Full Transcript
voices but we go by Maurice Maurice what's that story when I came here and started working for me my markers the people couldn't pronounce Molly says so a very good friend of ours said why don't you call yourself Maurice and I change it to Maurice so from 1961 I am Moses Maurice bramnick 1924 born in the Ukraine and Russia what do you remember when you were just a little boy I was one year old when we left you know tube yuba see what the Cuba when you were one and did you find out why you guys left yes my parents were getting away from the
communist regime and that they ever tell you about that trip what it was like more or less they tell me about because we went from cracking out we went to Amsterdam and we took a boat and on that boat they had animals there and they I make told me they took me there you know to see the animals there who came with you might but my parent my mother and my father what about your grandparents may remain in June Georgia okay and so you never got to see them again I never showed him if I saw him I don't remember because I was very didn't
now where did you go to in Cuba he give up we went to Havana and why did they decide on going to Cuba my father had a brother already so that and at that time the people wanted to go to the United States and if they didn't have a visa to go in there immediately they stayed in Havana waiting for the visa so what was life like in Nevada when you were a little boy was really nice I mean I went to school I went to the high school the university I mean we had freedom it was really nice very nice what did your dad
do for living there he and his brother they had a store mains were store menswear store yeah okay and then where did you go to high school what was the name of the high school yeah I'm on a high school okay yeah and what was high school life like for you he was really nice I started to work at that time so during the day I was working in at night I was going to do high school now that your folks ever talked about were they happy in Havana were they happy with the change yeah they were we had a lot of friend when you
were young the Great Depression hit the United States did that affect you but all I was to lead to realized I'd oh and castro started coming to power what was the thinking at that time my parents were telling me that what I'm seeing there at that time is exactly what to happen in Russia so very early i made up my mind that I have to leave and I had already my wife and my two kids so one day when Castro came up and he blasted the United States and I told my wife wow we're leaving immediately because the relations are going to be broken then
we need to give us soon as possible so we were very lucky that we had permanent visas to come to the United States so in january eight we left Cuba let's go back a little bit after high school where did you go to college in the University of Havana ok and what did you study Eugene a civil engineering okay and after after you got out of college what did you get into well when I left Cuba I only had two years of college and so I didn't finish so when did you meet your wife we met in 1956 my friend that later became my brother-in-law
he invited me to go through my wife's my future wife's house for a party that's the way I met her so did you like her did she like you well in the beginning we were like in different situations they needed a person to go with one of Esther's friends so I was with that other young lady and my wife had a friend from Miami that was in Cuba that time he came he wanted to get engaged with her it never happened he was a 1956 because we went on the on New Year's we went away a big party each one of us with our own
mate and we didn't have a good time so the next day I invited her to go out with me and we went to a very beautiful place in in Havana very romantic place and and then everything started from there you remember the name of the place you took her the name was a Rancho Luna was there a big Jewish population in Havana at the time yes we went to Jewish schools in Havana yes whether a lot of people born there were they Jews that were coming emigrating there well the findings were ever immigrants but the queue don't we were already born and dairying ain't no
Donna yeah now were your children born in Cuba also yes both of them when you were a young man World War two broke out did that affect your family at all in Cuba yes because you had to go to the police station once a week or once a month to show up because we were from Russia your mom or dad ever talk about how hard it was saying goodbye to their parents when they came over to Cuba no they didn't really talk about that was there any contact with your family you know back in Russia after you left where my father used to write letters
to his family in Russia now you made the decision that you wanted to come to the United States what was it that finally precipitated that decision was a New Year's Eve that Castro came out in he busted the United States so I said well we need to leave the media who was going to go to the United States with you my wife and my kin my new peach okay what about your family's like your parents your wife's parents well my bindings and few years after that I got him out from Havana to the United so they came later they came later and what about Esther's
family he has two brothers and one sister my father wanted to get the two brothers out from Cuba because they were already mixed up with counter-revolution in Havana the younger brother agreed the older brother says no I'm not going my father wrote to then his younger son to Miami he went to a university in her in Miami other brother was picked up a few days later by the police he spent four years in prison in Havana did he ever get Phil 862 in 1961 in the beginning cutter let people go out but they only could take with them one hundred and fifty dollars per person
