Interview with Morris Weiss, August 1, 2016

Interview Summary

Morris Weiss begins the interview by discussing his family background dating back to Alten-Schoenbach, Germany and how his uncle, Josef Solomon, emigrated to Louisville, Kentucky in 1863. He explains how his family became one of the founding families of Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky when Weiss' great-uncle Dr. Leon Solomon and a number of other prominent Louisvillian physicians decided to form Jewish Hospital in the winter of 1903. Weiss discusses his early upbringing during the 1940s in Hardin County, Kentucky. He talks about how the community was largely made up of Jews who had emigrated (or whose ancestors had emigrated) from Eastern-Europe and that he was raised in a Reform Jewish household.

Weiss completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan in the 1950s, and then went on to complete his medical internships at the University of Pennsylvania. He finished his internal medicine studies at Washington University at Barnes Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis. Weiss talks about Jewish Hospital's involvement in civil rights, focusing specifically on how it hired, in 1951, Dr. Jesse Bell (the first African American doctor practicing at a non-African American hospital in that region) and Dr. Maurice Rabb, who was another prominent African-American physician. One of the interesting stories that Weiss tells is when he is asked about his experiences with anti-Semitism. He experienced anti-Semitism as an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and as a medical professional. He tells how during his time as an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, while attending a party, another student made a joke about Jews having horns. He then talks about how while he was on the board of the Kentucky Heart Association he couldn't attend an event held at the Pendennis because they didn't allow entrance to Jews. He concludes the interview by discussing his own current medical practice as a cardiologist in Louisville, Kentucky, the legacy of Jewish Hospital, and how the shrinking population of Jews in Louisville, Kentucky (which he notes has been seen in many other small southern Jewish communities that have virtually disappeared) could begin to threaten the dynamic of the Louisville Jewish community.

Interview Keyword

Alten-Schoenbach (Germany) Education, Higher Medical education Jewish Hospital Mobile (Ala.) Emigration and immigration. Immigrants African American physicians Race relations--Kentucky

Interview LC Subject

Family histories Genealogy Jewish families Louisville (Ky.) Hospitals Medical care--Kentucky Childhood Judaism Religion Worship (Judaism) Jewish children Jews--Identity Anti-Semitism Antisemitism Discrimination Jewish physicians

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