To Tell At Last: Survival under False Identity 1941-1945 by Blanca Rosenberg 1995

Winner of the Jacob and Clara Egit Foundation Award for Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Literature.

The author of this memoir, born Blanca Nebenzahl in 1913 in Gorlice, Poland saw a bright future ahead of her. But once her teenage years were over, life as a Jew in Poland became difficult, then just about impossible. Determined to get an education often denied daughters, she first went to private school and then applied to medical school at the University of Warsaw. When admission was denied because of a quota on Jewish students, she switched to law and went to school in Krakow until harassment of Jews made it too difficult to stay. An early marriage produced a son. When war broke out, her husband enlisted in the Soviet Army and she remained with her baby in Kolomyja, Poland, her husband’s hometown.

Rosenberg narrates a harrowing story in which we witness through her experience the ever-increasing restrictions on Jews, first with the Nazis enacting laws that introduced armbands and curfews. They also forced Jews to hand over money and valuables, then put them in ghettos, then conducted aktions – roundups of Jews, often on Jewish holidays. Those in hiding were often literally smoked out when the Nazis set fires. Those not killed in the ghettos were sent to slave labor camps or concentration camps (in this case Belzec) or were shot and buried in fields and forests outside of the ghettos.

What saved Blanca Rosenberg was luck, her blond hair and blue eyes, the ability she had to speak a number of languages, her wits, and the willingness of several Poles to risk their lives to help Jews survive. Through her brother, she met a woman whose brother, a priest, was able to supply her with an authentic birth certificate of a dead Ukranian woman. She escaped from the ghetto and took on the identity of a Polish peasant and tried to melt into the world outside the ghetto.

But the author becomes wary because there were a lot of Jews with false papers and anyone turning in such a Jew received a bounty. She describes people posing as helpers, even members of the Resistance, who are suspected of being double agents. Police who suspect and often confirm false identities demand higher and higher blackmail fees to forestall arrest. Friends, though well-meaning, are often indiscreet and careless. Soon, her identity suspected, she escapes to Lwow, then has to flee to Warsaw where she ends up living directly outside the Warsaw ghetto during the uprising. In danger, again, she flees back to Lwow.

Eventually she ends up in Heidelberg, working in the home of a wealthy German when the Americans liberate the city and with the help of the American Joint Distribution Committee she travels to find out if family members survived. In 1949 she immigrated to the United States and eventually settled in New York and became a social worker and psychotherapist.

Although many readers will have read accounts of surviving the Holocaust that are similar to this one written by Blanca Rosenberg, her story has its own contours and is particularly valuable for its wealth of detail about her ghetto experience in Kolomyja, and the intricacies of obtaining and living as a Jew with a false identity. The author elaborates on her title, To Tell At Last, in her epilogue where she writes about how getting the story down has helped her to finally confront much of her past. It is clear she suffers from survivor’s guilt, a common attribute of Holocaust survivors. Then again, maybe “guilt” isn’t quite right; maybe “remorse” is more accurate. She says she never stops thinking about those she lost.

This memoir includes a map, photos, and an index.

To read about the Kolomyja ghetto, click here.

People
Family
David and Rachel Ehrenreich
 Elenore Ehrenreich – daughter of David and Rachel; married Eli Nebenzahl
    Blanca Nebenzahl – daughter of Eli and Elenore – married Wolf Rosencranz; 2nd marriage to Samuel Rosenthal
        Zygmund Rosencranz – son of Blanca and Wolf
        Alexander Rosenberg – son of Blanca and Sam; married Merle
Adrianne Rosenberg – daughter of Alexander and Merle
Eugene Rosenberg – son of Alexander and Merle
        Mark Rosenberg – son of Blanca and Sam
        Romek Nebenzahl – son of Eli and Elenore
        Bernie and Izak  Nebenzahl – twin sons of Eli and Elenore
   
        Max Rosencranz – brother of Wulf (see above)
        Gina Niederhoffer – first wife of Sam Rosenberg
            Anna Rosenberg – daughter of Gina and Sam
Paula Korzenik Bergman – cousin of author from Zablotow
Josef Korzenik – cousin of author; brother of Paula

Friends and Acquaintances
Frania Gitterman– sister of Mati
    Leszek (Alex) Gitterman – son of Frania
Helen – Frania’s sister-in-law
Cyla Goldstein – sister of Mati
    Menek Goldstein – son of Cyla
Michal and Lodzia (Rose) Klepfisz
    Irena Klepfisz – daughter of Michal and Lodzia
Herman Kramer
Anthony Leiberman
Henry Mashler
Pan Mieczyslaw
Nunek and Mati (Maria) Rosenbloom Najder
Celek Najder – brother of Nunek
Cesia Osenton
Lonek and Celia Rothenberg
Edward Rothman
Joasia Singer
Bernie Stern
Jacob Trobe
David Wodlinger
Schmuel Zygielbaum

Places
Gorlice, Poland
Nowy Sacz, Poland
Kolomyja, Poland
Warsaw, Poland
Lowow, Poland
Heidelberg, Germany
Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
Krakow-Plaszow, Poland labor camp

Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop by Joseph Lelyveld 2005

"In this tender, lucid memoir, narrated with wisdom and humility, Lelyveld makes peace with the past," from a review in the L.A. Times by Louise Steinman  4/25/05

Joseph Lelyveld is a retired reporter and editor at the New York Times and the son of a prominent Reform rabbi, Arthur Lelyveld. After his father’s death Joseph Lelyveld “inherited” a chest of old papers and letters which revealed to him much he didn’t know about his family history. As the oldest son of parents who eventually divorced, he found many letters from his parents to each other which gave him a great deal of insight into their troubled relationship. And as a journalist, he was very interested in how other aspects of their personal history intersected with important moments in American history.  So what he has written is a memoir that focuses predominantly on the lives of his parents and their friends and cohorts. In this memoir the author provides us with a window into some of the most highly charged issues of the twentieth century and the roles Jewish leaders and their committed followers played in engaging in these issues.

