MEMOIRIST: ESTHER KAHN TAYLOR (1905-1992)
INTERVIEWER: MARGERY DIAMOND
DATE: JULY 9, 1986
LOCATION: ATLANTA, GEORGIA
ID#: OHC10715
NUMBER OF PAGES: 72
Transcript (PDF)
BIOGRAPHY
Esther Kahn was born in 1905 in Atlanta to Janice and Marcus Kahn, both immigrants from the Bialystok area of Eastern Europe. Their home was Orthodox and she attended Hebrew school in the afternoons. The family was enthusiastic Zionists and they are related to Bert and Bob Travis, the foremost promoters of Zionism in the southeast. Esther discovered when she was quite young that she had a natural ear for music and began to take piano lessons. She learned ragtime by ear and began to play for her brother’s college friends at their fraternity parties at Emory University.
Esther started to attend Girls’ High when she was 12, where she was elected glass president, and expected to go to college to be a teacher. Her father, however, refused to send her to college and felt that she should find a scholarly Jewish husband. Esther was unhappy about this decision and went to work as a Hebrew school teacher until she met and married Herbert Taylor.
At the time of their marriage, Herbert was a pharmacist with his own stores, although later he went into real estate development. Esther and Herbert had one son, Mark. She resumed her musical studies when time and duties allowed, studying with noted pianists, and eventually attending both Julliard in New York City and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Esther also was asked to be a member of the Atlanta Music Club and headed several efforts at musical education in classrooms and on the radio.
Esther also joined Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women where she served in a variety of roles, much of it in the area of legislative lobbying. She attended the Conference on the Cause of Cure of War where she was received at the White House, an event which started a life-long admiration of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She also joined ORT after a trip to Morocco, where she saw conditions that inspired her to a life-long commitment to the organization. Esther also brought Planned Parenthood to Atlanta, raising the funds, renovating the buildings for the first clinics, and establishing it firmly in the city.
Esther and Herbert have travelled around the word: Israel, Morocco, the Near East, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean islands.
SCOPE OF INTERVIEW
Esther recalls her childhood in Atlanta and her growing interest and talent in playing the piano and her early musical education. She remembers how she learned ragtime by ear and became so competent at it that her brother invited her to his fraternity parties at Emory University to play for his friends. She recalls her time at Girls’ High and how she was elected class president. She remembers her disappointment at not being able to go to college and settling for teaching Hebrew school and her courtship and marriage to Herbert Taylor. She recalls hew dowry and her wedding which was performed at Shearith Israel.
Esther recalls the role of women in her mother’s generation who remained in the home exclusively and her mother’s endless baking, cleaning and entertaining, resting only on Saturdays. She remembers how her father sold clothing—largely to black people and the important role of Zionism in their household.
Esther remembers her volunteer with Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, and ORT, including attending the Conference on the Cause and Cure of War in Washington, D.C. where she met and was deeply impressed by the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who received her at the White House.
Esther recollects her long career with music including learning to play the piano in childhood, further advanced studies in her adulthood with well-known pianists such as Guy Maier and Louis Teicher, and studying at Julliard in New York City and in Paris, France at the Sorbonne. She also discusses her participation in music education through the Atlanta Music Club and presenting programs on the radio and in the school promoting music education—especially for disadvantaged and black children.
Esther recollects in detail her work with Planned Parenthood for which she began the first chapter in Atlanta, raised funds and awareness, opening clinics and expanded and the challenges and achievements of that process.
She remembers her studies at the Sorbonne and her life and travels in France and Europe. Esther also discusses a series of topics including women’s rights and changes in women’s lives over her lifetime, marriage and changing sexual mores, drugs, education, music appreciation and music in the 1980’s, government, her travels in Israel, religion and history, and being Jewish.
KEYWORDS
Alliance française
Art appreciation
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Music Club—Atlanta, Georgia
Bialystok, Poland
Birth control
Boys’ Club—Atlanta, Georgia
Canada
Clothing industry and trade
Commercial High School—Atlanta, Georgia
Conference on the Cause and Cure of War
Congregation Shearith Israel—Atlanta, Georgia
Damascus, Syria
Dear Abby
Dowry
Drug stores
Drugstore
Emory University—Atlanta, Georgia
Epstein, Harry (Rabbi)
Feminism
Ferrante & Teicher
French language
Girls’ Club—Atlanta, Georgia
Girls’ High School—Atlanta, Georgia
Hadassah
Hebrew language
Henrietta Szold Chapter—Hadassah—Atlanta, Georgia
Israel
Janus, Leah
Janus, Sidney
Jewish-black relations
Juilliard—New York City, New York
Kahn, Marcus
Kahn, Janice
Kibbutz
Kibbutzim
Kranz, Phillip (Rabbi)
Laval University—Quebec, Canada
League of Women Voters
Maier, Guy
Marriage
Marriages, arranged
Morocco
Music education
Music, performance
National Council of Jewish Women
Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT)
Paris, France
Peddlers and peddling
Pharmacy industry and trade
Pharmacists
Pianists
Piano lessons
Planned Parenthood
Pushkas
Radio broadcasting
Ragtime
Religious education, Jewish
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Sabbath
Shabbat
Sh’ma Yisrael
Sigma Alpha Iota
Sorbonne—Paris, France
Sororities
Szold, Henrietta
Taylor, Esther Kahn
Taylor, Herbert
Taylor, Judith Grossman
Taylor, Mark
Teicher, Louis
Temple—Atlanta, Georgia
Travis, Bert
Travis, Robert
Tureck, Rosalyn
Tzedakah
United Way
Van Buren, Abigail
Weddings
White House
Women’s rights
Zionism