Carolyn Greenberg
Interviewed by Cheryl Guyer
June 20, 2005
Max M. Fisher Federation Building, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Carolyn Greenberg
Video 00:57:00
Carolyn Greenberg
Audio 00:57:00
Abstract
In this interview, Carolyn Greenberg discusses her upbringing where she remembers political discussions around the dinner table during World War II. She remembers growing up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. She and her husband’s family had known each other while they were both growing up.
She mentions that after getting married, she began soliciting for Allied Jewish Campaign with her husband, Hugh Greenberg. Greenberg speaks about her mentors and comments on the climate on volunteerism today compared to in the past.
Greenberg talks about her involvement with the Women’s Division Institute and Spring Forum, where she was involved with a leadership training Course. She tells an anecdote of a time when Betty Freidan spoke to the Women’s Division.
Greenberg continues with her involvement in the Israel Emergency Fund and her experiences of soliciting door-to-door. She talks about serving with Edythe Jackier as the vice president of Jewish Family Services. She also speaks about an outreach program to help feed hungry Jews in Detroit, which became the forerunner to Meals on Wheels, and about the JFS resettlement program. This led into Greenberg’s accounts of her involvement with HIAS to help homeless in Europe to find homes in the US.
Greenberg discusses the first mission she went to in Israel in 1969. Then, she talks about Sinai Hospital and her involvement. She speaks about working on education programs and fundraising balls. She continues discussing more about women volunteers in the modern day, compared to the past.
History of Narrator
Carolyn Kaplan Greenberg was born on April 30, 1930. She served as board member of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, and the Women’s Department Advisory Service Council. Mrs. Greenberg was co-chair of Federation’s Centennial Celebration in 1999, president of the Women’s Campaign and Education Department, vice-president of Jewish Family Service, and vice-chair of Sinai Hospital. She is a member of the National Council of Jewish Women and of HIAS.
Through her activities in the Jewish community, she has been honored with the American Jewish Committee Human Relations Award, the Sylvia Simon Greenberg Young Leadership Award, and the Butzel Award.
Transcript
Important Subjects
Important Names
Credit as: Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives. Carolyn Greenberg Oral History Interview, June 20, 2005.