In the 1930’s Ben Goldstein, a Reform rabbi and colleague of the author’s father and a family friend, was active in the movement to defend the Scottsboro boys. But his motives became suspect because their defense was promoted by, amongst others, the American Communist Party. The author delved deeply into the FBI file on Goldstein, whose pulpit in Montgomery, Alabama served as a place for him to preach about the injustice being served the Scottsboro boys. Despite warnings from the synagogue governing body that he should keep his opinions to himself, after pulling back, he ratcheted up his calls for justice and his contract was not renewed. Lelyveld details Goldstein’s interactions with Leyveld’s father and with Rabbi Stephen Wise and follows Goldstein through two further incarnations, as Ben Stern and Ben Lowell. He traces his subsequent careers and membership in various splinter groups and theorizes about whether he might have been a Communist spy.

Lelyveld’s father served as rabbi in several congregations. Early in his career he had a pulpit in Omaha, Nebraska; his last pulpit was in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He was for many years the national director of Hillel as well as a prominent member of many national Jewish governing bodies. In discussing his father’s role as spiritual leader as well as a social activist, he writes about another turbulent moment in American Jewish history – the push by many different Jewish constituencies to establish the State of Israel. The messy reality of bringing the State of Israel into being struck many in the Reform movement as a violation of their commitment to pacifism, and Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld played a major role in the debate.  Continuing to be engaged in the world, Rabbi Lelyveld marched in Mississippi on behalf of voter registration, but, like Rabbi Ben Goldstein, he too got in trouble with members of the governing body of his congregation as well as with some members of Jewish congregations in the South who did not want Northerners telling them what to do.

In narratiing these stories Lelyveld introduces readers to non-mainstream groups like the Jewish Peace Fellowship, the American Council for Judaism, The American Jewish League Against Communists and The Progressive Zionist League, groups active in politics on the left and the right who worked to influence the important issues of their time.

The author, because of his journalistic skills and because he is the son of a prominent activist rabbi, is able to paint an up-close picture of turbulent times. His focus on the American Reform movement of Judaism and its members' commitment to engage the world helps us the see these important 20th century landmark events through their eyes.



To read the New York Times obituary of Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld click here.

Family
Joseph Lelyveld
    Ed Lelyveld – son of Joseph; married Dora
       Arthur Lelyveld- son of  Ed; married Toby Bookholtz; 2nd wife - Teela
            Joseph Lelyveld – son of Arthur and Toby; married Carolyn; author
                Amy and Nita Lelyveld – daughters of Joseph and Carolyn
            David Lelyveld -  son of Arthur and Toby
            Michael Lelyveld – son of Maurice Valency and Toby
                Victor Lelyveld – son of Michael
                Adam and Svati are also grandchildren on Arthur and Toby – not clear who their parents are
                     Alice Rose – greatgranddaughter of Arthur and Toby – not clear who her parents are   
Joseph Lelyveld – author’s grandfather Ed’s first cousin (lived in Massachusetts)

Author's mother’s family
Izzy Bookholtz – married to Gussie Sonberg
    Toby Bookholtz – daughter of Izzy and Gussie; married Arthur Lelyveld (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
The Goldstein/Wise family:
Benjamin Goldstein/ Benjamin Stern/Benjamin Lowell – married to Margaret Wise; 2nd marriage to Juliet Lowell (born Lowenstein)
    Josephine Goldstein Stern Rogers - daughter of Benjamin and Margaret
    Linda Stern Goldberg Benjamin – daughter of Benjamin and Margaret
Stephen S. Wise
    James Waterman Wise – son of Stephen
    Justine Wise – daughter of Stephen
Josephine May Wise - sister-in-law of Stephen Wise
    Margaret Wise Goldstein – daughter of Margaret and step-daughter of Stephen Wise; first wife of Benjamin Goldstein (see above)
    Elsa Wise – daughter of Margaret and step-daughter of Stephen Wise

Arnold Beichman
Lewis Bergman
Joshua Block
Joseph Brodsky
Leon Drum
Frank Goldman
Eddie Jacobson
Alfred Kohlberg
Emanuel and Mayer Lehman – brothers
Samuel Leibowitz
Jimmy Loeb
Henry Monsky
Charles Moritz
Morris Newfield
Louis Newman
Elias Newman
David K. Niles (originally Neyhus)
David Philopson
Abe Rosenthal
Abraham Sachar
   Howard Sachar – son of Abraham
Bobby Schoenfeld
Benjamin Schultz
Arthur Hays Sulzberger – married to Iphigene Ochs (daughter of Adolph Ochs)
    Arthur Ochs Sulberger – son of Arthur and Iphigene
        Susan Dryfoos – granddaughter of Arthur Hays and Iphigene
Simon Wampold
Arthur and Pearl Zipser
David Zipser – son of Harry Gannes and Pearl

Places
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Warsaw, Radom, Lodz, Poland
London, England
Beachwood, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Montgomery, Alabama
Temple Beth Or, Montgomery Alabama
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Meridian, Mississippi
Omaha, Nebraska
New York City, NY
Temple Rodeph Shalom, NYC
Temple Emanu-El, NYC
Temple Reformita, Havana, Cuba

UNorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman 2012

"'Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots' by 25-year-old Deborah Feldman ... is painfully good. Through a narrative voice that is almost hypnotic, she puts you immediately in the center of her chaotic world." from a review by Elaine Margolin in JewishJournal.com 2/10/2012

A number of negative comments can be made about this memoir, starting with the title which sensationalizes the “scandalous” nature of the author’s narrative. But to focus on the negative is to miss the larger, quite compelling, story about the author’s childhood and adolescence and her struggle to leave the Satmar Hasidic community in which she was raised.

For those interested in the Satmar Hasidic community this memoir has a lot to offer, keeping in mind that it’s written by a disenchanted young woman who I think would say feels traumatized by her upbringing. Drawing from her own experiences, Feldman discusses how women are raised and treated within the Satmar religious community. The restrictions and expectations are limiting, and Feldman, a questioning child, found herself frequently in trouble at school. At 17 she entered into an arranged marriage and  she describes the highly ritualized process of meeting her future husband’s mother, then the occasion of meeting her future husband, then the tradition of gift-giving, then the role of the mikvah, then the wedding itself, then the marriage.

