World Mythology Rosenberg Pdf
Matilda Equiluz
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- A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America by Kirsten Fermaglich Susan A. Glenn
doi:10.1017/S0364009419001041 This slim but revelatory book is brimming with insights into one of the most pervasive, though under-researched aspects of modern Jewish life in the United States: name changing. This is the first study to examine the history of American Jewish responses to antisemitism through the lens of name-changing practices. Mining thousands of name-change petitions filed by American-born Ashkenazic Jews in the New York Civil Court, Kirsten Fermaglich demonstrates not only that Jews changed their names "far out of proportion to their numbers in the city," but also that, contrary to popular mythology, the majority of name changers were not immigrants, but rather their American-born children. Instead of attempting to leave the Jewish community or to pass for non-Jewish by taking on Anglicized surnames like Smith, most second-generation Jewish name changers truncated their names to make them less conspicuously Jewish. Thus Rosenberg became Rose, [End Page 207] Greenberg became Green, and Rabinowitz became Robins. Moreover, because so many Jews who "amputated" their surnames also retained their "Jewish-sounding" first names, the practice became what the author calls "an open secret in the Jewish community." This book demonstrates some of the ways in which the open secret of Jewish name changing affected not only individual name changers, but also the Jewish community.
More than any other event, World War II catalyzed Jewish name-changing practices in New York City. The rising tide of antisemitism on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1930s peaked during the war years, when Jews in the United States were accused of shirking military service. Even as the US government's Office of War Information conducted an "Americans All" propaganda campaign that referenced Jewish and other ethnic names as symbols of national unity and strength through diversity, the number of Jews who petitioned the New York Civil Court for new names skyrocketed. Prior to the 1940s, no more than a hundred name changers had petitioned the New York courts in any given year. During the war years, there were more than eight hundred a year. Seeking to take advantage of new opportunities for economic advancement during the war years, and to avoid the stigma of ethnic and religious difference within the American military, Jews petitioned the courts to acquire less obviously Jewish names. Yet, as the author points out, while more New Yorkers were resorting to name-changing tactics, the Jewish Welfare Board sought to demonstrate the centrality of Jews to the American war effort by compiling a census of Jews in the armed services that relied primarily on traditional Jewish-sounding surnames.
Name changing also became an issue for postwar Jewish civil rights activism. Many historians have emphasized Jews' active engagement in the civil rights movement, but this book is the first to point out the importance of name changing in the politics of "color-blind" legal activism. Not only had some legal activists changed their own names, they had also grown up in Jewish communities where name changing was "an open part of life." But in the postwar period, activists in Jewish defense organizations "harnessed the power of federal and state legislation" to "give Jews [as a group] the invisibility that would allow them to participate in mainstream economic and social life unmarked, with their Jewishness a matter of religious and ethnic choice, not a racial badge" (123). For example, the American Jewish Congress challenged employment discrimination though a legislative campaign that aimed to prohibit employers from asking questions about name changing in screening questionnaires designed to weed out Jewish and other minority-group job candidates and pressured New York State's Commission against Discrimination (SCAD) to monitor and evaluate the pernicious uses of employment application forms. By 1951, SCAD had ruled that all questions related to name changing, including questions about aliases and nicknames, constituted "unlawful preemployment" inquiries. SCAD also won an important legal victory in...
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Its a Tuesday morning in the John Evans Alumni Center, and 30 members of the Alumnae of Northwestern are chatting, just about to start their monthly meeting. As one might expect, the conversation among these long-time friends partly hovers over family and similar topics but occasionally drifts into serious assessments of this or that University professor or the fine points of their expertise. And these women know whereof they speak.
Largely through their Continuing Education Program, taught by faculty, the Alumnae of Northwestern have raised a remarkable $2.5 million since 1931 for a variety of University causes (before that time the group was largely a social organization). Additional funds come from the Alumnaes Waa-Mu Patron Project.
