The Long Way Home
An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War
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Isidore John Vogelman’s Story
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
When I first started this blog back in the autumn, I encouraged readers to write in with their own family stories of immigration or military service. The notes that follow come from Seth J. Vogelman, a North American transplant to Israel. Back in 1981, Mr. Vogelman wrote his undergraduate thesis at McGill University on the Americanizing effect of military service on Jews during World War I. I wish we had been in touch when I was researching The Long Way Home – we clearly have a lot in common. It appears that Mr. Vogelman’s thesis was inspired by his own family history, because his grandfather Isidore John Vogelman was a Jewish immigrant who served in the Navy.
Mr. Vogelman recently sent me these notes about his grandfather, which I’m happy to post as the first of what I hope will be a series of stories contributed by readers of this blog.
The Vogelman family came from Radom (a city in what is now central Poland, but which before World War I was part of the Russian Pale of Settlement) and arrived in 1907 in NY. When the U.S. entered the Great War, my grandfather lied about his age to get into the Navy and get some steady income. The story goes that he was underweight, so he went home and drank water and ate bananas for three days to make it. He only went in in September 1918, saying he was 18 when really was only 17.
My grandfather was named Yonah Yitzhak Vogelman, but he became Isidore John Vogelman (though known as John) and immediately affected a southern accent to “blend in.” He served as a Yeoman and Quartermaster on the USS Manchuria, a tramp steamer that brought the boys to and from France. It was in the Navy that he also ate bacon for the first time, but didn’t really like it (my family was not religious even in Radom). He was not the oldest, but the only one to serve in WW I.
When mustered out in 1920, it was supposedly because he needed a better job, but in reality, his older brother was doing well in the fabric trade and he went to work with him. There is a more interesting story, lost to history, about my wife’s father Aaron Beiner. He was in the Rainbow Division, and he was even gassed. Aaron Beiner refused his pension, saying he was simply grateful for being in America.
—Seth J. Vogelman
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