Sokolivka: Once Home

Buffalo—Now Home

Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein Ladies Auxiliary at a social event at the Town Casino in Williamsville, NY, c. 1940s. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.

Making a life in Freedom

The initial immigrant Sokelifke generation worked low wage, entry level jobs as they acquired English language skills and built better businesses to help the next generation, often American born children, or rapidly acculturating young immigrant children. Through use of the free public school system and a range of Jewish community organizations that offered subsidized or low cost services, immigrant Sokolifkers were able to launch their children into business and professional lives they could not have dreamed of for themselves. As the need for landsmann organizations declined, and they closed, as Anshe Sokolivka did on the East Side, in the 1940s, the second and third generations found cousin clubs the best way to maintain strong social connections, as their extended networks included multiple Sokolivker families.

Cousin Club Videos

These series of three newly digitized videos from the 1960s provide front row seats to three Cousin Club get togethers with the extended Slutsky Cousin Club that included the Slutsky’s, Shuman’s and Recoon’s and other family names. The first two films take place at a cousin club event at Ellicott Creek Park. The third records a cousin club get together in a member home. Chaika Shuman, the Sokolifke matriarch is present in this last video. Do not adjust your volume to “hear” these films. They are silent films but they provide a wonderful flavor of these family clubs. To get an extra sense read the cousin club minute books below! Our thanks to Sue and Eric Recoon for finding these amazing materials and sharing them with us.

Cousin Club Minute Books

These two cousin club minute books record the life, times and fun (!) of family members in these extended cousin clubs. The pages are filled with humor and irony – and in the second smaller book – a lot of tasty recipes! They also track fundraising for other community organizations, help to sick members and support through simchas and sorrows. In the Gallery below you’ll find a cousin club birthday cards. These organizations ran themselves with a full officer corps even if they did not take each other seriously in any of these roles.

The Perel (Pearl) Slutsky Cousin Club minute booklets capture the 1950s and 1960s with just a few missing years between them and complement the movies. Less than a decade earlier their mothers of the UUV recorded their thoughts and dreams in Yiddish. These cousin club minutes are all in English. Sokolivkers were now truly “At Home in America.”

Once again – we are indebted to Sue and Eric Recoon for making these available.

Molly Winer’s Photograph Album, 1930s

These pages highlight Molly’s extended family in Buffalo, family outings including Crystal Beach, and also show how quickly their family established themselves through the work of Max Winer (Molly’s father) and her brothers, all of whom entered the family scrap business. Courtesy of Marsha Dautch.

Gallery

Winer Wedding Celebration in Buffalo, NY. Courtesy of Marsha Dautch.

Winer Wedding Celebration in Buffalo, NY

Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein Women's Auxiliary at the Town Casino, Williamsville, NY, c.1940s. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.

Ustingrader Unterstitzung Verein Women’s Auxiliary, c.1940s

Slutsky Cousin Club event at Ellicot Creek Park, c. 1950s. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.

Slutsky Cousin Club event at Ellicot Creek Park, c. 1950s

Lunch at a Slutsky Cousin Club event at Ellicot Creek Park, c. 1950s. Courtesy of Sue and Eric Recoon.

Lunch at a Slutsky Cousin Club event at Ellicot Creek Park, c. 1950s

Leslie Shuman with Irv, Marilyn and Cathy Shuman and the extended Shuman family, 1960s. Courtesy of Charlie Shuman.

Shuman Family, 1960s

Arlene Carrel Goldstein, c. 1950s. Photograph by Frederick Marschall. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Arlene Carrel Goldstein, c. 1950s. Photograph by Frederick Marschall

Morris Carrel in Buffalo, c. 1950s. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Morris Carrel in Buffalo, c. 1950s

Abraham N. Carrel, c.1940s. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Abraham N. Carrel, c.1940s

Harold Carrel (left) and Jack Carrel (right) with their mother, Edith Berkwitt Carrel, c. 1950s. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Harold, Jack and Edith Carrel, 1950s

Jack Carrel and his mother, Edith Berkwitt Carrel. c. 1940s. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Jack Carrel and his mother, Edith Berkwitt Carrel, c1940s

Edith and Morris Carrel’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, Temple Emanu-el. Top row, left to right: Ruthie Carrel (Birnberg); Harold Carrel, Harry Carrel; Abe Carrel; Avram Finger; Louis Finger; Hy Carrel; Dickie Carrel Bobby Carrel; Alan Carrel (Baby). Jacob (Jack) Carrel. Bottom row, left to right: Jennie Carrel; Gert Carrel; Fannie Carrel; Edith (Berkwitt) Carrel; Morris Carrel; (standing) Ruthie Finger; Manya Carrel Finger; Lillian Carrel; Arlene Carrel (Goldstein); On floor left to tight: Donald Carrel; Jerome (Jerry) Carrel. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.

Edith and Morris Carrel’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, c. 1940s

Children and spouses of Morris and Edith Carrel, c. 1960s. From left: Jacob (Jack) and Lillian Wagner Carrel; Gert Rossberg Carrel (Widow of Harry Carrel); Hy and Charlotte Carrel; Jennie Litman Carrel and Harold Carrel; Fannie Bron Carrel and Aberaham Carrel; Mary (Manya) Carrel Finger. Courtesy of Ellen and Amy Goldstein.