by Debra Shein
Congratulations to Archives Staff on State and National Appointments
OJMCHE is pleased to announce that Anne LeVant Prahl, Curator of Collections, has been elected chair of the Oregon Heritage Commission and appointed to a second four-year term. The Commission, selected by the governor, consists of cultural heritage leaders from across the state who “work collaboratively to champion resources, recognition, and funding for preserving and interpreting Oregon’s past” (https://www.oregon.gov/oprd/OH/Pages/Commissions.aspx).
LeVant Prahl is excited to have this opportunity to network with colleagues in historic preservation and cultural heritage institutions all over the state and to promote awareness of Oregon’s varied and multicultural heritage. While serving in the role of chair, she hopes to further the Commission’s quest to “acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of all of Oregon’s heritage communities.” She begins this endeavor by instituting a policy of performing land acknowledgments honoring the Native American tribes who originally inhabited the locations for the commission’s quarterly meetings.
Alisha Babbstein, OJMCHE Archivist, also has a new appointment to celebrate. She has recently joined the board of the Council of American Jewish Museums (http://www.cajm.net/) for a two-year term and is enthusiastic about being able to interact with others at peer institutions, learn what we have in common, exchange ideas, and share in joint initiatives and projects. One such enterprise is the national “Collecting These Times” oral history project to chronicle the diverse Jewish experiences of the pandemic era (https://collectingthesetimes.org). As a part of OJMCHE’s contribution, Babbstein has been tagged to use her expertise to train other institutions to run their interview collecting projects and will interview well-known cookbook author Joan Nathan.
Reflecting on these appointments, OJMCHE Executive Director Judy Margles notes that, “Recognizing Anne and Alisha’s skill and talent is nothing new — for years both have been recognized for their contributions to the field and for their work with OJMCHE’s artifact, archival, and oral history collections. As chair of the Oregon Heritage Commission, Anne brings her vast knowledge of history and history-making as well as her organizing skills to the most important state commission overseeing the preservation and interpretation of our past. With Alisha’s nomination to the board of the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM), she joins an esteemed group of Jewish museum professionals from across the country. And how fortunate they are to count her as a board member — Alisha has that rare ability to see and understand both the details and the big picture. This makes her an incredible asset for CAJM, as she has been for OJMCHE. I’m proud and honored to count both of them as part of OJMCHE’s staff.”
Collecting These Times: American Jewish Experiences of the Pandemic
As mentioned above, OJMCHE in collaboration with the Council of American Jewish Museums has been working along with 18 other collecting repositories across the country to record Jewish stories from the pandemic. The project uses the TheirStory video recording platform, which works much like Zoom. To date, OJMCHE has collected 276 interviews and has more than 30 scheduled on the upcoming calendar. 35 volunteer interviewers and ten transcribers have contributed to the endeavor.
Babbstein comments that the project has provided a fantastic opportunity to connect with a wide variety of community members during the many months when everyone was so physically isolated from each other. “One striking thing that has come to light through the interviews,” she says, “is how many who had been engaging in only a minimal amount of Jewish practice, or none at all, became re-engaged as a result of the pandemic due to having additional time and the opportunity to join online events hosted by synagogues. Many families have reinstituted the custom of baking challah on a weekly basis and have delightedly shared pictures of their loaves online with family and friends in other states.” She further reflects that, “The juxtaposition of feeling so isolated and rekindling with friends and families because they had the time to has been particularly marked.” Another thing that comes across in the interviews is “people’s general dismay with the political landscape, the climate landscape, and the state of our city. No matter where they’re getting news from or who they’re talking to, there is a general consensus about the awful state of all of those things.”
OJMCHE is still seeking additional community members of all ages and backgrounds who would like to be interviewed about their experiences of the pandemic. If interested, contact Alisha Babbstein (ababbstein@ojmche.org).
BB Camp Celebrates 100 Years
OJMCHE is celebrating the 100th anniversary of BB Camp, Oregon’s B’nai Brith camp on the Oregon coast (https://bbcamp.org/history/). In honor of that event, we are collecting oral history interviews from people who have attended or worked at the camp. An exhibit featuring those memories along with a variety of items from the camp will open in June. The interviews will also be made available on the OJMCHE website. They will become a part of OJMCHE’s searchable collection that features a comprehensive range of oral histories chronicling the Jewish experience from community members across the state (https://dev.ojmche.org/collections/oral-history/). If you would like to share your story of BB Camp as a part of this project, or if you have memorabilia from BB Camp to lend for the exhibition, please contact Anne LeVant Prahl (curator@ojmche.org).
New Acquisitions from the Berger Collection to Be Housed in Expanded Art Storage Space
Thanks to a grant from the Ford Family Foundation, OJMCHE has recently been able to renovate and expand its art storage space, which will allow it to keep growing its fine arts collection. Some of the first items to arrive will be 119 pieces from the Mira and Gustav Berger Collection of Judaica, mostly 19th and early-20th century silverwork originating in Europe. These were bequeathed to OJMCHE after Mira’s death in February of 2020 and will be added to the 35 pieces from the collection donated earlier, many of which are currently featured in the core exhibits on the second floor of the museum. Before settling into their new home at the museum, the new items will first be displayed in an exhibit at the Robison Jewish Health Center scheduled to open soon. There will be a full exhibit of the Berger Collection at OJMCHE in the near future. Stay tuned.
Gustav Berger, whose family had long dealt in art and antiques, was born in Vienna in 1920 and became a noted painting conservator. Mira Berger, born in Vilna, Lithuania (then a part of Poland), was an active writer throughout her life. Her memoir, We Are at War: Memories of a Holocaust Survivor, was published in 2008. Gustav and Mira met in Italy following World War II and moved to New York in the 1950s.
Prior to her death, Mira established a directed fund at OJMCHE to support the conservation of artifacts, in memory of Gustav and their son, Raphael, who died in 2007. Contributions to this fund ensure that the OJMCHE collection receives a high standard of care and conservation. Curator Anne LeVant Prahl is extremely enthusiastic about the new additions, noting that “They will make our ability to talk about Judaica and Jewish ceremonial practices more robust and significantly strengthen our collection.”