PART I
CHAPTER ONE
The Get: 1876
It was a matchmaker’s worst nightmare.
Rebecca’s mother, Fay, and her bewildered husband, Samuel, both appeared before the rabbinical court, also known as the beit din, in 1876, for a legal hearing. According to Jewish law, there was a “special rule regarding the get, or bill of divorcement.”I Since the marriage could only be dissolved after her husband handed Fay the get,II young Samuel stood before a rabbi and asked, “Rabbi, in front of my witnesses, I ask you for a divorce from my wife, Fay Berkova, the feldsher Kohen’s daughter.”
The beautiful fourteen-year-old redhead was instructed to remove her engagement and wedding rings. She accepted her divorce decree as her husband had and recited the obligatory words, “Behold, this is your get; thou art divorced by it from me and thou art (hereby) permitted to marry any man.III”
Fay was finally free to marry the man that she loved—Carl Cutler. However, the first man in her life, her father the feldsher, would never forgive her.
Her matchmaker, an important woman in the shtetl, struggled to rebound from such a professional disaster. Just a few years earlier, there were less than five hundred divorces reported among Jewish couples living in the vast area of Kiev Guberniya.IV Divorce was so rare that it never occurred to Fay or her father, Kohen,V that his young daughter with a gorgeous crown of red hair would ever be included in such a statistic. Now the matchmaker’s own unblemished success record was on the line.
Kohen was a talented and successful feldsher, who provided the only medical care for the entire village and its environs.VI The more formally educated doctors treated the wealthy, while feldshers were used by the vast peasant population. As a feldsher, Fay’s father had spent many years away from home in the service of Tsar Alexander II. It had been his professional duty, along with the draft board, to travel from village to village performing medical examinations on those unfortunate young men of age who were being drafted into the tsar’s army.VII When he returned home, he was finally able to enjoy his substantial estate in the rural dorf of Skibin. The gorgeous lilac bushes that he instructed to be planted surrounding his home bore a slight resemblance to those that lined the botanical gardens of Count Wladyslaw Branicki’s palace in nearby Stavishche.
As was common in those days, the newly wed Fay and Samuel were residing for the first year of their marriage with the bride’s family, which was a part of her father’s obligation known as kest.VIII Although Fay was not lacking in material comforts, she was trapped in a loveless marriage and suffered enormously.
The inner turmoil she felt over her unhappy marital predicament began to take both a physical and emotional toll on the young woman. The marriage forced upon Fay by her father and the matchmaker was destroying her. In short, her appetite for life had disappeared; she derived no pleasure from her food, and she could find no comfort in sleep. Fay was so wrapped up in her own emotional pain that when she arrived on foot one Tuesday morning at the bustling marketplace in nearby Stavishche, she collapsed. The noise of the peasants and peddlers bargaining and closing deals around her went silent as she fainted at the feet of two young brothers, Carl and Hertz Cutler, wheat sellers from Skvira and Zhashkov.IX
As her dizziness began to subside, Fay opened her eyes for a closer look at Carl, the tall, blond peddler who had rushed to save her from hitting the ground. Her heart was racing, a sensation that she had never felt before. Fay was not the only one to be instantly lovestruck; Carl immediately felt the exchange of electricity between them. From that day on, Tuesdays were days that the couple met and disappeared from his booth at the market, holding hands during long walks away from the prying eyes of the shtetl. After her shocking divorce, the couple married in a small ceremony under the stars, standing beneath a flower-laden chuppah.
Despite being disowned and cut off from her family’s great resources, Fay and Carl Cutler raised their seven children in Skibin, the same rural dorf where she grew up, whose border with the larger shtetl Stavishche was lined with tall wheat fields. The couple lived off Carl’s meager income as a wheat seller at the fairs in Stavishche and in other nearby markets held on different days in Zhashkov, Tarashcha, and Pyatigory.
Skibin: 1900–1911
A peek into a crystal ball would reveal disasters in 20th-century Russia that would cause devastation to all its subjects, including Fay and Carl Cutler’s growing family. The tsar’s family and other nobles would eventually be murdered, and a revolution, preceded by starvation, violence, and hopelessness, would soon erupt. Estimates ranging from over one hundred thousand to nearly a quarter of a million of Russia’s Jews, many who lived in the region of Kiev, where the Cutler family resided, would be murdered in pogrom massacres that incited peasants to “Kill the Jews and Save Russia!” Many Jews would soon find themselves dreaming of a life across the ocean in the Goldene Medina, the “golden land” where the streets were rumored to be paved with gold.
Fay and Carl’s seven children (in the order of their birth, Shalum, Yunkel, Hiya, Rebecca, Molly, Avrum, and Bessie) would not be immune to that dream as adults.X However, as children, they mostly enjoyed a happy and carefree existence in Skibin, blissfully sheltered from the worries of the world and ignorant of the impending doom that would soon loom over Russia. The few Jewish families who resided in this mostly impoverished countryside village in Tarashcha Uyezd assimilated with their Christian neighbors. Jewish children learned to speak Russian fluently without an accent, thanks to the many hours they spent playing with the local peasant children.
