Growing up in Bergen Countiy
Hi, everyone! I’m Steph Diorio, and I’ve been the archivist of the Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey since the beginning of October 2017. I’ve been honored to work with these collections and I’m greatly enjoying working on making them more accessible to researchers and helping to preserve and share the history contained therein!
You may have surmised from the immense amount of vowels in my surname that I’m actually Italian. I did, however, grow up in Bergen County, and so whilst I may not be able to relate to every single memory shared here on a personal level, I have a fair share of common experiences with everyone else at the JHSNJ, ranging from driving down Route 21 to go to Rutt’s Hut in Clifton to trying to find a parking spot at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus so my friends and I could go do some last-minute holiday shopping.
Like many Bergen County kids (including my kid brother, my father, and my paternal grandmother), I was born at Hackensack University Medical Center (which itself has grown exponentially since 1989, when I first came on the scene). I grew up here and the local culture became a very distinct part of my identity; however, I was unaware of this until I left the comfort of northern New Jersey for college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I’d vacationed in nearby Lancaster County(in PA standards; it was about an hour and a half away) many times as a child and felt comfortable in Pennsylvania for short periods of time, but living there was a huge eye-opener for me. I learned many horrifying things, such as the fact that the entire state of Pennsylvania has exactly zero White Castles, diners actually close at night, people swear significantly less, and, perhaps most surprising to me, that I had an accent that I was entirely unaware of until someone pointed it out to me. Clearly, I couldn’t live in a place like that for the rest of my life.
Fortunately, to become an archivist, you have to go to graduate school and get a Master’s degree in library science, so I returned home as soon as I graduated and commuted into the city for grad school at Pratt Institute. I quickly readjusted to New Jersey life, indulging in all the things I’d sorely missed when I was away, like being able to eat past 10 pm (a necessity when in grad school) and bagels that actually tasted good. Out of all the things I learned when getting my history degree in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important one was that I belonged here in the greater New York City area instead. North Jersey was in my blood and in my soul and I couldn’t be away from it any longer.
Once graduate school was completed and left me with an expensive piece of paper and massive amounts of student loan debt, I turned my attention to preserving the local history of the place I loved so much. Working here at the JHSNJ has been an absolutely fantastic opportunity for me to achieve my goal – here I am able to ensure that documents, photos, oral histories, and artifacts live on and will be able to tell the stories of the past to the people of the present and future. Nothing means more to me as an archivist than ensuring that history lives on for the generations who come along after me, and I have an astounding, wonderful army of volunteers to help me achieve this lofty goal. I’d be absolutely delighted if you’d all come and visit us here and see the work the volunteers have been doing, particularly the displays they’ve put up using our new display cases and the photos they’ve helped me organize and protect!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to Rutt’s Hut for some hot dogs.
Stephanie Diorio, Archivist, Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey
