Interview with Fannie Miller, November 9, 1986

Interview Summary

Fannie begins the interview by stating her date of birth and describing her family background. While discussing her parents, she tells a story about how her father chose the name “Herman” for himself and how her mother and father first met. Her parents owned a store, where she and her brother were born. She would commute from Winchester to Lexington to the synagogue on the bus. Fannie goes on to explain her family’s participation in the synagogue and that they were an orthodox family. According to Fannie, there was a great deal of anti-Semitism while she was growing up. She relates a story about the Ku Klux Klan and how anti-Semitism was prevalent in her high school.

Unlike high school, Fannie enjoyed college. She attended the University of Kentucky and was the president of many clubs. She began to date fir the first time and met other Jewish students. Fannie then describes the beautiful home her family built in the early 20s. Her father ordered a turn table that was installed in the garage, and people came from miles around to see it. She is very attached to the house. It entered into a central hall and on the wall was a cho-cho train.

Later in the interview, Fannie explains her education in detail. She got a scholarship to study abroad in Germany but her professor talked to her parents and was worried she wouldn’t make it back because he knew what the state of Germany was like at the time. She went to New York to attend Columbia University. Her cousins in New Jersey helped her, and all she had to pay for was her transportation and her tuition. Fannie describes how she met her husband, and their life together during wartime and then in Lexington. The interview ends with another brief discussion of anti-Semitism and why she believes the Jewish community has survived

Interview LC Subject

Jews--Kentucky--Lexington. Race relations--Kentucky--Lexington

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Interview Usage

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