Natalie Rosenbloom
Natalie Rosenbloom's family history stretched from Lithuania to South Africa. Her mother's parents came from Vilna, Lithuania, around 1928, when her mother was a young child; her mother's father had been a mason. Her father was born in Cape Town in 1923, and his parents likely arrived in the early 1920s, working in fabric and manufacturing. Natalie described a happy, carefree childhood in South Africa. Her father was a partner in a stone foundry, working alongside his brother-in-law, and her mother later ran a well-known pickle company, Judy's Pickles, until Natalie's father became ill in 1973.
Natalie met Lawrence in 1973, just two weeks before her father passed away, and the couple married in 1976. After four difficult years marked by miscarriages, she was hospitalized throughout a final pregnancy and gave birth to triplets in May 1980. Lawrence had long dreamed of immigrating, and although an early plan to route through Israel fell through, the family's green cards came sooner than expected. In February 1982, when the children were nearly two, they moved to Dallas, chosen partly because it sat between the coasts they felt were unsuitable. The transition was remarkably smooth, with their triplets helping the family make friends quickly.
In Dallas, Natalie worked briefly as a radiographer, the same profession she had held in South Africa. Her children attended Solomon Schechter, and she became active in the PTA, serving as chair, and in the Jewish Federation, continuing her mother's tradition of community involvement. The family maintained Shabbat together and joined Shearith Israel, adjusting to unfamiliar traditions. Israel remained deeply important to her, as it had been in her family. Several relatives, including Lawrence's parents and siblings and her own sister, eventually joined them in Dallas. Her three children later settled in New York, giving her five grandchildren. Natalie remains a proud American who cherishes her South African roots and treasured family heirlooms, including her mother's porcelain dolls and her grandmother's pot.
Full Transcript
today is Tuesday December the 4th 2014 I am John gront and lyette rusen is with me and we are interviewing you as part of the roots to boots oral history project part of the um oral history project also of the Dallas Jewish historical society and we are very happy to be here in your beautiful home interviewing you today thank you for coming let's talk about life in South Africa and what when your family first came to South Africa and where they came from and what do you know about their early us in South Africa so my grandparents my mother's parents came probably in I would
I would guess she was 5 years old when they came so then and she was born in 1920 in 1928 so they came 33 in 1933 23 you said your mom was born 28 I mean in 23 excuse me where they come from they came from Lithuania from VNA the town of VNA and your father's side My Father's Side came much earlier they came my father was born in Cape Town and he was born in 23 so his parents must have come in the in the early early 20s okay and do you know anything about your parents early life South Africa my mother's father was
a mason in VNA and my my father's father um actually don't know a lot about him except that I think he was in the rag trade okay I think he was a Tor or he was something with fabric and Manufacturing okay all right so tell us about your own life growing up in South Africa your family your school was a wonderful life MH I know that's probably a Common Thread with everybody's interview it was a wonderful life it was Carefree we weren't we weren't wealth we weren't a wealthy family but we had everything we needed my mother never worked my father worked very hard he
was a partner in a Stone Foundry and um he was in business with my uncle actually my um my father's sister's husband that's the connection anyway they were in business together and they worked very hard and my mother was always a stay-at home mother until about I guess I was in high school early high school years she decided she needed a career so she bought a company called Judy's pickles mhm which is probably even a familiar name to you it was a very well-known brand of pickled onions and she bought the company I don't think it was for a lot of money cuz my parents
didn't have L money and um she loved her little business she was a real she was a real businesswoman the company grew and she was very proud of but then unfortunately in 1973 my father got ill and she let the company go she just didn't have the time or the energy for it and that that just dissolved I think it's still ongoing though I think they still they still made Judy pickles in South Africa so you met Lawrence I met Lawrence that same year in 1973 my father was on his death bed two weeks before he died actually I met Lawrence he had asked me
out for dinner I went and and you got married when we got married 3 years later 76 when a children were born and the kids were born in 1980 but those four years between the time that we were married and by the time I had my family I was always pregnant and always miscarrying that was the state of my life for the next four years fortunately um the last pregnancy worked out I was hospitalized for my entire pregnancy and I had a most incredible Doctor Who my children know all about in fact I think they think I love him more than their father and so
they were born in in May of 1980 and okay and what I was going to say was in in terms of the immigration even before we while we dated Lauren spoke about immigrating and he always said you know this is my plan so tell me now because if you're not interested in immigrating you know we can call this relationship off and I said oh no that's fine with me so even though you had triplets you knew you were going to leave one day yes and what was the final thing that made the decision to you well actually actually I have to just backtrack a little
bit and tell you that our original plan was to go via Israel because at the time that we decided we were now married and we were going to immigrate it was really very hard to get into the states and so our immigration lawyer had suggested to us that we use Israel as a stepping stone go to Israel first and then from Israel with an Israeli passport to come to the United States that plan actually fell apart when I found I was pregnant with three and I said to Lawrence there's no ways I'm going to Israel with three infants and he agreed and we decided to
