Tombstone Tuesday: Esther Braverman, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York

Esther Braverman, daughter of Isidore and Ida Braverman, was born in the Russian Empire about 1904. She died young. The shape of her gravestone is symbolic of her youth - a tree trunk without limbs.
 

Here lies

Ester Malka

daughter of Aizik ha-Levi

Died 8 Nisan 5685

ESTHER

BRAVERMAN

DIED APR. 2,

1925

 

AGE 20 Y'RS

 

DEAR

DAUGHTER

 
I wish I had taken a closeup of the porcelain image of Esther on her gravestone when I visited the cemetery, but, alas, I did not.

The passenger manifest that documented Esther's voyage from Rotterdam to New York aboard the S.S. Statendam (along with her mother and siblings) in 1906 at age 2, indicated that she and her family had been living in Polonne (aka, Polonnoye, a larger community 10 miles NE of Labun).[1] We do not know where she was born.

Like so many eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early part of the 1900s, Esther and her family started their lives in New York City's Lower East Side. Their passenger manifest and associated detention record indicated that the family went to (husband and father) Isidore Braverman's home at 306 Cherry Street.

In the 1910 census enumeration, the Bravermans were living at 429 Cherry Street. Esther was seven years old and attended school.[2]

In 1915, Esther and her family lived at 252 East 3rd Street in Manhattan.[3] Esther was 12 and a student. 

By the 1920 census enumeration in January of 1920, Esther had quit school and was working as a packer in a notions house.[4] She and her family lived in a tenement at 221 East 3rd Street in Manhattan.

Esther died on 1 April 1925 of chronic endocarditis and nephritis.[5] She also suffered from a pulmonary infarction. The doctor had been treating her for about three weeks. She died at the family apartment in the tenement at 416 Hinsdale Street, Brooklyn.

Esther had been working as a clerk in an office. Her death certificate indicated that she'd been born on 15 March 1903 and was 21 years old. Her gravestone indicates an age at death of 20.

Esther Braverman was buried the next day, 2 April 1925, in one of the First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plots in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York: block 89, gate 156N, line 3L, grave 4.

Notes:
1. Manifest, S.S. Statendam, 29 May 1906, stamped list 57, line 5, Ester Braverman, age 2; images, "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 March 2011).
2. 1910 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan, enumeration district 98, sheets 1A-1B, dwelling 1, family 9, Esther Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 December 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1008.
3. 1915 New York State census, New York County, New York, enumeration of inhabitants, Manhattan, assembly district 9, election district 9, Esther Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 January 2015); citing New York State Archives, Albany. 
4. 1920 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Manhattan, enumeration district 481, sheet 12A, dwelling 18, family 267, Esther Braverman; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 December 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1195.
5. Kings County, New York, death certificate no. 6953 (1925), Esther Braverman, 1 April 1925; Municipal Archives, New York City.