Controversy over Jewish "Junior League" /
Praise for Jewish "Junior League" / Lone Stars of David /
Jewish Stars in Texas / Beth-El Congregation

Controversy over Jewish "Junior League"

Praise for Jewish "Junior League"

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Oct 2009

“As an organizational history, Weiner’s account would deservedly belong in the growing catalogue of work treating female associational life in Texas. The author, however, hunts larger game here. She infuses the narrative with ambitious subtexts illuminating the skill and savvy with which Council women carved cultural space amid extremes that constantly tasked their identifies. . . Weiner provides useful insights into Jewish women’s associational life in the state, and sheds needed light on the intrepid tactics through which Texas women blazed new paths to public visibility, influence and equality.”

-- Kevin C. Motl, Ouachita Baptist University.

Journal of Southern History, Vol. 75, No. 4, Nov. 2009

 “Weiner has thoughtfully expanded a small topic with deep archival research and a solid grounding in the literature of women’s history.”  Weiner  fills a lacuna in the literature on Texas women’s voluntary associations. . . .
-- Judith N. McArthur, University of Houston/Victoria

“…an important contribution to the field of women’s and southwestern studies . . . could do a great deal to help us understand change within a specific population, one that has worked both to retain a unique identity while integrating with, and contributing generously to, the larger community.” 
-- Elizabeth York Enstam, author of Women and the Creation of Urban Life: Dallas Texas, 1843-1920

“…well written, well documented, and a contribution to the field of Texas women’s social history.” 
-- Nancy Baker Jones co-author Capitol Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999

"Hollace Weiner's beautifully crafted exploration of Fort Worth's National Council of Jewish Women is an important contribution to Tarrant County history and an inspiring testimony to the power of one group of visionary women volunteers to enhance community life for almost a century. It is also an engaging story."
-- Karen Perkins, founding director, Tarrant County Women's Center
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Lone Stars of David-The Jews of Texas

American Jewish History,  Vol 94, No.3, Sept. 2008

“Hollace Ava Weiner, co-editor and driving force behind Lone Stars of David.... writes with the ear of a journalist and the eye of a painter..... The richness and readability of the volume is a credit to the talents of its editors.”  
-- Dr. Dale Rosengarten, College of Charleston

Journal of American Ethnic History

Vol 27, Issue 4 

Weiner and Roseman have produced a work of popular history that …raises fascinating questions for scholars. The book’s 21 essays suggest that cultural isolation forced Texas’s pioneer Jews, often the only members of their faith in their frontier communities, to pursue “blending in without becoming absorbed.”…Much of the last half of the volume centers on colorful, compelling biographical sketches of prominent Jewish entrepreneurs and politicians.
--  Dr. Michael Phillips, Collin Community College

Atlanta Jewish Times

Oct 1, 2007

I wish Brandeis University Press, which published this book, would do one on every state. It reads like a novel, but better, because it’s all true. . .  Each chapter is lavishly illustrated with vintage photos. There’s even a photo of Lyndon Johnson at the dedication of Agudas Achim’s refurbished sanctuary in Austin in 1963. He had arranged for 42 Jews to emigrate from Poland to the U.S. in 1938. This is a book well worth   possessing for anyone interested in the Jewish-American experience.
--Suzi Brozman, staff writer 

National Jewish Post and Opinion

Sept 12, 2007

 “This oversized, well-illustrated volume . . . . is based on extensive research an succeeds in illuminating the lives of Texas Jews and their pioneering spirit.
-- Morton I. Teicher

Multicultural Review

Fall 2007

This terrific book, with many photographs does an excellent job of describing Jews in Texas and showing how people from one culture adapt to another culture. . . .  Chapter 8, “West Texas  Wildcatters: From Immigrant to Patron Saint Rita,” by Barry Shlachter, . . . [demonstrates  how] Jewish leadership in discovering oil in the Permian Basin section of Texas led to much money for the University of Texas and helped transform it into an elite university. . . . Chapter 17, “Minority Report: Dr. Ray K. Daily Battles the Houston School Board,” by Lynwood Abram, shows how Daily . . . helped establish rights for women and aided the development of two universities: Texas Southern University, a historically black school, and the University of Houston.
-- Russell Eisenman, University of Texas/Pan American

“You can have a good time just leafing through these pages, but sooner or later you'll want to read every word, because this is a book with a serious pedigree."
—Harriet Gross, Texas Jewish Post

This book fills in a lot of blanks regarding the role of Jews in Texas history, especially in the areas of education, petroleum, merchandising and philanthropy. It's about time some of this was documented. It's a fascinating scholarly work written by some talented storytellers."
 --Tumbleweed Smith, newspaper columnist and radio personality

“I’m enjoying your book. Some of the people in it I know – but I’m learning more about them. Of course, like everybody else, I absolutely love Bob Strauss. There is nobody I’d rather listen to . . . I will tell him how much I enjoyed his foreword. The Dell chapter was particularly interesting to me.”
--Warren E. Buffett, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

"Here is a moving history of contributions made by the Jewish people and the pathos of their immigration, settling, and integration into the Texas landscape. . . . The quality of Texas life has been enriched beyond words by their presence."
—Dan Jenkins, sportswriter,  novelist, author of Semi-Tough and Bubba Talks.

