Aron Finkelstein
Aron Finkelstein was born in Vilna, a city then belonging to Russia, into a family he described as slightly above middle class. His father worked in the liquor business and understood the value of education, choosing to have only two children so they could be raised properly. Because of the quota system limiting Jewish students, his parents preferred to enroll him in a gentile gymnasium, where promotion through the grades was easier. His upbringing was largely secular and Russian, though a Hebrew tutor came to the house twice a week to teach him conversational Hebrew. He was called to the Torah for an aliyah, but religion was not a major part of his home life.
During the First World War, Aron's city was occupied by German forces, an event he recalled taking place around Yom Kippur. After living there for about two years, the whole family, including his mother, father, sister, and grandmother, immigrated to America on their own. In a memorable coincidence, an uncle in New York learned of their arrival when his wife read their names announced in a Jewish newspaper. Aron was about twelve to fifteen when he arrived. He learned English with the help of a neighbor whom he in turn tutored in math, and he earned a medal in mathematics in high school. His father, who had never worked for anyone in Europe, took up work with a peddler dealing in bags.
Aron graduated from Columbia University as a pharmacist. He met his wife, a Hunter College graduate and chemistry major who worked in research for the Department of Health, at a Zeta Beta Tau fraternity dance. They married and settled in the Bronx, where he ran his own pharmacy near the Bronx Eye and Ear Hospital on Tremont for about twenty years, employing two other pharmacists and keeping long hours. His wife kept a kosher home out of respect for her religious mother and raised their two sons, one who works for the government in Washington and one, a PhD, who taught at a Dallas medical school. After giving up the business, Aron lived in Florida and then moved to Dallas to live with his son's family. Having lost his wife, he found companionship in the senior program, and he spoke with great pride and nachas about his sons and daughters-in-law.
Full Transcript
My friend Aaron Finkelstein, and we're going to delve a little bit into his past. Good morning, Aaron. Good morning, Miriam. Right. Aaron, as I say to everyone, let's begin at the beginning. Where were you born? What city, what town were you born in? I was born in Vilna, chapter of Lithuania. And, especially at that time, belonged to Russia. Okay, what kind of... And the Jews at that time didn't have any privileges at all. If they wanted to go to school, they wanted to have a percentage of Jews allowed to go to school. There was a quota system. Although there was a Jewish school, but my folks preferred to go to a Gentile.
Okay, let me interrupt. Okay. Why are they going to be gentle? Because when you come to the higher classes, they have left easier to be promoted from the fourth to the fifth and to graduate from the eighth grade. Okay. Aaron, what kind of a family were you born into? Like, were you poor, middle class? How many children were in the family? We were not poor. We were slightly above middle class. What did your father do? My father was in liquor business. Although my father didn't... my father understood what education means, and he said to Mike Smith to be there only two, to bring up children properly, that's a lot of money.
So there were only two of you? That's why we had only two. Were you the younger or the older? I was the oldest. All right. And my father realized what education means, especially being a Jew. Neuroshis was quite a hard thing to be admitted to a general school. All right. So you went to a gymnasium, you told me. Gymnasium. That is the school, too. Right. But I couldn't belong to the general. Why? Because when it comes to the fourth class, it's easier to be promoted to the fifth. While being in the Jewish gymnasium and especially as much as they like the Jews they prefer to see a Jew being flunked out in Egypt to get into the fifth and so on and so forth What do you remember about your school days in a non-Jewish school?
One thing, I used to go to school on a Saturday. And Hebrew education is very difficult given in that school. So my folks had a Jewish teacher coming to my house to teach me Hebrew in the Psalms of 4. A tutor. Especially when my grandmother, my mother's mother, said, I didn't have much, as the average human being going to Cheda, my grandma used to say to my mother, Because most of my education was very Russian. Secular, yeah. Very Russian. And? Do you remember anything about your tutor, your Hebrew tutor? Oh yeah, he used to come in, I think, two times a week, one hour a day, in the evening, after school.
I was a modern, he didn't teach me like the moral of the altar, but he used to be enough to understand what Hebrew is. So he really taught you conversational Hebrew? Conversational, yeah, in the text of the text of the text. Did you have a bar mitzvah? Not much. Although I was called to the Torah, but I just got the prayer for the first part of the... The Aliyah. The Aliyah. Yeah. So that your parents... Not after Torah, I didn't know. Your parents felt that they wanted you to know Hebrew, but religion was not a major factor. Not a major factor. Because my grandmother said, I happen to be the oldest kids in the family, So my grandmother said to my mother, Inna Nagoya, because it wasn't as well voiced in Hebrew language.
