Lodz, 27 February 1929

Beloved and precious brother, as well as nephew,

Two weeks ago I wrote you a long letter from Opoczno.  I was
there for eight days.  Surely you are aware of everything by
this time because I wrote to you about everything.  Yes, devoted
Sol, I didn't have enough of my own problems.  It appears that
the Master of the universe does not neglect our family.  Aunt
Estherl has really been presented with a problem now that is
very difficult to solve.  

A person, I mean my brother-in-law, Uncle Lazer, who has been a
baker since his marriage  and works hard at his trade; provides
for a wife and six young children; has a nice home; donates to
worthwhile causes in town; isn't stingy with a zloty, as is
sometimes the case in a small town, but has a good heart, an
open hand.  So, for example, he recently contributed 1,000
zlotys toward his sister's dowry.  He is not a very wealthy man,
but always, for his whole life, he has been content, and has an
estate of about 10,000 zlotys, i.e., $1,200.  And a story with a
bakery pops up.  The Polaks can't abide his baking the same way
his grandfather baked.  Instead, they declare his bakery to be
defective and shut down his oven and require that he should set
up a hygienic and mechanized bakery.  I have already written to
you that, after the application of great influence, Jewish civic
intermediaries, they permitted him to bake again, but only for a
few months, until summer.

Now one's head is pressured with what to do.  What sort of
solution is available?  The deadline is approaching.  I am more
than certain that this summer they will close it for good, chas
v'cholilah.  My sister knows only one thing, to cry as all women
do.  She writes letters to me here that tear at my heart but,
devoted and dear Sol, how can I help them at a time when I
myself need help?  Believe me, devoted and beloved one, I
dislike crying or complaining to anyone, but there is no harm if
I unburden myself to you.  

Since I returned from Opoczno, after terminating the partnership
in the mill, I have suffered one blow after another.  So, for
example, when I returned home I found my wife ill, in bed.  And
when one has to deal with doctors, you can imagine how pleasant
it was for me.  Thank G-d, it passed without an operation.  Then
my sister sent me an ailing young girl, Bruchele, who also
didn't provide me with any pleasure lying here for fourteen
weeks.  Then I went into a potato deal with a partner; I lost
$80.  Then the misfortune I had with my Joseph.  Thank G-d that
he wasn't left crippled.  He is walking normally and is
completely recovered, may G-d be blessed.  

So, my dear and devoted one, we have to accept everything calmly
and be able to endure everything.  It's no wonder that one's
head is pressured; one has no steady income, one lives on deals
made out of air; one hopes for a miracle every day in order to
earn something, ten zlotys.  One goes out into the street with
the hope of stumbling upon something, but unfortunately for the
last three months in Poland it's been impossible to earn
anything because the frosts have completely disrupted all
business enterprises.  The roads are blocked by great snow
storms.  Businessmen from outlying areas cannot come (into
Lodz); therefore, the harm falls on a small manufacturer, a
worker, a small businessman, a customer peddler, etc.  To put it
briefly, there is a terrible crisis in Lodz currently.  The
season should be in full swing now.  It turns out that the
factories have to stand down for a variety of reasons, such as
shortages of coal, water, etc.  Everyday we wait for the sun to
shine.  However, unfortunately, e.g., the barometer (sic) reads
10-12 degrees below zero the last few days, and now as I write
you this letter it is back to 18 below.  Tonight it will surely
be 25 degrees below.  It's a pity to witness how people are
standing in the frost in line (to buy) a 1/4 of a measure of
coal.  I am enclosing a newspaper article indicating the
situation in Warsaw.  It's no better in the rural areas as far
as coal is concerned.  The Saturday that I was in Opoczno, Lazer
stood in line from 5 in the morning until noon before he secured
two 16-kilogram containers of coal.  However, at least there is
wood in a bakery.

Well, dear Sol, I have bothered you so with coal that I've
forgotten what I was talking about.  Although, Sol, in my
earlier letter from Opoczno, I have already written about what
we're dealing with, I do not know how you will approach the
whole situation.  It's possible that you will react to the whole
thing cold-bloodedly.  You'll think to yourself, "So, if I have
money, don't I have any project in Chicago?  Must I start out
looking in Opoczno?"  So, my devoted and beloved one, I beg you
to reflect seriously because we are not, after all, going to
take your money and, chas v'cholilah, use it for living
expenses; rather we are going to enlarge it; it will become
basic capital, and it will be repaid in a systematic fashion. 
You know very well, devoted Sol, that I would not, chas
v'cholilah, lead you into quicksand, particularly when my
existence is involved.  Believe me, I reconsidered it a thousand
times before I began to write that letter to you because I know
very well that you are bright and logical.  I consider a hundred
times whether I have a right to ask you for a dollar of yours
that you earn there with sweat.  

However, precious and devoted brother, I feel and am convinced
that you want to help your uncle.  You yourself wrote that if I
am prepared to leave for Canada, you are standing by with help. 
And you yourself know how much my trip would have to cost you,
Sol.  Then there would be a new chapter with bringing a family. 
And can I be sure that I will find good fortune in Canada, just
as I am not positive that I will be able to make a living in
Opoczno.  According to reason, I should be able to make it in
Opoczno.  First of all, it's bread, a daily requirement; second,
an existence; third, minimal expenses in a small town, etc, etc.
 What do you think I'm trying to achieve, Sol?  After all, I'm
not a young man.  I'm 45 already.  My desire is to have my
children married and to live out my remaining years, but not to
be tormented, because the way it is now is torment.  

