Leon Sacolick 1917 - 1985

Leon Sacolick was born on June 21st 1917 to Ben Zion and Chana Fruma Sacolick. His Hebrew birthday was Rosh Chodesh Tamuz. He was born in Warsaw, Poland. He married my mother Irene Taub in June 1946 and they had 5 children. He passed away on the 5th day of Tishrei, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 1985. In this post I will talk about his life, his interests, and his personality.

ליאון סוקוליק נולד ב-21 ליוני 1917 לבן ציון וחנה פרומה סוקוליק. התאריך העברי ליום הולדת היא ראש חודש תמוז. הוא נולד בורשה, פולין. הוא התחתן עם אמי איריין (איטקה) טאוב ביוני 1946 ונולד להם 5 ילדים. הוא נפטר ה' תשרי 1985.

ברשומה הזאת אני אתאר את חייו, תחביביו, והאישיות שלו.

Leon Sacolick was born in Warsaw, Poland to Ben Zion and Chana Fruma Sacolick - Bik.His grand parents (his fathers parents) were Abraham Yekutiel Sacolick and Sara Michle.Abraham and Sara were born in Czyzewe, Poland. Abraham was born in 1867 and Sara was born in 1864. They married in 1887. They had 4 children, Rivke Rosenfeld who emigrated from Poland to America and mader her home in Youngstown, Ohio, Ben Zion (my grandfather) was born on July 12, 1896, he lived on 30 Herzl St., Brooklyn, NY, Henry, born 1898 and Herman, born in 1900, and who lived in Youngstown, Ohio with his wife Dora and his children Eugene and Sylvan. On June 25, 1925 Abraham and Sara emigrated to America on the ship called "Belgenland" from Antwerpen.

Chana Fruma's maiden name was Bik. She had a sister, Pessa Jacobowitz. Pessa escape the Nazis through France. She had one son Leon, who married Elsie. Every year, Pesse would come to our house for Passover. Sometimes she came with her grandson Mark. She would always bring the same gift, red pistachio nuts, and honey cakes. On the right is a picture of my grandmother Chana Fruma and her sister Pesse when they were young.

Leon was the name he used in America, but friends and family called him Label. There is some confusion as to what his real full name was. His sister, Martha, said that on his wedding invitation his name was written Arie Lev. He also used the name Yehuda Dov, and that is the name written on his gravestone. My father always told us that when he was born at the end of World War I, food was very scarce, and what saved him from starvation was the cans of condensed milk that the Americans brought with them.My father had 2 older sisters both of whom died. It must have happened before my father was born or when he was very young because he never talked about them or mentioned their names. He also had a brother, Nahum, that died after hurting himself on a swing.

When my father was 3 years old, his father Ben Zion left for America to find a better life for his family. He left alone, leaving his small son Label and his wife in Poland. The plan was for him to get settled in America and then send for his family. During that time Chana Fruma sent her husband pictures of herself and Label so her husband could see Label growing up.

On the right is a picture of Ben Zion Sacolick taken in America.

When my father was 12 years old in 1929 he and his mother emigrated to the United States. I don't know too much about his childhood in America but I remember him telling me that he studied in Torah Vadaat Yeshiva.

My father and his parents were close to the Lubavitcher Chasidim.

Ben Zion was the secretary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his wife Chana Fruma worked as the Rebbe's cook. When my father was 15 years old his sister, Martha, was born.

I don't know too much about his early life in America. For a while he worked as a milkman, delivering milk. In 1941, when United States declared war on Japan and Germany, my father joined the army. He mostly worked as a medic in the army and a dental assistant. He was always very proud that he was a United States veteran.On the right is a picture of my father taken right after the war in 1945 with is cousin Harold Sacolick.

The war ended in 1945, and in June 1946 my father married my mother whom he met in her uncle's house - The Tzanzer Rebbe. They lived with my mother's parents The Modzitzer Rebbe and Rebbetzin in their Shul (Synagogue) in the Bronx. My Oldest brother, Israel Abraham, was born there on July 16th, 1947.

My father had various occupations. He had many interests and was good at everhything he undertook. He always said he wanted to be "his own boss". I already wrote that at one point he was a milkman. He also opened a delicatessen on 18th Avenue in Boro Park together with my mother's brother, Sam. In those days 18th Avenue was considered the outskirts of Boro Park. Today it's considered the heart of Boro Park. My brother Izzy had the job of collecting the bottles from the tables. My father used to say that the restaurant business was hard because there were no set hours. You had to be prepared a whole day for customers and in the evenings he was always busy. It was hard to have a family life.

