Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Boyhood by Martin Lemelman, 2010

”… a classic coming of age story set in Brooklyn in the 1950s and ’60s.” from a review by  Zara Raab  in the Sacramento Book Review, August 2010.

Two Cents Plain by Martin Lemelman (born in 1950) is a “sequel” to his earlier memoir Mendel’s Daughter (the subject of an earlier post) which was the story of his mother’s experience hiding in Poland during World War II. Two Cents Plain starts with a recap of his mother living in a hole in the ground in Poland with her siblings. When the war was over she made her way to the Neu-Freiman Displaced Person’s Camp in Germany where she met Tovia Lemelman who had spent the war as a soldier in the Soviet Army only to return home to find no one alive. They married in the camp. She pointed out many did because they were all in a hurry to start anew. Soon they made their way to America and eventually settled in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn where they bought a candy store. They worked in it day and night.

The family lived in a very small apartment in the back of the store and it is the setting of Brownsville, the store and the family that is focus of this memoir. Because Lemelman is an artist/illustrator by profession – he has illustrated many children’s books - the memoir is rich in detailed illustration of the neighborhood and fellow small merchants, of the store, of the egg creams and sundaes his father made, and of the cramped and insect-infested apartment.  It is not a conventional graphic memoir in that Lemelman does not draw cartoons, but rather, black and white illustrations, often superimposing photographs and images of actual documents. In “quoting” his parents, he replicates immigrant speech that is full of Yiddish vocabulary and inflection. He also includes Yiddish sayings along with their translations at the beginning of chapters.

Lemelman describes his parents as exhibiting some of the classic behavior of Holocaust survivors and immigrants. They threw themselves into their work; they were morose and hard to please. His father’s goal had not been to own a candy story. He had tried to be a chicken farmer in Youngsville, NY, but it didn’t work out financially in the short term and his wife hated not being in a city in the middle of a Jewish community. He felt diminished. In Poland he had been the respected manager of a mill.

Each of Lemelman's two memoirs, Mendel's Daughter and Two Cents Plain, stands alone, but they are more interesting read together.

To see photos taken at the Neu-Freiman Displaced Persons Camp in the collection of the US Holocaust Museum click here.
To watch a video of an interview with Martin Lemelman about Two Cents Plain click here.

Names
Note: A more complete genealogy can be found in the post on Mendel’s Daughter
Author’s family on maternal side 
Mendel and Malka -  author’s grandparents
    Simon – Mendel’s son by first wife
    Jenny – married Fievel
        Eli – their son
    Regina – their daughter
    Isia
    Yetala
    Gusta (Goldie) – married Tovia (Teddy) Lemelman
        Bernard – their son
        Martin – their son; married Monica; author

Places
Germakivka, Poland
Radziwill, Poland
Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City
Youngsville, New York

Shalom Y’All: Images of Jewish Life in the American South, Photographs by Bill Aron, text by Vicki Reikes Fox 2002

This large-format book was created as an adjunct to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Utica, Mississippi to document through large black and white photos the history of Southern Jewish communities.  The five chapters focus on geography, food, work, religious practice and family.

The book is made up of several short introductory essays by the playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) who grew up in Atlanta, Vicki Reikes Fox, the writer of the text accompanying the photos who grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the photographer, Bill Aron, who grew up in the Northeast.  It has many quotes from the residents commenting on Jewish life in their various communities.

Note:  This book includes photos and commentary only from the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

To read about an itinerant rabbi ministering to Jews who live in small towns in the South, click here.
To read about an annual deli-luncheon fund-raiser for Hebrew Union Congregation in Greenville, Mississippi and hear a podcast about it, click here.

