Raymond Lifchez was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1932, to Jennie Burkom and Isaac Lifchez. He talks about his two older sisters and growing up in the capital city where his father ran Liberty Loan and Luggage on Main Street. Raymond did not feel very connected to the Jewish community in Columbia, although the Lifchezes were members of the Orthodox synagogue, House of Peace. After his mother, Jennie, died, Raymond, only nine years old, became very close to his neighbor Lula Belle Campbell, and they remained lifelong friends. As a teen, he began to notice instances of antisemitism and remembers feeling frightened by stories of Jews being rounded up by the Nazis in Europe. Raymond earned his architecture degree from the University of Florida and taught at Columbia University in New York City as a graduate student. He met his wife, Judith Lee Stronach, at Columbia; they married in 1967 and moved to California three years later. He joined the faculty at University of California, Berkeley, which, he notes, "was one of the first schools to really open its doors to the disabled." He describes his work in architectural accessibility. The interviewee discusses aspects of his spirituality, including the appeal of Sufism, his return to Judaism, and his attendance at a number of churches and synagogues. He offers his view of American Jews and how he sees himself in terms of his Jewish identity.
Emma Bogen Lavisky Bukatman and Belle Lavisky Jewler, audio interview by Dale Rosengarten and Michael Samuel Grossman, 4 March 1997, Mss 1035-135, Special Collections, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.;Emma Bogen Lavisky Bukatman, interviewed with her daughter, Belle Lavisky Jewler, discusses the Katzenelenbogen family history, a name they attribute to a city in Poland, although their genealogy traces the family to Bialsytok, Russia, and long before that, Italy. Emma’s parents, Bella Weinberg and Joseph Bogen (Katzenelenbogen) were first cousins who met and married in New York City. Emma, born in 1906 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children, notes that their family moved frequently, and in each location her father opened a general merchandise store. She remembers living in New York City before moving to Denmark, South Carolina, when she was eight years old. Emma recalls that they “felt a lot of antisemitism growing up” in the small town where the Bogens were the only Jewish residents until the Ness family settled there and opened a dry goods store. When she was sixteen, the family moved about fifty miles north to Columbia. She met her first husband, Michael Lavisky at Chaplin’s wholesale shoe business where she was employed as a bookkeeper and he was a shipping clerk. They married in 1926 in House of Peace Synagogue on Park Street. Belle, who was born in Columbia in 1936, offers some background on her father’s family, the Laviskys, who emigrated from Russia to Columbia in 1912. Emma describes her siblings, the Bogen family’s religious practices, and her memories of Rabbi David Karesh of Columbia. She recounts how the women of House of Peace Congregation transitioned from sitting in the balcony in the Park Street building to sitting downstairs, separated from the men, in the new sanctuary on Marion Street. Other topics include Columbia merchants, in particular, the Rivkins; Belle’s brother, Saul Lavisky; letters Emma’s mother wrote to her sister in Yiddish that have been translated into English (copies are available in Jewish Heritage Collection vertical files, Special Collections, College of Charleston); and how Beth Shalom (formerly House of Peace) evolved from an Orthodox to a Conservative congregation, a development in which women’s roles in services were at the heart of the issue.
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."
Shirley Gergel Ness talks about her father, Joseph Gergel, who served for three years in the Russian army before immigrating in 1914 to Columbia, South Carolina, where two of his brothers resided. Joseph volunteered for duty in the United States Army during World War I and worked as a supply sergeant in New York. He met his wife, Jean Fingerhut, when he was invited by a fellow soldier to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for Passover. Shirley, who was born in 1928, talks about growing up in Columbia, attending public school, and working in her father's store. The interviewee intended to go to law school after graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1948; she describes how Coleman Karesh, law professor and son of Rabbi David Karesh, blocked her admission that year based on her age and gender. Shirley recalls how her husband, Everett Ness of Sumter, South Carolina, courted her; they married and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1949. They ran the Nursery Nook, a children's toy and furniture store on King Street for fourteen years before going bankrupt. Their children attended Addlestone Hebrew Academy. In 1966 the Nesses moved to Columbia, the Midlands being a more convenient location for Everett, whose job as a manufacturing representative required travel to other southeastern states. Shirley contrasts the Jewish communities of Charleston and Columbia and tells the story of how a member of the Gergel family in Russia tracked down her American cousins in South Carolina, uniting the descendants of Joseph and his siblings who stayed in the Old Country.
