The Jewish Museum of New Jersey

Memory is a wonderful thing; more aptly, selective memory is a wonderful thing; it empowers us, it embraces us, it enables us; it unifies and protects us. Selective memory can be quite useful; it lets us recall good times, extraordinary places, wonderful events, and special people; while, allowing us to filter out or mute memories so painful they impede our ability to function and threaten our capacity to enjoy life and loved ones. It embraces us; enveloping us in a tapestry of peace, tranquility, and blessed moments, warming our souls and psyches the way a fireplace warms our bodies on a chilly night. However; when it comes to Jews, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity, another element comes into play, an element as essential to Jewish culture, as mother’s milk to an infant; collective memory. Collective memory unites Jews throughout the world; even if the Jew is not observant, and has turned from religious life. Whether they see themselves as secular, agnostic or atheist, there is an excellent chance they have been exposed to the biblical and historical stories that make up Jewish collective memory. This collective memory, transcends time, crosses national borders, negates language differentials, and slashes through meaningless racial or cultural barriers; it unites us, making us one and empowering the entire Jewish people. This shared memory empowers us, precisely because it unites us.

The Exhibit opened with a full house

Collective memory, when applied selectively should not be misconstrued as a state of denial; we’ll leave that for others, and there are countless people and groups out there, ready to take the mantle; chosen people deniers, G_d deniers, Holocaust deniers, and Israel deniers; they don’t need us any more than we need them; but, collective memory is a group phenomenon whereas, selective memory is an individual and personal phenomenon, and should be respected as such. Each person has the right; perhaps even a psychological need to prioritize personal memory in a way the suits them and makes them feel complete.

Linda Forgosh Executive Director/ Curator for the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey talks Newark Jewish history with another attendee.

Since they can be used interchangeably in this context; I will hereafter use the term individual memory exclusively. Individual, memory is but a thread; barely visible to the human eye, easily, and aimlessly blown about by the slightest breeze; but, through the power of collective memory these scattered threads are gathered and woven into a blanket that is Jewish life and Jewish identity; a blanket that warms, comforts, and protects us from the harsh winds that will inevitably challenge our peace of mind from time to time; a blanket that all Jews, wherever they are, can cling to and wrap around themselves. Walter Benjamin, the great essayist, wrote, an experienced event is finite because it is confined to one sphere of experience; but, a remembered event is infinite, because it is only the key to everything that happened before or after it.

Good food, good people, good conversation, makes for a great event.

Individual memory ends when the individual passes on; but collective memory endures and continues to withstand all threats and challenges to it, as long as the people who make up and share the collective memory live. The passage of time doesn’t weaken collective memory; it strengthens it; as time goes on, new events, good and bad, are added to the pantheon, creating new memories that layer over the old; yet, the process doesn’t replace those memories of the past, it reinforces them; like each additional thread makes the blanket thicker, warmer and sturdier; each new individual memory makes Jewish collective memory stronger, fortifying it; empowering it; endowing it to stand up to the ravages of time, change and ignorance.

No one forgets the challenges of being raised a Jew; of facing the unfortunate and hateful anti-Sematic attitudes that still cloud the future of our people; of being set aside, ostracized, and even attacked occasionally. No one forgets a small group of radicals, led by a madman driven by a twisted obsession to wipe out an entire people, who seized power in a large European country; nor will they forget the unfathomable atrocities that followed. History tells us the sad story of that time, as do the Holocaust survivors who, thankfully, are still with us. But, it is collective memory that enables Jews to recall life under the yoke of the Roman Empire; the destruction of the first temple and subsequent Babylonian exile; collective memory is why we know of being allowed to return to our home by Cyrus the Great and the ambitious project of building the second temple; collective memory informs us of the Greek behavior and actions that led to the Maccabean Revolt; and the capture and rededication of the Holy Temple; it tells us how and why it was eventually destroyed, leading to the emergence of Rabbinic Judaism. The Holocaust and the birth of modern Israel, its current contributions to the world and the controversial, and sometimes embarrassing, Palestinian issues might be indelibly etched in our minds; but, it’s through collective memory, Jews will recall these events for generations to come. What happens to and through us today; will become a part of this collective Jewish memory that others will recollect five generations from now.

