DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080634

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: NEIGHBORHOOD EXCHANGE

TYPE: PUBLIC LIFE

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

HISTORY TOUR GIVES JEWS A CHANCE TO RELIVE PAST

The tour bus stopped at a downtown Norfolk traffic light, but few eyes wandered to the construction sprawling outside the windows.

Most eyes fixed on Joe Collector as he reminisced about the ``35,000 pounds of lox'' he had sliced while working in his father's deli, once at Church and Freemason streets.

The skeleton of the MacArthur Center construction site melted away. The riders saw once more kosher butchers, bakers, clothiers, settlement houses and synagogues that dotted old Church Street when it was the local Jewish answer to New York's lower East Side.

Little remains of the pre-World War II days when Jewish homes and stores filled downtown Church Street, parts of Berkley and downtown Portsmouth. So, as tour leader Miriam Seeherman suggested, ``close your eyes and imagine.''

This is how some 50 folks on a recent Sunday afternoon revisited some long-vanished neighborhoods. The sold-out tour was organized by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Tidewater Jewish Foundation.

Now, the enthusiasm of participants has prompted thoughts about offering the tour more often.

``We're definitely going to do it for our teen study group,'' said Marlene Rossen, senior development associate for the regional Jewish federation.

But why run tours, especially for teens who do not share the memories of their forebearers?

Especially for teens, says Seeherman. Awareness of past experiences, she said, will help teens to appreciate their heritage and to build for the future.

``Life in this country is so very mobile,'' Seeherman said. ``Younger people today have to have connectedness reinforced.''

For Jews, the answer to why also may be inspired by coincidental timing. The tour was held Sept. 21, just before the start of the Jewish High Holy Days - Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - that began last week.

The theme of remembrance is central. Jews believe God recalls every person's words and deeds from the previous year; God remembers the covenant to all generations; people reflect how they acted toward one another; relatives and friends think of loved ones now gone.

Remembrance, though, is more than thinking about the joys and sorrows of yesteryear or seeking repentance. For Jews, it becomes a duty in efforts to mend with the past and change the world for the better. Jews call it teshuvah, for turning back to the correct path.

But you need not be Jewish to understand the more universal appeal of any historical tour.

For example: When the tourgoers came upon the narrow streets of Berkley and saw residents socializing on front porches, they reflected on how the streets helped make for a close-knit neighborhood and what lessons for the future.

If we don't remember this way, Seeherman said, tours of old neighborhoods become ``like a well that's gone dry. We can pump and pump, but the original source has dried up. We have to keep past experiences alive as long as we can.''

As Marlene Rossen reminds in the Hebrew, l'dor vador: ``from one generation to another.'' MEMO: For information about the Jewish historical tours, call Marlene

Rossen, 671-1600.

Story ideas for this column? Call Mike Knepler, 446-2275. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

...Miriam Seeherman

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