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November 22, 2007
Aunt Pearl, Nanny & Thanksgiving
“Your grandmother felt that the most important American holidays were Thanksgiving and Fourth of July. Oh, she just just loved America, was just so grateful to this country.”
I'm speaking to my beloved Aunt Pearl, my mother's baby sister. We're separated by several thousand miles; she lives in Florida, I in California, but for a major portion of my life Aunt Pearl lived in Brooklyn, with my grandmother, Chana Gittel Z'L, just a few minutes from wherever my parents lived.
Aunt Pearl called me Little Man, even when I grew older and towered over her diminutive five foot frame. We have always been close, Aunt Pearl and I. She never married, never had children, worked hard her entire life, took care of her mother, my grandmother, sacrificed much to be a good and faithful daughter. My Aunt Pearl has always been an independent woman, a feminist, without the anger, without the fashionable slogans, without the oh-so-dreary badge of victimhood. She's a remarkable woman.
“Tell me about Thanksgiving when we were children, Aunt Pearl.”
“Oh, it was so important to Nanny, she would invite all the children and grandchildren over to the apartment, cook all day, and because Aunt Regina and Uncle Albert lived in the same apartment building you kids used to run back and forth between the apartments.”
Yes, with countless and rambunctious cousins we would fly up and down the steep granite stairs, howl at one another and listen to the echoes ricochet off the concrete walls of the pre-war apartment building. We drove the neighbors crazy.
“Things changed when people in the Jewish community started making weddings on Thanksgiving. Your grandmother did not like that, she did not approve of that at all. She said it was wrong. Your parents would drop you and your sister off at our apartment and go off to a wedding. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to have you kids all to ourselves, but still, Nanny felt that Thanksgiving was too important a holiday to be cast aside for weddings. It was not respectful. Jews, she felt, should be more grateful.”
“She was right.”
“You know what else she hated?”
“What?”
“When her children got older and more prosperous, and they took vacations in Europe. She said to them: 'Why are you going back to Europe? I took you out of Europe. We fled from that bloody soil. Go see America.' Oh, Robert, she just loved America. Your Nanny was always grateful for all the blessings of America.”
Karen and I wish all our friends a Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 09:38 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Your Aunt Pearl sounds like a woman this Pearl would like. (I recall reading her comments on Seraphic Secret over the years)
Now I know from where your strong appreciation for this American holiday stems; your family truly understand what giving thanks is all about.
Enjoy (American) Thanksgiving, Robert & Karen.
Posted by: Pearl at November 22, 2007 10:37 AM
Although we don't celebrate Thanksgiving - our teachers in seminary/yeshiva were against it - I certainly do second Chana Gittel's sentiment about seeing America. G-d has been SO gracious in allowing us to spend our exile in this beautiful and generous country!
One of my teachers, Rabbi Yeruchem Kaplan, once quoted his father (Reb Mendel, z"l) as saying that G-d gave the USA both places to go and excellent highways on which to travel precisely because our founding fathers wanted to protect citizens' freedom of movement.
Posted by: alterbentzion at November 22, 2007 11:54 AM
Robert,
I could only wish American Jews would appreciate holidays like Thanksgiving.
It's important to be thankful for living in a nation that has truly been good to Jews...and has bestowed upon us opportunities that could never be found elsewhere.
I can appreciate your Aunt Pearl's feelings about seeing America....I have been lucky enough to travel acros the USA by car 3 times....twice as a child...and once as an adult.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!!
Posted by: Lance at November 22, 2007 12:40 PM
Ah, but did your grandmother recite Hallel on Thanksgiving Day :)
http://agmk.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-day-in-jewish-practice.html#links
Happy holiday!
Posted by: lion of zion at November 22, 2007 12:54 PM
Very well said. Of course, I don't expect people to say Hallel, but maybe a Shehhechianu is warranted on this day. And from a secular point of view, how can you go wrong on a day dedicated to the three essentials F's: Family, food, and football?!?
Posted by: Jake at November 22, 2007 12:59 PM
That's right Jake...
Go 'SC ;)
Posted by: Lance at November 22, 2007 01:01 PM
Pearl:
You and my Aunt Pearl would have a grand time together. Two shining pearls.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 22, 2007 01:20 PM
Alter:
I have friends, Hollywood sophisticates, natch, who travel to Paris on a yearly basis. I ask them if they've seen America. They look at me like I'm a moron.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 01:27 PM
Lance:
Rav Feinstein and Rav Soloveitchik permitted celebrating Thanksgiving and the eating of Turkey. Rav Hutner held the opposite opinion.
