Interview with Rabbi Chester Diamond, 2011

Summary of an oral history interview conducted with Rabbi Chester Diamond (1936-) on February 22, 2011. The interview was part of the Louisville Jewish Family and Career Services's project to document the lives of Jewish seniors in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rabbi Chester B. Diamond grew up in a Brooklyn apartment to Russian-American parents. Despite growing up Jewish and in a Jewish neighborhood, he had very little ties to Jewish practice, but he still received a Bar Mitzvah. He came to Louisville when he was 27 as an assistant to Dr. Herbert S. Waller, a Rabbi at Temple Adath Israel. He eventually joined Dr. Waller at the Temple full-time. Not until 1957, while stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, did he begin his journey toward becoming a Rabbi. Upon hearing distressing news that a synagogue in Atlanta, Georgia, had been bombed, he probed further into the faith. He found a personal calling to enter Rabbinic school, taking two years to earn a BA in Hebrew Literature, and later in the year he met Dr. Waller, whom he assisted on weekends while enrolled in seminary in Cincinnati. Growing up Jewish in New York, he participated in blackout raids and wartime protective measures like rationing, but received very little anti-semitism amongst fellow Brooklyners. Memories of Jewish influence in his youth were largely positive, collectively helping him find his calling as a Rabbi through means of prayer books, study at seminary, and the Atlanta Bombing, which would be the catalyst through which he transformed as a spiritual person. Continuing his Rabbihood, he intends to walk with God and allow others to determine the legacy he will be remembered for.

024x6 Jewish Family and Career Services interviews, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky

The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky

Jewish Family and Career Services (Louisville, Ky.)

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