A Shtetl Grew in Bessemer - Southern Jewish Historical Society

BARR/A SHTETL GREW IN BESSEMER 21
believed her. But it wouldn’t bother my grandfather at all to
watch us open our Christmas presents. The same thing was true
of Passover and Easter. We’d dye eggs—not using the dye that
gentiles would use; instead, Mother would use either coffee or
tea, and so we’d have the ugliest eggs around. We’d also get
Easter baskets with chocolate candy, but we couldn’t eat the
candy until after Passover. 94
Many Jewish merchants offered Christmas light displays
during the season in order to show good faith with gentile
Bessemer friends and customers. But the greatest ironies were
found at home. Arnold Lefkovits, whose family did have Christmas
trees, recalls that his father Norman
used to decorate our yard with lights on the bushes and shrubbery.
And one time Daddy won the award for prettiest
Christmas decorations in Bessemer. That’s hard to believe, but it
happened. All blue lights he had on the shrubbery near the front
of our house . . . Later on I thought of the irony of this. And
though we had trees, there was no religious significance . . . we’d
never have a star or any other religious decorations. . . . It was
just the friendliness, good cheer, the joy of Santa Claus. And of
course we’d all go to Temple Beth-El. I remember when I was
little asking my Grandpa why we went to temple. He said, “It’s
the custom, the custom.” 95
In the early 1940s, Charles Weinstein was performing the
duties of lay reader for temple services on a regular basis. 96 Soon
after, however, reflecting a refusal to compromise his religious
principles any longer in that Beth-El did not hold services regularly
enough, Weinstein began driving to Birmingham to attend
synagogue. He would spend the weekend with the Kindling or
Mayer families, and after services he and Mr. Mayer discussed the
Torah until Sunday afternoon when Weinstein returned to
Bessemer. 97
At this point, however, Levi Becker, along with other Jewish
residents, decided that to promote greater religious as well as social
unity, Temple Beth-El needed a full-time rabbi. 98 And so in
1948, Rabbi Joseph S. Gallinger was hired as the new religious