Her marriage was hollow. There was no place in her marriage or in the community for her to satisfy her hunger to explore and experience the world, especially the world of the mind, because the needs of the community took precedence over the needs of any individual. So, after five years of marriage and one child, she left. Beyond her own needs, she felt strongly that she provide her son with opportunities he would not have had if he had grown up a Satmar Hasid.

Feldman includes a disclaimer at the beginning of the memoir that states that all identifying names and characteristics have been changed and some events conflated and transposed to honor people’s privacy, but she also includes many family photos which probably are only identifiable within the Satmar community. Despite the disclaimer, she has been called to task by members of the Satmar community who have pointed out inaccuracies and who call her motives into question, emphasizing that the picture she paints of the community is one-sided and, therefore, distorted. But Feldman calls it as she sees it, and it’s understandable that she would ruffle many feathers.

Although the author is critical of much of the beliefs and behavior within the community, she tries to understand her grandparents who raised her, and she agrees with those who feel that the contemporary Hasidic way of life is, to some degree, a reaction to the heavy losses in their community during World War II. Satmars take to heart the belief promulgated within the community that the Holocaust was a punishment from God because so many Jews had strayed from a devout religious life. It is clear that the author feels that this belief, often repeated by teachers in schools, has the effect of further insolating and isolating its adherents.

To read an article in the New York Times about Hasidic Jews and clothing traditions, click here.

To watch a three-part of a video of a Satmar wedding when the Grand Rebbe engages in a ritualized dance with the bride - his youngest daughter , click here for part 1.  Click here for part 2. Click here for part 3. The three together add up to less than a half an hour.

People
There are no names to list as all names, except the author’s, have been changed.

Places
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Kiryas Joel, New York

Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay 1996

Winner of the 1997 National Jewish Book Award

Ruth Gay uses the details of everyday living, such as food, furniture, and fashion to narrate the experiences of Eastern European Jewish immigrants adjusting to life in America. Drawing on her own life growing up with immigrant parents in the Bronx, and citing sources whose authors explore similar themes, she paints a picture of a community constantly evolving.

Gay starts with a chapter called “There” in which she discusses the conditions in Eastern Europe that precipitated the great wave of immigration during the decades at the end of the 19th century and those at the beginning of the 20th.  She discusses such topics as anti-Semitism and progroms, poverty, enforced military service, and the restrictions imposed by Orthodox Judaism. The main section of the memoir analyzes many aspects of the immigrant Jewish community in the Bronx during the period until World War II.  The last section of the book called “Here” serves as a conclusion, highlighting some of the major points in the main section.

The core of the book deals with two generations: the first generation – the immigrant parents, and the second generation – their children. Gay astutely uses domestic issues to illuminate the difficulties and accommodations that took place. Generally speaking, the immigrant generation started by holding on to their Old World customs. For example, when it came to food, they bought what they knew and prepared and served it according to custom. But little by little many abandoned the strictures of kashruth and varied their eating habits. Other religious traditions also were largely put aside. Mothers stopped shaving their heads and wearing wigs; fathers cut off their beards and forelocks. The custom of arranged marriages also became marginalized, mainly because many young immigrants had arrived without parents and had the freedom to make their own choices. 

Immigrant parents, no longer hermetically sealed in the shtetl, not comfortable with English, and  having adapted as much as they cared to, frequently did not want their children to move further away from family customs and traditions But their children’s assimilation proceeded whether they liked it or not. To illustrate these points Gay has an interesting discussion about how she and her friends looked to American movies and novels as well as magazine and newspaper articles for clues in how to look and behave like an American. 

This memoir provides a thoughtful investigation into the day-to-day lives of Eastern European immigrants in New York. The author quotes many interesting sources from early Yiddish and English memoirs, movies, theater, essays and fiction as well as contemporary magazine ads and Yiddish song lyrics that reveal what was on the minds of members of the community. She also frequently quotes and translates Yiddish words, phrases and sayings. A perfect example: when she skinned a knee as a child, her mother would say, “Es vet nisht shatn tsum khasene.” Her translation: “It won’t interfere with your getting married.”



This book includes a useful “A Note on Sources” where the author records the works she consulted.

To read the New York Times obituary of Ruth Gay who died in 2006 click here.

Click here for a link to a website dedicated to a historical accounting of synagogues in the Bronx.

The following list of family members and their relationships is brief and incomplete because the author seems to have deliberately left out family names out of respect for privacy. I have augmented the names she mentions in the body of the book as well as in her Acknowledgements with names mentioned in the NYTimes obituary cited above.

People
? – married ? Slotkin – author’s parents
    Ruth Slotkin – married Nathan Glazer (divorced) married Peter Gay
        Sarah Glazer Khedouri – daughter of Ruth and Nathan
        Sophie Glazer – daughter of Ruth and Nathan
        Elizabeth Glazer – daughter of Ruth and Nathan;  married to William Montgomery
    Shirley Slotkin Gorenstein – sister of Ruth
    Caroll Boltin – sister of Ruth
Asher (Harry)  – brother of author’s mother; married Feigele (Fanny)
Elke  – sister of author’s mother; married Moyshe -
Chana  - sister of author’s mother
Philip and Anna – uncle and aunt of Ruth – specific relationship not clear
Shloyme and Necha-Leah – uncle and aunt of Ruth – relationship not clear
Jake  and Lena – uncle and aunt of Ruth – relationship not clear
 Shayndel – aunt of Ruth – relationship not clear

Places
Rutki, Poland
New York City, NY
The Bronx, NY

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride 1995

"There are two voices in this complex and moving narrative, and -- on the surface -- they could not seem more different. One is the voice of a black musician, composer and writer ... The second voice is that of Rachel Shilsky, daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Inevitably, these voices are connected and ultimately convergent, for Rachel Shilsky and James McBride are mother and son." from a review by H. Jack Geiger in the New York Times 3/31/96

In this engaging memoir, which was designated an American Library Association Notable Book, James McBride, musician, composer and writer, sensed when he was quite young that his mother was different. She was white; her two husbands had been black, as were her twelve children. He realized she never talked about her family or her origins. He knew nothing about his maternal grandparents. He tried many times to solve the puzzle, but she deflected all questions. The older he got, the more confused he became about his identity as well as hers, and he felt that in order to better understand himself he had to know who she was.

