Eddie Aberman, his wife Mary Ann Pearlstine Aberman, Jack Leader, and Harriet Marshall Goode, and her husband Martin Goode, from their various perspectives, describe the Jewish experience in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Eddie Aberman's parents were Sol and Bessie Samet Aberman. Sol Aberman came with his family to the United States ca. 1900. He was a talented saxophone and clarinet player, receiving his training at Jane Addams' Hull House, and playing for circuses and bands. His wife was born in South Africa, to Polish Jewish parents, who made their way to the United States and eventually to High Point, North Carolina. He came to Rock Hill to visit an uncle. The Abermans raised their children to be Jewish, often taking them to services in High Point; Eddie's brother, Mitchell, was constantly ill as a child, and his father Sol vowed to build a synagogue if the boy survived. He did (living until 1953), and that is how the Rock Hill synagogue was built. Sol Aberman helped support many charitable institutions in Rock Hill and gave most school bands their instruments; he was very dedicated to the town, as it was to him. When asked about racism and the lives of African Americans, Aberman speaks of how cruel the town was to blacks before World War II, and he also cites some anti-Semitic behavior aimed at him. Jack Leader, younger than Aberman, recalls less of that. His parents, children of immigrants, met and married in New York City; his mother's sister's husband had a business in Shelby, N.C. He eventually helped the Leaders start a lady's and children's clothing store, named Melba's, which stayed in the family until 1994. Leader received his Jewish education in Sunday schools in Charlotte, N.C., and those held in different people's houses; the town had a very small Jewish community. All knew each other; adults took turn holding services in the synagogue between visits of the traveling Rabbi, and holiday observances were often held in different homes. There has been conversion to Judaism within the Aberman and Leader families; most feel this is important, one way or another, to provide children with a common religious upbringing.
