Main image: Officers of the National Woman’s Party (Anita Pollitzer with hat in hand) meet in Washington in 1922 to complete the plans for the dedication ceremonies for the Party’s new national headquarters opposite the Capitol. Courtesy of the Records of the National Woman’s Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Carrie, Mabel, and […]
Main image: Dr. Rosa Hirschmann Gantt, ca. 1930. Courtesy of Marsha Poliakoff. Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt (1874–1935) was the first woman physician in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A pioneer in providing health services to rural areas, she served as acting surgeon for the U.S. Public Health Service. Born in Camden, South Carolina, on December 29, […]
The author, Margi Levinson, and her brother, Arnold, pose for a family photo behind their parents, Charles and Libby Friedman Levinson, and Libby’s mother, Baila, 1942. Courtesy of Margi Levinson Goldstein. The story of my mother, Libby Friedman Levinson, is of a woman who faced life’s challenges with courage and resilience. In 1918, at the […]
Left to right: Ernie Marcus, Robert Berger (holding Ernie), Arthur Berger, Ellen Marcus (in front of Arthur), Harry Marcus, and Louise Levi Marcus, outside their Eutawville, SC, home, 1957. Courtesy of Ernie Marcus. Ernie Eutawville, the little town I grew up in, represents a microcosm of how Jewish women ended up behind retail counters in […]
Rabbi Samuel Shillman presided over confirmation exercises, Temple Sinai, Sumter, SC, May 24, 1942. Patty Levi is third from right. Her twin brother, Wendell, is on the far left. Other confirmands, according to the program, were Faye Lomansky, Joan Schlosburg, Everett Ness, and Bernice Richman. Courtesy of Tricia Barnett Greenberg. Patricia Levi Barnett came into […]
Main image: Members of Doris Levkoff Meddin’s family gather in September 1994 to celebrate the naming of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina in honor of her brother, Dr. Abner Levkoff, who established the high-risk nursery. Back row (l to r): Abner H. Levkoff, Alice Fink Levkoff, Douglas Berlinsky, […]
Back row (l to r): Michele Bernstein Perrick, Carol Osterweil Bernstein. Front row (l to r): Anne Bernstein, Beth Bernstein, Hilary Bernstein, at Beth Shalom’s 85th Anniversary Trilogy Gala, Columbia, SC, January 16, 1993, celebrating the synagogue’s 85th anniversary, mortgage burning, and 20th year on Trenholm Road. Carol and Rose Kline chaired the event. Courtesy […]
Mildred Solomon and her daughter Ellen, Ahmedabad, India, 1965. Courtesy of Ellen Solomon. I have almost no papers of my mother’s and was astonished recently when I discovered the speech she gave in 1948 as the finale to her two years as president of the Charleston chapter of Hadassah. The speech—typed and 17 pages long—was […]
In her Polish passport, Regina Kawer Greene is listed as Rachela Grynblatt, born in 1920. Special Collections, College of Charleston. I always knew there was something different about my mother that set her apart—not just from other mothers, but from other people, too. First, there was her accent—her Eastern European and yet slightly nasal French […]
Painting by Kathryn Baker Lotzoff, Esther and Jake Baker’s daughter. Courtesy of Larraine Moses. “Miz Clara,” as she was ever so fondly addressed by her many loyal customers, was my grandma, Clara Kligerman Baker. She owned and operated Baker’s Grocery on Park Street in Columbia, South Carolina, for more than 40 years. She was petite, […]