14 September 2020

Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 21 June 1911

Between July 1910 and April 1914, Morris Lederman received  about 37 cards/letters from his parents in Volhynia Gubernia. Many are mundane - sending love and begging for as much correspondence as possible. Certainly those of us who have been apart from our family members understand the sentiments. Some of the letters are plaintive. Many of these 37 cards and letters remind us of the backstory of this time in eastern Europe before WWI: the difficult social and economic conditions and how that affected so many families. These are testament to the troubling times in which our families tried to survive.
 
Levi Yitzkhak's letters were filled with concern for his youngest son, Moshe (Morris), in America and for his other son, Zaidel (Zanvel), who had not been able to find work in Russia. Zaidel was promised a job in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine), about 475 miles east southeast from home in Annopol, but had trouble raising the funds for travel. In this letter there was some good news: Moshe had been able to send his older brother money. Zaidel was finally able to travel.
 
Then, Levi Yitzkhak tried to intercede in his brother's, Avraham Abba's, family troubles. Avraham Abba was my great grandfather and Khana , his wife, was my great grandmother. Their sons mentioned in this letter - Nakhum (the oldest) and Mottel (the second son) - were my great uncles.
 
The letter translated here blew me apart. Imagine sending one's child away with little or no prospect of seeing them again. Then, think of how difficult communication was more than 100 years ago. These people were completely dependent on an international mail system that took weeks for delivery and sometimes failed them completely. They struggled to write addresses in unfamiliar alphabets. There were no other choices for communication. One can easily picture how long-distance relationships could fray.
 
This post continues translation from Yiddish and analysis of letters sent by Levi Yitzkhak Liderman to his son, Morris, who was settled, initially, in New York City in 1910. For further background, see the first post in this series. 

 I have included a small family tree at the end of the post.
 
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.


This correspondence was in a letter rather than a postcard. No envelope had been saved. We know that Levi Yitzkhak was still working away from home (Annopol) in Polonnoe from the text of the letter, itself.

Levi Yitzkhak did not include the year along with the date of the letter (4 July). He did, however, include the parshas - the Torah reading for the week: Chukas Balak. I checked on Hebcal.org and found that Chukas Balak had to have been read on 4 July 1911 rather than in the any of the following years of 1912, 1913 or 1914. 

Translation

Translation by Esther Chanie Dushinsky

[Notes in blue as well as those at the end of the post are mine. As on his postcards, Levi Yitzkhak tried to squeeze as much on the paper as possible and did not often break the text into paragraphs. For ease of reading, I have added my own paragraph breaks in the translation.]

[Side 1]

Chukas Balak

Tuesday, 21 June [Russian], 4 July [English]

My Dear and Beloved son, dear to my soul, Mr. Moshe Shalom Mordekhai,

I received your letters, meaning, your cards that you sent home [Annopol], as well as what you sent directly to me in Polonnoe at the address Itzek Benis [written in Russian alphabet].[1] Mother, should live, also sent the letters that you sent to her. The wishes that mother and I have wished for you should be fulfilled. Quite a while has passed, and we haven't received letters from you and we were beside ourselves. I wrote to mother, and she wrote to me, asking one another whether either of us received anything from you. Bottom line, thank God we received the cards from you. We thank our beloved God for your health. God should give that we should continue to hear the same from you, amen.

Moshe'leh, I must write to you that I have been thinking about for a while already, and I don't even know what. You keep on writing very, very short cards and you wrote nothing about your day to day activities, who you spend time with, and where. And on top of that, you are now writing from a different address.[2] You write that you moved to a different place. I have a feeling that there's a reason for this. Even though you wrote that the reason you moved is because your shop is too far from the uncle's home. But I think something else happened, because in my opinion, it isn't straight-forward. Firstly, I gather that you were treated well there, and yet, the children, you most likely lived quite well. Simply put, it cost you less, for example food, sleeping arrangements and living space, etc. And most importantly, the uncle and aunt most likely watched over you, considering that you are their only sister's child. And yet, I gather you are a child that is used to - as they say - "in the mother's apron." So, my dear son, write a long letter to me, in detail about everything. Let me know what's going on with you. Where and to whom did you move, and the honest truth as to what brought you to do this. If, my dear son, something happened to you, even more so. As it says, "ask your father and he will tell you." Write to me with heart and soul [? center fold of letter] and answer. I am depending on you.

