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Tag: archives

Mystery photo … Sept. 21/18

Mystery photo … Sept. 21/18

Congregation Beth Israel, circa 1955. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.09737)

If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca or 604-257-5199. To find out who has been identified in the photos, visit jewishmuseum.ca/blog.

Format ImagePosted on September 21, 2018September 20, 2018Author JI and JMABCCategories Mystery PhotoTags archives, Beth Israel, history, Jewish museum
Come celebrate our history

Come celebrate our history

Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia archivist Alysa Routtenberg holds a minute book from Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El, circa 1920. (photo from Alysa Routtenberg)

The documents and artifacts collected, processed and housed by the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia are part of “everyone’s story,” JMABC archivist Alysa Routtenberg told the Independent in a recent interview. She encouraged people to donate material, join museum walking tours and visit the archives.

Routtenberg, who was born and raised in Vancouver, did her undergraduate studies in history and art history at the University of British Columbia before heading to Montreal for two years to earn her master’s of library information and archival studies at McGill University. In the summer of 2014, she had the opportunity to work in her field at the JMABC and, when she completed her studies, the museum’s then-archivist, Jennifer Yuhasz, was getting ready to move on and Routtenberg won the job.

“I ended up moving back to Vancouver, and was lucky enough to get this position not that long after I moved back to start my career as an archivist here,” she said.

Routtenberg’s family has been very involved in historical societies and groups for generations, and she always has loved her family’s library and the study of history.

“We did a lot of trips – like Fort Langley and all sorts of museums and things – so I always knew I wanted a career in history,” she said. “It was just a matter of figuring out the practicality of what that looked like.”

The JMABC originally started out as the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia in 1971. Its founding president was Routtenberg’s grandfather, Cyril Leonoff, who passed away last year. Since its beginnings, the museum’s mandate has evolved, but the core objective has stayed the same – to preserve, collect and share the history of Jewish people in British Columbia.

The museum and archives makes information “accessible so people can come in and research,” said Routtenberg. “Then, we try to use that material in our public programming, whether that be with walking tours, lectures or physical exhibits. It’s all about celebrating and sharing the history. It’s a fairly short history compared to Jewish people in other provinces, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important.”

The oldest material in the archives is from 1862 – from Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria. While not Canada’s oldest synagogue, it is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the country. It’s been open and operational ever since it was started a couple years after Jews first arrived in the province.

“They were mostly coming up from California during the gold rush,” said Routtenberg of these pioneers. “And then, they developed businesses and, within a couple years, wanted to start a synagogue. So, that’s our oldest material. They are pretty special … very beautiful … handwritten notebooks and things.”

The first Jewish arrivals, she said, “set up businesses where they sold supplies to the guys who were going off panning [for gold]. So, that’s what allowed them to build a community. They built a business, a home, then a synagogue…. A couple guys called themselves wholesalers, selling every kind of supply. And then, as soon as there were actually people staying in Victoria and wanting to live there … I know there were a couple clothing stores and then a women’s clothing store, specifically, and a fur store … that sort of thing.”

As others did, Jews kept trickling into British Columbia, moving west with the hope of a better life, with more space. In the 1920s and 1940s, the Jewish community got big population boosts and communal groups began to be organized. Some community groups and businesses have now been around for three or four generations.

“There were furniture and scrap metal dealers … and we’ve collected a lot of those stories, fortunately, while those people were still with us,” said Routtenberg. “We’ve been able to write a couple of books about them,” she said, referring to the JMABC’s annual journal, The Scribe. The museum also publishes a newsletter, The Chronicle, twice a year.

Routtenberg’s job is to collect and preserve all the historical artifacts from the Jewish community, and the artifacts are divided into two major groups.

One group is family collections, which includes letters, photos, certificates and any other correspondence or paper material a family produced over the years. In that area, the JMABC has many great collections from a range of people.

“They were involved with any number of organizations,” said Routtenberg. “We’ll have their handwritten notes from meetings from the 1950s. We’ll have their letters back and forth with relatives across the country. Those are the sorts of things we have in the family collection.”

The second group focuses on community organizations, with collections from the Jewish Community Fund and Council, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Hebrew Free Loan Association, as but three examples. The material in these collections includes correspondence, meeting minutes, agendas, publications they produced, information relating to events, etc.

