They came To america as refugees from World War II, unable to speak English and with hardly anything to their name. At least Sam and Regina Greene had their lives. Many of their family members who had remained in Warsaw were killed during the Holocaust. Starting over in Charleston in 1948, the couple began a family and a successful small business, with Sam Greene eventually opening a handful of furniture stores on King Street and Rivers Avenue.
Regina Greene died in 1990 and Sam Greene passed away last year. Wanting to memorialize lost family and friends as well as honor their adopted home of Charleston, the Greenes made a $500,000 gift to the College. Half the gift will pay for programming and processing of the Addlestone Library’s Jewish Heritage Collection, and half will support the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, with a special emphasis on programming and material related to the Holocaust.
One of the Greenes’ sons, Harlan, is head of Special Collections at the Addlestone Library. According to him, his parents had a two-pronged desire for their gift: to remember what occurred in years past and to react positively in the years ahead.
“It really was looking forward and looking backward,” says Harlan Greene ’74. “Paying respect to the past and also ensuring a better future, where the Holocaust won’t happen again.”
