Heritage Denied

By Arliene Stempler

Brenda at the age of two, legally became her mothers sister, her fathers distant cousin and daughter to her maternal grandparents.

When she was twenty years old, she accidentally discovered her true identity.

That knowledge did not bring her happiness. She remained a secret to her mothers offspring who thought she was their aunt and to her fathers daughters who did not even know of her existence.

At her fathers funeral, she longed to be acknowledged as his daughter but even then, she was denied her heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 22, 2008
• ISBN: 9781453566220

Arliene Stempler

Socially active in the communities in which she has lived in Brooklyn, New York; Jamesville, New York; and Boynton Beach Florida, the author served on several civic and non-profit boards and has been formally recognized for her leadership. As President of an all women’s print shop for thirty-eight years, she was a pioneer in offering flex time to young women who wanted to reenter the work force and be able to care for their families as well. Arliene and her sister, Gabrielle Greenstein authored four kosher cookbooks, which have been circulated throughout the United States. Her husband is a Professional Engineer, now retired. He served as Assistant Commissioner for the City of New York in the Department of Environmental Protection. Arliene and Samuel have been married for sixty-four years. They are the proud parents of two – grandparents of seven – and great grandparents of eight. They divide their time between Boynton Beach and Jamesville, New York.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

ANNIE’S RIGHT HAND was clasped tightly in her daughter’s hand. Her left hand was clasped in her sister Golda’s right hand.

Annie looked beyond them and saw that the entire bench was occupied by her family; her husband; their children and her sister’s children. Their hands were inter-locked like a chain.

On the other side of the aisle sat Rena; Isaac’s wife; her two daughters; her mother; her sister; brother-in-law; and their two sons.

In the second row two people sat, miserably alone, Brenda, Isaac’s first-born, and her husband Robert. Annie wondered what this young woman, her brother’s oldest child, was thinking as she stared at the closed coffin that held her father’s wasted body.

Annie found it difficult to concentrate. The rabbi was describing Isaac’s attributes—the commitment he had to his people, to his community, and to the world. He told of Isaac going to Egypt representing the president of the United States and how disappointed he was when the mission failed.

The rabbi’s voice droned on and on. He talked of the respect and love the congregation had for Isaac. When Isaac could no longer walk, the congregation ordered a ramp to be constructed so Isaac could attend Sabbath services in his wheelchair. He praised Isaac for often reading the Torah portions at a moment’s notice.

Annie looked behind her when she heard muffled sobs and saw Robert cradling Brenda in his arms as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

Before the service began Brenda went into the rabbi’s study and identified herself as Isaac’s daughter. The rabbi was unaware Isaac had three daughters. She gave him a brief synopsis of her connection to her father and told him she too was a mourner and should be acknowledged.

Although Brenda was hurting and disappointed, she understood why he could not—it was not the right time or place to tell her siblings they had an older sister they did not know existed.

Annie was positive Isaac’s first wife was part of the overflowing crowd that came to bid her brother farewell. As they left the synagogue, Annie heard a familiar voice calling her. It was Fran. She told Annie she had to come—she had to say goodbye to her first love.

At Isaac’s grave, Annie heard Brenda say as she sobbed, Although I was not welcome in your house when you were alive, I can now visit you in your new home whenever I want to.

CHAPTER ONE

AS USUAL, ISAAC’S father, Joshua, came home later than expected. Eva, Isaac’s mother, jokingly asked her husband if he had an additional job as a caretaker since he felt compelled to lock the doors of the synagogue every Saturday night. Joshua grinned sheepishly and assured her the next week would be different—which of course never was.

On Saturday nights, Mama, Papa, and their three children—Isaac, eighteen; Golda, seventeen; Annie, eleven—and Mama’s mother, Bubbie Esther, sat around the table and enjoyed their usual light supper of assorted herrings, salad, cheese, buttered dark pumpernickel bread, and boiled black coffee topped with sweet cream.

Anyone watching Papa look at Mama knew he adored her. She was his queen and he treated her as such. He did not allow the children to start their meal until Mama joined them, nor could they leave the table until she finished. Papa wanted Mama to enjoy her fruits of labor leisurely, surrounded by her family.

