Gwen Rivkin, co-president with Sharie Berliant of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, grew up in Wausau – and that is a big reason why she is involved with the WSJL.
“We had little contact with the larger Jewish community; we were so isolated,” she said in a recent telephone interview. And that is why “I really value the society,” which in recent years has sought to “reach out to the Jews of the state of Wisconsin” through such efforts as the recently created Wisconsin Small Jewish Communities History Project.
But then, since its beginning in 1955, “The society always has approached Jewish learning both as an academic pursuit and as the unifier of the Jewish community,” according to Daniel N. Weber, chair of the society’s 50th anniversary committee.
In keeping with that, Weber told The Chronicle that the theme of the coming celebration, beginning this month and running through May, will be “Building community through diversity.”
That theme will literally resound at the very first event on Sunday, Sept. 18, 7 p.m., at Cardinal Stritch University. Cantor-composer-scholar Ramón Tasat, a native of Buenos Aires, will present a concert emphasizing Sephardic music, along with pianist Natasha J. Hirschhorn and flutist Eugenia Shiuk. Admission is free.
In November, there will be two events, also with free admission. Victor Greene, emeritus professor of history at UWM, will lecture on “Jewish Immigrant Entertainment and Song,” date and place to be announced.
Then on Nov. 19 and 20, Meir Yoffe, director of Panim For Jewish Renaissance in Israel, will speak at Congregation Beth Israel and Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha.
This organization, said Weber, is a multi-denominational group seeking “to help make bridges of understanding between various parts of the Jewish community in Israel.”
On Dec. 1-5, Rabbi David Silber, founder and director of the Drisha Institute, a non-denominational women’s yeshiva in New York City, will be a community scholar-in-residence.
He will lead an open-to-the-public Rosh Chodesh study session with local Hadassah groups and speak at local synagogues. Weber said the society is trying to organize a visit to Appleton also.
The biggest event in the winter will be a WSJL Family Trip to Israel Dec. 21-Jan. 4. This trip is deliberately scheduled to coincide with Chanukah, to “see how various ethnic groups in Israel celebrate” the festival, and to explore the issues within the Chanukah story relating to Jewish diversity and “how those issues are playing out in Israel today,” Weber said.
On Jan. 14-15, Michael Berger, Ph.D., associate professor of religion at Emory University, will speak on diversity within the Orthodox community at Lake Park Synagogue.
The society will then present what Weber called “a phenomenal exhibit not shown much in the United States” – “The Silk Road: The Jews of Kaifeng” about the Jewish community that once flourished in the city of Kaifeng, China.
This will be housed at Alverno College from Jan. 29 to March 17. In conjunction with it, Amotz Asa-El, executive editor of the Jerusalem Post and author of “The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel,” will come to Wisconsin March 5-8 to speak about the Chinese Jews and about Israel-related issues.
For the grand finale of the anniversary celebration, Rabbi Donniel Hartman, co-director of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, will be the featured speaker at the society’s 50th annual meeting in May and will teach at various forums in the community for some days thereafter.
Weber said Hartman’s Milwaukee appearance in 2003 was a prime inspiration for this year’s theme, and “we hope he will tie together everything we’ve been trying to present for the whole year.”
Weber also said that the society can offer free admission to many of the events because much of the celebration is being funded by the Helen Bader Foundation.
Different emphasis
The WSJL’s work differs in emphasis today from the time of its founding.
One of its very first projects then was the creation of the Hebrew department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It later helped create a similar department at UW-Milwaukee as well as the latter’s Center for Jewish Studies.
Moreover, said Kathleen R. Jendusa, the society’s executive director for the past 14 years, the society “used to focus the bulk of its energy on working with university campuses in terms of providing scholarship money for students and research money for faculty.”
Such efforts were born from the vision of the society’s chief founder, Rabbi Joseph L. Baron of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. In a 1958 brochure about the society, he wrote:
“Jewish learning constituted one of the glories of Jewish life in the past. Its content is fundamental to an understanding of religion, ethics, and spiritual democracy.
“Its total omission from the general academic curriculum and its complete neglect by the American Jewish community are all the more regrettable because anti-Jewish bias thrives on ignorance, because an accurate view of the world cannot be had without correct knowledge of the place and role of the Jew in it, and because Jewish youth depends on Jewish learning for its psychic health and moral sustenance.”
And through this kind of work with the state’s two largest universities, the society “brought Jewish learning to a great number of people that weren’t Jews, and got them to know it was valuable,” said Nathan L. Berkowitz, the society’s first active president and chair of a WSJL fundraising campaign.
Yet even from the start, the society’s members were interested in exploring the diversity of Jewish life throughout the state. The organization also in 1955 created the Wisconsin Jewish Archives, now housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society.
It also hired a doctoral candidate in history, Alfred Sumberg, to do research on Wisconsin Jewish history. The project ended when Sumberg graduated and moved out of state; but Jendusa said that his articles remain and helped inspire formation of the new small Jewish communities project.
Today, the society’s focus has shifted from scholarships and academic research funding to providing public programs. It also has broadened its reach from the state’s two biggest public universities to such smaller institutions as Alverno College and Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee and Ripon College in Beloit.
“Since I’ve been a part of the society, I feel that we have brought the society into the 21st century,” said co-president Sharie Berliant. “Our programming in the couple of years that I’ve been on the board has created some very exciting things for us.”
Above all, the society’s effort “to reach out beyond Milwaukee … gives it a unique niche,” said Rivkin. “As much as we can use more opportunities for Jewish learning in Milwaukee, I know from personal experience that in the rest of the state there are people who are hungry for it.”
For more information about the society and the celebration, call 414-963-4135.
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