Jewish Family Life

FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

For our narrators, Jewish family life was defined by the customs and practices of their immigrant parents and grandparents. Most recall Yiddish being spoken in their homes, the cycles of Shabbat and holidays around which family life centered, and absorbing strong Jewish values from their elders. Their memories bring these earlier generations to life with fond, poignant, and sometimes amusing detail.

Hear about Jewish Family Life

Wedding at the Beth Hamadrath Aperion Plaza in Roxbury, 1936, Sterling and Selesnick Family Papers in the JHC archive.

Sukkot table, Temple Beth El Fall River, Freedman Papers in the JHC archive.

Flora (Wembren) Selesnick on Watts Street in Chelsea, undated, Sterling and Selesnick Family Papers in the JHC archive.

Elaine Kellem Baskin, age 8, 1943. Image Courtesy of Elaine Baskin.

“I remember being in a political rally for Stevenson, a twilight rally, up on my father’s shoulders with candles.”

“My grandmother, she thought she was speaking English ... but I would have people say, “What is she speaking?”...It was a combination of English and Yiddish.”

Mollie and Norman Finkelstein on Walnut Street in Chelsea, 1945, image courtesy of Norman Finkelstein.

“They never wanted to forget their Jewishness. In fact, the longer they lived, the more Jewish they became, if that was even possible with my grandparents. They were traditional Jews to the core.”