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ABOUT US
Shalom!
The Greater Austin Jewish Historical Society was founded on a simple but powerful belief: that our shared Jewish history belongs to everyone. By bringing that history into the light — through stories, artifacts, and community connection — we work to build understanding both within and beyond the Jewish community, in a spirit of learning and unity.
At the heart of our identity is the Hebrew phrase L'Dor V'dor — "from generation to generation" — inscribed in our logo. It's more than a popular tagline. It speaks to our deepest purpose: ensuring that the history we carry today is lovingly passed forward to those who come after us.
IRS Charitable Tax Exemption
Greater Austin Jewish Historical Society (GAJHS) was approved for its 501(c)(3) tax exemption as a charitable organization from Internal Revenue Service on April 1, 2025.
Board of Directors
- Jeff Cohen, President
- Rachel Union, Vice President
- Barry Silverberg, Secretary and Treasurer
Contact Us
📧 info@austinjewishhistory.org
📞 512-814-7856
Organizational Pre-History
GAJHS builds on the Austin Jewish Community Archive at Austin History Center, our unincorporated precursor organization from 2018-2025. The archive remains open to all researchers of Austin's Jewish history, and donors can seek permission from Austin History Center to contribute material meeting its collection guidelines. GAJHS can also help connect donors to other repositories — see our growing list here.
An October 2019 Jewish Outlook article by Robert Cullick, published by Shalom Austin, captures our precursor organization's early vision.
The idea traced to Paul Keeper, a retired administrative law attorney and mediator who, while sorting his late grandmother Rose Keeper's papers in Houston, learned Rice University had recently launched a Jewish history archive in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which had caused significant flooding of homes. He brought the idea to Austin, partnering with Dr. Suzanne Seriff (UT Austin), archivist Mike Miller (Austin History Center), and Jeff Cohen (Austin History Center Association) to gather Austin's scattered synagogue records, family papers, and oral histories into one accessible collection — preserving the Greater Austin Jewish community's role in the city's larger story.