Knish expert Laura Silver will lead a knish discussion and tasting at the Jewish Museum of Maryland on Sunday 20 May at 5 pm.

If you love knishes and want to learn more about the lovable hunk of dough, be sure to attend our upcoming Knish History 101: Life and Times of the Knish program on Sunday 20 May at 5 pm at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.  Featuring knish expert Laura Silver (http://knish.me/), this program will involve a discussion and knish tasting from local knisheries (yes, knishery is a word).  To RSVP for the event, please contact Rachel Cylus at rcylus@jewishmuseummd.org or call 410-732-6400 x215.  Big thanks to Sion’s Bakery on Reisterstown Road, Hoffman & Co., Caterer of Distinction, and Knish Shop for providing knishes to sample.  If you can’t make it out to the JMM this Sunday but still want to join the knish conversation, you can view a live webcast of the program, thanks to Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance: http://www.livestream.com/baltimoreculture.

Date run in Baltimore Jewish Times:  September 16, 2011

PastPerfect Accession #:  2006.013.1069

Status:  Unidentified. Hard At Work Passover Youth Mobilization group of adolescents and adults at tables carrying boxes of “Thin tea Matzos” putting them into cardboard boxes. April 13, 1971.

This semester I was able to take a course through Johns Hopkins and the Jewish Museum of Maryland called “Staging Suburbia” in which we, as students, helped the curatorial team at the JMM take a closer look at the move of Baltimore’s Jewish population from the city to the suburbs in the 1950’s and 60’s. At one point in the course, I was to interact with some of the museum’s collections. It was then that I found this “Beginning of the Future” pin in the JMM’s database.

2002.111.003

With the information on the pin as my starting point, I began trying to figure out what happened on May 3^rd of an unknown year, hoping it would somehow fit into the story of the migration of Jewish families, businesses, and places of worship to the suburbs during the 1950’s and 60’s. After thoroughly searching the web and the museum’s archives, I was still no closer to finding out what event the pin was tied to. It wasn’t until I started reading through Jan Bernhardt’s On Three Pillars: The History of Chizuk Amuno Congregation, 1871-1996, that I was finally able to uncover the history of this little pin.

On January 20^th, 1952, Chizuk Amuno began promoting theme of “Toward New Horizons for Chizuk Amuno” (Bernhardt 249). They enacted plans enacted to move the synagogue to suburbs. By October of that year, Chizuk Amuno was able to put down a deposit on a71-acre plot of land on Stevenson road.

Despite the progress that was made on the synagogue’s move to the suburbs, “Excitement surrounding the relocation plans was put aside in January 1953, as Milton Fleischer decided to step down from the presidency of the synagogue after serving as an officer for 55 years- 31 of them as president” (Bernhardt 252).

Plans for the synagogue’s move was overshadowed by the president’s retirement and for five months, the synagogue focused more heavily on welcoming the 8^th president, Isaac Potts, to Chizuk Amuno’s congregation.

To re-engage interest and support in the relocation project, “a ‘Festival of Synagogue Music,’ coordinated by Bernice Kolodny, was held on May 3^rd, 1953 and featured renownNew York cantor Arthur Wolfson as soloist. Dr. Hugo Wolfson conducted a choir of 75 voices and an orchestra of 40 musicians in 3 works by French-Jewish composer Darius Milhand. The concert attracted citywide attention as more that 1,200 listeners crowded into the sanctuary” (Bernhardt 253). The “Beginning of the Future” pin was most likely used as part of the festivities this day in 1953.

The little pin represents Chizuk Amuno’s goal to relocate to the suburbs, despite losing its president of 31 years. It conveys a message of hope and would have most likely been used in conjunction with the music festival to raise money for the new synagogue and spread the word of its new suburban branch. The move to the suburbs was cyclical in many instances- Jewish families and businesses would move to suburbs as synagogues began to move, and more synagogues began to move as families and businesses began to choose the suburbs over the city as well. 

Chizuk Amuno’s move from Lloyd Street to Stevenson Road mirrors not only the desires of Baltimore Jews of this time to become a part of suburban life but also the larger American ideal of the time- to embrace the future and strive for a life determined by oneself.

Ground was broken for the new synagogue three years later.

1991.007.022 Chizuk Amuno School groundbreaking, October 1956.

A blog post by Senior Collections Manager Jobi Zink.

Last week I went to Minneapolis, MN for the AAM Annual Meeting.  This 4-day conference is a gathering of museum professionals from museums of every size and type. Ideas are exchanges, best practices are explained and innovative approaches to keeping museums relevant to audiences are bandied about!

My first order of business was attending the Professional Networks Program Chair Meeting. That’s right! We’re planning for year’s conference in Baltimore. As the Registrar’s Committee representative,I want to be sure that there are sessions focused on collections. Fortunately, luncheons were a great place to talk about ideas, and learn what people liked (or didn’t like!) at the sessions they attended this year.

