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Paul Farber
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Photo by Gene Smirnov
A s co-founder and director of Monument Lab, a Philadelphia-
based public art and history studio nonprofit, Paul Farber is
concerned with memory.

According to Farber, 40, memory can be consecrated in large forms,
such as Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and small
forms, such as cookbooks or his childhood handprints and footprints
that are stamped on the playground of the Germantown Jewish Centre,
the synagogue where he grew up.

Most recently, Farber studied the memorial of one of Philly’s great
fictional heroes, Rocky Balboa, as the host of WHYY’s “The Statue.”
The six-part podcast wrapped up on Feb. 14.

“To tell the story of Rocky in this city and the Rocky statue is actually
to tell the story of a city, of its people, of its immigrants, of the way that
history moves, inspires and pushes us,” Farber said.

“That would be an approach to thinking about a monument — not
just to look up at it, but to kind of place
yourself there and look around and see
what you can learn from the perspec-
tive of the statue,” he added.

The Rocky statue is, to Farber, the
epitome of what makes monuments
unique: They do not just represent a
person and ask an audience to explore
what makes this person worthy of public
memory; monuments also contain the
history and stories of those who inter-
act with them.

Farber is just one of many
Philadelphians with loose ties to the
statue and the man it represents.

His great-great-grandmother and
great-grandparents immigrated to the
U.S. and became naturalized citizens
at the Washington Avenue Immigration
Station. Like many Jewish immigrants,
the family operated a pushcart and
then a small store. Farber’s grandfa-
ther attended South Philadelphia High
School and became a member of the
boxing club there.

Farber’s family’s roots in Philadelphia
are what made him interested in explor-
ing memory in the first place. He often
heard stories from his mother about
visiting his family’s store. A photo of
the Washington Avenue Immigration
Station hangs on Farber’s wall.

“Memory lives in our family histories
because it’s not often in monument
form,” he said. “It’s often our customs
and our books and our photo albums
and our recipes. And there’s a way in
which those who have come before us
are kept — their spirit is kept alive — in
really meaningful ways.”
With the preservation of memories
comes with it the knowledge that
memories are also lost and forgotten,
through trauma or assimilation.

“What could we know that was brought
forward with us? But also how do you
deal with very real gaps?” Farber asked.

Born and raised in Mount Airy, where
he lives now, Farber grew up in a multi-
faith community, “where to be Jewish
was both about honoring tradition and
pushing to build bridges,” a foundation
that shaped his upbringing and path.

Farber attended Quaker school and
later worked with Baptist ministers.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree
in urban studies at the University of
Pennsylvania, Farber left his hometown
to get a master’s degree and doctorate
in American culture from the University
of Michigan.

His dissertation took him to Berlin to
study how American writers and artists
documented the Berlin Wall. The paper,
and later a book, “A Wall of Our Own:
An American History of the Berlin Wall,”
was inspired by a Jewish photographer
who, in 1961, took pictures of an African
American soldier guarding the wall,
capturing the complexities of America’s
role in protecting global democracy
while also grappling with its own racism.

The research made Farber curious
about how Jewish history was honored
and preserved for other visitors of
Berlin, Jewish or not.

“How do we honor the past and make
room for ways that we persist into the
future?” Farber said. “I’m constantly
interested in the ways that people make
memories in big and small ways, in
ways that are official and unofficial.”
Farber returned to Philadelphia and
founded Monument Lab in 2012 with
Ken Lum as a series of classroom
conversations at Penn that evolved into
a nonprofit.

Today, Monument Lab uses its defini-
tion of monuments as “statements of
power and presence in public” to look
at the implications and meanings of
monuments around the country and
internationally. This spring, Monument
Lab will launch another podcast series
called “Plot of Land,” exploring how land
ownership and housing has changed in
the U.S. as a result of public memory
and racist policies.

“Not just in Jewish culture, but kind
of across boundaries, is the idea that
the past, present and future are not
so separated,” Farber said. “There’s
not a linear history … We carry forward
with us traces of the past, and we’re
constantly renewing and reimagining
it.” ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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