Both of my parents come from the same city in Poland, so I assumed their experiences would be fairly similar based on the little information I had. Although, for this interview, I decided to sit down with my mother and hear her side of her experience, since we had never once discussed it throughout my life. Ania, my mother, was ... Read More »
The ensuing stories will follow the trajectories of two different families who immigrated to New York from Eastern Europe at different point in history. They are ultimately connected by marriage, and their legacies live on. The Weill Family Teddy Roosevelt’s doppelgänger, Nathan Glickman (née approx. 1866; Moscow, Russia) and the ever ... Read More »
The trees whizzed by me; I knew that if I stayed much longer I’d be killed. In the days right after the first World War, you could never trust anyone. After what felt like hours of running, noises and light began to appear. The hammer of a blacksmith, the cry of a baby. This is what I’ve been looking for. ... Read More »
I moved to America for better opportunities in science and research. I was thirty four years old and only knew basic English words. In Poland, I learned how to read in English, but not speak and make conversations. I came to America from Poland for my job as a scientist. I was originally supposed to stay for three months for ... Read More »
Lubelska to Trakt Lubelski to Słoneczna to Zdrojowa. Every day; Lubelska to Trakt Lubelski to Słoneczna to Zdrojowa. This was the path my great-grandfather took to the local grocery market in Wola Ducka, from his house. Clouds of dirt rose behind him as he cycled into town to get food for dinner. Three miles there, three miles back, every day ... Read More »
As Atticus Finch said in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what”. It was courage like ... Read More »
In 1968 an unmistakable anti-Semitic undertone came out into the open, and ‘intellectual’ and ‘Jew’ were words used interchangeably to degrade those who criticized the Polish government. Thus began the targeting of Jewish students, professors, and professionals. The result was that most Polish Jews lost their jobs and about 30,000 were forced out of Poland. Of the over 3 million ... Read More »
When he was a boy, Harry Katznelson’s father was a bible scholar and would quote the beginning of a bible verse then have Harry or his brother Zev quote the end of the verse. Harry himself was from Lublin, while his future spouse Malka Meyerson was from a village in between Minsk and Pinsk. They were “living in a place ... Read More »
I think my great-grandmother and grandmother were very brave to come to the United States without speaking any English at all. My great-grandmother was a widow and my grandmother, her only child, was just six years old. It was 1910, and my great-grandfather had passed away. My great-grandmother was struggling trying to manage his wine business in Lisbon, Portugal, ... Read More »
Morrie’s early years were gruesome and filled with fear, but they shaped a man who taught his son to stand down for nothing and stand up for everything. It wasn’t something you see often. Nazi soldiers flooding the streets as Polish residents were called out, manhandled, and forced to their knees. The air was thick with crackling tension, only broken ... Read More »