Ordinarily Isaac and Golda appreciated their little sister’s antics and the stories she made up to amuse them, but this particular Saturday night, they were annoyed. Annie knew they were planning to go out, but she deliberately went on and on because she resented not being included in her siblings’ social life. When she finally ended her repertoire of silly stories, she noted Golda’s sigh of relief and received an approving kick under the table from her brother.

Isaac changed his clothes and nervously knotted his tie. Annie passed his room and told him how handsome he looked and asked why he was in such a hurry, why was his face red, and why was he so dressed up? He hesitated and asked if she could keep a secret. Annie was annoyed—didn’t she always keep his secrets? Did she ever tell Mama or Papa that when he sister-sat, he invited his friends to their house to shoot craps? Did she ever tell Mama he took the hall scatter rug and laid it on the parquet floor in their parents’ bedroom to shoot dice on.

She loved being with her big brother and his friends. She stood next to him at the games, and when he won, he rewarded her with a kiss and a hug and said she was his good-luck charm. Did she ever yell ouch at Friday-night dinners when Isaac used his soupspoon as a slingshot and flung hot soup at her? Did she ever cry when he used her to practice wrestling, even when it hurt?

No no, she thought. He should not have asked if she could keep a secret. Instead of reminding him of her loyalty, she just said yes.

He told her he and Fran were going to New Jersey to get married. Annie was upset and thought if they were running away, and if her parents asked if she knew where Isaac was, she couldn’t lie to Papa. She knew her parents would be worried and might even call the police. She asked Isaac to tell her what to say when Mama and Papa found out he was missing.

He laughed and explained they were not running away. They were just going to New Jersey to get married and would be back that night. Getting married was the secret.

Annie remembered the time her parents realized how stuck Isaac was on Fran. Each Sabbath, after lunch, Papa took his usual nap; and when he awoke, weather permitting, they would meet Mama’s siblings and their families at the park. It was such a wonderful time. All the aunts and uncles exchanged events of the week while the cousins played hide-and-seek or tag.

One Sabbath, Isaac wandered off, and Papa sent Annie to find him. Annie didn’t see him, but she did see Fran and her friends. They were giggling and clapping while looking up at the monkey bar. Annie looked in their direction—and saw Isaac. He was showing off. While doing his macho tricks, he fell. Annie rushed to him. His elbow was bleeding, and his arm was limp. He was biting his lips to keep from crying. Annie ran to get Papa while the park attendant called an ambulance. The family gathered around to comfort Isaac as they watched him being carried into the ambulance on a stretcher.

Isaac had multiple fractures and was placed in a plaster cast from shoulder to wrist. He was on the shot put team in high school, and for the next few months, he sat on the sidelines watching his teammates with envy. His consolation was that Fran visited him daily.

Although Mama and Papa liked Fran, they didn’t approve of the match. Their backgrounds were markedly different. Fran’s family, although Jewish, were not typical in their world. Hy, Fran’s father, owned a bar and grill and bragged about carrying a gun. Rebecca, her mother, bleached her hair blonde, wore a lot of makeup, and smoked publicly. They didn’t observe the Sabbath or celebrate the holidays. Despite the differences, Mama and Papa didn’t discourage the friendship. They didn’t think this puppy love romance would flourish since both youngsters were still in high school. Fran dreamed of becoming a teacher of dance, and Isaac planned a career as an optometrist. They were seniors in high school and years away from a serious relationship, or so Mama and Papa thought.

Golda and Fran were in the same senior class and often did homework together. Many times Annie and Golda played duets on the piano while Fran choreographed ballet and tap dancing steps.

Bubbie Esther liked Fran and frequently invited her to join the family for Sabbath lunch and the afternoons at the park. It was obvious Fran had captured the hearts of the entire family. She was bright, pretty, warm, and affectionate.

Months after their secret marriage, one of the neighbors told Fran to watch her diet or she would soon look like a balloon. Fran’s eyes welled with tears. Annie put her arms around her secret sister-in-law and told the neighbor that Mama always said, ‘If one had nothing nice to say about someone, they should say nothing at all.’ The neighbor reprimanded Annie and told her not to be so fresh. That night Annie told Isaac about the insensitive neighbor. Isaac turned white, and Annie wondered why.

Months later, on Mother’s Day, Mama received an unexpected visit from Rebecca, Fran’s mother. She whispered something in Mama’s ear and Mama fainted. Golda and Annie carried Mama to her bed while Bubbie administered smelling salts. When Mama came to, she cried and told them Fran had given birth to a baby girl that morning, and Isaac was the baby’s father.