“We’re very lucky in that most of the synagogues in the city have agreed to donate their materials to us,” added Routtenberg. “We collect the material related to the synagogue’s administration, meeting minutes, member lists, committee minutes, photos, events and publications.”

One important aspect of Routtenberg’s job is to reach out to and speak with people and organizations, to explain what it is that the JMABC does, what types of things it collects and, at times, making house calls to help sort materials.

“Once materials have been fully processed, everything is in a file and we know exactly what it is, what the dates are, and where to find it,” said Routtenberg. “So, that’s the main job we do.

“We deal with a lot of research requests as well,” she added. “A lot of people call or email and they are researching their family, asking what information we might have about them. Also, a lot of students, from high school to doctoral students, contact us when they are doing projects and want to know about a theme.

“I’ll make notes about those. I’ll try to answer right away, but often it requires some searching. Usually, looking through material in the archives needs to wait for a volunteer to be available or I encourage people to come in themselves.”

Routtenberg especially enjoys getting to dig into a box, and she has made some exciting discoveries.

“Something I love finding are handwritten letters,” she said. “We have a number of collections in the archives that are very thorough. There’s one that’s [between] a couple who was in Vancouver and Montreal in 1920, and they wrote letters back and forth.

“They met in Montreal, I believe, and then were secretly engaged for I think six months or so. And they wrote letters everyday, sometimes twice a day, back and forth. It’s those kinds of things that people don’t necessarily think is important, but they tell us so much about what life was like back then – things they struggled with and thought about. They are just beautiful.”

The archives are meant to preserve everyone’s history, not just the visible part of the community, stressed Routtenberg.

“If we don’t preserve our history, no one else will,” she said. “That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day. It’s really easy for people to think they’re not important, that their stuff isn’t important, thinking there is no reason why we would want it. People, all the time, bring stuff from the 1970s and 1980s, and they think it’s not important … but, if we don’t do it now, it never gets to be 150 years old.

“And we get so many research requests – we average 650 to 700 per year. These are all people with a wide range of questions wanting to know about the Jewish community. I don’t want to have to sit there and explain something, because I happen to know it – I want the evidence to back it up, providing the original documents for people to be able to come and look through.

“We’ve really been trying to promote community ownership of these archives,” she said. “They’re not this thing to be locked away from the public. They’re really everyone’s story.”

For more information, visit jewishmuseum.ca.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Format ImagePosted on March 17, 2017March 14, 2017Author Rebeca KuropatwaCategories LocalTags Alysa Routtenberg, archives, British Columbia, history, Jewish museum, JMABC
Mystery photo … June 24/16

Mystery photo … June 24/16

National Council of Jewish Women, 1965. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.13971)

If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca or 604-257-5199. To find out who has been identified in the photos, visit jewishmuseum.ca/blog.

Format ImagePosted on June 24, 2016June 22, 2016Author JI and JMABCCategories Mystery PhotoTags archives, JMABC, National Council of Jewish Women, NCJW
Saving community’s stories

Saving community’s stories

Calof family festive meal, spring 1942. This is but one of the thousands of photos that have been collected and preserved by the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. (photo by Cyril Leonoff; JWB fonds, JMABC L.13866)

The Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia (JMABC) has launched a new campaign called Sustainers of the Archives. The B.C. Jewish Community Archives contains an unmatched collection of material documenting the more than 150-year history of Jewish life in the province, from family mementos to the founding documents of major organizations.

Housed in a secure, climate-controlled 3,000-square-foot facility in Richmond, the collection includes 750 oral history audio and video recordings, extensive photographic collections, as well as art and artifacts. This invaluable community asset is managed by a full-time professional archivist, and access to the material in the archives is available to researchers and other interested parties through the offices of the JMABC.

The purpose of the Sustainers campaign is to invite members of the public to become friends of the archives by making an ongoing financial commitment. These funds will help the JMABC preserve the archives for future generations, as well as help the JMABC achieve its mandate: to tell the story of Jewish life in British Columbia. To become a Friend of the Archives, visit jewishmuseum.ca/become-a-sustainer. For more information, visit jewishmuseum.ca or contact the museum at 604-257-5199.

