2003-06-20 Jewish Archives at SDSU
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Memories of San Diego's Jewish Trailblazers Are Preserved at San Diego State University San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, June 20, 2003 |
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2003-06-20 Jewish Archives at SDSU |
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By Donald H. Harrison Ask people about the historic experience of Jews in America and they are likely to tell you about immigrants trying to scratch out their livings in Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods in crowded cities, all the while scrimping and saving so that their English-speaking children could go to college, overcome discrimination and build better lives for themselves. While this may be fairly typical of the immigrant Jewish experience in East Coast cities like New York and in Midwestern cities like Chicago, Prof. Lawrence Baron of San Diego State University's Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies says life for Jews in the western United States was quite different. "In San Diego, Jews from the beginning were much more accepted, being part of the founding fathers of the city, playing an important role right up to today," Baron said. Louis Rose, the first Jew to settle in the city, for many years served as a member of the city Board of Trustees as well as a member of the first county Board of Supervisors. Lewis Franklin was a foreman of an early county grand jury. Marcus Schiller was one of the city trustees who had the foresight to set aside for public use the land that would become Balboa Park. Since the year 2000, the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego and the Lipinsky Institute have been engaged in a joint project to collect and sort records, documents and memorabilia to help researchers better understand how the historic experiences of San Diego Jews continue to influence our community. Under the leadership of Stanley and Laurel Schwartz, the Jewish Historical Society thus far has acquired 30 important collections that are being preserved in acid-free boxes and stored in the temperature-controlled Snyder Reading Room on the third floor of SDSU's Love Library. If you have papers, photographs or items relating to Jewish life in San Diego and you would like to donate them for posterity, call the Schwartzes at the Jewish Historical Society, (619) 232-5888. Archivist Bonnie Mae Harris is indexing the collections with the help of volunteers like Ed Landau, 90, who said he enjoys learning about how his life fits into larger patterns. Landau explained that when he served as an enlisted man aboard the U.S.S. New Orleans during World War II, he understood the duties that were assigned to him, but he had no comprehension of how the war was unfolding. Reading histories of World War II afterward helped him understand the role that he and his shipmates played. Similarly, he said, development of narratives about San Diego Jewry will help members of our community understand their places in history. An article by Harris on the largest of the Jewish Historical Society's collections— the papers of the late Reform Rabbi Morton J. Cohn— recently was published in the Western States Jewish History quarterly and is reprinted with permission in this issue of Heritage. The Cohn collection, kept in 25 cartons, includes 375 items logged and described by Harris. The next largest collection, with 90 items, is that of the late Henry Schwartz, the historian who helped popularize San Diego¹s Jewish history in a regular column that appeared in the San Diego Jewish Times. Heritage's music critic, Eileen Wingard, donated another collection containing 33 items. That collection includes scripts for banquets honoring members of the Jewish community, programs, correspondence, a guest register and five scrapbooks of newspaper articles about the activities of the music committee at the now-defunct 54th Street Jewish Community Center. Just the mention of the 54th Street JCC makes both Baron and Laurel Schwartz, the curator of the archives, wince over the memory of records from that institution being accidentally thrown out by workmen after the building was sold to the North Park Apostolic Church. Primary documents — the building blocks for historical research — were lost forever. Baron said that unless people are aware of a document's potential significance, accidental destruction unfortunately can happen at any time. In fact, it almost happened recently at SDSU's own history department, he said. Background to the story was the fact that Abraham Nasatir, the late history professor for whom Nasatir Hall on the SDSU campus is named, one year suffered a terrible fire at his home that destroyed his entire research library. In reaction, many people donated books to the beloved professor, or money to buy new books, but, of course, his personal papers were irreplaceable. Many other people wrote notes expressing sorrow over his loss and their high regard both for him and his wife, Ida (herself a longtime, beloved teacher in San Diego). A log of the gifts, letters and donations was kept carefully by SDSU's history department— but years later was thrown unceremoniously out in the trash by someone who did not recognize the log's significance. Luckily, Baron happened along, saw the file in a wastebasket and saved the log for the archives. Like fishermen, archivists enjoy telling about their catches and commiserate with each other about the ones that got away. Schwartz noted that within