A month filled with Jewish history
Several weeks in June (and late May) found me completely immersed in various eras and subjects in Jewish History. After all the negativity and antisemitism of the past months, it was a pleasure to find positive vibes and resilience among Jewish professionals including a national organization of college professors (mainly in Jewish Studies), authors, journalists and university students.
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) Biennial Scholars Conference at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan gathered a wide variety of historians including college professors, authors, college doctoral students, leaders of several American Jewish organizations, and journalists. The three-day Scholars Conference featured seminars ranging from musicology, urban affairs, past and present issues in American Jewish life. Major authors and figures in American Jewish life were featured including Hasia Diner, Charles Knapp, Marc Dollinger, Professor Karla Goldman, Jeffrey Gurock, Deborah Dash Moore, Eli Lederhendler, Professor Uri Schreter, Yitzchak Kerem, Gratz College President Zev Eleff and David E. Kaufman. Of course, there was discussion of the recent campus antisemitic anti-Israel protests, and the continuing alarming growth of American antisemitism. But looking over at a crowd of Jewish and non-Jewish historians from universities and communities all over this country one could not help but feel optimistic. I hope that I can pass some of this optimism to Times of Israel readers during these often-dark days.
The highlight of my visit was going down into several of Jewish organizations’ Archives all housed at the Center. This included the Leo Baeck archives which were smuggled out of Vilna before the Nazis could destroy all of them. There was also the rich history of American Jewry going back to colonial times. It was breathtaking and astounding to realize just how much influence Jews have had on American and world history.
Finally, there was my long trek down to New Brunswick, New Jersey where the American Hungarian Foundation (AHF) held its Annual Hungarian Festival. True confession: some members of my mother’s family settled in the Jewish Hungarian area in New Brunswick back in the early 1900s after fleeing their native country. Most of those left behind died in the Holocaust, specifically Auschwitz. Again, some good news here—I now have almost 90 cousins that survived and who were ‘found’ in 2015; but that story is for my upcoming published book. So, it was with great interest and curiosity that I meandered around Somerset Street which was filled with colorful booths featuring beautiful ceramics decorated with the famous Hungarian flower design, tee shirts proudly proclaiming just how Hungarian you were, jewelry, clothing, and of course food. From chicken paprikash to goulash, stuffed cabbage and a wide variety of sausages (and no, I did not buy any) to assorted pastries one could get over-stuffed in a matter of minutes.
At The Hungarian Foundation, I located a book about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution which included an entries by Janos Horvath and Bela Kiraly and another ‘gem’ I found was a 1918 edition of ‘English for Coming Citizens’ which offered Hungarian refugees help and information with looking for work in their new country, review exercises in the English language, and other helpful advice on how to function in American life from going to the bakery and the theatre to bathing and how to deal with mosquitoes!
Christine Portnoy of the Hungarian Heritage Podcast and a board member of the Hungarian Heritage Festival, proudly noted how the community continues to thrive in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I also found a woman who knew the town my grandfather came from, Kisvarda, and gave me a short history about the town. She also cajoled me into buying a delicious blueberry cake whose name I cannot pronounce or remember except for its colorful history–she claimed that this cake was made by women to attract men to marry them! This new information was exciting to add to my ongoing genealogy project finding family on both my mother’s and father’s families. While my grandfather’s brother settled in New Brunswick, most of the family initially settled on the Lower East Side before moving up to Brooklyn or the Bronx.
As a granddaughter of immigrants on both sides of the family, I have a special affinity for all immigrants to this country. The current politicization of the immigration issue has deeply offended me—especially when the people are displayed as undesirables because of their nationality, color of their skin, and their language. The nationality of immigrants coming to America may change, but unfortunately the knee-jerk American population’s nativism and prejudice does not. And yet, every cohort of immigrants have played an important part in American culture and economics—all positive. I still remember my mother telling me not to apply to the then-Bell Telephone company or Time Magazine because they did not ‘accept Jews.’ But times do change, even if slowly. One hopes that the immigration mess on the southern border gets resolved so that legal immigrants escaping violence and poverty in South and Central America can become citizens who contribute to the next cohort of Americans.
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Ms. Rosen-Solomon holds a BA in Theatre and Journalism from CUNY Lehman College, a second BA in American History and Literature from SUNY Purchase College, a MS in English Education from Fordham University, and a MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Kean University. She is a ASNE Journalism Fellow from Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, has worked with the Kean Holocaust Research Center and was a member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of Westchester Educator Programming Committee for 15 years.
