Chaya Ruchel Andres
Chaya Ruchel Andres was born in Suwalki, Poland, near the German border, one of a family of four sisters and a brother. Her father was a pious scholar who taught and studied without charging, while her mother supported the family by running an inn and restaurant that served working people, including many Jewish soldiers. Chaya described herself as a happy, curious child who excelled in private school, learned several languages, and began sewing and caring for younger children in her family's courtyard. She discovered Yiddish literature as a girl, reading Sholem Aleichem, Peretz, and other classics aloud to neighbors on Friday nights.
During the First World War and its aftermath, the young men of her town, including her brother and a boy she loved, fled to avoid conscription into the Polish army. Lonely and later pressed toward a marriage she did not want, Chaya wrote to her aunt and uncle in Dallas, who sent affidavits and a ticket. She arrived in Dallas on the 4th of July, 1921, welcomed warmly by her large extended family, including the Tobolowsky and Weil relatives. Three months later she was introduced to the man who became her husband, a grocer and businessman active in the Workmen's Circle, and they married at the Parkview Club.
In Dallas, Chaya raised three sons and immersed herself in Yiddish cultural life, helping organize the Arbeiter Ring children's school and performing in Yiddish theater. She kept a kosher home for her husband's parents and shared concerts and operas with her children. Her eldest son, Ruben, became a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins; her second son served in the Navy at Normandy and became a businessman; her third son became a devoted volunteer. After losing her entire European family in the Holocaust, Chaya poured her grief into poetry, which was published in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, including her book Years Have Sped By.
Full Transcript
My friend, Chaya Rochow Andrzej, and we're going to talk a little bit about her life. Good morning, Chaya Rochow. Good morning, my dear. Where were you born? I was born in Poland, in Suwałk, or Suwałki. All right. Were you born into a middle-class family, a wealthy family? What did your father do? I was born in a middle-class family. What did your father do for a living? What did your father do for a living? My father did, he was a scholar, he was sitting and learning and studying, and I'll tell later what else you want to know, but my father didn't make a living, is that what you mean?
What did you make, what did you do for a living? Right, your father studied. So how many children were in your family? We were four sisters, including myself and a brother. So how did you eat? Who put food on the table? Well, my mother was the breadwinner. What did she do? Did she have a shot? We had an inn in our house, a restaurant for working people. So my hometown was near the German border, therefore there were a lot of military. Your mother provided? Among them were a lot of Jewish soldiers who used to eat at my house. So you had Jewish soldiers. So your mother was the one who provided the income, and your father was a scholar.
My father was sitting young, and studying, and doing some teaching on the side. He was never charging for his teaching. He was teaching mostly elderly people. What do you remember about your growing up years in Poland? When did you come to America Oh well you starting from America No When did you come to America I came in How old were you The 4th of July 1921 is when I came to Dallas Texas So, how old were you? I was, at that time, 22 years old. Okay, so we've got to go back. Let's go back to Poland and find out about your childhood. What about your childhood?
What do you remember about your education, your friends? Yes, I have quite a bit to tell. I just got through writing my life story, so everything is kind of vividly in my mind. Good, all right. What about your childhood? Tell me. My childhood. Well, I was a very happy child. I was the second in the family. My brother was the oldest. I was the second. a child who didn't have any kind of worries I went to school at six studied Yiddish for a probably one year and right away went into private schools where we learned all kinds of languages and I did very well in school although So as a person, as a little girl, I was quite, could I call it a wild girl?
No. Yes, I want to know. I wasn't wild. My auntie said she was wild. She used to climb up in a tree and take the little eggs from the bagel up. But I did walk in school. We had the benches, and I was the originator of walking on top of the benches when the teacher is out. and we were imagining that we are going to Petrburg and to Moscow and to all kinds of cities around Russia. And all of a sudden, from one bench to the other, I fell. And one of these, what did you call this? The corner. The corner of one of the, we call this kamiki, the benches went into my leg.
I still have design of it. I see. Right here. So that taught you not to be a Cossack, huh? Yes. Well, I was- All right, what about your friend? I had a lot of trouble with it and from then on I think I was quite a little bit better My learning in school was excellent What about the friends you went with? In school? In school and around. Did you? Oh, well, I had many friends. I had, we belonged to a, um... a youth group not all of our my friends belong to the same class of people most of them are richer girls because where I want but when I was in school that was a private school was called pension and and we weren't as as wealthy as those people who could afford to send their children to the pension but my mother always wanted her children to have the best of it in education so did you belong to any youth group those girls those girls lived in beautiful homes fine surroundings and we lived in a modest home not a very poor home no I couldn't say that because we had a Yerusha a Yerusha from from my father's side and the house was but it was a triplex a big triplex on one side was was our home a big a big nice home because people ate there are you seeing my mother was the innkeeper yeah the the whole the whole She was going to market, buying everything, and cooking, and preparing, and knowing all the people who ate at my house.
My mother never could find me when she needed me. You managed? Where were you? I was always in the back of our long yard. were a lot of people living in small apartments and they had little children a lot of children and I used to love to play with the little girls and those little girls how could I say that one of them but had the same name as I it was mine Chai Rochale Chai Rochale Oh he had a nether left like Trinnen Stendig Yeah. And I used to wash that little girl and wash her hair and braid her hair and... How much older were you than her at that time?
