Excerpts from Remarks presented to the Board of Trustees of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society and the Columbus Jewish Federation

March 6. 1995

Michael Feldberg, Ph.D, Executive Director, American Jewish Historical Society*

[*The American Jewish Historical Society was founded in 1892. It is to the national scene what the Columbus Jewish Historical Society is to Columb~lg and central Ohio. In addition, there are approximately 1D1 local and state societies in the United States that are affiliated with the AJHS. The AJHS serves as its umbrella organization for service and for areas of mutual benefit. Among these organizations there are genealogical, archival, and museum groups. The AJHS is a multi-faceted organization covering many different areas.]

What are the reasons that point to the necessity of creating a Columbus Jewish Historical Society documenting the history of Columbus and central Ohio Jewish life. Several important points follow.

First - History matters. If you think that history is just an issue of the "dead past," that it is the preserve of antiquarians and intellectuals, let me call your attention to two historical "debates" that recently captured national headlines: the attempts of Holocaust deniers to strip us of a piece of our past that is integral to our identity, and the efforts of the Nation of Islam to saddle us with a fictitious past that is not integral to us. The motive of both these groups is anti-Semitic to degrade us and turn others against us in the present by distorting our past.

It is our responsibility both at the American Jewish Historical Society and the Columbus Jewish Historical Society -- to tell our story, the story of the Jewish people on this continent since the time of Columbus.

Notice, so far my first two reas6ns to preserve Columbus Jewish history are quite different: the first was to help fight anti-Semitism, the second to instill pride among the Jewish community itself, which leads me to my next point.

Third -- Columbus Jewish history can be a link between older and younger generations. We can convey our sense of pride, accomplishment, and belonging to our children and grandchildren. Those who find no comfort in the synagogue, or feel little affiliation with Israel (which they see as a faraway place) can find their "roots" here in the history of what they, their family, and their fellow Jews have accomplished with this community and for this nation.

What have we accomplished? What have we contributed? Think about the realm of academics, medicine, finance, government, retailing. Jews have been responsible for a series of firsts, from the department store to the civil rights movement, from the vaccine against polio to the abolition of flogging as a military punishment. Our modeling of unified philanthropy through the Federation movement, our leadership in establishing the USD and other service organizations, have become a model for the rest of the nation to emulate and imitate. The United Way and Catholic Charities, after all, are based on the Jewish community federation model, not vice versa.

What have the Jews of Columbus pioneered for this community? What have they modeled for the broader Columbus community to emulate and imitate? I am not an expert on this subject. I had no idea that early American Jewry existed. I thought, as do many of my contemporaries, that American Jewry first came here through Ellis Island. I thought of America as someone else's country, and myself an interloper, a Michael-come-lately.

The world's Jews are one people through space and time, so the Sephardim are my people too, and I am theirs. American Jewry has accepted and integrated all the threads of world Jewry into its congregations, into its civil and communal organizations, and into its charitable giving.

We are the only world Jewish community to do so. Look at the history of the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Historical Society itself and you see that these organizations, both founded in 1892 to defend the German Jewish community from charges that all Jews were dirty immigrants right off the boat, art now dominated by the descendants of those very immigrants. My Own case is an example. In this country, the barriers between German and Russian Jews have virtually disappeared, and the barriers between American Jews and Jews abroad have tumbled forever.

When American Jewish history is written hundreds of years from now, it will identify today's generation as the most generous of Jewish communities. We care not only for each other in this nation, but for our fellow Jews around the world. Each Jewish community is seeking to preserve its records. In Columbus it begins with the year 1840. We must have a place to preserve our records, in exhibits, in magazines, in books, in the schools. We must h6ld your place with other elements in the community.

This effort will not compete with other efforts in the community --it will reinforce all of them. What is Jewish continuity, after all, if not the connection of the present and the future to the past? Continuity is not just with Ruth, Esther, Jacob or Moses; not just with Vilna and Kiev and Lodz; but with Chaim Salomon, Sidney Hillman, Henrietta Szold, and Hyman Rickover--American Jewish leaders who built this nation, who fought in its wars, who lived and died for its values.

History gives meaning to the efforts of the present, both in providing a context from the past and in providing a motivation for the present. The thought that today's effort will be recalled tomorrow gives us the strength to endure the hardships entailed in difficult accomplishments and for our sacrifices on behalf of the community.