January 9, 1940

Dear Freida and Abe We got your letter some days ago and I thank you for the good wishes you sent for our wedding. We manage not bad, here in Rasinai. We have a good and warm room. The temperature of the room is very important since this winter has been very cold. Some days the temperature has been minus 25 degrees centigrade. It is very very cold. Freida you must remember how cold it was in 1928 it was just as cold. From home in Dotnuva I get letters very often and they are all in good health. I didn't get home for Chanukah, since the buses were not running because of the snow and ice. We hope to be able to go home at Pesach. They wrote to me in the last letter about Reizale (Shoshanna) marrying Leizer Vinitzky. [Eliezer Vinitzky was also from Dotnuva and had been Shoshanna's tutor. He left for Israel some time before Shoshanna left and they got together in Israel]. We wish them a good and happy life. In Resenai [the town where Moshe and Miriam were living] there is an uncle and aunt of Eliezer and we are going to see them in a few days. As to Freida's question, indeed we would like to come to the US and be with you, because of the difficult situation here, as you know. But I doubt whether you have the financial means to help us. Miriam's relatives don't seem to be interested in this matter. If you could do something to encourage them to act, please do. They must know that we have the money for the trip and that we will not be a burden on them. They only have to get the papers. It is important to get the family out of Dotnuva, and if there is any possibility, it must be done [he does not say who will do it, but only in general it must be done]. Be healthy and happy and write about what is going on. Moshe   In the same letter. Miriam Elkind, Moshe's wife, writes.   Dear Freida and Abe, When I saw you and met you in New York some time ago, I didn't think we would be relatives. The human being cannot know the future. I fully appreciate from my heart the warm wishes and would really like to see you and spend some time together, but I know it is impossible now. From here we don't have much to say. Surely you know from the papers about the situation. About our private lives, it would be good if we could speak face to face. We are both working. We live as students in one room and eat in a restaurant. The rest of the time after work we spend with our colleagues. Not a very interesting company, but it is the best we can do in this small and remote town. Two weeks ago I was in Vilnius and they offered me a job as a teacher in the Hebrew high school there. I didn't take the job because I would have to be separated from Moshe, who must stay here in Rasinai. In Vilna (Vilnius) I met Mordechai Boyed [we have no idea who this is - Danny]. Freida, I think you know him. In Kovno we met Rabbi Rubinstein. We traveled quite a lot lately. During Chanukah, we went to our home in Poniewież [Presumably, Miriam's family]. Then we've been in Kaunus and I've been in Vilnius and back to Kovno (Kaunas). The travels are very tiring. About coming to America, I don't know if we will be able to do it. My relatives don't seem to take this seriously; they've done nothing. I'm not going to write again because they didn't answer my previous letters that I wrote them last summer. It is hard for me to ask again the people who don't seem to be concerned about me. Nevertheless I will try and write to them again. What's new with you? Do you both work? Write us about everything. And the main thing I forgot: mazel tov to Shoshanna and Eliezer Vinitzky's with the occasion of their marriage. Eliezer I know; we went to the same high school in Poniewież. He is a good fellow and has great abilities. Shalom, write often, Yours Miriam   Translated by Norman and Danny on a visit of Maya and Danny in Norman's home. Oct 2009.

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