The Invisibility of Women in the Archives of the East Midwood Jewish Center
Toby Carliner Sanchez
Archivist & Historian, East Midwood Jewish Center, Inc.
Published in the “The Golden Book, Issued in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the East Midwood Jewish Center. Collection of the East Midwood Jewish Center, Inc.
The East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC) is a synagogue and community center in the heart of Brooklyn. Founded in 1924 to serve the needs of individuals and families at every stage of life, today it welcomes a wide range of learners and seekers, straight or LGBTQ, including interfaith families. From its earliest days to the present, women have been key players in the development of the EMJC, yet they are barely included in the eighty-four archival boxes that comprise the EMJC Archives. While the written history of the Men’s Club consists of over seven linear feet of materials, that of the Sisterhood, the women’s organization, is limited to less than half that amount, despite the robustness of their activities and programs. This imbalance in representation calls into question whether EMJC leaders failed to preserve the records of the Sisterhood or chose to ignore them. These are currently unanswerable questions, but they suggest new avenues of inquiry.
On May 1, 1924, a group of middle-class married men, living in what was then a sparsely populated neighborhood of Flatbush (promoted as “New Brooklyn” due to the expanding number of houses and apartment buildings) began meeting in their living rooms to create a combination of a synagogue and a community center. This American innovation of Jewish cultural life, unknown in Europe, was conceived of by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan around 1910, and spread rapidly to many American cities into the 1920s and ‘30s. From its inception, what would become East Midwood Jewish Center differed from earlier Ashkenazi synagogues in New York, as its services were to be conducted in Hebrew and English (not Hebrew and Yiddish), and the members were to come from immigrants from all over Europe, not just one city or region. By November 18, 1924, EMJC’s founders had selected officers, incorporated, purchased land, obtained a construction loan and a mortgage, raised over $10,000, and held their first annual membership meeting.
Meanwhile, their wives worked alongside them to raise money and recruit more families into the congregation. These women created their own autonomous organization, known as Sisterhood (without “the”) , which was another American innovation. The formation of synagogue Sisterhoods (Orthodox , Conservative and Reform) was encouraged by rabbis to prevent “complete assimilation into American culture and to preserve a Jewish identity that could exist in harmony with American ideals.”[1]
The EMJC’s Sisterhood was crucial to the successful construction of the Center’s multipurpose Renaissance revival building on Ocean Avenue, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.[2] Since comfortably middle class women did not work in those days, the Sisterhood ladies had plenty of plenty of time and energy to devote themselves to fundraising , which they did with extraordinary success. As reported in the twenty-fifth anniversary journal of 1949, “Fundraising was almost a daily function from 1926 to 1929, and between 1924 and 1926 Sisterhood raised $30,000 (the equivalent of $441,000 in 2020) for the building fund.”
After the building was completed in 1929, Sisterhood continued fundraising, contributing substantially to EMJC’s operations, as well as to numerous Jewish charities. During World War II, Sisterhood helped with the war effort by raising millions of dollars in the many War Bond drives. Sisterhood members became leaders and fundraisers for the Parent Teacher Associations of the Hebrew & Sunday School (attended by a young Ruth Bader) and then the Rabbi Harry Halpern Day School (an accredited kindergarten to eighth grade school).
In addition to fundraising, Sisterhood members played an important role in fostering a vibrant array of community activities. Year in and year out, they provided their members with regular book and author luncheons, talks by famous writers, Bible classes, musical performances, plays, holiday parties and trips, and worked constantly to make the synagogue a welcoming place for people of all ages. Among Sisterhood’s public service activities was its Braille Group, which translated the words of 4,000 English and Hebrew novels and history books into Braille, earning commendations from the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library and others, and serving untold numbers of visually impaired adults and children. These letters of commendation are on file in the EMJC Archives, as well as a letter of appreciation from a blind young man from California.
In the 1970s, as women of all income groups began to work outside the home and had less time to participate in community activities, Sisterhood’s membership declined from its high point of five hundred women at a time when EMJC’s overall membership was 1,500. Demographic change in the Midwood area has since reduced the membership of EMJC and Sisterhood, but the Sisterhood’s charitable fundraising continues to contribute significantly to the EMJC community.
Despite Sisterhood’s many contributions to EMJC life, its history and significance are not well known, even to the current officers. One can measure the recognition it received or the lack thereof — in several ways: how its story was told in four special anniversary journals; how many of its leaders were chosen to be honored at the annual dinner dances; how many Sisterhood women were elected to be members of the Board of Trustees; and whether its financial contributions over the years are reported separately or lumped in with other “fundraising events.”
The recognition Sisterhood women received varied greatly over time. The 1929 building dedication journal devoted five pages to Sisterhood’s work with photographs and names of all its trustees, committee chairs, and co-chairs, a detailed history of its work from 1924 to 1929 and photographs of the eight women participants in EMJC’s twenty-eight person Advisory Board. The twenty-fifth anniversary journal in 1949 gave credit for the early fundraising in the main text, but reserved only two pages for Sisterhood: a picture of the current officers without their names and a brief letter from that year’s Sisterhood President. The fiftieth anniversary journal of 1974, when Sisterhood reached its peak membership of five hundred, reduced Sisterhood coverage to one page: a half page description of its work which concluded:
“One might justify including the work of Sisterhood in every division or section of this book, for it plays a positive role in every aspect of Center life, such as drives for Israel bonds, UJA, Federation, the Jewish Theological Seminary, youth activities, community and social events.”
