A Shtetl Grew in Bessemer - Southern Jewish Historical Society

BARR/A SHTETL GREW IN BESSEMER 19
Martin Barr with grandson Alvin,
the author’s great-grandfather and father,
in Bessemer. (From the collection of Terry Barr.)
Arnold Lefkovits, who says his family was not particularly religious,
described the “typical Jewish dinners” of chicken or “roast”
and matzo-ball soup his family enjoyed on the holidays. Reflecting
acculturation, he also remembers
one time at the house we had a cook and had a bunch of people
over for dinner. And the cook brings in, I think, some turnip
greens with a big piece of white meat right in the middle of it. . . .
Another time my grandfather Sam—and in the old days lunch
was the big meal—had some of his religious Jewish friends over
for lunch. My grandmother Ida didn’t know much about kosher,
so she brings out and puts in front of Grandpa to carve a big
pork roast. And Grandpa looks down and sees that it’s a pork
roast in the midst of his rather religious friends, picks the platter
up, goes to the window, and throws it out. 92
The Beckers were, next to the Charles Weinsteins, perhaps
the most religiously-observant Jewish family in town. Levi Becker,