Reminiscences of Jacob Greenbaum, Sr.

Reminiscences
of Jacob Greenebaum, Sr. (cont.)

Still I am not one of those who scornfully turn their backs upon the old home.^[18] Although I do not wish to return, at times my thoughts dwell upon the country that gave me birth, upon its inhabitants among whom I dwelt so peacefully, upon all those friends whom I left, and who to this day keenly feel and deplore our separation; and the land in whose bosom so many near and dear found their last resting place, parents and ancestors, children, brothers and sisters. May the beneficent Father grant His aid to those that are still among the living and give eternal peace to those that have returned to dust. Amen!


Cemetery in Teschenmoschel Photo, copyright 1995, Susan E. King. All rights reserved	Cemetery in Teschenmoschel Photo, copyright 1995, Susan E. King. All rights reserved

Now, my dear children, I have informed you fully as to the life of your parents up to the time of our arrival here, September 3, 1852. What has occurred in the meantime to this day, is known to all of you. Should the Heavenly Father grant us the favor to abide another ten years among you, I promise you that I will give you further account, so far as my mental faculties permit.

You can also gather from this narrative, with what care we brought you up and nurtured you, and with what exertions and even privations we provided for your education, as far as our circumstances permitted, and finally that you might not be separated in different continents and only for this reason, we took the perilous journey to America.

For all this I demanded nothing of you except unity among yourselves; by firmly holding together, you can defy all dangers that threaten you. I repeat it once more, your keeping together in love and harmony will be a strengthening balm for our old age, and the opposite, which I hope will not come to pass, would darken the remainder of our existence.

Therefore, follow my admonition - it is the only one I recommend to you - and I do not know how long it will be vouchsafed to me to call your attention thereto, but when my last hour strikes and the power of speech fails me, this will be my last thought. Remember, therefore, my children, the words of your father, spoken to you on the fortieth anniversary of his marriage to your dear mother, that we may have the joy of which David speaks: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

This is the message of your father,

JACOB GREENEBAUM

Chicago, January 20, 1859
and 15th of Sh'bat, 5619

MY DIRECT LINEAGE AS COMPILED FROM THE ABOVE NARRATIVE

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Four paragraphs earlier he writes "…and the yearning for the land of freedom increased." In the preceding paragraph he says "…I have never for a moment desired to return; neither would I allow such a thought to arise in me." Here he speaks of his nostalgia for his birthplace and "…its inhabitants among whom I dwelt so peacefully…" Perhaps even Jacob himself could not quite sort out his own conflicting emotions. He had grown up among a semi-autonomous minority which, in Hesse-Darmstadt, met every three years to adjudicate such matters as the distribution of taxes arbitrarily levied upon the Jews by State authority, a form of cooperation in its own oppression that adumbrated the Nazi use of local Jewish organizations across Europe in the destruction of their own communities; but, at the time, seeming to comprise a comforting defense against a hostile world.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815 (Jacob was eighteen years old) "The old Jewish restrictions…reappeared nearly everywhere in Germany…The cry for repression did not proceed solely from the ignorant classes. Goethe, the choicest spirit of the new Germany, was a leader in the movement of 1823 to reimpose humiliating disabilities upon the Jews of Saxe-Weimar. Professor Ruhs, from the newly-organized University of Berlin, advocated the restoration of the medieval badge… A rabid Teutomania developed idealizing a Christian Germany and warring upon ‘the godless’ and ‘the soulless.’" (Sachar, 286.)

So Jacob had known the comforts of community, on the one hand but, on the other, he must surely have yearned for freedom from the pervasive, gut-level anti-Semitism, however intellectualized, that had marked German culture for a thousand years. Still, these things are not usually as crystal clear to those immersed in them as they appear to us in retrospect. One of my maternal cousins, a successful man of about fifty, came to Chicago from Germany in 1936 to see what America was like and to consult with my uncle. Should he leave Germany? His English was very poor. Or should he wait it out – maybe this Hitler thing would blow over…? Return

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Reminiscences of Jacob Greenebaum, Sr. (cont.)

Reminiscences
of Jacob Greenebaum, Sr. (cont.)