People
Bill Aron – married to Isa
    Hillel and Jesse – their children
Alfred Uhry - Atlanta, Georgia
Eli Evans
Marci Cohen Ferris
Vicki Reikes Fox - Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Max Signoff – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Macy B. Hart – Winona, Mississippi
Meyer Gelman – Greenwood, Mississippi
    Joe Martin Erber – Meyer Gelman’s nephew; Greenwood, Mississippi
Morris Grundfest - Cary Mississippi
         Betty Lee  - Morris Grundfest’s granddaughter; married Ben Lamensdorf; Cary, Mississippi
              Deborah Sue Lamensdorf – their daughter; married to Louis Howard Jacobs
              Ike Morris Lamensdorf – their son; married to Mary Jane Lindsey
Grace Grossman
Mary Ann Jacobson
Mark Greenberg
Sam Eichold
Dale Rosengarten
Sheila Rodin-Novak
Benedict Rosen
Ron and Anne Krancer
Robert and Nancy Lyon
Rebekkah Farber
Steven A. Fox
Abrom Kaplan – Kaplan, Louisiana
         Connie Kaplan – Abrom’s great-nephew
Adolph, Isaac, Sidney, and Lee Felsenthal - Felsenthal, Arkansas
Leopold Marks - Marks, Mississippi
Simon and Rose Weil – Joe’s Dreyfus Store – Livonia, Louisiana
Betty Goldstein – Greenville, Mississippi
Ernest L. Stanley – Levy, Arkansas
Morris Levy
David Poliakoff – Abbeville, South Carolina
Ilsa Goldberg – Greenwood, Mississippi
Jacob Kantor – Greenwood, Mississippi
    Sol Kantor – Jacob’s son
Harry Phillips – Dumas, Arkansas
Charles Dante – Dumas, Arkansas
Sam Stein – Greenville, Mississippi
         Jay Stein – Sam’s grandson
Melissa Samuels – Jackson, Mississippi
Rabbi Wolli and Sarah Kaelter – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Baruch and Judy Kaelter – their children
Rabbi Matt Friedman – Hot Spring, Arkansas
Mary Klompus, Betty Kleinman, Elaine Wolden, Olivia Silverman – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Peter Gartenberg – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Leo Gartenberg – his son; Hot Springs, Arkansas
         Robert Gartenberg – his son; Hot Springs, Arkansas
Henrietta Levine – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Meyer Drexler – Wynne, Arkansas
    David Drexler – his son; Wynne, Arkansas
Larry Brook – Birmingham, Alabama
Rose Rotenstreich – Birmingham, Alabama
Meyer Newfield – Birmingham, Alabama
Joe Schwartz – Dauphin Island, Alabama
Delores Loeb – Mobile, Alabama
    Leslie Miller – her daughter
Milton Brown – Mobile, Alabama
Bob Zeitz – Mobile, Alabama
Andrea and Michelle Dorfman, sisters – Long Beach, Mississippi
Carolyn Lipson-Walker – grandmother had lived in Marks, Mississippi
Bess Seligman – formerly of Shaw, Mississippi (moved to Boca Raton, Fla.)
Jake Aranov – Columbus, Georgia
    Aron Aranov – Montgomery, Alabama   
         Jake and Owen Aronov – his sons; Montgomery, Alabama
Mortimer Cohen – Montgomery, Alabama
Raymond Cohen, Montgomery, Alabama
Jeanette Capouya – Montgomery, Alabama
Sarah Shumaria – Montgomery, Alabama
Jimmy Sabel – Montgomery, Alabama
Jacob and Getta Waterman Weil – Montgomery, Alabama
              Gloria  - their great-granddaughter; married to Kalman Shwarts
Harry Lebovitz – Montgomery, Alabama
James Loeb – Montgomery, Alabama
    James, Loeb Jr. – his son
Irving and Judy Feldman – Jackson, Mississippi
Celeste Lehman Orkin, Dea Lehman Gotthelf, Phyllis Lehman Herman – sisters; Jackson, Mississippi
Barbara Edisen – Morgan City, Louisiana
Gaston Hirsch – Donaldsonville, Louisiana
I.A. Kamien – Cleveland, Mississippi
Mannie Krouse – Natchez, Mississippi
Jerry Krouse – Natchez, Mississippi
Marty Nathanson – Natchez, Mississippi
Zelda Millstein – Natchez, Mississippi
Jay B. Lehmann – Natchez, Mississippi
Elaine Lehmann – Natchez, Mississippi
Rosalie Beekman – Natchez, Mississippi
Lawrence Chiz – Shaw, Mississippi
Aaron Kline – Alligator, Mississippi
Robert Hirschberg – Friar’s Point, Mississippi
Billy Rosenberg – Selma, Alabama
Noah and Gerry Barkovitz – Hayti, Missouri
Abe Barkovitz – brother to Noah
Joseph Goldberg – Belzoni, Mississippi
    Charlie – Belzoni, Mississippi
Dotty London Stetelman – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Henry Friedman – Franklin, Louisiana
Harold and Lucille Hart – Eudora, Arkansas
Rabbi Sam Stone – Greenwood, Mississippi
Goldie Fleischer – Shaw, Mississippi
Louise Weisman Levi – Dermott, Arkansas
Sam Epstein – Lake Village, Arkansas
         Sam Epstein Angel – his grandson
              Sammy – his son
Henry Galler – New Orleans, Louisiana
Henry Stern – New Orleans, Louisiana
Alan and Sandra Jaffee – New Orleans, Louisiana
Jerry and Jack Friedlander - Mobile, Alabama
Ron Hoffman – Mobile, Alabama
Joy Grodnick – Mobile, Alabama
Sam Strauss – Little Rock, Arkansas
Milton Waldoff – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Sam H. Kirsch – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Laura – his daughter; married Mark Fleischner
Joe and Suzi Rosenzweig – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Bob Cahlman – New Orleans, Louisiana
I.A. Rosenbaum – Meridian, Mississippi
Joel Lourie, Isadore E. Lourie, Hyman Rubin, Sylvia Dreyfus, David Taub, Irene Krugman Rudnick, Arnold Goodstein, Richard Moses, Harriet Keyserling, William Keyserling, Leonard Krawcheck – South Carolina Jewish legislators and mayors
David I Bruck – South Carolina
Michael Shackleton – New Orleans, Louisiana
Klara Koock – Ocean Springs, Louisiana
Roy Hoffman – Mobile, Alabama
Paul Greenberg – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Jack Cristil – Tupelo, Mississippi
Archie and Ruth Bernstein – Columbus, Mississippi
Betty Kohn and Barbara Edisen – cousins; Morgan City, Louisiana
Mark Perler – Tupelo, Mississippi
Eliot Copen – Tupelo, Mississippi
Rabbi Seymour Weller – Little Rock, Arkansas
Elliott Dorman – Long Beach, Mississippi
Freeda Ritman – Shreveport, Louisiana
Sol Astrakan – Kennett, Missouri
Avram Aizenman – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Stephen and Julie Ziff
Rueben Greenberg – Charleston, South Carolina
Jerry and Anita Zucker – Charleston, South Carolina
Edwin S. Pearlstine Jr. – Charleston, South Carolina
Patty Levi Barnett and Wendell M. Levi, Jr. – twins; Sumter, South Carolina
Harry Nowalsky – New Orleans, Louisiana
Jacob Bodenheimer – norwestern Louisiana
Ralph Friedman – Oxford, Mississippi
Louis Friedman – Oxford, Mississippi
Vinnie Prochilo – Oxford, Mississippi
Rabbi Eric and Laura Gurvis – Jackson, Mississippi
    Benjamin and Sarah – their children
Vivian Levingston – Cleveland, Mississippi
Jeanette Gorden – Itawamba County
Gerald Posner – Opelousas, Louisiana
Joe Pasternack, Jr. -  New Orleans, Louisiana
Lisa Pollack
Abraham and Fannie Isaacs Block – Washington, Arkansas
    Isaac Block – their son
Louis  and Sarah Kasten – Fort Smith, Arkansas
Leopold Levy – buried in Port Gibson, Mississippi
Jacob Cohen - Mississippi
Jacob Schwartz - Mississippi
Henry Burgance – buried in Jewish cemetery in Woodville, Mississippi
Cliff and Wilma Abrams – Brookhaven, Mississippi

