Barker Family

Ah, you still live still in the area!   Now I understand why you wouldn't want to mention anything bad about anyone :)  That is what has made me hesitant about writing my book about my relatives.   I've discovered some dubious history of some of my Barker lines, which the present descendants aren't aware of.   It's sad to see, because Jacob's father was killed in Lithuania in 1876, and that's the reason why Jacob and his siblings ended up in America.  When their father intervened in a fight between Jacob and a non-Jew, he was hit on the head and died.  Some of his children, didn't exactly live honorable lives.   Especially in hindsight, given what would have happened to their descendants, if they had stayed in Europe.    Maybe life for Russian Jews was not exactly easy in America, though.   Especially for a simple peddler.    I'm trying to understand the mindset of a peddler, to understand the actions of some of Jacob's brothers, when they managed to obtain some wealth.

Moses Barker started out as boxer,  as I'm sure you have read about.  For a while, he and his brother ran a fish store.    I found an article from 1924, which said that game wardens had entered the store, and cited them for selling fish out of season, and tried to confiscate their whole stock.   A fight broke out the brothers and the wardens.   I interviewed a 93 year old relative in 2013, who unfortunately has since passed away.  He remembered the incident, and it was the talk of the neighborhood, especially because the brothers got the better of the fight.  What the officials were really after, was that the brothers were running a numbers game in the back of the store.   My relative remembers that they used to pull him in to draw numbers for them.   I'm guessing it was some sort of lottery game?   The police were actually trying to shut down the store because of this, so came up with some trumped up charge.    What happened afterwards, though, I don't know!

When prohibition arrived, Moses because a muscle man for the bootleggers.  He ended up being present, when the head of the mob, located and assaulted a competitor bootlegger, with a gun.  After prohibition, the courts dismissed all the minor offenses that still existed for the bootleggers.  But they wanted to put the head of the mob away in prison.  They tried to get the competitor bootlegger to testify.  But he left Trenton, without a trace.  So then they tried to get Moses to testify.  He also left, for North Carolina.   And then a curious thing  happened.  Moses had a brother-in-law who died young, leaving 6 sons to fend for themselves.  Some of them ended up in North Carolina, with Moses.  According to my relative, Moses helped them out, with some of the money that he had made during prohibition.  Some of these nephews, would eventually build up a a very successful chain of successful furniture stores.  Their descendants became big Jewish donors in their area.  So in away, Moses did change his life around.   He eventually did return to New Jersey, and start a family.  I have to go research them, to see what became of them!

Btw, here's a great story about Jacob's 2nd wife Yetta, in the Trenton Times.   She ran a pottery store, and got into a "cat fight", with a woman who was a competitor.   I don't know whether I can believe the details of story in the newspaper, but they literally were beating each other up, pulling hair and ripping clothes. The fight was settled, when Yetta threw a pot at the woman, knocking her out. :) - Mark

Mark London mrl@psfc.mit.edu

Dear Mr. Finkle -  I just received a copy of your newly published book

on Trenton's Jews, a book that was long needed.   If you do a 2nd

printing, can you correct a mistake on one of my Barker relatives that

lived there?   On the page that mentions first Russian Jews that moved

there, you state that "Jacob Barker" and his wife and 7 children, moved

there in 1881.   It was actually Jacob's MOTHER that moved there, and

she was the one that had 7 children. And she was a widow.

When Jacob's father was killed in 1876 in Lithuania, Jacob's mother "Czerne", sent Jacob to America, in 1878.  Two other brothers came later, and then in 1882, Their  mother and 3 younger siblings, arrived in 1882 (my great grandmother stayed behind, for another 20 years).

The first mention of Jacob in America, occurs in the 1885 Trenton

city directory.   A relative of mine, who has been an expert genealogy

for many decades, has tried to find mention of Jacob, in the records of

the New Jersey Archives in Trenton, but has found none.   I've also

tried myself.  That is why you mentioning Jacob being in Trenton in 1881, is a somewhat magnified mistake. However, I'm glad you mentioned one of my Barker relatives to begin with!

I was struck by the synchronicity that you mention that there 2 Turkish

bath houses.   Because I was just researching the one that James Barker

helped to build.  In fact, I only found evidence that his was the only

one in the Jewish section.   He built his on 105-107 Union St., with

Hyman Movsovich.   According to the August 1900 Trenton Times, they

started building it in place of a "bath house" that was in the back of the "Union St Synagogue".  The synagogue had been torn down, to be replaced by a new synagogue. I've often wondered if the "bath house" was really a mikvah, considering that it was in the back of a synagogue.

