pass gefilte fish

Pass the Gefilte Fish

Yes I know it is way too early for Passover, but I think my brain

turned to matzoh by Friday between a very long week at work

(considering it was a short week due to the Monday holiday), and my

zeal to get out a bunch of posts on the state of the Bush economy.

Enough economic lessons for the week.

So you are stuck with family history

To the left is my great-grandfather Philip (his actual name is

Fizschel). He was born in Lask, Poland in May 1866. His parents were

Heschel and Sarah, both born in Russia. Sarah was born in 1843.

He married Klara Jacobowitz, my great-grandmother, in 1887. She was

also born in Lask on March 10, 1867 to Meier and Lena Kelvner. Philip

and Klara had 5 kids -- Harry (my grandfather), Lena, Max, David and

Chava - all born in Lask.

Philip emigrated around 1900. There is no record of him at Ellis

Island or any landing visas anywhere. For all I know he could have

been illegal. (So Tom Tancredo, send me back to Poland)

Harry emigrated by himself at age 14 to the US via Ellis Island on

April 17, 1902.

Klara and the 4 other kids landed on Ellis Island on March 15, 1904,

where she joined her husband and Harry. They all resided initially on

Orchard Street (heart of the Manhattan's Lower East Side). Philip died

on May 7, 1922. Klara died on June 14, 1945.

Amazingly I have Klara's landing papers, both their death

certificates, Philip's birth certificate (in Polish) and their

marriage certificate in Russian and Yiddish. Some Catholic Churches in

Poland apparently took upon themselves to hide and store a lot of the

records of the Jews when the Nazis invaded in 1939. You can actually

request the certificates via the Mormon Church (I guess that means I

should vote for Mitt).

Harry married Esther Silverstein on July 6, 1913 in Brooklyn, New York

(pictured on right). Esther was born December 3, 1890 in New York

City. She used to claim she was born in Austria, but all records seem

to indicated NYC.

Her parents were Benjamin Silverstein and Ella Weiss, both born in

Galicia (which was part of Austria-Hungary at that time) in the

1860's. Benjamin had to die before 1928 since my father is named after

him (the Jewish tradition) and Ella died in the 1930's -- no one seems

to remember when. The Silversteins had nine kids, the oldest being my

grandmother and the youngest, Selma born July 1905. Selma is still

alive and kicking up a storm at 102.

One side note. The marriage record seems to indicate Benjamin and Ella

were married in 1891. Which means Esther was born out of "wedlock."

Either one of those dates is wrong or Benjamin and Ella were just

years ahead of their time.

Harry died on July 4, 1971. Esther died October 15, 1974. They are

both buried in Beth David Cemetery right near Belmont Race Track -- so

my grandfather can for all eternity watch the ponies race.

They lived off Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn - on East 5th Street. The

stoop to get to the apartment had the steepest stairs. The apartment

was a railroad flat -- meaning you had to walk through one room to get

to another. You walked into the kitchen (which was in the back), which

led to the bedroom, which led to some "other" room like a den, which

led to the living room (in the front). The bathroom was right off the

kitchen. Make that right in the kitchen. Didn't make the kitchen an

appetizing place to eat.

My grandmother was the world's worst cook. This was the woman who

boiled lamp chops since she wouldn't turn on the oven. She also make

meat balls in a frying pan. One year she tried to make gefilte fish

(which is basically carp, pike and some other fish) by bringing home

whole fish and storing them in the bath tub. Gefilte fish is really

difficult and time consuming to make. And it stinks. The omnipresent

can of silverware sat on the table -- the can with the stolen

restaurant utensils (Lundy's, Junior's, Schrafft's Woolworth's to name

a few). She also used Kosher salt in everything - there was always a

huge box sitting on the counter. Once I remember her throwing in salt

while she made chocolate pudding. Lunch was often spaghetti and a can

of tomato sauce with the fried meat balls -- plain canned tomato

sauce. Not marinara. She only bought white bread and always cut the

crust off the sides. She also liked cream cheese and olive sandwiches

and would always make me one (on the bread without the crust). Don't

ask what that tasted like. Sometimes she would splurge and get bagels

and whitefish. A whole whitefish -- which at age 7 or 8 I found hard

to take the bones out of. She also loved Ritz Crackers and had a whole

cabinet full of them.

The photo above is Passover 1952 on East 2nd Street and Avenue A

(where my father grew up). This is pre-Distributorcap, so of course I

have no recollection of this place 8-). Pictured is Uncle Marvin, my

Grandfather, my father, my Grandmother. The fancy hats as opposed to

yarmulkes I guess were the fashion statement of the time.