Girl Scout Leaders_1976/9/30, Oral Event History, 1976 - 1976

Today is Thursday, September 30, 1976. I am Franchon Title, Mrs. Melvin Title, a member of the Jewish Historical Society of Hartford. I also have had a long-time interest in girl scouting. Sandy Epstein is taping this interview in which Evelyn Alberts, Mrs. Manuel Alberts, Marion Keller, Mrs. Richard Keller, Ethel Sless, Mrs. Sammy Sless, and June Rose, Mrs. John Rose will be speaking. This interview will be a part of the archives of the Jewish Historical Society to be used for research and historical data. We are at the office of the Connecticut Valley Girl Scout Council, 34 Forest Street, Hartford. Last winter and into the late spring the Jewish Historical Society was engaged in the ___________ history of the Jews of Hartford. We were asked to do this and we ______ people from ______ and organizations to help. Each ____ of this group in Hartford wrote a section for an historical book which will be the basis for a course to be taught in the Hartford Public High School. The project was called Our ______, and was carried out by a committee under Mayor Athenson’s direction. I mention this because I worked on the script and it dealt only with Jewish organizations. Now Jews have _____ Israel in community organizations as well. Usually in forming an organization, and I am thinking of the United Way for instance, people from various ethnic, geographical, social, religious, financial groups and so forth are represented. Imagine Originally incorporated of the Hartford Girl Scouts was such a group. Mrs. Minnie Samuels, an outstanding person in the community, and in the Jewish community, was the Jewish representative. When she retired from the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts in 1923 she asked me to be a Board member. I have continued to serve the Girl Scouts. I have had troops in hard to reach areas like Ulster School, Laurel Street School. I had a troop at the Young Womens Hebrew Association for Jewish girls only. And I have done small jobs and large jobs. _____________________ vice chairman of the New England region and this year I wrote a _________________council and that is for myself. And not I would like you to hear from some of the people who are here like Evelyn Alberts FT: Evelyn, in April you received your 50 year pin. Surely you’ve done a lot of girl scouting and you have a lot to tell us. EA: Well, I was in Girl Scouts for many years before I came to Hartford and in November of 1936 I started the first Girl Scout troop at the Emanuel Synagogue. It was called Troop 28 and it was open to children in the neighborhood. It wasn’t limited to girls, to Jewish girls even though it was meeting in the synagogue, and we had a very large group. It was predominantly Jewish, but we did have children from the neighborhood who belonged to St. Justin’s Church and other places. We had many meetings there and I think our first major project was a gift to the Emanuel Synagogue of two books of Girl Scout content, which was Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts and the Girl Scout Handbook. After the first few years we formed many other troops and then we formed the first Brownie Troop with Mrs. Ethel Sless as the leader. FT: Ethel, you’ve been in scouting a long time too, so won’t you tell us something about your part in it? ES: Well, when we moved to Hartford in 1940 we lived right next to the Emanuel Synagogue and I searched all over the neighborhood to see if we had a Brownie Troop for my two daughters and there weren’t any. And after a couple of years I decided that the only way I could get my children to a Brownie Troop was to form one at the Emanuel Synagogue which I did and we had the first Brownie Troop there in 1943. Subsequent to that I believe that we formed six more troops following that. The Brownies could walk into the intermediate and senior troops which continued to have more troops in the Emanuel Synagogue. FT: I remember the Friday night at service you used to have ES: Yes. FT: Tell us something about that? ES: We had some fabulous Friday night sabbaths. The Girl Scouts all turned out in mass, I believe we had about 150 to 200 Girl Scouts that night, the parents came, the congregants came, and I believe there was standing room only to the doors and out in the hallway. And it was really something to remember. FT: This in March during Girl Scout week? ES: Yes, during Girl Scout Week, yes. FT: at the first Girl Scout sabbath was Mrs. Melvin Title, who was at that time the Deputy Commissioner of the Girl Scouts of Greater Hartford. ET: Marion, you had troops in the North End where there were all Jewish girls? Did you have any, you didn’t have any particularly Jewish groups but you worked as a leader there? MK: Well I started in West Hartford Park School. It was the first Brownie troop in West Hartford and had to take turns in New Britain because this was a new movement in scouts and then I lived in Bloomfield and so when we _____________ I had the whole north district. In that way I got really my good friends who are here today and we did a lot of great troop organization and we had an incredible experience I think and I remember the Girl Scouts ________________________ it was wonderful. This is Marion Keller speaking and