Oral history interview with Benjamin Asia, June 5, 1991.

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Oral history interview with Benjamin Asia, June 5, 1991.

1991

https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv03451?q=benjamin%20asia

Asia describes his early life, discussing his parents, who were immigrants from Ukraine, his brother, and the various places his family lived in Western Washington. He talks about his secular and religious education, his neighborhood in Seattle, and prominent Jewish families in the area and in Temple de Hirsch. Both of Asia's parents were active in Jewish organizations: his father, Samuel B. Asia, took an extended trip to Alaska in 1928 to solicit for the United Jewish Appeal, and his mother was very active in Hadassah. Asia attended Garfield High School and discusses his experiences among the multi-racial student body. He also talks about his college years at the University of Washington and Harvard. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu at Washington, and relates his impressions of Jewish fraternities. At Harvard, Asia worked for a boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and founded a Zionist club. After law school he went to Washington, D.C., to work for the Federal Security Agency and became active in union work and Zionist causes. He returned to Seattle in 1946 to practice private law. Asia became president of the Zionist Organization of America and sought community support for the establishment of the state of Israel. He reviews the history of the state of Israel. During the McCarthy era, Asia defended University of Washington professors Abraham Keller and Garland Ethel. Through the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, Asia handled the first discrimination case to come before the Washington State Board Against Discrimination. He discusses instances of discrimination and anti-semitism in Seattle social clubs. He also talks about the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle (Asia served as president in the early 1970s), the American Jewish Committee, and the establishment of the Jewish Community Center in Seattle and the High School of Jewish Studies, founded in 1936. Asia joined Temple Beth Am and became its president; his wife Hilda also taught at the temple for 19 years. He briefly discusses other community organizations, including non-Jewish resources. The interview concludes with a brief statement about his family.

Sound recordings: 2 sound cassettes : analog, mono.Transcript: 59 leaves.

University of Washington. Libraries

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SNAC Resource ID: 7632801

University of Washington. Libraries

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