My
mother's maiden name was Elena Nochowitz. In the US it
became Helen. She was one of 3 children (Meyer & Bea), my
grandmother's name was Etta, she was married to Shmul (Sam) Nochowitz.
Sam was able to leave Lithuania around 1917-18. Etta was
pregnant (with my mother) at the time and wasn't allowed to
buy a steamship ticket because they thought the child would be
born at sea and have no nationality. So she stayed behind.
In the mean time the U.S. enacted a quota system on
immigration and it took another 12 years before Etta was
allowed to join her husband. By then he had settled in
Chicago and was working as a clothing designer. My mother
arrived as a 12 year old just in time for the Great
Depression. At least they got out. As far as I know all the
remaining Lithuanian relatives were exterminated in the
Holocaust.
I was born in Chicago in March of `44 to
Isadore and Helen Kaplan. Apparently the Kaplan side of the
family arrived in the US when my grandfather David walked out
of Russia in order to avoid conscription into the Czar's
army. It was not good to be a Jewish private while they were
still conducting pogroms.
My dad became a distributor for Vienna Sausage,
a hugely successful kosher style meat manufacturer founded in
1898 (began with a hot dog push cart at the World's Fair) by
the Ladany family also from Lithuania. They also produced a
strictly kosher line of meat products that was sold under the
"Wilno" brand name. Wilno was just an Americanized way of
saying Vilna.
I grew up on the west side of Chicago where the
old world was still very much alive. I never knew what a
small minority we really were until much later in life.
Maxwell street was known as Jew Town. There were seltzer
bottles delivered to our back porch weekly. Peddlers and junk
collectors would travel through the alleys, often with a sing
song chant of "Rags and old Iron" The old men plaid Clobyosh
in the card rooms with great relish. It seemed every male
smoked cigars or cigarettes. I heard more Yiddish than
English. There were small schuls on almost every block, and
the cemeteries were owned by the schuls. Around the corner
from my house were both the Theodore Herzl College and The
Jewish Peoples Institute.
When I became a little older I would spend
summers helping my dad and his workers with deliveries to the
hot dog stands, delicatessens, and little mom & pop grocery
stores that were common in all the Jewish neighbourhoods
around Chicago. We'd deliver corned beef, briskets, salami,
hot dogs, and even tongue by the barrel full. The shopkeepers
called me "Little Izzie" and gave me treats galore. I loved
it. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs became ever more ostentatious as
economic prosperity accumulated among evermore Jewish
families. It was a great time in America, particularly if you
were Jewish. Especially when you realized what had just
happened at the hands of the Nazis
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Helen's Lithuanian passport
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Inside cover of Helen's Lithuanian pasport showing her 'real' name 'Elena Nochowitz'
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Helen's USA visa stamped into her passport and dated 1928
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Needless to say, I'm very proud of our Jewish
culture. It's an indelible part of me and while I consider
myself an agnostic in my religious beliefs I can only be a Jew
I can share more if you like but that's plenty
for now. Be well, Jerry Kaplan, USA