Opoczno, 28 May 1927  

Most beloved and devoted brother, as well as nephew, and niece,
Sol and E. Zissman,  

I receive all your letters in the best of order and read them
with joy hearing that you are opening a second store in your own
building, that Ruchel is fine and that you and your wife are
well.  However, as to Bryndl's husband, you made a series of
dots, and I am particularly anxious to know what they indicate
because, dear Sol, you ought to know that I read every dot in a
letter of yours just as if I were in a conversation with you and
I were looking at you straight in the eye and seeing that you
are not too happy for some reason with the husband of your
sister, Bryndl.  

Even though one person doesn't concern himself with another
person in America because the freedom there gives each person a
right to conduct himself as his own understanding dictates,
nevertheless you are entitled, Sol, as an only brother of your
orphaned sister to indicate the appropriate path so she might
know how to avoid irritations and stresses in her family life. 
Although, if one has to convince someone of this, it's no
good...  However, sometimes understanding comes with age. 
They'll get older, become better acquainted with the world, with
the bad and with the good, then they will see each other's
mistakes.  

Dear brother Sol, you will surely be angry with me for my
recently having made you wait for an answer for twelve to
fourteen days.  You know very well that it is not my nature to
make you wait for an answer.  Furthermore, you do not deserve to
have me make you wait for an answer.  Second, it causes me
injury because if I do not write on a timely basis, I don't get
a timely answer.  You are, after all, a precise person.  You
won't fail to answer a letter, but if I don't answer you, you
won't ask what the reason is.  You'll think there, "Uncle Wolf
doesn't write, so things must be good.  Surely things must
really be 'all right' with my uncle.  So let him not write.  I'm
sick and tired of his letters of complaint."  

However, dear brother, before you judge someone's faults, you
should give him the benefit of the doubt.  If your Uncle Wolf
has not answered you recently, he is not completely insane;
also, his love for you has not cooled so quickly.  So, what is
it?  Quite simple.  Your uncle wants to write you better and
happier news.  However, since there are no such things, I keep
delaying and want to wait until a more favorable time.  But
don't think that, during the time I'm waiting, a minute or a
second goes by during which I forget you.  Not only I, but also
my sister.  First of all, we're sad and don't have anyone's
shoulder to cry on.  Second, a person of the type I found in
you, so empathetic a brother and friend, one cannot forget so
quickly. 

Now, I will set out the reasons for my making you wait for an answer.
Right after Passover, when I returned from Lodz, my sister had a
misfortune. As I have already written you in my earlier letter, her
youngest child died.  She was so distraught that she became ill and
was in bed for eight days.  You can imagine that this did not provide
me with any pleasure.  Then, one morning my brother-in-law awoke and
was not able to get out of bed because of a pain in his side.  We
called doctors, informed persons and just ordinary people, but no one
knew what it was.  I wanted to go with him to a hospital in Lodz, but
it was impossible.  One person said that it was nerves.  A second said
that it was his kidneys.  A third said it was a lung infection.  To be
brief, G-d helped.  A doctor came and prescribed a medicine, and he
felt a little better.  However, he hasn't worked for four weeks
because as soon as he gets close to the oven, the pain begins.  G-d
knows whether he will have to go to see a specialist because this is
an illness that prevents him from working.  I plan to go with him to
Lodz.  When I am in Lodz for Shevuos, I will go to a doctor with him,
a specialist, in case he needs, chas v'cholilah, an operation or might
have to go away to a spa for four weeks.

Meanwhile, my sister is going around all confused.  She is
making herself ill. She goes around saying that she has been
taken possession of by an evil eye. Believe me, Sol, I don't
know who might be envious of her or what there is about her to
be envious of.  What does she have?  Perhaps she can be envied
because she has enough bread and rolls to fill herself at a time
when Opoczno Jews are going hungry.  

Dear Sol, I have been in a variety of towns, but such a town
with such peasants that I see here is seldom to be found.  If
you want to become quite familiar with Opoczno, just call in
your father-in-law and he will portray the Jews of Opoczno for
you...  I am sending along a photograph of Opoczno peasants in
this letter.  How many enemies my brother-in-law has acquired
here during the time that he has had enough bread to fill
himself.  During the time that I have been here, he has acquired
bakers, enemies who would like to drown him.  As for me, I seek
all means of improving his business.  So, for example, I see to
it, as far as it is possible, that he has flour, especially good
flour.  Why not?  Isn't he worthy?  The bakers seek out
ways...they send thieves to steal.  They complain that he bakes
too much, and so on.  However, dear Sol, we don't adopt the
methods of the Opoczno Jews.  We work intensively, with all our
strength, and may G-d help us so that no one should be able to
do us any harm.  

Further, you certainly want to know what's going on in my
business.  So, dear Sol, I write you that recently business here
is so bad that I am not able to describe it.  Since the end of
Passover, there has been a shortage of grain.  In fact, there is
no grain to be found in Poland this year.  Also, in the coming
year, there will not be an abundant crop.  If I now relate to
you that this week we are milling corn from Chicago in the mill,
it will sound like a myth to you.  But that's the way the
situation is.  I am enclosing a newspaper article.  Read it, and
you will have a glimpse of the current situation in Poland!  In
our vicinity there is no corn; we have to bring it from Danzig,
from Posen, and so on.  

Business is so-so.  I have no way of knowing how I'm doing since
we're so involved and tied up with a variety of transactions,
purchases and sales, that we can't make a balance sheet. 
Second, these days I can't concentrate on the business because I
have aggravation respecting my brother-in-law.  Also, I have no
lack of trouble from home because my wife writes that my darling
Rifchele is in bed; she doesn't go to school, and the doctor has
become a regular guest who comes every day.  You can imagine
what it costs me.  All of my slaving away is to save my dear
child who is to me the "mirror" of my home.  May G-d help so
that her condition will improve; she will have to leave Lodz to
live in a village for the summer.  If it pleases G-d, I will go
home this week for Shavuos.  I'll try to put everything in
order.  

So, I have nothing more of importance to write.  Now you will
have an explanation for my silence.  I hope that you will
forgive me.  I ask you, dear Sol, to write a long letter to me
and also to my sister and Uncle Lazer about everything that is
doing with you, about your health, about the business, about
your in-laws, about your wife's health, sisters' health, father,
family, and so on.  Heartfelt regards to you and your wife.  My
sister, Uncle Lazer, my wife and children send heartfelt regards
to all.  Please answer promptly. Also write about what is
happening with respect to the flood in Mississippi. 

       With respect,                               

        Wolf Lewkowicz   

Please write to the earlier address of my brother-in-law,
Kaluzna 11, Opoczno.                             


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