Bertha Dreeban
Bertha Dreeben came from a family with roots in Poland, where her grandparents married young and her grandfather and father worked as tailors. An adventurous uncle traveled from New York to Butte, Montana, and the family joined him there, living in newly opened country where Bertha walked to school through deep snow. When her grandparents, uncle, and father had all settled in Dallas, the family followed. The family name was Goodstein, and among their relatives were the Goldsteins, including Charles Goldstein, whom Bertha credited as a founder of the synagogue.
Bertha first visited Dallas around 1891 or 1892, arriving by train at an East Dallas sub-depot and walking to Griffin Street to find her aunt and uncle. She recalled a city with few paved streets and mule- or horse-drawn streetcars. The family returned about two years later to live permanently, renting on Alamo Street and later buying a home on Pearl Street near Bryan, where they lived for about 30 years. They later moved to Lear Street, near the synagogue on Park Avenue, where both her parents died. Bertha married in 1901 and attended school on Bryan Street.
Bertha was deeply devoted to Congregation Shearith Israel, whose first synagogue was built on Jackson Street with money raised in part by selling chances on a diamond ring. She described devout worship, long High Holy Day services, and a community where members prepared shrouds, arranged burials, cooked for weddings, and helped newcomers without asking who they were. At 16 she taught a bench of children from a single Hebrew book, later teaching Sunday school and confirmation classes, often without pay. She recalled Rabbi Gold, who honored her parents at their funerals, and the many rabbis and lecturers who ate at her family's home.
Full Transcript
Mrs. Bertha Dreeben. I'm Ginger Jacobs. Mrs. Dreeben is going to tell us about the Jewish community of Dallas and her reminiscences, remembrances of it. Okay. Well, I'm going to start about when we were on a visit here and it was about 1892 as well as I can remember. And we came to visit an uncle and aunt that lived on Griffin Street when all the sidewalk they had were two boards all alone. The only paving was downtown on M Main Commerce, but only in the nicest neighborhoods were they paved streets. and we came in at a sub-depot that was in East Dallas, way down East Dallas on Elm and as near as I can remember Hawking Street.
Our relatives were at the depot, that's where the depot is now, but we didn't know that and we drove on to this East Dallas sub-depot. And we walked. We knew nobody. We walked till we came to Griffin Street on M into Griffin. And the only thing we knew to do was to go and die a house and it happened to be a Jewish home and our aunt and uncle lived down that street a number of blocks And they finally came from the other depot when they had missed us. As far as where the Jewish groups lived, there was one group, a section, mostly Jewish people that had come from Poland and Russia.
They lived off of McKinney Avenue on Alamo Highland Street and around Cedar Springs Road. Below McKinney lived the Mittenthals. They lived south of McKinney Avenue, and on McKinney at that time there was a little, I'd say, streetcar ran by either mules or horses that I don't quite remember. Probably didn't know the difference because it came from New York and in New York we didn't see so many, even then, so many of a muse that we would know about it. Well, now that group were of course very orthodox, very, they were, what is it, Askenizer Jews most of them And there was a sheikh who had a grocery and his name was Ratner as well as I remember And all around there around him his grocery and as far as they didn have a school they had a cottage that they had worship in.
Then there was another section that was just off of Pearl Street around there on Elm and there were a number of little stores just one right after the other. Before we came the first time there wasn't a shoe. They used to have worships Friday night Rosh Hashanah and Kippur in back of a store. Now this wasn't a very little store. These were a little larger. there was a general store that was fairly large right on the corner of Pearl and M. And if I remember, the name of the owners was Discobite. But next to them was the store not quite as large, but it had a second floor where they kept stock and stuff like that.
And their earliest worship was on this second floor of this store. Now that was as near as I remember 1891 1892 And during that visit the first synagogue was built on Jackson Street It wasn't anything remarkable, but I think as well as I remember there were 28 families in that during that synagogue. Now I'm going to tell you something that I don't even know that for the building of that synagogue the money began accumulating from a man who had a jewelry and pawn shop. Charles Goldstein was his name, and he took a diamond ring out of stock, probably not very large, and they sold chances on it.
