Jews have a rich history in the Twin Tiers. We have been here since the 1850s. Over the years, our community has changed and it continues to change. One of the best ways to document that is through oral histories. Earlier this year, the Jewish Center & Federation teamed up with the Chemung County Historical Society in order to record, preserve, and share oral histories from members of our Jewish community. As part of that partnership, Chemung County Historical Society staff will record the interviews using their equipment. They and the JCF archives will each receive a copy of each interview, along with a transcript. The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, which conducted a series of interviews with community members back in the 2010s, has also agreed to give the JCF copies of those interviews. The interviews from both projects will be shared with the world as part of a special collection on the New York Heritage website (https://nyheritage.org/).

If you are interested in participating, there are a lot of ways to get involved. We are, of course, looking for people to interview. Do you have a story about growing up here in the 1940s? What about the 1990s? Want to share your recollections of Shomray Hadath or B’Nai Israel? Do you have any neat stories to share about teaching Hebrew School, playing Church League basketball, working on the Kol Ami prayer book, helping at the Community Kitchen, etc., etc.? We would like to hear all of it. If you know someone with a story that you feel needs to be shared, you can help by persuading them to talk.

We are also looking for people who are interested in helping to transcribe the interviews. This would involve carefully listening to and typing up what is said. This work can be done from home at your own pace, or at the Chemung County Historical Society, whichever you’d prefer. Each interview needs to be transcribed before it can be shared, so this work is vital.

If you are interested in being interviewed or would like to help with transcribing, please reach out to Rachel Dworkin via e-mail at archivist@chemungvalleymuseum.org or by phone at (607) 734-4167 ex. 207.