Hirsch family papers

Jacob Hirsch (1872-1928), youngest son of Wolf Baer Hirsch, was born in 1872 in Mogielnica, Poland. His first wife, Pearl Gottfrei, died in Poland circa 1904. The couple had three children: Max Joseph Hirsch (1894-1987), Sadie Hirsch, and Molly Hirsch. Emigrating from Poland to America in the early 1900s, Hirsch settled in New York, later sending for his son and daughter in 1910. In New York Hirsch married Esther Pieman/Pyman (b. 1878). The couple had five children: Rose Hirsch, Julia Hirsch, Rebecca Hirsch, Louis Hirsch (b. 1908) and Isaac "Bingo" Hirsch (1916-1985). Moving to Charleston, South Carolina, the family lived at 174 St. Philip Street where Hirsch earned a living during Prohibition making and selling kosher schnapps from his home. After his death in 1928, the family returned to New York.

In 1921, Max Joseph Hirsch, a tailor in the garment district and an actor in the Yiddish theatre, married Sylvia Charen (1902-1995), the oldest daughter of Nathan Charen, a baker, and Bella Rozalsky Charen, at the Daughters of Israel hall on St. Philip Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The couple lived above a used clothing store they operated on King Street. They had three children: Danny Hirsch (1922-1993), Betty Hirsch Lancer (1924- ), and Pearl Hirsch Baker (1927- ). Wanting to return to the theatre, Hirsch moved the family back to New York after the birth of his first child. In 1924 his wife returned to Charleston to give birth to their second child. Hirsch remained in New York but rejoined the family in Charleston six months later. Settling on St. Philip Street, Hirsch worked as a cloth peddler, and later, after the Great Depression, as a milkman for Crescent Dairy and Rephan Dairy. After World War II the family opened a notions business at 157-9 East Bay Street.