{"id":1295,"date":"2016-09-21T14:19:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T14:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjhblog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/21\/hadassah-oral-historiesfriendship-and\/"},"modified":"2016-09-21T14:19:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T14:19:11","slug":"hadassah-oral-historiesfriendship-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/09\/21\/hadassah-oral-historiesfriendship-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Hadassah Oral Histories\u2014Friendship and Professionalism, Intertwined"},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nJanine Veazue<\/h2>\n
\n

Oral
\nhistory is distinguished from other forms of interviews by its content and
\nextent. Oral history interviews seek an in-depth account of personal experience
\nand reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their
\nstory the fullness they desire. The content of oral history interviews is
\ngrounded in reflections on the past as opposed to commentary on purely
\ncontemporary events.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

–Oral History Association Principles and Best
\nPractices, 2009<\/a>
<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As an organization,
\nHadassah has created a wealth of opportunities for scientific and cultural
\nadvancement in Israel. Along with supporting Jews internationally, it has also
\nmaintained its vision of \u201cconnecting and empowering Jewish women to effect
\nchange\u201d (\u201cAbout Hadassah,\u201d 2016<\/a>) by encouraging American Jewish
\nwomen of all ages to also advocate for their community and women\u2019s rights in
\nhealthcare, the workplace, and beyond. <\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to
\ndocument nearly sixty years of hard work and camaraderie, Anna Tulin, the
\nNational Audio-Visual Chairperson for Hadassah, began a series of oral history
\ninterviews with some of the organization\u2019s most influential members. They also
\nhappened to be her closest friends. <\/p>\n

\u00a0Starting in the
\n1970s, these interviews documented and celebrated the lives, struggles, and triumphs
\nof these intrepid Hadassah members. Tulin understood their struggles to
\nadvocate passionately while still balancing professional lives, families, or
\nboth (as she experienced the same while working with Hadassah), and spoke to
\nthem as friends and professional equals.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Dorfman, Rose\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 5; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Benton,
\nJuliette\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection in the Hadassah Archives;
\nI-578\/RG 20; box 3; folder 1; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Benton,
\nJuliette\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection in the Hadassah Archives;
\nI-578\/RG 20; box 3; folder 1; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

Each interviewee is
\ncompletely at ease during Tulin\u2019s recordings, which are uniquely structured as a
\nfriendly chat over coffee, despite the breadth of archival information being
\nrelayed. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Cohen, Fannie\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 2; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY. Cohen served as both the National Membership
\nChair <\/i><\/p>\n

Although Hadassah
\nwas an organization that set out to help others<\/i>
\nin need, it also greatly impacted those who organized, led, and volunteered to
\nmake those projects a reality. Tulin was a part of this experience and through her
\ninterviews gave many others, including Rose Dorfman and Fannie Cohen, a chance
\nto voice their sincere thanks to a lifetime of selfless work:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Dorfman, Rose\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 5; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Dorfman, Rose\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 5; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Cohen, Fannie\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 2; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

A good oral history
\ninterviewer acquires the most out of their interviewee with solid,
\ncomprehensive pre-interview research. In Tulin\u2019s case, her experiences and personal
\nconnections were her research. By working side by side with these fellow
\nHadassah elites for years before officially documenting their experiences for
\nposterity, she and her interviewees made the most out of their recorded time. These
\noral histories bring life into many of the other related correspondence and
\nphotographs collected over the years, making the Hadassah archives richer and
\nmore complete.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Dorfman, Rose\u2014Transcript; Oral Histories Collection
\nin the Hadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 5; American Jewish
\nHistorical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Shukow, Blanche; Oral Histories Collection in the
\nHadassah Archives; I-578\/RG 20; box 1; folder 24; American Jewish Historical
\nSociety, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

Listening to these
\nrecordings first-hand truly brings these people and their histories to life. No
\nlonger are they merely names on a page, but flesh and blood, with both
\ntragedies and triumphs to share.<\/p>\n

Many of the oral
\nhistories conducted by Anna Tulin (along with those of Mirah Yungman and Manfred
\nWaserman) can be found in Record Group 20 of the Hadassah Archives on Long-term
\nDeposit at the American Jewish Historical Society: http:\/\/digifindingaids.cjh.org\/?pID=2916671<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Oral Histories Collection in the Hadassah Archives;
\nI-578\/RG 20; boxes 3 & 4; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY<\/i><\/p>\n

From
\n2015-2016, Center archivists processed the Hadassah Archives on Long-Term
\nDeposit at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) thanks to the generous
\nsupport of the Leon Levy Foundation. The Hadassah Archives measures over 1,500
\nlinear feet and is one of the most frequently used collections at AJHS. <\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/p>\n

Janine
\nVeazue is an Archivist at the Center for Jewish History.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Janine Veazue Oral history is distinguished from other forms of interviews by its content and extent. Oral history interviews seek an in-depth account of personal experience and reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their story the fullness they desire. The content of oral history interviews is grounded in reflections on the past as opposed to commentary on purely contemporary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,75,185,225,203,38,91],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-ajhs-collections","tag-american-jewish-historical-society","tag-american-jewish-historical-society-collections","tag-collections-services","tag-hadassah","tag-out-of-the-archives","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}