Interview: Jeremy Katz of The Breman Museum

Holly sits down with Jeremy Katz, the director of archives at The Breman Museum to talk about his new book "The Jewish Community of Atlanta," his career in history, and the expansive archives at The Breman.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Uh. Tracy.
I had a very fun conversation recently, um, because I

(00:21):
had the opportunity to chat with Jeremy Katz, who is
the director of Archives at the Bremen Museum here in Atlanta,
and he recently wrote a book which is out now
that's titled The Jewish Community of Atlanta, and it's part
of the Images of America series. And in our chat
we talked about the book, but also how he made
history his life's work and the long history of Atlanta's

(00:42):
Jewish community. There are two events that come up in
the discussion that you've probably heard us talk about on
the podcast before, especially if you're a long time listener.
One of the trial of Leo Frank, which was covered
by previous hosts Sarah and Dablina, and we ran that
as a classic episode in April of twenty eighteen. The
other is the ninety eight bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent

(01:04):
Congregation temple. We did an episode on that in and
we're going to run that as an upcoming Saturday Classic.
So now let's jump into my talk with Jeremy, because
there is a lot of great ground to cover, including
a recent acquisition which ties the past to the present.
We're here with Jeremy Kats, the director of Archives at

(01:24):
the Bremen Museum. So, first of all, because particularly for
people that don't live in Atlanta, and even a lot
of people that do, will you just tell us about
the Bremen Museum and what it is and what its
mission is. Yeah, well, first of all, thank you so
much for having me on. I'm excited to talk about
this community's history and in the Jewish community of Atlanta.
The Brema Museum is Georgia's Jewish museum. It is our

(01:47):
mission to connect people to Jewish history, culture, and arts.
Our physical space includes three exhibition galleries and auditorium and
an archive that holds the largest repository for Jewish history
in Georgia. So are a very unique institution. Um our
archive is one of the most incredible collections in the country.

(02:08):
We could have material dating back to colonial America's Jewish
comedian Savannah that arrived in seventeen thirty three. Up until
present day, we've been doing some collecting during the pandemic
to document the Jewish response to the health crisis. Uh.
And what's also unique about a collection is that we
collect history in all formats, So we have media, artifacts, textiles, documents, photographs.

(02:34):
We do not discriminate against history, and so we have
this really eclectic collection that we use for exhibition purposes,
for research purposes. We get hundreds of research requests from
around the country. Uh, folks, filmmakers, genealogists, students, teachers that
want to access our primary sources. In addition to that,

(02:54):
we also do a lot of secondary source interpretation like
this book project that we're gonna be talking about. But
we also have a Google Arts and Culture page. We
do tons of programming that reached tens of thousands of people.
So we our mission is broad. Um and Uh it's
it's a lot of fun to work at the Free
Of Museum because every day I get to do a
little different, something a little different. I will also just say,

(03:17):
from my own perspective, UH, that museum has had some
of the most spectacular exhibits I could ever imagine that
more resendac exhibit. There may have been awkward tiers on
my part that was a really really good one. Yeah.
We we've had some really fun exhibitions. We had one
Doctor SEUs. We have one that we brought in that
was about Houdini. A lot of people don't realize his

(03:38):
Jewish heritage, and so it allows us to be a
little flexible because our mission is broad, but we do
focus on local Jewish history, but we can kind of
dial in and out. We have an exhibition space that's
just for special exhibitions, so we can bring in exhibitions
from around the country or explore topics about Jewish contribution
to American Jewish history. I love it. Uh. So I

(04:00):
mentioned already that you're the director of Archives at the museum,
and I know it's always fascinating for our listeners to
hear how people ended up in history jobs that are
not particularly when they're not just like standing at Electrin
and teaching UM. Will you talk about your journey to
having a career in history. Was this always your path? Yeah, gladly, Uh,
like many other history nerds, I didn't really want to

(04:23):
go into teaching history. I wanted to work hands on
with history, and I honestly fell into this career path.
I was an undeclared major. Entering college, I only took
a history class because my friends on my dorm floor
we're also taking a history class, and I was like, sure,
I'll join you all, um, and I winded up absolutely
loving it, and I got the highest grade of all

(04:43):
my friends. I was like, Okay, I guess I have
in that for this, and UH decided to declare history
major and UM my senior year, I had no idea
what I wanted to do with it. Like I said,
I didn't want to teach. I wanted to work more
hands on, and so I applied for an internship with
the local Jewish community that was putting together an exhibition

(05:05):
about Jewish life in central Ohio. And my part was
to research the artifacts and write the labels for the artifacts.
And I absolutely love that that responsibility, and it led
me to um look into grad school for museums and
an archive programs. And I actually ran into my history

