Esther’s

Book
 This portrait was shot in Bulgaria
around 1911. Was it a school for girls. Or a
factory? Were they students or seamstresses?

The two men may have been teachers

or bosses. Esther Lotzkar at 13 is seated in the
front row.
 Soon after the photo was taken, Esther
would make the difficult Atlantic crossing to
New York.
 In 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, Esther
married Yitzhok Iscowitz, a peddler whose fam-
ily came from Romania. Together they tried to
make a living in Williamsburg selling vegeta-
bles from a store and pushcart. Each morning,
Yitzhok crossed the Bridge to Manhattan with a
wagon hitched to a blind horse to buy from the
downtown produce market.
 Esther’s family gathered for a portrait
on her parents’ fiftieth anniversary in 1920.
Esther stood in back under the lights.
 Yitzhok stood near the door.

Their daughter, Sylvia, my mother, sat

on the floor, wearing the knitted dress Esther
made her. Lace was woven about the collar,
along the sleeves, and tied in a bow by her
heart.