97 Orchard Street

Contents
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Rogarshevsky Family

• Family History
  
• The Rogarshevsky Home
  
• Rogarshevsky Employment
  
• Abraham Rogarshevsky's Doctor - Louis Freedman
  
• A Doctor's Examination of a Tubercular
  
• The Death of Abraham Rogarshevsky

Heinde had a twin who died before the family came to the United States. Heinde, herself, died before the family moved to 97 Orchard Street. Taube, known in the U.S. as Ida, was the daughter of Fannie's sister who died during childbirth in Lithuania. Joseph and Annie Bayard, Fannie's parents, raised Ida. The Bayards, who also lived at 97 Orchard Street, arrived in the United States one-year prior to the Rogarshevskys.

After arriving in the United States, Fannie Rogarshevsky gave birth to two more children, Henry in 1902 and Philip, (whose name was listed as Rafael on the birth certificate) in 1907.

The Rogarshevsky Home
The Rogarshevskys moved to 97 Orchard Street from 132 Orchard Street sometime between 1907 and 1910. In 1918, when the family sat shiva for Abraham, only Sam, Henry, and Philip lived at 97 Orchard Street. Until 1912, however, all the children had lived at home. The four boys slept in the front room on a couch, which was extended by placing chairs next to it. The front room also had a buffet. The two daughters slept on a folding cot, which was kept near the interior window. Abraham and Fannie slept on a bed in the back room. In the summer, the children would sleep on the fire escape or the roof. Anita Jacobson, the Tenement Museum's original curator, interviewed Henry Rosenthal. It is from her extended phone conversation with him that we know about the Rogarshevsky family's complicated sleeping arrangements.

The Rogarshevskys were observant Jews. They kept two sets of dishes for kosher meals. According to Henry, Abraham was the president or shamas of a synagogue on Eldridge or Forsyth Street. The family celebrated sukkoth in the backyard where Abraham built the hut. They tore pieces of newspaper for toilet paper on Friday so that they could observe the proscription against working on the Sabbath. Abraham and Fannie could speak only Yiddish, which was the language used at home, but the children could read and write English.

By 1915, the two daughters had married and moved to the Bronx. Morris and Sam were working while the younger brothers, Henry and Philip, went to school. Henry remembered that they attended PS 137, then IS 65, and finally Seward Park High School. They did their homework on the kitchen table. He also recalled that the three youngest boys often hung around the stoop and got involved in numerous street fights. Living in the apartment at this time was a boarder, Clara Kaplan. Her occupation was listed as "housework" on the census report.

By 1918, Morris was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. Samuel was about to be married. He and his wife, Lillian, would move into another apartment in 97 Orchard Street. Sam acquired the nickname Rocky, (probably a shortened version of Rogarshevsky). He dreamed of becoming a boxer. He and some friends kept pigeons as pets on the roof of a tenement across the street from 97. (Much like the characters in the movie On the Waterfront.) Sam's son Albert was born in 1919 and grew up in 97 Orchard Street.

In November 1918, four months after his father died, Morris' wife died during childbirth. Morris also suffered from tuberculosis. He moved back in with his mother and younger brothers for three years before getting re-married in 1921. Bessie Rogarshevsky (Cohen) also moved back to 97 Orchard Street with her children after her husband died. By 1924 or 1925, the entire family had changed their name from Rogarshevsky to Rosenthal, although according to Morris' wife, Evelyn, the name change was never done legally.

After 97 Orchard Street closed as a residence, Fannie Rogarshevsky continued to live in the 2nd floor's southwest apartment with her son Philip, and his wife Miriam, until 1941. That year, they moved to the newly constructed Vladeck Houses, a public housing project at 14 Jackson Street. Built in the 1930's, these homes were among the first wave of public housing projects in the United States. The project was named for B. Charney Vladeck of the Jewish Daily Forward who served as majority leader for the New York City Council.

Rogarshevsky Employment
At one time or another, most of the Rogarshevsky family worked in the garment industry. Abraham worked as a presser. His daughters also worked in the needle trades prior to getting married. Ida worked as a joiner and Bessie was employed as a sewing machine operator. Morris at first worked as a shipping clerk, then as a salesman in the fur trade. Sam held jobs as an undertaker on Broome Street and a taxi driver.

Prior to Abraham's death, Fannie was not employed. After her husband's death, however, Fannie needed to support herself and her sons who were still at home. The Rogarshevskys were friendly with their landlords, the Rosenblatts and the Helperns. Her descendants recall Fannie Rogarshevsky's apartment as spotless. Perhaps Fannie's ability to keep her apartment so clean convinced the landlord to hire her as the custodian for 97 Orchard Street. The census of 1920 listed her as the "janitress" of the "apartment building." Interestingly, Albert Rosenblatt was from the same hometown as the Bayards, Kovno, Lithuania. Even after 97 Orchard Street closed as a residence in 1935, she continued to serve as its custodian as well as for 96 Orchard Street.

Abraham Rogarshevsky's Doctor - Louis Freedman
Abraham's death certificate listed his doctor as Louis Freedman. Dr. Freedman attended Abraham from June 1, 1917 until he died. According to Freedman, Abraham had suffered from TB for two years prior to his death.

Louis Freedman was four years younger than Abraham Rogarshevsky. The language of both men is listed on the 1915 census as Yiddish. Freedman had emigrated from Russia in 1892, when he was seventeen, and graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1903. He was registered with the American Medical Association. Medicine had become increasingly professionalized after the 1890s, when Johns Hopkins University initiated a medical training program that would set the standard for the profession. They established a set of strict requirements for enrollment for and completion of medical training. The school was also the first to require that doctors complete an internship or residency before beginning to practice medicine.

