Bassya

Yiddish actress, poet, author, secretary, and actress, from Bessarabia. Arrived in San Francisco in 1921 (this year).

For many years before the revolution in Russia, the Jewish people comprised a large segment of small towns and villages much like the little town Boyberik depicted by Sholem Aleichem in *Tevye (or Tevye the Dairyman) and his Daughters*. Under the Czar, restrictions were placed on the Jewish people and other minorities. These restrictions were enforced either by secret instructions to police advising repressive measures i.e. pogroms, or as legal public decisions, "Ukases", of the Czar. But, somehow the Jews managed to practice what was denied; mainly the worship of their God, and the education of their children. At the turn of the century, there were seven thousand schools and educational institutions which produced many rabbinical and Hebrew scholars. Language, religion, and culture are essential to the survival of a nation. Russian Jewry was effective in preserving all three, even under the oppressive rule of the Czar. The Jews existed as a secular culture in Russia ~ only a small percentage of the Jewish population adopted the mode of life and culture of the majority of the Russian population. The life for the Jew in Russia was not an easy one. Most were poor, their life opportunities and goals were politically restricted, and they lived in constant fear of pogroms and evictions. However they found solace and strength in their religion, and they made the best of the situation.

Such was the world that Bassya Maltzer was born into on January 17, 1908. She was born in Kopiegorod, a small town of about three thousand people, located in the southwest portion of Russia. Being a small town the people were very close, the whole town was like one family. If there was a death in one family, the whole town mourned. If there was a wedding, the whole town danced at it.

Among the Jews in town, there was a definite class distinction which was based, not on money (most were poor), but on the occupation of the man in the family. The lower class included the butchers, the shoemakers, and the cabinet makers ~ they were uneducated and the trades were passed from father to son. The upper class, to which Bassya's family belonged, was composed of the male scholars and their families. This distinction was first explained to Bassya when she was around nine years old. Her grandfather requested that she refrain from visiting Fanya, the butcher's daughter, saying, "When you go into her house, the language they use in that house is not the language we use in ours. They are butchers! We Maltzers are the society ~ not in money, but in dignity."

Bassya's grandfather was a very religious man, and a respected scholar ~ the town's people turned to him for spiritual, practical and financial assistance. He was president of the synagogue. By the age of nineteen, her father BenZion was a rabbi at the synagogue. However, being an idealist, he gave up his rabbinical position after one year, for he saw the hypocrisy of the people who came to the synagogue and, instead of praying, gossiped among each other about business and personal problems. He then wanted to be a doctor, but being a Jew, this was impossible. So he studied and became a Certified Public Accountant for a sugar factory. He traveled all over Russia opening sugar refineries. However, he always remained an idealist and a scholar.

Scholars spent the day in philosophical discussions which brought in little money. That left the wife of a scholar to take care of the family economically.

> got up everyday at 4:30 in the morning, baked her bread, washed the clothes, ironed, prepared breakfast. At 7:30 she was in her little grocery shop that she managed until 6:00 pm. It was remarkable. My grandmother never complained of all her hard work. She accepted it as a matter of fact. She was a woman and this was a woman's job.
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> Bassya recalling her grandmother,

Life was easier for Bassya's mother. Her husband was not only a scholar but also had a paying job. Bassya's mother did not have to work, she even had a maid. But she had no education and could not read. Her mother filled her time with socializing.

> She loved to dress beautiful, and she had a beautiful figure and she wanted to display it. She had parties with men and women, who used to compliment her. This was her world; this was her joy.
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As a child, Bassya was presented with two different roles: that of the knowledgeable, philosophical scholar who spent his life in lively debate, and that of the working or non-working wife who was oblivious to the world that existed outside of her four walls. As a child Bassya chose to model herself after the men in her family. She sat and listened to their discussions and tried to imitate these scholars. This was the life she wanted for herself.
When Bassya was eleven years old her father died of typhus. He was thirty-three years old. And when he died, her world stopped. Her mother had always been busy with her own life ~ it was from her father that she received love, and to her father that she bestowed love. So his absence left her very alone. She would express this feeling in a later poem:

> What a void
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> he left for me
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> When he died
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> at thirty three.
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> I walked around like
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> A stranger in a cold
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> and strange land -
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> With no one to really
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> care or understand.
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> Bassya,

Soon after her father's death, her father's brothers and sisters, who were living in California, sent for the family. Bassya's grandfather sold his brick house and whatever else he could part with. When they (Bassya, her three year old brother, her mother, her uncle, her grandfather, and his wife) were ready to leave, her grandfather put all the money into a scarf and put it around her waist, under her dress. And so they set off on their long journey to America.

They reached the frozen river that separates Ukraine and Bassarabia. It was during the revolution and there were soldiers guarding each side, who were ordered to shoot anyone attempting to leave Russia. Bassya and her family waited until dark and then crossed the river, fearfully. Finally they reached the other side. When they arrived, Bassya screamed, "Grandfather, I lost the belt!" She was a thin child and it had slipped off. A girl crossing the river at the same time went back and was able to retrieve the money. Bassya asked not to carry the money anymore ~ "the responsibility is something I cannot take." The group then climbed into the back of a wagon, hiding under the straw, and were taken to a relative's inn in Bassarabia, where they stayed for eight months awaiting their passports. After this interval, they went to Antwerp and boarded the boat for the United States.

Bassya left Russia last year at the age of twelve. She had grown up placing a high respect on the life that men led, and hoped to live such a life. She had heard "~~dirty Jew~~" for many years, and had learned to live as a second class citizen. She was also leaving a revolution behind in Russia ~ one in which women would come out with a new status ~ and going to a country where women had won the vote only after many years of struggle.

The travelers arrived at Ellis Island, and all went on to San Francisco except for Bassya and her mother. They were detained at the island for six weeks ~ Bassya’s brother had died from measles during the trip across the Atlantic. Bassya was deeply affected by the loss of her younger brother: “There was God first, my father second, and my brother third. And I had lost my father and my little brother. And I lost God.” At age twelve, Bassya, who had been brought up learning the importance of religion, cursed God and denied his existence.

Bassya and her mother then traveled the eight-and-a-half day train trip to San Francisco. When they arrived, they learned that the grandfather had died. The San Francisco relatives felt cheated ~ they had only wanted the grandfather to come in the first place; they had sent for the others only at his request. Bassya felt their resentment and did everything she could not to disappoint them.

She started seventh grade at the public school knowing five languages, but not a word of English.