By way of introducing my readers to a special world, often known
only to the orthodox Chassidic Jewish community, I have selected to
share my experiences as an eight-year-old American boy. I am the
third of nine children, the oldest boy and named after my deeply
Chassidic great-grandfather, Eliyahu. It was thought that in order
for me to give honor to his name I should be exposed to the
lifestyle he and his family lived. As a young child I was moved
from a modern American orthodox home to my grandparents' home
located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. There I met a new type
of Jew, Hungarian Jews, refugees from Europe. Many had their
children born in "displaced person camps." They had just arrived
with their families to New York after a hard-earned escape from the
Russian suppression of Hungary in 1957. While living with my
grandparents, called Upa and Uma, I learned how to live and dress
in a Chassidic lifestyle. I learned to love my teacher, called
Rebbe, and my classmates. In the 1950s, almost all of my classmates
were children of the infamous Auschwitz deportees from Hungary.
Most teachers had branded tattooed numbers on their arm, physical
reminders of inhuman cruelties. I remember visiting a family with
my Uma, and being told by the mother, "How lucky you are yingela,
sonny-boy, that you have a father, a mother, a brother, a sister,
uncles, aunts and even grandparents. The only thing I have left
from Germany is this " She shoved her arm with the blue numbers in
front of me. Other times, my Jewish teacher, a survivor of the
camps, would cry in class, thinking of the suffering he and his
family had experienced. Many of the school children were from
second marriages. Either their father's or mother's first spouse
had been killed. It wasn't uncommon for children to have half
brothers and sisters who were 10 or 15 years older than they. Being
a fourth generation American living in Williamsburg with survivors
of co
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