Our Family History at Vassar Temple

Our Family History at Vassar Temple
A talk delivered by Joel Kelson
at the L’Dor V’Dor (Generations) and Membership Shabbat Service
on December 1, 2023

Our family history in Poughkeepsie and with Vassar Temple is about 100 years long. It started in the early 1920s with my grandparents. My mother grew up here and moved away for college and afterward, but my grandparents stayed. In 1970, my parents separated, and my mother returned to Poughkeepsie to be near her mother. I lived in Poughkeepsie during the 1970-71 school year and had my Bar Mitzvah at Vassar Temple. I moved back to the Poughkeepsie area after college in 1981, and have been here since. Let’s go back to the beginning.

My grandparents, Samuel and Fannie Berlin, both immigrated to the US from Eastern Europe with their families, and got married in 1912. They had a son, Joseph Berlin, in 1913, and my mother Doris Berlin was born in 1919. Sam Berlin was a pharmacist and the family lived in Newark NJ. Shortly afterward, they moved to White Plains and then in 1922 Sam bought a drugstore in Poughkeepsie. In around 1924, they joined Vassar temple, which had been Conservative but just in the past year had switched to Reform Judaism. The Berlin family was in general not extremely religious, but my grandmother kept kosher, and they were in the habit of walking to temple, which was a long way. To give you an idea: Around that time they purchased land at the intersection of Main, Church, and Fountain Place, and had a 3 story apartment building built there. Remember, Vassar Temple was at the corner of Vassar and Mill Street then. That is a 1.3 mile, 1/2 hr walk each way, and they did that almost every Friday night.

I did a lot of research in the Poughkeepsie Journal archives, and found a mention in December 1925 (it was called the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News then) of a Hanukkah play taking place at Vassar Temple, in which my mother was listed as participating. She was 6 1/2 years old then. We take for granted modern electronic communication such as email, the World Wide Web, and texting. In those days, there were just newspapers and telephones. So articles such as the one on the Hanukkah celebration listed every child participant. And then there were announcements of temple events with a long list of people who intended to be going. You would read the list the day before and decide if you wanted to go, or perhaps you didn’t because such and such was going. The number of people on these lists was impressive. For example, for Vassar Temple Sisterhood events in the 1950s and 60s, there seemed to be 50 or more women who planned on attending every event.

Back to the Berlin family: My grandpa Sam had a drugstore on the ground floor of 1 Fountain Place, and the family had an apartment on the 2nd floor. They rented out the other apartments and my grandma Fannie took care of all tenant business, because Sam was busy in the pharmacy. Grandma was a wonderful mother, cook, and hostess. Poughkeepsie became an upstate getaway where her and Sam’s siblings and families met frequently. My grandmother was very active in the Vassar Temple Sisterhood. Like in her home, she was a hostess at many an Oneg Shabbat and temple function, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal archives. In fact, I read that on the day after my birth in 1958, on Shabbat, she was honored with 2 other women for their longtime service to the temple. How happy she must have been for that recognition and to be a grandmother for the first time!

Skipping back in time to some sad events: 1931 was a horrible year for the Berlin family. My uncle Joe Berlin died early in the morning on what was to have been the day of his high school graduation. He broke his neck diving into Wappingers Creek a couple days before. I’m named in memory of my uncle: My Hebrew name is Yosef. During that summer of 1931, my mother must have scratched a mosquito bite too much and her leg became infected. The infection went into the bone, and this was before antibiotics; the only way to save her life was to cut away the infected bone. It was thought she would never walk again. After several operations during high school, she managed to walk, but with a limp. My mother’s outcome was so good because she was operated on by Dr. Max Simon, father of temple members Georgine Dreishpoon and Fredrica Goodman. My mother became friendly with the family, and Dr. Simon’s younger sister-in-law, Lucille Erdreich, was perhaps my mom’s best friend in her 80s.

