Interview with Solomon Elbaum, February 21, 1962, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

MARTEN: This is Bill Marten, staff member at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. I am making this tape on Wednesday, February 21, 1962 for the Wisconsin Jewish Archives, and I will be interviewing Mr. Solomon Elbaum at the Jewish Home for the Aged in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[Pause]

ELBAUM: Well, my dear sir, good.

MARTEN: First of all, could you tell me when you were born? Your age--would you tell me when you were born?

ELBAUM: Yes, 1879, 1879. I am now 83 years. I came to America, to the United States, 1913.

MARTEN: From what country?

ELBAUM: From Russia, Poland, yes. [inaudible] Russia, I left my wife and five children because I had notice to come into as a soldier in that time in 1913, 00:01:001913. The war started in 1914, but we were cold and I didn't want to fight for Russia. I went away and I left my wife and five children. My wife and my five children came 1921 to Milwaukee. 1921. Yes, my dear, my dear man, yeah. It is forty years, forty years yet, forty years. I was in the business already, because I went into the business. Five years I worked in a factory. I made pocket-books. Five years, and then 1918, when the war stopped, I bought out that bookstore on Walnut Street. In that time, the Jewish people resided there, you see, because Milwaukee--it's all over the United States, I guess, you know better than I do. I never went out from Milwaukee. I just went from Chicago. 00:02:00When my son was in Rush Medical School, and was in hospital there, and I came to visit him. Otherwise, I never went out from Milwaukee, because forty years I was in business. And in 1921, my wife came with five children and I was in the store already. I had a store on Walnut Street, yeah. That's the reason, when she came with five children, small children, small children they went, a nice school, public school, public, all public school, all the five children went to public school. And then they start in high school, and then doctor, my son, Mark Elbaum, and in Wisconsin University six years, and then Margaret in Marquette University, a Ph.D. from Marquette University, and my son, God bless him, he's a chemist, chemist. Makes good. My mother, [laughter] I'll tell you, my mother, 00:03:00when I was in the store every day came and the boys like you came in, "Well, how's your education?" "Oh yes, Mr. Elbaum, I guess in June, I am graduating high school," "Well you intend to do after? You know son, education sometimes doesn't pay what it takes to be educated." [laughter]

Well, of course it was a time when a tailor made more money than a doctor. You know in 1929, 1929, 1930, in the Depression, now it pays to be a doctor. It's a shortage of doctors in the United States, yes. God bless America, we have a 00:04:00hundred and eighty million people, a hundred and eighty million people grow up fast, and they didn't come so fast in education of doctors, MD's. You know it's a shortage, you know. It's a shortage of doctors, yeah. That's the reason I tell them, now they come in, now they are doctors, they're lawyers, they come in, "Elbaum, you remember you said? Ya, you was right; education sometimes doesn't pay." They were astonished I should say what it pays to be educated. [laughter] I am always laughing when I say it. You know, my idea was then you are a husky fella and you are not educated, you are called [inaudible]. [laughter] I always like to have jokes, ya. Well...

MARTEN: Who were some of the rabbis that came in?

ELBAUM: Huh?

MARTEN: Who were some of the rabbis who came into your store or whose personality you're familiar with?

