Benjamin "Bennie" Goldberg, a Charleston native born in 1929 to Gussie Cohen and Harry Goldberg, talks about members of his extended family, as well as his siblings, Hannah Schwartz, Leon Goldberg, and Freida Meyerowitz, and his siblings' children. He recalls his father's grocery stores, particularly the one on Coming Street near Bogard Street, where the family also lived. It was a "mixed" neighborhood and he recalls no instances of antisemitism or problems between white and black residents. Joined in the interview by his wife, Claire Endictor Goldberg, Bennie shares his early memories of Charleston's Jewish community and tells a number of amusing anecdotes, mentioning members of these families: Altman, Baker, Breibart, Brickman, Doobrow, Fechter, Fox, Garfinkel, Geldbart, Karesh, Kurtz, Schwartz, Singer, Sonenshine, and Truere. Also discussed are Seymour Barkowitz, Bennie's Hebrew school teacher; Morris Finkelstein, the coach of the High School of Charleston basketball team; G. Theodore Wichmann, orchestra director of the High School of Charleston; and Judge J. Waties Waring. Bennie describes the George Street building where he attended Hebrew School; Harold's Cabin, the restaurant and gourmet grocery run by Harold Jacobs; and several movie theaters on the Charleston peninsula. A member of Aleph Zadik Aleph, Bennie says that the Jewish youth organization changed his life. "We learned a hell of a lot. We learned parliamentary procedure. We did civic things. We traveled to other cities to compete. There were oratorical contests." Regarding the synagogues in town: "I always say that you could sum up the history of the shuls in Charleston with one word: frum [pious]. You were either too frum or not frum enough." See Mss. 1035-388 for a second interview with the Goldbergs on February 5, 2014.
Helen Mazursky Berger, audio interview by Elizabeth Moses, 9 June 2000, Mss 1035-242, Special Collections, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.;Helen Mazursky Berger, born in 1919 in Mayesville, South Carolina, was raised from the time she was four years old in nearby Sumter. In this interview conducted by Sumter native Elizabeth Moses, Helen discusses her family history and provides details about her grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides. Her mother, Mary Blatt, was born in Philadelphia to Austrian immigrants who followed family south to Charleston, South Carolina. Mary married Abe Mazursky, a Russian immigrant and dry goods merchant who had settled in Mayesville. Shortly after Helen’s brother, Morris, was born in 1923, the family moved to Sumter, where they became members of the Reform congregation, Temple Sinai, and Abe opened a dry goods store called The Hub. Helen met Harry Berger in 1940 when he came to town to manage the Polly Prentiss factory, a local enterprise that had been sold to a New York firm. The couple married the following year, before Harry enlisted in the navy. When he was discharged in late 1945, Harry accepted Abe’s invitation to join him in the business. In 1969 Abe remodeled, changed his inventory line, and renamed the store Berger’s. Helen also talks about her children and grandchildren, and addresses the issue of antisemitism.
Helen Laufer Dwork Berle describes growing up in her native city, Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1920s and 30s. She discusses in detail Jewish merchants and the St. Philip Street neighborhood. Her parents, Harry and Tillie Hufeizen Laufer, who immigrated from Mogelnitsa, Poland, owned a mens clothing store on King Street before opening a restaurant. Laufers was Charlestons first kosher restaurant and served as a social hub during World War II.
Helen Berle, a daughter of Harry and Tillie Hufeizen Laufer, immigrants from Mogelnitsa, Poland, reminisces about her parents’ business, Laufer’s Kosher Restaurant on King Street in Charleston, South Carolina. Popular among local merchants and military servicemen stationed in Charleston and Beaufort, the eatery served Jews and non-Jews for about two decades beginning in the early 1930s. Berle describes some of the kosher-style dishes that Jews from the Old Country brought with them to America. “Everything was just good, plain, old, basic cooking. . . . I think seasoning had a lot to do with it.” While blacks could not eat at Laufer’s, they were hired to work in the kitchen, and she recalls that the relationship between members of the Jewish and black communities of Charleston were good in the years before the Civil Rights Movement. She briefly mentions a branch of her mother’s family, the Hufeisens of France, who were also in the restaurant business. Note: the transcript contains additions and corrections made by Helen during proofing.
