Interviewer: Judith Berlowitz
Interview Date: June 9, 1992
Location: Orzech residence, Corvallis, Oregon
Duration: 0:36:42
In this interview, Miriam “Mimi” Orzech discusses her career at Oregon State University and her life as a Jewish woman in Corvallis.
The interview begins with Orzech discussing her background and the years prior to arriving in Corvallis. She first touches on her father’s military involvement and her experience at college. She also details her husband’s childhood, the differences in their religious education and their early years together in Pittsburg, California. The Orzechs found their way to Corvallis in 1957 when Miriam was pregnant with their first child and they were welcomed by the small Jewish community. Orzech states that the nexus of the Jewish gatherings did not entail discussions of Judaism, but rather focused mostly on food.
As the Orzech children grew up, along with other children in the community, Sunday school became an apparent necessity. Rather than creating a lone Sunday school, Orzech decided it would be best to establish an umbrella organization that would harbor a Sunday school and other philanthropic endeavors. Ultimately, Orzech and some community members chose Hadassah, even though they were just shy of the correct numbers necessary to start a chapter.
From there, Orzech discusses the prejudices that she and her family faced as members of the Corvallis community. The demographics of Corvallis being mostly white and Christian particularly weighed on the Orzech family, as did the predominance of Christian programming in their children’s school. In an attempt to address this frustration, Orzech volunteered to serve on a committee which opposed the instituting of religion in the public school curriculum. With a diverse array of religious representation in the committee, Orzech began creating a school calendar with no religious terminology. She notes that gradually, the schools came away from their heavy religious overtones.
Near the end of the interview, Orzech expresses her concerns surrounding the tokenization of the Jewish community members in Corvallis and Israeli professors living in Corvallis on sabbatical.
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Description
The interview begins with Orzech discussing her background and the years prior to arriving in Corvallis. She first touches on her father’s military involvement and her experience at college. She also details her husband’s childhood, the differences in their religious education and their early years together in Pittsburg, California. The Orzechs found their way to Corvallis in 1957 when Miriam was pregnant with their first child and they were welcomed by the small Jewish community. Orzech states that the nexus of the Jewish gatherings did not entail discussions of Judaism, but rather focused mostly on food.
As the Orzech children grew up, along with other children in the community, Sunday school became an apparent necessity. Rather than creating a lone Sunday school, Orzech decided it would be best to establish an umbrella organization that would harbor a Sunday school and other philanthropic endeavors. Ultimately, Orzech and some community members chose Hadassah, even though they were just shy of the correct numbers necessary to start a chapter.
From there, Orzech discusses the prejudices that she and her family faced as members of the Corvallis community. The demographics of Corvallis being mostly white and Christian particularly weighed on the Orzech family, as did the predominance of Christian programming in their children’s school. In an attempt to address this frustration, Orzech volunteered to serve on a committee which opposed the instituting of religion in the public school curriculum. With a diverse array of religious representation in the committee, Orzech began creating a school calendar with no religious terminology. She notes that gradually, the schools came away from their heavy religious overtones.
Near the end of the interview, Orzech expresses her concerns surrounding the tokenization of the Jewish community members in Corvallis and Israeli professors living in Corvallis on sabbatical.