That... in that yard? Yeah, when you were playing with the little children, And how old were you? Oh, I must have been at that time already, maybe nine, ten years old, because I learned to sew. I used to make little dresses for the children. And somebody's calling me. What about your... I want to finish this. I was, you could call it, a little girl volunteer. A little girl volunteer. Okay. What about girls your own age, like when you became like a teenager, did you belong to any youth group? What kind of social activities did you have? I belonged to a shachmat club, chess club. The other girls went to the Zionist organization, and I loved the poetry of the Bund in those days.
I used to love the Shmueh and all those heartbreaking songs for the working class. And why I did it, it was in me. I loved it. So I belonged. But I always was with those rich boys and girls, with them. And they, how could I say it? They loved me for being different. For being different. Yeah. All right. How did boys and girls of your age at those times, did you date? What did you do for, you know, entertainment in those days? For spending time. For spending time together? Well, I was a little different. I found in one of my girls' homes, I found in their bookcase very long, big books that on their rokins, how would you say, the rokins?
On their back. Well, anyway, I could use a unit's word anyway. The rookens of those books said, Der Yud, that was a magazine, a monthly magazine. And in Yiddish, well, I wanted to take it out and look at it. It was big, like a Gomorrah, that size. and I looked at it and I saw the writers like Sholem Aleichem like Peretz like Mandela Mechersporim and Sholemash and all those classics I took it out and of course all of us could read Yiddish because in that first year we learned either and I started reading Shalom Aleichem I didn't know who it was from Adam did anybody get a name of Shalom Aleichem well I started reading it and I loved it and and pretty soon I read some of his monologues and his little stories to our neighbors in the back of our yard.
I used to go there every Friday night and read to them of Shalom Aleichem. They loved it and of course seeing how they enjoyed it and I enjoyed reading it. So I fell in love with Shalom Aleichem forever. Let me ask you something. In your little town in Poland... It wasn't so late. Well, all right. In your town in Poland, the area you lived in, was it mostly Jewish? Yes. Well, I lived right next to our beautiful shul, the Jotunika shul. So a lot of Jews lived around? Yes, it was a very wonderful place to live for us. Was your family observant? Were they observant Jews?
Was your family, your house, a religious home? Oh yes, most importantly, religious. My father was a scholar. He was a very pious man. People used to come in to ask him questions even though he was not a dying or a rough but he used to teach teach every way me whole a marriage they used to teach old people I in Yakef and and Shabbos by Nacht at Shabbatzenach, we used to call it. He used to teach, learn with people, Mishnayas, and, oh, our home was very much religious. Okay, what about... And I was also religious. I used to... Davon in the morning. I knew all the Davon.
Let me ask you something. You say that you loved, you fell in love with Shomalachim and his stories. Yes. And you used to read to, you became the town little reader. Yes, yes. At that time, were you writing anything of your own or just reading and appreciating? No, not at that time. No, I was... All right, then let's get you past the teenage. Now, you said you came to America at age 22. Were you single then? Were you married then? How did the Kats, Kumi, Beren, Vassar? The Kats, Kumi, Beren, Vassar. All right. How did this all come to be? This is my whole beautiful story.
I fell in love with a young man. Which is normal. A young man. He was a boy of 18, and I must have been 17 or something. He was, that was already in the time of the First World War. All right. Where did you meet this young man? This young man? In my home. I could meet many, many people in my home. Okay. All right. Yes. Well, this young man was a very interesting lad. He used to sing Yiddish folk songs beautifully, and on top of it, he was a good dancer. And I was quite a, a, a freelache, you know. A happy one. I loved it, a happy girl.
And I loved it. I now call it fell in love with him. I didn't know what love was or falling in love. Why do you have to fall in love? That's right. You can pick yourself up. Okay. So you like, you like this young man. And that that was in the time of the First World War and times were getting quite uncomfortable How could I say it? It was bad for all people, not only for us Jewish people, but still worse. and and when the war ended I jump from that's okay and the war ended in 1916 it started in 1914 1916 the war ended we people didn't know that the war was ended we just nothing changed everything was so bad the environment was very very sad people have gotten very poor that was the Germans came in you see the Germans stayed in in my hometown four years at the beginning only six weeks but the Cossacks drove them out and and six weeks later they came back and stayed for years and after the war the the poles have gotten to be the the heirs of the of our land of of all Poland, you know.
And then they started right quick to mobilize the young men into the military, in the army. And my brother, who was at that time of age that they would have mobilized, they would have taken him to the army, into the army, he and all of his friends, all poorly Zionists they ran away from so well well my boyfriend whom I was so girlishly infatuated with he ran away too they didn't want to go into the service Polish army so I became very lonely girl very lonely my people didn't like my boyfriend because he was not a believer he didn't want to go into Daven and I kind of suffered from that but I didn care about him not davening I davened enough for him So where did he go to?
He went to America? Is that where he ran away to? No, there was a long story. Okay, so where did he go to? He? Yes. Oh, no, they all went to America. You had to have money to go to America. America so where did he run they all left for Lithuania and from there whoever could get work if they knew what to do and then they remained there for a while if they didn't they they they hitchhiked I guess to Russia and the Russian border was also there you see we were in the middle of all it's ours so When my brother went away, all of his friends went away, and my young man that I was so in love with, he went away.
And oh, I had a very, very hard time then. And of course my friends, the boys and girls, well, they were young men. I don't think that you call young men boys, do you? No, young men. Yeah. Well, they all took me in again because, you know, when you have a boyfriend, you usually are with your boyfriend, and they step aside. They have their girls and boys. I was a different type of a person anyway from all the other boys and girls. Not that I was better. No, I was, well, how could I explain it? I was more thinking girl that's when I started writing you asked me when I started writing and I wrote only about the poor people I Wrote one story the note in defense that I kill him Being a young girl 17 or what?
Maybe 18 at a time and I wrote a story a short story and my people when I left to America America my people send it back to me. I didn't want to take it with me that short story. I wrote some more I didn't write any poetry at all. I didn't know oh and At that time I was very poetically inclined, not of my own poetry. I read Knudsen's and I read... Knudsen was one of our Russian writers who was a... He used to write about love. So you read poetry and you wrote short stories. Okay, I'm still waiting to hear, did you marry this young man that you were so madly in love with?
No, he ran away. I never heard from him again. I did. No, but my parents saw that I was just... Pining away. Missing that boy. They didn't like him. They were just thanking God he went away. But they right away started looking for a young man for me to forget this one. And they didn't have to wait very long. A young man, about 12 years older than I was, right away came to my father's home and started talking to my father that he has cast his eyes on Chai Roche even when that young man was there. And he would like very much to take me out and give me a good time and see what will happen.
When my father told me about that, I thought, I'll just die. He was a man of probably over 30 years, maybe 30 or maybe more. In those days, a little girl thinks a man of 30 is an old man. Not now, but then it was. Well, this man was quite well off. He had a factory of pig's hair. He used to buy in the market all the pig's hair that they poised him. Yes, the peasants. Peasants used to bring into the market. And he used to buy it and he had a factory a little factory first and then a bigger factory but when I heard that he it has to do with pig hair I just almost died my my friends the girls and the boys who got really very jealous at me you know but I didn't care anything about that boy and not for his pig's hair for his family and for any one of him oh but my mother and dad thought that I was going to be a wealthy young woman and lead a very combined life right there in Sioux Oak and wouldn't have to run away I never did think of running away but they were afraid that you know I might run away so what happened hi what What happened, I forgot that everything is being recorded here.
I should be very careful with what I'm saying now. It'll be forever. That's all right. That's all right. So did you marry the man with the pig's hair factory? Did you? Yeah. I did not marry, but I was already engaged to him to be married. But the story that I want to put on record, that this man, when he started taking me out, the first thing he told me that he cast his eyes on me. So I thought it reminded me of the story that I read of Zaitl, you know, Sholm Aleichem's story that the butcher... The butcher from Fiddler on the Roof. Yes, his eyes untitled.
Right. You know, and the whole story about that. Well. So you broke the engagement. My parents at that time, I couldn't say we were poor because we were never poor. We lived in a good house. But how did you break the engagement? You were engaged already. So what did you do? Anyway, you'll have to read my life story. Ah, okay. If you don't want your grandchildren to know and your great-grandchildren, all right. Everything is written in my life story. Right, but we want some things on the table. All right so we did away with that gentlemen Yeah but how I went to Warsaw I got to be a very rich bride and all that But I never wanted to hear about my fabricated husband I didn't want to listen.
But I wanted to have all those nice things, you know. But your heart wouldn't let you do it. No, yeah. No? Well, anyway, I... My mother had a sister and a brother right here in Dallas, Texas. The sister lived here with her husband and quite a large, nice family. Lived in Dallas, Texas for 40 years. And my mother's brother lived here for 20 years. And they were quite wealthy in those days. my mother didn't want me to write to them to send me a ship scout, you know, to come to America. And I would have ran away at that time. It was nothing in my feelings to be married to this man.
But, you know, when things get so bad and you need some, maybe some bread and other things in the house, and this man used to bring me chocolates, and he used to bring me all kinds of sardines and different things, and bring it into the house my people could eat, and they merenguereth, you see, and I got to be his bride, but not for long. I wrote letters to my uncle and aunt that if they could possibly bring me to this country, to America and then they would just save me from marrying someone that I don't love I'm just very very how shall I say it shall I not say it all right anyway anyway they did they entered my letter right away not only with the letter but Right away I got the whole package with affidavits of support and a ticket from New York.
First a ship scout, you know. A ticket? And then a ticket from New York to Dallas So what did your parents say I came to my parents that such a story that you have to read They were very upset You just have to read it It is always easy and as Let's put you on the boat then. So you got on the boat. What do you remember about coming over? You were a single girl. Tell us a little bit about the boat. about the boat. I had a very fine time on the boat. Because that's when I really started living again. Right, you felt that a load was off your heart, right?
On the boat, I met a lot of young men and young girls. And we were singing. And we were just having such a marvelous time. I was never sick even a day on the boat. That's wonderful. I enjoyed All right. When you came into New York, were your relatives waiting for you? Oh, and how. My cousins. You know, did you know any of my relatives? You must know a lot of the Tabalovskis. Yes. They're your relatives. That's all my relatives. They're all my relatives. So they met you at the boat and brought you from New York to? From New York. To Dallas. I came to Dallas and my uncle, my mother's brother, had written to my parents in Europe yet that he, if Jairochul could only come to America, to Dallas, Texas, he has a man, a boyfriend for who is waiting for him.
