Annette Lemanowitz Hersh
Annette (Anna)
Annette Lemanowitz Hersh followed her mother, Rose, to the United States from Russia. (See “History part 2.") She moved to New York in her early 20’s, and would marry Jack Hersh. They had two sons, Stuart and David. While the distance that our families lived from each other limited the visits that we had with them, we always looked forward to the times spent with Aunt Annette. My sister, Donna and I always loved sitting around the dining room table speaking with her and listening to her talk about, well, talk about pretty much anything. No matter what the topic, she was facinating to listen to.
Donna shared her memories of Aunt Annette: Because so many of my childhood memories centered around Aunt Annette & Uncle Jack, I felt I had to include my thoughts. Of course, Lake Peekskill is what immediately comes to my mind. Boy, did we have fun. Life seemed so carefree & full of adventure when we went there. Usually around July 4th, I think because I remember going to see fireworks at night. Aunt Annette was always baking one of her famous cakes and instructing us not to let the screen door slam because the cake was in the oven. If you dared to sniffle in front of her, she gave you a teaspoon of honey. Aunt Annette always had friends visiting. She was a real people person & loved her social life. But, her long beautiful hair!! I never knew anyone as old as she was (in my young life) who had hair like hers. All of the other ladies used to go to the hairdresser. But there was Aunt Annette who at night would take her hair down out & comb it out. I think my mother called her Pocahontas. Years later, when she would visit us here in Philly, it was never a "chore" to have to stay home because my aunt was visiting. It was a pleasure. Bonnie and Sharon would be there & we would all listen to Aunt Annette tell us family stories over coffee and cake. And yes, it was a cake that Aunt Annette made and brought from New York on the train wrapped in foil. She never got over Uncle Jack's sudden death. He was the love of her life. But so were her boys. She was so proud of David & Stuart, who she used to call her "Wandering Jew" because of all the traveling he did. And we all know that if we did anything worthy, we immediately became a "credit to our Jewish Heritage.”
-Donna Westle Greenberg
May 2024: In the course of providing me with pictures of David Schwartz (the father of Rose Lemanowitz and Annette's maternal grandfather), our cousin, Mitch Collier, was going through his grandmother, Ann Collier's old photo albums (Ann was David's daughter and Rose's half-sister) and he discovered an amazing picture of Annette as a little girl in Russia, or thereabouts. After doing some research, Mitch discovered where the picture was taken, the name of the studio, etc. Who was with Annette when it was taken, and how the picture ended up in the US, is unclear as of now. You may have read on the "History part 2" page that Mitch's dad, Mort Collier, was quite close with Annette, and described in an amazing email to me Annette's journey to the US as she described it to him. You can read that email here. It was clear that there was a strong connection between Annette, and her Aunt Ann. Here is what Mitch learned about the picture of a very young Annette. In addition to that picture in the slide show below, I've added the map Mitch provided to me as a frame of reference. Note that in Mort's email, her paternal grandmother had directed her to head west and then take a train to Warsaw. Mitch's information on this picture:
"...The bottom of the photo has Russian language information for the photography studio and the city where the studio was located.
Members of the Tracing the Tribe Jewish Genealogy group on Facebook translated the bottom of the photo.
F. Goltsman [or Holtsman] [the photographer] Kobryn [the city where the studio is located (today in the Grodno district of Belarus)]
According to my Facebook helper, the studio owner is Fishel ben Chaim Goltsman or Holtsman.
Interestingly, Kobryn, is directly east of Warsaw by about 155 mi.
For context, see also the attached map that shows Kobryn at the very far right and Warsaw on the left."
-Robert Westle
- Robert Westle