Places and Institutions
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Utica, Mississippi
The Fleischer Store – Shaw, Mississippi
Kaplan and Liberty Rice Mills - Kaplan, Louisiana
Kaplan Herald, Kaplan, Louisiana   
Felsenthal Land and Timber Company - Felsenthal, Arkansas
Grundfest and Klaus – Cary, Mississippi
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Dante and Son – Dumas, Arkansas
Stein Mart – multiple locations
Agudath Achim – Shreveport, Louisiana
B’nai Zion – Shreveport, Louisiana
Congregation Bikur Cholim – Donaldsonville, Louisiana
Beth Israel Congregation, Jackson Mississippi
Congregation Beth Shalom – Oxford, Mississippi
Ohel Jacob Synagogue – Meridian, Mississippi
Hebrew Union Congregation – Greenville, Mississippi  
Gemiluth Chessed – Port Gibson, Mississippi
Congregation House of Israel – Hot Springs, Arkansas
B’nai Israel – Fort Smith, Arkansas
Ahavah Achim – Wynne, Arkansas
Anshe Emeth – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Temple Meir Chayim – McGhee, Arkansas
House of Israel – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Agudath Israel - Montgomery, Alabama
Temple Beth El – Birmingham, Alabama   
Springhill Avenue Synagogue – Mobile, Alabama
The Old Church St. Graveyard – Mobile Alabama
Temple Mishkan Israel – Selma, Alabama
Temple Beth El – Anniston, Alabama
Temple B’nai Israel – Little Rock, Arkansas
Agudath Achim Synagogue – Little Rock, Arkansas
Temple B’nai Israel – Tupelo, Mississippi
Temple Beth Israel – Biloxi, Mississippi
Temple Beth El – Lexington, Mississippi
Congregation Ahavath Rayim - Greenwood, Mississippi
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, - Morgan City, Mississippi
Touro Synagogue - New Orleans, Louisiana
Anshe S’fard – New Orleans, Louisiana
Temple Emanuel – Opelousas, Louisiana
Temple Shalom – Lafayette, Louisiana
Temple Beth El – Birmingham, Alabama
Temple Emanu-El – Birmingham, Alabama
    Hannah Lazarus Sewing Guild
Temple Emanu-El – Charleston, South Carolina
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim – Charleston, South Carolina
Temple Beth El – Camden, South Carolina
Temple B’nai Israel – Natchez, Mississippi
Jewish Cemetery – Natchez, Mississippi
Blytheville Temple – Blytheville, Missouri
Anshe Chesed Cemetery – Vicksburg, Mississippi
Jewish cemetery in Plaquemine, Louisiana
The Old Magnolia Cemetery – Mobile, Alabama
James Loeb and Son  - Montgomery, Alabama
Epstein Land and Gin Company – Lake Village, Arkansas
Krouse and Company – Natchez, Mississippi
Dixie Tobacco and Candy Co. – Shaw, Mississippi
The Whale Store, Alligator, Mississippi
Hirshberg’s Drug Store – Friar’s Point, Mississippi
Boston Hardware and Locksmith – Selma, Alabama
Goldberg’s Department Store – Belzoni, Mississippi
Friedman and Sons – Franklin, Louisiana
Leo Kahn Store – Morgan City, Louisianna
Gartenbergs – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Mr. Henry’s Tailoring – New Orleans, Louisiana
Henry Stern Antiques – New Orleans, Louisiana
Mobile Rug and Shade Company – Mobile, Alabama
Hoffman Furniture Company – Mobile, Alabama
Waldoff’s Department Store – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Lauray’s Jewelry Store – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Aranov, Realty - Montgomery, Alabama
Ruth’s Department Store – Columbus, Mississippi
Palmetto Pigeon Plant – Sumter, South Carolina
Deep South Jewish Voice – Birmingham, Alabama

