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Hi, my name is Joshua furman. I'm the curator of the Houston jewish history archive at Rice University and I'm pleased to be joined today by Marilyn Levitch acid Marilyn was most recently the assistant executive director at the Evelyn rubenstein jewish community center of Houston where she

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was for 35 years. And we're looking forward to hearing from her about growing up in Houston and her time uh directing arts and culture at the JCC Maryland. Hello, how are you? Hi, great to be with you. Thank you so much. This is an honor. It's

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an honor for us. So why don't we start tell us a little bit about um your family background and when and why your family came to Houston. So um we lived in Kansas city Missouri, that's where I was born. And uh 1962 we moved to Houston.

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My father was in business with his brothers, not a happy situation and they wanted to open up a second space. He went to Jacksonville florida in 1961 and Houston texas and he said Houston was the city of the future. So he moved down here first while

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my sister and my mom and I stayed in Kansas city so she could finish her last year of school there. We moved down a year later. The business was up and running. Little did I know that where my father lived as a kind of bachelor was

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the Park Towers on Holcomb, which was apparently a swinging singles place with a bar deli and all kinds of things and a lot of the single jewish men lived there unfortunately, my dad passed away before I found out about it, so I didn't have a chance

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to really talk to him about it. Yeah. What, what was the family business by the way? Oh they built truck bodies. It started in baku Russia building carriages for the oil, which is kind of weird because Houston is a sister city with baku Russia. But anyway,

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that's what it was, It became motorized in Kansas city and then dad opened up the second business here uh in Houston it's expanded now my sister runs it, but that's what it was. The back end of the trucks dancing, you know, specialized and tell us, tell

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us your, your parents names and everyone else in your immediate family. Okay, so my mother, Sadie Levitch um half glitzy on a half, half Litvak. My father buck was born in America, but family was from baku, his name was Morris and they called him chick and

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actually he was little chick because he had a brother that was big chick, kind of popular names at the time. Little chicken, big yeah, so we ended up here in Houston and 1962 we were living at the stone crest apartments on Stella lake, which was the

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place where a lot of jewish people lived. Yeah, tell us more about that era about, you know, Houston, the jewish community in the 19 sixties. Okay, tell us what it was like, wow, okay, so we look at the stone crest and um oh my gosh uh

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Mr Spritzer was there, he's a holocaust survivor, he was a furrier ralph Marx lived there, he was a big time marketing person. Anyway, it was right there on Stella link in the area where the McGovern Library and the weekly y are right now. Um So I

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could walk to Mark Twain Elementary, which is where I went, I could walk to Persian Junior High which is where I went for, we called it junior high back then. Goodman Butcher was right there and uh is it Beth Jacob was the Orthodox shul, that was

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right around the corner, so we were at the stone crest right there on still a link for a year, maybe a year and a half. And then we moved down the road to Link Valley, which is a street between 6 10 and Willow bend. In fact

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today the Emery Weiner school is right down the street at the time. Link Valley was called bagel alley because so many jews lived there, we lived in the Jamestown with lots of other jewish people and the Williamsburg fronted Stella Link on Link Valley, but it was

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much more expensive um Growing up at that time was amazing, I mean I was Pershing, I was a cheerleader, you know, hung out with the football guys but there was also esquire's which was the jewish boys social and service fraternity in junior high and it was

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the precursor to those boys moving on to sigma alpha rho which was the jewish high school fraternity and these were national fraternities and there was also a sorority that I ended up joining in high school, so we were there for a number of years and it

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really seems like life revolved around the synagogues and Alfred's delicatessen. Um you know, monday night, Smorgasbord, sunday morning brunch is my dad hung out with a group on saturday mornings. Um We joined Beth you shirt because it was closest um to what we grew up with

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in Kansas city except that it had an organ, which was shocking And more shocking than that was coming to Houston in 1962 and seeing colored and white bathrooms and drinking fountains. That was not anything we ever had in Kansas City. How old were you in 1962

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when you first came, you were 11, Yeah, okay, so so then tell me more about, about segregation in in Houston at that time and what you remember about it, I do not remember a single person of color at Mark Twain or at Pershing at Bel air,

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I don't remember, although maybe someone was there, it's just, it was just everything was white and you know, listen, we joined the shamrock Hilton hotel, um court club, it was a club there, that was just awesome and you could go there, there was no liquor by

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the drink, you had to belong to a club. So my family, we'd go there on a saturday night and we'd have meal and drinks and Tony martin would be singing if he wasn't. But it also included the pool. And so I was hanging out at the

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pool, A lot of jewish kids were hanging out there in the sixties as well as people from the general community. And I distinctly remember it was before I kept kosher. I distinctly remember not only how delicious the burgers were, but that you could order it. And

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an african american man dressed in long sleeve white jacket would deliver it to where you were sitting, you know, on on the, on the land, you know the green area. It was that same field at Sakowicz mom and I would go to Sakowicz on saturday, that

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was a big deal. And we'd eat lunch at the Sakowicz restaurant, whatever it was. And like all the waiters were african american in these crisp white, I mean it was like nothing like I've ever seen in Kansas city. Yeah, sure, definitely. Some some culture shock, right?

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Tell us about the scene about at Alfred's delicatessen. This like landmark of jewish Houston for decades. Yes, with house of books, bernard Shapiro's house of books right down the way. Um so the scene you always ran into people uh which created lots of conversation, I remember

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being fascinated by the deli part of the um when you walked in there was like the deli part where you could order and take out and then you could buy things off the shelf and I was fascinated by the fact that they had these chocolate covered

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crickets or something. Nothing that we ever bought. But I was like, what is that? You know, you know, you know, again, growing up in Kansas city, we never ate shellfish. But coming down here, we found out that a lot of jewish people, they would eat bacon

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but not ham and they would eat shrimp and crab and lobster. I mean it was just, you know, southern kosher? I heard it referred to us once heard to once. But anyway, so Alfred was just this bustling place. Like I say, there was the saturday morning

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group of guys that would go there men um for years and years actually up almost to the point where my father passed away. He was still going on Saturdays to hang out with a small group. It was a place to be. Mm hmm. And then what

