Judith Swedlow
Interviewer: Okay. This is Bill Cohen and the date is January 17, 2017, and we are here in the home of Judith Swedlow to interview her for the Columbus Jewish Historical Society. Judith, let me ask you, first of all, I knew, I know that you grew up in the small town of Springfield, about 40 miles west of Columbus. Tell us about that. What do you remember from your early years in Springfield as a member of, I think, a fairly small, Jewish community?
Swedlow: Well, that’s very interesting because you’re exactly right and to this day, there are only about 120 members of the temple in Springfield and Springfield was about an eighty thousand people community which isn’t large but it certainly was larger than 120 Jews, who spent their time being Jewish at Temple Sholom and the detail is that it was, if not an anti-Semitic, it was an unfriendly-to-Jews little town, and my mother used to make me wear my magen dovid inside my sweater all week long and I could only get it out and wear it outside when I was in the temple. So…
Interviewer: Tell us a little more about that. Do you remember people being unfriendly to you because you were Jewish?
Swedlow: Well, they just, we were just unusual. They just didn’t know anybody like the Jews, and I do remember one time when I was in middle school, that I was in a, a store of some kind – I can’t remember what kind of store it was – and I was negotiating a price for something and the guy said to me, “Why are you trying to Jew me down?” and I spoke up with my little middle school mouth and told him what I thought of his calling, telling me I was Jewing myself down and “I don’t, I don’t appreciate that and I won’t have it.” And I cannot believe, to this day. I just was always very proud of being Jewish and so that sticks out in my mind a lot, you know?
Interviewer: Now, you were born what year?
Swedlow: Oh, I was born in 1940.
Interviewer: 1940.
Swedlow: Yeah, the War was ending.
Interviewer: Uh, well, let’s see, 1940…
Swedlow: What am I saying?! It was starting. Yeah.
Interviewer: It was starting. So, how many years did you spend in Springfield? You were there…
Swedlow: Oh, from the time I was an infant until I went to college.
Interviewer: Wow. So your whole high school and junior high and elementary school…
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: And yet people knew that you were a member of the synagogue. You openly went to the synagogue.
Swedlow: Yeah. My mother taught temple there and all of that, and, which is interesting because she was raised very Reform, but, you know, that’s okay. I mean her parents were from Lithuania and, but she was raised very Reform and my father was a German Jew. I mean he was born here. They were both born in Cincinnati, but that’s their background.
Interviewer: And the synagogue that was there. There was just one synagogue…
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: and it was Reform or…?
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: Reform. And your friends, when you went to elementary school and junior high and high school, were most of your friends just the Jews or did you also mix with others?
Swedlow: No, no, no. I was friends with everybody including the Jews. The few Jews were included in everything. It really wasn’t. The young people were just great about it all. It just, my mother just felt like you don’t wear your magan dovid out and your yarmulke out and you, you blend in with a Lutheran community.
Interviewer: So, does that seem to symbolize kind of a generation gap in terms of the older Jews…
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: …were afraid of anti-Semitism but…
Swedlow: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.
Interviewer: Of course, World War II was going on and they had good reason to…
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: …be worried, but you didn’t experience a whole lot of direct…
Swedlow: I really didn’t. I really didn’t. It, we were just cautious and kept, you know, the nature of being Jewish to ourselves. That’s all. We just kept that in the temple and that’s that.
Interviewer: Did the Jews of Springfield all live in one or two distinct neighborhoods?
Swedlow: Yeah. Yeah, the nice neighborhoods and the Jews were very active in the community and leadership in the community.
Interviewer: Not just in Jewish institutions but…
Swedlow: No. No. They were, they were affluent, and they were involved. Yeah, all of that, all of that. We just kept the Jewishness out of it, but we were all, as Jews are, all involved people who manage and participate and lead.
Interviewer: Does anything in particular come to mind that would symbolize the Jews’ participation in the community? Were they, were they on the City Council or were they…?
Swedlow: All of it. All of that. I mean, I can’t. I wish I could give you the details now, but I knew it, all of it.
Swedlow: Now, how did your family wind up in such a small town? We often think of Jews being urban in the big cities, but here you were in a small town. How did your parents and you wind up in Springfield?
Swedlow: Um, my father’s sister and his brother-in-law ran a business in Springfield, and he hired my father. It was a pest-control business and my father was very active in Cincinnati and was one of the founders of the Jewish Center there and all those things, but my mother wanted him to make a better living and the brother-in-law made promises and my mother was always anxious to be affluent and so they moved to Springfield and my father started out spraying for pests and all that sort of thing.