Who could be a boyfriend for me to wait? So I say, I leave it to the one who would read my story, and you could make their own judgment on that. All right. What about your brothers and sisters? Did they stay behind? It was terrible for me to leave them. And my father was 79 years old at that time when I left. My father lived, by the way, 98 years. Pupu. Yeah. That's wonderful. Yes. And you left your brothers and sisters behind. And the rest of it, my whole family, were lost. In the Holocaust, yes. In the Holocaust, yes. All right, so you came to Dallas.
You were 22 years old? I was going to be 22 years old. All right. Did you go out to find a job? How? No! Who needed a job? They thought they-my uncle. My uncle and aunt were so glad to see me. That green girl came in, all dressed up in that fine clothes, you know, and they sent money to pay back for my... for my... Dowering. ...bear job. Yeah. Yeah. To that young man. Young man. Oh! It wasn't all that easy, the way I told it. Oh, I know it wasn't. It doesn't make much sense. So you arrived in Dallas and you didn't work. Your aunt and uncle were delighted to have you.
So what did you do? You couldn't sit late? Oh, no. I was three months here when all my cousins and everybody just thought the world of me. They introduced me to a lot of Jewish people. They all lived in one neighborhood, and they all had their acheres for me because I was speaking several languages. You were the educated young lady. Yes. Okay. Did they bring this young man? Three months after that, my uncle introduced me to that man. What did this young man do? What was his...? Oh, he had, he already had a little stock, a little, a little store, a grocery store with his brother, with his older brother.
And they were a very fine family, a fine family. And when I met this man, I, at my uncle's home, at a beautiful dinner table, and my uncle had only nine children, five boys and four daughters, four sons and daughters. They all played musical instruments. And it was, the house was so in an opera all the time. Isn't that wonderful? Your uncle who had nine children had room for one more to bring from Europe. That's beautiful. Oh, he and both uncles and aunts did it for me, not only this uncle. I stayed at my mother's sister, my aunt, Tamata Balovsky. She was the finest woman ever ever How many children did she have She had four daughters and a son And the son was the youngest and he was my age I see.
All right, so you met this gentleman at the Tobolowsky table at a fine dinner. What did you think of him the minute you met him? When I met them, it was, I loved them because what they did for me, but they were different people. Like, how should I explain it? Like in Europe, in my hometown, they would have been of a class of people, of Al-Abatushe. But they didn't know anything of, well, language. Learning and language. Okay. Well, what about this young man who owned the grocery store? This young man? Was he of the same caliber? He was not? No, he was a member of the Arbitering.
Mm-hmm. Do you know what that is? The Workman's Circle. Yes, the Workman's Circle. Right. And he spoke a beautiful Yiddish without English. Mm-hmm. without any beautiful Yiddish. I didn't look for anything else at that time. I guess I didn't have sense enough to look for anything else. He was about twelve years older than I was too, but he's a very fine gentleman, very fine. And my uncle was very happy when He got us together, and he called me every morning. He wanted to come all the time to take me out, but my cousins were always sitting on the front porch, and some of them were lying on the grass right by the steps of the house.
And I felt that this is Kleinstädtelbeek somehow. That's what I can explain about them. They were Kleinstädtelbeek. Right, right. And where did I get old Groszstedtischein? From your little town. Right, right. So where did you used to go with this young gentleman? Oh, he came with a beautiful car, and he took me out. I didn't want to go at the beginning with this young man. I was still kind of afraid. How should I go in an automobile with one man of coming from Europe you know told me to be very careful Well careful so I was too careful you know I didn't want to go and I asked my aunt, aunt Weil, do you know the Weil family or not?
Yes, yes. Well, they were all my cousins. Okay. Which of the Wiles do you know? Bernie. You know Nathan, don't you? Nathan Wilde? Well, anyhow, let's go on with your story. Yeah. Well, you don't know them. Well, anyway, my story is a long story. You were going to go out in the car. Okay. You asked your aunt if you should go in the car. Yes. I asked my aunt to go with us, and she explained to me that when a man is asking a girl to go with him for a ride in his car it isn't nice for someone else to come along I looked at her and I really didn't understand it it was all so clean shettled the way she explained to me and then I walked up to this man and I told him what that I asked my aunt if she would come along with us and and she thought that and told him exactly what my aunt said he was thinking a little bit and he walked up to my aunt and he thanked her for being so nice to explain to me but I didn't like the whole idea it wasn't it wasn't very very but I'm coming becoming it wasn't well anyway then my uncle came up and he says, I know this young man for 15 years, 20 years.
