Interview with Dr. Amy Weintraub

Interview with Dr. Amy Weintraub

Weintraub, Amy ; Gashurov, Irene

Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni working with victims of domestic violence/sexual assault; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area

Amy Weintraub, PhD, led the Center for Victim Support at Harlem Hospital Center for 25 years and assessed patients with a history of domestic violence and sexual assault. She currently teaches courses on these subjects at Mercy College. She was a sociology major at Harpur College. She was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow.

2018-03-09

In Copyright

Amy Weintraub.mp3

2018-03-09

Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni

63:41 minutes

Alumni Interviews
Interview with: Amy M. Weintraub
Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov
Transcriber: Oral History Lab
Date of interview: 9 March 2018
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(Start of Interview)

AW: 00:02
Okay, so we begin with your identifying yourself, who you are, where we are, and the date of the interview.

AW: 00:12
My name is Amy Malzberg Weintraub, and this is an oral history project being conducted by SUNY Binghamton, and we are in my apartment at 95 West, 95th Street.

IG: 00:25
Okay, thank you. So, can I call you Amy or Dr. Weintraub?

AW: 00:31
You can call me Amy.

IG: 00:32
Okay, so Amy, tell us where you grew up.

AW: 00:36
I grew up in Albany, New York.

IG: 00:38
Oh, who were your parents?

AW: 00:43
Dr. Benson Malzberg, and my mother was Rose Malzberg Hershberg, yeah, Rose Hershberg Malzberg,

IG: 00:50
Okay, and so your father was a doctor in?

AW: 00:57
My father got his PhD at Columbia in sociology.

IG: 00:59
Oh, so-

AW: 01:00
He also studied in Paris. He got a fellowship to study continue their studies in Paris. So my father spoke French fluently.

IG: 01:07
Oh, very good. It was very interesting. So-so tell us about what your parents did.

AW: 01:13
My father was a director at the department Mental Hygiene. He studied the incidence and prevalence of mental illness in New York State, and he published a great deal. And my mother had been a teacher in the Albany Public School System. When she married, she was working for the New York State Department, I think it was the accounting department. And then when I was in the eighth grade, my father retired and became a principal investigator with a grant that was funded by Department of Mental-Mental Health, Department of Health and Mental Health, Federal Department of Health and Mental Health. My mother became his administrative assistant.

IG: 01:57
Oh, and this was all in Albany.

AW: 02:00
Albany, New York, yep.

IG: 02:01
Okay, so were your parents--can I ask how many generations ago did they come to the United States?

AW: 02:12
Well, my father was born here, his mother was born here, also.

IG: 02:15
Yes.

AW: 02:15
It was his um, it was his grandfather who migrated, I believe, from Poland.

IG: 02:21
I see, I see.

AW: 02:21
My mother was a year old when she came here.

IG: 02:25
From?

AW: 02:25
Poland.

IG: 02:26
From Poland. So, I assumed that, since your parents were highly educated, that the expectations of you were that you would go on to college.

AW: 02:41
Well, I did not assume I was going to get my PhD. I did cer- I decided that on my own, but they sort of expect me to get a college education.

IG: 02:48
Yes, and so they valued education.

AW: 02:51
Oh, they certainly did.

IG: 02:52
Very-very much.

AW: 02:53
They used to correct my English. I used to write them letters from Harpur. We called it Harpur College then and I made spelling mistakes, and they used to write me back letters telling me just how you spell the word. [laughs]

IG: 03:07
Did that- I mean, what did that irritate you?

AW: 03:12
Was kind of cute.

IG: 03:13
Did you-

AW: 03:15
I do that with my own children?

IG: 03:17
Oh! Did you- I have done it with my daughter.

AW: 03:20
Okay.

IG: 03:21
So-so-so did you have siblings?

AW: 03:24
Yes, I have a twin sister, and I had no I had an older sister.

IG: 03:29
And the expectations for them were the same as-

AW: 03:36
Absolutely-absolutely.

IG: 03:39
So what were your reasons for going to Harpur College?

AW: 03:45
Well, Harpur type was not my first choice?

IG: 03:47
No, okay.

AW: 03:48
My first choice is Brandeis University.

IG: 03:50
Uh huh.

AW: 03:52
Because my mother had been part of a Brandeis University chapter. I know Brandeis University just hit my imagination.

IG: 03:58
Yeah.

AW: 03:59
But I was not accepted.

IG: 04:00
You were not accepted?

AW: 04:01
No, I think three people from Albany applied, and only one was accepted. So I had to find another college, and of a fellow student of mine, Stuart Lewis, on his- parents night and I went to the middle school, which was a private school, and one of Stuart's parents happened to mention Harpur College and my mother and father. So mother [inaudible] "Why do not you apply to Harpur College"? So I did, but it was not half the time. It was not my first choice, but by the time I graduated from Harpur College, I realized what a great school it is, and I am very glad I went there. But when my own children enter college, I- it was so important to me to go to a private school, because, of course, SUNY is a public university, right?

IG: 04:47
Yes.

AW: 04:48
And although it was a great university, I got the most [inaudible] education you could possibly get at a school. I wanted my own children go to a private school. So my son ended up going to Union College. My daughter went to New York City. She went to Marymount, Manhattan.

IG: 05:07
Well, so Harpur College was not your first choice, but you had other SUNYs to choose from. So why did you choose Harpur and not Albany or SUNY [crosstalk]

AW: 05:24
Oh, first, I did not want to go to Albany because I grew up in Albany. So I want to go away to college.

IG: 05:29
I see.

AW: 05:30
So I had to pick a school that was not no, not anywhere near Albany. And there are other schools but my-my older sister, went to Russell Sage.

IG: 05:40
I see.

AW: 05:40
But that was like 20-minute drive from the house, so [inaudible] was not going to go to Russell Sage.

IG: 05:49
So what was the reputation that you knew of about Harpur College at the time? What reputation-

AW: 05:56
I did not know that much about it, but I knew it was a top-notch school.

IG: 05:59
Yeah.

AW: 06:00
I do not know where I got the information from, but I knew it was a top-notch school. It was, it still is, the elite of the SUNY system.

IG: 06:07
Oh, the SUNYs. Absolutely, it is. Um, so-

AW: 06:10
That we were told when we got there, look around, look to the left, look to the right, because some of you would not make it through Harpur College.

IG: 06:18
Really?

AW: 06:18
Really.

IG: 06:19
Who told you this?

AW: 06:20
The dean.

IG: 06:21
The dean.

AW: 06:22
Yep.

IG: 06:23
When you first arrived?

AW: 06:24
Yeah, we had a gathering of the first-year students.

IG: 06:28
So, what-what do you remember any of the first impressions that Harpur made on you- the campus of the-

AW: 06:34
It was a beautiful campus, and it is right, that is the Susquehanna River.

IG: 06:39
Yes.

AW: 06:40
Floats in right down to the bottom of the campus. So I remember every morning walking to my classes and seeing- being able to see the river, and that was, I was very impressed by that. And I hope there was about there were mountains behind the campus. And in the springtime, my twin sister and I and a friend of ours went hiking and the mountains behind the college. And that was that was lots of fun.

IG: 07:05
Just tell us for the record, what were the years that you went to Harpur College.

AW: 07:11
1964 1960.

IG: 07:14
So, you were one of the earlier recruits to Harpur College.

AW: 07:18
What do you mean?

IG: 07:19
Well, because, you know, it came into existence when in the Harpur College in the (19)50s. Or?

AW: 07:32
That is true. That is true. By time I got to the college, it was already new campus.

IG: 07:37
It was already a new campus.

AW: 07:39
It was a new campus. Yep.

