The Family (38 page)

Shimon Dov, a Torah scribe in the yeshiva town of Volozhin in the second half of the nineteenth century, who was the son, father, and grandfather of scribes.

Beyle, Shimon Dov's wife and the mother of his six children, who supported the family on the proceeds of her small grocery store.

A contemporary view of the Volozhin yeshiva, Europe's most esteemed and influential center of Torah study for much of the nineteenth century.

A composite portrait, assembled from three different photos, of Abraham Cohen and family. From left to right: Lillie, Abraham, Sarah, Anna; Hyman (inserted from a different photo) at the center; then Sam (in bow tie), Harry (seated), Ethel, William (seated with his son, Lewis, on his lap), and Itel.

Hyman, the youngest of Abraham and Sarah's three sons, at the time of his bar mitzvah in Rakov in 1905.

Brothers Harry (seated) and Hyman, who apprenticed together in 1906 at a clock-making shop in Smargon, Russia.

Though the boys ran the business, Abraham kept the boys from killing one another. His portrait was always prominently displayed in the showroom.

From left to right: brothers Sam, Harry, and Hyman outside the original A. Cohen & Sons office at 126 East Broadway on New York City's Lower East Side.

Chaim, the first of Shimon Dov's descendants to make aliyah, just prior to departing Volozhin for Palestine in 1924 at the age of eighteen.

Hyman, who was drafted to fight in the Great War at age twenty-five and saw heavy action with the First Infantry Division of the U.S. Army at Cantigny and Soissons during the spring and summer of 1918.

Abraham and Sarah's fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration, December 31, 1931, Burnside Manor, the Bronx.

Itel and William vacationing in Miami Beach with their daughter, Beatrice, in the late 1920s.

A 1932 studio portrait of Beyle and Shalom Tvi seated in front of their daughters Sonia (at right) and Etl (at left), their son-in-law Shepseleh, and their firstborn grandson, Shimonkeh.