| My maternal grandfather, Isaac Sweet – born Zveetkees – and his wife, Rose, were lived in the Jewish settlement in Nemirov, Russia. Some photos of the shtetl in Nemirov: |
| My maternal grandparents fled pogroms in the Ukraine, and Nemirov particularly, around the turn of the 20th century and relocated to Atlanta, GA. After I started this Web project, sister Francie did some digging and found original papers documenting the move of Isaac Zveetkees from Russia to the US. My mother's older siblings were born in Nemirov, but my mom was born and grew up in Atlanta's Jewish community. Zveetkees was changed by officials to Sweet at Ellis Island. |
| My mom, Lena Sweet, was born in Atlanta in 1915; she is pictured at right. Her mom, my maternal grandmother whom I never met, was born in Nemirov, Ukraine, as was my mom's oldest sister, my Aunt Bessie, who was also born in Russia and brought to Atlanta. This photo of the three of them is from around 1919 |
| I can't find any pictures of my Zaydeh (that's what I always called him, Yiddish for grandfather), i.e. my mother's father, from earlier in his life, but here's a 1960 shot of him in Atlanta with my mom and my mom's older brother, my Unce Himy (Chaim Zveetkees/Sweet). I would estimate that Zaydeh – the patriarch of this side of my family – is in his mid-nineties in this picture. Both of my grandfathers lived to be almost 100. |
| My cousin Marshall Sweet, son of my mom's oldest brother Ben, Atlanta 1949. Marshall left what he considered the oppressive orthodoxy of his Atlanta upbringing and moved to LA to live with his aunt Lena (my mom) and her family, including me. Marshall would turn out to be the most important and closest person in my life beside my parents and sister: big brother, surrogate father after my dad died, rescuer of my youthful wayward self, and finally best friend until his passing at age 87. |
| My mom, Lena Sweet, shortly after she moved from Atlanta to New York and met my dad. My dad and pretty much everybody else (except her kids, of course) called her Sweetie, even after she took my dad's last name |