(05:26):
teacher from high school when I was home for the holidays,
and he said, there's this really great program for that
at Right State University, just in my hometown, Date in Ohio,
and so I made an appointment to meet with the
director of the program, who was also the director of
the special collections and archives at Right State University, and
we hit it off, and at the end of the meeting,
she said, do you want to hold an original print

(05:47):
of the first flight? As they have the largest collection
of Right Brothers papers at Right State University. UH. And
so she took me back to the vault and she
handed me an original print that was developed by Wilbird Horble,
the famous print that you see, you know when you
look up the Kittie Hot Flights. And as soon as
that photograph hit my hands, I was like, Yep, this

(06:08):
is it. This is definitely what I want to do.
Want to work with these primary sources. I want to
go out and grow, preserve, and increase access to these collections.
And I winded up getting a graduate assistantship at Right State.
So not only was I in the program and learning,
I was also working in their special collections, working with
my teachers to get hands on experience, which was a
fantastic um way to receive an education. UH. And then

(06:33):
after graduation, I got a postgraduate internship at the American
Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, which is an incredible institution that's
been collecting Jewish history and in America since the World
War Two, since the Holocaust. UM. They have an incredible
collection that spans across the entire country and to Colonial
America to the present day as well. UM. And then

(06:54):
I got the job in Atlanta in two thousand and thirteen.
I've been here the last I just celebrated my eight
year anniversary at the breman Um and it's hard to
believe it, but it's been an absolutely incredible experience. When
I first moved here, I knew nothing, really next to
nothing about Atlantaged Jewish history and Jewish life in the South,
and so I've just been a sponge and fascinated by

(07:17):
this topic, trying to absorb everything I can, and working
with this collection has been just uh, the opportunity of
a lifetime and no shortage of things to sort through
and look at and and absorb. If that's the case.
Oh yeah, where our archive is vast and there's a
good job security because there's a whole lot to do

(07:37):
and but a lot of fun too. So that brings
us to your book, which is part of the Images
of America series, and it is titled The Jewish Community
of Atlanta. And I was wondering, how did this book happen.
Was this something where they came to you or did
you go to them? How did it all come together? Yeah? So, um,
as you all may know, the Images of America series

(07:59):
is massive others, I think close to ten thousand of
these books in this production line by Arcadia Publishing. UM
and So Atlanta was a little late to the game
that they. You know, there's been the Jewish Community of Savannah,
the Jewish Community of Chattanooga, all these different Jewish communities
from around the country have published Images of America series books.
And so Arcadia has been approaching us for years to

(08:22):
write this UM and Uh. You know, in the past
we weren't really quite quite ready yet. We had this
extensive photograph collection, but we there was so much backlog
that it would have been really hard to write this book.
We had to would have had to sift through some
really rough inventories to try to find the images that
we were looking for to tell this story. But in

(08:43):
two thousand seventeen we received grant funding to hire a
photo archivist who, over the course of the next three years,
catalog ten thousand images. So in along the way, we
were kind of had this project in the back of
our minds like, oh, look, you know, keep an eye
out for really unique pictures that he meant the Jewish
community and the contributions to Atlanta. And so last in

(09:06):
two thousand, uh nineteen, we realized we were really ready
to take on this project and tell this story. And
really since day one, since I started at the brem
and I kind of knew that there was a book
in the archives, that there was this as I was
going along, you know, and finding having all these aha
moments of like, wow, the Jewish community has contributed it

(09:29):
disproportionately in so many ways to the city of Atlanta.
So many icons when you think of this city have
pay homage to the Jewish community. And so along the way,
I was kind of like had a running list of like, oh,
like Coca Cola was first sold at the Jewish owned pharmacy,
and Georgia Tech was started by a Jewish entrepreneur, and
like Emery University, like everything that you think of when

(09:50):
you think of Atlanta as those connections, and so I
kind of had a running list. And so when we
were finally signed the contract, I basically already had like
the first draft and yeah, and so we formed like
a book review committee made up board members and they leaders.
It was a very kind of committee judicious process that
we went through it to edit and select images. But

(10:13):
it was one of the most It's been one of
the most rewarding projects that I've worked on in UH
in the archives to see it come to fruition and
shine light on this little known subject of Jewish life
in Atlanta. I'm glad you mentioned how little known it is,

(10:38):
because I don't think people realize that the Jewish community
has been part of Atlanta from literally day one. Um.
And you mentioned in the introduction of the book, there's
a great line where you say Atlanta's Jewish community is
a microcosm of Jewish life in America. And will you
talk a little bit about You've already touched on some
but about how you know Jewish life in Atlanta began

(10:59):
and also how it has become that kind of microcosm
that mirrors the rest of the country. Just like you said,
it was day one when Atlanta was incorporated in there
are already two members of the Jewish community there, Henry
Levy and Jacob has that had a business, a dry
goods store in the city. Um and like so many

