Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with George Visanska Rosenberg and Edith Cochran Rosenberg
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- Title:
- Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with George Visanska Rosenberg and Edith Cochran Rosenberg
- Date:
- 1996
- Interviewer:
- Rosengarten, Dale, 1948-
- Interviewee:
- Rosenberg, George Visanska, 1916-2016;Rosenberg, Edith Cochran, 1922-2008
- Description:
- George Visanska Rosenberg is joined by his wife, Edith Cochran Rosenberg, in this interview that begins with George explaining how the Visanska, Winstock, and Rosenberg families on his father's side are related and how they came to settle in Abbeville, South Carolina, around the middle of the nineteenth century. George was born in Abbeville in 1916, the second of five children of Solomon Rosenberg and Octavia Harby Schwerin, a Sumter, South Carolina, native. George describes the family business in Abbeville. Rosenberg Mercantile Company, incorporated in 1872, occupied several connected buildings on Trinity Street and carried goods ranging from groceries to heavy farm equipment. The family also owned farm land in Abbeville and McCormick counties where sharecroppers grew cotton. George discusses his upbringing and the family's Jewish identity. Abbeville never had a congregation or visiting rabbis, but George's great-grandfather G. A. Visanska and his family "did maintain their Jewishness." They kept kosher and G. A. provided the kosher meat for his family, slaughtering the meat himself. George notes, however, "I was up in high school . . . at least, before I knew the difference in being Jewish and gentile." He became aware as an adult of having missed a close connection to his Jewish heritage and traditions by not having a synagogue in town. His parents observed the High Holidays, but not the Sabbath, and they celebrated Christmas, but not Hanukkah. He reports he never experienced any "anti-Jewish sentiment in Abbeville." George covers a number of topics, including forebears who fought for the Confederacy; the Eureka Hotel in Abbeville; his father's involvement with Abbeville County Memorial Hospital; the African Americans who worked for the Rosenbergs; the effects of the Great Depression on his family and their business; Rosenberg's Men's Store in Greenwood, South Carolina, run by his cousin Ernest Rosenberg; Uncle Julius Visanska, who ran Bentschner & Visanska in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Poliakoff and Savitz families of Abbeville. The Rosenbergs and interviewer, Dale Rosengarten, consider how certain expressions based on stereotypes can be offensive. The interviewees talk about white-black relations when they were growing up and at the time of the interview. George recalls how he ran his medical practice in the days before integration and contemplates the disadvantages that local African Americans face. Edith was born in 1922 in Due West, South Carolina, and grew up in Laurens, South Carolina. She and George married after he graduated from medical school in 1941. They recount his nearly four years in the service during World War II, followed by his residency in Wilmington, North Carolina. George describes how he established, in 1948, his OB/GYN and surgery practice in Abbeville and briefly discusses some of the changes in obstetrics over the decades. The couple adopted three children, Herbert, Patsy, and Grace. Edith, who was raised Presbyterian, relates how her parents and George's parents felt about their mixed marriage. She tells the story of their divorce after 27 years together and their remarriage ten years later. She converted to Judaism prior to reuniting with George, studying under Rabbi Magidovitch of Sumter's Temple Sinai.
- Collection Title:
- Jewish Heritage Collection Oral Histories
- Contributing Institution:
- College of Charleston Libraries
- Media Type:
- Oral Histories
- Personal or Corporate Subject:
- Temple Sinai (Sumter, S.C.)
- Topical Subject:
- World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Jewish, Jews--Identity, Jewish merchants--South Carolina--Charleston--History, Jewish merchants--South Carolina--Abbeville--History, Intermarriage--South Carolina, Jews--Cultural assimilation--South Carolina, Jews--South Carolina--Abbeville--Interviews, Jewish merchants--South Carolina--Greenwood--History, Jews--South Carolina--Abbeville--Religious life, Jews--South Carolina--Abbeville--Social life and customs, Physicians--South Carolina--Abbeville, Jewish converts from Christianity, Race relations--South Carolina, Stereotypes (Social psychology)--United States
- S.C. County:
- Charleston County (S.C.), Sumter County (S.C.), Abbeville County (S.C.), Laurens County (S.C.), Greenwood County (S.C.)
- Language:
- English
- Shelving Locator:
- MSS 1035-089
- Date Digital:
- 2012-02-29
- Digitization Specifications:
- Mp3 derivative audio created with Audacity software. Archival masters are wav files.
- Format:
- audio/mpeg
- Copyright Status Statement:
- Copyright © Jewish Heritage Collection
- Access Statement:
- All rights reserved.
- Access Information:
- For more information, contact Special Collections, College of Charleston Libraries, 66 George Street, Charleston SC 29424.
- Admin ID:
- 251732
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