I enjoyed the many sessions I attended at the conference: Collections Conundrums; Keeping Safe: Discovering and Handling Hidden Collection Hazards; Out from Behind-the-Scenes: Bringing Our Work Forward; Copyrights, Wrongs and the Creative Commons: Current Practices; Out of the Vaults and onto the Web: Models for Collections Access; and Free vs. Fee: How Admission Ticketing Impacts Membership and Annual Giving. I am excited to share all of the information that I learned, since so much is applicable to the JMM.

Minnesota History Museum opened their in-progress exhibition and allowed the museum community to leave their comments on post-it notes. The suggestions may be incorporated into the final layout.

Fortunately, AAM staff knows that when museum professionals get together, they really want to do is see each other’s museums. On-site insights (small tours with a specific curatorial or educational focus) and evening events are a perfect way to see behind-the-scenes.  The Asian art collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art is quite impressive.

The Minnesota History Center sponsored Beer, Burlesque, and Babe (the Blue Ox). I don’t know which I enjoyed most—Summit Porter beer, the fashion show based on their Musingwear underwear collection, or hanging out with former colleague Lauren Silberman (and our new friend, Paul Bunyan!)

Claes Oldenberg’s Spoonbridge and Cherry are the highlight of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  It was lovely to walk through the gardens at twilight!

The hit exhibit at the Walker Art Center is Absentee Landlord by the Baltimore filmmaker John Waters,  but the rest of the museum collection is not to be missed either!

I came all the way to Minneapolis to see John Waters?

Not to worry, I did visit Minneapolis icon Mary Tyler Moore on my way to the airport!

1992-1989

MS 202

The Jewish Museum of Maryland

Accession and Provenance

The Hymen Saye collection was donated to the Jewish Museum of Maryland by Hymen Saye as accession 1991.7.  The collection was processed byRebeccaLouderback in March 2012.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.  Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection.  Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures.

Hymen Saye teaching at Talmud Torah, 1928. 1991.7.13

Biographical Sketch

Hymen Saye was born in Baltimore in 1907.  His father Louis Saye, arrived in Baltimore from Latvia, in 1904.  Once he had a job as a tailor and a place to live, Louis sent for his wife and two daughters.  Growing up in a Yiddish only household, Hymen and his sisters spoke English only to each other and outside the home.  Louis Saye would eventually learn English, however Hymen’s mother never made the attempt. 

Saye attended public schools # 73 on Aisquith and Orleans and school # 40.  Saye’s father made sure he attended Talmud Torah (later Talmudical Academy) in the evenings,.  Hymen participated in a junior congregation where he was the chazzan on shabbos.  At 14 or 15 he was given a class to teach at Talmud Torah on the condition that he would attend Baltimore Hebrew College (later Baltimore Hebrew University).  By age twenty four he was teaching forty hours a week. 

Baltimore Hebrew College faculty. Featured include: Hymen Saye (6th from left), Harry Teback (5th from left), Bill (William) Furie (8th from left), and Leon Rivkin (far right). n.d. 1991.7.17

 

While still learning at Baltimore Hebrew College, Hymen attended City College and graduated in 1926. He stayed at City College for five years because he changed his courses from commercial to academic.  He received a teaching degree from Baltimore Hebrew College, which he attended in the evenings.  During the day he attended classes at Johns Hopkins.  In 1931, he became the principle of Chizuk Amuno Congregational School and received his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University.  Hymen retired from Chizuk Amuno in 1971.

Laura S. Saye. 1991.7.36

In 1931 Hymen married Laura Seidman, whom he had met at a picnic when he was about 14 or 15.  She was also interested in education and became a public school teacher after getting her degree at Towson Teacher College(now Towson University).  Early on Laura taught in East Baltimore, but because of her superior performance she was transferred to Mount Washington. She was the first Jewish teacher on the Mt.Washington facility. Laura shared similar interests with her husband, travel, Jewish ceremonial objects, Jewish art, languages, and pro-Israel activities.  Hymen Saye died in 1993. 

Sources:

Saye, Hymen. Interviewed by Gertrude Nitzberg , 10 & 16 March 1983.  OH 183, Jewish Museum of Maryland, Baltimore MD.

“Chizuck Amuno School Director Retiring,” The Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1971, B6.

Hymen Saye teaching an Introduction to Hebrew at the College of Jewish Studies, November 1947. 1991.7.30

Scope and Content

The Hymen Saye Collection contains materials related to his personal life and his education.  This collection contains letters, invitations, programs, a bulletin, a yearbook, a manuscript translation, testimonials, speeches, a membership card and a loan contract. This collection is divided into two series: name series. Series I. Personal Papers, 1922-1989 and Series II, Professional Education, 1922-1985.  Series I. Personal Papers, 1922-1989 includes letters to and from Hymen and Laura Saye, as well as correspondence from various familial relations and friends.  The series is organized chronologically. Series II. Professional Education, 1922-1985 consists of materials relating to Hymen’s job as a Jewish educator and professional interests.  The materials have been organized alphabetically by folder.

Hymen Saye at the Institute of Jewish Studies for Adults. He is pointing a bell at "Hebrew Literature," the class he taught. 1958. 1991.7.29