The reasons for sharing Jewish memory are just and the methods, many, encompassing the whole of the communicative arts; oral, written, visual, cinematic, and culinary. They are transmitted Jew to Jew and generation to generation via religious ritual, historical observance, and festive gatherings; most ending with a great meal. Triumphant moments in Jewish history are celebrated, tragic, moments, canonized. Some moments will seem relevant today only to be discarded as a fleeting, insignificant diversion; others will obtain a powerful, ongoing pertinence and thus pass into folklore. Whether a Jew ultimately embraces or rejects these stories, the memories are always there; perhaps dormant, like an unfertilized egg; yet, there, always available; to be recalled, embraced, and passed down to the next generation.

An attendee reviews a slideshow featuring many luminaries born and often raised in Newark

The most symbolic way of sharing Jewish memory is through ritual, religious services and observance of Jewish law; however, literature is the farthest reaching and most inviting method of evoking Jewish memory and passing on Jewish culture. Literature, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, a novel, a memoir, a poem, or through midrash expresses the beauty of Jewish culture in a most appealing way, it even reveals this beauty to non-Jews, many of which have never attended a Jewish celebration or stepped inside a Synagogue.

JMNJ is housed in the Congregation Ahavas Sholom Synagogue.

A quick keyword search of ABES books returned over a million and a half books with the keywords: Judaism, Jews, Jewish, anti-Semitism, Zionism, Holocaust, or Israel. This is only apropos; Jews, after all, are known as, the people of the book.

Sharing this information is vitally important, not only to Jews; but, to the world at large. The more people know about one another, the less likely they’ll be inclined to turn to the superficial stereotypes that so many reach for with such ease. Understanding ameliorates distrust, disarms hateful rhetoric, and holds the forces of intolerance at bay.

Many of the city’s synagogues were eventually sold to Christian churches

This is what made the opening of the Synagogues of Newark exhibit a few weeks ago so timely and important. The exhibit was a time capsule of sorts; reminding many attendees of a time when approximately 50,000 Jews called Newark New Jersey home; when synagogues and Jewish community centers were scattered throughout the city and Weequahic High School was considered one of the best in the nation. The exhibit proved a hybrid experience; it was a moment of individual memory for some and an exercise in collective memory for others; but the highly successful exhibit was enjoyed by all, thoroughly.

JMNJ vice president, Phil Yourish

Approximately 200 persons crowded into Newark’s Jewish Museum of New Jersey (JMNJ,) which is housed in Congregation Ahavas Shalom, the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the city. Attendees laughed and joked; greeted and embraced old acquaintances; shared whimsical antidotes; perhaps revealed a secret or two they had held over the decades. They enjoyed a glass of wine, nibbled some cheese, and examined the displays; but, mostly, they remembered. They remembered the powerful personality and teachings of their local Rabbi; they remembered their lessons; they remembered celebrating the various holidays; they remembered their parents; they remembered their friends; but, perhaps most important, they remembered what the synagogue of their youth meant to them. They remembered the synagogue was more than a house of worship; much more. For a people viewed with a weary, suspicious, or even antagonistic eye; the synagogue was a second home, a refuge, a safe haven, an oasis in a desert of hostility; however, the synagogue was even more still; it was where a Jew could be a Jew, completely, proudly, unabashedly, unapologetically, and of course, safely.

Just a few of the people who donated their time and talents to bringing this project to fruition; this photo was taken during one of the initial meetings.

While many of these synagogues had powerfully symbolic names that embodied the theme and purpose of the Jewish journey; most congregants looked at their synagogue in a less pretentious and more personal way, referring to them mainly by their street name; so while its formal name may have been Torath Chaim Jewish Center, it was affectionately known and still remembered simply as the Schley Street synagogue and Ahavath Israel is most fondly remembered as the Wainwright Street synagogue.

The classic B’nai Abraham was completed in 1924; today it is known as Deliverance Temple.

The exhibit is the result of huge amount of work put in by a small group of persons who spent countless hours, searching records, tracking down sources ,conducting interviews, locating artifacts, making photographs, and writing bios. They were also aided by the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey, The Newark Public Library, and by contributions (artifacts, photos, pamphlets, stories, and histories, etcetera) from many synagogues throughout the greater Newark area. The exhibit, part of the Newark 350 programing, will remain at JMNJ until February 14, 2017; it is open Sundays from 1 to 5PM, or by appointment. It’s only appropriate to close with the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, ‘the authentic individual is neither an end nor a beginning; but, a link between ages; both in memory and expectations. To us recollection is a holy act; we sanctify the present by remembering the past. To us Jews, the essence of faith is memory. To believe is to remember.’