MEMOIRIST: VIDA DAAB GOLDGAR (1930-2004)
INTERVIEWERS: GROUP (FIRST INTERVIEW)
LIBBY JOHNSON (SECOND INTERVIEW)
DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 1985
JANUARY 8, 1987
LOCATION: ATLANTA, GEORGIA
ID#: OHC10257
NUMBER OF PAGES: 36
Transcript (PDF)
EXCERPTS/HIGHLIGHTS
On her emerging role at the Southern Israelite:
“About a couple of years after I was there, Adolph said, "I've been trying for many, many years to go to Israel. I've never been able to leave the paper to do it. I think you can handle it while I'm gone." I said, "Sure. No problem." We were going to spend about an hour-and-a-half or so right before he was to leave with some really heavy-duty briefing, except that I ended up in the hospital the week before with a pinched nerve and kind of walked in the day he was to leave with a collar on my neck. He said, "Bye." I really didn't know how much I didn't know until that time. But we got the paper out. I didn't know that headlines had to count a certain way or be a certain size. I just went back to the print shop and said, "Here, set it in whatever will fit." But we did get the paper out. I guess it was a little heady experience. I was off and running. I've been there ever since.” 2, 3
On her conversion:
“I converted when I was 21, when I married. However, I say I didn't, and yet I did, because my grandfather was Jewish. My grandfather, who came to this country in the middle of the nineteenth century, was Jewish. He in turn married a non-Jew. Yet in this little town, which really had no population . . . I had cousins who didn't know that my grandfather was Jewish. I grew up knowing it. These were older cousins . . . I grew up with a feeling about it and a kinship to it, and there was just something there that . . . I discussed it with family members. I don't know why or how, but I always felt that there was a very strong connection, even though it wasn’t continued in the family. I think I married a Jew because he was a Jew . . . in part because I wanted to reach that. Before I did that, I was always on my soapbox and telling people that I was Jewish. If I heard a slur or something like that, I would get on my high horse and [say], ‘Obviously you don't know that I'm Jewish.’ So it was there. It's an almost inexplicable sort of thing that was with me from that kind of tenuous connection.” 3, 4
“I began to get this feeling that if I said anything mildly critical of any group or body or custom or anything else, or if I went off on any sort of tangent, the feedback I was going to get . . . I don't know that this would have happened . . . but was, “What does she know about it anyhow. She's not even Jewish.” I think that exists. It exists to some degree that I felt that very strongly. All at a sudden I buttoned up and I no longer told anyone.” 12, 13
On the name change from Southern Israelite to the Atlanta Jewish Times:
“The name change . . . from the Southern Israelite, which was the name of the paper since its inception 62 years ago, was a little harder to get used to. The Atlanta Jewish Times is, I agree, a more modern name, more in keeping with what is happening in the Jewish community of Atlanta. Part of the reason for the change was to perhaps be more appealing to a lot of the newcomers in town who don't have the history of the Southern Israelite, and frankly, very often say, “What's that? Is it a synagogue bulletin?” Also, to appeal to the advertisers, many of whom are not Jewish, and who are even more confused as to what the Southern Israelite is. I agree with all the reasons. Emotionally, I haven't quite totally accepted it yet. I still pick up the phone, if I happen to, and say, “The Southern Israelite.” I guess that'll happen, and continue to happen for a long time.” 18, 19
On Adolph Rosenberg:
“But he became ill in the late . . . probably 1975, early 1976, and practically until the day he died, even during chemotherapy, he would come right in to the paper. He maintained some semblance . . . of carrying on. He was a remarkable man. He could be annoying. He could be aggravating. At one time, I asked him, after he was ill and I wanted to indicate in the softest way because we didn't talk about his illness, that I might be interested in the paper. The only way I could phrase it was if he wanted to give up a little responsibility, I'd be interested in a piece of the action. His response was, ‘After all, you're a woman, and a single woman. What if you fell in love with somebody in Chicago or something like that? What would you do then?’ I got annoyed and couldn't really express it. I said, ‘You wouldn't say that to a single man.’ Nonetheless, that was the end of the conversation.” 21
On the Southern Israelite and reporting on the Six Day War, 1967:
“Adolph stayed. The war broke cut. He could not get back. Didn't really . . . He was stuck . . . he had a bullet hole in his room, came through his window. I don't recall whether he was in the room or not. But he proceeded as a true newsman. He hooked up with a unit, whatever, went down into where the fighting was or had just been. I tried desperately to get a call through, unsuccessfully. We didn’t hear anything from him. He couldn’t get to us. Not knowing really what was going on over there, we didn't know if he was dead or alive or what had happened. At some point we got this thick airmail letter, and he started sending stories back . . . He couldn't get through on wire or anything like that. But when he got back, he was just much in demand . . . all over the city, because I think he was the only Atlantan, only Atlanta newsperson, that was actually there. It was . . . he talked about it for the rest of his life and reminisced about it.” 22, 23, 24
BIOGRAPHY
Vida Daab Goldgar was born in Columbia, Illinois in 1930. Her father, John Daab, was a pharmacist. Her mother, Adele Schein, died when she was seven years old and her father remarried. She has a sister and two stepsisters and a stepbrother. She converted to Judaism when she was 21 years old when she married. Her mother-in-law, Annie Shapiro Goldgar, was a major influence in the decision. It turned out that her maternal grandfather, David Shein, had been Jewish, although much of her family did not know that. Her grandfather had been a peddler and then owned a small store and a mill in New Orleans, Louisiana. He had immigrated to the United States from Germany.