In this brief interview, Henry Berlin, a son of Charleston, South Carolina, natives Sam and Bertie Livingstain Berlin, describes growing up in the coastal city where his grandfather, Henry Berlinsky, a Polish immigrant, opened a dry goods store on lower King Street in the 1880s. The family name was changed from Berlinsky to Berlin when Sam Berlin and his brother took over the store. Their father, an observant Jew, did not want his name to be associated with a business that opened on the Sabbath. Sam was active in political and civic affairs, and was one of the first Jewish Charlestonians to become a member of the St. Andrews Society, a charitable organization. A big sports fan, he owned Charleston minor league baseball teams and supported local boxing matches. Henry notes that they were one of the few Jewish families living south of Broad Street and, as a result, most of his friends were gentiles. Nevertheless, the Berlins attended the Orthodox synagogue Brith Sholom, and Sam led the effort to merge Brith Sholom and Beth Israel. Henry mentions the split that occurred prior to the merger, resulting in the creation of Emanu-El, Charleston’s Conservative congregation. Note: the transcript contains additions and corrections made by Henry during proofing.
Bernice Berlin Silver, one of four children of Sam and Bertha Livingstain Berlin (Berlinsky), talks about growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, several blocks from the Jewish immigrant neighborhood north of Calhoun Street. Bernice grew up in an Orthodox home, but her father opened the family store on the Sabbath out of “necessity.” She attended Crafts School and Memminger High School, where she was valedictorian of her graduating class. While most of her friends were gentiles, she participated in AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph) activities and was an AZA Sweetheart. Bernice married Sam Silver (Zilberman) of Augusta, Georgia. The couple moved to his hometown where she became active in Hadassah and started a chapter of the NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women). After about 25 years, the Silvers relocated first to Columbia, South Carolina, and then California, before settling in Charleston, where they operated a restaurant supply business for over two decades. Bernice discusses her immediate and extended family members. Interviewer Ruth Jacobs reads from material obtained from Charleston city directories regarding business and home addresses of the Livingstains (Bernice’s mother’s family) and the Goodmans (Bernice’s maternal grandmother’s family) in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Herbert Berlinsky was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1924, the third of six children born to Bella (maiden name also Berlinsky) and Philip Berlinsky of Mogielnica, Poland. Bella and Philip likely met and married in New York City; they moved to Charleston around 1918, where Philip and his brother Hyman opened New York Tailors, a men's clothing store on King Street. Herbert talks about his siblings, Maurice Berle (who shortened his surname), Hattie Olasov, Danny Berlinsky, Barbara Stine, and Norman Berlinsky. Herbert recalls his family observing the Sabbath and keeping kosher when he was a young boy, but gradually, as he and his siblings grew older, the religious rituals at home began to wane. By the time he was fifteen or so, he felt that the Charleston families who kept kosher were a "small minority." He describes growing up in Charleston with stories of his playmates and their activities; Hebrew classes taught by Rabbi Benjamin Axelman at the Jewish Community Center on George Street; his bar mitzvah and the celebration afterward; the sports he played in local parks and at the YMCA; and junior congregation at Brith Sholom. He recalls living on St. Philip Street where his closest friends, who were also Jewish, lived. When he was about fourteen, the Berlinskys moved to Grove Street, in the city's northwest section. By that time, Herbert's circle of friends had grown to include gentiles. He notes that he has maintained close friendships with many of his Jewish and non-Jewish buddies from childhood. He does not remember experiencing any antisemitism as a youth or as an adult in Charleston. He was first exposed to anti-Jewish sentiment when he was in the military during World War II. While a freshman at The Citadel, he joined the army and served in the infantry for four years. In 1946, Philip and Hyman established Berle Manufacturing, makers of men's trousers. A short time later, they decided to split up. Hyman took the store and Philip took the factory. Maurice and Herbert soon joined Philip in the manufacturing business. Maurice left after two or three years to take a position with Palm Beach Company. Danny and Norman joined Berle subsequently. Herbert's first assignment was on the road, selling to retailers, the job he loved best. He considers how the sales aspect of the business has changed over recent decades. Herbert discusses his sense of Jewish identity and his feelings about intermarriage, noting that his first marriage was to a non-Jewish woman. He briefly mentions his second wife, Jackie Silverman Berlinsky, who is Jewish, and her three children, Lynda, Randall, and Eric, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Maurice Krawcheck. Around 1994, Herbert traveled to Mogielnica, Poland, "to find my roots," and relates details of that visit.
