| Len's uncle
Judah's mother
My mother remained a widow after my father passed away when I was about two years old. My mother was almost lost after my father's death. She didn't know where to turn for help, what to do. She was left with two children, and materially almost helpless. All she had left was a great big house, which a third of it was finished, completed. Two-thirds were to be finished, but my father died right in the middle of it, and the house was never finished. I forgot to mention that this big house was built after the so-called “big fire” that my little town suffered.
So my mother was looking for something to do to earn a livelihood
for her children and herself. Since my father was a public
man, a public servant, rather—he was a rabbi for a few years,
and the income of a rabbi were several things that the people
of the community had to buy from the rabbi, and thereby made
his livelihood. They had to buy yeast from him for the Sabbath
because every woman was making her Challa, the white bread
of the Sabbath. They had to buy from him candles. Every woman
was lighting candles by the night. They had to buy from the
rabbi wine for Passover, or maybe for the Sabbaths throughout
the year, and honey. And they had to buy from him the etrog
and the lulav that the Jewish people used to use on the holiday
of Succoth, Tabernacles.
The community of my town gave mother the monopoly of yeast,
whereas the rest of the monopolies were given to the rabbi.
That was his livelihood. I forgot to mention also with regard
to the slaughtering of chickens and calves, cows, and so forth,
the butchers had to go to the rabbi to get a note from him,
and then they would give it to the religious slaughterer—to
the shochet, and that was also the rabbi's income. All those
were retained by the rabbi, with the exception of yeast.
A short time after that, my mother met the rabbi. The monopoly
of yeast: she gave it up. She said she wasn't going to do
it. She doesn't care for it anymore. But eventually she had
to do something, so she turned to baking bread. And she baked
bread to sell. She used to carry the bread out to the market,
and sell it in the market. In order to bake the bread, she
had to rise very, very early. I recall my mother rising when
I was still in bed, and I recall her being bent over the tub,
and kneading the dough. I recall her whispering prayers slowly,
quietly, whisperingly, pleading with God to take care of her
little birds.
Well, my mother had to look for something else to do in order
to earn her livelihood, so she planted a garden. We had a
lot of space, a lot of land, and we had a very, very fine
garden, all kinds of vegetables. She was selling them. But
she couldn't do so well, because half of it, she used to give
away. I remember a woman who was a widow, poor, and she didn't
have any money. She didn't have any money to buy vegetables
with, and so my mother would give me a package or bundle to
take here or there, or so forth.
But my mother barely, barely maintained herself, and she
lived. Well, later on when we started growing up, we started
earning a little. Not too much, but enough to send to mother,
and enough to sustain ourselves, my brother and myself.
Now, my mother, she was a very fine woman, aloah hashalom,
may she rest in peace. She suffered a lot, struggled a great
deal, tried to make a living, tried to raise her two children.
She had two children with my father. My father had several
other children of a former marriage. After my father's death,
my mother attempted many, many things in order to make
a livelihood, to support us.
My mother loved to read a lot. Some people said she was a “modern” woman. Some of the very pious, elderly women called her “modern.” In Yiddish, they would say “a heintzediker” It means “of this present day.” She loved, I remember, novels. Read a lot. I had a Jewish newspaper. She would save every penny in order to have a paper, trying to learn the news of the day. She was very helpful to others, with others. Whatever we had, when we had a garden, she used to get some corn, and tell me to take it to this or that one. They were very poor, widows who barely maintained themselves, barely had a livelihood. She would send some... We had a cow, so we had our own milk, and she would send a pitcher of milk, telling me to take it here or there. She worried for us, very much. She wanted us to get a Jewish bringing up, and have a Jewish education. She sent us to very fine teachers.
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