It was a shock to everyone except Annie. She was ecstatic. She was an aunt and bragged to everyone that she was the only one who knew when they married. The family did not know how to react. Isaac showed Mama and Papa the marriage license. They were relieved, but Bubbie said although they were married by law, they weren’t married according to the Lord and insisted an immediate religious ceremony be held. Since Fran’s parents didn’t care about a religious ceremony, Mama and Papa made the arrangements for Isaac and Fran to be married in their rabbi’s study.

When Isaac was in high school, he loved watching Papa fix watches and asked Papa to teach him the trade. When he was proficient, he occassionally worked at the shop and sat on the bench next to Papa. With Isaac’s new responsibilities, he gladly accepted the parttime job Papa offered him so he could continue attending college while supporting his family. Mama and Papa assumed Isaac would move in with his in-laws until Isaac graduated from college.

Fran’s father offered Isaac a full-time job at the bar. Isaac refused that opportunity, not because Mama and Papa geared him toward a college degree but because he wanted that for himself. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful, so he tried working at the bar in the evenings. That didn’t work. He was uncomfortable in that atmosphere. His in-laws punished him by not allowing him to live in their home with Fran and the baby.

Although Fran protested and declared her bed was big enough for them both, her parents said no. Isaac visited his wife and baby every day before going home to Mama and Papa’s house to eat, do his homework, and sleep.

Fran and Brenda spent Sabbath weekends with the family. Mama and Papa invited Fran and Brenda to move into their home so Fran and Brenda could share Isaac’s bedroom and live together as a family. Fran’s mother would not hear of it. Rebecca haughtily told Mama that until Isaac could support her daughter in an apartment of their own, the current living arrangement would prevail. Her parents convinced Fran that not living together gave Isaac incentive to study harder and make a better living for her and the baby.

The family should have seen the handwriting on the wall especially when Grandma Rebecca taught Brenda to call her Mommy, and Grandpa Hy Daddy and her parents Fran and Isaac, instead of Mommy and Daddy.

One of the first words Brenda uttered was auntie. Annie was thrilled and treated the baby like a doll. After school she often babysat while Fran taught tap dancing to neighborhood kids. The young couple yearned to live together as a family and wanted to rent an apartment. They opened a bank account and saved their nickels and dimes.

When Brenda was almost two years old, Annie and Golda overheard their parents and Isaac whispering. Isaac was crying, and Mama was trying to comfort him while Papa and his brother Zvi were engaged in a serious discussion.

Uncle Zvi was an attorney and was explaining that the law did not allow an annulment to dissolve a marriage if a child was involved. Although Annie could not hear what was being said, she did hear the word annulment several times and asked Golda what that meant.

Golda told her it meant Isaac and Fran were going to separate and not be married to each other anymore and that Brenda would no longer be part of the family.

When Isaac refused to give up his daughter, Fran’s father threatened to have Isaac killed if he didn’t agree to the annulment. Isaac with great anger told his father-in-law, You have already killed me by taking away my wife and daughter.

Fran’s parents planned to adopt Brenda as their own, thus making Fran a sister to her own daughter. That arrangement would legally end Isaac’s relationship to Brenda.

Rebecca’s sister Irene had lost a daughter in childbirth several years before, and she deviously instigated the breakup hoping to replace that child with Brenda. She never dreamed that Rebecca, her elder sister, had plans of her own.

Isaac loved Fran and was positive she loved him. He tried to see her and convince her they had a future together. His in-laws would not let him in the house; neither did they tell Fran that Isaac constantly phoned. He was heartbroken. Papa’s brother Zvi tried to negotiate to no avail. Mama objected to that plan and suggested Isaac bring Brenda to live with them. Fran’s family rejected that plan and again threatened not only Isaac but the entire family as well. Isaac knew Hy was capable of carrying out that threat. A year before, he had seen his father-in-law in action.

Isaac had called Papa to tell him he had to do research at the library and would be late for work. Papa told him to go home after the library and spend extra time with his family.

Isaac was about to enter the house when his father-in-law came flying out of his car, waving a gun in the air. Hy pushed his way past Isaac, went into the house, and headed toward the bedroom. Hy found what he suspected; his wife was having an affair. If Isaac hadn’t wrestled the gun out of his father-in-law’s hand, Rebecca and her lover would have been murdered. What accommodation Hy and Rebecca made was unknown, but their marriage remained intact.

