Animal

I spent these past two weeks hibernating. I aspired to maintain some semblance of productivity over the winter holiday, but my favorite person had two weeks off. My work just could not compete with his wit. I did immerse myself in some history, though. I watched The Americans! Now I'm all caught up on Cold War espionage.

It's always difficult to come back from vacation. I sat down at my computer this morning and was stumped by where to start. Where, exactly, had I left off? It took me almost half an hour to look through my task manager, database, and recent Word documents and orient myself back to the projects at hand. The number of loose strings floating around overwhelmed me, so today I've devoted myself to only a few small, manageable tasks. I'm hoping that if I catch just one or two of those strings, I can keep my various projects from unraveling. Or perhaps, more aptly, keep myself from unraveling!

Apropos fresh starts, I did not make any New Years resolutions. I prefer to set resolutions around Rosh Hashanah (the holiday celebrating the beginning of the Jewish calendar) because it coincides with the start of the academic year. I think of January 1 as a time to hit the re-set button. I clean up my workspace, catch up on sleep, delete distractions from my computer, and address any other environmental or emotional factors that have been detrimental to my work habits. Apparently I needed a lot of sleep this year, and I definitely met that need. My goal for this week is to channel the processing power of my well-rested brain towards some necessary revisions to the chapter outline of my dissertation. 

Irony

I went to the Post Office this morning to mail two thank you notes, one to the Center for Jewish History and the other to the Jewish Theological Seminary. The woman behind the counter gave me stamps with three wise men on camelback. I slid them back through the window and requested something a bit more generic.

Volunteering at a Conference

Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure of assisting the staff of the Association for Jewish Studies with conference registration. Running a conference is labor intensive, and the conference organizer asked graduate students if they were willing to help staff various tables on the first and second day, when most registrants arrive. I wish I could say I volunteered out of a sense of altruism and dedication to the Jewish Studies community, but they offered to reimburse my conference registration fee in exchange for my labor. The experience ended up being much more than just remuneratively valuable, though, because I was assigned tasks where I could meet many of the academics in my field.

The first day, I worked at the registration table printing new badges for attendees. As scholars shuffled up one by one to apologize for losing or misplacing their badges, I put faces to names of authors whose works I read for my doctoral exams or for my research. On the second day, I handed out tote bags and badge holders to newly arrived registrants. I had the pleasure of meeting a historian whose article on Oscar Janowsky--the scholar who directed the Jewish Welfare Board's 1947-48 study of Jewish Centers and thus shaped the postwar agenda for JCC programming and growth--helped me understand the politics at play in the Janowsky Survey. I also met two of my "academic crushes," historians whose work lead me towards the big questions that animate my research.

I also met many of the staff members of the AJS, who run many academic programs and workshops in addition to the annual conference. They were all so lovely to me and provided words of support when I got nervous before my presentation. They ran such a tight ship, and I was impressed by their foresight. I enjoy event planning and organization, and it was helpful to see how the sausage gets made, per se, when you host an event of this size. Additionally, it was a great opportunity to meet the other graduate student volunteers. We chatted throughout our shifts and it was an easy way to make new colleague-friends.

I would highly recommend that other graduate students take advantage of volunteer opportunities at conferences. I'm sure that the experience varies across conferences and disciplines, but volunteering is an easy, fun way to network. The registration table was an invaluable place to introduce myself to scholars. The informality of the setting made the interaction less intimidating and more social. Volunteering also fostered a sense of involvement with the wider organization--you feel that you are actively creating a communal atmosphere and facilitating scholarly engagement. Finally, it's the best kind of productive procrastination. Volunteering at a conference is a great opportunity to feel like you're working on your career and your research even though you're not staring at the screen of your laptop! 

Chanukah at the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights-Inwood

Tonight marks the first night of Chanukah, an eight day holiday commemorating the revolt of the Maccabees--as the five sons of Matthias the Kohein came to be known--against the vast army of Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes IV. The Maccabees fought back against Syrian attempts to destroy Jerusalem and stop Jews from practicing their religion. We light candles for eight nights to remind us of how the Maccabees rededicated the desecrated Temple Mount in Jerusalem in celebration of their victory. They celebrated God and we celebrate the survival of Judaism and the Jewish people. 

