02 July 2023

Letters from Levi Yitzkhak, 23 April 1914

This is the last post of translated letters and postcards originally in Yiddish (and, sometimes, Hebrew and a little bit of Russian) sent to Morris Lederman, who immigrated to the United States in 1910. Most of the correspondence, such as this one, were sent by Morris' father Levi Yitzkhak. For further background, see the first post in this series. 

I plan at least one additional post after this one to summarize the series.

For links to other posts in this series, please scroll to the bottom.
 
 
Translation

Translation by Esther Chanie Dushinsky.

[Notes in blue as well as those at the end of the post are mine. For ease of reading, I have added paragraph breaks in the translation.] 

Postmarked:

Baranovka, Vol. [Volhynia Gubernia], 23 April 1914 [Russian date; the equivalent date in the United States was 6 May 1914]

Addressed to:

Вг.Амирику [in America]
Morris Lederman
127 So. Upper St. 
in Lexington Ky [1]
     America 

[side 1]

April 21 / May 4  1914

My dear and beloved son who sweetens my soul, Mr. Moshe Shalom, should live. You should have peace, my dear son.

My dear and beloved son, since I received your letter and _____ Sh"b Uri should live, I did not manage to find time to respond.[2] I was very busy to _____ [finish?] _____ to be done with the balances because the _____ [franzpalin?] decreed and said that we must finish the books and leave Zhary because _____ job here.[in previous letters Levi Yitzkhak said he was finishing work in the forest near Zhary and expected to be seeking another job.]

Understandably, I am a bit stressed now. As you understand, I must look for a different position with honor and abundance. And God will probably help.

I have a _____ promise from the rich people _____ Eisenberg's that Aba [?] Zacku [?] will stop and they will take me to a different forest that thy purchased two years ago. Not far from Турискуь. [3] 

Now I still have some work here in Zhary for a short while. I don't know exactly how long. Bottom line, my dear son, God should have mercy and guide me well. 

And that is why I haven't written the entire time, but happens to be, a thought entered my mind that it isn't right that I am not writing letters to you. So now, Monday night, Parshas Acharei Kedoshim, the 21st April here, 4 May for you _____ _____, and I told myself that I should respond to your letter and expand a bit on what your wrote.[4]

_____ _____ that you wrote the truth to me about everything. I am very pleased and thank and praise God for your pure thoughts and your words. They are holy and pure to me and I believe in you and my hope _____ that you are walking on the right path and in the future you will continue to walk on the right and good path with God. And I am blessing you from the depths of my heart and will that you should always find grace in the eyes of people and God. And may God give you success in all your endeavors and ways. 

I don't have any special news to write. They write from home to you almost every week because I told them again and again that they should not refrain from writing to you. And, indeed, they write to you from home because they know better than me what to write to you from here. 

Sarah probably wrote to you from Zaida'n that he didn't even come for Pesakh.[5] He wrote that he couldn't leave, he is very busy there. And he doesn't write much about how things are for him. You know him, he doesn't like to write long letters, and when he does write, he writes only shortly.

From Faiga'n, thank God for their health. Babekel is a fine child.[6] He studies very well. In Baranowka he is known as a child, a mensch. He is indeed bli ayin horah, a fine child.[7] Studies very well, learns Ivrit.[8] He nearly finished "high" and remembers well, does well. Raika is, bli ayin horah, also a fine child.[9] _____ was here for Pesakh and traveled back after Pesakh.[10]

[side 2]

To _____ honorable Mr. Uri, should live, and your entire family, send them our greetings and tell them we thank him very much for his kindness towards you.[11]

And from here, my son, I will _____ letters from time to time. Write details, let me know about everything in detail. The _____ [frustug or prustug] came to Grafiri'n and wanted to place an arrest for my dawdling over their request [?]. They told him that I am not in Zhary anymore. God should help in everything.

Your father that loves you and is blessing you.

