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Eva (Libe) Lipson was born in Jerusalem on August 10, 1905. Her parents were Isak Jacob Lipson and Peske (Pauline) Levy Lipson. She had 3 sisters (Celia, Bella and Tsivia) and one brother (Leo). Bella and Sylvia went to a British School (Evalin de Rothchild) and Libe and Celia learned with a tutor. They learned English, spoke Hebrew in class. Her sister Celia said she was really really bossy, and that she always got her way.
The family emigrated to Minneapolis in around 1920 and finally settled in Los Angeles. Libe married Sol Friedman in 1927. She had 5 children. She could sew anything! She made clothes for my dolls when I was a little girl, making them look just like outfits I was wearing. I remember a green corduroy coat and a red skirt with suspenders. She taught me to knit and to crochet. She had a closet FULL of all different kinds of yarns and buttons. I never saw her eat anything other than cottage cheese. Her refrigerator was full of “refrigerator cookies”. There was a gadget that you could poke into an orange so that you could drink orange juice right out of the fruit. My sister has her foot-pedal sewing machine that had been converted at some time to electric.
She died 11 Nov, 1977 in Los Angeles of an acute Myocardial Infarction after a history of Arteriosclerotic and Hypertensive Heart disease.
Here is a ship manifest for May 5 1920, the ship Noordan, sailing from Boulogne Sur Mer to NY. I want to take you through some of the mysteries that come to the surface. There are two families of interest on this manifest, 2 women traveling with their children: Sarah Levi and Peche (Pauline) Lipson. Peche is Libe Lipson’s mother, ie my great grandmother. Sarah Levi is her sister-in-law.
Sarah Hinde Cohen married Peske Levy’s brother Zvi Arye Levy, and is traveling with 5 of her 7 daughters. One daughter Dina, who was born in 1905 may have died before 1920 and therefore was not present, Naomi (Nachama) had not been born yet, she was born in New York about a year and a half after Sarah had been united with her husband Harris Zvi Levi.
Peche Levy Lipson was traveling with all of her 5 children: Simei (Celia), Libe, Bayle (Bella), Lebe (Leo) (although he is marked as female!), and Siria (Tsivia or Sylvia).
You will note that in the case for both families they are traveling as US citizens. How was that accomplished? Pesche’s father and Sarah Hinda’s father-in-law, was Reb Shmuel Levy (he went by Simon Levi in the US) had arrived in the US in February of 1881 and was naturalized April 3 of 1893. But his children, all of whom were born in Jerusalem were not naturalized. So he did what he had to do…he claimed they were all born in Chicago. The story handed down to me was that the mayor of Chicago called for all those with birth records destroyed by the fire, to claim new ones. Supposedly that is why Shmuel did for all of his children. You can see on many documents that their birthplace was Chicago, rather than Jerusalem.
Also look to the far right of the document and you can see who they were coming to stay with in the U.S. In Sarah’s case…she is coming to stay with her husband, Mr. Harris Levy, living at 623-27 Stone Ave in Brooklyn. In Pesche’s case she is going to her brother-in-law, Mr. A. Lipson 2035 Berger Street in Brooklyn. This was most likely because her husband, Isak J. Lipson was living in Minneapolis at the time. They would eventually join him there but were staying for a bit in New York with Isak’s brother Alex (Elias) Lipson.
The first card was sent on November 19, 1927 (2 months after she and Sol were married). He was going back and forth to Hermosillo at that point. So in November of 1927 were they living in El Paso? or was that just a place for Libe to stay while Sol was away? Then on November 29, 10 days later, she gets the second card which identifies her as a US citizen. Sol is not a citizen at this point. The card says that she was admitted as a US Citizen at Ellis Island on 5/16/20.
The ship manifest says that her parents were American: Peshe because she was “born in Chicago” – her father had obtained a false birth certificate for her and her husband Isak Jacob Lipson had been naturalized in 1919.
The above audio recording Libe Lipson Friedman, interviewed by Annette Bothman was recorded in March of 1976, at Libe’s home, 149 S. Highland in Los Angeles. She describes her parents, her grandparents, siblings and growing up in Jerusalem. For comparison you can listen to her sister Celia Lipson Levy’s interview as well. A downloadable pdf of the transcription of this interview is provided below.
Thank you to David Bothman for having the reel-to-reel converted to MP3.