Vida married Michael Goldgar at age 21 and had four children: David, Dirk, Dean and Deborah (Barber). She and her family came to Atlanta from New York in 1959. She worked for the Southern Israelite (later the Atlanta Jewish Times) on a part-time basis as she was raising four children. In 1973 she was divorced and began to work full time at the Southern Israelite, under the leadership of Adolph Rosenberg. On January 1, 1979 she purchased the paper and became editor and publisher. She owned the Southern Israelite until August 1986, when she sold it to Stan and Shirley Rose of the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle and retired. The Roses renamed the newspaper Atlanta Jewish Times. After selling the paper, she continued to serve as a senior editor and columnist until her retirement in 1994. Vida died in July 2004.
SCOPE OF INTERVIEW
Vida discusses her early life growing up in the Midwest and her family. She recollects her conversion to Judaism and marriage. She recalls her parents and grandparents, her schooling, interest in becoming a teacher, early professional life and marriage to Michael Goldgar.
She recalls her move to Atlanta, Georgia with her family and her early years on the Southern Israelite when she was a columnist, her relationship with Adolph Rosenberg, the owner and senior editor, her eventual full-time employment, and her eventual purchase of the newspaper after Rosenberg’s death. She recollects numerous anecdotes surrounding her connection with the newspaper including helping to cover the Six-Day War in Israel in 1967. She remembers her eventual sale of the newspaper to the Roses and her partial retirement from the newly-renamed paper to the Atlanta Jewish Times.
She also recalls her social and community involvement in a variety of organizations such as Hadassah. She discusses her Jewish identity, her involvement in the Temple Sunday school, her children’s Jewish education, marriages and families and her grandchildren.
KEYWORDS
Abelson, Sonia Rabinowitz
American Jewish Press Association
Atlanta Jewish Times (Jewish newspaper)
Atlanta Georgian
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia—Growth and development
Augusta, Georgia
Bar mitzvah
Bat mitzvah
Berit milah
Blumberg, Janice Rothschild Oettenger
B’nai B’rith Women
Bowling leagues
Boy Scouts
Bris
Caplan, Alice Weinberger
Carter, James Earl “Jimmy” Jr. (President)
Cavanaugh Associates—Atlanta, Georgia
Cavanaugh, Trudy
Chapter 11
Cincinnati, Ohio
Circumcision
Civil Rights Movement
Coffee Klatch (column)
Columbia, Illinois
Conversion
Daab, John
Danzig Corridor (Poland)
Dessauer, Herman
Dessauer, Sara Burns Simmons
Diamond, Margie Rosenstein
Editors, newspaper
Feminism
Fox, Adele Daab
Geldbart, Jack
Germany
Goldgar, Annie Shapiro
Goldgar, Dean
Goldgar, Michael
Goldgar, Vida Daab
Hadassah—Henrietta Szold Chapter
Hadassah Hospital—Jerusalem, Israel
Hanukkah
Hebrew Union College—Cincinatti, Ohio
Hene, Sara Burns Dessauer
Heyman, Josephine Joel
Immigration
Intermarriage
Israel
Israeli-Lebanese Conflict, 1982-1985
Journalism
Judaism—Fasts and feasts
Judaism—Rites and ceremonies
Judaism, Conservative
Judaism, Orthodox
Judaism, Reform
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Karp, Hazel Berman
Levow, Joyce Spielberger
Luntz, Hannah
Macon, Georgia
Minter, Jim
Newspapers, Jewish
New Orleans, Louisiana
Peddlers and peddling
Pharmacists
Public relations
Public schools
Reagan, Ronald (President)
Rebbetzin
Religious education, Jewish
Rose, Stan and Shirley
Rosenberg, Adolph
Rothschild, Jacob (Rabbi)
Saul, Virginia Diamond
Schein, Adele
Schein, David
Shiffer, Steve
Shurgin, Eloise Kaufman
Sigma Delta Chi
Sisterhoods
Six Day War, 1967
Society of Professional Journalists
Southern Israelite (Jewish newspaper)
St. Louis, Missouri
Sternberg, Ruth (Rae) Davis
Straus, H. Cerf (Rabbi)
Sunday school
Teaching
Temple—Atlanta, Georgia
Temple Beth Israel—Macon, Georgia
Weiner, Laurel
Wenger, Nanette (Dr.)
Weston, Colleen
White House—Washington, D.C.
Williams, Dick
Women’s rights
Women’s movement
Youth Aliyah