Eli Davidsohn

by | Apr 21, 2015 | 1940s, Video Oral History | 1 comment

Eli Davidsohn, one of three children, was born in 1943 in La Paz, Bolivia, and was raised in Lima, Peru, where he lived until the age of eighteen. His parents ended up in Bolivia after having escaped Nazi Germany; his father became a mining engineer. Eli has played the accordion from the time he was a little boy, and has always loved leading services with his musical talents. Eli attended a Jewish day school in Bolivia, but shares that he experienced much anti-semitism in the country. He decided to move to America and ended up in Houston. Eli served in the U.S. Army, worked for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, and then married two months after the completion of his service. He is a proud father of four and grandfather of many, and continues to share his contagious energy and passion through his teaching and song-leading.

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Esther Bramnik

by | Apr 9, 2015 | 1930s, Video Oral History | 0 comments

Esther BramnikEsther Bramnik, the oldest of four children, was born in 1934 in Havana, Cuba. Esther’s father came from Syria to Cuba at age 13 and became a jeweler. Esther is a very musical woman who loved playing piano and singing as a young girl. She met her husband, Maurice, at her home during a party that her parents had put together, and they married in 1957. She moved to the United States in 1961 with her husband and two children and eventually her whole family moved out of Cuba. They settled initially in Miami but ended up in Dallas. Appreciative of her new life in America and the welcome she received from the Dallas Jewish community, Esther has always been interested in giving back to the community.

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