This Oral History is Sponsored by
Steve Oppenheimer
Oral Histories
Eileen Oppenheimer
The date is June 2, 2025. This is Bill Cohen with the Columbus Jewish Historical Society. I’m at the home of Eileen Oppenheimer and we are in downtown Columbus.
Interviewer: Eileen, you were born in Columbus and you were born around 1935. Tell us what your earliest memories are.
Oppenheimer: I was born in Grant Hospital. I lived at 558 Gilbert Street in the southeast end. I went to Ohio Avenue school, belonged to Agudas Achim congregation. At that time, it was at Washington and Donaldson with Rabbi (Hirschsprung). The cantor was Cantor Gellman. I went to Ohio Avenue school. From there, I went to Roosevelt Junior High and South High school. My whole early life was in the southeast end.
Interviewer: Tell us about that neighborhood. Were there a lot of Jews in that neighborhood?
Oppenheimer: Oh yes, that was around Gilbert and Carpenter and around Children’s Hospital. It was all Jews which is now German Village. South of Livingston, that whole neighborhood was Jewish.
Interviewer: It couldn’t have been completely Jewish. What I want to ask you is when you were a child, in elementary school, how did the Jewish kids get along with the non-Jewish kids?
Oppenheimer: Just fine. There was not what we have today. We all got along, Jewish, Blacks, whatever. We were little kids. We got along.
Interviewer: There were Black children in that neighborhood too?
Oppenheimer: Yes, because it bordered on Fulton Street. Yes, there were Black kids. We didn’t care. Right around where I lived, at Gilbert and Newberry, which was south of Livingston, it was all Jewish. The whole neighborhood was Jewish. I could name you all the people that lived in that neighborhood.
Interviewer: You went to Agudas Achim. Did you go to religious .. ? You went to Ohio Avenue elementary?
Oppenheimer: I did not. Only boys went to cheder.
Interviewer: Only boys went to the religious school?
Oppenheimer: The religious school, they went after school for Bar Mitzvah lessons, but girls didn’t when I was young.
Interviewer: Agudas Achim, at that time, was Orthodox?
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: Tell me about your early home life. I know some of the families would keep kosher, especially the Orthodox families. What about your family, how observant?
Oppenheimer: My mother kept kosher until she went to work with my father and then we had babysitters and kosher went out the window because they got everything mixed up. So, kosher didn’t exist in our house. She still had kosher meat and everything, but there was no more, the dishes were mixed up.
Interviewer: That was because the babysitters, who were not Jewish, didn’t understand how to keep kosher?
Oppenheimer: As much as she told them, they still got it mixed up. At that time she was working with my father, and there was nothing they could do about it. She kept with kosher meat until probably after I got married.
Interviewer: What did your father and your mother do in terms of work?
Oppenheimer: They had a fruit and vegetable stand on Central Market.
Interviewer: Central Market was the big public market downtown?
Oppenheimer: It was downtown between Main and Rich Streets and it was Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I can tell you every store that was from Main to Rich, and a little bit further. There was on the corner of Main and Fourth, on the northeast corner there was Nelson Furniture, on the northwest corner was Market Exchange Bank which eventually became Huntington Bank. In that same building was the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. At that time, there was just one. Going farther down Fourth Street, they were all fruit and vegetable stands.
Interviewer: Your parents, what did they do?
Oppenheimer: They had fruits and vegetables.
Interviewer: Were those just for regular, average, individual customers or did they sell to restaurants?
Oppenheimer: No, no, no, everybody on that street was for just regular people who came down to get it a little fresher and a little less expensive. The grocery stores, at that time, didn’t have the kind of fruits and vegetables that they have now, packaged and everything. These were more fresh. In the summer, my father would bring in fresh peaches and other fresh vegetables. It was a hard life because it was outside. In the summer it was under awnings, canvas awnings. Each stand, fruit stand, vegetable stand, they were under covered awnings. It was either, in the summer, burning hot, or, in the winter, freezing cold. Then they would have the coal stoves. It was not an easy life, but it was a living. My father came from Russia and that’s all he knew.
Interviewer: Your father was born in Russia?
Oppenheimer: He was born in Russia.
Interviewer: His name was?
Oppenheimer: Nathan, at that time, Keslov changed to Kessel when he came to this country.
Interviewer: Kessel?
Oppenheimer: Now it’s Kessel, Yes.
Interviewer: Did he ever tell you why he shortened his name just a bit?
Oppenheimer: No he didn’t. They did when he entered the country. They didn’t know how to spell the name Kessel.
Interviewer: The officials?