A few _____[two letters?] from Shalom Nachum, Mottel, Reuven last week Tuesday. Meaning, the second day Rosh Chodesh Tamuz, the 27th of June [?] English.[3] Staying at my brother Avraham Abba.[4] I had to take care of some business. When they saw me, they asked and cried to me, begged and pleaded with a broken heart [?]. Meaning, Mottel, Nachum - Nachum, Mottel - Moshe'leh, your Moshe'leh. Nachum, since he's in America he hasn't sent them even one letter. To Mottel'n [?] he writes a letter every week and to them he doesn't even send a greeting. Mottel they tell me, sent them a letter after Pesach, and wrote, "Father, Mother, Mother, Father," look at my handwriting, because you won't see letters from me anymore. As they were sharing this story, everyone started crying. Avraham Abba, Khana and the children cried bitter tears, asking with great sighs, "What is my sin?" What happened? [5] Mottel says that because they haven't sent letters to him for a long while. But they swear that they did send a letter to him, but it seems that the address wasn't written correctly and, therefore, Mottel didn't receive the letters. 

Now Avraham Abba gave me a letter from them, that I should add it to the letter I am now writing. They ask that you should be the middleman and give it to Mottel, and Mottel should see to it that from today onward, he should send to the correct address. But please send Mottel's address to me and I will forward it. But you see to it that you chastise Mottel that one doesn't do such things. Why do they nebech deserve such pain?[6]

Mottel, Mottel, I always hope for a good ____. Why would you do such things to your parents, give them pain and heartache? Why do they nebech deserve it? Father and Mother nebech cried bitter tears to me. Even if a father and mother do wrong sometimes, the child still has to judge them favorably. Especially as they swear that they are not at fault. That some bad luck got involved here, that the address was wrong. All the more, I think that a child has to share their pleasures with their parents as much as possible and you are giving them such troubles. I am asking that you do this for my sake and write a letter to them. Write to me as well about your life, about your day to day. Write about my diamond, Moshe'leh. Moshe'leh will write to me about you. If you are living in peace and love and friendship.

[Side 2]

Moshe'leh, Moshe'leh, I wrote to you about Zaidl'en that he traveled to Ekaterinoslav and I haven't received a letter from him about how he's doing. I hope that God will help that he should find something. It is time that God should have mercy on him and our luck should get better. We should merit nackhas.[7] Amen. 

From your father who wants to know how you are doing and worries about you and prays for you, and hopes for your good. _____

See Moshe'leh, give the letter to Avraham Abba's Mottel'n and tell Mottel'n to him, to Nachum'n. And write to me about everything.

I see in your cards that you take an additional $7.50 for _____ cards. I am reading that in America they don't have _____ a few dollars isn't good [?]. You responded that you had to help Zaidl'en, and it is indeed the _____ you write that you don't have. Bottom line is that I know you and you are not a _____. Meaning, you don't lie, God forbid [?]. I am asking that you should write about everything. The truth, truth, truth.

They tell me at Avraham Abba's that those that travel to America, change. Meaning, who is greater than Moshe'leh? He promised and promised that he will write the honest truth and at the end he doesn't write. One becomes a different person. Why are you silent, Moshe'leh?

Moshe'leh, I will sign this letter. I received the letter from home in the evening on the _____ [page is torn] and _____ [torn] at mother's, should live. She received a card from Zaidel'n on last week Wednesday. He writes that _____ [torn] nothing. He writes that he arrived and found a guest house [?] where _____ [transliterated as sluzashtshe; probably слузаще, meaning "on occasion." So, Zaidel could stay there occasionally.] stay there. And they tell him that he should try from his end. God should help with the best. Mother nebech can't calm down this time as well, because she hasn't received a letter from you.

The address for Zaidel

Екатеринославь [Yekaterinoslav]

Крестовая Ул. [Krestovaya Street]

Конопенко Кв. Фраина [Konopenko Kv. Fraina]

Лидерманв [Liderman] 

Moshe'leh, write to him, perhaps a card. I ask him to write to you. 

Notes: 

1. This looks like a name to me: Itzek Benis. [Ицеку Бенису]

2. Moshe (Morris) had been living with his uncle (his mother's brother) and aunt, Jacob and Hannah (Anna) Simberg, at 134-136 Cannon Street, New York, New York.

3. Rosh Chodesh is the beginning of the Hebrew month. In the case of the month of Tamuz, Rosh Chodesh is two days: the last day of the previous month (Sivan) and the first day of Tamuz. So, in 1911, 1 Tamuz was the 27th of June.

