My grandmother, Rivka Charna Chaya Bracha Friedman, was born in 1947 in Arad, Romania . Since life in Socialist  Romania was less than ideal, the her family decided to emigrate to America when she was less than 2 years old. Finally, after 3 years in various DP camps, they were allowed to come to America, aboard the ship USS General MB Stewart .  There, they bought a small railroad apartment  in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At first, life there didn’t seem much better than life in Romania. My grandmother says her mother later compared life in their tiny apartment to living in jail. Jobs were hard to come by and paid little. The family struggled financially for a while until my great-grandfather purchased a grocery store in 1952.

When she was 19 years old, my grandmother married Zelig Friedman, who managed a jewelry store. After the birth of their 9th child, they got divorced. To support her family, my grandmother became a teacher at Bais Rochel of Williamsburg, the same school she once attended. After a few years there, she was promoted to principal.

At the age of 55, my grandmother married Yechiel Rosenberg. Although he owns a house in Monsey, they stay there only for occasional weekends. Today, Rivka still lives in the same Williamsburg neighborhood she first moved to nearly 65 years ago.