He's a fine young man. Yes, you can go with this young man for a ride. He was waiting for you long enough. You can go for a ride. Well, we went for a ride. We were talking about the times in the First World War in Europe, and he seemed to be very knowledgeable about the whole thing what was going on in in this time of the First World War and I like to talk to him because his Yiddish was flawless beautiful and I liked it right away well then I told you already about the phone calls he used to call me every morning and I didn want him to come after he closes the store and all my cousins were sitting on that porch and thought it was just simple and stettled liquor but later on I got used to the environment everything was fine in in in about a very short while he wanted to introduce me to his friends and I really wanted to know his friends that was very important to me and when he did that he arranged to for me to meet some of his closest friends I thought I was living in another world a new world opened up for me yes it was very nice I I met his friends and in another, in another month I guess, he started talking to me about, about, well, more serious things.
they came with the little box in his hand and and I was very excited God knows what he has in that box and he asked me to open it I opened it and and this is what I saw right here diamond ring diamond ring say What is all that? You can take it back. I don't need a diamond ring Need a diamond ring. I'm very happy and he just Thoughts that what is he going to do? He's going to talk me into it somehow and that's when when we got like I would call it engaged without anybody around us and that was the story I like this man from the very beginning and of course we lived a very very wonderful life about the wedding and about everything that happens later you just have to read my life story that's all well what about Who made the wedding?
Your aunties? Your mishpoche? Have you ever made your wedding? Oh, the wedding, yes. Mishpoche made a wedding. My wedding was in Parkview Club. The first wedding in Parkview Club was the Jewish Federation, the very first building that they had. And my wedding was there. And it was... I have everything written up about the wedding. Did any of your family come from Europe for the wedding? No, they weren't able. No, there was not a question about something. Okay, so who feared you to the chippa then? Who took you to the chippa? Oh, my uncle and my tante. Oh, and all the cousins around me. I was a very happy bride.
That's nice. Well, if you had so many cousins and so many relatives, I can imagine that was a nice... Yes. All right, then you settled down as a young woman. And I'm still here. And you're still here? You're still settling down nicely in the chair. I got interested in my husband's arbitring. They later built a beautiful lyceum, arbitring, and they organized an arbitring kinder-shule, and they brought some teachers from New York. And we had-oh, it was a good life. It was an interesting life. You were very active in the Yiddish movement. Yes. Yes. Okay, you never worked then? No. Okay. When you got married, how many children did you have?
I had one after another. I had three sons. I still have them. Three sons. One after another? You didn't have triplets? They didn't all come at the same time? No. It was my oldest son was born about a year and a half after we got married. And then my second son came 22 months later, and my third son came five years later. All right. And your husband remained in the grocery business all this time? Yes. He was in the grocery business. He was in real estate. He was in different kinds of business. He was a good businessman. What do you remember about the years when your children, you said you yourself were very active in workmen circle in the Yiddish movement in the children school Do you remember about the children going up Did you used to take trips together vacations together Are there any trips you remember Yes we used to take trips not very far away.
I had another uncle, by the way, in Pittsburgh, and I did go. I made a trip to go to Pittsburgh and see my cousins there, my cousins and uncle and aunt, oh, the whole family. And my son, the first son, Rubin, he, well, all my children were very fine children. They were gerotten, gerotten, you know, because gerotten is, yeah. Yes. Well, they say, an apple of fault need by from bemula. The apple is not too different from the tree from which it stems. They were gerotten. Our life was very, very wonderful life, we'll add. You see, I had my husband had a father and a mother and here that he brought them from I didn't even tell you where they came from Crimea from Feodosia and there was a sister-in-law of one and another sister-in-law and their children all of them were studying and my my husband's youngest brother was studying medicine and he was if your husband was in the workman circle then your home was not a particularly religious one it was more a cultural one is that correct yes but I carried on for my father-in-law and mother-in-law a kosher home so they could because they they enjoyed me so much that I wanted them to have the enjoyment for a long time they were all elderly people and and I thought of my father being an old man and my my mother was way younger than my father but I wanted to be very sweet to my mother-in-law and father-in-law mother-in-law lived with us until I had both sons and then she she died and until Until when she died, my home was kosher because I wanted them to eat at my house.
I used to make the sedorim at my house. And I was a real kosher What about your children Jewish aidaner What about your children Jewish education Did they go to What about your children Jewish education Did they go to an Arbiter Ring school Well, not only the oldest one. You see, the Arbiter Ring shul opened in 1926, and I only had one son who could attend to it, and he was still too young to start school. The other one was just a little boy, and the school lasted here for nine years, from 1926 until 1935, something like that, until the crisis came. So my only son, the oldest, went after him.
All right. Did they go, did you belong to a synagogue? Did they go to a synagogue school? Did they have any? No. They didn't. Oh, well. You were traditionally... My oldest one was Bar Mitzvah because his grandfather was teaching him Bar Mitzvah. My grandfather, my... Father-in-law. My Schwer. My father-in-law was a rabbi. He was a rabbi. I mean, he was not a rabbi, a rabbi, a teacher. So his son really had come quite a distance away from what his father had believed in. Okay. What about, I know, of course, I know I've read, you, of course, have written many wonderful poems. Mrs. Andres, you have written many poems and many works in Yiddish.
when you were a young mother and had your young children did you write then or did you just read then no i read then i read a lot i read all of our yiddish classics and i was interested in in only in a cultural life were there any yiddish clubs yiddish theater were there any Yiddish theater. You tell me you were the star of a play. I was one of the stars. I was singing, singing in a group of singers, men and women. We were singing Mendel Fortavec. Ah, yeah, Mendel Fortavec. I was the mother of that Yes yes yes And So there was a rich Jewish life here I was in the group very very active in that uh Very good.
