Today. from the Chairman. A Publication of the Center for Jewish History Spring 2009

Transcription

1 Today A Publication of the Center for Jewish History Spring 2009 from the Chairman Dear Friends, Due in large measure to the support of the Jewish community and beyond, the Center for Jewish History stands as the foremost Jewish academic research and cultural institution in New York City. It brings together under one roof five distinguished archival organizations and offers the worlds of scholarship and education a huge, easily accessible, comprehensive archive of the Jewish people. Just as the story of Jewish civilization has been filled with great struggle and great achievement, so too has the Center for Jewish History achieved much success and faced tribulations over the past eight years. The economic downturn has been difficult on us, as it has on many cultural organizations throughout the country. However, the economic condition we face has in no way diminished the spirit of giving, as evidenced by the continued support for the important mission of the Center and its five partners. The Center for Jewish History is much more than simply a place where the past is preserved. It is a place where the past is encountered, discussed, evaluated, and analyzed. The Center and its partners with your support are making Jewish history relevant to our present lives. This is what is so vital and invaluable about the Center for Jewish History. The Jewish people, regardless of their origins, can come here to find information and meaning to discover common interests shared with others today and to help preserve the Jewish legacy for their children and future generations. And all visitors, Jewish and non-jewish alike, can gain new appreciation and understanding of the tremendous contributions of the Jewish community to literature, the arts, business, and every facet of American life. Your support has enabled the Center for Jewish History to become one of the greatest accomplishments of the Jewish community. For that and your friendship, we remain grateful, and truly appreciate that so many supporters of the Center have continued their giving during these turbulent times. Bruce Slovin Chairman News from OUR Partners The American Jewish Historical Society s (AJHS) Emma Lazarus Statue of Liberty Awards Luncheon in March 2009, commemorated the emigration of Soviet Jewry and other disadvantaged minorities and the normalization of relations between the US and the Soviet Union with two key influencers former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State George Shultz. Charlie Rose moderated the dialogue, which presented a retrospective on what led to the end of the cold war and the unrestricted emigration of Soviet Jews. The American Sephardi Federation celebrated its 13th annual NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival held February 5-12, The Festival presented 15 films of the Jewish experience across 14 countries. Opening Night featured Zrubavel, the first Israeli film created by Ethiopian Israelis, including director, cast and crew members. Director Shmuel Beru was on hand for the post-screening discussion, complemented with a performance by singer/actress Meskie Shibru-Sivan. Leo Baeck Institute s 51st Annual Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture, titled From Jerusalem to Berlin and Back: A Diplomatic Journey, was presented by The Honorable Shimon Stein, Israeli Ambassador to Germany from Ambassador Stein offered extraordinary insights into the complex relationship between Germany, Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East. Yeshiva University Museum presented an exhibition on Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz, featuring selections from a remarkable hoard of coins and precious metalwork discovered in the Jewish quarter of Erfurt. Accompanying the exhibition was a symposium co-organized with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Alumni Association, From Black Death to AIDS: Epidemics and Their Impact on Culture, which probed the context of the treasure through the lens of medical history. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presented a special screening of Defiance, followed by a discussion with its director Edward Zwick, a member of YIVO s Board of Overseers. The film tells the story of the Bielski brothers as partisan leaders, who saved Jewish lives even as they fought the Nazis. The YIVO Archives contain the manuscript of Tuvia Bielski s memoir as well as records of the brothers immigration and resettlement in New York that address all aspects of the history and culture of East European Jewry.

2 Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times; William Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management; David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital; Daniel Loeb, Third Point LLC Fourth Annual Finance Event: The History of Jewish Involvement in Business and Finance Michael Ronen welcomes the crowd on behalf of Goldman Sachs. The event s breakout sessions included: Last November, the Center sponsored its fourth annual event on The History of Jewish Involvement in Business and Finance. The event was kicked off with a compelling conversation on the theme of Jewish Deals and Dealmakers with leading hedge fund managers William Ackman, David Einhorn, and Daniel Loeb, and moderated by assistant business and finance editor at The New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson. The evening continued with dinner and breakout sessions on Bankers in the Battlefield: Jews and War Finance in the 20th Century, presented by: Derek Penslar, University of Toronto; Patriot, Patron and Jew: Otto Kahn and the Image of American Banking, presented by: Jonathan Karp, SUNY Binghamton; Global Commerce and the Sephardic World, presented by: Sarah Stein, UCLA; and Creative Destruction: Jewish Immigrant Banks, Finance Failure and the Reshaping of American Capitalism, , presented by: Rebecca Kobrin, Columbia University. The success of the event would not have been possible without the work and support of its chairs: William A. Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management; Leonard Blavatnik, Access Industries; Joseph S. Steinberg, Leucadia National Corporation; and Goldman Sachs; as well as that of its co-chairs: Bruce Berkowitz, Fairholme Capital; David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital; Jonathan Gray, The Blackstone Group; Steven J. Kumble, Corinthian Capital; Sidney Lapidus, Warburg Pincus; Daniel S. Loeb, Third Point LLC; David Polen, Polen Capital Management; Michael Ronen, Goldman Sachs; Charles J. Rose, Ardsley Partners, Bernard Selz, Selz Capital LLC; and Bruce Slovin, 1 Eleven Associates. Derek Penslar on the Jewish financiers who mobilized the economies of the first World War and financed Israel s War of Independence Sarah Stein on what the Sephardic role in the global trade of ostrich plumes says about Jewish culture and the history of global commerce Jonathan Karp on philanthropist Otto Kahn s role in restoring confidence to American financial institutions amid the rising anti-semitism of the 1930s Rebecca Kobrin on Sender Jarmulovsky, an East European Jewish banker on the Lower East Side, and the largest bank riot in NYC history