Ruth Shilsky McBride Jordan lived with her family in poor neighborhoods in New York City, and when the children needed school clothes she would take them shopping on the Lower East Side and bargain with the merchants in what McBride learned was Yiddish. Eventually, through questioning his older siblings, he learned she had been born into an Orthodox Jewish family. When he went off to college, he extracted her maiden from her for a form he needed to complete. After being urged to for many years, she finally agreed to tell her story which she dictated into a tape-recorder. McBride uses her voice to tell her story in alternate chapters which are linked and contrasted to his chapters in which he tells the story of his growing up.

Rochel (Ruth) Shilksy’s story starts with her parents’ arranged marriage in Europe, a marriage of convenience between a physically handicapped young woman from a family of means to a poor young man. Rochel’s father became an itinerant rabbi in the United States but eventually settled in Suffolk, Virginia, where, when his contract to serve as a rabbi was not renewed, he opened a grocery store. His word was law; he compelled his wife and children to work all hours and subjected them to physical abuse. Eventually, Ruth ran away to New York where her mother’s parents and sisters lived, but once she started dating Andrew McBride, her family disowned her and cut all ties.

James McBride's mother paints a vivid picture of growing up in an Orthodox Jewish immigrant family in a segregated southern town that was not open to the small Jewish community in their midst. She feared her father, felt guilty about leaving her increasingly helpless mother and her younger sister, but felt she had to leave in order to survive.

In his chapters Andrew McBride rounds out the picture of his mother’s life by filling in the details of what is what like growing up as her son and how despite her seemingly complete break with her Jewish roots, she instilled in her twelve children what are commonly referred to as “Jewish” values. For example, she made sure that they all were enrolled in public schools in "better" neighborhoods where the student population was predominantly Jewish. And she made sure her children took advantage of what the city had to offer – from museums to music lessons.

Delving into his mother’s past revealed stories that totally surprised McBride. He learned about his Jewish heritage and heard from her why she had no ties to her family and had hidden her painful past. Her finally, but reluctantly, revealing her past, helped him to better understand his roots.

To read a New York Times obituary and see a photo of Ruth McBride Jordan who died in 2010, click here.

People
Family
Fishel Shilsky – married to Hudis
    Sam (Zylksa) Shilsky – son of Hudis
    Ruchel Dwajra Zylska (changed to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, then first name changed to Ruth) – daughter of Fishel and Hudis; married to Andrew McBride; 2nd marriage to Hunter Jordan
        Andrew Dennis McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew; married to Becky
        Rosetta McBride – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        William McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        David McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        Helen McBride-Richter – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        Richard McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        Dorothy McBride-Wesley – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        James McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew; married Stephanie Payne
            Azure McBride – daughter of James and Ruth
            Jordan McBride – son of James and Ruth
        Kathy Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
            Gyasi and Maya - children of Kathy
        Judy Jordan – daughter of Ruth and Hunter
        Hunter Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
        Henry Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
    Gladys Shilsky – daughter of Fishel and Hudis

Laurie – sister of Hudis; married to Paul Shiffman
Harold ? – brother of Hudis
Bernadette – sister of Hudis
Mary – sister of Hudis – married to Isaac
    Lois and Enid – daughters of Mary
Rhonda – sister of Hudis
Betsy – sister of Hudis

Friends
Israel Levy
Aubrey Rubenstein
Gerry Jaffe
Halina Wind – married to George Preston
    David Lee Preston – son of Halina; married to Rondee
    Shari Preston – daughter of Halina
Leon Wind – brother of Halina

Places
Dobryzn, Poland
New York City, NY
Ewing, New Jersey

“And Prairie Dogs Weren’t Kosher”: Jewish Women in the Upper Midwest since 1855 written and edited by Linda Mack Schloff 1996

"'And Prairie Dogs Weren't Kosher' begins to fill a void in American Jewish history and admirably expands our access to the religious, cultural, and social lives of women in the middle of America and their contributions to the larger community." -- Nebraska History, 1997, Vol. 78 No. 2

This lovely book, full of photos of Jewish women and their families, their homes, their farms, businesses and institutions, was prompted by an exhibit mounted by the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest and the Minnesota Historical Society. An introduction by Linda Mack Schloff discusses the motivation behind creating the book and lays out its goals and format. Each of six chapters starts with an introductory essay written by Schloff on one of six topics, then ends with a collage of voices collected from many unpublished memoirs and oral histories.

The first chapter covers life in the old country – why Jewish immigrants left in the first place and why they traveled to the upper Midwest; the second deals with what they found when they arrived and how they initially managed. The next four chapters are about establishing life and community by looking at four areas: domestic life, women and work, women and the synagogue and women and organizations. 

There is a lot to learn here about Jewish immigration to and settlement in the Midwest. Schloff talks about the poverty and the precarious lives Jewish immigrants were fleeing, only to find themselves struggling with versions of those same problems in America. Immigrants  were often lured to the Midwest to relatives and former neighbors who had already settled there. One reason for this was the Homestead Act of 1862 which awarded free plots of land to those who came out and claimed them. Others arrived in cities like Fargo, Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Paul because Jewish immigration agencies like the Industrial Removal Office promoted settlement in areas other than on the crowded East Coast.

But those who staked claims, intending to commit to homesteading, found farming very difficult due to a combination of terrain, weather, isolation, and inexperience. Jewish farming communities like Painted Woods and Devils Lake in present-day North Dakota and Bethlehem Yehudah and Cremieux in present-day South Dakota were short lived. Those who moved directly to the cities didn’t necessarily have it easy, but density engendered support systems, both institutional and informal, and many who started out farming eventually moved to the city where many opened or worked in small retail businesses, and where they and their growing children could socialize within a burgeoning Jewish community.