Oppenheimer: The officials at the immigration. He came through Ellis Island. The officials there just wrote down what they thought he said. He was only ten years old and on his own. He came to this country to live with his grandfather, who didn’t really want him, and his aunt. He kind of made his way, eventually, from Columbus to Utica, New York where he found other distant family members who kind of took him in and took care of him.
Interviewer: You say he was on his own when he was?
Oppenheimer: He was ten years old when he came to this country by himself. He said when they got to Ellis Island, they were afraid to even cough because they would send them back.
Interviewer: Because they would declare him ill.
Oppenheimer: Correct. He hung around Columbus with his grandfather, and they lived around Gilbert Street, in that area. His aunt was good to him. He said his grandfather was a mean old man. That’s all he told me anyway.
Interviewer: He landed at Ellis Island which is New York City, but he quickly came to Columbus because he had relatives.
Oppenheimer: He had relatives, yes. None of them close because his whole family died in Russia either being soldiers or the plague.
Interviewer: The plague?
Oppenheimer: The influenza, whatever it was, at that time killed off a lot, and then it was not a pleasant place for Jews, as it is now.
Interviewer: Right, there were pogroms in Russia in the early 1900s.
Oppenheimer: Oh yeah.
Interviewer: You were referring to the flu epidemic around 1919, 1918?
Oppenheimer: Yes, yes.
Interviewer: He came here to Ellis Island what year approximately?
Oppenheimer: Probably 1920s, okay.
Interviewer: Right after the flu epidemic.
Oppenheimer: Correct. There was no one left of his immediate family.
Interviewer: You said some of them may have died as soldiers for the czar’s army?
Oppenheimer: Correct. He was one of five brothers, five boys, no girls. A lot of them died in the war and a lot of them died of influenza.
Interviewer: Tell us about your mother. What was her name?
Oppenheimer: Her name was Rose Levine. She was born and raised in Utica, New York. Her parents were from Poland, and had been here for a while. Her father died at a young age from kidney disease, which was incurable. Her mother died of heart disease after I was born.
Interviewer: Did your parents ever tell you how they met?
Oppenheimer: No. It was a different time. It was during the Depression. Everybody was just trying to survive. They weren’t really good… My father just said why he left, and my mother, they got married in Utica, New York. They met through a distant family member.
Interviewer: They got married in Utica.
Oppenheimer: Correct. They came back here to Columbus. I don’t know why, but they came back, and my father was a fruit peddler, and then he migrated to be on Central Market.
Interviewer: He was a fruit peddler. Does that mean he would go door-to-door?
Oppenheimer: At first, yes. Then he went up in the world (laughs), had a stand on Central Market, which was a very interesting place.
Interviewer: You were born in 1935.
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: So, much of your childhood was in the late 30s and early 40s. The Depression was still…
Oppenheimer: Raging.
Interviewer: Do you have any memories of the Depression, of what it was like?
Oppenheimer: No. I just remember my father saying that they didn’t even have money for milk. They got through it because of the fruits and vegetables and then it became a living, okay. It was never a great living, but it was comfortable for that time.
Interviewer: Did you, yourself, as a child, did you feel deprived? Did you feel like you were poor?
Oppenheimer: No, never. When I was in junior high and high school, I was very active in B’nai B’rith girls. At that time, the Bexley girls were wearing Pringle sweaters and Capezio shoes. No, I once brought home a pair of Capezio shoes, and my mother said take them back. I took them back.
Interviewer: Because you couldn’t afford them?
Oppenheimer: No, that was out of the budget. No, I took them back. At 15, I went to work at Schwartz Bakery on Mound Street. I worked there weekends and sometimes after school.
Interviewer: What was your job there?
Oppenheimer: I was just one of the clerks there.
Interviewer: What do you remember about Schwartzes?
Oppenheimer: I remember the rye bread with the cornmeal bottom, and the bagels. I sold a lot of bagels, and the rye bread, the machine where you sliced it. It was a good job, and I saved enough money. I saw this coat at a store called Milgrams, which is long gone, on Broad Street.
Interviewer: It was a clothing store?
Oppenheimer: It was women’s clothing, and it was upper class. I saw this gray coat, and I saved my money and bought the coat. I think it was $l00. That’s like thousands today. It was my money and I saved it, and I treasured that coat.
Interviewer: That would have been around 1950, or so, if you were 15 years old?
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: We were out of the Depression, but still that was a pretty expensive coat.
Oppenheimer: It was very, very expensive.
Interviewer: Do you remember learning anything from the Depression years? Did your parents tell you to save everything and be frugal?
