNDATIONJACK B. GRUBMANFANYA GOTTESFELD HELLERSUSAN AND ROGER HERTOGMR. AND MRS. PAUL KAGANLEAH AND MICHAEL KARFUNKELSIMA AND NATHAN KATZ AND FAMILYBARCLAY KNAPPMR. AND MRS. HENRY R. KRAVISCONSTANCE AND HARVEY KRUEGER

SIDNEY AND RUTH LAPIDUSMR. AND MRS. THOMAS H. LEELEON LEVYGEORGE L. LINDEMANNTHE MARCUS FOUNDATIONMARK FAMILY FOUNDATIONCRAIG AND SUSAN MCCAW FOUNDATIONLEO AND BETTY MELAMEDEDWARD AND SANDRA MEYER

FOUNDATIONDEL AND BEATRICE P. MINTZ

FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONRUTH AND THEODORE N. MIRVISNEW YORK STATE -

SENATOR ROY M. GOODMANNUSACH VILNE, INC. SUSAN AND ALAN PATRICOFANNE AND MARTY PERETZJUDITH AND BURTON P. RESNICKTHE MARC RICH FOUNDATIONRIGHTEOUS PERSONS FOUNDATION -

STEVEN SPIELBERGLOUISE AND GABRIEL ROSENFELD,

HARRIET AND STEVEN PASSERMANDR. AND MRS. LINDSAY A. ROSENWALDS. H. AND HELEN R. SCHEUER

FAMILY FOUNDATIONFREDERIC M. SEEGALTHE SELZ FOUNDATIONTHE SHELDON H. SOLOW FOUNDATIONDAVID AND CINDY STONE –

FREEDMAN & STONE LAW FIRMROBYNN N. AND ROBERT M. SUSSMANHELENE AND MORRIS TALANSKYWACHTELL, LIPTON, ROSEN & KATZFRANCES AND LAURENCE A. WEINSTEINGENEVIEVE AND JUSTIN WYNERDALE AND RAFAEL ZAKLADBARBARA AND ROY J. ZUCKERBERG

BUILDERS JOSEPH ALEXANDER FOUNDATIONDWAYNE O. ANDREAS - ARCHER DANIELS

MIDLAND FOUNDATIONBEATE AND JOSEPH D. BECKERANTHONY S. BELINKOFFTHE DAVID BERG FOUNDATIONHALINA AND SAMSON BITENSKYANA AND IVAN BOESKYCITIBANKVALERIE AND CHARLES DIKERERNST & YOUNG LLPMR. AND MRS. BARRY FEIRSTEINRICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUNDARNOLD AND ARLENE GOLDSTEINTHE SIDNEY KIMMEL FOUNDATIONGERALD AND MONA LEVINETHE LIMAN FOUNDATIONMERRILL LYNCH & CO., INC.LOIS AND RICHARD MILLERBRUCE C. RATNERCAROL F. AND JOSEPH H. REICHSTEPHEN ROSENBERG – GREYSTONE & CO.MAY AND SAMUEL RUDIN

FAMILY FOUNDATION, INC.THE MORRIS AND ALMA SCHAPIRO FUNDI. B. SPITZSHARON AND FRED STEINJANE AND STUART WEITZMANDAPHNA AND RICHARD ZIMAN

GUARDIANS MR. AND MRS. SAMUEL AARONSWILLIAM AND KAREN ACKMANMR. AND MRS. MERV ADELSON

ARTHUR S. AINSBERGMARJORIE AND NORMAN E. ALEXANDERMARCIA AND EUGENE APPLEBAUMBANK OF AMERICASANFORD L. BATKINBEAR, STEARNS & CO., INC.VIVIAN AND NORMAN BELMONTEJACK AND MARILYN BELZMEYER BERMAN FOUNDATIONTHE BLOOMFIELD FAMILYBOGATIN FAMILY FOUNDATIONRALPH H. BOOTH IIDASSA AND BRILL - MARLENE BRILLETHEL BRODSKYCALIFORNIA FEDERAL BANKPATRICIA AND JAMES CAYNECENTER SHEET METAL, INC. -

VICTOR GANYCHASE MANHATTAN CORPORATIONCREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTONELLA CWIK-LIDSKYIDE AND DAVID DANGOORESTHER AND ROBERT DAVIDOFFANTHONY DEFELICE - WILLISROSALIND DEVONTHE PHILIP DEVON FAMILY FOUNDATIONBERNICE AND DONALD DRAPKINE. M. WARBURG, PINCUS & CO., LLCHENRY, KAMRAN

AND FREDERICK ELGHANAYANMARTIN I. ELIASGAIL AND ALFRED ENGELBERGCLAIRE AND JOSEPH H. FLOMFOREST ELECTRIC CORPORATIONDAVID GERBER

AND CAROLYN KORSMEYERROBERT T. AND LINDA W. GOADGOLDMAN, SACHS & CO.EUGENE AND EMILY GRANT

FAMILY FOUNDATIONCLIFF GREENBERGLORELEI AND BENJAMIN HAMMERMANJAMES HARMONELLEN AND DAVID S. HIRSCHADA AND JIM HORWICHHSBC BANKPAUL T. JONES IIGERSHON KEKSTJANET AND JOHN KORNREICHKPMG LLPHILARY BALLON AND ORIN KRAMERLAQUILA CONSTRUCTIONTHE FAMILY OF LOLLY AND JULIAN LAVITTLEHMAN BROTHERSEILEEN AND PETER M. LEHRERDENNIS LEIBOWITZABBY AND MITCH LEIGH FOUNDATION

