From Moscow to Midwestern Mitzvot

In this episode of the IN-Jewish History Podcast, we speak with Rabbi Michael A. Davis, who has strong roots in Indiana. His grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, was born in Indianapolis, and his father, Maurice Davis, served as the Rabbi of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, where Rabbi Michael grew up. Starting in 1995, Rabbi Michael became the spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El. As a proud third-generation Reform rabbi, he obtained his rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, a post-denominational rabbinical seminary. Additionally, he pursued graduate rabbinic studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute and completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University.

Professor Shelly Tenenbaum is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the undergraduate concentration in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. Her publications include A Credit to Their Community: Jewish Loan Societies in the United States, 1880–1945. Jewish immigrants often needed access to capital to start a small business. This led to various loan societies and later to Jewish Credit Unions that fueled an exit out of poverty for thousands of American Jews.

Rabbi Moshe, also known as Roosevelt Solomon Jr., was born in 1952. Much of his career has been in Kokomo, Indiana. Initially, he grew up to become a Baptist minister. During his time in the pulpit, he traveled to Israel and experienced a vision that established a personal connection to Judaism. Following this revelation, he converted to Judaism under the guidance of Manhattan’s unaffiliated New Synagogue. In Kokomo, Roosevelt Solomon Jr., the son of a minister, entered the ministry at a young age. Now known as Rabbi Moshe, he founded Congregation Yeshivat Tzion around 2014 with the unique goal of converting others to Judaism in the spirit of “Jewish unity.” He describes his synagogue’s tradition as Sephardic, neo-Hasidic, post-racial, and post-ethnic and Zionist, with many members observing kosher dietary laws. Soul food has also significantly influenced the synagogue’s culinary offerings. Some of the synagogue’s melodies are influenced by Black American musical traditions, as noted in the Artscroll Orthodox Prayer Book. 

In this podcast episode, we talk to Professor Timothy Quevillon, Western Kentucky University, Founder and Director of the Riverlands Jewish Archive, who describes his work and research as a partner with the Indiana Jewish Historical Society and some of the fascinating history he has discovered over the past year.

Margarita Rayzberg was born in Perm, toward the end of the Soviet Union. Her family came to America, and she attended Jewish day school and later became a professor of Sociology. She is a Professor of Sociology at Valparaiso University and lives in Gary, Indiana, in the Miller Beach neighborhood. In this episode, Margarita discusses unique aspects of the Sociology of Jews from the Soviet Union and the current struggles faced by the ever-smaller number of Jewish professors in academia.

We're joined by Adam B. Shapiro, who has become a prominent actor in Yiddish theater and has worked in both movies and television. He's originally from Indianapolis and graduated from Ball State University. Adam discusses his early challenges and his unlikely rise to stardom in the Yiddish theater.

Richard Glazier was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a family that had grown up in a small Jewish enclave on the city’s South Side. In this podcast, we discuss his family’s struggles with poverty and its eventual successes. Richard began studying piano at the age of six. When he was nine, he watched the 1943 film "Girl Crazy,” which featured a score by George and Ira Gershwin. Enthralled by the music, he wrote a fan letter to lyricist Ira Gershwin.Over the next three years, Glazier and Gershwin exchanged letters, culminating in an invitation for Glazier, then twelve years old, to meet Ira in Beverly Hills. During this visit, Ira asked Glazier to play a Gershwin tune on the piano that had once belonged to his brother, the legendary composer George Gershwin. Inspired by Ira's encouragement and interest, Glazier devoted himself to studying the Gershwin repertoire and the American popular songbook. Glazier earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Piano Performance from the Indiana University School of Music, and he later obtained a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Music

In this episode, we join Olga Chernyak, who discusses her Jewish journey of growing up in Moscow in the USSR, immigrating to Ohio, and later moving to Indiana, and her family’s struggles and successes on the way to reclaiming the Jewish traditions and maintaining Jewish memory from generation to generation.

Learn how Dee Schwartz and her family were rescued from the Holocaust by Cantor Myro Glass, living in Indianapolis.

In this episode of In Jewish History, Michael sits down with Ross Melnick to discuss Sid Grauman—the Hoosier Jewish showman who helped shape Hollywood’s golden age.Melnick is a professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was named an Academy Film Scholar and an NEH Fellow for his acclaimed book, Hollywood's Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World, which explores how movie theaters became powerful tools of American cultural influence worldwide.