Oral history interview with Ruth Kirshtein Kaplan, 1997.

ArchivalResource

Kaplan, Ruth Kirshtein, 1930-. Oral history interview with Ruth Kirshtein Kaplan, 1997.

Oral history interview with Ruth Kirshtein Kaplan, 1997.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49969056

Ruth Kirshtein Kaplan speaks of her family history, repeating many of the stories her father Abe Kirshtein told her and reports on her research and experiences in talking to others. The first member of her family in America was her father's uncle, Eleazer Bernstein, who came to Charleston, ca. 1858 or 1860; he, with his wife Naomi, helped other newcomers in the city. Her father, a scholar and schochet, came to Charleston from Poland in 1920. His daughter speaks of the many people who convinced him to begin supporting himself as a peddler instead of waiting for a job that would utilize his scholarly abilities. Sam Solomon, John Hornick, and later Israel Oberman helped her father get materials he could sell, first walking, then in a horse and carriage, and finally by car. Ruth Kirshtein's mother, Edith Cohen (really Miedzyrzecki), her Uncle Albert Cohen (later Kohn), and her grandmother also came to Charleston, from Kaluszyn Poland in 1920. Edith Cohen married Abe Kirshtein in 1922 and they had five children, Rosalee, Sammy, Louie, Saul and Ruth. Kaplan describes the family home at 43 Radcliffe Street, with its mikveh and indoor succoh and how after World War II, her father started Dixie Furniture and brought all his children into the business. Kirshtein also mentions her father's brother, Alter, who came to Charleston, ca. 1935, her cousins Benjamin and Vladka Mead, resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto uprising; her father's friendship with Rabbi Jacob Raisin and her mother's friendship with local restaurateur Effie Labraska.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : analog.Transcript : 19 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library