Herman Benioff was born in Viola, Delaware on the Benioff Farm to Isaac Benioff and Ida Baylis Benioff, on 23 March, 1900. He became a partner in Benioff Furs and later in life, in his early 50’s married Pearl Osakof, in 1951. They had no children.
“At our family meals there were always fresh vegetables that Uncle Herman grew in his large garden. I remember as a young child that I left the table crying because he insisted that I eat them. Either my mother or maybe Bobba would follow me to the bedroom to comfort me. These vegetables, in retrospect, were fresh and if I had tried them, I would have realized that they were delicious.
Uncle Herman gave me $50, an enormous sum in those days, when I went to college so that I would not smoke. This gift prevented me from smoking in college and in graduate school.
Since my mother worked in the fur business whe had our dinners at Bobba’s apartment. Among the family members was a girl named Edith Heilbronn (later Adler). She came to the family at age 14 (my age at that time). She was one of 50 children brought to the United States to save them from being exterminated in Germany. She was one of the few children who came to America and remained with their original placement: our family. Her parents and her younger sister could not be rescued from Germany although we tried to do this. Bobba and our family arranged for one younger sister, Elsa to come and be placed in Bethlehem PA. She later married and this time lives with her husband in Israel at a kibbutz called Ayelet Hashahar and is a retired nurse. Edith Heilbronn married a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia and died in Israel about 15 years ago.
Uncle Herman married late in his life to a woman named Pearl Osakoff from Philadelphia. They had no children. As a widow she left a large sum of money for a special atrium to a Young Judea hostel around the year 2000. I asked the Israeli government if our Rabbi could visit this hostel and was told that there could not be visitors for security reasons.
Uncle Herman in personality was very outspoken and very conservative. He identified the Benioff family as superior because we were Russian Jews.
Uncle Herman revisited the area around Viola, Delaware where the old family farm still exists and went fishing, and hunting for rabbits. The old farm is currently located next to some preserve or sanctuary.”
— From Fragments of a Memory by Edythe Rickel Bloom, revised January 2012
Serial Number 2237, Order Number a-647