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about what about Beth you Sharon at that time. Okay, so um, joined Beth you sure? In that is where I had my bat mitzvah dr Joshua. Weinstein was the educational Director at the time. Um when I it came to my and he later became head of

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the excite department at University of Houston, which is where I took my Master. So I studied under him again. So, when it came to my bat mitzvah. Um I wanted to wear a little white knit Yamaka with gold trim, very cute and they don't, didn't do

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that here. And so my mother had to get permission from the ritual committee for me to do that. They also used to usher the barn botnets for kids down that this long island bark sanctuary now called sanctuary. And boys would walk down. Boys, girls would walk

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down, girls would be playing the organ music, whole promenade. Well, I wanted boys. I had more boyfriends than girlfriends and aesthetically it looked nicer because they were all in in suits. So we got permission for that. And then the third thing we had to get permission

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for is I wanted to sing a song that I loved from Kansas city May all p scott har hard Sophie my mean from the mount scopus you look on Jerusalem and I wanted to sing that. We got special permission and I was able to add additional

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song um to my um mitzvah ceremony. What? Sorry? Sorry. I was gonna ask just what were the other ritual components of beth mitzvah at that time, definitely know. Torah reading um I had half Torah. Great. The one with King David and his are, I mean his

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young right, okay. Um like make a speech on that. So yeah, so it's like we just did some things on friday night. I was by myself, everybody. People were doubling up again. That was unheard of in Kansas city. I did not want to have a partner.

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We had to kind of battle that um, so it's kind of basic, basic and on this morning it was the half Tehran your speech, but there was no blessing with the parents and the, you know, hands over the head and the blessing of the none of

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that. It was kind of Tiktok, right? Do you remember anything that Rabbi Molefe said that day? No, but I love them. I will tell you that Barbara pillar, may she rest in peace. And I were the first two women to read from the Torah at Beth

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you Sharon when it finally became approved, I was in a college student or a post grad or whatever. Yeah, so that's a great piece of great piece of history, moving on a little bit. So, another aspect about growing up, jewish in Houston, that, that I like

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to learn about is, you know, the question of anti Semitism, you've been talking a lot about, you know, coming from Kansas city to Houston and some of the real stark differences that you perceive. So I'm just wondering, you know, did you ever experience any kind of

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anti Semitism at, you know, at at Pershing at Twain um, during your, during your time growing up. Well, there are two pieces to this. Um, I did not experiencing experience anything specifically toward me. However, my first day at Mark Twain when my teacher mrs Cochran called

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the roll, I said yeah and which is something we would say in Kansas city. And she said, you know Marilyn Leavitt and I went yeah, you know like that. And she said stand up. Anyway, she humiliated me in front of the class. I'd only been in

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Houston for a week and she said down here we say yes ma'am and no ma'am, well I never forgot that. But then when I was thinking about it literally the other day, looking at your questions, I thought, I think there was a little something underlying that.

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Um but I never, that was the only thing and it really wasn't that over. I just think that there was something going on interestingly enough, I thought back to Kansas city, I do remember african american boys and girls in our school, so it was integrated in

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Kansas city was not a bastion of equality, but at that point we had already broken through that so fast forward. The biggest we could call it anti Semitic experience was the Beller high school graduation of 1969 um which I can tell you about interesting, you know,

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in high school, everybody hung out in these clusters, there were the S. T. P. And S. A. R. Cluster before class and then at lunch there was the B B. G 63 the Cyrus Adler groups, everybody and their clusters, the surfers, the theater people including Dennis

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quaid, randy quaid and Marianne Williamson who was also a cheerleader the year after me and was a sorority sister in STP I might add. So everybody was in their clusters. Bel air was like 42% Jewish I heard um at that time, but Harlan Andrew's brother of

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Dana Andrews, the actor and Steve Forrest, I believe also an actor. Harlan Andrews was the first principle of Miller High School and he had a choice of when graduation would take place and he picked Friday night. And so three of us got wind of this al

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hiller who was if he was in valedictorian, he was way up there then actually fast forward, he became president of J. C. C. Plus a lot of you know, so we crisscrossed a lot, his father was very involved with A D. L. And Z. O. A

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Zionist organization of american nationally. J. Peters who's a pulmonologist in san Antonio right now and we got wind of this and said this is ridiculous, they need to change in the date which Harlem Andrews would not could not whatever. So we staged a boycott and our

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goal was that all jewish students would attend services that night instead of going to our graduation. So what transpired at that point was that when they wouldn't change the date and they knew the boycott was happening, Harlan Andrew's determined because we heard it was like the

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state, it was a state law that you had to attend your graduation to get your diploma. So he came up with what you have to have a permission slip signed by your rabbi and your parents. Well, Jojo Hiller jumped in Al's father and was like, this

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is, you know, separation of church and state issues. And he got that wiped out. Interestingly enough, the rabbis in the community told us we were hypocrites. They said you don't go to services anyway, so why now? And our position was because it's a law and they're

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telling us what we have to do. They've taken our choice, our religious freedom away. We ended up getting some national attention and then the rabbis came on board and they were just gung ho we were doing the right thing. Now I found an article, if I

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could just um sidebar little, I found an article by um mr Gonzalez in a 2012 Houston Chronicle paper, he was talking about Baylor High School in Harlem Andrews and he said that in 1969 that Miller was well known for very accomplished and those quote unquote, not

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so accomplished students And he quoted Harlan Andrews as saying something like the reason that there are problems at the school is that there are older far left members or something like this. I'm paraphrasing, I have the actual quote of the um, what was the Democratic Society

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students for a Democratic society. That's what he said in 1969. Now. Big question, who was he talking about? Right. He had already spread the rumor that we were going to burn down the building, which we were not going to do. But that's a quote from Harlan

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Andrews from 1969. He was clearly talking about us and given that the STS had members of the group named Hoffman and Rubin wasn't hard to make the leap of what he was saying. So anyway, David White, who was the founder and ran the jewish herald voice.

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He said that we need that these students needed to be commended, uh that what we were doing was very brave. So most all jewish students and one who was not of the jewish faith boycotted service boycotted graduation that night. We all went to our respected services.

