Summary(01:00) The grandparents of Harold Geller, Sam and Annie (Hannah Leah) Gorbach, came from Russia and Hungary in 1900. Sam was a tailor and lived on the Lower East Side. He bought a farm in East New York in 1912 and raised three sons -- (04:50) His son Morris enlisted in the Air Force in World War II in 1942, was discharged in 1945. Morris met Minnie Kaplan at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and they married in 1944. They spoke Yiddish at home -- (09:05) Parents of Annie were killed on a trip to Istanbul (Turkey). Sam Geller had arranged with the family to marry Annie and go to America -- (10:50) Harold's mother Minnie was from orthodox family, kept a kosher home and cooked traditional Jewish food. After marriage, Morris and Minnie moved to Flatlands Avenue, raised three sons -- (13:35) Harold went to several colleges, first faced antisemitism at Buffalo University -- (14:40) Harold had a happy childhood in a Brooklyn neighborhood of Irish and Italian Catholics, and Jews, that felt like a family-friendly small town -- (19:26) Morris was mechanic in Air Force. Returned to family farm to open a gas station with his brothers in 1947 -- (21:40) Harold studied biochemistry in Buffalo, then studied physics at Brooklyn College. He worked as engineer for the FBI, moved to Virginia -- (26:30) Harold has a fond memories Brooklyn and still views it as home.
NoteTitle supplied by cataloger. Audio interview conducted 2021 January 29, by Ariane Loeb. Collected through the Brooklyn Collection Jewish History Project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is funded by the David Berg Foundation.
RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
TitleOral history interview with Harold Geller on January 29, 2021.
Biographical NoteThe families of Samuel (1879-1960) and Annie (nee Hanna Leah Gorbach, 1877-1947) Geller came to the United States from Poland/Russia at the end of the 19th Century. They settled in Brooklyn on a farm located at 1023 Sheffield Avenue. Samuel was a tailor and member of the United Garment Workers of America. Their children Irving (1906-1986), Benny (1910-1977), Morris (1912-1995), and sister Jean grew up on the farm. Morris, an automobile mechanic, opened a gas station with his brothers on their parents’ land around 1950. Morris married Minnie (nee Kaplan, 1916-1993) in 1944 and they had three sons: Richard (1945-2011), Allen (1950-) and Harold (1955-).