CHAPTER FIVE
1917–1918
Avrum Cutler’s secret would soon be out.
The youngest of Channa’s three maternal uncles, Avrum was blessed with the most handsome looks in a large family of siblings who were all considered attractive. This fact went undisputed mostly because he was tall like his father and had blue eyes that were always smiling.
The story the family told is that Avrum served as a Cossack with special privileges in the army of Tsar Nicholas II. His height, blondish hair, fair complexion, and ability to speak Russian fluently never gave the Cossacks any cause to suspect he was Jewish. His nieces Channa, Sarah, and Sheva, could not help but laugh at such a thought. After all, they questioned, didn’t Avrum bathe with the other soldiers? And what about when he needed to relieve himself? Somehow, though, Avrum explained, the other Cossacks never caught on to his ruse.
When Avrum returned home in 1917 after briefly serving in the army,I he took pleasure in socializing with young Jewish men and women from neighboring towns. Avrum was charming and popular among the ladies and could have married almost anyone he desired. When he met a lovely girl from Stavishche, he became quickly infatuated and fell instantly in love with her. As a token of his commitment, he gave her a pair of expensive earrings that symbolized their love for each other. About a month before the wedding, he accepted an invitation to spend a long weekend with the family of his new fiancée.
His soon-to-be in-laws supported the engagement and welcomed Avrum with open arms; he was likewise impressed with his fiancée’s family. All went well with the visit until it became apparent to Avrum that his girlfriend may have been lovely and charming, but she was far from capable. He watched miserably as his fiancée’s mother did all the cooking, sewing, and cleaning in the family’s household. The breaking point came when Avrum realized that his bride-to-be was not able to dress herself; her mother even had to wash her daughter’s hair for her.
Avrum began to wonder what kind of life he would have with such an incompetent woman. His infatuation quickly dissolved, and he wasted no time in breaking off the engagement. When Avrum confided in Rebecca, his older sister and closest confidante, she was extremely upset and disappointed by the news. In those days, breaking an engagement was sinful. Superstitious Jews like Rebecca believed that the shame resulting from the broken contract would be accompanied by a curse that would bring both bad luck and unhappiness to the couple who had parted ways. What made matters worse was that the sensational news of the breakup spread quickly throughout the entire town and its surrounding villages. The Jewish community already knew of the impending nuptials because the bride’s family had hired in advance what was left of Mendel-Ber’s feuding orchestra to play at the wedding.
Rebecca’s fear of bad luck striking her favorite brother was soon realized. When Avrum’s seasonal job at the sugar factory in Zhashkov ended,II he managed to once again trade briefly in wheat, like his father, but a poor crop limited his success. As his new business began to fail, he could not repay the start-up money that he had borrowed from family members, friends, and the local townsfolk. As an ethical person who suddenly found himself deeply in debt, Avrum didn’t know how to handle his failure. It was whispered around town that his lovely ex-fiancée, who was distraught and embarrassed over their broken engagement, followed an even more troubled path. Apparently, her heart was so broken that she made an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
1918
Just eighteen miles northeast of Stavishche, on the affluent side of Tarashcha, a successful matchmaker paced the floors of an estate owned by a Jewish man named Myer Ova Denka. It just so happened that Myer Ova Denka, a shoemaker by trade, once made a pair of leather boots by hand for someone of great prestige—Tsar Nicholas II. Tsar Nicholas was extremely impressed that the boots made for him by Ova Denka were a perfect fit. The last tsar to rule all the Russias couldn’t understand how a shoemaker from the town of Tarashcha would know what size would fit his royal feet.
To demonstrate his appreciation, Nicholas II sent a servant to travel from the palace all the way to Tarashcha to personally deliver Ova Denka a special gift. Inside the package was a golden statue of a two-headed eagle, the Romanov seal of approval.
As the entire town looked on, Myer Ova Denka proudly displayed the imperial gift in the window of his shoe factory. The shoemaker was granted permission by the tsar to use the royal insignia on a sign that hung outside his shoe shop. Despite the royal servant’s monumental efforts on behalf of the tsar to discover just how Ova Denka knew the exact size of the emperor’s feet, the stubborn shoemaker refused to shed any light on the mystery.
News of the tsar’s lavish gift spread quickly among local aristocrats. These wealthy nobles, who lived on the outskirts of Tarashcha and included some minor Polish nobles connected to Count Branicki, patronized the shoemaker. There became a terrific demand for his boots, and Ova Denka soon became a wealthy man.