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The rabbis asked us if we wanted some kind of recognition or ceremony. It was like, no, we just want to come to services and just be among our the congregational family and then everybody was invited to our house for an extra bad afterwards. Nice. Do you

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do you do you look back on that moment, you know, as a, as a particular point of point of pride. Um, and and do you think it it had an impact on you moving forward because you clearly, you know, as well talk about you've you've given

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so much to the jewish community um, over the course of your long career. Um, Is this a moment when you, I mean, why did you feel so so passionately about this? It came naturally. It just, it just came naturally. And by that point, look, I grew

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up in a house before my father was in the family business, he was a grocer. And the story goes, is that because it was a sundown town, Kansas city at that time, he used to run groceries up to the african american population that lived up on

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the hill and he used to say, I used to take the groceries up. Um, they could come down, could come down to play in the clubs which were actually a block away from where my father's grocery store was thames street and vine that whole area of

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Kansas city. So I grew up knowing this. My parents were big FDR Kennedy people. Um, we were glued to the tv during the 67 war at that point in high school, I was already getting wind of the whole refuse nick, um, refuse nick uh movement. And

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actually in STP in our sorority, we were social action, but not quite that kind of social action. I remember telling everybody we have to get on board with this and things like that. Um, quite honestly, we were more into partying and you know, whatever, you know,

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we were doing that weekend. But so all of that was already in my gut from my parents, My mother was very involved with what was then called the jewish home for the age, she single handedly overhauled the volunteer system and organized it and there is my

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dad who broke out and we shall overcome at the Passover table one time when we came across the words in the, you know, Maxwell house or whatever, when we were using Haggadah, this is what I grew up with. So it just came naturally and then carried

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forward with me to college where became quite active on behalf of jewish causes and also of course anti Vietnam and um protesting for african american studies on campus until it's like, well we probably need jewish studies too. Yeah, tell us more about about your college years

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as far as as far as your involvement with jewish causes. Okay, so I wanted to go to BRANDEIS but my parents literally said we're not sending you to BRANDEIS so you can become Angela Davis. So that gives you an idea of where I was and also

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where my parents were. So I went to University of Oklahoma in norman and followed my boyfriend there. Um at the beginning it was all uh you know Vietnam war activity african american studies on campus. My second, I was determined to graduate in three years, which I

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did, but my second year when I moved into the sorority house and joined 85 sorority, there were three jewish sororities and three jewish fraternities on campus that was over the days when jewish and then okay, no and in walks this guy with a Hawaiian shirt, flip

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flops and shorts and said hi I'm the new rabbi in town. And that was Rabbi Jonathan Porritt who had just graduated the jewish Theological Seminary and his first assignment was Hillel and norman Oklahoma And he really activated us both at the Hillel. Um you're not a

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Jewish campaign. Remember someone gave me $5 I'd say I drove back to them and say don't give me your pizza money, you can afford more than that. I mean that would give you an idea of my approach to things. So he really activated us And there

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was this really close, this nucleus, it was, we all went, my last name was poor f Siegel Danny Siegel, his best friend who left the seminary and came down and lived with him periodically. Levitch and jefferson who was Larry jefferson here in town. Doctor Larry Jefferson.

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So the four of us were the nucleus and then there was this whole group and we, you know, held out, there were classes and studies and the holidays and every friday, we were at Rabbi porous and then we walked to shoulder and back and then we

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play battle all night and if you wanted to watch a movie at the 10 o'clock movie or 10 30 he put it on the shadows timer and then of course it would go off before the end and Rabbi, he would go crazy saturday walk to show,

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walk back and then walk to the stadium during football season where all of us, including Rabbi Porath, watched the football games back for rest Abdullah and then off to the pizza parlor where Rabbi Poor f had kosher food. One of the ovens. It was owned by

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a jewish guy who didn't identify, but he just thought it was a hoot that we had a kosher pizza oven would order these huge vegetarian pizzas every saturday night and then go to the movies. So what was going on with me in high school? So what

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was going on with me in high school? In terms of this activity on behalf of Israel and the refuseniks um carried on to college and Rabbi forth even did more. He took, he introduced me to Elie Wiesel, I mean, first of all, literally in terms of,

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well figuratively in terms of read these books and then literally when the Tulsa jewish community paid for two of us to go to Tulsa to hear Ellie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel had been his teacher, so we got to meet him. That was the first time I met

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him. The Tulsa community also sent two of us and I think it was jefferson, it's hard to break the last name business and the two of us went to went to Pittsburgh for the jewish Federation General assembly that year. Now that was like 1971 I guess,

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or 70, yeah, 71 it had to be because it's always in November, right? And I graduated in 72. Right? So it had to be 71. So the first person I run into starry eyed is Professor Hillel Levine. Who if you have put this in context in

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1971 Hillel Levine the year before in boston or two years before in boston, he had a group of students took over the podium at the G. A. Demanding money for jewish day school education. The other group that was there also a rock stars were the jewish

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defense League. Now at the time the JBl they're all a bunch of religious hunky guys at the time. Their primary um job was that they were patrolling the streets in Williamsburg and bed stuy bed style to protect the old jews. A lot of them were holocaust

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survivors and there was a lot of things happening, putting them in danger. They were there to petition the G. A. To buy them cars so they could patrol the area and protect these older jewish people from getting mugged and beat up. So they, you know, this

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was rock star time. It was just great. And there's a, there's a story about America hana coming to Oklahoma right? Oh yeah. So I don't remember who brought him, I don't remember under what auspices, but I do know that I picked him up at the airport,

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we had um time. So we played frisbee. He was good and then he spoke that night, he had not yet gone. I'll put it off the deep, he had not gone over to where he ended up going later on, you know in Israel although he was

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starting to touch on it and there were some people in the audience that interrupted him but he got through it all, there was no violence or demonstrations or whatever just interruptions and stuff and he of course held his own you know. And then afterwards we went

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back to rabbi porous apartment and I distinctly remember maybe three or four of us, maybe five on the floor in the living room. We studied text with Rabbi kahane till like three or four in the morning. It I mean I get emotional thinking about it, it