The chapter on domestic work is interesting in that it describes how the immigrant women maintained and adapted their religion and its customs to a new country and new conditions. Keeping kosher was a challenge, especially outside the major cities, and many gave it up. Since many of the synagogues they founded were affiliated with the Reform movement, that was not an issue, but it was a challenge for those who wanted to maintain Kashrut and who did not live in a major city. There are interesting details about how holidays such as Chanukah were celebrated and rituals like confirmation created, both in resistance and at the same time influenced by the surrounding Christian community.

Many women thrived in leadership roles that emerged from the growing establishment of synagogues. Women whose places of worship were affiliated with the Reform and Convservative movements could now attend services and sit together with their families and eventually take an active part in the service. They avidly attended adult education classes and they raised money to help sustain Sunday and Hebrew schools, to increase building funds, and to send money to Palestine/Israel. They established Loan and Benevolent Societies and branches of national organizations like Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women. This volunteer work gave them experience and skills that many of them put to good use when they were ready to work in part and full-time jobs.

Much of what these women experienced was what Jewish immigrant women experienced throughout the country, establishing homes and adjusting their religious practice to new circumstances, but this book interestingly and ably demonstrates the particularly unique experiences of the Jewish women of the north Midwest.

To consult a site that has an extensive list of links to Western Jewish Historical Societies, Archives and Museums, click here.

People and Places
Jeannette L. Agrant
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
sister named Sarah

Julius and Hanna Austrian
Madeleine Island, Wisconsin

Rachel Minenberg Baker
New York City to outside of Ashley, North Dakota

Sarah Balkind
from Russia to St. Paul, Minnesota
        Daisy Ginsburg Mains – granddaughter of Sarah

Bernice Banen
Hibbing, Minnesota

Sarah Bendersky – married Noah Schlasinger
from Odessa – Ukraine

David and Fannie Berman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sarah Cohen Berman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Solomon Bailin
from Sosnitza, Ukraine to Sioux City, Iowa

Rosalyn Baker
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ida Balick
St. Paul, Minnesota

Marshall Beaubaire
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Craney Goldman Bellin
Beresenova, Ukraine to McKenzie County, North Dakota

Benjamin N. Berger
from Ostrowiec, Poland to Fargo, North Dakota

Steven and Carol Porter Berlin
Minot, North Dakota to St. Paul, Minnesota
    Rebecca Berlin – daughter of Steven and Carol

Sarah Cohen Berman
    Rose Berman Goldstein – daughter of Sarah
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Theresa Ackerman Berman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Shana Gitl ?
from Kresilev, Ukraine to Grand Forks, North Dakota
Ethel Krochock Bernstein – granddaughter of Shana Gitl

Max and Bella Borow
from Lithuania to New York to Bethlehem, Pennsyvania to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Fargo, North Dakota
    Pearl Borow Goodman – daughter of Max and Bella

Laura Rapaport Borsten
born in North Dakota, moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Eleanore Bresky
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Michael and Inna Gendelman Brezman
    Anna – daughter of Michael and Inna
    Twin Cities, Minnesota

Fanny Fliegelman Brin
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Howard and Ruth Firestone Brin
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lillian, Frieda, Jennie and Nellie Brody (siblings)
near Regan, South Dakota
(Nellie’s married name Werner)

Mary Burton
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sadie Chanen
Natalie Chanen (Goldstein) - daughter of Sadie
Faye Chanen (Garelick) – daughter of Sadie
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sam Char
Warsaw, Poland to St. Paul, Minnesota

Sam Cheit
    Inez Cheit – daughter of Sam
Hague, North Dakota

Abe and Sarah Cohen
    Ida Cohen Goldberg – daughter of Abe and Sarah
outside of Duluth, Minnesota

Emanuel Cohen
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Fannie Cohen
St. Paul, Minnesota

Jean Cohen
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Libby Cohen
        Rose Berman Goldstein – granddaughter of Libby
From Kalwaria, Lithuania to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Nina Morais Cohen
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Joe Cohn
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Blanche Colman
Deadwood, South Dakota

Isaac and Ida Cook
    Etta Cook Josephs – daughter of Isaac and Ida
Duluth, Minnesota

Burt Cooper
Albert Lea, Minnesota

Ida Blehert Davis
St. Paul, Minnesota

Marlchen Deutsch
from Karlsruhe, Germany to Davenport, Iowa to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ellen Dinerstein
St. Paul, Minnesota

Joe Dokovna
near Wing, North Dakota

Cecelia Dolf
    Samuel Dolf – son of Cecelia
Morton County, North Dakota

Galina Khaikina Dreytser
from Leningrad, Russia to St. Paul, Minnesota

Sophie Dudovitz
St. Paul, Minnesota

Gladys Jacobs Field
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Milton and Irma Cain Firestone
    Ruth Firestone Brin – daughter of Milton and Irma (separate entry)
St. Paul, Minnesota

Miles Fiterman
Thief River Falls, Minnesota to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rachel Freedland
    Morris Freedland – son of Rachel
near Osseo, Minnesota

Sophie Frishberg
St. Paul, Minnesota

Bessie Furman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ida Geller
Fargo, North Dakota

Toba Marcowitz Geller
Halliday, North Dakota

Florence Silverstein Gidding
Duluth, Minnesota

Norton Giller
Grand Forks, North Dakota

Rose Gillman
St. Paul, Minnesota

Harry Ginsberg
Sarah Lee Ginsberg – niece of Harry
Grand Forks, North Dakota

Jonathan and Julie Gordon Ginsburg
She grew up in Albert Lea Minnesota; they live in St. Paul, Minnesota

Abe and Fannie Overman Goldfine
Fannie’s family from Russia to Superior, Wisconsin, then she to Duluth, Minnesota
    Manley Goldfine – son of Abe and Fannie

Mary T. Goldman
St. Paul, Minnesota

Rose Barzon Goldman
Minneapolis, Minnesota
    Daniel J. Elazar – nephew of Rose

Anna Goldstein
    Al and Esther Goldstein – children of Anna
Solen, North Dakota

Fannie Feinstein Goldstein
from Russia to New Haven, Connecticut to St. Paul, Minnesota
        Sylvia Feinstein Peilen – granddaughter of Fannie

Millie King Goldstone
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Albert Gordon
Minneapolis, Minnesota

George Gordon
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Jeff Gordon
Albert Lea, Minnesota
(cousin of Julie Gordon Ginsburg)

