Grace Stewart (Intern Highlight)

After returning from a study abroad program in Israel, Grace Stewart joined the Houston Jewish History Archive (HJHA) intern team in early September, 2021. Grace is interested in Christian-Jewish relations, and she felt that working for the HJHA would be a great opportunity to learn more about the Jewish community and culture in Houston and at Rice. In her work, she has noted how much of an impact the Jewish community has had on Houston yet how little that impact is discussed. 

Grace’s main role at the HJHA is to review interview transcripts for spelling and grammar mistakes so the text copies can be added to the archive. Through this experience she has been able to read many stories about Jewish History in Houston, and is proud to be part of archiving stories she worries could be forgotten.

After being asked what she would say to someone considering working for the HJHA, Grace said there is much to learn through the stories that people share. She noted that many people you might see on the street have stories to tell “if you take the time to listen.” To Grace, working at the HJHA is meaningful because she is helping give a voice to those who have not had a chance to tell their stories.

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Fall 2021 Archive Thursday Highlights

By Austin W. Cox, HJHA Intern.

This semester has been filled with quite a bit of changes. As we began to reopen campus and have in person events, one thing remained the same, Archive Thusdays! Here at the HJHA we wanted to share some of our favorite spotlights of the semester! For the actual posts please visit our instagram page: @ricejewishstudies.

On December 2nd, the HJHA wished the community a happy Hanukkah! This program from a December1915 Congregation at Beth Israel Houston Hanukkah Dance came to us in the scrapbooks of William Max Nathan ’16, a member of the first graduating class of Rice University and the first to graduate with honors.

 

 

To mark Veterans’ Day on November 11th, Archive Thursday honored Hyman Rosenzweig ’28.  Hyman Joe Rosenzweig was born December 6, 1906 in Houston. He graduated from Rice in 1928 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.  Rosenzweig joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and served for the duration of the war, receiving an honorable discharge in 1945. During his time overseas he participated in campaigns in Italy and North Africa.  Documents and memorabilia from his military service were donated to Fondren Library and Rice University by his nephew. Rosenzweig is one of more than 200 Houston Jewish veterans honored with a star on the Beth Jacob Banner, shown here.

The week of October25th, we spotlighted a wonderful family photo donated to the HJHA by Fred Sklar: a multigenerational gathering for the 50th wedding anniversary of Meyer and Esther Moore, front center, in January 1935.  The photo was taken in front of the home of Max Moore, a son, at 1902 McKee.  The family created a key to identify all the children and adults in the photo, which was also published in the Houston Chronicle!  We at Rice Jewish Studies are honored to be able to preserve important Houston Jewish family memories such as this. 

On September 30th, we spotlighted a Cookbook! Did you know that the Houston Jewish History Archive Rice University collects cookbooks from synagogues and Jewish organizations all over Texas?  Cookbooks reveal how Jewish Texans have adapted to life in the Lone Star State while preserving their culinary traditions.  The oldest cookbook in our Fondren Library collection is from Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, the oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas. Check out this 1909 recipe for preparing a possum dinner!

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Social Media and Archive Thursdays!

By Austin W. Cox, HJHA Intern.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, staff and volunteers at the HJHA have been working incredibly hard to document this pandemic’s effects on the Jewish community. We have been posting on Instagram and Facebook every Thursday to showcase some of the new additions to the archive to our followers. We plan on continuing this every Thursday so make sure to follow us to keep up with them! Our last two Archive Thursdays are as follows:

The World War II service flag (pictured below) was the centerpiece of our March 11th post and is located in Fondren Library along with many other artifacts that make up the Houston Jewish History Archive.

On March 18th, we celebrated the story of three women in Houston who created the board game Tradition (pictured below), a Jewish version of Trivial Pursuit, which sold upwards of 17,000 copies. The creators of the game donated their archives to Fondren Library and the Houston Jewish History Archive, and Dr. Furman wrote about the making of the game and its significance for Tablet Magazine back in 2019: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/the-birth-of-tradition

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HJHA Exhibit in the RMC

By Amanda Lopatin, HJHA Intern

The RMC (Rice Memorial Center) is the hub of campus life for Rice students, featuring Coffeehouse, the campus bookstore, Willy’s Pub, and now, an HJHA exhibit!  The exhibit, entitled “Bagels and BBQ: A Taste of Texas Jewish Life,” includes a variety of artifacts from the 1910s to the 1970s, highlighting a range of different aspects of private and public Jewish life.  Included in the display case are deli menus, bar mitzvah photos, cookbooks, and even a commemorative T-shirt from a synagogue barbecue.

