S/o American Jewish History - pls post!

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Judaism

1 2 Next

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother

Babypink

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 6:01 pm

Now that the Covering Toes thread has totally derailed into a debate about Jewish communities pre-WWII, I think we need a lot of people to post about their families and their Jewish communities before WWII so we can get some anecdotal data (that's an oxymoron but still...)

I will start. My mother's parents were born in the US in the Boston area. (Their parents came from Poland/Russia/Lita whatever the borders were at the time... Kovno was one of the cities.)

They must have been born before 1915, because Mom was born in the early 30's. They were Shomrei Shabbos (to the best of their knowledge), belonged to a Young Israel and, though their children didn't attend yeshivos, they did attend Talmud Torah, and married and raised their kids Shomrei Shabbos.

[My father's parents came from Poland but also before the war as my father was born in the 30's as well. They were not as religious - my grandpa opened his store on Shabbos but would not smoke.]

amother

Seafoam

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 6:14 pm

Ill go. Im much younger than you. Great grandma came with her parents and brother when she was a baby- right before WWI. She went to public school but stayed frum. Her father was a Rabbi in the Bronx. Her brother was not frum.
Great grandma married great grandpa- also a Rabbi in the Bronx. They sent their boys to yeshiva- RJJ and Rabenu Yitzchok Elchonon. Grandma never went to yeshiva. All stayed frum.
Great grandma and then Grandma always hosted a Pesach Seder for all relatives no questions asked how they got there. It kept the Jewish feeling alive for various 2nd and 3rd cousins. Mom remembers seders with a hodge podge of "family" at the seder. It didnt help. By the 60s, they were all unaffiliated or married out.
But great grandmas branch bh remained all frum, commited, from lwmo to rwyeshivish.

amother

White

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 6:51 pm

Three sides are Hungarian, one of them from kalev, great grandma and great grandpa were first cousins. Fathers grandparents lived in Israel one on a moshav the other in Jerusalem. The fourth side came from beketch tshaba romania before the war and married in the US. Some families were chassidic before the war others not. My great grandfather was a yekke until his dying day but living in the center of Williamsburg all of his seven sons became Satmar. My other great grandfather was viznits and his sons turned out to range from just modern to neturai karta. Others were yerushalmi and Satmar respectively.

amother

Mustard

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 8:00 pm

My mother’s parents were both born in New York in the 1920s. One from Williamsburg (parents were from Slovakia) and the other from the Rockaways (via Galicia). My grandfather went to Torah Vodas, and considered himself a talmid of Mr Mendlowitz his whole life. My father’s father definitely didn’t come until after the war. He lost his family in Budapest and couldn’t get into the US right away. He came via somewhere in South America. His mother is an unknown. She was from Minsk, but I do not know when she got to the US. My mother grew up in the Rockaways and went to TAG. My father grew up east coast out of town, but went to Yeshiva in Torah Vodas. When they got married, they moved to Podunk City in the Midwest, and I have spent my whole life here.

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 12:34 am

Grandparents came from Poland in the late 1920s, grandfather headed a yeshiva in NY, all the children and grandchildren are religious.

amother

Sapphire

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 12:51 am

When I met my husband he told me his family is in America since after the war.... The civil war. They came in the 1880s. My kids are 7th generation Americans.

amother

Tan

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 12:54 am

My maternal great grandparents on one side went from Russia to Germany to Canada to the US, where my grandmother was born. Not quite sure how the journey went on the other maternal great grandparents side, but my grandfather was definitely born here, and lived a few doors down from my grandmother. So that side was all here by 1900 at the latest. All kept kosher, but probably not shomer Shabbat.

My paternal grandmother’s family emigrated from Belarus in the late 19th century. Not sure if my grandmother was born there or here. My paternal grandfather was the last to emigrate in 1917. Again, they kept a kosher home. Maybe shomer Shabbat, but I’ve no idea.