Interviewer: So, he thought by moving to a smaller town…
Swedlow: Whatever. He was, and, you know, he was related to the boss and he was gonna’ make a nice living ‘cause the boss was making a nice living.
Interviewer: So, your father was in pest control and how did that work out?
Swedlow: Okay. He wound up selling men’s and boys’ clothes in a store, “cut-price men and boys,” ‘cause they didn’t get along, the two brothers and sisters-in-law. They really didn’t. The brother-in-law had overstated what he could do, and my father wound up in a, wearing a suit and a tie and working downtown selling men’s and boys’ clothes and he was very good at it and he managed the store.
Interviewer: So, that’s how he made a living.
Swedlow: Yeah. Yeah. That’s it.
Interviewer: Were there other, do you remember other Jewish merchants?
Swedlow: Oh, sure, you know, I guess, yeah, whatever. There’s not that much to tell you about Springfield and the Jewish community, except that temple is still there and it’s been there for like a 150 years now. You know? And it used to always, a rabbi from Cincinnati from the Hebrew Union College down there, that would, they would always practice their first rabbinate in Springfield, and when, when my mother died, here in Columbus at the Wexner Heritage House, the rabbi at Wexner Heritage House, his first rabbinate had been the one in Springfield and he, and we sat there and listened to him make his eulogy about my mother and speak about what a, an elegant lady she was and how special my family was and my mother had always, you know, strived to be proud of her Jewishness and proud of her family and that was that and now, then we were in Columbus.
Interviewer: Well, tell us a little bit about your mother. Your mother’s maiden name was…?
Swedlow: Meyer.
Interviewer: Meyer. M-e-y-e-r.
Swedlow: Oh, what am I saying?
Interviewer: Oh.
Swedlow: That’s not true. That’s my father’s name.
Interviewer: Oh.
Swedlow: God, that’s my maiden name.
Interviewer: Oh. Okay.
Swedlow: Gordon.
Interviewer: So, your mother’s name was…?
Swedlow: Gordon.
Interviewer: …and her first name…?
Swedlow: Hazel.
Interviewer: Hazel Gordon and…
Swedlow: And interestingly, the Gordon was his, on my grandfather’s brother was here first and in Cleveland and when he had come through Ellis Island, their name was Yankelevitch Jacobsen, and they had asked Abe Gordon what his name was and a truck drove by that said “Gordon” on it and he said, and he told them Gordon and then when his brother, younger brother came, my grandfather, he took Gordon. That was that.
Interviewer: This is a familiar story. Often, it’s told as a joke but you’re saying this really did happen…
Swedlow: …it really happened.
Interviewer: …at Ellis Island that people’s names got changed.
Swedlow: Yep.
Interviewer: In your case…
Swedlow: Yep.
Interviewer: … in your family’s case, just on a whim.
Swedlow: Yep. Absolutely. Yankelevitch was too much for them to say. They didn’t think anybody’d get it.
Interviewer: So, your father’s real name, this is your father or your grandfather, again, Yankelevitch?
Swedlow: That was my mother’s father. Yankelevitch.
Interviewer: Oh. Your mother’s father, Yankelevitch and your father’s name was…?
Swedlow: Meyer. Joseph Meyer.
Interviewer: Joseph. And where did he, what were his roots?
Swedlow: Hungary and Germany.
Interviewer: He was born in the United States?
Swedlow: Everybody, they were all born in Cincinnati…
Interviewer: Now,
Swedlow: …and they knew each other since they were children and all of that, you know.
Interviewer: Was it an arranged marriage?
Swedlow: No, nothing like that, just knew the Jewish community and my mother had taken me down there, and taken me to the graveyards, and showed me the stones and there was Aunt Bertha and there’s this one and that one and we went to the house that her father built that they grew up in, and, you know, those were their roots, Cincinnati, a major Reform Jewish community.
Interviewer: Now, when you were in high school, I heard that in some way, there, there weren’t enough Jewish boys for you to date…?
Swedlow: Right.
Interviewer: and they had to…Tell us about that.
Swedlow: Well, you know the few Jewish boys in Springfield I’d known since I was born, practically, and they weren’t that interesting to date and there weren’t that many my age or older, so my mother used to try to import Jewish boys or connect up with Columbus community and Cincinnati community and different people used to come in and take me out and that I’m still friends with today.
Interviewer: So, your mother was able to convince Jewish teenage boys to come forty or fifty miles to Springfield.
Swedlow: Well, like Joe Brandt from Cincinnati…
Interviewer: Who was that?
Swedlow: You know Joe Brandt?
Interviewer: Joe?
Swedlow: Yeah, Brandt.
Interviewer: Joe Brandt, okay.