Vividly remembering that incident, Isaac was certain the threat of murder was a reality; and although he didn’t care what happened to him, he would not put his family in harm’s way.

Living in the same neighborhood did not help the family adjust to losing Brenda. When Annie walked home from school, she would sometimes pass the house hoping to catch a glimpse of her niece. One day the baby saw Annie and ran to her offering her a lick of her lollipop. Rebecca called her attorney who in turn warned Uncle Zvi to keep Annie away from Brenda.

It was difficult for everyone. Their once-happy home was no longer. Papa went to work as usual, but he didn’t walk happy anymore. Isaac and Golda buried themselves in their college books, and Annie practiced the piano with a vengeance. Mama and Bubbie did their chores but couldn’t concentrate on anything but Brenda. For almost two years, they had seen the baby every day and felt part of them had been ripped away.

Thankfully Fran and her family moved away a few months later.

CHAPTER TWO

THE WORLD WATCHED as Hitler became more powerful. The United States, in anticipation of what might come, instituted a draft system. Unmarried men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five were required to register and when picked were obligated to serve one year in the armed forces. A draft board in each county of the United States was appointed, and selection was made by drawing numbers.

Isaac’s number was very low. He was called in the first wave of inductees. It was a tearful day when he left. Even Butch, the family dog, howled as he sat on Isaac’s empty bed. Mama claimed Butch was so distraught that he tried to put the gas jet on. When she told Papa, he laughed for the first time in months and told her that was absurd.

Although the United States was not yet at war, the country was setting up munitions factories.

Isaac finished six weeks of basic training and was given a weekend pass.

He was the first boy on the block to be drafted. When the neighbors saw the welcome-home sign Golda and Annie hung on the front door, some of them rang the bell to tell Mama they too looked forward to seeing him. Everybody loved Isaac. When he came strutting down the street looking handsome in his uniform, the neighbors applauded. His big shining blue eyes twinkled as he smiled and waved to them. Annie ran to him and flew into his arms. He picked her up in his strong arms, whirled her around, and told her how much he missed his baby sister. Annie had to turn away; she didn’t want Isaac to see her tears—she had missed him so.

Mama’s family came for Sabbath lunch. They behaved as though they had not seen Isaac for years. Bubbie Esther and Mama prepared all Isaac’s favorite foods, one of which was cholent (potatoes, lima beans, and beef which were cooked slowly overnight on an asbestos pad). That was another secret Isaac and Annie shared. Every Friday in the middle of the night, the two of them would sneak into the kitchen and nibble the delicious browned potatoes, not knowing that Mama knew about their midnight trysts and made extras just for them.

On Sabbath morning, Isaac accompanied Papa to the synagogue. The rabbi’s sermon concentrated on Hitler’s rise to power and how Nazism was affecting German Jews. Almost everyone in the synagogue was born in Europe. They came to the United States seeking religious freedom, and that is what they received. They were grateful to their adopted country for granting them the right to worship in peace.

The congregation was concerned but they didn’t believe the rumors that Jews were rounded up and put into death camps.

American Jews trusted President Roosevelt and were confident their beloved president would never let that happen.

Before Isaac’s leave was over, he called Fran, hoping to get a glimpse of Brenda. Fran said, Not yet—her mother would be angry.

Isaac’s next assignment was to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He was bright and eager and soon became a corporal. His letters were cheerful but always ended with questions about Fran and Brenda. He hungered for news of them and hoped they would be a family again.

Mama, Papa, Golda, and Annie visited Isaac often. The fort was near Washington DC. The family visited all the monuments, but the Lincoln Memorial touched Papa most. Annie asked him why he singled out the Lincoln Memorial to recite the special prayer of Shehecheyanu (which thanked God for reaching that day). He told her it was because he identified America and freedom with President Lincoln. Papa was a patriot and was grateful to his adopted country for allowing him to practice his religion openly without fear.

The months passed, and Isaac had only three more months to complete his year of army service. The family was making plans for a gala party to celebrate his homecoming.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Mama, Bubbie, and Annie were cleaning dish closets while they listened to their favorite radio mystery. Suddenly the program was interrupted. The hysterical newscaster announced that while the Japanese ambassador was in Washington talking peace with President Roosevelt, Japan carried out a sneak