3 CJH Launches Real Estate Circle Last November, the Center launched its Real Estate Circle in a joint event with AIPAC entitled: Considering the Past, Building the Future: The U.S. Israel Relationship. The evening s speaker was Stephen M. Berk, Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies at Union College. This event was chaired by Simon Ziff, head of the newly formed Real Estate Circle at the Center. The Circle is a group whose purpose is to engage the real estate community through specialized programming that includes a variety of events and networking opportunities within the industry. Beyond helping the Center today, the Circle creates future leadership and supporters. In the coming year, the Circle will host events at the Center to discuss current issues in the industry, while reflecting on the role of Jewish involvement throughout the building of New York. Stephen Berk, Union College Michael J. Haas with Simon Ziff, Chair of the CJH Real Estate Circle s Leadership Council Members of the Center s Real Estate Circle Steering Committee the First Annual Lillian Goldman Literary Series: The Lifecycles of New York Jews Thanks to her generosity and vision in honoring her mother Lillian Goldman, Amy Goldman and the Center created the Lillian Goldman Literary Series as a three-part program serving to identify The Lifecycles of New York Jews. The first program in the series, Little Disturbances and Enormous Changes, was presented on January 12th to an overflow crowd. It featured readings by writer Vivian Gornick with actors Kathleen Chalfant, Jerry Maltz, Matthew Rauch, and Robert Zuckerman. The second reading took place on March 16th with Love and Loss, an evening that explored the experiences of love, well-being, and loss through the eyes of New York Jewish writers. Acclaimed authors Nicole Krauss and Dorothy Gallagher read from their works: Krauss from her novel The History of Love, and Gallagher from How I Came Into My Inheritance and Strangers in the House. Kathleen Chalfant also made a return appearance. The final program on May 18th will include a reading from Ripples of Yiddishkeit. These programs honor Amy s mother Lillian Goldman, who was an ardent supporter of literature and whose name graces the Center s Lillian Goldman Reading Room, which provides access to over 100 million documents and 500,000 volumes on modern Jewish history.

4 CJH Announces the Naming of the Selz Foundation Gallery The Center for Jewish History is the central address for scholars, students, and the general public to learn from the stories contained within the rich and vibrant collections of the partners. Visitors to the Center will enjoy a wonderful selection of exhibitions in the Selz Foundation Gallery, newly named in honor of Paul and Suzanne Selz, who perished at Auschwitz in 1944, and of their surviving son Bertrand. Through a generous gift of $1,000,000 from the Selz Family, the Center will continue to provide the general public with cultural presentations designed to inspire and inform visitors on all aspects of the Jewish experience and identity. Kumble Cultural Fund Established A recent gift of $500,000 to the Center from Steven J. Kumble, has established the Kumble Cultural Fund designed to support public programming at the Center. Through public programming, the Center provides its broad public audience with a wide variety of opportunities for learning, discussion, artistic creation, and participation. Due in part to the generosity of Steven J. Kumble, the Center will be able to continue to present the history of the Jewish people in compelling and dramatic public programs. From the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society Eugene Morton Lieberman, who is 83 years old, was raised as an orphan at the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum from the age of eight until his bar mitzvah at age 13. He knew very little about his childhood or his parents. In 2006, he had the good fortune to attend an AJHS exhibition at the Center entitled Cradled in Judea: Jewish Orphanages in New York, This exhibition was the impetus for Mr. Lieberman to begin a search for his lost family history. He visited the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center and was able to locate his name, time of entry into the Asylum, foster parents information, and everything he needed to complete the missing pieces of his story. Now he says he finally has stories about his childhood to share with his children. CJH Launches The Joseph S. Steinberg Fund for Emerging Jewish Filmmakers A fund to support emerging Jewish filmmakers has been established at the Center for Jewish History in honor of Joseph S. Steinberg. The Joseph S. Steinberg Fund for Emerging Jewish Filmmakers, established by his wife Diane, will provide an opportunity to expose a new generation to the world of Jewish cultural history and understanding, and will support research in the archives housed at the Center for Jewish History. Combining the artistic excellence of film with significant Jewish scholarship will not only provide insight into the work of young artists, but will also explore many of the pressing moral, social, and political issues of our time. The Fund will work to support both narrative and documentary projects that address significant subjects; offer fresh, challenging perspectives; engage audiences across cultural lines; and expand the understanding of Jewish experiences based on the collections of the Center s five partners.

