Lita Schecter Oral History Interview, August 29, 1991

Judith Berlowitz: . . . on August 29, 1991. The interviewee is Lita Schecter. The interviewer is Judith Berlowitz. We'll start at the very beginning then. Where were you born?

Lita Schecter: I was born in Brooklyn, New York.

JB: And your husband?

LS: Montreal, Canada.

JB: How about let's have a thumbnail sketch of your lives before you moved to 00:01:00Corvallis. Where did you grow up and where did you meet?

LS: Larry grew up mostly in San Francisco after living here and there for a few years. And I grew up in Fresno, California, with time in Los Angeles, from very early years, and then the last two years of high school. And we met at Berkeley, at the University of California, as students in my freshman year. Larry was finishing up the PhD program at the time.

JB: Did you marry during those years?

LS: Yes, we married at the end of my sophomore year, and I was three months pregnant when I graduated and he went through his PhD ceremonies in 1953.

JB: Did you come to Corvallis shortly after that time?

LS: We lived in Walnut Creek for two years and had two children born there. Larry worked for industry at the time, in a research position, and then decided that he really want to teach. So we came to Oregon State and have been here ever since. We came in 1955.

JB: So at that time your immediate family consisted of yourself and Mr. Schecter, and two children whose ages at that time were . . .

LS: When we came? Carol was not quite two, about 21 months, and Ellen was about 00:03:00six months old. They were babies.

JB: How would you describe your Jewish background?

LS: I was raised in a reform synagogue, and my father was not very strongly Jewish. They both had been raised in an orthodox household, but my father had left that behind him well before he married my mother. Living in Fresno was certainly not conducive to having a very Jewish environment, because it was much 00:04:00like Corvallis only on a little larger scale; the Jewish community consisted of 300 families at the time. There was an orthodox community, which Larry's parents were part of; [they] coincidentally happened to be in Fresno at the same time as we were for a few years. So he has a stronger orthodox background.

JB: So how would you describe the Jewish community when you came here -- when was that again?

LS: 1955. I would describe it as almost non-existent, very very loose. If not for the Goldbergs, I don't know how one would have gone about finding the Jewish community without a great deal of effort. But they made it their business to 00:05:00find out who the new Jewish families were each year, and then open their home with an open house where they invited everyone. And that's how we met them and met various other people who were in the community at the time. And I don't know if there were 20 families that were acknowledged Jewish families in Corvallis at the time.

JB: Were there many Jewish faculty members at OSU?

LS: Very few. But whatever families there were, they were on the faculty. Outside of Dr. Goldberg, who was a medical doctor and not with the university, and another doctor in town who did not affiliate with the Jewish community, I 00:06:00don't think there were any other medical people, no lawyers that I was aware of, and the only businessman who was Jewish was Mr. Konick, who ran the local -- a jewelry store in Corvallis. Everyone else was connected to the university.

JB: So I gather from what you've told me so far that the Jewish community represented approaches to Judaism that ran the gamut from ultra-reform to orthodoxy.

LS: I don't think there was anyone in town at that time, perhaps the Konicks, you'd have to ask Selma about that, I don't know what her family's background was, but I don't think there was anyone in town who was orthodox until Kurt and Susie came. And that wasn't until 1964.

JB: How familiar did you find non-Jews with Jewish faith.

LS: Not at all! When I first moved to Corvallis, I lived next door to a very lovely couple, and the first day I woke up and I looked out the back porch, and they had a deer hanging on their back porch, having gutted it or being in the process of doing that, and that was the first time that I had ever seen anything like that in my life, being basically a city girl. And I think the lady's reaction to me was about the same. As a Jewish person, I was the only one she had ever encountered, and she thought I was as strange as I thought her deer 00:08:00was. And I'm really not joking, she was very nice but she really regarded me -- she told me very frankly -- she had never met any Jewish people. She was most interested to see that we looked pretty much like everybody else. I think that's probably not an untypical attitude among people in Corvallis. Her husband was on the staff at the university, so these were not uneducated people, but they simply had not experienced -- they were not particularly sophisticated people.

JB: Were you or your husband ever asked to speak about Judaism to any community groups?

LS: At that time, I don't really remember. Possibly Larry may have spoken. I 00:09:00know that he did at some point, and it may have been in those very early days. I have to ask him. And it was probably within the context of some kind of an off-campus religious group that wanted some information.

JB: Did you have any special feelings about being part of such a small religious minority?

LS: Not -- I didn't find it any different than the way I was raised or where I was raised, because living in Fresno, which had a population of 60,000 people when I lived there, and a Jewish community of 300, was not unlike living in Corvallis. We were always different and very much felt it, despite the fact that 00:10:00we had a lovely synagogue and a rabbi who worked very hard to have good relations with his Christian neighbors. I think he did. But being raised in a small town that way is not easy.

JB: Did the children as they got older during this period ever feel uncomfortable about not having a house of worship of their own?

LS: No. Or I don't know, I really shouldn't say that. They may have, they never expressed any such feelings.

