Buchalter Family Photos

This may be the oldest photograph in Barry’s family. It is of Abraham Buchalter, Barry’s Great, Great-Grandfather. Abraham Buchalter was from a small shtetl called Osevitz or Usevitz, outside the city of Selets (Selz) in the Pruzhany district of the Grodno provence in Russia. He was a blacksmith. With his wife Zelda, he had five children; Feiga Balie, Yussel, Sara Rifka, Naftoli, and Eliezar, known as Luzer.

Louis Buchalter, born Eliezer (Luzer), was Abraham’s youngest son, born in 1873. Luzer was Barry’s Great-Grandfather. He immigrated to the United States in 1898, leaving his pregnant wife, Bessie (born Pessel Goldberg), in Russia, to be sent for later. He worked several jobs: wood chopper, peddler, tailor, and factory worker, until he settled as a shopkeeper in Washington, DC. His wife and daughter, Sara, joined him in America in 1903 and Louis and Bessie had three more children; David, Miriam and Helen.

This photograph was taken at the Sappol Studio, 100 Clinton Street, New York City around 1900. William Sappol was the photographer and his wife Annie, was Bessie’s sister. Sappol later moved his studio to DC.

This is the first photograph in the first of ten family photo albums compiled by Barry’s Grandmother, Sara Buchalter. The photo albums begin in 1904, the year after she began her new life in America, and continue throughout the 20th century.

This is one of the first pictures taken of Sara Buchalter, and probably the first one taken in the United States. Sara, the eldest daughter of Louis and Bessie, was born in Russia in December, 1898. Her father was already in America. Louis brought over his family in July, 1903, sometime before this photo was taken. She is around five years old in this picture.

Many of the photographs in the collection are studio portraits; most of which were taken by Sara’s uncle, William Sappol. Sappol owned a studio (The Sappol Studio) in New York and DC and, according to Sara, he was generous with his camera; he always took pictures when he was trying out new lenses.

Life in America was difficult. Years passed and Louis’ wife and young child were still in the old country. Abraham, writing to his youngest son, wanted to know why he had not sent for them and Louis responded with a twenty-four page letter written in Yiddish, detailing his trials and tribulations in this new land. The family had the letter bound. Decades later, no one in the family remembered what it said, so Barry had the letter translated in 1977. It details Louis’ early years in America, being robbed in the South while he worked as a peddler, and not making enough to live on. Louis eventually sent for his wife and young daughter; they arrived in July, 1903.

David Buchalter was the second child of Louis and Bessie. He was born in 1906 in Washington, DC. He was the first in that branch of the family to be born in the United States.

A family portrait of Louis and Bessie and their children, Sara, David, Miriam and Helen; probably around 1911.

Louis Buchalter had an older brother, Naftoli. He was born in 1865 in Selets, Russia and married Rebecca (Riffkie) Litshitzky. Naftoli also came to America in 1898–in August–and later sent for his wife, two sons and two daughters who arrived in August, 1903. After some years working in New York City as a blacksmith, he bought a farm in Colchester, Connecticut. Naftoli and Rebecca had two more children in America. Their six children were: Bessie, Jennie, Sam, Nathan, Lilly and Bertha. Sam was killed in World War I. Nathan, Barry’s Grandfather, married his cousin Sara. Nathan is pictured here in a military uniform, probably at the close of World War I.

As a young boy, Nathan attended Bacon Academy in Colchester, Connecticut, a school about 6-7 miles from the farm. Nathan worked on the farm until his sisters saved enough money for him to go to Yale. It was during a time when there were quotas that kept Jews out, but he graduated from Yale, and then married Barry’s Grandmother in January, 1925.

In the summer of 1927, the Colchester Grandparents, Naftoli and Riffkie, pose with their first Granddaughter, Barry’s mother, Anita.