By PRISCILLA W. SIEGEL, Staff Writer, The Jewish Voice
“Why me?” asked Isadore Silverman, sounding very puzzled when told that the Jewish Voice would like his story. ” I haven’t done anything so special.”
Mr. Silverman is a ” special” person to the Wilmington Jewish community, but beyond that hilt story is prototypic of the Eastern European Jewish immigrant experience in America. Born in 1909 in the Polish region of Galicia, Isadore’s early childhood years were bleak and sad. He has sharp memories of his shtetl near Yaroslav, where he, his father, mother, and two sisters, lived in a rickety, wooden, tinroofed house with a dirt floor. A stove, fueled by a few sticks of wood, stood between the two rooms of their “shtiebel” and provided little heat against the harsh Polish winters. Like heat, food was scarce and often consisted of stolen fruit and month-old bread from which the mold had to be rinsed. Isadore’s father had a small sewing business, and the clothing made in the shop was peddled in the village “yarid” (market). Though anti-Semitism was endemic in Poland, Mr. Silverman does not recall serious conflicts with the local population.
But they were always on guard. He went to a Polish school carrying sticks and rocks, “just in case… ” “I was a scrapper,” said Mr. Silverman proudly, “I wouldn’t take anything from anybody.” The Jewish children were consigned to the back two benches of the school room, and sometimes the teacher would vengefully cut the “pais” of Jewish pupils. After school, Isadore attended a Cheder with a malamed, who was also the shtetl sage, arbitrator, and lay doctor.
Tragedy hit the family when Isadore was about five years old. His father and six uncles died within a ten-day period from a cholera epidemic. Left with the responsibility of providing for the family, Isadore’s mother, with horse and wagon, peddled goods from village to village. By the time he was eight, Isadore was helping his mother in the business and remembers, during one of the peddling trips, fighting a gang of boys who, in an antisemitic attack, took a whip to his mother.
In 1918, tragedy struck again with the death of Isadore’s mother. The boy was nine, and the two sisters were younger. Uncles were contacted in New York and Wilmington, and under the auspices of HIAS the three orphans were sent to America. After a two-week transatlantic crossing, arrival in America was not reassuring. The Silverman children were detained for several weeks on Ellis Island because the youngest sister was found to have a scalp disease. “We spoke no English, of course, and we were treated worse than prisoners,” recalls Mr. Silverman. His young sister was sent back to Warsaw for treatment and Isadore and his other sister were taken by their uncles, the girl to New York and Isadore to Wilmington. Isadore was quickly integrated into the life and pace of America.
He entered Wilmington School #9, 8th and Monroe Streets, at the 3rd or 4th grade level, but as his English improved, his class placement was advanced. His Jewish life was centered at Adas Kodesch, where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 12. While life in America was an improvement over life in Poland, full time schooling was not economically possible.
When he was fourteen, Isadore had to leave school to help in his uncle’s produce business. But school and Jewish life were still priorities. From 5 a.m. to early evening he worked for his uncle, attended high school two nights a week, as well as Goldey Beacom two nights, and maintained an active participation in the Adas Kodesch Sunday School.
In 1923 he helped form a Yiddish speaking “Young Friends Club,” and also became an officer in the AZA (Junior Order of B’nai B’rith). Isadore Silverman’s energies seem to have been unlimited.
At eighteen, he became an acting scout master of Troop 28, a Jewish Boy Scout troop which met at the Jewish Community Center at 6th and French Streets. When he turned 21, he was eligible to become a full-fledged scout master, and for the next 18 years, 500-600 boys tied knots, learned first-aid and the Morse code, went on overnight hikes, and did good deeds under Isadore Silverman’s tutelage. Speaking with a father’s pride, Mr. Silverman said, “Three of my boy scouts are now Wilmington judges, and a week doesn’t go by that I don’t meet someone from Troop 28 and they tell me that they never had such a good time as in their scout days.”
Mr. Silverman lived with his uncle until 1934, when he married Sylvia, also an orphaned immigrant from Poland. In 1937, he opened his own wholesale fruit and vegetable business on E. 4th Street, a business which he successfully operated until 1972. He has nostalgic memories of old Wilmington and the bustling Second Street Jewish market district — life was simpler then, shops were family owned, and the Jewish community was closely knit. The World War II era was a somber and austere period. Produce was scarce and Mr. Silverman could have made a lot of money on the blackmarket, but he was unwilling to compromise his integrity. Like every other community, Wilmington saw its young men go off to war, and Mr. Silverman touchingly remarked, “eight boys from Troop 28 died in the war.”