JB: How did you feel about the lack of Jewish organizations or congregations during those years, except of course for Hillel, which was on the campus?

LS: It didn't bother me at all. I think Larry would have very much liked to have 00:11:00had a better organized community to live in. I think it was one of the things he always regretted about living in Corvallis. And we did make the effort to go to Portland occasionally during the early years to make some contact with the Jewish community there. We attended lectures at the Jewish Community Center when it was down in the old Jewish Community Center on First Street. But with little children it was a difficult thing to do unless you were very committed, and we obviously weren't that committed.

JB: What kind of interaction if any existed between the Jewish students on campus and members of the Jewish community?

LS: Very little, I would say. There was a Hillel. The Hillel was run at that 00:12:00time, as you may have been told, by a professor in the history department who was not really very interested in Jewish affairs, and didn't really like being known as Jewish, which was rather a strange person to run . . .

JB: That was Dr. Ellison, I believe, wasn't it?

LS: Yes. I think for the holidays if people knew of Jewish students or wanted to have Jewish students to their homes, they probably got them by contacting Hillel and Dr. Ellison. And there were a few things where Hillel would have some kind of evening or talk, and faculty would be invited to come. But I don't think 00:13:00beyond that there was too much contact.

JB: Did some members of this small group of Jewish people ever get together for Sabbath services?

LS: I don't know about Sabbath services, because we were not interested and didn't do that. They did get together to celebrate holidays, and . . .

JB: Can you remember any specifics about that? [tape stops, then continues]

LS: Yes. I would say that, outside of the Goldbergs, as driving forces in the Jewish community, which we've just been informed was more like 10 families rather than 20 families, and I fully believe that's probably true. There were 00:14:00two other families that were very active in promoting Jewish contact in Corvallis. One was the Katz family, that were here when we came in '55, and the other was the Sabaroff family, and I don't remember exactly when they came, perhaps around 6'0. And the Katzes used to make an effort to get together whatever Jewish people there were and have them over for just a social evening, or if there was some kind of a holiday, we would get together. But the first real Jewish community party that I remember was the latke party that the 00:15:00Sabaroffs had at their home, and . . .

JB: Could that have been in '57?

LS: Oh, I know who the other person is: Joan Anton! I'm sorry . . .

JB: That's OK. Could you be referring to a Hanukah party in 1957? I saw a record of that.

LS: Yes, yes, that very well could be in '57. I really don't remember when they came. And I'm sure we have had a Hanukah party at the Katzes' also. I don't know if the Sabaroffs were here quite that early. It might have been something at the Katzes' that you saw, because they were sort of the catalyst, since they had small children, and most of us in the community also had children. The Goldbergs didn't have any children at the time, so their efforts were more with the 00:16:00adults. But activities that included children and pertained to holidays would have been done at the Katzes' or the Goheens', and later on at the Saboroffs'. And certainly the latke party was a Hanukah party.

JB: Can you describe that for me?

LS: I think they had at that time, maybe about 30 people, maybe not that many but probably with the kids, 30 people. And it was held in their home; they had a great big modern table that seemed to expand forever, so they were able to seat a number of people at the table. And we all got together and peeled potatoes like mad, and the men cooked them up. Of course in those days one didn't have 00:17:00Cuisinarts, so there was a lot of grating that had to be done, and peeling. It was just a joint effort, and a lot of fun. And people, I remember, came to that particular event, who had not identified with the Jewish community up to that point. I don't want to name names, but it was rather interesting, because as we have often said of later events in Corvallis, these kind of things seem to pull people out of the woodwork that we don't even know exist.

JB: There's something attractive about food, I think, especially Jewish food.

LS: And that really became a tradition while the Sabroffs were here, to have a yearly latke party, and eventually led into the blintz brunch.

JB: There was, I believe, a latke party held for the Corvallis community as a 00:18:00fundraiser, I believe.

LS: Well I think the first blintz brunch was not a blintz brunch, it was a latke party.

JB: That's what I read.

LS: And after doing that for the community, we decided that we had to serve something that could be done ahead, because it was a horrendous task to peel enough potatoes and fry enough latkes to use it as a fundraiser. It was an impossible kind of thing to do.

JB: Are we talking about after Hadassah was founded or before?

LS: Probably after Hadassah was founded. I think it was the first fundraising event by Hadassah, and then it was changed to blintzes because they could be 00:19:00prepared ahead of time. Which is why the blintzes really have nothing to do with Hanukah, the event was held at Hanukah time because it was a latke party. But we just couldn't keep on with the latkes, it was too difficult. Because we were trying to deal with a couple of hundred people, and it was a very hard thing to do.

JB: Let's talk about the children. I imagine that there were a number of children about the ages of your children here. You seem to have come when there was somewhat of an influx.

LS: Yes, there was an influx of young people to the university in those years, and of course we all had young children of various ages. There were not really that many children in our children's age group.

JB: Tell me about some efforts to provide religious education for the children, aside from home and family observances, if there were any.