What about the Yiddishkeit in your home? What kind of a, like, was your mother... You were not particularly religious. You were not religious. Because my folks, I turned the business on a Saturday, then on a Sunday. And all of these, I used to go once in a while to the temple on a Saturday, but not often enough. The main thing, the only time I used to go to school regularly, then they had big holidays. Oh, high holidays. Well, there's not much difference today. They do the same thing. What do you remember about growing up as a young teenager in Russia? Well after we got to gymnasium why Gentile Because it was easier as I said before to be promoted Did you belong to any clubs, any boys groups or anything like that?
No, I didn't actually. I didn't have them. They haven't been in the boys club, they didn't have them in the church. Although I went to college here. Alright, how did you get then from Russia to America? What transpired? Actually, what transpired was the first world war. A city which actually was the Germans. I remember that particularly because it happened within a city. The city happened to be building a chapel of the train, quite a big city by the 200,000 people. It entered from three different parts of the city. That was under the name Yom Kippur. I remember that being a youngster, I didn't know much of a show, so we went to Japanese-Akipari City.
And I was saying, we, we lived there for about two years, maybe later, and then we went to America. The whole family went together? The whole family, mother, father, sister, I, and my daughter-mother, we came to America. Did you have relatives that sent you tickets? No. They came on our own. You came on your own. What do you remember about the trip? On the boat, there were not many Jews on the boat, but what really conspired, that he was interested in that. My father's brother had a candy store in the new house. And he used to go up to, he opened his store, eventually the child's back in the morning for the paper to give him one day.
Well, I told the father he used to take a drop set and take a nap. So he used to send down his wife to take care of the chemist. She being your father, so she read the Jewish paper more often than the English. Really, when I read the Jewish paper, she read an announcement that a certain number of Jews came to America. I think I didn't... I didn't care about it. But there were mentioned names. It happened to be in the paper that mentioned my father's name, mother's name, my grandmother's name, and my sister's name, and I personally. I tell her when she read the paper she sent me she came down to Buffalo practice she let her husband take a nap So she sent somebody up and said wake up my husband and tell him that his brother came to America And eventually he went down and he met us.
And we got off with him and he was down on South Ferry. And he met us at the entrance of South Ferry. And he brought us here. What did your father do when you first came to America? The funny part was, I, as like you in America, learn English and I learn Russian. I came just in time, at least for Pesach. And my uncle had a Seder. So eventually I'm being the oldest in the family, I thought we were cautious. But I spoke well, like in Jewish, mostly Russian. So I mixed in Russian with English. But I'm sure they were happy. And the funny part was there were three nationalities there.
My mother had three sisters here, married. One was Russian, one was German, and one was in the market. You know, I had to ask questions, and I used to ask questions, and I used to ask questions with Jewish, very little Jewish. So did you live with your uncle when you first came, until you got settled? No, no, it took us to live about a week. Uh-huh. He found us an apartment, and we lived here. And what did your father do? What kind of work did he get? Do you remember? My father worked for a peddler. A peddler? Well, that's all right. No, no. But what was a peddler?
Went out buying peddler bags. Bags, the bankers. They had the flower bags, the empty bags. And he bought them and traded them? And traded them. Did your mother? Because my father never worked in Europe and never worked for anybody else, so... He felt he had to go into his own business. That's it. How old were you when you came to New York? I was 12, 15 years old. So you went right into public school? I didn't go much to school. I went to high school. I mean to high school. I went to college. Do you remember the transition when you got into high school, when you didn't know the language?
The final part was, there was a neighbor who lived not far away, and he was partly Russian than the civil Russian. I spoke a little Russian, more Jewish, mixed in both together, and that's how I learned English. So he tutored you? Yeah, I mean, he came up. One day he came up, and the funny part, I was a good math student. So, and he wasn't so good, so he needed my help. My mother came into the secret of the math, so my mother said to him, is that all for you? Because when you need your help, you didn't come up. But eventually I helped him out in math.
So you exchanged. He helped you in English and you helped him in math. I happened to have a medal in math in high school in the United States. The medal? What kind? For math. My rhythm did. That's very good. For geometry and algebra and all those things, I had to have a lot of things in Europe. Right. So you won a medal. In the 80s days, we took math in a lower class than here. All right. What high school did you go to? To Whitleton. Then I went to Columbia University. Columbia University. For me, I'm a chemist. For chemist. I've got to be in chemist and pharmacy.