For many Rice students, this exhibit exposed them to Jewish life in Texas for the first time. Hanszen College sophomore Arshia Batra said that although she grew up in Houston, she had no idea that there was a Jewish community in the area until browsing this exhibit. Julian Gonzalez, another Hanszen sophomore, was intrigued by the time-span covered by the exhibit, describing the exhibit as “a little screenshot of history.” 

To visit this little “screenshot” of history, enter the RMC through the main doors and turn left. 

 

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Houston Jews on the Homefront

By Katie Webber, HJHA Intern

Over the past few weeks I’ve been sorting through a box we’ve recently acquired from Beth Yeshurun. This collection is special because it is the remaining pieces from Beth El Synagogue, a synagogue which later joined with Adath Yeshurun to become Beth Yeshurun, now the largest Conservative synagogue in the United States. This box has included some amazing materials from Beth El, specifically from the late 30’s and early 40’s with an extensive collection of letters from active duty service members serving in World War II.

However, the pieces which have been the most interesting to me haven’t been letters from Tunisia or France, it’s been the materials from right here in Houston. The Rabbis of the City of Houston formed a special campaign which advocated for local Houstonians to play their part in helping those in Eastern Europe who were without food. These campaign materials spoke to the shared humanity of all people as “brothers” and the moral responsibility of Houstonians as both Americans and as Jews to help others in need.

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Beth Yeshurun’s Interfaith Seder

By Emma Siegel, HJHA Intern

Passover is a holiday about acknowledgment of the other and subsequent redemption. During Passover we recite this passuk: “A wandering Aramean was my father [’arami ’oved avi]; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous” (Deuteronomy 26:5). These words serve as a reminder that the Jewish people’s concern for others should stem from the historical experience of their own people.

The Seder is a time not only to reflect on the story of the Jewish people as oppressed and redeemed, but also to acknowledge the inequities that still exist. The very fact that we read in the Haggadah that we are still enslaved is perhaps the most instructive of this concept, “Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover. This year [we are] here; next year in the land of Israel. This year [we are] slaves; next year [we will be] free people”.  These words have inspired people from all faiths in their quest for freedom.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the Seder acted as a bridge between white Jewish Americans and black Americans. This is the principle that underlies the Freedom Seder and Congregation Beth Yeshurun’s Interracial Seder as well as the shift from the Seder as a Jewish tradition to a meal of contemporary intersectionality.

On April 4, 1969, the one year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the first Freedom Seder was held in the basement of an all-black church in Washington DC. Attendees used Rabbi Waskow’s Freedom Haggadah, which incorporated both historical Jewish elements and discussion of social-justice heroes such as Gandhi and MLK.  It was this Seder, with 800 Jews and non-Jews, white and black, that allowed for the Passover Seder to be viewed as a Jewish avenue for social justice.

As I was processing a box of photographs from the Congregation Beth Yeshurun collection, I came across an envelope full of photographs entitled “Interfaith Seder.” These photographs, in pristine quality, were not just reflective of an Interfaith Seder.  Rather, these photographs depict a racially integrated and community-oriented Seder of individuals from different faith backgrounds. On April 4, 1971, on the third anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Beth Yeshurun and the Julia C. Hester House conducted their own interracial Seder.

The Julia C. Hester House is an organization that works “to enhance the quality of lives in the Fifth Ward and the surrounding community through programs and services promoting self-empowerment”. Congregation Beth Yeshurun’s Message Announcement for the event stated, “V. Besselle Atwell, dynamic director of the bustling neighborhood center … is a firm believer in the maxim that mental and spiritual ghettos are even more binding than physical ones.”  Reading this statement, I was instantly reminded of a topic discussed at my own Seder this year, the Slave Bible. The Slave Bible was the bible used by Christian Missionaries to convert slaves in the Caribbean. Within this Bible, it was discovered that the entire Exodus Story had been removed, so as to avoid inspiring the slaves to commit acts of rebellion against their masters. It is striking to think about how the Passover Story was viewed as a threat to the entire construction of slavery, as something that could free one not only from their own ‘mental or spiritual ghetto,’ but from the chains of physical slavery as well.

It seems that the interracial Seder was one of the first genuine interactions between Houston’s black community and the Houston Jewish Community as cited in Congregation Beth Yeshurun’s ‘The Message,’ which noted that “[s]ince real contact with Houston Jews has, unfortunately, been quite minimal, it was felt that no interracial experience could be more valuable than participating in the Seder ceremony.” From Waskow to Congregation Beth Yeshurun, the Seder was used to break the social and political barriers of segregation and create ties between the black American community and white Jewish American communities.

