Jewish businesspeople

Leonard Abraham discusses the history of his family in Kentucky, the neighborhoods he grew up in around Louisville and some of the Jewish-owned businesses in town.

Benovitz discusses her grandparents, Lithuanian immigrants, and her grandfather's work as a peddler; her father's dry goods business and the family's life in Carrollton, Mississippi, where they lived for twenty years before returning to Louisville in 1923; her husband's business in New Albany, which operated from 1941 until 1966; the Depression of the 1930s, World War II, and recent changes in the local Jewish community.

Berman discusses how and why his parents came to the United States from Poland; his father's work as a peddler and in other businesses; the early Orthodox Jewish community in Louisville; the effects of the Depression on this father's business; his decision to attend the University of Louisville School of Law, from which he graduated in 1928; his early law practice; and activities in Keneseth Israel congregation. Berman concludes with reflections on changes in the local Jewish community during his memory.

Alex Berman talks about Jewish young people joining professions, the effect of the Great Depression on small businesses, investing in real estate in the early 20th century, his generation choosing to enter the professions rather than going into business, working as a lawyer defending bootleggers for a brief period, his opinion about the Masons not doing enough to resist nazism, his reflections on a recent reports of swastikas posted in Louisville and the Constitutional right to free speech. He also reflects on the changes in the Jewish community over time, his involvement in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.

Mrs. Lewis Cole discusses Jewish families' businesses, and organizations in Louisville, including the Rosenbaums, Bernheims, and Coles, the Piggly Wiggly Company, the United Jewish Campaign, and the Jewish Welfare Board. She and her family were involved in Jewish affairs in the city at the highest levels during the first half of the twentieth century.

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.

The daughter and granddaughter of Vic Lorch discuss family history and the family business, Vic Lorch and Sons, which operated at various locations in Louisville, Kentucky.

The narrators discuss their parents, Rachel Franel Waldman and Abraham Jacob Waldman. The Waldmans and their four oldest children left Tuckin, Russia, and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1904. Recollections include their businesses at 520 and 500 South Preston Street; the correlation between business and religious life; and the orthodox Jewish community.

The narrator discusses her parents, Stella Leon and Julius Shapinsky; the wholesale dry goods business which her father operated on Main Street in Louisville until 1921; early life at 11 West Burnett and in the Weissinger-Gaulbert Apartments; the building of the Brown Hotel; street cars in Louisville; childhood recollections of Louisville Central Park; childhood recollections of Louisville's Fourth Street business district; the Kentucky Home School, the Quorum Club, and the Standard Club; Louisville Marine Hospital (later called Louisville Memorial Hospital); the Council of Jewish Women and the resettlement of German Jews in Louisville; congregation Adath Israel; and the origins of Kentucky Jewish Post and Opinion.

Sidney Passamaneck's parents were Julius and Lena Zimmerman Passamaneck. They were both from Covna, Guberniya. Passamaneck was born in Louisville in 1898 and owned the Model Drug Store. He remembers the Haymarket, and Block's Whiskey Store; his education; merchants, Jefferson and Market Street people. He remembers businesses and features including Jacobson's, Gordon's, Rosenbaum Hides; Kramer Meats; Rectannis Drug Store, Deli, Klein's Grocery, Jewish merchants; and mule-drawn cars. He recalls the Young Men's Hebrew Association near the Louisville School of Medicine as well as Friedman's Department Store and Mrs. Glazer's Restaurant. Other recollections are of the Casino Theater, "Thompson's," Child's Restaurant, Loew's and the Rialto. He discusses people including Hugo Taustine, Max Waldman, Dr. Brandeis Stern, Dr. Morris Flexner, Dr. David Cohn, Dr. Morris Weiss, and Dr. Solomon. He also discusses his marriage to Hannah Krebs in 1923.