The Tailor Shop, Threads of our Past - The Passengers

The Passengers
"Getting to know more about them"

Chana /Anna Fleischman ??Reiter 1851-1939, born in Tarnopol, Lemberg, Austria (now Ternopil, Ukraine)

c 1881 - perhaps taken when Chana and Fischel married

My maternal grandmother, Chana Fleischman??Reiter, was a graduated midwife (term applied to midwives who passed required oral and written examinations). Lena told my sister, Helen, "you don't know how many people came to pay their respects to Chana (when she arrived in New York, 1913). This past year I read the following paragraph from Life is with People, and understood, for the first time, the significance of my mother's remark:

"The midwife was respected and loved but there was no [status or yikhus] involved. She was paid. If it was a boy she usually got more pay because at the circumcision all the guests left something for her. She was paid according to the means of the family. The child will stand in a special relationship to the woman who attends his mother at his birth. He pays her visits and she participates in all the festivals and celebrations of his life. He gives her gifts, especially when he is married, and he mourns at her funeral. She calls the children she delivers her "babies" and she in turn is known to all the community as 'granny,' di Bobeh."(1)

Of the four passengers journeying to America, I imagine the change was most devastating to Chana. Wife and mother, a professional woman, held in high esteem, educated and accomplished, Chana and her family enjoyed a position of respectability and good status in Mielnitza. Chana's income afforded the family economic and social security, and most importantly independence for her and Fischel. When Chana emigrated, she lost all of this.

Chana was the daughter of Henie [unknown], c 1820-1901 and Ruvane Fleischman. She was born in the city of Tarnopol, Lemberg, Galicia, Austria. [see Chapter 4 on Towns, map, pictures]. Lena said Chana had two brothers who were astronomers. Unfortunately, I didn't ask their names nor anything more about them . I recall being awe-struck by what I was hearing and didn't want to stop my mother by interrupting what was to me an amazing story.

Chana claimed to be related to the Fleischmann's of the Cincinnati Fleischmann yeast company. In the Fall of 1994, I traveled to Cincinnati to research archival sources, hoping to find the connection, if any. Charles Fleischmann , c1836-1892 (founder of Fleischmanns) and his many siblings were born in Pesth, Hungary. I suspect our maternal gg/father, Ruvane Fleischman, was born there too; Chana could read and write Hungarian. As of now, birth records from Hungary for the time frame of these individuals are not available.

"Bobbie" [Ukrainian for Bubbe] as the family called Chana, was one of the most accomplished persons, certainly woman of her generation in our family. She could have rivaled a rabbi for her intelligence and education, and that she was a woman born in the mid-1800s makes her achievements all the more exceptional. Chana was orthodox, well versed in the Bible and Jewish customs. She gave birth to about 10 children [2 husbands], of which three survived: Julius, Hyman, and Lena.

Chana's first husband had tuberculosis. He and their children died of the disease. Chana married again (possibly someone in the liquor business). She was married about one year and divorced--called a Get. It was very difficult to be given this, and that she was able to, says something. Perhaps it took money, position, and probably both.

The terms of a "get" as explained by Nachum Tuchman, Tekoa,Israel, August 15, 2001 a genner from Jewishgen.org.com

Q--Did the husband have to pay for a "get" or a divorce?
"When a couple marry, the groom gives a "ketuba" to the bride. This is a marriage contract that outlines the terms of the wedding, and specifically how the groom will support his wife. In addition, there is an agreed amount that the husband will pay the wife in the event of a divorce, in esence, the alimony payment. There are actually 2 amounts, 200 silver zuzim plus a second figure that could be $10,000 or $1,000,000. Invariably, when getting married, the couple expect to stay together, and very often the Rabbi will write in a figure that no normal person could pay. However, like all contracts, when one side wants to break the contract, he or she may be willing to change the original terms. For example, if one wants out badly enough, he or she can agree to lower the amount, or forfit the amount listed in the ketuba. On the other hand, if the family has done well financially, or one side is in no hurry, it's possible that the woman will be awarded far more than what is listed in the ketuba. Paying the get is actually paying the ketuba - the amount that the husband pays the wife in order to end the marriage and effect the divorce."

Later she married my grandfather Fischel, about 11 years her senior. He brought two teen-age children to the marriage: Leibish/Louis (c 1865-1930) about age fourteen and his daughter, Bela Rivka/Rebecca (c1870-possibly 1940s). Fischel's first wife, also Chana Ruchel ? died in her 40s. They had several children who also died except for Leibish and Bela Rivka. The pictures of Fischel and Chana shown in this chapter were probably taken when they were married, c 1880.

No longer working, Chana settled down to retirement and becoming a housewife--a new and unfamiliar position for her. When she worked, maids cared for Lena and the house. My mother always lamented that Chana was away. She (Lena) and I visited Blitzer cousins, Yetta and Jake, in New York when I was a teenager, (about 1947). They arranged for Lena to reunite with one of the young women who looked after her when she was growing up, Dvorah Schneider Flitter, (standing next to uncle Hyman in the cover picture of the tailor shop). They were thrilled to see one another. I wish I had been old and wise enough to appreciate the moment.

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