To view in Adobe Acrobat as full spreads click as follows: View > Page Display > Two Up PAGE 1 JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA TT HEHE JJ EWISHEWISH HH ISTIST ORICALORICAL SS OCIETYOCIETY oo f f SS OO U U T T H H CC AROLINAAROLINA SPRING 2013 VOLUME XVIIIXVIII -- NUMBER 1 Register for the Spring Conference “The Past as Prologue: Jewish Genealogy Looks to the Future” May 18 – 19, 2013 College of Charleston Pages 10 – 11 PAGE 2 JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA In this issue The Winstocks, Rosenbergs, and Visanskas: Interlacing Lives 4 Ernest L. Marcus Ancestral spirits of family members from Suwalki Gubernia, Poland, linger in an Abbeville “castle,” firing the imaginations of their descendants, who ponder the intertwined branches of the family tree. Moïse, Moïse, Moïse 6 Benjamin McC. Moïse and Anita Moïse Rosefield Rosenberg The Haitian Revolution forced Abraham and Sarah Moïse to abandon their home on the island of Saint Domingue in 1791. They fled to Charleston, which for generations of Moïses became the platform for success in both secular and religious life. Seeking the Isemans: A Conversation between Karen S. Franklin and Ellen M. Iseman 8 Dale Rosengarten Tracing family lineage is a challenge filled with uncertainty and requires strong determina- editor tion. With intuition, energy, and a lawyer’s mind, Joseph S. Iseman collected nuggets of Alyssa Neely valuable information that propel the ongoing search by the next generation. assistant editor Rebecca McClure The Past as Prologue: Jewish Genealogy Looks to the Future – Jewish Historical photo editor Society of South Carolina Meets in Charleston, May 18–19, 2013 10 Joseph Rubin designer The Baruch Legacy 12 Albert Baruch Mercer Raised in Camden, South Carolina, the four sons of Prussian-born Simon Baruch and The JHSSC newsletter is Winnsboro native Belle Wolfe founded one of the leading brokerage houses on Wall Street. published twice a year. Hartwig Baruch, paternal grandfather of the author, may have been the most colorful. His younger brother Bernard made his mark in politics and philanthropy. Current and back issues can be found at The Levi Family of Manning 13 www.jhssc.org Wendell M. Levi, Jr., and Ernest L. Marcus Bavarian immigrant Moses Levi and his wife, Hannah, raised a large family and made their fortune twice in Manning. Undaunted by losses during the Civil War, they reestablished themselves in the local economy and gave their offspring the chance to succeed as lawyers, On the cover: Louise bankers, farmers, and merchants. Levi, Abbeville, SC, ca. 1921. Louise had just The Sternbergers: Merchants and Manufacturers in the Carolinas 15 recovered from scarlet Judith Hirschman Rivkin and Karen S. Franklin with Andrew Cuadrado fever when the photo Emanuel and Hermann Sternberger, sons of itinerant Hebrew teacher Jonas Sternberger was taken. The fan she is and his wife, Bertha Emanuel, became cotton buyers in Clio, South Carolina, and partners in holding, made of hot pink Revolution Mills in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their niece Rosa Sternberger Hirschmann feathers, now belongs to followed in her grandfather’s footsteps, teaching religious school in Charleston. her daughter, Ellen. Photo courtesy of Ellen Marcus The Reenactor’s Rebel: Finding Private Edwin J. Sampson 17 Smith. Hollace Ava Weiner Picking up a 30-year-old research trail started by a Civil War reenactor from New York, the author explains how the story of a Georgetown-born Confederate soldier who died on the Correction battlefield in 1862 still has lessons to teach. Catalogers beware! The Fall 2012 issue of Legacy and Responsibility 19 the newsletter should Martin Perlmutter have been numbered Who will tell our history? Help explore the dual inheritance of southern Jews. Become a Pillar and assure that the legacy of past generations is carried into the future. Vol. XVII - No. 2. SPRING 2013 VOLUME XVIII - NUMBER 1 PAGE 3 Letter from the President he Shabbat candlesticks future generations. We welcome two outstanding speakers, always sat on the dining room Steven Cohen and Karen Franklin, both prominent in their sideboard.T They had traveled many fields of research. I hope you will make plans now to attend. miles and been passed down for For the conference schedule, see page 11—then register via generations. What told and untold mail or online at www.jhssc.org. family stories did they hold? How Our meeting in Florence last fall had the feel of a family many of us have heard the stories? bar mitzvah. What a warm and inviting weekend Beth Israel When we were kids, did we listen? Congregation dished up! An engaging program, delicious As adults we begin to search. I know food, and a hilarious comedian to cap the gala evening made that when each of my children was for an enjoyable and informative weekend. born, I looked into his or her face