Ruth Brown Kahn (June 21, 1902 - April 9, 1987) was an American civic leader in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
. Kahn co-founded the Dallas Jewish Archives, which later became the
Dallas Jewish Historical Society
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
or DJHS.
Biography
Kahn was born on June 21, 1902, in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...
, but grew up near
Eufaula in
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as ...
.
She graduated from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
in 1923 and in that same year, moved to Dallas, where she became involved in local Jewish community organizations.
She married Louis J. Hexter, an attorney, in 1923, and together they had two children before they divorced. She married Laurence S. Kahn in 1936.
Kahn and Ginger Chesnick Jacobs were inspired to preserve local Jewish history when the early building of
Temple Emanu-El was demolished.
The synagogue, destroyed in 1970, was the last remaining Jewish institution in
South Dallas
South Dallas is an area in Dallas, Texas. It is south of Downtown Dallas, bordered by Trinity River on the west, Interstate 30 on the north, and the Great Trinity Forest to the south and east. In recent years the City of Dallas and organizations ...
.
Kahn and Jacobs eventually housed the archives in the Dallas Jewish Community Center in 1978.
Kahn died in Dallas on April 9, 1987.
References
External links
Image of Ruth Brown Kahn(seated)
1902 births
1987 deaths
Jewish women activists
People from Dallas
People from St. Louis
University of Chicago alumni
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