Celebrate, Commemorate: The History and Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community, editor Joellyn Zollman, San Diego History Center, ISBN 8780918-740090, 91 pages including acknowledgments and room for personal remembrances.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – The recent exhibition at the San Diego History Center about our local Jewish community contained more information than most people could comfortably read while strolling past the panels, videos, and artifacts that curator Joellyn Zollman had assembled with help from the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego. Now, however, one can relax while reading highlights of the history and heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community. The highlights are packaged in an attractive 91-page book, which, unfortunately for sales, came off the presses when the exhibition was winding down to its conclusion.
An important part of the exhibition was an illustrated time line covering the growth of the Jewish community from 1850, when San Diego’s first Jewish settler Louis Rose arrived, to the present. The timeline was in the shape of a long scroll—looking something like an unwound Torah—that covered most of one very long wall of the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park.
Unless one had taken the Evelyn Wood speed reading course, to read the entire scroll could have taken an hour or more, while standing in front of the wall. Now, however, the timeline is reprinted over 60 illustrated pages of the book – easy to read in an easy chair with a good reading light over your shoulder. It is a wonderful summary of the main points of San Diego’s Jewish history. Of course, it doesn’t have everything – even over a wide wall or over 60 pages some things have to be left out – but for those interested in our community, it is wonderful reference book. The San Diego History Center also sells a video by Isaac Artenstein about San Diego’s Jewish history, which I reviewed in this publication in May. The book and video together make a lasting contribution to San Diego history. (See https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2018/05/17/documentary-on-san-diego-winner-very-well-done/)
In addition to the timeline, Zollman chose 18 objects and pictures from the exhibition to further illustrate the story of how the Jews of San Diego were both insiders and outsiders. In addition to Jewish successes in a variety of fields, including politics, these 18 images also addressed anti- Semitic activities in San Diego such as the growth of the Ku Klux Klan and similar hate groups. During the exhibition, people were asked to indicate which displays and objects most resonated with them, and some of the answers – from attendees, guides, donors, and families who were represented in the exhibition – have been published in this section of the book. For example, descendants of Victoria Jacobs, the 17-year-old girl whose diary gave us a glimpse into Jewish life in San Diego during the 1850s, told of their delight in seeing at the exhibition Victoria’s diary, which was brought alive in a video in which Sarah Price-Keating portrayed young Victoria.
I was surprised, and flattered that one of my own comments was included in the book. At the exhibition, there was a section dealing with contemporary families and their Jewish practices, to which people were asked to submit photos for a continuous slide show. I submitted photos of my wife Nancy making latkes for Chanukah, and of Nancy playfully slapping the hand of our grandniece Jessica who pretended to “steal” a latke from its drying paper. In my comment, which was reprinted, I noted that history is a continuum, and just as we today are interested in how our city’s Jewish pioneers had lived, someday future generations may also be curious about our lives.
The San Diego History Center deserves our community’s appreciation for having mounted the exhibition, while Joellyn Zollman and Isaac Artenstein rate a resounding “job well done!” for their respective efforts. Coming up July 7th, the San Diego History Center will present a new exhibition tracing the history of the LGBTQ community in San Diego. May it enjoy similar success!
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com