Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Stanley Karesh and Charlot Marks Karesh

OralHistoryResource

Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Stanley Karesh and Charlot Marks Karesh

1995

Stanley Karesh grew up in the Hampton Park Terrace neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1920s and ’30s. His family kept kosher and attended Brith Sholom. Stanley describes the shoe store his grandfather Charles Karesh built at 545 King Street. Charles immigrated with his wife, Sarah Orlinsky Karesh, to Charleston, circa 1878, from their hometown of Trestina (Trzcianne), in Polish Russia. They operated a store in the small town of Greeleyville, South Carolina, for a few years before returning with their growing family to Charleston, eager to live in a larger Jewish community. Stanley refers to a number of Charleston families, including Rittenberg, Friedman, Bielsky, Barshay, Kaminski, Jacobs, Banov, Livingstain, and Pearlstine, many of whom are related to the Kareshes. He also mentions his maternal grandparents, Harry and Anna Smolensky Feinberg, and cousin Rabbi David Karesh of Columbia. Stanley attended dental school in Baltimore, where he met Charlot Marks. The couple married in 1945 in her hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina. They raised three daughters in Charleston, and they were one of the first families to move to South Windermere, a subdivision west of the Ashley River. Stanley discusses the changes over time in relations between members of the Orthodox and the Reform synagogues and between the two Orthodox congregations, Brith Sholom and Beth Israel. He and Charlot, the youngest charter members of Conservative Synagogue Emanu-El, which broke away from Brith Sholom in 1947, recount its origins and offer their view of how its members differed from the Orthodox congregants from whom they split.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette : analog.Transcript : 35 p. ; 28 cm.

eng, Latn

Related Entities

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Congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim was organized in 1749 in Charleston, SC, following the Sephardic ritual. The current 1841 synagogue was built by enslaved African descendants owned by David Lopez Jr, a prominent slaveowner and proponent of the Confederate States of America, after the original synagogue was destroyed in a fire in 1838. ...

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Brith Sholom (Charleston, S.C.)

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Brith Sholom Beth Israel (Charleston, S.C.)

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Brith Sholom Beth Israel was formed in Charleston, South Carolina, from the merger of two Orthodox Jewish congregations -- Brith Sholom (est. 1854) and Beth Israel (est. 1911). Originally spelled Berith Shalome (Covenant of Peace), Brith Sholom was the first Ashkenazic congregation in South Carolina and one of the first in the South. Its membership swelled in the late 19th century with a wave of East European Jewish immigrants. In 1911, some of the newcomers split from their Americanized co-reli...

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Karesh, Stanley, 1921-

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Karesh, Charlot Marks, 1924-

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Rosengarten, Dale, 1948-...

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Karesh family.

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