By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
The stories of over a century of Pacific Northwest Jewish history have been told through the eyes of the women that lived them. Those stories have been documented through photographs and interviews with 30 Seattle-area Jewish women, and will be on display at the South Gallery of the Museum of History and Industry starting in February.
“Weaving Women’s Words: Seattle Stories,” which will run from Feb. 15 to April 27, is the local component of the Massachusetts-based Jewish Women’s Archive project and the result of three years of work by the JWA, MOHAI and the Seattle Community Advisory Board of the JWA.
Seattle was one of two cities chosen for this project by the JWA due to its rich and diverse Jewish cultural history and the unique nature of its Jewish community.
“This is a late-forming Jewish community with a strong Sephardic underlay,” said Ellen Smith, principal curator for the project and former curator at the American Jewish Historical Society.
“It’s out of people’s normal expectations of Jewish history. The JWA is creating new access to the Jewish experience that otherwise has not been documented in this format.”
Renowned New York photographer Joan Roth took the photographs, and the interviews were conducted by Seattle-area oral historians. In addition, written excerpts have been taken from the women’s recorded oral histories and personal ritual objects and artifacts from some of the women’s homes will be on display.
“We want the audience to enter into a relationship with these 30 women,” said Smith. “The primary experience they will have is with these photographs. The photographs capture one moment of their lives, one moment of their personality. It’s been an extraordinary experience for me to be bathed in their wisdom, their beauty and their frankness. They have lived long and good lives.”
Viewing local history through the eyes of women is a perspective that organizers say has been somewhat overlooked.
“This exhibit is different,” said Robin Boehler, chair of the Seattle CAB. “We were looking at the contributions Seattle Jewish women have made in the community and the impact these women made on the historical community. This is about them, not their husbands. Sometimes the interviewers had to bring them back to talking about themselves. We’ve got their ritual items as well as telegrams and letters. I think the Jewish community will be very proud of this exhibit.”
The advisory board was interested in choosing women who were representative of the whole Jewish community. The subjects had to be over 75 years of age and had to have lived all or most of their lives in Seattle. Out of the original 200 women who were identified in the appropriate age group, 30 were chosen.
“We certainly have a unique Jewish demographic and a vibrant Jewish community,” said Boehler. “We made a huge spreadsheet to see who these women were. Then we sorted them by age, denomination, whether they were married or not, whether they had or didn’t have children, whether they were Ashkenazic or Sephardic, and other factors. After we chose the women, we conducted two or three days’ worth of interviews. When we decided we wanted to exhibit the photographs locally we approached MOHAI. They’ve been incredible partners.”
On display will be two portraits of each of the women along with an introductory text panel. An artist’s statement panel also accompanies each photograph. Prominent local Seattle residents, some of whom are the grandchildren of the subjects, also provide written acknowledgment of the women’s contributions to the Jewish community. The two local oral historians who interviewed the women, Pamela Lavitt and Roz Bornstein, then provide their written comments on the interview process.
“These women were pioneers,” said Lavitt, who interviewed 14 of the women. “The Pacific Northwest is beholden to them today. Their volunteerism, their time and their money — it all has to do with everything we have in the Jewish community today. These are the women that created cantorial concerts, balls, dances and a lot of Jewish social life. In the Pacific Northwest, you have to make an extra effort to sustain Jewish community. Their Jewish values led them to contribute both in the Jewish community and socially.”
Lavitt observed that what made these women so representative of their generation was their devotion to volunteering and creating boards for many of the Jewish community’s most longstanding institutions and social welfare agencies.
“A lot of women lamented that it was hard to get Jewish women to volunteer today,” Lavitt said. “They felt that working women had a harder time giving of themselves in the same way. But at the same time, they felt very proud of women becoming rabbis and somehow they felt that they were the foundation for that.”
Some of Lavitt’s most poignant impressions were when the women recalled their courtships and marriages. These, says Lavitt, seemed to be some of the most defining experiences of their lives.
“There’s a lot of tragedy concerning their husbands,” said Lavitt. “Many of the women had lost one or more husbands or had outlived their husbands. For many women, their lives were deeply interwoven with the lives of their spouses.”
In an effort to share more of their personal lives in the exhibit, several of the women volunteered various personal items from their homes — such as documents or Judaica — that had sentimental value for them, but would also be of historical interest.
“There’s powerful wisdom here,” said Howard Giske, project manager and Curator of Photography at MOHAI. “There’s character born of experience and radiant beauty. Our grandmothers had a lot to tell us. But it’s not only their photos it’s also what they’ve chosen to surround themselves with in their homes. I think a museum like ours has an opportunity to fulfill a part of our mission to transmit culture through the generations. People can hear from voices they’ve never heard from and see faces they’ve never seen.”
Giske also believes that anyone who has an interest in Seattle and Northwest history will enjoy the exhibit because it has the perspective of cultural anthropology.
“What we’re hoping to do is make a portrait, not only of a community, but also a portrait of a human being evocative of what it’s like to be alive in the twentieth century,” Giske said.