Interview with Stanley Saxe, December 3, 2015

Interview Summary

Dr. Stanley Saxe introduces himself and his family. He discusses his family's migration from Russia to America and his parents' life and work in the tobacco industry. He also describes his childhood in Malden, Massachusetts. From quotas limiting the number of Jewish students accepted to universities to the anti-Semitic rhetoric of public figures such as Charles E. Coughlin and Henry Ford, Saxe remembers the discrimination that he and his family experienced during the 1930s in Boston.

Saxe describes his move to Seattle in order to pursue a post-doctoral opportunity in periodontics at the University of Washington. While in Seattle, Saxe was invited to join the newly established College of Dentistry at the University of Kentucky. Saxes describes the biggest differences in regard to his Jewish practices between Boston, Seattle, and Lexington, particularly due to location relative to community centers and the values of each Jewish community. He also shares the story about how he was invited to attend holiday services at Ohavay Zion Synagogue by a friend when he first moved to Lexington, and he has been a member ever since. Saxe describes the shift to a more tolerant opinion about the role of women at Ohavay Zion Synagogue and his involvement with the establishment of a Havurah, or an egalitarian and alternative service, in the 1970s. Saxe outlines the many roles he has played in the Lexington Jewish community, including his time with the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass.

Saxe describes his work at the University of Kentucky, including his chairmanship of the department of periodontics, the establishment of courses in geriatric dentistry, and a major research project investigating the relationship between mercury dental fillings and the development of Alzheimer's disease with the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. Discrimination within the American Academy of Periodontology led to the creation of a new professional organization for periodontists, the American Society of Periodontists in 1960.

Interview Keyword

Jewish women--Kentucky--Lexington University of Kentucky. College of Medicine University of Kentucky. College of Dentistry Jewish families.

Interview LC Subject

Minorities in higher education Jews--Kentucky--Lexington. Religion Worship (Judaism) Discrimination. Anti-Semitism Antisemitism Jews--Identity. Lexington (Ky.)

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.