Oral history interview with Louis M. Toporek and Bernice Lesser Toporek, 1998.

ArchivalResource

Rosenblum, Sandra Lee Kahn,. Oral history interview with Louis M. Toporek and Bernice Lesser Toporek, 1998.

Oral history interview with Louis M. Toporek and Bernice Lesser Toporek, 1998.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50530617

Interview begins with discussion of Louis Toporek's family history. He describes his parents, Israel Toporek and Esther Lederman, both from Kaluszyn, Poland, and his father's occupation as a ritual shawl maker. The Toporeks immigrated to New York in the early 1900s; Louis was born there in 1913. He recalls his early years in a tenement house on New York's East Side and the family's move to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1919. Over the years, the Toporek family had several Charleston addresses, and he describes living on St. Philip Street. Toporek mentions other Jewish families on St. Philip St. including the Resnicks, Ginsbergs, Solomons, and Steinbergs, and remembers attending Beth Israel synagogue and Hebrew School. He describes boyhood antics (with several mentions of Joe Truer, a.k.a. Jew Joe) and recalls experiencing anti-Semitism. Toporek describes his involvement with Chapter 143 of Aleph Zadek Aleph and working for his future father-in-law's jewelry store after college. Discussion ends with mention of the various places he was stationed while in the military (1941-1945), including Ft. Aberdeen (MD), Ft. Jackson (Columbia, SC) and Fort Moultrie (Sullivan's Island, SC). Bernice Lesser Toporek discusses her grandparents and parents, who immigrated to America from Poland in the early 1900s. Her father, Isadore Lesser, learned to fix watches and eventually ran a jewelry store at 526 King Street. Toporek was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1918, and she recalls growing up in Charleston and the Fun Club she started with girlfriends. She describes experiences with anti-Semitism and working at her father's jewelry store alongside future husband Louis Toporek. The Toporeks were married in 1943 and moved to Monroe, NC. Bernice recalls strong anti-Semitism in Monroe and describes how she and Louis were evicted from a boarding house because they were Jewish. Interview ends with description of their return (1945) to Charleston, their three children, and the yarn store she opened, Sit and Knit.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : analog.Video recording : 1 videocassette.Transcript : 38 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library