The Rabbi
When it came time for me to become Bar Mitzvah, there was no one who could prepare me for it in Sharon. Pa had to bring in an Orthodox rabbi, complete with beard, payes, and long black coat, from Boston. When he would arrive at the train station, and begin walking to our house on Cottage Street, the ‘townie’ kids would taunt me, “Hey Ernie, your rabbi’s coming, your rabbi’s coming!” I learned my lessons well, and had a grand Bar Mitzvah at the Sunset Lodge, but I have always somewhat leery of rabbis ever since.
I Play Shylock
In the 1920’s, our family was still one of the few year-round Jewish families in Sharon, Massachusetts. Most Americans were still suspicious of immigrant families and Jews. When Ernie’s class at the Charles E. Wilbur School put on the Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice, they made me play the greedy Jew, Shylock, because they figured that “being a Jew, I’d be more familiar with the character.”
Mendel the Poet
George had a neer-do-well cousin from Latvia named Mendel, who was known as Mendel the Poet. Mendel traveled the world, apparently ending up in Alaska at one point, but never had any money. When he found out where is cousin George(Shlomo Yaacov) was, he showed up, penniless, at his door in Sharon, MA. "I had a dream", said Mendel, "in which I was told I should visit my cousin, who would give me money". "Why do you only dream about me when you are poor?", said George, "why not when you are rich?". George had a succession of relatives who showed up asking to be supported.
Max Looks for His Father in America
Pa, as I have already mentioned, had a younger brother, Avram Dietz, who had moved to England around 1900. There he married Sarah Levy, whose father owned a factory in Cardiff, Wales. Abram went to work for his in-laws in Cardiff.
Abram and Sarah had one son, Max. He was named for his uncle Moshe Dietz (Pa’s older brother), who had become an engineer in Russia and was killed in an industrial accident.
Margie was also named for Uncle Moshe.
Sarah was apparently very domineering, and Avram probably felt that he was owned lock, stock, and barrel by his wife’s family, and was quite unhappy.
One day Abram left the house for work, and disappeared, never to be heard from again. The Levy family searched throughout England for him, without success.
Max, thinking that perhaps his father had gone to live with his brother in America, showed up one summer’s day in 1926 at our house in Sharon. Pa and Max made all sorts of inquiries, but they never located Abram.
Max, then about 16, stayed at the Dietz house about two years. He was like the brother I never had. Us two teenaged boys would go into Boston together and have a grand old time. Eventually, however, Pa got tired of Max lounging around, and said he should go back to England because his mother was all alone, and would think his uncle George was stealing him away from her. He left, and was not heard from for forty years.
The Dietz family in England, during World War II, changed their name to Deech, to make it sound less German. Max started a very successful electrical transformer company, Stewart Transformers, which made custom transformers for the Royal yachts, Royal Navy, etc. Max married Phyllis, and had two children, John and Frances. Frances, like her grandfather, had a great fight with her rather strict father, and moved to Nelson, New Zealand, where she had three children and five grandchildren and lives to this day.
New Zealand Dietz childen
In later years, Max got back in touch with the Dietz family, and we became great friends again, and have gone on several vacations together.
No comments:
Post a Comment