Goldie Milgram Papers
Scope and Content Note
The Goldie Milgram Papers consist of correspondence, writings by Milgram and others, research materials, newspaper clippings, liturgy and reference materials that Rabbi Milgram uses in her teaching, schoolwork from Milgram as a student and that was submitted to her as a professor, personal papers of her and of her family, photographs and photographic slides, recorded music, several of Rabbi Milgram’s external hard drive, textiles, ceramics, and other artifacts. The materials in this collection date from 1900-2016, with the bulk dating from 1980-2005. The majority of the collection is in English, with some liturgical materials in Hebrew, Russian and Dutch.
The materials in this collection generally relate to Milgram’s Jewish Renewal and teaching work. There is also some of her academic work and personal papers and journals. Academic work that was not completed by Milgram has been restricted. The liturgy and teaching materials would be useful for researchers of Jewish Renewal and Jewish spirituality as well as those interested in newer rituals, such as those for miscarriages and gender reassignment surgeries, and newer interpretations of established rituals, such as baby namings and same-sex weddings. Researchers interested in the experiences of a female rabbi might also find some useful materials in this collection, particularly in terms of Rabbi Milgram’s experiences as a female rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and her involvement while there with the Jewish Women’s Studies Project, now called Kolot. Rabbi Milgram is also quite interested in Jewish meditation, Judaism and bioethics, ways in which to find a more personally meaningful connection to Judaism, respectful religious pluralism, and writing one’s own Torah commentary and lifecycle rituals; there are documents in this collection that reflect this.
Dates
- Creation: undated, 1900-2016
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1980 - 2005
Creator
- Milgram, Goldie, 1955- (Person)
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.
Use Restrictions
No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.
For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org
Biographical Note
Gail Mara Milgram was born in Philadelphia on January 6, 1955, to Samuel Milgram and Leona Fradin Milgram. She officially changed her name to Goldie, her Yiddish name, as an adult. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, and an M.S.W. from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University in 1979, for which she also completed some coursework at the Hornstein Program for Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University. Milgram also worked and volunteered at a number of Jewish communal organizations, including several positions within at Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia and the Jewish Federations, ultimately serving as the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Cumberland County in New Jersey.
Milgram received rabbinical ordination and a master's in Hebrew letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1993, during which time she served as the part-time rabbi for Temple Beth El in Hammonton, NJ, a position in which she continued in after ordination. She served as the Dean of Admissions and Professional Development for the Academy for Jewish Religion from 1994-2002 and is a member of the OHALAH / ALEPH rabbinical ordination and Haspa’ah (Jewish spiritual director and guide) Program faculties. Milgram received a doctor of ministry degree from the New York Theological Seminary in 2003. She received a private rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 2000 and a formal ordination as a spiritual director and as Schachter-Shalomi’s shaliach (Jewish legal emissary) in 2009.
In 2000, Rabbi Milgram founded reclaimingjudaism.org, a site through which Rabbi Milgram and Rabbi Shohama Wiener aim to teach Jewish spirituality and practice through online workshops, courses, retreats, resources, and teleconferences. She has also taught courses on Jewish Renewal at a number of retreats, Jewish Community Centers, congregations, universities, and institutes all over the world. Rabbi Milgram has written several books, including the Reclaiming Judaism three-volume series, Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah: A Personal Guide to Creating a Meaningful Rite of Passage and Living Jewish Life Cycle.
Rabbi Milgram was previously married to Robert G. Beitman, MD, with whom she has two sons, Adam and Mark. Together they wrote a weekly column on preventative medicine in the 1980s and early 1990s called “Health Watch”. Rabbi Milgram is currently married to Barry Bub, MD, author of Communication Skills that Heal: A Practical Approach to a New Professionalism in Medicine. They periodically teach courses and retreats on Jewish Renewal and couples together.
Extent
21 Linear Feet (32 manuscript boxes, 1 half-size manuscript box, 1 record carton, and one oversize textile box)
Language of Materials
English
Hebrew
Russian
Dutch; Flemish
Abstract
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Goldie Milgram, including articles written by and about her, liturgical and teaching materials, correspondence, schoolwork and essays written by Milgram as well as schoolwork that was submitted to her as a teacher, clippings, and personal papers belonging to her and to her family members. These materials reflect her participation with the Jewish Renewal movement as well as her work teaching about Jewish spiritual practices.
Arrangement
The collection has been divided by topic and format and is arranged alphabetically and, within this order, chronologically by earliest dated document. Writings by Milgram and photographs have been arranged chronologically by the earliest dated item within each folder. The collection has been divided into nine series, some of which have been further divided into subseries.
