Out of a discussion about Yizkor and Yahrzeit; an exhibit on Dubuque's Jews...

by Karin Pritikin
Vice President, Temple Beth El, Dubuque
Project Director/Exhibit Developer-
The Alexander Levi Heritage Project

In 2007, Temple Beth El in Dubuque, an extension of two older congregations, had 27 households--and more than 400 names on its Yizkor/Yahrzeit list. Some members felt the list was too lengthy to read on the High Holidays, while others believed strongly that reading the list was a powerful way to maintain a connection to those who built Dubuque's Jewish community which, though small, still thrives.

When several of us expressed the desire to explore the creation of a Yizkor/Yahrzeit fund to honor those on the list whose families were no longer living, or in the area, it led to an interesting discovery. The impending 175th anniversary of the city's founding coincided with the 175th anniversary of the arrival of Alexander Levi, Dubuque's first Jew, the state's first naturalized citizen; and the founder, in 1857, of the city's first Jewish congregation.

Intent on sharing the story of our community's nearly 200 years of presence in the region, we created the Alexander Levi Heritage Project and wrote grants to develop a museum exhibit. In early 2008 we received a $5000 grant from the city of Dubuque and a $3000 in match funding from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (a regional Smithsonian affiliate) offered exhibit space.

Researching, writing, designing and assembling the interactive exhibit took over 1000 of volunteer hours, a task made easier by a Beth El congregant who, 15 years earlier, had assembled a shopping bag full of "spare time" research on Levi and other early Iowa Jews (partly in response to telephone and mailed inquiries from people who believed their relatives were buried in the cemetery Levi had deeded in perpetuity to the city).

The resulting installation "From Distant Places to Dubuque's Shores: 175 Years of Jewish Presence" is on view at the museum until the first of the year and online at www.levicelebration.com. It opened in mid-August in concurrence with a weekend-long Jewish family reunion and a dinner at the museum that drew 60 -- including visitors who traveled from as far away as Palm Springs. A Chicago philanthropist donated an additional $1000 along with 4 hours of interviews, taped in 1964, of his then 84-year old grandmother recounting her emigration from Europe and her move to Dubuque.

But advance publicity for the exhibit led to the biggest surprise: a beshert reconnection/reunion with Alexander Levi's descendants who had been lost to the local historical record since 1918. Three weeks before the grand opening, Levi's 86-year old great grand-daughter met, by chance, with a curator at Spertus Museum in Chicago to discuss the donation of his family papers. Learning of the exhibit, she and other family members made contact, prepared and photographed documents and artifacts for the creation of an ancillary panel, and traveled to Dubuque for the opening dinner and the reunion weekend. What a moving moment, during the Shabbat service (and dedication of a new Yahrzeit board) when the Levi descendants came up to the Bima for honors in the town to which their ancestor brought Iowa's first sefer Torah.

According to anecdotal reports from museum staff, comments from friends and clergy from other faith communities, and questionnaires filled out onsite, "From Distant Places to Dubuque's Shores..." has been very positively received by the Dubuque-at-large. In the three months since the exhibit's opening, there have been over 10 in-depth articles about the exhibit, our history and our present day community in the Dubuque and Galena papers, online, on TV and in local magazines. A feature story is currently being developed for a national Jewish publication. The Iowa Jewish Historical Society is exploring expanding exhibit content and moving it to the state historical museum in Des Moines in 2009, and there has been an offer of a both a temporary show at the University of Dubuque, and a permanent home in a city museum after the exhibit finishes its limited tour.

The impact of this remarkable "journey of discovery" was felt in a very personal way by me, the exhibit's director and designer. During the research process I had learned a great deal about some of the town's founding Jewish mothers and fathers whose names I had heard incanted over the years during the Yizkor service. This Yom Kippur, standing on the Bima alongside Beth El's oldest congregant (himself a star of one of the exhibit's films), and reading the names of the departed, reaffirmed how honoring the blessed memories of our city's earliest Jewish citizens...and the memories and stories of all those who have made Dubuque's community viable and vital... is not a mere responsibility, it is a rare and wonderful privilege!

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