Unknown Speaker 1:00 Testing, testing Hello. Morning. Good morning. How Unknown Speaker 1:30 are you, I know are you. I'm well, thanks. Nice to meet you, Jamie. Nice to meet you. Alright, let me see, I'm going to try to see if I can change my background because when I do my intro, it's not, it's not going to show my face. I can change this to our logo or something, question is do I have it handy. Sorry, you have to hear my music. You're fine. Are you having a good morning. Yeah, not too bad. Unknown Speaker 2:28 It's weird because like, it'll work and it won't work. So hold on. How's that look, oh, you can see the whole thing. Is that okay, Unknown Speaker 2:46 yeah, yeah. Did you want just your the logo. Unknown Speaker 2:52 Yeah, I didn't want to go on it easier for something like this because it's not a. Yeah, you just see all of the panelists see me. Anyways, Unknown Speaker 3:05 I've got the captions up and running. So I think that's pretty much all I need to do if you want me to transfer over hosting duties to You sure do that now. There you go. Unknown Speaker 3:27 Awesome. And then, I'm just to make sure so yeah I'll let everyone in, and then it'll automatically start recording once I hit Start webinars so we're good there. Yep. Cool. Oh, um, Unknown Speaker 3:40 I will say, I'll probably just hang out until like the very beginning of the event. I have a meeting that I have to go to but um yeah if you guys need anything, just let me or Jenny know. I'm gonna go ahead and turn off my video. Unknown Speaker 4:05 You're good. I'm gonna probably do the same and I'll keep an eye on the participants with the panelists are coming. All right. Good morning. Good morning, Samantha. How are you doing well. How are you, I'm well thank you for asking. Unknown Speaker 5:03 I thought I'd sign up early because I had tried to do a practice session, but I guess that's he told me and ended up starting late and I had. I waited for like 10 minutes. It didn't work and then I was like oh I'll figure it out the day. Unknown Speaker 5:19 Right, that's when we sign on a little early here. Yes, So yeah, your audio is coming through great. The only thing that if you want to try testing, if you want your video, we can test that that would be the only thing we would need to test and then slides. Also though, Unknown Speaker 5:40 since this is being recorded. I prefer to not have my video on, that's fine. Um, and my, that is one thing that I totally forgot to ask my people about, but I think they will be sharing the slides. Okay. I haven't heard from them about them, I've asked them about q&a, about polling, all of that and I just totally forgot about that. Unknown Speaker 6:12 No, no worries. So for, I guess, then that they'll have the slide there, I don't have a backup copy. So, the only thing we might want to suggest from them is that once they do get on, if they have the slides and they want to send them to you or to me in case something happens and someone goes down, we at least have those we can kind of go from there. So that would be my only other suggestion if you don't already have a copy, but I know. I know there's a, there's a handful of panelists so that might actually be called mute. Okay, and I Unknown Speaker 6:47 emailed them. Great. Hey, Sarah. Hi, can Unknown Speaker 6:56 you hear us, Unknown Speaker 6:57 we can Unknown Speaker 7:00 actually can you speak real quick I want to see if this will pick you up Unknown Speaker 27:15 at 9am. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for today's virtual event. My name is Smith Rubino your event technical support. A few notes before we get started today. Please use the chat to report technical issues to the event host me. If you are having audio or video issues. Most often the best solution is to exit and rejoin the Zoom webinar. If you get disconnected please log back into the event, while we relaunch it. We are recording this event. And you may ask questions through the q&a, please use the chat to share any comments or resources with your colleagues. Closed captioning is available. To activate it, please click the live transcript, and select Show subtitle from your meeting controls toolbar. At this point I'm delighted to turn it over to Anne breakfast, who's going to go ahead and kick off the program over to you and Unknown Speaker 30:42 think it's me. Morning, thank you for joining us. My name is Anne rapise My pronouns are she, her, and I am the moderator for this session on community partnership with the preservation of Jewish Jewish history in the Moraine Valley. Today's panel features five presenters. After the presentation the presenters will take questions for 10 minutes. A recording of this session will be sent to attendees before the end of October. Let me introduce the speakers, Kayla is the sales manager of Spring Hill historic home in Massillon, Ohio. She previously served as the region for Ohio History Service Corps local history member posted at Youngstown State comm September 2019 through July 2021, where she assisted local heritage and community organizations, build capacity and become more sustainable for the future. Kaley received her bachelor's degree, a master's in anthropology from Kent State and has worked in a variety of local history museums since 2017. She currently resides in Cuyahoga Falls and serves on the organizational committee for the Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to revising revitalizing historic downtown. Sierra wills, check is the first executive director of the congregation wrote of shalom, in Youngstown, Ohio, or role she began in April 2019. She received her Bachelor's in Business Administration from Ohio State, following a career in financial services and insurance, she began working with