Leslie Starobin’s montage, “The Sketchbook of MZ,” captures the story of a family torn apart by war.

The charcoal drawing is of the same woman who is in the photo of the mother and son wearing skis.

By Cara HoganAdvocate Staff

Local leaders from the Armen-ian and Jewish communities havelaunched a nationwide petitiondrive to press Congress to passlegislation recognizing the Armen-ian Genocide.

The petition reads, “As a presi-dential candidate, Barack Obamaproclaimed ‘a principled commit-ment to commemorating and end-ing genocide.’ He then explicitlypledged, ‘As President I will recog-nize the Armenian Genocide.’”

The petition calls for the UnitedStates to recognize the genocideon its 95th anniversary this April.Organizers say they have collected3,400 signatures from peopleacross the country since the drivewas launched Feb. 2.

The petition (posted atwww.change.org) was drawn upby the Coalition to Recognize theArmenian Genocide, which wasco-founded by Rabbi Howard Jaffeof Temple Isaiah in Lexington.

The coalition was formed twoyears ago by more than 20 local Ar-menians and Jews, includingRabbi Ronne Friedman and RabbiElaine Zecher of Temple Israel inBoston.

Jaffe said he was galvanized bythe controversy triggered whenthe director of the New Englandchapter of the Anti-DefamationLeague broke with the national or-ganization by saying it should rec-ognize the Armenian genocide.The director, Andrew Tarsy, subse-quently resigned.

“I thought the ADL did goodwork, but I learned more, and myeyes were opened to how so manyof our national Jewish organiza-tions weren’t just silent on the Ar-menian genocide, but working tooppose recognition,” Jaffe said. “Iwas horrified.”

An estimated 1.5 million Arme-nians were massacred in the Ot-toman Empire in the periodaround World War I. The Turkishgovernment has rejected the label“genocide” for the killings. The

Local grouplaunches nationalcampaign

Continued on Page 2

Armenians,Jews pushgenocidelegislation

By Dawn SwannSpecial to the Advocate

The funny thing about treasures: They’re often hid-ing in plain sight. At least that’s what the JewishWomen’s Archive hopes.

The JWA’s mission is to uncover, chronicle and pub-licize the rich history of Jewish women in North Amer-ica. It is always on the lookout for lost pieces of histo-

ry in attic boxes and family albums or on the walls ofhomes.

Two JWA representatives, Emily Scheinberg and Ju-dith Rosenbaum, brought their mission to MayyimHayyim, the mikvah and education center in Newton,in the format of a workshop called “The Album asArchive: the Photograph as Story.”

A dozen women gathered around a table, sippingsteaming mugs of tea and peering at photos they hadbrought from home. The goal was to ferret out the sto-ries behind the photos, by examining the expressionsof their subjects, their clothing and other telling de-tails. It was also to prod the memories of the keepersof the photos.

For inspiration, the women looked at the montageson the wall by Leslie Starobin, a professor of Commu-nication Arts at Framingham State College. Eachmixed-media work was based around a single, myste-rious image.

One montage in particular, “The Sketchbook ofMZ,” captivated the group’s imagination. A hauntingcharcoal image of a woman’s face takes up most of thecanvas. She appears to be staring into the distance, as iflonging for something lost. Elsewhere on the canvas area young man’s passport and a photograph with acracked seam splitting the image of a mother and son.The mother is a smiling version of the woman in char-

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Campers send out SOSThe international alumni ofCamp Szarvas in Hungary arewaging a Web campaign toraise money as the economiccrisis has slashed in half thissummer’s sessions.

See Page 24

Facing downShoah denialIn her Our Turn column, thegranddaughter of a Holocaustsurvivor describes her en-counter with Arabs who hadbeen taught the death campswere fiction.

See Page 7

Is that coatkosher?Out of a lab in his Brightonhouse, a rabbi tests clothes tomake sure they don’t violatethe commandment of mixinglinen and wool.

