April 17, 2000
Golden State Museum exhibit on Anti-Semitism features UCSC's Neufeld Family Archive
An important exhibit on anti-Semitism currently on display in Sacramento's Golden
State Museum includes the compelling story of a UCSC Foundation board member, told
through the very personal medium of letters, personal artifacts, and documents from
Nazi-dominated Europe.
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| Anne Neufeld Levin, who donated the Neufeld Family Archive to UCSC Photo: Covello & Covello |
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| After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the Nazis issued every person a permanent
identity card. A "J" on the cover indicated that the person was Jewish.
Each Jewish man's name was prefaced with "Israel" and each woman's name
with "Sarah." Permanent yellow armbands were issued later. Courtesy: Neufeld Family Archive, Special Collections, McHenry Library |
The Golden State Museum opened in 1998 as the official home of the California State Archives. Along with special exhibits, the museum displays items from its vast collections concerning immigration, landscape, geology, politics, and more.
"Anti-Semitism, Past and Present" was originally commissioned by the government of Holland and the Dutch Reform Church and was created by the curator of the Anne Frank House. The current exhibition, organized by the Anti-Defamation League, is the only scheduled appearance in northern California. "Anti-Semitism, Past and Present" runs through April 21, while the exhibit of the Neufeld Family Archive continues through May 14. For more information, call the museum at (916) 653-7524 or visit the Golden State Museum Web site.
When they were planning the exhibition, curators of the Golden State Museum sought out the Neufeld Family Archive as the perfect companion piece to present a personal picture of the effects of anti-Semitism. They have selected items from the archive to present a moving and vivid re-creation of the story of Levin's family who, like millions of others Jews in the last century, suffered Nazi persecution. Levin fled from Austria with her parents, Henry and Hedy Neufeld, at the age of three; but many of her relatives did not escape. The current exhibit presents the story of the Neufeld family in three stages--documenting their early years in Austria, followed by their experiences as the Nazis rose to power, and finally, telling what became of the family, from those who did not survive to those, like Levin, who miraculously escaped.
In 1995, Levin established the Neufeld-Levin Chair in Holocaust Studies, an endowed chair to support ongoing examination of the Holocaust. Levin, a longtime UCSC supporter, established the library archive at the same time with the conviction that a donation establishing an endowed chair should be supplemented by a gift of related library materials to support research and other activities generated by the chair.
Levin was honored as a featured speaker at two events to commemorate the exhibition. The first, on March 27, was sponsored by the museum, the Anti-Defamation League, and California Secretary of State Bill Jones. The second event took place at Kenesset Israel Torah Center on April 11. Kenesset Israel was one of three temples in Sacramento to sustain extreme damage as the result of hate crimes targeting Jews in 1999. The featured speakers for that event were Levin and state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush.