As I lit the shamash tonight, the candle we use each night to light all of the other candles in the chanukiah (or menorah), I wondered how the members and staff of Jewish Community Centers have celebrated the holiday in the past. I've just spent the last three days at the AJS Conference deeply immersed in some new work on postwar American Jewish life, and so my curiosity led me to go back and look for mentions in the holiday in the records of the Y of Washington Heights-Inwood.

In his monthly report to the Board of the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights, Executive Director Samuel Solender announced an upcoming event about which he was very excited:

"On Thursday, Dec 26th in the afternoon, we shall celebrate Chanukah by a suitable program in which the children will participate. We have invited Dr. I Mortimer Bloom, Rabbi of the Hebrew Tabernacle, to attend and give a short talk on the significance of Chanukah. Thus you will see that an attempt is already being made to secure an increased interest of the Rabbis in our work. Instead of the old adage “Opportunity comes to him who waits” I believe in the modern that “Opportunity comes to him who hustles while he waits”.  This time it is Rabbi Bloom, another time it will be another Rabbi, etc. Whenever it is possible we shall call upon our local Rabbis.” [1]

Solender was within his first twelve months at the Y, and at the time the association was still in its original location at 160th St. and St. Nicholas Avenue. Hebrew Tabernacle's temple was located only a few blocks away, on 161st St. between Broadway and Fort Washington Avenue. Jews of German descent founded the Hebrew Tabernacle congregation in the early twentieth century, and their tradition was on the more Conservative end of the spectrum of Reform Judaism. It makes sense that Solender would turn to Rabbi Bloom. Jewish Community Centers tended to draw Reform and some Conservative members, as well as Jews who more closely identified with secular or ethnic Judaism (yiddishkeit). Perhaps many Y members belonged to Hebrew Tabernacle (or another congregation). I wonder if religiously observant children were more likely to attend the Chanukah celebration and hear Rabbi Bloom describe the significance of Chanukah--or less likely, because they already knew the story of the holiday and observed it at home and at shul? Either way, Solender and his Board definitely believed that Chanukah was a good time to incorporate Jewish learning and ritual into the Y's program, and to build bridges between the Center and the local rabbinate.

The next reference I found to Chanukah celebrations at the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights-Inwood was not until 33 years later! In all likelihood this omission is because I did not take notes on Chanukah celebrations in the intervening years; I doubt the Y ignored the holiday for three decades. In April of 1962, however, the head of the Y's After School programs for elementary school children reported to the Board that the Chanukah festival was one of the mass programs that the Juniors participated in throughout the year. Two years later, notes from the May 1965 Board meeting mentioned that the Women's Division raised money for the Y at a Hannukah luncheon in the winter of 1964 (and apparently the event was repeated for several years). 

I asked current Executive Director of the Y, Marty Englisher, if he remembered celebrating Chanukah at the Y during his childhood in the 1960s (he has been a member since he was in nursery school!). He remembered that during these years, when he was a Junior, his club made menorahs in arts and crafts. The menorahs were not particularly fancy. Marty recalls that they just made nine holes in a piece of clay!

It wasn't really until 1971 that the Y inaugurated a regular Chanukah festival for its entire membership. At a meeting of the Board's Program Committee in June of that year, the group discussed ways to augment what they called the Y's "Jewish Cultural Programming." One suggestion was to plan agency-wide festivals on the holidays of Sukkot, Chanukah, and Purim. Executive Director Dan Stein reported on the first Chanukah festival at the Y's December Board meeting:

"On Sunday afternoon, December 12 we held our 1st agency-wide Chanukah Festival. Three Hundred and fifty adults and children filled the Auditorium for this, the 2nd in a series of four Jewish holiday festivals to be held this year. (Mmes. Westheimer and Werden felt that the program had been an outstanding one, and that thanks were due the many individuals who had helped to make it so)." [2]

This festival continued throughout the 1970s. They brought together young families with the senior citizens who were active at the Y. In December of 1974, "One hundred parents and children, in the range below the age of 10, participated in several Workshops, the Candlelighting and refreshments, (of course!)." In 1980, there were 400 attendees! 

