Dora & Sylvia Arrive
Dora Guber Pseny: wife of Jacob Pseny / mother to Sylvia( Sara ) Pseny Mink / Rose Pseny / Herman Pseny / Elaine Pseny Selkovitz
Born: March 11, 1891 / Siemiatycze, Poland
Died: December 13, 1975 / Philadelphia, PA
I never really had a close, fun, loving relationship with, Dora, my bubby, even though she was my longest living grandparent. Language was a barrier and I couldn’t always understand her accent as Yiddish was her mother tongue. She learned English at the age of 29 when she came to America with my mother, Sylvia, who was 8. Her husband Jake (my grandfather) had already been in America for 7 years. He left earlier to create a better life for his family. Bubby and my mom would have come sooner if they could have, but WWI kept them in war torn Siedlce* living with Jake’s brother Zev.
Sylvia & Dora in Poland
Can you imagine living in a country ravaged by war that was led by anti-semetic governments that saw Jews as less than human while experiencing economic devastation, food shortages, and a typhus epidemic ( aka bubonic plague)? Can you imagine being separated from your husband and after 7 years, you and your daughter were finally going to be reunited with him? Can you imagine passing the Statue of Liberty after almost a week below deck, knowing you had just arrived in the land of peace and freedom? I can’t imagine any of that or the hardships these women endured to emigrate to America. I get teary eyed just thinking about it.
Their ship to freedom, the S.S. Rydam, of the Holland American Line, sailed October 8, 1920. The manifest lists steerage passengers Doby ( Dora’s name in Yiddish) Pszennej ( Dora’s last name in Polish) age 29, and Sara (Syliva in English), age 8. They were to be met in New York by husband, Jacob Pszenny ( last name in Polish) living at 1629 S. Lawrence St, Philadelphia.
Ship Manifest for Dora & Sylvia (lines 19 & 20 if you zoom in)
Page 2 of the Ship Manifest (lines 19 & 20 if you zoom in)
Dora’s Passport
If I felt that my parents were old fashion, then bubby was from a different world. I didn’t care about history when I was a kid and they never talked about the old country, at least in English. It wasn’t until after my mother died that I discovered all kinds of documents and pictures inscribed in Yiddish. One document was a receipt for a child's grave at Mount Lebanon Cemetery. Rose Pseny was born August 6, 1921, and died March 24, 1926 of Meningitis. The first child born to Jake and Dora in the New World would live less than 5 years. They went on to have two other children, Herman and Elaine. Tragedies, and grieving were never discussed. Everyone internalized their feelings and dealt with them in their own way.
Rose Pseny
Rose’s Death Certificate
Bubby and my mom had an uneasy relationship at best. I remember arguments, in Yiddish, but I never knew the subject matter. Both women were strong willed and stubborn. Looking back, I think that my mom and Bubby represent the clash between cultures and generations. Bubby was from the Old World, a deeply religious immigrant who clung to the ways she knew. My mother was the young eager child who looked to assimilate and adopt the ways of the new and open world, America.
Dora’s Certificate of Citizenship
One of my fondest memories of my bubby was of her cooking. She never ate at our house because she was strictly Kosher and we weren’t. However, we did eat at bubby’s once in a while. I can remember the aroma of the roasted chicken and farfalle with onions as soon as the elevator door opened on her floor. Her apartment was at the end of a long corridor, and the aroma got stronger the closer we got. I knew that soon I was going to partake in a delicious meal.
Funny, I know my kids and nieces and nephews went through the same sensory experience when approaching my mother’s apartment.
*Life in Siedlce is documented thoroughly in the Memorial Book of the Community of Siedlce. It’s a Yizkor Book written in Yiddish and published in Buenos Aires in 1956. I am currently working on a project to have this book translated to English by Theodore Steinberg. Click here to see the project. There is a chapter, The History of the Jews in Siedlce, Written by Yitzhak Kaspi, which traces their history from 1650. In the early 1900’s, this part of Poland was ruled by Czarist Russia. The Bund, the Jewish Socialist Workers Party, was organizing and gaining strength. After various work and union strikes in town, the military decided to assert themselves and instigated a pogrom. The pogrom started on Friday, September 7, 1906 and lasted through September 11. Twenty-six Jews were killed and many more injured.
The First World War broke out August 1, 1914, a year and a half after Jake arrived in America. Siedlce was first occupied by the Russians and then by the Germans. They occupied the town from 1914-1918. To add to the misery, a typhus epidemic broke out in 1918. At this time the Zionist movement became legal and grew in strength. The end of WWI, saw the creation of an independent Poland, which was then invaded by the Red Army in 1920. When the Bolsheviks were defeated, the Poles took their vengeance on any Communist and Socialist sympathizers. This is the community where Dora and Sylvia lived the first 8 years of Sylvia’s life.
