It was 2008, when I sat down with my grandfather, Rabbi Herbert Bomzer ZTZL, to ask him about his family and our family history. He began telling me about places and people that lived nearly a hundred years before I was born. One story that sticks out in my mind was about “the grandmother”, the royal grandmother who even had indoor plumbing. Her name was Malka Bomzer. He began to describe her, as he remembered her. He knew her well from when he sat in her living room and in her kitchen nearly 70 years earlier. “And she was as I remember her, as being a loving personality, but one that you respect very very much. One was called Bubba, and the other was called Bobby. She was the Bubba....She was the Grandmother, yah know, ‘grand’…real grand…” Malcie Imber (pronounced Mal-Chi) was born into a wealthy family in the town of Janow, pronounced Yanov in Yiddish, (modern day Dolyna), located in central Galicia, Poland (a familiar Jewish area comparable to today's Long Island, NY). Janow was a small town with a Jewish population of about 300 families. "There were lots of forests around. There were big rivers and great waterfalls.... The city had very few very rich people. Had some affluent people, and a lot of poor people." As described by Yitzhak Kahana who, like his parents, were born and raised in Janow (1). The Imber family were part of that wealthy minority. It was said of the Imber family of Janow that they were so wealthy, that they even had indoor plumbing (2). During those times, in the late 1800's even the wealthiest families still did not have any electricity. It was only in the 1920's that the Erde and Gross families had the proper wiring installed, and only for basic household appliances. The entire town by and large was still living off kerosene lamps and wax candles. The Imber family was also known for a famous second cousin, Naftali Herz Imber, a poet who rhymed the ancient Hebrew language into modern songs (2). Naftali is most noted for having composed the words to Hatikva, a song which now serves as the national anthem for the state of Israel. When Malcie was six or seven, she was enrolled in the local public elementary school. The school was comprised of Jews and gentiles. She studied in Polish and became friendly with many of the town's young population (3). Her Jewish education came mostly from her home, and the synagogue, which she visited on rare occasions. There were some minor incidents of anti-semitism, but nothing that compared to the prewar years. For the most part, Jews and gentiles lived side by side in harmony. When she reached marriageable age (18 years old), her father, Moshe Meir, wanted to find the best suitor money could buy. Malka was very mature though, too mature for the young lads of her village and they decided to seek a husband from the surrounding towns. It became known to Moshe Meir that there was a man from the nearby town of Suchostaw, a Chassid, but at the very least a scholar and a God fearing Jew. This man had been recently widowed and was seeking a spouse to take care of his 7 or so young children. Moshe Meir was not unfamiliar with chassidim, but he had not been overly exposed to them, since Janow was just a small town with little outside connection. So the match was arranged between Chaim Wolf Bomze, a man of famous enough Chassidic lineage, and Malcie Imber (4). They were married in 1892 and would live together in Suchostaw for 15 years. Towards the end of the winter of 1907, Chaim Wolf caught Pneumonia. He spent nearly two months fighting it off. The local doctor in Suchostaw, did all he could, but with the medical supplies running low, Chaim Wolf passed away on March 9th, 1907 at the age of 64 (5). After their wedding in 1892, Malcie moved in with her husband in the town of Suchostaw. She soon after became pregnant and gave birth to Jente (Yenta). The young girl, whom she named after her own mother, Yente (Czaban). Jente would grow up to be the first of Malcie’s children to travel to the US and begin laying plans for the rest of the family to come over. Malcie’s second child with Chaim Wolf, born in 1896, was named Golde, who unfortunately passed away at the tender age of seven from spasms. In total Malcie had 6 children, 5 of whom emigrated with her to America. The oldest was Jente or Yetta. Next was Golde (who is buried in Suchostaw). Then came David, followed by Peretz (Paul), Meszullim Feivish (Philip), and finally Ciwie (Sylvia or Shirley). At about this time, early 1900’s, the children from Chaim Wolf's first marriage had all but grown up and immigrated to London, England, and its surrounding