Jacobs Family
Ginger Jacobs grew up in South Dallas, where the Jewish community was smaller and centered around institutions like the community center on Pocahontas, Camp Bonim, and the Hebrew school of Dallas. It was at the community center that she met Mike, her future husband. Ginger had a remarkable memory for the families and neighbors of her old neighborhood, and she became deeply motivated to preserve Jewish history when synagogues and other institutions in South Dallas were torn down to build a highway. Appalled at what was being lost, she gathered pieces of buildings, including what her children recall as a cornerstone from Temple Emanuel.
Ginger founded the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, partnering early on with Ruth Cann, and threw herself into preserving the story of Jews in Dallas. She clipped newspaper articles about Jewish people, organizations, and businesses for the archives, and recorded oral histories with older members of the community so their memories would not be lost. Passionate and persistent, she inspired many to become involved. Mike was active in Israel Bonds, serving as president of the local chapter, and both parents supported the Federation, Jewish Family Service, and the Holocaust Center. The family also attended B'nai B'rith institutes in Salado during the summers.
Following their parents' example, the four children each found their own paths of service. Mark served as president of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, the American Jewish Congress Dallas chapter, and his AZA chapter, and became an immigration lawyer. Deborah led an AZA-related girls' chapter, was active in Hadassah, sent her children to Jewish day school, ran a kosher butcher shop, and volunteers in the kitchen at Chabad of Dallas. Andrew helped start the West Dallas Business Association, and Reuben was active in BBYO. The grandchildren have continued the tradition, working with the Historical Society, the Holocaust Center, and the Federation. The siblings emphasized that their parents never pushed them but taught them to give back to the community however they could.
The Jacobs children believe the Dallas Jewish Historical Society remains vital, noting that if the Jewish community does not tell its own story, no one will.
Full Transcript
recording this meeting is being recorded by the host all right got it thank you but I don't hear it's because I'm not saying anything oh okay okay so the point of this video is to give you and you all an opportunity to talk about your mom of course because she's our founder but your family and you know the Dallas Jewish Historical Society um and basically let me start with the question of do you feel like as the children of Ginger and Mike that there's a Jacob's family I said ethos but is there Jacob's family um words to live by I guess is the same thing
I think that on both cases I think remember is very important to both of them with Dad it was um remember what happened never forget so it doesn't happen again right Mom it's remember your history and understand how Jews have in in Dallas's case enriched and really made an impact on the fabric and culture of Dallas so I think remember is very important as far as Jacob's ethos so to speak I'd agree with that okay and I think Mom and Dad also set an example for us because of all their um participation in the Jewish community over more than just the Dallas Jewish historical society
and more than just a holocaust Center they were active in a lot of other organizations as well and left it out to us to pick what we wanted to be active in I think they also got carried on to the grandchildren because they were very involved with my kids and now they're all active in various things I think two of them are working with the historical society and the Holocaust Center so and I know at least one of them is sitting on the Federation board or a federation committee or right something what activities when you think about how your parents spent their time what activities
stand out to you obviously with your dad it's all the speaking that he did is yeah but before even even before that he was very active in Israel bonds because he was the president of the um local Israel Bond chapter and then we also did the um on on them col nudre when they had the uh uh Israel bonds that shares Israel we were the ones who collected all the pledge cards and counted all the pledges and reported it to the rabbi um so we saw them very active in that and then um Federation the federal their you know Federation and and Jewish Family Service
and mom was very busy with writing her book and uh kind of keeping the bow name people together so they were very they were active in a lot of organizations and then when we were a lot younger we used to go to the um I guess the benebraith institutes and Salado when we were kids and that was always a lot of fun did you really I didn't realize yeah she talked about that briefly in her um uh oral history in the most recent oral history she mentioned yeah Stagecoach in it was like a a rite of passage during the summer every summer we went for
a number of years it was lots of fun and there weren't many kids I mean the woman's kids were there you know so there was a full uh some of them that just made family trips out of it so plenty to do and mother was also active in Texas Jewish Historical Society right as president at one point yeah she I think she helped start that yeah so yeah they were always they're always busy with the organizations that they were involved in right and then on top of that on top of that Dad was also very active in soccer in local soccer for a long time
right right um so it sounds like that they were both Hands-On as well as sitting on committees and boards and and you know things like that some some people are one or the other but it sounds like they you know didn't mind getting their hands started right and just in terms of Mom's activities I mean Daley would see stacks of papers like the Dallas Morning News or the Dallas Times Herald and Mom clipping any article there was in those papers that had anything to do with the Jewish person the Jewish organization the Jewish business and things like that to be kept for the archives it
almost became a family joke well and also I started doing it so I would have piles of papers and in my kitchen on top of my um bench window bench and you know sometimes mom would miss something and I would have it for her but I'd cut them all out and I'd take them and if she had duplicates I guess she got rid of them or maybe she gave them to y'all and I also um remember her of course starting doing oral histories with all the ju you know older Jews in Dallas to try to get their story to make sure it was on tape
