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CHAYA AND BENYAMIN KESSLER |
This is the story about Chaya and Benyamin Kessler, told to me by Bube when I was a little girl. The parts of the story I forgot was filled in by my Father and Aunt Berth on the long Friday nights we spent together after my mother died.
Raisel and Moshe Be’er Mittman were married and had one child named Chaya. When she was about three years old Raisel died. After a while Moshe Be’er re-married to Shaindel. They had six children: Becky, Bertha, Gussie, Yehuda, Rose, & Simon. As the story was told to me, Shaindel was a “Step Mother” in the meanest sense of the word. When Chaya was Eighteen years old her father decided she should get married. He approached his cousin who had a son of marriageable age named Yehuda. Moshe was considered a man of means because he owned several plots of land on the outskirts of town where he grew potatoes. He offered one plot of land as a dowry and a wedding date was set. When he went home and told Shaindel what he had done she was very angry because the plot that he offered was one of the better pieces of land they owned and she wanted that for one of her daughters. She made him go back to his cousin and renege on the original agreement and offered a second choice. Well an argument occurred and the wedding was called off. Now what was he supposed to do. He approached Moshe Yitzcbak who had a son also of marriageable age who was the tailor of the town and gave him the proposition of this other plot of land as a dowry for Benyamin to marry Chaya. Moshe Yitzchak accepted and the wedding took place.
Benyamin and Chaya had seven children: Raisel, Bertha, Yetta, Max, Jack Rose, Samuel. Life in Poland was very hard so Benyamin came to N.Y. to live with his sister Rochel and save money to buy tickets to bring his family here. At this time World War I broke out and it took much longer than he had hoped. When the war was over he found out that Raisel had married Yankel and so he sent tickets for the whole family. When Chaya got the tickets she went to Hungry to get her daughter and son in law. At that time Raisel and Yankel decided not to come they didn’t want to leave his family. So Chaya has to leave her daughter. When she got back to Poland a cousin named Dvora Matte had died in child birth leaving over two small sons named Moshe and Yossel. She had two extra tickets and so she took them with her.
Aunt Bertha told me her most depressing memory of this time in her life was as they loaded a wagon with their belongings and left town. The Bube Shaindel was following the wagon and crying “Chaya you are leaving me here all alone (of course in Yiddish). Bube Chary was glad to leave Poland and go to her husband but heartbroken to leave the old lady alone.
In 1953 I met Ronnie and he at that time was working as a butcher for Yehuda and Philip Mittman. The sameYehuda absinthe above story. I got to know him very well. I want to draw a mental picture for you: when I met Mr. Mlttman he was (of course) an old man. He was about 6’ tall with a white beard about to mid chest. Zaidy on the other hand was about 5’3” small in stature and with a wispy beard, can you imagine what they looked like as young men?
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ANOTHER BUBE STORY |
Bube had a beautiful sense of humor. When I was about 8 year old, one day I came upstairs and said to her “Bube my friends want to know how come you are so much older than their grandmothers but you don’t have any gray hair in your head.” Her answer (in yiddish of course) was “Bring them up and I will show them.” That meant that she would remove the sheitel. She knew my answer would be OH NO because I was embarrassed that under her shaytel she was bald. Every month or so my mother would cut her hair and shave the top of her head. It somehow frightened me and I would hide in the bedroom under the down quilt that was about 6” thick. It was called an Iberbet. Surprisingly l never suffocated.
Fay Kessler Rosenfeld