We Spoke Jewish: A Legacy in Stories explores the stories of the three waves of Jewish immigrants of the 20th century. What does it mean to speak Jewish?
The phrase “speaking Jewish” is often used to describe the Yiddish language and in the community of Eastern European Jews of the 1920s, virtually everyone spoke Jewish. Many of the subsequent immigrants also spoke Jewish in different ways. Survivors spoke the Jewish of remembrance, carrying with them the memory of once thriving Jewish communities and the people who populated them. Immigrants from the former Soviet Union could not openly practice Judaism. |
Despite these restrictions, they spoke the Jewish of culture, carrying their heritage forward through song, food, and of course, story. Collectively they represent our language, memory, and culture, all vehicles that convey important aspects of identity.
Susan Weinberg is an artist as well as a writer, stepping into each story, capturing the emotional responses of her subjects and the visual elements that accompany their stories. Out of this process, she creates artwork on their stories, exploring their words through image and creating a multi-layered storytelling experience. |
Susan's curiosity about identity led her to initiate the Jewish Identity and Legacy Project. What better way to understand identity than to explore the paths of those who formed this community?
When she first reached out to Sholom, a residential facility for elders, Susan was exploring exhibiting her artwork. As they spoke, an idea took root. "Wouldn't it be interesting if I could interview elders at Sholom and do artwork on their stories?" she asked. A partnership with both Sholom and the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest followed. Sholom facilitated the interviews while the Jewish Historical Society shared its guidance in oral histories. |
Grants from the State of Minnesota legacy monies, administered through the Minnesota Historical Society, funded the interviews through Sholom, enabling Susan to interview elders as well as some of their children and grandchildren.
She was interested in how identity and legacy were formed and transmitted, but soon realized immigration was a central element. With the interviews completed, she began to create artwork on the stories. The artwork gave the stories wings. When she exhibited the artwork, she shared the stories as well as video from the interviews. |
Meanwhile many of her interviewees passed away. Most had been in their 90s when interviewed. Susan went to a lot of funerals and shivas. When it came time to set aside this work and move on to something new, it felt like yet another death. Susan realized this project was not quite ready to conclude.
While the interviews were held in the Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives, Susan recognized that these were important stories to preserve, not just for historians and archivists, but for the larger community. That called for a book that created context for these rich stories, framing them in a way that reached out to the community from which they came. |
The question was "what kind of book?" There was rich material in the form of oral history, but there was also artwork that interpreted the story through a visual lens as well as the broader historical context in which the story resided. Story became the focus with artwork and history supplementing it, offering additional perspectives.
Susan partnered once again with the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest in publishing the book with support from State of Minnesota legacy grants. The book continues to evolve through public speaking that explores themes embedded in the book, immigration, storytelling, artwork and identity and legacy. |