In pharmacy. All right. Where in this stage of your life, in college, where did you meet your wife? I met my wife in college. What was she studying? She went to Hunter College. Hunter, right. She was a graduate of Hunter College. And what did she... Math student. Ah, so you had math and college. But how did you meet? Do you remember how you were? I happened to be a fraternity dance. Zeta Beta Tau. I didn't have to belong at that time. A friend of mine belonged. They were down and at that time I met her with my wife. You did not belong to a fraternity ever?
The lady of these ladies. The lady I liked. The Jewish fraternity Zeta Beta Tau. ZBT. I know a song about, oy oy oy, Zeta Beta Tau, what will you do with my Jewish boy? So you're a ZBT. Do you see you had a fraternity pin? I gave it away. I think my son has it, if I'm not mistaken. Right, okay. That's the only Jewish fraternity. Right, there's the ZBT and the Sammies. Yeah, but I had a friend of mine. That's how I was a kid. Oh, interesting. So you are a ZBT. That's marvelous. All right, so you met your wife at a fraternity party, and then you began dating.
And how long did you date? About a few months. Okay. Did she become a pharmacist also or what did she I was a pharmacist See I was a graduate Right Although she a chemistry major She was I lost my wife So when you got married did she work also No, she didn't work. Only she worked for the Department of Health. But when I opened my own store, actually she gave up as soon as I married her. She was working for the Department of Health. What was she doing? New York chemistry. What was she doing? Research work. Research work. Research work. Okay. And then you graduated from college.
When you graduated, did you work for a pharmacy? I worked at a short time, then I worked at my own business. And you got married when you had your own business or while you were working? Before. While I worked for somebody else, for a little while. I see. Okay. And where did you live when you first got married? In the Bronx always. In the Bronx. Was your store near where you lived? No. Where was your store? Further down. In the Bronx too, but on Tremont. On Tremont? I know where you live. Yeah, near the Bronx Eye and Ear. You know, I terminated on the hill.
Right. It used to be a small hospital. Oh, the Eye and Ear Hospital. That's it. And on the corner was my store. All right. How long did you have that pharmacy store? Oh, quite a few years. About 20 years. Somewhere there. That's much I remember. Okay. How many children did you and your wife have? Two. Two children. What? A boy and a girl? Two boys? Two boys. Two boys. One sitting in Dallas Medical School. One of them works for the government of Washington. One is a Columbia graduate, and the other one is a Wisconsin. So the one here that you live with, you live with your son here?
He's in Wisconsin. He's teaching in Dallas Medical School. He teaches in Dallas Medical School, so he's a doctor? He's a PhD. I see. What? Chemistry. Can you recall when your boys were growing up? Obviously, they gave you a lot of napas. They were a very bright young man. No, no, because whatever it is, I give credit to my wife, because I was very little home. Because being a pharmacist, you know what the hours are. What hours did you work? All day long. Because even if you work for yourself, even if you have a man working for yourself, two men, still you work yourself. How many people did you have working for you?
Two men and yourself. Two pharmacists. Oh, and you still had to keep long, long hours? No, because eventually. Did you travel at all? Did you go on vacations that you could remember with your wife or your children? No we went up north We went up to Maine a few times and things like that But I didn even travel much because I didn have enough time Foolishly I spent too much time in the blue That true A lot of us look back and we say next year, next year, and then when the next year comes, our lives change and we can't. But one thing was I made a lot of sense.
I gave credit for my wife. Because my wife was on the college graduation. Well, obviously they had two great parents. And yes, you say your wife was around to help the boys. See, whatever happened, I gave my wife credit. All right. Don't forget, she was mostly home. She looked absolutely good. And she knew what she wanted. And I was lucky of marrying her, too. Well, most of us, you're lucky you found your mate. Where did your boys meet their wives? At college? One of them met in Wisconsin. Wisconsin. She was from... when he went to Wisconsin, she was from Chicago. And the other one I think he met her in New York.
He went to Columbia. One of them was a Colombian man, one of them was... So the one who lives here who was a Colombian man met his wife in New York? Met herself in... No, the one... I think... Your daughter-in-law here is a lawyer, isn't Is that right? Yeah, she's a lawyer. She went back to school after she had all her children. That is marvelous. She got a degree a few years ago. Yeah, and she's a practicing lawyer? Yeah, a little bit. Not enough to talk about. But she does. Some little work. How many grandchildren do you have, Mr. Finklestein? That's enough. The son in Washington, how many children does he have?
Yes, a boy and a girl in Swamish, just get right there. Oh, Mazel Tov. This one's got three girls. Three girls, kind of hard. And then one thing here, this fellow here, is more religious than my one was. Yes, I noticed his wife wears a shaital. Is that correct? No? I wouldn't commit myself. I don't know. I know that they're very... But they're both religious. And I kind of might go to the children's nowhere too. The children go to Akiba Academy? Yes, that's right. And I know who gives cash because I didn't have such a religious home. Now, your parents did not have a religious home.
