They didn't want to talk about it.
Rachelle Berliner
My father,
Samuel Isaiah Leaf born Shmuel Schaie Lieberman in Svisloch (Wolkovysk
Grodno) Belarus. He spoke five languages when he came to America -
Russian, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and English, of course. (Later, in America, he
taught himself Spanish and French by studying books he got from the Library.) He
immigrated to the United States in 1906. He was in a Yeshivah training to become
a Rabbi when his father came and told him to come home, he was going to America,
and his brothers were to follow after. Mendel immigrated under the changed name
of Max Leaf) immigrated in 1911 and Morris in 1913 or 14. Morris did not
immigrate through Ellis Island. Morris traveled East to West by first traveling
to Japan which would mean he landed on the West Coast and then got to New York
where he remained. The sisters - and there may have been two - would not
leave their parents
Shimshon and Alter Neome Ain LIEBERMAN -and they remained in
Svisloch.
Max and Morris lived in New York with the Ain family of Svisloch when they first
came to the United States. Sam, however, moved to Savannah from NY. A cousin in
Savannah, Sarah Leaf Bernstein, sponsored them to America. Sam served in the
army in WWI and was discharged in Atlanta where he married. He continued
to study the Torah and was the walking encyclopedia for the Rabbis in Atlanta.
They would call to find out where certain passages were, and Sam would tell
them. However, he would not attend a synagogue unless it was a family occasion.
I know it wasn't because of disbelief, there was a bitterness because of the
memories of his early years in Svisloch and the Pogrom that caused the lose of
his parents and sister(s).
There are copies of two letters written in Yiddish and translated to English -
one from Sam Leaf to his cousin Abraham who remained in Svisloch; the other from
Morris also to Abraham. Sam's letter talks about Swisloch or Swislowitz asking
for any news.
In conversations with my father, Sam, if I asked "Where did you come from . . .
Russia or Poland?" He would answer, "Yes" with a smile and tell me that his town
was in either, depending on where the borders were at the time. It was so over
my head as a child trying to understand something which I couldn't comprehend .
. . we lived in America. Borders didn't change here. Georgia was Georgia and
these were the only borders I knew about.
I would often tease him because Mom would say "kugel" and daddy would say "keegle",
so if I asked him to tell me which he said, he would always smile and say, "pudging".
But he wouldn't talk about where he lived as a child.
Rachelle Leaf Berliner
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