Joe's Family History: Zeltzers and Auslanders

 Joe Auslander's Family History Background

by Mark Auslander (September 2020)

Preface

I would say that my father, who really does regard himself as a citizen of the world, has never been fascinated by family genealogy. This is not to say that Dad is uninterested in his family relations; his mathematical mind is certainly skilled at recollecting and reconstructing kinship relationships and he has maintained close connections with many relatives around the world  But he lacks the obsessive curiosity I would say about family history that my sister Bonnie and I have developed over the years, along with a number of our cousins: he is I suspect just too interested in people of all sorts to wear the narrow blinders required for parochial family history research.

Nonetheless, I thought it would be fun on the occasion of Dad’s 90th birthday to summarize briefly his family history, with a few observations along the way on people and events that may have shaped his distinctive personality and outlook upon the world, including his commitment to social justice, his love of all the arts, and perhaps even his quest, in mathematics, to chart the elegant contours of the music of the spheres.

I begin with the Zeltzer half of the equation and then turn to the Auslander manifold.  (Please send along corrections and clarifications.)

A Birthday Fable: Frank Dux

 Frank Dux, Joe's friend across nine decades, has composed this ftantasy on the occasion of Joe's 90th:

Joe’s Birthday

A fable, a fanciful trifle

Birthdays are commonplace; they’re nothing special.
So what’s to celebrate?  Joe would be special
If he got here and reached this ninetieth year
Without a day of birth.  That would be queer.
And yet, there is something about you, Joe,
That could lend credence to what seems bizarre.
Your friends and family have come to know
The rare and fascinating Joe you are:
Professor Emeritus in academe,
At home collecting birthdays your set theme.
Who among us has not had from Joe
Each year that birthday greeting on the day?
His copious mind a stockroom of birthdays,
This eminent figure we have come to know.
Or do we?  Could it be, not having any,
He compensated by collecting many?
And then among them did himself install,
Became this benefactor to us all.

But why the date September tenth? Why not?
Just probabilities: days drawn by lot.



Frank Dux
August 2020

Alice Swersey Memories

Alice Swersey remembers stories from across the decades:

1930s: A story that I heard many times from my parents was that Joe was adored by my father when he was a baby.  Harry recounted that whenever he sang Brahms Lullaby to Joe, the baby cried.
It was thought that this baby was particularly musically astute.  Just to prove his theory Harry sang to Joe numerous times and the baby cried each time he heard the music. Subsequent commentary (by my mother) recalled that perhaps Harry was torturing the infant!

1940 s   “Flooden Ooden”  Those were Joe’s funny words which I thought were somewhat endearing when I was a little girl. 

1950s  My image is of Joe pacing through  the living room at 120 Riverside Drive, singing a passage of a Beethoven String Quartet…..”pom pom pom pom pom pom”.

1960s  A visit with Joe and Ruth in Baltimore when Burt was in the army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.  Ruth served delicious pork chops (which Burt did not exactly eat) . This….just before Mark appeared on the scene.

1970s A visit to Washington DC when our children were little.  We slept in a room on the second floor.  Way into the night we heard the click click of chalk on the chalkboard upstairs as Joe was crunching numbers. 

1980s  Fourth Lake in the Adirondacks.  We spent a (rainy) week with Joe, Ruth, Mark, Bonnie, Celia, Harry, Burt, and me, Bill, Sarah, Rachel….oops Rachel was a baby….this is still the 1970s.  Only one day on the beach. 

1990s   A visit to Shadowbrook Farm in Stephentown, NY.  Who would-a thought….. Joe’s second wife, Harriet, has an aunt and uncle who spend summers in Stephentown, NY!  My parents become friendly with these folks.

2000’s  ……if you live long enough…….Joe and Barbara attend High Holiday services at the little country shul in Chatham, NY which Alice & Burt founded.  They liked it. 

and much more……..A delightful evening in Washington DC a few years ago.  Sarah and I were in DC to attend the Lemelson Foundation gala at the Smithsonian.  A memorial tribute to Burt Swersey was part of the celebration.  As Joe, Barbara, Sarah and I waited for a table at a rather tony outdoor restaurant…..Sarah was SO impressed with how much Joe knew about the flute repertoire. 

Yes…..Music, Baseball, Chocolate Cake, an infectious giggle, a warm loving cousin…..

All my love    Alice
 

Louis Uchitele, Joe Auslander, Paul Resika. Rooftop of the Wales Hotel  May 9, 2009 on the occasion of Alice & Burt's 50th Anniversary Party

 

Historical Family Photos

 Here are some historical family photographs, from both the Zeltzer and Auslander sides of Joe Auslander's family

1. Frieda Zeltzer, her mother's sister Sema, and Sema's brother Nison (Presumably in a photographic studio in Bobrusk, c. 1906?)   Frieda was Joe's mother Rebekah's eldest sister. Sema was the sister of Chava Weinstein Zeltzer,  the mother of Frieda and Rebekah (and thus the maternal grandmother of Joe).

