Every Day Items
These are items we use on a daily basis. They are important to our families because they paint a picture of our memories.
Table
San Francisco
This table originally belonged to my great-great grandmother. She gave it to my great-grandmother who gave it to my grandma who then gave it to my mom. This was originally a full size table but the legs on it were cut down, so it became a coffee table that stood in all of our family rooms.
In each generation our family has used this table in our family rooms. I remember I was once at my grandparents house, and we used the table to hold the birthday cakes for my mom, grandpa, and grandma. All of their birthdays are close together. Someday I want this table to stand in my family room too.
Medal awards for military.
U.S. military
Grandpa P
Uncle Lester served our country and received medals for his service in the military from fighting In North Africa, Italy, and the Philippines. He got the nation\'s second highest award, a Silver Star, for extreme bravery fighting in Sicily, and a purple heart for being killed in battle, as well as two other medals for fighting in North Africa. He was a soldier in the 1st division, \"Big Red One\", and was pinned down by a German machine gun nest in 1943. He managed to single handedly go to the machine gun nest and take out the machine gunner and wiped out the gunners, but then was killed.
When Uncle Lester was in the Philippines in 1938 he was called a dirty Jew by his Corporal. He punched his superior officer in the nose and broke his nose. He was Court Marshaled and sentenced to time in the brig for his action. He went on to fight honorably against the Nazis for his country, and was killed in action in Sicily in 1943.
NYC Police Badge
New York
Great Grand Father
The artifact that I want to talk about is a replica of my Great Grand Father’s New York City Police Badge. My Great Grand Father’s name is Joe. He is 96 years old and he was a New York City Policeman for 20 years between the years of 1941 and 1964. It means a lot to our family, because my Great Grandfather had to breakdown many stereotypes about Jewish people while working in a profession that did not have many Jews at that time. This replica badge was given to my Great Grandfather when he retired in 1964. He gave it to me a few years ago with a picture that was taken of him when he was a policeman.
My Great Grandfather was then and still is a man of great honesty and integrity. I think he carried his Jewish values from his family with him as he enforced the laws of New York as a policeman. So, I think what this badge represents to me is the laws that we follow in American society are much like the laws and commandments we follow from the Torah. The Torah teaches us that it is important to have a set of rules and laws to follow.