Oppenheimer: No. They never made an issue of it with us, with the two of us. I have a brother. It was like I said, no, you’re not buying Pringle sweaters or Capezio shoes, but we always had enough to eat, and they never made an issue of not having enough money.
Interviewer: Perhaps that’s one reason why you never felt as if you, were poor.
Oppenheimer: No, and besides, all the kids in the neighborhood were all Jewish, and they were just like us, and we never thought about it. We just went on our merry way, and they made sure, when I was a teenager, active in the Jewish community. At that time, the Jewish Center was on, I think Fulton Street. (Editor’s note: It was on Rich Street).
Interviewer: Was that the Schonthal Center?
Oppenheimer: Yes.
Interviewer: Tell us, what are your memories of that building?
Oppenheimer: It was an old house. There was women on the street who made cookies and stuff, and we would stop and get a cookie or something. We always went to the Jewish Center, which we liked, Schonthal Jewish Center. (Editor’s note: It is said to have been housed in two different locations on Washington Street, but two early residents, Sara Schwartz and Sylvia Schecter remember it as on the corner of Stauring Street and Donaldson Avenue. It then was a building at 555 E. Rich Street).
Interviewer: What kind of activities did you do at the old Jewish center?
Oppenheimer: I started with B’nai B’rith girls. I don’t know. I seem like I, that’s where we went.
Interviewer: Would you go after school?
Oppenheimer: Mostly weekends. It was around 18th and Main, it was around that area that the Jewish Center was.
Interviewer: You were with the B’nai B’rith girls group?
Oppenheimer: I was very active. I was the local President, went on to be District Vice President. My children were all active in AZA and BBG at the new Jewish center.
Interviewer: At the old Jewish Center, what do you remember doing? Did you organize dances, or discussions, or holiday celebrations?
Oppenheimer: I don’t remember any of those things. It was just a place to hang out with other Jewish kids. It was a fun, innocent place.
Interviewer: Was dating only Jewish boys, was that an issue with your parents?
Oppenheimer: Oh yeah, but I didn’t date till I was a little older, but oh yeah.
Interviewer: What did they say?
Oppenheimer: Don’t bring home a goy.
Interviewer: Don’t marry a goy?
Oppenheimer: Don’t bring home, even to date. Don’t do it.
Interviewer: Don’t bring home a non-Jewish boy. Did they say why? Did they offer any explanation?
Oppenheimer: No. I think now that I think about it, my father didn’t have much luck in Russia with non Jews.
Interviewer: In other words, some of it was the fear of antisemitism?
Oppenheimer: Of course. It’s always there. Today we’re seeing it more than ever, which is very sad.
Interviewer: So, your parents had a fruit and vegetable business.
Oppenheimer: Right.
Interviewer: They just started it. Your father just started it from scratch first by going door-to-door, and then it grew?
Oppenheimer: Then they got this wooden stand they used to store under the street. They had storage. Above the street where the businesses were, they had stores. There was a fish market on the corner of Main. It was in the alley. Before the fish market, going north on Fourth Street there was Nelson’s Furniture, and a Five and Dime, and then there was another store. Then you crossed the alley and there was a fish store where all the Jews came and bought their fish for the holiday, and then there was a bakery, not kosher. At the corner of Fourth and Rich there was a beer parlor. Across Main Street, on the corner of Rich, on one corner was Isaly’s.
Interviewer: Isaly’s ice cream?
Oppenheimer: No, it was a cheese store. It was Isaly’s cheese.
Interviewer: A cheese store, okay. You have a lot of memories about the market, but you didn’t work there, or did you?
Oppenheimer: I did occasionally, and my brother did more often. I think my father didn’t think it was a place for me, so I would go down and go to work, and he would say I didn’t do something right, or whatever. It was an excuse. He’d say just go home. So, I turned around and went home because I didn’t want to be there anyway.
Interviewer: You think your father didn’t want you there because you were a girl, or was there some other reason?
Oppenheimer: He just was very protective of me. It was a rough life.
Interviewer: You went to South High School?
Oppenheimer: I did.
Interviewer: You graduated?
Oppenheimer: In 1952, or 1953.
Interviewer: You mentioned the other Jewish students who had already made the move to Bexley.
Oppenheimer: No, they went first to Driving Park. If you’re familiar with off Livingston Avenue, it was Miller, Kelton, Lilley Avenue, Berkeley Road, and Geers Avenue. It was a beautiful neighborhood.
Interviewer: You’re saying some of the Jews moved from your neighborhood to the East?
