Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month

In recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion held a celebration with Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Central MA Steven Schimmel, who did a presentation on the history of Jewish life in America. 

The presentation opened with the universal topic of food. Schimmel noted that the event was catered by Chani's Kosher Deli in Worcester and explained that when Jewish immigrants came to America from Eastern Europe they brought foods such as pickles, dark rye breads and pastrami, all of which developed into delicatessen culture. Schimmel also explained the concept of kosher, which is the traditional preparation of food based on the Torah and includes rules such as abstaining from pork and shellfish and not combining meat and dairy products.

Schimmel then gave a brief history of the Jewish people that spanned from Egypt in 2000 B.C. all the way through the mid-1800s, describing multiple groups that tried to persecute them and the numerous places they relocated to, including a small Dutch settlement in Brazil. According to Schimmel, it was this group of just over 20 people that were the first Jews to settle in the area now known as New York. He also stressed the historical importance of the assassination of Russia's Tsar Alexander II in 1881, which led to 2.5 million Jews coming to the U.S.

According to Schimmel, the U.S. became one of the first countries to provide equal rights to Jewish people, despite some problematic laws that took decades to be reformed. He noted that Jewish people such as Emma Goldman, became part of many social movements. Goldman was a Russian-born Jewish political activist, who owned a business in Worcester in the late 1800s. She was outspoken about women's rights, workers' rights and free universal education during a time when many of these concepts were unpopular in the U.S.

He showed the audience several objects that are used in the Jewish religion such as a tallit, which is a prayer shawl, a shofar, which was a horn used for communication and a tefillin, which is a small box tied to the arm and/or head that contains verses from the Torah. He noted that it's important for people to see these objects so that they don't seem foreign when seen in a community.

Schimmel is the Mid-Atlantic representative to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Young Diplomatic Seminar 2011 cohort and is part of the Jewish Federations of North America Federation Executive Recruitment and Education Program. He noted that the Jewish Federations were formed in response to Nazism and antisemitism during the 1920s and 1930s. 

"When there's turmoil or tension in society, minoritized groups usually suffer. We've seen in during the Holocaust and again today. But I think people return to their heritage when antisemitism is around," Schimmel said.