For Solomon Schechter’s heirs, history is a family affair

by Enid Weiss
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

Rabbi John Schechter remembers using an elaborate seder plate during family Passover gatherings when he was a youngster. Standing nearly a foot tall, the ritual item has three tiers and cobalt-blue glass insert dishes.

Other families might consider their Judaica museum-quality, but in the Schechters’ case, the label is particularly apt: The seder plate and other family objects originally owned by famed Conservative movement scholar Solomon Schechter — John Schechter’s great-grandfather — have gone on display at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

John’s parents, Daniel and Sally Schechter, formally donated the items during a reception for friends and family on May 24 at the Conservative movement flagship institution in Manhattan.

The artifacts — the seder plate, a silver hanukkia, a presentation scroll, and a crystal lamp — are deeply entwined not only with Schechter family lore but with the history of Conservative Judaism. Solomon Schechter, born in 1847, was a prominent rabbinic and Judaics scholar in London who gained international fame for his discovery of thousands of rare manuscripts stored in the Cairo geniza, or repository of religious texts that can no longer be used. In 1902, he was invited to America to become the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which he helped transform into a center for Jewish scholarship and a training ground for Conservative rabbis.

Schechter also helped found United Synagogue of America, today know as United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the umbrella organization of Conservative congregations.

The artifacts, a gift from the Jewish community in England, were presented to Solomon Schechter during a gala dinner held in his honor before his departure for the new world, said John Schechter, whose father, Daniel, is the son of the late Frank Schechter and Alice Greenzeig Schechter.

“These are cherished items for us,” said John Schechter of the Judaica kept in his grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ apartments in New York and later his parents’ Chicago home. “We enjoyed use of that seder plate at my parents’ home every year. They were our family heirlooms, but they also are top-of-the-line Judaic objects.”

For John Schechter, Conservative Judaism is also a family legacy. He is the pulpit rabbi at the Conservative Congregation B’nai Israel in Basking Ridge. Residents of South Orange, he and his wife, Cantor Erica Lippitz — who was trained at JTS (where she was one of the first two women invested as cantors in 1987) and serves as cantor at Oheb Shalom Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in South Orange — have three children who all attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union. The school, like nearly all Conservative Jewish day schools, is named after the family patriarch.

Having the family heirlooms on display at JTS, said Schechter, solves potential questions regarding who among Schechter and his four siblings would inherit the items.

“We hope people take heart from them,” Schechter said. “They are endorsements of what was an emerging Jewish community…. It’s not just personal family heritage, but American Jewry’s heritage that no one saw for many, many years.”

The silver Hanukka menora, which is more than two feet high, can be used as an oil or candle-burning candelabrum. The family tried using it, John Schechter said, “but it is too precious and too big for family celebrations.” The hand-blown crystal oil lamp, which has never been used, is designed to be part of the end-of-Shabbat Havdala ceremony.

The testimonial scroll is five-and-a-half feet long, made of parchment and rolled inside a large silver case. Hand-painted with colors and motifs of Israel and talmudic images, its inscription wishes Solomon Schechter well on his journey to the United States. “It is signed by 110 notables of the British Empire, written as if to Schechter’s new colleagues, and reads, ‘We entrust you with our scholar and hopes for you as a Jewish community,’” said John Schechter.

The artifacts, along with family photos, letters, and other memorabilia — much of it donated to the JTS archives by Schechter family members — are on display in the JTS library’s Alperin Lobby.

As items are made available, much of the Schechter family history is being brought to light by Jewish historians and scholars. Without those efforts, said John Schechter, the family would know much less about a man whose three children died young. John’s father was only 10 years old when his father died.

“So we did not hear the stories of how the objects were presented and used,” said Schechter. But family members have since gone through seminary archives and conducted extensive research to learn about their ancestor. “We also maintain contact with other branches of the Schechter family,” he said.

The artifacts are deeply rooted in the seminary’s history and celebrate Solomon Schechter’s impact on the institution said Naomi Steinberg, JTS director of library studies, who was serving as acting director during initial contact with the Schechter family.

David Kraemer, the newly appointed Abell Librarian at JTS, compared the acquisition to “inheriting important objects from your grandfather.” The seminary was struggling when Solomon Schechter took on the presidency and reinvigorated it.

Kraemer, who grew up in Livingston and was previously a professor of Talmud and rabbinics at JTS, also taught John Schechter while the Basking Ridge rabbi was in rabbinical school.

“We’re enormously grateful to the Schechter family for donating these things,” Kraemer said. “These are the kinds of things auction houses are salivating over. I was thrilled to hear about it.”

“The joy for our family is that we’ve enjoyed having these objects and using them,” John Schechter said. And, he added, “We hope someday we’ll be able to hold a family gathering sometime during Passover and use the seder plate. We want our children to have a connection to that as a family item.”

Enid Weiss can be reached at enid@njjewishnews.com.