Max Davis

HERB FRIEDMAN writes (from the booklet "The Davis Family Relationships, 2nd edition, 1990):

"Max Davidovitz became Max Davis when he was processed through Ellis Island. He and Yetta Urdang arrived in the United States in 1887, having made a long and perilous ocean voyage. They came from Libau, Kurland, Lithuania (which is now part of Latvia S.S.R.). They were married in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1887."

Max and Yetta Davis had seven children.

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VIVIAN KASDEN WOODS remembers in The Davis Family Relationships, 2nd Edition: But best of all my recollections are those connected with the Seders at Pesach. Our immediate family always spent the first seder with the Davis clan and the second seder with my father's family. The seders at my paternal grandparents were very small and simple, but those at the Davis' were something never to be forgotten.

The activity of the changing of the dishes, shopping, and food preparation for two seders serving ast least 18-20 or more people at each one-plus baking--took at least a week rpior to the holiday. There were no bakeries or food markets to supply the holiday goodies such as there are today-and especially no packaged mixes to shorten a cook's time in the kitchen. Everything was made from "scratch" and in most cases tasted much better (at least that's what I seem to recall). I still make things today from recipes handed down grandma to my mother who gave them to me. In turn, some of them have gone to my daughters. We will savor them.

Back to the seder. The whole family would congregate in the front room where we would wait very impatiently for grandpa's return from shul. Then we were all herded into the dining room where the table had been extended and another one added at the end. Both were covered with beautiful white linen cloths and set with white bone china that had a wide band of real gold. I can still see it today since some of the remaining serving pieces were handed down to me and now my eldest daughter has them on display in her china hutch. At the head of the table grandpa sat on a bed of pillows (I think it was called a "hessabet") and I had the place of honor next to him, since I was the youngest grandchild for many years (and where, I might add, I could keep an eye on him when he hid the matzoh.) I t never dawned on me that that was a collusion-just a grandpa's love.

We used to nudge grandpa into speeding up the reading of the Haggadah because we were all dying of hunger. To this day, I can recall the menu because it never varied from year to year. After the traditional sampling of the bitter herbs, charoses, etc., the meal began with hardboiled eggs in salt water, gefilte fish, chicken soup with grandma's knaidlach (we called them cannonballs because they were usually hard as a rock) followed by roast poultry and tsimmes made from sweet potatoes, carrots, and brisket of beef (who ever heard of cholesterol then?). The meal was topped off with sponge cake, honey cake, mandelbrot, taiglach and tea with lemon. It was delicious!

After dinner, while the table was being cleared, grandpa continued with the reading of the Haggadah until we all chimed in at the end with a loud resounding Chad Gad Yah. It was time for a sleepy and well-sated group to go home--not before, however, we were all presented with a $5 gold piece which had been secreted under our place plates. Since I was the youngest, I usually got extra rewards--for reciting the four questions in Hebrew and finding the Affikomen.

The annual seders were such an important part of my young life and meant so much to me, that even after I went away to college, I always called the Davis household the night of the first seder to speak to the whole family. "

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See also Hal Davis' description of these seders in the event timeline below Passover at Max and Yetta's.