During warm summer evenings, the Cutler siblings intermingled with young peasants their age, setting out in wagons to the forest to congregate by firelight. A peasant boy taught the third youngest, Molly, how to pluck songs on his balalaika, a triangular folk lute popular in Ukraine. Molly played the balalaika as her younger brother and sister sat by her side in the woods singing Russian folk songs.
The four oldest children would come of age and marry before the onset of the Revolution. However, matters of the heart would soon bring two of the couple’s children, son Yunkel and daughter Rebecca (Channa’s mother), to plant roots in the same neighboring town, Stavishche, where both would meet their future spouses under scandalous circumstances.
Yunkel
Yunkel, the couple’s second son, a dashing young man who was slightly shorter and huskier than his two brothers, Shalum and Avrum, bore a handsome face with expressive and kind eyes. Yunkel fell madly in love with Esther Moser, the pretty and feisty daughter of the world-famous cantor of Stavishche, David-Yosel Moser. His love life became complicated, though, after learning that Esther had already been promised to another man.
Esther’s intended groom was a member of another well-known family in her town. In the decade preceding the Revolution, there were two prominent Jewish families in Stavishche. One family was Esther’s, named Moser; the other prominent clan was named Stepansky. The two families had intermarried several times over and were the true Jewish roots of the town. David-Yosel Moser, Esther’s father and the patriarch of the Moser family, was one of the chazzans (cantors) of Stavishche and, as such, held a high position in the Jewish community. David-Yosel became famous throughout Russia for training his brother-in-law, who became one of the world’s first blind cantors, Leaper the Blinder (the Blind One).
As a blind cantor, Leaper was unable to read directly from the Torah, as proscribed by Jewish law, and was forbidden from reciting the words of the scroll by heart. However, Leaper was so talented, and had such an incredible mind, that David-Yosel was able to teach him the entire Haftorah (readings from the Prophets, corresponding to the Torah section read in the synagogue on the Sabbath) by memory. It was through his association with Leaper that David-Yosel became known as an esteemed teacher.
When David-Yosel’s wife, Pessie, was pregnant with Esther, the cantor made a shidduch (arranged marriage) with one of the Stepanskys, whose wife was also expecting a baby at the same time. If these children were born of the opposite sex, which they were, the prospective marriage would be finalized shortly after their births.
This agreement did not sit well with young Esther, who grew up to dislike the Stepansky boy. However, since a written contract of their engagement existed, it could not be broken. In 1903, Esther was pressured to go through with the wedding, but afterward refused to live or sleep with her new husband. Following the nuptials, she had the chutzpah to tell her esteemed father, “You wanted me to marry him, now you go and live with him!” Not surprisingly, Esther’s new (and probably distraught) husband asked the rabbi for a get.
David-Yosel was well aware that his daughter was in love with Yunkel Cutler. In fact, everyone in town knew that Esther was smitten with Yunkel from the moment she laid eyes on him at her uncle Yoske Stepansky’s blacksmith shop. The old cantor soon realized that there was no keeping the young couple apart. The sweethearts then faced only one more potential obstacle. Since the bride-to-be had been married before, it would now be up to the groom’s mother to khapn a keek (grab a look) at her son’s prospective wife to approve of the match.
Although Esther Moser came from a family with a higher social standing than the Cutlers, Fay Cutler, who was once the subject of gossip after her own divorce, nonetheless traveled the traditional road from Skibin to give—or deny—her blessing. After meeting the chazzan’s beautiful young daughter, and seeing the sparkle in her middle son Yunkel’s eyes, Fay’s decision was made easy. “I don’t blame you!” she said to her relieved son, “You SHOULD marry her!”
In 1904, Yunkel Cutler became Esther Moser’s second husband. Yunkel was so in love with Esther that he left behind his profitable business that he shared with his older brother, Shalum, in Belaya Tserkov so that he and Esther could live closer to her family in Stavishche.
In Stavishche they raised two boys, Daniel and Paul, and two girls named Sarah and Sheva.XI Family members endearingly called the girls “the shvesters” (the sisters); the beauties looked almost like twins.
Esther and Yunkel lived on the far side of town, in one of the houses that was built near the river. For decades, the Jews of Stavishche called the river “Lazy Tikatch” because it winded in so many directions. In Russian, it was called “Gniloi Tikich” and in Ukrainian, “Hnylyi Tikych.” The Polish nobles in town called it “Tykicz Gnily.” From their home, the young family could see the factory across the wide body of water where bricks were made, so the landslayt referred to it as “The Brick River.” Further on, there was a part of the same river that was called “Near the Post Office.”
Rebecca
Rebecca, the second daughter born to Fay and Carl, was a statuesque girl with gorgeous, thick black wavy hair that she wore braided and pinned on top of her head. Her eyes were a sparkling blue under dark brows; she was an exotic beauty. In 1909, the nineteen-year-old was involved in a love affair with a handsome young shoemaker named Isaac Caprove, who was older than her by just nine days.
