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. Only Label survived her. Label died in 2000 after a long battle with the ravages of Alzheimers.
Pearl. the eldest child, 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 at the age of 18.
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Pearl
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Berel
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Label
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Sylvia (Shifra Toba) died in 1975 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. This was a difficult thing for her parents Esther and Isaac. Some religious Jews would disown their child who married a non-Jew, but Sylvia's parents Esther and Isaac didn't disown her as they had already suffered the loss of 3 children.
Chanie - Ann (Chana Berocha) Leibowitz Cohen - died in 1982. Baba started the organization in 1927, one year after Chanie was born. Many evenings Esther went out to give talks in people's homes, in auditoriums and synagogues. Chanie 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.
David Leibowitz
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David
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.
Dates of Death
Printed in the Annual Souvenir Journal
at the 58th Anniversary Dinner of the Zion Dov Ber Torah Fund.
In memory of Baba's children
Last modified March 2011.