And from that sum of money and what these 28 families could give because they didn't very many have very much. The synagogue was started. It was a basement, the sanctuaries, and a balcony. I think the intention of the balcony was for the women's sitting. Now that congregation had a number of Jewish people that had been in the United states a little longer and so the balcony in the beginning was intended for the women to sit because some of the men were too devout to sit with the family. My father I didn't come then. We went to Butte, Montana and came back here. But they had Hanukkah a bias and for the shoe I was just a child I didn't know but I heard about it and when St.
Pastorey came for him in the basement they'd have somebody would now this is going to sound clear to you somebody they pay for it together will take a keg of Harry about that being and prepare it pickle them and all and they get a keg of beer and rye bread. And these 28 families would come together and we had a good time. It may seem strange, but we did. Now, I know more about that synagogue than I do about the other sections, but the section that was north, we came together more than we did with the temple group. The temple had a temple, the temple group, on Commerce Street.
That was their first temple. But they even had that before we had synagogue on Jackson Street. What was the name of the synagogue on Jackson Street? No. Was that Sherath Israel? No. Sharath Israel was the one on Jackson Street But now the synagogue you just talking about that was also on Jackson Street was not Cherith Israel That Cherith Israel the one on Jackson Street Temple Emanuel, that was the temple. We did not come in very close contact with them. They were here longer, most of them. Sanger Brothers, EMT, that group belonged to the temple. And it was of course a reform to its temple. occasionally for our charities, big charities, the things we were together.
But, and it was on Common Street. Now, let me see what I tell you. Then we were here only six months, and we came back two years later to live here. My father, my grandfather, my grandmother came, and I had an uncle here. he had married here and the Goldsteins, the Charles Goldstein that really was the founder of the synagogue, brought a brother from Canada and his family. The Rose Goldstein that was killed here, you know, by a demented man that was her father. And another brother he brought here and they all belonged to the synagogue to Sharath Israel And when we came back my father of course immediately joined the synagogue And my father didn't ever want a...
We were from Poland, that is those of us that were born there. there. He wanted his family around him. He didn't want his wife sitting upstairs and the children being up there, excepting the boys that were over 13, and they began sitting in families downstairs. And he never wanted-there was a number of times there was a question about whether the women should separate. He said, no, I do not want to be separated from my family. I can pray there. And a lot of the people, men, when Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Day, wore the white shroud they expected to be buried in, and white socks that I think they took their shoes off and snout, And they really did.
They believed. They wept openly when they said that prayer about who shall live and who shall die on their gibber. They beat their chests and cried, but just gradually grew away from it. Now I so oh yes and so in the sections the kosher butcher shop was on Mound Street near Pearl All the little stores nearly that were there were Jews and their life was around Israel. The temple had a sort of a, I wouldn't call it a clubhouse, But they had the Phoenix Hall. They had a few rooms there that they met in. And we, when we wanted to give anything, we didn't have anything big with either rent, the Phoenix Hall or the Germans.
Now, Jews had a hall here called the Turner Hall, and we had some of the affairs there. Well, then the next temple was one, and the group lived. there were people that lived right next block to the Shule on Jackson Street, and people from little cities around here would come in and somebody would make room for them around the synagogue. And then we moved from that school to the one on Park Road. Park and Eakin was it? What? Park and Eakin? Yeah. Near the park, near the city park, yes. near the city part, and the temple, they had, they built a temple on Irving Street, and the sangos lived in big two-story houses along there, Both Eric and Philip sang were next to one another and most of the Jewish people that belonged to Temple lived on Canton and around there for a while.
The ones that belonged to Sherath Israel, when they went to live on Park Avenue, they were already living on Forest Avenue, South Boulevard, and around there. And what else? Did you want to know anything in particular? Well, yes, the little shul you first talked about, the Jewish people that came from Russia and Poland, well, the earlier settlers, what was the name of that shul that was up in Old North Dallas near McKinney? That I don't remember. I don't know that they even had. It's the group mostly that belonged to Tepharath Israel. You might be able, I, it's strange, but we did for one another. The group that lived near the grocery and around there, whatever anybody needed.
Next door to the grocery, I think, the other side of the street lived the Tabalaski family. The mother's name was Tammy. And to give you an idea of how people did for one another, the family moved here back from goodness knows where, he was a tailor, and his name was Green. and they came just before young Kipper and they had a child that was not well and he died They knew nobody but through some way she had heard this woman's name So she phoned her and asked her what she should do. They knew nothing, knew nothing about where to go or what to do. and she told her that she had her meat for Yom Kippur, her meat found in salt, Sergeant Kasha, but she was coming right over.