 

Format ImagePosted on June 17, 2016June 16, 2016Author JMABCCategories LocalTags archives, history, Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, JMABC
Reduce, reuse, recycle

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Prize winner Irene Behrmann, left, and speaker Ranka Burzan. (photo by Binny Goldman)

On March 3, 75 people attended the Jewish Seniors Alliance Snider Foundation Empowerment Series workshop Don’t Agonize, Organize/Downsize, led by author and professional organizer Ranka Burzan, founder of Solutions Organizing Simple.

Rev. Dr. Steven Epperson of the Unitarian Church of Vancouver welcomed those gathered at JSA’s headquarters, telling the crowd he enjoyed having a Jewish organization as part of his community’s centre. He shared that, over the years, he has dealt personally and professionally with life-changing events in his church members’ lives: marriages, births, health setbacks, deaths. He said these difficult times are especially hard if no plans have been made in advance for the transitions.

JSA president Marilyn Berger pointed to her walker when introducing Burzan, and said this reflected her home, too, as the walker held a coffee cup, papers and other items. Berger spoke of Burzan’s work to assist people with the physical and emotional demands of transition and change, and said she looked forward to learning some pointers that would help her and others.

When Burzan asked the crowd how many of them were organized, a few hands went up. When she asked how many of them would like to be organized, everyone’s hands shot into the air. According to her, time is wasted searching for things like keys, scissors, staples, papers, which leads to time spent being overwhelmed with frustration and not able to start the task we set out to do.

Change is very difficult and we are afraid of it, she said. We procrastinate, we stress, we start but do not finish tasks, we hold onto things given to us, because of guilt.

Quoting Gandhi – “You must be the change you want to see” – Burzan illustrated that it is up to us to initiate change, and proceeded to give tips on how to do so.

She said, ask yourself these questions: Do I like where I live and with whom? Do I like what I am doing in my job? Do I need this item or do I just want it around emotionally?

Then – listen to your answers.

We only use 20% of what we own, she said. The other 80% we keep, just in case – our children, grandchildren, friends or neighbors may want it. Some people rent storage to keep those “just in case” items, she said.

Commit five to 15 minutes of time, she continued, recommending that people set a kitchen timer and stay with the planned task until the time has elapsed.

Simple tools – such as boxes, bags, tape, markers – gathered before the task is started will aid in its accomplishment. She advised people to start with a small area to sort, like a junk drawer or purse. This will give the boost of confidence needed to carry it and other tasks through to completion.

To show how simple it can be to discard things within a planned five-minute period, Burzan had someone pass around a small wastebasket into which she asked people to toss any unwanted item from a purse or pocket. Serge Haber wryly remarked he would prefer a truck sent to his house to help him get rid of items there rather than a tiny wastebasket, which caused a ripple of understanding laughter in the audience. And, indeed, the wastebasket rapidly filled up and its contents were tossed – proving that it can be quite easy to throw something away: a theatre stub, an old gum wrapper, a cash receipt.

Burzan said the benefits of organizing are multiple: higher productivity, less stress, more free time to enjoy socializing or working; feeling the pleasure of knowing that others might be benefiting from your accumulated clutter, that the discarded “trash” might be treasure for someone else.

Clutter is a barrier to life, she said, and it creates guilt. We keep things because of emotional attachment. We start projects – scrapbooks, for example – that go untended. But if, after three months we have not completed a project, it should be discarded, she said.

So, ask yourself what’s holding you back. Start organizing when your energy level is highest during the day. Consider what would you take with you in the event of a fire. Ask for help – from family and positive-thinking friends who can help you reach your goal. Burzan pointed to her friend and assistant, Mara Lees, without whom she said she could not accomplish as much in her own day.

After Burzan’s talk, Empowerment Series chair Gyda Chud highlighted the lecture’s key points and thanked the speaker. She then invited the crowd to enjoy bite-size noshes while mulling over which bite-size portions of change they will attempt at home.

Complementing the workshop session was a talk by archivist Alysa Routtenberg of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, who spoke of the JMABC’s work in collecting hundreds of thousands of items documenting the history of Jews and Jewish life in the province. The JMABC provides material for research, mounts exhibitions and stores family memories. Routtenberg asked attendees to not throw away their personal family treasures before checking with the JMABC (604-257-5199 or archives@jewishmuseum.ca), as there may be items that would enrich their collection, such as letters, photographs, pins and medals.

