R.I. Jewish Historical Association’s annual meeting highlights the early East Side

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Rachael Rosner, of Boston, will be the guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, on Sunday, April 17, at 2 p.m. at Temple Beth-El, in Providence. The meeting is free, and all are welcome.   

Rosner will discuss the founding of Temple Emanu-El and the early Jewish community on the East Side through the stories of the Beck and Temkin families. Her talk is titled, “Illuminating the ‘Golden Ghetto’: The Beck and Temkin Families and the Early History of the Jewish East Side of Providence.” 

The “Golden Ghetto” is a phrase from a sermon that Rabbi Eli Bohnen, of Temple Emanu-El, gave in the early 1970s about Providence’s East Side.

The talk will be based on Rosner’s forthcoming biography of Dr. Aaron Beck, the creator of cognitive psychology, titled “Beck’s asement.” osner states that she has two purposes in her talk: first, to share information she has found about the early history of Providence’s Jewish community, and to “offer an opportunity for people to contribute their memories, reflections and corrections.” This is the second of two talks that Rosner will present about Beck; she is scheduled to speak April 1 at the Providence Athenaeum. 

The 2016-2017 Board of Directors will be voted on during the meeting. Harold Foster will be the new second vice president. 

The sixty-second Annual Meeting is sponsored by the Arline Ruth Weinberg Memorial Fund. 

For more information about the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association and its annual meeting, contact Joshua Jasper at 401-331-1360. The office and library, with its extensive archival collections, is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

JOSHUA JASPER is the new librarian/archivist of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. He has a master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons College, in Boston.

Jewish history, Rachael Rosner