The Jewish Community of Amherst : The Formative Years 1969-1979
Irving Seidman (Author)
The book begins with the first Jews who settled in Amherst - seven "Hebrews" living in the town in 1938. They include a couple of families who ran shops - a shoemaker, a tailor - and a Jewish student at UMass, Max Goldberg, who later became a member of the faculty. Seidman himself was one of those Jews arriving in Amherst in the 1960s. A native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, Seidman and his wife Linda came to Amherst in 1968 with their two small children, Rachel and Ethan. Linda was an archivist and Seidman was a professor of education, both at UMass. Seidman weaves together the story of the JCA's early years, from borrowing arks and Torahs from other synagogues to the support of local rabbis, including Rabbi Arthur Langenauer of B'nai Israel and Rabbi Yechiael Lander of UMass Hillel, who later became JCA's part-time rabbi. The book goes into some detail about the renovation of the building, halachic issues that arose in the 1970s, the purchase of JCA's first Torah in 1973 and other milestones the congregation experienced from 1969 to 1979
Print Book, English, 2017
Off the Common Book], [Amherst, Massachusetts, 2017
History
141 pages ; 23 cm
9781945473265, 1945473266
1028051641