IG: 07:40
I see. So did you live in? Were there- you know, what were the dorm situations like? Did you have a roommate?

AW: 07:49
I had a roommate.

IG: 07:50
You had a roommate, and the dorms were segregated at the time.

AW: 07:54
You got the [inaudible] coming from the main client campus.

AW: 07:59
Yes.

AW: 07:59
The men's dormitories, I think, are on the left.

IG: 08:02
Uh huh.

AW: 08:02
And the girls are on the right.

IG: 08:05
So, and you liked the-the dormitories, and where do you remember any of the I-I heard- told that there were different kinds of restrictions on curfews-

AW: 08:19
Of course-

IG: 08:19
-women then there will-

AW: 08:20
You had to be back by 12 o'clock.

IG: 08:22
Yeah, every night, or just on weekends.

AW: 08:26
I think the weekends, it was either 12 o'clock or one o'clock.

IG: 08:28
Yeah.

AW: 08:29
And the course, during the week, I think they closed the doors by 10 o'clock at night.

AW: 08:35
No, it did not bother me at all.

IG: 08:35
And did you think that-that? Did you think anything of the curfew-

IG: 08:36
It did not bother-

AW: 08:37
I am currently talking about the (19)60s, right?

IG: 08:37
Yeah.

AW: 08:37
I am trying to go to college now, course, would be a major problem

IG: 08:47
Of course, of course, of course. So, um, did you make friends?

AW: 08:52
Of course, I did.

IG: 08:53
Yeah. And so were your friends, like-like, you from the Albany area, or they were from-

AW: 09:01
The only person from the Albany area was Stuart Lewis.

IG: 09:05
Uh huh.

AW: 09:05
Everybody else came from across New York state.

IG: 09:09
Right. But the majority came from New York City and Long Island.

AW: 09:14
Yeah, my first roommate came from the Bronx.

IG: 09:16
Yeah.

AW: 09:16
And my second roommate, Ann Goldman, grew up in Brooklyn.

IG: 09:21
Did you have opportunity to visit the city?

AW: 09:26
In college?

IG: 09:27
While you were in college, or before? Did

AW: 09:29
I have relatives who lived in New York. So I see before I entered college, of course, I was in college, I came to New York.

IG: 09:35
Yeah.

AW: 09:36
That is when- I went to Brown after Harpur College.

IG: 09:39
Right.

AW: 09:39
And I got my masters at Brown, and that is why I want to come to New York because I knew New York.

IG: 09:43
Yes, okay, so-so you were no stranger. So there was no cultural, you know, difference that you noticed between New York City, because that is also something that you know interviewees that I speak to uh, from that, from that period, talk about that there was kind of a cultural difference between people from more rural parts of the state-

AW: 10:08
No, I knew New York. That is why I wanted to come here. [crosstalk] going to some place like Boston, I did not know anybody in Boston.

AW: 10:16
I have relatives in New York.

IG: 10:16
Right.

IG: 10:17
I see.

AW: 10:17
So coming to New York was, um, very natural for me.

AW: 10:20
I am from upstate. [crosstalk]

IG: 10:20
Of course.

AW: 10:20
Well, I think-

IG: 10:20
Very natural for you. Okay, so did you have but did you notice differences between, you know, upstate students and New York City students?

IG: 10:20
Whatever the difference is.

AW: 10:28
Probably not very prejudiced, but I think the New York City students were a bit more aggressive.

IG: 10:41
Yeah, a bit more aggressive.

AW: 10:43
[inaudible] others?

IG: 10:45
Not in those terms, but that there were differences. I mean, so they were more aggressive, and in which way?

AW: 10:54
They were real quick to raise their hands.

IG: 10:57
Yeah.

AW: 10:58
They took over more organizational leadership.

IG: 11:00
Uh huh.

AW: 11:01
There is a, I know there is a Democrat- Democratic Club, and I think the leadership is from New York City.

IG: 11:07
I see, were you involved in any of the clubs yourself?

AW: 11:11
No, I was only involved in Jewish program.

IG: 11:13
What was a Jewish program like at the time?

AW: 11:16
Well, it is certainly a lot better than it was when I was there. First of all, my sister and I went to synagogue every Saturday because we had done that in Albany. So of course, we continue doing it. And Binghamton, I still do it. I am a member of a congregation in New York City.

IG: 11:30
Yeah. So what was that like? Describe to us what that congregation was like, where you met and um-

AW: 11:38
Well, it was a very small congregation. There was, they were located in downtown Binghamton. Now they have moved to Vestal. I see, I know they have a new building.

IG: 11:48
That is right. So you would travel to Binghamton from-

AW: 11:53
I took the bus [inaudible] from the Student Union.

IG: 11:55
Uh huh.

AW: 11:56
And stopped right in Binghamton like and maybe two blocks in the synagogue.

IG: 12:02
What was the name of the congregation?

AW: 12:05
I do not have no idea.

IG: 12:05
You do not remember. So it was a small.

AW: 12:09
It was very small.

IG: 12:10
It was very small from-from people in the town, or from students. Essentially.

AW: 12:14
No, we were the only students who went.

IG: 12:16
But it was a congregation of people from Binghamton?

AW: 12:19
I would say they had maybe, at 25 to 35 people had service on a Saturday.

IG: 12:26
At most.

AW: 12:28
Unless there was a Bar Mitzvah.

IG: 12:29
I see, I see. And so what do you remember? Were it? What, where it was in, downtown-

AW: 12:38
Well, I remember how to get there, but I remember the street. There was a hotel in Binghamton. It was a Sheraton. I think.

IG: 12:44
Okay, so it still exists, I think.

AW: 12:46
And I think we walked passes the Sheraton took a right-hand turn.

IG: 12:50
I see, I see.

AW: 12:51
That is the synagogue.

IG: 12:52
So what do you remember of Binghamton? This the city of the time? Did- was it- did it strike you as rural, or was it-

AW: 13:03
Well, obviously, I come from over New York, which is not a well now Norman, New York has definitely changed.

IG: 13:09
Yeah.

AW: 13:10
We have the state office buildings downtown, yeah, and so there are more restaurants and much more to do in Albany, New York now, but Binghamton was very rural. I think it still is.

IG: 13:22
Was it in comparison to Albany? Was it more rural?

AW: 13:27
More rural? Yes.

IG: 13:27
Yes. So-so you have the worship activity, did you have any kind of community involvement outside of that.

AW: 13:45
Well, I sang in the choir.

IG: 13:48
Attendance. Oh, I see.

AW: 13:50
I sang in this choir at Milne. I went to the Milne school. I sang of the choir at Harpur College.

IG: 13:54
Oh, well, so tell us about that.

AW: 13:56
Well, I do not-

IG: 13:57
Tell me about it.

AW: 13:58
I really do not remember the various songs that we sang. But do remember we gave a concert once in one of the high schools, and I remember getting in a bus and going to the concert to perform.

IG: 14:08
Do you remember anything about the repertoire? Was it classical music?

AW: 14:12
It was classical.

IG: 14:14
It was classical. What-what kind of- so you were studying music? Were you?

AW: 14:19
No, I-I played piano when I was in high school.

IG: 14:23
I see.

AW: 14:23
But I quit when I was, like, in 11th grade. Well, we have a piano here. My husband's a great pianist. He entertains me all the time.

IG: 14:30
Oh, well.

AW: 14:32
But I could barely get two notes on the piano now. But I love to sing. So when I sang at the Harpur into the um, I sang in the Milne school choir. I sang in my synagogue choir.

IG: 14:41
Yeah.

AW: 14:42
And I sang at the Harpur College choir.

IG: 14:44
Did you sing, Alto, Soprano?

AW: 14:46
Alto.