See Page 3

Celebrating adance greatBoston Conservatory hosts acentenary tribute to AnnaSokolow, a pioneering Jewishchoreographer and moderndancer.

See Page 16

The greatcholent cook-offThe Kosher Food Lover ven-tures into the kitchen at YoungIsrael of Brookline for a be-hind-the-scenes look at theshul’s annual culinary contest.

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Photographic memories

Continued on Page 2

Participants in the Jewish Women’s Archive

workshop scrutinize family photos for clues to

the past.

Teaching how to detect stories in family pictures

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Two Costa Rican firsts: one forwomen, one for Jews.

The Central American nationelected its first female presidentand first Jewish vice president inelections last week.

Luis Lieberman (above), a for-mer banker and financier, ranwith Laura Chinchilla, a socialconservative, who won the presi-dency by a large margin.

Lieberman is the son of Polishimmigrants and the grandson ofCosta Rica’s first mohel.

The newly elected Jewish vicepresident said that Jews haveserved in prior Costa Rican gov-ernments, and his religion wasnot a factor in his candidacy.Some 3,000 Jews live in CostaRica out of a total population of4.2 million.

JanuaryPoll Results

Costa Rica electsits first Jewish VP

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coal, and her arm is wrappedaround a younger version of theman in the passport. The captionin an accompanying book reads:“My father carried a family snap-shot with him through the war,throughout the camp, through-out the Gulag. It’s a picture of mymother and myself, before thewar broke out. We are on skis. It’stissue paper thin from years ofbeing wound up in a tutga, aRussian cigarette holder.”

The mother didn’t survive thewar.

Had the son not shared thephotographs and his memorieswith Starobin, this slice of his-tory could have been lost.

“The truth is rooted in thestory, but we don’t always

know it,” Scheinberg told theworkshop, referring to the histo-ry waiting to be discovered in oldphotos. “It’s the instinct of theviewer to want to piece the storytogether.”

With the mystery of history inmind, the group partnered offand set to sleuthing. The JWA rec-ommends having a fresh pair ofeyes check out your old photo-graph. Your friend probablywon’t be able to unlock the se-crets that your great, great grand-mother took to the grave, but hereyes might notice details ren-dered invisible by familiarity. Forexample, a close look at thephoto of one woman’s greatgrandfather from Krakow re-vealed that he wore side curls

and carried his keys ona long cane. In addi-tion, a partner canprod you with ques-tions about the photo,perhaps triggeringmemories of familystories.

The pictures them-selves offer plenty ofclues as well. In theearly days of photog-raphy, sitting for aportrait was an event.People wore theirbest clothes andbackgrounds werearranged to appearas plush as possible.People rarelysmiled, but affectedpostures of serious-ness (in part thiswas due to long ex-posure times). Can-did shots becamemore common asphotography be-came moreportable and af-fordable.

The JWA recom-

mends that history sleuths keeptrack of all the stories picturestrigger, no matter how insignifi-cant they may seem. RebeccaSher brought a picture of hergrandmother as a serious-lookingschoolgirl with a big bow in herhair, a frilly white dress and abook in her lap. She sat on a one-armed posing chair, crossing herlegs at her ankle boots. Her feetdidn’t reach the floor. The grand-daughter recalled hearing storiesof how those boots had to bepulled on with hooks. As a childshe would look at the boots inthe picture and wonder how dif-ferent it was for kids in her grand-mother’s day.

Where and how the pictureshad been kept might be signifi-cant as well.

“I remember my father sayingnot to mix the photos, as if theywouldn’t even get along in a Zi-ploc bag,” said participant LaurenTeller.

The fact that someone kept allhis pictures crammed together ina cardboard briefcase would re-veal something of his personalityto future generations.

Anyone can access the JWA’sWeb-based collection, which in-cludes thousands of images andpapers. You’ll find prominentpeople like Estelle Getty of TV’s“Golden Girls” and Judith Resnik,the second woman in space, aswell as myriad other womenwhose stories are threads of Jew-ish history. “We need people tofind those stories and tell them.”Rosenbaum said.