She was leaving it and coming and she went over there and started dressing that baby and made arrangements for its burial. When anybody had a bris and had nobody that belonged to them, we'd get, I was just 14, 15 years old, we'd vacate. We'd go there to the house even if we didn't know them and fix the bricks. When, this is of course personal, when I was 14 years old the woman that was at the head of the synagogue of Sheriff Israel. They called the women's organization the Auxiliary to the Sheriff Israel and her name was Mrs. We pronounced it Yaman but it spelled it Y The woman that had charge of the one to the temple her name was Heisenfelder And any poor family that came in would usually look up these people, and they do for them.
Now we didn't have telephones, only in the stores downtown. And Mrs. Zanman lived for about four blocks from us and walked. We all walked more than we do now. And she came over Saturday to just visit. And a woman came from East Dallas. Her husband had a little bit of store, and they lived in back of it. to tell her that she had a child pass away and waited for Saturday to be over to come and what to do. And I must have been about 14 years old. Now it wasn't because we were afraid of going at night alone, but she said, you come with me.
I speak Yiddish pretty good. So I went and she tore up the material for a shroud and I made that shroud at 14 years old. She got it out and she took that little baby and bathed it in the kitchen there. And when I got that done, and by hand, and sew a stitch upon my feet, but I had learned to sew. And so I sewed it up and she dried that baby and and rested No question of who you are what you are You needed us, we went. And we used to do that for anybody that was Jewish. And our homes were open to anybody for Shabbos, Friday night, and Pesach.
There was always a big trial. Now if you can think of anything you want me to tell you. Yes. First, how old are you? How old are you? 92 years old. As far as the services, what were they like? What? What do you remember of the services at Shul on, say, Shalos? How long did they last? Oh listen, Rosh Hashanah, if you got home at two o'clock in the afternoon and you were at service at eight in those days, and young Kipper you waited till it was totally dark and the first stars appeared before and they had to blow that sofa before you went home.
I guess the children didn't stay like that, But unless they were big enough. But it gradually, it still runs to Moon and Yung Kipper. We fasted, so we didn't go first. We always just liked the idea that the young folks went outside and stayed part of the The original shoes were not big enough for them to stay inside and get around it. On Park Avenue, they'd go down in the basement, but they also go outside a little bit. We hated it because, you know, the young would stay, and we still do. Do you remember the shul on Chase Farrad, the Ruminister's shul? No, but I knew there was one.
I didn't remember the name. And there has been others, you know. You take the cemetery, the Sherath Israel Cemetery, originally was just theirs, you know. and I think the North Dallas little shool had a squared off place up there. Then another shool, and that may be the one you were talking about, When they broke up, they had sold a little cottage or place they had it in, and they offered Sheriff Israel a few hundred dollars, not much. About the teachers at the time? Well, that's the well and Rabbi Holden, I think was his name, taught Hebrew. At that time, they used to get a rabbi that could teach Hebrew or did teach Hebrew.
I think they even had a couple of rabbis that were morals And for the Bible classes I wrote Goldstein Torah once for a while. When I was 16 years old, I taught a wooden bench of children. One book. I was the only one that had a book. And I taught those children. I used to read the Bible one evening and read this book, a lesson put in an evening. so that I could teach them. But there was just that many children, just a whole bench full. And that's all. That's all we had until, let me see, There was a rabbi here by the name of Bozniak, and we began having Sunday, real Sunday schools, and I taught a class there.
And when we got over to Park Row, we had a Hebrew school there and a good many more children and classes. And for a long time, the teachers were not paid at all. It didn't matter. And then it got so they paid them five dollars a month so they could say they had a right to tell them when they could serve and soon come. And it grew It grew to I taught the confirmation class for a while I was really in this... When they'd have a banquet, I used to go with my mother and my aunt, scrape salaries, set the table. I enjoyed it. I was part of it, and it was part of me.
Did some of the other young people go too or just mostly the mothers and very few of the... Well, it was like it always is. A few do all the work, but they come all the young folks when they was, when they give a ball once a year at Sheriff Israel, and the way those women worked, They do dozens of fouls, pluck the feathers and cushions and cakes. They make 20 cakes, 30 cakes. I have wondered since how people got away with so many things. And we prepare for weddings, big weddings. Sometimes there'd be three, four hundred guests. And at the one ball they gave there was always a dinner and always, and they charge a dollar ticket.
