Lodz, 16 October 1929 My devoted and dear brother, as well as nephew, and niece, I have received your letter of September 8 as well as a check for $10. Now, my devoted one, I will relate the circumstances under which I received your letter. As you know from my earlier letter to you, I found myself in Opoczno during recent weeks. The reason for my being in Opoczno was as follows. As you know, I worked in a factory for about fifteen weeks. The reason that I was forced to start working in a factory is quite simple...the "successful" enterprises that I have engaged in recently... The work was too difficult for me and unbearable. Nevertheless, not having an alternative, I worked and suffered. Unexpectedly, my brother-in-law, Uncle Lazer, arrived from Opoczno to purchase products for the confectionery and saw me in the condition in which I came from work at 10:00 p.m.... He said, "Wolf, if you don't lay the factory to rest, the factory, chas v'cholilah, will lay you to rest. This is not suitable work for you." "Well, what solution is available?," I asked. To be brief, several days later I received two letters for me to come to Opoczno and that everything would be fine. Arriving in Opoczno, I saw that my brother-in-law had a very nice store, remodeled as a bakery. Wolfche is doing the baking, and they're beginning to sell. I said, "Yes, everything is fine and good, but what need is there for me?" So, Uncle Lazer described three plans to me that could be carried out. First, if I want, he will give me $3 a week, almost as much as I was making in the factory, and I would stay in and run the store; I would do the selling, deal with confectionery items and also sell bread and rolls, keep the place clean, etc., and Aunt Estherl would resume selling in the bakery as before. Second, I would stay in Opoczno, buy corn and mill it into flour, and Uncle Lazer would take the flour from me so that I would also be able to earn $3-$4 a week and not have to work so hard. The third plan is more desirable, but the problem is that it is more difficult to achieve. As you know, devoted Sol, they have given permission for Uncle (Lazer) to run the bakery for only one year. Six months have passed already and the deadline is approaching. The baker who remains with a kosher bakery will have a living in full measure, and the others will go out of business. Uncle Lazer has no desire to go out of business. After all, he's been a baker in Opoczno for seventeen years already, and the whole town says that Lazer the Baker's bakery goods are good. So there is a plan which he can carry out without a partner in his own house, where he now lives, which he inherited. There was already an engineer here who inspected, measured everything and said that if everything that he orders were done, he (Lazer) would remain a baker. To be brief, the remodeling will cost about 10,000 zlotys, i.e., about $1,100. It's possible, dear Sol, that Uncle Lazer has this much, may G-d be blessed. However, the problem is that he dare not and cannot use up to the last cent he has on remodeling. For example, this year it cost him 5,000 zlotys to buy and remodel the store. So he wants me to become his partner in the bakery and help him accomplish the remodeling. So, why me? Is there a shortage of partners in Opoczno??? The answer is that, first of all, he wants to have me close to him as a brother-in-law and as a partner. Secondly, he wants to assure my existence because he is not able to look on at the way that I suffer and struggle my whole life. Naturally, I am sure that Wolfche, living with me for a year's time, told him of my "successes" here in Lodz... In short, my devoted brother, I was in Opoczno for four weeks, even wrote you a letter from there and was waiting for your answer, for your reaction, to this matter. Unexpectedly, on a Monday during the week of Rosh Hashona, I received a telegram saying that I should come to Lodz immediately because my Balcia is seriously ill. I am enclosing the telegram as proof. I abandoned everything, and took the first train to Lodz. When I arrived home, I really found my Balcia lying in bed with an inflammation of the lungs and a fever of 40 degrees Centigrade (104 Fahrenheit). She had returned eight days earlier from a village where she stayed for three weeks for fresh air. Apparently she caught a cold and became seriously ill. It was a miracle that I happened to have money on me which I had taken along to buy products (for Lazer). As soon as it was light, I went to the outstanding lung specialist and retained him. Briefly, the specialist came. She made an examination and said to me: "If you want your child to remain alive, you must put her in the hospital immediately." There were tears and wailing in the house. However, I steeled myself as I was choking with tears. I appeared calm. I rushed around and didn't know where to go. I paid the specialist $5. At the hospital, I paid $18 for two weeks and (spent more money) here and there. To be brief, she slept in the hospital that same night. She was taken to the hospital at 7:00 p.m. with a temperature of 41 degrees Centigrade and unconscious. This was Thursday evening. I managed to wait until 6:00 in the morning on Friday, the day before Rosh Hashona, to call. However, there was no answer. I went there with Aunt, and we stood there trembling in order to learn how our child was, whether she was at least still alive. After waiting for two hours, we received the news that, with eleven injections, they kept her alive until dawn when she regained consciousness. I thanked the Creator of the World for His kindness and returned home. Arriving home, my Rifchele told me that a letter has been lying at the post office for more than eight days. It was necessary to pick it up. I understood that it must be a letter from you. I ran to the post office and, in fact, was given a letter from you which also contained the check for $10. I opened the letter and began to read your devoted and loving words to me, and I was so touched by your writing that the wells of my tears were opened, and I began to weep so that everyone in the post office was staring at me in astonishment...