A happy event was the birth of my uncle Arthur in 1934. The whole family was active in Vassar Temple. In a November 1941 article in the Poughkeepsie Journal, there was a special religious school assembly in honor of Thanksgiving, and my uncle and Georgine Simon are listed as participants. In 1947, for whatever reason, my uncle decided that he wanted his Bar Mitzvah at the Orthodox synagogue, Schomre Hadath. The opposite happened in 1954 when my cousin Debby married Dave Badian at Vassar Temple. The Badians became active members of Schomre Israel. Uncle Arthur returned to Vassar Temple at least a little: In 1948, at his confirmation service, he gave the opening speech. Arthur became a pharmacist, the family profession, and spent his adult life in New York City and Toms River, NJ. Art died a few weeks before my twin children were born in 2002. I named my son Samuel Arthur Kelson, after my grandpa and my uncle.

Back in time to the 1940s: My mother went on to medical school and because of her leg, decided on a medical specialty in which she could sit – she became a psychiatrist. She had a private practice in New York City and met my dad there. He was a cardiologist, so I can say “I have a good heart and mind.” My parents married in 1952 and lived for a while in Forest Hills, Queens, but then decided to move to raise children away from New York City. In 1956, my dad got a job at the United Auto Workers (UAW) union medical clinic in Toledo, Ohio, where I was raised. I went to school in Poughkeepsie only in 1970-71 when my parents separated, but moved to the area again in 1981.

I have a lot of good childhood memories of Vassar Temple. I vaguely remember being at my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in 1962 as a 4 year old. The layout of the place was almost identical to what it is now, except for some renovation in the classroom wing. Of course, the paneling in the social hall was also different. The social hall was full of relatives, and I remember thinking of how huge it was. It is pretty big, but of course I was a lot smaller then. In 1971, I had my Bar Mitzvah after studying with Rabbi Henry Bamberger, who was extremely intelligent. We had a great day, including a fun reception in the social hall. I remember having so much stage fright, I had to be prompted for the Sh’ma after I brought the Torah out of the ark. Just like at my children’s B’nai Mitzvah later, I read from a Torah written by my great-great grandfather in 1853, and handed down from my father to me. This Torah is a very small Torah and is here now at Vassar Temple for whoever needs to use it.

My twin children Sam and Mariel were born in 2002. In 2007, I had a small celebration of the 2-Chai (36th) anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah. It snowed even more than in 1971 – more than 2 feet – and only about 15 people showed up. Rabbi Golomb helped me prepare and officiated. My children had a great B’nai Mitzvah in 2016, with Rabbi Leah Berkowitz officiating. Rabbi Berkowitz had many religious school sessions and events to prepare the whole relatively large B’nai Mitzvah class of 12 students. Naomi Kamlot helped with my kids’ Torah and Haftorah reading preparation. They had a lot less stage fright than I did, and did an excellent job. We had a lovely reception at the Grandview, with over 150 people attending. In 2019, with Rabbi Altman officiating, my children had a confirmation service. Thank you, Rabbi Altman, for your wonderful teaching and a beautiful service.

Over the years, I’ve loved being a member of Vassar Temple. My wife Claudia and I attend as regularly as possible and for years I have enjoyed the New Paths services on Saturday morning. I have been on the Nachamu committee and I contributed to and typed up the Bereavement Guide. I am a member of the social action committee, the ritual committee, and the music committee. In 2013, with knowledge from my job as a programmer at IBM, I re-wrote the Vassar Temple website for a new software platform. For these and other contributions, I was given the Arnold Award in 2014. I currently help maintain the website and I am responsible for delivering the Can Jam program food to various food pantries locally.

I cannot forget to mention that my mom donated funds to keep an ongoing Sisterhood lecture series in my grandma’s name. Since my mom’s death, it is now the Fannie and Doris Berlin Lecture series. We have had such notable speakers as Deborah Tannen, Phyllis Ocean Berman and Arthur Ocean Waskow together, and Sally Priesand, America’s first woman rabbi.