And people paid dues and paid for seats like they do now You said that the women would cook for the weddings Was it just the friends of the bride's parents or? Yeah, if they told anybody there's a young girl gonna be married and there's not enough people. The bunch went and helped. No. This was not through the auxiliary? There was no caterer there. But was it from the shul or were they friends of the parents of others or the father? They were both. They were friends. If you need there were enough of them and if there wasn't maybe somebody that knew them would say, come help.
Or if they were too poor to have it themselves, a group would buy what was necessary. And before the balls, I would get in a little buggy with either Mrs. Eamon, or you probably have heard this name before, Martha Mubis can. Rose, his wife, will take me and we go even to North Dallas to every house for a quarter. would go and ask our chicken or a cake for the bowl that they had. There was no problem about bringing it in the show because there was no question about Everybody's kept kosher. No, because people either walk or they have a little buggy. And maybe somebody would offer to take some of it.
The balls were not held at Jules. Where were the balls? They were in a rented hall because they'd have a few musicians and they danced. It was fun. It may sound silly, but it was lots of fun. It probably-the people were closer to one another than they are today. Anybody's sorrow will bring them all together, and anybody's joy will bring them all together. When you came, where did you, you said you lived in North Dallas, is that, I don't remember. When we first came, we visited with this aunt and uncle on Griffin. When we came back to live here, they first lived on Griffin Street, but when we came back, they had bought a little wooden house on Highland Street.
And we rented a place on Aramo, which was back to back to Highland, and we lived there. But by the time we were here, several years I guess, we bought a place on Pearl Street right north of Bryan, second door from the corner. and we lived in that one house for a while and then built a two-story house there. And it was closer to the Jackson Street Shule. We walked right straight down Pearl Street you see and we had I think just a half a block a block to get to And my father used to go to Sue when we lived on Park Avenue, and even before, he'd go in the morning to make up a minion.
and a lot of times again in the evening. Did they ever have trouble getting a minion on him? Were there a lot of people that came for a minion? You mean at these minions? In the mornings? No, but they'd always manage. There was a few that came because, made a habit of it, And when somebody needed a minion, they'd go out and hunt for somebody. Where did you live? Well, first, why did your father happen to come to Dallas? He came to Dallas. This uncle of mine was more vacuosome. would we go to Butte, Montana? He came there first and you don't want the history.
That was the early days in Montana when Indians would stand on corners rafting blankets and there were mines all over and I used to walk to school to my waistline but I walked. That was newly opened country really. And at one time we lived on what was the court, across the street from what was the courthouse and the jail. But and he had gone there and he asked my father he asked him to come and he came and brought us there And then he left there and came to Dallas and we followed him. But what was the attraction? Why did people come to Dallas at that time?
While we came, my grandparents were, they were already here. My uncle, see my father was a tailor. He even made new clothes. He knew his, it was a profession with him. and Grandpa was the tailor. Their lives, he married when he was 15 years old, and my grandmother was 14, and they married in Poland, and they drove 21 miles in a cart to have candlesticks made and stayed overnight, selected it. Children went back and he used to make, go to a family that had a big home and stay most of the winter and make clothes for the whole bunch. called a man twice a year in a little village in Poland.
So as far as attraction, when they were here, Gabriel Papa in Butte said, I said, why don't you and your family come to Dallas? We probably live here the rest of our lives and we want to see you all So we came to that But your grandfather, who was here first, then your grandfather? The family name was Goodstein. I had this uncle here and my grandparents and my father. But do you know why they decided to come to Dallas? It's like I tell you, this uncle was adventurous and he got tired being in New York. how or why he went to Butte, of all places, I don't know.
And then he, from way up there, he came to Texas. And we followed for no reason under the sun. Well now after you lived off of Bryan, about what year was that? Do you remember? What? About what year did you move from Bryan Street and where did you move to? From Bryan and Pearl? Mm-hmm. Let me see. I was married in 1901. And we lived there on Brian and Pearl. Well, let me see. I would say that it must have been, we lived there 30 years and it must have been about 15 years that we left. there and so it must have been If that's the case, see I grew up, I went to school on Bryan Street.