Oppenheimer: Went East and then progressed to Bexley, and now to New Albany. That’s the progression.
Interviewer: You mentioned the girls from Bexley who could afford nicer clothes. Was there much competition there, or did everybody get along?
Oppenheimer: Surface got along. Some of them let you know. It never bothered me. As I said, I was President of the local BBG. It was there but I never let it bother me.
Interviewer: What happened after you graduated from South high school? What happened with your life then?
Oppenheimer: I went to Ohio State and flunked out because I had a very good time.
Interviewer: You partied instead of studied?
Oppenheimer: Yes, well kind of (laughs). At that time, girls could only be a nurse or a teacher, and I wasn’t good at either one. Then I went to work at various different places.
Interviewer: Are you saying you worked instead of going to school?
Oppenheimer: After I flunked out, yeah.
Interviewer: Do any of those jobs stick in your memory at all, anything particular?
Oppenheimer: I worked at a shoe company that I don’t think exists anymore. It was a desk job. In 1954, I got married.
Interviewer: Who was this?
Oppenheimer: That was to Paul Oppenheimer. At that time, his brother had come to Columbus and established a TV service business because fixing televisions, you know, they were just out. That was with tubes and all that. My husband went to work for him, and then he went out on his own.
Interviewer: Your husband went out on his own?
Oppenheimer: Oppenheimer Television on Livingston Avenue just east of Berkely Road, where Segel’s Drugs was, and then there was a theatre there. He read a lot. Both of us like to read. My cousin, who was very close to my father, in fact my cousin lived with my mother and father when he was going to medical school, so they were very close. He was also from Utica, New York.
Interviewer: Tell me, how did you meet Paul, your husband?
Oppenheimer: I was on my way going downtown for something in the evening and I went into the drug store at the corner of 22nd and Livingston, and I met Elsie Yahr Oppenheimer with her husband, Harold. They lived two doors down from my mother-in-law, and Paul was living there at the time, and he said, “I got a name for you to call.” That was me. We got married a year later, at age almost 19, which is not done today, which is very smart.
Interviewer: You were married very young.
Oppenheimer: Very young, but it worked. We were married 64 years when he passed away.
Interviewer: You talk about it almost as if it was arranged.
Oppenheimer: No.
Interviewer: They hooked you up together and you hit it off.
Oppenheimer: His brother said, “I met somebody in the drug store.” Elsie knew, we were all from the same neighborhood. They lived on 22nd south of Livingston. I lived the opposite side of Livingston. We all knew each other, so she gave him the name, and he called, and that was that.
Interviewer: Do you remember what it was you loved about him when you first met him?
Oppenheimer: He was just a nice guy, you know, and he was working, and he had a Pontiac convertible which he let me drive, big mistake.
Interviewer: Why was that a big mistake?
Oppenheimer: Because I’m very hard on cars , or was. I should never have probably driven. I can’t tell you how many cars I ruined. Anyway, that’s in the past because I haven’t driven for many, many years, and that’s a good thing.
Interviewer: You married Paul Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer: Right, and his mother and father lived in a double on north 22nd and Sycamore, and two or three doubles down lived Elsie Yahr Oppenheimer and her parents, Morris and Ida Yahr. Ida and Morris lived in one half of the double, and then they had Harold and Elsie living in the other half of the double. It was all in the same neighborhood. Across the street, were the Zisenwines. They were all there, all the Jews were in that neighborhood.
Interviewer: Extended families tended to group together, in doubles, or close by.
Oppenheimer: My mother-in-law had a double and she said, “Well, you can live in the other half.” My mother said, “Don’t do it, go out on your own. It’s not too good to live that close with relatives.” My parents owned the double they lived in. You know who lived next to them, Levines from the fish market. This is all before your time. They had the fish market, Levines Fish Market. That was around in the same area, Washington, Fulton Street. Near there was Harry Center, the butcher. That’s when my mother kept kosher, and you had to have stamps to get differences because everything was rationed. We’re already in WWII.
Interviewer: You remember the rationing books and coupons?
Oppenheimer: Yes.
Interviewer: Tell us, what was rationed, sugar?
Oppenheimer: Meat, sugar. I remember meat and sugar. I don’t remember anything else.
Interviewer: That was WWII era. You were still a child.
Oppenheimer: Yes. At that time, I think there were two meat markets in that area because everybody lived around Fulton Street and Main Street. Everybody lived around Children’s Hospital which was one brick building with a park in front of it. We used to walk during Yom Kippur, we walked from Gilbert Street to Washington and Donaldson to go to services at Agudas Achim. My parents went to services. The kids were all outside. Down the street was Beth Jacob so, you know, the kids were outside playing.
