Interview with Rabbi Chester Diamond, April 28, 1992

Partial Transcript: Today's date is...

Segment Synopsis: In this segment, Rabbi Diamond begins by talking about his family and their history. He talks about his grandparent's choice to move to Israel before he was born so that they could die in the Holy Land. He talks about his background before moving to Louisville, beginning with his birth in Brooklyn, New York. He talks about how he got more involved in his Jewish faith, including when his father took him to a rabbi to receive his Hebrew name and his bar mitzvah. He talks about being unsure of what he wanted to do with his life, originally going into the Air Force for a short period of time.

Partial Transcript: Let me just...

Segment Synopsis: In this segment, Rabbi Diamond talks about how he decided to become a rabbi, including his decision to start to learn more about his faith after wanting to learn more about why the Jewish faith would be targeted by the Holocaust. He talks about his learning of Hebrew and applying to the college, where he had taken courses that would help to prepare him and deepen his knowledge of the Jewish faith.

Partial Transcript: How I got to...

Segment Synopsis: In this segment, Rabbi Diamond talks about how he came to live in Louisville. He talks about getting a call from an assistant Rabbi in Louisville with Dr. Waller about a group of students that would commute back and forth between college in Cincinnati and Louisville to help Dr. Waller. He speaks on how much the community and Dr. Waller helped him and gave him that he hadn't had before in his life. He talks about getting involved with the people he knew through school and how they became the first congregation that he truly knew since his family had not been heavily involved when he was growing up. He discusses the Jewish community in Louisville and how welcomed he felt when he moved to the city. He talks in depth about those around him and those who helped him in the religious community in the city and the rabbis that he surrounded himself with during his time.