Karin J. Goldstein

I fell in love with history when I was a kid in the midwest—interviewing my Norwegian grandfather about growing up in North Dakota, asking my Jewish great aunt which shetl her family came from and finding it on an old map of Russia, etc. While academic history did not appeal to me at first, I found a niche studying social history and material culture. I love figuring out people’s stories from the things they left behind.

After much soul searching, I decided to pursue a career as a museum curator, and went off to England to get an MA in Museum Studies. Following graduation, I was lucky enough to find a job working at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass., “America’s Hometown.” That was twenty-one years ago. Over the years I’ve cared for Pilgrim family artifacts, excavated at local colonial sites, poured over probate inventories and deeds, and interviewed older folks from many backgrounds.

When a group of us started the Plymouth Jewish History Project in 2001, I dove into researching street directories and vital records, trying to breathe life into the list of people who founded Plymouth’s Congregation Beth Jacob in 1909. Older members of the congregation actually remembered some of the founders, and by combining information on people and neighborhoods with oral history, a fascinating picture began to emerge.

Not only has the project given me deeper roots in my adopted community, it also led indirectly to a dissertation topic on a Plymouth neighborhood impacted by urban renewal in the 1960s. I finished my Ph.D. in American Studies at Boston University in 2007, and began teaching as an adjunct professor of history at Bridgewater State University. Between the museum and school it’s taken a while to get back to researching Plymouth’s Jewish history, but I hope this book will lead to more information and dialogue on one particular aspect of Plymouth’s rich past.