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Elaine Kelsky : And I repeat that [unintelligible]. And what is your
name?
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Esther Newman: Esther.
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Kelsky : Your last name? Newman: Newman. Kelsky: And what is your age?
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Newman: 79.
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Kelsky : And your place of birth?
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Newman: Hungary.
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Kelsky : And the town?
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Newman: Is Vyaplanca [??].
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Kelsky : And what was your maiden name?
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Newman: Klein.
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Kelsky : And when you came to this country, did your family change the
name at all?
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Newman : No.
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Kelsky: And what is your religion?
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Newman: Jewish.
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Kelsky: And how many languages do you speak?
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Newman: Right now I speak only two languages.
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Kelsky: And how many did you speak before?
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Newman: Four.
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Kelsky: And what were they?
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Newman: Besides Jewish and, uh, English, I- Hungarian and German, and a
little bit of Russian.
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Kelsky: And where were your parents born?
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Newman: The same area.
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Kelsky: And when you came over to, uh, America, where did you board the
ship?
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Newman: In Antwerp, Belgium.
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kelksy: And can you tell me about the ship and the people on the ship?
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Newman: Well, it was an old ship. It wasn't very pleasant. Most everybody
was sick. Uh, the food that we just didn't feel like eating. It wasn't so
good. So we didn't eat much on the ship.
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Kelsky : And did you take your own food at all?
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Newman: No, no, they furnished everything.
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Kelsky : And was it kosher?
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Newman: No, I don't think so. No.
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Kelsky : And where did you sleep on the ship?
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Newman: Well, we had, like, two bunks in a cabin for two girls.
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Kelsky : And did everybody have privacy like that or-
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Newman: No, my father stayed in a large room with many other men.
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Kelsky : And did your family come as a unit or-
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Newman: No, I just came with my father at first.
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Kelsky : And what do you remember about the old country? About Hungary?
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Newman: Well, I lived in a quiet village, and, uh, I liked it. I was, I
was a, I was very loyal to my country and happy. I didn't see, I didn't
experience any hardship or discrimination at that time. I went to public
school for six years and then three years for evening school once a week.
And I have diplomas for both of those schools. And, uh, when I was 12, I
went to sewing school to the city, and that meant commuting to the city
that, Munkatch was the closest city to my village.
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Kelsky : How far was that?
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Newman: Well, it was maybe three quarters of an hour, walking distance.
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Kelsky: You walked?
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Newman: Yes. In the summertime I walked. Yes, yes. In the wintertime, I
stayed in the city with relatives and just came home for weekends until I
was 15.
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Kelsky: And what was your father's occupation?
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Newman: He was a bookkeeper in a lumber yard.
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Kelsky: What were living conditions like there? As far as housing and-
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Newman: Well, we had our own home, but we had three rooms. And he brought
eight children. My parents and my grandmother lived with us. And it was a
happy home. We didn't find it crowded. Uh, in fact, I was always hoping in
the winter time, when I was away for a whole week, I was hoping for the
weekend to come to get home.
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Kelsky : Then do you remember your grandparents?
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Newman: I remember my other grandparents. This was my mother's mother that
lived with us, for a few years before she passed away. My father's parents
were wealthy people. They had a nice big estate, owned a lot of horses and
cows and farmyard animals, and they had 11 children. And besides my father,
all of them perished in the Holocaust. And there's a lot of grandchildren
left that are scattered all over the world now. Some of them in this
country, some of them in Israel, and a few others someplace that I don't
know about.
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Kelsky : What was your grandfather's occupation?
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Newman: Oh, they had a they had a general store, a saloon, uh--dance
hall. And he owned a lot of fields that they grew their own--grain.
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Kelsky : And where did they live?
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Newman: They lived about. About three townships away from where I live.
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Kelsky : And when you were a young girl, what kind of a social life did
you have?
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Newman: Well, we had the few girls that were my friends. We got together
on Saturday afternoons and sang and danced. And, uh, otherwise there wasn't
much, uh, there wasn't much to do there except we had a very famous Fort,
Dryden in our village, and that was our--. We used to walk up there all the
time just to look around there. That was very, very, uh, how should I say,
very popular at that time for everybody just to go up there. And there it
was, it was a very historical place. The people from all around the country
used to come and visit there.
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Kelsky : Did you ever get together with the young men for dances or dates
or-
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Newman: No, no, not in those days. That was, uh, taboo for us. We only met
young men when there was a wedding sometimes. So we danced and enjoyed
ourselves. But, uh, that had to be a little bit restricted.
