Activities, Belmont Country Club: Correspondence, 1975-1995

This subseries includes documents describing Justin and Genevieve's involvement with such activities as amateur radio, sailing, tennis and Jewish Marriage Encounter. Other documents describe their involvement with membership drives and other activities at the Belmont Country Club, as well as Harvard Club membership information for both Boston and New York, log books of sailing trips taken by the family, especially trips taken to various ports in the Caribbean, yearbooks from the New Bedford Yacht Club, and reports on marine service and repairs to the Seabiscuit, the family owned sailboat.

There is extensive correspondence in this sub-series to and from such notable people as President George H.W. Bush concerning the plight of Ethiopian Jews and the unrest in Haiti; President Jimmy Carter concerning issues confronting Israel; Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis thanking Genevieve for her campaign support in the Governor's race and for the family's support during his presidential campaign in 1988. Also of interest are letters to Avital Colettee, Consulate General of Israel in Boston, concerning the Massachusetts Anti-Arab Boycott Law (1976); letters to Senators Edward Brooke and Edward Kennedy protesting United States action in Cambodia; letters to and from Senators Kennedy and Kerry expressing opposition to manufacturing and tax bills that would affect family business; as well as correspondence to Senator Kerry opposing the Reagan Administration's proposal to change Medicare (1986.) There is also correspondence with the following individuals: Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts on Israel, Haiti, the environment and legislation concerning manufacturing and small business and a letter from actor Jack Lemmon, a Harvard classmate of Justin's, concerning a golfing date (1978).

This sub-series also contains extensive correspondence between Justin and Genevieve and with parents, children and friends, much of it dating back to their childhoods in the 1930s and 1940s. Of special interest is a letter from Rudolph Wyner to Justin on the occasion of his twentieth birthday and correspondence between Justin and Rabbi Kunstlicher concerning the location of his great grandfather, Avarahm Titzal Edeman's grave in Jerusalem.

The educational papers of Justin and Genevieve in this sub-series include documents from such institutions as The Rivers School and Roxbury Latin School of Boston, New Rochelle High School, New York, Tufts University, Wellesley College and Harvard University. The documents describe the educational careers of Justin and Genevieve and include correspondence, yearbooks, diplomas and commencement materials, as well as general materials that describe their involvement in various organizational and social activities at their particular schools and colleges. Of special interest are the college newspapers, The Wellesley College News and Tufts Weekly as both Justin and Genevieve were the Editors-in-Chief of their respective college newspapers and wrote many articles and editorials on a variety of topics. Some of these papers may be found in this section of the collection; others are in Series VI under publications. Researchers may find another publication of interest, "Girls Guide to the College Weekend," which belonged to Genevieve while she was attending Wellesley and which describes norms of college dating during the 1940s and 1950s.

This subseries also includes the financial records of Justin and Genevieve and includes balance sheets of family expenses, bank records, records of charitable contributions, various stocks and bonds information, real estate documents and wills and trusts. Of significance are reports and correspondence concerning the George Wyner Trust and the Justin and Genevieve Wyner Trust.

Other subjects and documents of interest in this sub-series include passports, birth certificates, invitations to a wide variety of events, postcards from Europe and documents describing the educational achievements, as well as the weddings of their three sons, George, Daniel, and James. There are documents describing the "Impact 2000 House," a solar energy house located at 830 Newton Street in Brookline. Justin and Genevieve bought the house from the Boston Edison Company and moved into it in 1987. The documents describe how and why the house was designed and built, what problems arose with the structure, and how the overall function worked using energy conservation as its main component.

Also included are the records of the Geller family, 1923-1989, and documents describing Genevieve's involvement with the Cambridgeport Counseling Center. Of special interest are the daily diaries, journals, daily planners and reminders of both Justin and Genevieve, spanning over three decades and giving one a sense of the daily life of this prominent Boston Jewish family and their interaction with the wider Jewish and lay communities.