5 Raphael Lemkin ( ) Raphael Lemkin: New Dimensions in Law, Culture, Society and Economics This year s Jews and Justice Series will focus on the theme of genocide with an international conference devoted to the complexities buried within the history of genocide, the Jewish community and its pursuit of justice. Raphael Lemkin: New Dimensions in Law, Culture, Society and Economics will be presented in partnership with the American Jewish Historical Society, whose archives contain the papers of Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term genocide and was largely responsible for the United Nations adoption of its Convention on Genocide. The conference, made possible by the generous support of The David Berg Foundation, will coincide with the opening of an exhibition based on Lemkin s original works, and will further open up the collections to provide a clearer understanding of Jewish contributions to modern society s greatest achievements. From the Collections: Spotlight on the Levy Initiative and the Mellon Project The Center continues to enhance its Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) with two significant grant-funded initiatives. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting the Center in an effort to catalog library records, with a goal of adding 30,000 records by the end of the year. In a complementary effort, the Leon Levy Foundation provided funding to support the Center s efforts in cataloging over 1,200 linear feet of archival materials from more than 50 noteworthy collections of the Center s partners. It is no secret that the Center for Jewish History houses one of the world s most extensive collections of archival materials documenting centuries of Jewish life, events, and culture. But with the help of two generous grants, the full extent of these materials will soon be better understood. As the Center s Chairman, Bruce Slovin, has said, From the astonishing riches housed in the Center s stacks emerge not only records of someone s immigrant parents, but also the depth and beauty of their Jewish communities in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. In its second year, a $670,000 grant from the Leon Levy Foundation has resulted in remarkable progress in cataloging official documents, manuscripts, photographs, audio recordings, and much more. The initiative provides an unparalleled window into the diversity of the Jewish experience throughout history and around the world. Now in the final stages of completion, a $250,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has helped address the most crucial cataloging needs of our Partners. Among the countless stories cataloged through these initiatives are international lobbying efforts to secure equal rights for Jews in the WWI Peace Treaty, correspondence between Abraham Cahan and Leo Frank, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and various intellectuals and writers; and memorabilia from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as shown below. These two projects more than triple the number of records in the Center s OPAC, realizing our vision anew each day for the thousands who access the collections in person and online. Internet access has enabled the Center to become a true creation of the 21st century: an international institution of global reach without physical borders or boundaries. Search the collections online at Abraham Cahan Papers, Courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (Left ) Eric Lind Collection, Courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute (Center) Lipsky Family Papers, Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society (Right)

6 LEAVE A LEGACY... The Center for Jewish History became the beneficiary of a $1 million bequest from direct mail donor Dr. Nathan Rosenbloom of California. Dr. Rosenbloom, a supporter of the Center since 2002, left a legacy that will help to establish the long-term financial security of the Center for Jewish History. We invite you to join the legacy of Dr. Rosenbloom and others and become a member of our Partners in Preservation Society, a select group of honored supporters whose legacy gifts ensure that future generations will be able to experience Jewish history firsthand. While your legacy gift can bring you significant tax savings, we truly believe that the greatest return on your investment in the Center for Jewish History is the knowledge that you are making a lasting contribution to preservation and presentation of Jewish history. There are many different ways to include the Center in your plans. In addition to bequests, the Center can be a beneficiary of a your retirement plan assets, allowing your heirs to be relieved of the estate taxes they would otherwise need to pay on these funds. A bequest or other legacy gift to the Center makes a final statement on your philanthropic values and priorities. For more information on the Center s Gift Planning Program, including bequests; appreciated securities or real estate; life insurance; IRA and pension plan distributions, please contact us at (212) The Center for Jewish History is one of the great public Jewish historical and cultural institutions in the world. Opened to the public in October 2000 as the campus to its five Partner organizations, the Center has achieved recognition as a venue of unrivaled historical documentation and scholarship, imaginative exhibitions of Judaic art and artifacts, and vital public dialogue. The collections of its Partners total more than 500,000 volumes and 100 million archival documents, and include thousands of pieces of artwork, textiles, and ritual objects, as well as music, films, and photographs. They comprise, taken as a whole, the largest repository of the modern Jewish experience outside of Israel. Visit us online at non profit org us postage paid new york - ny permit no. o West 16th Street, New York, NY