IG: 14:47
Alto, I can tell by your voice. Okay. So what other activity- well, first of all, tell us, what was the program of your- what was the what was your major? [crosstalk]

AW: 15:01
My father was a sociology major.

IG: 15:02
Yes.

AW: 15:03
So obviously I had a bench for sociology.

IG: 15:07
Yes.

AW: 15:07
So I became a sociology major.

IG: 15:09
And tell us about you know, the program of your study. What? What did you find that interesting?

AW: 15:14
I love sociology. I have a PhD in sociology.

IG: 15:18
So what-what kinds of things about studying sociology appealed to you at Harpur College. What did you learn?

AW: 15:26
I was learning about sociology is a study of society, right?

IG: 15:30
Yes.

AW: 15:30
So I learned all about a society, particularly American society, by studying sociology.

IG: 15:37
Okay, so in general terms and more. You know what-what were you learning at the time? Do you remember what-what kinds of things were you learning about America?

AW: 15:46
I had a professor today of course on a Soviet Union [inaudible] still existed. I took a course on American sociology, Richard Hamilton, and would discuss America being a melting pot.

IG: 15:47
Yes.

AW: 15:47
I remember that class very well because he made a comment about the Yiddish newspapers.

IG: 16:07
Yes.

AW: 16:07
Yiddish newspapers played a very important role in acculturating American Jews to American society. So I made that point when my grandfather was a Hebrew scholar.

IG: 16:19
Oh.

AW: 16:20
And he had no use for the Yiddish papers. He read it Hebrew papers.

IG: 16:24
Right.

AW: 16:24
So I remember my mother made a comment my father had no use for the Yiddish papers, whereupon my father hit the roof, because Yiddish papers were written his household.

IG: 16:34
Right.

AW: 16:34
He said, "Your grandfather was wrong. It played very important." He confirmed what I had learned in class. British newspapers played a very important role in enabling American Jews to become American.

IG: 16:44
Right-right.

AW: 16:46
So I remember that class very well.

IG: 16:49
Do you, I mean, this is just of-of attention to little bit. But do you remember any Yiddish newspapers being around at the time in the (19)50s and the (19)60s?

IG: 17:02
The forward. Was still written in English?

AW: 17:02
The forward.

AW: 17:03
[inaudible]

IG: 17:04
Yeah. Was still written in Yiddish.

AW: 17:05
Was still written in Yiddish. The fact I asked my mother wants to teach me Yiddish.

IG: 17:10
Yeah.

AW: 17:10
Because they spoke Yiddish in her household.

IG: 17:12
Uh huh. Oh.

AW: 17:14
We had maybe one or two lessons, and I gave up because it was the same letters in Hebrew, but totally different vocabulary.

IG: 17:20
Right.

AW: 17:21
And I could not. I simply could not learn it. My husband came from a family, they speak Yiddish.

IG: 17:24
Yeah.

AW: 17:24
So he-he, maybe he cannot speak it, but he has a much better vocabulary than I do.

IG: 17:33
So-so was there, you know, an act of Yiddish life in-at the time of your growing up in New York City?

AW: 17:40
No.

IG: 17:40
That was already gone. It was already, you know, people were assimilated.

AW: 17:44
There was nobody-nobody who really knew Yiddish.

IG: 17:46
No.

AW: 17:46
Nobody.

IG: 17:47
Nobody.

AW: 17:47
I am sure there are people who knew, but nobody spoke it.

IG: 17:50
Well, I know that there was, there was a center at Columbia, YIVO was-

AW: 17:54
There is.

IG: 17:55
And there-there still is.

AW: 17:57
YIVO is now part of the Jewish history.

IG: 18:00
I see. So it is [inaudible]

AW: 18:00
Something of the Jewish history on 16th Street.

IG: 18:03
I see.

AW: 18:04
But when I went to Hebrew, when I grew up in Albany, New York, Hebrew was a language that we were all supposed to learn.

IG: 18:11
Right.

AW: 18:12
So I am able to speak Hebrew.

IG: 18:15
Were you able to I mean, we are going off tangent? But this is very interesting to me. So did you have a chance to speak sort of a lot, you know a Hebrew you, I see you have paintings of Israel. Did you have occasion to speak Hebrew in Israel?

AW: 18:36
I have been to Israel 14 times.

IG: 18:38
And did you speak Hebrew?

AW: 18:39
I speak Hebrew all the time.

IG: 18:41
All the time, fluently. So it was not a book, language that you know?

AW: 18:45
Not a book. But I spoke as much as I spoke Hebrew, they only answered me in English.

IG: 18:49
I see, I see.

AW: 18:50
They picked up my American accent.

IG: 18:52
I see, I see, I understand.

AW: 18:55
I love the language. I speak it all.

IG: 18:56
Yes, okay, do you read?

AW: 19:00
Do I read Hebrew?

IG: 19:01
I do.

IG: 19:01
Yes.

IG: 19:01
Yes. So you continue with [crosstalk]

AW: 19:04
I, when I came to New- I took an opponent with my twin sister, but she moved out to marriage. When she married, it we both married to Arnies. She and Arnie moved to America. She was not going to come out. They go upon so I started taking up on my own. You know what Ulpan is?

IG: 19:05
No.

AW: 19:05
It is the way Hebrew is taught in Israel. I see it is when you walk into an Ulpan class, it is all in Hebrew.

IG: 19:29
Uh huh.

AW: 19:29
They gave you lots of readings to do, and there is a textbook, and you have to know, learn the grammar of Hebrew. And I have taken Ulpan any number of times in New York.

IG: 19:40
Oh, where is it taught here?

AW: 19:43
JCC, and [crosstalk]

IG: 19:45
I know where that is, yeah, so, but Hebrew was not taught at Harpur College at the time. Do you remember any of the language?

AW: 19:55
It was not.

IG: 19:56
It was not, it was it was not. So-

AW: 20:00
Nobody spoke it. There was nobody spoken to it.

IG: 20:02
Nobody-nobody really spoken so. So let us get back to your sociology courses and how you felt they prepared you for your future studies in your future.

AW: 20:13
Well, from Harpur College, I went on to Brown University.

IG: 20:15
Yes-yes, but we are, you know, focused on a little bit more on Harpur College, because I represent Harpur College and Binghamton University.

AW: 20:24
I also got a great education at Harpur College. I did learn sociology.

IG: 20:29
Yeah, you learned sociology. So you learned about, you know, how did it expand your mind? How did it expand your understanding of sociology?

AW: 20:40
Well, I learned about American society. Most of the courses had dealt with American society. Did take a course on Soviet Union.

IG: 20:48
So what were you learning about the Soviet Union in the early (19)60s?

AW: 20:52
I do not remember. I do not remember the details of that class. We are going back 50 years.

IG: 20:58
Okay, anything that stands out. I mean, can you speak in journal terms about it being in a kind of an enlarging experience for you, it gave you-

AW: 21:07
Of course, it was.

IG: 21:08
So how so?

AW: 21:09
I have got to know my professors, and I got to- I was an honors student. I wrote an honors thesis.

IG: 21:13
Okay, so who were some of your professors, do you remember?

IG: 21:16
Dr. Peter Dodge.

IG: 21:17
Yeah.

AW: 21:18
Donald Trump [Donald Throw]. Edwards, I forget his first name. He was very popular. Everybody wanted to take his courses. Um, those are three. I remember most.

IG: 21:37
Okay, so-so you said, you know you learned about-

AW: 21:40
Richard Hamilton.

IG: 21:40
Richard Hamilton. So did you have interaction with your professors after class? Did they invite you to their home?

AW: 21:53
My honors professor invited me to his home and we did, and I saw him after I graduated from Harpur, he went on to University of New Hampshire.

