My Items

To my dearly beloved wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well and live in much happiness, and my dear children, may they live in wealth and comfort.

My dearest wife, first of all I want to tell you that TG I am well, may God grant that this letter should find you and the children in the best of health. About business – medium – from the time that I sent you the £3 through my friend Moishe until today I have saved £3. I am sending it to you so that my daughter Leah should not complain that her father sends only letters and no money. And what the people say about me, that I collect pennies, let them talk. And I would be very happy if they talked so much that I could say ‘I have the silver and I have the gold’. May God come to my health so that I could save a good few pounds and it would be quite different. I would become more of a scholar and more of a higher prestige and who knows even of more status than Lieppe Pogerver – but this will only be when it is all done.

If the Lord will show His mercy – I now send you £3 honestly earned PG without desecrating the Shabbos and without a lot of heartache as it hits a Jew in Russia to earn so little. And I hope you will use it for your pleasure, and further I hope to send you PG every month as much as possible and as much as you may need to get by and to pay a debt. If the Lord will provide, we will manage. We have to be patient and all will come right.

About what you ask about life for men living alone and who serves. I can write you that it is such a life as only men can endure. As the posek says (from Adam and Eve, Genesis), ‘And the Lord God said It is not good for man to live alone’. And about ‘service’, domestic help. I can tell you that according to our business we cannot afford it. I would not have the money to pay for it. So we have to share things, e.g. the laundry we have to give to a washerwoman, she brings it back and says it has laundered, so it’s okay. Bread you buy from the bakery and I see that it is well-baked. The only problem is with cooking, and this is indeed a problem – kosher. But I can tell you that no one is perfect like an angel, so we learn by experience. Even of our wives, may they live Leben Zollen, cooking, of which there are no complaints, they were also not born with a successful tsimmes in their hands. And making tea I am nearly an expert already, I know the rules. You must not add salt and pepper, not even onions. And we just cook until it gets hot and soft, and then it is good. And the rest, we shall learn in time.

What more can I write you – this week’s letter I have not yet received. Therefore, I have nothing much to write about in this letter. I will write you in detail about how we spend Pesach. But you please write a speedy reply. Further, no news. Be well and kisses from your ever loving and true husband, who awaits your writing as to know how you spent your Yomtov, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet friendly my dear parents, may they live in wealth and comfort, my father, Yehuda Leib Kretzmar, my mother, Beile, my brother, Yaacov Kretzmar, and my sisters, Hinda and Chana, may they all live well. My dearest parents, I am surprised that you have not written to me about your business affairs. There are only two weeks to Pesach, so we already have to know about the earnings, as is the custom in Russia that you have to sit at the seder. But I reckon that is in the letter that is on its way. I will write good news. May it be a good budget. Be well and stay well from me, your son, Tuvye Kretzmar

Write me if you are continuing with the hiring of the farm in Bogdanovich.

I greet cordially my brother-in-law, Moishe Schochet, and my mother-in-law, the chaste and modest Neche, and his wife, my sister, their children, and my sister-in-law, Chana Reza, I greet you all. About my health I am PG well and wish to hear the same from you and that you should have a good, kosher and happy Yomtov and that we may be able to say with a full heart, ‘It is the season of our freedom’. That we shall be able to make the brocha, I share gayalame, who has redeemed us. Then afterwards we will be able to say, ‘that they left the gallot with much wealth’, amen. From me, your best friend, Tuvye Kretzmar

To my dear cousin Taube, may she live well, and all her children, and also anyone who enquires after me. I have received your letter in which you ask me to tell Tuvye not to be cross with you. I’ll have to tell him later. I would have done it without you asking. I shall have to pinch him so that he will listen, then he will write again and complain to his mother-in-law. So now he hasn’t anything to write. You have feribble if anyone touches him. I hate to give explanations, but I am convinced that this man must learn things, words alone will not help. I’ll see what you say now. Be well and happy, as is the wish of your dear cousin, Meish Rubin.

To my dearest wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well and live in happiness. And to my dear children, David and Noah, and Leah and Freda, be well and may you live in wealth and comfort.

Dearest wife, I have not yet received your letter this week, but I think it will still arrive because I cannot believe that you would be so bad as not to write to me. If you write and post it, it arrives. I can inform you that TG I am well, in good health, PG that I may hear the same from you and the children.