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A Conversation with Sherry Merfish

 By Amanda Lopatin, HJHA Intern

When I asked Sherry Merfish to tell me her title, she wasn’t sure what to say, and after talking with her for an hour, I understand why. Sherry is a Jewish woman from San Antonio, a mother, an attorney, and a feminist. Sherry told me that the title that best encompasses all of her roles is “activist,” and I agree.

Last month, I sat down with Sherry to interview her about her archives, which Sherry generously donated to Rice University and the HJHA.  Beginning in the 1980s, Sherry led a nationwide campaign against the term “JAP,” or “Jewish American Princess.” A few months ago, Sherry donated her files from this campaign to the Archive.

Though Sherry had heard the term “JAP” in passing during her childhood, she only began to realize its abhorrent sexism and anti-Semitism after becoming a mother when she saw The Official JAP Handbook for the first time. Sherry found The Official JAP Handbook at Houston’s Jewish Community Center book fair in the 1980s, and she became increasingly appalled as she perused it. Sherry realized that age-old Jewish stereotypes (such as materialism, parasitism, and lack of trustworthiness) were being attributed to Jewish women. Sherry knew immediately that she needed to do something.

To raise awareness, Sherry started by bringing the issue to the Women’s Issues Committee of the Houston Chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). But Sherry didn’t just want to talk about how despicable the stereotype was. She wanted to take action to eradicate it altogether.

Sherry Merfish and Ellen Cohen (currently a member of the Houston City Council, and at that time the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee) went to a meeting of the Houston Rabbinical Association (HRA) with a goal: to get a resolution passed addressing the stereotype. The association, which was made up of all men at the time, blew off Sherry and Ellen’s concerns, telling them to learn to take a joke. Sherry quickly realized that she would not win the Rabbis over by telling them how hurtful the sexism of the stereotype was. Instead, she focused on this term being “anti-Semitism in new packaging.”

Within an hour, the Houston Rabbinical Association accepted a resolution to address the negative stereotyping of Jewish women, to educate young people about the harms of the stereotype in religious and day schools, and remove all merchandise touting the stereotype from their gift shops.

Sherry’s success with the HRA received national attention, and the AJC held a national press conference in New York where they invited Sherry to speak and share her work. This press conference sparked a national movement to fight against the JAP stereotype. Sherry fought the “JAP” stereotype everywhere she found it — on greeting cards, in synagogue gift shops, on college campuses, and even on Saturday Night Live.

Years of leading the campaign against the JAP stereotype made it clear to Sherry that she wasn’t content practicing law, but that she wanted to continue to change the world in bigger and bigger ways. Sherry decided to work for EMILY’s List, where she led a 20 year long career of activism in electing democratic women.

Thanks to Sherry’s work, the JAP stereotype largely disappeared from popular culture. It does, however, pop up now and again in television shows or books, and when it does, Sherry is still called on to speak out against it.

The Sherry Merfish Papers (MS-815) include letters, speeches, and JAP paraphernalia, and they are available to the public for viewing and research in the Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library.

 

Correction: A previous version of this blog post inaccurately stated that Sherry’s work to fight the JAP stereotype took place the the 1970s.

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Eulogies, Memory, and Archive

By Katie Webber, HJHA Intern

An important part of the function of memory is to collectively share the past with one another. History does not live within the pages of books, but in the stories we tell to one another. None of these stories may necessarily be “true,” but all are approximations of our understandings of people and events. When we come together to share this history we are in fact creating history and creating collective memory.

As I have worked in the archives for the past few weeks, I’ve thought about how we remember and create the most intimate of histories. Eulogies encapsulate the memories of our loved ones in a time of deep mourning for their loss. We look to spiritual leaders for support, such as Rabbi Jack Segal who was the Rabbi at Beth Yeshurun for 23 years and delivered hundreds of eulogies during his time serving there. I have spent hours trying to decipher the handwriting of scrawled notes about Beth Yeshurun parishioners, sometimes scratched out and started anew as Rabbi Segal has gone back and made edits.

