Kimmelman's Bench | Imamother

Dolly Welsh

Wed, Feb 28 2024, 11:39 pm

In the 1910s and 1920s, in Brownsville in Brooklyn, a Jewish enclave, lived a couple with six children, in a tenement apartment with two rooms. It was pretty chaotic at home.

But all the kids grew up educated, because of Kimmelman's Bench.

It was a normal wooden bench, made by a local carpenter named Kimmelman.

If a kid was sitting on Kimmelman's Bench, the house rule was nobody talked to that kid.

He or she was left strictly in peace to do schoolwork or read or just muse. The chaos swirled around him or her, but nobody talked to that kid. Not one word.

So we could revive that. It was useful and could be again, as needed.

Any bench called "Kimmelman's Bench" could mean, the bench of silence. Where you can concentrate.

amother

Maple

Wed, Feb 28 2024, 11:42 pm

Dolly Welsh wrote:

Love this! The only problem is that I don't think my kids would have the same respect for the bench as they did in the early 1900s...

Dolly Welsh

Wed, Feb 28 2024, 11:50 pm

amother Maple wrote:

Love this! The only problem is that I don't think my kids would have the same respect for the bench as they did in the early 1900s...

Those kids were quite a loud, rowdy, assertive bunch, I can assure you.

But it was a rule.

They weren't any quieter than usual. They just didn't talk to that one person.

Somebody was always on the bench because there were six of them.