Mortimer Bernanke, the youngest of three sons of Pauline and Jonas Bernanke, recounts the history of his family in Dillon, South Carolina. Jonas was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I when he was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia. Mortimer describes his father's escape through China, whereupon he returned to Austria in 1920 and married Pauline, who had trained as a doctor at the University of Vienna. The couple immigrated to New York City and Jonas earned his pharmacy degree at Fordham University. The Bernankes moved to Dillon in 1941, when Mortimer was thirteen years old. Pauline, who had practiced medicine in New York for two decades, found her career as a physician cut short when she was refused a license by South Carolina. Instead, she assisted Jonas in his pharmacy, Jay Bee Drugs, in Dillon. Mortimer joined his father in the drugstore after studying pharmacy at the University of South Carolina. He describes how his brother Philip joined him in the business, the changes they made during their time as partners, and their decision to sell to a large corporation in the 1990s. Mortimer married Rita Lee Strobing of New Jersey in the mid-1950s and they raised two children in Dillon. They were members of that town's Ohav Shalom Synagogue. Mortimer was among the men who conducted lay services for a congregation of about twenty-five families, a number that fell to three or four by the 1990s. He discusses how the Ohav Shalom members that remained decided to sell the building and divide the proceeds. The interviewee talks about his love of theater; he and another New York transplant, Tom Fletcher, started a theater group in Dillon and, over the course of four years, put on over a dozen plays in a tobacco warehouse. One of their productions was written and performed in celebration of Ohav Shalom's fiftieth anniversary in 1961. Among the topics discussed: the attention Mortimer and Dillon have received thanks to nephew Ben Bernanke's renown as chair of the Federal Reserve; the reorganization of a B'nai B'rith chapter in the Florence area, spurred by Latta resident and businessman Moses Kornblut; and Beth Israel Congregation, Florence, where the interviewee has been a member since the 1990s. Mortimer was joined in this interview by long-time friend Patricia "Pat" Siegel; the interviewer was Beth Israel Congregation's part-time leader, Rabbi Leah Doberne-Schor.
Bernard Warshaw discusses growing up in Walterboro, South Carolina, and the periods he spent in Charleston, first, from age nine to thirteen, when he was studying for his bar mitzvah and, later, while attending The Citadel. His parents, Murray and Dotty Bebergal Warshaw, emigrated as children from Poland in the early 1900s. They met in Charleston, where each had family, and moved to Walterboro after they married. Bernard talks about his family’s business, Warshaw’s, and Walterboro’s other Jewish merchants. He served in the army during World War II, and saved the photographs he took of the concentration camp in Dachau, which he visited the day after it was liberated. He married Ann Wagner of Boston and they raised three daughters in Walterboro. Among the topics discussed: intermarriage; the importance of religion and involvement in civic and political matters; the reason his children and grandchildren are more observant than he was as a child; and relations between Jews and African Americans. Note: See also Bernard Warshaw Holocaust atrocity photographs, Mss. 1065-027, Special Collections, Addlestone Library, College of Charleston.
Bernard "Nard" Fleischman was born in 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, to Marian Daniel and Bernard S. Fleischman. Marian's family, mostly from southern Georgia, has been traced back to 1750 in North America. Her mother was Jewish, her father was Christian, and they raised the children as Jews. On his father's side, Bernard notes that stories from his great-grandmother and Columbia native Rosa David Berman have been passed down to his generation. He relates one of her tales about the invasion of the capital city by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops in 1865. Rosa's husband, Barnett Berman, a Polish immigrant, was president of the Columbia Hebrew Benevolent Society from 1888 to 1914, a long period of leadership that set a precedent for Bernard's father, who served the Society for decades as secretary-treasurer, and Bernard, who took over the role in 2003. The interviewee talks about his paternal grandparents, Tillie Berman Fleischman and Sol Fleischman. After Sol died in 1936, Tillie bought a house on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, and Bernard and his family spent their summers there. The family included Bernard, his older sister Lynn, and younger sister Marianne. The interviewee describes his parents' religious observances and their experiences as members of the Reform synagogue in Columbia, Tree of Life. He recalls Jewish merchants, the neighborhoods where he grew up, and childhood friends. He was the only Jewish person in his junior high school and admits he tried to hide that he was Jewish: "I didn't want to stand out." Nevertheless, he experienced no "blatant" antisemitism growing up. "Columbia was a very accepting town, it really was, at least from my perspective." Bernard lists the civic organizations he has been active in, emphasizing his significant involvement in the Jewish organizations. "We think that's something that is important to us, to keep Jewish tradition here in Columbia alive." He sees his family's legacy as one of "service to not only the Jewish community, but we're also very involved in the non-Jewish."
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.
