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The Council of American Jewish Museums knows this is a critical time to be collecting the Jewish experience in America. It is a time in which Jewish life is responsive and changing in the face of the pandemic – with so many shifts in society, home life, work, education, ritual, and Jewish community. CAJM has collected oral histories about the Jewish experience of the pandemic, some of which are publicly available on this website.

CAJM is grateful to these organizations that have here shared their recordings from the pandemic period:

  • The Breman Museum
  • Council of American Jewish Museums
  • Institute for Southern Jewish Life
  • Iowa Jewish Historical Society
  • Jewish Museum of Florida/FIU
  • Jewish Theological Seminary Library
  • Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
  • Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
  • Vaad Refuah

Thank You to the Chronicling Funder Collaborative for making this work possible:

Featured Oral Histories 

  • Alex Coven Oral History Interview

    Alex reflects on events of 2020 in his family, with a virtual wedding and a new home, and in his legal work with incarcerated women. He describes the pressures to help those in need during covid-19 and challenge of drawing boundaries around work.He and his wife were active in the Black Lives Matter protest events in Portland.
  • Mayor Dan Gelber Oral History Interview

    Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU Education Manager Luna Goldberg interviews City of Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.
  • Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz Oral History Interview

    Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU Education Manager Luna Goldberg interviews Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz, Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom, Miami Beach, FL.
  • Dr. Oren Stier Oral History Interview

    Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU Education Manager Luna Goldberg and FIU Department of Modern Languages Professor Andrea Fanta interview Dr. Oren Stier, Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program at Florida International University.
  • Joel Titleman Oral History Interview

    Interview with Joel Titleman, owner of Mile End Deli, in Brooklyn, NY. Joel talks about his wife, (and entire family) an emergency room doctor, pregnant at 36 weeks coming down with COIVD, going to Canada to have the baby, and having a Zoom naming ceremony. Jewish values, feeding Jewish food, the community, his background, BLM, healthcare, shabbat and more.
  • Rabbi Sandra Lawson Oral History Interview

    Rabbi Sandra Lawson reflects on how, with the COVID pandemic, "the walls came down" on ritual and accessibility for Judaism, and how she draws on her multiple identities during these tumultuous times.
Browse all of the oral history videos