Transcriptions of Rabbi Padoll’s typewritten and handwritten sermons and addresses from his various rabbinates, including Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. A civil rights advocate, Padoll discusses ongoing struggles for social justice, contemporary events such as the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and parables related to the Sabbath and holiday celebrations. Padoll stored his sermons in nine binders, and the transcriptions reflect this original order. Burton L. Padoll (1929-2004), was born to Leah and Charles Padoll in Canton, Ohio. Padoll attended the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was ordained in 1957 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1982. After his ordination, Padoll served as assistant rabbi in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1961, Padoll took a position as rabbi of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, South Carolina, where he served for six years. During this time, Padoll strongly advocated for civil rights and criticized Charleston's Jewish community for their failure to aid the struggle for racial equality. After leaving Charleston in 1967, Padoll moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, where he became the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in 1969 until his retirement in 1989. Padoll lived in Mount Jackson, Virginia, until his death in 2004.
Alex Davis, joined by his niece, Suzanne Lurey, who speaks only briefly, discusses his family history and his experiences growing up in Greenville, South Carolina. His father, Victor Davis, opened an auto parts store in Greenville in 1926 and, after he died, Alex and his two brothers, Jack and Louis, ran the family business for nearly four more decades. Alex married Lillian Zaglin, also of Greenville, and they raised two children. He recalls the early leaders of Congregation Beth Israel, Greenville’s Orthodox synagogue, and describes the relationship between Beth Israel, now Conservative, and the Reform congregation, Temple of Israel.
Cousins Arthur Williams and Elza Meyers Alterman grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. They discuss the Williams and Meyers family histories, intermarriage and assimilation, and Charleston’s Reform Jewish community, including changes in the congregation and services during their lifetimes. Arthur became a physician and helped to develop an artificial kidney machine in the 1940s. Elza followed her mother into retail and ran a dress shop in the former home of the Williams family on George Street.
Dora Altman grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where her father worked as a tailor. Her parents’ emigration from Poland was sponsored by a relative, a member of the Mendelsohn family. The Altmans attended the Orthodox synagogue Brith Sholom and, at some point, Dora switched to Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, the Reform temple where services were conducted in English. Dora remembers playing with both Jews and gentiles as a child; the Henckel twins, members of the Coburg Dairy family, were among her closest friends. Dora was engaged to Samuel Turtletaub when he was killed in France during World War I. She never married. During the interview, Dora identifies certain photographs (see the Dora Altman collection, Mss. 1006 in Special Collections, College of Charleston), and is joined by interviewer Haskell Ellison, also a Charleston native, in recalling Charleston’s Jewish families and merchants of the early 20th century.
Philip Schneider, born and raised in Georgetown, South Carolina, and Charlestonian Alwyn Goldstein, who moved to Georgetown in 1938 to open a store, discuss the town’s Jewish religious and business life. Among the merchants were Philip’s grandmother, Sally Lewenthal, and his father, Albert Schneider, who went into business with Philip’s uncle, Harry Rosen. Both interviewees recall the effects of the Great Depression in their native cities.
Transcriptions of Rabbi Padoll’s typewritten and handwritten sermons and addresses from his various rabbinates, including Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. A civil rights advocate, Padoll discusses ongoing struggles for social justice, contemporary events such as the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and parables related to the Sabbath and holiday celebrations. Padoll stored his sermons in nine binders, and the transcriptions reflect this original order. Burton L. Padoll (1929-2004), was born to Leah and Charles Padoll in Canton, Ohio. Padoll attended the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was ordained in 1957 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1982. After his ordination, Padoll served as assistant rabbi in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1961, Padoll took a position as rabbi of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, South Carolina, where he served for six years. During this time, Padoll strongly advocated for civil rights and criticized Charleston's Jewish community for their failure to aid the struggle for racial equality. After leaving Charleston in 1967, Padoll moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, where he became the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in 1969 until his retirement in 1989. Padoll lived in Mount Jackson, Virginia, until his death in 2004.
Sisters Anne and Julie Oxler spent most of their formative years in the 1930s and 1940s in Charleston, South Carolina, where their immigrant father, William, ran the New York Shoe Repair, and the family attended Beth Israel. Eva Levy of Columbia, South Carolina, married their brother, Herbert, who was the credit manager at Altman’s Furniture Store in Charleston for three decades. Wendy Twing, Anne’s daughter, compares her upbringing with that of her mother and aunts.
Transcriptions of Rabbi Padoll’s typewritten and handwritten sermons and addresses from his various rabbinates, including Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. A civil rights advocate, Padoll discusses ongoing struggles for social justice, contemporary events such as the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and parables related to the Sabbath and holiday celebrations. Padoll stored his sermons in nine binders, and the transcriptions reflect this original order. Burton L. Padoll (1929-2004), was born to Leah and Charles Padoll in Canton, Ohio. Padoll attended the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was ordained in 1957 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1982. After his ordination, Padoll served as assistant rabbi in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1961, Padoll took a position as rabbi of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, South Carolina, where he served for six years. During this time, Padoll strongly advocated for civil rights and criticized Charleston's Jewish community for their failure to aid the struggle for racial equality. After leaving Charleston in 1967, Padoll moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, where he became the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in 1969 until his retirement in 1989. Padoll lived in Mount Jackson, Virginia, until his death in 2004.
Harry Appel’s parents, Abraham Appel and Ida Goldberg, emigrated separately from Kaluszyn, Poland, in the early twentieth century. They met, married, and raised three children in Charleston, South Carolina. Their eldest, Harry, born in 1924, talks about his siblings, growing up in the St. Philip Street neighborhood, and Charleston’s synagogues.
Transcriptions of Rabbi Padoll’s typewritten and handwritten sermons and addresses from his various rabbinates, including Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. A civil rights advocate, Padoll discusses ongoing struggles for social justice, contemporary events such as the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and parables related to the Sabbath and holiday celebrations. Padoll stored his sermons in nine binders, and the transcriptions reflect this original order. Burton L. Padoll (1929-2004), was born to Leah and Charles Padoll in Canton, Ohio. Padoll attended the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was ordained in 1957 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1982. After his ordination, Padoll served as assistant rabbi in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1961, Padoll took a position as rabbi of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, South Carolina, where he served for six years. During this time, Padoll strongly advocated for civil rights and criticized Charleston's Jewish community for their failure to aid the struggle for racial equality. After leaving Charleston in 1967, Padoll moved to Peabody, Massachusetts, where he became the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in 1969 until his retirement in 1989. Padoll lived in Mount Jackson, Virginia, until his death in 2004.