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was an experience even more than frisbee. It was an experience I will never forget wow that's that's a really incredible memory. Um So so now post college um tell us about sort of coming back to Houston and you know the early years of your of your

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development as a jewish communal professional. Okay. Um I would like to just add one university Oklahoma component which I think is very important um between the jews being the rebel rousers on campus and the drugs because there were those that did and those that didn't and

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then those that were in the middle and didn't care one way or the other. Um The border regions my last year decided that they would quadruple the tuition to keep out the hippie commie jews at that point, the jewish population of ou went away because there

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were lots from Chicago and new york and ST louis and of course texas, it went, it went to nothing. Ultimately, Rabbi Porath left moved to Israel, but it wasn't until dr Boren took over many years later when he realized that he wanted to make it a

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more academic institution than it was. Okay, admittedly he wanted to make it more academic and he had the field, he knew he had to hire superb professors. A lot of those professors were jewish to have jewish professors, He needed jewish students, he knew and understood he

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needed to create a jewish community of faculty and students in order to achieve what he wanted to achieve. And it was under him, he had some problems later on, but it was under him that the jews began coming back and that Hillel was resurrected and also

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we had um the Schusterman family with another family I believe, who established the department for jewish and Israeli studies with Professor norman Stillman as the first, the founding director of that, so that was all under dr Boren. So I graduated and came back to Houston. Um

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I was determined to get my masters, which I did at the University of Houston. Under Josh Weinstein as I mentioned, but in Houston already was a gentleman named Raphael are Visser and Rafi and his wife Deborah had been in Kansas City and where the educational directors

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at our synagogue, they arrived in 1951, which was the year I was born. So they joked that they knew me and my mother's belly, they became very good friends with my parents and when they ended up moving here, because he took over the directorship of education

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at Beth You Sharon mom found the house for them which is in Ireland of course, uh right around the corner from where I live now. And actually now Rabbi silk from Emanuel lives in that very house. But anyway I came back and and rafi who called

00:30:35.080 - 00:30:56.610

him, Yeah, I know rafi said to me, so now that you're home, what are you going to do, work on my masters and go into the black community and go into the inner city and save the black community. And he looked at me and he said,

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model a little girl Medulla, we have a big enough job saving our own community. So he basically railroaded me into jewish education, I finished my masters, I had my degree in education, he started giving me jobs at Beth You Sharon and then in 1977 after he

00:31:21.120 - 00:31:39.860

had already left Houston and moved back to Israel with Devorah, I got a call that they're starting a jewish secondary school and they had hired a principal, a jewish community secondary school, not any, you know, conservative Orthodox or whatever and he was helping this group of

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parents created And they wanted me to be the principal, I taught most of their kids, so they knew me and they hired me as the principal in 1977 and I was getting married um to an Israeli, big surprise and in 1978 that that set set that

00:32:00.270 - 00:32:18.760

January to may is when we um recruited a first class of 23 students in the seventh grade, because H. I. S. D. Had not yet moved to sixth grade. Uh And so the short answer to your question of how did I get to jewish communal work

00:32:18.770 - 00:32:40.930

was that raf er Besser totally railroaded me, he was a firm believer, he had dedicated his life to it and he saw I guess in me or wanted to steer me too focus my attention in a community that he felt needed attention. Mhm. Very good. So

00:32:40.930 - 00:32:59.580

so tell us a little bit about about the early years or the founding of the came to be known as the eyeliner school, is that right? I want to make sure I'm getting it right, or was it Not yet. It started off as the jewish secondary

00:32:59.580 - 00:33:12.390

school. And we started off with one class in 7th 23 kids. And the idea was every year we would continue and then add a new seventh grade class and that's what we were doing when h I. S d moved to sixth grade, we met with Becky

00:33:12.390 - 00:33:26.980

Sharon, we met with uh Rabbi Car maybe uh Beth Israel because they already had the school then. Uh and and said look we gotta do this, you know? But we knew it would impact them. And so we all came together with yes, if we're going to

00:33:26.980 - 00:33:44.420

sustain the jewish day school secondary school, we have to do what H. I. S. D. Is doing. If not we're gonna lose those kids to public schools or other private schools. So it started off as jewish secondary. We rented classrooms from congregation brit shalom on Bel

00:33:44.420 - 00:34:03.420

air and at one I was a founding principle, I was there for five years and at one point, I don't remember exactly when um the the Wiener family wanted to honor the memory of Isidore Weiner, the patriarch and they gave us a significant contribution and we

00:34:03.430 - 00:34:26.230

renamed the school the Eye Weiner, jewish secondary school uh During that time also we knew we were busting the seams and we needed to move. And so rafi mr Armbruster and Shirley Stein and I found out about this property on the loop is the west Loop,

00:34:26.230 - 00:34:41.200

south of whatever it is between Bissonnette and West Park and it was the old Marion school and we just thought it needed some refurbishing how perfect to be there. The board disagreed, that's where the Episcopal school is now. The board disagreed and said the jewish community

00:34:41.200 - 00:34:59.730

is moving out of Meyer land and moving to Fondren southwest, so we need to move there. Well, we had this gorgeous design of a school with bob Davis architect and it was like Jerusalem stone and there were, there was the would be the high school group

00:34:59.730 - 00:35:20.130

and the middle school group with a an adjoining space for cafeteria and theater and art spaces. And if you've been to the Emery Weiner School today, that's exactly what it is. Except they ditched that idea when they bought the Gessner property clear out at Gessner and

00:35:20.670 - 00:35:42.490

past airport, I don't even guess whatever Gessner and something between airport and Belford I think, and they built this gray brick institutional building. Well during that time, one of the board members felt that they needed to make a change in leadership and decided that I needed

00:35:42.490 - 00:36:02.740

to go and someone else knew needed to come. So I never stepped foot in that building. Um they went through four or maybe five principles and law and they got rid of the high school because they said the kids didn't want it and they only were

00:36:02.750 - 00:36:22.760

the middle school and the, the school population took a nose dive. Ultimately, Alana Thompson was hired and it was a great move. Um and she continued with the school all the way to the move to Stella link. So after my five years there, I mean I