(wondering), chas v'cholilah, what had happened. However, try to explain to someone that my heart is full...that your words don't (simply) penetrate deep into my heart but, to speak plainly, you slice my wounds, knowing everything that I am going through. Sol, I only hope that, for every tear that I shed reading your letter, we may both have at least as many good years. Arriving home, I read your letter for Aunt Malke, and she didn't spare any tears over our bitter fate. To be brief, it is Rosh Hashona, and I am standing in the synagogue with a broken heart and I inquire of the Master of the World, "Tell me, by all means, for which of my sins...? How long must I continue to suffer, and why, and for what reason? Were things too good for me, too pleasant, so that my child had to become so ill? Don't forget, Master of the World, that she was supposed to be my fellow worker in order to make a living. And now, how do I pay for doctors and hospitals, thank G-d?" To make a long story short, I cried myself out a bit in synagogue and came home, tired and disheartened. Yet, it seemed to me that I felt somewhat better. On Rosh Hashona I was at the hospital. I saw Balcia, and she felt a little better. I remained in Lodz, not leaving for Opoczno. Sunday, the day before Yom Kippur, we were at the hospital again to see her. The doctors give us high hopes. They say that the crisis is over already but that she still needs the help of G-d. May G-d help me so that she is fully cured and comes home in peace because we are without strength to endure more. Today is Wednesday, two days after Yom Kippur, and I realized for the first time that I have to write you an answer. Until now, I didn't want to write to you since I was unwilling to sadden you because I cause you enough pain with my letters as it is. However, now that I see that my Balcia is somewhat better, I am writing you this letter, and if G-d, may He be blessed, will help me so that she comes home in peace, I will write you another letter!!! Regarding your question to me as to how to answer Berish, it will be enough for you to read through this letter, and also the condition of our child doesn't permit any discussion at this time!!! As far as Reuben's letter to your grandmother and grandfather, I have no right to involve myself in unfamiliar problems. As to your purchase of fifteen shares of stock from a Wall Street bank, don't aggravate yourself because just as it fell in price by $60, it can rise in value by $120. A businessman must be patient and steadfast, although I have read in the newspaper many times that the Americans are such extraordinary speculators that it sometimes happens that during the course of a single month one can lose his entire fortune that he earned over a period of decades, or on the other hand, if fortune smiles, one can become wealthy in a short time. What can I wish you, my devoted one, because of your meritorious action in assisting people in need? May you have good fortune so that you will become wealhy and so that no one in the world will be able to do you any harm. Your competitors who open businesses near you will one day ask you to buy their businesses, just as the fool did two years ago. Further, a new year has begun with new perspectives. Surely you presented your budget to the Master of the World on Yom Kippur. You will surely be inscribed for a successful, healthy year and a comfortable living as well!!! Now, my devoted one, as to registering my Joseph so that he will be able to leave five or six years from now, yes, this is a good plan. If there is any possibility for it, I am prepared to do it, but write me what to do. If it's up to you, register him. He is now nine years and three months old. He was born in July or August of 1920!!! Now, my devoted and dear brother, write me advice as to what I should do about Opoczno because I plan to go to Opocno during the intermediate days of Succoth or immediately after Succoth. Write me whether you are in accord with my becoming a partner of Uncle Lazer. If I were to be in Opoczno over the winter and until Passover, I would relocate with my family. However, above all I must know whether I have something to rely on from you and the extent to which you will be helpful to us in effecting the remodeling. Keep in mind that the money that I invest should be (transferred) on the condition that whenever I might want to leave the business and go into business for myself, Uncle Lazer will make a payment (of my share) and not force me to remain in the partnership. In a word, dear and devoted Sol, consider what I have written, as well as what Uncle Lazer has written and express your honest opinion. Perhaps, at last, this will be the effective help and effective assistance toward a secure business. It does, after all, have possibilities. I am not, after all, going to wheel and deal with the money. Instead, Uncle Lazer will take the money; he does not need it, chas v'cholilah, for food. Rather, we want to be assured that in the future we will be able to send you the money with heartfelt thanks. Furthermore, you once wrote me that I should guarantee on my word of honor that the money is not beyond recovery. So I and Uncle (Lazer) will guarantee you on our word of honor that whatever condition you impose upon us we will do our utmost to satisfy and to effectuate in our lives. I will expect an answer to my current letter in Opoczno. So, heartfelt regards for you, your worthy wife, dear son, sisters, father, and family. Aunt Malke, Balcia, Rifchele and Joseph send their heartfelt regards to all. From me, your uncle, Wolf Lewkowicz The address in Opoczno is: Lazer Chmielnicki Kaluzna 11 Opoczno, Poland All material Copyright 1995 by Marshall L. Zissman and Sol J. Zissman.