the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, as their youth and family director camp director from 2012 until March 2019 When she served as a community. Community Development Manager. In 2018 Sara completed her master's degree in nonprofit management and Jewish communal service from grads college with a graduate thesis focused on the history and strategic future of Jewish Youngstown. Sarah serves on many community boards and committees including Youngstown State University Center for Holocaust and Judaic Studies Advisory Committee Ohio non violence week committee, the Youngstown area commission for Jewish education board of directors and the Hillel at Kent State. Currently Sarah's lives in greater Youngstown area with her family, and in clay check is a Youngstown Ohio native and a second year Master's student at Youngstown State enrolled in the history programs applied history track and State, she has served as a graduate assistant intern at the Youngstown historical center of industry and labor is wrapping up an internship at congregation Rhoda shalom, where she has helped organize archival materials. She is working on a master's thesis, examining the cultural impacts of architectural design on Youngstown's Jewish community. Martha Bishop is the archives and library assistant at the Ohio History Connection Youngstown historical center of struggle center of industry and labor. A Youngstown State graduate she has over 20 years experience caring for museum collections and assisting researchers. Dr times Leary is the director of the applied history certificate program within Youngstown State's history program formerly a museum curator and historical consultant. He has collaborated on numerous studies involving the preservation and interpretation of sites related to the steel industry. Students in his classes have helped inventory and catalog collections as well as develop temporary exhibitions. Thank you. Hello. I think now you will be able to share your screen. Unknown Speaker 34:37 You're seeing that in full screen. Yes we are. Okay, so this is community partnership for the preservation of Jewish history in the Mahoning Valley by Kayla Metzger Sarah will check in a classic Martha bishop, and Dr. Thomas Leary, as our moderator and had noted, and we're going to start off discussing the background of congregation Rhodope Shalom. Unknown Speaker 35:18 Hello everybody, my name is Sarah WelTec and I, as you heard in my bio, which I've not heard, read out loud, Executive Director of congregation order Shalom, and I just want to start by thanking everyone who's watching, but also Kayla, and the Ohio History Connection, for inviting us to speak to everybody today through the local Lions. I did not grow up at Rhodes shalom, I am from the greater Youngstown area, but it's really been an experience for me. Starting with my graduate thesis and rolling into my role as executive director to learn about the history of our congregation. And as you can ask Khanna who not only hasn't grown up here but also isn't Jewish, the connection to this building as you get into it, and our congregation and our history is really really strong. So I'm thrilled to be able to share a little bit about it tonight with you. You can see most of it on the nose but Rhoda Shalom was founded in 1867 as the only reformed Jewish congregation and the greater Mahoning and Chenango Valley area. It was founded by German Jews, and for those who aren't familiar with the Reform Movement. The goal was to break from traditional Judaism and really find a way to integrate into the greater secular community. And so Reformed Judaism, embraced the idea that you can work on Saturdays at the time. The movement has evolved much like a lot of religions since 18. Since its founding, and rotor Sholem has also evolved from our founding in 1867. In 1914 1915, we built our current building prominently on historical with park it's on Elm Street, and you can see the top photo represents what it looked like when it was built. And it actually that that might be in the late 50s, and then the bottom photo was what it looks like today. And so our mission and our vision and our purpose have, for the most part remained the same. We've always been a reformed synagogue, and our name has changed here and there with the times and the dialect and the type of immigrants that moved over and how we have chosen to spell our name but we have consistently been a reformed synagogue. And one of the most notable things about our synagogue is then on the creation document of the greater reform movement. CONGREGATION rodef Shalom is the first signatory, so we have been associated with the greater movement since its founding, since its organized founding, which took place in Ohio and Cincinnati so that makes life very interesting for us as we go through our documents. Kayla gonna go to the next slide. So, as you heard, I started here in April of 2019. And I was really trying to find a way to engage our congregants that don't leave during the winter that aren't snowbirds in a way to learn more about the history of our congregation, so I can get more in the weeds with who we are and what we stand for, while at the same time, learning from our congregants is a really great idea. I was walking through the building with our historian, and she showed me where our archives were which I kid you not, I cannot stand in a room and put my arms out without touching both walls, and there's a water pipe down the middle. And so I took all the files and put them in an office. And that was that note that was December of 2019. After I did that I realized it was more than I could chew, and so I had reached out to the AmeriCorps program and asked if I can get a VISTA, because I was in need of someone to help put this