Howard's Youth: Growing Up Marshak
1915
The town of Lubavitch (Town of Love) was destroyed and the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe fled to the interior of Russia.
May
7 Sinking of the Lusitania
October
10 Howard Marshak is born.
November
1 Joseph and Jennie’s seventh anniversary
1916
December
24 Thomas Mistowsky marries Mary Port in Providence, Rhode Island.
1917
April
6 United States declares war on Germany.
October
7 Howard Marshak's second birthday.
November
7 Bolshevik socialists, led by Lenin, overthrow Kerensky's government.
December
3 The new Russian government, represented by Leon Trotsky, signs an armistice with Germany.
9 British capture Jerusalem from the Turks and her Arab allies.
1918
July
10 the Bolshevik government in Russia passed a law that abolished all discrimination between Jews and non-Jews.
October
In October 1918, Hitler was blinded in a British chlorine gas attack. He was sent to a military hospital and gradually recovered his sight. While he was in hospital Germany surrendered. Hitler went into a state of deep depression, and had periods when he could not stop crying. He spent most of his time turned towards the hospital wall refusing to talk to anyone.
7 Howard's third birthday
November
11 Armistice Day
1919
In 1919 the Arabs united to try to throw the French out of the Middle East and forcibly take Palestine. They began with the four unprotected settlements, claiming that they contained French soldiers.
May
It was not until May, 1919 that the German Army entered Munich and overthrew the Bavarian Socialist Republic. Hitler was arrested with other soldiers in Munich and was accused of being a socialist. Hundreds of socialists were executed without trial but Hitler was able to convince them that he had been an opponent of the regime. To prove this he volunteered to help to identify soldiers who had supported the Socialist Republic. The authorities agreed to this proposal and Hitler was transferred to the commission investigating the revolution.
June
28 Treaty of Versailles signed
At Versailles the German government had been forced to sign a peace treaty that gave away 13% of her territory. This meant the loss of 6 million people, a large percentage of her raw materials (65% of iron ore reserves, 45% of her coal, 72% of her zinc) and 10% of her factories. Germany also lost all her overseas colonies.
Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty Germany also had to pay for damage caused by the war. These reparations amounted to 38% of her national wealth.
August
Jewish communities were dissolved and properties confiscated in the Soviet Union. Traditional institutions of Jewish education and culture, such as yeshivot and cheder, were shut down. Hebrew study was prohibited and it became forbidden to print Jewish books.
October
7 Howard's fourth birthday
1920
Joseph Marshak told the U.S. Census in Beverly, Mass. that his wife's parents and his parents were born in Russia.
Jacob L. Marshak told the U.S. Census in Providence that he, his wife Minnie, and their parents were born in Russia. He was born in Russia in 1854 and moved to America in 1871. Minnie was born in 1857 and moved to America in 1878.
Jacob Mistowsky told the U.S. Census in Providence that he and his parents were born in Lithuania. He said he was born in 1860 and moved to America in 1875. His wife Deena told the census she was born in Lithuania in 1860 and moved to America in 1872.
February
In February the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) published its first programme which became known as the "25 Points". In the programme the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty and called for the reunification of all German people. To reinforce their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens. "Foreigners" and "aliens" would be denied these rights.
24 The NSDAP (later nicknamed the Nazi Party) held a mass rally where it announced its new programme. The rally was attended by over 2,000 people, a great improvement on the 25 people who were at Hitler's first party meeting.
March
1 The Arabs united to try to throw the French out of the Middle East and forcibly take Palestine. They attacked the settlement of Tel Chai. The Jewish defenders repulsed the charge. The Arabs attacked again and, on March 1, 1920, took the settlement, killing eight of the settlers. One of the casualties was Josef Trumpeldor, the founder of the Zion Mule Corps. The anniversary of his death is celebrated as Yom Tel Chai.
April
Traditional Arabs made their yearly pilgrimage to Nebi Mussa, the Muslim site of Moses' burial. There the Mufti, the Muslim religious leader of Jerusalem, urged them to slaughter the Jews. With cries of "Kill the Jews," Arab mobs went on a rampage through Jerusalem for three days, killing and raping. The British authorities did nothing.
Zeev Jabotinsky organized veterans of the Jewish Legion and HaShomer to fight back. The British arrested the Jewish defenders for illegally carrying weapons. Jabotinsky proudly admitted that he was responsible for the defense, calling the group the Haganah, the Defense. He was sentenced to fifteen years' hard labor, but his sentence was commuted. He was expelled from the country and never returned.
