Interview with Mark Switow, September 20, 2016

Interview Summary

Mark Switow, born in 1958 in Louisville, grew up in a family of Jewish entrepreneurs and Jewish community leaders. His great-grandfather and his family had settled in Kentucky in the 1910s. Switow's grandfather and great-uncles started M. Switow & Sons, an entertainment business throughout Southern Indiana and Kentucky whose movie theaters included The Kentucky, The Vogue, The Village 8, and Southpark and Preston drive-ins. Switow's father Irvin was also involved in the family's concession supply business, Standard Vendors. Switow grew up in Louisville's Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, where his grandfather Fred, great-uncles and father, Sonny, were active on the synagogue's boards. Switow describes youth activities at the Louisville Jewish Community Center and the mixed Jewish and non-Jewish social circles he grew up in. He also discusses the development of the Standard Country Club for the Jewish community in response to the antisemitism of other private clubs and his recent desire to preserve the club as another center for the Jewish Community. Following his marriage to Tammy Easley Hall, who is Catholic, Switow switched attendance from Conservative movement synagogue Adath Jeshurun to Louisville's Reform Temple Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom. The couple raised their children Jewish. Switow served on the foundation board of the Jewish Hospital from 1996 to 2002 and on the full board from 2000 to 2012. During the hospital's 2012 merger with Catholic Health Initiatives as part of KentuckyOne, Switow helped craft the new business and ethical agreements. From the merger and sale of Jewish Hospital, Switow and other Jewish Hospital board members created the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence, seeding it with $70 million. Switow discusses the breadth of Jewish participation in Louisville and the decrease in overt antisemitism in the city.

Interview Keyword

Standard Club Standard Country Club Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence (JHFE) College students--Social conditions Universities and colleges--Administration. Universities and colleges--Finance Immigrants--Kentucky Holidays--Kentucky Hospitals--Administration

Interview LC Subject

Genealogy Jewish businesspeople Small business--Kentucky Small business--Ownership Religion Jewish children--Kentucky--Louisville Louisville (Ky.) Childhood Discrimination. Families. Jews--Identity. Jews--Kentucky--Louisville. Judaism Jewish leadership--Kentucky--Louisville

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Interview Usage

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