00:36:22.760 - 00:36:38.420

got real honest about it, I got fired. Um I had a kind of a year off, I had gone to jerry. Wishy, he knew me because we worked together, the kids did all the pe there. Um and he said, well not yet. Uh and a year

00:36:38.420 - 00:37:02.560

later he called me with a job. The interesting thing about I weiner during those five years, we were at 117 students from 6th grade through 11th grade. And we were able we dedicated ourselves and this is rafi talking in my ear, this is our future, he

00:37:02.560 - 00:37:20.010

would say um of really getting to know the kids. So we had some kids that were brilliant and off the charts and then we had some kids, not so brilliant, but we knew there was something special there. And through various programs that we initiated and this

00:37:20.010 - 00:37:46.220

incredible attention that the staff and I had for these kids, we were able to really give these kids incredible opportunities. And many, many went on to do absolutely mind boggling things, which we don't have time to talk about. I can tell, I assure you went on,

00:37:46.860 - 00:38:08.770

I'm sure. What what kinds of opportunities are you referring to? I think that I'm most proud of the Science humanities fair. You know, it schools were required for students to participate in science fairs and you had to do a science experiment and all. And so I

00:38:08.770 - 00:38:22.340

had this kid shy who wanted to study physical Anthropology, I was like, well, you know what? We came up and he wanted to study with someone. So we thought to ourselves, Edith's n who had been a teacher there, She was a science and math teacher there,

00:38:22.350 - 00:38:38.660

Edith and I talked about him, he said, well if we compare him with a physical anthropologist which we found at the dental school, then why couldn't everyone else have a mentor? And so we spared kids based on what they wanted to work on with a mentor.

00:38:38.670 - 00:38:54.220

All free. I mean it didn't cost anybody anything and they work together with scientists and professors. Well along came this young man named Alan Liebman and he said I don't like science, I just want to cook. So his parent, they have Lieberman's fine wines and fine

00:38:54.220 - 00:39:08.330

liquors and food today. His sister runs it. So Alan wanted to cook, paired him up with Willy Romick who owned this restaurant in town and he learned to cook, oh my God, he was the most popular booth because he was making crepes with a big white

00:39:08.340 - 00:39:28.210

chef hat on. Anyway. Fast forward Alan Lehman went on to the Miami International School. I think he graduated from culinary Institute of America. He was the first jew hired by the Ritz Carlton group and ultimately went with the international group that opened up Atlantis. He opened

00:39:28.210 - 00:39:49.160

up Atlantis Hotel and properties in Bahamas in Melbourne and then spent many years in Dubai after they sent him to Morocco to learn Arabic. This was this kid that just said, I just want to cook those, those are the kinds of opportunities that we were able

00:39:49.160 - 00:40:12.790

to provide during those five years um with the kids really, really anymore. But I'm sure. Yeah, no, I wish we had more time. So you were starting to tell us about about jerry, wishy executive director at the JCC and you know. Yeah. And the conversations about

00:40:12.800 - 00:40:37.090

about bringing you on board. Yes. So after my five years at my wiener and getting fired um Mhm My reputation and my name had been destroyed. And so jerry said there's a black cloud, let it pass, I'll call you in a year. And jerry, who I

00:40:37.100 - 00:40:50.260

credit was giving me an opportunity, offered me three part time jobs and one of them was arts and culture. Well I didn't know a stereo graph from a lithograph. I still don't, but I know what I like when I see it and I know what's worth

00:40:50.260 - 00:41:10.770

spending money and time on. Um And what I think the community will enjoy, whether it's educationally or entertainment wise or just plain enlightenment. So I started there doing some book fair work, working with the Children's programming for book fair. I was working on the art exhibition

00:41:10.770 - 00:41:25.140

season and then anything else. My supervisor marty mascots and Mark lit would throw at me and say, hey let's try to do a film festival or what ideas do you have. And one of them early on was like, Gosh I don't even remember 1987, I don't

00:41:25.140 - 00:41:42.100

know, 86 was Yiddish programming. I really wanted to do a lot of Yiddish programming. Um, and we started that, um, just in my little office space, starting with talking with the gang of four, you know, who are still very involved, Henrietta Bell and Susan Ganz and

00:41:42.100 - 00:42:06.910

Julia Mazo and Barbara Goldstein. And then we started sephardic programming. Um, there was a vibrant Program. They're primarily the book fair that Charlie Fishermen had started in 1973 and the art exhibition season. Performing arts was extremely vibrant, but it was a separate department at that time.

00:42:07.640 - 00:42:26.140

And they control the theater. Actually, we had to beg to get the theater for something or anything. Right. So by the time when I started it was part time and then in 86 my supervisor marty mascots left to go to the Brooklyn Sephardic center and I

00:42:26.140 - 00:42:41.400

had just had my second child and jerry said it's a month before book festival, but it was book fair at the time. Book fair. Can you come back full time? It's not thrilled. But I did. And no looking back, I stayed full time for the rest

00:42:41.400 - 00:42:56.820

of my tenure. Yeah. And what a tenure it, you know, it turned out to be, what what I mean? You can talk more about the book fair, You can talk about the film festival when you look back over, you know, more than three decades of of

00:42:56.820 - 00:43:28.300

your time, you know, creating really creating, you know, the world of of jewish arts and culture for Houston, what what performances or or lectures or events stand out the most. There are lots, but I'll give you a few. Um and you know, for me, discovery, you

00:43:28.300 - 00:43:43.180

know, finding something new, exciting, you know, something I think people should experience, even if they don't know, they should experience it again, a lesson from rafi from years ago with jewish education. You know, we have to kind of be at the forefront of it, not wait

00:43:43.180 - 00:44:03.300

around for, you know, someone to tell us what we think. So, um what are the standouts? Oh my gosh, okay, so David Grossman 1987, the yellow wind, 40 people listening to him. And because he was considered such a radical at the time, I thought I was

00:44:03.300 - 00:44:25.640

gonna lose my job. Um Jersey Kaczynski 1988, he's one of those got to get them, you know, in my mind, Jersey Kosinski, I worked with his wife kiki at the time. She thought it would be good for your she And it was still looking back in

