Oral history interview with Shera Lee Ellison Berlin, 1997.

ArchivalResource

Berlin, Shera Lee Ellison, 1929-. Oral history interview with Shera Lee Ellison Berlin, 1997.

Oral history interview with Shera Lee Ellison Berlin, 1997.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50880783

In response to questions posed by the interviewers, Shera Lee Ellison Berlin speaks of her life in Charleston, South Carolina, and the background of her family. She was born in Charleston in 1929, the only child of Etta Clein and Alec Ellison. Alec Ellison's father, Ezekiel Joseph Ellison, originally from Russia, came to Charleston in 1888 via Savannah, Georgia, when Brith Sholom Congregation was in need of a kosher butcher. He came with his wife Sarah Leah Krum (or Crum) whom he had married in Europe. The interviewee's mother Etta was born in Columbus, Ga., to William Clein and Sarah Rebecca Jacobs. The Cleins had left Latvia for County Cork, Ireland. Shera Lee Ellison grew up in a religious household where holidays, observed strictly, were entirely family events. Her father was born in Charleston and was involved in politics, being a friend of Burnet Maybank and Robert Figg who wrote speeches for Maybank and Strom Thurmond. He was also the treasurer of the Charleston County Democratic Party, and it was his influence that kept Democratic primaries from being held on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath; Republican primaries were held on the sabbath. The interviewee speaks of the meals and dishes prepared for the holidays and speaks of the family maid and cook, Jestine. A restaurant in Charleston, run by the interviewee's daughter, is named in Jestine's honor. Shera Lee Ellison began school at Ashley Hall, where she felt an undercurrent of anti-Semitism, and then transferred to the public Bennett School, where she thrived after a period of adjustment. She speaks of the World War II years in Charleston, noting that Jews did not know much about what was happening abroad, and that Jews in Charleston did not speak much about the war, to not draw attention to themselves, and possibly be blamed for causing the war. She describes going to the mikvah, or ritual bath, on St. Philip Street and other aspects of Jewish life in Charleston. She attended the University of South Carolina, became a school teacher and married Alwyn Berlin in 1954. When asked how the synagogue Brith Sholom has changed over the years, she notes that it has become stricter and more observant of Jewish ritual.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : digital.Transcript : 47 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library