Esther Brody

Following taken from recollections of her son Leonard, March 7, 1992: Born in Lithuania in town called Telz. Her father died when she was about 3 and she went to live with her grandmother Lepgold while her younger sibs Anna and Alec went to live with mother and her new husband, Halperin. [Her grandmother lived in Latvia about 20-25 miles from Riga.] Esther was then brought to US by an uncle Block, who treated her as an indentured servant to repay her transportation costs. She told Leonard that she traveled by boat to US, went immediately to Minneapolis by train, and the same day she arrived was put to work scrubbing floors. After about a year she was able to leave Blocks and travel to Chicago where she knew some people from her original home town. These friends arranged a marriage with another townsman. They proceeded to have 5 children, one of whom died in infancy.

See Max's profile for Leonard's recollections of him. According to Leonard the couple was very incompatible. About the one thing they shared was an atheistic view of religion, though in Max's case it apparently was based on previous close religious study, whereas for Esther it was more of when I see it, then I will believe it, but not until. Esther was far below Max in basic intelligence and general knowledge. Esther always bought meat at a kosher market out of cultural familiarity though she never kept a kosher household. She was notably younger than Max, and unlike him enjoyed going out, especially to the Yiddish theater (later movies when the Yiddish theater no longer existed). She had no formal education, but attended night school to learn English and could read English to some extent thought she never wrote it well. She could read signs and get around by herself easily.

Max left home around 1924. See Leonard's profile for how that affected the family financially and how they survived during the Depression.

Information from documents: Ellis Island passenger records: Esther Block, from Telez, single, aged 17, arrived Sept. 30, 1898, aboard Meier out of Bremen. To join unclce "Jos. B., Cresco, Ia." 1900 Census, for Cresco City, Ia, shows Joseph Block family, including Esther Block, neice, age 19. Marriage license, Esther Block and Max Brody, indicates her age also as 19 in 1901. 1920 census gives Esther's age as 38, shows Max living with family. 1930 census shows Esther as head of household, age 46. Death certificate 9/1/1963 gives age as 79, birth date unknown.

Howard Brody's recollections, 3/20/2010: I recall my grandmother in 3 contexts: I have fairly vague recollections of being cared for by her when my parents needed a sitter or took vacations, and staying atbher and my Uncle Charlie's apartment on Morse Ave. in Chicago. This was an easy walk from the Morse Ave. beach which was a frequent summer destination.

I next remember her from regular Sunday visits when she and her sons Charlie and Dave would drive to our house in Morton Grove (1955-63) to spend Sunday afternoon and have dinner with us before returning to the city. We would often watch television as a family before they left and it was essential that grandmother and Charlie got to see the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evenings, about which my father bitterly complained.

Finally we had some holiday meals at her house. It was many years before I realized that her daily cooking and her holiday cooking were apparently two different worlds. My father complained bitterly about the monotony of her regular cooking--the same dish every Monday, every Tuesday, etc. By contrast we would have holiday feasts that seemed to me, growing up, quite marvelous, and I became introduced to many Jewish food staples such as challah, matzo ball soup, kreplach, kishkes, tsimmes, etc. through her holiday meals. I recall vaguely as a youinhgerchild following her as she went to the local fish market to choose the 5 types of fish she needed to make gefilte fish, and then preparing it. I was fascinated by her kitchen that had an old fashioned walk-in pantry, with open bins to hold onions and potatoes.

She spoke with a very heavy accent and was apparently very wrapped up in the lives of her children and grandchildren. She had some good friends, especially Mrs. Margolis who lived across the landing from her in the apartment building (and whom we adopted as an honorary aunt). She had severe bunions, walked somewhat unsteadily as a result, and frequently mentioned having to go to the "foot doctor" for this.

She appeared quite excited about attending my junior high school graduation in 1963 even though to us it seemed hardly a great event. Her son Dave's death that year seemed a great blow to her and she visibly deteriorated through the remainder of that summer before her death.