Annette Green
St. Paul, Minnesota

Charles and Anne Garon Greenberg
St. Paul, Minnesota

Morris and Rhana Lewis Greenberg
near Eveleth, Minnesota
(see entry for Rhana’s mother Sarah Lewis)

Hyman Greenstein
outskirts of North Minneapolis, Minnesota

Bea Grossman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rachel Haas
St. Paul, Minnesota

Charles and Etta Hallock
from Lithuania to Duluth, Minnesota to Hibbing, Minnesota
    Kopple Hallock – son of Charles and Etta

Marice Lipschultz Halper
St. Paul, Minnesota

Blanche Halpern (Goldberg)
Minneapolis, Minnesota to Hebron, North Dakota
Frances Halpern – sister to Blanche
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Frieda, Minette, Shirley, and Leo Handelman (siblings)
parents from Rumania to Chicago, Illinois to outside of Wilton, North Dakota

Emma Herbst
Fargo, North Dakota

Emmanuel Hess
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dorothy Mosow Hurwitz

Viola Hoffman Hymes
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rachel Bella Kahn – married Abraham Calof
    Minnie Calof – daughter of Rachel and Abraham
from Belaya Tserkov, Ukraine to North Dakota

Celia and Pearl Kamins (sisters)
Dodge, North Dakota

Sophie Katz
from Berdichev, Ukraine

Doris Kirschner
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lena Kopelman
    Rose, Dorothy, and Jeanette Kopelman (Saval) – daughters of Lena
Fargo, North Dakota

Eva Kremenetsky – married Joe Losk
Rose Kremenetsky (sister of Eva) – married Charles Losk (brother of Joe)
Henry Krementesky (brother of Eva and Rose) – married Dora Weinberg
Near Wilton, North Dakota
(Losks’ mother from Odessa, Ukraine to Anamoose, North Dakota)

 ? Kruger
Dorothy Mosow Hurwitz – daughter of ? Kruger
Alcester, South Dakota to Sioux City, Iowa

Lena Leiderscheider
North Dakota

Ethel Levey
St. Paul, Minnesota

Jennie Levitt
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sarah and Philip Levin
from Kovna region, Lithuania to Fargo, North Dakota

Eva Levy
Grand Forks, North Dakota to Wells, Minnesota to St. Paul, Minnesota

Sarah Lewis
Chisholm, Minnesota
    Rhana Lewis Greenberg – daughter of Sarah (see separate entry)

Edith Linoff
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sylvia Lipschultz
St. Paul, Minnesota

Leah Lisovsky
from Odessa, Ukraine to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rochele Gila Mann
Fargo, North Dakota

Hannah Marcus
    Rachel Marcus Shapiro – daughter of Hanna
    Eda Marcus Schlessinger – daughter of Hanna
Bowman County, North Dakota

Cecyle Eirinberg Marsh
Delmont, South Dakota

Frieda Aurach Marcowitz
near Ashley, North Dakota

Edith Guttman Mesonznick
Aberdeen, South Dakota

Edith Milavetz
St. Paul, Minnesota

Frances Kaufman Milavetz
Virginia, Minnesota

Israel Mill
    Manacha and Max Mill – sons of Israel
        Rose Mill Sweed – granddaughter of Israel (not clear which of Israel’s son is her father)

Edith, Hilda, Charles and Zelda Modelevsky (relationships to each other not clear)
from Pulan (outside of Zhitomir), Ukraine to St. Paul, Minnesota

Fannie Mondshine
Duluth, Minnesota
(sister of Ray Rosenblat)

Sophie Naftalin
Fargo, North Dakota

Tillie Naftalin
Fargo, North Dakota

Sarah Newman
Marion Newman – daughter of Sarah
Brainerd, Minnesota

Lena Oreckovsky
Duluth, Minnesota

Rose Levy Overbach
St. Cloud, Minnesota

Ruth Rauch Peilen
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Norman Perl
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Marvin Pertzik
St. Paul, Minnesota

Hannah Phillips
    Sarah Phillips – daughter of Hannah
outside Moorhead, Minnesota to near Fargo, North Dakota
        Henry Fine – grandchild of Hanna Phillips; nephew of Sarah Phillips

Isadore Pitts

Abraham and Augusta Machowsky Pomerance
from southern Russia to New York City to Grand Forks, North Dakota to near Lehr, North Dakota
    Rita Pomerance Gusack – daughter of Abraham and Augusta

Beatrice Premack
Aberdeen, South Dakota

Rose Rapaport (Schwartz)
Laura Rapaport (Borsten)
McIntosh County, North Dakota to Wishek, North Dakota
mother from Bialystock to Pittsburgh to the border of the Dakotas
Felix Rappaport – brother of Rose and Laura’s father

Belle Woolpy Rauch
from Russia to Minneapolis

Rhoda Redleaf
St. Paul, Minnesota

Baszion Rees
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sarah Rivkin
Fargo, North Dakota

Emily Zvorist Rodd
Bismark, North Dakota

Anna Labovich Rosen
Family from Rumania to area near Souris River, North Dakota

Sophia Shankman Rosenauer
from Leningrad, Soviet Union to St. Paul, Minnesota

Betty Rosenberg
Chicago, Illinois to Beach, North Dakota

Sylvia Kremen Rosenberg
near Wilton, North Dakota

Ray Rosenblat
Duluth, Minnesota
(sister of Fannie Mondshine)

Jennie Rosenthal
St. Paul, Minnesota

Rose Rosenthal
St. Paul, Minnesota

Winnie Lewis Roth
Hibbing, Minnesota

Clara Rothman
Rumania to Mineapolis, Minnesota
Slovie Solomon Apple – daughter of Clara

Marilyn Mankoff Rovner
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ada Rubenstein
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Sima Tiba Rudnitsky
Superior, Wisconsin

Edith Rutman
St. Paul, Minnesota

Sara Bashefkin Ryder
St. Paul, Minnesota (had worked in Nemadji, Minnesota)