In any event, the Turkish bath house was completed in May 1901. But after constant advertisements for it, they soon disappeared. James Barker and Hyman Movsovich would soon go to other businesses. In other words, that don't appear to have been a success.

There was a Turkish bath house that was built on 132 N. Warren St, in

late 1906, by non-Jewish businessmen.   But in order for them to stay in

business, they ending up creating rooms for rent.

Mark London

Natick, MA

The Butchers of Trenton

As I’ve talked to people about their memories of “Jewtown”, I keep hearing about the different kinds of stores that lined Market, Broad, Union, and Lamberton Streets.  There were bakeries, grocery stores, barber shops and kosher meat markets.  Looking at the tax photos of the south section of Trenton, one thing that strikes you is that there were similar stores in proximity to each other that you would never see today, except maybe a Walgreen’s across the street from a CVS.     On Market Street, you can see Kohn’s and Kunis’ Bakeries were literally right next door to each other.They each specialized in different kinds of baked products and co-existed successfully for years.

Kohn's and Kunis's bakeries were located next to each other on Market Street.  This picture was taken for the Trenton tax records in 1958.  For more photos of the area, click here.

But, maybe no trade was as overly-represented in the ward as the Kosher Meat Market.   Edith Gordon (Hayfetz) Gordon told me back in April, 2011, that there were at least 7 butcher shops in that area and a few weeks later, the descendants of the owners of one of the other meat markets reached out to me.  Barry Weiner, who lives in Livingston and whose father was a partner in Katzoff and Weiner’s Meat Market which was located at 22 South Union Street, also contacted me.

Eremyi Hayfetz in front of Hayfetz Meat Market from Edith Hayfetz Gordon

And then, a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Myron Hafetz, whose grandfather, “David Hafetz passed on his store to his son(s) Joseph and Frank Hafetz who were my father and uncle. Joe left the business in the 1940's to go into the scrap metal business.  Frank continued and as any of their many customers will tell you, Frank was really an artisan. His wife Nettie continued with the store when Frank died prematurely in 1956 or 57. Their stores were in the Market and Union Street areas.”

He went on to say that “Julius and George Hafitz (sic) (and Edie) are the nephews (and niece) of David and their father opened a competing store in the 30's and you can guess how that went down.   In fact, when I interviewed Edie in April, she told me how it came to be that the Hayfetz’s wound up two doors down from the Hafetz’s.  

Eremyi Hayfetz came to the United States from Russia in the 1920’s.   He and his wife arrived in Trenton with their young son, Julius.  “When my Dad came to this country, he didn’t want to work on the Sabbath and he didn’t know what to do." Edie recounted.   “And so he decided to open up the butcher store, and this place was available.   Unfortunately it was two door’s away from my Uncle’s butcher store. And they eventually became in competition with one another.”  

The days were long for a kosher butcher in Trenton in the 1930’s and 40’s.  Edith recalls her father waking up early in the morning.  “My dad used to open the store around five or six o'clock and then he would go to Kohn's bakery, after he got the orders made up and ready to be delivered, he would go to Kohn's bakery and buy hot fresh rolls and bring them home and we would them for breakfast.”  One of her father’s employees was a black man named Eddie.  He worked at Hafitz’s for years and “learned to speak Yiddish, and people would come into the store and he would talk to them in Yiddish as though he were one of us.”  In fact, Herm Finkle, who lived in the area remembers, “he spoke better Yiddish than some of us Jews did. I can still see him walking toward the slaughterhouse, chickens in each hand, flapping away, walking down the alley to the slaughterhouse.”

I asked Edie how the City of Trenton and specifically the Broad and Market area could support 7 kosher butcher shops and she said, “while they were all I think Europeans coming to this country and they kept kosher. And most of our customers were in the western section, Bellevue Ave., West State, all these small streets off of West State we had customers, Gen. Greene Avenue, I remember.”

Shopping in those days was much different than it is today.  There were no supermarkets and without the benefit of freezers, you’d buy only what you could keep.  For those who lived in different sections of the city, a trip to downtown Trenton was a special outing.  Shoppers would go from store to store, selecting their deli, fresh produce, eggs, and meat.  A shopping trip took a lot longer than it does today and in some ways, that was a good thing.   “It wasn't like you went into our store and picked up a steak,” says Edie.   “You had to wait until Dad brought the side of beef out and cut the steak and trimmed it, and you waited.  It all took time and that's when you began talking to everybody. It was a whole different lifestyle than what we have today, and what an interesting thing, that it all worked.”And sometimes, you had to go to extraordinary measures to keep your purchases fresh.  