Interviewer: You mentioned Children’s Hospital as being small.
Oppenheimer: It was one little brick building and look at it now. In front of it there was a park, and that was it.
Interviewer: A little further down, a little further east of that area, on Livingston, was the very first building for Martins Kosher Foods.
Oppenheimer: Yes.
Interviewer: What do you remember?
Oppenheimer: The first Martins wasn’t on Livingston. That was later. The first Martins was down in that area around Washington. (Editor’s Note: It was his father’s store on Parsons Avenue.)
Interviewer: I didn’t know that.
Oppenheimer: Then he moved around Livingston and.. (Editor’s Note: Ellsworth Avenue)
Interviewer: Near Lockbourne.
Oppenheimer: Yes.
Interviewer: You’re telling us Martins had his first place really more in your neighborhood, close to downtown.
Oppenheimer: Correct. There was also another meat market, on Livingston near ? Martins started around Livingston, say a little east of Ohio Avenue.
(Editor’s Note: There were three meat markets on Livingston in that area, Mendelman’s between Parsons Avenue and Wager Street, Katz, the Haas, near Ohio Avenue, Briars, two blocks further east from Haas. Mendelman’s later took over the Martins store in the Driving Park area, Ellsworth Avenue & Livingston)
Interviewer: Do you remember Martin, himself?
Oppenheimer: I do very well. I can see him right in front of me. Then they moved to east Livingston and then they moved to Broad Street.
Interviewer: Right, just east of Bexley.
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: That was the 50s and 60s.
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: What do you remember about Martin? You say you can picture him.
Oppenheimer: He was a very nice man, a very gentlemanly man. I remember, when he was on East Broad, it was a time when people were not drinking. There was something in Coca Cola, or one of the drinks, that everybody was afraid to drink, maybe coke. Anyway, I was buying it and at that time Paul was in medical school. He came over and said, “I see you’re not afraid to buy.” He (Paul) said it’s okay.
Interviewer: Paul, your husband, was in medical school?
Oppenheimer: Oh yeah, we were married.
Interviewer: 1954. He had a business then, repairing TVs.
Oppenheimer: My cousin came from New York to visit, and he said, we were having dinner at our house. My husband said to him, “You know I was reading this book, and I would like to be a doctor.” So, my cousin looked at him and he (my cousin) was a doctor, and he said to him, “So, do it.” At age 26 he went back to pre-med, and then got accepted to medical school, but not right away. He got accepted to St. Louis University which Dr. Adelman, who was the big pediatrician at that time, he said to him, “Apply to St. Louis University. It’s a Catholic school.” One of the doctors came to our house on a Saturday or Sunday to interview him for St. Louis Medical School, and I had two little kids, and we were living, at that time, on Lilley Avenue. He called and said, “I would like, is Paul there?” I said no, and he said I’m Doctor so and so, do you think I could stop in to interview him? I said well, yeah. He came over and I was cooking corned beef and cabbage. Do you know how that smells? There was nothing I could do about it but open the door.
Interviewer: You remember that distinctly?
Oppenheimer: Oh, how could you forget? I had two little kids running up and down the stairs, and wanted to sit on his lap. Anyway, he got accepted to medical school. After that his younger brother, who was a four point student, was accepted to medical school at Ohio State.
Interviewer: Paul’s brother?
Oppenheimer: Paul’s youngest brother, who is 13 years younger than Paul, got accepted, and then he (Paul) went for his interview, and he got accepted to Ohio State. Now this is the first time and probably the last time in history that two Jewish brothers got accepted to Ohio State Medical School because at that time there was a limit on how many Jews you could take. Two Jewish brothers, it was like amazing.
Interviewer: This was in the 1950s?
Oppenheimer: This was in the late 1950s.
Interviewer: First, Paul was accepted at St. Louis, but he was also then accepted at Ohio State.
Oppenheimer: After he got accepted to St. Louis. He had his interview. At that time, they did a personal interview, and they looked at him, but he also had a four point, which helped. They said, “Have you been accepted anywhere else?” He said, “Yes, I’ve been accepted to St. Louis University.” That turned their heads. However, he had applied to a school in Boston. I can’t remember the name. You have to pay when you send in your application. They sent back the money and the form saying you’re too old because he was in his late 20s by this time and we won’t get enough years to make it worth giving you a … He didn’t get accepted there, but he got accepted to St. Louis and Ohio State.
Interviewer: He chose Ohio State.