we came to Miami before we left Cuba we came to Miami to see you know get familiar with what's going on and we came to Miami we stayed I remember exactly for how long a week or two weeks and we came back so you watch Miami just to kind of explore yeah and then you went back to Cuba was there any thought of just staying in Miami are not going back no I had my kids in Havana we just came measure myself so now you decide that you take your family and going what was that like we have a very beautiful experience where my father-in-law
left to take his the other Santa Lovato Miami he couldn't come back because the police was already searching in his business and in his house so he couldn't come back so he stayed already in Miami so when we were going to leave my mother-in-law gave Esther a lot of jewelry to take with her I didn't know anything about that because although i thought i would said no because if we were caught we would have been for 20 years in prison there we would have left our children by themselves I mean every but she did it she was very courageous at the time and she had
you know jewelry in here is an egg in here hand everywhere since he was generally who we left she had a coat with her soul she was hiding those things good thing that never they never find out that your brother-in-law has spent four years in jail when he got out that he come to the United States to yet he managed to come to Mexico they got him out through Mexico and then from Mexico we got him out here so now you come to the United States with your family and you go to Miami yes and how long did because I know you want up in
Dallas how long did you stay in Miami barely two months and then you decided to come to dallas i went to the cuban refugee center and they send me to the highest which is you know that's what they'd i went to their office the highest office and they say okay you want to go to Bass and I say that right with me because I was preferred to go to the Dallas instead of New York because to stay away from the cold weather and all that we came in in a brain to Carson airfield you know us all there for spacing for working for work and
they're the Jewish Family Service already had someone that was waiting for Rose there to bring goes to dollars when the brain writing in forward they didn't let anybody come out and my wife probably there is some kind of star here that you know and a few minutes later they take the bra mix so we were justified was it a culture shock for you guys know in a way we were open for all that we were not shy or was the United States everything you had heard about yes when we got married we came to New York in our honeymoon that was in the 31st of
March and one day later it snowed in a New York and we went down you know and we were just throwing snowballs to each other it was a beautiful experiences we never had that before so you were ready to stay in Dallas what's more yes now what did you do for living in dallas at that time and then he was a widower already he got interested in helping us so he got together with the Jewish Family Service and so they gave him our address he came to see us and we used to call him uncle dave he took the is to to the nursery and
take and took us to go get a job for us and we went to several places 10 places we went was to [Music] Neiman Marcus and the game was a job both for my wife and myself so we spent almost five years not at Neiman Marcus my brother-in-law myself we started in the fabric business he was American TechStars that was the name of the company that we started now your family is recognized as the first Jewish family in Dallas that came from Cuba it was the first Jewish family without any friends or family because there was already some Jewish farmers here from Cuba yes but
we were the first one without any support for parole uh-huh just the Jewish Family Service now as you guys get involved with the Jewish community at all we first went to be fair it easier which was a Orthodox which is what we were used to in Havana and it was only only very old people at that time so we changed to Sheree Israel he's read Israel everything was all right until they wanted for the kids to come during the week to school there too we were both working so we couldn't do that so then we went to temple emanuel where the Keith had to go
only on Sundays to school it was a happiest time in your life 1st Marine hey Steph the next one was coming to the United faith because your kids have any trouble acclimating to the United States my blog was a year and a half and the governor was three years old so my problem yeah they are America and shall never fail now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions of course coming you know first from the Ukraine to Cuba in the United States you were here when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1969 something good the moon landing of course the tragedy of 9-11
was there something on the national scene that really affected you that you say I know exactly where I was the moment it happened moonwalking that was something really fantastic un Esther have the two children and four grandkids what advice does granddad have for the next generation good thing for them is that they were raised here in the United States which is the best country in the world we have been traveling all over and we have seen what's going on everywhere nothing like the United States where are some of the places you've been to who went to Europe we went to China we went to each
rider we went to Russia we're going to many places when you want to Russia as you go back and see find out about your family at all no we went on a cruise we went to San Petersburg and from there we took a plane for one day in go right so we didn't really have time to ago we were born and things like that the moistest Maurice you did a great job today thanks for doing this thank you
