Oral history interview with Isaac Jacobs, 1995.

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Jacobs, Isaac, 1916-1999,. Oral history interview with Isaac Jacobs, 1995.

Oral history interview with Isaac Jacobs, 1995.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50922167

Isaac Jacobs was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1916. His father's father, Isaac Karesh, was born in Bialystock, Poland, ca. 1838, and came to Charleston, via New York City, ca. 1855; coming through the immigration progress, his name Karesh was changed to Jacobs. He married Jeanette Slager, and they had 2 daughters and 4 sons, including Louis, the father of the interviewee, born in Charleston in 1878. Coming to America along with Isaac Karesh was Karesh's nephew, Louis Charles Pearlstine; the family name had been changed from Farber some time before. Louis Charles Pearlstine became a merchant in Branchville, SC. In 1908, Pearlstine's daughter married Louis Jacobs, the son of Isaac Karesh and eventual father of the interviewee. Isaac Jacobs grew up in Charleston, and in the interview he lists all the homes where his family resided. He attended James Simons School, and then Charleston High School, which he did not finish, due to serious medical problems. At age 15, Isaac and his brother Melvin and their father Louis started the Jacobs Hosiery Company, on King Street, after the failure of a shoe store business run by Louis Jacobs. The business eventually became successful through the sale of "fourths" or "misplates" of socks. Keeping kosher, Isaac Jacobs traveled through lower South Carolina, selling for the company; he got to know the Sephardic Jewish community in Myrtle Beach in this manner. Of interest is his description of life in Camp Lafayette, near Georgetown, SC in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the details he gives of life in the armed forces during World War II . As a volunteer he held Yom Kippur (1942) and Passover (1943) services for Jewish servicemen on Christmas Island in the Pacific. Jacobs also speaks of Brith Sholom congregation of which his father was a president and his maternal great grandfather was a founding member. He speaks of the Jewish neighborhood of the Hampton Park area, passes on information about his siblings and aunts and uncles; and at the end speaks briefly on the relations between African Americans and Jews. His wife Ruth Bass Jacobs adds information every now and then throughout the interview.

Sound recording : 2 sound cassettes : analog.Transcript : 43 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library