IG: 22:02
Who was this?

AW: 22:03
Peter Dodge, and he was studying in New York one year, and I was already working in New York, so I visited him. He was studying at Columbia. I visited him at his apartment on Riverside Drive. I visited him. And when he moved to New Hampshire, my family and I stopped off on our way to Bar Harbor Maine. So we stopped off and visit with him.

IG: 22:24
Yeah.

AW: 22:26
And we wrote, he wrote, we kept in contact with each other by way of the United States mail system for many-many years.

IG: 22:34
Okay, so you know, so were you- did he, for example, invite um, students over to his-

AW: 22:45
No.

IG: 22:46
No, it was just after class [crosstalk]

AW: 22:48
[crosstalk] myself, as we had developed a special relationship with him.

IG: 22:51
I see, I see um, so, you know, just going back to sociology, what were some of the big ideas that you took away from your undergraduate experience?

AW: 23:04
The importance of class. We did a lot of work at SES socioeconomic status, so I learned a lot about the role of class in American society. I think class was one of the biggest, the biggest variables that we concentrated on, because there were no Women's Studies. When I graduated Harpur College,

IG: 23:30
There were no women women's studies.

AW: 23:30
There were no women's studies.

IG: 23:33
So-so what were, you, know, you said, variables of class. How was it, for example, how did it relate to the immigrant communities, the melting pot idea?

AW: 23:46
Well, of course, when the immigrants came over, they were very lower class, right?

AW: 23:50
They had lower class jobs.

IG: 23:51
Yeah.

IG: 23:52
Yes-yes.

AW: 23:52
But as and particularly for the Jews, it was so important that children get college education.

IG: 23:57
Yes.

AW: 23:58
Now my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, both came from Poland.

IG: 24:01
Yes.

AW: 24:02
But they were bright enough to have had a college education, but did not have the opportunity to so very important for them that their children go on to get educate, have acquired educations, but I had already come from a family that was well educated.

IG: 24:14
Right.

IG: 24:15
Right.

AW: 24:15
So it was not something that was- it was not um, stress has opened value,

AW: 24:16
Just knew it was there.

IG: 24:23
Yes.

AW: 24:24
House was filled with books. All my parents friends were college educated.

AW: 24:28
And it just assumed that we were going to go in on the college as well. But in my husband's example, it was exceptionally important, because his parents had not had an opportunity to be educating. So then they really did stress getting a college education. But in my household, it was just you. It was assumed that you were going to go on and get a college education.

IG: 24:28
Right.

IG: 24:52
Right. So, how- you know- so-so I guess you did not have the same class struggles that other immigrants have?

AW: 25:03
No I was born. Well, my parents were lives of the depression. So, they always say, you know what, we were middle class. It just the matter was we were probably much more upper middle class. But I always assumed we were middle class, because what my parents had conveyed to me when I look back now, your father was the director and departmental of mental hygiene. How could we have just been middle class? We were obviously, we were upper middle class, but my parents kept and saying, oh, we were middle class, we were middle classroom. I tell my own children we were upper middle, we were upper middle class, because it is so important to me. I am having grown up with parents who grew up in the depression that my children have a sense that we were well off.

IG: 25:41
Mm-hmm, okay, What-what- tell me about your children. You mentioned that, you know, they went to private schools, and so what-what-what careers are they-

AW: 25:57
[crosstalk] royalty expert, he does not want to go on to get his CPA.

IG: 25:58
Right.

AW: 25:58
He says "I do not want to spend the rest of my career working on doing people's taxes." He thinks certified public accountants do. But he is a royalty expert. He works for Cats Media.

IG: 26:14
Right.

AW: 26:15
And which is, obviously, it is a media company.

IG: 26:18
Right.

IG: 26:18
Right.

AW: 26:18
And he works on their royalties. Now, it is a lot of computerized work. When you when-when you publicize somebody and they become famous, they owe you a certain amount of royalties for your having pushed them forward.

AW: 26:18
So he works in the royalties aspect.

IG: 26:23
Uh huh.

AW: 26:25
And my-my daughter, works for on the Wall Street Journal.

IG: 26:35
Oh, well. What does she do?

AW: 26:39
Well, she works in the business part.

IG: 26:43
Okay, well, that is publishing.

AW: 26:46
She does a lot of scheduling of business meetings.

IG: 26:50
I see, I see, I see, that is- it is a good job.

AW: 26:55
She loves it. She said, [crosstalk] "Why do you read The New York Times?" I said to her, "You work for the Wall Street Journal. Bring it home and I will read it." She does not bring it home, and I am not going to go to my way to buy a copy.

IG: 27:07
No. And besides, it is all online right now.

AW: 27:11
That is just true.

IG: 27:13
Okay, so again, going back to your experience at Harpur College. So just so you feel that Harpur College prepared you for a future career.

IG: 27:27
Oh, absolutely.

IG: 27:29
Well, so gave you, you know, kind of a breadth of learning and, you know, understanding of key ideas, and how quickly after that did you go on to grad school?

AW: 27:41
Well, I went on to graduate school when I graduated. I was at Brown for two years. I was supposed to have stayed to get my PhD, but after two years, have not been in school for six years, six well, we do not-not including high school and grammar school. I had been studying for so long, I want to come back. I want to work. So I applied for jobs in New York City, and my first job was at Columbia.

IG: 28:06
Oh, what did you do at Columbia?

AW: 28:07
Well, it was a strictly a first level job out of graduate school.

IG: 28:12
Sure.

AW: 28:12
It was a study with teamsters, and they would ask them all kinds of questions about their health.

IG: 28:17
Oh.

AW: 28:17
And I had to quote all that data.

IG: 28:20
So, did you work for a department? Or did you- what-what part of Columbia did you work for?

AW: 28:25
It was a school of public health.

IG: 28:30
I see it is on 1/68 Street, Mailman School of Public Health.

AW: 28:30
[inaudible] called the Mailman School then.

IG: 28:30
It was not called Mailman [crosstalk]

AW: 28:31
No, it was called Columbia University School of Public Health.

IG: 28:36
So you enjoyed that? And um-

IG: 28:39
It was your first job.

AW: 28:39
I cannot say I enjoyed as my first job.

AW: 28:41
Yeah. And I think I worked there for two years.

IG: 28:45
Yeah.

AW: 28:46
And then I got a job. I-I had mostly gone to a sociology convention, American sociology, sociological convention. And I think I saw the job advertised. It was job working for the Community Council of New York. It was also a grant study, and I worked with that Dr. Putter, and we collected data on older people. I forget where the data came from, and I was in charge of developing the questionnaire, analyzing and running it up.

AW: 29:17
I see.

AW: 29:18
I love that job.

IG: 29:19
Yeah. How long were you there?

AW: 29:21
I think I was there for two or three years.

IG: 29:23
Uh huh.

AW: 29:23
[inaudible] a grant ending.

IG: 29:25
I see. So you had your graduate degree and then-

AW: 29:31
My master's degree.

IG: 29:32
Your masters. So tell us, you know, tell us about that journey toward the PhD and what happened?

AW: 29:42
Well, actually the job of the Community Council ended-

IG: 29:45
Yeah.

AW: 29:45
I got a job at the American Jewish Committee.

IG: 29:45
okay.

AW: 29:45
And I was working with the famous Milton Himmelfarb. I am sure that name does not mean anything to you, but he is one of the editors of Commentary Magazine.

IG: 29:55
Oh, wow.

AW: 29:56
Commentary Magazine-

IG: 29:57
I know about Commentary Magazine. I know. Of course, about Commentary Magazine.

AW: 30:03
Well, you know, it is a very conservative magazine.

IG: 30:07
Yes.

