Eugene Feldman - July 15, 1991
Immigration to America
So you had relatives in Detroit.
Yeah. So we came here, we st...in fact we stayed with them for about a week.
Do you remember their name?
That's it. When we move out?
What was their name?
Well, let's say uh, you know Hecky Platt? You don't know the Platts. They're a big family. Okay, with the Platts. They're all in Israel now. I mean, they... I shouldn't say they're all in Israel. They are a funny family. It's a large family. He's still here. All the kids moved to Israel. They're very religious too. So now he's going to Israel. He--I--he stopped at my store to say hello and he's going back to Israel. He came here for an operation, bypass operation, then he's going back. So he started off, up to la...last year he lived here. But now he's bought a house there, he's staying really pretty well there. I would say he's now an Israeli, more so than a American.
And this is a cousin of yours? Relatives of yours?
They what?
They were relatives of yours?
They are relatives of mine. Yeah.
Your mother's side.
No, no, my dad's side. But actually we stayed with his mother. I don't remember her, her name, funny. Well, it's gotta be Platt. But her--I don't remember her first name. So we stayed--she was very, very religious. The rabbis would come from New York stay in her house. I mean, like the Stoline rabbi would come and stay there. It would take somebody special to do that. So we stayed with them for about a week. Obviously they guaranteed a job for us, we never got a job from, from--any help from them period. We were on our own a week after we came here.
You came to New York first?
Yeah, we stayed there too with relatives, about two days, something like that, three days.
You came on a train here?
With?
You took a train from New York to Detroit?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the train, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it would have to be a train.
And they met you at the train station?
Yeah, they met us.
Do you remember that experience? Was it...
No, I remember by the--they met us by the boat, not the train station.
But not in Detroit.
Not in Detroit. Obviously. I'm trying to figure, is it a boat or the train? It would have to be, it would have to be the train.
So you don't remember that occasion when they...
No.
When you finally...
They were pretty friendly you know.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn