Jacob and Lena

All About Arnold
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read
Jacob and Lena.

There will always be unanswered questions. I have spent my entire lifetime wondering how a man could simply one day walk away from his wife and son — his first-born son — and never look back.

It’s a fairly common scenario, one that perhaps raised eyebrows in the middle-class, West Rogers Park neighborhood where I was born in 1963, but today is seemingly common, evoking little social disdain and even less emotional fallout.

But what has been even more bewildering to me these past 50 years, is not how or why Arnold left me, but how his entire family could turn their backs on a first son, a first nephew, a first grandson; a great-grandson.

My great-grandfather, Jacob Sandman (August 16, 1888-May 1965) — Arnold’s grandfather— came to America from Szczilky, Galicia, part of the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire, near the modern-day border between Poland and Ukraine, aboard the Kronprinz Wilhelm, that departed from Bremen (Germany) arriving at Ellis Island on December 11, 1906. According to the ship’s manifest, Jacob was born in Loposcanka.

From all indications, it appears that Jacob was one of ten brothers who made their way to America. Some reports state that he — or perhaps some of his brothers — first settled (and perhaps remained) in New York before making their homes in Chicago.

Jacob married Lena (nee Korman, 1896–July 1981) and had five sons, one of which, Lawrence (December 7, 1916-November 1974), married the former Ann Dick (1920–1999) and would go on to have three children together, Arnold (the oldest) a sister and a younger brother.

I have also recently discovered that Jacob had two other children — Harry and Ruth — from a previous marriage to a woman who died young, perhaps during childbirth or a medical procedure gone wrong.

Jacob founded Sandman & Sons Scrap Metal which, over the years, became one of two rival scrap metal businesses on Chicago’s north side. From all accounts, the scrap metal business made Jacob and his sons wealthy and the family lived an affluent life, owning attractive homes and driving luxury automobiles.

I was only two when Jacob passed away in 1965, and I wonder what, if any, relationship we might have had in those two short years. I imagine he must have come to my brit milah (Jewish ritual circumcision) and subsequent pidyon haben, a Jewish ceremony wherein the father of a firstborn male redeems his son by giving a kohen (a priestly descendent of Aaron) five silver coins, thirty days after a baby’s birth.

I suppose there’s no harm in thinking my birth made Jacob happy; happy to have a great-grandson — perhaps the first or simply another — and another male heir to carry on his name and legacy.

    All About Arnold
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