1 10 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/3de455b50809c266d578d8efec6f032c.pdf?Expires=1779926400&Signature=gRPk1O0t0Ku1j951dsPs9XBqIzeWaNF6L7sq3bUzi7KF55W65ZBEkeruC12qjnhY-20P51Wo34JUmH8b2ZSQ72vITQSH5ldv2Xyr5Ocg0raWDbFVbjVwry3PVjdDBhXPWnqpVOd3d7EDwaCp9pmRGAGqJgraX9KSaCled-8ZB743BCewdvIFSF8%7ENGMInA8oarEQSj7%7EmUMrEdRH3pFMW7UFC%7E8FsBCp1PMpEDFVj12i7GaEFGJHZFp0VCG%7EPDuVPJZjkGdfG%7EOS8DKK%7Ebts6SGOMwm-7a5985yI123L8ciCw8zqihbiOLrBm%7EN2XbqhnLa6pZl1BnJhsmwbqllm9g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM e45db08f519e10bf7aa99085b8c35a3b PDF Text Text Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript Recorded: February 24, 2020 Oral Historian: Rabbi Elias Lieberman Interviewer: Troy Clarkson Topic: East End Meeting House Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital Commonwealth online collection. 00:00 [Music] 00:44 I'd like to begin by asking you to tell 00:46 us your full name 00:48 and the postcard you'll be discussing I 00:50 am Elias 00:51 Jacob Lieberman I'm rabbi of Falmouth 00:54 Jewish Congregation 00:55 and I am discussing this wonderful 00:57 postcard 00:58 which depicts the East End Meeting House #falmouthjewishcongregation #eastendmeetinghouse Gunning_Hatchville_Bldg_0526 through 0531 01:01 in East Falmouth 01:03 so the East End Meeting House has a rich 01:06 history in this community 01:08 and it goes way back to the 01:12 the days of the incorporation of our 01:14 community tell us a little bit about it 01:15 absolutely 01:16 um I need to give a shout out I'm 01:18 indebted to a couple of people who did 1 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 01:20 some wonderful 01:21 early research on the Meeting House one 01:23 of whom is Reverend Doug Showalter the #douglasshowalter 01:25 minister for many many years of First #firstcongregationalchurch 01:27 Congregational Church here in Falmouth 01:29 he's an avid historian and he did 01:31 incredible research on the history of 01:33 the Congregationalist community in 01:35 Falmouth and the other is Andrea Rosen 01:37 who for her Master's thesis in 01:40 Architecture 01:41 did a study of the history and the 01:43 structure of the East End Meeting House 01:45 so here's what I learned back in 1686 01:49 among the early settlers in Falmouth 01:51 decided it was time for a meeting house 01:53 so a very simple structure was 01:55 erected with town funds probably 01:59 where Mill Road is in Falmouth today the #andrearosen #1686 #millroad Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through 0016 02:02 Old Burying Ground #oldburyingground 02:04 several structures occupied that spot 02:06 until well into the 1700s it was decided 02:09 to 02:09 move the location of that meeting house 02:12 and a simple structure was built on what 02:15 is now the 2 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 02:16 Falmouth Village Green later that became #falmouthvillagegreen Gunning_Village_Sts_0053 through 0078 02:19 the beautiful 02:19 First Congregational Church with its 02:21 beautiful white spire 02:23 etc later in the 1700s as the town grew 02:28 there was a perceived need for a second 02:30 meeting house 02:31 and there was a debate about where that 02:33 should be so 02:35 the powers that be decided to divide the 02:37 town in half 02:38 with a dividing line roughly separating 02:41 Teaticket from the rest of Falmouth #teaticket 02:43 Tataket at that time #tataket 02:45 and it was decided that the Falmouth 02:48 meeting house would be the beautiful 02:49 white church on the green 02:51 and that a new meeting house would be 02:52 built in East Falmouth #eastfalmouth 02:55 Ezekiel Robinson one of the early #ezekielrobinson 02:58 founders of Falmouth 02:59 and a land owner donated land out in 03:02 what is now Hatchville #hatchville 03:04 the corner of Hatchville and Sandwich #hatchvilleroad #sandwichroad 03:07 Roads today Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346 through 0365 3 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 03:08 and that's where a very simple structure 03:11 was built 03:12 the initial meeting house in the east 03:15 end of town 03:17 it was probably a simple uh gabled roof 03:19 structure 03:21 its main entrance faced the small road 03:23 Hatchville Road 03:24 its long side was facing the main road 03:28 which is 03:28 Sandwich Road so in in 03:32 those days uh you mentioned that uh 03:35 the original meeting house down by Mill 03:37 Road was constructed actually with 03:39 town funds so explain to us a little 03:42 bit about how that worked because in 03:43 those days as you know 03:44 those meeting houses were both civic 03:47 spaces where people would gather but 03:49 also where people would worship 03:50 absolutely this predates what we've