GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
I only knew my maternal grandparents. My paternal grandmother died a couple of years after I was born. My paternal grandfather a couple of years before.
My paternal grandparents fled to the US in the late 20s, fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe.
My paternal grandmother was blind and took in washing. My paternal grandfather was a Talmudic scholar who spoke 7 languages, and while very learned, was not very good at supporting his very large family.
My father left school at 8 years of age and went to work, first delivering groceries, then delivering ice and working in a tannery at Chicago's infamous stockyards.
My maternal grandmother's family were well-off. They were millers and bakers in Kaunus, Lithuania. My grandmother was put on a boat as a teenager and sent to Britain where an older cousin had already emigrated to. He sponsored her. Their parents were killed by the Lithuanians, the mill and bakery burned, and the rest of the Jews in Kaunus tortured and killed. My grandmother and her sister both made it to the US via England. 2 of my great-uncles emigrated to the Middle-East and fought to found Israel (personal opinions kept to myself). I still have family in Israel and Britain.
My maternal grandfather was born in England. The last rabbi in a long family line of rabbis. His family emigrated to England from Lithuania as well. He went back to Lithuania, to the Vilna (Vilnius) Yeshiva to train as a rabbi and cantor, then returned to England to work. At the time of the Sho'ah, he and several other family members returned to Kaunus and surrounding areas in an attempt to get family to safety. Several of the "Lost Brothers" were rounded up and put in the camps or executed. My grandfather escaped and made it back to England, where he met my Grandmother after stopping at a very nice house on a pastoral visit and being taken by the young, blonde girl who answered the door.
He thought she was a house-servant. A meeting was arranged, a marriage broker contacted, and that, the last arranged marriage in my family, lasted 76 years, with my grandmother dying at 96, and my grandfather dying at 104.
My paternal grandparents fled to the US in the late 20s, fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe.
My paternal grandmother was blind and took in washing. My paternal grandfather was a Talmudic scholar who spoke 7 languages, and while very learned, was not very good at supporting his very large family.
My father left school at 8 years of age and went to work, first delivering groceries, then delivering ice and working in a tannery at Chicago's infamous stockyards.
My maternal grandmother's family were well-off. They were millers and bakers in Kaunus, Lithuania. My grandmother was put on a boat as a teenager and sent to Britain where an older cousin had already emigrated to. He sponsored her. Their parents were killed by the Lithuanians, the mill and bakery burned, and the rest of the Jews in Kaunus tortured and killed. My grandmother and her sister both made it to the US via England. 2 of my great-uncles emigrated to the Middle-East and fought to found Israel (personal opinions kept to myself). I still have family in Israel and Britain.
My maternal grandfather was born in England. The last rabbi in a long family line of rabbis. His family emigrated to England from Lithuania as well. He went back to Lithuania, to the Vilna (Vilnius) Yeshiva to train as a rabbi and cantor, then returned to England to work. At the time of the Sho'ah, he and several other family members returned to Kaunus and surrounding areas in an attempt to get family to safety. Several of the "Lost Brothers" were rounded up and put in the camps or executed. My grandfather escaped and made it back to England, where he met my Grandmother after stopping at a very nice house on a pastoral visit and being taken by the young, blonde girl who answered the door.
He thought she was a house-servant. A meeting was arranged, a marriage broker contacted, and that, the last arranged marriage in my family, lasted 76 years, with my grandmother dying at 96, and my grandfather dying at 104.
