Barry Draisen was raised in post-World War II Anderson, South Carolina, where his parents owned a jewelry and music store. After working in several states as an engineer for General Electric, he returned to his hometown with his wife, Ellen Cherkas of Atlanta, to help run the family business. The couple decided to remain in Anderson where they took over the store, raised their children, and became active members and leaders of Temple B’nai Israel.
Judith Glassman and Bernice Goldman, daughters of Hyman and Eunice Poliakoff Draisen, share memories of growing up in the 1950s in Anderson, South Carolina. Among the topics they discuss are the familys music business, their religious training, and the anti-Semitism they encountered. They also describe their careers and immediate families.
Brothers David and Sam Draisen, descendants of Russian immigrants from the Draisen and Poliakoff families, describe the family jewelry and music businesses and their experiences growing up in Anderson, South Carolina, in the years after World War II. They also discuss the history of Andersons Jewish congregation, Bnai Israel, and provide details about their careers and immediate families.
Sara and Henry Rittenberg, married for fifty-four years, cover a wide range of topics in this interview. Henry talks about his father, Sam Rittenberg, a Lithuanian immigrant who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1891, and worked for M. Hornik & Company. Sam married Elinor Flaum who died as a young woman. His second wife and Henry's mother was Sadie Livingstain. Henry and interviewer Dale Rosengarten briefly consider Sam's remarkable success as a South Carolina state representative during the second and third decades of the twentieth century, and Henry describes his input in choosing the road that would be named Sam Rittenberg Boulevard in Charleston, in honor of his father. Sara was born in Poland in 1919, the fourth of five children of Rachel Miller and Joseph Zucker (Zuckercorn). The family immigrated to the United States in 1920-21 and settled in Charleston where Rachel's parents operated Liberty Furniture on King Street. The Millers were from Kaluszyn, Poland, and Sara notes the first Kalushiner Society banquet was held on the porch over the store. Sara recalls a family trip to Glenn Springs, a resort in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, when she was a girl. Her first husband was Louis Mescon, who died in 1955 after only ten years of marriage, leaving Sara with two young daughters, Harriett and Libby. The girls were about nine and seven when Sara and Henry married. Charles Rittenberg was born two years later. Sara describes how she and Louis came to live in South Windermere, the same year he died. The new suburban development was situated across the Ashley River from the Charleston peninsula on farmland once occupied by the Wessel family. Interviewers Donna Jacobs, a West Ashley historian, and Sandra Lee Kahn Rosenblum, a resident of South Windermere since 1964, share stories with the Rittenbergs about South Windermere and other points of interest in the West Ashley area, prior to suburbanization. For a related collection, see the Rittenberg-Pearlstine family papers, Mss. 1008, Special Collections, Addlestone library, College of Charleston. For related oral histories see: Henry Rittenberg, Mss. 1035-104; Sara Zucker Rittenberg and Harriett Rittenberg Steinert, Mss. 1035-184; Mary Lourie Rittenberg, Mss. 1035-411 and 424.