My husband’s family also emigrated before World War 2. On his mother’s side, they came to NY, went back to Hungary/Romania (Satu Mare to be exact), then came back to the US. On his father’s side, they came and stayed. All frum. All still are.

heidi

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 1:05 am

My grandmother was one of 6 children. The youngest two were born in NY in the 19 teens. The family live in NJ and were part of a large frum kehilla. One son was killed on his way to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan yeshiva. The other 5 married frum people they met at Young Israel dances. Some of their mates were from large frum kehillot in Boro Park(this is in the 1930's-- Boro Park was modern Orthodox). All the families except one remain completely frum to this day. My grandfather was born in America and his family was part of a large frum kehilla in another NJ town. He became a successful businessman after starting a small store bcz. he couldn't find a job in a law firm with his Jewish sounding name.
My other grandparents were also born in America and were part of frum kehillot in NJ and Philadelphia. All their descendants and their siblings descendants remain frum to this day.
None of my great grandparents or grandparents worked on Shabbos.
Ever.
Wow! Thanks for letting me get that out. I was getting all worked up by the nonsense on the other thread.

amother

Rose

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 1:24 am

I'm sixth generation American via my father's side. My great-great-grandfather came to America in the 1910's. He was always shomer shabbos, didn't do business with those who weren't, and became very wealthy. He gave a lot of tzedaka to the NY Jewish community and was a very prominent philanthropist. It was really in the 50's and 60's that his descendants became irreligious.

I have a grandmother whose father was born in America. Always shomer shabbos, even when there was absolutely no money.

amother

Apricot

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 2:07 am

All four of my grandparents were born in the late 1910s in the Americas - my kids always point out one was Canadian so I’m not technically a yankee. One great grandmother was born here. I was always the odd one out in school when talk of the holocaust and family impact came up. My kids are in the same boat (b’h) since my husband’s family is also here pre-war and on one side were part of the Lakewood community years before there was a yeshiva in Lakewood.

Two grandparents met in public school. Weren’t frum but hired a melamed for their oldest at a very young age. All were chozer b’tshuva long before there was a bal teshuva movement. My mother grew up in Williamsburg and was offered to go to Bais Yaacov and chose public school. She tells me now that she goes to shiurim to catch up and loves it. One uncle passed up going to Stuyvesant to go to Torah Vdaas.

On the other side, one grandparent received simcha from rav mendelovitz and rav bick and went on to be a principal in a yeshiva for decades. He passed away recently and we are finding sepharim in his house 125+ years old. He was one of four brothers. One joined the breakaway melachim movement from Torah vdaas. One was a chef and ultimately made Aliyah. I don’t know much about the fourth. My grandfather served in the army during ww2 as a chaplain. My grandmother’s family was active in the young israel movement and in starting the young Israel of Flatbush. Her family has been here since the 1880s.

Anonymous because of all the family history. Tho I have a cousin active on the site. Wonder if she’ll figure me out. :-)

Last edited by amother on Mon, Feb 26 2018, 10:33 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Pearl

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 3:05 am

My grandparents were all born in America before ww2. Two in nj and two in ny. Only one grew up in a shomer shabbos home, and he stopped observing pretty early on. But both my parents became observant in the 70's while studying in university. And raised me and my siblings, who are all shomer shabbos, in an Orthodox community in nj. So does that prove or disporove the point?

Iymnok

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 3:45 am

All of my grandparents were born in the US. Only my paternal grandfather was first generation American, his parents arrived in 1911. My mother’s parents were I think second generation.
My paternal grandmother's family became reform in Germany. She had almost no concept of kashrus when my parents got married.
My parents are BTs.
DH’s grandparents are also all at least first generation Americans.

