Chasia Spanerflig and her family

Chasia Spanerflig and her family

This is our family. From left to right are my mother Pesya Langbord, my brother Jeshua Langbord, my father Abram Langbord, I, Chasia Langbord, and Grandfather Velvl Israelit, my mother's father. The picture was taken in Zdzisciot  in 1934.

My paternal grandparents, Aron and Chaya, had an only child, my father Abram Langbord. He was born in 1895. Apart from cheder my father got a good education, but I don’t know which institution he finished. He was fluent in Hebrew. He taught the history of Jewish religion at the Tarbut seven-year school. 

In contrast to my father, Mother grew up in a large family of thirteen children, eleven of whom survived. My maternal grandparents, born in Zdzisciot in the 1860s, were also honorable and respectable religious Jews, but they weren’t as religious as Grandfather Aron. Grandfather Velvl Israelit was a very handsome and stately man. He had a small beard, which was customary for his contemporaries. Velvl was a merchant and a wholesale trader. 

My mother was born in 1890. Before getting married, my mother worked in the hospital. All patients knew her and often asked her for help. There were times when she had to get up at night to render assistance to somebody. My mother never turned anybody down. 

I don’t know how my parents met and got married. I think it was a prearranged marriage. In spite of the age difference   Mother was five-six years older than Dad they fell in love with each other. Father’s parents must have been against their marriage either because of the age difference or for some other reasons. Anyway, neither my mother, nor her parents attended the house of the Langbords, even on holidays or birthdays. These were vastly different families – asceticism, aridness and miserliness of the Langbords versus generosity and open-heartedness of the Israelits. 

My parents got married in 1920. I think the wedding was in accordance with Jewish rites – under a chuppah, with the relatives from both sides. I was born in 1921, and my brother in 1926. He was called after my mother’s brother Jeshua he was called Ovsei at home who moved to America and didn’t keep in touch.  

 
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