October
7 Howard's fifth birthday
1921
From 1921 onwards, Jabotinsky was a member of the Zionist Executive and one of the founders of "Keren Hayesod". After a series of policy disagreement on the direction of the Zionist Movement, he seceded.
1922
Sonata for Piano no 1, Op. 3 by Alexander M. Veprik
1923
Songs of the Dead, Op. 4 by Alexander M. Veprik
The youth movement Betar (Brith Joseph Trumpeldor) was created. The new youth movement aimed at educating its members with a military and nationalistic spirit and Jabotinsky stood at its head.
The known limits of flight were expanded regularly in the skies over Long Island. In 1923 the first non-stop flight across America was made from Long Island to California. New speed records were also set at the National Air Races held at long Island's Mitchel Field in 1920 and 1925. During this period major aviation manufacturers were established on Long Island including Curtiss and Sikorsky in Garden City, Sperry and Fairchild in Farmingdale, and Brunner-Winkle in Queens. Thus hundreds of new civil, commercial and military aircraft were built in the 1920s and 1930s.
Menachem Mendel met Rabbi Yosef Yitzchock Schneerson - then the Lubavitcher Rebbe- who drew him into his inner circle giving him various responsibilities.
January
The French Army occupies the Ruhr.
October
7 Howard's eighth birthday
1925
Jabotinsky established the Union of Zionists-Revisionists (Hatzohar) which called for the immediate establishment of a Jewish State.
1926
Rhapsodie for Viola and Piano, Op. 11 by Alexander M. Veprik
Jews made up 4.4% of the officers in the Red Army (more than twice their ratio in the general population). Jewish elites also took part in the administrative rebuilding of the country. While a small but influential group of Jews helped rebuild Russia, the Socialist Economic Policies weakened the masses.
After World War I, as a real estate boom spread east from New York City, the community east of the railroad tracks formed the incorporated village of East Williston in 1926. Those on the west side followed suit a few months later, forming the village of Williston Park.
1927
Dance for Piano, Op. 13a by Alexander M. Veprik
Folk Dances (3) for piano Op. 13b by Alexander Weprik
By far the most famous event to have occurred on Long Island at this time was Charles Lindbergh's historical flight from Roosevelt Field to Paris in 1927. This single event revolutionized aviation as nothing else before or since. Lindbergh's flight was followed by many more successful transatlantic flights to and from Long Island. In 1929 the first "blind" flight was also made on Long Island when Jimmy Doolittle took off, flew and landed a plane solely on newly developed instruments at Mitchel Field. By the early 1930s Roosevelt Field was the largest and busiest civilian airfield in America with over 150 aviation businesses and 450 planes based there.
Rabbi J. Schneerson, the leader of Habad Hasidism, was imprisoned and expelled from Russia.
1928
It was forbidden to print Jewish religious books and Jewish calendars in the Soviet Union.
December
In Warsaw, Menachem Mendel Schneerson married the Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn's second eldest daughter, Chaya Mushka. A short while later, the couple moved to Berlin, where Rabbi Menachem Mendel had already begun studying mathematics and science at the University of Berlin.
Hundreds of miles away, another wedding celebration was being held that night. In the city of Yekatrinoslav, Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s parents, harassed by the Soviet authorities for their efforts on behalf of Judaism, were denied permission to travel to Warsaw.
During the years 1928-1929, Jabotinsky resided in Palestine and edited the Hebrew daily "Doar Hayom" while at the same time undertaking increased political activity.
In the Soviet Union, a Yiddish press and Yiddish newspapers were established, though the writing of Yiddish was phoneticized into Russian script so as to cut its ties with Hebrew print. Russians granted Yiddish official status in that tribunals were held in Yiddish and significant resources were invested in the development of Yiddish school systems. After awhile, however, Jewish parents rebelled against these schools whose only connections to Jewish culture was a few lines of Yiddish literature and which taught anti-religious sentiment. As the quality of the schools declined (weak to begin with), they began to disappear.
The disappearance of Yiddish was replaced by cultural assimilation. Jewish children spoke Russian and attended Russian schools. Mixed marriage became common. Jews began to play an important role in Russian cultural life.
© 2004 H. David Marshak, All Rights Reserved