etky

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 5:47 am

My paternal grandparents were born on the Lower East Side in the first decade of the 20th century. Their parents had emigrated from Poland at the turn of the century, from the greater Bialystok area: Lomza on my grandmother's side and a smaller town called Proshnitz on my grandfather's side. My maternal great-grandfather was a carpenter and my paternal great-grandfather sold eyeglasses from a pushcart. My grandparent's marriage was a shidduch: they were matched up because their fathers davened in the shteibel of the landsmanschaft. There were many shteiblach of the sort on the Lower East Side, apart from the more formal shuls that existed ( btw, the Bialystoker Shul -http://www.bialystoker.org/earlyhistory.htm - that still exists to this day is worth a visit).
My great-grandparents were able to save up enough money to move out of the Lower East Side before the Depression. They moved to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, where my grandparents also lived after their marriage and raised their family. My grandfather was shomer shabbos, at great financial cost, since his rival in the optical business who owned a shop across the street opened on Shabbat and Saturday was the busiest day of the week.
Growing up in Bensonhurst, my father attended Yeshivat Ohel Moshe (est. 1927) a co-ed modern Orthodox day school. Many of his limmudey kodesh teachers were "Palestinians" - emigres from the yishuv in Palestine. Some were real scholars, especially those who taught him Hebrew language.
For high school, he started off at the Yeshivah of Flatbush but had to leave when his parents could no longer afford the tuition. After that he attended Lafayette - an excellent public high school. Many orthodox kids attended public high school, and even elementary school, in that era.
My mother's family is an entirely different story.
Her mother's family emigrated from Riga (Latvia) in the mid-1800's to the Baltimore area. Some of the family later made their way to New York. No one remained frum. If they had any religion it was Socialism. My great grandfather was one of the founders of the ILGWU.
My mother's father was my only grandparent not born in the US. He was born in a small village near Kiev and emigrated as a toddler to the US with his family during the wave of violence that followed the Kishiniev pogroms of 1905. I don't really know much about this line except that no one remained frum or even Jewish really on this side either.
My mother was raised as an aetheist and only became observant after meeting my father.
I think that many Jews did leave Orthodoxy - if not immediately, then as the years went on - and many even assimilated. There was tremendous economic pressure to work on Shabbat ( a problem that the newly founded Young Israel movement began to address in the 1920's) and private educational frameworks were less available than they are today. Out of my father's entire family on both sides (my grandmother was one of 8 and my grandfather one of 6 and each had children, grandchildren and so on) he was the only one to remain Orthodox.
Many left Judaism right off the boat, like my mother's family.
There is no question that the wave of immigration that followed WWII was a tremendous reinforcement -in quality and in quantity - for Orthodoxy, not to mention Ultra-Orthodoxy.
This is not to say though that there were no Orthodox communities in the US beforehand. There are plenty of books out there on this very topic as well as much information online, aside from the anecdotal information here that can easily refute this strange, unfounded assertion.

amother

Coral

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 6:28 am

My maternal great grandparents emigrated to NY from Russia and Poland in the 1910-1920's. They lived in Williamsburg. They both refused to work on Shabbos and would lose their jobs frequently because of this. Their older children went to public school and the younger ones went to Torah vadaas amd Bais yaakov once they became available. Except for one son their children all remained frum to this day. They were active members of young Israel. They looked at this country as a place of freedom where we are allowed to practice Yiddishkeit openly without being killed in pogroms which is why they left Europe.
Posting as amother as too many identifying facts.

leah233

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 9:48 am

My only American born grandparent learned for many years in Mir in Europe so I'm not sure how to classify him. The others were born in Lithuania or Poland but came to the US slightly before WWII.

A frum website is not the most accurate place for this study because very few grandchildren of those who didn't remain frum are here to comment.

Chayalle

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 9:57 am

My grandfather came to the US with his mother and two brothers in the 1920's (his father had preceded them a few years before). As the ship neared Ellis Island, the (frum) mashgiach on the ship cut off my grandfather's peyos, telling him that in the US he would not be wearing that style. Another brother was born in the US.