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Kelsky: And when you came, when you landed in America, where did you, uh,
what city did you land?
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Newman: New York
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Kelsky: And what do you remember about New York? What was your first
impression?
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Newman: Well, of course I was, I was very homesick at first, and I had to
start to speak English and that was, that was hard. And I was very, very
anxious to learn the language, except that the people I lived with couldn't
talk any more than I did. So, uh, it took me a little while to be able to
get around, but I got a job right away, and I worked.
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Kelsky : What kind of work did you do?
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Newman: Dressmaking, dressmaking. I had no trouble getting a job, and I
was doing well. Then, my husband was in America for 10 or 11 years before I
came, and he came home for a visit and he lived in the second, the
neighboring town from my own. And we met once and then I left. I came to
America and he followed me back and we got engaged. I was married one year
after I came up.
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Kelsky : Were you married in New York?
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Newman: No, in Pittsburgh.
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Kelsky: Well, when you came to New York, did you live on the east side?
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Newman: I lived on the East side. Yeah, yeah.
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Kelsky : What were the living conditions like there?
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Newman: Very poor. Very poor and crowded. I lived with a family that had 2
or 3 other girls living with them, and they both worked hard. It, it, it's
a hard life. Yes. Many people I remember that kept roomers and boarders and
they were really, really crowded, but they sent their children to school.
They managed to put their children through college by keeping rumours,
importers. In those days, an awful lot of men came from Europe, left their
families behind until they were able to take them out, just like he did. So
that's the, that's the way they were living in East Side in New York.
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Kelsky : Do you remember how many people were living in the apartment that
you were in?
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Newman: Well, two other girls in the family.
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Kelsky: In the family?
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Newman: In the family, they had two children of their own. And the mother
was taking work, to work at home, making children's dresses at home.
Piecework like, the manufacturer used to bring her a--it was called a
bundle. Bundle of dresses, and she sewed them up on the machine. So she had
to do that beside her in--roomers, boarders [??].
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Kelsky : And you had all of your meals at this home?
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Newman: Yes, Breakfast and dinner. And I brought my own lunch to take
along.
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Kelsky : How many hours did you work?
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Newman: Oh. I think we worked about--ten, 12 hours. There was no such a
thing as from 9 to 5. Oh, no. Worked until dark.
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Kelsky : Do you remember how much you were paid?
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Newman: Yes. When I got my first job, I got $5 a week. Which, according to
European money, was a lot of money. And then I was getting, uh, like, $9 a
week. This was the most I could make at this place. In fact, this was in
Brooklyn. I started to work in Brooklyn. Then I went to New York, and I
started doing piecework, ladies blouses. And I was making as high as 17,
$18 a week, which was a nice bit of money. I sent most of it home to my
parents. My mother.
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Kelsky : When did your mother come over?
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Newman: In 1921, after the First World War was over. She brought them up.
Six children.
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Kelsky : Six besides yourself?
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Newman: Besides myself, yes.
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Kelsky : And how long have you lived in Pittsburgh?
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Newman: 62 years now. I married in 1914 __[??].
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Kelsky : And what were your first impressions of Pittsburgh?
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Newman: Well, I didn't have too much, uh, opportunities to go around and
look, what Pittsburgh looked like. I came to Hazelwood. That's where my
husband had his business. That's where I got married. And Hazelwood was a
very nice little community, and I was very happy there. We were both very
active, my husband and I, and the Congregation in Sisterhood Affairs. And,
uh, after I had my children, they went to public school in Hazelwood, and I
liked Pittsburgh. I was very happy. And I, I never, I never had hoped for
anything nicer or better, really. And to this day, I, uh. I don't think I'd
want to move away from Pittsburgh.
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Kelsky : What was your husband's occupation?
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Newman: He had a men's furnishing store-
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Kelsky: In Hazelwood?
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Newman: In Glenwood. That's together. Hazelwood and Glenwood.
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Kelsky : Now, you say you stayed in New York for a while.
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Newman: One year. That's just one year. I arrived in June, June 1st, 1913,
and I got married the following year in July. July 5th, 1915. 1914. 19.
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Kelsky : And how did you travel to Pittsburgh?
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Newman: By train.
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Kelsky : Was that the first time you'd been on a train?
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Newman: No, I was in a train in Europe many times.
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Kelsky : And was Pittsburgh like Hungary for the, how would you compare it
with your town in Hungary?
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Newman: It--makes too much difference. It's--I can't tell. I just, ours
was a quiet village and I loved school. And I was very, um, really a loyal
Hungarian. I loved everything about it. But I had to leave because he
wanted to come here. But since I came here, I became a loyal American and I
always loved it and I was always very loyal. The flag always inspired me,
even now, and I mean that.