To those planning to promptly put to use what they had learned at Burzan’s session, this was a most welcome request. We walked away with our minds full of ideas, knowing that we needed to start now, before we procrastinated, so that we could reduce, reuse and recycle and see the results – a rewarding experience.

A raffle basket donated by Burzan containing her cleaning tips, tools and one of her books was won by Irene Behrmann. Karon Shear, Rita Propp and volunteers Bev Cooper, Jackie Weiler and Jennifer Propp contributed to the event’s success, and Stan Shear filmed it. The video can be viewed and more information about JSA can be found at jsalliance.org.

Binny Goldman is a member of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Greater Vancouver board.

Format ImagePosted on March 25, 2016March 24, 2016Author Binny GoldmanCategories LocalTags archives, downsizing, JMABC, JSA, organizing, Ranka Burzan
Researching Oakridge

Researching Oakridge

The Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia is currently researching an exhibit on the Jewish community in the Oakridge area. (photo from Gail Dodek Wenner)

Oakridge was for many years the heart of the Vancouver Jewish community. First opened for development in the 1940s, the new residential neighborhood was attractive to young families seeking suburban living only a short drive from downtown.

Many Jewish families had previously made their homes in Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and Fairview. With the economic boom of the postwar era, many achieved financial success and, with it, the opportunity to move to the comfort of Oakridge. Jewish community institutions followed, most notably with the construction of the new Jewish Community Centre, which opened in 1962.

photo - Growing up in Oakridge
Growing up in Oakridge. (photo from Gail Dodek Wenner)

Today, the neighborhood still holds a warm place in the hearts of many. For this reason, the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia has been working to develop an online exhibit celebrating the heyday of Jewish Oakridge. Making use of numerous oral history interviews, this exhibit will share the recollections of community members, and aim to provide a comprehensive picture of this era in our community’s history. A new series of interviews are currently underway, filling in gaps in previous research.

Under the supervision of the JMABC’s exhibition development team, made up of coordinator of programs and development Michael Schwartz and archivist Alysa Routtenberg, two volunteers are undertaking this series of interviews.

Junie Chow has volunteered for the JMABC for almost a year now, and recently produced the online exhibit Letters Home. Drawing upon the Seidelman Family fonds, the exhibit shares the letters written by Pte. Joseph Seidelman to his family at home in Vancouver as he fought on the frontlines of Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele during the First World War.

photo - The wedding of Sandy Belogus and Mark Rogen
The wedding of Sandy Belogus and Mark Rogen. (photo from Sandy Rogen)

The second volunteer, Josh Friedman, brings to the project his training as a recent alumnus of Indiana University graduating with a BA in Jewish studies and political science. New to Vancouver, Friedman is excited about discovering how the Jewish community in Oakridge reflected similar and different perspectives to trends in North American Jewry during the 1940s-1960s.

Listening to earlier rounds of interviews, essential themes have appeared. These include the initial motivations for moving to Oakridge, the overwhelming sense of community among residents, and even the eventual reasons for moving out of the neighborhood. However, through this process, new questions have also emerged and are guiding the ongoing research. For instance, how did the local community react and respond to world events affecting Israel and international Jewry? Acknowledging that Oakridge is a multi-ethnic neighborhood, the team is seeking insight into the types of relationships that existed between non-Jewish and Jewish neighbors. All of the results will be shared in the forthcoming exhibit.

Currently online are the exhibits Letters Home and New Ways of Living: Jewish Architects in Vancouver, 1955 to 1975 (see jewishindependent.ca/the-west-coast-style). As well, the JMABC has launched On These Shores: Jewish Pioneers of Early Victoria, which traces the early foundation of the Victoria

Jewish community from their arrival in 1858 to the establishment of Congregation Emanu-El in 1863, and Sacred Sites: Dishonor and Healing, which reflects on Victoria citizens’ response to the desecration of the Jewish cemetery there in 2011, and places this incident in context among other similar events elsewhere. Sacred Sites was produced through a partnership between the JMABC and the University of Victoria.

To visit all the online exhibits, go to jewishmuseum.ca/exhibit.

Format ImagePosted on March 25, 2016March 24, 2016Author Jewish Museum and Archives of British ColumbiaCategories LocalTags archives, Dodek Wenner, JMABC, Oakridge, Rogen, Seidelman

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