- Series I: Liturgy and Teaching Materials, 1944-2015
- Subseries 1: Holidays and Rituals, 1944-2014
- Subseries 2: Teaching and Leadership Events, 1967-2015
- Series II: Educational Papers, 1960-2011
- Series III: Correspondence, 1971-2016
- Series IV: Writings, 1972-2011
- Subseries 1: Personal Writings, 1972-2011
- Subseries 2: Research Clippings, 1973-2011
- Series V: Personal Materials, 1900, 1919-2012
- Series VI: Printed Materials, 1918, 1943-2016
- Series VII: Photographs, 1976-2005
- Series VIII: Personal Artifacts, undated, 1989-2009
- Series IX: Audiovisual Materials, 1955-2013
Acquisition Information
The collection was donated to the American Jewish Historical Society by Goldie Milgram in February 2009. An additional accession was donated to AJHS in 2016. The accession number associated with this accretion is 2016.014.
Separated Material
The following published books have been separated to the AJHS library:
- Kerem. "Creative Explorations in Judaism." Vol. 13
- The Reconstructionist. "New Midrash and New Ritual." Vol. 63. No. 1.
- Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review. "The Jewish Woman: An Anthology." No. 13.
- Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review. "A Special Issue on Prayer." No. 41-42.
- The "Matteh Aharon" Haggadah, 1710.
- The Hamburg-Amsterdam Haggadah, 1728.
- Baugh, Rabbi Pamela Frydman. Passover Haggadah: Prepared for Or Shalom Jewish Community.
- Broner, E.M. The Women's Haggadah.
- De Sola Pool, David and Tamar. The Haggadah of Passover for Members of the Armed Forces of the United States.
- Eson, Morris E. Passover Haggadah for All Generations: A Modern Midrash.
- Freedberg, Nanci J. The Freedberg Family Haggadah.
- Gindi, Elie M. Family Haggadah: A Seder for all Generations.
- Goldberg, Rabbi Nathan. Passover Haggadah.
- Grossman, Elayne Robinson and Daniel T. Grossman. Help Us Bake a Challah and other Songs for Jewish Children.
- Hebrew Publishing Company. Passover Hagadah with Music.
- Jewish Federation of Portland. A Women's Haggadah.
- Kaplan, Mordecai M., Eugene Kohn, and Ira Eisenstein. The New American Haggadah.
- Levy, Rabbi Richard N. On Wings of Freedom: The Hillel Haggadah for the Nights of Passover.
- Maxwell House Coffees. Passover Haggadah.
- Portnoy, Mindy Avra. Ima on the Bima.
- Rabbis for Human Rights. In Every Generation Let Each of Us Look Upon Ourselves as if we Came Forth Out of Egypt: A Haggadah Supplement on Economic Justice.
- Regelson, Abraham. The Haggadah of Passover.
- Saypol, Judyth Robbins and Madeline Wikler. My Very Own Haggadah.
- Scherman, Rabbi Nosson. The Family Haggadah.
- Shapiro, Rabbi Rami M. Gefilte Fishing: A Guide to Spiritual Awakening.
- Shapiro, Rabbi Rami M. This is the Path: Twelve Step Programs in a Jewish Context.
- Synagogue of K'ai-Feng Fu, China. Haggadah of the Chinese Jews.
- United Jewish Appeal Rabbinic Cabinet in cooperation with the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The Exodus Haggadah From Tyranny to Freedom A Celebration.
- Wark, Mary Ann Barrows. We Tell it To Our Children.
- Wiesel, Elie. A Passover Haggadah.
Processing Note
When the materials came to the AJHS Archives, they were, in general, not organized in any way. Any materials that were grouped together or labeled have been left as they were. For example, the liturgy of “unusual rituals” was in a folder with that label. In addition, most of the newspaper clippings were grouped together and so they form their own subseries.
In May 2015, the external hard drive in box 26 was forensically imaged using FTK Imager and a USB write blocker.
In 2016, AJHS received additional materials from Milgram. These materials were incorporated into the existing series structure. Series IX's title was changed from Series IX: External Hard Drive to Series IX: Audiovisual Materials to include VHS tapes, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, and other media in addition to hard drives.
Subject
- Milgram, Goldie, 1955- (Person)
- Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman, 1924-2014 (Person)
- Waskow, Arthur Ocean, 1933- (Person)
- ALEPH (Philadelphia, Pa.) (Organization)
- Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Wyncote, Pa.) (Organization)
- University of Pennsylvania (Organization)
- Wurzweiler School of Social Work (Organization)
- Aquarian Minyan (Berkeley, Calif.) (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Goldie Milgram Papers, undated, 1900-2016 P-885
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Rachel S. Harrison as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation. Additional processing by Nicole Greenhouse.
- Date
- © 2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from GoldieMilgram.xml
Revision Statements
- May 2015: Added note for imaged hard drive.
- June 2015: Noted changed location of ALEPH DVD.
- January 2017: 4 linear feet of additional material was processed.
- October 2020: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository
