Letters from Lida - 45

  

<On Polish letterhead>

November 30, 1925                                        

 

Dear Olia! How are you doing? How is your life?  Do you have a job? Did you receive the money?  Did you get into classes? We are sending you a certificate from the <gymnasium of> Dworecky (Dvoretsky) (1).  Mama was trying to send you money for a long time, but there was no occasion <meaning that s nobody was going/ taking money to give them to Olia>. It’s not possible to send money by mail, and Mama was afraid to send money through Karpetsky. Although, a month ago Mama sent money to Benia’s brother in Danzig but they sent it to you only recently. I just finished my engineering classes, passed the test, and will get my certificate soon. Today I did not go to gymnasium because they decided that I am sick, that I have a fever, and so on, but I think that this is e bourgeois prejudice, and if they pretend that a person is sick, he is getting sick. In the gymnasium everything is the same, I am not excited to study at all but still hope to get into the 5^th grade. On Christmas I am planning to go to Warsaw. Maybe I will have  surgery done on my throat. Soon there will a grand concert of Mama’s students <girls only>.  Also, Dodik, Musia, and others will be playing. Everything is the same at home. At Abreml’s wedding everybody got crazy, played cards and were dancing until 4 am, everybody was drinking and eating without restraint. Despite the huge amount of food, sweets, different salads, and vodka, the tables got emptied. Many got drunk. People were saying that there was no wedding like this for a long time (maybe only Marucha’s). Now over there is very <unclear> and they got together often.

<Notes on the edges:> Chronicles: At our house <unclear> together. Meischl and Mania (2) visit us or Moisey almost every day. Elia is graduating by Christmas. Tanya is planning to go to Warsaw. Benia is going there today and we are sending <with him> letters to Papa. Grandma is taking care of everything and , of cause, is the center of  house politics. 

Leibush is always interested if we received letters from you and what are you writing about, and if you remember an organization. I think he is planning to write you a letter. This week there will be a concert with an orchestra, we are planning to go. Poliacheks started the woodcutting factory. Meischl is working on the electrification of the factory. Everybody is sending you regards. Regards to everyone over there: to Fanya, Berttmans, and everyone we know.  Your brother Robert.
 

Write what is going on over there. Are Jews starting to take over Palestine? Is there such a great spirit as in our organizations? Are different parties fighting? Are people engaged in sport and playing chess?  Write about everything.

(1) Dworecki's Gymnasium was a school run by the parents of Dr. Frances Dworecki, whose full autobiography can be found on this site. It's easier to find the information about her parents' school in this condensed autobiography. An archive in Minsk apparently still has documents relating to this gymnasium: Фонд 228 — Лидская частная восьмиклассная еврейская общеобразовательная гимназия Мозеса Дворецкого, г. Лида Новогрудского воеводства. 8-mio Klassowe Humanistyczne Gimnazjum Kojedukacyjne Mojzesza Dworeckiego w Lidzie (1918 — 1939). This site displays properly for Lena Gorina-Black, but not me.

(2) Probably referring to Meishel Poliachek, who wrote the letters to Olia. This phrase suggests that Mania Poliachek was Meishel's sister.