My first year as president of JHSSC has ended. We and wondered, “What relative do have held two outstanding conferences and are looking you resemble?” With my daughter, Emily, the answer was forward to another stellar event in May. These meetings clear. When my good friend Amy Rones Berger’s mother, don’t just happen. They require the work of many people. I Faye Appel Rones, gave me a photo taken years ago on St. want to thank Gail Lieb, Ann Hellman, Enid Idelsohn, Dale Philip Street, there was my daughter. But the photo was taken Rosengarten, and Marty Perlmutter for their steady support of my mother as a child. And so, we know now who Emily and willingness to bring together top speakers, the best looks like—her Nana! panels, and the warmest hospitality for each conference. Their When we embark on “family stories,” we want to know dedication is wonderful. Gail and Ann, both JHSSC board where we come from, who we are, and what did those who members—Ann as past president and webmaster—have made the trek to the “new country” discover? There may be a leapt into action with the planning of the spring meeting. difference between the study of genealogy and the quest for We are governed by a volunteer board and I encourage family stories, but I think the outcome is the same: we are any member who has an interest in serving on the board searching for the “who and where.” The articles in this issue of directors or any of our committees to contact me at were written by members of some of the families featured [email protected]. in Family History Roadshow, an exhibition of new treasures I look forward to seeing everyone in Charleston, May from the Jewish Heritage Collection that will be on view at 18–19! the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library from April 1 until May 20, 2013—culminating the weekend of the With warm regards, Society’s spring meeting. Our upcoming program, titled The Past as Prologue: Jewish Genealogy Looks to the Future, promises to be an invigorating exploration into where the Jews of South Carolina have come Rachel Gordin Barnett from and how our past can potentially be a predictor for [email protected] Meeting in the sanctuary at Beth Israel, attendees of JHSSC’s fall 2012 listen to panel titled Pee Dee Pioneers. Left to right: Rick Levy, Bruce Siegal, Joseph H. Rubinstein (moderator), Donna Cohen, Richard Weintraub. Florence, SC, November 3, 2012. Photos by Max Hellman. PAGE 4 JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA The Winstocks, Rosenbergs, and Visanskas: Interlacing Lives ntering the Victorian home of our grandmother Sarah Irene Rosenberg Levi felt like opening a door to the past. EDuring our stay, relatives both past (or so it seemed) and present would visit the rambling house in Abbeville, South G. A. Visanska’s “castle” in Abbeville was the setting for the June 1912 Carolina, known as Visanska’s Castle. The shared stories, marriage of Irene Rosenberg, G. A.’s granddaughter, and Louis Levi. journals, objects, photographs and the like were intricately tied to major events of the in-law, Gershon Aaron (G. A.) nation and state—the Civil Visanska, eventually owning War, Reconstruction, the over 8,000 acres, starting World Wars, the Depression— banks, and establishing thriving but they were also about the businesses in town. Cecelia’s pulse of everyday life. In mother and wife of G. A. was our family, which was both Annie Winstock, the daughter of Jewish and southern, ancestral Moses Winstock and Eva Leah worship was palpable. Visanska. The brother of Moses, The Winstock, Visanska, Benjamin Winstock, was the and Rosenberg families all came first to arrive in America, landing from the province of Suwalki in 1838 in Richmond, Virginia, Gubernia in Poland (sometimes with his wife, Jeannette, who was, of Lithuania), and settled in South course, a Visanska. Carolina before 1850. Over the Much family lore focuses on following decades the families Moses Winstock, who came alone to became increasingly intertwined Charleston in 1842 and established through marriage, death, and a wholesale jewelry business. It business in and around the Upstate took until 1847 for Eva Leah and town of Abbeville, where many their first two children to arrive, of them resided. The complex having survived two shipwrecks. relationships were nothing new as Moses later set up a peddlers’ supply there were numerous intermarriages business. His customers told him among the families in the Old the climate of the Upstate would be Country, including the marriage of better for his asthma, and the family Joshua Rosenberg and Rose Halevi moved initially to Due West, home Visanska. Their future grandson of Erskine College, founded by the Abraham Rosenberg married Presbyterian Church, where Moses Rebecca Winstock and established enjoyed translating and interpreting a store in Greenwood, South the Bible with faculty and students.