4. Avraham Abba Garber and his wife Khana Matsevitski lived in the community of Labun (today called Yurovshchina, Ukraine). By June of 1911, two of their sons had emigrated and lived in Manhattan: Nachum (Nathan) and Mottel (Max). Mottel immigrated in December 1907 and Nachum in June 1910, just a few weeks before his first cousin Moshe Lederman (in August 1910). My grandfather, Jankel (Jack) - their third son - immigrated in September 1912.

5. The Garber children living at home in Labun at that time  were (in age order) Perl, Sarah, Jankel, Feiga and Aron.

6. Nebech is a Yiddish interjection meaning "you poor thing!" - an unfortunate person.

7. Nachas is Yiddish for joy or blessings from pride in (usually) one's children's accomplishments.

 


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07 September 2020

Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 27 May 1911

This post continues translation from Yiddish and analysis of letters sent by Levi Yitzkhak Liderman to his son, Morris, who was settled, initially, in New York City in 1910. For further background, see the first post in this series. 

 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.

Postmark

27 May 1911, Polonnoe, Wol. [Volhynia Gubernia]

[This is the Julian calendar date, which was in effect in the Russian Empire at this time. The letter was posted the same day it was written. The equivalent in the Gregorian calendar (in use in the United States, then and now) was 9 June 1911.]

Addressed to:

Mr. J. Simberg
134-136 Cannon Street
New York
U.S. of America
for Morris Lederman

Translation

Translation by Esther Chanie Dushinsky

[Notes in blue as well as those at the end of the post are mine. Levi Yitzkhak tried to squeeze as much on the card as possible and did not break the text into paragraphs. For ease of reading, I have added paragraph breaks in the translation.]

[Side 1]

Friday eve of Shabbos, Naso, 9 June English, 27 May Russian [1]

My dear and beloved son, as precious as my soul, Mr. Moshe-Shalom-Mordekhai, should live.

This past week on Friday, on the eve of Shevuos, I received your letter from home.[2] And today, here in Polonnoe _____ I came back here on Monday and found a letter from you. I am reading your _____ [outcry?] that you haven't received a letter from me. And it is surprising to me and all of us that you didn't receive a letter, not the one from mother _____ _____ [looks like a name that starts with F/P, but it's indecipherable]. I hope that you get the letters soon, there is no other possibility, other than that the letters were held up on the way. _____ not allow any _____.

There is no _____, and has nothing to add, and the new _____ and will wake up and Zanvel [?] will manage to travel to Ekaterinoslav - didn't I express in the previous letters that _____, most likely there won't be _____. God should help that it should be for the best. Sadly, he hasn't traveled yet, he is waiting an address that should get to him from there.[3]

Aside from Toba's groom, meaning Gittele's groom, he received more protektzia [preferential treatment due to some connections] there, from someone we know, and we hope that God will help and something will work out. The truth is that Zanvel is a capable person. He isn't a lost cause. Most likely God will have mercy and something will work out for the best.

[Side 2]

Moshe'leh, what's the story as to why you started writing very shortly? You don't write about what your job is, you don't write whether you earn enough or not, you don't write about how you spend your days. Write, write, my child, your _____ [writing is faded at the fold of the paper], your leisure time. 

And what about Reuven? You haven't written about him? Did he get married? With whom and where?[4]

Bottom line, my son, my son, write, write. I slept here, I ate here, I spent my time here.

Your father who worries about you _____

Send regards to my brother in law in my name.[5] 

Notes:

1. The Torah reading for Naso is Numbers 4:21–7:89. The Hebrew date of this card was 13 Sivan 5671.

2. Home was in Annopol, Ostrog District. Shavuos, a two-day observance, started at sundown on Thursday, 19 May 1911 (Julian calendar) and 1 June in 1911 (Gregorian calendar). It is called the "Feast of Weeks" or the Pentecost. It marks the time when the Jews received the Torah on Mount Sinai.

3. In the previous letter (postmarked 21 May 1911), Levi Yitzkhak  mentioned that someone named Gittel, daughter of Toba, was engaged and her future husband, a successful businessman said he could help Zanvel, Levi Yitzkhak's older son, find work in Ekaterinislav. 

4. In his letter postmarked 11 May 1911, Levi Yitzkhak mentioned Reuben to whom he'd written a letter that had been returned probably because the address was incorrect. I noted in that post that I was working on the possibility that Reuben was Reuben Resnick. See note 4 on that post.

5. Levi Yitzkhak's brother-in-law was his wife's brother, Jacob Simberg.

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"Letters from Levi Yitzkhak Lederman, 19 October 1911"
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