An American Odyssey: The Jewish Experience in Greenwich Opens Nov. 15

Groundbreaking Exhibition Opens November 15

Until now, although several of Connecticut's Jewish communities have been documented, there has been no comprehensive look at the history of the Jews of Greenwich. An American Odyssey: The Jewish Experience in Greenwich aims to rectify that by exploring how Jews contributed to our community despite experiencing periods of discrimination through restrictions on worship, employment and housing opportunities.

When the Cohens, Weisses, Markses, Bennetts, Taylors and Tunicks decided to settle in Greenwich, they established small businesses and became pillars of the Jewish community, ultimately building today's Temple Sholom. Their family treasures tell the story of why and how their forebears made the decision to come to Greenwich at the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition features several precious artifacts generously lent by these families and also includes moving audio recordings of their journeys as told by family descendants interviewed in the 1970s as part of the Greenwich Library Oral History Project.

Employing photos, objects, ephemera and personal accounts, An American Odyssey unfolds in seven parts. Its preamble focuses on a Jewish family who, surprisingly, owned our own Bush-Holley House for a few years during the Colonial period. It then leaps forward to the mass migration from Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Next come the stories of the six founding families set in the context of the town in which they decided to put down roots, followed by the founding of Temple Sholom in 1916 (known as The Greenwich Hebrew Institute until 1955), the intensification of anti-Semitism in the 1930s and 40s with a special look at Jewish soldiers from Greenwich who fought in World War II, and finally Jewish life in the postwar period, which brought a new wave of businesses, synagogue growth, diversity and Jewish philanthropy.

Among the items featured in the exhibition are a samovar brought over from Russia by Sarah and Barney Tunick, an original shoe box and salesmen's measuring tools from The Favorite Shoe Store, started by I. J. Weiss in 1909 (some of us may still remember shopping in this store), a WWII uniform of a Jewish soldier from Greenwich, and a Torah cover and ornaments from a Holocaust Torah donated to Congregation Shir Ami. 

Don't miss this fascinating and unprecedented look at an important and heretofore unexplored aspect of Greenwich history.

Members' Preview: Sunday, November 12, 2:00 to 4:00 pm.
Invitation to come.

The exhibition will run from November 15, 2017 to April 15, 2018.