_____ _____


Notes: 

1. In his letter of 8 July 1913, Levi Yitzkhak wrote that he understood that his son Morris was thinking about moving from Lynn, Massachusetts, to Detroit, Michigan. We know that Morris did move to Detroit. But, apparently, before moving there, he stopped for a visit in Kentucky with Harry Greenfield. The 1910 census shows that Harry Greenfield and his family lived at 127 South Upper Street, Lexington, Kentucky. Harry was Morris' sister, Feiga Grinfeld's, brother-in-law (her husband, Shalom Shakhna's brother). 1910 U.S. Census, Fayette Co., KY, pop. sched., Lexington, e.d. 34, sheet 16B, dwelling 211, family 378, Harry and Sophia Greenfield family; images, Ancestry.com (accessed 2 July 2023); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 474.

2. Harry Greenfield's gravestone confirms his Hebrew name as Arye ben Yitzkhak. Uri appears to have been his Yiddish nickname. His gravestone inscription has been photographed and is online. Harry Greenfield, grave, 11 March 1941, Lexington Cemetery, Fayette County, Kentucky; index and images, Billion Graves (accessed 2 July 2023: https://billiongraves.com/grave/Harry-Greenfield/687941).

3. This community may have been Turiysk, southeast of Kovel. Turiysk is bout 280 km WNW of Baranivka. The JewishGen community database page for the town is at https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-1056891 

4. For information on Parshas Acharei Kedoshim (Leviticus 16:1-20:27), see https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2894/jewish/Acharei-Kedoshim-in-a-Nutshell.htm

5. Sarah was one of Morris'/Moshe's sisters and Zaida'n (sometimes referred to as Zanvel) was his older brother.

6. Babekel Was the only son of Feiga and Shakhna. He immigrated to the United States on 12 October 1921 and settled with his mother and sister, Raya, in Cincinnati. He was known in the United States as Robert Greenfield. Passenger manifest, S.S. Polonia, Danzig to New York, arrived 12 October 1921, list 5, entry 20, Wolf Grinfeld, age 16; images, Ancestry.com (accessed 2 July 2023).

7. Bli ayin hora: Yiddish saying used with a positive statement. The concept was to ward off the evil eye.

8. Ivrit: the Hebrew language.

9. Raika, also known as Raya, immigrated to the United States with her sister Leah on 2 December 1921. She married Harry Young in Cincinnati on 19 August 1934. Passenger manifest, S.S. George Washington, Bremen to New York, arrived 2 December 1921 1921, list 8, entries 16 & 17, Raya Grinfeld (age 14) and Leja Grinfeld (age 15); images, Ancestry.com (accessed 2 July 2023).

10. This likely refers to Leah, the eldest child of Feiga and Shakhna. We know that she attended gymnasium (secondary school) in Russia. We do not the years in which she attended. After immigration, she and Joseph Saltzman, who she knew from Baranovka and Koretz, married on 17 April 1922 in the Bronx, NY (certificate no. 1494). They settled in Louisville, Kentucky.

11. Harry [Uri] Greenfield, married Sophia Gindy (daughter of Isaac Gindy and Rose Saphir) in Cincinnati on 28 June 1903. They had four children between 1904 and 1915: Isadore, Esther, Martin and Lucille.

Posts in this Series

"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 28 December 1912"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 1 June 1913"

 

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28 May 2023

Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 8 July 1913

This post continues translation of letters and postcards in Yiddish (and, sometimes, Hebrew and a little bit of Russian) sent to Morris Lederman, who immigrated to the United States in 1910. Most of the correspondence, such as this one, were sent by Morris' father Levi Yitzkhak. For further background, see the first post in this series.

For links to other posts in this series, please scroll to the bottom.
 
Translation

Translation by Esther Chanie Dushinsky.

[Notes in blue as well as those at the end of the post are mine. For ease of reading, I have added paragraph breaks in the translation.] 

Postmarked:

Grayevo [?] [1], Kiev Gubernia, 9 July 1913 [Russian date; the equivalent date in the United States was 22 July 1913]

Addressed to:

Вг.Амирику [in America]
Mr. Morris Liderman
9 Olsen Place
Lynn - Mass  off
Shepard St.