LIBERTY MARBLE, INC.KENNETH AND EVELYN LIPPER

FOUNDATIONCAROL AND EARLE I. MACKMACKENZIE PARTNERS, INC.BERNARD L. AND RUTH MADOFF

FOUNDATIONSALLY AND ABE MAGIDJOSEPH MALEHMR. AND MRS. PETER W. MAYTHE MAYROCK FOUNDATIONDRS. ERNEST AND ERIKA MICHAELABBY AND HOWARD MILSTEINMORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTERAGAHAJAN NASSIMI AND FAMILYTHE FAMILY OF EUGENE AND MURIEL

AND MAYER D. NELSONTHE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANYBERNARD AND TOBY NUSSBAUMPAUL, WEISS, RIFKIND, WHARTON

& GARRISONDORIS AND MARTIN D. PAYSONARTHUR AND MARILYN PENN

CHARITABLE TRUSTMR. AND MRS. NORMAN H. PESSINPHILIP MORRIS COMPANIES INC.DAVID AND CINDY PINTERROSA AND DAVID POLENNANCY AND MARTIN POLEVOYYVONNE AND LESLIE POLLACK

FAMILY FOUNDATIONGERI AND LESTER POLLACKFANNY PORTNOYBESSY L. PUPKOR & J CONSTRUCTION CORPORATIONANNA AND MARTIN J. RABINOWITZJAMES AND SUSAN RATNER

PHILANTHROPIC FUNDARLEEN AND ROBERT S. RIFKINDANITA AND YALE ROETHE FAMILY OF EDWARD

AND DORIS ROSENTHALJACK AND ELIZABETH ROSENTHALSHAREN NANCY ROZENTHE HARVEY AND PHYLLIS SANDLER

FOUNDATIONCAROL AND LAWRENCE SAPERIRENE AND BERNARD SCHWARTZALLYNE AND FRED SCHWARTZJOSEPH E. SEAGRAM & SONS, INC.SIMPSON THACHER & BARTLETTSKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER

& FLOM LLCALAN B. SLIFKA FOUNDATIONSONY CORPORATION OF AMERICAJERRY I. SPEYER/KATHERINE G. FARLEYMEI AND RONALD STANTONJUDY AND MICHAEL STEINHARDTANITA AND STUART SUBOTNICKLYNN AND SY SYMSLYNNE AND MICKEY TARNOPOLALICE M. AND THOMAS J. TISCHTRIARC COMPANIES -

NELSON PELTZ AND PETER MAYSIMA AND RUBIN WAGNERWEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGESPETER A. WEINBERGHOWARD S. WELINSKYERNST AND PUTTI WIMPFHEIMER -

ERNA STIEBEL MEMORIAL FUNDHOPE AND SIMON ZIFFTHE ZISES FAMILY

Sharing Our CommitmentThe Center for Jewish History proudly recognizes the following donors for their most gen-erous support of its undertaking to preserve the Jewish past and ensure the Jewish future.In addition to many anonymous gifts, this roster includes major benefactions receivedthrough June 30, 2002. Many significant gift opportunities remain available at the Center,including the naming of outstanding facilities. Please call our Development Office at 212-294-8310.

The Rewards of GivingTo support the Center for Jewish History, you maywish to consider making a gift of appreciated secu-rities, remembering the Center in a bequest in yourwill, or naming the Center as a beneficiary of fundsin your retirement account. For more information,or to discuss these giving options, please call theDevelopment Office at 212-294-8310.

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15 West 16th StreetNew York, NY 10011

www.cjh.org

nonprofit organizationU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDNew York, NYPermit #04568

isitors to the Centerfor Jewish Historyoften notice the intri-cate structure of thefacility once past the

doors of the 16th Street Lobby.The explanation is that theCenter, now one building, wasoriginally six.

When construction began on theCenter, there were four existingbuildings, 11 West 16 Street, 15 West 16 Street, 20 West 17Street and a four-story courtyardbuilding, built at different timesfrom 1909 to 1953. Two newbuildings were erected at 18 West17 Street and 22 West 17 Street.The six were then merged into anew steel structure.

Today’s Paul S. and SylviaSteinberg Great Hall divides theCenter and is the bridge between16th and 17th Streets. The 16thStreet side of the Center houses,among other components, theYeshiva University Museum’s Bettyand Walter L. Popper Gallery, theFanya Gottesfeld Heller CenterShop, the Diane and MarkGoldman American JewishHistorical Society Board Room, theCenter’s two-story Lillian GoldmanReading Room, the GenealogyCenter, the Jonas Mendel RennertChapel, the Selma L. BatkinMezzanine Gallery, and theRosenberg Gallery and WinnickGallery of the Yeshiva UniversityMuseum. Across the Great Hall, on the 17th Street side, are the

Center’s Leo and Julia ForchheimerAuditorium, the Date Palm Café,the Children’s Discovery Center,and the administrative offices. The original 20 West 17 Street, a 12-story building, houses theCenter’s archival storage areas.

The Center contains many addi-tional public spaces and areas ofinterest. Guests are invited toexplore the buildings, or join one of the public tours, offered everyTuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. ■

Did You Know?

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