A wonderful collection, richly illustrated, these 21 chapters by three dozen knowledgeable authors are charmingly readable."
--Will’s Texana

“ . . . an insightful tabletop anthology.”
–Glen Dromgoole, Fort Worth Magazine

“From discussing women’s clubs to early Zionism to the generosity of El Paso’s residents to Holocaust Survivors, Lone Stars of David does an admirable job . . . captur[ing] the diversity of Texas’s Jews while demonstrating their role in shaping the history   of the state.”
--Forward

“Among the recurring themes in this book: how to balance and blend your identity as a Jew and as a Texan. . . . For the most part, Texas Jews didn’t face anti-Semitism . . . In part that was because they were white, in part because of the deep respect in the Bible Belt for Judaism. And of course Jewish numbers in the state have always been small."
– Fritz Lanham, Houston Chronicle

"The history of Jews in Texas does not parallel the history of Jews in America . . . . Jews flocked to Northeastern . . . cities in large numbers fleeing poverty and pogroms in Eastern Europe; Jews trickled into Texas, usually from other parts of the U.S., seeking adventure and opportunity. . . . The Jewish immigrants to Texas tended to mix with their gentile neighbors and were more likely to be treated with curiosity than animosity.”
--Cathy Frisinger, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Jewish Stars in Texas

"Hollace Weiner's talents as a writer and reporter shine through in these profiles of unforgettable Texans. Too bad most of these rabbis lived in an era before prime time. The Beaumont rabbi who answered an ad for a "mixer" would make a fine documentary. The Dallas rabbi with the stirring radio voice could have been a Nightline authority airing his views on race relations and the Religious Right. The lay-rabbi who blessed the shrimp fleet would win the hearts of any audience."
-Connie Chung, former network TV anchor

" For New Yorkers who assume Texas has no Jews, Hollace Ava Weiner's book is the equivalent of a pastrami on rye with a jalapeño on the side. Those nonconformist rabbis who rode West into the sunset left kosher cuisine behind, but they kept their prophetic sense of social justice. . . . My new heroes are little Rabbi Henry Cohen and his compadre Father Kirwin who thwarted the Galveston KKK; Rabbi Maurice Faber, from genteel Tyler, who told Governor Pa Ferguson where to go; and Ephraim Frisch who was driven out of San Antonio for his strident liberalism. Mixers and mavericks, these rabbis were mensches whose life stories give a rich new perspective to Texas lore and Jewish geography. Yankees take note. "
-Molly Ivins, Texas commentator & syndicated columnist

"Melding her dual career skills, Hollace Weiner casts a historian's truths into the lively prose of a journalist. The reader fairly flies from 1873 when Heinrich Schwarz settled north of Houston as Texas' first ordained rabbi, to 1984 and the death of Dallas' much-admired Rabbi Levi Olan. From the century-plus between those two rabbis, Weiner chooses nine others in as many Texas towns . . . . Despite the relatively small size of their congregations -- or perhaps because of it -- these men had remarkable influence on Texas art, culture and politics as well as religion"
-Harriet Gross, Dallas Morning News, January 8, 2000

"Former Star-Telegram reporter Hollace Weiner has cranked out a wonderful little tome that aficionados of Texas history will want to own. . . . The rabbi on the book jacket is Heinrich Schwarz, a Prussian scholar who reluctantly immigrated to Hempstead in 1873 at the urging of relatives who operated Hempstead's largest store, called The Big Store -- what else? He was the first rabbi, but others were to follow. . . . .Schwarz and his family were welcomed to Hempstead as if they were celebrities."
-Mary Rogers, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

". . . the men who led Texas' Jews prior to WWII were an unusual bunch. Individualists and mavericks, their style and spirit blended well with the frontier feel of Texas culture. . . . In towns where religion normally meant being saved or being a sinner, rabbis became peacemakers and bridge builders. . . . Weiner's thoroughly researched and documented book is organized into engaging portraits of rabbis in a state where Jews have never comprised more than 0.6 percent of the population."
-Cecile Holmes, Religion Editor Houston Chronicle, Nov. 27, 1999

"I never fully understood, or appreciated, my heritage or my Texas roots until I read Hollace Weiner's marvelous book. It's terrific, and, as I learned from Weiner, so were most of my ancestors!"
-Bob Strauss, former Chairman Texas Democratic Party, former Ambassador to Russia, and great-grandson of Texas' first ordained rabbi

"With talented pen strokes Hollace Weiner sketches Rabbi Henry Cohen's personality so vividly that he emerges as an acquaintance who won't be forgotten."
-Kent Biffle, Dallas Morning News, January 9, 2000

"The Bible Belt is usually associated with Christian faith, but Fort Worth writer Hollace Ava Weiner wants to adjust that image. Her new book . . . profiles rabbis who rose to prominence in the Lone Star State. ...`The book is for readers of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. It shows examples of interfaith harmony and how Jewish alliances with other clergy helped produce social change.'"
-Dallas Morning News, Religion Page, December 11, 1999

