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Brooklyn Heights Synagogue oral histories

Call Number

2011.005

Date

2010, inclusive

Creator

Brooklyn Heights Synagogue
Sullivan, Sady

Extent

2 Linear Feet in five boxes.
1.19 Gigabytes in 16 files; Running time of interviews: 12 hours, 56 minutes, and 40 seconds.

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

These eight oral history interviews were collected during 2010 as a joint project between Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Brooklyn Historical Society on the occasion of the Synagogue's 50th anniversary. Ten members of the Synagogue were interviewed during the project. During the interviews the members discuss their lives before and after joining the Synagogue.

Historical Note

Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, BHS, is a Reform synagogue located on 131 Remsen Street. It was founded in Brooklyn in 1960 and currently includes over 510 member units made up of families, couples, and singles who live in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and Fort Greene, as well as in nearby DUMBO and Lower Manhattan. BHS is a progressive congregation affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism. It was a founding member of the New York City Emergency Shelter Network and maintains a homeless shelter during the winter months. Brooklyn Heights Synagogue has a preschool with over 100 children, Religious School for grades K-12, and learning opportunities for adults. BHS offers Friday evening Shabbat services and Saturday morning Torah study every week throughout the year, in addition to High Holiday and Festival worship services.

Arrangement

These oral histories are arranged alphabetically by narrator's last name.

Content Description

Oral history interviews transferred from Oral History to archives.

Scope and Contents

The Brooklyn Heights Synagogue oral histories are comprised of eight interviews from ten members of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. The interviews were conducted by Sady Sullivan, Oral Historian, throughout 2010. In the interviews, narrators discuss growing up, how they came to be members of Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue community, and changes in and around the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. Many narrators recall stories about how being members of the Synagogue effected their careers, dating and marriage, children, and social activities.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers with varied restrictions according to narrator agreement. All oral histories can be accessed onsite at Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Conditions Governing Use

Use of these oral histories for purposes other than private study, scholarship, or research requires the permission of Brooklyn Historical Society. Please see the Oral History Note for guidelines on using Brooklyn Historyical Society's oral history collections. For assistance, please contact Brooklyn Historical Society at library@brooklynhistory.org.

Preferred Citation

[Narrator Last Name, Narrator First Name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer First Name Last Name], [Month DD, YYYY], Brooklyn Heights Synagogue oral histories, [Object ID]; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These oral histories were conducted by Sady Sullivan over the phone, at Brooklyn Historical Society, and at narrators' homes and businesses during 2010.

Physical Facet

All recordings and transcripts were born-digital.

Oral History Note

Oral history interviews are intimate conversations between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share these recordings with the Brooklyn Historical Society archives and with researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. Researchers will understand that:

1. The Brooklyn Historical Society abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association (2009) and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.

2. Every oral history relies on the memories, views and opinions of the narrator. Because of the personal nature of oral history, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants to be objectionable. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, BHS presents these views as recorded.

3. Transcripts created prior to 2008 serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. It may contain natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, repetitions that are common in conversation, and other passages and phrases omitted from the transcript. This decision was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns.

4. Unless these verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator's speech while editing the material for the standards of print.

Collection processed by

Mayumi Miyaoka

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 11:19:08 +0000.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Mayumi Miyaoka, Oral History Intern, during March 2020. Interviews were processed to the item level and catalogued records were created from Miyaoka's descriptive metadata by Amy Lau, Archivist, after processing was completed. Due to privacy concerns, the specific birthdates and home addresses of all narrators or other named individuals were redacted from transcripts and audio recordings. Interviews were catalogued using Library of Congress subject headings.

Note Statement

Finding aid written by Amy Lau.

Repository

Brooklyn Historical Society

Container

Box: 1 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 2 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201