Ghosts From My Past

Many years ago, when I was a child living in Williamsburg and later in the Midwood section of Flatbush, we used to be occasionally visited by "Uncle" Alex. I put quotes on the word “uncle” because he was not my uncle. He was not a member of the family at all. He was a friend of my mother's from the days when she had worked for the City Welfare Department and was a member of the Civil Guard in WWII. I called him "uncle" because he was a man to whom respect was due, and this was the method my parents taught me of showing this respect.

Uncle Alex came from Russia, from Kiev, and as a young man had been drafted to serve in the Czar's cavalry. He walked with a ramrod straight back and was a powerful man, even into his eighties. He was a communist, and proud of it unto his last day. He had immigrated to America in 1913, several years before the awful realities of Communism set in. So, for him, Communism was always the idealistic movement of the workers, devoted to a world revolution leading to a classless society, equality of man and to land, bread and freedom. In his eyes, it was an "alabaster dream undimmed by human tears."

He was married to a woman named Rose, a tough old woman with a long honker of a nose. Whenever we visited Uncle Alex in his home on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, it was utterly clear who wore the pants there. It wasn't Uncle Alex. Rose's passion was an organization called the Pioneer Women, and she would talk about a cousin of hers who would occasionally fly into town on fundraising trips. As a child, I couldn't figure out why an old Jewish woman would be interested in cowboys and covered wagons and the like, or why they needed someone to fly into Idlewild Airport to raise funds for them. Eventually I learnt that the Pioneer Women were involved in the pioneering efforts of Jews settling in the Land of Israel. By this time, Idlewild Airport had been renamed John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport.

Rose was inordinately proud of her cousin. She and Uncle Alex had very different views of the world, and it came out when he told us this tale of when his wife's cousin came to visit them in New York in 1920 before leaving for Mandate Palestine, what the Land of Israel was called then. It was not clear what Rose's views on the matter were. Rose's cousin came to visit her before leaving on the ship for Mandate Palestine. The young girl was not rich and had to stay with relatives while waiting for the ship to accept her. And these were the relatives. Uncle Alex tried very hard to dissuade Rose's cousin from leaving for the Land of Israel. He very frankly told her that she should work for the world revolution where she was in America and that going to Israel was a fool's dream. Rose's cousin, who had an even bigger honker of a nose than Rose did, and who was far more stubborn, was not dissuaded at all. She left for Israel where she lived for the rest of her life. Even 51 years after the event had occurred, Alex and Rose still argued over whether her cousin should have gone.

Article Author: Ruvy

Ruvy was born in Brooklyn and lived in Minnesota for a number of years. There he managed restaurants and wrote stories. He moved with his family to Israel where they now reside. He is published by Jewish Indy, as well as by Desicritics.org.

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