Temple Beth El in Springfield is celebrating its centennial this year
and when it passed president got the idea to put together photos
artifact and then tell them the Jewish community that came to Springfield
around the same time angry with the city he's joining us today stealer and bang
his guest curator
but I think the bed at Springville medians called 100 years a Jewish life
in the valley from the shuttle to youth
suburb now if our viewers are familiar with the worst at all
it talks about having a large Jewish population in a small city
talk about how exhibit came into life with this idea in mind
sharing and thank you for having us basically beth-el so where the
largest in the old us Conservative Jewish congregation and
in Western Mass and this year we mark our Centennial so as so was part of that
we were thinking what can we do to serve celebrate are 100 years and it occurred
to us that are 100 your story really
mirrored a lot of the story about the Jewish community in frankly the
immigrant community in this area
so we reached out to all the other Jewish organizations in Springfield
about fifteen or sixteen of them in May
provided us photos and artifact in their history so it really is
it's the story of the whole Jewish community over the past 100 years and
and we like to think that
it's not just a Jewish story it's an immigrant story and it's an American
story
and that's how we engage the museum on it and they were very excited and and
great to work with to help make this happen
but would like to go through all those different photos and see it time you
know
60 70 80 90 100 years ago
when the Jewish community with influenza starting to grow they were
making their lives to their families were going what was it like to come in
almost go back in time
well it was a wonderful experience for me I was a history major in college
and although I don't do that now for me it was a very fun project we were
fortunate that befell that we
about twenty-five years ago we gave our archives to the Museum and the Museum
vibrant museums been holding it so when you go through those things and other
materials that people provide
you know if I could treasure tress true a traffic church St I've
information and photographs and artefacts
so for example we have I'm the shovel that was used at the groundbreaking for
Beth El's building in
in 1953 we have keys that open their first date
building in in 1918 I'm
we have a books that marked I'm when the first jus came to the area they were
often merchants in
and them involved in those trades we have books
where they had to register themselves being merchants and peddlers
from the late eighteen hundreds so
there something about seen these objects before you the photograph before you
that then release on Nov
make it come to life talk about the Jewish community
impact in the influence they had here in the Springfield area
so the Jewish community like many immigrant community
you know it's a story of change outside the United States but brought them to
the United States
so the first group of Jews probably came to the Springfield area
probably in the in the early part of the 19th century so we know that they were
jews here during the Civil War
in fact there was a local jewish a man who won the Congressional Medal of Honor
for valor in the Civil War we have a highlighted in the exhibit
and then in the late part of the 19th century
a lot of jews from Eastern Europe sort of the Poland Russia Ukraine area
they were suffering from a lot of discrimination and programs
which was forcing them out of the community forcing them out of their
shuttles as you explained
and so they ended up coming to the United States as sort about lander
freedom another opportunity
and ended up settling in springfield inserting the 1880s 1890s
and that's when you begin to see the birth of a lot of the
I'm community organizations so synagogues began to be formed
other groups began to be form that they the
built themselves cemeteries they built themselves communal organizations
and so we see that period starting in about the 1880s 1890s
into the early years of the 20th century and their Springfield prospered
as a centre manufacturing industry so did the Jewish community in the in the
communities
around them how did it and then of course comes World War two
here how did that happen impact on the Jewish community
so originally the Jewish community they settled in
in that what was called the north end up Springfield I
serve right by Union Station you know you said got off the train they would
many of them probably came to New York came to ellis Island
it took the train at Springfield they got out and that was gonna be there so
did new
stand on their new community so the area in the north end around sorted liberty
in fairy in Sharon streets that became certain the Jewish quarter
and as the population grew by the nineteen twenties it was estimated there
are probably about seventy five hundred jews in the area living in this very
sort of tight corner
so as they succeeded him as their population grew
they needed more space so soon they took up a larger areas
up the north end and then they began to move into other areas of the city as
they succeeded in prospered
the move to the farce parking area then they've started to move out even further
to the
to the Dickinson Street area and in Longmeadow area and that's a story not
unique to Springfield it's actually a story that you see about Jewish
communities
another immigrant communities all over the United States
the start in the inner cities in these kind of a little communities
and then as they succeed and prosper they move out
into more the suburban areas and thats how we ended up coming up with the name
the exhibit
I it's great so what are some things that them people can
path think you can expect to see in find at the exhibit well what we do is we we
trace the history we actually go a little bit more than a hundred years for
probably about a hundred twenty years but a hundred years sounded kinda
easier to say so what we do is we we trace the history
in general terms and then we have they were 12 panels in the exhibit
and we have panels that are dedicated to the different
religious organizations so we have panels for each of the synagogues over
the years
we have a panel about Jewish education with a panel about
caring for the elderly it's a very important tradition
in the Jewish community and so Jewish geriatric services
they celebrated their centennial last year so they were sort of found that at
the same time we have a panel dedicated to them
we have a panel dedicated to jewish communal organizations and Jewish social
organizations
so in addition to the history in the photographs you also see interesting
artifact so we have a record books from
I you know the early part of the century we have
original certificates of incorporation from the end of the 19th century
we have that shovel I mention we have some other things it was a group of
women
I'm from das its Jewish women's organization they
handmade a tablecloth with all their names in it
in there ET's so we we have that up there I'm
all those kinds of different things you'll see on the exhibit and
there's a there's a video presentation orel interviews
jews who grew up in North Andover now in their eighties and nineties
so it really is it lively exhibit it's going to be there to march 2nd and we
hope that all your viewers come down to see it
great terror and a guest curator thank you so much for coming on board
thanks for having me