This renewed commitment to "Jewish Cultural Programming" was consistent with the big trends of the '70s. This was the era of the havurah movement and the Jewish Catalog, and Jews were embracing their cultural differences and rejecting homogenization and assimilation. The Chanukah celebrations brought together Y members and allowed them to demonstrate their commitment to their Jewishness and/or Judaism through learning, participation in ritual, and communal association. And there were refreshments (of course!). For the Y, the Chanukah festivals prominently advertised that the Center had a Jewish mission and was not just a daycare and a gym. As a mass program, it was an event that showed the size and strength of the Y's membership; Y leaders could chart the health of the organization through the turnout to this major holiday celebration. Finally, it was fun and social and provided a safe atmosphere for kids to learn and play while parents shmoozed. 

Chanukah sameach!

Citations

[1] Solender Family Collection, Center for Jewish History, New York, NY. This finding aid is currently being revised as the collection is being reprocessed, and so I will withhold box numbers to avoid confusion. 

[2] Board Meeting Minutes of the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights-Inwood. Records privately held at the YM-YWHA of Washington Heights-Inwood, New York, NY.

Baltimore or Less

Yesterday I gave my first presentation at a major professional conference. The Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies is taking place right now in Baltimore (it opened yesterday and concludes on Tuesday). It is an international and interdisciplinary gathering, and panel topics range from new interpretations of ancient texts to recent sociological changes in 21st century American Jewry. 

As this is such a large conference, the AJS requests that graduate students participate in lightning sessions rather than presenting in a traditional panel format (where you and two or three other scholars deliver 20-minute papers and answer audience questions). Lightning session presentations are limited to 5-7 minutes, which is just enough time to introduce a project, discuss a question in the field, or propose a methodological problem. The goal is to familiarize grad students with the newest work being done in Jewish Studies, and to foster connections between grads at different universities. 

My paper was titled "Jewish Adjustment and the Professionalization of Jewish Social Work," and in it I defined how a concept in mid-twentieth century social work was used by leaders of Jewish Community Centers to justify their authority as the providers of Jewish leisure-time activity. 

This is not only the first major conference I have attended, it was also my first time trying to distill my work down into such a tight time limit.  All academics know that more time is better, and that 20 minutes always seems to fly by before you manage to make your point. To condense an argument down to five minutes required a lot of trial and error! I began by carefully structuring my paper. I included a very brief introduction of my dissertation topic and the historiographical importance of the project. I offered my argument up front and provided and overview of what I would discuss. I briefly reviewed the theoretical background and answered the question I posed at the outset (what is Jewish adjustment?). I shared a case study from my research to demonstrate how the concept was used to defend the JCC's authority within Jewish communal life, and concluded by reiterating my argument. After all of that, I still barely cleared 7 minutes, and had to remove all but the most essential context. 

I spent hours rehearsing over the past week, and the more I practiced the more nervous I became! I knew I was going to be the only historian on the panel, and the only one doing a topic on American Jewry. I was really worried that my paper was concise but not cogent, or that it flattened reality and made the past appear too simple, too pat. 

In the end, it went well. The panel was more informal than I expected, and I was sufficiently prepared and stayed close to the time limit. My respondent--an academic whose work I really respect--gave me excellent feedback and made several valuable suggestions (my favorite was that I should explore the content taught to rabbis in American rabbinical schools during the mid-twentieth century and compare it to the Jewish training given to Jewish social workers). It was informative to hear the wide variety of topics being studied by my peers in Jewish studies, and I benefited from hearing about the various themes and questions they are exploring in their research. 

I am relieved that I was able to present on the first day, and feel like I can now relax while other people present. Conferences are like a blitz of short classes, you learn or are reminded of interesting questions or themes or issues. Presenting was nerve wracking but such a valuable experience, and I feel that the lightning format prepared me to participate in a more traditional panel at a future conference. Twenty minutes will feel like such a luxury!