THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409130175
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Minette Cooper got an unnerving reminder about the importance of historical preservation recently.
While looking for a decades-old newspaper report on anti-semitism in area public buildings, Ohef Sholom Temple researchers were told by a librarian that Jews never have been discriminated against.
``(Certain groups) believe that the Holocaust never even happened,'' said Cooper, a longtime area arts activist and the temple's first female president. ``It really bothers me. We have to make sure that people know the history.''
For some time, Cooper has wanted members of Ohef Sholom, the oldest Jewish congregation in the area, to gather together old family photographs, legal documents and other historical keepsakes for a temple archives.
They didn't get around to it until two years ago when preparations started for the temple's 150th anniversary celebration. Once some of Norfolk's oldest Jewish families began to scour their attics, all sorts of treasures turned up. Some families, upon hearing of the project, offered to loan prized heirlooms to the temple.
``People didn't realize what they had,'' Cooper said.
What turned up included:
An 1850 silver Torah Pointer made by Abraham Kayton, one of Norfolk's earliest Jewish residents.
A Confederate passport issued in 1864 to Lewis Nusbaum, an early temple president.
Vintage photographs of Jewish-owned businesses like Spertner's Jewelry Palace and the Monticello Hotel.
A menorah given to Mrs. D.E. Levy, who founded the National Council of Jewish Women in the early 1900s, when she opened the Women's Building at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.
A Czechoslavakian Torah confiscated by the Nazis for use in their Museum for an Extinct People.
Countless portraits of temple weddings, confirmation classes, Scouting groups, and members who played prominent roles in history.
With funding from the George and Mollie Radin Trust Fund, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy and others, temple members hired the nationally known Beyond Exhibitions Inc. to help them put together an exhibition of their findings. A curator was also hired.
The result is an impressive collection of 20 panels and two cases of about 200 photographs, historical documents, paintings, and other artifacts chronicling the Jewish presence in Norfolk and the temple's history.
Displayed in the synagogue's Kaufman Hall, the exhibit, titled ``Faces of the Past/Voices of the Future,'' continues through Sept. 22. A 13-minute video presentation featuring oral histories accompanies the exhibit. Both the video and exhibit are free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. Special Sunday or group showings can also be arranged.
After the showing, the exhibit will tour other temples, libraries and Jewish centers. Over the next few years, temple members plan on continuing their research to fill in the many gaps of their history, Cooper said.
``This is a good start,'' said the chairwoman of the project.
``Eventually we hope to do other exhibitions and continue to collect (more pieces). We've already lost so much material. . . We can't afford to lose more.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ohef Sholom members have gathered historical keepsakes for an
exhibit marking the temple's 150th anniversary.
by CNB