AW: 30:07
So when I was working for him, he was giving me these assignments, and I had to confirm his conservative view of the world, and

IG: 30:10
You did not share them?

AW: 30:11
I did. I not only did I not share them, I did not agree with his view of the world at all, but I did not tell him that, because he was my boss, right?

IG: 30:21
Yes.

AW: 30:22
So I worked for him for two years, and I said to myself, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? And that is when I made the decision, “You are always going to be a middle level person unless you go and get your PhD.”

IG: 30:34
That is right. In academics, that is right.

AW: 30:37
Well, I knew I did not want to teach, but I do teach now. I teach at Mercy College.

IG: 30:42
Oh, well, I did not know.

AW: 30:42
Excuse me.

IG: 30:44
I said, "Oh, wow. I did not know."

AW: 30:46
Well, this is my this is a textbook which we are using.

IG: 30:50
Oh, wow. Oh, that is so great. So just read it out loud for our listeners.

AW: 30:55
The textbook is Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Intro [Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction], and it is written by Ola Barnett, Cindy Miller Perrin and Robin Perrin, and it is my first time in my life ever teaching a class. Now, I did lecture when I got to Harlem Hospital and I became head of the department of the Center of Victim Support.

IG: 31:18
That is so interesting.

AW: 31:20
I did lecture for physicians, I lectured to nurses, I lectured to police officers, but I never actually taught a class from beginning to end on the theme of domestic violence.

IG: 31:34
So how did you get interested in that?

AW: 31:36
Well, I was working on the hospital Department of Social Work.

IG: 31:36
Yes.

AW: 31:36
I am the head of domestic violence coordinator. And she resigned.

IG: 31:43
Right.

AW: 31:44
And she did not know how to look at her data, so she was constantly coming to me to help her analyze her data. So when she left to the director of Department of Social Worker, said to me, I am going to make you a new director of domestic violence.

IG: 32:00
Right.

AW: 32:01
Because I knew how to work with statistics, but I did not know anything about domestic violence, but I knew from her data-

IG: 32:10
Right.

AW: 32:10
-what, no- the importance of subject matter.

AW: 32:13
But I had never studied it, because I did not have that course on domestic violence, and I was in graduate school, so I took the job and I started reading. You need to know two things. You come of domestic violence coordinator. You have to know the subject matter, and you have to have a feel for what these women have been through. And I also interviewed some men. They were also men. Are also different domestic violence, but much smaller numbers than women.

IG: 32:13
Right.

IG: 32:36
How did you?- when did you get involved in this? How-how- what were the years that you kind of, that you entered into this field?

AW: 32:47
Well, I became the domestic violence coordinator in 1994.

IG: 32:56
What was your PhD in, I know that sociology, but what else-

AW: 33:00
Well, I got my PhD, I was running for national genetics foundation. So my PhD-

IG: 33:01
Where were in?

AW: 33:02
In New York City.

IG: 33:05
In New York City!

AW: 33:08
So my PhD was in the physician recognition of a new specialty, because medical genetics is back in 1970 when I went back to graduate school in 1972 and I started working the national genetics foundation in 1974.

IG: 33:24
And just remind us, where is your PhD from? You got your masters in Brown, and your PhD.

AW: 33:30
I got my PhD at Columbia.

IG: 33:32
I see. So you were at Columbia. What years?

AW: 33:37
I was like- well, I did my coursework from 1972 to 1974. I got my PhD in 1979 I got my PhD when I started working the National Genetics Foundation. They knew when I started working there, they needed to have a subject matter from which I could develop my thesis. So I studied the physicians at a GHI hospital. I think GHI provided the funding for my salary, and that is how I got my PhD.

IG: 34:13
But you- so-so your PhD was in what analyzing the data of the-

AW: 34:23
A hundred patients form the GHI hospital-

IG: 34:25
Yes.

AW: 34:26
-located in Queens, and I asked them a series of questions of their knowledge of medical mimetics. So is it a study of their knowledge-

IG: 34:26
Yeah.

AW: 34:35
-their awareness of medical genetics as an important field, their knowledge of genetics. It was their knowledge, their awareness. And there is a third part of it, I cannot remember the third part was.

IG: 34:48
Yes. So this was to demonstrate their general level of-

AW: 34:56
-understanding.

IG: 34:57
of understanding of-

AW: 34:58
-emerging field, [crosstalk]

IG: 34:59
Of course, of course.

AW: 35:00
I had already become a major part of health care-

IG: 35:04
I see.

AW: 35:05
-for women who are pregnant women-women who are over the age of 35 so it was emerging field with very important, relevant techniques that physicians should know about.

IG: 35:16
Yes.

AW: 35:17
Even- well today everybody knows about amniocentesis.

IG: 35:19
Yes.

AW: 35:19
But when I was working on my thesis back in the middle and late (19)70s, so many physicians did not know that much about it all.

IG: 35:27
And this is New York City-

AW: 35:29
-this is New York City.

IG: 35:30
-and this is so you could imagine what the rest of the country.

AW: 35:32
And the base- the basic finding of my thesis was the fact that, well, physicians knew very little about mental genetics and had very little understanding of it, and then that realize relevance.

IG: 35:44
Right. So were there recommendations that you made in your thesis of how to educate this?

AW: 35:53
I do not think I did.

IG: 35:55
[crosstalk] populations.

AW: 35:56
That was not [crosstalk]

AW: 35:57
Well, I did it for 25 years.

IG: 35:57
That was not okay. So, tell us about, I am very interested about your work with victims of domestic abuse, and how long you did this. And-

IG: 36:07
That is tremendous. And so, I mean, was not it emotionally? I mean, how do you heal-

AW: 36:17
You should talk my family. They will say [inaudible] it took a toll on you.

IG: 36:20
Yeah.

AW: 36:21
When I come, when I come home at night, I had to admit, I was probably did a lot of snapping every family in numbers. You come home and you hear these stories that, [crosstalk] it is called vicarious trauma, traumatization. But I loved working with these abused women because they had such strengths.

IG: 36:38
Yeah.

AW: 36:39
Um, they have been through so much.

IG: 36:40
Yes.

AW: 36:40
And yet they were able to open up and tell me about the violence I had experienced.

IG: 36:46
Right.

AW: 36:47
And you have to have a sense of rapport with these women.

IG: 36:50
Right.

AW: 36:50
And I did not just work with women who are being physically and emotionally abused. I also work with women who are victims of rape.

IG: 36:58
Yeah.

AW: 36:58
And at that point the rape do you know about the rape exam?

IG: 37:00
Yes.

AW: 37:02
Well, the whole process of the rape exam had already been developed, and women would come to the emergency room seeking the rape kits.

IG: 37:09
Right.

AW: 37:09
So I work with a lot of women who are victims of rape. Now the statistics show, and it is probably very true, most women who are raped are rape in the context of intimacy. They are being raped by their husbands; they are being raped by their boyfriends. They are being raped by people they know.

IG: 37:23
Yes.

AW: 37:24
It is not the woman who goes to a fraternity party at night.

IG: 37:26
Right.

AW: 37:27
And ends up being raped. So I was dealing with women who were very traumatized by their experiences. And I also wrote a grant in New York State Crime Victims board, and they gave me a grant, which enabled me to hire three or four social workers, and we developed a center for different support, and we provided therapy at night.

IG: 37:45
That is tremendous. That is really, that is, that is tremendous.

IG: 37:52
Thank you.

IG: 37:52
Yeah, so, I mean, is your work known about in the field of domestic violence and abuse?

