Collection

Twice Blessed Collection

Span Dates: 1968-1993
Bulk Dates:
Volume: 12 linear feet

Description

The collection includes material from a wide range of sources--print, film, video, audio, events & ceremonies, music, performances, ephemera, etc. In the spring of 1994, Abush self-published an extensive index to this material in a 200+ page volume containing almost 2,000 entries [currently out of print].

Hist/Bio Note

Johnny Abush, son of a Holocaust survivor, was founder and Archivist of the International Jewish GBLT Archives. A systems analyst until complications from AIDS disabled him, in 1989 he started to search for information about other gay Jews' experiences; when he found virtually nothing, he began his award-winning work to collect, catalogue and make available everything that is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and Jewish. Over the following years, he did volunteer work at Keshet Shalom, the Jewish Queerculture Events Committee, the AIDS Committee Of Toronto, Holy Blossom Temple, and the Thyroid Foundation, as well as serving on care teams for friends who were dying of AIDS in Toronto. He considered himself "Twice Blessed" as a Jew and a gay man, hence the title of the collection. By the time he died in 2000, the archives included more than 10,000 artifacts - print, film, video, audio, events and ceremonies, music, and performances; after his death

Finding Aid

A finding is available online.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6z09s281/admin/

Location

Abush assembled this private collection in Toronto, Canada and donated it to the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, California.
https://one.usc.edu/

Tags

Jewish (ethnic, Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox) | AIDS | Canada | Toronto | Abush, Johnny