Oppenheimer: Yeah, because we really couldn’t afford for him to go out of state, but we were going if he didn’t get accepted to Ohio State.
Interviewer: What kind of a doctor, was he a general doctor?
Oppenheimer: He started out in general practice in Reynoldsburg. By that time, we had three children, and he said he was thinking of going into anesthesia. I said to him, “You better do it now while these kids are little before we have more expenses.” So, he went back and did a residency at Ohio State in anesthesia and loved it, loved working at the University.
Interviewer: As an anesthesiologist, does that mean he always worked inside a hospital?
Oppenheimer: Yes, always. He started at University. They accepted him to the staff at University, and then there was a big hullabaloo at the university with the practice, and the whole anesthesia staff left. He left and went to Grant Hospital and started their eye and ear center which was across the street from the main hospital. He worked there for the rest of his career.
Interviewer: How many years approximately would he have been a doctor. He started in the 60s, early 60s maybe. Over 25?
Oppenheimer: 25 years. At that point he said. He was very practical. He said, “Look, I have people’s lives in my hands, “ and he said, “Anesthesia is very precarious, and I don’t think I should be doing this.” He always did something in medicine. Medicine was his first love.
Interviewer: He was telling you about the stress of being an anesthesiologist.
Oppenheimer: The stress and how easily people could die. He said, “ I can’t do this.”
Interviewer: As he got older, he decided he was too old to do it.
Oppenheimer: He said, and he had had a heart attack. He always worked in the medical field.
Interviewer: In his later years he stopped doing anesthesiology, but he did other medical things.
Oppenheimer: Other medical things, yes, until he practically died, he was doing physicals and things until he got really sick, and then it was over. He was always into some kind of medicine. He loved it.
Interviewer: Your adult years as part of a married couple, were there any Jewish aspects to that? Were you a member of a synagogue?
Oppenheimer: Oh yes, I belonged to Agudas Achim synagogue except for a short period of time. We always belonged. Our kids were named, and Bar Mitzvahed, and married at Agudas Achim.
Interviewer: That would have been after Agudas Achim moved to Bexley.
Oppenheimer: Oh it was way. I think I was confirmed on East Broad Street. Yeah, and then I was married there. The kids all went there. The rabbi at Washington and Donaldson was Rabbi Hirschsprung, and the Cantor was Cantor Gellman. When they moved, we had Rabbi Rubenstein who we loved, and Dorothy (Rubenstein) was a favorite of ours too. You know, some people didn’t like them, but we did. They were very nice.
Interviewer: Rabbi Rubenstein was the rabbi there for many, many years.
Oppenheimer: Many years until Rabbi Ciner came along. I don’t want to disparage him.
Interviewer: You said a minute ago the name of the Rabbi.
Oppenheimer: Hirschsprung at Washington and Donaldson, and the cantor was Cantor Gellman. He even went over to the new synagogue.
Interviewer: So, he was cantor for a long time.
Oppenheimer: A long time, yes.
Interviewer: Any other aspects of your Jewish life as an adult? You were active at the Jewish Center when it was the old Jewish Center, now after it moved.
Oppenheimer: We belonged to the Jewish Center. Our kids, when they were young teenagers, they were very active. They played baseball, tennis. It seemed like one summer all I did was run back and forth to the Jewish Center. Yes, they were heavily involved in the Jewish Center.
Interviewer: Remind us, how many children?
Oppenheimer: I had three, two of them are deceased.
Interviewer: Their names are?
Oppenheimer: The oldest was Jodi. The middle one was Michael. The youngest one was Jeffrey. Michael died riding a motorcycle which his father had said to him a thousand times, “Don’t ever get on a motorcycle.” But he did, and he died in front of near Walnut Ridge high school. It was two days before his 17th birthday. My daughter was married, had two kids, and I hate to say this, but bad medicine at St. Anne’s or whatever it’s called now. She died from bad medicine there 20 years ago.
Interviewer: She was being treated there?
Oppenheimer: Mistreated, misdiagnosed. My son, the youngest one, has just moved back to Columbus. We don’t have a good history. His wife died 10 years ago this month from ALS. We had our ups and downs, but keep on going.
Interviewer: That sparks me to ask about your religious beliefs. Do you believe in God?
Oppenheimer: I haven’t lost faith, no. My grandson, who was Jodi’s child, he did lose faith. He’s not anti, but he wants nothing to do with it.
Interviewer: What do you attribute your faith to, or your loyalty to Judaism?
Oppenheimer: My parents.
Interviewer: They instilled that in you?
