Lodz, 12 December 1934

Devoted and precious brother, as well as nephew, and niece, S.
Zissman,

I received your letter and also newspapers about three weeks
ago.  Ah, you will ask, "Uncle, why do I deserve your making me
wait for an answer?"  So, I can write you that since I knew that
you are busy this month, I didn't want to bother you with my
writing.  However, now that I see that you've sold all your
stoves there and that Christmas is approaching, I think that you
have enough free time to read my long letters.

Dear and devoted Sol, I note in your last letter that your
father threw out you three (older) children and that he lead
Ruth out, she is living with you, and so on.  Yes, Sol, every
time that you mention the issue of stress (between) you children
and your father, it's as though you exposed a wound of mine
which has not yet healed.  It's true, Sol, that your father
became completely intoxicated when he married his second wife. 
If I had your father close to me, I would like to converse with
him face to face...  Would that your father, Sol, will not one
day regret the treatment he gave to you children.  I understand,
Sol, that you personally don't need any favors from him.  Bryndl
is married, after all, so she visits him infrequently.  So
Ruchel and Ruth are the only ones involved.  Yes, these are the
children who have no work and are not able to support
themselves, and their father drives them out of his home because
that's what his wife wants...  

You may tell your father, in my name, that the time will come
when he sobers up from his drunken condition and will begin to
recognize the mistakes he made respecting you children.  Most
important, he must remember that he's not getting younger, but
older, and in old age one becomes childlike; one is not able to
take care of himself; one has to ask help of a child, of a
friend, of a relative, and so on.  It's not my wish that your
father, in his advanced years, will have to come to a child or
to a friend.  Chas v'cholilah.  I merely want to make clear to
him, with respect to his course of action, that he ought not to
be a 100% supporter of his wife.  He should bear in mind that he
is a husband and a father, and as to a father, it is written:
"Have mercy on your children."  I think, Sol, that that's enough
on that theme.

Further, what of importance is going on there with you?  When I
write "with you," I mean personally with you in your household. 
How are you feeling?  Are you well?  Is your wife well?  Is your
darling Leonard well?  How is business?  How was the year of
1934?  Does the balance sheet balance at least?  Are your
expenses by chance larger than your income?  Did you make any
money in 1934?  If so, how much?  Why did you close one store
recently?  Didn't it pay (to keep it open)?  What arrangement
did you make with your partner?  In a word, write about everyone
and everything.  Don't let it aggravate you because your uncle
is asking such a precise accounting of you.  You know that your
uncle is entitled to know everything.  

Write also what's going on with Ruchel, whether she's well,
whether she's working and what kind of work she has.  I haven't
heard from her for a long time.  Is she still working as a nurse
in a hospital?  What's going on with Bryndl?  Are they all well?
 Are they making a living?  Is her husband working?  Give them
as well as their dear child my regards.  And what's going on
with Ruth?  When will she be married, and will she marry the
lawyer with whom she's going out?  Meanwhile, where is she
staying?  With you or with her father?  Doesn't she work at all?
 And why doesn't she work???  Give her regards from an uncle
whom she has never in her life met.  To go on, write me what's
going on with the whole family there, such as your uncles,
grandmother, father, et al?

Now then, Sol, you surely want to hear something of me,
something good.  So, I write you, dear brother, that so long as
I don't have to give you a report about me, about my life, about
my torment, I am able to write.  However, when it comes to
telling you, to writing about my life, my torment, my hand
becomes heavy as if it were paralyzed and there is no desire to
write.  If I had something good to write, I would write easily. 
Unfortunately, I have nothing good to report, and I have no
desire to write bad news...  For example, I have just made you
wait for a letter for a whole month.  So, tell me, what do you
think the reason was?  Do you think that I don't have time to
answer you, or that I'm busy, or that I work and am tired and
have no desire to write?  No, chas v'cholilah.  I don't work;
I'm not busy.  I sit at home for days and nights on end.  I have
too much time because I haven't been working since Succos, i.e.,
since November 1, about six weeks.  At other times, we worked
two or three days a week during November and December.  However,
this year the season was bad, so that everything closed down two
months earlier.  

Ah, you will ask, "What are you living on?"  So, it would be
better not to ask.  This life is not living, but torment.  The
landlord threatens with eviction; the groceryman duns.  One
borrows from Reuven and repays Shia; one gets a loan from Levi
and gives it to Judah.  So, I am almost fully occupied for half
the week with borrowing and repaying, and since the daytime
hours are short, I even have to work at this during the
evening...  Then the rest of my free time I spend reading.  It's
been a long time since I read as much as I have recently,  It's
as if I were intoxicated with reading, not discriminating in any
way as to what comes into my hands.  The Forwards that you send
me give me a great deal of enjoyment.  I read them with a great
deal of understanding.  I am already as familiar with politics
in America as with the politics in Poland.  I very much like the
writers and poets who work for the Forward.  In addition to
their being good poets and writers, they're good businessmen and
know how to inform their readers...

Now then, what else shall I write to you, dear Sol?  I search
among my thoughts and would like to write something good,
something pleasant, to you.  Unfortunately, I am not able to
identify anything.  Aunt Malke is again not feeling well.  (I
am) already accustomed to this agony and pain.  She is always
moaning; she is always in bed; so I think this is the way it has
to be.  Do I have an alternative?  

Further, as to my daughter, Rivkele, it's no better with her
than with her mother.  She is always weak, always ill.  She
lacks energy, no spiritedness in her life, no enjoyment in her
life.  To the contrary, my Joseph found a job.  He works in a
factory, although he won't get any wages until the new year
because he's just beginning his training.  However, they
promised to pay him something starting with the new year.  I
don't know whether the trade is good or bad.  One thing I know
is that he wants to work; he wants to be occupied; he want to
learn a trade; he wants to make and secure a career for himself
for the future.  I don't know whether he will be successful in
remaining in this trade or not.  The future will tell this tale.
 However, for the time being he is content and they are content
with him.  I'll be able to write more about him in another
letter.  I am enclosing a picture of my Joseph in this letter. 
He sends his heartfelt regards to you and promises to write
something to you himself in the next letter.  

So, heartfelt regards to you, your wife and dear son, Leonard,
from me, from my wife, from my Rivkele, and from my Joseph. 
Also heartfelt regards from the whole family, such as Aunt Poria
Lewin and Pinya Lewin.  They were in Kinsk, (and) Nissel
Marianka, the wife (of Baruch Marianka) plead that I should urge
you to urge her son, Chaiml Marianka, to write her a letter
because she is already worried sick.  Regards also from Uncle
and Aunt Chmielnicki of Opoczno.  They are well, thank G-d, but
it's hard for them to make a living.  Their oldest son, Wolfche,
is preparing to go to Palestine with the Maccabee (team).  

Please answer promptly.  With respect,

		Your uncle,

		Wolf Lewkowicz


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