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I agree.In this audio clip, Gil Shaw talks about being the default historian for Congregation Ner Tamid, and his interest in preserving history for future generations.
Gilbert Shaw oral history interview, 2016 May 03. OH-02665. [Audio recording]. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1cc0xj69
English
So you used your acumen as a photographer and journalist to be somewhat the default historian. Yes, that's it. The unofficial historian is what the rabbi calls me. I am not a historian. I don't have the educational or practical background to be a historian. But I did kind of...Because some really weird things started coming up that we did this and we did that and some of us who were original members said, "Where did this come from?" "Oh, somebody that joined about five years ago told us that this happened." We said, "That never happened." What is the value of knowing the history of a congregation, do you think? It's the value of knowing the history of anything. If you don't know the history of anything, you don't know where you came from. I find that's important. I did genealogy on my family. I used to dig pretty deeply?I was in the Jewish Genealogy Society here?as far as I could go. I could not get any more without going to Europe. But I think knowing where you come from is very important and I don't think some of the kids nowadays know this. In my era the parents didn't say very much about what happened before. My mother never talked about what happened when she was in Russia except when her oldest sister stayed there and she would get a letter once in a while and she would tell me what was happening to her sister. But I think it's important that not only you know that you pass on to future generations so they know, but it's important, I think, anybody, their own family and their city and their congregation. I just think that it's a part of life that should not be dropped at the wayside like some of these studies. Geography used to be important. You ask a kid where a country is and he can't even tell you the continent. I think it's important to know what's happening in the world, too. Even at this age I'm a curious person. Your curiosity, it shows in you. You're actively teaching at OLLI. Yes. What do you teach there? Photography. What else?