@CoolerPseudonym@wandering.shop
2026-09-15 21:39 UTC
My great-grandfather left his shtetl in the Pale and came to America for three reasons.
1) to avoid the pogroms.
2) to avoid impressment and involuntary service in the Czar's army.
(I thought that was a hell of a thing. Either the cossacks come and try to kill you, or you could be forced into the military to serve involuntarily for twenty years. Or both!)
3) To get away from the Rabbi. He was sick of it. Sick of the stifling traditional life.
#Judaism
Replies (1)
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@emily_rugburn@lgbtqia.space 2026-09-15 21:56
@CoolerPseudonym@wandering.shop so we have no idea where our family came from besides "eastern europe". they all immigrated to berlin eventually, half of the family converted to catholicism (and immigrated to the US prior to wwi), and half was mosaisch. the family that stayed in berlin was deported to poland to lodz. my great great uncle died in lodz of starvation, the rest died in the camps although we do have a distant cousin who's family made it to israel