Bernice Prayzer Rubin relates the stories of her parents, Esther Fromovitz and Mayer "Mike" Prayzer, who survived the Holocaust. Esther, originally from Romania, was held in Auschwitz for eleven months. Mike, who was from Poland, lived in ten different concentration camps over five years, and was freed from Dachau by the United States Army on April 1945. Esther and Mike met and married in Germany where they lived for two years after the war. In 1949, they and their firstborn, Morris, immigrated to the United States, settling first in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with the help of Esther's brother Al Fromovitz, who had arrived before World War II. They moved to Lorain, Ohio, following, Esther's sisters, who wanted to live near an uncle who had helped sponsor the surviving family members' immigration. Bernice, Morris, and younger brother Kenneth grew up surrounded by a large extended family. Bernice describes her parents' outlook on life and how they made a point of helping others. "The thing that just amazes me about my father and my mother is the fact that going through such a horrendous experience, they came out of this as people who were the kindest people . . . ." Mike spoke publicly to church groups and schoolchildren about his wartime experiences "because he always felt it was an important story and never to forget what had happened." Esther, who needed prodding, would not share her stories with Bernice and her brothers until they were older, Bernice reports, because she didn't want to "poison our minds against anything or to make it a traumatic experience for us." And there were some things her mom would never reveal. The transcript includes additional written information provided by the interviewee that expounds upon interview topics and discusses her parents' lives growing up in their respective villages, how her mother's family was rounded up, and what happened when they arrived at Auschwitz. For a related collection, see the Mike Prayzer papers, Mss. 1065-043, Special Collections, College of Charleston.
Ida Berry, one of four daughters of Bessie Freed and Samson Berry (Berazin), was born in 1923 and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. In this interview she discusses her family history and her experiences growing up in the capital city. Samson emigrated from Visnea, Russia, early in the 20th century, and found his way to Columbia where he opened a small dry goods store on Assembly Street. Bessie, also from Russia, followed her father and sister to New York City, and was visiting her uncle in Columbia in 1917 when she met Samson. Two months later David Karesh, the shochet, cantor, and rabbi for Columbia’s Orthodox Jews, presided over their marriage ceremony in the House of Peace Synagogue (later called Beth Shalom) on Park Street. Ida recalls Columbia’s Jewish merchants, how her family observed the holidays, and the traditional foods her mother prepared in her kosher kitchen. While growing up she felt that there was an atmosphere of mutual respect between Jews and non-Jews, and she remembers that the city’s gentiles, including the Ku Klux Klan member who lived next door to the Berrys, were friendly and helpful. Ida describes Beth Shalom Congregation’s gradual transition from Orthodox to Conservative practices, from families sitting together at the Marion Street location to women reading the Torah from the bimah in the suburban Trenholm Street synagogue. Note: the transcript contains additions and corrections made by the interviewee during proofing.
Meri Friedman Gergel and her sister Rae Friedman Berry discuss growing up with their two sisters, Ann and Rose, in Kingstree, South Carolina, where the Friedmans were one of just a few Jewish families. Their parents, Sam Friedman and Rebecca Dreiszek, immigrated to the United States from Poland as teens and met in Charleston, South Carolina, home to Rebecca’s sister, Jenny Cohen. In the mid-1920s Sam and Rebecca moved from Charleston to Eutawville, South Carolina, and then Kingstree, opening Friedman’s Department Store. Meri describes the layout of the store and its clientele. Both sisters recall a generally happy childhood, overshadowed, however, by Rose’s chronic health problems, later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. The family moved to Columbia in 1947, to access better medical care for Rose, but she died the same year. Meri talks about the antisemitism she experienced growing up in Kingstree. Both sisters discuss their sense of Jewish identity; the foods their mother served; the family’s religious practices; and their college years and their children.
Bertha Lazarus Breibart, daughter of immigrants Louis and Rose Lazarus (Lazarowitz), discusses growing up in Charleston and Summerville, South Carolina, in the 1920s and ’30s. Louis arrived in New York in 1902, worked as a tailor, and, later, his wife and their first child, Max, joined him. The family moved to Charleston, where Louis ran a shoe repair shop in various locations on King Street. When they moved to Summerville, he reopened on Main Street. Bertha remembers that her father struggled to make a living; they were a “very poor family,” one that included three brothers, Max, Morris, and Herman, all much older than Bertha. The family traveled to Charleston to attend holiday services at Brith Sholom, one of Charleston’s two Orthodox synagogues. Bertha recalls the traditional foods her mother made, their Jewish neighbors in Charleston and Summerville, and her experiences attending Summerville public schools. When she was eighteen she represented Summerville in Charleston’s 1935 Azalea Festival beauty contest and won. Bertha attended AZA and B’nai Brith dances and other social events in Charleston, and on one of her many visits to the city, she met her husband, George Breibart. Note: the transcript contains additions and corrections made by the interviewee during proofing.