AW: 38:08
When I retired, I was working at the freedom houses domestic violence shelter, and I was interviewing women and their understanding of their self-confidence. The whole purpose of the study was develop their self-confidence over time. Site, I interviewed them. They came to the shelter. I interviewed them. Shelter stays are only for three months. That is what the funds come from. The no brother Power Act, Violence Against Women Act, which is a law that comes from the New York the United States legislature. So it only pays for three months, and the monies are funneled through the New York state, New York State Department of Health. So I interviewed them when they first got to the shelter. I interviewed them at the end of two months. I interviewed them right before they were being ready for discharge. And I did write a paper, and I presented at two different conferences.

IG: 39:00
Okay, so what were the years of that?

AW: 39:03
Years of [inaudible]

IG: 39:04
Of-of-of-of your paper, and-

AW: 39:06
Well, the first paper I gave, I gave in Washington at the future Futures Without Violence. That is the name of the organization.

IG: 39:14
In what year?

AW: 39:15
2014.

IG: 39:18
Okay, so it was quite recent.

AW: 39:24
Maybe I do not. Maybe it was 2013.

IG: 39:26
Yeah, but it is quite recent.

AW: 39:28
And then I gave the same paper I gave at the American Public Health Association.

IG: 39:34
At the American what?

AW: 39:34
Public health association that was in Chicago.

IG: 39:38
So you know your-your work is known of in the community.

AW: 39:46
I would say so.

IG: 39:46
You would say so.

AW: 39:47
I would say so.

IG: 39:56
So what-what did you do you know, what did you. I mean, I, I am, I am really fascinated to learn about this and your work with, you know, victims and what-what-what impact do you think that you have had on this constituency overall?

AW: 40:18
Well, you know, you cannot change people.

IG: 40:20
No.

AW: 40:20
You can give them insight.

IG: 40:23
Right.

AW: 40:23
But in the end, if they are going to change their way of life and move beyond the violence, that is an individual decision.

IG: 40:30
Right.

AW: 40:31
Every victim has to make on her own or his own. But other people I worked with at Harlem Hospital.

IG: 40:38
Right.

AW: 40:39
Many of them went on to move away from their abusive relationships and went on to develop relationships that were not abusive.

IG: 40:49
Right.

AW: 40:50
And I strongly believe it is because of the dialog that I had with them about the fact, and I always say to every victim, that is what I teach in my class, you never accuse the victim of causing the violence. That is what the perpetrator tells them.

IG: 41:05
Right.

AW: 41:07
I am hitting you because you have aggravated me.

IG: 41:09
Right.

AW: 41:10
So the first message you have to get across it every victim is the fact that they did not cause the violence. Does not matter what the perpetrator said to them. Does not really matter how they absorb that-that fact that they are the cause of the violence, the victim is never the cause of the violence. And I made that point to every victim I saw. I saw 150 victims a year in Harlem Hospital, and I made the same point of victims I interviewed at Freedom House. The victim did not cause the violence.

IG: 41:37
It must be a look, a very liberating idea for them to-

AW: 41:41
I am sure it is-

IG: 41:42
-absorbed

AW: 41:42
-because they have so much inculcated themselves this belief.

IG: 41:46
Right.

AW: 41:46
They cause the violence.

IG: 41:47
Right.

AW: 41:48
They never put any blame on the perpetrator.

IG: 41:50
Right.

AW: 41:51
Blame themselves. I did not do this right; I did not do that right.

IG: 41:53
Right.

AW: 41:54
There is nothing that a victim can do that justifies the perpetrator being out of control.

IG: 42:01
Right.

AW: 42:01
The perpetrator is out of control for any number of reasons. First of all, a lot of them are depressed, and they are- also have very low self-esteem, and they tend to be attracted to women who also have low self-esteem, because that makes their-their task of destroying a person so much easier. I am not saying that all women who enter into violent relationships enter low self-esteem, but by time they end it, they certainly do have very low self-esteem.

IG: 42:27
Is it oftentimes tied to economic dependence on the-

AW: 42:31
Well, that is why a lot of women do not like to leave because their perpetrator does not. Perpetrators do not like them to work. They do not like them to be exposed to the world. So you do not work. I work now. I am bringing in the money. And when I worked at Freedom House, I encourage all of them to get the GEDs. You know that is?

IG: 42:51
Yeah, of course I do.

AW: 42:53
Because without a college, high school education, there is no job market for you.

IG: 42:58
Right.

AW: 42:59
So, I encourage all of them to get their GED, not only because they needed to get a job, but they needed for their own understanding of themselves as-as responsible adult human beings.

IG: 43:12
Right. Did you see these women over time? Or did you see- I mean, how, how much exposure did you or your program have?

AW: 43:21
Well, I usually, I saw many of them only once because they were coming to the hospital identified by doctors and nurses.

IG: 43:27
But you did not, so you did not really know the impact that your interaction would have on them over time.

AW: 43:35
Well, I only know those who, say, through whom we offered therapy.

IG: 43:38
I see.

AW: 43:39
I have a grant from New York State, crime [inaudible] support, and we started out often in 12 weeks of therapy. But I realized when I had, when I renewed the grant, that 12 weeks is really not that much time. No so no one that was renewed. I asked for 16 weeks. So those who came to therapy, I had a great deal of contact with, and those who did come, who came to therapy, definitely were able to change their lives.

IG: 44:01
But you were not the one conducting the therapy. You ran, [crosstalk] of course, yeah, you ran. You ran that right effort. I mean, how do you feel doing that work in in hindsight, do you feel-

AW: 44:21
I am glad, and the board, who's Director department associate I am glad she made me the domestic violence coordinator.

AW: 44:28
Obviously, when I first started doing, I did not know that much about domestic violence, but I just had a feel what these women were going through, and to be a good domestic violence coordinator, even without having the knowledge, you have to have a feel for your clients.

IG: 44:28
Right.

IG: 44:47
Right.

AW: 44:48
And I definitely had that feeling.

IG: 44:50
Yeah.

AW: 44:50
And I was obviously able to convey it.

IG: 44:53
Right. Do you think that most of the people that you saw were, you know a segment of the population that suffers from domestic abuse because sort of, you know, the- you mentioned that a lot of the women did not have GED, but you know, oftentimes women who have who are more educated and come from maybe more well to do families may also be victims, but you-you probably did not see that population?

AW: 45:26
I did have a certain number of not only to have certain number of middle-class clients, I had a certain number of middle-class clients who were college educated, and they also were victims.

IG: 45:36
Did they have sort of the same scenario as in their homes, as the women from poor families?

AW: 45:46
Yes.

IG: 45:46
They have the same so their husbands sort of kept them isolated from the world.

AW: 45:51
Yes.

IG: 45:51
Yes.

AW: 45:52
Yeah.

IG: 45:52
And they ranged in ages.

AW: 45:55
Well, most of them were in their 20s, 30s, and then for [crosstalk] 40s.

IG: 46:02
So, tell us, you know, this is really-really valuable work that you have done in your life, and now you are teaching a course at Mercy College. And you know, who are your students there?

AW: 46:19
A lot of them are going for a degree mental health counselor.

IG: 46:22
I see, I see.

AW: 46:23
So and I talked about that my cases, I asked them to expand on their own cases.

IG: 46:28
Right.

AW: 46:29
Because I am not just teaching the theory of family violence, I am trying to get their understanding-

IG: 46:36
Right.

AW: 46:37
-the case of they have seen-

IG: 46:38
Right.

AW: 46:39
-from-from the perspective of the points textbook is making, and from my own perspective, having worked with no 150 cases a year for over 20 years, and I also bring in the cases that I had at Freedom House, if I asked them to tell me about their cases, also.

IG: 46:57
Right.

AW: 46:57
Because I want you know how their cases relate to what the theory says.

IG: 47:04
Right. And there is no indication of you letting up on this class?