sh that plan then thereafter we met another um lawyer who said no we could still file for US papers and it should be okay and what happened is the papers our green cards came through earlier than we had expected and our children were only 14 months at the time 15 months and I said to lence can we just have a little a little more time in Cape Town with all the nanes there and he said fine we came over to the states picked up our Green Card stayed a couple of weeks and went back with with the kids coach and Coach you brought the kids
in coach on the trip we had to because they each had their own green card so we had to bring them and then we stayed with for a couple of weeks in Houston and in a little apartment in Houston and then we came back to Cape Town and we kind of made plans and packed up and in the following February we came so they were like 23 months so what was your family's reaction to your decision to leave it it wasn't one of shock they well my father had already passed away so it was my mother my mother was absolutely supportive and um she thought
it was a a really good decision a hard decision and and easy for her she was going to be losing three grandchildren but she knew it was the best for us and she still had two children left in Camp town so she wasn't going to be totally alone Lawrence's parents you know were totally supportive and how how did you come to choose Dallas as your new home no really good reason right um it's crazy but when when we had made our first trip to the States in 1970 8 or 79 um we went all over we went from New York across country to La San
Diego we went all over and we in our innocence we thought the East Coast was too cold the West Coast was too drug infested and so we needed to find somewhere in the middle and our choices were going to be Atlanta Houston Dallas and and like all wondering Jews we thought we would start off in one town we thought there were towns and we would just see if we could make a go of things if things worked out we would stay if they didn't we'd move on to the next time but it worked out and we stayed so let's look at your early years in
Dallas and um you came in a pretty early wave of imigrant a blur it's a blur so can you remember what in what ways were others helpful when you first arrived and how did how did you find Community welcoming I think our children were key to us settling in and settling down really without a hicker um I think triplets at that time was something of a a a useful situation people were amazed that we had actually immigrated with triplets yeah um so it was really a a very easy transition we we first were in a little apartment which I don't care to recall about that
then we moved into a a rental house which was great we had all the space we needed and um and we we settled down easily we made friends easily um the children were the conduit they you know we made friends through their school they were at Salman sha I just I don't ever remember feeling this is hard or I want to go back to South Africa it was just an easy transition for me and for the children the children you know different were there any experiences that you remember that involved adjustment issues that was so different from what you were used to one night I
can only remember one one thing that sticks in my mind Hilton and veronique and Lawrence and I were in this apartment building and we needed to do laundry and and so lawen watched our kids Hilton watched their kids and verick and I decided to go to the Safeway at Spring Valley and K and for those that don't know Spring Valley and K in 197 in 1982 was not a great neighborhood it wasn't like Highland Park we go to the grocery store and ver and I are looking for washing powder and we standing and we're looking at the washing powder and I said to barque how
we supposed to know which one to buy there's like 30 different types in South Africa there was just one and it was omo and we had a GID and I think maybe even a tier or two can't can't remember the details exactly but it was a shock we we felt we felt a little loss that night but then we got over it we laughed we came back to our dingi apartment and we got on with life and did you work in Dallas when you got briefly I did I did um I worked for Brian Elman actually as a radiographer at his practice on KO Road
he had a satellite office in Ko Road and is that the same occupation that you had in South Africa yeah okay um so tell us about your introduction to the D Jewish Community uh and how did it compare to your experience in South Africa and how did you get involved in congregations or you had said the children were Jewish well the kids were at Solomon cha so it was easy got involved in the PTA I was I was chair of the PTA we got involved in Jewish Federation um it was just a natural my mother was always involved in M do and I just knew
that that was that I was going to do and I just got involved in it I just my kids were in the environment and I want to do partake so fast forward and let's look at South African Jewish cultural Traditions that you followed and that your children do they follow any of those um well growing up with the kids we always always did Shabbat MH always in South Africa we did it and that was something that we were adamant that we were going to continue and that was all well and good while they were in the Hebrew day school things fell apart a little when
they got into high school and then wanted to go to soccer games on a Friday night it was never football but pent was a so G so we came to an agreement that we would always have Shabbat together and then afterwards they could go out that was the one um tradition we continued we were never we were never religious in South Africa we were traditional Jews and we never really went to sh other than the Jewish holidays even in South Africa so we continued the same um tradition here um it was a little different for when we when we joined shareth Israel because we weren't
used to some of the Traditions here we weren't used to sitting men and women together we weren't used to women being counted in the Minion or going up to read from the Torah so that took a little bit of adjustment but we figured that was the sh we needed to be at because our children were at Solomon sh and that was the sh that was Affiliated to the school and how important was Israel to you growing up in South Africa and how do you feel about that Israel was always important to us I had my mother's my father's brother lived in Israel and my mother
had literally hundreds of cousins in Israel and so we were always committed to Israel I think my parents first trip overseas as a married couple was to Israel and a very it was a very important trip for them and um then afterwards whenever they had extra money that was where they went they back to Israel we always loved Israel and to this day Lawrence and I adore going to Israel we last year 19 2013 Lawrence went three times I went twice wow we love Israel so once you were here did you arrange for other friends or extended family to join you and who came and
