Oral history interview with Saul Krawcheck, 1995.

ArchivalResource

Krawcheck, Saul,. Oral history interview with Saul Krawcheck, 1995.

Oral history interview with Saul Krawcheck, 1995.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50520749

Saul Krawcheck speaks of his family history and his views on the Jewish experience in Charleston, South Carolina. The Krawcheck family, and the related Karesh and Pearlstine families began to leave the Bialystock, Poland, area in the 1850s; one of them included Lena Berkman, whom Krawcheck met as a young boy in Charleston. His grandfather, Benjamin Beryl Krawcheck, came to Charleston after his brother Moses arrived, ca. 1870s. Family lore suggests that Benjamin's first wife died, and he returned to Poland and married her sister, Libby; his first son, Jack, father of Saul Krawcheck, was born there in 1900. The family soon came to America, eventually coming to live at 3 Colonial Street. Other siblings included Abe, Max, Fannie and Jean (Sheina). The family cook was Agnes Jenkins of Wadmalaw Island who mastered both low country and kosher cuisine. Jack Krawcheck, called Mr. Jack by all, including his son, started a cash clothing store at the corner of King and Vanderhorst Streets. He was very active in the Jewish and general community, serving on many boards and early on became a supporter of the preservation movement, encouraging the career of blacksmith Philip Simmons. He served as President of the Preservation Society, and did the first modern renovation of a business building on King Street, keeping its historical character by choice, a move that somewhat alienated him from the rest of the Jewish community. He raised his children in a strictly orthodox home; his father's cousin was Alter Karesh, rabbi in Columbia, SC, and his wife's father was Zorah Bielsky, a cantor at Beth Israel Congregation, Charleston. The family attended Brith Sholom. Saul Krawcheck discusses his growing up in a non-Jewish neighborhood in Charleston, laments the self-segregation of Charleston Jews into "ghettos," and speaks of the "caste system" he knew growing up when there were three different social levels of Jews - the old families, or "downtown" Jew; the "uptown" newer arrivals along the St. Philip Street corridor, and the recent immigrants or "greenhorns" who were less Americanized.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : digital.Transcript : 23 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library