| No, not me, my grandfather, for whom I am named. Shlome Fuksman (later known as Samuel Lemuel Fox) was born on July 12, 1875 in Sudche, Minsk Gubernia, Russia. His father was Jacob Samuel Fuksman, and his mother was named Tsirel Cott. The family later moved to Lyubeshiv, a larger town a few miles away. These places are now in Ukraine, very close to the border with Belarus. Lyubeshiv is even now quite small, and Sudche is little more than a crossroads. I don’t know what the Fuksmans did for a living. When he was fairly young, Shlome’s mother died, supposedly as a result of lightning striking the house and coming down through the chimney. After his father remarried, Shlome went to live for a while with his father’s sister Hinda in Warsaw. His brother had already gone there because he didn't get along with his stepmother. Hinda’s husband was a musician and was called Spieler (which means musician) though his family name seems really to have been Epstein. Shlome worked with him until he had to return home to be drafted into the army. In the army he played the cornet in a band. The only other thing I know about his army service is that (per my uncle Dave) he didn’t like it. After he was discharged he moved to Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) which was a city with a large Jewish population. He married, and his wife died in childbirth. I know nothing more about her, not even her name. He remarried on December 27, 1901, this time to Reva Yenta (Jennie Reva) Soloveichik. Reva was born in Urechya, Minsk Gubernia, a very small place south-east of Slutsk, on September 10, 1880. Her father was Rabbi Israel David Soloveichik, and her mother was named Sarah. Israel David died in 1886 or 1887, when Reva was 7, and at some point after that Sarah and her four children moved to Vilna. Reva learned to make gloves from a neighbor there, and did this part-time at home, but I don’t know if she ever had any other occupation. Shlome and Reva’s first two children, Sonya (Sunny) and Dave, were born in Russia in 1902 and 1904, respectively. When Shlome came to America the ship’s passenger list listed him as a painter. My uncle Dave once told me that at one point in Vilna his father bought a lot of potatoes with the idea of selling them later, but they went bad, so he seems also to have tried some other business ventures, without much success. In 1904 Shlome was threatened with being re-conscripted into the army, perhaps because of the looming Russo-Japanese war, and so he left the country clandestinely. My cousin Cindy reported (no doubt on authority of her mother, my Aunt Ethel) that to avoid re-conscription he hired someone to break his leg, but the authorities arrested him and jailed him for trying to get out of military service. He was allowed to go home to say good-bye before reporting for duty, and at that point he absconded. My aunt Gus told me that he buried his uniform in the back yard and, on the instructions of the smuggler who was taking him over the border, brought meat to throw to the guard dogs. At that period, many Jews were leaving Russia, and the regular procedure was for the Germans to round them up on the other side of the border, and put them on trains bound for Hamburg, where the shipping companies had dormitories to hold them until their ships left. Shlome sailed from Hamburg on March 4 on the Blücher, and arrived at Ellis Island on March 15. When he left, Reva was pregnant, and she gave birth to Dave on May 1. Shlome had relatives already in America, and they were calling themselves Fox, rather than Fuksman, so he did, too. He also took the first name Sam, instead of Shlome. Contrary to popular belief, such name changes were done informally, after arrival in the country, and officials at Ellis Island did not have anything to do with it. I don’t know anything about what Sam did for a living in his first years in New York, but he somehow made enough money to pay to bring his wife and children over. Reva was afraid that she would have problems getting out of Russia, since her husband had left the country illegally, so she used her maiden name when she was traveling. Supposedly, she had a second-class ticket on the boat, rather than steerage, so she did not have to be processed through Ellis Island. She and Sunny arrived in New York on the Vaderland on May 30, 1906. Dave started to come with her, but had to go back to Russia because he had an eye ailment called trachoma, and that disqualified him from admission to the US. I suspect that he was stopped before boarding the boat in Hamburg. He eventually recovered, but did not come to America until 1911, along with Reva’s sister Shana. After Reva Yentl came to America she called herself Jennie. She and Sam had six more children: Helen (known as Gus) in 1907, Abe in 1908, Ethel in 1913, Ruth in 1915, my father Benjamin Aaron (known as Arnold Benjamin) in 1917, and Charlotte in 1924. They lived in the Bronx, except for a year or two at 64 West 144th Street in Harlem, which happened to include the 1920 visit of the census-taker. The census record lists Samuel, Jeanette, Celia, David, Gussie, Ethel, Abraham, Ruth, and Arnold. In New York Sam did house painting and operated small shops, which were not very successful. However, he bought a liquor store not long before the start of prohibition, and during that brief period before he had to shut down he made a great deal of money. When prohibition started he still had some liquor in a warehouse in Kentucky, and paid off the police in order to be allowed to continue to bring it to New York and sell it from his apartment, but eventually it was all gone. After prohibition started he went back to house painting. He also bought a building which he rented out. Jennie was quite pious, but Sam was not very religious, nor was his family, whom Gus described as “free-thinkers”. Dave told me that his father once noticed that he was taking an interest in religion, and told him not to waste his time with it. On the other hand, he belonged to a synagogue, and as a result of his brief financial success, he was made treasurer. Sam had cousins in Brooklyn, and would take the subway there on Sundays to spend the day with them. I believe that I have been told that he was a cheerful, gregarious person. My father was born on August 2, 1917. His birth certificate listed him as Benjamin Aaron, but his sisters Americanized the name to Arnold Benjamin, and that is what he was called when he got older. At the time Arnold was born, the family lived on E 139th St. in the Bronx. They moved to Harlem for a few years, and when Sam petitioned for naturalization they were already at the address on 144th Street where they would be a couple of years later when the census was taken. However, by 1921 or 1922 they were back in the Bronx at 1685 Weeks Ave, near 173rd St. Around 1923 they moved to 1774 Monroe Ave. On January 3, 1924, the last sibling, Charlotte, was born. By then, Sam had been ill for some time, and on April 24 of that year, he died, perhaps of stomach cancer. He was only 48 years old. |
| Created on 4 June 2024, updated on 13 July 2025 by Samuel Ethan Fox |