Exhibits

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Exhibits

Witness to War, 1941-1945: The Soviet Jewish Experience

The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford has created a traveling exhibit based upon the videotaped testimonies of Jewish World War II survivors from the former Soviet Union now living in the Greater Hartford area. These personal histories, which have been recorded for the first time, illustrate a wide range of survival strategies. The exhibition includes photographs, historical maps, artifacts and a video loop.

This exhibition design consists of eleven 4x8-foot panels, all with photographs and text from our oral history testimonies. While the introductory panels are devoted to a brief history of Jews in the Soviet Union and an overview of World War II, the remainder focus on specific Jews (who now live in Connecticut) as members of the armed services; as military medical personnel; as partisans in the Jewish resistance; as survivors of ghettos, camps and/or hiding; as refugees and evacuees in remote parts of the USSR. The final double set of panels has contemporary portraits paired with the old photographs and brief statements of what happened to each individual after the war. For those venues with enough space to accommodate a TV/VCR, we have a 12-minute video loop of selected testimonies. Two sections of the VCR booth showcase poems in Russian and English by one of the witnesses. A third section focuses on a remarkable woman, one of 22 survivors from her entire region, and the book she has created in memory of those murdered in her village.

For information regarding rental of this exhibit, please contact Estelle Kafer, Director, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at (860) 727-6171 or e-mail at ekafer@jewishhartford.org

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1843-1943 One Hundred Years of Jewish Congregations in Connecticut: An Architectural Survey

Synagogues have long served as the foundation of Jewish life. This exhibition identifies and documents historic synagogues, built in Connecticut between 1843 and 1943 and is based upon the architectural survey conducted by the Connecticut Historical Commission and noted state architectural historian David F. Ransom. The survey concentrates on three types synagogue architecture: rural, urban, and buildings converted to synagogue use and serves as a permanent record of many sites which have changed, disappeared, or are endangered. This exhibition design consists of 60 black and white photographs with captions mounted on foam core. The photographs vary in size from 5"x7" to 12"x16". Eighty running feet of space are required for this exhibit.

For information regarding rental of this exhibit, please contact Estelle Kafer, Director, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at (860) 727-6171 or e-mail at ekafer@jewishhartford.org

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Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations.
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