The journal mentions the Braille Group, that Sisterhood supplies resources and staffing for educational activities, that it organizes special events for all Jewish holidays and that its meetings bring varied educational and cultural opportunities. The other half page contains two photographs: one of approximately forty-five women (presumably the current officers, but without their names it is difficult to confirm) and a smaller picture of the Braille Group, posing with the Braille machines but without any of their names mentioned, as well!
Even Sisterhood’s financial contributions have been obscured. The 1926 financial report highlighted Sisterhoods contributions, but since then, the actual amounts have been hidden along with other efforts under the umbrella of general “fundraising,” preventing the recognition that their contributions might otherwise have rightfully earned.
The absence of the names associated Sisterhood members in the photographs demonstrates the lack of individual recognition women were granted from the EMJC community they served. From 1929 to 1975, all honorees at the annual dinner dances were men, although wives were also honored for their assistance to their husbands. Then, in 1976, two very active Sisterhood members were recognized: the editor of the weekly bulletins and the head of the school library. Since then, fourteen more women have been honored specifically for their Sisterhood work, receiving flattering write-ups. However, ten of these women were honored collectively in 2002 as “The Great Ladies of Sisterhood,” rather than individually. The ninetieth anniversary journal in 2014 also gave Sisterhood a full page of history and several mentions in the “Timeline.”
In addition to their efforts being under-recognized, Sisterhood women were only slowly allowed to assume leadership roles in the EMJC beyond that of Sisterhood. Membership on the Board of Trustees was only grudgingly bestowed. In 1952, Sisterhood leaders requested that two of their members be added to the non-voting Advisory Board. As a result, the next two decades of Board meeting minutes recorded the silent presence of the Sisterhood ladies, but no contributions to the discussions. Perhaps their comments were deliberately omitted from the minutes, but this is only a guess.
Not until the 1970s were women allowed to become full members of the Board of Trustees. The 1974 journal listed five active Sisterhood members serving on the Board. EMJC elected its first female President, a former Sisterhood President, Marsha Shlefstein, in 1996. In the decades since, there have been only two other female Presidents: Gail Hammerman, 2005–2009, and Toby Sanchez, co-president, 2013–2017. The is no further issue about female presidents or trustees.
Occasionally, the rabbi or a board president would make favorable statements about Sisterhood’s importance (“A synagogue without a sisterhood is like a body without a heart and soul”). However, unrecognized anywhere is the primary gift to EMJC and similar groups in every synagogue and church — the education of untold numbers of native born and immigrant women in the arts of organizing events and people for a common cause. In Sisterhoods, women gain the confidence to take on new tasks and to speak up for themselves and for others, thereby creating future leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs of all sorts.
As Anne Firor Scott states in Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History, a review of two hundred years of women’s associations, that
“By using associations women found a way to shape community life and to influence American concepts of community responsibility and social welfare”… “Consequences for community life went in tandem with consequences for the women themselves. As they worked together, they learned how to organize, administer, handle money, speak in public, deal with legislatures and deal with each other. The societies were miniature republics in which to learn about politics. For many women, the result was a new self-image, a new self confidence.” [3]
The role of Sisterhood as prime mover in the growth and continued existence of EMJC over nine decades of constant challenges to the continuation of Jewish life in New York deserves more recognition than it has historically received. In order to make up for the scarcity of archival documentation related to Sisterhood in the EMJC Archives, and to elevate Sisterhood’s past and present importance to EMJC as we approach the celebration of our 100th anniversary, I plan to recruit some of the current and past Sisterhood Presidents to:
- Review the “News of Sisterhood” columns which appeared in every “EMJC Weekly Bulletin” from 1935 to the present and tabulate the variety of Sisterhood activities;
- Ask the ten living past and current Presidents to document, as best they can, the exact amounts contributed to EMJC every year through their fundraising efforts;
- Ask them to describe Sisterhood programs and accomplishments during their time in office and what they contributed to the life of EMJC;
- Seek Sisterhood memorabilia and photographs from former members of Sisterhood and from all the persons on our membership and email lists.
Through these efforts, I hope to document the true history of EMJC’s Sisterhood and bring awareness of the other persons, male and female, who have also been rendered invisible in EMJC’s history.
Many thanks to The Metropolitan Archivist for the invitation to explore the EMJC Archives in terms of visibility and to see how much can be discovered by asking provocative questions.
Toby Carliner Sanchez is the former editor of Dcorot: The Journal of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York, and was for many years a grant writer and administrator of several nonprofit organizations.
References
- Herman, Felicia D. 1999 “American Synagogue Sisterhoods: Jewish women serving congregation, denomination, American and world Jewry.” From American Jewish Desk Reference: The Ultimate One-Volume Reference to the Jewish Experience in America. Eds. American Jewish Historical Society. Random House. Reprinted in My Jewish Learning: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/american-synagogue-sisterhoods/
- U.S. National Parks Service, National Register of Historic Places. 2006. “Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties, 6/5/06 through 6/9/06.” Retrieved from the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20170526210118/https://www.nps.gov/nr/listings/20060616.HTM
- Scott, Anne Firor Scott, Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993, p. 178.
