Irving Ruga: Growing Up as an Orphan in NYC During the Great Depression
Channel: Elliott Ruga
Date: 2018-08-08

My brother Glenn and I interviewed our Dad in 2015. He recalls his early life and experiences growing up in New York City as an orphan during the Great Depression. His father died on the steps of the orphanage after safely delivering my toddler father and infant uncle. This begins my father's fragments of family life as he is shuttled between relatives, some barely able to feed their own children, and stays at institutional homes. There are highs, such as his bar mitzvah, celebrated jointly with his class of 13 year olds at the Hebrew National Orphan Home featured a performance by Jimmy Durante.  And lows; at 7 years old, alone, homeless and lost in New York City, searching for the home of the relative who would take him in. The interview took place at his retirement community in Deerfield Beach, FL. Our Dad passed away in July, 2018, at 91 years old.