the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego's archives, "we have a lot of communal collections, including records of the B'nai B'rith from various lodges." Some of the records are of activities of the B'nai B'rith Women, before the organization changed its name to Jewish Women International. A scrapbook from the late Morris Showel covers much of the early history of the Cottage of Israel in Balboa Park, Schwartz noted. Among items taken from the scrapbook and stored in an acid-free folder was a postcard bearing 1-cent postage announcing the organization's first annual meeting in 1951. "We have personal collections such as one from Pearl and Al Slayen — personal things that Pearl collected from her childhood." Schwartz said. "We have the Mollie Harris collection dating from the time she was the librarian at the 54th Street JCC. "Another interesting collection is the Sidney Weiner Collection," Schwartz added. "He was a dentist, one of the first people to link up the idea of teeth-cleaning relating to heart problems. In San Diego, he was a social reformer. He developed one of the first classes on tolerance in San Diego— in the country actually. And he also was a founder of the East County Performing Arts Center. "We also have the Cantor Joseph Cysner Collection, from his days in a concentration camp in Europe all the way up to his life here in San Diego at Tifereth Israel Synagogue." Harris noted that Rabbi Cohn's collection had numerous items about the Salk Institute because Cohn¹s wife, Sally, had been a pioneer in that institution's auxiliary. "We have Hillel scrapbooks, yearbooks and the original charter (at San Diego State) of Hillel," Baron said. Other collections "got away"—but not irretrievably lost. After the death of Rabbi Samuel Penner, who led the now-defunct Congregation Beth Tefilah, his widow Sheba donated his papers to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where they are part of a collection about Jewish communities in the western United States. The San Diego Historical Society, which has long predated the Jewish Historical Society, owns other collections, particularly papers and records relating to 19th century Jewish pioneers in San Diego like Louis Rose; Lewis Franklin; Hyman, Moses and Joseph S. Mannasse; Marks Jacobs; Marcus Schiller and others. Even if the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego doesn¹t have custody of such documents, it can acquire from other collections indices or photocopies of their records relating to San Diego¹s Jewish community. For example, Gregory Smith, the county tax assessor, made available photocopies of county records concerning the pioneer Jewish families. But the emphasis now is on acquiring collections from people who were or are still important parts of San Diego's Jewish history. The Jewish Historical Society is discussing with Jeanne Gold the possible acquisition of the papers of the late Rabbi Aaron S. Gold, who served such San Diego area Conservative congregations as Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Ner Tamid Synagogue and Temple Beth Sholom before his death. The society also has been discussing the acquisition of the papers of Gold's predecessor at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Rabbi Monroe Levens, with members of the Levens family. The society also would like eventually to acquire the papers of Jews who have been prominent in public life. In the field of law and law enforcement, these include people like the late federal Judges Jacob Weinberger and Edward Schwartz (after whom separate downtown federal courthouses are named); former U.S. Atty. and now School Superintendent Alan Bersin; Sheriff Bill Kolender and Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis, to name but a few. In lawmaking (at various levels of government), they include such people as U.S. Reps. Bob Filner and Susan Davis, gubernatorial chief-of-staff (and former U.S. Rep.) Lynn Schenk, former state Assemblyman Howard Wayne and former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding. In education, besides Bersin, they include San Diego School Board president Ron Ottinger and former School Board member Sue Braun, and San Diego Community College Board president Martin Block. Papers from business giants such as Sol Price, father of the now-defunct Price Clubs, and Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi, cofounders of Qualcomm, also are highly desired. Archivist Harris, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said preservation of such collections can help the San Diego Jewish community "pass on your heritage to a future generation so that they have the roots and the values and the basis for understanding who they are." Schwartz said the archives can help Jews better understand our community's contributions to the growth of San Diego. In fourth grade of public school, she noted, children learn about the important role played in San Diego County history by the Roman Catholic missions. Parents who want children to understand that San Diego was also built by Jews (as well as members of other religious groups) can find supporting material in the archives. "One of my pet peeves is that a lot of time Jewish history concentrates on the negative aspects of history," Schwartz said. "These archives give a positive aspect to the study of Jewish history. It allows children to have role models, whose houses they can pass, whose businesses they can see, whose contributions politically and philanthropically can be seen. I think it gives the children a sense of pride." |
