The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1922-11-01
LIFE STRUGGLE OF
Two GREAT JEWS
BY PROF. HENRY GMcENsTE1N

Copyright, 1922. by Jewish Correspondence
Bureau)
1t was about rs years ago, in the
spring of 1887. that became az
quainted then lad of seventeen.
with the family of Hirszenberg in
LODI. In two damp. cellar-like rooms.
they were living with twelve children.
the youngest babe sill at the
breast. the older occupied with their
school lessons, the still older ones
seated at the machine staring vacant
ly into the distance. ~ II afraid of
something. The mother. beautiful
woman. still wore beautiful clothes.
but they were devoid of Jewels. 1t
was apparent that she had seen better
times. A heavy cloud had passed
over the house. AID the gloom had
settled into every corner of it.
And yet amidst it all. felt myself
in the presence of something great
and noble For the walls of the
gloomy rooms were covered with pie
tures&the first time that 1 had seen
pictures hung openly on wall. and
it was with glowing pride that l was
told by the two oldest children there,
Leon. half painter. half weaver. and
Hinde-Gitele. half child. half house
keeper that this was the work of II
still older brother, of Samuel Hrs
zenberg. who was ut the Academy at
Munich and had been previously Mt
Cracow under the great painter
MateikO.
Two of our family" they told me,
are abroad. Samuel and Dude
Dude il writer. and he has already
published a book i'm Hebrew"
And 1. full of dreams of one day
becoming an artist. listened with
wonderment, and did not know then
that this beautiful girl was to Ike my
wife. and that / was thus to become
the third in the family triO-Hirszen-
berg. Freshman. Glicenstein.
This was just after the blow which
smote The Hirszenberg- Frischman fam
lily. Like thunderbOlt 1t had come
over night, and had left desOlation.
The factory was closed down. and the
partnership of the two cousins, the
father. of Hirszenberg and the father
of Frischman. was dissolved. Sullen-
iy, aud with resentment In their
hearts, each blamed the other for the
col.aps and go they drifted apart. the
two branches of the family, never
again to meet. a BE
David Hirszenberg. the father. was
always evolving new machinery, new
designs. and always he found them re-
jected as fantastic and premature.
Afterwards, others took them mp and
used them successfully. But Hirszen-
berg gained nothing by his inventions
his family obtained nothing from their
successes.
In poverty and privatioR they lived
in the two gloomy celler-like rooms,
on the walls of which were hung the
paintings of Samuel Hirszenberg. and
they dreamed of the fame that he
would one day attain. he and his
cousin. David Frischman, who was
writing books in Hebrew.
In poverty and privation. too, were
living Samuel Hlrszenberg and David
Freshman; hunger and bitterness ate
into their bones and laid the fOunda-
tiOn of the complication of diseases
which plagued them all their lives and
finally brought them both to their
graves.
saw Samuel Hirszenberg for the
first time the following year, In 1888,
in the house of his parents. He had
come home from Munich to spend his
vacation there. I saw slightly built.
elegant young man, always with
quiet tender smile He spoke to me
of his dreams. and he showed me
photograph of his latest picture. the
"Yeshiba.''
remember his telling me ho~ at
Midday. when the rest of the students
at the Academy went out to lunch.
he would always stay behind, and go