No. Now, your home with your wife was not a religious home either? No. On account of my son I lost my wife over a year ago Yes I know but when you and your wife were married did she keep kosher No we did keep kosher because our mother was Jewish Uh-huh. See, our mother was religious. Right. And I say Jewish means that. I mean religious, yes, I understand what you're saying. So that's why she kept her home. She kept her home because eventually mother wouldn't eat in her house. Right. Otherwise she wouldn't. Right, okay. How old were you when you gave up the business? It was about a few years ago.
About seven, eight years ago. Seven, eight years ago. I think so much. I remember already. And you decided to leave New York? Decided to live and we came to Dallas. I thought you were living in Florida before. For a few years. And then to Dallas. Which do you prefer better, Florida or Dallas? I won't commit myself. You won't commit yourself. All right. Mr. Finkelstein, you're here almost every day in the senior program, and I think it's a wonderful way to meet people. It's a good thing here. It's a little better than staying home. Well, if you stay home... Excuse me for interrupting you. You're not interrupting me.
It's your show. You're talking. I see that it belongs to the other girl in the office. You're very much involved in the senior program, and you've made friends here. Not quite a few. I think that you prefer that to staying home? Oh, that's it. What do you think? I'm going to ask you something. We've had discussions on our Roots program on this, whether one should live on their own or live with their children. I wouldn't say anything. You said you like living with your children, but you keep your opinions to yourself, right? That's right. Right, right. I think you're very wise in what you do.
Yes, we don't respect. Well, silence is gold. Silence is gold. What about your relationship with your grandchildren? Well, yeah, and you have it. I just see what it is and I keep quiet because it's not mine to give any comments. How old are they? Silence is gold. How old are they, Mr. Pecklstein, the ones that you live with here? Well, I think 14 until about 7, 8 years old. They're very nice. They're very nice. They admire them in every way. My sons and my daughter-in-law's. And another thing I admire them, because this one is more Jewish than my older one. Because this one goes to...
Although I'm not so religious, but still, I admire that. I like it, see. I wouldn't say I get up in the morning and pray every morning. I don't do those things. I got, once in a while, I got started, sure. And I admire religion. Because although, myself, I wasn't raised in a religion, because my folks, and you say, I tend to business, and sadly, and all those things. So, uh... All right, Mr. Finkelstein, if you wanted to, you've said a beautiful thing, you've said, silence is gold, and perhaps in a way it is. If you know that in 20 years from now, 25 years from now, one of these little grandchildren that you living with now is going to come into the center and they go into the library and they see a taped interview of Aaron Finkelstein And they going to sit down and turn it on and listen to you talking all about your life What advice would you like to give them?
What would you as their Zeta say? You know very well that you won't be around then. On how to live their lives. Would you give them any advice at all on life? Because their father, what he does, their own father gives them the right to not advise them. Because first thing, my son, their father, besides being educated in Jewish, he's got a PhD. And to get a PhD, he has quite a good education. He has more than I did, this is my lifetime. You don't feel that your lifetime experiences give you the right to give any advice at all? The father knows just as much to give them more even than I can give them.
Thank God. Excuse me. The time to be ashamed of the grandfather Because the grandfather went to school in Oh I don think they are And the father is not in the Ramsey he a PhD I think that you are one of the few seniors in our group that have had a higher education at the universities. There are some, but not many, especially those who've come from Europe. So you certainly don't have to take a back seat to anyone, Mr. Finkelstein. All right, so you're telling them that just follow in your father's footsteps and follow your father's advice? Father's and mother's, too, because mother's just as educated as the father is, because the mother's got a LLB, a law degree, and she's well-voiced and everything else.
So to follow their parents' education, that's more than that I can give them. Alright, follow their parents' education. What about how to react with other human beings in the world? Just follow their parents. Just follow their parents. I noticed that neighbors my daughter my son come and that all they talk about my son and my daughter I can't say anything else. There's nothing, it's so marvelous. When they gave me a report that I get... A lot of nachos. You can say pride. Pride. That I'm proud of my son and my daughter-in-law. There's nothing else I can say. All right. If they follow their footsteps of their father and mother, thank God that I have the privilege of having.
Besides the thing, I say, it's nice to tell them that I'm not to be ashamed of. Okay, that's wonderful. And I think we could end this interview by saying, although you are praising your son and daughter-in-law so much, there's a Yiddish expression that says, and you are the you were the tree you were the roots that produced these fine sons and so we'll end it now thank you Mr. Finkelstein it's been a wonderful interview