Actors group. Let me ask you something, then. When did you start writing, Mrs. Anderson? I know, when I started writing, that was a lot later. I used to write, um... I didn't count that for writing. it was just that I used to introduce people in Yiddish all the time when we had a concert and I wrote several quite nice introductions well that was I still have them I have them on cassettes yeah that was as far as I was writing but writing poetry I started you know when when the first building for the Jewish community center was built the very first I wrote a poem for that and and I even had music music prepared for it but who saw it or who heard it me couple of my close friends and I put it away later I wrote the poem of a bachelor Malik and that was they were telling me it was a masterpiece I don't know I at that time read most of his books I have 42 volumes and read it was your husband alive when you were writing his poetry?
Yes, yes, he was alive. My husband is dead now 15 years. All children were born. He lived to see all of his eight grandchildren. Thank goodness for that. Oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. So you started writing, let's say, how many years ago, if we had to put a tag on? I think it must have been about 22, 23 years ago. Okay, so later on in your life, you had been doing a lot of reading, and then And this was... I did a lot of... So you began writing after your children were married. After? Your children were married and grown. No, no, I wrote before I said...
No, not before. My oldest son is married now 32 years. So, 32 years ago I haven't been writing. I was very busy helping in the store. I was quite busy helping, helping doing things. So most of your life you spent helping your husband, raising your children, and having a lot of interest in reading Yiddish, being active in a cultural Jewish life. and then all of a sudden you got this desire to express yourself oh yes well in the meantime that Holocaust came and I lost my whole family in the Holocaust and my family I think I told you we were four sisters including me it was three sisters and their husbands and their children and my brother and his wife and his two children they were all lost and that's when I started writing you you felt the cry inside you I had to be writing where I wouldn't be sitting here now that was the most horrible thing I understand your feeling because in traumas in my life I get on the stage and I sing and everything gets forgotten forgotten, and I expressed myself that way.
Yes. And you felt your release in the writings. Yes. And... Were your first writings about the Holocaust, about your family? Yes. I wrote about the Holocaust. Everything that came out of my... of the depth of my heart was the Holocaust. And it was all published right away. Scheldtstern, you know. Yes. He was a former teacher. I read his books, you know, his first few books that he has written, and I wrote to him how much I enjoyed his writings, his poetry. And when I got a letter from him, it says, where in the world did you learn such a Yiddish? The Yiddish was in our arbitrary Kindershow.
That's when everybody was busy doing something. I was learning the Yiddish in the classroom. I used to bring the children to class. I learned how to drive the car and all that And that when I started writing I had many many poems published in Toronto in their weekly, what was the name, the Yersche Zeitum? Yes, well, it's a Jewish paper. I've seen it. Yes, yes. They published everything Shalom Stern sent to them. That's wonderful. Everything. And then I had in the, my poetry was written up very fine in the Samlungen and in the Coup Journal, and oh, I was, I guess I was very lucky.
You weren't lucky. You were very talented. There's a difference between luck and talent. I didn't think of a talent in that time when I was writing it. It was all, came out all from the inside, from the profundus. Right, right, from the depths. Well, I think it's a wonderful thing. Tell me a little bit about your children. Tell me about... My children? Yes. About my oldest son. There is a lot to be told about. He was a genius. He still is. He was about five years old. When I used to teach him Yiddish Lidlach, you know, Leica Pilovich, you remember. Right, right. And they'd instabak pushke, and I said, David, Ben Farpay, Charlotte Goss, and Madre, and all kinds of Lidlach.
I used to teach him my Lidlach every morning. And the whole family, the Andrews family, lived together. We lived upstairs, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law lived downstairs. and and my my all the family lived together Ruben used to run down that's the oldest son used to run run down barefooted in the morning already learned a little a little and he used to recite it for his aunt Anuta and she got so excited she gave him a penny every time for every little and he used to run upstairs telling me how lucky is he got some money. And all those pennies were put into a little box and put on the on the icebox on top of the icebox in the kitchen Pretty soon his little box got full of pennies and used to go about a block from us there was another grocer who had some candies and he used to spend all of his money on candy.
What did he grow up to be, your son Ruben? What is he today? He grew up to be, well, it's very, very wonderful to tell about him. He graduated from med school at the age of 21. My goodness. Yeah. And what's his specialty? And he studied medicine, and he was right away sent to Gollinger Municipal Hospital in Washington, D.C. he stayed there for his internship, his other studies that he had, and then the Johns Hopkins took him in. Took him in right away and he was in medical research. He's been with them for 32 years now. He's now a full professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins.
Okay, your other two sons? And what about your other two sons? My other son was a very lively young man, lively boy. He didn't study as much as Ruben. He wanted to play ball with all the children in the neighborhood. I have a husband who was like that when he was a young man. Oh, he was, he was different and good looking. My oldest son was a red hair, a red headed. And this, he was a dark with curly beautiful hair and good looking and the girls ran after him but he was so bashful, bashful. But he wanted to play ball. I never could find him.
We used to take our children to all the concerts, always, no matter where it was, even to operas we used to take them, because we were on top, near to God, you know. That's all right. Yeah, the galerke. That's nice that you shared all the cultural things you did with each other. And what did he grow up to be your bashful Hansen son grew up 18 years of 18 years of his age of 18 years He enlisted in the Navy because it was already the Second World War and he was in the Battle of Normandy on our ship and got out of it alive. Thank God.
