Jewish Life at Bryn Mawr

After organizing an event with Hillel and the College Archives in which students explored materials on the experiences of Jewish Bryn Mawr students, I realized how little institutional knowledge the College has about these students.

So, as part of a Pensby Center Summer Research Fellowship, I conducted eight oral histories of Jewish Bryn Mawr alumnae who were on campus between 1938 and 1958—Chole Garrell ’54, Susan Band Horwitz ’58, Betsy Levin ’56, Ivy Relkin ’50, Joan Scheuer ’42, and Joan Wohl ’50—and added them to the College Archive. I chose to focus on the 1940s and ’50s, a period of significant moments in Jewish history, including the Holocaust and its aftermath and the changes in American Jewish life such as suburbanization.

The oral histories highlight both positive and negative aspects of the Jewish experience at Bryn Mawr. Among the latter are stories that suggest subtle anti-Semitism and explicit classism: Jewish students were assigned to the same halls to be around “people you will get along with,” and those on financial aid were assigned smaller rooms that were labeled “scholarship rooms.”

But the alumnae I interviewed also reflected on the positive impact Bryn Mawr had on their lives. They note the advantages of such a rigorous education and conjecture that peer-level discrimination was likely coincidence and not malicious.

As Bryn Mawr continues to become more diverse and inclusive, these oral histories show not only how far the College has come, but also how little things have changed, given that many of these stories ring true for students today.

An exhibit highlighting excerpts from the interviews is on display in Canaday Library through the fall. An accompanying online exhibit can be found online. Full audio recordings and transcripts of the oral histories are available for consultation in the Special Collections Department of Canaday Library.