Jews--Kentucky--Louisville

Jewish Community Center interviews

Harold Rosen was born in 1915 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His father, Zalman George Rosen, was born in Rumania. His mother, Anna Wesserman Rosen, was also born in Rumania, close to Bucharest. They married in the 1890s in Rumania. They moved from Rumania to England, and then to Canada to his mother's relatives. Mr. Rosen remembers life in Canadian Jewish neighborhood; Orthodox family; being drafted to Fort Knox, in World War II. He discusses the Young Men's Hebrew Association during war. In 1942, he married Louisville native Selma Rosen. Her grandparents came from Germany and Lithuania and married in Louisville. He discusses beginning joint Brotherhood Meetings.

Milton Russman remembers growing up in an observant Jewish home. They lived on Chestnut Street, where personal poverty went unrecognized. He discusses early childhood friends. He recalls Jewish Bread Man; Rabbi Zarchy's funeral; being drafted in the second group at 18 years of age; World War II; active Zionists; the 1937 flood and a lack of Kosher meat.

Annette Sagerman remembers her father Jacob Simon who was born in Latvia came to the United States to escape the Czar's army. He ran a secondhand store on Federal Street. Her mother was born and reared in St. Louis. Sagerman was born in 1924. She remembers her schooling; Orthodoxy and Adath Jeshurun; Goldstein's; Persky's; Fisher's Drug Store; Lerner's Restaurant (which was Kosher); movie prices (the Strand on Chestnut, Loew's and the Rialto); the 1937 flood; religious customs and rituals; picnics in Summers Park and Sennings Park; Charely Simon Deli; and Feitelson Deli. She discusses her marriage in 1953, and her husband's family. She discusses the Young Men's Hebrew Association, and Morris Simon starting the YMHA Orchestra.

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.

Louis Schwartz remembers bringing his family to Louisville from Cincinnati and settling down in 1941. He shares his memories as a man involved in business, civic affairs, B'nai B'rith, on 4th street, and with the 4th street Merchants Association.

Rae Solzman discusses her parents, who were Polish; how she came to the United States from England in 1900; early life in New York City; family business ventures and living in Montreal, Chicago, and Louisville; her first marriage and living in Harrodsburg.

Jewish Community interviews

Switow discusses his father, a Russian immigrant who owned movie theaters in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia; his father's work in Louisville's Adath Jeshurun congregation; his childhood and education in Louisville at Cochran Elementary School, the Louisville Hebrew School, and Louisville Male High School; service in the United States Navy during World War I; engineering education at the University of Kentucky; Louisville during the 1937 flood; work with World War II bond drives; and views on the creation of Israel following the war. Switow concludes by discussing Jewish assimilation and changes in the local Jewish community.