Isaac was the grandson of Rabbi Meir Caprove, originally from Talnoe, who became one of the few prominent and influential spiritual leaders to serve Stavishche during the mid-to-late 1800s. Isaac’s father, Beryl, had died when Isaac was just seven years old, leaving behind a distraught wife, Sarah Leah,XII and five children. Isaac’s mother, who was terribly shaken by her thirty-year-old husband’s death, had no means to support her two sons, Isaac and Moishe, and three daughters, Shifka, Piya,XIII and Rosa, and therefore allowed her father-in-law to step in. The elderly rabbi, who was already raising five other grandchildren who had been tragically orphaned years earlier, placed the young children to live with families across Stavishche. Isaac was sent to a foster home, where he became an apprentice to a shoemaker.XIV
The Caprove siblings would soon face another heartbreaking tragedy: the youngest and most beautiful sister, Rosa, became ill with a fever and she lost her life at age eighteen. Rosa’s devastated siblings gathered together to bury the teenager at the Stavishche cemetery. Her brothers, reciting the words of the Kaddish taught to them years earlier by their grandfather, led the small graveside service.
Isaac had no way of foreseeing that his unfortunate childhood would later lessen his desirability as a groom. Wedding plans were arranged for the happy young couple, and, as was routinely done in those days, official engagement papers, called Tenaim, were signed. Isaac and Rebecca were soon to be married.
But if Rebecca’s oldest brother, Shalum Cutler, were to have had his way, which he almost did, this wedding would never have taken place. Shalum, a wealthy blacksmith in Belaya Tserkov who made his fortune by mass-producing horseshoes and iron wagon wheels for the tsar’s army, had a long history for causing tension among his family members.XV He believed that his social status earned him the right to interfere with the love affair of his younger sister. His unwelcome meddling in Rebecca’s life began when he sent her a letter in which he delivered the following ultimatum:
My Dear Sister,
I was recently informed of your impending wedding plans. I disapprove of your engagement, and, as your oldest brother, forbid it. Marrying Isaac Caprove would be a disgrace to our family. He has such a lowly vocation—a mere shoemaker—and even worse, he’s an orphan! What kind of a life can an orphan offer you? If you marry him, I shall have nothing more to do with you.
Shalum
Rebecca was accustomed to her brother’s interference and took no notice of his letter. She was a headstrong young woman who was very much in love with Isaac and determined to marry him despite her brother’s objections. She felt that Shalum, who lived nearly thirty miles away and hardly ever saw his family, had no right to interfere in her life. Annoyed, she tossed the letter aside, carelessly leaving it on a table.
Soon after, Rebecca’s dashing young suitor, Isaac Caprove, appeared at the door. When there was no response to his knock, Isaac let himself in. He couldn’t help but notice the letter that was lying open on a table beside the family’s steaming samovar. As it was a rare occurrence in those days to receive a letter, he became curious and casually picked it up. Naturally, Isaac was devastated to learn that Rebecca’s brother did not deem him worthy of her hand in marriage.
After reading Shalum’s letter, Isaac’s pride was so crushed that he quietly left town, vanishing from Rebecca’s life for a couple of years. She desperately wanted to contact him but had no way of finding him. Two years passed before Rebecca finally spotted Isaac at the other end of the busy town market. Rebecca pushed her way through the crowd of bargainers and tried to reason with him. “Isaac, we love each other,” she pleaded, “we could be together and live happily.”
Her declaration of unwavering love would not change Isaac’s stubborn mind. When Rebecca saw him leaving the market that day accompanied by her mother’s relatives, it finally occurred to her where he had been living for the past two years. Rebecca felt so betrayed that she declared to everyone around her that she didn’t want to be engaged to Isaac anymore; she now knew where to send him a letter telling him so.
During the two years following his disappearance, Isaac had been living with Fay’s prominent relatives, who also employed him. After returning from that fateful meeting with Rebecca at the marketplace, Isaac discovered from Fay’s relatives the scandalous secret that had plagued Rebecca’s mother’s youth.
Shortly after, Isaac received Rebecca’s letter officially breaking off their engagement. He immediately realized what a fool he had been; it was as if a brick had suddenly fallen from the sky and knocked some sense into him. More than anything, he longed to marry Rebecca, but after two years of constant heartbreak, she no longer wanted him back.
And so the saga continued: When she wanted him, he didn’t want her. When he wanted her, she didn’t want him. This back-and-forth continued until they both reached the age of twenty-one. In Russia, men at that age were automatically drafted into the tsar’s army. Before Isaac went into the army, he came to her with one last plea. “Marry me now, or it’s all over.”
Rebecca may have been stubborn, but she was no fool. Rebecca Cutler married her childhood sweetheart, Isaac Caprove, just three months later, on August 10, 1911.