Bubby's Early Years
This section will, unfortunately be short because it is not based on my
experience or memories of events in Bubby's early years. It is based on information and stories that I heard over the years. Some of it may not be
exact but it is my recollection of what was told to me. I probably should refer to my wife
as Bubby because many of you knew her by that name. But to me her name was, and
is, Rose ( ע"ה ). So if in the
following text you see "Rose" you can read it as Bubby or mom.
Rose's parents Yitzchak Meir Ekstein and Feiga, nee Haber were born and raised in Israel (then called Palestine). They were married around 1925 and their first child, Charles, was probably born in 1926. Rose's older sister, Adele, was born in November of 1928.
Sometime after Adele's birth the family emigrated to the United States. Around
the same time a brother of Feiga's, Oscar Haber, and his family also came to the
United States. And a number of Yitzchak Meir's married siblings and families also
emigrated to the United States. Nevertheless some members of the families
remained in Israel. In the case of the Ekstein family those remaining in Israel
have grown to quite a large number (בע"ה).
I assume that the motivation to come to the states was economics. Things were difficult in Palestine at that time and the country was under the control of the British who had received a mandate to rule from the League of Nations.
Rose's parents settled in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. And both Rose and her younger sister were born in Bethel Hospital today known as Brookdale. Rose was born on July 7, 1930, And sometime in the early 30's the family moved to Middletown, Connecticut. Again I assume the move was because of economics. There was the depression in America at that time. In Middletown the family had a large house with a porch. And Yitzchack Meir was the Shochet and the Chazzan for the community. It was a significant economic improvement for the family. As the Shochet he always kept his family supplied with meat even though meat was rationed during the war years, 1941-1945.
There was no yeshiva for the children to attend but I imagine
there must have been a Talmud Torah because even though there weren't many, if
any other, frum families the many secular Jews would want their sons to be "Bar
Mitzved". I don't know if Yitzchak Meir taught in the Talmud Torah but he
did give
private bar mitzvah lessons. He did spend time with his children teaching them
the fundamentals of Judaism. But that wasn't enough. Yitzchak Meir and Feiga saw
the effect that the public schools were having on their children. Rose told me
that she was taught Christmas carols in school and that some of her best friends
were not Jewish. I know from my personal observations that the effects on
the two older children, Charley and Adele, were very upsetting to their parents. Without strong support a
minority culture has difficulty surviving within a majority culture.
So in 1944 Rose's parents made a sacrifice and decided to leave a comfortable
life style for a place where there was a Jewish environment with the hope that
it would have a beneficial effect on their children. The move to the Brownsville
section of Brooklyn did have the desired results. Rose started the Thomas
Jefferson High School, located on Pennsylvania Avenue in the East New York
section of Brooklyn. She became friendly with a number of girls who were frum
and lived near her and also attended the same school. Her sister, Rachel, I
believe went to the Bais Yakov yeshiva for girls.
Her sister Adele was sixteen at the time and was living at home but Charley was in the army stationed in New Guinea in the Pacific.
Click here for page 5, The Years 1938-1946