(11:20):
other frontier towns. It's hard to uh, it's it's very
easy to forget that Atlanta was once this frontier railroad town,
you know, knowing what it is today, but it was
this kind of backwoods place for its early life. UM.
And like so many other frontier towns, the Jewish community

(11:42):
began with peddlers that were immigrants that settled in ports cities,
were given a pack of goods lent to pack of
goods by a supplier, and they would then take those
those goods door to door. Eventually they would save up
enough money to get a buy ache or a horse
and buggy and spread further out into the countryside. And

(12:05):
once they saved up enough money and found enough found
a place that was hospitable enough for them, they would
then settle down, uh and open a physical store. And
that's how the Jewish community got started in Atlanta, and
how it got started throughout the rest of the country. UM.
And throughout that entire process, UM, there were they disproportionately

(12:26):
contributed to the community. The UH. There's this misconception that
the Jewish community is homogeneous. That's not true at all.
There's a lot of diversity within the Jewish community and
that was true in Atlanta and so many other cities
throughout the country. Uh, you have the you know, the
Eastern European Jews, the Central European Jews, the Saphardic Jews,
mis Rocky Jews that came to Atlanta and made a

(12:49):
very diverse tapestry of Jewish life in Atlanta, and oftentimes
those communities didn't really get along, so that there were
kind of oil and water in Atlanta just like others
days around the country. And also this microcosm uh in Atlanta,
there's some major instances of anti Semitism like so many

(13:09):
other places around the country have experienced, and that was
chew in Atlanta as well. There were three major instances
of anti Semitism, the lynching of businessman Leo Frank, the
temple bombing during the Civil Rights movement, and the deliberate
expulsion of Jewish students from Emory's Dental School in the
nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. UM. But another really significant

(13:31):
point of this microcosm is that the charity and the
benevolence of the Jewish community. UM. The first nonprofit in
the state of Georgia was the Hebrew Orphans Home, which
still exists today as a Jewish Educational loan fund, but
when it was founded, it was an orphanage to care
for those less fortunate in the community. And uh that's true,

(13:52):
not just for taking care of the Jewish community, but
but beyond. You know, there were members of the Jewish
community that set up free health clinics and all sorts
of different services, not only for the Jewish community, but
for the general community as well. So, you know, talking
about charity, anti Semitism, the diversity, how Jews wound up
in these small towns to begin with. That's the story

(14:12):
that can be told really throughout the entire country as
well as in Atlanta. Uh. Yeah, our listeners may recall
we did an episode actually on the Temple bombing UM
a while back and talked about you know, that's strange
just the way it played out with the backdrop of
the Civil rights movement UM. And it really some people
call it the bomb that healed because it helped heal

(14:33):
some of those old wounds that were created by the
Leo Frank case, which was a very traumatic experience for
the Jewish community. Really, up until Leo Frank, the Jewish
community had UM succeeded in ways that other Jewish communities
had it because in the South, social lines are drawn
by color of skin rather than religion, and so they
weren't really the ostrac sized community. And so the first

(14:55):
time maybe in their lives, especially if they were fleeing
persecution in Europe, they were first treated as first class
citizens and given this opportunity to succeed. But by the
turn of the twentieth century, there's these massive ways of
immigration from Europe and other places around the world. You
have a rapid change in terms of terms of the

(15:16):
industrialization of the South. UM that led to a lot
of nativism, a lot of prejudice against UM minority communities,
particularly a community like the members of the Jewish community
that were very successful business owners, a lot of animosity
towards them, especially with child labor. UM. You know, had
young boys and girls working in factories that were owned

(15:39):
by Jewish entrepreneurs, and that UM stirred up a lot
of anti Semitism. And Leo Frank, who was a UM
Jewish businessman, a superintendent of the National Pencil Factory, really
became kind of the brunt of this powder keg that
exploded when this little girl named Mary Fagan was found

(15:59):
dead in the basement of the factory, and he was
convicted of the crime, sentenced to death by hanging. Went
all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where
the verdict was upheld seven to two. The two dissenters
argued that he didn't get a fair trial because of
all the anti Semitism surrounding it. Actually, those two dissenting
arguments are now common law. So if Leo Frank was

(16:20):
tried today, I think whether there would have been a
mistrial um and so that that had a lasting repercussions
in terms of the legal landscape of the United States.
But even though that verdict was upheld in the Supreme Court,
the Governor of Georgia, John Slayton, looked at all the

(16:41):
evidence and decided to commutely a Frank sentence from death
by hanging to life in prison. But unfortunately Lynch law
was very much so enforced at that time, and a
group of very powerful members of the Marietta which is
a suburb of Atlanta where a Fagan was from, and
other members of the Atlantic community UH including a former

(17:04):
governor including a judge, um organized this mob to abduct
him from prison and lynch him outside of town, and
so that was a very traumatic experience for the Jewish community,
and a lot of people book end that with the
temple bombing because it was outpouring of support for the
Jewish community following the bombing. You are obviously a font