Before he left for the Army, He was already in... He was going to study dentistry. That's about all he would want. He didn't want any further. He wasn't one of the best students, although he always made his grades. Did he become a dentist? But he was interested in people. Did he become a dentist when he came back? Yes. Yes, he studied four years after he came back and he took business administration because we already had a big store and a nice building and different things. And he's in the business field. He became a businessman and a good one. That is in real estate. And he married his wonderful girl, Ruth Rosenberg from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It was a very fine, fine, fine time. The best time of our lives. And of course, the oldest married Amelia Martin, a Dallas girl. And then the third son of mine never did marry. Did he study? Has he? He's young. He's already over 40. He doesn't want to get married. And he's a good-looking chap. A good, nice, fine boy. And I didn't want to study too much. He's also interested in people. He's a volunteer for young, for children, sick poor children. and he is a member of the Dallas Emergency Corps, is doing things for old people, is a volunteer by heart. That's wonderful. That's wonderful.
And so I have three sons. And I have eight grandchildren. The Kretzintalach. That's my... My... Well, that's wonderful. And I think what's wonderful... My shura ha-shurim, I call. I call them all. My... Well, my parents are not alive, but... My... My brother-in-law's mother, may she rest in peace, used to say... She had k'nahorah 20 eniklach. And she says, these are my pretzentalach in life. This is the extra icing on the cake. I think it's nice that you say that this was the most wonderful time of your life when you were marrying off your sons and when you shared concerts with your children and operas with your children, and you tried to share with them the joys and the pleasures of your life, and you tried to teach them that money wasn't everything that was important in life, that money wasn't important, it was culture, it was knowledge.
We never had to worry about money. We had a store. We had always food. And I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't interested in money. However, money is a very good thing to have. It's very convenient. Oh, absolutely. It's very convenient. Very good to have. But I never had to worry about anything like that. Mrs. Andres, in your writing, what is your favorite topic to write about? Oh, my favorite, well, my last favorite topic was about my floymen poem, the nature, beautiful nature poems. I have a lot of wonderful poems. And I was written up in a Yiddish sitem on the literature and Kunst, on the Sunday paper.
Nature is your favorite. And the one who, the critic who gave the write-up about my books was very much interested and I could say was in love with my... The way you describe nature poems. Nature poems. All right. So nature is your favorite. I still am now I still am writing on different subjects different subjects All right Are your subjects now things that you see in life today or things that you remember from life in the past Well, I started from remembering from back, way back there. But as the years went by and my children, two married and I had grandchildren and all that, my kind of thinking has changed completely.
I started talking about times that's going on now. and of course the never have I forgotten anything that was gone from the past the past is still in my very depth of my heart whatever I write has to do came from the past like they say if you don't have a past you cannot have a present and of course not a future. What about the future? Do you write about the future at all in your poems? The future, no. I don't write about the future. Who knows what will be? Like there's a Hasidic, there's a Lubavitcher Rebbe that I read about and they ask him what about the future and he says, well.
His answer is always, well. In other words, we have to think. So you primarily write about things in the past, about nature. the nature that you remember and nature that you see today and things in the present. I write about people and their lives. People and their lives. I like that because my favorite thing in life is people. My husband calls me a mentionzicher. I look for people. Well, that's nice. You write about people. So tell me, like, if you meet someone, let's say you're talking to me now, Would you, are you sizing me up, my character, my look, my mannerisms? Will someday, not that I'm saying, will I end up in a poem?
What I'm asking you is, in your everyday life, do you? Well, I have many poems about my friends. Some who impressed me very deeply I have written about them yes some of them have died and I wrote even about the funerals who came to the funeral all the the eulogies that were read yes what I'm asking what they did when they lived yeah how we missed them and what would be like now without them. All right. What I'm asking is like every day now, you obviously love writing, every day, even in your everyday life, are you thinking of writing like, is it someday going to end up in a poem?
I mean, do you ever sort of relax and not think of creating? Well, I'll tell you how I write. I never, never know when at what time I'm going to write, when I'm going to write. Sometimes a word gives me a feeling of writing. I don't say I'm going to write a poem. I sit down and I write, and sometimes it comes out the very best thing. but then I started thinking back let's see why did I say that? it could be something different also and I write differently and I write differently and I make gramen and gramen and gramen and all of a sudden I say no, that's no good I tear it up and throw it away and then at another time I come back to the same thought that I had before and I write something different and it comes out so beautifully nice without any trouble, without any looking back of what I did before.
How did I think then and how do I think now? But I cannot say that I have talent and I cannot say that I am a good writer. We won't say you have talent, we'll say you have a gift. It's a gift to be able to do that. I don't look at it as anything like that. It just... For you, it makes you feel good. It makes you feel good. All right Mrs Andres I have enjoyed this very short time that we had together I love your works I write poetry too but I certainly don have the talent you do and you inspire me a great deal what I done with all these tapes that I do I have one question that I ask at the end and I know that your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren God willing will someday come into this center into the archives and they will find books on the shelf that you have written and they will be able to read them and say my grandmother wrote these but i know they are but i want them to hear you speak to them and tell them what would you if you had to guide them in their lives on how to live how to live how to live their lives from your life and your past experiences or what you see the world coming to what advice would you give your Greek grandchildren about life advices that I gave my children are written in my poems some of them have a Yerusha from the Bobbin and And I tell my Rachel, you must have read this one.