Swedlow: Well, his father owned a lot of those Country Boy hamburger stands, I mean, like McDonald’s. They called it Country Boy and there was one in Springfield that he used to come in and work at and take me out. That sort of thing, and we’re still friends.
Interviewer: Now, another person who you dated at least once, was my brother,
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: Bobby Cohen.
Swedlow: Yes, many times, many times. Our parents were friends, and I don’t remember what your family’s connection was with Springfield.
Interviewer: Well, my family, Art and Bea Cohen, did indeed live in Springfield in the 40s, before I was born and Bobby Cohen, Robert Cohen, my older brother was born there, and so, but they later they moved to Columbus, so, what you’re telling us is Bob Cohen drove, or was driven 40 miles from Columbus to Springfield to go on dates with you.
Swedlow: Right, and he was charming and fun, and you know, it was a novelty for me to meet somebody new and, you know, you should be proud of your brother. He was always special.
Interviewer: Thank you. Let’s move now to how you got to Columbus. You grew up in Springfield, elementary school, junior high, high school. How did you wind up in Columbus?
Swedlow: Ohio State, and that’s interesting, too, because neither one of my parents graduated from high school. My father just had to get busy working, and my mother quit because somebody in administration at the school accused her of plagiarism and she was quite the woman. I mean, you know proud of herself and special and she wouldn’t take that, and she quit school. So, that was that, so, for me to go to college was an amazing thing, and they could barely afford it, barely, barely, and, but they were very proud of it, and I used to borrow my roommate’s clothes and do everything I could to get along and that was that.
Interviewer: And you got a degree in…?
Swedlow: In Fine Arts, a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts – painting and drawing. My mother was a talented artist. She used to paint greeting cards for the Gibson Company.
Interviewer: Wow!
Swedlow: And when, later I’ll show you some of her things around the house here. She was very talented.
Interviewer: And, so, you picked up some of her artistic talent.
Swedlow: I guess, and so did one of my, my oldest daughter and her daughter, so it’s in the family there somewhere.
Interviewer: So, you were at Ohio State approximately what years?
Swedlow: Fifty-… well, I graduated in ’58.
Interviewer: You graduated high school in ‘58
Swedlow: I started in the Fall of ’58 and I met my husband on a blind date October 9th, 1959 when he was in law school and at some point in time, after that, after two years in college, I had to quit and work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to earn some more money for college.
Interviewer: But, you’d already, around that time, met your future, Gerry Swedlow.
Swedlow: Right. Absolutely.
Interviewer: Did you say it was a blind date?
Swedlow: Yes, and it was colorful because we went to the opening night ever of the harness races. I’m trying to think of the name. Beulah Park harness races and we bet the whole night on Number 7 because that was my birthday and Number 7 kept winning and we were in love before the races were over and he wanted to go downtown after the races to the Deschler-Hilton Sky-room ‘cause he knew there was a little band up there that played and you could dance and look out the romantic windows and as we’re walking from the parking lot to the Deschler-Hilton, he says, “Here come two of my best friends walking towards us,” and I thought to myself, “ I hope they like me, because they’ll probably be in the wedding,” and they were, so, that’s how I know we fell in love that night.
Interviewer: On your very first date…
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: …with Gerry Swedlow, you, from that point on, you knew you were going to get married.
Swedlow: Exactly. He was sexy, charming, and gonna’ be rich ‘cause he was going to be a lawyer.
Interviewer: So, what happened then? When did you get married to Gerry Swedlow?
Swedlow: March 9th, 1961, March 19th, 1961, which is fifty-five and a half years ago.
Interviewer: Congratulations.
Swedlow: Yeah, and we’re still trying to see who’s in charge of whom? We’re working on it.
Interviewer: So, around that time you graduated? In the early 60s, you graduated from Ohio State?
Swedlow: No. I’m trying to remember what year it was. Ten years later or something, I went back and finished college.
Interviewer: Oh, there was a, there was a gap.
Swedlow: There was a gap.
Interviewer: Okay, but eventually.
Swedlow: I worked and I did this and that and I had babies and one thing and another and I went back to college.
Interviewer: After you got married in 1961, you were here in Columbus…
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: And you stayed here…
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: …and you started a home here.
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: And where did you, where did the Swedlows live?
Swedlow: In Central Bexley. You know, nothing to tell you. I mean, Gerry and I lived in Bexley the whole time although, interestingly enough, it was colorful. When the Berlin Wall was being put up, Gerry and his Air National Guard unit were activated and we both went to Verdon, France, but we lived in Luxemburg and the air base was in Verdon, and Gerry was a 2nd lieutenant. He had just passed the Bar, and he appointed me the Base Librarian which was colorful because I didn’t know anything about libraries except having checked out books, and I had this little Frenchman that was my assistant and that was that, and, and I ran that library and, and it was great.