Strange Haven: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Shanghai by Sigmund Tobias, 1999

[T]he cold, calculated, disciplined, and controlled violence of the SS ... is what historians know. It is ever more vivid when seen through the eyes of a six year old child."  From the introduction by Michael Berenbaum.

Sigmund Tobias (b. 1932), was six years old when, shortly after Kristallnacht, he and his family fled Berlin, Germany for Shanghai. Tobias’ parents were originally from Poland. When they wanted to leave Germany, his father, who had no papers, tried to escape to Antwerp but he was picked up at the Belgian border and sent to Dachau. When his mother learned that they could go to Hongchew, the Japanese -occupied section of Shanghai, without a visa, she bought her husband a ticket which secured his release from Dachau. She and her son followed five months later.

Tobias, in a memoir of little more than 150 pages, gives a vivid account of life in Shanghai which housed over 16,000 Jews in the Hongchew neighborhood, including several group of Yeshiva students and their rabbis. Living conditions, including no in-door plumbing, were a particular shock to the Tobias family after having lived in Berlin. Life was very difficult, but the refugees were thankful to be alive, despite the additional problems of little income, overcrowding, severe food shortages, and bombing by the Allies. Of course they all worried about the relatives they had left behind and they were alert to any news they could get from the west about the progress of the war. They read the Shanghai Jewish Chronicle and copies they were sent of the Aufbau, which was published in German in the U.S.