So, devoted Sol, my going into partnership with Uncle Lazer now
is dependent on you.  If you are agreeable, I will be his
partner, i.e., if you are willing to contribute my partnership
share.  You will not be at risk because we can give you a first
mortgage, and I am more than certain that once we have finished
the building, we will be able to borrow a larger sum in order to
cover (the amount of) your loan.  We don't intend, chas
v'cholilah, to deprive you of such a sum because we know very
well that you are an ordinary person in Chicago.  It's simply
that we are not able to borrow such an amount and you can secure
it there more easily, even if there is interest involved.  And
if not, chas v'cholilah, I don't know what we will be forced to
do, perhaps to go elsewhere in the world to seek a living.  But
where should one go when the world is barricaded?  I am
prevented from going to Canada because the in-laws write very
sad letters of how bad it is there, and they want to return but
don't have the means to pay for the cost of travel.  Berish
wrote me a letter recently, as a sham, that the only thing he
can do is to send documents for my Balcia.  Well?  Do you think
that I didn't write that he should send them?  Unfortunately,
Sol, I am too familiar with them and with what they write... 
Even their own sister has become convinced about them and their
"generosity."  The bottom line, it appears, are the words you
once used when you were once with them.  You described them for
me precisely and in detail...  

So, devoted and beloved one, pay close attention to my most
recent letter to you and put yourself in the position of your
uncle and your aunt and find some way to satisfy everyone and
also to provide a means of existence for us.

Dear Sol, I was ready to finish my letter when the mailman
brought in a letter of yours.  I thought to myself that, before
I do that, I must read it.  So, my devoted one, after reading
your 12-page letter in which you relate to me the circumstances
under which you had an opportunity to have a conversation with
your father and also that you are pleased that you "repaid" him
a bit...  So, Sol, I read your entire letter carefully and
understood you very well.  I paused only at the words with which
you posed a question to your father as to whether he had done
anything for his former brother-in-law, Wolf, who had been like
a brother to him!!!  I tell you, Sol, at these words I felt a
tug at my heart, and I had the desire to remember all the things
I had done in order to ease the need of your father.  I suspect,
Sol, that if I were to enumerate each thing separately here, I
would surely need a mountain of paper and a large bottle of ink.
 You were still a child then, and you don't know, and can't
remember.  However, if I were to meet with your father eye to
eye, I would remind him of many, many things, some of which,
perhaps, he himself has already forgotten.  

However, dear Sol, it's better not to talk about the matter.  I
have secreted all of this in my memory.  I thought that perhaps
I might yet be deemed worthy of seeing my beloved nephew once
again before my eyes.  Then I would sit down with you in a
separate room and relate everything from "A" to "Z" as to the
circumstances under which your father married your mother, may
she rest in peace, the circumstances under which they
lived...and the circumstances under which your father left for
America...and why at that time your mother, may she rest in
peace, became an enemy of mine until the very last minute of her
departure from Poland.  All because I helped your father achieve
a means of making a living.

Dear Sol, I am not now capable of relating everything that I
endured and suffered from your father.  However, I will not,
after all, live forever.  After my death, Sol, investigate and
inquire of one of my children as to whether there remains
something in writing, an autobiography.  There you will find
everything precisely that I did for your father in those bygone
days!!!  

Yes, Sol, there are people who remember if one has done
something good for them and, to the contrary, there are people
who remember at the time of the act, but later they forget
everything...  We have much to talk about concerning people of
this sort, and I suspect that you know them just as I know them.
 With respect to your father, I can only express myself as
follows: may G-d grant him a comfortable old age so that he will
not have to ask anything of a child and, chas v'cholilah, if he
has to, then I am not envious of him because his treatment of
you children may be called to his attention...

However, whatever the case may be, I am happy to hear that you
wound up with him in a friendly way, and the most important
thing is that Ruchele is fully recovered already.  From my side,
I wish her an improvement and a happy future.

I tell you that, as to your writing that you learned the news
that your father has no money, it pains me.  To be sure, that
one in Poland does not have money I am able to understand
because we recite Psalms too much...perhaps.  But in Chicago,
one doesn't recite Psalms...and one doesn't have money.  I tell
you, I am not able to understand this...  and you, Sol, really
have to see to it that your father has a lot of money because,
after 120 years, you are his oldest heir...you are also the
oldest son and therefore are entitled to a double share
according to the law.

So, dear Sol, I have already written you a very long letter and
know for certain that, for some reason, the letter hasn't turned
out well.  Do you know why?  It's because my mind is in a state
of confusion and may I be punished if I know what I am writing
to you.  But what can I do?  I dare not make you wait for an
answer.  Besides that, I am anxious to know what your reaction
will be to the plan that we have proposed to you, i.e., Lazer
and I hope that you will find a way that will satisfy all of us.
 I also hope to hear in your next letter happy tidings that your
wife has had a safe and good delivery.

So, heartfelt regards to you and your wife, in-laws, father,
sisters, family, et al.  My wife, the children and family send
regards to each of you.  My Joseph and Wolfche send regards to
all of you.

		With respect,

		Wolf Lewkowicz  

		Lipowa 44 

		Lodz


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