together in a way to share it with a greater community and educate you know students on who their neighbors are was kind of the goal and they said you know, it doesn't quite qualify for a VISTA, but you need to meet Kayla. So at that time they put me in touch with Kayla, and through Ohio History Connection and they said you really need to work with her, she had partnered or she was working for y su. And so that's really how things started and we had come up with a plan to put together a collection and a collection policy and really engage our congregants and that plan was put together in February of 2020. And so come March of 2020 Our plan was out the window our building was closed, we didn't know what we should be doing and we had a lot of stuff thrown a lot of places. So Kayla had talked with people at Weiss you we ultimately partnered with Dr Leary, and we put together and applied history course, Unknown Speaker 40:12 to really Unknown Speaker 40:15 figure out a way to move forward with the creation of our project. And from there you know we had reached out to other partners we had reached out to the American Jewish archives to see what they had, of ours, but also if they can give us guidance on how to partner with a local university and it really didn't exist the model wasn't there in the way that we needed it and so we just started, and I don't know if you want to jump to the next slide. But you know, we started and we had to set up some goals, act if you want to go back one slide I'm sorry I just want to let you know what you're looking at in the photographs. The, that is what our sanctuary looked like for a wedding, and the late 19 teens early 1920s and the below photo is what our synagogue in our sanctuary looks like now. And so, something really iconic of the reform movement at the time was the pipe organ, because very non traditional Jewish thing to do. And they built the pipe organ directly into our building, we still use it now their screens around it. They remodeled in the 60s and have kept that decor, but I just, that's what you're looking at. And this, this, for this painting that you see is actually the first rendition of the mock up of what our building would look like. The architects daily and tribal and you'll hear more from Hannah. We're congregants here. And so, it's the earliest mock up of what our synagogue would look like that we have. But when we partner we came up with a few goals, we wanted to highlight the impact of our congregation in our congregants on the greater Jewish and secular communities. We wanted to create a relevant and useful tool for our congregation to use, and the greater community for people to come in, learn about what their families did learn about the integration of Youngstown city schools I have, you know, two files, worth of things really how could, how have we been involved, we want we also worked on implementing a process for collection growth. So as we continue to adapt and potentially merge with other future congregations, or have in the past really allow a way for our collection to grow without needing to reinvent the wheel, and we wanted to involve as many people as possible. And that is where I will leave it, you know to Caleb, how did this actually happen and how did we get everyone involved, the way we wanted them to be there. Unknown Speaker 42:55 So like Sarah said, you know starting out the partnership, initially started between myself and Sarah myself being an AmeriCorps Ohio History Service Corps, local history member in the region. I served five different counties in Northeast Ohio at the time. And like she said I was hosted at Youngstown State University. Specifically, the Youngstown State University history program formerly Department of History. So I was stationed there, and my task was to work with local community and small heritage organizations to help them become more sustainable, to help them complete projects, figure out best practices to completing those projects and things like that. As a AmeriCorps member. So, like Sarah said, we started meeting around February of 2020. When she had gotten in touch with me through AmeriCorps VISTA with the ideas. So we started talking about the goals and what we could do. And then, as everyone knows, in March 2020 We had the onset of the pandemic. So, root of shalom was shut down Youngstown State University shut down. And so we had some back and forth, working virtually to figure out, you know what are the next steps here, that we could do, while we were away from each other and couldn't be physically in the building. Looking at the archival collections. So that's when we decided to develop the collection management policy that's something I could work on while I was at home for a couple months, that really set a good platform for moving forward in organizing the collections, making sure they're cared for properly. Just kind of kind of following all the best practices with managing the collections. I also helped provide some other various resources for Sarah, if she would be, for now at least the sole, you know manager and overseer of the role of shalom, archival collections. So that was part of kind of my assistance as an AmeriCorps member. Through the Ohio History Connection and Youngstown State University. So we kind of established that first partnership. Sara, like she said also set up the assistance of the American Jewish archives in Cincinnati, you know, regarding best practices and archival management. And also, um, you know, what are the expectations for archival collections that are kept locally at synagogues that aren't necessarily station as their sole purpose isn't an archival institution. So what we're kind of the expectations for that. and like she said as far as partnering with