God, and the Allied armies, had liberated the Nazi concentration camps. And, thank God that Bobby Freed came home safely from the war. That’s what everyone said.
The concept of God in
In the 1940’s, there were two million Jews living in the five boroughs of
So, it followed that business and industry, government offices, and the public school systems were closed for the observance of most holy day of the Hebrew calendar year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
My grandparents on both sides, were secular Jews; had been born into the faith, but did not practice it. My father’s parents did not discuss religion, or observe the Sabbath or holidays. Impressive and articulate, my mother’s father, Rube, preached non-violence, tolerance and love. His philosophy was simple: “We believe in the brotherhood of man. We respect everyone’s right to their own belief”. Within the family, divorce, intermarriage with Gentiles, and openly homosexual relatives were accepted without fanfare.
Yom Kippur brought in the largest gate of the year at Belmont Racetrack. And my maternal grandparents, my father, all of my mother’s cousins and my uncles from both sides, were there, every year.
My classmates were Jewish and Catholic. Some Catholics were excused early one day a week for “religious instruction”. The boys that attended
When Dickie was eight years old, my mother sent him to Hebrew school to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, but after two classes, he refused to return, and that was the end of that.
Diana and Dickie, Christmas 1949
Why, Dickie and I knew more about Christmas than we did about any Jewish holiday! The Christmas story was part of the fabric of American life. I accepted it as “everyone’s” holiday, and was not ashamed of that, nor offended.
We exchanged gifts with our relatives, sang carols, and sent cards. Dickie and I loved decorating the little tree that we dragged all the way from the Italian fruit store in
I will always think of Dickie at Christmastime. He made it wonderful with his creative genius. His gifts were always innovative and smart. One year, as a gift to his friend, Barbara, he brought the Twelve Days of Christmas to life by creating constructions for each day. The final day, he presented Barbara with a feathered, papier-mâché Partridge, sitting on the branch of a small tree glued to a piece of polished slate. Hanging from the tree, were three perfectly formed marzipan pears he had sculpted. I will never forget that tree, it was magnificent… One year, he bought me a brass walnut (about the size of a golf ball). Inside, it was fitted with a sewing kit. It was lovely and useful, and only cost about 50 cents.
I bought the whole package, Santa Claus and the reindeer, and the Nativity story. The story told of a new beginning, mankind’s redemption, the corrupt world saved by innocence and goodness. The message seemed appropriate to my time in 1947, and I agreed with it. I still feel that hope when I see a newborn baby.
Spiritually, Dickie and I floated along, choosing to celebrate religious or secular rituals we found engaging. In the spring, wearing a new hat, I walked in the Easter Parade on
I began to process Bobby Freed’s emotional accounts of the slaughter of innocent people. The Nazi justification for these acts slowly crept into my consciousness. It was all about religion. The people were killed because they were Jewish. The Nazi’s wanted to create a world without Jews. So, at seven years old, I lost my innocent, simplistic acceptance of religion representing brotherhood, peace and love.
Gaygy Freed Kamins, 1949
My mother’s first cousin, Fannie (named for my great-grandmother, but nicknamed Gaygy), gave me a short story to read called “Jewish Eyes”. The story was set in one of the Nazi camps, and I learned about torture and starvation and murder. Its central character, a Nazi woman guard, wore earrings made of the eyes of a Jewish child, had a lampshade made of Jewish skin. The impact of this little book was enormous, its message immediately understood. A Jewish child born in 1940 could not have survived.
Although our family had neither Synagogue affiliation nor religious education, I could not escape the fact that if we had been living in
So, this was how I came to identify myself as a Jew.
21 November 2007