It is clear to me that Rabbi Segal carefully considered his role as both the preserver of memory for those who had recently passed as well as the comforter to the remaining family members. He pencils in family members who are maybe not quite officially family members, writing down that they are a sister’s fiance or a close friend to the deceased. He also carefully weaves in Psalms, those which both lament in the ancient composer’s tragedies as well as comfort us in the present day. He talks of great men and women of the Bible, whose lives he likens to those who have passed. He also shares the accomplishments of each individual’s life, their career, family, and the impact they made on the Houston community.

In a way, Rabbi Segal was also performing the work of an archivist. He had incomplete information, snapshots from a person’s life, or a letter or call from a family member if he was very lucky, and with that he constructed a narrative history. As historians, we do the same. We are left with whatever writing people have kept and given to us, pictures from important life events, and, if we are very lucky, a short interview to talk to someone about their life. Neither a eulogy nor an archive can tell the whole “truth” about history, but they both do the important work of piecing together our collective memory and, hopefully, teaching us something about ourselves in the present.

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Debuting the HJHA Brochure!

After a winter break hiatus, the HJHA blog is back with an announcement… We now have brochures! Designed and created in collaboration with Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs, these brochures describe the HJHA’s story and mission and highlight some of the types of materials we are looking to collect. The HJHA team will be dispersing our brochures around Houston in the coming weeks to spread the word about the archive. To make sure that your synagogue, community center, or business receives a stack of brochures, please reach out to Dr. Furman at jf36@rice.edu.

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Cheese pancakes, goose dinner, and a “trendel”: Beth Israel’s surprising guide to Hanukkah celebrations

Chanukah (or is that Hanuk(k)ah?) is on our minds this week, as many of us light the candles each night, gather with friends and family to eat latkes and spin dreidels, and exchange gifts.  Unlike most Jewish holidays, Chanukah’s central rituals are performed at home, not in synagogue.  This distinction necessitated the publication of how-to guides, so that American Jews could faithfully observe Chanukah each night without the watchful presence of a rabbi or cantor to lead them.

One such guide, Congregation Beth Israel’s “Hanukah at Home,” aimed to instruct Jewish Houstonians from Texas’s oldest synagogue in the proper performance of holiday rituals.  There is no date printed on the pamphlet, but references to democracy and American values, common during the early years of the Cold War, lead me to suspect that it dates from the late 1940s.  “Hanukah at Home” can be found in our collection of Beth Israel archival material, MS 711, available to researchers and community members for viewing in the Woodson Research Center in Rice University’s Fondren Library.

“Hanukah at Home” prescribes rituals that are utterly baffling to the modern reader who is accustomed to contemporary traditions.  For one, Beth Israel members were encouraged to dine on cheese pancakes and other dairy delicacies, not potato latkes, which we all think of as the quintessential holiday food.  The tradition of eating cheese on Chanukah comes from the story of Judith and Holofernes, and you can read more about it here.

For another, the Beth Israel guide informs the reader that “[g]oose is the traditional main dinner dish during Hanukah, served with potato pudding.”  Does a goose feast sound strange to you?  It isn’t!  Here again, “Hanukah at Home” is documenting a holiday tradition that has been largely lost to history.  See Jeffrey Yoskowitz’s New York Times article about the Chanukah goose feast here.

Finally, the guide advises readers to enjoy spinning the “trendel,” not the dreidel – a four-sided top with Hebrew letters on it.  According to Rabbi David Golinkin, trendl was a term used by German-speaking Jews to refer to the Chanukah toy, from a word meaning “to roll.”  (My thanks to Rabbi Steve Morgen of Beth Yeshurun for helping find this source!)  You can read Rabbi Golinkin’s surprising history of the dreidel, and its non-Jewish origins, here.

Most of Beth Israel’s founding members in the mid-19th century claimed ancestry from German-speaking lands, but it is fascinating to see a German term used here in place of the more-familiar dreidel, in a document that seems to date from the 1940s.

There is so much more to say about this guidebook, which encourages readers to sing “Rock of Ages” and “America” each night after candle lighting, and which offers a different theme and set of values for Jewish families to ponder for each night of the holiday.  On the first night of Chanukah, as Beth Israel families exchanged gifts, they were asked to keep in their hearts “the thousands of children in the world who are hungry and cold and without the love and warmth of home and friendship.”   On the sixth night, readers were called to remember that “every human being, no matter what his color or his race,” is a child of God and deserving of love. 

Looking back in history deepens our appreciation of how customs evolve and endure.  From the Houston Jewish History Archive at Rice, best wishes for a joyous holiday, however you choose to celebrate!

For more on the history of Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest synagogue in Texas, visit their website and learn about their wonderful archive here.

 

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