Max "Meilech" Schiff

Meilech (1893-1987, a carpenter and furniture maker came to Quebec City in 1925. With his wife, Masha Levine whom he married in 1931 in Montreal, he had three children, Louis (Leib) born in 1933, Mortimer (Mottel), born in 1936, and Isaac born in 1944.

References

• https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/borislav/bor082.html.

The Schiff Family Saga Translated by Chris Wozniak. "June, 1977 is the date of birth of this book. With great pleasure I offer it … to my compatriot, Leopold Held with warm greetings - Meilech Schiff[43]. Montreal, July 1980."

The Schiff Family Saga Translated by Chris Wozniak

"June, 1977 is the date of birth of this book. With great pleasure I offer it … to my compatriot, Leopold Held with warm greetings - Meilech Schiff[43]. Montreal, July 1980." Lost Boryslaw (Utracony Borysl\aw in Polish) is the title of this valuable document, illustrated with family photos, containing many memories. It's difficult to put it down. In its 160 pages the author guides us through the alleyways and nooks of slum quarters, inhabited almost exclusively by Jewish families, forsaken by God and other people. We read of sorrow and misfortune and sometimes we can afford a half smile. In the introduction to his book, Schiff charted a map of the town: streets and squares, not forgetting the Tys'mienica. That river on one hand was the source of parnasa[44]for l\ebaks; on the other hand, during the spring floods its water spilled out of the river bed into the residential quarters, swamping the poor houses and hovels.

One of the few that fate smiled upon was Meilech Schiff. He was thirty-two when he emigrated to Canada. Fifty years later he wrote: "It's a great gift to be able to remember the past and pass it on to future generations".

The father's name was Icyk Seeman[45]. He was employed as a night watchman in the oil company owned by prosperous Jews - Suchestow and Schreier. It often happened that he worked two shifts to earn just a little bit more. From time to time he managed to skim some oil from the Tys'mienica and scrounge some sawdust from the lumber mill. He mixed those two ingredients together, pressed the mixture into balls and sold them as fire-starters. He had a stable clientele among the housewives. Sometimes he brought home on a wooden yoke two large buckets of salt water drawn from the mine pit. When the water evaporated in a bowl it left clean, white salt that he would sell to the peasants in the neighbouring villages - Popiele, Bania Kotowska, Ratoczyn, etc. All these earnings taken together were still not enough to feed his family. Mother Surele bore her husband seven children. "That" - she used to say - "was God's will". And so, three daughters and four sons. The eighth child, a boy, was sickly and lived only three and a half years.

Surele was widely respected and popular among the neighbours. She was always there when help was needed. People from L\oziny, Debra, from Nowy S'wiat, from Dolny Potok knew her well. From that whole area of slums and poverty. She always found some time to pray for the health of this or that neighbour. She was well known to the rabbis, whom she pestered and nagged to seek the Creator's intervention. When their prayers failed she used to go to the cemetery, to beg long dead rabbis to help and intercede with the Omnipotent.

"Today I can see it all clearly, all that happened seventy years ago. I see the poverty and dirt, diseases and lice, hunger and tattered clothing" the author wrote in his old age.

On the pages of Lost Boryslaw, we meet Meilech as a soldier of Austro-Hungarian Army in the Great War. We accompany him to his dates with Rajzele Leiner[46]or Brucha Bander.[47]Meilech sighed deeply when he recollected the Academy of Salon Dancing of Moty Kuszer[48]who would cheerfully organize mazurkas, lancers and quadrilles in his funny Polish. Lipe,[49]Meilech's older brother, talked him into joining the Vorwaerts Verein. There, in their offices he saw for the first time pictures of Karl Marx and Ferdinand Lasalle,[50]hanging on the walls. Heroes of those days, his heroes as well, were Rosa Luxemburg[51]and Karl Liebknecht.[52]He learned his profession in the furniture workshops of Jankel Gersten,[53]Nisim Reif [54]and others. And later.... later we'll accompany the author of this book to Canada. He was invited to Canada by his eldest sister, Matilda,[55]who emigrated to America in 1912.

Before the outbreak of the second world war Matilda and Meilech managed to bring their parents to Canada and a little later, two sisters.

His joy knew no bounds. The dream of his life came true. He was happy that - even though late in their lives - his parents would not want for anything. If they lacked anything - it would be "birds milk". Parents don't live forever. Father died in 1942, mother in 1957.

In 1975, fifty years of Canadian life had ticked on. Meilech Schiff sat at his desk and wrote a letter:

"To Mr Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Prime Minister, in Ottawa"[56]

In his letter Meilech expressed heartfelt thanks to Canada for the help and friendliness he met with from its people, often strangers, starting from his first day on Canadian soil, so that he was able to establish a family, settle down, start up a furniture factory and raise three sons, one of whom is a lawyer, another a lecturer in a college and the third a doctor. "I've been retired for twelve years, and I'm getting a pension that allows me to live in the style I like".

In the finishing chapter of the letter we can read: "Oh Canada,[57]if I were a sculptor I would create the tallest and most beautiful monument to you, if I were a poet I would compose the most wonderful poem about you.". The last words of the letter read: "Canada, I love you like a young man loves his sweetheart".

In February 1975 Meilech Schiff received a letter:

"Dear Mr Schiff, your feelings for Canada are shared by many, but are seldom declared …. Many people arrived here as you have, from various countries, to build a better life for themselves and their children. Canadians, both immigrants and native born, together built this Canada, that stirs in us those feelings. You don't need to create a work of art, like a picture, or a poem to praise Canada. It's far more significant, that for half a century you participated in building it. Your letter has given me a great pleasure, thank you very much,

E. Trudeau.

In 1983 we visited the Schiff family in Montreal. As it happened, at their home we met their neighbours who came from Boryslaw as well: Cesia Backenroth-Scheiner[58]and her husband Kalman. It's not surprising that the conversation centered on our place of origin. Meilech's wife participated in it, even though she came from Vilnius; as her husband said, she had caught the Boryslaw fever. Our host took my arm and led me to his study, where, as he told me, the book Lost Boryslaw was written. With a smile on his face he said that in the next four years he'll write another one about the town on Tys'mienica. He pointed to the wall, where, nicely framed, the two earlier mentioned letters were hung, alongside the third, a very impressive one. Meilech himself was very surprised, when he received it, on the Prime Minister's letterhead, with its warm congratulations for his nintieth birthday. Signed by E. Trudeau..[59]

I wasn't surprised by the proud expression on Meilech's face.

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• ”Lost Boryslaw: Memories of a Galician Youth,” By Meilech Schiff. (1977). PDF
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/vitals/LBVS-XKX
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVGJ-C5X8 : 10 September 2021), Meilech Schiff, ; Burial, Montreal, Montreal Region, Quebec, Canada, Baron de Hirsch Cemetery; citing record ID 128215778, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.