ELBAUM: Rabbi Schoenfeld passed away. He came in every day to read a paper on Walnut Street, on Walnut Street, yes. Every day he used to read--we have a Chicago paper, the Courier at that time, forty years ago, he's about twenty years, I guess. And we had a lot of Jewish people [inaudible], yeah, but not now. That's the truth, I have here, a hundred and ten people I guess in the old home, and I tell you the truth, I am not criticizing them, but I can't find any Jew what I can talk with him about, about the Talmud, [inaudible] I don't 00:06:00[inaudible] them. You know one fella told me, "Elbaum, you don't [inaudible] them. You must be a Communist." [laughter] Yes, Rabbi Schoenfeld, well, the rabbis in the Reform, well, we had here, yes, we had here. Even now in the last few years developed in the small towns temples, temples, but they have rabbis. Racine, Kenosha, you see, Racine--it is not inhabited with a lot of Jewish people but it's still growing, growing, growing, growing. Madison--when I came into Madison, they had an Orthodox shul, I remember, yes, [inaudible] in shul, 00:07:00but now when I was in Madison--I have a brother-in-law in Madison, I don't know if he's, he must be in Florida now, rich fella--and I was in the [inaudible] Temple. Well the people--that's all right, that's very nice, you see. When the Jewish people are growing together and it's getting populated, you know they need a temple, to have a temple. I don't know if you have instructed to go to Madison or not, I don't know this, I don't know the answer. About Milwaukee, yeah, the main thing just what I told you, with me you can come in every day and talk [laughter]. But I can't bring you, I can't bring you any use from my talking. You come in and you want to know definition [laughter]. Oh my dear, I'm 00:08:00glad to see you, positively. You're an intelligent man what I can talk to you, but I haven't [inaudible].

MARTEN: What do you remember about...

ELBAUM: You wouldn't believe. When I came in here, [pause] when I signed my Social Security checks, I saw about twenty checks I guess, blue checks, from the President of the United States, Social Security. Then it was [inaudible] a bunch, oh about fifty or sixty checks, a different kind in color. I didn't touch them, but after awhile I found out there is about seventy or eighty checks, which the county pays for them. They didn't have any money to pay in to come in, 00:09:00and the government on the check from the social security--then you see a check from the social security, I never noticed this. No, I never noticed this, and treasurer of the United States and old age assistance. God bless America. What would those Jews, the aged Jews be in Europe? And the state would not have to go in and deal with them. They would be beggars; they would stay in the streets; but God bless America, that she is supporting those aged people. And they call it the welfare, the welfare. And you know that every member who is in the, in the county, when they get sick and the county takes them, yeah, they send an 00:10:00ambulance, it takes them and the county. And you know how much those people pay to the old home? $150 a month. You can imagine, what America is doing for those Jewish people. It's no different Jewish people that have old homes--Lutherans and Poles, and the others, you know how it is, but I'm just talking about the Jewish people and I didn't know. I paid in a lot of money, but I didn't know anything about this 'til I noticed the checks, and then I start to ask each one, $150 a month. America! This is America.

MARTEN: How is this changed?

ELBAUM: Huh?

MARTEN: How are--were the elderly people taken care of when you first came here?

ELBAUM: What?

MARTEN: There weren't any provisions for homes like this?

ELBAUM: No, no, no. Eighty people, maybe seventy people, seventy people, I don't know exactly, I don't know but I only know I saw a bunch of about twenty checks. America.

MARTEN: I mean back in the 1920's, when you first came to Milwaukee?

ELBAUM: I came here--well, I worked five years in a factory before I bought that bookstore. Yes, because every night I used to come in there to my friend in the bookstore, and we had discussions, all kinds of discussions. So I developed an idea that I should, after the five years--I worked five years here 'cause my 00:12:00wife wasn't here, my children wasn't here, you know. Yeah, then I bought the store, but when I came in here, I didn't know that those eighty people, I was so many years in America, and so many years in Milwaukee, and they didn't save up anything. Well they're so poor, so poor, you can imagine? So poor that the government, the welfare, got to take care of them. [pause] So they're here, they're here. What can you do--what can you expect from those people? Nothing. Common people, common people. God bless them all. I don't criticize them. I don't mix in with them. No, no.

MARTEN: Do you recall any other rabbis from an earlier period that had 00:13:00particular habits...