Right. I tell my youngest granddaughter, who is very bright, I tell her that I'm not going to write to you about beautiful, beautiful skies and beautiful flowers, beautiful birds, and beautiful poetry about nature. I am going to write to you something about children, poor children, who are standing on their spell. Doorstep. Threshold. on a threshold with their hands stretched out begging for a piece of stale bread and that's what they are getting. Those children are not the same life, the same, in the same air we are breathing, in the same life we are living. Those children are so, are, since they need bashert. You're trying to teach, but what would you teach them?
To be charitable? To think of people less fortunate? Notice those things, to notice those things, not only the beautiful things that we, the surroundings we live in, but to think about children who are, who are. People who are less fortunate. People, yes. I write, I write to several of my, of my acquaintances even, to try to look around and to see what's going on. In other words, the legacy that you would like to leave is that don't only think of yourself and your life in this little closed space that you exist in, that there are people who are less fortunate than we are, and there is a bigger world out there.
And what kind of a nature should a person have? Yes, I didn't tell you anything about my two trips to Israel and what I did while being in Israel. All right. And that is really the most interesting part of my life. All right. We have a few more minutes on the tape. Tell me about your trips to Israel. When I came to Israel in 1968, the first time, I met our Suvalkar Rovzun, his son, and he was also a very old man. The son of the rabbi from your little town in Poland. Yes, yes. Okay. And when he came to see me at the hotel and knew who I was, that Machermeyer Kleeman was my father, and his father were both friends, and he saw my writings in a little tablet, my poems that I have written about the Holocaust.
but his children, his whole family also was lost in the Holocaust and mine. He says to me, Chai Racho, a zeyne lider lost me liden, those daffen zart ruken. Those kind of writings have to be printed in a book and something And yes they all I saw so many different beautiful poetry I wouldn have anything like that I just write it for myself I'll put it in the drawers my children would sometimes they have it maybe translated in English he said I'm going to have it translated into Hebrew first and you'll give me your your tablet here when you are going back to Texas and I'll see that I'll find a translator into Hebrew and he did find one when I left he found a civil care Esther Zanetsky with her husband Haim Zemetski who
are very very fine people she's a Yiddish and Hebrew poet and she lives in Petah Tikva and when when we started corresponding with poetry back and forth you know she said we'll have the most wonderful book ever it'll be published in the in tel aviv in the hamanora publishing house and oh she took me and i didn't i was so far away from having my poetry published as as sky from the earth and they published it in as they published it in hamanora in the very wonderful publishing house and it took two years to have it completed and i have my first book you have
my first book yes i have your first book and you well that was my first book most of the things in that book or elementary i would say but still it was so how much after then followed your publishing in dallas after that that was quite quite interesting because when i came here and my friend started talking me into having some of my poems published into english so we can all understand what it's all about i say how am i going to have it published now into english it already published it in the hebrew no i have to do it in English Well there was
a writer a Yiddish writer a woman, Bella, I forgot her second name, she saw my poems in some of the publications, like in the Zamblangen and in the... I think somebody's coming to see you now. No, that's okay. Don't worry. Keep going. Yeah. And she got in touch with me. She has written to me, and she wants to see some of my poems. I sent her one of my poems, Nitmer, Nitmer. You remember Nevermore? All right. She said, I'm going to have this, have, there is one good publisher, Rosenberg, I don't know if you know him or not, Rosenbaum, I say Rosenbaum, he's going to translate your poem into English.
I said well if you say so you go ahead and we'll see what develops she couldn't get this man but she got Yudel Cohen another publisher another translator to tell you this story very shortly I had to send him send him that that certain poem for him to see if he could translate it The poem consisted of three big pages, and I sent him two pages of the number one. Oh. For the first. You sent him two pages of number one, but you sent it back. Yes, but he answered that he must, he knows what must have happened. It was a mistake. But would you please send me the end of this poem?
I want to translate this poem. I felt terribly dumb to do something like that. We all make mistakes in life. Oh, but that was an uncalled for mistake, because I'm quite... Organized. Organized and here is what I did for the first time But anyway he later he translated this poem and it translated 55 more poems for me my book has been published in New York and it was successfully received and now I have written my life story and also quite a number of new poems that have never been translated before also in the same book. I can hardly wait for that book because I have pictures, photographs in that book of my whole family.
When will this book be published? It is now at the end of the work on that book. All the three correctures have already been sent to the printer. It's in the printers now. And maybe, maybe if I'm lucky enough, I'll still live long enough to see it. And it will be in about a month. Mrs. Andres, I too wish you to live more than many, many months. Because I enjoy your work. I enjoy you as a person, and I am very much looking forward to your new book. Oh, sure. And let's hope that we can sit together like this and share many more beautiful times together.
I want to say one word about Miriam Krimer. No, no, no, not on your take. I must, I must. Not on your take, please. One word. I think that this young lady is really something else. I am so impressed with her readings and giving her interpretations of different things that I say, why can't I do it? Why can't I do it? But my hands don't work. I can only say with my mouth and my heart whatever I have written. But my, she is just absolutely wonderful. A lovely girl. We all love her very dearly. Thank you, Mrs. Andres.