2013 February
Preserving Jewish Heritage in Texas Texas Jewish Est. 1980 Historical Society February, 2013 News Magazine My Father, Sam Night by Bernice Night Schnurr In the year 1911, a young man of eighteen ran away from Poland, which later became Austria, because he did not want to join the army after his only brother died in the war. Instead, he wanted to live his dream of becoming a merchant who could own his own business. His parents blessed him, and that man was Samuel Naichtingal, my father. He arrived in Ellis Island and shortened his name to Samuel Naicht and then Ameri- canized it to Sam Night (always with an “N”). He had several cousins in New York who helped him for a while. He taught himself to read, write, and speak English, and after some time, his sister and brother-in-law, Sam Night in his store in Beaumont, Texas Sadie and Ben Pfeffer, invited him to work for them in their store in Houston, Texas. So he stayed in Houston and worked for a while. Later, IN THIS ISSUE: he worked in Orange, Texas, and then went to Dallas to work in a store owned by B. Schwartz and his wife Annie Message from the President 2 Schwartz. They were very nice people who admired the Markus: Planter of Trees 4 hard working, ambitious Sam Night and invited him to a book review by Linda Blasnick Shabbat dinner one evening. At their house, he saw a pic- ture of a beautiful girl, who was Annie Schwartz’s niece The Gerrick Family 5 and who lived in New York.
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