Oral Histories Provide Vital Jewish Links

By SIDNEY BOLKOSKY

"I came to America in 1914."
So begins Avalon, Barry Levinson's
story of a Jewish immigrant family
in America. The final line of the
film, "He (the grandfather) came to
America in 1914," converts a socio-
economic picture into a human,
poignant and purposeful story. In
that moment, past and future
become connected as we sense
that a great-grandson will hear the
stories, pass them on, and continue
to be adjoined to a fading past,
enfolded in the sphere of Jewish
life.
Oral histories, be they about
immigration, the Holocaust, life in
America, or a host of other subjects,
offer such connections by creating
life histories. Collections of stories
serve to compose lives for the
listeners; a task of the utmost
importance. For some sixty
thousand years human beings have
been telling life stories to their
children and grandchildren. Human
cultures exist and sustain continuity
through oral histories which provide
links to the past. And where those
bonds grow thin or disappear, the
cultures soon follow.

The Burden Lies
Heavily On The Listener:
He Or She Must Listen
Carefully, Intently flying
To Hear The Nuances
And Significance Of A
Voice Replete With
Legend, Legacy And
Identity.

Jewish culture depends upon
such linkage more vitally than most
others. Written or spoken narratives
have carried paramount importance
for Jews. Stories about heroic men
and women — founders, mothers,
tricksters, martyrs, creators — have
conveyed Jewish values and
attitudes; exhorted Jews to piety,
morality, humor, love and
compassion. They have virtually
defined what comprised Jewish life
and helped retain a remarkably
distinct identity because of the
consequential continuity. With such
an ensemble of functions, oral
histories may provide a means to
reduce the alienation and
dislocation that seem to haunt
modern Americans.
Frequently inaccurate, derived
from selective memory and
individual perspective, oral histories
are not necessarily equivalent to
factual sources. Often they do not
correspond to written, textbook

accounts of life in the past or to
information found in official
documents. But the purpose of oral
testimonies goes beyond historical
recreation of facts. They convey

'Human Cultures Exist
And Sustain Continuity
Through Oral Histories
Which Provide Links To
The Past. And Where
Those Bonds Grow Thin
Or Disappear, The
Cultures Soon Follow.

experiences, feelings, personal
emotions, and the warmth or fear,
sadness or joy that comes only from
personal recollections.
Holocaust testimonies, for
example, cannot serve as
substitutes for written documents or
more complete histories of the
catastrophe. However, where else
but in an interview can one hear the
deep anguish and sadness of the
personal loss? And where else gain
a sense of the fullness of life before
the destruction?
Stories about life in small
shtetls or large cities in Europe,
about life on Hastings, Avalon or
Delancey Streets, about Ellis Island
or the Warsaw Ghetto, connect us
to our past, reflect Jewish values as
they played themselves out in
Jewish life. History of this sort
grounds us; offers clues to what
Jewish life meant and means. To
achieve such profound results, the
burden lies heavily on the listener:
he or she must listen carefully,
intently trying to hear the nuances
and significance of a voice replete
with legend, legacy and identity.

If discussing such broad subject
blocks an interviewee should be
prepared with specific questions:
"What did you do in school?" or
"What did your father do?" or
"What was a Friday night like in
your house?" or "What kind of
fish did your mother serve?"
Even specific questions like "How
many brothers and sisters did you
have?" can open to broad
discourse, but might also be
followed with more specific
questions like "what things did
your sister do to make you call
her disagreeable?"
3) Try not to focus exclusively
on negative issues; these are
interviews about Jewish life, part
of which probably included anti-
Semitism. But Jewish identity did
not and does not revolve around
anti-Semitism, and the subject
should not dominate the
interview.
4) Don't feel obligated to use
videotape; audiotape often makes
for a more relaxing situation and

perhaps can be followed by
videotape another time.
5) If the interviewee makes an
obvious mistake, don't correct it.
An interviewer exists to ask
quetions and listen.

Reading about Jewish history
may yield some sense of Jewish
identity through understanding the
past. Hearing Jewish history from a
relative, from a living, loved person,
may reap a rich harvest of personal
Jewish identity full of meaningful
associations that will fill us up, and
give us more substance. From such
testimonies will come legends,
myths and history with which we
may form an intimate relationship as
Jews have done for millennia.
From generation to generation,
ancestral stories have served as a
source of survival, continuance and
connectedness. In the end will be
the stories — and from them will
come renewal and more life.

Dr. Bolkosky is professor of history
at University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Recommended
Techniques For
Interviewing

Techniques of interviewing
vary, of course, but I would
recommend a few ground rules.
1) Know something about the
subject. For example, if an
interviewee comes from Munkacz
or Frankfurt, Toledo or New York,
Shanghai or Buenos Aires, the
interviewer should be able to ask
intelligent questions about that
place. Whether they arrive at Ellis
Island or lived in Oak Park, a little
knowledge about either location
will help.
2) Ask open or general
questions like: "What was your
life like as a child in Detroit?" or
"What did you do before the
war?" The interviewee should be
allowed discursive freedom — to
be expansive and even rambling.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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