—Alone In The Castle—

by Rachel Pomerantz

This is based on a true story about how one Jewish family came to America in the early years of the last century. “The Castle” on Ellis Island is being restored as a National Historical Site. If your family came through Ellis Island, you can search for their immigration records at www.ellisislandrecords.org.

Leah stood with her family in the front of the ferry. The salt spray made her sore eyes ache.

“Look, there is the castle!” called her mother in excitement.

“Where?” asked her brother Mendel.

“Do you see the Statue of Liberty? Further back to the right,” explained Mama.

Leah looked past the enormous green woman holding up a torch. By squinting her eyes she could see a red brick building with towers. It did look like a castle, just as Papa had written to them from New York.

“We’re getting off soon. Everyone hold on tight to the packages and bundles! If we leave anything on this boat we will never see it again,” Mama warned them.

The new immigrants went down the gangplank to Ellis Island. They were sent to a large room with a high ceiling. Mama settled her family in one corner. Around them, they heard a babble of languages.

“Now, Leah, you watch the children while I try to get our papers in order. I have a list from Papa of just what I have to do.” Papa had sailed for America four years earlier, in 1907. Leah, who was twelve, remembered him well. For the youngest children he was only a distant memory. Mama set off with her list.

Mama came back an hour later. “When I told them that Papa had trained to measure eyesight and make glasses, I saw that they took me more seriously.” She looked proud.

“The only thing left is the doctor’s examination, to make sure we are healthy enough to enter America,” said Mama happily. “Once we get out, we can finally meet Papa. He will take us to Uncle Hyman’s house. We might even get there in time to help him search the apartment for khometz.” Khometz is food that contains leavening, like bread and crackers. Every speck of khometz had to be removed before Passover began.

Leah remembered helping Papa search for khometz, walking through the house with a candle and a feather to sweep up the last crumbs. Soon she would be doing it again. Tomorrow night was Passover.

The medical examination was held on the landing between the first and second floors. The doctor would listen to each immigrant’s chest, look down his throat, and then pry up each eyelid. It went fast.

Leah was the last in her family to be examined. The doctor listened to her chest, looked down her throat, pried up her eyelids. He frowned as he looked into her red, burning eyes. “Quarantine,” he pronounced. “Eye infection.”

Mama gave a shriek and clapped her hands to her cheeks. Leah would not be allowed to leave Ellis Island because the doctor thought she might have a contagious eye disease. “Don’t worry, Leah. We will stay with you. We will go back with you if you have to go back.”

Leah knew the rules. The steamship company had to take anyone who wasn’t accepted in Ellis Island back to Europe. The ship would sail for Hamburg in five days. If her eyes were not healed by then, their whole dream of joining Papa in America would be ruined. Mama, so happy a few minutes before, seemed to shrink with worry. Her dream of America, the Golden Land, was slipping away.

“No, Mama, no. Take the others and go out to Papa. Maybe the doctors will decide that I can stay. If not, I will go back to Grandma and Grandpa. When Papa has money, he will send me another steamship ticket.”

Mama looked at Leah, not sure what to do. “How can I leave you alone in a place like this?” she asked.

“I won’t be alone,” said Leah bravely. “Didn’t you tell us that God is always with us?”

Mama, in tears, hugged Leah and kissed her on the forehead. Then she gathered up her bundles. “Come, children,” she said wearily, “maybe your Papa will have an idea.”

The doctors gave Leah a bed in the infirmary and put some medicine in her eyes. In spite of her brave words to Mama, she felt very alone and frightened as she lay down to sleep. She whispered the prayer, “Sh’ma, Yisrael” to comfort herself.

For breakfast she ate the last of the bread Mama had left her. What would she do on Passover when she could no longer eat bread? Did anyone know about Passover here in the castle?

The woman in the bed on her left was Jewish. Her name was Mrs. Weinberg. Leah explained her fear of being sent back.

“Does your Papa have money for a steamship ticket?” asked Mrs. Weinberg.

“I think so,” said Leah.

“If he promises to pay your fare if you have to go back, they may let you stay here to get better. That's what they did for me.”

For the first time Leah began to have some hope that she could stay in America. She wished she had some way to tell Papa about this idea. She now told Mrs. Weinberg her other problem. "What can we get to eat on Passover?"

“I hope HIAS will remember to send us matzah.”

“Who?”

“HIAS. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. It’s an organization that helps people like us, who are coming to America.”

This gave Leah an idea. Perhaps she could talk to the people from HIAS. They might know of a way for her to avoid being shipped back to Germany.

There seemed to be nothing more Leah could do. She lay down with her eyes closed, hoping that would make them heal faster.

Late in the afternoon, Mrs. Weinberg bustled into the room. “Leah, get up, HIAS did remember us.”

“They sent matzah?” asked Leah.

“That’s right. The bread of affliction. The bread of redemption. It’s a good sign. Better than that. HIAS also sent someone to make a Seder for the Jewish patients in the infirmary. The doctors agreed, as long as he stays in another room. Two thousand years ago God took us out of Egypt and led us into the Promised Land of Israel. Today, in the year 1911, God will take us out of Ellis Island and lead us into the Promised Land of America. Have faith, Leah. Trust in God. It will happen. You will see.”

Leah jumped out of bed and put on her best dress. She followed Mrs. Weinberg to one of the side rooms, where a table was spread with paper.

Through the open doorway she saw the Seder table. The man from HIAS had spread a white cloth, and set down a pile of matzah. The Seder plate was battered pewter like the one that her family used, and had been set with the egg, the roast bone, the horseradish, the parsley, the kharoset mixture and the bitter herb. Leah sighed. Back home, it had been her job to prepare the Seder plate.

The man was looking in his bag for something else. He straightened up, holding a pile of Haggadot, and Leah got her first look at his face.

The man from HIAS looked directly at Leah. She recognized him at once, even though she hadn’t seen him in four years.

“Papa!” Leah shouted. She began to tremble with joy. “What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t you get my last letter?” Papa said. “I work for HIAS here in New York. So many immigrants arrive with eye problems. Most are not serious. They will clear up in a few days with the right medicine. I talk to the doctors. They listen to me because I know something about eye diseases. The doctors are good people. They don’t want to send anyone back. When Mama told me you were here, I asked to be sent to make the Seder. Let me see your eyes, Leah. Just as I thought. It is not serious. A few more days and we will all be together again.”

Mrs. Weinberg had been right. Matzah truly was the bread of redemption. That’s what Passover is really about, Leah thought, as she and Mrs. Weinberg and Papa and all the other Jewish people in the infirmary lifted their winecups together to say the first blessing.

New life. New hope. New beginnings.