Interviewer: Now, Gerry, since he was a lawyer now, he would not be fighting. Well, of course, there wasn’t actual fighting, but his job was to be a lawyer in the Armed Forces.
Swedlow: Right. Right. Right.
Interviewer: And there you were in France. What was that like?
Swedlow: It was fabulous, absolutely fabulous. I mean we spent a year or so traveling all over Europe, you know, Switzerland and Germany and, and England and met people everywhere and, interestingly enough, when we would be in Verdon, or someplace like that in Germany, I could, to this minute, walk. I would walk into a store and I would look at the people who were middle-aged and say to myself, “Where were you during the War?”
Interviewer: Oh,..
Swedlow: You know?
Interviewer: …fifteen years earlier when the Nazis were in charge.
Swedlow: Exactly. I was well-aware. I was, that’s who I was, always was, and…
Interviewer: When you say that’s who you were, you were Jewish.
Swedlow: Yes. Yes. That was my identity and my roots and I’m proud for people. When I got active in this community, that’s why. I wanted everybody to be proud of who they were.
Interviewer: So, you were in France for a year or so during that Cold War crisis. That was the early 1960’s. And then what? Then you came back to Columbus?
Swedlow: Right, and Gerry began to practice law, and he was gonna’, he was going to work for Troy Feibel. Do you know that name?
Interviewer: Feibel.
Swedlow: Troy Feibel had a big law firm and Gerry had been a, what do you call it when you’re not a lawyer yet and you work in a law firm? I forget what you call it.
Interviewer: An intern or junior partner or…
Swedlow: Intern or something…
Interviewer: Yes.
Swedlow: …and Troy was going to hire him when he came back and he changed his mind and Gerry was furious. A lawyer that was working for Troy was Mel Schottenstein. Do you know that name? and Gerry and Mel were very, very friendly and they formed a law firm that became Schottenstein Garel Swedlow and Zox, for about 20 years, and it was very successful, and finally, Mel died, and Gerry formed a law firm. He, he went ahead at some point and became Swedlow Butler and then these days he is a partner in and Roetzel & Andress, but he’s practiced law for fifty-five, sixty years, whatever it is in there, fifty-five, I guess, and, successfully, and I’m very proud of his reputation. He’s a, he’s a very good business and commercial real estate attorney.
Interviewer: And what did you do during, this would have been the nineteen…the later 1960’s when he was establishing his law firm. What were you doing at that time? You had children to take care of or…?
Swedlow: Well, we got married in ’61 and our first daughter was ’63. The second one was ’67 and the third one was ’70, and, in the meantime, I was very active in the Jewish community, and, as a matter of fact, I was sitting here reading a national women’s big brochure and there was a two-page article about me called, More Women Who Make a Difference, and I’ve been glancing at it because that’s what I was talking about, Springfield and whatever, and says I “moved to the big city, Columbus, Ohio, where there were so many local Jewish agencies, lots of Jewish activities and several synagogues. I was overjoyed. My mother had always made it her business to keep me connected with my Jewish roots but it was such great fun to be part of a Jewish community.”
Interviewer: So, this felt different than in Springfield.
Swedlow: Completely. “In those days, young women” – this was me writing by the way – “In those days, young women got to know other women in the community by getting involved. Times have changed. Women don’t need the community for social reasons anymore. Now, they have different motivations. There has been a real transition and I’m part of that. Over the years, I found out that I was making a difference, that I’ve learned a lot of skills that I could put to good use. I found out that there’s no such thing as ‘let someone else do it.’ There isn’t any. There’s only each of us.”
Interviewer: So, what groups, what, what community groups?
Swedlow: Well, as a matter of fact, everything. The women’s groups, like National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah, and those kinds of groups, Brandeis, even, which I was in a little bit, and I would become active and, and take leadership roles in everything. I made the newsletter for National Council of Jewish Women and mimeographed it all off in those days, and drew pictures of it and all of that, ‘cause that was my background, art, and, but I got into leadership roles. I had been in leadership in college, too. I just had always been, and they ran me for homecoming queen at A E Phi and I painted the Union Square Railroad Building with a group of people that painted huge trains on all the forty-foot walls and blah, blah, blah, got all involved. So, anyway, in the community, I was in all those things and then I got very involved in the Federation, and…
Interviewer: Columbus Jewish Federation.
