RACHEL
NEMENOFF (GLICK)
Rochel, Rose, Rosie, Rosa
  
 
Family:
-
Spouse: Ben Nemenoff
-
Children (spouses in parentheses):
Harry
(Helen), Jack (Sara), Irving (Louise), Sophie (Meyer Levin),
Martin, David (Sylvia), Eva (Lawrence Kriesberg)
-
Grandchildren (spouses in parentheses):
Bruce, Marc, Howie (Jana), Sandy Schatz (William), Barry
(Joann, divorced), Brian (Leah, deceased),
Marla Smith (Frank), Barry Kriesberg, Kenneth Kriesberg (Connie)
-
Great-grandchildren (spouses in parentheses):
Erica, Jacqueline
Shatz (Scott Kagan),
Dana Shatz (Reid Walfor), Anthony Shatz, Michael Levin,
Daniel Levin, Rachel Levin, Jennifer Levin, Ben (Erin Nelson), Andrew
(Shannon Heatley), MaryKate Leslie (Joshua Annin)
Rachel was born on February 25 or 28, 1889 in Latskova, Lithuania, which at the time was
part of the Russian Empire. Latskova is now called Leckava and
is located in the northwestern region of Lithuania, about 8
kilometers northwest of Mazeikiai and on the Latvian border.
Her father was
Hirsch Zvi Glick; her mother was Pesche Nachemsohn.
The time in which
Rachel was born, raised, and left Lithuania as a teenager marked a
period of significant transition for the Jewish population in that
country. Pogroms and other anti-Semitic policies of the
Russian government were
rampant, and she was one of millions who emigrated from the Russian
Empire to the United States, Western Europe, and Palestine, among
other places. That being said, Rachel apparently left Latskova
because all of the Jewish men in town had been conscripted into the
Russian army, and left her with no one to marry. (Russian
males that were not adherents to the Russian Orthodox Church were
required by law to serve 16 to 25 years in the military.) There is no
indication that she left to avoid direct persecution or out of fear
for her own life. In any case, she lived for a time with
family in Copenhagen
before emigrating to Montreal, with a possible layover in Germany.
In Montreal, she met her husband
Ben at a boarding
house in which they were both living. They likely married in 1906 or
1907 and in 1910 had their first child, a son named Harry, in Montreal.
In 1910, Ben departed for the United States to meet his long-time
friend (and possible cousin) Henry Pesock (Piseach) in Chicago, crossing the border at
Niagara Falls on December 20. As can be seen on the
border-crossing document* below, Rachel and Harry followed some
three months later, reaching the U.S. border at Port Huron, MI on
March 15, 1911. They were granted access to the country on
March 18.
All told, Ben and Rachel had seven children, all of
whom except Harry were born in Chicago. Furthermore, an
unknown Nemenoff baby died on September 30, 1915 and is buried in
Warsaw Cemetery in Forest Park (gate 51, section 16B, grave 81).
The grave is not marked with a stone, which could indicate that
Rachel experienced a stillbirth. At the time, it was common
for rabbis to immediately inter a stillborn baby without a funeral,
so the family could more quickly move on. Research conducted by
Judith Diamond found that Ben and Rachel lost a baby daughter in
1919. This may or may not be the same child. That they
lost at least one infant has been confirmed by David, their youngest
son.
Tragedy struck again on November 21, 1929, when
Ben
died after being hit by a car while crossing a
street in Chicago, suffering fatal injuries to his spine and skull.
He was buried the next day, with his temple (Zemach Zedek) and
employer paying for funeral and burial costs. Rachel, a poor
unemployed immigrant, was left to raise seven children on her own
during the Great Depression.
The Depression years were marked by several moves
into many tenement buildings in the Humboldt Park area on the
northwest side
of Chicago. According to Rachel's son David,
landlords during the Depression were desperate for tenants.
They would frequently offer the first month rent-free. If the
second month's rent was not paid, landlords would often move to evict,
a process that often took another month. Therefore, the Nemenoffs could count on three months before having to move to
another place. Such tactics were rare in Rachel's household
and only employed when rent could not be paid under any
circumstance.
A proud and stubborn woman, Rachel insisted that her
children leave the house washed and in clean clothes. According to
David, Rachel forbade them from complaining about their situation.
"Everybody has their problems," says David, recalling his mother.
"They don't need to hear about yours."
Rachel saw three of her sons fight in World War II.
Only one, Harry, was wounded, shot in the leg during a battle in
Italy.
The wound was sufficient for him to be sent home, and Rachel did not
know the extent of the wound until he arrived on her doorstep.
(It turned out to be a minor wound that never caused him any
problems.) Jack was also an infantryman and among the American
battalion that liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Her second-youngest son "Husky"
(Martin) was an MP who was drafted in 1939 or 1940 and stayed the duration of
the war. He served in the South Pacific.
Rachel was almost deported back to Lithuania when
she applied to become a U.S. citizen. Thanks to a bureaucratic
error, her immigration documents showed that she crossed the border
on a train with one registration number, while she recalled a
different number. According to David, she was told that she
may have been in the country illegally and could possibly be
deported. She told them that if they wanted to pay the expense
of transporting her back to rural Lithuania, they were welcome to do
so. They opted to make her a citizen instead.
She lived out the rest of her life in Chicago,
sharing an apartment with her unmarried son Husky. According
to her grandson Brian (David's son), "nearly every Friday evening
was an open house at her residence at which she fed all comers."
She also reserved other nights to visit one child at a time.
David recalls an instance when he was eating dinner with his mother
alone at her apartment. His sister Sophie arrived unannounced
and Rachel sent her away, saying that this was her time with David
and Sophie would have to visit at a later date.
Rachel died on April 16, 1974. She had
suffered a stroke several months prior and had been recovering to
the point where she was about to return home. She then
suffered a second stroke and died in her sleep a few days later.
 
Rachel's youngest son David places stones at her
grave.
* This document was acquired from what are called
St. Albans Lists, named for the Vermont town in which the U.S.
government housed these documents at the time.
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