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Leizer
Leshansky and his wife Sarah were married in either Timkovichi
or Rozeva, their respective home towns, which were about 5 miles
apart.
Leizer
migrated to US about 3 or 4 years before Sarah, in 1898. He went
first to England, briefly, and then to the US.
Dorothy
Leshan reports that Leizer was a tailor. He had a clothing shop
briefly, but it failed.
His
youngest daughter Dotty Leshan says Leizer died at age 51 approximately.
He died of cancer.
Stories
Dorothy
Leshan tells this story in 2002:
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Leizer
was sent away from Timkovich before his bar mitzvah
to Odessa, mabye at age 10 or 12. He lived there until
he was in his early 20s with an aunt.
As
Dorthoy Leshan tells it, laughing, "Momma was an
old maid by this time, in her early 20s." She was
blue eyed and blond and beautiful. (Only her son Abe was
blond like her.). Anyway, the handsome dark skinned Leizer
had came to Timkovich, probably to visit his parents.
Well, very soon the marriage brokers got together and
were trying to make a match. Dorothy recalls how her Momma
(Sarah) always got angry when people said that in the
old country they told you who to marry and you didn't
have any choice. Sarah would always insist that marriage
brokers introduced people, that's all. "It was your
choice! They just checked out the backgrounds." Anyway,
Leizer's background checked out well, and when they introduced
Sarah to Leizer, she said "I'll have that one..."
Dorothy
conveyed to me in the way she told this story the idea
that her parents relationship was a very positive and
loving one throughout life, and not only at the beginning.
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Dorothy
Leshan has two theories about why Leizer had been sent to Odessa
at age 10 or 12, prior to his bar mitzva. The first is
that this was the era of kidnapping. Jewish boys were kidnapped
into the Russian army and never heard from again. So it quite
likely that Leizer was sent to Odessa to avoid being drafted by
the army. This would work doubly to the family's advantage because
the Russian Government never drafted only sons. Dorothy notes
that "Papa was a second son." So if he disappeared both
sons would be safe. According to Dorothy, two people she spoke
to from Russia/Poland thought that was quite possible.
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Another
Story - The Great Love of Leizer for Sarah
Sammy
and Leona had a period of prosperity. Dottie tells this story
but I didn't get the whole thing. Somehow however I think that
Sammy and Leona overheard a conversation between a visitor to
Leizer's shop and Leizer. The point was that Leizer Leshansky
had a great love for his wife. Leizer had immigrated to London
with another man. But unlike this other person, he had been
unable to find employment and so decided to move on to America.
Years later this man looked him up in America because he rembered
how much Leizer had loved his wife and spoken of her with affection.
This man wanted to see him again just because of how remarkable
his affection for his wife had been. He thought that Leizer's
affection for his wife made him a remarkable personality.
Dotty
also said something that conveyed the feeling that Sarah, her
Momma, had a great affection for her husband Leizer. I will ask
her more about this, and her impression of their relationship.
The
Final Reunion of Hochstein and Leshan clans in the 1980s
The
above photo from the 1980s at Peter and Emily Samtons home in
New York may have been the last time most of the surviving members
of this generation of the Leshan family gathered together with
the Hochstein family. Pictured are (left to right) in back row,
(1) Sophie (_____) Hochstein (Leo Hochstein's wife),
(2) Abe Leshan (son of Leizer
Leshansky and Sarah Charach Leshansky),
(3) Leo Hochstein (son of
Yoshe Hochstein and Rashe Gitte),
(4)
Phillip aka "Pinne" Hochstein (youngest son of Yoshe
Hochstein and Rashe Gitte),
(5) Ann (_____) Leshan (Abe Leshan's wife),
and in front row, left to right,
(6) Sarah (Hochstein) Zeik (daughter of Yoshe
Hochstein and Rashe Gitte),
(7) Elenore Lester (granddaughter of Yoshe
Hochstein and Rashe Gitte Hochstein and daughter of Sam
Hochstein), and
(8)
Dorothy Lucy Leshan (youngest child of Leizer
Leshansky and Sarah Charach/Harakh Leshansky.)
I
was told that my aunt Elenore (second from right in front) functioned
to some degree as the glue that kept everyone together, and with
her death in the early 1990s, and the fading of the older generation,
the two families and their offspring are now largely no longer
in contact. This, I'm told, was the last hurrah. I missed the
event because I was living in Israel at the time.
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