00:44:25.640 - 00:44:48.930

my 35 years, the quintessential book festival program. Because what one of the things he said that night from the stage was we cannot define Jewish culture and history from 1933 to 1945. There was a lot before and there was a lot after. Well, my dear friend

00:44:48.930 - 00:45:06.750

and teacher, Ziggy ISaacson made head of the holocaust survivors was in the audience and went nuts and they engaged in a big conversation back and forth, heated but not ugly until I had to close it down. But to me it was what book festival is all

00:45:06.750 - 00:45:22.230

about, What book fair, any book and author event is about Elie Weisel of course, every time he came, Carl Sagan and his wife Andrew yan, 2000 people. The signing line for their book was about two hours. It was in the gym and I also learned because

00:45:22.230 - 00:45:35.780

they wanted to sit at the table much like Elie Wiesel always did. They wanted to sit at the table. But I learned that night that you have to be sure you put a cloth that goes all the way to the floor because mr Duran would get

00:45:35.780 - 00:45:59.710

really excited when she talked about the monkeys and would move forward and her legs would open Anyway, uh Gosh, Lord Rabbi sacks. It took me 10 years working with multi carper who I adore at shock and books to bring him. And when he walked in the

00:45:59.710 - 00:46:13.130

door that night he looked at me and said, well Marilyn, it just took me 10 years, I have to tell you jersey Kaczynski on the way out the door and that was 88, he killed himself 91 I think he walked out the door before he left

00:46:13.130 - 00:46:26.980

the doors of the jail. He turned around, he looked at me and he said Marilyn, you keep doing what you're doing because what you're doing is so important you know, and you just like one of those um as far as music, yeah, you know, I mean

00:46:26.980 - 00:46:46.100

music, I mean look, David broza, who's a friend, you know, brought, brought him five times, but then um Yemen blues and esta, you know, you know, Yemenite music, world, music, jazz, um new, nobody knew them. I I used to literally jump out of my car was

00:46:46.100 - 00:46:58.960

when a lot of Israelis were running the ice cream trucks and that they were at the galleria working the booze and I'd be running around and I hand them flyers about these programs and you know, how did you know I was in Israeli? Well, um so

00:46:58.970 - 00:47:19.810

Yemen Blues, Robbie colony and the cool thing about that, which is part of all this and is how programs are built is that in, in his group, there were other musicians who ultimately spun off and created their own groups. And so we had this one, you

00:47:19.810 - 00:47:35.880

know, let's say each of, you know, we have Omer avital and then Omer Avital had had our Nyberg and then uh darn Nyberg would come and she had led Gymboree and it would be one after the other after the other like that, the klezmatics, good friends,

00:47:35.890 - 00:48:01.020

adore them so many times. Doctor Professor pincus Pelley was the first Horovitz scholar in 1989. That was a program that jerry wishy and I with bunny, Horovitz started dr kelly came that january february and he was already dying of cancer. But his doctor in Israel said

00:48:01.020 - 00:48:17.460

it would be good for him. He ran an amazing program. I would watch him just lift himself up in front of the class. You would never know. It was a one month long program at that time. And when he returned to Israel, he died within I

00:48:17.460 - 00:48:38.150

think eight days of returning to Israel. It was 1989. Oh my God, there have been dance companies. I mean yeah, yeah. Dance companies, vertigo dance company. I'm in my office and I found this beat up folder, it was like the year 2000, I guess it was

00:48:38.150 - 00:48:48.290

something like that. It was from 1992. Of these two dancers that you know, just come out of the army and blah blah blah. And I'm like, oh my God, I wonder if I can find them. They look pretty awesome. There were there was not email, there

00:48:48.290 - 00:49:01.990

were there was no, you know, we were not doing um videos that we could see who these people are. You read a piece paper and maybe if you're lucky you got a cassette tape to listen to something or maybe I think a video to watch. I

00:49:01.990 - 00:49:20.910

track him down in Israel lo and behold by that point, they had created vertigo dance company. We were there, United States premiere, the consulate in new york didn't even know who they were. They helped us bring them here and they are now internationally world famous. Um

00:49:21.450 - 00:49:38.350

Another stand out, I have to tell you and I and I'm looking because I wrote down some and I know we can't go through all of them but so we did a lot of partnerships over the years. One of the things that I really felt was

00:49:38.350 - 00:49:54.620

important and many of my laypeople, they jumped on board as did the administration was you have to partner with society for poor performing arts in Houston Grand Opera. And I mean there were so many programs we did together with all these folks, Houston ballet. But we

00:49:54.620 - 00:50:12.120

also did a program with diverse works. And it was a Bhutto dance program. Bhutto is japanese dance of Darkness and it's usually based on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it's very dark and whatever. Well I didn't go opening night and when I talked to my guy who

00:50:12.120 - 00:50:32.820

was there as the technician, I said how'd it go? And he said, well they wore clothes in the rehearsal. I was like, oh my God, so apparently two of the dancers, I think two of the women dancers were slithering across the stage with these ankle bells

00:50:32.820 - 00:50:46.980

on their ankles. Now there was an Orthodox man and woman, she was chair of my art committee. They brought their 13 year old post bar mitzvah boy because they wanted to begin exposing him to dance and they knew that if Marilyn and MS Maxine, the dance

00:50:46.980 - 00:51:03.490

director was behind this. It would be kosher. Well fast forward. One of the dancers left the ring of the ankle, the ankle bells and we hung it back in the technicians office. And I always used to say if we needed to get the technician's attention, we

00:51:03.490 - 00:51:19.300

ring the bells. So you know, partnerships are great and then sometimes things happen that you don't count on saturday night. We made a little disclaimer at the beginning as we were checking people in with their tickets so they knew that there was nudity on stage. You

00:51:19.300 - 00:51:41.000

know, it's art, it's art talk a little bit Marilyn about some of the, I was gonna ask you to talk a little bit about some of the community volunteers and and lay people who helped you build arts and culture into what it's become very very important

00:51:41.010 - 00:52:00.570

And I have to say the the JCC Evelyn rubinstein, the J under jerry and continuing under Joel. There is a culture of staff lay partnerships. It is highly unusual. It's not always that way, definitely not in the arts world. You have a board but you don't

