Recollections of Isidore Remz

Isidore's father David REMZ was born in 1840, probably in the shtetl  or environs of Vasilishki where his father Ze'ev and brothers are known to  have lived. The family name derived from the village and estate of Remzy,  located a few miles west of Zabolot (ZABLAC) in the general neighborhood of  Vasilishki. These places are between RADUN and NOVY DVOR in Lida district of  Vilna guberniya. David probably married his wife Beile (born 1844) in the  early or mid-1860s.

David was a "small man" while Beile was "big, strong." Beile's father  operated the Zabolot (means "over the mud") mill in the nearby village of  Jiardeikeh (Djetki). The mill was given to Beile as a dowry when she married.   David went to yeshiva for a year after marriage [presumably, paid for by his  in-laws pursuant to the wedding agreement], then had to work the mill. David didn't make much; and the family was poor.

Possibly to improve his economic condition, David and his household  left Lida during the later 1870s or 1880s and settled on the estate of  BIBISHKEH, outside PIESK in Wolkovysk district of Grodno guberniya. He ran  the grain threshing operation there.

Moishe [probably an unidentified relative who encouraged the move] was  overseer for the estate's "poritz" (nobleman). It was still a feudal system.   David would bring his son Isidore along when he had to talk to the 'pan'. In  this tenant farmer arrangement, rent was paid for the season. The fruit was  harvested and sold. Isidore would shake the trees to collect the apples.

David and Beile's children became servants of the rich to make money  to come to America. One of Isidore's sisters, Molly, worked for a dressmaker  in Rozhanka. She had a regular Singer sewing machine that was bought in
 Grodno. A collector came to the house to collect the payments. Later, it was  sold to a cousin for money to come to America. She and her sister Mary stayed  in America with the oldest sister Alte, [Her "real" name was Feigel (Fannie), but she was known since childhood as Alte, meaning "the old one".  This was to confuse the angel of death who had already
 carried off some of the daughters.]

Isidore went to cheder in Rozhanka. The rabbi had two boys, who used  to beat him up for food. He brought dairy from home to last the week and  sometimes went hungry. He walked a great distance on weekends, passing the  cemetery and sometimes hearing the howling of wolves. [The distance between  the cheder in Rozhanka and Isidore's home outside Piesk is about 15-20  miles!]

 During these years, Isidore's older brother Abi (Abba/Abraham) was courting  Chaya Gitel VENDROVSKY in Rozhanka. Once, he was shocked to  actually spy them kissing!   Chaya Gitel's  family opposed the match, probably because they were better established with a family business and  rabbinic connections (grandfather Yankef Peretz Vendrovsky was rabbi of Rozhanka  and one of his  sons was a noted rabbi and preacher in neighboring Piesk).  The Vendrovsky's were among the
 earliest Jewish families in Rozhanka, dating from before 1850 when there were few Jewish  inhabitants.

Chaya Gitel's father had a big house ''like a  stable.' [The place may have been a combination home and woolen mill with  looms behind the building.]. She had a sister Feigel and a sister Dverkah. 'Dverkah was pretty'.    Dora Vendrovsky was the same age as Isidore, pretty  and with a lively personality that must have stayed in his memory over the  many years.  Also, there was a brother  Israel who shot himself when in the U.S.  He told a friend to call at 10:30 and listen on the phone.    [Israel, who arrived in America in 1904 at age 20, was an aspiring writer and journalist for the  Yiddish press, possibly on the Forwards.  The reasons for his suicide are uncertain, but seem to relate  to hardships in adapting  to life in America and succeeding as a writer.

After his years in cheder and until a year before coming to America, Isidore went to yeshiva in Stutchin (Szczyczyn). In 1907, he got passage to  America, taking along salami, other foodstuffs, and money to bribe the border  guards. David took Isidore (age 16) on a wagon and passed him over the  border. He went from Grodno through Frankfurt and Dusseldorf to Antwerp.  Rerouted to Paris for a week, he returned to Antwerp and waited a week for  the ship, walking the streets every day. He observed that 'Belgian horses are  like elephants' [probably, these were Percheron draft horses.] [Note from a former farm girl:  there is a breed of very large draft horse called "Belgian", so these need not have been Percherons - IN].

Abi met Isidore at the dock in New York. Isidore then stayed one week  at each sister's house, just eating and sleeping. Abi came to America in 1902  and became a pants contractor. He had Isidore come to the factory. He was  given eight pair to finish and worked so rapidly that he was given fifteen  the next day. So he was kept on for about five years (1907 - 1912) as a pants  operator.   [All of David and Beile's many children except daughter Leah came to America  in the first decade of the twentieth century, followed by David and Beile in  1913. Though David probably spent more than 25 years in Piesk, he must have  still considered himself a Vasilishker to the end as he was buried in a  landsmanshaft cemetery in 1930.

During the interwar years, Isidore and Abi  helped Leah's two daughters, Sara and Helen to leave Europe. While Helen  settled in America, Sara settled in Israel at Ramat Rachel where she was  recently honored for the longest residence on the kibbutz. Leah, together  with husband Eliahu-Michel Shrebrovsky and son Peretz and his family perished  in the Holocaust. They are remembered in the Piesk yizkor book, to which  their daughter Sara Shrebrovsky Karmi contributed.