By Alison Turner, Archivist

We are living through what many are calling strange times. Some of us are beginning to call it post-pandemic, while other communities have decided to continue online only events and services for now. I think the call of history is that we create a record of what I have already heard described as a “strange summer” unlike any other.

Last summer it was quite clear, everything in person was cancelled or postponed or moved online. This summer the position is much less clear and even more subject to sudden changes than before.

I have heard that my community, for example, has decided to hold all High Holy Days services online again this year – the long lead-in for planning means this has to be decided now. Our Cheder, on the other hand, is eagerly anticipating gathering in person for our summer picnic in July, at the end of term. This is of course an outdoor event, so subject to very different restrictions.

So, this is advice on documenting any unusual activities or events for posterity.

Do you have any resources from the start-up of your initiative, eg an online event, that I could have for the national archives? Flyers, emails and e-notices, with starting dates would be wonderful primary material. Minutes of meetings are also very valuable records of discussions and decisions in a form that could be shared publicly. Of course, if you wish to keep these confidential, that can be marked in the archive record, with any time limit or conditions you might wish to impose. If so, please send it to me at the email address below.

You may also prefer to keep these in your own synagogue archives, in which case I would appreciate being informed that you have done so and if there is a contact person or email address for enquirers.

I advise that in line with standard practices, you keep a regularly updated off-site backup of your electronic archives, in case of disaster. You should also be aware of changes in technology, and should ensure that your files are still readable in the future.

You will need to index your material, adding metadata to the document, so that it can be found and retrieved in future. This has two parts, firstly a catalogue entry describing what it is, when it was created, who created it and which format it is in. Secondly actual index terms might be useful, depending on which software you use. Some may provide full text indexing automatically, other may have a feature where you can add descriptive tags, for example online service, carers’ group and so on as appropriate to your community. You may find your software has automatically created the catalogue record for you, but it is worth checking and adding anything that has been missed.

I had a student ask me for our archives on our anti-racist activity once, and it was a pitifully small amount from the old Social Action committee many decades ago. I find people are often so busy and excited when they start something new that they do not think that the earliest emails are valuable to archive. They are the 21st century equivalent of Lily Montagu’s handwritten letters to Claude Montefiore in the 1890s, where they discussed if there was a need for a new movement and who might support such a thing?

I am happy to have electronic information, though it seems to me that printed would be more durable, because I have manuscripts and typescripts from the 1890s in the archives that I can still read, whereas I also had floppy disks and cassette tapes and no media to read them. I have had to send them to another specialist archive which can transfer them to more modern media. I know nowadays it is all quite likely to be email and not paper and that is fine.

My concern is that people might think that once an event is in the past, all records of it can be deleted. I urge you not to do that, flyers documenting past activities are now eagerly sought by the National Library of Israel for their Jewish European Ephemera Collection for example.

I took part in a Covid conversation on faith for the NHS at 70 project earlier this week and have now been invited to tell my story for the national archive. These are historic times and I see it as my duty as an archivist to play my part in documenting them. The records will be valued in the present and short-term as we steer our way out of the pandemic. In the long-term researchers and historians, both amateur and professional, will thank us.

So, think about what you are doing now as a community that is not what you usually do, or not done how you usually did it. It may be that in the future, everything will be hybrid in person and online, or at least a lot of things will be, from Shabbat services to training and ordination of new rabbis and lay leaders and much more. One day, someone will look back and want to know how that change happened, and start looking for the records. It is up to us to make sure they exist and can be accessed. If you would like any further information or assistance, please let me know.

• You can contact Alison by emailing A.Turner@liberaljudaism.org