Scope and Contents Video recording of the Antisemitism at Davidson: Then and Now Panel Discussion, held March 14, 2019 in the Lilly Family Gallery of Chambers Building. Speakers included Professor Ronald Linden, Professor Ruth Ault, alum Joe Pearlman '79, and current student Caroline Black '20. The panelists were asked a series of questions regarding ways Jewish identity at Davidson has changed over time, as well as their experiences with antisemitism. Linden specifically discusses his experiences in 1977 when...

Scope and Contents Oral history interview with Arielle Korman, Davidson College class of 2017. Arielle Korman discusses her background growing up Jewish in New York, including her synagogue, music, and education. She contrasts the rich religious community she had to her experience of Jewishness at Davidson College, which was more focused on active education, leadership, and community building. Korman talks from her perspective as a former student leader: the events she held, promotion of Jewish student life,...

Scope and Contents Oral history interview and transcript with with Brian Bokor conducted on March 6, 2019. Brian Bokor recounts his experiences as Jewish student at Davidson and how it aligned with his experiences as a Jewish man living in the American South. He discusses his experiences as a student athlete and member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Davidson College. He talks about his interfaith relationship with his Catholic wife and discusses Jewish identity’s precarious position in current American...

Scope and Contents Oral history interview with Cintra Pollack, Davidson College class of 1999. Pollack recounts her Jewish background and her experience as a Jewish student at Davidson College. She speaks of the isolation she often felt as one of the few Jewish students on campus. Pollack shares experiences ranging from writing an op-ed addressing Davidson’s exclusionary Board of Trustees policy, finding a Jewish community studying abroad in China, inklings of anti-semitism at local bars, and strengthening...

Scope and Contents

Oral history interview and transcript with Karl Plank conducted on April 9, 2019. Dr. Karl Plank recounts the evolution of the Religious Studies department since his hiring in the early 1980s, the types of students who have been attracted to courses that deal explicitly with Judaism, and his experience of being “read” as Jewish because of the courses he teaches.

Scope and Contents Oral history interview with Reverend Robert "Rob" Spach, Davidson College chaplain. The interview recording and transcript is split into two parts. In part 1, Reverend Spach speaks about his time as a student at Davidson. He talks about the Religious Studies Department in the early 1980s and the religious organizations on campus at the time including student-led groups and the college chaplain’s office. He goes on to describe coming back to Davidson as the College Chaplain in 1993 and his...

Scope and Contents Oral history interview and transcript with Ronald Linden conducted on March 15, 2019. Ron Linden describes applying for a professorial job at Davidson College in 1976. He speaks about the interview process and the discussion he had with College President Samuel Reid Spencer about Linden’s Jewish faith and how the Davidson bylaws only permitted Christian teachers. Linden recounts his surprise when he received a job offer that was subsequently rescinded and his shock when the incident made...

Scope and Contents Oral history interview and transcript with Ruth Ault conducted on February 22, 2019. Ruth Ault describes her Jewish background prior to Davidson College: raised in Conservative Judaism and being in non-Jewish communities, like Pomona College and the University of Utah. Ault recounts her interview process for Davidson College in 1979, as the first hired Jewish professor at Davidson, and the college’s Presbyterian tradition and bylaws. She recounts how her arrival to Davidson was received by...