Baltimore, MD - June 19, 2017 - I grew up in such a privileged time, a time of freedom and opportunity and plenty. My children have had it even better. They grew up surrounded by loving family, attending good Jewish schools and living in a supportive community and no path was closed to them.
My father, Meyer Oberstein, had a much different early life. He was born in 1905 in Tiktin, in what is today Poland. When he was a nursing infant, his mother, Chaya Sorah, died of blood poisoning, because there was no suitable medical care in Tiktin, and by the time they took her on a droshky-sleigh to Bialystok, it was too late.
His father, Elchonon, was a talmid chochom, whose only desire was to learn day and night. He had been promised long term support by his father in law, Meir Polchovitz,,but, life threw him a curve ball. The shver lost his wealth and the children were left orphans.
Three stories from my father's early life. His step mother had her own children and, when there wasn't enough food, she fed her children first and, if anything was left over, fed his children.
Zaidy Elchonon had a halachic dispute with the Tiktiner Rov. It was so complex, that they brought it before a Godol (my father did not know whom). He listened to both sides and said, "The Tiktiner Rov is certainly a great Gaon, but, in this instance, Elchonon is right". To which the Rov, said,"I never realized how learned you are. Al tistakel b'kan kan,eleh b'mah sheh yesh bo. Do not look at the jar but at what is inside of it."
When my father was a young lad, there was a curfew due to the war going on all around them. There was no food in the house, so he took a chance and left to do some business and buy some food. He was apprehended and put before a firing squad for breaking curfew. There were dead bodies all around him. At the last minute, an old Commissar with a beard rode up on a donkey and told the soldiers to let the kid go. .That is how close he came to being shot on the spot.
In 1924, his older sister Tzivya Bear brought him and his brother and sister over to America. Tzivya and her husband and Uncle Kiva Oberstein settled in Pensacola, Florida and Aunt Elka Katz and her husband, Sam, settled in Montgomery, Alabama. He delivered milk on a wagon for his brother in law, who founded the Pensacola Dairy. He did not like it because Aunt Celia (Tzivaya) and her whole group, which called themselves the Shevet, the tribe, were free thinkers who had nothing to do with religion.
He went up to Montgomery to visit his other sister and went to shul Friday night. My zaydy Eliezer Weinstock, a Chassidishe Yid with a beard and only one eyeball, the other being knocked out in a pogrom in the Ukraine, invited him home for the meal. My father took one look at their beautiful daughter, Pessel, and she looked at the handsome young man and they both knew they would get married. He married into the frummest family in Montgomery, a kalte Litvak with warm chassidim; an orphan starved for motherly love into a warm and nurturing family.
Together, they raised four children and created an open home that was full of kindness and Yiddishkeit.
My mother's parents lived with them and lived the same way they had lived in the Old country. My mother's brother, Joseph Weinstock was the most observant Jew in Montgomery and opened and closed the shul to daven morning and evening, whether there was a minyan or not. He set an example of love for Israel and devoted himself to tzedakah, especially for Israel.
During World War II, someone from the ZOA came to Montgomery and told my father that in order to save Jews' lives, they needed to sign up members of the Zionist Organization of America.(He believed them.).So, he left his grocery store in the hands of others and canvassed every Jew he could find in Montgomery, who was not an anti-Zionist, as many of the Reform Jews were. He signed up 100 members and this made him very proud.
My father set an example of hard work and integrity. His grocery store was in the Negro neighborhood, next to a housing project and all of his customers were poor. He was never picketed during the Civil Rights Era because he was beloved by his customers. He left home before sunrise and closed the store at 8 PM.
In short, my father did not have the opportunities or the easy life of my generation or my children's generation. He was very intelligent, a real intellectual, but his formal education was limited. He told me on more than one occasion that he would have liked to become a medical doctor, but, he had to make a living as a grocer. He was highly respected in the entire community, gentile and Jewish.
My father lived a full life and was blessed with children and grandchildren who loved and respected him. In his last years, when he was in poor health, he was moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where his daughter Elsie and son Albert lived and was never abandoned or neglected, as too many old people unfortunately are.
Among my grandchildren are Meir Lasson, Baltimore,(learning in Israel), Meir Fertig-Ramat Beit Shemesh, Moshe Meir Oberstein-Modiin, Meir Simcha Oberstein-Thornhill, Ontario. We also have a one year old granddaughter, Ayala Meira Shugarman of Baltimore. I hope that this article will tell them something about their great grandfather.
On a personal note, I thank the One Above who gave me the zechus to miraculously continue our family heritage and to have children and grandchildren who give nachas to the Ribono Shel Olom.
