I have over 5,000 unique items. Each one represents a different moment in American Jewish life and offers a way to learn about the Jewish experience.
political buttons as history
instant history
Jews have produced and distributed lapel buttons (or pins) since the beginning of the 20th century. Some of these were produced to commemorate celebrations, others to make a point at demonstrations. Some were produced for commercial gain, and others for a political campaign. Their purposes are legion and diverse. Some are humorous, some serious. Each one tells of a moment in the recent Jewish experience.
In the Spring of 1979, Present Tense magazine (published by the American Jewish Congress until the early 1990s) printed a brief description of my collection [Vol 6 #3 pp. 30–31, it was actually the cover story]. At the time, the collection numbered only a few hundred items.
your lapel buttons
Many people have lapel buttons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jacket you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any laying around that you do not feel emotionally attached to, please let me know. I am preserving these for the Jewish people. At some point they will all go to an appropriate museum.
things are not always as they seem
Sometimes I find a button that looks like it should belong in my collection. To be on the “safe side” I’ll buy it… only to learn later that…
This site remains under considerable reconstruction.
Most pages should still be available in their original location. However, I will be moving the vast majority of the old site (static html pages) into the Web 2.0 (blog) site. If you experience any "link rot", please let me know.
When I initially created this site I organized the material into what seemed to be meaningful categories (in the days before "tags"). But the time came when, it was hard to figure out which link to click if you wanted to know about Sammy Levinger's ("who"?) death ("what"?) while fighting during the Spanish Civil War ("when"?), though we had visited Belchite the site ("where?") of the battle where he sustained his mortal wounds. The new tools should make this process easier.
`//rite on!
,\\ark Hurvitz
some sayings of ר‘משבצונה“ל
For many years I have worked hard, and struggled with mastering virtuous. Now, in addition, I’m working on becoming more virtual. This is an expression of that effort.
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השיבנו ה‘ אליך ונשובה חדש ימינו כעוד לא היו
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ומביא גאלה…
לצאצאיהם
All photographs are by Mark Hurvitz unless they are obviously not (or credit otherwise is given).
The photos in the banner at the top (only a shallow sliver of a much larger photo) are either from our home or our travels and are offered for their beauty alone (though a brain-teaser for me: "Where was that?").