Swedlow: Columbus Jewish Federation and campaigning and very involved in what was called Young Women’s Leadership, the young women’s committee – I forget what it was called – and worked my way through all the ranks and became chairman, and won the Young Leadership Award and all of that, and, ultimately, became chairman of the Women’s Campaign and vice chairman of the whole campaign and chairman of its different committees, like Allocations and one thing and another.
Interviewer: So, this has to, a lot of this has to do with raising the millions of dollars for the Federation every year and then figuring out how to spend it on good causes.
Swedlow: Right and in all those years, I was, became more and more and more passionate about Israel and was all involved in the fundraising and it all merged together, and over time, I went to Israel 33 times…
Interviewer: Wow!
Swedlow: …and was a delegate to the General Assembly of Jews from all over the world and that sort of thing, and would lead, or co-lead missions locally from the community, but then I became a member of the National Board of what’s called Women’s Jewish Philanthropy, which was the women’s end of United Jewish Appeal and all the fundraising, and I served on that board for 17 years, and was very proud of doing so and had different leadership positions on the board.
Interviewer: When you look back on your life and you say to yourself, ‘I grew up as a small-town girl and yet, look at all I accomplished. Look at all the tasks I took on.’ Do you ever have some kind of thinking about, how did this happen?
Swedlow: I don’t know. That’s a good question. I don’t know. It just was, it was just built into me and I, and I chaired, there were five regions in Women’s Philanthropy in the country and I chaired one of the regions and it was colorful because I could see how people would forgive my French, suck up to me because they were ambitious and I could see it happening and leadership was an interesting place to be, so I can’t believe I told you that but that’s it.
Interviewer: You’ve been members of a synagogue…
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: …for many years?
Swedlow: Yes. My father-in-law was president of Congregation Tifereth Israel and…
Interviewer: Your father-in-law Morris Swedlow.
Swedlow: Morris Swedlow. Exactly, and he had been involved in finances for the synagogue forever because he was a CPA, but then he was president of the synagogue.
Interviewer: So, you and Gerry Swedlow have been members of Tifereth Israel?
Swedlow: Yes, ever since the beginning, and, as a matter of fact, Rabbi Diamond from Tifereth Israel merged with my rabbi in Springfield to marry us together. I mean, we had both rabbis, and, you know, he was a very colorful guy and he would say things to, when he met us, like, “Okay, Gerry. What does she do? What does her father do for a living?” and all that garbage, but, you know, we were very involved in the synagogue and my mother-in-law taught Hebrew School there for many years, and I taught there for a couple years, and she couldn’t stand it because she was the “older Mrs. Swedlow” and I was the “younger Mrs. Swedlow.”
Interviewer: Now the Jewish Center. Any [?] of the Jewish Center here?
Swedlow: Well, I was vice-president, and I was chairman of the camps, the day-camp committee which was colorful and interesting, and I enjoyed very much being part of the Jewish Center. There’s not much to tell you.
Interviewer: Now it sounds like you did a lot of work for the Jewish Center.
Swedlow: I did.
Interviewer: Did you ever just use the Jewish Center for fun or for socializing?
Swedlow: Not particularly. I mean, a little, but not particularly, but I just knew people everywhere and I didn’t need them just for socializing anymore. I mean, I really did know people all over the community because when you get involved in the fundraising, you know the list of names and you get to know everybody.
Interviewer: Now, in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s, you were very active obviously in the Jewish community. Were most of your friends Jews or non-Jews?
Swedlow: No. Most of my friends were Jews. They were. Most of my friends were Jews because that had been my background in Columbus. I hadn’t grown up with non-Jews particularly, you know, at Bexley High School like my husband had and that sort of thing. So, and I was very involved in a bunch of other organizations I haven’t even mentioned to you. I was on the National Board of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that does all the Jewish, AP news, UPI news, whatever you call it?
Interviewer: It’s news reporting about the Jewish communities.
Swedlow: Yeah, Right, The Jewish News and I still get that on my internet every week and I was on their board, and I was on Project Interchange which you wouldn’t even know all about. That was taking groups to Israel and God, forgive my…I can’t even remember. I was on lots and lots of boards. I have to look at the list I gave you. A lot of stuff and then I got involved in national fundraising big-time which was another story. Oh, and I had gotten involved in the Columbus Jewish Foundation and I was on the board. On its board I was vice-president. I was vice-president of Wexner Heritage House Board where both my mother and my mother-in-law both lived and died, and I was on the board of Jewish Family Services. I can’t even remember everything.
Interviewer: You’ve been involved in virtually every major and minor Jewish institution in Columbus.
Swedlow: I don’t know. I don’t know, but, but cared a lot and found a lot of things very interesting, you know, [some?] more than others and at the national level I was on United Jewish Appeal Board and Council of Jewish Federations Board and just got involved in Jewish politics. There’s a lot of Jewish politics, big-time.
