One pleasant day in mid-October my daughter and I went to visit my mother in her room at the Jewish Home for the Aged in New Haven.\u00a0 We had both been there many times before, but only occasionally together.\u00a0 As we walked down the long hallway to the elevator I asked Sara, \u201cWhat do you want for Christmas ?\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps an odd question in the Jewish Home, but due to the religiously blended nature of our family we celebrate as many holidays as possible, not yet including Zoroaster\u2019s birthday, but seriously considering it. Sara replied, \u201cI want to know about that lady.\u201d<\/p>\n
That lady?\u00a0 I had walked down that hallway at least a thousand times without pausing to look at the oil portraits of the two women that were hanging there, the portraits being the ones doing the hanging, not the women.\u00a0 The one that intrigued curious daughter was labeled Lena Steinberg, 1915-1925.<\/p>\n
\u201c I don\u2019t know what I can find out,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cThis is what you do, you\u2019ll love it,\u201d replied Sara.\u00a0 Of course she was right.\u00a0 The idea was now firmly lodged somewhere in my cerebral cortex and it wasn\u2019t coming loose until I had answers.<\/p>\n
It is odd but true that the things that just fall into your lap unbidden are often the most interesting, educational and entertaining.\u00a0 So it was with Ms. Steinberg, who turned out to be Mrs. Steinberg, but I\u2019m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n
When in doubt start with the census.\u00a0 How do we love the census, let me count the ways.\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019re a genealogist I don\u2019t have to tell you.\u00a0 I knew she lived in New Haven, so I quickly consulted the census records via Ancestry.com.\u00a0 There was only one Lena Steinberg in New Haven, living with her husband David, and yes, YES! someone listed as Brother-in-law, meaning Lena\u2019s brother.\u00a0 How much do we love the words in-law on a census sheet? Again if you\u2019re a genealogist I don\u2019t have to tell you.\u00a0 Lena was Lena Kan Steinberg.<\/p>\n
Next came the really fun part.\u00a0 Neither my husband nor myself is from this area.\u00a0 All of my family research is done from a distance.\u00a0 Now I could work where I lived.\u00a0 It is so much fun and so wonderfully easy to be able to go and visit the cemetery, the archives, the people who know stuff you want to know.<\/p>\n
New Haven has a Jewish Archives!\u00a0 They have books and pamphlets and all kinds of things.\u00a0 Jewishgen.com provided cemetery locations.\u00a0 I was able to visit the places where Lena made her home, the sights of businesses now long forgotten and the grave of this rather extraordinary woman.<\/p>\n
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Because she did indeed turn out to be an extraordinary woman, an everyday hero.\u00a0 One of the ones who don\u2019t seek recognition but quietly gets things done.<\/p>\n
Here, very briefly, is her story.\u00a0 Lena Kan was one of the many eastern European immigrants who came to this country around the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 She came as an infant with her parents, who settled for a time in Philadelphia, but eventually moved to New Haven where they started a jewelry business.\u00a0 Here Lena met and married David Steinberg.\u00a0 The couple had no children of their own and Lena threw herself into meeting the needs of the poor Jewish community of New Haven. At this time there were no facilities for poor, elderly Jewish people to live the end of their lives with dignity in a place where they could conform to the customs and rules of their religion.\u00a0 In 1908 Lena helped to form the Sisters of Zion.\u00a0 These women worked tirelessly to form both the Hebrew Orphan\u2019s Asylum and the Jewish Home for the Aged.\u00a0 The Jewish Home opened in 1915 with Lena Steinberg as its first president. To quote from A History of the Jewish Home for the Aged<\/em>, \u201cMrs Steinberg was a forceful and charming woman who was able to attract people and get them to work.\u00a0 She was a natural to be the first president of the home.\u201d<\/p>\n To me, reading between the lines this woman seems like a force of nature.\u00a0 If you wanted it done you gave it to Lena Steinberg and then you got out of the way.<\/p>\n Lena Kan Steinberg died on March 8, 1943.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if there are Kan and Steinberg relatives who remember her or have heard stories of her life, but it is my pleasure to remember her and to tell the story of one woman who set out to do something and made a difference in her community.<\/p>\n One pleasant day in mid-October my daughter and I went to visit my mother in her room at the Jewish Home for the Aged in New Haven.\u00a0 We had both been there many times before, but only occasionally together.\u00a0 As …<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"