For more information aboutJWA, including a documentaryand lesson plans for educators,visit jwa.org. For more on Mayy-im Hayyim, visit mayyimhayy-im.org. To see more of LeslieStarobin’s artwork, visit starobinartworks.com.

Rebecca Sher said she was particularly

struck by the shoes in this circa 1918

photo of her grandmother, Rachel

(Rae) Baskin Green. “My grandmoth-

er showed it to me when I was

around the same age,” Sher said.

Keeping photos picture perfect

Judith Rosenbaum of the JewishWomen’s Archive offers these tipsfor preserving family photographs: • First, digitize all your old pictures.Scan them into the computer at ahigh resolution and save them asdigital images. • Scan in the back of the photo,too, if it contains a note or a pho-tographer’s seal. • Upload images to an Internet sitesuch as Flickr. Besides providingbackup storage, the site will helpyou categorize photos and addtaglines like names, dates, placesand short descriptions. For example:New York, bow, book, student,birthday. • Tagging photos with proper nounsis a way for long-lost relatives tocontact each other. Don’t forget toinclude details like the name of theship that transported your great-grandmother to America.• Instead of displaying a familyheirloom on the wall where it canfade or break, scan it into the com-puter and make a high-quality printto hang instead. Original photosshould be carefully stored on acid-free plastic sheets. • Back everything up. CDs are oneway, but they degrade quickly andare breakable. Other options in-clude an external hard drive or athumb drive. • The number one tip JWA has tooffer is to get all your stories fromrelatives or memory, and write themall down.• A novel way to archive photos isto have them turned into a work ofart by an artist like Starobin or tohave them fashioned into a hand-bag by craftswoman Lauren Tellerwho uses pictures, trinkets andpoems to tell stories with photo-graphs.

Continued from Page 1

How to sleuth through the family album

United States and Israel have beenreluctant to officially use the termout of concern for their relationswith Turkey.

Jaffe said the Jewish and Ar-menian communities in Lexingtondecided to create a grassroots or-ganization to discuss the issue andresolve lingering ill will.

“It quickly moved from dia-logue to a group interested indoing something,” he said. “Even-tually, after a number of meetingsand conversations, we agreed thatcirculating a petition would be apositive step.”

He said the group took two

years to come out with a final peti-tion because of scheduling issues,rather than conflicts over the con-tent.

Abraham Foxman, the nationaldirector of ADL, last commentedon the issue in 2007, saying the ac-tions of the Ottoman Empireagainst the Armenians during theperiod of 1915 to 1918 were “tan-tamount to genocide.” As of presstime, representatives from thelocal and national ADL did not re-spond to requests for comment.

Laura Boghosian, an Armeniancommunity leader who co-found-ed the Coalition with Rabbi Jaffe,said today’s diplomatic concerns

should not trump history.“If you start denying the Armen-

ian genocide, very soon peoplewill deny the Holocaust for politi-cal expediency,” said Boghosian.“We have a double standard asAmericans. Our government doesnot officially acknowledge thegenocide and neither does Israel.”

Jaffe agreed. “If there were anygroup out there saying we’re notgoing to recognize the Holocaustbecause it would affect diplomaticrelations, we would be up in armsscreaming.”

Boghosian said that while theADL controversy brought thegroup together, it does not define

them. “Genocide scholars tell usthat denial of any genocide fuelscurrent atrocities and emboldensthose who would commit futurecrimes against humanity. Acknowl-edgment of the Armenian Geno-cide is, therefore, a human rightsissue for all,” she said.

Continued from Page 1

Local Armenians, Jews push for genocide bill

CorrectionA Jan. 29 story on J Street

Boston incorrectly stated thatJStreetPAC has a minimumdonation. Donors to JStreet-PAC give on average less than$75.