(JEWISH GROUP) A photo of my bubbe when Jewish stores still had Yiddish signs

[Behind the Aegis]

My grandmother Gertrude (left) with her friend, Rose Courtesy of Jennifer A. Stern

Not long ago, I got curious about a box of old family photographs sitting on a shelf in my house. After flipping through a dozen or so pictures of aunts, uncles and cousins, I came across something remarkable: a photo of my paternal grandmother as a very young woman, standing with a friend in front of a store bearing a sign in Yiddish.

All four of my grandparents were born in the Pale of Settlement and were native Yiddish speakers. They emigrated to New York between 1913 and 1923. Throughout their childhood, my parents heard Yiddish constantly, both at home and in the streets of Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. But this photograph is the only physical link I’m aware of to our Yiddish-speaking past.

As a Yiddish student myself, I was enthralled, of course. I quickly realized that the photograph isn’t just fascinating for me and my family. It’s a piece of Jewish history. But I knew almost nothing about it. Where were the two girls standing? When was it taken? I could see that the Yiddish sign said: “M. Nimetz Y. Goldberg,” followed by the letters “mil” — but that didn’t tell me much. There’s nothing written on the back of the photo — no date or inscription.

I felt compelled to find out as much as I could. And thanks to help from friends, I can now tell much of the story behind the picture.

The best clue to the date was my grandmother’s age. According to the few family documents we have, Gertrude Goldfarb (later Stern) was born in Pruzhany, in today’s Belarus, in 1911. She and her friend, who we think was named Rose, look around 20 or 21 in the photo. So it probably dates from ca. 1931-32.

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