Oppenheimer: Oh yes, and I liked all the people around. They made sure we were involved. It just came kind of naturally. I’ve always stayed that way. I have nothing against any color, religion, sex. As I get older, I become more and more tolerant of everything. It’s live and let live.
Interviewer: Your belief in God is firm despite what you describe as several tragedies?
Oppenheimer: Yes, I do believe in God. There’s a reason for everything. Sometimes you don’t know the reason, but you need to move on. It’s hard, you don’t ever get over those things, but you learn to adjust. I mean I have three grandchildren, one of which, my youngest son whose wife had ALS, she’s adopted from Guatemala, and she’s as dear to me as the other two from my daughter. You know, as I said to somebody, one of my cousins, the other day. I said his former wife rarely sees her grandchildren. I said to him, “Well, you know Bruce what else do I have except Jeffrey and three kids? He said, “I agree. That’s what I have.” It’s hard. You know, somebody said to me after my son died, “I don’t know how you managed.” I said, “Well, I could have either jumped in the grave with him or just keep on going.” Yeah, it’s not a pretty story in some ways. In some ways it is. I’m very fortunate. I have a son who’s very close, and all three grandchildren are wonderful.
Interviewer: How do you feel about the prospects for the Jewish people especially here in America, right now?
Oppenheimer: You know, I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard about Colorado, and this guy ranting, how terrible it was. I don’t know, I don’t know what’s coming down the road. It’s very bad. Antisemitism at the colleges, it’s just spreading. You know, I said to myself, I’m not going to be alive to see how bad this turns out if this country doesn’t turn around.”
Interviewer: For most of your life, you, yourself, didn’t experience that much antisemitism?
Oppenheimer: No, because I always lived in a Jewish community, and I had friends from school. One of them just died recently. She was Greek. Across the street on Gilbert Street, they were Catholic, and I used to go to church with them. I know a lot about the Catholic religion. My sister-in-law, who is my brother’s wife, is an avid Catholic.
Interviewer: So, you have mixed with non-Jews all your life?
Oppenheimer: Correct.
Interviewer: So, you have mixed with non-Jews all your life and you haven’t experienced much direct antisemitism?
Oppenheimer: No.
Interviewer: Now you see it.
Oppenheimer: Now I see it. I didn’t personally, wasn’t affected by it, but you know they go outside this window sometimes when the weather is good, and they’re anti-Israel from the river to the sea. It’s unbelievable that this country has gone so far.
Interviewer: Have you been to Israel yourself?
Oppenheimer: Oh, yeah, three times. Three times. Once, we volunteered. After one of the 80 something war, we went and volunteered. Paul volunteered at a hospital, and I volunteered at the biggest, it was the biggest storage place in Israel for weapons, and I was there when they were bringing in the first iron domes. You could see the crates and see what was in them and how much they cost. That was 20 years ago, and it was the biggest, my job was, it was all Americans that were volunteering.
Interviewer: What was your job?
Oppenheimer: They had a storage facility which was a big, big aluminum building full of guns that were stored, and every so often, they would take the guns down, clean them, and put them back in cartons. I, who had never touched a gun in my life, was taught by somebody who didn’t speak English how to disassemble, place, and reassemble a gun.
Interviewer: And you did it?
Oppenheimer: And we did it, and you know what, we were the Americans who were assembly line. They were the Israelis, it’ll get done. You went to breakfast first and then a few hours later you had a break and sandwiches and fruit and then you went home at 3:00. No, us Americans, we’re no, you get it done. They couldn’t understand us.
Interviewer: You’re telling me that the Americans who were helping were more serious with work ethic in this job.
Oppenheimer: Than the Israelis who were laid back. One day we were all walking back from work and we got picked up by this colonel or whatever. He spoke English. I said to him, “You know, how do you people get ready for war in three minutes and everything else is so laid back?” He said, “When you must do it, you do it.”
Interviewer: When you’re facing an emergency, then you do it.
Oppenheimer: Then they do it, and they’re quick and faster than the Americans. On a regular basis, it’s done without urgency. Here we are, the biggest base in Israel, with all the weapons, and everybody’s laid back and were like ah I don’t think so.
Interviewer: You said you were there when they were bringing in the iron dome.
Oppenheimer: Yes.
Interviewer: Now that is the defensive weapons system that Israel uses quite successfully.
Oppenheimer: That came from here. The United States sold them the iron dome.
Interviewer: And you witnessed it. You were right there.
Oppenheimer: We saw the cartons that they came in. They were stacked high, and it said right on them what they were and how much they cost.
