The Descendants of Zalman & Etta Glaser 
The Descendants of Zalman & Etta Glaser
A previously unknown photograph of my paternal grandfather with two of his daughters, Sonya and Katie (above left), caused an outcry of joy and wonder. Since Buba (above right) lived with us from the time I was 4 'til shortly before her death in 1944, I do vaguely recall a large photograph of a bearded man, my Zada, in a large oval frame hanging on her bedroom wall. I never questioned anyone about him and very little information was offered, BUT once in a great while my Dad would tell tidbits of his difficult early life while we were walking or delivering cakes to some little country store. These infrequent reminisces were not happy tales, however. One in particular comes to mind. Jews in Czarist Russia were forced into poverty by being denied decent jobs. One of few ways a Jewish man might have been able to try to provide for his family was to be a tailor, a merchant of some kind, a dairy farmer (Fiddler on the Roof). Obviously they were very poor and Dad said they were often without enough food. If any of the family of 8 children might have innocently asked for meat my grandfather would say, in Yiddish, "Do vilst flaish? Rice foon zich!" The sarcastic translation is, "You want meat, tear it from yourself". The horror of learning that a father would speak to his own children in such a way surely reflects the frustration of these uneducated poor people who lived in such hopeless conditions.
My cousin Ethel's version of how and when the family came to America differs completely from what I heard. There's no one alive to agree or refute the information. I do know that Zalman died at a relatively young age from tuberculosis. I believe he came to America by himself with the hopes of earning enough money to bring Buba and the children to the land of opportunity. He became ill, refused treatment at a "tuberculosis sanitarium" choosing to go home to be with his family. This left my grandmother to support and care for the family somehow. She struggled and did her best by cooking for "rich" people.
In what order these events occurred is unsure, but after attending an ORT school my Dad went to Germany to learn the trade of tool and die maker. After arriving in the U.S. Dad scrimped and saved money to bring his widowed mother and the 5 younger siblings to America. One thing I am very sure of. My Dad was a totally remarkable man, an adventuresome, self-educated, brave, hardworking loving family man who took on the awesome responsibility of caring for his mother, sisters and brothers and then us, too. I am proud to be a part of such a wonderful family.
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Updated 12/09/07
