(Non music topic, but....) "Native" Yiddish Speaker

[Klezcorner <Klezcorner...>]

BRONX BOMBER  
by Zev Roth  
 
Unlike today's vista of decrepit buildings, dilapidated housing and rusting  
junked cars, the South Bronx in 1950 was the home of a large and thriving  
community, one that was predominantly Jewish.  Today a mere remnant of this  
once- vibrant community survives, but in the 1950's the Bronx offered  
synagogues, mikvas, kosher bakeries, and kosher butchers - all the comforts  
one would expect from an observant Orthodox Jewish community.  The baby boom  
of the post-war years happily resulted in many new young parents.   
 
As a matter of course, the South Bronx had its own baby equipment store. 
 
Sickser's was located on the corner of Westchester and Fox, and specialized  
in "everything for the baby," as its slogan ran.  The inventory began with  
cribs, baby carriages, laypens, high chairs, "changing tables", and toys.  It 
 
went way beyond these to everything a baby could want or need.  Mr.  Sickser, 
 
assisted by his son-in-law Lou Kirshner, ran a profitable business out of the 
 
needs of the rapidly-expanding child population.  The language of the store  
was primarily Yiddish, but Sickser's was a place where not only Jewish  
families but also many non-Jewish ones could acquire the necessary  
paraphernalia for their newly-arrived bundles of joy.   
 
Business was particularly busy one spring day, so much so that Mr. Sickser  
and his son-in-law could not handle the unexpected throng of customers.   
Desperate for help, Mr. Sickser ran out of the store and stopped the first  
youth he spotted on the street. 
 
"Young man," he panted, "how would you like to make a little extra money?  I  
need some help in the store.  You want to work a little?" The tall, lanky  
African-American boy flashed a toothy smile back.  "Yes, sir, I'd like some  
work." "Well then, let's get started." The boy followed his new employer into 
 
the store.  Mr. Sickser was immediately impressed with the boy's good manners 
 
and demeanor.   
 
As the days went by and he came again and again to lend his help, Mr. Sickser 
 
and Lou both became increasingly impressed with the youth's diligence,  
punctuality and readiness to learn.   
 
Eventually Mr. Sickser made him a regular employee at the store.  It was  
gratifying to find an employee with an almost soldier-like willingness to  
perform even the most menial of tasks, and to perform them well.  From the  
age of thirteen until his sophomore year in college, the young man put in  
from twelve to fifteen hours a week, at 50 to 75 cents an hour.  Mostly, he  
performed general labor: assembling merchandise, unloading trucks and  
preparing items for shipments.  He seemed, in his quiet way, to appreciate  
not only the steady employment but the friendly atmosphere Mr. Sickser's  
store offered.   
 
Mr. Sickser and Lou learned in time about their helper's Jamaican origins,  
and he in turn picked up a good deal of Yiddish.  In time young Colin was  
able to converse fairly well with his employers, and more importantly, with a 
 
number of the Jewish customers whose English was not fluent.  At the age of  
seventeen, the young man, while still working part-time at Sickser's, began  
his first semester at City College of New York.  He fit in just fine with  
his, for the most part Jewish, classmates -- hardly surprising, considering  
that he already knew their ways and their language.  But the heavy studying  
in the engineering and later geology courses he chose proved quite  
challenging.   
 
Colin would later recall that Sickser's offered the one stable point in his  
life those days.   
 
In 1993, in his position as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - two  
years after he guided the American victory over Iraq in the Gulf War -- Colin 
 
Powell visited the Holy Land.  Upon meeting Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak  
Shamir in Jerusalem, he greeted the Israeli with the words "Men kent reden  
Yiddish" (We can speak Yiddish).  As Shamir, stunned, tried to pull himself  
together, the current Secretry of State-designate continued chatting in his  
second-favorite language.  He had never forgotten his early days in the  
Bronx.   
 

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