Isadore and Sylvia Silverman have four daughters, born between 1935 and 1947. All four daughters were sent to college “because,” said Mr. Silverman, “I wanted them to accomplish the things I couldn’t.” His daughters are all married with children of their own and the Silvermans take great pleasure in the closeness of their family. Mr. Silverman believes that the family ties are especially meaningful to them because he and wife were both orphans.
Mr. Silverman has long retired from his business, but he has not retired from his involvement with Adas Kodesch and Jewish life. He faithfully attends the synagogue, is in charge of the Haftorah assignments, and designates the Aliyahs.
What are the most important aspects of Mr. Silverman’s life? It didn’t take him long to respond to that question: “My wife, my children, my grandchildren, my scouts, and my synagogue. And, oh yes, the wonderful experience of Passover each year, when all the family gathers together.”
Originally published in The Jewish Voice, April 29, 1988, p. 14.
The Immigrant
Honorable Charles B. Keil
This is the story of an Eastern European Jewish orphan’s immigrant experience in coming to the place where the streets “are paved with gold”. At least, Eastern European immigrants were told of the gold.
Born 101 years ago in Galicia, Poland, Isadore N. Silverman at age 11 came to America. He was the oldest of three siblings who came by two-week steerage in 1920 via the auspices of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. HIAS was founded in 1881 to assist Jewish migrants arriving at Ellis Island, and has touched the life of many Jewish families. The Silverman children lived on Ellis Island for several weeks as his youngest sister could not enter the United States because a skin disease. The officials were in a quandary. Send all three youngsters back to Europe or work out some arrangement so that Isadore and the other healthy child could stay. Fortunately there was a nurse going back to Europe and the sick girl had a guardian to accompany her. (Relax! Upon recovery, she returned to America one year later.)
When Isadore finally left Ellis Island, he came to Wilmington to the home of an aunt and uncle, Millie and Morris Eisenman, whom he had never met. Entering school, he quickly adapted to his new surroundings, studied this new language of English and went to Adas Kodesch. He was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah the following year, as it was the custom for orphans to become Bar Mitzvah at the age of 12. At age 14 he was obliged to quit school and work for his uncle in the fruit and produce business. Work notwithstanding, secular education and his Jewish heritage were his priorities. From 5 a.m., until early evening, it was work. After a while, for two nights a week he also managed to attend night high school. This was followed by courses at Goldey Beacom College.
There came a time when Mr. Silverman left his uncle’s employment and started his own wholesale fruit and produce business at 4th and French Streets. Some readers may remember him and his business.
In 1934, he married Sylvia Spring, who was also an orphan from Europe, living with her relatives, Morris and Gussie Tanzer, in Wilmington. The Silvermans had four daughters and were proud that all of them became successful university graduates, and also did important volunteer work in their respective communities.
Many remember his lifetime devotion to the Jewish community. Isadore Silverman served as a volunteer for the Jewish Federation of Delaware, and at Adas Kodesch, where he served as treasurer, vice-president and chairman of every committee including chairman of the ritual committee, the religious school, and of the youth group committee. During the year that he headed the membership committee, sixty-nine new members joined the congregation. He held the position of Gabbai at Adas Kodesch for more than forty years.
In 1978, he received the Yeshiva University Award for his many years of service to the community and the Jewish people.
Mr. Silverman was also a charter member of the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware and a longtime treasurer of the organization.
But mostly when people think of Isadore Silverman, they think of his devotion to youth. He served as a scoutmaster for 18 years and then as district commissioner and as chairman of the religious committee on scouting tor this City. In all, he worked with more than 600 boy scouts. He considered them “his boys” and was deeply saddened when several of them lost their lives in WW II. Mr. Silverman received the Shofar Award from the National Jewish Committee on Scouting and the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America. The latter, given in 1989, is the highest award given to a volunteer for exceptional service to the Boy Scouts.
Also in 1989, a fund was established at Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth (the Silverman Fund) to provide an annual scholarship to provide assistance for a student to attend summer camp in the U.S. or in Israel
Such is the story of an orphan Immigrant who came to the “Golden Land”, and built a legacy for his offspring, and theirs.
Originally published in JHSD Newsletter, Winter, 2011, p. 2.