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| L. Liderman |
For links to other posts in this series, scroll to the bottom.
As noted previously, translation is an art. Any comments or clarifications by Yiddish speakers/translators are welcome.
As an aid in understanding, I have included a family tree at the bottom of this post.
Postmark:
27 December 1910 from Polonnoe, Wolin. G. [Volhynia Gubernia]
Addressed to:
Mr. J. Simberg [1]
55 Broome Str, N.Y.
America
Translation
Translated by Esther Chanie Dushinsky[footnotes are mine]
Monday, Parshas Veyechi
27 December 1910
To my beloved son Moshe Shalom Mordekhai should live. Last week, the entire week I didn't get a letter from you, from home. Today I received just a card from you. Everyone asks me if I received a letter from you. Today it is _____ here _____ [faded unreadable text]. She writes that they haven't written the entire week because they figured I will be coming home for Shabbos. But I could not leave. But I plan to be in Kruschenya on the 6th of January.[2] I plan to travel home on the 19th.[3] Here, there is no change. Everything is as it was. There isn't much in earning, and what I earn, I need to have for food. What am I left with? We must thank God for this. I am hoping that when I get home, I will find your letters. Most likely you have already written a detailed letter. I only had the card here from you. But you write very shortly. I was at Itzik Meir'n this Shabbos. We had a happy time. Zeidel _____ was freed already on the 21st of December.[4] They told me to write to America as well and ask that you should notify Baruch Mester _____ Gittel.[5] They will be glad. Moshe'leh, I am asking that you should write about everything, how things are going. If it's hard to write to me, as well as to home, you should please rather write home, and from home they will send your letters to me. Don't forget and share with us, how you are living. The life it gives mother. I am witness and try to imagine that she can't be calm if she doesn't get letters from you. She hopes for letters all the time. _____ send letters and let me know _____ about everything. Write everything in detail. I am greeting all of you warmly.
Today I received a card from Zeidel'n [?]. He writes that they did receive a card from you, but it was very short. It isn't worth it, he writes. It costs 7 Krona to send the card because it's a few less lines. When they send your letters to me, they must put it in an envelope and it costs 7 Krona. And from home he writes that they thank God for their health. And I ask God should give us all health and money and we should have Nachas from all of you. Moshe'leh, do you have any news from Hershel Klugerman, from David Mordekhai Arons?[6] From Rivka from Cleveland? From Yisrael Weisberg? From _____ [Lon?] and so on? From me, your father who truly loves you with his heart and soul.
Send regards in my name to Reuven'n, Perel, _____ [Rivka?], Reuven, I will write to you. Respond to this letter. _____
Notes:
1. Jacob Simberg was Moshe's (Morris') uncle - his mother Freida Simberg Lederman's brother. See the first post in this series for more information about him and his family.
2. JewishGen does not have a community page for Kushinya, Ukraine (51°31' N 26°47' E), indicating that it likely did not have a large Jewish population. It is located 9.9 miles ESE of the community of Dubrovytsya and about 65 miles NNE of Rivne and approximately 120 miles NNW of Polonnoe, from which Levi Yitzkhak mailed this postcard.
3. "Home" was Annopol (now called Hannopil), Ostrog District, Volhynia Gubernia. It is about 80 miles directly south of Kushinya.
4. Zeidel was Moshe's older brother.
5. Baruch (later Benjamin) Mester, was originally from the same community as the Simberg family - Lyubar. On his arrival passenger manifest on 7 April 1906, he said he had been residing in Korets. In 1910 U.S. Census (taken in April), Benjamin Master lived at 266 Monroe the same destination address identified by Nuchem Garber, Moshe's first cousin (and my great uncle), when he arrived in New York on 18 June 1910. For Baruch's passenger manifest, see Manifest, S.S. Rugia, Cuxhaven to NY, 7 April 1906, list A, Burech Mester, age 50; images, Ancestry; NARA microfilm pub. T715, roll 688, image 606. For Benjamin Master's location in 1910, see 1910 U.S. census, New York Co., pop.sched., Manhattan, e.d. 97, sheet 8A, dwell. 9, fa. 144, Benjamin and Tillie Master; images, Ancestry; NARA microfilm pub. T624, roll 1008. For Nuchem Garber's passenger manifest, see Manifest, S.S. Uranium, Rotterdam to NY, 18 June 1910, list 10, Nuchim Garber, age 30; images, Ancestry.
6. For Hershel Kluger[man?] see note 11 in the post for the letter dated 10 December 1910.
Links to posts in this series:
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 27 December 1910"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 18 January 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 4 February 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 21 February 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 8 March 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 18 January 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 4 February 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 21 February 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 8 March 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 25 March 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 27 April 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 27 April 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 28 November 1911" "Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 27 December 1911"
"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 13 August 1912""Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 28 November 1912"
This is so touching Emily. I wish he had shared more of what life was like where he was but then I guess that Moshe already knew what life was like.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I agree. I have had about 14 letters translated of the 30+ that I have and hope to get the rest done in the next few months (I have only blogged about three so far). Each one provides some snippets about life in the Volhynia Gubernia at that time. It wasn't good. Sometimes one must read through the lines. I guess when one is worried about where one's next meal will be coming from, not much else matters. There have been a few letters that have left me spent.
DeleteWAS HE RELATED TO REB LEVY YITZCHOK OF BERDICHEV
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Meyer. I do not know. I do know that Levi Yitzkhak's and his brother Avraham Abba's grandfather was likely Levi Yitzkhak. So, whether he was named after the Reb or his gf, I do not know.
Delete