[side 1]

8/21 [2] July [июль], Parshas Matos [3] _____ Zhary [4]
 
My dear and beloved son Mr. Moshe'le, Should live. We received your cards. 
 
What's the story, why are you complaining that we don't write to you? I think that not a week passes that we don't write from home to you. 
 
You also don't have what to complain about Faiga'n and Shakhna'n, simply because they are busy and overwhelmed with work. You think it's a small issue? They need so much. _____ from _____ [Leon's] about teachers at home, from Zaida'ns (or Baba's), from Reich's, about every single thing _____. Bli Ayin Horah, there are many expenses _____. [5] 100 a month is enough, but you shouldn't think that we have forgotten about you. 
 
My dear son, you are allowed to believe me that not a minute or second pass that we forget about you. Here in the forest, I keep your card in my small Siddur in which I daven [pray] and when I take out th Siddur'l, I see you and tell you good morning, good evening, good Shabbos. 
 
Bottom line, my dear son, let's talk practically. How are things there for you? What are you thinking? What do you say? Who do you talk to? Write to me, my child, write something to me. I read in your card, you write - I am writing to father in the forest today - but I didn't see and didn't hear anything, no photo, or word, except for the cards that you sent to our home and from there, they sent it to me.

[side 2]
 
You wrote something to Shakhna'n that you are thinking of traveling to Detroit where Michel [?] Bashka's [?] is located.[6] What is your reason for traveling, and what is your goal? Bottom line, write to me, my son. Write to me about everything clearly and precisely.
 
Your father who wants your good, your happiness and your well being.
 
_____ _____
 
Send regards to everyone that I know in you neighborhood. What does Zona Kona'n do there? Send letters from _____ brother-in-law from New York, from Nakhum, from Mottel.[7]
 
Your father _____.
 
Notes:
1. It is not clear from which community Levi Yitzkhak mailed the postcard. The Russian letters clearly spell out раево (rayevo). The first letter may have been Г. If so, the town name was Граево (Grayevo). I have not located a community of that name in Kiev Gubernia. We do know that Levi Yitzkhak had been working in the forest near Zhary, west of Baranovka (see note 1 in this post for a location map). To be located in Kiev Gubernia, Levi Yitzkhak would have been more than 100 km east of Baranovka.
2. Levi Yitzkhak wrote the date in both the Julian (in use in Russia) and the Gregorian (in use in the USA and much of the rest of the world) calendars. It was 8 July 1913 in Russia and 21 July 1913 in the USA.
3. The Torah reading that week was Matos (or Matot) which means tribes and is from Numbers 30:2-32:42. Moses negotiated with the tribes of Israel regarding portions of the Promised Land. See, Chabad.org: https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/296691/jewish/Matot-in-a-Nutshell.htm 
4. Levi Yitzkhak had been working in the Zhary forest in Volhynia Gubernia for over a year (see blog post linked in note 1, above). Why his postcard was mailed from a community well east in Kiev Gubernia is unknown. 
5. Bli ayin hora: Yiddish saying used with a positive statement. The concept was to ward off the evil eye.
Faiga (Moshe's older sister) and Shakhna Grinfeld (her husband) had three children: Laya, Wolf (called by the nickname Baba in another post) and Raya (Reich/Reichl). All three were excellent students and attending school or cheder (religious school). That, in itself, would have been costly for a family.
6. By April 1914, Moshe/Morris was on his way to Detroit and remained there for the rest of his life.
7. The brother-in-law in New York was Jacob Simberg, Levi Yitzkhak's wife's brother. Nakhum and Mottel were Nathan and Max Garber, Levi Yitzkhak's brother Avrum's sons who had immigrated in 1910 and 1908, respectively (Nathan and Max were my great uncles).

 

Posts in this Series

"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 28 December 1912"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 1 June 1913"
 
 
 
 
 
 
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