Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001
Work in Detroit
Who was the principal?
Goldaftis. Mr. Goldaftis. And so he hired me and I would teach Sunday School in the morning. I would go Sunday in the morning to teach the children kindergarten, not, not nursery school. They were five and older and we would talk about the holidays and I'd teach 'em aleph bet and, and read a little bit to them and sing 'em Hebrew songs, and...
But nothing about God.
Pardon?
But nothing about God.
Well, we would talk about the holidays, yeah, but not too much about you know, God.
Yeah.
But, it was, that was a nice time. I made an awful lot of friends, right away, I, you know. I felt good because I befriended the people I worked with. I met a woman, her name is Sarah Kirsch. We are still friends until today, the best of friends. Until today we're friends. Um,
So this opened up a whole new world for you.
A new world. I, I must tell you that my first encounter with children in the United States--when I came here in April uh, in the summer I worked in Yeshiva ??? and the Day Camp, because I needed to learn English quickly so I could find a job. And this was a good way to learn. When you work with children you're not as nervous about talking the language or conscientious or, or worry about making a mistake. So I worked for free the whole summer long in that camp. And it gave me a terrific break, because I picked up from the kids English one, two, three. And you know, you talk with children and, and they're easy to learn from. They're, it's a simple way to, to learn. And I met some nice people there. They were very sweet. Mrs. Zucker, she was the head teacher and some other women. And um, that's how I kinda broken into the English language. So by the time I came to Chaim Greenberg, I already could speak a little English with the little ones. And uh, it was a nice job. I worked there for almost for two years actually. And I quit two weeks before I got married.
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