Solomon (Shlomo) haKohen Meisels

Sol was born in Mosty Wielkie in 1907.

When his family came to America (1920), they were very poor. When Sol was about 13, he borrowed 5 cents to buy candles, and sold them at a fish market on Rivington St, to earn a few pennies for Shabbos. To attract customers he sang a song in Yiddish, asking the housewives to buy his candles and do a mitzvah. He earned about 50 cents, enough for his mother to buy challah, sardines and some vegetables.

On Motzei Shabbos, Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt knocked on the Meisels' door. (They were so poor, they had only one chair and a table made out of wooden orange cartons) He had passed the fish market on erev Shabbos and had heard Sol singing. He begged Sol's father to allow Sol to join the choir at the "Rumanishe" shul on Rivington St, Sharei Shomayim. His father refused, afraid that his son would become enamored of the stage and become an actor. Rosenblatt visited several times, and was refused each time. He was told "my son is not for sale". Eventually, after being pressured and encouraged by people in his shul (Achim Ahuvim), R' Shmuel and Feige relented, and Sol joined the choir. That money helped support the family. (Source: told on video by his sister, Hilda Halberg, August 1997)