Lodz, 28 April 1935

Devoted and beloved brother, as well as nephew, and niece and
son,

I have received your letter of April 4, as well as newspapers,
as well as $2 from Leonard.  Reading your last letter, dear Sol,
I see that you had sent me a long and important letter. 
However, unfortunately, I never received it!  I don't know whom
to blame.  I was at the post office yesterday to inform myself
why the letter was lost, but they don't know anything about a
letter.  It's possible that it never arrived in Poland.  I'm
really aggravated about it even though your last letter, Sol,
calmed me a bit.  However, you can't know how I suffered
recently over not having received a letter from you.  Imagine,
Sol, you wrote a letter three months ago, Ruth too, that you're
going to New York (and that) when you returned home, you would
write me all about your trip, your impressions, experiences,
about David Skorka, etc.  It turned out that one, two and three
months passed, and there was no letter.  Well?  Is it any wonder
that I started to worry about G-d knows what has happened there?
 I became so nervous and upset that I simply couldn't fall
asleep because of the concern.  Arriving home from my hard work
every day, when I crossed the threshold of my home, my first
question was whether a letter had come from Sol.

I was even more concerned when I noted that money came but that
newspapers dated from January 19-20 to February 6 didn't come. 
This was not comprehensible to me at all.  However, when you
sent the next (package of) newspapers with a note enclosed to my
Joseph in your own handwriting, I calmed down a bit, and
immediately wrote you my letter to which I received an answer
the day before yesterday.  

Dear Sol, I received your last letter the last day of Passover
just as I came home from the synagogue where I said the memorial
prayers for my parents, daughter and sister, may they rest in
peace...  Whether I want to or not, Sol, when it comes to
reciting the memorial prayers...although I am not a child and
also not an old woman for whom there is never a shortage of
tears...yet no matter how much I want to control myself, no
matter how much I want to remain unmoved, I shed tears. 
Sometimes I still seek for, and reflect upon, the reasons that
cause the tears to flow.  I have come to the conclusion that
everything that was dear to me, all of this, makes me unable to
forget.  However, my troubles, everything that I have undergone,
my loneliness, call forth my tears from time to time.

Therefore, dear Sol, arriving home on the holiday and finding a
letter to me from you, I wept profusely.  I read your
warmhearted letter in which you write that your entire family
opposes you.  They are simply envious; they begrudge the fact
that you bought a house, that you went to New York for a
vacation, that you opened a bakery, etc.  Then I read how you
celebrated your son's sixth birthday, how you took him to Hebrew
School, are raising him as a Jew, want him to be aware of, and
to know, everything.  Yes, Sol, your letter, your words, I read
and understand every word, the import of every word, so that I
know everything that is taking place with you there...  

From my perspective, I can only say that you should not dwell
too much on your former home because, once your mother died and
left you children, you also lost your home because what sort of
a home can it be without a mother...  The home becomes even
worse when a "horse," as you say, replaces a person...  So, as
long as you were young, didn't understand your situation,
everything was in order.  However, as soon as you began to
understand, to comprehend, that the treatment you received was
not like that of genuine parents you initiated a battle for your
rights.  

You, Sol, are the hero and want the world to see, to empathize,
with you.  I understand you.  You would like to expose your
heart, to show everyone your wounds which (the death of) your
mother, may she rest in peace, inflicted upon your youthful
hearts.  And although such wounds are not capable of being
healed...nevertheless, it angers you that your father and his
whole family, rather than standing at your side with a word of
encouragement, with assistance, with balm for your wounds,
instead align themselves to bar your path, to oppose you, and
are simply envious of your accomplishments and your heroic
bearing.  

