People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Sokolivka: Once Home

Acknowledgments

Leslie Shuman with Irv, Marilyn and Cathy Shuman and the extended Shuman family, 1960s. Courtesy of Charlie Shuman.

In Loving Memory

Leslie Shuman Kramer

Community leader, activist and advocate.

1961-2022

Read Leslie's Story

Our thanks to Leslie Shuman Kramer (z”l) for her leadership and life example. You are missed and always in our hearts. Our thanks to the Kramer Family and Shuman Family for supporting this exhibition.

It takes a village to write about a village!

  • Charlie Shuman for sharing his encyclopedic knowledge, excerpts from the Shuman Story videos, Yiddish Minute book and other materials and for keeping the history of Sokolivka alive as his mother, Chaika Aliotz Shuman, so fervently hoped for in her writings and newspaper interviews.
  • Rabbi Daniel Shuman for his timely location of unique and critical materials and translation and making them available to all.
  • Sue and Eric Recoon for finding unique cousin club materials to share, as well as Ferne Mittleman’s speech at a Recoon Reunion, and other materials that immeasurably enhanced this exhibition.
  • Steve Carrel, Allan Carrel and Ellen Goldstein for all of their materials, written, and digital relating to the Carrel line, and their generosity in sharing their family history research and materials.
  • Abe Wagner for photographs of Sokolivka-Justingrad as it was in the early 2000s.
  • Charles Wagner for an overview of his family history and forefathers including Abraham Wagner who started Wagner Folding Box during the Depression.
  • Thanks to the extended Miller family, for making available the Yizkor book by Leo and Diana Miller, ed. ACentury of Struggle and Suffering in a Ukrainian Shtetl as Recounted By Survivors to its Scattered Descendants From Sokolievka/Justingrad, New York: 1983.
  • For Descendants of the Kaprove family for making the study by Joseph and Etta Gilman available online.
  • Mark Criden for connecting me to the a helpful Justingrad group managed by Stuart Bogom.
  • Stuart Bogom for permission to link to the Justingrad group and the text of an oral history by his father’s first cousin, Sol Mahr, which details everyday life and the pogroms in Sokolivka-Justingrad.
  • Rolene Pozarny for her permission to allow use of Dratch family emigration documents.
  • Elynn Boss for her extensive materials relating to the emigration of the extended Gichten family and for connecting me to Will Astor.
  • Will Astor, for his permission to link to his article about his family in Buffalo from Sokolivka
  • Paula Binyamin for permission to link to and include Ben Berkun’s oral history recalling Sokolivka as well as his written materials and her long conversations about the Sokolivka.
  • Selma Morris for an extremely rare photograph from Anshe Sokolivka.
  • To Susan Freed and Joan and Jack Karet for the images of the Wagner Folding Box company.
  • Steve Lippa for permission to borrow historical items from the walls of Holy Order of the Living and to photograph inside the Holy Order of the Living building,
  • Chaim Buryak author for permission to use materials on the website he manages on Ukranian Jewish History. He is seeking materials for all Jewish shtetls and small towns in Ukraine. If you can help him, email [email protected].
  • Nolan Altman for permission to link extensively to materials at https://www.jewishgen.org. This is a significant portal for Jewish genealogy and for Sokolivka includes, maps, books and lists.
  • Sarah J. Greenwald, for compiling a range of sources and creating other materials and making them available through Jewish Gen.
  • Jack Ablove for making providing the story of his relative Basia Chtourman, available as well as an essay about immigration challenges.
  • To Show Memories on Transit Road in Williamsville for their timely conversion of film.
  • James Gibbon, Jewish Community Center for editing the digitized film clips.
  • Jessica Hollister, MLIS at the University at Buffalo, University Archives for scans from the Buffalo Jewish Review.
  • Olivia Anderson for her help in scanning materials.
  • Jill Komm, Mike Steklof and Jessica Wittman at Buffalo Jewish Federation for their support.
  • To Temple Beth Zion Cofeld Judaic Museum for access to materials from Ferne Mittleman’s Research Collection.
  • Posthumous thanks to Ferne Mittleman (z”l) and Muriel Selling (z”l) for furthering Jewish family history in Buffalo.

 

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Start Over: Once Home