come 03:52 to think of as the separation of church 03:55 and state 03:56 but prior to that point it functioned as 03:58 as you say 03:59 a meeting house for civic affairs for 04:01 worship 4 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 04:03 those structures certainly 04:04 Congregationalist meetinghouse were very 04:06 simple 04:07 and it was only probably early 04:10 1840s or so when this principle began to 04:13 evolve 04:14 that there should be a separation 04:16 between government and 04:17 church and religion that 04:21 meeting houses and worship spaces took 04:23 on a decided 04:25 Christian look spires were added 04:28 bells were added as if to say we're now 04:31 dedicating this space 04:33 for religious purposes civic purposes 04:36 might be held elsewhere and so that's 04:38 when many of those buildings begin to 04:40 look more like a stereotypical 04:43 New England church and that was true for 04:45 the East End Meeting house 04:48 1842 a member of that congregation whose #1842 04:52 name was Shubael #shubaellawrence 04:54 Lawrence and I meant to look up the 04:57 derivation of that name because it's 04:59 certainly a biblical name 05:00 and to the best of my Hebrew knowledge 05:02 it probably means God's 5 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 05:03 oath 05:06 regardless he left a bequest in his 05:09 estate 05:10 he said I will leave to the East End 05:14 Congregational Society the sum of ten 05:17 thousand dollars 05:18 to be invested in what he described as 05:20 good stocks 05:22 which will serve as a preaching and 05:24 teaching endowment 05:25 to fund a minister and his 05:29 service to the community and I’ll give 05:31 you that gift if you do the following 05:34 if you rotate the building 90 degrees 05:37 so that the main entrance faces Sandwich 05:40 Road 05:41 if you put up a spire and a bell 05:45 and you agree to maintain the cemetery 05:48 behind 05:48 the meeting house in perpetuity 05:52 the congregation jumped at that 05:53 opportunity it met his 05:56 requirements within two years of his 05:58 will being 05:59 probated and the meeting house really 06:03 took on the look that it has to this 06:06 very day #eastendcongregationalsociety 6 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 06:07 so can you share with us uh 06:10 to the degree that that you know 06:14 the evolution then of the that building 06:17 since that point 06:21 nearly 200 years the occupants and the 06:24 people who have gathered 06:25 right so I’ve learned some interesting 06:27 things about the building from reading 06:29 and certainly from experiencing uh 06:30 the building over the past few decades 06:34 when it was originally built there were 06:36 galleries 06:37 on three sides of that building upstairs 06:39 galleries 06:40 those galleries were designated for the 06:42 poor and for servants 06:44 pews down below the fixed pews were 06:47 essentially sold 06:48 to family members when the building was 06:52 rotated 06:53 two of the side galleries came down 06:55 there was a remaining gallery in the 06:56 back which which still exists 06:59 the building really had no heat not 07:02 surprisingly 07:02 there were two pot-bellied stoves with 07:05 long pipes 7 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 07:07 going around sides of the building not 07:08 doing much 07:10 the records indicate that people would 07:12 bring heated bricks 07:14 they would bring small portable stoves 07:16 of some kind to 07:17 set at their feet and uh the pews had 07:21 doors to try to keep out some of the 07:22 draft 07:23 but it's hard to imagine that it was a 07:24 very comfortable space especially in 07:27 winter weather uh 07:31 it's still a very beautiful building 07:32 much of the the glass windows are still 07:34 the original glass 07:37 through the years the building suffered 07:39 from 07:40 the weight of that additional steeple 07:42 and bell 07:44 since the building was not originally 07:45 designed to carry that weight 07:47 over the course of time the roof began 07:49 to experience some serious sag 07:52 so uh I’m jumping ahead now so 07:56 by the 1960s that 07:59 congregation had grown quite small and 08:02 it was hard to 8 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:03 find the finances to maintain that 08:05 building in the way that 08:07 it needed to be a 08:11 society was formed the East End 08:12 Congregational Society 08:14 circa 1964 and it set about to do some 08:17 serious fundraising to address some of 08:19 those 08:20 problems with the building and it was 08:22 quite successful in that regard 08:24 the building was used um somewhat beyond 08:27 that point it was open to many different 08:29 denominations who would use it 08:31 and almost