Jewish Community

Betty Bronner, chair of the Jewish Community Center's Family History Project is giving an oral summary of the type of information gathered through the community interviews. She first summarizes some of the reasons why people came to Louisville.

Robert Bronner recalls his early years, this Florida native also recalls early days of Miami Beach. Parents' origin, Wuertemberg, Germany, originally came to Syracuse, NY (See "A Minyan to a community", Syracuse University Press). Early years as a builder-realtor in Louisville, 1950, building the Jewish Community Center.

A Boston native, Gertrude Karp Feldbaum moved to New Albany and then to Louisville in 1909. Her family was from Grodna, Russia. She married in Boston in 1908. She and her husband were Louisville grocery owners until 1924. She remembers Jewish life and geographical distribution; Jewish merchants; synagogues; cemetery; Herman Straus Department store; the Depression years; the Young Men's Hebrew Association and Blanche Mitchell; dances; building the Jewish Community Center; the "Snack Bar"; swim teams; beauty contests; center clubs; Jerry Abramson; AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph) Conventions.

Joe Fineman was a native of Chester, West Virginia. In 1954-1956 he served in the Army at Ft. Knox, and he came to Louisville in 1957. He was attracted to Louisville by its active Jewish community. He describes his personal involvement in community, including the Jewish Community Center's "Couples Club" (1956-57). He remembers Joe Kaplan, Norbert Friedman, Arthur Kling, Sam Steinfeld, Aaron Schreiber, Jewish Community Center Clubs and centennial.

Born in Louisville and a long-time associate of the Jewish Community Federation and its predecessor, the Louisville Conference of Jewish Organizations, Judah discusses a variety of Jewish families, organizations, and activities with which he has been involved. Topics include the Abraham, Judah, Klamber, Flexner, Popper, and Greenebaum families; Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Blanche Ottengeimer, Charles Morris, Louis Cohen, Lewis W. Cole, Sidney Handmaker, Stuart Handmaker, Rabbi Gittleman, Dr. Joseph Rauch, Minna D. Cole, and Ruth Morris; the Conference of Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Federation, various Jewish neighborhoods, changes in the Jewish Community Federation's activities, and the Federation's endowment fund.

Kaplan discusses his family, the Louisville Hebrew School, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, and the Jewish Community Center.

Margot Kling's parents were Hilda and Adolph Preis. They were born in Frankfort, Germany; father decided early after Hitler came to power that it was time to leave. They travelled to the U.S. on the Queen Mary when she was 10, and settled in Louisville. She talks about working at Kentucky Dairies in the summer. She also discusses Helena Weiss, Adolph Weiss, Else and Gunther Eichhorn, Louis Mann and Mother, H.J. Wolff, and Hermine Wolff, Palmer Marcus, Laurence Koch, Ronetta Mayer, Sylvia Pardnes, Clara Wasserman Rowe, Annette Russman. She discusses meeting her husband at Camp Tall Trees, and college. She recalls the fundraising to build the Jewish Community Center, Temple Shalom, Hadassah (Betty Ades), Gita Comer, JSSA Board - 3 generations, deeply involved Temple Shalom.

Morris Kling introduces himself and provides background information about his childhood. He discusses where he was born and raised in the city. He provides information on where he attended school including his Sunday school lessons at Brith Sholom. Mr. Kling discusses his mother and his father as well as his siblings. He talks about his interests through childhood and high school as well as his involvement with the Jewish Community Center and Brith Sholom Temple.

Delores Levy discusses her father, Edward Shaikun, who was from Trokai in Russia. (Trokai was a resort, about 30 miiles from Vilna.) Her mother's family, Alec and Esther Lerner, were from White Russia; her mother was Eugenia Sophie Lerner Shaikun. Her siblings: Dian, Lester Shaikun, Elizabeth Weinberg, Delores, Sandy Zelony, Arnold Shaikun. She discusses the Depression, moving back to Greenburg, with Adath Jeshurun, University of Kentucky, the Jewish Community Center, and family, Udel Barry and Sheila Suebold, Michael Gerald, Sue Daniels, Jacob Edward, and Ira Richard.

The narrator discusses work with the United Services Organizations (USO), the Jewish Welfare Board, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, and the Jewish Community Center; such individuals as Charles W. Morris, Morris Simon, and Louis Coleman; and the current program of the Jewish Community Center.