Interview with Jennie Shores Gillman, January 21, 2005, Shorewood, Wisconsin

Partial Transcript: Jennie's father snuck out of Russia to the United States to avoid being drafted into the Russian army. Her father had relatives in Milwaukee, and he settled in Racine. He began working in the cattle business with his brothers. Jennie's parents married in 1915.

Partial Transcript: Jennie was born 11 months after her parents wed. She was the oldest of four children. Her mother was 17 years old and her father was 21 years old when they got married.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's father was always in the cattle business. Her father's business supplied the Racine Jewish community with kosher meat, otherwise people had to go to Milwaukee to get kosher products.

Partial Transcript: The family had excess to a car to visit the Jewish neighborhood in Milwaukee.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's grandmother taught her to read and write in Yiddish. She went to cheder.

Partial Transcript: The first synagogue was just off of State Street. Jennie would walk to shul with her grandparents.

Partial Transcript: The new synagogue came to being in the early 1920s. It was conservative with mixed seating.

Partial Transcript: The old shul had benches and a raised pulpit.

Partial Transcript: The Gillman family endured antisemitism from many Polish kids growing up. The family changed Jennie's brother's name from Abraham to Harold because kids bullied him for his Jewish name.

Partial Transcript: Jennie was named after her paternal grandmother.

Partial Transcript: Jennie knew both Yiddish and English. She spoke Yiddish with her grandparents and English at home.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's great-grandfather was a junk dealer.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's family lived on the south side of Racine. The shul was on the north side of the city.

Partial Transcript: Jennie would read with her grandfather on the main floor of the shul. She talks about the style of prayer in the old synagogue.

Partial Transcript: Jennie helped teach English to a relative.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's grandfather and the orthodox men of his generation wore yarmulkes.

Partial Transcript: Jennie spent a lot of time with her grandparents. She often slept at her maternal grandparents house growing up. Jennie missed her grandparents dearly when they moved to Cleveland when she was eight years old. She ended up living with her grandmother for a year in Cleveland, until her grandparents moved back to Racine.

Partial Transcript: Her grandmother spent her days cooking and cleaning. She discussed the dishes that her grandmother often cooked.

Partial Transcript: The Racine kosher butcher shop was on State Street. Jennie's mother would take chickens to Milwaukee to be slaughtered.

Partial Transcript: Jennie got married at home in 1943 to a man from Racine. She briefly worked for the civil service in Washington during the war while her husband was deployed, but got lonely and moved to Chicago.

Partial Transcript: Jennie met her husband at a Jewish youth group. She met many men that she dated at Jewish dances.

Partial Transcript: Her husband was born in Chicago and his parents owned a market in Racine.

Partial Transcript: Jennie does not remember how long the old shul was in use because of the war. She does not remember food being served at the old synagogue.

Partial Transcript: Her father and two of his brothers were in the cattle business. She discusses the various occupations of her father's side of the family. She was very close with her cousins.

Partial Transcript: The new synagogue was fairly modern. Men and women sat together and there was a school attached to the temple. The new temple always had a rabbi.

Partial Transcript: Jennie talks about a car accident that her brother Harold was in when he was 13 years old.

Partial Transcript: During the war, Jennie and her brother moved to California for a year, while her husband was away at war. After the war ended, Jennie and her brother moved to Milwaukee and bought a furniture and upholstery business.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's husband and brother her partners in the furniture business, until her brother purchased a carpet business. The couple eventually closed the store.

Partial Transcript: Jennie was always at the furniture store running the books.

Partial Transcript: Many members the Shores family have either died or moved away from Racine.

Partial Transcript: Jennie's mother had her first child at seventeen and had her last child in her late thirties.