(17:27):
of information, right you just I mean I I didn't
tell you that I was going to ask you about
any of that beforehand, Um, and you just have it.
So I'm wondering. I know you said you turned in
a essentially a first draft, was ready when you had
signed this book deal. But I'm wondering what your research
process was like because I imagine, Uh, the hard part,
as we all know, is editing and taking out the

(17:49):
things that just there's not room for. What is that
process of building up and pairing back like for you
on something like this when it is a subject that's
so important and obviously that you're passionate about. Yeah, it
was a difficult process because there's so much that we
could have included in this book and the Images of
America series, Um, they're very strict about how many images

(18:12):
you can include and how many pages it can be.
I don't know if you've noticed, but all the books
are exactly the same length, and so I had to
work very hard with our committee. We put together a
book review committee made up of very uh passionate and
knowledgeable people that helped guide me on this journey as

(18:32):
we um cold information or added information that was incredibly
important to make this book as well rounded as it is. Really,
the goal of this book was really was threefold. Was
first and foremost to showcase the remarkable photograph collections at
the Fremum Museum, which measured tens of thousands of images.

(18:53):
So that was obviously why it was very hard to
select the right images. Even today, I'm like, do we
slept the right ones? I keep coming across these other
ones that are better. The second reason was to to
really make this community's history highly accessible in a low
barrier fashion. Um. You know, this book is available wherever
books are sold, and it is written for audiences of

(19:15):
all ages. Um, there wasn't really something like that exists
that existed. Um, you know when I first came here,
I was trying to be a sponge and absorb all
this community's history so that I could do my job,
and UM, I was having trouble finding something like this.
It was there was either like really highly academic literature
on it that was, you know, a little beyond what

(19:38):
the lay person would be interested in reading, or it
was not it was like maybe self published, and so
it was really hard to find. It wasn't highly accessible,
And so that was another reason why I wrote the
book is that, Um, you know, I just kept having
all these aha moments when I started working here because
I had to really search out this content. And luckily,

(20:00):
being in the arguivist at the museum, you know, I
had unbridled access to all these primary sources. Uh. And
just through my day to day responsibilities of helping people
access the archives and process collections and present this information
to the public. Um, I just kept coming across all
these significant contributions and and things that I just hadn't

(20:23):
seen anywhere else. Uh. And so that's another reason why
I wrote the book, is that just really for my
own purposes and for people in the future, that it's
just kind of something they can easily grab off the shelf.
It's not like a massive volume that's dense and full
of text. Um, it's very image driven. It's it's kind
of like a thirty thousand foot view that you know,

(20:44):
basically anyone with the fourth or fifth grade reading level
can pick up and and learn something about this community's
history in a very visual way. Yeah. The visuals make
it so rich, and I wanted to talk about just
a couple of them to give listeners and kind of
a sense of how this whole thing were works and
how you're using the imagery to open up discussions about

(21:05):
the Jewish community's history. Here on pages forty and forty one,
there's a really lovely two page spread of a photo
of a shopkeeper, and you use that as the way
to to be the entry point to talk about the
Jewish communities relationship with the black community in Atlanta. Will
you talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I'm so
glad you mentioned that, because this book is really supposed

(21:25):
to start discussion. You know, we we had such limited
space to work with that we wanted to include those
those important nuggets that we wanted people to learn about,
but also to be a jumping off point. I really
kind of say that, like each of these chapters could
be its own book. I mean, there's still much there
that you could go into. UM, but related to the
Jewish business owners relationship to the Black community, UM, A

(21:49):
lot of these businesses were owned by either first generation
immigrants or second generation immigrants who had fled persecution themselves
from around the world and came to America. And here
they are confronted with another minority community facing prejudice. And
even though they may not have felt the prejudice upon themselves,

(22:13):
because typically Jews are lighter skinned, um, so they could
pass as as members of the white community, they sympathized
and empathized with the plight of the black community. And
and Jewish businesses were uh the first to hire blacks
and sales positions and not just doing the day to

(22:34):
day cleaning or sweeping or you know, the entry level positions,
but at at a management level. Um. They were also
the first businesses to offer credit to members of the
black community. And even some of the department stores were
the first to have dressing rooms for the black community.
There was this kind of saying in the department store

(22:54):
business that you could you could buy, but you couldn't
try because they didn't have, um, just rooms for them.
So there is a deep connection. And also the the
Jewish community was particularly those those first couple of generations.
They were impoverished, you know, they came here with next
to nothing, and so they would settle next to the

(23:15):
black neighborhoods because that's where where they could afford, and
so they would set up shop. And so there was
a close relationship between these minority communities and a kind
of symbiotic um mutually beneficial relationship where they could help
each other um get by with their day to day

(23:35):
needs and necessities. In my head, I just thought like, Oh,
I would love for you to like co author a
book with someone from like the King Center and do
a really deep dive on that. I think it would
be amazing. I love that idea. I mean, and this
is going back like long before the civil rights movement,
like we're talking about like the nineteen teens on. I mean,

(23:55):
it's it really goes back long before it was in
the mindset of people in in the national spotlight. There's
also another really it's it's more of a lighthearted topic.