universities there was no really set primer for that already. Oh this was kind of something, I'm pretty new that was being done at the time. So, come about August of 2020. I was able to return to the office at Youngstown State, after they reopened in mid or late July, I believe. So I was able to get back, Sarah was back working in the synagogue. And we were able to start meeting back up the Youngstown State University classes started back up in late August. So that's what those conversations kind of started about partnering with the university, talking to Dr Leary and some of the other professors in the program, you know, just kind of working through. If this project would be something that students could get involved with how we could really get this project off the ground. And also being mutually beneficial for both organizations, You know congregation would have Shalom. Getting student volunteer assistance, and also getting, Unknown Speaker 47:31 you know, resources and training from professors who have worked in the field for a number of years, but also students being able to get that practical experience while pursuing their master's degree. So Dr. Larry, that felt that the project warranted. The focus of the practicum and applied history course for graduate students. So we had two students from that course. Start at road F. In January of 2021 This past year, along with myself, Dr Leary, and Martha Bishop from the Youngstown historical center of industry labor, Hannah, we'll talk about that in a little bit more detail, but basically this is kind of the kickoff of the project. I'm getting started organizing the collection inventorying the art and framed collections, different things like that, all while having these further comradeship conversations about best practices, and where the project and archive at congregation word of shalom could go in the future. So also throughout, as this course was going on, and we were kind of fighting more in the collection, really understanding what we had at run of shalom. We started to spread the word about the project, to increase the visibility and interest with the local community, but also greater statewide community as well. So we talked to you quite a few local press outlets, including different y su outlets like the jam bar, a student run publication. We did various interviews about the project. And also, after the project had kind of gone around the American Jewish libraries had reached out to us, reached out to Sarah and asked for her to contribute an article to their digital publication ajl news and reviews. You can see on the screen there for their May June 2021 publication. So, kind of getting the word out there within just a general community but also historical community, to you know really get people learning about Rhodope Shalom history, but also why it's important to do this project. So you can see on the screen here. The various partnerships that we've been talking about collectively. So like I said I'm a part of the AmeriCorps Ohio History Service Corps. I'm hosted at Youngstown State University, who manages the, the history program manages the young statistical center of industry labor, which is also a Ohio History Connection historical site, and that kind of, you know, just being about a mile, if that, um, down the road between campus and route of shalom, it kind of really seemed like a natural partnership that can be continued throughout the years. You know students are always going to need practical experience, and I'm sure it's like Martha bishop can attest to archival work is never truly finished. So I feel like it's something, especially with the further goals of the project, which Sarah will talk about at the end of the towards the end of the presentation. There's a lot more in the plans and in the works for the archive space at wrote of shalom. So in order to make the project a reality. We needed some initial funding assistance to kind of kick the project off in terms of creating a proper environment for their Kabal material, as Sarah said, you know, these archival materials previously were in a small room that didn't get really intimate any ventilation. It was under a water pipe that could burst at any time. So, she ended up moving the collections upstairs into one of their unused rooms. So we were trying to figure out a way to kind of double up some funding opportunities for these archival materials to properly organize and store them in their archival room, especially those vulnerable and very important records to the congregation's institutional history. Unknown Speaker 52:19 So, you know together kind of with the American Jewish archives Youngstown State University faculty and students and also the Youngstown historical center of industry labor that mark, Martha Bishop, who was the archive library assistant. We kind of went over what are the best practices for collection care how much supply material are we going to need to take care of this collection initially, you know, what do we prioritize getting organized, initially, and being stored in the proper boxes and things like that because we have quite a big collection between Rhodope Shannon's initial collection, and like Sarah said previous mergers that happened in the past with the congregations in the Shenango Valley, and then the potential mergers that could happen in the future, receiving more institutional historical material. And how do we how do we take care of that, what's the plan for that. So we initially kind of had to prioritize what we would, You know, start with to kick off the project. And through my position as an AmeriCorps member, you know, my job was to assist in kicking off and seeing projects through sourcing funding for these type of projects if needed. So I was