Source: Lucy Kerman

 

 

 

 

 

2. Morris Canick, aged about two years, with his father, Rabbi Jacob Canick, his mother, Peshe Zeltzer Canick (Perla, Pauline,Pearl), sister of Joseph Zeltzer, and his grandmother, Rochel Zeltzer.   The Canicks lived across the street from the Zeltzers.  Perhaps in a Bobrusk studio,  c. 1904

Source: Pearl Solomon (daughter of Morris).  "Bubba Rochel" (1842-1918) was the mother of Joseph Zeltzer, the grandmother  of Rebekah (Zeltzer) Auslander, and thus the maternal grandmother of Joe Auslander

Memories from Vicki Margulies

 Vicki Margulies, Joe's first cousin, writes:

 Although I’m obviously inching in the same general direction, I was and remain Joe’s younger cousin, so alas my memories are usually secondhand or at best limited. Mostly I remember Joe when I'd seem him 'en passant' in Shrub Oak;  he’d often stop by our house on his way to the ball field, for example.   As I recall, brother David revered Joe’s encyclopedic knowledge of Mozart's catalogue as well as his comprehensive knowledge of baseball scores and batting averages.  Frankly, I had no idea what they were talking about then, and am not sure even now that I know what I’m saying.  In those days, Joe was known to walk through our kitchen to see if perchance any of Runya's baked goodies happened to be lying about.  If memory serves, Joe was a particular fan - as I was too - of my mother's chocolate cake, so admittedly I had some trepidation about his brief, but usually productive, visits.

It was always clear that Joe was an esteemed relative, beloved nephew of Runya and Harry, and adored cousin of David's, who had a wealth of information on many fronts.  Since I was ignorant of them all, there were few points of communication for us in the old days.    

 Later, of course I relished Joe's terrific sense of humor, his love for, real interest in, and wide-ranging knowledge of music and all else.  And, of course I consider Joe, one of my very special Zeltzer birthday buddies!  I raise a glass to Joe on this great occasion and send happy birthday wishes to Joe, along with love to Joe, Barbara, Mark, Bonnie, and their families!

xoxoxoxo
Vicki
 

Photos from Joseph Klein

Joe Auslander's cousin Joseph Klein (son of Pauline Zeltzer and Sol Klein) has kindly shared some family photographs in anticipation of the upcoming birthday:

Pauline and Celia with their mother Chava (Weinstein) Zeltzer.   New York City, 1920s:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Zeltzer sisters; Frieda,  Celia, Pauline.  In Danzig, c. 1920 -21. Note:  Frieda lived in Danzig, from  November 1920-December 1921,  Several of her younger sisters evidently passed through Danzig and saw her en route to the US. (Judy recalls that Rebekah remembered that the best butter she ever tasted was in Danzig, when she was staying with Frieda, during that time).  It should be noted that be this point was a Free City under a League of Nations Mandate: William was imprisoned for a time in Danzig or Poland and Frieda appears to have visited him frequently.

 

 

 

Rebekah (Zeltzer) Auslander, W. 84th and Broadway, New York City. (c.1968?)

Cilli Auslander (Bi's sister) with Pauline (Zeltzer) Klein, and Runya (Zeltzer) Margulies, in Vienna, 1970s

Pauline and Runya,  Vienna, 1970s?)

Paul Resika and Joe Auslander in foreground. Ellen Schattschneider (wife of Mark Auslander) in background.  Family gathering, Upper East Side  New York City. c. 2000?

Barbara Meeker, Joe Auslander, Joseph Klein, August 1988 in the Cairo Building, Washington DC.  Pastel by Paul Resika on wall.

Joe Auslander, Joseph Klein, Vicky Klein. August 1988 in the Cairo Building, Washington DC.

From Tom Ward

 See the lovely video recorded by Tom Ward for Joe's 90th:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmqp9v7u1ppifpp/WIN_20200902_09_20_20_Pro.mp4?dl=0

Transcript below:

Dear Joe – a very happy 90th birthday to you! 

I arrived at Washington National Airport (as it was then known – I won’t speculate on such a happy day on the wisdom and appropriateness of naming airports after Republican presidents) late in August 1989. A letter home a few weeks later read “Stepping out of Washington National Airport, I was met with stunning heat and humidity, rather like Manzini at its most oppressive. Fortunately, I had been met by two people from the Department, Ken Berg and Joe Auslander. We walked across a grill pan of a car park to Joe’s little car, and then proceeded through the hair-raising roads of Washington to Hyattsville. After locating the house where I was to stay and leaving my luggage there, we three went to collect Joe’s wife and go to a restaurant.”

The great kindness Joe (and Ken Berg and Nelson Markley, and others from the group that Delores, one of the administrative staff in the mathematics department, referred to as “the guys” – Mike Boyle, Dan Rudolph, Misha Brin) showed to a nervous new post-doc who hadn’t yet defended his thesis made a huge impact. My family background involved multiple countries, but one of us working in the United States was a real departure, and my mother announced that for the first time it felt like one of her children had gone somewhere truly foreign. She also gave me the best advice to anyone taking the first wobbly steps as an academic: “don’t try to be clever, everyone here is clever. Try to be kind.”
That was reinforced by how Joe treated everyone. Practically of course, but Joe would also find opportunities to boost younger mathematicians and students in seminars. Celebrating the success of others.

My next vivid memory of Joe and Barbara was a flying visit Tania and I made to Washington just a few weeks after our marriage in 1990, an enjoyable dinner with them and a lovely Joe incident – he decided he should have given us a wedding present, so rushed into his own kitchen and assembled a set of beautiful hand-made mugs for us, which stayed with us for many years – a reminder of his instinctive generosity.
Mathematics, life, the minutiae of the distinction between “ergodic theory” and “topological dynamics” meant that over the next thirty years we only met at certain broad conferences. Always a pleasure to catch up with Joe, to share pain or joy about political developments, a random collage of lunches in Bonn and teas in Warwick and so on.

So – a very happy birthday Joe from both of us, very best wishes for the future, and thank you for your many kindnesses all those years ago.