WSJL and History Project win MAC Presidents' Award

The MAC Presidents' Award was established in 1986 to recognize significant contributions to the archival profession by individuals, institutions, and organizations not directly involved in archival work but knowledgeable about its purpose and value.

The Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning has been involved with documenting the history of a Jewish presence in Wisconsin throughout its 56-year history. Early in its history, it founded the Wisconsin Jewish Archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society providing funds for materials processing and cataloging for a number of years.

Currently, the Society is sponsoring the Small Jewish Communities History Project. The need for the project is crucial before memory and/or physical traces of these communities completely disappear. Much has been accomplished. A Jewish presence has been discovered in close to 300 communities around the state. Photos and other objects have been collected. Several oral histories have been conducted (many shortly before the subject died).

The project web site is located at http://project.wsjl.org. A documentary film, Chosen Towns, was created with UW-Milwaukee film students and aired statewide on Wisconsin Public Television in October and December 2008. Plans are underway to create curricular materials for the 4th grade Wisconsin history curriculum and a moveable exhibit.

All materials collected, including the oral histories and transcriptions and the 50+ hours of film footage taken for the documentary will be offered to the Jewish Archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Up to three awards may be presented each year, no more than one from a single state. Recipients are invited to attend the members' meeting held at MAC's annual meeting in the spring to receive their certificates. The 2009 annual meeting will be held in St. Louis.