pointed to the Ohio archives grant from the Ohio historical records advisory Review Board. And we submitted a proposal for that. And we were ultimately funded on the funding was to purchase archival quality supplies for our most vulnerable and important records that we have, but also it funded an intern to work on that project throughout the summer, which is Hannah classic, and she will be talking to you in the next portion of the presentation, to really just create a long term solution for these archival materials to kind of get us to the next step, which is something Sarah will will speak to you about in a few minutes as well. So really, the purpose of, you know, working with various partnerships is to bring in the strengths from different entities you know what are their, what are their strengths that they could lend to this project so the American Jewish archives had that, you know, large archival institution, you know state breadth of of knowledge and best practices that they could provide us the Youngstown historical center of industry labor is you know that local. Local archival institution and the Mahoning Valley to get insight from them as well. And then of course Youngstown State University, like I said earlier, you know they're providing those students who are seeking practical experience in obtaining their degrees, whether it's undergraduate or graduate degrees. So you know partnering engaging with other institutions allows congregation Rhodope Shalom to take in that breadth of knowledge and take that further in the further into the project and and become self sustaining. And Hannah next will talk to you about her experience as a graduate student working on this project from pretty much its initial initial days, and she is still working there today as an intern. Unknown Speaker 56:12 Okay Hi I'm Hannah, as it's been mentioned before I am a graduate student at Youngstown State University. I'll get my Master's in history and the certificate of applied history. For those that aren't overly familiar with how history degrees work the applied history is just that so any kind of application beyond just your standard. I don't know kind of researching history. So that's where you get Historic Preservation museum studies, much like the work being done here. So the practicum course is offered in the spring. It's always Dr Leary's course, being the director of the applied history program. The basis of the course switches and as we've mentioned before, I might be something like creating a museum exhibit different things in those rounds, so for this particular one, it was this course, which ended up being better than anything I think. So when we started out, because this was such a new project when we were really starting from the ground we got to kind of pick what we wanted to do, which was different than other archival experiences. Usually you go into an archive and you're assigned some sort of project, something where you're picking up that's already started, but this was all just starting so it was me and one other student, Jacob, who's not here with us right now. And he was interested in the paper materials and the minute books, and he got really into reading everything and seeing everything. I took up the more physical artifacts and archives. So the fine art. Any adornments in the buildings, I think, total I ended up with, maybe 140 pieces of fine art and I'm still seeing things as I walk around that I missed and I'm then going back and adding it. So it was cool in that aspect that we kind of got to pick what was interesting to us, and run with it that way there was a lot of flexibility that you don't get in a normal classroom course. So, also starting out, we also had to go over what needed to be done and this is where Martha Bishop came in and assisted us and told us from her archival background, kind of what we needed to be thinking about during so how we needed to prioritize things, but it was important to the congregation, and to Sarah to get scanned in, or to make sure that it was put aside and not touched because it might be vulnerable, like the minute books from 1867 are still in there, so that was something that we wanted to make sure God digitized and didn't risk any further damage. So we went over our goals for the class, what we needed to do, how we were going to approach it, which was different than you would get an, I don't know, an archives that already existed because we had to think of it from a whole new perspective. So that was kind of how the class ran, we would come here for three hours once a week which is not nearly enough time we found out and kind of just explored the building explored the materials, got used to what was what was around what we had, like much of it was just running around and talking to each other and saying like oh, did you see this that we found and Oh look how cool this is. And then actually starting it. So then once we were awarded the grant is when things kind of were really able to pick up once we knew that we had these out of this money that we could spend a Gaylord in order our materials and our different boxes and file folders and everything that we were going to need in the scanner and the computer to kind of just make it a complete archives. Um, yeah and then we were also assisting the other congregations in town, so have settled down the road and LMS also down the road. I think everyone just kind of realized how important this was and that this needed to be done. And then it couldn't we can just ignore the history that was right downstairs or in the other room and just kind of considering what, what steps needed to be taken. So we were able to kind of put together our plan and share it with them and guide them and assist them in their spreadsheets and