Edie remembers the time when her boyfriend/soon-to-be-husband, Arnie, came to her house for Rosh Hashanah.  He got the surprise of his life when he went upstairs to use the bathroom.  “All of a sudden he hears this swish, swish, and he couldn't imagine what this was.”   Arnie picks up the story, laughing.  “Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine what was happening.   After I finished my business I got up, and lo and behold there were two huge fish, swimming in that bathtub. And I never heard of such a thing.”  They weren’t pets, they were the next night’s gefilte fish.  According to Edie, her Mom “didn't want to buy them at the last minute because the fish that came in first were fresher and better.”  

Julius Hayfetz

When she was old enough, Edie would make deliveries for her father, but while she could work for him, there was a hard and fast rule.  She couldn’t take a job working for anyone else. 

“I wanted to work when I was like 15 or 16 years old.  I wanted to get a job at Dunham’s for Mother's Day or Father's Day.   He wouldn't let me.  Why?  Because that would show people that it looked like he wasn’t able to support me, that I had gotten the money for myself. So he never allowed me to work,” Edie said.   “I could deliver orders, I could do all that kind of stuff, but I wasn't able to go out and get a job until after college when I graduated.”

Education was important to the first-generation merchants who lived and worked in “Jewtown”.  Edie Hayfetz went to Temple University.  “I would say 98% of the children of the kosher butcher stores became professionals. There were dentists, the Palat's, Dr. Palat was a dentist.  I had two brothers George and Julius and they both became physicians, our cousins, the Hafetz’s, at the butcher store a couple doors from ours, Morris was a doctor as well.”  Their parents worked hard and it paid off.  They also wanted to make sure that their children had more opportunities than they did and saw schooling as their way out of the neighborhood.  Their dedication to the education of the next generation may have been the biggest contributing factor to the demise of “Jewtown”. 

Trenton Trivia- In his e-mail to me, Myron Hafetz mentions that not only were his father and uncle responsible for their business, but “Frank and Joe are responsible for bringing Irv Weinstein to rent one their properties and Frank moved across the street. Debbie (Hafetz) Babashack can give you more details about the store when her mother ran it.”

http://trentonjewishproject.blogspot.com/2011_09_18_archive.html

History of the Kunis-Ettmgers

When Manus Met Minnie

A Short (partially linear) History of the Kunis-Ettmgers From Interviews with Edith Krimstock (edited and writtenby Roger Krinastock)

The "Climate" in Russia (Ukraine) for Jewish families

In the late 18th century and early 1900s, conditions in Russia

(Ukraine) became increasingly difficult for Jews (and probably

others). Too often it was life threatening. Jewish people were

limited in property ownership and how many children each

family could send to school. Many Jews left Russia (Ukraine) in

a hurry, and were eager to salvage what they could from their

possessions, including their businesses.

Many of the Kunis and Ettinger family members left Russia

(Ukraine) in the early 1900s, mostly for the United States. The

others stayed in Russia for various reasons; we don't know

much about the ones that stayed after World War I, because of

the isolation imposed by Soviet rule, and the fact that their

female relatives acquired different last names (unknown to

family in the United States) when they married. Immigration to

the United States could be tricky, e.g., if you had a US sponsor

with the same last name then you could directly immigrate to the

United States. Not so easy otherwise (especially if the country

of emigration met US immigration quotas).

Generally, when people emigrated from Russia, they went to

cities where they had relatives.

Manus Kunis: Background

Manus Kunis was born in Polona around 1886 to Israel and

Miriam Kunis. He had five older sisters (can name only 3),

including Bertha (aka Bosse), Elizabeth (aka Laka), and Furme

(not much is lcnown about her since she stayed in Russia), and

four brothers, including Samuel. Manus was the oldest of the

boys. He worked in the seasonal family business (??). It was a

hard life, since staples, including food, were hard to come by

"out of season". Manus contracted rheumatic fever as a young

child, so he was "treated a little more gently" than his siblings.

Later on, he proved quite capable of doing all the "normal"

activities (he spoke to me of a job that required carrying "100

pound sacks" on his back!).

As a teenager, —1903, Manus left Polona for Odessa, to find

work (delivered bread for a bakery). Around the same time,

Laka and Bosse left Russia to join their boyfriends in England,

planning to eventually go to the United States. Sometime

afterwards, Samuel (Shochna) left to join his sisters in the

United States. Samuel never became a US citizen. He married a

Trenton born woman (US citizen?), but during the war she was

considered an alien.

Manus was drafted into the Russian army around 1906, when he

was —21, for about 3 years. When he returned, he went to

Polona (where his parents were), a shiddich (marriage match)

was made for him and an "older" woman with a dowry (Mom

says she was in her late 20s).