Obviously, the frum world has an honest machlochet, and people must choose their hashkafah.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 01:35 PM
Lion:
Chana Gittel held by Chazi Hallel:)
No, I'm just messing with your head.
Great link. Thanks so much. Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 01:37 PM
Jake:
Speaking of football, I read a really funny bit on your hilarious website http://www.jakejakeny.blogspot.com/:
Michael Vick turned himself in to federal authorities in Virginia today. He is expected to stay in prison for at least a year... or until someone figures out how to beat the Patriots, whichever comes first.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 01:42 PM
And believe me -- your friends wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, too. I hope it is a lovely one, filled with family, friends, food and the true blessings of the season.
Posted by: Bookworm at November 22, 2007 01:44 PM
Bookworm:
Thanks so much for stopping by with your generous Thanksgiving greetings. Karen and I and our girlses, together in NY, wish the same to you, and all our Seraphic Friends.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 02:02 PM
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. Truly a blessed day in a blessed country.
Posted by: Dr.Carol at November 22, 2007 05:43 PM
Sometimes it takes having experienced the lack of freedom and opportunity to really understand what we have in America. My father was a Holocaust survivor, my grandparents on my mother's side were from Russia/Poland, and had experienced pogroms and the many revolutions inside Russia prior to the 'last' in 1917; my grandfather's father was shot to death in front of him.
These people KNEW what America was about. They understood, even as they started out with nothing, relatively, that the streets were paved, not literally with gold and money, but opportunity and freedom, and a chance to make something of oneself. And all 3 did.
It seems too easy for too many to forget what this country has stood for. I was just lucky, as you had with your Nanny, that there were those who could give me the sense of the importance and blessings of America.
I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving (and now to go find somewhere to lie down and hope my stomach goes down eventually....).
Posted by: Maurice at November 22, 2007 06:24 PM
Dr. Carol:
A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Yes, a blessed country, and a blessed blog to have such good friends.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 10:34 PM
Maurice:
Thanks so much for your articulate comment. Nanny fled Europe with childern in tow escaping hatred, pogroms and the doom she saw looming on the horizon for the Jewish people. Yes, she was always eternally grateful to America for saving her life and the life of her children.
But she always mourned her brother, Manfred, his wife and 4 little children who did not have the foresight to escape. They were murdered by Einsatzgruppen on the second day of Rosh Hashanah in 1941, taken into a forest, made to dig their own graves, and then shot to death at point blank range.
Baruch Dayan Emet.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 22, 2007 10:44 PM
I have driven across the US several times. Each time I have been privileged to see some amazing sites. There is an awful lot of beauty in this country and it is not all that hard to find.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Jack at November 22, 2007 11:45 PM
Sounds like patriotism might be at the DNA level in your family Robert! I wish all immigrants were like your Aunt Pearl and your Nanny.
Hope you, Karen and the whole Avrech family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Fern at November 23, 2007 12:30 AM
Happy Thanksgiving! The ladies in your family sound remarkable and so wise. What treasures!
Posted by: Joannah at November 23, 2007 07:33 AM
What a heart-warming and head-strengthening post. How appropriate. How seraphic....
A couple of minutes' net searching will turn up the strong Christian basis for Thanksgiving. As spelled out here, thanks were given very clearly to G-d:
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g007.html
Posted by: Jeremiah at November 23, 2007 08:18 AM
Jack:
We had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks so much.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 23, 2007 09:54 AM
Fern:
Great ladies in my family, indeed. Hope you and yours had a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 23, 2007 09:56 AM
Joannah:
Yup, very special ladies who taught and continue to teach me. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 23, 2007 09:59 AM
Jeremiah:
Thanks so much for the fine link. Happy Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 23, 2007 10:00 AM
Sounds like it's time for you to come to Florida to visit Aunt Pearl (oh and of course whilst here you would have to visit the Orieyentas!) heh heh.
Posted by: orieyenta at November 26, 2007 08:30 AM
Orieyenta:
Next time we're in Florida we'll, B'H, look you up.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at November 26, 2007 09:45 AM