Tobias describes the various Jewish groups: the German,  Austrian, Polish and Russian Jews, as well as Sephardic Jews and then he writes about their synagogues, and how they did or did not interact with each other. He spends considerable time discussing his time as a student at the Merrer Yeshiva. The Yeshiva students and their rabbis were able to immigrate from Lithuania because of the actions of the compassionate and heroic Japanese Consul-general Chiune Sigihara in Lithuania where the Yeshiva had re-constituted itself after fleeing its home in what was then Belarus. Because the Yeshiva received funds from the American Joint Distribution Committee,  the Yeshiva students and their rabbis did not suffer deprivation to the extent the other refugees did. In fact that was one reason that the author’s parents as well as refugee parents of other children enrolled their children at the Yeshiva, even though these families were often not as religious as the Yeshiva students who had arrived with their rabbis.

After the war the Mirrer Yeshiva moved to Brooklyn. The author left Shanghai for New York in 1948 at the age of 15 alone because he had clearance as a German citizen. His parents followed in 1949 when their visas came through. In the last few chapters the author writes about his return to Shanghai many years later. There are only traces of the refugee community left, and Tobias had trouble finding them.

This memoir includes photos, an index, and an introduction by Michael Berenbaum, a professional colleague and friend.
To read an in-depth article on the Jewish refugee population in Shanghai written by Dr. Peter Vamos and published in the Pacific Rim Report click here.
To read an article in the Los.Angeles Times about the emerging interest in the WWII Jewish community if Shanghai, click here.

To read an interesting article about  tours of Jewish Shanghai click here.

People
Moses and Frieda Tobias
    Sigmund Tobias – their son; married to Lora; author
      Susan and Rochelle - their children
             Daniel and Jessica Shapiro - Sigmund and Lora's grandchildren
Solomon Windstrauch – Frieda’s father
    Malka – daughter of Solomon; sister of Frieda; married Philip Jaffe
        Sigi and Max – children of Malka and Philip; first cousins of author
    Sarah – daughter of Solomon; married ? Baufeld; sister of Frieda
        Sol and Puppe – children of Sara Baufeld; author’s first cousins
    Aaron Windstrauch– son of Solomon; brother of Frieda
    Melech Windstrauch – son of Solomon; brother of Frieda
    Ida – daughter of Solomon; married Herman ?; sister of Frieda
    Rachel – daughter of Solomon; married David Reiner; Frieda’s sister
        Shlomek

Horace Kadoorie
Isaac Atterman
    Willi – his son
Rita Atterman Feder
Meyer Frankel
Yechezkel Lowenstein
Meir Ashkenazi
Norbert Seiden
Siegfried Loebel
Moshe Fastak
Lucy Hartivich
Leo Meyer
Robert Knopp
Joseph Tukachinsky
Abraham Aaron Kreiser
Morris Gordon
Alfred “Laco” Kohn
Max Buchsbaum


Places and Institutions
Berlin, Germany
Shanghai, China
Hongkew section of Shanghai
Szendiszov, Poland
Beth Aharon
Oihel Moshe
Mirrer Yeshiva
Katowitz,Poland

The Promised Land: The Autobiography of a Russian Immigrant by Mary Antin 1912

"The Promised Land brought [Antin] nationwide fame, selling nearly 85,000 copies before her death."  from the biographical entry on Antin written by Pamela S. Nadell published in the Jewish Women's Archive.

The Promised Land, first serialized in the Atlantic Monthly in 1912, was written by Mary Antin (b. 1881) to plead the case of the immigrant. She does this forcefully and movingly by describing who she was and what she achieved as an American Jewish immigrant. Antin was primarily interested in four subjects: economics, education, religion, and assimilation.

In focusing on these topics she contrasted the old world and the new. She starts by telling us about conditions in the old country which were the reasons for emigrating. In early chapters she describes her religious/cultural heritage, detailing the backgrounds of each of her parents and how they came to marry.

Her beautiful writing involves recreating the community of Polotzk, Belarus, with its characters like the local rabbi, the person in the community who arranged marriages, the person who was a wedding messenger and the wedding jester. She describes in some detail her father’s religious education, how highly prized such an education was in the community. She writes about the struggle to survive – about the Pale of Settlement and its boundaries – about how the Jews were increasingly hampered by anti-Semitic laws that further limited their abilities to support their families. And they worried about pogroms.