Leon and Anna Salet
Mankato, Minnesota

Morris Mordecai Samuel

Ida Levitan Sanders
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Noah and Sarah Schlasinger
from Odessa to near Ashley, North Dakota
    Ethel Schaslinger Overby – daughter of Noah and Sarah

David and Mochel Schloff
Hazen, North Dakota

Fannie Schwartz
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Max and Bessie Halpern Schwartz
Minneapolis, Minnesota to Belfield, North Dakota

Simon and Sadie Schwartz
St. Paul, Minnesota

Willy Schwartz
from Lechenich, Germany to Trinidad to outside St. Paul, Minnesota

Esther Seltzer
Andrea and Julie Seltzer – daughters of Esther
Albert Lea, Minnesota

Sarah Yager Shalett
from Ukraine to Minneapolis, Minnesota
    Sherna Shalett Vinograd – daughter of Sarah

Molly Shapiro
Fargo, North Dakota

Myer Shark
Devils Lake, North Dakota

Elizabeth Banick Sherman
Grand Forks, North Dakota

Theodore Shuirman
Keewatin, Minnesota

Minnie Shuman
    Florence Shuman Sher – daughter of Minnie
West Union, Iowa

Tillie Siegel
Fargo, North Dakota

Janet Silberstein
St. Paul, Minnesota

Rachel Singer
    Lael Singer-Miller – daughter of Rachel
Duluth, Minnesota

Jane Sinitsky
from Leningrad to St. Paul, Minnesota

Nadia Ackerman Smirnov
from the Soviet Union to St. Paul, Minnesota
    Masha Smirnov – daughter of Nadia

Edward Sokol
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Ralph Stacker
St. Paul, Minnesota

George Stillman
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Rose Feldman Straus
from Latvia to Minot, North Dakota

Zlota Rivka Svidelsky
from Zhitomir, Ukraine to St. Paul, Minnesota

Marsha Tankenoff
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Morris Tenenbaum
from Lithuania to St. Paul, Minnesota

Solomon and Sarah Thal
    Elsie Thal – daughter of Sarah and Solomon
    Jacob Thal – son of Sarah and Solomon
from Ellingen, Germany to Berg, Germany, to Nelson County, North Dakota to Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Sam Thal – brother of Solomon
Dakota Territory

Sophie Turnoy Trupin
from Selz in Russian Poland to near Wilton, North Dakota

Amelia Ullmann – married to Joseph
From Germany to St. Paul, Minnesota

Ruth Usem
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cecilia Rose Waldman
St. Paul, Minnesota

Judah Wechsler
St. Paul, Minnesota

Felicia Weingarten
St. Paul, Minnesota

Muriel Wexler
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Theodore Wolf
Mankato to Sheldon, Iowa

Eli S. Woolfan
Hibbing, Minnesota

Jeannette Wrottenberg
North Dakota prairie

Anne Rothenberg Zabel
Sioux City, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Belle Zimmerman
Wisconsin

Martin and Elka Abrahamson Zincow
St. Paul, Minnesota

I Love Gootie by Max Apple 1998

"Gootie left her grandson a rich inheritance of Yiddish culture and folk wisdom, and a love of storytelling. Apple’s biography is thus also about the source of his unique writer’s mind; listening to Gootie, it’s easy to see the origin of his ability to spin a good story. Fresh, affectionate, and moving."
 from a review in Kirkus Reviews 5/9/1998

In this charming memoir, a sequel to Apple’s popular memoir, Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story, the author writes about his grandmother, Sheyni Gootkie, whose family name became Gootie.  In the introduction he explains that in his book promotion tours for Roommates members of the audience would frequently ask questions about his grandmother and he would put them off by saying she was a private person, she always stayed at home, there wasn’t that much to say. But at one point he realized that in fact if he summoned up her Yiddish voice, her life and the stories she told became quite vivid. And he understood that her story telling was a gift she gave him.

Max Apple (b. 1941) grew up in an old-fashioned extended immigrant Jewish family. He and his two sisters lived with their parents and their mother’s Yiddish-speaking, religiously observant parents, Rocky and Gootie Goodstein, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Apple, the younger of the three children and fluent in Yiddish, was particularly attached to both of his grandparents. His grandmother stayed up with him at night while he did his homework at the kitchen table, and it was during these late hours that they forged their bond. She lived in her mind in the shtetl Serei in Lithuania and recreated life in the shtetl with great vividness, enthralling Apple with tales of her family and the community. He especially enjoyed the long involved story she told of her betrothal and marriage to his grandfather, and he remembered vividly her stories about terrifying pogroms.

Gootie never fully adapted to American life. She shopped in America, she had a bank account, but she never learned much English and interacted mostly with family – predominantly with Max’s family but she also had three brothers nearby. She had old-world values, didn’t trust much of what modern America had to offer, and tried to impose her values on the author by inventing a future for him and urging him to live it. Education was unimportant to her. She imagined him being economically secure as a store owner, wearing a suit with a vest outfitted with a gold pocket watch, and she pressed her points. When he was still in high school and he told her thought he’d become a printer, she was not pleased. She didn’t want him dirtying his hands on someone else’s machines. If he owned a store, she told him, he’d only have one machine to deal with – a cash register.

The tension between the old world and the new – Apple’s love and respect for his grandparents, but his also understanding that he was committed to living in a different world – is what drives both memoirs. In I Love Gootie his grandmother’s enduring love for him is palpable. It is clear that he realizes how much he is in her debt.

To read an earlier post of a review of Max Apple's Roommates, click here.

To read an interesting first-hand account of returning to Serei, Lithuania in 1998 which includes photos written by Chana Rosen, click here.