Eventually he worked delivering meat to butchers for "Teddy Friedman's WholeSale Meats". He had odd hours. He would get up in the middle of the night, and finish work about 9 AM. He drove a big truck and would sometimes take us kids with him on the truck. He worked in a terrible neighborhood and we were always worried about him.

He was very strong and was able to lift whole sides of beef on his shoulders.

My father also had a side line. He was a printer. When we lived in Boro Park, the printing press was in the garage. The picture on the right is not a picture of the actual printing press, but if I remember correctly it looked something like that. He would do wedding and bar mitzva invitations, business cards, receipt books, and new year cards. Sometimes we would help him by sorting out the different colored pages of the receipt books, envelopes. Sometimes he would ask me to draw something or write Hebrew lettering. Sometime we would even be asked to go by train to paper factories to pick up envelopes. These trips were always scary because the factories were usually not in good neighborhoods. My father had these big

albums with different samples of wedding and bar mitzva invitations and birth anouncements. I loved looking at them.

My parents were not your typical polish types. They were not worriers. We were given a lot of freedom when we were young - we could go into the ocean in deep water, we didn't have to call home whenever we went somewhere, we were allowed to go on the train by ourselves. I was always amazed when I saw pictures and home movies of my seven year old sister diving off a high diving board.

Both my parents were unbelievably generous, warm hearted good people. We always had people over for Shabbos meals, and they were usually people that were alone. For example,

Mrs. Kapalman was a steady guest. She was supposed to tutor Jackie in Hebrew, but when Jackie refused she tutored Izzy. My mother also brought a pot of cholent every shabbos to Mr. and Mrs. Pion, who was in a wheel chair.

My father would loan strangers money, just like that, when he heard that someone was in need. He was always willing to help anyone who needed help.

When his sister, Martha, wanted to get marriedto Shimshon Stock, my parents put off buying a house and used the downpayment to pay for Martha and Shimshon's wedding. After the wedding Martha and Shimshon used their wedding presents to pay for the downpayment of the house and that's how my parents were able to buy their first house. It just shows how close my father was to his sister Martha. He visited his sister very often and always brought something for their kids - Bengy Chanie and Feigie (usually cracker-jacks). Martha and Shimshon's kids have the same names as us so I was called "Big Chanie" and my cousing who was a year younger than me was called "Little Chanie". My brother Bengy was called "Big Bengy" and Bengy Stock was called "Little Bengy". I will talk more about my Martha and Shimshon, may they rest in peace, later.

My father was like a magnet for children. He loved all children and they somehow sensed this and loved him too. Even strange children, that he would meet in a park or on a bus. In Shul he was the candy man, giving out lollypops. In general my father loved people and people loved him.

Daddy was very musical. One day out of the blue he bought a piano. He never took lessons, but if he heard a tune he could play it on the piano. Another time he brought home a violin. Every once in a while he would take out the violin and try to play. He was better with the piano.

He also loved taking pictures and movies.

Most of the people my age don't have movies of when they were children. But we have tons of pictures and home movies of ourselves growing up. Whenever a new reel was filmed, we would all gather in the living room, my father would take out the big screen and show us all the movies. He liked playing the movies forward and backward. There was one movies showing Zayde (my mother's father) giving us a present of money, my father would play that backwards and it would look like Zayde was taking money from us! He would also mix two movies up so that it would be snowing while everyone was wearing summer clothes.

Another trait of my father's that I have to talk about is his ability to tell stories. He was the most fantastic story teller, and he loved when he had an audience. When we were little, every Friday night after the Shabbos meal we would lay down next to my father in his big bed and he would tell us a story. He had his own special version of "The Three Bears Go Fishing" (which is a story that I think he made up because I never heard it anywhere else). He told bible stories - for example about Joseph and his brothers. Aladdin was another story. He would tell the stories as if they happened to him. I remember he told me that during the war he was on a boat. There was a storm and he was washed ashosre. He fell asleep and when he woke up he was tied up and there were little people all around him. He said he had a picture and he would show it to me some day. The next day, I told my friend, Ellen Geller, about what an amazing thing happened to my father during the war. She was 3 years older than me and told me that the story reminder her of a story she read "Gulliver's Travels" more about Gulliver's Travels later)