and said there'd be memories of what was going on yeah we have pretty much converted almost all of those to a more almost all we haven't done the VHS tapes yet but we have done uh cassette and um some of the earlier uh other modes and um the ones that are just audio are on Soundcloud and the ones that are video obviously are on YouTube that's great oh wow that is great so Market found a whole bunch of videos VCR VCR tapes and I actually started to watch one and it was a video of an Israel Bond function in 1976 for 75. and I don't know how long these tapes last I just started going into it so there's like what eight tapes in there yeah yeah I mean they degrade over time the tape itself um but they can easily be converted to digital yeah they might be because you could tell that they were kind of like either the photographer wasn't very good or they're getting hazy probably a little of both if I had to guess do you remember her interests obviously you talked about her interest in history and in remembering uh Jewish history and particularly in Dallas the founding or the starting of the Dallas Jewish archives
I don't know you were pretty young you know some of it had to do with you know getting together with Ruth Cann and getting things moving and also I think mother became really motivated to to do a lot of this when um a lot of the Jewish institutions in South Dallas were being torn down to build the highway so you know I think some of the synagogues were torn down and and mother was just appalled at at some of the things that should have been saved and weren't saved I remember her going and getting pieces I think it was Temple Emanuel when they took that
down because she was yeah I think she did bring back the um Cornerstone I want to say Cornerstone I'm not sure if that's right or not but I think she she did bring back a piece of it yeah um it was pretty it was pretty upsetting to her that that all this stuff was just getting you know thrown away um and she really was intent on on um Gathering as much as she could yeah trying yeah trying to preserve as much as she could before it was all gone right and yeah the only synagogue that's left of course is uh building is to fare it
mm-hmm and I think probably a lot of people don't even know about that right and I think it's an art studio an artist's studio now something like that yeah um and she you know she used to talk a lot about you know the good old days in South the community was smaller we had the you had the um community center on Pocahontas and of course that's where my parents met and uh you know all the shoals were located down there or for the most part so we used to hear a little bit about that off and on over the years so other people could learn
about it later on and she had an amazing memory for everything and for like anybody who like on Park Row all the neighbors and where they lived and who lived there and their family and she can talk about their grand you know everybody had was conducted in some fashion and she always seemed to know who that was yeah I noticed that actually about some of the other people who grew up down there that they can tell you you know this one lived next door and next to them was so and so and next door to that family and down the street with somebody else honestly
I couldn't tell you maybe because I've lived too many places but right I certainly couldn't tell you who my neighbors were down the street Debbie has a pretty good facility for that also piecing everybody together quite a talent and it you know it certainly how did she how do you think she was able to get I mean she got people involved in a pretty serious way because she was pushy [Laughter] she wouldn't take nothing she was very passionate about this and I think that really motivated inspired a lot of people to become involved you know for her it wasn't a throwaway thing it was really
her part of her soul and people picked up on that and and the fact that she had you know the fact that she grew up in Dallas and knew everybody I think that made a difference too because she had she you know she was there from the beginning she wasn't just talking about something abstractly she was talking to something that was very near and dear to her heart because she'd lived it and and some of that also had to do with um uh camp bonim and the Hebrew school of Dallas and you know just a lot of the things that um were particular to her
time and place that um eventually died out and a lot of people don't know about it she wanted to preserve it and I think partnering partnering with um Ruth can helped a lot at the very beginning because I think Ruth can was somewhat of the first to be reckoned with at the time is that right I I really we have very little information about her as right as compared to to Ginger um yes and of course that's you know Ruth passed away a long time ago and but she was of the Ian Cann family and they had a a clothing store in what Preston Royal
right Forest and they were pretty well known in in their day and respected and I think she was she probably went to Temple Emanuel and had a presence there would be my guess yeah and she was also pretty passionate about it about the whole about the Jewish Community yeah and mom and daughter yeah very strongly about her I forgot what she said in the interview something about she was such a lady yeah that she wouldn't argue with you if you disagreed with her she would just find another way to say it the fact that you were convinced you you were convinced that she must be
right all right why do you think you know you all are a different generation Mark you were president at one time um Debbie some of your kids have been involved um Reuben we have a lot of your bbyo t-shirts what about the Dallas Jewish Historical Society is important today foreign are we still relevant oh yes I think so because there's My Generation well not my generation my kids generation I think they need to know um what Dallas was like and you know they're growing up in it and that we were a thriving part of Dallas and we helped build Dallas and then it's also I
think it's when we were growing up well when my mother was growing up in South Dallas of course the community was a lot smaller and then when we were growing up there are what four synagogues and temples and and then the city boom and the Jewish community boomed and um and it's kind of neat to know how it how it became what it is today and also I think it's a good way to get people I I find it it's I I wish that the the Jewish communities that are more in Plano and Frisco and and some of the outlying towns would be a little
bit more active in in the the central part of the community which is where the Jewish Community was when we were growing up right right yeah it's um you know the response I often get is um especially for people who live further north and further north is well I'm not from here why would you want my oral history and I'd say well how long have you lived here 40 years like you don't have to be born in Dallas the changes you know a lot of things have happened in the last five years ten years you know even and we've had waves of growth you know
with the the different communities moved from other countries to Dallas you know the South Africans came the Russians came um I think there was a a lot of people came from Latin America um kind of depending on what was going on in the in the world right and I think that that story that story is awesome ukrainians as well maybe maybe we'll see so that you know those stories are it's it's really interesting I think people and I think people find it interesting how they wound up here and even if even not necessarily from foreign countries but but um you know you know foreign countries