Manus found out about someone in Romanov with a leather

tanning business (leather treatment, glue making, etc., with

"special chemicals") who was leaving the country. He managed

to get enough money to buy the business at a "cheap price",

sometime in 1913. He moved the family to Romanov. Manus

became very successful in the leather tanning business. He

provided jobs to a number of family members, jobs that included

delivery of leather goods. To drum up business outside the local

community, he developed mail order advertising, sending

postcards, and if the recipient was interested they would place

an order. He also personally traveled from Romanov to other

communities, going into various types of stores (e.g., furniture

stores would buy glue) and pushing his wares. On a side note,

Manus stayed in Russia, while many others had fled, because of

the success of the business.

Abraham Mendel (Uncle Abe) was born in 1914. Then, during

childbirth (a second pregnancy), Manus lost both his wife and

child.

Minnie Ettinger: Background

her hands in the water (she developed a skin condition). And,

just like that, the fish market became a vegetable and fruit

market.

Manus and Minnie rented a house on Lamberton Street, and

purchased a property on Market Street for the vegetable and fruit

market. They leased out the smaller part of the building to

people from Philadelphia who ran a "cheese, egg and butter

store". When the lease expired, Manus integrated the cheese,

egg and butter business into his vegetable and fruit market to

become a "full store in the Jewish shopping area". That's when

Kohn's Bakery refused to sell bread to Samuel Kunis, who was

retailing the bread to his own customers. So, Manus decided to

build -a bakery (in the-smaller part) to "help Samuel make a

living". When that didn't work out, Manus rented out the

bakery to the Lubitz family. Eventually, after about 10 years, the

Lubitz family sold the bakery business and signed over the lease

to the Mars family (Jack). When Jack went into the army, his

mother and father couldn't keep it going. So, Manus paid them

for the bakery business, thereby owning the property and the

business as well. It wasn't long before Manus closed the

grocery store (competition from "supermarkets"), and turned the

larger part of the property into Kunis Bakery (on Market Street).

When Uncle Mannie returned from the service, he ran the

bakery. However, after Bob was born, Mannie, Irene and Bob

moved back to Portland.

Edie went to Temple University, and was able to live in a

dormitory while Uncle Mannie was running the bakery. Edie

married Sam Krimstock just after graduating from college

("within a couple of days"). After their honeymoon, Edie and

Sam planned to go to Portland, where Sam had a job offer from

a "display" company to set up a West Coast branch. Manus

wanted Edie to remain in Trenton, so he offered Sam the bakery

after Manus retired if he stayed in Trenton to run the bakery.

They had actually sent some of their belongings to Uncle

Mannie's apartment in Portland, but plans had now changed.

Edie and Sam were in the bakery business for 7 years. They and the Krimstocks (Sam, Edie, Roger and Steve) went

to Portland to explore business opportunities, and, as it turned

out, carried the measles virus to new opportunities on the west

coast!

Afterword

In the 1950s and 1960s, Manus and Minnie lived in an

apartment in the Edie and Sam Krimstock Levittown house (10

miles from Trenton), spending winters in Miami Beach. Edie's

children especially benefited from and enjoyed the opportunity

to live with their grandparents. Manus would sit in his "great

easy chair", with grandchildren sitting at his feet, and tell stories

and answer questions about the "old days". Minnie tried to

teach them^-Yiddush, Russian, aTid aTitlimetic^-tricks. ‑

Family and friends from Trenton would come to Levittown to

visit Manus and Minnie. Meyer Rednor, an old friend from

Trenton, came to visit many times over the years. He always

came bearing gifts, which for me was fresh halvah.

On one of the Napoleonic campaigns of the French army into

Russia, a soldier (last name was Manzon), who either lost heart

or "got smart", deserted somewhere in the Ukraine. There, after

a fashion, he met and married a Jewish girl. He had been French

Catholic but converted to Judaism. He was the ancestor of

Label Manzon.

Joseph Ettinger was a young, orphaned boy when the (Label)

Manzons took him into their family. He had been with other

families, but the Manzons gave him a more permanent home

(when he was 16 or 17), "seeing in him a suitor for their eldest

daughter", Etta Lochel, who was 15. Eventually, Joseph and

Etta married and had at least 12 children, including Minnie.

The Ettingers lived in the town of Berdijef, a "Jewish town", in

the state of Kiev. Berdijef was a relative hub for business, larger

than either Polona (Kunis family) or Romanov (Manus Kunis

family), with more business and purchasing opportunities.

Minnie Ettinger was born around 1896 to Joseph and Etta

Lochel Ettinger. Minnie had at least 11 siblings: Hoschel, Israel,

Feige, Sam, Srulick, Anna, Sarah, Rachel, Nathan, Moishe, and

Lily.