Interviewer: Eileen, you have lived quite a life.
Oppenheimer: Yes, we did, we traveled a lot in later years. We did two different places twice a year. Twice a year we went somewhere different.
Interviewer: Do you remember what countries you went to?
Oppenheimer: Oh yeah, first was Israel, and then we went to France and England, and Egypt, when you could go to Egypt, and Africa, on a Safari.
Interviewer: Do you remember what countries in Africa?
Oppenheimer: One you can’t go to now. When you walk out the door, I’ll remember.
Interviewer: That’s okay, any other countries come to mind?
Oppenheimer: We went to Australia, New Zealand, Russia. We went to Russia, and I said to my father, “Going to Russia. Do you want to go?” He said, “Never.”
Interviewer: That symbolized a lot.
Oppenheimer: That’s all he had to say, never, but I wanted to see where he came from. We went to a little tiny synagogue, and I didn’t realize we could have brought books for the tiny synagogue. I think it was in Kiev.
Interviewer: Kiev which is in Ukraine, close to Russia.
Oppenheimer: lose to Russia. He left through the Black Sea. It was in that area .It was an experience, Russia was an experience. We went to a lot of different countries. It’s interesting. I was talking to my cousin. I never wanted to go to South America. Everybody said, “Why?” I never would go to Spain. Of all the countries we went to all over the world, I wouldn’t go to South (America). Maybe it’s because I read so much about the Nazis going to South America, and Spain has such a terrible, all of Europe has it.
Interviewer: Spain kicked the Jews out in 1492.
Oppenheimer: Correct, and I don’t think it’s any better now. I would not go to Germany, would not, had to land once in Germany when we were on our way to Russia, just sat in the airport, which is kind of stupid, but it’s ingrained. I went to Russia, and you know what, these old ladies were sitting on benches, and if you mentioned Germany, my God they hate the Germans.
Interviewer: The fought the Nazis just like the United States fought the Nazis.
Oppenheimer: On their home territory. Everywhere we went, it was …. We went to India, Nepal, so many interesting places.
Interviewer: This is interesting because you told us about your youth, and in your youth you lived in the Jewish neighborhood east of downtown Columbus, Ohio. You said most of your friends were Jewish, and a lot of the people in the neighborhood were Jewish. That was kind of an insular kind of experience. Now in your later years, you’re now a world traveler.
Oppenheimer: I wanted to see the world. My son, the youngest one, went to school for a semester in England, and we went to see him, and that was, other then Israel, my first time out of the country. I got the bug, and I wanted to see a lot of the rest of the world, so we did. I went to Egypt when you could go to Egypt, down the Nile River, all those things. There’s no amount of money. We never went expensive, okay. The most expensive trip we took was to China. I wanted to see the bridge over the River Kwai, which turned out to be a tourist thing now.
Interviewer: It was disappointing for you.
Oppenheimer: Yeah, because, you know, I’ve read about it. I saw the movie. Now it’s just a tourist attraction. I loved France, England.
Interviewer: Eileen, I forgot to ask you about your Hebrew name. Do you have a Hebrew name?
Oppenheimer: I think it was my father’s mother’s name, Huddel (Hodel).
Interviewer: Can you spell it?
Oppenheimer: Look up Hodel in Fidler on the Roof, one of the characters is named Hodel. When I was born, my original birth certificate, it was a very ugly name. One of my mother’s cousins or aunts said, “You can’t do that to her.” So, they put my Hebrew name, and my mother gave me my name.
Interviewer: First you had a name you considered ugly.
Oppenheimer: I didn’t.
Interviewer: Others did.
Oppenheimer: I wasn’t even out of the hospital. They said you can’t do that, and they changed the name in the hospital.
Interviewer: So, they changed the name to the name that has a link with the Broadway play, Fidler on the Roof.
Oppenheimer: At that time, I don’t think. That was way before.
Interviewer: That’s right, that came later, later (the play) became known.
Oppenheimer: We went to see Fidler on the Roof many times. I think I’ve seen it three or four times. I said, “Oh, that’s my Hebrew name.”
Interviewer: Is there anything, Eileen, that we haven’t talked about that you want people to know about you, your family, and your Judaism?
Oppenheimer: I think I had a great life in Columbus. My experience with the synagogues, the Jewish community, and the other part of the community. I have not led a sheltered life. I’m going to be 90 years old, and I have no regrets of anything that I could control. The rest of it is up to God.
Interviewer: You couldn’t ask for more, I’d say. So, with those words, we’ll end our interview here with Eileen Oppenheimer. This is Bill Cohen for the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.