"These are fascinating biographical essays-filled with information about Texas and American Jewish history, humor, warmth, the life of a rabbi, and especially, human strengths (mostly) and weaknesses (occasionally). Prodigious research, in archives and via interviews, combines with a graceful style to produce chapter after chapter of rare fascination and significance, and proves once again that the history of the Jews in America is nothing more than good local history writ large."
-Marc Lee Raphael, editor American Jewish History, Professor Judaic Studies & Religion, College of William & Mary

"The book is beautifully written. Ms. Weiner's elegant and engaging writing style has enabled her to bring the men and women she studied to life. . . She possesses a strong grasp of the narrative and major themes in American Jewish history and has added immeasurably to our knowledge of rabbinical leadership in Texas. . . Her careful attention to primary sources and her outstanding storytelling will add to our knowledge and enjoyment of these subjects."
-Dr. Mark Greenberg, historian, Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience

" Hollace Weiner is a careful detective, marvelous writer, and even better story teller. . . . Her vivid character portraits, well seated in cogent analysis, jump out of the pages. Her rabbis battle the Klan, fight for academic freedom against recalcitrant governors, patronize the arts, and serve as community spokespersons. They befriend the downtrodden and weld ties with other groups. From rabbinic godfather Henry Cohen to department store owner/lay-rabbi Sam Perl, these spiritual leaders served as joiners, mixers, community and civic builders, mediators, union supporters, social workers, cultural raconteurs, symbols of Judaism, maintainers of the faith, and always role models. As Weiner illustrates, they were also individuals who might not have fit in or succeeded elsewhere but, deep in the heart of Texas, as the "representative" Jews, they assumed leadership positions and soared into prominence. Theirs is a story of adjustment and the maintenance of a changing identity as big as Texas itself. Often isolated by distance and few in number, they created survival mechanisms to nurture Judaism and themselves.

Beth-El Congregation

Centennials in General
By Hollace Weiner

Reprinted from The Rambler, newsletter of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, Winter, 2003 

“The Synagogue is the most enduring, most persistent, most resilient, most participatory and least studied Jewish institution. . . . Its history is left to amateurs.” —Jack Wertheimer, The American Synagogue, A Sanctuary Transformed

When I began to write my congregation’s centennial history in June of 2002, few people understood why I was postponing out-of-town trips and spending my summer completing a 12-chapter, 120-page, footnoted, illustrated coffee-table book celebrating my temple’s past.

Why knock yourself out to produce something as narrow and parochial as a synagogue history, a commemorative book that most people would skim for the pictures, not the text? Everyone knows that working on long-term synagogue projects leads to tsuris.  And what about the pay? All I would receive was a key to the synagogue so that I could burn the midnight oil while combing the temple archives.

The determination to write a comprehensive centennial history of my home congregation, Beth-El in Fort Worth, stemmed partly from the paradoxical quote that introduces this column. Jack Wertheimer, former archives director at the Jewish Theological Seminary, writes about the importance of synagogues in the American Jewish landscape. He implores historians to pay more attention to this commonplace institution. “The synagogue’s continuity is unmatched by other Jewish institutions,” he observes. “Yet . . . . typically a synagogue’s centennial history is slapped together in a yearbook filled with flattering articles, mug photographs of past presidents, lists of congegrants who served in the military, and ads to cover the expense.” 

How right he was. I have read synagogue histories galore that were “slapped” together. Yet, no matter how “amateur” or “flattering” they were, each synagogue history aided my research with dates, names, illustrations, and connections to larger events. The most disappointing centennial histories were those that regurgitated what had been previously written for the 50^th anniversary. The best narratives examined the breadth of a century, complete with controversies and perspective.

That was what I sought to do.

At my Texas congregation, there was plenty of material to pique interest in the past. Take the rabbis: our first representative of the faith was a “meddlesome” rev who lasted three months. Our second rabbi performed laudably in Fort Worth, but later in his career got hauled before the Reform movement’s ethics committee for secretly taking a bride and denying that fact to his congregation.  Our fourth rabbi rounded up Jewish prostitutes and gave them a morals lecture – in Yiddish – at the city jail.  A Prohibition-era rabbi imbibed sacramental wine. The rabbi who made the most courageous stand for civil rights was also the most reluctant to lift gender barriers.  

Women continually took one step forward and two steps back. They made gains, then lost them. In 1923, women were guaranteed up to three seats on the temple board. Nonetheless, the board gradually returned to being an all-male domain. In 1949 and again in the 1960s and 1970s, motions passed placing women on the board. Each time, the move was hailed as an innovation, rather than a puzzling example of institutional forgetfulness.

The lessons of a century show that Beth-El’s women were not persistent enough to maintain their gains. A look back also shows that our rabbis were not necessarily role models. Yes, this centennial history includes the requisite “mug” shots of past presidents. Yes, it salutes those who served in the wars. The title page also salutes Jack Wertheimer whose words validated my focus on this “least studied” Jewish institution.
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