exclusively in the summer by 08:33 that point 08:34 summer worship became a a factor from 08:37 the 1960s on 08:40 by about 1981 that group had grown so 08:44 small 08:44 that the decision was made to see if 08:46 there might be another 08:48 faith community interested in taking 08:50 over that building 08:51 and taking over the responsibility of 08:53 maintaining it 08:55 and by happy coincidence certainly for 08:56 the Jewish community that was right at 9 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:58 the time when a fledgling Jewish 09:00 congregation was being formed 09:04 Bob Ament Jeff Oppenheim 09:07 to stalwarts of our community were 09:09 movers and shakers both young men at the 09:11 time 09:12 but they realized that there were 09:13 probably enough Jews in Falmouth by that 09:15 point 09:16 to see if it would be feasible to 09:19 pull together a congregation and that's 09:21 what happened around 1981 09:24 and around that time this wonderful 09:26 offer came from the East End 09:27 Congregational Society 09:29 we'd like to offer you this historic 09:31 meeting house 09:32 we'd like to offer you the parsonage 09:34 house which sits just down the road on 09:36 Hatchville Road 09:38 as well as that preaching and teaching 09:40 endowment 09:42 and it's my understanding that by 1981 09:44 that ten thousand dollars 09:46 was about seventy five thousand dollars 09:50 by the way that ten thousand dollars in 09:52 1842 would have been the #robertament #jeffreyoppenheim #1981 10 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 09:53 equivalent of about three hundred 09:55 thousand dollars in 2020 09:56 dollars 09:57 so it was a significant gift the Jewish 10:00 community 10:00 jumped at that opportunity it was really 10:02 quite extraordinary because 10:04 the Jewish community had been meeting in 10:06 Saint Barnabas church #saintbarnabaschurch Gunning_Village_Bldg_0316 through 0343 10:07 in bank meeting rooms and the 10:10 opportunity to create a home 10:12 was really just enormously powerful and 10:16 wonderful 10:18 the meeting house was conveyed to the 10:20 Jewish community 10:21 the Jewish community set about raising 10:22 funds to make restorations 10:25 and to do those things necessary to 10:27 transform it into a synagogue 10:31 the parsonage house became offices and 10:33 classrooms for this fledgling 10:35 congregation 10:36 and uh the congregation took on the 10:39 opportunity to maintain this building in 10:41 perpetuity 10:42 as well as the cemetery behind it so 11 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 10:46 someone at the time approached the 10:49 American Jewish 10:50 Archives premier historical research 10:53 organization 10:54 and we received the really phenomenal 10:57 message that to the best of its 10:59 knowledge 11:00 this was the first time in recorded 11:01 history of a Christian community 11:04 donating its building to a Jewish 11:05 community 11:06 so that it might have a home to worship 11:08 in which is a pretty powerful story 11:13 until this very moment didn't know that 11:14 portion of the history so 11:16 what a remarkable example uh of the 11:19 sense of community that 11:20 to this day is woven through uh 11:24 so many facets of our community 11:27 absolutely 11:28 Troy right around that time 11:31 circa 1983 the first uh Jewish service 11:34 was held there 11:35 on July 29 1983 a Sabbath service 11:39 and members from all over the community 11:41 were invited and attended 11:44 Jewish communities need and go to great #americanjewisharchives #1983 12 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 11:47 lengths to 11:48 attain a Torah scroll the Torah contains 11:51 the Five Books of Moses and 11:53 is read regularly in Jewish worship 11:56 the congregation did not have a Torah 11:58 scroll but was able to acquire one 12:01 with a very special history 12:05 after World War II it was discovered #worldwartwo 12:07 that the Nazis had collected Torah #nazi 12:10 scrolls and Jewish ceremonial objects 12:12 from all of the Jewish communities that 12:14 they had destroyed in Europe 12:16 they gathered all those items in Prague 12:18 and warehoused them 12:19 at the end of the war they were 12:20 discovered including hundreds of 12:23 Torah scrolls some that were centuries 12:25 old 12:26 in many cases they were too far damaged 12:28 to ever be used again 12:31 those which could be restored were sent 12:34 to a synagogue in Westminster 12:36 London which became the repository for 12:38 what are called 12:39 Shoah scrolls Shoah is the Hebrew word 12:41 for devastation the word 12:43 referring to the Holocaust those scrolls 13 #torah #london #holocaust �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 12:46 that were able