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Kelsky : What was your impression when you first saw the Statue of
Liberty?
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Newman: It was beautiful. When they explained me what it meant, I said,
Well, this is really the truth because I knew that everybody came here with
high hopes and a lot of them realized it. And it was really very, very
interesting. And so it's nice to see.
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Kelsky : What did you think of Ellis Island?
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Newman: Ellis Island was exactly like I read recently, when they closed it
up. That's what it was. People came in with packages and they sat down and
they were dejected, very much, because they couldn't understand what people
were talking to them. And we didn't, we really didn't know what we were
coming into and what to expect. And until all of us were picked up by their
individual relatives or friends, it looked sad, and it was too much pushing
and, and waiting and just didn't know what's awaiting us.
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Kelsky : How long did you spend on Ellis Island?
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Newman: Just one day, like from morning till that evening. But it, the
processing and it was, uh, there's a lot of commotion. And just because
today I wouldn't think it's a lot of commotion, you know, I would know what
it's all about. But at that time, we couldn't understand the language, so
we felt lost.
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Kelsky : You say you lived in Hazelwood when you came to Pittsburgh. Were
the, your neighbors Jewish or-
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Newman: Uh, well, me, they were mixed. They were about, at that time,
there were about 25 or 30 Jewish families, and we maintained the synagogue
there and the sister and the Sunday school. And there was a very, very
happy little community.
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Kelsky : Did you have any problems as far as religion was concerned?
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Newman: No. No.
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Kelsky : And, um, can you tell me more about these boarding houses? How
were they run?
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Newman: In New York?
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Kelsky: No, in New York or in Pittsburgh or-
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Newman: Well, in Pittsburgh I didn't know much about boarding houses
except the people that worked in the railroad, uh, that lived with the
families. They were mostly Hungarians and Ukrainians. And, uh, these women
had, uh, 15, 20 boarders and cooked for them. And I remember they used to
come to the grocery store next door to us. Each man had a separate book and
this boarding lady would come with each one's book and they would mark down
what, what she bought for each one of these men. And she cooked for them.
They paid the grocery bills, and she cooked for them and washed for them
for so much a month, which was very little, maybe $5 a month. And it was,
it was hard work. That's all gone now. We don't see that anymore. But
that's what I--. They were, they were our customers and that's why I know
what was going on. And, uh, those women worked very, very hard. They were
happy. That's what they loved, their lives. And so.
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Kelsky : Did you have any, um, relatives or friends that came over and
stayed with you.
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Newman: All the time. Anybody came from Europe, stopped off at our place
and stayed a while. Some of them went on to Chicago, California, to
Cleveland. But anybody that came from Europe and didn't settle in New York,
they came, and I entertained a lot of those relatives.
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Kelsky : And do you ever, uh, hear from them? Did you ever see them?
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Newman: Some of them I did, yes. Some of them I did. Some of them are gone
now, and some of them visit us again. I kept in touch with them.
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Kelsky : And you say you had six brothers and sisters?
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Newman: I had seven brothers and sisters, but one brother remained in
Europe and he perished. The next oldest one next to me. That's the only
brother my mother in six children had.
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Kelsky : Um, how would you compare the way you were raised in Hungary and
the way you raised your children in the States? Was it different?
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Newman: Yes, it was different because in Hungary we were, transportation
wasn't like it is here. We weren't just able to pick up and get on a bus or
on a streetcar and go wherever we wanted to go. And, uh, the children were
naturally, uh, trained more strictly and, uh, they were more obedient.
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Kelsky : And you raised them?
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Newman: I raised them. We raised them the best we knew how. They were
obedient children, and we tried to raise them the right way. And thank God,
I can say that my children were raised well. Good principles. Good manners.
And I hope that they're raising my grandchildren that way. Except that
today is different. I don't have to tell you. It's a little harder and we
are a little bit more permissive. We only hope and thank God they don't
demand more than is possible to give them.
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Kelsky : And you say you have four children?
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Newman: I had four. I lost my oldest daughter. I have three now, two
daughters and a son.
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Kelsky : They live in Pittsburgh?
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Newman: One daughter lives in Pasadena, California.
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Kelsky : And how old are they?
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Newman: My daughter is a widow now. She's going to be 60. She has two
daughters, four grandchildren. And my son, you know, he has three dogs,
very happily married, thank God. And my youngest daughter is very happily
married and has one son.
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Kelsky : How old is she now?
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Newman: She's 49.