(24:18):
But there's a fun picture that really stood out to
me when I was reading through this book, and it's
on page sixty one. It's five women and they're all
looking very elegant. They have beautiful long gowns on, but
they also have these very chic coats with the fur
trim and they look very giggly and it's snowing, and
the caption mentions that they're on route to an event

(24:38):
at the Mayfair Club. Will you talk about the Mayfair
Club and what it was and how it functioned. Yeah, definitely.
That's one of my favorite pictures too. I think it
really captures like a site geist there of the time
and the Mayfare Club was was significant because Um I
mentioned earlier this diversity in the Jewish community and how
the Eastern European Jews that came over of the nineteen

(25:00):
teams didn't exactly jive with the Central European Shoes that
came over in the late eighteen hundreds. UM, because there
was a generational gap, there was an economic gap, there
was a religiosity gap, UH and so UM they formed
their own congregation, they formed their own social clubs. If

(25:20):
you've seen The Last Night at Bally Who by Alfred Jury,
the award winning playwright. He's the only UH person to
have won the Triple Crown, which is a Tony, the
Academy Award, and the Pulitzer UM. He wrote this trilogy
about Atlanta's Jewish history that drive Miss Daisy. People are
very familiar about with that, the Academy Award winning film

(25:42):
that started as a Broadway play. UM. There's other two
two plays that are part of this trilogy are The
Last Night at Ballet Who, which is about this division
in the community of a member of the German Jewish
community inviting a member of the Eastern European Jewish community
to this dance called bally who uh and the whole
intra ethnic prejudices between these two communities coming out. But

(26:04):
the third one was about the Leo Frank case called
Parade Uh. And so the Mayfair Club existed kind of
in between this this division. So there was a Standard
Club which was for the Central European German speaking Jews,
and there was the Progressive Jewish Progressive Club, which was
for the Eastern European Yiddish speaking Jews. And but the

(26:25):
Mayfair Club kind of occupied this rare space in this
deeply divided Jewish community UM and at the time of
its founding in nineteen thirties, so that picture is actually
from the their founding. That was their first event at
the Biltmore UM. At that time, I mean, this Jewish
community was essentially segregated. We have this, uh, incredible population

(26:48):
study that was done a little bit later the nineteen forties.
It perfectly illustrates this division because you can see one
grouping of enclave of the Jewish community north of constantly
on Avenue, which is a major thoroughfare in Atlanta, and
another enclave south and constantly on Avenue. UM. And that
was kind of the dividing line, was constantly on Avenue.

(27:11):
But by the time that the Holocaust and the birth
of the State of Israel, but even before that, the
Mayfair Club was founded in the thirties, UM, we start
to see, especially when it comes to the second generation,
the third generation members of the community, it starts to homogenize.
Not only are they becoming more Americanized that they're not

(27:33):
they don't have these kind of traditional roots in Europe
that they're reflecting on. It's more of these American values, uh.
And also starting to focus on their share Jewish values,
particularly after the Holocaust. UM. You know that that obviously
was a traumatic experience for the Jewish community and they realized,
you know, we have a lot more in common that

(27:53):
we have in differences. Uh. And also the founding of
the State of Israel was a really a huge rallying
call for the Jewish community to come together and work
together to support Jews in the community and around the world.
So the Mayor Fair Club was kind of the first
uh um semblance of this homogenization in the Jewish community

(28:15):
of Atlanta. What do you think if you could pare
it down? And I know you've talked about several of
the kind of key events of Jewish history in Atlanta,
but what do you think are are two or three
of the most important things for people to know about
Atlanta's Jewish history potentially if they want to learn more,
Like where are the entry points that are best? Yeah,

(28:36):
this is something I've been thinking about. And I didn't
include this in the book because I didn't like, I've
just been thinking about this recently. But I can kind
of frame Atlanta's Jewish history by three booms and three busts.
The three booms being UM following reconstruction. That's when we
have UM, you know, the first class of Coca Cola,
Solana Jacob's Pharmacy, the first nonprofit the state of Georgia founded,

(28:58):
the first congregation founded UM all you know Jews being
involved in the Chamber of Commerce, and and all sorts
of different political, social economic things in Atlanta. The second
boom being after the civil rights movement and integration. That's
when we get a proliferation of Jewish congregations and we
start getting we get the first Jewish summer camps and

(29:20):
the UM and the first Jewish day schools and and
a Home for the aged, a massive boom in the
Jewish population at that time. And then following the Olympics
as well. Uh. And that's really kind of those last two,
all three of those that are across the board, and
in terms of Atlanta and it's growth, but also in
terms of the Jewish communities growth, and after the Olympics