Further on, there is very little to write about in my business – it’s going quite slowly. Cape Town does not care very much about the Johannesburgers who come here and have nowhere to stay. Second-day Pesach arrived more Russians, who would like to know that they are now on the right road to success. But one has to await for better days. But in the meantime, business is yawning, and the one transaction depends on the other, so it’s no good to anybody, but no one can foresee what the Lord will bring, maybe even He may improve things, because, if not, then it’s very much worse in Africa than at home. Because at home, even if you don’t make money, one can still manage, like anybody else, and that is enough. One is at home with family. One hasn’t to worry your head about foreign languages. But as it is in Africa, if you cannot save money and you have expenses, life is bitter. So you cannot reach your goal. But this is no excuse; one has to be patient and has to wait until it gets better. I wish you a happy Pesach and a kosher one. I am sure you must have received the £4 I sent you. I hope shortly to send out more. Be well and happy, with the only wish From your ever loving husband, Tuvye Kretzmar

To my dear parents, Mr Yehuda Leib, and my mother, the modest Beile, and my dear brother, the learned Mr Yaacov Schochet, and my sister-in-law Hinda. Dearest parents, I can tell you that I find myself TG well. PG to hear the same from you. It would have been appropriate if I could have sent some money to pay for the coal and wood, and also still before Pesach it would have been very nice to send a nice present. Sadly though, this is not the time for this. One has to be satisfied with less and keep hoping for more. Be well and happy, as is the wish of your son and brother, Tuvye Kretzmar. Please send me me Eliezer Salmon’s address because I cannot think that I have sinned so much that he should not write me a letter, so I am sending you his letter.

I greet cordially my mother-in-law, Mrs Neche, and also my brother-in-law, Moishe Schochet, and his wife, my sister, and their children, all be well in my joy. Also, my dear brother-in-law Aaron Morris, and my dear sister-in-law, Chana Reza, I wish you lots of good luck and best of happiness, and a happy and healthy Pesach, and a kosher one. From me, your son-in-law and brother-in-law, who wishes all the best, Tuvye Kretzmar

To my loving and dear wife, Taube Kretzmar, and to my loving children, May they live in wealth and comfort.

Dearest wife, your letters marked number one and number two I have duly received and I have read with pleasure, particularly of your well-being. May God grant that our letters to each other should always be so as long as I am destined to be separated from you.

I am pleased to hear that you enjoyed Purim and that the custom of making a party in Zerildovve is still in existence. May God grant that we should start living properly, and here we also had a happy occasion.

We live in one room – it means it is one place for me and for Moishe and Mendel, and Mendel is a son of the schochet of Papile and the shammes of Shmuel Ghaseich of Birzh. And there also came others, dispersed good friends, and we all had a drink together. We sang songs, although at the beginning we were afraid we should be heard outside. Moishe says that if Krass the landlord should hear the noise, he would increase the rent by seven grossan. But I am scared, as we live in the country we have to be careful with this kind of rascal. But as we warmed up a bit we became happier. We decided that it was only a fantasy and we are not afraid of the landlords. We drank a cup for the health of the wife and children, parents and all friends, and all friends who think about us, and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Pesach we were at Lipman Rubin, we sat at the seder with heavy hearts but Liepe Rubin comforted us with the following words: ‘If you cannot make a living in Russia, then we should be happy to be in this country, because then the wives will be able to make Pesach in Russia.’ Although these are short words, but alas it is true, and so we conducted the sederim and I will write whatever happens later. So now I must close my writing as the time does not allow me to write more. Therefore please excuse me this time – hopefully, I will not owe you any letters. Be well and stay well, as is the wish of your ever loving husband, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet also cordially my dear parents for the pleasure you have caused me by writing to me. I am unable at the moment to write you anymore. I greet my brothers and sisters, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and everyone else who asks after me. From me, your son and relative and good friend, Tuvye Kretzmar

To my dearly beloved wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well and live in happiness, and to my children, may they live and grow up in wealth and pleasure.

My dearest wife, I have received your letter of the 17th March numbered number 3. I am very happy and I thank God for His mercy that He grants you good health. You write me in the letter that you find a comfort and encouragement to hope that our separation will not last forever because as the Lord gives health and life one can await everything. Yet my dearest, with these two things, we can await everything. But I want to draw your attention to the fact that a third thing is also necessary, and, with all three, then one has to hope and guess what is in the closed envelope, and that is ‘Patience’. One needs Health and Life and one must have Patience to overcome with a serene attitude. One must with one’s own eyes see how part of one’s greatest assets are destroyed – that is from your lifespan – your past, everything is numbered and measured, the seconds are counted and, piece by piece, is removed as time goes by like a calendar, with a thought that maybe in time the future will be better. Although we know full well that what the Lord takes away from one end of the lifespan, it does not come back at the other end, and this of course is passed forever. But alas whatever bitter faith brings us, we cannot argue about it, one can only hope.

