Hi Ralph! Thanks very much for the kind words and for your subscription. Your own family history is fascinating and I want to learn more. Jo and I are in Berlin— my first visit —and it has been impossible for me to separate the past from the present. While away I have scheduled two more posts to be published one of which is about “Sunday School.” My Jewish identity has been shaped by experiences both imposed and sought after. Thanks again for reconnecting!
Bravo! Peter. A lovely concise telling of your family history. The truth in such matters lies often behind a scrim of unsuspecting imagination and cataracts.
In my case, I was 14, a freshman at George School in 1959 when I ventured to the back of our then modest library and opened the S volume of an old Britannica and turned to my last name. There I was surprised to find a pen + ink drawing of one Herbert Louis Samuel who was described only as the leader of the English Liberal Party. (If you know anything about Viscount Sir Herbert, as he came to be after serving as the 1st Governor General of Palestine, you will have realized just how ancient was that Britannica.) His image looked remarkably like my grandfather, Ralph E. Samuel, who I knew as 'Papa," and who lived in Manhattan. I recalled a great deal had been made of events in the early 1950s when Papa served as the Chairman of the "Tercentenary of Jews in America." My parents traveled from our Bucks County farm up to New York City for both opening and closing dinners one of which featured President Ike as keynoter. (I still have a copy of Ike's 3 column photo with Papa from page one of the Herald Tribune the next day.) Then in 1959 I told Dad about finding the entry about Herbert and he said only that Papa once told him Herbert was a distant relative. So I came to know a little about my Samuel relations, but just enough for me to keep an eye out for more. And eventually, in a very Shakespearean twist in a pre-class bull session at The New School Graduate Faculty in 1969 I was introduced to a long deceased "perhaps" relative, Sol Wahl Katzenellenbogen (1541-1617) who was reputed to have been the only Jewish King of Poland, and then only very briefly. But that's the beginning of another story for another day.
My go-to friend for Yiddish says it means "I'm coming home for this??."
Nadine liked this letter also. Her grandfather was named Naftali. Her parents spoke yiddish at home when they didn't want the kids to know what they were talking about, but of course the kids did understand...at least a lot.
When I lived in Israel a comedian once came to our kibbutz and he had an unusual shtick. He would tell a story in Hebrew but deliver its punchline in Yiddish. The older members who came to Israel from Europe would laugh. The sabras would not since they knew no Yiddish. There would be a pause while the younger members queried their elders for the translation.
Loved this one! My grandparents lived on Eckert Ave. also. And the stores part was such a deja vu for anyone from the same era as you. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Yes, I think it was a fairly Jewish street at that time. Downtown Reading when we were kids was movie theaters and soft pretzel carts. I'd go back to those times in a second. Hope you and yours are happy and well.
Hi Ralph! Thanks very much for the kind words and for your subscription. Your own family history is fascinating and I want to learn more. Jo and I are in Berlin— my first visit —and it has been impossible for me to separate the past from the present. While away I have scheduled two more posts to be published one of which is about “Sunday School.” My Jewish identity has been shaped by experiences both imposed and sought after. Thanks again for reconnecting!
Best,
Peter
Bravo! Peter. A lovely concise telling of your family history. The truth in such matters lies often behind a scrim of unsuspecting imagination and cataracts.
In my case, I was 14, a freshman at George School in 1959 when I ventured to the back of our then modest library and opened the S volume of an old Britannica and turned to my last name. There I was surprised to find a pen + ink drawing of one Herbert Louis Samuel who was described only as the leader of the English Liberal Party. (If you know anything about Viscount Sir Herbert, as he came to be after serving as the 1st Governor General of Palestine, you will have realized just how ancient was that Britannica.) His image looked remarkably like my grandfather, Ralph E. Samuel, who I knew as 'Papa," and who lived in Manhattan. I recalled a great deal had been made of events in the early 1950s when Papa served as the Chairman of the "Tercentenary of Jews in America." My parents traveled from our Bucks County farm up to New York City for both opening and closing dinners one of which featured President Ike as keynoter. (I still have a copy of Ike's 3 column photo with Papa from page one of the Herald Tribune the next day.) Then in 1959 I told Dad about finding the entry about Herbert and he said only that Papa once told him Herbert was a distant relative. So I came to know a little about my Samuel relations, but just enough for me to keep an eye out for more. And eventually, in a very Shakespearean twist in a pre-class bull session at The New School Graduate Faculty in 1969 I was introduced to a long deceased "perhaps" relative, Sol Wahl Katzenellenbogen (1541-1617) who was reputed to have been the only Jewish King of Poland, and then only very briefly. But that's the beginning of another story for another day.
My go-to friend for Yiddish says it means "I'm coming home for this??."
Nadine liked this letter also. Her grandfather was named Naftali. Her parents spoke yiddish at home when they didn't want the kids to know what they were talking about, but of course the kids did understand...at least a lot.
When I lived in Israel a comedian once came to our kibbutz and he had an unusual shtick. He would tell a story in Hebrew but deliver its punchline in Yiddish. The older members who came to Israel from Europe would laugh. The sabras would not since they knew no Yiddish. There would be a pause while the younger members queried their elders for the translation.
Loved this one! My grandparents lived on Eckert Ave. also. And the stores part was such a deja vu for anyone from the same era as you. Hope all is well with you and your family.
Yes, I think it was a fairly Jewish street at that time. Downtown Reading when we were kids was movie theaters and soft pretzel carts. I'd go back to those times in a second. Hope you and yours are happy and well.