(29:42):
that really propelled Atlanta into the twenty first century. That's
when we start to get all sorts of different festivals.
For example, the Jewish Film Festival in Atlanta has grown
into the largest Jewish film festival in the world, the
largest film festival in Atlanta. Uh. They just concluded their
their festival for this year. Uh. And all sorts of

(30:02):
new Jewish entrepreneurs um. For example, this is something I
didn't include in the book, but kind of which I
had was SPANKS was founded here in Atlanta, but a
member of the Jewish community. UM, we have all sorts
of different restaurants that are owned by members of the
Jewish community that catered to the Delhi and and all
sorts of different fusion related to Jewish food. UM. And

(30:25):
so there's been kind of a renaissance uh following the
Olympics and all these these three different booms. But there's
also we can't overlook and sweep under the rug these
bus these three instances of anti Semitism that I mentioned
earlier that really um are pivotal moments in Atlantis Jewish
history all started with Leo frank And and caused the

(30:46):
community to kind of go underground. And I mentioned this
in the book, that not no member of the Jewish
community ran for public office for over fifteen years UH
following the lynching UH. And it was a very traumatic
experience that has been um healed a little bit by
the temple bombing, the outpouring of support following that, and

(31:09):
also the apology from Emory University in two thousand twelve
apologizing for the anti Semitism that took place in their
dental school in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. UM.
So some people bookend the Leo Frank case with the
temple bombing. Some people book end it with the Emory apology. Um.
But I say, I would say today that the Jewish
community is definitely feels like Atlanta is supportive, a good

(31:33):
place to settle and feel comfortable in its framework. You know,
the fact that my book has been out for literally
just a matter of months and it's already outdated because
of John Asta's historic victory becoming the first Jewish senator
from the state of Georgia. Um that you know, my
book is already outdated, But I think it's so indicative
of the contributions that us are making every day to

(31:56):
this city. Uh and um. You know. So there's a
lot of different entry points into the Jewish community's history
in Atlanta. Just depends on what you're interested in. If
you want to focus on the diversity, if you want
to focus on the instances of anti Semitism, the contributions,
the massive contributions that you have made to the city.
And to think of the Brima Museum as a resource.

(32:17):
We have this incredible wealth of primary sources that are
available to the public that we're working every day to
democratize access to this incredible history. So I'm glad that
you mentioned John Assof because tying that to something you
said earlier about the breadth of your collection and how
you have things both very very old and very very new.

(32:40):
You made a new acquisition recently that is really quite cool.
Will you talk about it. Yeah. Just last week I
picked up the Bible that John ass Off was sworn
in on during his Senate confirmation and it belonged to
Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, who was civil rights activists rabbi at
the Temple, the oldest congregation in Atlanta. Uh. He was

(33:01):
friends with Martin D. King. Actually, he was the chairman
of the committee that created the first integrated banquet in
Atlanta that was to honor Martin the King and winning
Nobel Peace Prize. Uh. So it's really remarkable that John
Assa reached out to the family to you know, have
that history perspective and in tying the past, the present

(33:23):
to the future. And I think it just shows, you know,
his objectives and his vision of being focused on social
justice and advancing civil rights. Uh. And we're gonna be
featuring this Bible in our upcoming exhibition History with Kitzbagh
what's all about UM archives and featuring content from our archives,

(33:44):
which as I mentioned, spends from the colonial America until
now the present day, connecting the past, present and future.
That's so cool. UM. How did it come about that
you guys got to take possession of it? Yeah, so
it belongs to the family, which we have a very
close really nationship to. UM. We work UH. Janie Rothchild,

(34:05):
Rabbi rock Child's widow, we're very very close to. We
actually had a program all about honoring her, all about
honoring her couple of weeks ago that attracted close to
a thousand people. Alfred Jury, the famous playwright, was the
keynote speaker for the Nice Rothchild Symposium, the first annual UM.
And we're connected with her, her son Bill Rothchild, who

(34:27):
it belongs to. UH. And we also have a very
close connection to the Temple. So the Bible belongs to
the family, but they want to give it to the
to the Temple, and we have howls the Temple records
in the archive. So UM we have a very close
relationship to both the Temple the rock Child family, and
they were nice enough to allow us to acquire this

(34:49):
Bible to put it on display for this exhibition. That's
also excellent because you know at that point too, it
will be preserved and cared for in a way that
that it is not ever lost to history, which is
so importan Exactly, you know that that this belonged to
a major civil rights icon. It was used by the
first Jewish senator for their swearing and ceremony. Uh. And
now it's going to be in our museum being protected

(35:14):
for future generations to view and learn about this remarkable history. Um.
Since you do work as an archivist, and you've talked
about how much you have really made an effort to
just take in every piece of information possible. UM. I
know you had already spent a lot of time on
all of this before you worked on the book. But
were there any surprises that popped up while you were

