Family tree exhibit shows the many connections of Chattanooga area's Jewish community

Louise Effron Spector, a member of the archives committee, points out members of her family on leaves of a family tree at the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga Tuesday, July 2, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Several families in the Jewish Federation have family lines that intersect.
Louise Effron Spector, a member of the archives committee, points out members of her family on leaves of a family tree at the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga Tuesday, July 2, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Several families in the Jewish Federation have family lines that intersect.

Some nine months ago, Karen Diamond set off with a checklist of people to talk to. As her audio recorder filled with interviews, her list of names grew larger and larger.

Diamond's project was to capture the oral histories of local Jewish people. She then used the more than 100 interviews in combination with the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga's archives and Hamilton County burial records to piece together the massive "Everything's Relative" family tree, which is now on display at the center.

Diamond, program chairwoman, has worked on these kinds of large projects for more than a decade, she said. This project, though, was one of her most ambitious and genealogy was not something she had studied before, she said. She made connections and documented her work on a spreadsheet and large sheets of paper using multicolored markers.

"This one, it was a one-man band," Diamond said. "As I got going, it was so much fun."

Once the spreadsheet was done, Diamond was left with a question.

"Everyone was getting really excited about it but they wanted to know, 'How on earth are you going to display it?'" she said.

Ann Treadwell, program director, designed the family tree exhibit using green leaf Post-It notes and brown electrical tape.

Featured on those branches are the intersecting stories of hundreds of Jewish residents.

Sanford Winer, 79, and his generations of family members are among those histories documented on the walls.

Winer's grandfather moved from Latvia to Meigs County, Tennessee, and eventually to Chattanooga in the early 1900s. His grandfather, Hyman Winer, sold hardware and other goods to area farmers, often riding out to the rural parts of the area to take orders then returning after several weeks with the goods, Winer said.

"It was like a long, long precursor to Amazon or Sears, Roebuck [and Company]," he said.

Winer said the exhibit showed him connections he had not known about between people he had known for decades.

Louise Spector said it was interesting to learn how the Chattanooga Jewish community moved together through different neighborhoods in the city, choosing to stay together to avoid religious persecution.

Sharing the history with the larger Chattanooga community is exciting, Spector said. The 88-year-old has had relatives in the Chattanooga area since the mid-1880s.

"Many of us know and laughed about how everyone who is Jewish is related somehow," Spector said.

Diamond said she enjoys how the exhibit is interactive. People can trace back their relationships and add to the tree, especially Jewish residents who have recently moved to the area. They may not be connected to the original Jewish families, but they can add their names to the display and to the history of Chattanooga, she said.

"It's always been important for me to tell the stories so the young people know who came before them," Diamond said.

The tree exhibit will be on display until Sept. 14 during the Jewish Federation's normal business hours. Afterward, Diamond's database will enter the federation's archives.

Contact Wyatt Massey at wmassey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Find him on Twitter at @News4Mass.

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