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Oral History Collection

The Nicki Newman Tanner

Oral History Collection

As part of JWA’s mission to expand the narrative of Jewish history, we have collected and recorded hundreds of interviews with leaders, activists, and community members across the United States, documenting their encounters with major events and movements of the 20th and 21st centuries and the many ways that gender, class, place, and religious and ethnic identities have shaped women’s lives. With generous support from Nicki Newman Tanner,  Mass Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, we are proud to make these interviews and transcripts available to the public. All entries include transcripts; audio or video recordings are also available where narrator permissions allow. 

More about the collection

Shirley Bridge

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Shirley Bridge on June 27, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words Oral History Project. Bridge discusses her family, childhood memories, education, a career in pharmacology, marriage, raising a family, social activism, and her 50-year battle with cancer.

Ruth Jungster Frankel

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Ruth Jungster Frankel on August 7 and 15, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words project. Frankel reflects on her experiences growing up in Germany, witnessing Hitler's rise to power, immigrating to the United States, involvement at Temple Herzi, her husband's Alzheimer's, and her engagement in Jewish camps, trips to Israel, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Arva Davis Gray

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Arva Davis Gray on June 25 and August 9, 2001, in Bellevue, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words project. Gray recounts her upbringing as a poor Mormon in Utah, her journey of rejecting the Mormon church and embracing Judaism, her family life, volunteer work, and personal challenges.

Ann Meyers Kaplan

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Ann Meyers Kaplan on March 30, 2001, in Mercer Island, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Kaplan shares her family background, upbringing in Seattle, career, involvement in the National Council of Jewish Women, advocacy for the hearing impaired, reflections on Jewish identity and community, and fond memories of various aspects of her life.

Ruth Emmerman Peizer

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Ruth Emmerman Peizer on June 18 and August 6, 2001, in West Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Peizer discusses her Yiddish upbringing, her parents' immigration, education, work, connection to Yiddishkeit, struggles during the Korean War, motherhood, volunteer work, teaching Yiddish, and volunteering in Latvia.

Bernice Mossafer Rind

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Bernice Mossafer Rind on June 5 and July 20, 2001, in Medina, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Rind recounts her family's history, her upbringing in Seattle, her musical career, meeting her husband, raising their son, volunteer work, Sephardic rituals, a trip to Israel, and her perspectives on family, Jewish heritage, aging, and personal philosophies.

Dorothy Wittenberg

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Dorothy Wittenberg on April 26 and May 8, 2001, in Mercer Island, Washington, for the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Wittenberg recounts her family background, childhood memories, experiences as one of the few Jewish families in Tacoma, her education, volunteer work, and reflections on community, and women's roles.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Oral History Collection." (Viewed on June 15, 2026) <https://qa.jwa.org/oralhistories>.