After organizing the workers at his father’s nightclub, my great-grandfather, Bernard Salzberg, was kicked out of his father’s house in Lvov, Austria/Poland/Ukraine. And so, Bernard immediately fled to the Land of Opportunities. To obtain his American citizenship, he fought for the US in World War I, and soon after, he was featured in the obituary section of the New York Times. Although it is generally hard to tell which of his stories are true and which are just stories, one thing is for sure: he did not die in 1917, as the New York Times claims. According to Bernard, his infantry in World War I was gassed with mustard gas and all declared dead. The New York Times failed to report that there were indeed survivors who were quickly transported to hospitals in critical condition. Despite all odds, Bernard was one of these survivors, and lived many more years to tell his tales. Bernard is my closest connection to Europe, but he had no intention of bringing the Old World with him when he immigrated, and therefore my family quickly assimilated into American culture and have retained little of the traditional Ashkenazi Jewish culture.

– Bayle Smith-Salzberg

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