00:52:00.570 - 00:52:21.110

have lay people and staff people coming together in meetings and learning about the materials and seeing the, you know and and coming together to curate to basically co curate programs. I loved working with committees and like I say other J. C. C. S. Uh in synagogue

00:52:21.120 - 00:52:38.900

you just don't have that situation. So they were that was an important part of the culture And I had an incredible run with amazing lay people. Some of them had been my junior high school girlfriends uh and high school girlfriends but a lot more and I

00:52:38.900 - 00:52:58.000

always and they brought to the table hopes and wishes and dreams. And one of the late people said to me one time, you know, what's wonderful about working at the J is you can bring your dreams to the table and the J staff helped make it

00:52:58.000 - 00:53:23.510

happen. And so that's what we did. And it wasn't that they dictated and it wasn't that staff dictated. We I was able and it permeates the J to have this respectful partnership in co curating in coming together on a final decision, whatever that decision is. Um

00:53:23.520 - 00:53:42.360

I had the pleasure of working on I think for MacCAbi Games when we hosted the national, the north american Maccabi Games. And with my partner Mark Gessler, we produced opening ceremonies. But and that was also a whole another group of volunteers and community people. Not necessarily

00:53:42.360 - 00:53:53.640

J people some. Yes, but that was a whole nother group, some of my former students, you know, we're sitting around the table one night there were 25 out of 40 of them. They have taught all 25 of them and now they had kids that were 12

00:53:53.640 - 00:54:13.330

and 13 and 14, 15 years old. But that was the jays culture and it really is unique. And I have to say that making a lay person's dreams happen, whether that's this one author they have to have or this one music group, they want to make

00:54:13.330 - 00:54:32.880

sure or just working with the committee to curate the music season. It's so incredibly satisfying and vice versa. They understand when I have something like Rabbi Lord sacks or Jersey Kosinski or I'm telling you, koresh dance, take a chance. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm

00:54:32.880 - 00:54:52.210

telling you, we gotta take a chance of course that we've been here three times. It's the most amazing way to function and work. And I personally don't understand why organizations really, I'm not criticizing, but it's interesting. I think there's an energy, let me put it. Think

00:54:52.210 - 00:55:10.180

there's an energy when you're sitting around the table with 5, 10, 15. Our Book festival committee used to be 50 people. There's an energy there and they beget other people, they bring their friends because they're involved, they get donors, they donate themselves. I mean, the the

00:55:10.190 - 00:55:27.020

arts, the patron campaign, which started in 1973 with the first book festival, I mean grew exponentially because people were engaged and involved. And the other thing we were able to do and I can conclude this piece and I hope I answered your question if I didn't

00:55:27.020 - 00:55:45.580

ask me another question is that we were very cognizant of succession. And one of the things I worked hard on was making sure that after a few years of leadership, like nobody was on for more than like a couple of years and they would bring someone

00:55:45.580 - 00:56:03.720

else on to kind of be in training and then they would bring new committee people. And so there was this rolling evolution of new faces, fresh faces. Um, sometimes we had to roll people off that had been around 20 years to make way for fresh faces,

00:56:03.720 - 00:56:22.380

not necessarily young, but fresh, different, different ways of thinking. And so we were very committed in arts and culture to to bring on new people, new leadership who would learn at the heels of the person with whom they were working as the chair and then they

00:56:22.380 - 00:56:50.300

stepped into chairmanship, brought someone new in. And and that way also, um, we were able to um jump decades meaning a 65 year old book festival chair or art chair might bring visual arts chair or film festival chair might bring on a 50 year old or

00:56:50.300 - 00:57:06.440

maybe even a 45 year old. And then that person was there brought in her friends or his friends. And and it just kept rolling along. And then there was a time when you step back and you bring the younger generation, you get my it's a very

00:57:06.440 - 00:57:27.650

dynamic, exciting way to run a program, I have to say. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like a really a really strong model for um, building a great program is having, you know, great volunteers and and having, as you said, this, this, um, ability to train the

00:57:27.650 - 00:58:01.610

next generation while while the current generation is still still active and involved. Um, so part and part of that, sorry, no, no, go ahead. Part of that is also helping the seasoned volunteers understand that some of these new voices are going to think differently and we

00:58:01.610 - 00:58:17.720

have to be open to those new voices if we're going to continue to evolve leadership to assure the future to build audiences of new people. Um, they've done some wonderful things in the last few years since I've been gone the last two years to kind of

00:58:17.720 - 00:58:32.250

change committee working models and all, which is great. That's what it's supposed to be. The other thing that I had to that I worked with my committees to understand is, if you know, the big thing of however many, 15 years ago, how are we going to

00:58:32.250 - 00:58:47.600

get the twenties and thirties? You know, it's not a singles program where they're meeting to date, but we want to introduce in the arts and culture. Well realize that They couldn't sit down at the same table with everybody else because where this person is and the

00:58:47.600 - 00:59:05.590

25 year old is is totally different. So as long as so we would separate them out and we did create a separate committee of the 20s and 30 so that they could curate their own programs, but with a clear understanding of the mission, whether it's the

00:59:05.590 - 00:59:20.470

Book Festival or the Film Festival, but you know, a 60 or 70 year old or even a 50 year old should not be saying, I think the 20 year olds are gonna love this film, You know? So so we made those kinds of changes to by

00:59:20.470 - 00:59:38.740

spinning off some very specific groups, parents 40 and 50, the parents created groups where they curated the programs they wanted rather than grandma saying, I mean I'm a grandma, I can say that saying, Oh we think you will like this. So that's part of that Les

00:59:38.740 - 01:00:05.910

partner Les staff partner relationship as well. Sure makes sense. You have the luxury of hired now. Um and so this is not your problem directly, but you know, so much of of your of your work is about creating these live performances, right, concerts and book fair

01:00:05.910 - 01:00:27.460

lectures and in the middle of this ongoing pandemic, all of that is different. So I'm interested in hearing your reflections on, even though you're not the person in charge anymore. Right. What what challenges does somebody does somebody in your role have trying to, you know, create