like New York City and and you know California uh because because the the the city was growing and a lot of the businesses moved here and a lot of people moved down here because the companies they were working for either moved down here or they moved to the Dallas area um for family reasons or because it was a good place for um opportunity that's that's kind of can be kind of interesting yeah when you think about it the retail Market the in you know manufacturing clothing manufacturing industry was huge now not so much most of those you know have closed or gone on to people
have gone on to other things but um you know people then came that were involved in the Aerospace industry and people who got involved then in some of the computer stuff so it's interesting one of the things I heard recently from someone who was the past director of the uh Atlanta Jewish Historical Society their Museum was if we don't tell our own story who will right right that's true we you know if we know the story of the Jewish community in Dallas we understand what a tremendous impact we had as Dallas began and as Dallas grew um but if we if that story never gets
told it's like it's it didn't exist yeah it's like we didn't exist or we totally simulated or you know whatever and that's why the Dallas Jewish Historical Society is still relevant and important so exactly so these lessons that you've learned from your parents by their example by their activities by what they said at home um how have you manifested that in your own life what kinds of things have you been involved in or paid attention to you know are there activities or organizations that you support that sort of carries out that same idea well I was um president of my Aza chapter monski um and
then later on I was president of the Dallas Jewish historical society and I was also president of American Jewish Congress when we still had a chapter in Dallas and we were actually um it was it covered the whole this whole area and we were like among the most active uh chapters in the country at that time um I've been on the board of sheriff Israel Jewish Family Service uh Holocaust Center so I've still been so I was quite active in a lot of different organizations uh less so now than I used to be uh actor that still still active at the show um and I
think a lot of that has been through the inspiration of mom and dad and it's kind of nice because they never really pushed us to do any of these things we just did it on our own because that's what we were interested in doing well and the choice you're you're actually line of work I think is part of that well that's true yeah being a lawyer and doing immigration law that was certainly part of my interest yeah Debbie Reuben pay-per-view back when the girls were young I was president of my or chapter which I can't even remember the name of it at this point in
time and I was semi-active in Hadassah a little bit but then my kids fortunately became my focus and right but then but they all went to Jewish Day School you know that was a chapter they went to the Jewish Day School and two of them graduated from yavna and you know I had the kosher butcher right which I tried to keep alive yeah um unfortunately the grocery stores one out so um very hard to survive in that um but I you know I go to Chabad of Dallas and when I'm in town I'm usually in the kitchen putting their kid issues together um how important
that is oh yeah some people come just for the kids oh yes we can't have them starving so you know I guess you could say I'm kind of active at Chabad in the sense when they need activity when they have programs and stuff and they need someone in the kitchen that's real finding and we're even yeah I just try to be a good person hey good enough I was involved in other things not necessarily Jewish but you know that's fine Ryan's house way back when and um so anyways and Andy's the same way he was involved in organizations uh the west where was it called
the West Dallas Business Association yeah associate Association that we had started together so in our own ways we've all uh wanted to be active in the community whether it was the Jewish Community or the non-jewish community you know giving back to to the community and helping to support the community and I think that's one of the things Mom and Dad have taught us that was you need to give back to the community however you can do it you know whether it's delivering his baskets or working for Federation when they're doing their fundraiser on the phones you know making calls I even did that for a
while where you would they give you a handful of um cards and you would call them about making their donations oh yes so we've all gotten those calls as well yes so you know I think that was one thing mom and dad taught us we need to give back yeah and I think it's important that they allowed you to choose your own path that's your own method because you know nobody has the stamina that they had from in this generation I don't think no our parents were the ever ready batteries they just kept going okay we're about to wrap up so any last comments that
you'd like to make about parents well you know that I think specifically with with Mom and the Dallas Jewish Historical Society it was really a labor of love and commitment for her and I think she would be really proud of of of how the organization has developed and would certainly be very active in growing the organization and and continuing to see it do its good work and even broaden it she might you know she there's so many things that have changed over the years technologically that I think have really become relevant to um the historical society that she would even though she wasn't very computer
literate she would still be very interested in keeping up the organization keeping up with that and just keep on going keep on preserving things and and being available to for research and maybe delving into areas of that we haven't yet uh done enough in and just really being a great spokesperson for the organization and she'd be really happy at at being honored like this yeah she wasn't she wasn't in this for the honor she was in this for the for the love and passion that she had for the for the Historical Society absolutely Raven any last words no I appreciate you all um recognizing her
this way whatever mom did and it worked both ways she was very supportive of what he did they're an amazing team you're a great team you're a great team that's yeah that's I I saw it and I I hear it from other people as well yes it's very gratifying when I when I'm at things and people come up to me and they tell me all kinds of things about Mom and Dad you know how much how much they like them and how great they were for the community and and um how much they're missed it's it's really it's really very very sweet and very gratifying
big big shoes to fill that's for sure all right I'm gonna stop recording