My dad came to the States in 1906. As I remember the story, he was in a Yeshivah learning to be a Rabbi when his father came and told him to come home, he was going to America, and his two brothers, Max and Mendel, were going also. Uncle Max came to the United States in 1911 and Uncle Morris in 1913 or 14. I haven't been able to find Uncle Morris on the Ellis Island data base but I did find my father and Uncle Max. Although the name was to be changed later, my father came over as Schaie Lieberman whereas, by 1911, Uncle Max came as Mendel Leaf. My only first cousin said Uncle Morris came through Japan. This would mean he landed on the West Coast and then got to New York where he remained. My aunt - and there may have been two - would not leave her parents.

I have copies of documents, i.e., Daddy's original ship manifest, his Intent to Naturalize and his Citizenship papers dated January 24, 1921. I believe WWI veterans were automatically granted Citizenship. His discharge papers from the U.S. Army are dated May 16, 1919. The Discharge and Naturalization are framed and hanging over my desk, along with a photo of him taken in 1950. I had posted a search on JewishGen for the names LEAF,/ LIEBERMAN / LIFSCHITZ and AIN, knowing AIN was my paternal grandmother's maiden name. One day, Aron Ain posted a search for AIN from Swisloch. I replied instantly and we connected with Aron's telling me, "You have the right person as my dad remembers when he was a small boy that your Uncles lived with them." However, since Daddy came to Savannah from NY, they did not know him. There was a cousin in Savannah, Sarah Leaf Bernstein, who sponsored them into America. After WWI, Dad met Mom in Atlanta and they married. My brother, of blessed memory, and I were born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Now that I live in Savannah, it is like coming home to my Dad’s first American home. Daddy’s knowledge of Torah was remarkable. He was the walking encyclopedia for the Rabbis in Atlanta. They would call to find out where certain passages were, and Dad could tell them. He spoke five languages when he came to America - Russian, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and English, of course. He taught himself Spanish and French by studying books he got from the Library. I have copies of two letters written in Yiddish and translated to English through Aron's efforts - one from Daddy to his cousin Abraham AIN, the other from Morris also to Abraham. Dad's letter talks about Swisloch or Swislowitz. He asks for any news about the family. Through the years, I tried to ask questions but not enough, not nearly enough. It wasn't until I married in 1950 that I knew Daddy's brothers were in New York. In fact, he had just found them five or six years earlier. My former husband and I went to NY for our honeymoon and I got to meet them and Uncle Max's wife, Aunt Ida. The one first cousin is their daughter, Ruth Leaf, who now lives in California and is a marvelous artist with her own website. If I asked about where he came 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 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.

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