01:00:27.470 - 01:00:48.430

arts and culture programing right now. And is there any kind of silver lining or opportunity as so many of these events have had to all move on to, you know zoom and other platforms. How do you do it? Yeah. Okay. So um, interesting enough, I are

01:00:48.440 - 01:01:05.620

doing some consulting work for national Organization, um, the jewish Book Council that deals with all the authors. And so we spent a lot of time, you know, talking about this. Okay, so you're right. Arts and culture is all about sitting in a theater with a stranger

01:01:05.630 - 01:01:21.180

or with a friend, right. Someone once said, where, but in the theater, can you have a transformational experience with a stranger? And I've never forgotten that. And it's true. So I will tell you that when all this happened, there was a sigh of relief of thank

01:01:21.180 - 01:01:49.260

God I'm retired. And then there was an absolute sadness for the additional pressures on all the program. People whether they're in Houston, the rabbis, the JCC is the schools and all. And I said, oh my God, what they are having to deal with. They're amazing. They're

01:01:49.260 - 01:02:12.960

amazing. The arts and culture world, which is, you know, my world. Um they have done an incredible job of harnessing the creative energy of those who are artistic directors basically for those who are artists and have created probably even more more than any of us can

01:02:12.970 - 01:02:29.570

can absorb an incredible art, arts and culture. Virtual world. There's so much content in out there, which is great. You can pick and choose. I don't think people are getting tired. I think they may slow down and they may pick and choose a little more. I

01:02:29.570 - 01:02:40.260

mean I know I did three months for three months. I was like nonstop you know and I was like whoa wait a minute. You know after the great jewish food festival, 12 programs and you know five days or whatever I did. You know, I was like

01:02:40.270 - 01:03:00.120

okay time out but they have harnessed all this creativity and figured out how to do it virtually on top of which it has expanded the ability to program because if an author is in the U. K. Or in Israel you would have to fly them in,

01:03:00.120 - 01:03:20.930

put them up for hotel, do all these things let alone those that are stateside. But you've got music groups and artists and and feel I mean everything that you can access now virtually as long as the technology is working which is the big thing, you can

01:03:20.930 - 01:03:39.320

put it out there technologically and it can be wonderful now. It's not the same as sitting in a theater, it's not the same as being able to go up to the author and take that picture with him or her or getting into a post Horvitz scholar

01:03:39.330 - 01:04:04.340

lecture one on one disagreement right? All of those sorts of things are out the door, they're doing something but that's out the door and that's why looking at my crystal ball, I think that the virtual world will not supplant Live theater, live everything I'll say live

01:04:04.340 - 01:04:21.330

theater meaning all kinds of arts and culture because people crave to be together, whether it's in the fitness center, okay. Or whether it's in the theater. And so I think the virtual world will continue to open up possibilities that we might not otherwise have been able

01:04:22.400 - 01:04:40.150

to present, but it's not gonna take over. I think as soon as people can listen, I I subscribe to Houston Grand Opera in Houston ballet and I'm like dying here, right? But I also know I'm very blessed and very lucky to have the life I have

01:04:40.160 - 01:04:55.380

because not everybody in this madness has that and I need to put that out there. But as soon as we can start getting back into those theaters and get live human beings up there that we can interact with, that we can talk to our friend with

01:04:55.380 - 01:05:09.620

or nudge are person sitting next to us that we don't even know, it's like, you know, could you move your foot, you know, you're cramping my space as soon as we can do that, we're gonna do it. I know that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I know

01:05:09.620 - 01:05:26.850

for me, you know, things that we used to all take for granted, right? Just being able to go to a concert or a movie or a ballgame and just like you said, we all, we all crave that that human connection and the arts is just so

01:05:26.850 - 01:05:51.580

vital to our, to our sense of, of leading a rich and meaningful life. Yeah, but we're also resilient and we're adaptable and I think you're right. I'm also really inspired by how um everybody in our community from, you know, the rabbis to other communal professionals have,

01:05:51.590 - 01:06:09.670

have adapted and improvised on the fly to, to to keep things going. I want to ask you just as kind of a final question as we, as we wrap up here, what what do you think makes this community special? Um, you know, you came here Um

01:06:09.670 - 01:06:24.810

almost 60 years ago, you spent the vast majority of your life here. You built your, you know, your career here. What you know, when you, when you travel or you talk to other people about the Houston Jewish community. What what in your mind makes this place,

01:06:24.810 - 01:06:48.970

this community stand out. That is the month. That is such an important question. And the answer is so easy. We get along. It is a community that works together that respects each other. Um, there are a few outliers here and there, but the bulk of the

01:06:48.970 - 01:07:07.990

community, we respect the community calendar. We partner, we feel comfortable jumping from Beth Israel cause I want to go hear the Cantor there to Beth Fischer and JB Greenfield Chapel and oh, I really want to go here the new Canada and um, I mean We do

01:07:07.990 - 01:07:26.960

that with ease and were welcomed when we walk in the door. Our community is unique and I say that because during my 35 years in arts and culture, I also have the opportunity to work commiserated work, talk to colleagues from across the United States. It is

01:07:26.960 - 01:07:49.950

not that way there are competing book fairs, there are community calendars that people don't don't respect will program purposely against each other and they could be down the street Houston and I credit Rabbi Radinsky for creating this and everybody will tell you that it was Rabbi

01:07:49.950 - 01:08:13.320

Radinsky who helped this community come together as a community, respect each other, work with each other. It's unique. It is unique and that's what makes Houston so special. This Houston jewish community so special! Thank you so much Marilyn. It's been a pleasure to talk to you

01:08:13.320 - 01:08:31.830

today and to look back and reflect and I wanna thank you for your time and and wish you well. Thank you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. And when I sat down and started writing notes, I have to tell you that I know that anyone

01:08:31.830 - 01:08:45.070

will ever want to read it. But I do think I have a book here and I think it was Melissa Winegar who said if you ever write a book title it, I played frisbee with Rabbi Kahane. So thank you very much. This was a dream. That's

01:08:45.070 - 01:08:46.880

great! Thank you so much Marilyn