Interview with Suzanne "Suzy" Post, September 16, 2016

Interview Summary

Suzy Post was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1933 during the Great Depression. Both sets of her grandparents immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1910's, bringing with them Reformed Jewish traditions. Post's parents, Elizabeth Wolff and Morris Kling, were born in the United States and had three children. Post and her twin siblings grew up having Shabbat dinner, attending Sunday School at the synagogue in downtown Louisville, (now Temple Shalom), and going to YMHA youth clubs. She recalls the Jewish community as a crucial part of her Jewish identity and remembers thinking interfaith marriage was a "horror." Post describes how she got involved in social justice work. She recounts the lasting impact of her first exposure to the Holocaust viewing footage of concentration camps at the movies. These images sparked her passion for justice movements and working to help minorities. She became involved with the Civil Rights Movement through participation in the Louisville NAACP. She also served as co-chair of the United Jewish Appeal in high school and college. Through this work with UJA, she met her husband, Edward Post. They had five children, four sons and one daughter. Her four sons had Bar Mitzvahs at Temple Shalom in Louisville but she recalls being hesitant to expose them to Judaism, thinking life "is bigger than that." She valued her faith growing up and believes that being a minority inspired her to help other minorities. However, she does not explicitly connect Jewish or general religious values to her inspiration for social justice work. During the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, Post worked to establish the controversial open housing law in Louisville to allow people, regardless of race, to live anywhere they wanted. She was also involved in the 1960's anti-war movements against the Vietnam War and in the feminist movement. In 1987, Post started a support group called the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty which advocates to end the death penalty in Kentucky. Today, Post is not involved in many social justice issues but feels she has mentored people who are. Post concludes the interview by discussing her family's and Jewish communal life today. She notes that the Jewish community in Louisville today is much more affluent, which she thinks could pose problems on the community's integrity in the future.

Interview Keyword

Holocaust Emigration and immigration. Genealogy Immigrants Vietnam War, 1961-1975 African Americans--Social conditions. Race discrimination Racism

Interview LC Subject

Childhood Louisville (Ky.) Jewish leadership--Kentucky--Louisville Discrimination. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps Race relations--United States Families. Jewish children--Kentucky--Louisville Jews--Identity. Religion Jews--Kentucky--Louisville. Civil rights movements--United States African Americans--Relations with Jews. Social movements--United States

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Interview Usage

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