Symposium on the Galveston Movement
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Symposium on The Galveston Movement: A Centennial Retrospective on a Forgotten Chapter of American Jewish Immigration History September 10th - 11th, 2009 From Benjamin Franklin’s tirades against German immigrants in the mid-18th century, to the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 19th, our nation has demonstrated a consistent history of tension over whom we collectively regard as “real Americans” and whom we will allow into this country. At the dawn of the 20th century, Eastern European Jews were the target of the latest xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment, as reflected in increased detentions and deportations at our nation’s immigrant gateways. This symposium brings together scholars, fiction writers, public health experts, filmmakers and family storytellers to explore the dramatic tales of thousands of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe who managed to enter this country not through the “golden door” of Ellis Island, but through the southern gateway of Galveston, Texas between 1907 and 1914. During this seven year period, over 10,000 Jews were brought to this nation through Galveston as part of an organized plan—known as The Galveston Movement-- to divert them from the overcrowded and xenophobic port cities of the East, to the supposedly more laid-back frontier of America’s heartland. From their recruitment in Eastern Europe to their settlement in Texas and throughout the Midwest, these Jewish immigrants were aided and supervised by a network of agents and representatives who organized their passage, facilitated their inspections, and coordinated their journeys to find homes and jobs in Texas and the American Midwest. This decade marks the 100th anniversary of this Movement and offers us an important historical lens through which to examine the important questions that again face our nation at the turn of the twenty first century: Who can be an American?” and “Who gets to decide? “ Program Thursday, September 10, 2009 Evening Program: Texas State History Museum 4:00-4:30 Registration-TSHM Rotunda 4:30 Welcome and Introductions: Spirit of Texas Theatre (Laura Hall, Interim Director, Texas State History Museum, and Dr. Robert Abzug , Director, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at UT) 5:00 Opening Address, Spirit of Texas Theatre “Bring us your Tired, Your Poor, Your Hungry…or Not: Centennial Reflections on the Galveston Movement in American Immigration History” (Dr. Suzanne Seriff, “Forgotten Gateway” exhibit curator) 2 6:00-7:30 Exhibit Tours: Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America Through Galveston Island Reception: Texas State History Museum Rotunda Booksigning: TSHM Rotunda Friday, September 11, 2009 8:00-9:00 Registration Bagel Nosh: Meet and Greet, TSHM café 9:00-9:15 Welcome and Introduction (Suzanne Seriff), TSHM classroom 9:15-11:00 Session I: Cogs in the Wheel: A Closer Look at the Galveston Movement and How it Worked as an Immigration Plan for East European Jews • Setting the Scene: “Galveston” An excerpt from award winning young adult fiction novel, Independence Avenue (Eileen Bluestone-Sherman, author) • “The Galveston Movement and Those Who Made it Possible: Agents of Passage; Angels of Mercy; Brokers of Employment, and Social Reformers” (Rabbi Jimmy Kessler, Temple B’nai Israel, Galveston) • "Cowboys and Indigents: Galveston Movement Recipient Communities in Texas." (Dr. Bryan Edward Stone, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi) • "The Unstable Image: Jewish Immigrants and Progressive-Era Anxieties, with Special Reference to the Galveston Movement" (Dr. Eric Goldstein, Emory University) 11:00-12:00 Session II: Fictionalizing the Past, Spirit of Texas Theatre Facilitated Discussion by award-winning children’s authors Jan Siegel Hart and Eileen Bluestone-Sherman 12:00-1:00 Luncheon Keynote, Classroom “Redistribution & Anti-Semitism: The Galveston Project in the Struggle over Immigration Restriction” (Dr. Stuart Rockoff, Director, Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Jackson, Mississippi) 1:00-1:15 Break 1:15-3:00 pm Session III: Broadening the Lens: The Larger Context of Early 20th century Immigration Policy and Practice to Restrict “Undesirable Aliens’ Classroom • Excerpt from West of Hester Street: Docudrama of the Galveston Movement, with introduction by film producer, Cynthia Mondell, Media Projects, Dallas) 2 3 • “The Quarantine Stations along the Texas Mexico Border: Spreading Fear of the Nation’s “Contaminated” Neighbors. (Dr. John McKiernan Gonzalez, University of Texas at Austin) • “Policing Gender and Sexuality at the Border: The Case of Ellis Island” (Dr. Erica Rand, Bates College, Maine) • “Not Quite Closed Gates: Jewish Alien Smuggling in the Post-Quota Years”: A Galveston Movement Post-script. (Dr. Libby Garland, The City University of NY) 3:00-4:00 Session IV: Roundtable: The Galveston Movement as Immigration Solution: Was it Legal? Was it Effective? : A Centennial Retrospective Panelists: Michael Churgin (UT School of Law), Dr. Bryan Stone, Dr. Stuart Rockoff. Dr. Libby Garland 4:00 Conclusion, Dr. Suzanne Seriff “Tell Us Your Story” Writing Forum 3 .