Historical April 1986 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
In 1816 the first Jewish family to settle in the Mississippi Valley came to St Louis — before steamboats traveled the rivers and four years before Missouri was admitted to the Union.
The first formal religious service, a minyan during the High Holy days, was held in 1836, and this date is observed as the beginning of a true Jewish community in St. Louis. “Fulfilling the American Dream: Jewish Life in St. Louis” celebrates the anniversary of 150 years of Jewish life in the gateway to the American frontier.
This major exhibition telling the history of Jews in America and showing aspects of their life in St. Louis will open at the Missouri Historical Society on April 20.
The core of the photo-documentary was assembled as a traveling show sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Historical Society. More than 230 photographic reproductions, divided into five major chronological sections, will be shown on panels lining the walls of the Lionberger Gallery in the Jefferson Memorial Building in Forest Park.
The St. Louis component, with another 75 images, will be seen in the center of the gallery along with cases exhibiting religious artifacts from Shaare Emeth Temple and privately-owned treasures. Museum hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday and there is no admission charge.
The museum is closed Mondays.
After receiving critical acclaim in 1983 In Washington, D.C., where the exhibition originated, the photo-documentary show has been transported to the New York Public Library, the Museum of Science, and Industry in Chicago, the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Fla., with later stops in Cleveland, Detroit, Berkeley, Calif, and Atlanta.
In most of these cities, local historical documents, photographs and artifacts completed the exhibition.
From St. Louis the core exhibition will be sent to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and will be permanently installed at the Museum of Diaspora in Tel Aviv. ” ‘Fulfilling the American Dream’ shows for the first time the contributions that Jews have made to the arts, law, science and literature in this country and in St. Louis.
It examines American history and focuses on the role Jews have played throughout our nation’s history,” said Stanley L. Anderman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. “Starting with the first boat to arrive in New Amsterdam in 1654 and continuing into this decade, we see new immigrants. Then we see Jews assimilating to American life and appearing as leaders in their communities. “We hope that not only Jews from the St. Louis area and Illinois come to see this exhibition, but also that other St. Louisans learn more about Jewish heritage and contributions,” he added. “Jewish Life in America,’ the original show, was curated by Allon Schoener as an outgrowth of his book, The American Jewish Album: 1654 to the Present, published by Rizzoli.
For the book he chose 600 pictures out of more than 5,000 from all over the United States to accompany a text of letters and recollections of individuals who could recount the history of Jewish life in America: For the exhibition he selected only 250 photographs to represent five periods of American Jewish history, and 230 of these will be seen in St. Louis.
Most of the photos are of Jewish people, events, neighborhoods and, buildings – synagogues, businesses and homes.
They include a few of the first settlers who achieved prosperity, such as Colonel Isaac Franks, who served under George Washington in the Revolutionary War and was painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1802, and Philadelphia educator Rebecca Gratz, said to have been the model for Rebecca in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe and painted by Thomas Sullyin 1830. Drawings and daguerrotypes depict men from the mid-nineteenth century who created a Jewish presence and enjoyed considerable success: among them, playwright, diplomat and politician Manuel Noah, appointed Con- ._ sul to Tunis by President James Madison in 1813 and New Orleans merchant and philanthropist Judah Touro. Later photographs contrast the established Germans with the East European immigrants. Members of the Levy family pose in front of their substantial home in Oakland, Calif., at the turn of the century: Newly arrived immigrants brought to Ellis Island for processing are shown filling the great hall in 1910. Interspersed throughout the exhibition are advertisements for Jewish businesses, some written in Yiddish or German; cartoons and drawings, some of them anti-Semitic; and posters for plays and films, such as one for the first Yiddish talking picture, produced in 1930.
The period from 1920 to 1945 shows the experiences of second and third generation American Jews, including those whose talents earned them fame — Al Jolson, Jan Peerce, boxer Barney Ross. Lillian Hellman, Fanny Brice, Edward G.Robinson, the Marx brothers and Jack Benny. Side by side with the images of the notables — Albert Einstein, Dr. Jonas Salk, Leonard Bernstein, Elie Wiesel and Louise Nevelson — are photographs of families greeting immigrants, families at a seder, school groups and business groups, children and confirmation Classes.
The story of Jewish settlement in St. Louis will also be told through photographs — family portraits, individuals whose contributions to the community have been well documented, and people seen in the context oftheir neighborhoods, synagogues and stores.
From the Block Brothers collection of photographs in the Society’s rich pictorial history collections have been selected scenes of a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a seder, and Jewish businesses including the Block Brothers Studio on Grandel Square. Representing St. Louisans who have enriched the city and nation are authors A.E. Hotchner and Fanny Hurst; symphony conductors Leonard Slatkin and Vladimir Golschmann; photographers Julius Strauss and Philip deWoskin; civil rights advocates Celia Razovsky and Lucille Milner; Judges Abraham Frey and Moses Hartmann; and philanthropist Charles Yalem.
The busts of Charles Stix, Aaron Fuller and Sigmond and Julius Baer, cast in bronze by Carolyn Risque, will take their places in the spacious gallery. Cases in the center of the Lionberger gallery will show ‘significant religious objects from Shaare Emeth Temple — a silver Yad and breastplate and Torahs with their needlepoint covers. Prized possessions brought to the new country by immigrants will include polished brass candlesticks and a samovar brought to the United States from Russia in the 1870s and a mortar and pestle used for grinding grain.
A YMHA (Young Men’s Hebrew • Association) sweater from the 1920s represents one of the organizations that preceded the JCCA. Sherryl Lang, Bascom curator of costumes, is acting as curator for the exhibition at the Society.
The information in “Fulfilling the American Dream: Jewish Life in St. Louis” will be supplemented by a full calendar of educational and cultural presentations, most of them offered free of charge. Theme poets Julie Heifetz, Jarred Metz, Schlomo Winner and Howard Schwartz will each read their poetry, then will encourage comments and discussion on Sunday, April 27 at 2 p.m. Marilyn Heldman, Ph.D., professor of art history at Washington University, and Walter Erlich, Ph.D., professor of history at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, will go back to the roots of Jewish heritage through art and architecture in a slide-illustrated talk on Sunday, May 25 at 2 p.m. Ben Fireman will discuss immigration and acculturation of Jewish St. Louis on Thursday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m. Attorneys Stanley Goldstein and Sam Lieberman will give insights into legal aspects of religious freedom the evening of June 5 at 7:30. Varied programs will be offered Sunday afternoons in June.
A historians’ workshop on St. Louis Jewry and the 1904 World’s Fair will be held on June 1.
David Lipman, managing editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will talk about Jews and the news media on June 8. Traditional Jewish music and its relationship to grand opera is the subject of the musical program on June 22, with singing by cantors and professional vocalists. Preceding the closing ceremonies of the exhibition on June 29, personal reminiscences of St. Louis Jewish families will be presented live and through taped interviews.
A Thursday evening series of three films will run June 12, 19 and 26 at 7:30 pm. Other programs are in the planning stages for May and June and will be announced through the newspapers, and information will be available by calling 361-1424.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1986.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1986_04.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