You write about your preparations for Pesach and that you thought everything superfluous and unnecessary and you appear to be doing it because others are doing it. My dearest wife, what can I answer you on this? For me it is no news, for when I departed from you I knew that my life would be good and bad, and it would only be an invitation of the past, as my dearest hearts and causes of pleasure are thousands of miles away. So what can be the value of life at such a time – the glamour and the religious satisfaction which a Jew finds in the Sabbath and Yomtov – this pleasure I have lost long ago. Although I observe the Sabbath as in Russia, it has no glamour here, and so was Pesach here. We were together at Mr Lipman Rubin, we chatted and spent the time together in order not to feel time dragging on till the Lord will have mercy. About business affairs which you ask about every week, alas (page missing)

…Sisters, mothers, and mother-in-law, and brother-in-law and everybody, From me, Tuvye Kretzmar

To my dear wife, Taube Kretzmar, Zollen leben, live in good fortune and joy. And to my dear children, zollen leben,enjoy and happiness.

Dearest wife, I have safely received your letter number four and read with the greatest joy and pleasure. I thank the Lord for His mercy that He grants you good health. Please God, there may always be good health and spirits in prosperity in business.

I can tell you that I received letters last week from my brothers Mendel and Samuel. They write that they are TG well and happy and that they have also received letters from you. I am surprised that you have not written to them to tell them that I am with Moishe Tsabentsek and Lipman Rubin because he writes a gerus to Moishe in my letter and he wonders if it will arrive as who knows where he may be. So I wrote him that we are together and that we are partners, PG may He grant prosperity, hatzlacha, and we were together with Meish Rubin for Pesach and we had a good time. May God grant us a happy Yomtovim, and as is quoted in Possek, ‘May you enjoy your festivals … but in the meantime it must be good as it is’.

Further, about after Pesach, I will try to gather some funds in order to be able to go to a place somewhere in a forest, with my own cows and shops and one horse and struggle rather than to be overburdened carrying goods – so far I have avoided all that and Moishe and I have moved into another house. It is better and more comfortable than the previous one, and in the meantime though I am not making any fortunes nevertheless I have saved a good bit in this week. I send you with this letter £2 sterling. Please write me as soon as you will receive it and how much you get for it in Russian money. Also, how do you stand with capital?  Please write everything in detail. I intend sending more on the account of the loan and so in the meantime we must have patience. As we have started a new business, we must await results.

I close my writing as it is already late at night. It is already eleven o’clock and all day I walk about a lot because, as you know, I have sold the horse and to buy one again will cost much more, maybe over £20, and so we do the business on foot. So one is quite ready to go to sleep as here it is not done to sleep over on a visit as there are no sofas so it also has to be right as it is and we can endure it.

But if you get a blow from a friend, who is also a relation, such a thing one cannot endure with equanimity as it happened on the twenty-fourth of April according to the Russian calendar. As you know the suitcase, which is the basket which is sewn around, which I brought from home and which Moishe worked on and you sewed it until it was repaired properly, and all the way it was my whole fortune and I carried it through many countries, until I bought it to Cape Town, and here it was also very useful to me… but then L Rubin happened to see it and because of an evil eye it became disintegrated. It lost its shine and began to look like a rag. It was very precious to me. I wanted to show it to an expert and have it repaired, but they were very envious of me. How could I have such an antique as there was nothing like it in the whole of Africa? Either he should have it or nobody else should have it. I thought I would keep it as an antique, but alas no, came a day when I was not at home, Lipman Rubin and his brother-in-law came to Moishe and they took my suitcase and destroyed it, and so it looked like the dead Philistines who were killed by Samson, it was pitiful to see it. I carried it about for 4,000 miles and here it had to have this end. The handle was broken and one side torn open, and here in Africa I cannot take them to court, and you can include it in Unetaneh Tokef [i] and there are few machzeinem (?) and so it must go to Russia (to query the claim). Please write me your opinion about it, don’t have any regrets or worry about it. Be well and live in much good luck, as is the wish of your loving husband, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet cordially my father and mother, sister and brother, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, Moishe Schochet, and sister-in-law, and everybody who asks about me, I wish you all good luck and blessings in all ways, as from me, Tuvye Kretzmar

Notes:

[i] The High Holy day prayer for expiation of sins.

To my dear wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well, and to my dear children, be well.

