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As
immigration split families, mail helped them keep in
touch....
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[Postcard]
Actually, this evening as I was mailing this
letter, we received this photograph of
Lipne from a photographer, so we are
sending you this
as an eternal memento
for my dear, not forgotten
sister, Molleh,
[from her] sister Hodes Zamoyskevitsh
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With the
help of G-d Tuesday, September 9,
[750?]
Dear and faithful Nachum. It was only 10
minutes ago that I received your dear letter
together with the card of best wishes. I am
writing this letter because while writing a
few words I read through a far longer
letter. You can just imagine how happy
I am whenever I hear a few words from my
dear brother’s children. Unfortunately I
usually don’t have the fortune for getting a
letter from anyone of the children. It
is entirely possible that they don’t know
how to write Yiddish, and they know that I
don’t know English. So they just don’t write
at all. And this is how a person becomes
alienated from one’s own flesh and blood. My
sister-in-law, may she be well and strong,
has never written to us. At that time there
was still someone to write to, but now…..
dear Nachum, it’s nice that you still
think about me and my children, and Chava’s
children. I think that there were never any
better friends than me. And what comes
out of one’s heart can never be uprooted. I
just regret that so much time has gone by,
and we have still not seen each other. That
is really unbelievable. I have already been
in America 4 times. Should I have gone
looking for you? Maybe I actually should
have, but I just never had the possibility
to do so. Especially regarding material
needs. Even my own children were not in a
situation to give me money to travel.
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I couldn’t even ask my own sister,
and with everything I have heard about your
own material situation perhaps you also
were unable to come. It couldn’t happen even
with our very best intentions. I suffered from
it so much but remained silent. Did I not want
to see Sarah? Until the children left for
America they were always together. I loved the
children like my own life!! Over all the years
when they were in America they forgot
everything. And time does its thing.
People get busy with their own things and end
up forgetting other people. That’s the way the
world is, and every individual is his own
world. Dear Nahum, I can tell you just one
thing: that after Hitler I kept up my life as
far as was possible. But one thing that I
didn’t [sic] encounter with my second
marriage- that G-d I was freed, and now
I am that G-d happy. Also, my own children,
Fella and Sarah are in Canada making a
livelihood, thank G-d. They have, thank G-d
very fine family and bright children, and they
write to me. Fella comes to visit me from time
to time, she has the time to do it. Her
daughter visited me for [illegible words].
Chava’s children are very fine people in the
full sense of the word. They got married well,
and thank G-d they too have very fine
children. I don’t live too far from Chava’s
daughter, and she is a faithful daughter to
me. Now, dear Nachum, please come for a
visit with Sarah in Israel. It was always your
eternal aspiration. You will be our dear
guests. Please give my warmest regards and
best wishes to my sister-in-law and everyone
in the family for the new year. May we all be
able to be together again. Regards to your
brother Moritz and his wife. Please write
back. From your neighbor and her father,
Rivka.
Translation
by David Goldman
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Sometimes news came from the local Jewish newspaper:
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At Skempe
(near Lipno, Poland)
the authorities averted a pogrom attempt
by peasants against the Jews,
but the soldiers subsequently attacked
those in the synagogue and broke up
its furniture and belongings. They
wished to set fire to the synagogue, but
the Christian neighbors objected to
such a course, fearing that the
conflagration
might spread. Many Jews
were, however, beaten, and a number
of houses and shops were plundered.
At the request of the Rabbi, the district
authorities were summoned to
Skempe from Lipno.
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Jewish
Criterion Vol. 51 no. 27 Date:
8/29/1919
To read the page click here.
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