She then has a richly detailed section of a chapter that covers the trials and tribulations of the overland trip to and the wait in Hamburg, Germany, her mother clutching third class tickets her father who had already emigrated had sent them. At thirteen years of age, she, her mother and her three siblings finally boarded a ship bound for Boston where they were reunited with their husband/father who had been in America for three years. In this section she quotes in translation from a long letter she had written to her uncle (in Yiddish) who was back in Vitebsk when what they experienced was vividly fresh in her mind.

The last half of the memoir concerns the family’s early years in Boston, the slums, the hardships, and the opportunities.  Mary Antin was a precocious child; her parents and others realized it back in Potolzk, but girls did not attend school. In America the notions of equality and public education were truly marvelous and though she started school at the age of thirteen knowing no English, she accelerated quickly due to wonderful teachers in the public schools she credits with grooming her for her future. Throughout this time her parents struggled financially. She describes the slums where they lived without shame. Her parents never gained an economic foothold in America, but Antin credits them and her older sister with having been eager to sacrifice for her future. Her fifteen-year-old sister went right to work once they landed – she in large part supported the family. Antin as the star pupil was encouraged to stay in school.

With her Atlantic Monthly readers in mind Antin spends some time discussing assimilation. She writes about its difficulties, especially for the first generation, But she champions it, and gives examples from her own family that do not distress her. For example, she writes that her mother gave up her wig which she had worn due to religious strictures and her father worked on Saturdays. She also talks about the role that the public library and Hale House, a settlement house, played in her education and acculturation.

Note: The copyright on this book has expired and so it is available in inexpensive reprints. But you might want to look for the 1969 Houghton Mifflin edition which has a very interesting foreword by Oscar Handlin the noted historian on immigration who contextualizes Antin’s memoir by writing about the anti-immigration fervor in the air at the time. Written in 1968, Handlin also writes about Antin’s subsequent life. And he points out that she dedicated the book to Josephine Lazarus, sister of Emma Lazarus of Statue of Liberty fame, and explains their connection.There is also a 1997 edition published by Penguin with an extensive introduction that discusses the memoir mainly from a literary perspective written by Professor Werner Sollors from Harvard University. That edition includes the original photos and has an extensive bibliography for further reading.

This memoir contains a Glossary that explains Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian names and terms.

To read a digitized version of the 1912 edition with photos, click here.

To read a very interesting article in the Harvard University Gazette about Mary Antin  which includes an interview with one of her granddaughters on the occasion of a celebration of a 1997 Penguin re-issue of Antin's memoir, click here.

People
Author’s father’s family (Note: no last names are included - just nicknames and relationships)
Lebe the Innkeeper – author’s father’s great grandfather
    Hayyim the Glazier – Lebe’s son; married to Rachel Leah; author’s great grandparents
        Joseph – son of Hayyim and Rachel Leah; married Rachel; author’s grandparents
            Pinchus – son of Joseph and Rachel; married Hannah Hayye; author’s parents
                Fetchke (Freida) – Pinchus and Hannah Hayye’s daughter; married Moses Rifkin
                Maryashe (Mary) – Pinchus and Hannah Hayye’s daughter; author
                Joseph – Pinchus and Hannah Hayye’s son
                Deborah (Dora) – Pinchus and Hannah Hayye’s daughter
                May – Pinchus2 and Hanna Hayye’s daughter
                Celia – Pinchus and Hanna Hayye’s daughter
    Israel Kimanyer –  author’s father’s grandfather
        Rachel – Israel’s daughter; married Joseph son of Hayyim the Glazier
            Solomon – author’s father’s brother?
                Hushel, Dinke, Mendele, Perele – his children

Author’s mother’s family
Solomon
    Deborah – married to Raphael the Russian; author’s great-grandparents
        
              Hannah Hayye (Esther Weltman); (father is Moshe Hayyim) – Deborah and Raphael’s daughter; author’s parents
               Hode Weltman – Deborah and Raphael the Russian’s daughter

Places and Institutions
Polotzk, Belarus
Vitebsk, Belarus
Boston, Massachusetts
Wheeler St., Dover St., Harrison Avenue, the South End of Boston, Massachusetts
Revere Beach, Revere, Massachusetts
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Hale House