Jewish Life in a Small North Dakota Town, circa 1940s

I hope those of you who regulary read this blog have already visited the recently announced Museum's exhibition "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies." The exhibition may be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/lia-jist.htm .

I chose one story from each U.S. state and Canadian province represented in the Howard V. Epstein book of the same name as the exhibition. There are over one hundred stories from the Epstein book that "remain on the cutting room floor," so to speak.

One of them that didn't make the cut came from Gladys Smith of Grand Forks, North Dakota. I thought I would present you with some excerpts from her story here, as you won't find this story within the exhibition, and what she says is interesting.

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"My early memories of Grand Forks and being Jewish there are happy ones. We had a synagogue in town that served the forty families that lived there, plus all the Jews from the surrounding small towns too. We were, for the most part, Orthodox, and the shul was always packed on all the holidays. We had a full-time rabbi and a cantor for the High Holy Days, Sunday school for learning Biblical history, and Cheder during the week for Hebrew lessons, and Bar Mitzvah preparations for the boys.

My mother kept a kosher home, and Yiddish was spoken at home and at both grandparents' homes. Pesach was always spent in Minneapolis (it was an overnight train ride with free train passes, thanks to my dad's job) and there was always a feeling of rightness to everything. There was a rightness to observing Shabbos, to lighting the candles, to opening the door for Elijah on Passover, and to reading the Daily Forward in Yiddish to my grandfather.

When I started school, which came at the same time as World War II and the Holocaust, life no longer felt right. From then on, my family, along with my world, fell apart. Being called a 'Christ killer' and a 'dirty Jew' were things that no one had ever taught me to deal with. It was as if Hitler's madness had reached out to touch all of us.

My parents never taught us how to deal with the anti-Semitism that was so prevalent in that part of the country in those years: the 'No Jews or Dogs' signs in motel windows, being beat up by non-Jewish children, al the things that made us feel like so much less than we really were....

As World War II progressed, and it became evident that whatever family had been left in Russia and Poland no longer existed, my grandparents lost heart. There was a great deal of sickness in the family, and life, as I had known it when I was younger, became nonexistent...

When I think back on the friends I had during my growing up years, I realize that whoever befriended me probably had no idea of what a Jew was. I can't recall any conversations about religion, Jesus, or even the Holocaust. I don't recall any discussions of the Holocaust in any school class. It was always as though what was happening in the world could never touch us and, therefore, why even talk about it. Everyone was very patriotic and danced in the streets when the war ended, but the idea of people like us being starved, beaten, demeaned, gassed, and put into furnaces was just beyond anyone's--especially a child's--conception.

My parents declined to answer whatever questions I may have had, and it wasn't until I started to haunt the library that I began to put the pieces of this puzzle together. If anything, I can recall a feeling of, 'Keep your mouth shut, hold your breath, and pray it doesn't touch you...'

...Growing up Jewish in a small town left scars that I now realize can never heal. I'll always look over my shoulder and wonder if I'll wake up some morning with a swastika painted on my front door."

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Interesting food for thought, isn't it?

In the future, more excerpts from this book may be included within this blog.

New exhibition: "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies"

The Museum of Family History invites you to the "opening" of its latest exhibition entitled "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies." It is based on a 1997 book (of the same name) written by Howard V. Epstein, Ph.D. It is an interesting read as we get an intimate look into the lives of Jews who spent part or all of their lives within the small towns (less than 25,000 people) of the United States and Canada.

Epstein writes, "Each individual story reflects the life and times of the author as he or she experienced living as a small-town Jew. For some, this existence could be characterized as 'the best of times,' and for others it was 'the worst of times'.... Perhaps this will have some meaning for succeeding generations. I hope that as these stories are read, they will impart the flavor of a very special segment of the Jewish community of North America."

The book "Jews in Small Towns..." contains one hundred and forty personal experiences; this online exhibition presents to you twenty-nine of them, one from each of the states and provinces represented in this book.

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"Our family emphasized education--especially for my father, who felt being an American was so very important. He taught himself to spell and often would add an extra letter to a word. When I asked why he did that, he replied that in America it's extra good, so I add an extra letter. I never understood how meaningful that phrase was until I read his acount of his miserable, impoverished, and scary childhood in the European Yeshivoth. He felt he had accomplished a great deal because his three children received university educations and higher degrees..."
--Ida R. Shreiber, Shawnee, Oklahoma

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In his book's prologue, Epstein writes, "A knowledgeable rabbi once related that the story of the four sons in the Passover Haggadah referred actually to four generations, beginning with the European Jews who were deeply immersed in the traditions of Jewish life. With each succeeding generation there were fewer questions to ask, because there was greater distance between the tradition of family roots and the socialization into American society, which all too often resulted in cultural distancing and, ultimately, assimilation. Thus the fourth son had no questions to ask because he had no Jewish background on which to base any questions about the significance of the Pesach seder."

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"The event in the Jewish calendar that gives me the fondest memories of Cumberland (Maryland) is Passover. B'Er Chayim strongly believed in organizing the whole congregation into a community seder, always in the vestry room. The sisterhood cooked and served the supper. (My mother, who was always on this committee, saw to it that her brood was served first.) The rabbi and many of the pillars of the congregation read from the Haggadah. Everyone sang the traditional songs, which we kids had practiced for weeks ahead of time in the religious school, while the rebbitzin Hadassah Lefkowitz played the piano. The top Hebrew pupils got their chance to shine in reciting the Four Questions. "Who knows one?" was always comical with the rabbi choosing some of the "characters" in the congregation to answer."
--Perry Peskin, Cumberland, Maryland

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I hope you find reading these personal stories as interesting as I have. "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies" can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/lia-jist.htm .

The Museum of Family History welcomes more such stories, not just about life in small towns, but also about life as a Jew in bigger towns or cities; not only from the United States or Canada, but from throughout the world. If you have a story, either in form of a written text , or as an audio or video file, and you wish to share it with others who might visit the Museum, please contact me at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com.

Coming Soon: "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies"

Just a note on a future exhibition that should be ready for viewing online by the first week in September. It is entitled "Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies."

In 1997, Dr. Howard V. Epstein, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker from Georgia published a book of short stories or histories written by Jews who lived in small towns throughout the United States and Canada. They are all very enlightening and interesting.

The book itself is a collection of 140 personal experiences. Dr. Epstein discovered that such personal accounts couldn't be found in sociological literature, so he decided to create this project.

These accounts represent Jewish lives in twenty-six states and three Canadian provinces. Each participant was asked to write his or her own story and submit it to Dr. Epstein. At least one story per state or province will be represented in this exhibition, so there should be plenty of good stories for you to read.

When the exhibition has been readied and uploaded to the Internet, an announcement will be made on the Museum's blog.