to be repaired were then 12:48 made available on permanent 12:50 loan to Jewish communities around the 12:52 world 12:54 Falmouth Jewish congregation applied for 12:56 one of those scrolls 12:58 and the cost of bringing it here 13:00 shipping it insuring it 13:02 were donated by the Church of the #churchofthemessiah Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0565 through 0569 13:04 Messiah in Woods Hole #woodshole 13:06 so that church that community made 13:08 possible 13:09 a key element in the celebration of 13:12 Jewish life and worship for our 13:13 community 13:14 and that's a that's a gift that 13:17 remains firmly in the minds of our 13:19 community ever since 13:22 so really the the East End Meeting House 13:25 symbolizes 13:27 so much more than being simply a 13:29 gathering place but 13:31 how it exists today is 13:35 based on the story you just shared is 13:37 one of the shining examples of 13:39 community really absolutely without 14 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:42 question 13:43 by happy coincidence the Hebrew word for 13:46 a synagogue 13:47 two Hebrew words beit which means house 13:50 knesset 13:51 gathering or meeting so beit knesset 13:55 really can translate 13:56 quite easily as a meeting house 13:59 and so it's very wonderful that the 14:01 first worship space for our community 14:04 was a beit knesset from 1797 14:07 a meeting house that's wonderful is 14:09 there anything else you'd like to share 14:11 I’ll just give a quick synopsis of what 14:12 happened since then 14:14 the congregation um had taken over the 14:17 Meeting House circa 1982 14:19 did the necessary restorations and began 14:22 to use it full time for worship 14:24 um the congregation grew quite quickly 14:27 in the 1980s 14:29 and it became apparent by that point 14:30 that it would need to expand 14:32 but there was no room around the meeting 14:34 house for that expansion 14:36 so the congregation purchased 10 acres 14:38 of land across Hatchville Road #1797 15 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 14:41 and built a building with the 14:43 possibility of picking up that 14:45 meeting house and moving it across the 14:47 street 14:48 and then joining it to the building 14:50 which was designed for that new space 14:53 for various reasons that I won't go into 14:55 that didn't happen the meeting house 14:56 still sits in its 14:58 original location and we have another 14:59 beautiful facility 15:01 our Seifer Community Center building 15:03 which has a chapel classroom 15:05 social hall et cetera so we have these 15:07 two wonderful buildings 15:08 the meetinghouse is still used although 15:10 primarily in warm weather 15:13 we put in heating and air conditioning 15:15 back in the 1980s 15:17 90s so it is certainly functional but 15:20 most of what we do takes place in our 15:22 community center building 15:24 but that building remains a cherished 15:26 part of our congregation 15:28 uh and hopefully always will be 15:31 wonderful thank you so much for uh 15:33 sharing this rich history with 16 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 15:36 all of them you are very welcome thank 15:38 you 15:40 [Music] 17 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Postcards from Falmouth Oral Histories Description An account of the resource A collection of transcribed oral history interviews from the Postcards from Falmouth project, 2020-23. Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project made possible by a Library Services Technology Act grant administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Falmouth Public Library Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcript of Rabbi Elias Lieberman's Oral History on the East End Meeting House Subject The topic of the resource East End Meeting House, Falmouth, Mass. Falmouth Jewish Congregation Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video transcript Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Postcards from Falmouth Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 24, 2020 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Elias Lieberman Troy Clarkson Falmouth Community Television Falmouth Public Library 1686 1797 1842 1981 1983 American Jewish Archives Andrea Rosen Church of the Messiah Douglas Showalter East End Congregational Society East End Meeting House East Falmouth Elias Lieberman Ezekiel Robinson Falmouth Jewish Congregation Falmouth Village Green First Congregational Church Hatchville Hatchville Road Holocaust Jeffrey Oppenheim London Mill Road Nazi Old Burying Ground oral history Postcards from Falmouth Robert Ament Saint Barnabas Church Sandwich Road Shubael Lawrence Tataket Teaticket Torah transcript Troy Clarkson Woods Hole World War 2