Heide Engelhardt Golden, born in 1941 in Gablingen, Germany, a small farming village near Augsburg, recalls living conditions in the years immediately following World War II. She was the middle child of three daughters. Her father, Karl Engelhardt, who served in the German army, died just before the end of the war. Struggling to care for her three children, Heide’s mother, Anna Heilman Engelhardt, sent Heide, age five, to live with her paternal grandmother. Heide rejoined the family around the time her mother married James Hull, an American soldier, in 1948. The following year, while the family was living on an American base in Augsburg, Heide’s half-brother was born. When James’s unit was assigned to Korea in 1952, the U.S. Army sent Anna and the children to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. Heide describes adjusting to life in Columbia, her schooling, and working for Eddie and Sarah Picow in their store, Allan’s, where she met her husband, Harvey Golden, a Jewish lawyer originally from Brooklyn, New York. Around 1943 Harvey had moved with his parents, Gertrude and Jack Golden, to Columbia, where they operated an army-navy store. Before marrying Harvey in 1962, Heide studied with Rabbi Abraham Herson of Columbia’s Conservative synagogue, Beth Shalom, and converted to Judaism. The interviewee discusses their three children, Holly, Karl, and Jared; Harvey’s involvement in local theater; race relations in Columbia in the 1960s; and the family’s religious practices. Holly was the first girl in Beth Shalom to have her bat mitzvah ceremony on a Saturday. Heide talks about racial integration in Columbia; working for the department store Berry’s on Main; and flying home from Germany on September 11, 2001, when her plane was grounded in Newfoundland, Canada, after terrorists had flown hijacked jets into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Heide recalls being shocked when she learned about the Holocaust and was surprised when her mother told her neither she nor Heide’s father knew about the concentration camps. During and after the war, ordinary Germans like her mother lived in fear of being reported to the police by their neighbors for saying or doing the wrong thing. Despite that, the one Jewish family that lived in their village, remained there throughout the war.
Terri Wolff Kaufman, in this second of two interviews, talks about growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was born in 1955 to Elsie Benenson and Louis Wolff. Louis, an architect, designed the large modern house in which Terri and her younger siblings, Frances, Michael, and Bruce, were raised. Terri notes instances of antisemitism that she experienced as a child and tells the story of how her father and his business partners at Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle & Wolff handled discriminatory treatment directed at Louis by the Summit Club in Columbia. Louis's awareness of prejudice against Jews and African Americans in Columbia was evident when he discouraged Terri from meeting a black friend out in public, knowing that the association would make life more difficult for Terri and the family. The interviewee shares stories about her siblings, describes her parents' social life and civic activities, and recalls the African Americans who worked for her family in their home. The Wolffs belonged to Columbia's Reform congregation, Tree of Life, and observed the Sabbath by lighting candles on Friday nights before going to services. While they did not keep kosher, Louis insisted that a couple of food restrictions be followed. Terri was studying to be an actor in New York when her father died suddenly. She ended up earning a graduate degree in media arts and working in the television industry in Los Angeles. Terri and her ex-husband, Jack Kaufman, raised their son, Alex, in the Jewish tradition in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The interviewee finds it more "comfortable" living as a Jew in large northern cities as compared with the South, where Judaism is not as familiar or well understood. However, she thinks Jews who live in places with smaller Jewish populations are more likely to get involved in Jewish organizations as a way to connect with other Jews, as she has since her recent move to the Charleston area. Terri is married to a non-Jewish man, Vernon Dunning, and they are members of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina. See Mss. 1035-564 for Terri's first interview and Mss. 1035-212 for an interview with Terri's aunt Sura Wolff Wengrow. For a related collection, see the Wolff family papers, Mss. 1045.
Evelyn Lifchez Siegel, the second of three children, was born in 1927 to Jennie Burkom and Isaac Lifchez of Columbia, South Carolina. The Lifchezes were members of the Orthodox synagogue, House of Peace. Evelyn recalls Rabbi David Karesh and his prominence in their lives, and discusses how her mother, who was from Baltimore, kept a kosher home. Growing up, the interviewee had both Jewish and non-Jewish friends. She recalls that Columbia's "Jewish girls would take over the USO on the hill" on Sundays during World War II. Evelyn describes how she met her husband, Martin Siegel, whom she married in 1950.
Larraine Lourie Moses, born in in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1949, the middle child of Toby Baker and Solomon "Sol" Lourie, talks about her extended family, particularly her grandparents, Clara Kligerman and Frank Baker, and Ann "Annie" Friedman and Louis Lourie. The Bakers were Reform Jews who did not keep kosher, nor celebrate Passover. The Louries were Orthodox and Annie kept a strictly kosher home in St George, South Carolina. After Louis Lourie died, Annie married Hyman Simon in 1950 and moved to Columbia where they opened Mitchell's Men's Shop on Main Street. Just two years earlier, Annie's eldest son, Sol Lourie had established Lourie's Department Store, also on Main Street. Larraine recounts stories about her brothers, Frank and Barry; her grandmother Clara Baker and Clara's grocery store in Columbia; and her aunt Freda Baker Kornblut, who married Moses Kornblut of Latta, South Carolina. Larraine's parents raised Larraine and her brothers in Columbia's Beth Shalom during the time the congregation changed its affiliation from Orthodox to Conservative. The interviewee discusses her father's love of the game of bridge; he was a life master and traveled to tournaments in other U.S. cities, accompanied by her mother. While they were out of town, Margie Robinson, an African-American woman who worked for the family, would stay with the Lourie children. Growing up, Larraine was unaware of discrimination against African Americans. Looking back, however, she notes that her father was the first merchant on Main Street to hire a black man, Walter Jones, for a job that was not janitorial. He ran the receiving room and had the keys to the store. Larraine describes how she met her husband, Jeff Moses, who is related to one of the Berry (Sam and Lou) families of Columbia. She and Jeff have two children, Sam and Heidi, whom they raised in Columbia's Reform synagogue, Tree of Life. In the decades that the Moses family have been members, Larraine has noticed a decline in attendance at services. She explains how "being a good Jew is not necessarily going to the services," and offers her thoughts on what constitutes being religious.