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SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida.
G: I am Rabbi Stanley Garfein, and this is the third interview on
the Jewish community in Tallahassee. This interview is with Sam
Mendelson, who is the third-longest Jewish resident of
Tallahassee.
M: I came in 1912.
G: 1912. So there really was not a very large Jewish community at
that time, was there?
M: No. No, but they told me that they had the largest Jewish
community before I came. When the town was wet, you know, they
used to be in the saloon business. When they dry, lots of them
left for Jacksonville. I did not intend to leave Romania, you
know. They had pogroms. All of us remained in different towns.
The town that I lived in
G: What was the name of that town?
M: The town Drland. So the man that I worked for particularly in
the little dork [sp?] store did not mingle much with Jewish
people. He only mingled with Christian people. The pogrom
finally came to that town, and the police gave notice to the
Jewish people, so they all closed up.
G: The police knew that the pogrom was going to happen?
M: Yes, they knew it. They could not stop it, you see. They came
in tremendous big numbers that was students from colleges.
G: Students?
M: Students. Yes. They used to make these pogroms, and they used
to get in the tassles [?] and tell them about the Jewish people--
they are rich, and they are poor; build them up. So this man
that I worked for never did mingle with Jewish people. In fact,
he did not go to the synagogue or Rosh Hoshanna or Yom Kippur.
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What I think happened was all the Jewish people closed up, and he
himself, on the same day, knew that they would be [against him]
irregardless. So he went down in the cellar, hiding out, you
see, until the thing blew over. They could not damage each place
because he had the windows and iron doors at night. But they did
damage to all the smaller stores, and so forth. When that
happened, I did not sleep all night. I had been thinking about
it, and in another few months I was to be inducted in the
service. I took stock: what was the future for me? I saw no
future, and I made up my mind that night that I was going to
leave for the United States. So I wrote a letter to my parents
(they lived in another town, a few hundred miles [away]) about
what I had witnessed the night before, and I had firmly made up
my mind that I would leave Romania.
G: What about that experience you had with the army officer?
M: Oh, that was way before. That was about five years before. I
stayed in the army. I bumped into [him] but I could not help it,
the way the soybuld[?sp?] was built. So I excused myself; I
begged him to forgive me because I could not see him. Instead he
cursed me hard, so I cursed him back. I was a young fellow,
about twenty-one years (no, I was younger). So I cursed him
back, and he took his saber. I ran around the block and came
back to the bank, and got in the store. Well, anyhow, I was
worried about it because he told me that he had his eye on me and
he was going to get me wherever I might be. He meant when I got
in the service. I was worried. So my mother came over; she
lived in another town. I told her the story about it, that I was
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troubled and I could not get what he told me out of my mind. She
told me "why don't you go up to a good name.[?] Well, he
listened to my story. You [have to] make a petition.
G: And you have to wait in a long line?
M: I waited in a long line with some Gobbers [sp?]. Do you know
what a Gobber is?
G: Officers. Officials.
M: Yes. It takes hours before they get to you. And after your
petition is up there, then I put on the petition what was
troubling me. After I told them these things, he said, "if I
were you, I would not worry a bit about it." He asked me how old
I was, and I told him. At that time I guess I was about fifteen.
So he said I should not worry. Until the age of twenty lots of
things could happen. He told me he could have a mischemashmer
[sp?]. Do you know what a mischemashmer is?
G: And unnatural death.
M: An unnatural death. Then he says, "you may be over mei
jung.[sp?]"
G: Go across the sea.
M: Go over the sea. And he said to forget about and not to think
about it; "everything will be all right." It made me feel good.
END OF INTERVIEW
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