I was in the eighth grade. I went to school. It was a next door to the corner of Pearl Street, and I think they finally called it the Crozier Tech. It wasn't- Crozier Tech? Was that it? Yeah, it was right there, and I think now they're talking about building a high-rise building on that. you lived there now where did you move to? We lived on Lear Street which is about three blocks from the Shill on Park Avenue. And then after you lived near the Shill? Well my parents both passed away from that house on Lear Street and Rabbi Gold was a rabbi there and all the different lecturers and rabbis ate at our house.
So when my mother died, this was all Rabbi Gold's idea. They walked. The president, the vice president, the rabbi, followed the hearse to the shool. Now they don't take a woman in the soov, but they put her casket on the steps. And in the evening, Rabbi Gold came and fed us. I felt so uncomfortable he came to our house and brought hard eggs and he brought a colored fella there serving, and they picked coffee and made every one of us sit down. and I think maybe there was some wood ashes on the table. When my father died, he He was then like the psalmist. When the psalmist passed away, he just took over and I'm trying to think of his name.
So now him, which was an honor, they did take him too. They walked, took him in the school and put him in front of the building and had service there. I don't know that they've ever done that for anybody, Jim. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they did, but this was Rabbi Gold that did it. Do you remember what year that was? If I could remember how long. He came in 1930 and he stayed until 1943. I'm trying to think. Papa died when he was 86 years old. But the year that was and we lived on Lear Street so many years too No It was during the time he was here Do you remember when his wife died here?
About 1938. Um, because she was, had already passed away when my father died. It was, it would have been after 19, about 1938 or after 1938. But all that is a long, long time ago. I've noticed in the Dallas directories that they had boarding houses. That what? Boarding houses in around 1900 or so. Were there Jewish boarding houses? One. And, uh, Miss Antoine. I can get that my sister will remember who that was her name and the Gladwells once had a restaurant here I mean a boarding house they were the first ones that had a boarding house and a relative of theirs had it had it after they did that I remember.
Can you describe what happened or how you know what would happen with people coming over and how they would live in the boarding houses? Well they didn't live in because most of the people that came over from Europe, the Gradwolds did not keep culture. They were connected more or less with the temple. And that kind of people would eat with them. But the people that came over just went to North Dallas and somebody took them in or placed them or things like that There was this Mrs. Yeaman hunted up places for them to stay or made it possible for them to stay. it depended on.
I remember that my father, and he wasn't the first one that did it, people would, from different Eastern organizations, would come for donations. and the shool kept a box. People coming to services every morning and evening would drop some trains in the box. They'd give them that and then somebody would have a sum of money that was and they'd come to them and get it. They used to come to my father and he would get so mad sometimes they paid only half there to come from New York or where the Jane Brown. And I hated it because some of them would make my father angry.
He would say, does it pay you to come from there, here, for... Of course they didn't only come to Dallas, They go to Waco to wherever there was Jews. And one man told him, he said, Why should I take it from my son? I have one son living in America. He has a wife and he has children. Why should I ask him to help me? This way I don't bother him. And it meant my father so much. Were they asking for themselves or for institutions? Some of them were asking for themselves, and I have an inkling that some of them that asked for organizations stuck it in their own pockets.
At any rate, they were supposed to get half of it anyway. And that lasted a long time until the railroads stopped giving them tickets, and then it didn't pay anymore. Was there only a one-day religious school program, or was there any Hebrew You mean teaching Hebrew every day. Now the English watching talker once a week. I mean the Bible cry. How did the parents feel about the girls? How did the parents feel about the girls going to Hebrew school Did you have any girls studying Hebrew Did they also were there any of the girls They didn mind if they go but of course some of them lived too far really They'd make boys go, or some of the, well, better-to-do families had a rabbi come to their, not a rabbi but a teacher come to their home.
It didn't cost a great deal, and they'd prepare them for bar mitzvah, and they'd go-they'd come to the home every day but Saturday. What about the Hebrew program? Did they just learn to read and write, or did they learn more? Well, at one time they tried to teach Hebrew as a language, a conversation language, But that wasn't right at the beginning. At the beginning the important thing was teaching to Hebrew, read the Hebrew prayers. Later, it became important to learn Hebrew to speak, and then they learned to write it. But at first it was mostly to be able to read the prayers in the print.
Did they try to teach the language conversation before 1930?