Baba's Family

Esther Feigel and Isaac Baruch left Jerusalem around 1915 and for the next few years lived in a transit camp in Alexandria, Egypt. Their daughter Pearl was born either in the camp or on the boat on the way to the US.

Baba had 6 children - Pearl, Beryl, Leon (Label), Sylvia, Ann (Chanie, my mother), and David. Of the 6 children, 5 died before she did in 1988 and only Label survived her. Label died after a battle with Alzheimers in 2000.

Pearl, who my middle name is named after, died at the age of 18. She was a good person who helped Esther with her growing family, and a very talented pianist with a scholarship to Julliard. She caught pnuemonia one windy day and died a few days later.

Pearl Leibowitz is listed 2nd from bottom. She played 2 pieces. As I post this I am listening to Claude Debussey's "La Cathedrale Engloutie" -"The Engulfed Cathedral", also translated as "The Sunken Cathedral".... (music available right here below). Such a beautiful piece of music. I am wondering if I had listened to this piece before in reference to Pearl's recital, I just don't remember. Perhaps. But as I listen to it I can almost imagine her playing it. She died not long afterwards, perhaps days, weeks or a year or two later, a 'sunken cathedral', much potential lost.

Two more children died in childhood - Beryl and David. Beryl was playing outside and jumped on old mattress springs, which cut him. He contracted tetanus and died.

David was the youngest, see this photo of the cute kid above, and he was my mother's younger brother. He got sick and died, I don't know why. I know it was traumatic for my mother to grow up in a home where siblings kept dying.

Three of Baba's children reached adulthood - Label, Sylvia and Chanie. They are all dead now.

Sylvia (Shifra Toba) died in 1976 from complications of childhood-onset diabetes. The insulin available when she was a child was not very developed and it caused health complications over the long term. She was 1 1/2 years older than my mother Chanie and was very different in temperament and appearance. Sylvia married a Catholic man, Wesley, and this was very difficult for my grandparents, and therefore difficult for my mother who was still living with them. Some religious Jews would disown their child who married a non-Jew, but Esther & Isaac didn't disown her as they had lost enough children.

My mother Chanie - Ann (Chana Berocha) Leibowitz Cohen - died in 1982. Baba started the organization in 1927, one year after my mother was born. Many evenings Esther went out to give talks in people's homes, in auditoriums and synagogues. My mother was left in the care of her father, and she felt that she did not get enough attention as a young child from her mother.

My uncle Label died in January, 2000 after a long and painful struggle with the ravages of Alzheimers and strokes. To see someone with such an active mind, a "punster", lose all his abilities, is a difficult thing. The most difficult thing was the day he could no longer coordinate his hands and fingers to play the piano. I think the piano keyboard cover was turned down, closed.

A beautiful piece of music, and a fitting tribute to my Uncle Label.

I used to visit Baba at her apartment on 899 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights. I'd enjoy sitting with her in her kitchen, picking up a copy of the Jewish Press newspaper, and drinking coffee that she'd make in an old broken pot, and eat her homemade goodies like banana cake, hamentashen or assorted cookies. I heard her read a poem over the phone to her blind cousin Chienamindle, about all the flowers in her garden that died. I'd like to find that poem.