Suzi Greenman had a broken arm that day. She tied the bouquet of white tulips onto her cast — only lightweight flowers would do. But you’d never know the difference from looking at the 1966 photograph of the happy bride and groom.
“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Greenman says. “We were married in Lefkowitz Chapel, and it’s still one of my favorite chapels in the church.”
She’s one of the many local Jewish families represented in “Weddings: A Family Affair” at Temple Emanu-El. The exhibit includes old photographs and artifacts from members’ wedding days, dating back to the late 19th century. Two timelines run alongside the display — the history of Temple Emanu-El and the history of Dallas. Some of the earliest Temple members were pioneers of the city as the church grew to be one of the largest Jewish reform congregations.
Gerry Cristol, the church’s archivist whose committee organized the exhibit, says that with the establishment of the railroad in 1872, these Jewish families helped launch Dallas’ commercial center.
“It’s a cliché about Jewish merchants, but it’s true,” she says. “It’s a wonderful history.”
The archive committee rotates exhibits year-round at Temple Emanu-El, a congregation with about 2,800 members. Co-chair Joyce Goldberg came up with the idea for the weddings exhibit as a way to involve the whole congregation. They placed a notice in the church bulletin, calling for members to contribute their photos and memorabilia, including prayer books and wedding lingerie. Goldberg says this display has seen more participation than any other.
“It’s very personal. It brings back their own memories of when they got married,” she says. Goldberg’s family also has space in the show, tracing back to her father, Rabbi Gerald Klein, who served at Temple for more than 50 years.
“Everyone seems to know someone in the exhibit.”
Greenman was born into the Temple Emanu-El congregation and served as president 1999-2001. Her family’s case in the exhibit includes the wedding of her great-grandparents, Simon and Beccie Linz, part of the Linz Bros. jewelry company. It operated downtown and later in Preston Center, the current Tin Star storefront, before selling to Zales in the 1960s.
But it wasn’t until she saw the exhibit in its entirety that Greenman realized she was related by marriage to Philip Sanger of the department store Sanger Bros., who also helped found Temple Emanu-El in 1875.
“It’s very nostalgic and creates a sense of family, which is at the heart of every congregation,” Greenman says. “This is our religious home where we have celebrated all our major milestones.”
She recently added one more artifact to her family’s display — a vase passed down from her great-grandmother Beccie Linz. The inscription reads “My Friends, 1893,” and about 50 different signatures are written on it.
“It’s kind of like an autograph book you’d have at a party, but she used a vase,” Greenman says. “It represents all the early Jewish families of Dallas. My husband’s been telling me for years I should add it to the archives.”
Goldberg says “Weddings” is more than just a bunch of old photographs. It represents Temple, then and now.
“It’s not just something that happened a long time ago,” she says. “It’s also the present.”
So, members have filed through the exhibit, gasping and giggling about how their friends looked all those years ago. Many members have since moved away, but Cristol says they always come back.
“There’s something to come back to.”
