Chapter 43

This is Gemma Kane, speaking with Mordecai Da’veed, the retired owner of Allegro Printing, at his apartment in Brooklyn, New York City. Today is Wednesday, June 7, 1961, and the time is 1:00 PM.

Gemma: Mr Da’veed. Am I saying it correctly?

Mordecai: Yes, it’s a phonetic spelling of the way David is pronounced in Hebrew.

Gemma: It’s unusual. Thankfully, it made it easy for me to find you in the phone book.

Mordecai: I’m glad. But please dear, you must call me Mordecai.

Gemma: (Nods) I was surprised to see in the phone book that Allegro Printing is still in business.

Mordecai: My son runs the company now. It specializes in Judaica—flyers for the synagogues’ holiday events, napkins with the names of the bar mitzvah boy, or the bride and groom, in gold lettering. (Shrugs) It’s the American way. Jews today are more American than Jewish. I worry our heritage will end with this generation of parents but nu, what can you do? Time marches on.

Gemma: (Notes Jewish calendar on wall, prayer shawl and holy book on corner table) My Italian mother was also big on heritage and she passed it on to me and my son. So, there’s hope.

Mordecai: If nothing else, the food will survive. Can I offer you some blintzes? Jewish crepes. (Goes to refrigerator) I’m sorry they’re not fresh. We eat these on Shavuot, which was late last month. But my granddaughter Gittel stuffed my freezer with the leftovers, so I shouldn’t go hungry.

Gemma: If it’s no trouble to heat them up, I’d love to taste one.

Mordecai: Gittel fills hers with chopped nuts, same as my wife Emma, may she rest in peace. The sour cream what you put on top is fresh, Gittel brought it to me this morning. (Shuffles around kitchen, preparing food) You have children, yes? A son who’s getting married soon? Mazel tov.

Gemma: Thank you. As I explained on the phone, I’m here because of him.

Mordecai: (Brings two plates with blintzes and sour cream to Formica-topped table)

Gemma: (Tastes) Delicious. You’re right. Food will forever connect the generations. (Takes another bite) I’m hoping for something more on this trip, though. You knew the man who I’m pretty sure is my father. He worked for you fifty years ago, but maybe you remember him? He was your sales representative at Triangle Waist Company at the time of the big fire.

Mordecai: (Swallows) Ayal Gabay. I’ll never forget him. A-Y-A-L. G-A-B-A-Y.

Gemma: (Catches breath; writes father’s name with shaky hand) Please, pronounce it again. (Repeats name after Mordecai) Now, tell me everything you remember about him.

Mordecai: Of course, child. (Stops) Are you all right?

Gemma: (Afraid to move; whispers) Yes. Please, go on.

Mordecai: Ayal was clever with words and pictures. He gussied up the flyers that were Allegro’s specialty back then. Sales spiked after I hired him. But Ayal was too ambitious to stay with me. He left to open his own greeting card business. I sold him one of our old printing presses to get started. He got the money from his father-in-law, who I knew. I printed flyers for his fur business.

Gemma: (Blanches) My father was married?

Mordecai: (Brings me a glass of water) Sorry, I assumed you knew. Yes, the family was wealthy, by Jewish immigrant standards. Their daughter, Ayal’s wife, was a sweet girl. Not a looker, like Ayal, but devout. Never got over his divorcing her, but that was a couple of years after the fire.

Gemma: So my father was still married to her when you sent him to do business with Triangle?

Mordecai: Sure. I used to go myself, but Ayal hit it off with an assistant manager who doubled their order. After that, I let Ayal take over the account. (Shakes head) Terrible what happened to the girls who died there. If I’d known conditions at Triangle were that bad, I never would have taken them on as a customer. I’m not against making a profit, but not with unscrupulous people.

Gemma: (Aloud, but speaking to self too) His being married explains my mother’s secrecy about her past. She’s a devout Catholic. Adultery and pregnancy. That doubles the shame. She’d never consider an abortion. Unless ... How do, or did, Jews feel about it?

Mordecai: It depends. The Orthodox are generally opposed to it. Reformed Jews accept it. I’m not sure about Conservatives. Mostly we don’t talk about it. For us too, it’s a shanda, a shame.

Gemma: What branch of Judaism—is that the right term—was Ayal?

Mordecai: I don’t know. But when he started his own business, he used the name Alan Gordon not to sound Jewish. His company was called Gordon’s Greetings. The divorce happened just as it began to take off. I heard that soon afterwards he married a Protestant girl—what we call, you should pardon me, a shiksa—from a family much wealthier than his first in-laws. (Tsks) As I see it, after he milked his first wife for her parents’ money, he turned his back on her and our people.

Gemma: (Thinks) So my mother not being Jewish wouldn’t have bothered Ayal, although maybe marrying a Catholic was considered worse than marrying a Protestant. Her being poor is what would have put him off. Did he have any children with his first wife before he divorced her?

Mordecai: No. He didn’t even give the poor woman that much. I heard he had a daughter with his second wife, then I lost touch. The fur company cancelled the account with me. The owner’s family wanted to cut off anything that reminded them of Ayal. (Frowns) I’m sorry. This makes your father sound like a bad man. I think he was just young, and eager. Like so many immigrants and their first-generation children. They saw an opportunity to succeed in America, they took it.

Gemma: Thank you for saying that. I’ll have to meet him and decide for myself. (Smiles, wobbly) If I had my wish, it’s that my son would have a Jewish grandfather as sweet and kind as you.

Mordecai: (Wags finger, grins) Don’t get your hopes up. Sweet and kind are not words I would use to describe Ayal. But who knows? The Holocaust changed people, some for the worse and some for the better. Maybe in Mr Gabay’s case it was for the better.

Gemma: I don’t know how much I’ll learn about his past, but maybe it’s more important to learn what kind of a person he is now.

Mordecai: Spoken like a Talmudic scholar. (Pulls pocket watch from vest pocket; squints) Gittel will be here soon. My eyes don’t work so good anymore, so every afternoon she comes over to read me the Jewish Forward. (Squeezes my hand) For you, I wish that your son and daughter-in-law, and their kinder, look after you and your mother as good as my family looks after me.

Gemma: (Squeezes back) If I’m successful, I may find another old person for them to look after.

The interview ended at 1:40 PM.