Beryle Stern Jaffe, born in 1945, talks about growing up in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the eldest daughter of Sarah Kramer and Henry Stern. After Henry was discharged from the military, the Sterns settled in Henry’s home city of Columbia, where he joined his father, Gabe Stern, in his dry goods business, at that time located in nearby Lexington. Beryle recalls segregation and how prejudice against African Americans manifested in public, as well as in her own home with regard to their hired help. The interviewee married Pierre Jaffe in 1967. Pierre, a native of Paris, France, immigrated as a child to the United States with his mother, who had married an American soldier. Pierre and Beryle raised two children, Jason and Erin, in Columbia. Interviewer Lilly Stern Filler’s parents, Ben and Jadzia Stern, were Holocaust survivors who settled in Columbia after World War II. Beryle and Lilly describe the degree to which Lilly’s parents, particularly her father, adjusted to life in a new country.
This panel discussion, "Looking at the Past and to the Future: From the Pulpit of Brith Sholom Beth Israel," was presented at "Jewish Roots in Southern Soil," a joint conference of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, and Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue [BSBI] in Charleston, South Carolina. At the time, BSBI was celebrating its 150th anniversary. The panelists were Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman, who served the Orthodox Brith Sholom from 1948 to 1950, prior to its merger with Beth Israel, also Orthodox, and Rabbi Hirsch Moshe Galinsky, who held the pulpit of BSBI from 1963 to 1970. Rabbi Klaperman notes "I came here in a period of tension," soon after a schism in 1947 when a significant portion of Brith Sholom's congregants left to form Conservative Synagogue Emanu-El. The loss of members and leadership that resulted from the split was "a kind of a blow to the ego" of the congregation and the split extended to families. "It was a terrible thing." Rabbi Klaperman was aware of a "pecking order" among the Jewish congregations in Charleston, which he associated with their degree of Americanization and religiosity. He closes his comments with this advice: "It's important for us to live together so that we can survive. We cannot rule anybody out of the Jewish community." Rabbi Galinsky recalls how he came to BSBI, stating that his additional duties as principal of the Charleston Hebrew Institute presented an appealing challenge. He was impressed with the people he encountered when he arrived in his new home city. "When you come to Charleston, you feel it, the unbelievable link to history." He describes how certain members of the Jewish community represented links to the past. Yet they had a vision of the future. He found the ties between Charleston's Jewish congregations and the connections among Jewish and non-Jewish Charlestonians remarkable. Rabbi Galinsky talks briefly about battling the Blue Laws, responding to the 1969 hospital workers' strike, and establishing a Head Start program at BSBI's day school for black children in the neighborhood.
Betty Hirsch Lancer, the daughter of emigrants from Mogelnitza, Poland, describes growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, in the decades before World War II. Her father acted in New York’s Yiddish theaters with limited success, and his father made and sold schnapps out of his house on St. Philip Street during Prohibition. Betty recalls the Great Depression, discusses how her parents made a living, and mentions other families in Charleston who were from Mogelnitza.
Betty Lindau Ustun reflects on growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, a city she describes as “not exactly welcoming to all Jews.†She remembers that the Orthodox Jews there did not consider Reform Jews “real Jews.†The Lindaus belonged to the Reform congregation, Tree of Life, and her mother, Beatrice Perl Lindau, worked closely with Helen Kohn Hennig in the synagogue’s Sunday school and sisterhood. Beatrice, the daughter of a baker from Szeged, Hungary, married Jules W. Lindau, III, a plastics engineer. Betty talks about how the family wound up in Columbia, where her father owned Southern Plastics and promoted the growth of engineering programs at local colleges. She briefly discusses her family’s feelings about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s and their response to the formation of the State of Israel. Betty was working for Voice of America in Washington, D.C. when she met her future husband, Semih Ustun, the son of a Turkish diplomat. They married in 1956 and raised two sons in the capital. Betty was a founding member of Southwest Hebrew Congregation in Washington, later renamed Temple Micah. The transcript includes comments inserted by the interviewee during proofreading. See Mss. 1035-392 for follow-up interviews conducted in 2014.
Betty Lindau Ustun revisits some of the stories she told about her parents in her 2013 interviews (Mss. 1035-378) and describes how her family celebrated Passover in Columbia, South Carolina. She discusses her “concept of God;†the founding of Temple Micah in Washington, D.C., where she was a founding member; and her involvement in establishing a Washington-Moscow art exchange in the late 1980s. The transcript includes comments inserted by the interviewee during proofreading. See Mss. 1035-378 for interviews conducted in 2013.