Although the area was "very, very poor", Minnie's grandparents,

Label and Miriam Manzon were very wealthy, very charitable to

the poor.

Only one child from a (Jewish) family could go to "public"

school. "Traveling tutors" could be employed to teach the other

children. Minnie was the child in her family who went to

gymnasium (the public high school).

Minnie worked in the family store. Since she was "good at

sales", she was the one who met the customers.

Manus Meets Minnie

Manus met Minnie during a trip to Berdijef (it may have been

for business, to buy things not available in Romanov, or both).

In one of the stores he visited, he saw Minnie. He

"immediately admired her", came back a number of times,

spoke to her parents, and a shiddich was made. Manus married

Minnie around 1916. Manus (and Minnie) continued the leather

tanning business in Romanov, and in 1918 Manuel (Uncle

Mannie!) was born.

When Uncle Mannie was just about to be born, or shortly

afterwards, Minnie's grandmother, Miriam Manzon, died.

Minnie was not able to go to the funeral, so Manus traveled to

Berdijef, to sit shivah in Label Manzon's house. Miriam

Manzon was in a casket in the living room.. Suddenly,

Bolsheviks stormed into the house. Label pushed Manus into a

closet, to hide him, a move that saved his life. Label was killed.

The situation in the area became extremely dangerous for Jews (

Russian Revolution). Sometime in 1919, Manus went into a

nearby city to get some things, including the infamous "Persian

coat" for Minnie. In the city, Bolsheviks on horseback forced

Jews (and others) into a courtyard in a random purge. Manus

got caught up in this, finding himself in the courtyard. He

decided, "If they're going to kill me, let them shoot me in the

back!" So, he ran from the courtyard, into an alley, where a

caring woman took him into her house, and he was saved. That

was enough. When he got home, he said to Minnie, "we're

leaving!" He must have tried to convince his parents and

brothers and sister to leave with him, but they "didn't want to

leave their Jewish town".

Manus gathered what he could for the journey, including a

"feather bed and blankets", but couldn't find the gold he hid in

the back yard (there wasn't time He told me many years later

that there were 900,000 rubles buried there. Interestingly, a

number evenly divisible by the number of his grandchildren!).

He gave all of his furniture to a "gentile", who took them across

the border to Poland. Manus and the family went to Warsaw,

where many Jews were waiting to go the United States. This

included most of the Ettinger family. Manus and the family

stayed in Poland for 11 months, waiting for the opportunity to

go the United States. At that time, if you had relatives who were

US citizens with your last name, then you could quickly

immigrate. Two of the Ettinger brothers were US citizens, so

the Ettingers could immigrate, but not the Kunises. A Jewish

organization told Manus his best bet was to go to Argentina,

since the Argentinian quota to immigrate to the US was never

filled - it would be easier to immigrate to the US from there.

Manus and the family stopped in Paris to see relatives (all the

Manzon children, except Etta and Joseph, had immigrated to

Paris). Then, they took a ship to Buenos Aires. In Argentina,

Manus tried to build a leather tanning business, as he had in

Russia. He struggled to find the right chemicals to tan and

process the leather. Apparently, the climate in Argentina

required different leather processing chemicals. After they were

in Argentina for about 2 years, Sam Kaplan and Bosse sent

money and sponsored them to come to the US on the Argentina

quota.

Little about Manus and Minnie's Relatives in the US

Samuel and Bosse Kaplan went to New York to be with

Samuel's relatives.

Tool and Laka Lisook went to Boston to be with Tool's relatives.

Tool Lisook was interested in the pottery trade, but found that it

"wasn't happening in Boston". He contacted people from the

Russian home town who told him that. Trenton had a stronger

pottery industry. He and Laka went to Trenton, looked for work

in the pottery factories, but found they weren't hiring Jews. So,

Tool Lisook went into business on his own, including a gas

station and a delicatessen.

Samuel Kunis was located in Trenton and had two businesses,

including a fish market.

Manus and Minnie in the US

Manus and Minnie went to New York sometime in 1923, where

they stayed with Minnie's parents, Joseph and Etta. Manus was

"very unhappy" in New York. When his brother Samuel came

to see him, Samuel told him he had two businesses in Trenton

and would give one to Manus if he decided to move to Trenton.

Manus immediately moved his family to Trenton, taking over

the fish market. They got an apartment with furniture

purchased from an "old lady".

The fish market offered live fish on Thursday and Friday,

usually carp and mullet. Minnie helped in the store. Manus

said, "If fish, then might as well have vegetables". So, they now

had a fish and vegetable market. Minnie said she couldn't put