(35:36):
actually prepping the the book for publication where you like,
I did not know about this? Yeah, that happened all
the time. I think the biggest surprise was Jay screen. Uh.
If you're not familiar with this, it's a genetic test
that you can take to determine if you are a
carrier for genetic diseases that you and your partner would
pass on to your offspring. And this is something that

(35:57):
I did myself. My wife and I did this uh
testing And UM, I had no idea that I was
founded in Atlanta by members of the Jewish community and
founded by the Marcus Foundation and partnered up with Emory University.
And this test is available throughout the entire country for
a hundred dollars, which is you know, for something of

(36:18):
this nature, Isn't is incredible that they were able to
offer this service. Um. But I'd say that probably the
biggest surprise was the pandemic. You know, I was not
uh that hit like three months before the book was due. Um.
And Uh. It was certainly a challenge to work in
a pandemic and try to write this book. I'd say
there was a silver lining. Um, the fact that I

(36:40):
was had a lot more time at home meant that
I had a lot more time to write the book.
When I'm in the office, I get distracted with researchers
and co workers coming into ask me about all sorts
of different questions. Um. But the biggest challenge was that,
you know, our doors were closed to the public. UM.
I had access to the archives, but it was a
very you know, very uncertain time, and so I had

(37:03):
to kind of like make a running list of images
that I wanted to go into the archives and scan
or find, uh and kind of pick a day and
planning my day out to go into the archives and
literally just search for images all day because my time
was so limited in the archives. UM. So the pandemics
certainly through a curveball. The book doesn't include the pandemic

(37:24):
because it was just so uh new, you know, It's
only a book was due in June, the final draft
was doing June. The pandemic hit in March, so it's
just too fresh to talk about in the book. So
the book really covers up until the end of two
thousand nineteen. UM. But there were a number of occasions
where I was just blown away, I mean throughout my
entire career as I was kind coming across all these

(37:47):
different contributions. I mean, we're talking about Coca Cola, Georgia Tech,
Henry Grady Hospital, Emery University, the Atlanta Braves, the High
Museum of Art, w A. B Atlanta's NPR station, the
Georgia quere Am, Mercedes Ben Stadium. I mean, these are
all icons of Atlanta that pay homage to the Jewish community.

(38:08):
So you know, not just from the book writing experience,
just from my experience working in the archives and coming
across this and being like, why hasn't this already been
written about somewhere? I mean, this is such incredible contributions
that shaped this city. Um. And so it's been a
long haul, but there have been a lot of surprises

(38:28):
along the way. Uh. This might replicate your answer regarding
the pandemic being a surprise. But was that the hardest
aspect of working on this project or was there something
else that was difficult? There was also the pearing down
what image just select and also what stories to include.
I mean, there's so many members of the Jewish community

(38:49):
that have contributed to the fabric of this of Jewish
life and general life in Atlanta. And so that's why
I relied heavily on that committee. UM. I didn't want
this all to be my responsibility because it would be
too great of a responsibility. And I don't want people
calling me and saying, oh, you didn't include my grandpa
or my grandpa. Um, and so I had to be

(39:13):
I wanted it to be a selection by committee. UH,
so I could defer to them as like, oh, well
we have you know, we only have space for one
of these two stories. Um. And I would defer to them.
It's kind of a vote by committee and say which
story do you think is really important to include in
the book? Uh? And I really think that. Like I

(39:34):
said that, this book is a jumping off point. I
mentioned in the acknowledgement that this is not every single
story that about Jewish life in Atlanta. It's it's really
supposed to be a very general, highly accessible, low barrier
way for people to kind of get their foot in
the door and interest them. I get them thinking about
the topic, and if they're interested in learning more, come

(39:57):
to us, come to the Brema Museum as a resource,
speak to Emory Universities Jewish studies programs. There's so many
other places and resources, um, where they can learn more
about this topic. And then Uh, to close out, because
I always like to end on enough note, what was
the most fun part of this project? Um? Well, I
will say I'll zoom out a little bit because this

(40:19):
book project is part of a larger initiative to democratize
access to our archives. So in addition to writing the book,
we also published a Google Arts and Culture page that's
We soft launched that in May. We're doing a hard
launched next month with an Atlanta rollout. Page is going
to feature dozens of cultural arts institutions in Atlanta. It

(40:41):
features hundreds of objects from our collection and online exhibitions.
Really cool platform that's highly accessible and easy to navigate,
very intuitive. We also overhauled our entire collection catalog system
to the industry leading UM content management systems that put
the museum on par with oh University in Georgia, Tech

(41:01):
and the University of Georgia and all these leading archival
institutions around the country. In some cases, we're eating industry leading.
We've done some really cool things that only us in
Yale University have done, which is with our oral history collection,
which has been a lot of fun to work on. UM.
We also hold a number of programmatic series. We just
concluded a six week series all about Atlantic Jewish history