Interviewer: How do you, how do you look at the relation between Jews and non-Jews in Columbus? Do you think things are pretty good?
Swedlow: Yeah, I do. I think they’re good. I really do. I absolutely don’t feel any anti-Semitism. Do you?
Interviewer: No. I don’t. Uh…
Swedlow: I mean, I think this is a very pleasant, easy-going community and people are, are reasonable to each other.
Interviewer: Are there any other Jewish businesses or institutions that you have memories of here in Columbus?
Swedlow: Everything.
Interviewer: I’m just trying to think. Often, I think of Martin’s.
Swedlow: Oh, sure. I mean, what can I tell you? That was one of the pivotal [ ? ]places that we all would habitat and hang around and see each other [?] There’s nothing in particular I have to tell you about any of all of that.
Interviewer: It was more than a food store.
Swedlow: Oh, sure. Anyway, I would like to tell you about my national fundraising, if I may…
Interviewer: Sure.
Swedlow: …because I’m very proud of it and I don’t want to wear you out. Can I?
Interviewer: Go right ahead.
Swedlow: I was, at one point in time, they made me the, I want to say Director of Endowment but that was my assignment on the Executive Committee of the National Women’s Philanthropy, and they gave it to me because they wanted to keep me on the Executive Committee and, and nobody’d ever done anything at all with the, with endowment whatsoever, and I surprised them. They thought they’d just stick me on there and that’d be a place so I could come to the meetings and they made a mistake and it turned out to be, the Endowment turned out to be, the thing that I’ve most accomplished in my Jewish community career.
Interviewer: In other words, when we talk about endowments, you helped to convince people to put into their will, that when they die, they will leave some money to the Federation or the Foundation or other Jewish causes. This is what you’re talking about?
Swedlow: Well, to a degree. I did it at two different levels. The um, Jewish community, women’s community of Miami, Florida had founded a major gifts pin called the Lion of Judah. Have you heard of that? And I have one in the other room. I could show it to you. I’m sure you’ve seen it. People wear it proudly and it was, you had to give a minimum of five thousand dollars to wear that pin, in every annual campaign, and, so that was a brag for women, and I, somehow, I cooked up the idea of endowing the pin, you know, and I wound up flying down to Miami endless times and working with the Miami women and we came up with Lion of Judah Endowment which is called LOJE, L-O-J-E, LOJE [she spelled LOGE and meant LOJE] and the lion holds his paw up – I forget which paw, I think his right paw, and there’s an Or Latid, Light Unto the Nations on top of the paw, that means that you endowed the lion pin and it was all very much a braggy thing and then there became International Lion of Judah conferences, the first one being in Jerusalem, and I was very proud of that because there was a Lion of Judah, a picture of a Lion of Judah 50 feet high, or something, on a wall in the big building we met in and with the Or Latid flame on his paw, and I was very proud, and I was also very proud when we would have, we would give our gifts. What do you call it when you give your gifts in a circle? You meet together and form,[caucus]and whatever it is – the women of the national board would make their gift and then they would make their annual LOJE gift, in addition, so I just was swamped with, I was thrilled that they all picked up on it and it became that and, to this day, there are women all over the world who wear their LOJE pins. Anyway, then it went on from there and I got myself involved with the UJA Endowment Director, informing PACE – Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment and we got into it with Don Kent [she said Don Hunt and meant Don Kent], who was the Endowment Director of the Council of Jewish Federations, and what was really interesting about that was that, and I was talking to Jackie Jacobs [Executive Director Columbus Jewish Foundation 1990- 2018, subsequently Executive Director Emeritus] about this the last few days and he, he absolutely says that this story has not been told enough, but our activity for PACE were Howard Turchen [National Director UJA Planned Giving], my endowment director and, and Don Kent, from Council of Jewish Federations, merged and formed PACE – Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment – was the very first time that UJA and the Federation people had a joint activity and a brochure with both of their names on it and finally, a merger of UJA and CJF, all the way around and that was amazing, because that was unbelievable Jewish politics, because those were two sets of staff and paid people and politics and an unbelievable thing and we never quit merging PACE, and PACE, you have to give a lot of money or an insurance policy or a codicil in your will and whatever, but the main thing major, major, major level and Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment and I had Jackie look it up for me a couple days ago to see what LOJE and PACE have raised in the years since we started endowing the pin and then PACE happened and it not only became a UJA-CJF activity but the whole men’s campaign wanted PACE also, and men all over the country, etc., PACE. Anyway, to date, according to Jackie, we have 458,000,000 and change -there’s the number, that we raised from our little activity, and I did it just nagging and pushing and insisting that we merge, and that Council of Jewish Federations had to help us. How could we not raise money for Israel and not raise money for the campaign if we didn’t all do this together? And Jackie was reminding himself that finally, New York City was the last one to drop and that, and that they merged, too, UJA and CJF and we had done it all ourselves, Don and me and Howard and the women of my board.
