Hurwit, Doris_1974, Oral History, October 29, 1974

GREATER HARTFORD JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION

Tape No.: 80 No. of Tapes: Name of Interviewee: Doris Hurwitz (Mrs. James) Date of Interview: Oct. 29,1974 Occupation: Date of Birth: Dec. 13,1902 Place of Birth: Hartford, Ct. Transcript (yes/no): yes No. of Pages: 38

Abstract: A native of Hartford, Mrs. Hurwitz has written books about her childhood life in Hartford and is presently writing a book about her parents. Her father, whose original name was Sklorinsky, changed it to S. Max when he came to the United States. Her mother's maiden name was Rose Gansberg. Both parents were born in Vilna, Russia, circa 1884 and came together to New York in 1900 where they stayed a few years and then moved to Hartford at the behest of a friend, Louis Steinman. Mrs. Hurwitz describes how her parents fled Russian and their early years in Hartford where her father established a tailoring business. She has three sisters, Kay, Julia and Laura. She goes into a good of detail about her mother who wrote poetry in Yiddish and English and did public readings. Mrs. Hurwitz attended Arsenal school, class of 1917, and remembers classmates Philip Kapel, Judge Seidman, Mrs. Goldstein and Rivkin and Auxelia Tetreault. She graduated from Hartford High School and attended Columbia University for one year, after which she married. She and her sisters all had a musical education. Her first husband, Jules Schwarz, whom she married in 1924 was an opera singer in Europe. She met him through his brother, Joseph Schwarz, a well-known opera singer from Vienna, who was visiting Hartford and arranged for his brother to immigrate from Germany in 1921. Due to the depression, he was unable to pursue his singing career and joined his father in law in his business together with his brother in law, Archie Brody. Her father belonged to the Odd Fellows and the Labor Lyceum. He brought the Jewish Theatre to Hartford at the Parsons Theatre. Famous actors and artists played there: Jacob Kessler, Jacob Adler, Michael Tillson Thomas, Boris and Bessie Tomashevsky. The Moscow Art Theatre came with Madame Chekhov, the widow of the fame playwright, As well as Sarah Bernhart. The Yiddish Theatre played an important part in the culture of the Jews of Hartford. Her husband brought Edward Gehrman, an opera singer, and his family to Hartford. He led the choir at Emanuel temple and taught Arthur Koret and Sidney Schulman. Mrs. Hurwitz has two sons from her first marriage, Joseph Schwarz (PhD) an artist who taught at various universities and is listed in "Who's Who in America". At present he is working on a picture of the Holocaust. He has four children with his first wife and his second wife has 3 daughters from a previous marriage. Joseph is very interested in Judaism. He painted Rabbi Feldman's portrait. The younger son, Perry, is involved in the administrative side of music and at present is concert manager for the State University of N.Y. at Buffalo. He is married to an Israeli Sabra Nomi Rosner and they have two children, one of whom is adopted. Mrs. Hurwitz did not come from an observant home but after her sons were born she joined the Temple and has been interested in Jewish religion. Her second husband, James Hurwitz's family originally farmed in Colchester.

Subject Index: Actors Authors Community Activities (in the Jewish community) Fraternal Organizations Music Oral history Yiddish culture