Interview with Elizabeth Crane, March 24, 2017

Interview Summary

Elizabeth Bronner Crane was born in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and was raised briefly in Charleston, SC though she later moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Due to the name change of her paternal grandfather at Ellis Island, she has been unable to trace much of her extended family history. Her mother, Anne Banks, works as a statistician in Louisville, and her father, Mark Bronner, is a gastroenterologist. Both parents were raised in Orthodox Judaism, but chose to raise their children Reform Judaism. Mrs. Crane recalls going to Sunday school, attending High Holiday services, and having Shabbat dinners on Fridays, though she says those events became less prevalent with time. After graduating from Ballard High School in Louisville in 2002, Mrs. Crane went on to receive her undergraduate degree in theatre from the University of Georgia in 2006. She traveled with a children's theatre company from 2006 to 2009, but decided to change career paths and re-enrolled in school in 2010. She attended the University of Louisville for one year, then transferred to the University of Kentucky, eventually earning a degree in dietetics in 2015. She now works with Trilogy Healthcare. While studying in Lexington, she met her husband--the first Jewish man she had ever dated--and they were married three years later, in October 2015. Mrs. Crane now attends her husband's Conservative synagogue, Ohavay Zion, and is open about her struggles to adapt from Reform to Conservative Jewish traditions, largely crediting Ohavay Zion's Rabbi Smolkin for her ability to feel at home in Conservative Judaism. She discusses the threat of anti-Semitism in the modern world, and though having few personal encounters with it, she describes the effects of anti-Semitism on her family. Mrs. Crane explains the cultural aspects of her Jewish identity and how it affects the way she plans to raise her children.

Interview Keyword

Emigration and immigration. Genealogy Education, Higher University of Georgia College students--Social conditions Dating (Social customs) Anti-Semitism Antisemitism Discrimination. Holidays. Fasts and feasts--Judaism.

Interview LC Subject

Jewish families Jewish children Childhood Education--Kentucky Family histories Jews--Identity Judaism Religion Worship (Judaism) Children's theater Dietitians Marriage Child rearing Families

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Interview Usage

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