Celebrating our culture. Sharing our stories.

Jewish Buffalo History Center

Jewish Buffalo stories are local, national and international. They are part of the breadth of Jewish life in America and in Greater Buffalo over the last two centuries. The Jewish Buffalo History Center website is a community portal for sources and stories about Jewish Buffalo. As an evolving space for the explorations of our region’s diverse Jewish histories and heritages we welcome your participation as we will be regularly adding new content. Please connect with us to share your stories, photographs, and more!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE JBHC RESOURCE PAGE

Visit the JBHC Website

Work Team Members

East Side/Harold Arlen Exhibit Request

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Your donation to the Jewish Buffalo History Center enables us to develop new content based on research and outreach in order to continually expand our knowledge and appreciation of Jewish living in Greater Buffalo over more than 170 years.

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Jewish Buffalo History Center - 3.20.25.24 Temple Sinai 1960s

Temple Sinai, Congregational Seder, 1960s. Courtesy of Congregation Shir Shalom.

Jewish Buffalo History Center - 3.40.2 Hadassah 1928 scaled

Celia Slohm (Bernstein) with hat marked in red, Junior Hadassah Conference Meeting, 1928. Courtesy of Buffalo Hadassah.

Jewish Buffalo History Center - 3.10.2.1. JCB 1943 scaled

Jewish Community Religious School Class, May 23, 1943, Jewish Community Building. Courtesy of Getelle Rein.

JEWISH BUFFALO HISTORY CENTER WORK TEAM

Jennifer Patrick, Chair

Marjorie Bryen, President

Rob Goldberg, Staff

Chana Kotzin, Ph.D., Staff

Howard Benatovich, DDS

Marc Brown

Sue Freed

Charlotte Gendler

Mark Goldman

Ethel Melzer

Ezra Rich

Carol Schmeidler

Chana Revell Kotzin, Ph.D.

Historian

Chana Revell Kotzin, Ph.D. is the historian for the Jewish Buffalo History Center powered by the Buffalo Jewish Federation. Chana was born and educated in Britain, and initially followed a career in the field of geological science. After retraining in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies of the University of Oxford, UK, she studied at the University of Southampton in the UK and received a Ph.D. in History. Since relocating to the United States, she has worked in public history at the Jewish Museum of Maryland and as director for the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project (JBAP) funded by the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies. This decade long project established a unique repository of Greater Buffalo archival materials through a partnership with the Archives and Special Collections, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. An awardee of the Debra E. Bernhardt Award for Excellence in Documenting New York’s History, she is the author of Jewish Community of Greater Buffalo (Arcadia, 2013), as well as author of articles for Jewish newspapers, Jewish scholarly journals, archives journals and special commissions. She was awarded the Ruth H and Milton E. Kahn Leadership Award by the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo in 2011, the Community Service Award for contributions to Western New York by Temple Beth Zion in 2014, and part of a team recipient for the Community Service Award by the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies in 2017. She has taught as an adjunct Professor at Daemen and Medaille Colleges and is currently writing a history of Jewish Buffalo from 1950 as a successor to Selig Adler and Thomas F. Connelly. From Ararat to Suburbia: The History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1960.

chana@buffalojewishfederation.org

Photo Credit: Brenda Feldstein