I write again, Sol, don't concern yourself too much with your
father's family.  Thank G-d that you can manage without any of
them there.  You are smart and sensible enough to establish your
home in such a way that your dear wife and your dear son will be
your comfort.  I hope that everything that you do for your
family, for your sisters, as well as for me, all of this (which)
is prescribed by your own common sense, by your own intellect,
may all of this which you do for those who are close to you be a
good example which they can examine and recognize that you live
not only for yourself and personal enjoyment...  as is said, 
"...not by bread alone does man live, rather by everything that
emanates from the mouth of G-d..."  It's not just now.  Jealousy
has always existed in the world.  There's an old saying that
it's better for someone to be jealous of you than, chas
v'cholilah, to pity you!  You know what, Sol?  I, your uncle, am
not at all jealous of you.  To the contrary, everytime that you
may write me (in the future) that have bought a house, a
business, or that you have entered into an enterprise, I will
send you my blessing enthusiastically, and this time, dear Sol,
even though I don't have the earlier letter and don't know under
what arrangements you purchased your house, nevertheless I wish
from the bottom of my heart that you will be successful and will
prosper.  May you be so successful in all your endeavors that
everyone who opposes you and is envious of you should have good
cause to be envious of you...  

I looked at the pictures of your newly purchased bakery and am
amazed at how nicely it is built, well tended, in accord with
the latest hygienic style.  It seems to me, Sol, that you and
Ruchel are standing in the store.  You look so bad that I simply
don't recognize you.  Ruchel also looks very bad.  What's the
reason for your both looking bad?  Your darling, Leonard, looks
best and most attractive.  The little "watchman," as you call
him, is really cute in his suit, in his manner, the six-year-old
American.  For his birthday, I wish him a good rearing, good
deeds, good health, and may all of his paths be successful. 
Joseph and Rifkele thank him for the $2.  They write a few words
of their own here.  

Now then, Sol, what else shall I write you?  I think that that
will be enough for today, although I don't tire of writing to
you, and I never lack for material to write about. 
Nevertheless, I will end this letter because it's late already;
it's 2:00 a.m.  I beg you, Sol, not to make me wait for an
answer.  Rather, answer me right away about everyone and
everything...because I am so anxious to know everything.  I am
so aggravated that the earlier letter was lost that I can't
describe it.  In order to demonstrate how dear and precious your
letters are to me, I am also enclosing a portion of a letter
which you wrote me ten years ago.  It was a month after your
marriage and already at that time, dear Sol, ten years ago, you
had already suffered; you had had a number of setbacks,
involving two autos, falling with another child from a second
story, a wagon, a basement, an eye, kicked by a horse, etc. 
Nevertheless, Sol, you remained on your feet like a cat...  I
hope that this time too you will be successful in overcoming,
and bearing up under, all your heavy burdens that you carry on
your shoulders.

So, dear Sol, I have nothing more of importance concerning me to
relate to you.  This was a very difficult and tragic winter for
me.  My daughter, Rifkele, was in bed for more than six weeks;
she had a cold and the grippe.  It's not enough that we struggle
to make a living, we also have to contend with doctors...  This
is the worst thing that can befall a poor person.  Thank G-d,
she is now feeling better.  She is up and around, but I have to
try to send her away for fresh air somewhere in the country
because she has not fully recovered.  Further, as to Aunt Malke,
you know, after all.  Not terribly ill, chas v'cholilah, but not
fully well.  She groans constantly; she is in bed more than she
is up

(Write me) what's new with you as to health, making a living,
etc.  Also write me about your trip to New York.  What sort of a
time did you have there, and how long were you there, and what
sort of impression did New York make on you?  Write me about
what you saw, heard, and spoke about me with David Skorka.  Also
write me about the whole family, what's new with everyone and
everything, because I am very anxious and impatient to hear.

So, I close my letter with heartfelt regards for you, your wife
and son, sisters, father, uncles, et al.  My wife, as well as my
daughter, Rifkele, and my son, Joseph, send heartfelt regards. 
The whole family sends heartfelt regards to everyone.  When I
receive an answer to my letter from you, I will immediately
write you a letter in expanded form, with all the details.  I
will also write you about the money I received.  For now,
heartfelt thanks for your generosity.  Your uncle, who is
waiting for a letter impatiently. 

		Wolf Lewkowicz


All material Copyright 1995 by Marshall L. Zissman and Sol J. Zissman.