Judith “Judy” Ellen (Zimman) Armell and Michael Zimman, 2022-07-14

Judith “Judy” Ellen (Zimman) Armell was born in 1944 at Boston Children's Lion Hospital to Helen (née Pearlman, b. 1919), Harold Owen Zimman (b. 1916). In her oral history interview, Judy discusses her childhood in Lynn, MA, where she grew up closely with her co-narrator and cousin Michael. Always in the background of their interview is the family business, Zimman’s. Judy remembers the impact her family had on the community – in particular, Michael’s mother and her own, and their involvement in founding the Jewish Community Center (JCC) nursery school. Judy was in the first kindergarten class at the JCC. She discusses the challenge of adjusting to her family’s move to Marblehead, and the broader trend of the time for Jewish families away from Lynn to other neighborhoods of the North Shore. Today, Judy lives in Brighton, MA.

Michael Zimman was born in Cambridge, MA in 1949 to Phyllis Virginia (née Fisher, b. 1921 in MA), and Barry Zimman (b. 1920 in Lynn, MA). Michael spent his early childhood in Lynn, MA, before his family moved to Marblehead, MA. He went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and worked as a teacher for a year after graduating. He grew up working in the family business, Zimman’s, a pillar of Lynn’s Jewish community, in its history and present. Michael, who now lives in Somerville, MA, is the store’s third-generation owner. In his oral history interview, he remembers the Lynn Jewish Community Center.