They lived in Philadelphia for a few months, and then moved to the Lower East Side. My great-grandfather struggled to put food on the table in the post-depression years, but working on Shabbos never crossed his mind. My grandfather used to carry his little brother over the bridge to Torah V'daas when it opened in Williamsburg. They couldn't afford the trolley. My mother's cousin, a Rav in the Monsey area, said at my grandfather's L'vayah that they are all frum because of his efforts. (His older brother remained frum, and his children are MO, but his grandchildren are not Shomer Shabbos.)

My grandmother came to the US in the late 1930's. In order to get to the port in Hamburg, she traveled as a gentile. Someone stole much of the food she had packed for the journey, and she had very little to eat that was Kosher on the trip - but did not compromise on Kashrus.

She was very frum and super tznius. Once, she was trying on only dresses with sleeves and higher necklines in a department store dressing room, and a salesgirl peeked in at her. She thought my grandmother must have some sort of skin condition, and when she saw that wasn't the case, she exclaimed "but you're beautiful! Why are you doing this?". Another time, she couldn't find a tznius dress that met her standards, to buy to wear for her close friend's wedding. A certain Rebbetzin told her that she should lower her standards a bit, and it would be on her (the Rebbetzin's) cheshbon. My grandmother did not take her up on that.

My grandparents were from the early frum Agudah Boro Park community, very active in the establishment of BYBP (both the elementary and high schools) which my mother attended. I have a gold BY pin with the BY emblem on it that Rebbetzin Kaplan gave my grandmother A"H for her efforts in the N'shei.

amother

Wheat

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 10:20 am

My grandparents both came from Europe after the war. But DH's grandparents were here prior to WWII. Dh's grandmother was born in America but her some of her siblings weren't. Dh's grandfather served in the American army during WWII.

amother

Apricot

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 10:41 am

leah233 wrote:

A frum website is not the most accurate place for this study because very few grandchildren of those who didn't remain frum are here to comment.

Maybe yes, maybe no. We can accurately report for them.

My mother’s parents grew up not religious though I understand that at least my grandmother’s parents were religious. All of my grandparent’s children and grandchildren are shomer Torah and mitzvot. I do not know much about my grandfather’s family which would lead me to believe they are not religious. My grandmother’s nieces and nephews are not frum. Other than one of her sisters, I’m not sure any of her siblings were frum.

My father’s mother grew up religious to some degree. Of her two nieces, one is frum and all her children are frum, the other is not. My father’s father was one of four. Three were frum. I don’t believe the fourth was to a large extent. Though family lore has him marrying a woman who converted and ultimately became orthodox. I don’t know much about him or his children.

My father was one of three. He was not religious. I am one of four. My two half siblings are not religious. One married out.

If the idea was to see the impact of coming to America on religious observances, you can see it was a mixed bag with my family.

amother

Mauve

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 11:42 am

leah233 wrote:

Rabbi Avigdor Miller would daven that at least one of his children be shomer Shabbos. More than that, he couldn't expect in that climate. We see that b"H he was proven wrong.
In my family, the side that came to America about the same time, late 1800s, 3/4 of one grandparent's family stayed frum which was pretty amazing.
The side that came before WWII, one grandparent was the only one to have children; 50% of the other family stayed frum.

amother

Lawngreen

Mon, Feb 26 2018, 1:21 pm

Not very detailed, but if you're interested of the frumkeit. My fathers parents moved to the US, to NY, in the early 1900's from Poland and I think Russia. They were frum, but all their children except my father went to public school. My father was the only frum one or frummest of all the children. One married a non jew, but he didn't until both his parents died out of respect. She was 20 years his junior. He ended up getting a divorce and died a year later. He was in his early 80's.

My mothers parents were from Czechoslavakia and moved after the war. My mother was born there, in Europe. Both my grandparents came from a chasidish family. They met and got married after the war. The only way my grandfather agreed to marry my grandmother was if they were shomer shabbos. He didn't care about anything else, but he was very strict on that. They moved to LA and was considered very light mo. They became a little more religious after my mother got married because of my fathers influence on my mother and then to her parents through my mother.

Page 1 of 2

1 2 Next