towns. Widowed, and without much family left in town, Malcie was looking for a new beginning. After facing the devastation of WWI she set her focus on starting a life in a new locale. The USA. By the time Malcie and her children traveled to the US in 1920, many members of the Imber family had been living in America for over three decades. Notably in Philadelphia, New York, and in other locations. Her daughter Yetta, and son-in-law, Louis Klein, arranged for visas, travel papers, and helped cover expenses for boat tickets for numerous cousins and relatives as well as for Malcie herself and her three children. Malcie’s manifest at Ellis Island says that she was in possession of less than $100 dollars when stepping off the boat (about $2000 in 2017 money), a fraction of her parents money 50 years earlier. Yetta had arrived in New York in 1911. She traveled by herself at the age of 17 aboard the SS President Grant with $10 in her pocket. She moved in with her uncle, Shimon Frenkel until she married Louis Klein (who she was taller than by three inches. He was 5”4, and she was 5”7) and moved in with him at 268 stanton Street on the Lower East Side. Their home would be listed on many family members Ellis Island papers as their destination. Earning a meager living as a Spring Maker, Louis, who arrived as Leib Hausvath was able to assist many a family member in purchasing and obtaining travel tickets to come to the USA. Yetta looked upon the streets of New York with the same piercing blue eyes as those of her mother, with hope and with ambition. Hoping that the future, and the work and hardship, would lead towards a better life for her and her descendants. By now, Malcie, a woman of 48 years old, 5”6 with grey hair, her piercing blue eyes still showing her youth and vigor started to build a new life for her family. She became a business woman and helped support her family. She had traveled thousands of miles away from the land of her parents and ancestors for the sake of a better life. Little did she know that her short trip across the pond would save herself and her family from the horrors of WWII and Nazi Germany. As she reached middle age, she moved to 1368 44th Street in Borough park a two hour walk from her son Philip, living in East New York, Brooklyn. On Shabbos afternoons in the 1930’s, Herbert Bomzer, Philip's eldest son, would walk the two hour journey from East New York to visit his grandmother in Borough park. Although nearly a full head taller than her, he still described her as “a tall woman, she spoke with such authority”. It was not only his perception he recounts, but that of the whole family who felt this way. “Malka Imber was a regal personality. She was a queen of her family. Her children literally bowed down to her.” In the year 1938. She contracted chronic nephritis. As the months passed on, a heart condition developed as well. She was cared for by her daughter Yetta, as she had been cared for many years ago when immigrating to New York. At that time she was coming to a new world. Now she was about to enter a new world as well. Her heart finally gave out and she passed away on the first day of Rosh Hashona, 1940. Malcia passed away at the age of 68 in her little house in Borough park. Her grandson loyally attended the funeral as it proceeded to Mt Hebron. It was there that my grandfather took me, 70 years later and told me, “this was my grandmother, sunny boy. She was the “grand” grandmother”. Bibliography (1) http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/terebovlya/ter174.html. (2) Interview with Rabbi Herbert W Bomzer in Woodmere, NY, 2008. (3) Ellis Island Manifest record for Malcie Imber and three children. New York, 1920. (4) Interview with Mr. Sternklar in Cedarhurst, NY, 2013. (5) Index for Certificate of Death, 1907. Suchostaw, Galicia, Poland
2 Comments
Karen Bomzer
3/29/2017 08:30:20 am
Another wonderful and enlightening story.....thank you!
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HENRIETTA P STEMPLER- HASHIMOTO
3/8/2020 02:50:09 pm
MICHAEL STEMPLER, MOTHER BOMZE, FA SOLOMON STEMPLER , DAD BORN IN BROOKLYN NY, I AM HIS FIRST CHILD, HENRIETTA, 76, MAUI HAWAII MINISTER
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June 2019
Binny LewisBinny's passion for discovering his family history has taken him on a journey. Over the past few years he founded and lead the first JGS on a college campus, the Family Discovery Society at Yeshivs University. Having traced his family back hundreds of years with tools like JewishGen & MyHeritage, he has instructed dozens of University students to do the same. |