We believe the photo was taken in Russia. The writing on the back, from which we thought we could derive a clue, leaves us clueless. Several scholars (my mother’s words when she was alive and involved with this) have looked at it and could not make a determination as to what it says.
We assumed these were cousins of my maternal Grandparents, or so my mother seemed to believe, and these were her parent’s photographs
I believe, after several attempts were made, that the postcard is written in phonetic Russian (or even Lithuanian) but with Hebrew script characters, the same way Yiddish is written with Hebrew characters.
The only person capable of translating this would be someone who can speak both Hebrew and Russian. So far, I’ve not met anyone.
So. If you know these guys, drop me a line…….
My cousin Sherry took up the cause and brought forth the postcard to her Rabbi. She said, “Rabbi Kosman will see if he can translate the letter.”
He worked very hard on it and declared it to be written in Yiddish, just poorly written. He worked at it and even though a word or two is still a bit of a mystery, here is the text:
" Best to Uncle. Since I have an opportunity to write, I’ll write you a few words. I’ve been this week as a guest by mother’s. From you came a letter with 10 dollars. That is too bad. At one time it was $10. Today it’s not more than $5. It has fallen 50%. First of all mama thanks you very much. But, mama is not at all satisfied. You can’t have anything against her. She is a weak woman and if it is possible we wish you would send more money. The business is very bad.
As you know I am working on getting ready (making preparations) as a pioneer and after Passover I need already to go away to Israel. And with my leaving my economic condition will improve and at the same time also my mothers. But, in one matter lies the difficult point of things. That is money and things. One time you also sent a package. Today it’s what I need immediately you didn’t send it to me. I’ll see you later in Israel. I’m finishing my writing. Stay well. Feel my longing quickly. I’ll see you in Israel. This is also with my friendship from the kibbutz."
My “cousins” were gonif’s!
The Thesaurus says a gonif - (Yiddish) a thief or dishonest person or scoundrel (often used as a general term of abuse)
ganef, ganof, goniff
Yiddish - a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script
offender, wrongdoer - a person who transgresses moral or civil law
I am offended by the tone of the letter but maybe you had to be there to understand. I am surprised my grandparents kept the post card unless they couldn’t read it either and saved it for someone else to translate later on. My cousin Sherry and I assume that somewhere these relatives, or perhaps their descendants are living, and we hope they don’t find us, as they will probably ask us for money!
Needless to say, ain’t comin’ from here!
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