just inventorying everything that was around. So then you'll see that picture there is a blueprint of the building. We do have all of the original blueprints from 1914. Unknown Speaker 1:00:52 You can go ahead to the next slide, I think. So as Kayla mentioned we were awarded the grant, which did fund my internship, I think anyone in history knows that that's a pretty big deal I get a paid internship I in history field. So we were excited about that it was just kind of a further reassurance that this was important and that the work we were doing here mattered and that it needed to be done. So I did my internship over the summer. It was spent, furthering what we were doing in the class so everything was sorted, We had an idea of what we had. We had documents that said like this box has roughly this but we didn't. I mean we, we didn't have enough time to go, as in depth with it as we needed to. And we found that out and we knew that maybe it needed to be taken further. It worked out that I needed an internship, my degree, and I was here and I was comfortable and I was enjoying what I was doing. I knew that it was important not only to the congregation but to the city and to the other congregations in the Jewish community as a whole. And I knew that it was something that I wanted to continue doing so. Over the summer I got even more familiar with the materials that were in the building. I spent about 10 hours a week, going through stuff again it was a lot of showing Sarah stuff that was cool that I found going even deeper with it. I'm not I still have about 20 hours left as it stands right now, but then I'll probably continue on a volunteer basis because I don't think I'm done with it, I don't think I'm ready to stop, researching it. There's still a lot to be done. And then going on further once it was created, I realized the value in all of these primary sources and how rare it is to have that in a city. And I decided that I would write a thesis on it and use it and utilize the work that I had done, which is still ongoing, and I can actually finish this semester credit wise, but I decided I would take an extra semester write the thesis, and show something with the work that I did. I think so. My first semester in grad school we take you take a methods class, and it goes over the difference of primary sources and secondary sources and how Secondary sources are great but those primary sources are really what you need to make work that's going to contribute something to history. And I have a whole room of it, so there's a variety of everything there's blueprints. there's all of the minute books there's photos, there's correspondence between anything I say they were almost too thorough and what they kept there's notes on everything, but it's going to help me contribute to my thesis, which is great, and I kind of, after that, when I knew I wanted to do something with those sources I kind of I was able to think okay so what do I want to do. I was interested in the building, I think, when I was walking around, inventory in the art, it was just a lot of exploring the building and finding cool little rooms that I didn't know existed before, and the creation of an art of the archive in general kind of sparked like, Okay, well why now. So I'm interested in looking at how the building has changed over time to suit the congregation's needs, and the Jewish community's needs and what that means to a congregation. And then on top of that. This semester I'm also doing an independent study with Dr. Donna de Blasio her name has came up a few times in this presentation. I'm working with her to nominate Rhodope Showhomes building to the National Register of Historic Places. So for that I am working on the architectural description. She came here, I think, two weeks ago now, just to see the building and walk through it with us and was saying like, Oh, this document like this might be good to have or something like this and we were like oh we have all of that. And we're able to show her everything and she was freaking out like oh I can't believe you guys have this this is great. So I think just seeing the value and the sources and having people remind us of that and what it can be used for. And going on is has been really rewarding, jump to the next slide. Okay, so you will see there the photo on the left is, I want to say that's from probably when the class wrapped up. Unknown Speaker 1:05:40 And then the photo on the right was from, maybe two weeks ago. As you can see we got all of our supplies from Gaylord all of our boxes, which was experienced in itself just getting used to the different the different archival supplies that are out there and how to build the boxes and how the lid what lids go to which, and just getting the opportunity to just kind of know what what minute books fit best in which, and when you use the clamshell box and when you use the one that lies horizontally, has been a really valuable experience. So we are about 50% done with it. There's still a lot of stuff to go through a lot of stuff the finding aid right now we joke is in our mind, we haven't exactly it's like, maybe four pages down but there's still a lot, and as people become interested in the project we're realizing that that needs to kind of be kicked up so we had a gentleman last week come. He wanted to explore the archives, he was doing research on the Jews in Greenville Pennsylvania. And then, and just a couple of days ago we had a professor reach out to us from Pitt, he was interested in looking at the architectural blueprints to go over the building. So I think just these, the interest that people are showing is showing us that we need to jumpstart the finding a more than we thought, but also that this is going to be an important archives so