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![[Shelah and Peter]](fried1xx.jpg)
 When you read the column "From the Reference Desk," written by Shelah Fried, you will learn that the Center has recently transferred its book collection to the Drew University library. What you will not read, however, is that Shelah was the inspiration and driving force behind this move. As our reference librarian, Shelah had arranged our collection in a downstairs conference room and entered our holdings into a computer data base that she also cross-checked with the Drew library collection. Although there were some duplicates, our collection included many books and survivor memoirs that Drew did not have. Shelah lamented that so few people knew about our holdings and persisted in sending the message that we needed to get our collection listed in the official Drew library catalogue. Finally, after meetings with both the director of the library and head of acquisitions, arrangements were made to transfer the books over to the main library. Had it not been for Shelah, these books would still be languishing downstairs. For this important reason, I must begin this "Spotlight" by thanking Shelah for this latest "task accomplished," while also noting that Shelah deserves our thanks for considerably more.
Born and educated in Boston, Massachusetts, Shelah earned her Bachelor's degree in Library Science from Simmons College. It was also in Boston that she was introduced to Peter Fried through school friends who had come as refugees to the United States from Vienna, Austria. Peter too was a refugee from Vienna who came to the United States with his family in 1939, thereby escaping the Nazi occupation. Sponsored by Richard Tobias, a New York City advertising executive, Peter's mother would write a grateful letter that elicited from Mr. Tobias the following heartwarming response, "The joy reflected in your letter is full compensation to me for the very small part I played in helping to facilitate your entry to our shores." Later in the letter, Mr. Tobias writes that he was "fortunate enough" to assist another family, soon to arrive at what another sponsor, Mr. Joseph Fried, proudly described as "the land of the free and the home of the brave." It is reassuring to note that some Americans were in fact helping the endangered Jews in Europe at this time.
Shortly after Shelah and Peter married in 1955, they moved to Washington, D.C. where their two daughters, Susan and Carla, were born. During the Kennedy years, Peter went to work for the Security Exchange Commission (S.E.C.). Shelah became involved with first the National Council of Jewish Women and then with the Urban League Women's Bureau, through which she met such prominent civil rights advocates as the young Vernon Jordan, later to be a close associate of former President Clinton. Also working as a children's librarian in the D.C. public library system and later in the Arlington Library system, it was in Washington that Shelah honed her skills as a community activist and educator. Later on, after she and Peter moved to South Orange in 1968, she brought these skills to the South Orange-Maplewood school system as an elementary school librarian. As you can see from the picture below, Shelah--whimsically dressed as The Cat in the Hat--really made children's literature "jump off the page." In 1979, she earned a master's degree in Educational Media from Seton Hall University, thereby expanding even further her ability to reach students.
Since Shelah's retirement in 1994, she has had the opportunity to pursue some of her many interests: gardening, cooking, getting to know the birds that have claimed her new home as theirs--and most important, being a grandmother to Auguste (age 4) and newly born Theodore, to whom she is totally and understandably devoted. It is our good fortune that upon retirement, Shelah also decided to audit courses at Drew through which she learned about the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study. Its mission to commemorate those who perished in the Holocaust and to celebrate those who survived was one she connected with immediately, having married into a refugee family. It also seemed to her that our educational and research missions were natural extensions of the work she had been doing all along as a professional librarian and community activist. We, in turn, have counted ourselves lucky to have Shelah as one of our most lively, creative, and committed Center Associates. In addition to managing our book and video collections and writing the column "From the Reference Desk" for Perspectives on the Holocaust,Shelah has served over the years on the Center's conference committees, managed the logistics of our Millennium Cabaret Fundraiser in 2000, and chaired our membership committee in 2001, winning new members with her convincing "letter of appeal." She also co-authored the New Jersey Council on the Humanities grant we received for a film series in spring 2002. Titled "Reclaiming Lost Art/Reclaiming Lost Culture," the series was highly successful and brought to Drew many people who had not previously attended a Center program. To every challenge, Shelah brings her trademark candor, outspokenness, perceptiveness, zeal, and dedication to Holocaust education/commemoration. Most recently, Shelah graciously hosted an all-day Associates' Retreat at her beautiful new home in West Orange, overlooking the New York City skyline. Her warmth and joie de vivre,evident throughout the home, helped set the stage for a wonderfully productive day. For this too, we thank Shelah!
Finally, no spotlight on Shelah would be complete without mention of her interest in travel, which she shares with husband, Peter, who retired in 2000. Inveterate adventure seekers, they have traveled mainly in Europe, always ending up in Paris--for pleasure. For commemoration, they made a pilgrimage in 1994 to Theresienstadt where Peter's grandparents and aunt had perished. It was a difficult and heartrending journey for Shelah and Peter, as they confirmed what they had learned earlier about Peter's family in the archives at Yad Vashem. The photo at the top of this page is of Peter and Shelah on the Orient March Poloin June, 2001
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