The continuing education courses, established in 1968 in the groups 52nd year, allow it to disburse an average of $100,000 a year for scholarships and other monetary awards. At the same time the series provides a much-appreciated educational service to alumni and to the entire Chicago community. All this from an organization that counts 55 active and 20 associate members in its ranks.
Ironically those who established continuing education actually created it for themselves. "Very frankly, the fact that many of us were young mothers who wanted to continue our academic stimulation was the original inspiration," explains Cindy Pinkerton (WCAS60), one of the founders of the continuing education program. "This just seemed like a logical place to start a program to do that."
The effort initially drew about 100 enrollees but now attracts more than 1,700 every year. And since continuing educations creation, more than 200 professors have contributed their time as lecturers in the fall, winter and spring. Four courses are offered each quarter and meet once a week on Tuesday or Thursday in Norris University Center. The classes are advertised on the Alumnae Web site, which can be reached through the education links at www.alumni.northwestern.edu. Topics range from astronomy to investment strategies to Greek mythology, all for a reasonable tuition price.
"Our students are people who want their minds and visions of the world expanded," says Karla Stone (WCAS68), an Alumnae board member. "They come to the programs just like Northwestern students go to classes. Many have assigned reading, many take notes, many ask deep, intelligent questions."
Continuing education is organized entirely by volunteers and the board returns all profits to the University. "Its the volunteer muscle that makes it such a financial success for the University," Pinkerton says.
Virginia Rosenberg (WCAS50), current president of the Alumnae board, is particularly proud of the Alumnae-sponsored graduate fellowships, which essentially fund the last year of academic work for selected doctoral candidates who are women.
Another educational opportunity the Alumnae board provides is the annual NU-Day held on the Evanston campus in October. The daylong program of six lectures taught by Northwestern professors, alumni and administrators is open to anyone in the Chicago area.
At last falls NU-Day, participants chose from such lecture topics as child advocacy in East Africa, bringing war criminals to justice, and Chinese-American relations, followed by lunch and a performance by students in the Music Theatre Program. NU-Day also marks the presentation of the annual Alumnae Award, given in 2001 to Barbara Gaines (S68), artistic director and founder of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Northwestern, summer 2001).
While the Alumnae have donated more than $1.2 million in scholarships, gifts and grants over the last seven decades, they expanded their horizons in 2001 by creating two new awards to benefit professors and students.
The Senior Award for Volunteer Service, a $2,000 honor that recognizes a woman in her senior year for dedication to service, aims to encourage student volunteerism. The first award was presented last May to Meaghen Foley (SESP01), who established work sites, recruited campus volunteers and lobbied for funding to revitalize a dormant Habitat for Humanity program.
The board also raised $500,000 by 2000 a year ahead of schedule to create the endowed Alumnae of Northwestern University Teaching Professorship. The first recipient of the three-year chair is Paul Arntson, professor of communication studies and founding director of the National High School Institutes Leadership Program. The Alumnae in particular cited Arntson for his commitment to the Undergraduate Leadership Program, which emphasizes leadership through teamwork. "The professorship has been a dream for a lot of the members," Rosenberg says. "It grew out of an academic enrichment initiative in which we offered fellowships, but those teaching fellowships have now all been directed into the professorship."
Many of the endowments funds came from the Waa-Mu Patron Project. Every year the Alumnae sell choice seats to the musical review to nearly 900 alumni who donate to the boards scholarship programs. This project contributes financially to the school and strengthens ties between alumni and the University.
In addition to the large monetary and educational contributions that the alumnae provide the University, the group also serves Northwestern in less ambitious but nonetheless appreciated ways. The partial renovation of the John Evans Alumni Center new furniture in the sunroom and French doors in the main parlor entry are some examples.
Beyond helping build the University in a physical sense, the Alumnae see themselves as bridge builders to everyone with a Northwestern connection students, faculty members and the public. "We are ambassadors of a sort," Stone says. "We enjoy working with each other and making something happen. Its a really creative process."