מאגר סיפורי מורשת

do as a child were to play ball and to read. He went to Birch Wathen School and didn't have to wear a uniform. His favorite subject was French. In school he never got in trouble, but with his mother, he did.

My Saba had three fathers. His 1st father died when he was 2 years old. So he lived with his mother until he was 6 years old, when his mother got remarried. He loved his new father. They did lots of things together. They played sports and read books. One of the things he taught my Saba was that his books are friends. He still has some of his books in his house. His adoptive father died when my Saba was 14. It was very hard for him because he loved him so much. His mother did everything she could to help him out, but it still wasn’t the same. There were other male adults (including my Safta’s father) who tried to help out as well. My great grandmother got remarried for a third time when my Saba was in college.

My Saba started to become religious around the time my Safta and he got married in 1958. He did it gradually. He had to give up some things, but feels it’s much better being religious. My Saba started to do some learning and the more he learned, the more he wanted to learn.

Things interested him, so he read more. When my Safta and Saba came down to NY after my Saba finished law school, they lived in Riverdale. My Saba started going to a Conservative shul and liked it. The people were nice. When they moved from Riverdale into Manhattan, my Saba walked into KJ (Kehilath Jeshurun) one Shabbat. He saw someone he knew from law school who introduced him to Rabbi Lookstein. Rabbi Lookstein taught him a lot and let him go slowly. My Saba is thankful that my Safta went along with things.

On Hoshana Raba, at least 15 years ago, my Saba’s best friend, Sandy Eisenstat, was sitting in front of him in shul. Saba used to wear a hat on his way to shul and work. Saba put his hat on top of his briefcase. Sandy was sitting in front of him and he kept on flicking Sandy’s ear with his lulav. Saba thought it was pretty funny. Then Sandy turned around, took Saba’s expensive hat from London, put it in Saba’s briefcase, and closed it on his hat. Needless to say, Saba felt he needed to get revenge.

Later that year, Saba and Sandy were in shul and they had their hats and on the bench. Saba had his briefcase next to his hat (hat, hat, briefcase, Sandy, Saba). So, they were davening away. To get his revenge, Saba reached behind his back, took Sandy’s hat, put it in his briefcase and closed the briefcase. The only problem was that Saba did this to his own hat! Some revenge.