(41:24):
where we talked with experts in the field. On each week,
we focused on a different topic and invited those experts
and on those topics to come and talk about them
in in great detail, and that reached over a thousand people.
That wasn't uh. We've done three or four of these
series throughout the pandemic and reached thousands of people. UM.
And we're also in the process of putting together a

(41:45):
whole exhibition called History with Hustbus, Stories Told and Untold.
All of this content is coming from our archives for
this big twenty five year anniversary of the Brima Museum,
and it's really highlighting our archival collection and so UM
this book is part of a larger scheme to make

(42:06):
our history more visible, to highlight it to UM and
share it with the community so that you know, we
we think that that is a way for people to
connect with this community that is a very highly transient population.
Over eight percent of the Jewish population in Atlanta was
not born here uh and over of those people are

(42:30):
not affiliated with any Jewish organization. So we are working
hard to to connect these people that are unaffiliated, that
are not born in Atlanta. I'm I was one of
those people when I first moved here UM, and I
found it hard to to connect with the community at first.
It took a while for me to to find my

(42:51):
footing UH. And so projects like the book and Google
Arts and Culture and making our collection more accessible to
researchers through our collection. Hallo overhaul or public exhibitions. UM.
It's a multi pronged approach that stems back to our
strategic plan to make our contents of our history and

(43:12):
our archives more accessible than ever before. So the book
was a lot of fun to work on, but I
get to work on so many other fun things every
day to make this history accessible and use the latest
technology and work with colleagues across the state and across
the country. UH to really UM bring this history and
make it more accessible, more searchable, UH than ever before.

(43:34):
I love it. UH. Lastly, lastly, where can people go
to find more info about the Bremen Museum. Yeah, go
to the Breman dot org. You can check out our
Google Arts and Culture page. Buy our book. It's available
wherever books are sold. UH and UM, feel free to
contact me find my information on our website. I'm always
happy to talk to people about our history, share links

(43:56):
to where you can find all this information. UM, and
think of me as a resource and then Prima Museum
as a resource. Careful what you wish for it here.
Thank you so much for spending this time with me.
I really appreciated you. Oh gosh, is my pleasure. Thanks
for highlighting the book and the Prima Museum, and Uh,
it's been such a pleasure talking to you. Many many

(44:19):
thanks to Jeremy Kats for spending time with us, and
to the Breman Museum, which you can find at the
Breman that's b R E M A N dot org. Uh.
They have a lot of great resources online, including UH
if you want help with genealogy research, there is a
whole little hook up there. The book once again is
the Jewish Community of Atlanta, which is part of the

(44:41):
Images of America series. Do you have some listener mail
for us to wrap up today's episode? I do, I know.
I I UM sometimes get get into listener mail repeat
rets because I will get a lot of mail about
something and it's sort of exciting to me that people
are learning about a thing for the first time. This
is from our listener, uh Karen, who writes hello and

(45:02):
thank you. Thank you for the wonderful history lessons you've
created for your listeners all these years. My hour long
commute to work is much more tolerable because I have
your insight into all kinds of stories to keep me company. Uh,
she writes, I finally found a reason to write you. Sidebar,
you can write us for any reason, just to say hi.
I listened to the Isidori Duncan episode and freely admit

(45:23):
I had never heard of her demise. Her life and work, yes,
but not her death. I'm a theater historian and college professor. Yes,
a PhD in theater history. Also sidebar, thank you for
being an educator. Uh, and knew of Duncan from her
connections to Konstantine Stanislavski and George Bernard Shaw. They talk
about her being an inspiration. Yeah, I never knew of
her tragic end or even that she was American. So

(45:46):
much more for me to learn. Uh. And then she
gives some uh interesting suggestions for the show, as well
as sending pictures of her cats, which I love. She writes,
I really look forward to your shows and have learned
so much. I'm also appreciative of your approaches and methodologies
to history, especially that you highlight bias and privilege where
they have clearly shaped our collective understanding of events. Keep

(46:08):
doing what you do best, Karen, Um, thank you so
much for your beautiful kittie pictures. They're so precious. But
I also just um, it's always thrilling to me in
a way to realize that that we have accidentally filled
a gap because, as I said in my intro to
those episodes, I feel like a lot of people know
the shorthand of Isadora Duncan as she died in this

(46:29):
horrific way, but they don't know much about her work.
So it's interesting to me to get the opposite perspective of, oh,
I knew all about her work, I did not know
about that end or that she was American um, which
is as cool. So if you if you would similarly
like to share these interesting perspectives with us, you could
do so at History podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
You can find us on social media as Missed in History,

(46:50):
and you can subscribe to the show on the I
heart Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is
you listen. M Stuff you Missed in History Class is
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H