ELBAUM: Well, I'll tell you Rabbi, Rabbi Twelsky comes often here. Rabbi Shapiro used to come; he was teaching Talmud, here. But now they didn't have the shul at that time, they didn't build a shul, [inaudible] that's an Orthodox [inaudible]. Rabbi Shapiro, fine man. Yeah, Rabbi Shapiro. What-- the Reform rabbis--they sometimes--since I'm here three years, I saw him only once. They come only for, for one occasion, I suppose, all of them rabbis together, you know. That's all, but if I would see Rabbi Weinberg--oh yes, I saw him when I was sitting [inaudible], when my daughter passed away there in Fox Point, he came in. He was 00:14:00lovely. Yes, Rabbi Weinberg, fine man [inaudible]. One day there was another rabbi, they have a shul, Sinai, Sinai they call it, I guess [mumbling] [inaudible], going to have a shul, I think it's ready already [inaudible] in Fox Point. Because the mostly Jewish people--not the mostly--the intellectual, the intelligent people, they used to live on this side, on this side on Center. They now live in Fox Point.

MARTEN: That's the south side?

ELBAUM: Yeah, yeah, this is the west side. North side. Their temples is in the north side, in the north side, yeah, yeah. You see in each town, I guess you 00:15:00know, you see, the colored people are always moving in after the Jewish people. No, when they come in, the Jewish people got to move out. And it was a time when the Jewish people did make money [inaudible] in the war, in the second war they made money. Then they moved west and those, the youngsters, the lawyers, all the intelligents, doctors, you can all find in the east side in Fox Point. They're all in Fox Point. We are here. I used to be twenty-eight years on 50th Street, the same street where the old home is. Yeah, fifty, no, no, twenty-eight years, 00:16:00I moved from Walnut to Fiftieth and I remained on Fiftieth. My children have homes in Whitefish Bay. Yes, my dear man.

MARTEN: Were you active in any particular Jewish organizations?

ELBAUM: No, no, no. For fifty or sixty years I belonged to the Zionist organization, but from the first day since Israel proclaimed [inaudible], and I came in here and they had an organization with Rabbi Schoenfeld [inaudible] and then I belong a member, that's all. And I didn't have time in the forty years, when I was in the business--no, I didn't have time to go noplace. I didn't go out from the store. No, no, no, no I just took care of the store. I should have to pay tuition for my children. [laughter]

MARTEN: I'll bet you read every book that came through your store, too.

ELBAUM: I paid seven tuitions in Chicago and Rush Medical School for my son the Doctor, who passed away. Seven tuitions, a $125 a tuition. No, no, [pause] what can I do? What can I do? Look at me, a father of 83 years old, lost three children. I lost my wife. I don't mention my wife, a wife you can get, but children you can't get it any more. Three children. Now what can I do? Nothing can be done. The rest of the [inaudible], I don't know for how long I'll be able to be here. Three children. All were educated. Three children.

MARTEN: What do you remember about the growth of Milwaukee?

ELBAUM: Huh?

MARTEN: You were saying something a while ago about the growth of Milwaukee.

ELBAUM: Yeah.

[long pause]

ELBAUM: Yeah, well, I will tell you what that's the best place. You are not interested to see what I am talking to you. I am talking to you because I like you. You're a fine man, an intelligent man. I have a chance to talk to you. But I mean for the purpose, what the Historical Society wants to have it here in the books, because Milwaukee will be mentioned in fifty years from now, hundred years, you know? Later, later yeah, but the best thing what I have mentioned to 00:19:00you is Rabbi Twelsky, Rabbi Shapiro, Rabbi Weinberg, Rabbi [inaudible] andthe Beth'El Temple. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's an Orthodox Jew, an orthodox Jew, [inaudible]. If you can come in contact with [inaudible] he's a teacher from [inaudible], yeah, you will find it in a telephone. He writes sometimes in the Jewish New York paper about Milwaukee a little bit, a little bit. Just talk and write everything what interests a Jew. But it's a benefit for the association that you represent. What you talk to me [laughter] I told you my story.

MARTEN: Well, I've got that much information out of you and it's been helpful.