they can not only our community but the neighboring cities and people interested in Judaic Studies and anything related. Unknown Speaker 1:07:22 And we'll have Sara jump in again for the next couple minutes, she'll be talking about kind of the next steps, and continuing the partnerships that we've started and what's next for the archive, I wrote off Shalom. Unknown Speaker 1:07:39 So, before I started again this is the, I think unless you tell me otherwise. This is the oldest photograph, we have of the construction of the building. So it's dated between 1914 and 1915. And it was actually the architect tribals photograph he sent it into us. And so, if you get can't get very close, but there are people standing on the dome and at the time it was built, it was the largest dome in Ohio. Unknown Speaker 1:08:13 I think he's right in the middle to, Unknown Speaker 1:08:14 I was seeing his yeah he might math but he's right on the middle. So, it's my favorite photo and it's the scariest one for me to lose, because, I mean it was there isn't there's no sun I like looking at the cars and the picture or the boiler system on the outside of the building versus inside and, you know, it's, it's iconic and the trees that are still there, and some trees that aren't still there. But anyway, I have always referred to the project as the rabbit hole, because I feel like once you start, you just can't stop. And I mentioned it before, but I have. I don't have any background and history work other than my thesis which was, you know, taken from a management, a nonprofit angle, I didn't know what I was getting into, and the opportunities that would present themselves. You know, I thought I would get a class we put it together and it'd be done. I was wrong. I don't say that often, but I was wrong and so as we move into the future. We have many many different possibilities, I have some partnerships and ideas written on the slide to present to you, but it is endless. These are not finite at all. You know the lowest hanging fruit is just continuing a relationship with Youngstown State University, and how we can continue to partner with their history department. But as well with their other departments, such as the Holocaust and Judaic Studies program, you know, working class studies, it's the, the congregants that have come through our, our congregation, over the years are incredible. And they have entire courses dedicated to them at YC when we have what they did in their social life here. You know the beginning of this entire project came from somebody researching Julius Khan and wanting to know, you know, we don't have anything on his private life can you tell us what he did. And it turned out I was missing the minute books for what she was on our board, and so you know we started digging and looking but we found them. Thank goodness. And it talked about not only Julius but his family and his brother and his wife and his children's engagement in the congregation and you know it has snowballed from Strauss', you know, and it just, it's remarkable. So continuing to partner with the University, because we really hit a lot of the different levels and departments of which they offer, and we can go from there. Using the collection for future pot Jack's Hannah has already spoken about how Dr de Blasio is working on getting the building on the National Register, but also how it's an independent study. We don't know the extent of what we have. And I am not that person with the knowledge so knowing how to access and get a hold of the people that have that knowledge is really important. And so I hope that as we continue to move forward we can find other you know projects that will utilize what we're putting together now, access to additional grant funding and program funding. An example of this is something that already exists so if you're interested, let me know but the Center for Holocaust in Judaic Studies at Youngstown State University has put together an opportunity for scholars to come here in person and utilize our archives and present, they have a subsidy program to help fund that research. And so, we want people here, and it is clear that the community wants people here, Having a department at ways you create this concept and really say get here, let's do this really really speaks to the breadth of information available from our building. My ultimate goal is creating some type of replication guide for other religious institutions to go ahead and do this, as I move forward as an executive director of rota shalom, there are various programs and distinctions and what one of the qualifications is basically, it's a, it's an applied thesis. And so I'm hoping to use what we're doing here as a replication guide to help other smaller synagogues and struggling cities really create a way to capture what they have to offer and a sustainable model as Kayla was talking about Unknown Speaker 1:12:50 it, most importantly, and I'm a relationships person it's about continuing the opportunities and partnerships we already have. Continuing with the Ohio History Service Corps actually have a program next week with Taylor's replacement, but no one can replace Kayla. Oh, continuing on with the Jewish archives and saying you know here's what we've done now what can we do with you to enhance this and make it available for your other collections. And now that moving as we go through the collection we see that we have information that while it is valuable to just wrote the greater Mahoning Valley will find value in it so partnering with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society kind of for phase two or phase three, if you will, of our next steps, while continuing to be very closely weaved in with the steel Museum and Youngstown State and anyone