People
Beryl Leib – Rachel Leah
Joseph – son of Beryl Leib and Rachel Leah; married Sarah
    Louis - son of Beryl Leib and Rachel Leah
    Leo – son of Beryl Leib and Rachel Leah; married to Yachy
    Eserkey - son of Beryl Leib and Rachel Leah
    Sheyni Gootkie – daughter of Beryl Leib and Rachel Leah; married Yerachmiel Goodstein
        Mottele (Max) Goodstein – son of Sheyni and Yerachmiel
        Bashy Goodstein – married Sam Apple
            Max Apple – son of Bashy and Sam; married Talya Fishman; author
            Bailey – daughter of Bashy and Sam
            Maxine – daughter of Bashy and Sam
Friends
Sol Levinsky
Ben Rosen

Places
Serei, Lithuania
Yagistov, Poland
Odessa, Russia
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Muskegon, Michigan
Alma, Michigan

Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story by Max Apple 1994

"The bare facts seem to bespeak yet another Jewish family comedy of interference and smothering, but Max Apple's affection for the old man tells another story entirely." from a review in the New York Times by Andrew Bergman, June 19,1994

In this enjoyable and moving memoir, Max Apple (b. 1941) recreates his younger self. He grew up in a home in Grand Rapids, Michigan that included his immediate family and his immigrant maternal grandparents. Apple’s grandfather, nicknamed Rocky, lived a life that was totally entwined in that of his only grandson. In some ways it was a mutual admiration society, but it involved constant battles.

Max Apple and his sisters grew up speaking Yiddish in a home full of the tension between the Old World and the new. The family observed Kashrut, getting their meat monthly from Detroit, and they never ate out. According to Rocky, a truly educated Jewish boy learned Hebrew and studied the Talmud, a copy of which Rocky seemed to always have with him for his own study. Rocky was devoted to the local synagogue minyan but could only get Max to go to synagogue with him on Saturdays. Max edged toward assimilation by becoming absorbed in baseball and the intricacies of the game.

Rocky lived until he was well over 100, and because he outlived his wife, his son, and his son-in-law, his grandson encouraged him to come live with him. They were roommates for a time in Ann Arbor and then when the author, already married, went to work in Houston, Rocky and the author’s mother moved into a home close by.

Their last verbal exchange, as his grandfather lay dying in a hospital bed in 1982, was in Yiddish, a language that encompassed the Old World of his grandfather and the world of the author’s childhood – the language of home. And after his death, at the burial, Apple was proud to be able to refuse the prayer book the rabbi handed him and to say Kaddish from memory.

To read an interview with Max Apple about the writing of Roommates, click here.

People
Herman (Yerachmiel) Goodstein – married Gootie
    Max Goodstein – son of Herman and Gootie
    Bashy Goodstein – daughter of Herman and Gootie; married to Sam Apple
        Bailey Apple – daughter of Bashy and Sam
        Maxine Apple – daughter of Bashy and Sam
        Max Apple – son of Bashy and Sam; married Debby; author
            Jessica and Sam – children of Max and Debby

Joe – Gootie’s brother
Mamie – a cousin of author’s mother

Friends and Acquaintances
Joel Kerner
Harry Zeff
Alan Perlis

Places
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Muskegon – Michigan

The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father’s War by Louise Steinman 2001

"Only when we begin to share our stories, she discovers, can we also begin to approach the humanity we aspire to, and at the same time feel shame at the brutal bestiality of which we are all too capable."
 from a New York Times review by Diane Cole 12/02/01

When Louise Steinman was emptying her parents’ condominium after they had both died in 1990, she found a strong box that included 474 letters her father had written to her mother from the Pacific front where he had been stationed during World War II from August of 1943 until December of 1945. Also in the box was an envelope that contained a small Japanese flag with Japanese characters written on it. Her father Norman Steinman, who had immigrated to New York with his mother and sister when he was five and a half years old from Zhitomir, Ukraine, came home from serving in World War II a changed man, moody and uncommunicative. His wife and four children (the oldest of whom was born nine months after he went off to war) knew never to ask him about the war and to stay away from him if something triggered one of his rages.

Finding this trove of newsy, often emotional letters to her mother, as well as finding the Japanese flag, motivated the writer to investigate her father’s war years in an attempt to know her father as a young soldier. She learned that he had been an infantryman who had been shipped to the Philippines where he participated in one of the most difficult battles in Luzon as the Japanese tried to keep the Americans at bay and away from Japan.

She was also intent on finding out more about the Japanese flag her father had kept along with the letters. She started by having the writing on the flag translated and learned that the young Japanese soldier/owner of the flag, whose name was on the flag, had received it as a good-luck gift from family and friends who had signed their names on it. More investigation revealed that he had been killed in the Philippines shortly after he enlisted.

The author initially had her doubts about whether to search for his family, and whether to return the flag. She reports that her brother Larry asked her a provocative question: If their father had fought in Europe and had come home with a German flag with a swastika on it, would she be trying to find that soldier’s family and return the flag? A provocative question, indeed, one for which she has no ready answer. But she proceeded to visit the Philippines and then Japan where she returned the flag to the soldier’s family.

Steinman discusses the atrocities the Japanese visited on their enemies as well as those that resulted from the Americans dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In researching wartime propaganda, brainwashing and military training, she cites literature that discusses the need to dehumanize the enemy as a way to rationalize torturing and killing them. She finds an obvious example in objectifying the enemy in her father’s easy use of “Japs” and “Nips.”

Like many children of survivors of concentration camps, she grew up with a father who had a traumatizing experience.  Research now informs us that he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome that at that time went unlabeled, undiagnosed and untreated. A by-product of war, it claimed many victims and their families. She realizes that the damage war inflicts lingers through generations.

To read an article about late-onset Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome suffered by those who survived World War II, click here.

People
Herschel (Harry) Steinman – married Rebecca
    Ruth Steinman - daughter of Herschel and Rebecca
    Norman Steinman – son of Hershel and Rebecaa; married Anne Weiskopf
          Ruth Steinman – daughter of Norman and Anne; married to Matthew Solomon
             Jennifer Solomon – daughter of Ruth and Matthew
         Larry Steinman - son of Norman and Anne
         Louise Steinman – daughter of Norman and Anne; married Lloyd Hamrol; author
         Kenneth Steinman - son of Norman and Anne
   
Louis Weiskopf – married Sarah
     Anne Weiskopf - daughter of Louis and Sarah; married Norman Steinman (see above)
     Doris Weiskopt - daughter of Louis and Sarah

Friends and Acquaintances
    Sam Wengrow
    Morrie Franklin
    Sylvan Katz

Places
Zhitomir, Ukraine 
Bronx, New York
New York City, NY
Culver City, California
Luzon, The Philippines