Editor’s Corner Standing in Their Place: Breathing Life into Charlotte’s Jewish Past

Charlotte Jewish News, May 2025

Shira Firestone, Managing Editor

I remember it being warm that day at the Hebrew Cemetery when I stepped into the shoes of Gladys Lavitan. Literally, period costume and all. I found shade under a tree as I looked out at my audience — longtime community members who might’ve known Gladys, young families introducing their kids to Jewish history, and curious Charlotteans hearing these stories for the first time.

This was the first Mishpacha Memories, a joint program of the Hebrew Cemetery and the Levine JCC Art and Culture Department, where community members portray figures from Charlotte’s Jewish past in first-person, right beside their headstones.

Preparing for my monologue about Gladys—a beloved Charlotte actress, educator, and media personality—I realized this was less about performance and more about listening. I spent hours with her recorded interview, noting the rhythm of her voice, wanting to know not just what she had done, but how she might sound answering the question: “What do you want to tell present-day Jews in Charlotte?” Her message was clear: she was proud to be Jewish and encouraged each person to find that pride and stay connected to their Judaism.

Mishpacha Memories transforms a cemetery into something more than a final resting place. It becomes a stage, a classroom, and a bridge where stories rise from the stones. Suddenly, history doesn’t feel like something we visit once a year; it feels like something we’re part of.

Gladys’ interview is in the same archives at UNC Charlotte that Jessica Goldfarb, Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte’s communications specialist, recently explored while researching for a month-long Jewish Heritage Month series for Federation’s social media in May.

“As a bit of a history nerd, diving into the old archives of Jewish organizations in Charlotte was incredibly fun and fascinating,” she told me. “I was searching for photos but found so much more — like stories behind the circuit-riding rabbis or the work of Henry Baumgarten, Charlotte’s first commercial photographer. I had no idea how pivotal Jewish individuals were in shaping Charlotte, from Samuel Witkowsky, the first president of the Chamber of Commerce, to the many Jewish-run general stores around the city.”

Those archives — like newspapers — are treasures of record.

Mishpacha Memories offers something just as vital: a way to animate those records with voice and presence. I kept wondering: Would people walk away not just knowing her resume — but knowing her heart?

As Sandra Goldman steps into the role of director emerita after 16 years leading the Hebrew Cemetery, this program represents part of her legacy—creating spaces that connect past and present in deeply human ways.

Jewish American Heritage Month is a perfect time to engage with these stories, whether through the upcoming Mishpacha Memories event on May 4, following Jewish Federation’s daily social media posts, or taking the Jacobs-Jaffa Charlotte Jewish Heritage Tour. The Heritage Tour, offered through the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center, invites participants on an engaging hike through our city’s Jewish history, including the Hebrew Cemetery, where stories from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era come alive.

In Jewish tradition, remembering requires action. We don’t just recall our history—we relive it through Passover seders, we observe it through Shabbat rituals, we embody it through programs like Mishpacha Memories. This May, let’s not just acknowledge our heritage — let’s stand in its place and bring it back to life.

For information on Mishpacha Memories, see the ad on page 7. For information on the Jacobs-Jaffa Charlotte Jewish Heritage Tour, visit greensponcenter.org and navigate to “Jewish Studies.” And of course, read the article about Sandra Goldman on the front page.