Oral history interview with David A. Cohen, Jr., 1995.

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Cohen, David A., Jr., 1921-1997,. Oral history interview with David A. Cohen, Jr., 1995.

Oral history interview with David A. Cohen, Jr., 1995.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52050435

While sorting through mostly legal documents such as mortgages, liens, etc., related to the family business, David Alexander Cohen, Jr., converses with his interviewers about the individual items and gives occasional bits of background information regarding his family and himself. He was born in Darlington, South Carolina, in 1921 and got his early religious education there, mostly from visiting Rabbis, including Dr. Jacob Raisin who traveled by train to Florence from Charleston, S.C. His grandmother Lena, the daughter of Dora and Wolfe Witcover, was born in Timmonsville which was then in Darlington County (subsequently Florence County.) At the age of thirteen, she and her family, consisting of parents, 5 girls and 2 boys, moved to Darlington. She married Henry Hennig who had come to Darlington to work; he boarded with the Witcover family and married a daughter. Their daughter, Hilda Hennig, married the interviewee's father, who ran a wholesale dry goods business in Darlington, catering to nearby towns such as Florence, Dillon, and McBee. The family also ran a fertilizer business and often bought mortgages and liens. Cohen speaks in particular of one African-American customer he "inherited" from his father; when her husband died, the family bought her land at her request and maintained her, acting as her fiscal agent until her death. In Darlington, Cohen said he always met with complete acceptance and he gives numerous examples of Jews being integrated into the community. He did not marry a Jewish woman, but saw that his children had a Jewish education; only one of his children married a Jew. He was active in synagogue affairs and in maintaining the Jewish cemetery. There are stray comments about Rabbis in Florence, one of whom left the community in disgrace. He refers to his lack of financial support of Israel, because of its reputed refusal to recognize Reform Jews as Jews. Darlington gave him and his family total support and respect; his son was given the a high school football team jacket with the words "Jew Boy" on it (as another student was given one labeled "Greek.") Such a gesture would be misunderstood elsewhere, Cohen suggests; but in Darlington it was a tribute to his son's heritage.

Sound recording : 2 sound cassettes : digital.Transcript : 70 p. ; 28 cm.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library