Dearest wife, I have today received your letter of Chol HaMoed Pesach [i], and I am replying right away because to read your letter did not take much time. Usually when you write Chol HaMoed Pesach you cannot expect more, and I am surprised that you did not write across the page. (Explanation not writing Chol HaMoed Pesach, because it is between the first and last days of Pesach). I think that, although you did not write across the page, you made some other sign by shortening your letter. In any case, I thank you very much for your writing because what would I have done if you had not written, that would have been just bad luck. I am very glad and TG that you are well and that you have kept up your courage this Yomtov. PG that we may be able to be cheerful and brave. It’s no point in talking about wealth. I must close my letter because here by me it’s not Chol HaMoed, one has to work, and may the Lord send all that we need and if it is in cash it will be all the more welcome. Be well and stay well, as I wish you, Your loving husband, Tuvye Kretzmar

Notes:

[i]  Chol Hamoed are the intermediate, secular part of festivals, during Pasover and Sukkot.

Shalom, my friend, and Aleichem Shalom to me. My friend, I have received your letter and I am replying to you with thanks. I see from your letter that your keenness to write to me stems from love and because I often write at the slightest pretense, you don’t seem to take any interest in me, and for that I ask you to forgive me if I say that you made a mistake. First of all, I have never acquired friends with money or with compliments. I am not telling you to honour me or to love me. I will still love you, even if you don’t want to correspond with me. What is the good of getting cross about it? Have I ever complained to your brother, Shmuel Kretzmar, from whom I have not heard a word since I left home. If you have no patience to write letters, I tell you that the basis of my letters to family and friends is my wish to hear from you, and only incidentally one writes about things of not much importance (refers to a quotation from Solomon where moss and the cedar of Lebanon are brought together – (unimportant and non-consequential things, e.g. in the correspondence) I wish you and all your family shalom, and to your brother, Shmuel Kretzmar, from me, your dear friend, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet cordially my dear parents and my brother and sister, all very cordially and in friendship, I also greet amicably my dear mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law and my sister Sarah and the children, may they all live well. I wish you all good luck and blessings in all ways, from me, your son and son-in-law and brother-in-law and brother. Tuvye Kretzmar

In this letter I greet all good friends, especially the modest Mrs Taube Kretzmar, may she live well. I have no more time. From me, your friend, Meish Rubin.

To my dear, loving wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well and live in good fortune.

Dearest wife, I have safely received your letter of the 20th of April, number seven. I received it last night, it was Rosh Chodesh, but the letter was a reply to the previous letter, number six, so that you must know that I have received all your letters. I thank the Lord for His mercy, that He grants you good health, and you for your writing how you spend your time. Please also let me know how you stand financially, every time exactly, so that I know what I have for the next week. I hope to send out some money as the Lord will provide and as much as will be possible.

About that, that you write me that you have to go to Shavel[i]to see the doctor – it means that this comes before all else, and there are no excuses for that. So I will, with God’s help, send you money, and if you plan to travel there you must not postpone it. Leave everything in order at home and leave someone with the children as you can appreciate yourself. And you must go there and I will send money in due course, either in one or two installments, as I will be able to manage. Further, what can I write you, I have not got much time.

It is Erev Yomtov, a few days before Shavuot, and it is already time to daven and I cannot write, so a shorter letter will have to suffice, and if you will travel, write me every week because I also write every week and I never miss, like a frummer Yid lays tefillim, and my letters to you will be forwarded.

Please write me who is our son David’s rebbe, as he takes twenty roubles for a summer semester. It looks to me that this must be a lot of money in Russia, and that he is basing his fees because I am in Africa, and it is hard luck on Cape Town because she must suffer because of the Johannesburg fees. Please write me everything and I will reply to letter number seven in the next week. Be well and live well as your ever devoted husband wishes you, who is waiting impatiently for your good news, Tuvye Kretzmar

I greet cordially my dear parents, my brothers and sister and mother-in-law and sister-in-law, all be well, and have a good Yomtov, From me your son and brother-in-law, Tuvye Kretzmar

And my brother Wolf, and my sisters Hinda and Chana, I greet you and can tell you that TG I am well and may I hear the same from you, I wish you much good fortune and blessings in business, From me your son and brother, who is striving to see you in a happy way, Tuvye Kretzmar

I also greet warmly my dear mother-in-law, the chaste and modest Neche, and my worthy brother-in-law Moishe Schochet, and his wife who is my sister Sarah, and their children, may they all be blessed, and also my brother-in-law, Aaron Morris, please write as soon as possible because I am very keen to know about you. I greet also my sister-in-law Chana Reza and I will answer double for what you …

Notes:

[i] Shavel, now Šiauliai, is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, German soldiers entered on June 26, 1941, and soon established a ghetto. They later murdered the Jews in the nearby Kužiai forest, reducing the Jewish population from 8,000 to 5000.