LS: Well we started the Sunday school, and that started about the same time as Hadassah and the same group of people, basically, because they were the people who had children who were in need of some kind of religious education, and we formed a Sunday school group, we had meetings at various homes, our homes, to organize it.

JB: Who served as teachers?

LS: We did. Larry taught an upper class. Susie, when she came, Susie taught a Sunday school class for years and years. Although they did not send their own 00:21:00children to the Sunday School, because it was not the kind of religious education that they wanted.

JB: It is my impression that the original Sunday school efforts occurred before the establishment of Hadassah, and actually the establishment of Hadassah was a result of people looking for some formal organization and some way of getting better access to learning materials and all that sort of thing.

LS: I think it was the other way around, but I wouldn't swear to it. It seems to me that we, at least formally, and I don't really remember because it was all sort of going on at the same time, but formally the Sunday school was put under 00:22:00the sponsorship of Hadassah in an informal way, because Hadassah really isn't in the business of sponsoring Sunday schools, but as part of our American community interest, which is a proper function of Hadassah, we sort of sneaked ourselves in that way. Not that Hadassah ever funded the Sunday school, it didn’t. But as I said, it was the same people, so it kind of fell under the umbrella of Hadassah.

JB: But there must have been efforts in this direction before the affiliation with Hadassah was actually formalized.

LS: If so it was not very much before. It really was kind of a simultaneous thing. Because we had a Sunday school, we had various holiday observances, but 00:23:00something like the latke party was something that preceded all that. And then when there was a Sunday school, the same kids that had been at the latke party were involved in the Sunday school latke party, so it all kind of flowed together and I'm not very clear on that. I do remember having meetings at our house, to try to organize the Sunday school, to decide on the ever important curriculum, over which there were lengthy and great battles, because it was evident right from the beginning that we had an enormous split in the community with regard to what kind of Jewish education we wanted the children to have.

JB: That would be natural with people with such different Jewish backgrounds. What about some of the experiences as Jewish children that your children or any 00:24:00others you might know about had within the public schools. Where they were very definitely a tiny tiny minority.

LS: The schools were interested at holiday time in finding out about the Jewish holidays, so the children were asked to bring menorahs to school, and to talk about Hanukah, to explain Hanukah. And then later the schools wanted to learn about Passover. That didn't come at the same time. For whatever reason, Hanukah was the main emphasis for quite a while. I think that Ze'ev Orzech was asked to 00:25:00come to various schools to talk about the holidays, Hanukah or Passover. And then the schools were interested in learning about the Passover Seder, and what that consisted of. Also the local churches began to be interested in that. And there were some mock Seders held, and various people were asked to come to the churches and explain about the Seder and the holiday, or to participate in a mock Seder, and I know that Ze'ev led mock Seders at some of the local churches.

JB: In those years, or in this timeframe that we're talking about, pre-Hadassah, which means before '64, did you ever have any experiences with anti-Semitism, 00:26:00incidents of anti-Semitism? Did the children ever feel any?

LS: Not that I know of. I have never experienced any personal anti-Semitism in Corvallis, or for that matter in Fresno where I was raised. The children the same as far as I know. They never came home and said anything about it. I don't know that that's been the case for everyone, and I know that there have been some incidents in Corvallis in later years, but not when we first came, not to my knowledge. The only incident that did come out in the earlier years was one involving Dr. Krakauer, who had never affiliated with the Jewish community, who had married a gentile, and who had raised his children in the Unitarian 00:27:00fellowship. And at some point, I don't remember the year but I would guess that the children were either in late grammar school, because his children and our children are the same ages, or in junior high, so that would be in the late '60s or early '70s, he decided to run for the school board. And as one of the tactics by some of the people who were not interested in having him on the school board, there was a rather unhappy anti-Semitic campaign directed against him, which caused him to I think withdraw from the race, or certainly to lose it, but I 00:28:00think he withdrew. And I remember that was a terrible experience for him and for his children, because I don't know to what extent they even knew they were Jewish up to that point, you'd have to talk to him about that. But that's the only real incident of anti-Semitism that I remember in Corvallis until the hate letters of later years.

It may be that the religious school, the Sunday school, was started before Hadassah, I don't remember exactly, and that the move to affiliate with some kind of national group had to do with a desire to get educational materials and help for the Sunday school, which was very much a shoestring operation in the beginning. Larry and I got, or Larry got, an entire library donated from one of 00:29:00the synagogues in Southern California due to a family connection, and so since they changed their books like the Corvallis school system every few years and dumped everything else, we were the beneficiaries of a great deal of educational material. So I don't know to what extent affiliating with a national group helped in terms of our Sunday school.

The way that Hadassah came about as being the group with which we affiliated was I think very simple. Mimi felt very strongly that we should have some kind of a group , a community group, a group for Jewish women, something that would be on a little more formal basis than just the families getting together as we did, 00:30:00when we did. With that in mind, she wrote letters to every group she could think of, the Council of Jewish Women, and Hadassah, and B'nai Brith, and I don't know who all else. And Hadassah was the only group that was willing to take such a small group of people and recognize us. That's why we're Hadassah.