My Bubbe and Jossel Weinstein
I never knew my mother's younger brother, Jossel. In fact, I had never
even heard about him until after my mother died. In 1908 my grandmother,
Celia, came to the United States accompanied by her 3 children, Ida, 8
yrs., Bessie, 6 years, and Jossel, 4 years. The family came from a small
shtetl in Russia called Kryve Ozero or Krevozer, as the Jews knew it.
She came to join her husband, Isadore, who had come 5 years earlier to
get a job and find a place for the family to live. They were actually
very lucky for Bubbe had a brother who had come to the U.S.A. earlier
and became very wealthy. He then bought houses for the rest of his
siblings that numbered about 8. As each family came to Brooklyn Uncle
Sol would buy them a house in which to settle. I actually lived in this
house in an apartment on the second floor until I was 9 years old. When
my bubbe arrived in Ellis Island with the children she and Jossel were
put in the hospital and soon after she and the 3 children were deported
back to Russia. Two years later, I found out from an old ship's
manifest, Bubbe and the two girls returned without Jossel. I can only
assume that Jossel died in Russia. No one in the family ever spoke about
him again. I would imagine the memories of that time were too awful for
them to think about. I have been doing a lot of research on the late
1800s and early 1900s in Eastern Europe and life there, as far as I can
tell, was awful for the Jews. It must have been very frightening for my
Bubbe to be sent back to Russia with 3 young children after coming here.
She had been separated from her husband for so many years. I remember
Bubbe was a saint. She died when I was 12 years old and I still vividly
recall spending lots of time in her very old fashioned kitchen watching
her cook and bake. She fed the homeless that would come to her house and
took in stray animals. Her mantra was that we could not eat till the
animals were fed. I still miss her. She was a brave wonderful lady.