Beyond Merchants: A Changing Aiken Jewish Community (1960 – 2000)

The make-up of the Aiken Jewish Community started changing in the 1960s as the role of Jewish Merchants began to decline. However, it was at this same time that a new wave of Jewish “immigrants” came to Aiken, with an influx of Jewish engineers working at the Savannah River Site (SRS).

The decline in the role of Jewish Merchants in Aiken was driven by several factors.

The first factor was the success of these early Aiken Jewish families in carving out a good life that allowed for their children to go off to college – after which many of this next generation became professionals (doctors & lawyers) and sought opportunity elsewhere. Some of these children went on to achieve national prominence as with Isadore Shad Polier who became a leading civil rights attorney (arguing the Scottsboro Boys case before the Supreme Court) after graduating from Harvard Law School.

Some stores did well for another generation — e.g. the ownership of The Leader passed from Jacob Wolf to his son Isadore; ownership of Julia’s Dress Shop passed from Julia Wolf to her daughters Ida Wolf & Anne Berger; and ownership of BM Surasky’s passed from BM to Mandle Surasky. However, for many stores there wasn’t a next generation to take over these business as the founders got older and looked to retire.

The second factor was the changing nature of competition in the retail industry -- where the emergence of national grocery and home improvement chains (e.g. Kroger, Home Depot) put pressure on local, family owned grocery & hardware stores (Efron Market, Sam’s Market, Franzblau Hardware & Laurel Hardware). As well, the changing economy in Aiken impacted some businesses – as was the case when the decline in Winter Colony residents reduced railroad travel to Aiken and with it the demand for the I Efron Garage & Taxi business.

These changes could have foretold an end to the Aiken Jewish community but in fact the 1960s-1990s is remembered by many as a high point – when the Aiken Jewish community was at its’ most vibrant.

The influx of new Jewish families tied to SRS meant that membership in the Synagogue remained stable. And, many of these new members brought a strong Jewish identity as well as diverse experiences, including direct experience of the Holocaust. The Synagogue was busy with Sunday school, bar/bat mitzvahs & weddings since some of these new families also had children living at home and the merchant families that remained still had children here as well.

Important lay leaders during this period include Peter & Doris Baumgarten. Peter helped lead services at the Synagogue and Doris became the Synagogue historian (doing a lot of the early research that supported this exhibit). Peter was born in Germany and evacuated to England prior to WWII as part of the Kindertransport. He later came to the US where he eventually joined DuPont and was transferred to Aiken in the 1970s to work at SRS.

Joe & Fran Cohen were other important Synagogue members during this period. Joe was part of the original Westinghouse team that bid & won the SRS contract, replacing DuPont. Joe previously worked for Westinghouse in Idaho and was an active member of the small Jewish community there. Tom recruited other Jewish engineers at Westinghouse (Ernie Levinson, Tom & Judith Evans) to come to Aiken and got them involved in the Synagogue.

David Sawilowsky (grandson of Nathan Franzblau) remembers that Passover Seders were rotated among families during this period — with his family attending Seders at the Coplons & Barabs (both DuPont engineers at SRS). He also recalls helping his father lead services at the Synagogue along with the children of other Aiken Jewish families including Sharon Baumgarten & Anne Wolf.