AW: 47:10
No-no. I am going to continue teaching it.

IG: 47:14
That is wonderful. That is wonderful. So you know, just, let us, let us move to the past a little bit. And I just wanted to know, you know, so, when did you meet your husband? And you know, where did you meet your husband?

AW: 47:33
I have a friend, Lenny Bergman.

IG: 47:35
Right.

AW: 47:35
She was dating Joe Friedman.

IG: 47:37
Yeah.

AW: 47:38
And my husband was friendly with- was very close with Joe Friedman. I was very close with Laney.

IG: 47:44
Right.

AW: 47:44
So they said, why do not you come for Friday night dinner.

IG: 47:45
Right.

AW: 47:45
And you can meet Arnold Weintraub. I said, I am not really interested.

IG: 47:52
Yeah.

AW: 47:53
And he said the same thing to Joe. So, Laney said to me, you are not going to marry the guy-

IG: 47:58
Yeah.

AW: 47:59
-just come and meet him for dinner.

IG: 48:01
Right.

AW: 48:01
So on the assumption I did not have to marry him, I met her for dinner.

IG: 48:05
Right.

AW: 48:06
And I was going to a synagogue on the west side. It must have come up in course the conversation. So then the following this Saturday, after the Friday night dinner, he showed up my synagogue.

IG: 48:17
This is sweet. That is really nice.

AW: 48:19
Well, I totally ignored him.

IG: 48:21
Yeah.

AW: 48:22
I do not know why my daughter says me to this day, "Why did you ignore dad so much." I do not know why I ignored him. I just ignored him. But he called me up anyway for a date.

IG: 48:32
That is very lovely.

AW: 48:33
And when we hit- our first date was April 21 1972 and so every April 21 we always celebrate everyone having and he and he proposed a year later.

IG: 48:47
Yeah.

AW: 48:48
April, things like April 22.

IG: 48:50
That is very, that is very sweet.

AW: 48:52
So, two people really wanted me and he said, his joke, I am not innocent. Joe said, you know, you are not going to marry her. So, I mean, some people were not going to marry each other. He met- we fell in love.

IG: 49:03
It took the pressure off of you, you know.

AW: 49:05
That is true, that is true.

IG: 49:06
That is, that is, I think that that made things more possible. So also, you know, going back, so what-what were you like? I mean, this is 1972 you were, you know a young woman who was very kind of on a, on a career track to an academic career in sociology. How do you think that you know your people of for example, of the time during that time, remembered you and you know, how do you think that your classmates at Harpur College would remember you, you know, this is-

AW: 49:44
I think, well, my daughter says, Mom, "You are quiet and you are very serious." She is right. I am quiet and I am serious.

IG: 49:52
Yeah.

AW: 49:53
But when I have something to say, I have no trouble-trouble getting it out.

AW: 49:57
Right. Right.

AW: 49:58
So I say, Rebecca all the time. I am. Be quiet, but I am not a pushover.

IG: 50:03
No.

AW: 50:03
I have my ideas, and if I am in a room when people express themselves, I either agree with them and I tell them why, or I disagree with them, I also tell them why. So why I am quiet. I am not, I am no, I am not a wallflower, right? But I also, I was very quiet in high school, and I was very quiet in college. I am a quiet person.

IG: 50:24
You are a quiet person, I think, with a real capacity for taking people in, right? Because you- yeah-

AW: 50:34
I also chair my synagogues Israel committee now.

IG: 50:37
Yes.

AW: 50:38
We just had a meeting last night, so I am able to take on leadership capacities, and I think I do it very well.

IG: 50:46
Tell us about that leadership capacity outside of your role with victims of domestic abuse.

AW: 50:56
Well, I am very active in my synagogue.

IG: 50:56
Right.

AW: 50:56
But I am particularly active in Israel committee. I am the chairperson.

IG: 51:01
So what do you do? What do you-

AW: 51:03
Run weekly me- we run monthly meetings, and we plant programs throughout the year.

IG: 51:07
Yeah.

AW: 51:08
And I have to get the speakers, and I have to know, getting the orientation of my- there is a reconstruction in synagogue. So I have to [inaudible] a little bit [inaudible] reconstruction is [inaudible] all of that. So, when they come, they prepare, they know what they are meaning. We are also very warm congregation. We do a lot of singing. My husband plays a piano services, so I give him some idea--know what kind of congregation you are. We are also very intellectual congregation.

IG: 51:35
Right.

AW: 51:36
I am not the only PhD in the congregation.

IG: 51:38
Yeah.

AW: 51:41
So and I had- we, and I developed the speakers based on what the interests are of the committee. Meanwhile, we pick somebody out of the blue, I am right in the committee. We discussed now what-what our interests are for the year, and we develop our programs based on the interest of the committee and what we think will interest the congregation.

IG: 51:59
Right.

AW: 51:59
And then we line up our speakers.

IG: 52:01
Right. So does your-your congregation, do any outreach or philanthropy work with Israel or the you know, New York community does-

AW: 52:16
Well, we are not a fundraising.

IG: 52:17
You are not a- Yeah.

AW: 52:18
I mean the people who come speak to us, I always say, bring your literature.

IG: 52:24
Right.

AW: 52:24
People want to give and give on their own.

IG: 52:26
Right.

AW: 52:26
But we do not do active fundraising.

IG: 52:28
You do not do-

AW: 52:28
-for Israel.

IG: 52:29
Yeah.

AW: 52:29
I myself give money to UJA Federation.

IG: 52:33
Right.

AW: 52:34
I also give money to the new Israel fund.

IG: 52:36
Uh huh.

AW: 52:38
The new Israel did not know anything about the new Israel fund?

IG: 52:40
No, but I know about the UGA.

AW: 52:41
Well, new the new Israel fund believes the importance having a binational state, and they also work very closely with the Israeli Arab population. So, and I feel me for really the importance of a two-state solution. So, I do give my money to us, to um New Israel fund.

IG: 53:01
Right.

AW: 53:01
But I also give the Federation, UGA Federation, because I play very important role in aiding the lower—there is, there is three categories, low-income Jews in New York City, Russians, Russian Jews, who came over in the (19)70s and (19)80s. My husband actually worked for highest-

IG: 53:21
I know that, yeah.

AW: 53:22
And you work for-

IG: 53:22
a lot of, a lot of parents of my friends came through that-

AW: 53:26
We also worked in NYANA. Highest brought them over-

IG: 53:29
Yes, I know, NYANA.

AW: 53:31
-provided the services.

IG: 53:33
yeah.

AW: 53:33
So a lot of the Russians made-

IG: 53:34
In the 80s.

AW: 53:35
-a larger portion New York City poor Jews.

IG: 53:39
Yeah.

AW: 53:39
And the Hasidim also.

IG: 53:40
Right.

AW: 53:41
Because they are very large families and they have middle class jobs.

IG: 53:46
Right.

AW: 53:47
And the third category is the [inaudible], because they have not been able to know they did not have the kinds of jobs that provide them with pensions.

IG: 54:05
Of course. Or they did not have jobs, or-

AW: 54:08
A lot of them are living- I did that job for just the Jews Association, service of the agent. Most of them are living on Social Security.

IG: 54:16
That is right, that is right.

AW: 54:18
Some that does not get you very far, does it? Not-

IG: 54:20
It does not.

AW: 54:21
Especially living in New York City, governments are so high. So I do not get talking about this.

IG: 54:29
About-about outreach and philanthropy that you do.

AW: 54:32
I am also very active in the Social Action Committee--my husband, I run a program every at the synagogue called Hunger Shabbat.

IG: 54:38
What is that?