Interviewer: So, you were a major force in getting two different community…
Swedlow: I can’t believe it but…
Interviewer: …agencies to work together and not compete.
Swedlow: I did. I did. Our activity became the pivotal…it threw it all together because we were talking about major gifts, and you can’t fool around with that.
Interviewer: Let’s talk, let’s look to the future a little bit. You had children, you and Gerry had children?
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: And tell us about, did they go to Sunday School and Hebrew School and things like that?
Swedlow: Oh, yeah. They did all of that. They did all of that. My youngest daughter wanted to be a rabbi, but she wound up a lawyer like her father.
Interviewer: Now her name is…?
Swedlow: Deborah. Deborah Swedlow and she lives up in Ann Arbor and practices law, and my middle daughter lives here in town and is an event, the major event planner of b’nai mitzvah, bar and bat mitzvahs, all over the community. She’s, she, she’s the expert at all of that.
Interviewer: Is that Pam Swedlow?
Swedlow: That’s Pam Swedlow Gurwin, and my oldest daughter Tracey, lives out in San Francisco and she married a fallen-away Catholic who, and they have one child, Hannah, whom they raised very, very Jewish, and my son-in-law, the fallen-away Catholic who says he’s an atheist now, sings everything on Shabbat and makes sure the challah is out and everything is lit and she’s a very passionate Jew, little Hanna. So, that’s the way that goes, and the highlight of their Jewish careers, okay? I mean their Jewish involvement and their identity, was this past Yom Kippur. I was sick and couldn’t go. I’ve been sick a lot this year, and on Yom Kippur, Pam Swedlow Gurwin sang the whole Torah on Shabbat on the bima and her father went up there and sung the blessing before the Torah is sung and there was my daughter. I mean, in the old days, you couldn’t even put a woman in the bima let alone on Yom Kippur, let alone and be the one who has a gorgeous voice and sings the whole Torah portion on Yom Kippur. I was very, very proud. So there.
Interviewer: And this was..?
Swedlow: This past year at Tifereth Israel.
Interviewer: So, this symbolized something for you.
Swedlow: Oh, my God. I mean, um, She’s an inspiration. She really is. She’s got beautiful identity.
Interviewer: So, this shows how women in Jewish institutions has expanded?
Swedlow: Women are a great influence, and it never used to be, I mean, you know, it used to be a very, very chauvinistic nationhood, and on top of that, the Columbus Jewish Federation and the Columbus Jewish Foundation were very chauvinistic, and um…
Interviewer: When you say chauvinistic, do you mean they were mostly male oriented and…
Swedlow: Yes.
Interviewer: …and men had all the leadership roles?
Swedlow: Exactly, and I think I told you when we were talking on the phone about this one day that the women, the few five women or so who sat on the Columbus Jewish Federation Board, warned me to keep my mouth shut and not talk up too much because women were not leadership in the Federation and they used to all come with their needlework and chit-chat.
Interviewer: Just to knit while the meeting was going on.
Swedlow: Exactly, and they didn’t speak much, but I couldn’t help myself. My mouth kept opening. I couldn’t help it and then I was sitting on the Columbus Jewish Foundation Board and they were all silver-haired, affluent tough men that absolutely were abhorred that there were females in the room. ‘Course I spoke up and another woman who was there, who was twice my age, and I formed the Women’s Committee of the Foundation, which, of course, didn’t exist ‘til we opened our mouths.
Interviewer: This would have been in the 60s and 70s?
Swedlow: Mmmmm, yeah.
Interviewer: And even then, women, you say, didn’t have much of a role until you pushed for it.
Swedlow: No. No. 70s and 80s. I was one of the pushers, and I was proud of it.
Interviewer: And today, do you think things are much better for women?
Swedlow: Oh, absolutely. There’ve been women who’ve been presidents of the Federation and president of the Foundation. DeeDee Glimcher comes to mind, etcetera, etcetera, and Miriam Yenkin, and all of these spectacular women.
Interviewer: And you, yourself, have held many leadership roles.
Swedlow: Yeah, I guess. I’ve won a lot of awards, thank goodness. I mean, there was, the Young Women’s Leadership, the Young Leadership Award made me very proud, but a couple of years ago I won the all-time one which is the Lifetime of Achievement, the Ben Mandelkorn Lifetime of Achievement Award that either a man or a woman can win and I got it, and happy to have it. As a matter of fact, wait a minute. Here’s the – woo – here’s the, whatever it is. That’s what it is.