went well Hilton and vque and their their family immigrated with us on the same [Music] um um Lawrence's siblings were always planning to come once there was a business established for them to come to my sister um ethne and her husband ex-husband and family also wanted to get out of South Africa and they did come I think three or four years after we did they came to live in Dallas with their children so so you have a lot of family here they are no longer living here in Dallas they now live in Atlanta okay and since immigrating to Dallas how has your family grown and
describe your family members and where they are now well yeah the family has grown but unfortunately not in Dallas our children all married people from New York believe it or not it's crazy Penny met her husband on a cruise that we were on he was with his family they were from New York beon Met his wife also ex- New Yorker living in New York and Emma too so all three of our kids live in New York and so it's our family has grown and we now have five grandchildren which is really the most important part because the kids really don't count anymore um but they're
all in New York so whilst our family has grown un unfortunately not here in Dallas okay and do you still have family in South Africa I do I have a sister and I have she unfortunately lost her husband in 1993 Brian Luen um um she's got two children two daughters and one of them is married and has um husband donon and two and three little kids and ex family we've got cousins from Lauren's side and from my side and aunts and uncles and of course you go back to visit them I'm sure yeah yeah and what if anything do you miss about life in South
Africa um in South Africa I felt that I was Jewish and I didn't need to prove it in any way here I feel like I have to make it known that I'm Jewish there everybody knew everybody everybody knew if you didn't know a family you knew of a family and you knew they were Jewish or they weren't Jewish here I feel you have to go a little bit further with your effort to make it known that you're Jewish interesting and you have US citizenship and do you consider yourself an American 100% 100% but when I do go back to South Africa I don't forget my
roots right I I remember them and I I enjoy the memories but I'm happy still to come back and be an American here so are you glad you came to Dallas very glad very very glad it was a wonderful city to raise our family it it was Wonder it worked out for my husband and um we've had a wonderful life we have wonderful family friends we have a really nice life um is there anything I didn't cover that you'd like to talk about I miss the South African chocolate right right and um tell us about the things next to you so the these are porcelain
dolls they were my mothers and um when I think of life in my house in Arena I think of these dolls and so when my mother passed away me and my two sisters sat around the table and put my mother's prize possessions on the table and said okay what do you want what do you want and before anybody could say anything I said I want these so wrapped them up and shlep them back and unfortunately they broke on the plane they smashed into SMI but you'd never say so cuz I think they look beautiful to W had them restored beautiful and the pot the pot
was my Bas my father's mother who lived to 100 she was a wise old lady and everybody was afraid of her except me and I think that's because I was her favorite that's s so she brought that with her to South Africa and now it's made the journey to Dallas all right that's the story of Our Lives isn't it yeah thanks thanks very much thank you tell us about your children and I'm sure they've been back to South Africa very often and how they feel about the two countries so it's very interesting that you ask that question because they are full on American I mean
they don't think of themselves as anything other than Americans however they had such a pride and joy in telling that they were actually born in South Africa they love that part of their South AF that they are South African by birth they they really cherish it it's the first thing out of their mouths when somebody says oh your parents speak funny and they'll say well we we were born in South Africa that is the first thing that they will tell and have they taken their spouses to visit well Lance has been we when Hazel was 3 months old we all went but they were the
only ones married and every year believe it or not for the last six years we've been growing as a family and we've been having babies and nobody has wanted to travel with babies to South Africa but we are please God planning next December to go for two weeks everybody so um Lawrence is actually working on looking that at the moment but so that's our plan to take everybody for Cheryl our daughter-in-law and Sam have not been and so we are looking forward to that now you're lucky in that Lawrence's entire family the immediate family lives in Dallas tell us a little more about that who
came and when so we came in 82 Brian and Mer and um Patricia and how actually Patricia and Howard came 3 years after we did and Brian and M came to visit they had their green card for three years already and they would just come every year they weren't ready to leave South Africa well what happened is when they got to DFW Airport the immigration official looked at their papers and said but you have a green card why aren't you living in Dallas or in the states they said well well they're busy packing to get ready to leave and they said sorry They confiscated their
passports and they were not able to leave the country well illegal battle ensued and they were able to get their passports back but they were told that if they left the country they would their green cards would be revered so they basically came on vacation and left and did they bring their children with them they did have their children with fortunately well just one they only had one child David was the only one at the time M actually was pregnant at Matthew at the time but nobody even knew that nor did she um and so they just stayed and had all their things packed up
for them and shipped over so within a matter of a few weeks all four of them were now here to stay and then Lawrence's parents there was reason for them to stay in South Africa anymore and I think it was about two years later that his parents finally packed up and joined us all here thank you anything else you should add no all right than