Mrs. PAINE. A Young Friends Conference.
Mr. JENNER. At Reading, England.
Mrs. PAINE. Right.
Mr. JENNER. Then the period August 1954 through May 1955, you were
associated with the Young Men's Hebrew Association and the Young
Women's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia, Pa.?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. And you were particularly given an assignment, and I may
say everybody anticipated it being a difficult one, of working with the
Golden Age Club. Is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I had three club assignments and this was the one that
took the most time.
Mr. JENNER. Would you please tell us what those assignments were? You
say there were three.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I worked with the Golden Age Club as you have already
said, with a group of young adults, and also with an open lounge,
recreation lounge with games and playing cards, newspapers, for
members' use.
Mr. JENNER. I think it would profit us in bringing out your background
if you take those three groups and in capsule form tell us what your
work in connection with those groups was. Take the Golden Age Club
first. They were a group of what people?
Mrs. PAINE. The Golden Age Club consisted of people over the age of 60,
all of them Jewish.
Mr. JENNER. Were they all emigres?
Mrs. PAINE. To the best of my knowledge, all or certainly nearly all
were emigres. In fact, most of them had come from, a good many of them
had come from Kiev, and they had come around the turn of the century.
Mr. JENNER. That is a city in Russia?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; and they spoke Yiddish in conducting their business
meetings, to one another, although since most of them, all of them had
been in this country for a long time they understood English and spoke
it. There were some who did not read and write English, and I undertook
to teach a few.
Mr. JENNER. What was your particular activity in connection with this
group?
Mrs. PAINE. I was to help them in achieving their plans for parties and
club activities and to act as liaison between the club and the Y, which
sponsored the club.
Mr. JENNER. Were these elderly people, set in their ways, who avoided
change?
Mrs. PAINE. I felt it would be quite a remarkable group of very
interesting people, and very able people. I felt that as a club leader
I didn't really need to do much more than stay out of their way and
help them in communication between one another and specifically in
communication between the club and the organization, the Y.
Mr. JENNER. In general, what was their view towards the United States
of America, as a group?
Mrs. PAINE. Oh, they loved America very much. They raised their
families here.
Mr. JENNER. That is the first of those three groups.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. What was the next?
Mrs. PAINE. The second was the group of young adults that met once a
week.
Mr. JENNER. Did they have any particular characteristic other than that
they were a group of young adults?
Mrs. PAINE. They were a group of older young adults. They particularly
needed to make social contact and some of them just to learn how to
date and meet.
Mr. JENNER. Were they likewise people who had come from Russia or
Poland?
Mrs. PAINE. No, no; they had been born here.
Mr. JENNER. They were apparently disadvantaged in some respect. Would
you indicate what that was?
Mrs. PAINE. I felt they were not as able a group. The individuals in
the group were not as able as the ones in the Golden Age Club, and they
needed a great deal of help in their planning and in achieving simple
party.
Mr. JENNER. Your work actually was group activity, singing groups,
dancing groups or activities, rather, was it?
Mrs. PAINE. Not particularly singing and dancing. Again, of course, it
was liaison between this club and the Y. But leadership here was more
in the role of enabling them to achieve what they wanted than being the
visible head of the group. The group had its own president and officers.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have to do any teaching in connection with either
the Golden Age or the young adults group?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. The third was, I think you described it, as the lounge.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; it was an informal lounge for members of the Y. They
could come in and play chess, checkers, talk, read magazines. This
required the least from me in the leadership.
Mr. JENNER. It was in this connection that you acquired some interest,
or at least you attempted to acquire a facility in the Yiddish language?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; because of my work with the Golden Age Club. I had
already studied some German so that I understood. The two languages are
similar enough that I understood some of the content of their business
meeting which they conducted in Yiddish.
Mr. JENNER. I have forgotten now, if you will forgive me. By this time
had you taken a course in Russian at the university?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I hadn't.
Mr. JENNER. Had these activities at least in part that we have gone
through this morning awakened, or stimulated your interest in the study
of Russian?
Mrs. PAINE. No; had these activities?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. PAINE. Stimulated my interest?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. I will jump way back now, go backward a little bit to your
pre-Antioch College period of activity.
Do you recall that as early as 1945--1946, that you were part of or at
least engaged in the activities of the World Truck Farm in Elyria, Ohio?
Mrs. PAINE. Wolfe is the name. It is the man's name; the owner's name;
Wolfe Truck Farm.