More than 300 Jewish leaders attended a special program yesterday opening a two-month exhibit on “Cultural Pluralism – America’s Gift to Jewish History” at which more than 900 letters, documents, rare books, photographs and other historic memorabilia were displayed in celebration of the Bicentennial. The exhibit, sponsored by the Tarbuth Foundation for the Advancement of Hebrew Culture, will be on display through Sunday, Aug. 29 at the City Center for Music and Drama at 131 West 55th Street. It will be open to the public free from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Saturday.
What is probably the most comprehensive Jewish celebration of the Bicentennial in this country, “this chronology of American history,” said Abraham Goodman, founder and president of the Tarbuth Foundation, “emphasizes the records of Jewish events as a demonstration of pride in our contribution to the American scene.”
In opening the exhibit, Goodman, who is the treasurer of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said: “Our people, for many centuries, suffered the post inhuman treatment for the mere fact of being different. Here in the United States, our country not only tolerates our differences but it even gives its encouragement and offers a helping band.”
Continuing, Goodman said: “Here in America, we are not asked against our will to conform to the ways of the majority, Here, we are not called upon to acquiesce. Here, we are not merely tolerated, or accepted on sufferance. Here, our special ethnic characteristics are not treated as discordant notes. Instead, they are accepted as pleasing sounds that together with the sounds from other ethnic groups make up the harmonious national symphony.”
‘JEWISH GOLDEN AGE’
Other speakers at the opening ceremony were Dr. Saul Padover, professor at the New School for Social Research, who spoke on “Cultural Pluralism in America” and Dr. Charles Angoff, the novelist and historian, who presided. Dr. Angoff, with Dr. Emil Lehman, executive vice-president of Tarbuth, is co-chairman of the exhibit.
Calling this “a Jewish Golden Age,” Dr. Padover said that “the American gift to Jewish history consists of the enormous opportunity that the United States gave the Jewish people.” Today, he continued, “American Jews are repaying the United States with a wonderful outpouring of talent in every conceivable field, including the arts, the sciences, education, business, technology, the theater, and the whole range of activities that the human mind can conceive.”
ASPECTS OF THE EXHIBIT
The exhibit of 60 panels and nine display cases set up by Sam Leve, noted theatrical designer, contains notable examples of Jewish contributions to American Jewish life since its beginnings in 1654. Aspects of Jewish identity in the fields of the theater, music, literature, the visual arts. Hebrew and Zionism in America, Yiddish culture in the United States and secular and religious pluralism are among the themes developed in the exhibit. It also traces the linkage of the American and Jewish heritage from the time of George Washington to the present.
A giant wall display. “Cultural Chronology of American Jewry” encompasses a roll-call of significant events in American Jewish history. In all, over 300 original photographs of historical events are included in the exhibit, which pays a special tribute to the late Dr. Horace Kallen, who first formulated the philosophy of cultural pluralism as it developed in this country.
PARTICIPANTS IN THE EFFORT
Among the 30 organizations and institutions cooperating with the Tarbuth Foundation exhibit include: the American Jewish Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, the Jewish Division of the N.Y. Public Library, the Zionist Archives and Library, the Workmen’s Circle, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York, Shearith Israel, the American Jewish Archives of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The Tarbuth Foundation was established in 1962 by the brothers Abraham and Jack Goodman upon the initiative of Dr. Emanuel Neumann, veteran Zionist leader and now its honorary president. It has since engaged in an extensive and varied program of Hebrew cultural projects throughout the United States and Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