Now Ova Denka was in search of a husband for his daughter and was willing and able to pay a generous dowry. His daughter, Slova,III who was both outspoken and opinionated, insisted that if her father was to pay such a large dowry, her bridegroom should at least be handsome.
The matchmaker assessed the rich man’s daughter with frustration: she was unwavering in her demands for a tall, good-looking husband, yet she was already twenty-six, and was short and fairly overweight. How could the matchmaker possibly find the “perfect man” for this woman? But Ova Denka was a prominent and influential man, and she was determined to be the one to find a match for his daughter.
Refusing to give up, the matchmaker racked her brains until an interesting thought occurred to her. She recalled hearing the townspeople at the yarid in Stavishche talking about Avrum Cutler’s broken engagement. Years before, she had actually met Avrum and remembered that he was tall, blond, and handsome. More recently, she’d heard rumors that he was heavily in debt.
The determined matchmaker made her way over to see Avrum and proposed a solution to his financial troubles. “I’ve got the perfect girl for you,” she announced as she looked Avrum directly in the eyes. “Not only is she very rich and from a good family, but she is also intelligent, well educated and has an attractive face.” Avrum was naturally enthusiastic after such a glowing description of the woman, and plans were made to finalize the engagement, even before the couple had a chance to meet.
The matchmaker, of course, had failed to mention that Slova was a bit zaftig.IV The couple, however, met for the first time and immediately agreed to the engagement. When Isaac and Rebecca were introduced to their future sister-in-law, they were shocked to discover that Avrum had only met her the day before. Learning that her brother was marrying a complete stranger, Rebecca was at a loss for words. Isaac could do nothing more than embrace his wife, who was heartbroken at the thought of her youngest brother never experiencing the magic of old-fashioned romance and love, as she and Isaac had. But the marriage was an arrangement that suited both parties: Avrum had a debt to pay, and Slova’s father had the money to clear all his debts. The couple willingly entered into the union with open eyes, even though they barely knew each other.
Avrum’s life after the wedding soon became what he described to Rebecca as a very difficult time. He complained that his wife never stopped eating. When he saw Slova drinking hot tea, it drove him crazy to watch her fill half her cup with sugar. His wife, in all fairness, also had cause for complaint. Because Avrum came from a poorer family than she did, she had little respect at first for her husband and was frustrated with his inability to make a good living. Avrum, in turn, was annoyed at her condescending attitude toward him.
After Slova gave birth to their first child in 1919, a girl named Fay after Avrum’s mother, life became even more unbearable for the bickering couple.V Avrum went to visit his sister and confidante Rebecca in Stavishche and revealed that both he and his wife were considering a divorce.
Superstitious in nature, Rebecca was as opposed to the idea of divorce as she was to Avrum’s previous broken engagement and told Avrum in no uncertain terms that if a man divorced a woman after having a child with her, it would be as if he were making that child an orphan. As her daughter Channa looked on, she pleaded with Avrum to do the right thing and stay with his wife and infant daughter, fearing God’s wrath if he abandoned his family. Avrum came to his senses, as did Slova, and listened to his sister; they remained together. Although their early married years were far from peaceful, he and Slova managed to work things out. After all, each spouse got exactly what they asked for: Avrum landed a rich wife who was intelligent and could no doubt run a household, and Slova landed a husband who was extremely handsome.
In the end, the matchmaker proved to be right. The couple, who married as complete strangers, eventually fell in love and had two more children. Slova’s resourcefulness combined with Avrum’s Gentile good looks would prove pivotal in their survival. The once-feuding couple soon discovered, as did all of Russia’s Jews, that their biggest war was yet to come.
1. I. Shortly after his mother Fay’s funeral, Avrum became his sister Rebecca’s houseguest in Stavishche, visiting from his home in nearby Skibin.
2. II. Zhashkov was 10.2 miles south-southwest of Stavishche with a Jewish population of 2,445 in 1900. The sugar factory in Zhashkov had commercial ties to Stavishche through Count Branicki, who cultivated the confectionary industry on his vast properties in Kiev Province.
3. III. Her name was also spelled Sluva. On the US census, she was listed as Sylvia. Avrum was Abraham.
4. IV. Many men, often equating a woman’s large, voluptuous size with beauty, find zaftig women (those who are heavyset) very attractive. Channa heard her aunts say (in Yiddish) of a woman: “Zi iz azoy sheyn, az zi ken nisht pasik durkh di tir aun” (“She is so beautiful that she can’t fit through the door”).
5. V. These observations were witnessed by Channa as a child. Her mother, Rebecca, Avrum’s sister, also told her of the couple’s marital problems during the early years of their marriage in Europe.