Interviewer: You’re getting it off the shelf now,
Swedlow: I better not.
Interviewer: Yeah, you could just leave it up there.
Swedlow: Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Swedlow: Yeah, now you gotta’ help me set it back on that thing when I…
Interviewer: Okay. We’ll put it back in just a little bit when we get done with our interview here.
Swedlow: Yeah. And I’ve won a lot of other awards. Oh, I forgot to mention that I founded AIPAC here in Columbus and I got very involved in, in Israeli politics.
Interviewer: AIPAC. That’s the Israeli…
Swedlow: American Israel Political Action Committee and it is the lobby in Washington, and it represents the relationship between Israel and the United States, and we have a big AIPAC group here in town and I founded it and led it for about fifteen years, and I don’t even go to the meetings anymore. They all went on without me, but I’ve won their award and a lot of others.
Interviewer: One thing I often ask about during these interviews is, that in the Fifties and Sixties, and Forties, the Jews of Central Ohio pretty much all lived in Bexley and then a little bit in Berwick and then some in Eastmoor but, the Jews were all on the East Side clustered…
Swedlow: Right.
Interviewer: …and now, we see Jews all over the place – up in New Albany, and Arlington, and the North Side.
Swedlow: Right.
Interviewer: You’ve seen this happen. What’s your take on that? Has it been good or bad?
Swedlow: You know, I don’t know too much about it but I know that there’s, Beth Tikvah is a very successful temple on the North Side and there’s a whole Beth Tikvah. Now there’s a Jewish Community Center up there related somehow to Beth Tikvah and a whole Jewish community that thrives, and so, we’re not just geographic anymore and my own daughter lives in New Albany, and you know, there you go.
Interviewer: So, it’s been okay.
Swedlow: Yeah.
Interviewer: It hasn’t been negative…
Swedlow: No.
Interviewer: …as far as you can tell.
Swedlow: Right.
Interviewer: So, are you, looking back on your life, especially the Jewish aspect, are you, are you hopeful for the future of the Columbus Jewish community?
Swedlow: Oh, my God. You know, I traveled the country a lot for a lot of reasons. I forgot to mention after I was all involved in PACE and it took off and it didn’t need me anymore, I was National Women’s Chairman of the Independent, Independent Jewish Communities, all the small Jewish communities in the country that weren’t big enough to be involved in having big staffs and being active Jewish communities and all the small Jewish communities. I was the National Women’s Chairman, and, so, I traveled an awful lot into, in and out of a lot of places and I was always very proud to hear that everybody looked up to the Columbus Jewish Federation and I was one of the disting…it was a distinguished Jewish community, and it used to bug me because we, I, Columbus would compete with Minneapolis and Indianapolis and just a few other places, and it bugged me because I was very proud of the Columbus Jewish Federation, and we had Ben Mandelkorn here who had been National Director of all the directors, and we had Harold Berman here who was National President of all the rabbis, and this is a fabulous Jewish community and I was, and I was proud to always say I was from here.
Interviewer: And you’re saying that some of the smaller communities look up to Columbus…
Swedlow: Oh, yeah.
Interviewer: …as an example.
Swedlow: Oh yeah, even the big communities do. We just do a great job of fundraising and a great job of developing leadership, people like Gordon Zacks who was all over national Jewish life and a lot of people, and Herb Schiff, and we had, we had and have leadership to follow.
Interviewer: And do you think the Jewish community is pretty unified?
Swedlow: Yes. I do. We happen to have a great staff. Gordon Hecker from the Federation is incredible and so is Jackie Jacobs from the Foundation and Carole Folkerth who was, Carol Folkerth and June Gutterman who were both proteges of mine, now head of the Jewish Center and Jewish Family Service and these are fabulous people. They are just devoted. If they could, if they could eat, I think that they would do what they do for, and not get paid, if they could eat.
Interviewer: So, you’re saying the Jewish community is unified even though the old adage still applies: if you put two Jews in a room, you get three opinions.
Swedlow: Yeah. Absolutely, but, but the fact is that, that they don’t compete anymore, for leadership, amongst, amongst acquiring leadership and acquiring money. There is a real bonding in this community, a brotherhood and a sisterhood.
Interviewer: Well, with that, let’s end our interview here with Judith Swedlow. The date is January 17th, 2017 and we’ve been talking with Judith Swedlow at her home on the east, Far East Side of Columbus for the Columbus Jewish Historical society.
Transcribed by Linda Kalette Schottenstein March 10, 2025