Dr. Freedman's practice was located at 150 Henry Street where he also lived with his wife and four children until 1934, when they moved to the Bronx. What happened to Dr. Freedman after 1935 is unknown.

Dr. Freedman probably became Abraham Rogarshevsky's physician through an arrangement known as "contract practice." Fraternal organizations, like the Sons of Telsh, hired physicians to treat members and their families in return for a set annual fee. Numerous immigrant groups in urban areas engaged doctors in this way, but commentators associated the system especially with New York Jewish burial societies.

The system of hiring doctors gave society members access to primary health care. But just as importantly, it preserved the immigrants' sense of dignity and guaranteed them a great deal of power in the doctor-patient relationship. For the cost of $2-3 (the cost of one or two visits from a private physician), an immigrant family could enjoy the services of a society doctor for the entire year. The services of the lodge doctor resembled those of a private physician in that treatment was carried out at the home, and therefore at the convenience of the patient. Inexpensive access to medical care probably encouraged early treatment, may have prevented the progression of disease, and definitely limited the use of patent medicines and folk healers.

The system also benefited the doctors. A recently graduated physician could build up a practice by securing a society contract, while he built up an independent clientele. Physicians who were immigrants themselves often had a limited pool of potential patients, since they faced social and cultural barriers to practicing outside their immigrant community. The medical profession was particularly popular among Eastern European Jews in New York; a 1906 study reported on the overabundant supply of physicians.

Serving as a society doctor was hard work. Physicians sometimes served as many as ten different fraternal organizations. An article in the Tageblat estimated that the lodge doctor might see upwards of 100 patients a day. Not, surprisingly, the hours were long. For example, Dr. Freedman had office hours from 8-10am, 2-3pm, and 6-8pm. In addition, he had to make house calls, frequently over a wide geographic area. Forced to climb up and down tenement stairs, lodge doctors found their patients exceedingly demanding. Physicians' harried schedules and inexperience sometimes compromised the quality of care provided by lodge doctors. The Tageblat reported, "sad is the life of the lodge and society doctor, but sadder still is the suffering of the majority of patients who are treated by this sort of doctor."

Members of burial societies did not have to resort to public dispensaries, like the Good Samaritan Dispensary at the corner of Broome and Essex Streets, or hospital clinics, the other major healthcare providers for the poor, which carried the stigma of charity. Dispensaries, the main alternative to contract medicine, had all its deficiencies plus the taint of charity. Like their colleagues in society practice, dispensary doctors faced overwhelming workloads. Patients waited for hours in crowded conditions for perfunctory examinations. The doctors, frequently hailing from a different ethnic and class background than their patients, were viewed with suspicion. After 1899, because of a law, only the indigent could visit dispensaries. Thus, use of the clinics constituted a public declaration of penury and left the patients open to a range of intrusive investigations regarding their worthiness for medical care.

The Death of Abraham Rogarshevsky
At 11pm on Friday, July 12, 1918, Abraham Rogarshevsky died of pulmonary tuberculosis. It was a cool summer evening with the temperature in the mid-60s F.

As death draws near the vidui or confessional prayer (Yom Kippur confession), and shema, the affirmation of faith, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord or God is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4) are spoken. The dying, usually attended to by members of the chevra kaddisha (burial society), cannot be disturbed or touched, lest one aid in his or her death. If there is a feather pillow underneath the head of the dying person, it should be removed. For at least five hundred years, this has been a common superstition that lacks any satisfactory explanation from Jewish sources. Various reasons have been given, including the view that spirits of the birds from which the feathers have been plucked cry out to the Angel of Death to avenge their untimely ends, whereupon he delays bestowing the coup de grace on the expiring human being (Gaster, 157).

Because Abraham died on the Sabbath (between sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday) only minimal arrangements for the funeral could be made because the Sabbath is a day of rest. The body may not be moved and the sabbath candles could not be placed near him.

The body is not touched until 20 minutes after death. After the death a window is opened so that the soul can escape. It is then shut immediately so the soul does not return. From this moment on the family of the deceased are considered onen which means "people in distress." The eldest son or relative shuts the eyes and mouth of the deceased. This practice is attributed to the belief that after the soul departs, the "doors," i.e. the eyes and mouth, should be shut. The jaw is also bound before rigor mortis.

After death, the body is transferred to the ground with its feet facing the door. Opinions differ as to the reasons for this practice; one is that it was designed to permit the soul to enter more readily the nether regions. The body should not be placed on the floor, but onto a "duken" or platform. A rug suffices for the platform.

The mirrors are covered, driven by the fear that the angel of death will be seen in the mirror, the face of the dead will be reflected, or in order to reject temptations of vanity during the mourning. The blinds or curtains are drawn. Sometimes chairs are overturned, pots broken and clocks stopped to dissuade the dead from being tempted by worldly amenities to stay in the world of the living (Gaster, 170).

In the apartment, two candles are generally lit and placed on the floor above the deceased's head. The body is then guarded and watched continuously by same sex relatives called shomer. It cannot be left alone for even a moment. The body cannot be removed on the Sabbath. The deceased is brought from the house feet first, carried on the shoulders of barefoot pallbearers. All the standing water is poured out. This practice may be tied to the ancient belief that ghosts or souls cannot cross water. The period between the death and the burial of the deceased is referred to as the Aninut. It is not supposed to last more than 24 hours, unless the death occurred on the Sabbath.