AW: 54:39
Well, we talk about the number of people in New York City who are living below the poverty line. And West Side Campaign Against Hunger is a food- is a it is a supermarket right for people who are living below the poverty line. And they provide wonderful services. They also have a van that goes up the Washington Heights because there so many people living below the poverty line in Washington Heights, and so we run Hunger Shabbat usually have a speaker, someone from West Side Campaign Against Hunger, who talks about the-the level of poverty in New York City, and how was they called themselves whisker and how was good, tries to address that through their through their supermarket approach, and they have an annual dinner, which my husband, I go to every year. I really- It means a great deal to me to support people who do not have the kinds of money that you really need to live on, to live on in the city, this is probably one of the most expensive cities in the world.

IG: 55:39
Yes, can I agree.

AW: 55:43
And then there are people who come here. We a lot of immigrants who come here.

IG: 55:47
That is wonderful.

AW: 55:47
So I am very active on our social committee. I am also part of it is called Synagogue Coalition for Refugee and Immigrant cooperation.

IG: 55:47
Right.

IG: 55:47
Right.

AW: 55:47
We know they come from South America. They are coming for because of being victimized by the gangs in Honduras in Nicaragua and Colombia, sort of coming here to seek safety. We also many refugees coming from Africa. [inaudible] hospital- There are a number of refugees that are from-from Africa, and of course, we have the Syrian problem.

AW: 56:08
We are actually meeting next Thursday, and we develop all kinds of programs to get the Jewish community on board in terms of helping the Syrians.

AW: 56:09
That is tremendous. That is wonderful.

AW: 56:40
I enjoy.

IG: 56:41
Yeah, I mean, it is a meaningful life. It is very it is a meaningful life.

AW: 56:45
My daughter says all the time, "Mom, you have such a good heart."

IG: 56:48
Yeah.

AW: 56:48
And I do. Where I got it from? My parents were very much involved in the Jewish community and giving. So I know I got the broader strokes from my parents, but how I am playing it out in New York City, it is all coming from me.

IG: 57:05
It is all coming from you, yeah, and the people that have fed that right, that that that give that emotion, that kind of disposition, to give up yourself, because there must have been, you know, I mean, it is, it is, you probably had a lot of grateful people that you, that you, that you saw, you know, throughout your life, I mean, the people that you were helping. So, there is sort of a gratitude that is feeding that-

AW: 57:40
That is true, that is true, right.

AW: 57:40
That is true.

IG: 57:40
-that impulse.

IG: 57:44
Okay, well, you know I-

AW: 57:49
You know what, let us eat, let us have some snacks. Okay.

IG: 57:52
Okay, you know what, I have to really leave in like five minutes.

AW: 57:58
Okay.

IG: 57:59
But I want to still ask you just some concluding questions--so you know you have answered a lot of the questions that I-I set out to ask. I know how you spend your time. Do you have any kind of recreational things that you do outside of your community work and your teaching?

AW: 58:26
Well, I live abroad in Central Park. No. So soon, another month, when it really warms up, I am going to start my jogging again. Oh, good. I love jogging.

AW: 58:35
Yeah.

AW: 58:36
It is, it is when I fit and I jog around the reservoir. It is like a little over a mile, right? And when I get back to this apartment, I feel so revitalized.

AW: 58:47
Yeah, I could imagine.

AW: 58:48
Do you jog?

IG: 58:49
I-I-I run on the treadmill. It is not my favorite thing to do. I swim.

AW: 58:55
Oh, I love swimming also.

IG: 58:57
I-I-I swim in the Binghamton pool, and I do yoga. I mean, I been a yoga devotee for the last [crosstalk]

AW: 59:08
Swimming is one of my two favorite sports activities. Are all spring, summer time?

IG: 59:14
Right.

AW: 59:14
Yeah, but you cannot swim in the wintertime. And I do not like indoor pools. I cannot stand the smell of chlorine.

IG: 59:20
Well I swim in the actually, the Binghamton pool is extraordinary because it does not really smell of chlorine. So have you been back to Binghamton?

AW: 59:30
No, I have not. I went back my- I had a friend who lived in Binghamton.

IG: 59:37
Oh really. Well, you should come to visit us. You know when you are whenever you visit your friends, we would be very happy to introduce you to the Dean of Libraries, who is very forward thinking, and he has big visions

AW: 59:56
[inaudible] still the same place?

IG: 59:58
Still the same place. I.

AW: 59:59
Okay.

IG: 1:00:00
But it is expanded.

AW: 1:00:01
I am sure it has.

IG: 1:00:03
Now the- there are, there is not just one Binghamton library. There are four libraries.

IG: 1:00:10
We call- because there is a science library on campus. There is a downtown, a smaller downtown library for the student community that lives downtown. And now we are opening a school of nursing [crosstalk]. So, there is, there is this [crosstalk] but they are now transferred to a new campus in Johnson City.

AW: 1:00:10
Why?

AW: 1:00:38
Where?

IG: 1:00:38
Johnson City.

AW: 1:00:39
Oh right, Johnson City was just [inaudible] of Binghamton.

IG: 1:00:42
So, there are four libraries, and there are different programs that we do for-for example, you know, employing low-income students to learn to work in the library and learn, you know, technology and research skills while they are doing it. But let us, let us conclude this interview asking you about, you know, what are the most important lessons that you have learned in life that you would like to share to with you know, current and future students listening to this [crosstalk]

AW: 1:01:18
I honestly, most important part of anyone's life is first of all getting a college education, because it broadens your understanding of the world. You begin to realize it is not just about me, but you begin to realize that there is a whole world out there beyond yourself with different values you learn about different cultures, and it just expands your understanding of the world. So I would say to anybody and everybody, how important is- [squeaky door] Hi. This is my husband.

Amy's husband 1:01:49
How are you? So, you found it. [squeaky door] I am going to head over to the [inaudible] now.

AW: 1:01:55
This is my warm ass going husband. [crosstalk]

IG: 1:01:59
We have learned a lot about you.

Amy's husband 1:02:01
You have?

IG: 1:02:02
Yes.

Amy's husband 1:02:02
Yeah, you think it is all true.

IG: 1:02:05
No. So your wife is concluding her interview with me and telling us what life lessons were the most important that she learned in her career and in her life that she would like to share with this current generation of students and future generations who are listening to the tapes. [crosstalk] Yes.

AW: 1:02:38
I would say to anyone, everyone. I know college educations cost a lot.

IG: 1:02:42
Yeah.

AW: 1:02:44
But if-if there is a famous founder of Israel theater, Herzl [Theodor Herzl] said, if you dream it in well, if it is if you dream it, "If you will, it is no dream."

IG: 1:02:57
Repeat it.

AW: 1:02:58
If you will, it-

IG: 1:02:59
Yes.

AW: 1:02:59
It is no dream.

IG: 1:03:01
Yes.

AW: 1:03:02
So if you have the intellectual capacity to get a college education, I know that New York State, you can earn up- your parents can earn up $220,000 and you still can get an education for free if you go to a school in New York State, and if you go to one of the SUNY schools. So I would urge everyone, anyone and everyone, to get a college education, because just broaden your understanding of the world. And I am glad I got a college education, and I am glad I got it at Harper College.

IG: 1:03:37
Wonderful. Thank you so much.

AW: 1:03:39
You are very welcome.

(End of Interview)

2018-03-09

Irene Gashurov

1964

Dr. Amy Weintraub

Amy Weintraub, PhD, led the Center for Victim Support at Harlem Hospital Center for 25 years and assessed patients with a history of domestic violence and sexual assault. She currently teaches courses on these subjects at Mercy College. She was a sociology major at Harpur College. She was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow.

Audio

Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni working with victims of domestic violence/sexual assault; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area

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Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni working with victims of domestic violence/sexual assault; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area