who feels that they want to get involved with this. You know alluded to it, It's been really neat to have people come in and get hands on with it looking for historical family records, different professors coming in and looking for information, using it as primary sources that we didn't know existed until a few months ago. So I look forward to it and I hope that all of you watching, want to reach out and get involved with it. I would direct you to Hannah, once you do because she is master of all in that space so I just want to say thank you and, you know, I'll leave it to you to kind of close from there. Unknown Speaker 1:14:25 Yeah, thank you, like Sarah said thank you all for joining today. And we have some contact info on the screen here. If you are interested in contacting anyone, a part of this presentation today. And, you know, especially, you know Sarah can get you in contact with Hannah, as well I don't have her email on here for some reason. But, you know Hannah has really been the main person who has been, you know, deep in and handling all the pieces in the collection and and inventorying it and things like that so she really knows her stuff, probably more than anyone. As a part of this project. So she's a great resource to talk to. So if you're interested in learning anything about the Ohio History Service Corps, a partnership between Ohio History Connection serve Ohio Youngstown State University, you can contact AmeriCorps at Ohio history.org. For questions regarding the project. CONGREGATION read of shalom and the archives, you can contact Sara Wilczek or for research requests you can contact archives at congregation read of shalom.org and for inquiries about the Youngstown State University Master's in history program, particularly the applied history certificate portion of that program, you can contact Dr. Larry AT T leery at y su.edu. And if anyone has any questions. We have some time to take them about 10 or so minutes, and then Martha Bishop and Dr Leary are here as well. If you have any direct questions for them. Unknown Speaker 1:16:05 And I'll just jump in that archives email does also go to Hannah. So if you have questions for Hannah you could reach her at that archives at congregation I've shown them that work, Unknown Speaker 1:16:18 anyone has any questions you can post them in the q&a. Unknown Speaker 1:16:47 Someone says it's not possible to type in the q&a. Unknown Speaker 1:16:53 But then, Kim was able to message all of us. Thanks Kim. Unknown Speaker 1:17:01 You must have to chat and not q&a Unknown Speaker 1:17:04 Yeah that's in the chat. Unknown Speaker 1:17:06 So let's see, can they put other questions in the chat instead of q&a. Right, just directed to hosts and panelists. Unknown Speaker 1:17:16 And the issue is that panelists, post to the q&a. So theory was trying to post as a panel of attendees can use the q&a you can also use chat if you're more comfortable with that. And then monitoring. One question I have. We have a comment very informative. Thank you so much. individual says thank you for sharing this wonderful project. Unknown Speaker 1:18:07 Have you questions I have one question for Hannah. Um, it seems you're very interested in the, the physical built environment of actual building. How do you find that different in terms of your processes with working with it and documenting it. How do you find that different from working with the paper based collections, is there anything you're doing that's distinct. Um, Unknown Speaker 1:18:41 I don't I mean, my the thought process is all the same kind of when considering the building versus considering a paper document, and I'm using the paper documents to kind of support all of the building changes so one thing that I'm looking at is the changes that the building went over time. So for example, at one point there was a gymnasium. There's not a gymnasium anymore so that is just one of the questions that would pop up to me is why, why did the congregation not need a gymnasium anymore, like what shifted, socially, I guess in the congregation that would allow them to get rid of it, I think, to on a personal level from wrote up they also just reinstituted their religious school. So the in the education went downstairs that was something that we kind of got to watch in the class start and happen right before our eyes so that was something to just kind of wondering, when did this religious school exist before. Why did it move down the street to the Jewish Community Center for example, and stuff like that so kind of considering the building and then luckily I'm very familiar with the archives and able to find it somewhere. And I kind of have the luxury of knowing that the answer exists somewhere in there. It's just a matter of finding it. So, same process I guess asking questions about the building, and then finding the paper that backs up, or I guess disagrees with what my initial thought is. Unknown Speaker 1:20:15 Thank you. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 1:20:23 And if we didn't, don't have any more questions or someone thinks of something later, like I said you can contact anyone on this screen here and, and, and find out what you're looking for, and if you know, someone's not listed, they can, they can easily get you to that person to to ask your question too. Unknown Speaker 1:20:47 Well, thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you to our presenters for a fantastic presentation that was incredibly informative. Everyone should receive a link to the session recording. By the end of October, that will have the contact information of the presenters as well. So, we will end a little early, you have a little bit of a break between sessions. Thank you very much. Transcribed by https://otter.ai