The Columbus Jewish Historical Society

“Letters Home, 1918​” ​is the story of the central Ohio Jewish men who served the U.S. during WWI and those at home who supported them.

It is based on a collection of 350 letters donated to the Columbus Jewish Historical Society which were written by a young Jewish man to his sweetheart and supplemented by other actual letters from our archives and newspapers. The play was created to ​accompany a one-year exhibition at ​The Historical Collection of CJHS ​which recounted  Jewish central Ohio participation in World War I. It was conceived by Toby Brief, ​Curator of The Historical Collection of CJHS, and written and directed by John Stefano, retired chair of the Otterbein University Department of Theatre ​and Dance.  ​”Letters Home, 1918″ was first presented in May 2018. ​A second performance with additional information was presented  in July 2019.

“Letters Home 1918” is the proud recipient of two awards:

• Outstanding Achievement Award for Public Programming from the Ohio Local History Alliance (OLHA)
• Ohio Museums Association Best Education and Outreach Award, 2019

​Our thanks to the actors, researchers, stage production company, Gallery Players/JCC stage, The Columbus Jewish Foundation and to our sponsors of this film edition:

Hilary and Mike Talis, Missy and Bob Weiler and Rhonda and Steve Schottenstein