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00:09I get asked often how I feel about being so identified with the movie Dirty Dancing.
00:19After Dirty Dancing came out, I became so well-known as that iconic dancer that I started
00:25feeling self-conscious, that I wasn't good enough or I'd go to a wedding and everyone
00:30would want to watch me dance.
00:32It took away a lot of the joy for me and I basically stopped dancing for 20 years.
00:39And when Dancing with the Stars was asking me to be on the show, I just never considered
00:44it and I thought, I'll just fail at it, but I've got this beautiful daughter.
00:52She looked at me and she said, Mom, this is your only chance to do this.
00:55She wants for me to have this experience and I thought that for me was everything.
01:04And I ended up winning the show.
01:07It's funny, I think that picking up dance after 20 years of absolutely being close to
01:13it and then I think to myself, what have I not been awake for in my life?
01:18I'm curious enough to want to know now where I came from, where my mother came from and
01:25what is in our genetics.
01:31I was born in 1960 to Joe Wilder, which is her stage name.
01:38It was originally Joanne Carey Brower.
01:40And my dad, Joel Gray, was beginning his Broadway career.
01:47But beyond my parents' story, I know so little about my family's past.
01:54I remember much more about my dad's side of the family, who were much more vivacious and
02:00in our lives and entertainers.
02:02They were show people.
02:06On the other hand, my mother's parents, Clara and Izzy Brower, were the antithesis of my
02:12father's parents.
02:14He was the pharmacist.
02:15He opened a pharmacy in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where my mom grew up.
02:21I knew Izzy, but I don't remember much.
02:24I remember that he would come into the city to visit us and his energy would be a little
02:29depressed.
02:31It felt like he was from another world, another time.
02:35What made him look so sad?
02:38Because I don't believe people are born like that.
02:41So, I'm really interested in knowing Izzy as somebody on his own journey.
02:49I have no idea how old Izzy was when he got here.
02:52I don't know what his life was like.
02:54I don't know what he, what adversity he had to overcome or couldn't overcome.
03:01But there is one story I had always been told about him.
03:04When he was a little boy, he was made to leave Russia in a hurry to come to America.
03:14And they put a big heavy wool coat, and they had to line the inside of the coat with the
03:20family's silverware.
03:21I know he must have had really rough stuff.
03:25It's just, you don't, you don't end up on a boat as a boy with silverware in your coat
03:29because things were just hunky-dory.
03:31I don't know why Izzy left.
03:34I don't know where he left.
03:36I just know we're Russian Jews.
03:38But I'm gonna find out.
03:42I asked my mom for any information about our family that I may not know about, so she sent
03:48me a packet.
03:49Hey, Stell.
03:50Yeah.
03:51Can you come here a sec?
03:53So this is an envelope that my mom sent me with a letter and photographs.
03:59I don't know what's in it.
04:00I just thought I didn't really want to do it by myself, so I thought maybe you'd...
04:03Yeah.
04:03Totally.
04:04I'm excited to know, though, because I don't really have any other knowledge of that side
04:09of the family.
04:14Dear Jennifer, when I heard you were taking this journey, I was so pleased.
04:20I hope that this experience will offer you a greater understanding of where your relatives
04:25came from and how strong they were to come to a frightening new land where they didn't
04:30speak the language and didn't know the mores of this place.
04:33It's sad that you didn't have more of a relationship with your grandpa, Izzy, but I understand why
04:38you didn't.
04:41Perhaps you'll get to know him on this journey and find a new appreciation for him.
04:47I know he'd appreciate who you have become.
04:50Oh, Mom.
04:52Why'd you have to do that?
04:54Love, Mom.
04:56P.S.
04:57I never knew your great-grandmother Izzy's mother.
05:00I don't even know her name.
05:02Clearly she died, but I don't know where or when.
05:05She didn't even know her grandmother's name?
05:09Wow.
05:10That's sad.
05:11It's her dad's mom?
05:11She doesn't even know the name?
05:12It's just...
05:13It's so strange.
05:15Okay, let's...
05:15Should we see the pictures?
05:17This is...
05:18This is a picture of me, Mitchell, and our parents on Sutter Avenue, which is...
05:24So this is in Brooklyn?
05:24Yeah, in Brownsville.
05:27Clara, Izzy, and my mom as a baby, which I've never seen a picture of her as a baby.
05:33Bubby as a baby.
05:34Baby Bubby.
05:35And this...
05:37Oh, look what it says up here.
05:39Israel Brower, pharmacist, chemist.
05:42I'm just curious why there's so little information about before they came to America.
05:50Right.
05:50Why does my mom either not have more memories or...
05:55Or maybe she wasn't...
05:56She didn't know about that stuff.
05:57Maybe they didn't tell her that stuff.
05:59They didn't share it with kids the same way we do.
06:01Exactly.
06:01And then I just hope that it doesn't happen with you, with your kids.
06:06Right.
06:06All right.
06:07Thanks, sweetie.
06:08Thanks for doing that with me.
06:09Love you.
06:15So I know my family left Russia for America, but beyond that, not much else.
06:20So I've contacted a historian who specializes in American Jewish history, and we're meeting
06:24at the Brooklyn Public Library in Brownsville, the neighborhood where my grandfather's family's
06:29from.
06:30I bet it was my mom's library, too.
06:32I'm Jennifer.
06:33I'm Annie.
06:33Nice to meet you.
06:34Nice to meet you.
06:36So, I was hoping that you'd be able to give me some information about my grandfather,
06:42what happened before he came to the States.
06:45It's a very sketchily drawn portrait.
06:48It's very common for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of immigrants to know very
06:53little about how they got here.
06:55This is not an uncommon thing.
06:56I'm really interested as to why that is.
06:59There's a famous saying that what the son wishes to forget, the grandson wishes to remember.
07:04So that there's this kind of generation gap, and then the grandchildren want to learn,
07:09but then sometimes it's too late.
07:11Interesting.
07:11So let's start with your grandfather, and try to go back to, you know, when he first
07:16arrived.
07:17Yeah, I don't even know what year that was, or I know nothing.
07:20So we can...
07:21I mean, really nothing.
07:22Yeah, no, this is great.
07:23So let's take this computer.
07:25Let's go to Immigration and Travel, because first we're going to...
07:27How did we get here?
07:29So let's go to New York Passenger List.
07:31So now do I put his name?
07:32Mm-hmm.
07:33Exactly.
07:35And we don't really know much more, so let's just go to Search and see what happens.
07:39Okay.
07:40Port of Departure.
07:42Right.
07:42Let's look at the second one.
07:43What is that one?
07:43Should I click on it?
07:44Yeah, let's click.
07:45Let's see what it is.
07:45New record.
07:46Yeah.
07:46We're going to get a lot of information from it, and we'll get adjusted to it.
07:50Wow.
07:50It's a serious calligraphy.
07:51Yes.
07:51Okay, whoa.
07:54So, we came over in 1907.
07:56Exactly.
07:57On the Pretoria.
07:58Mm-hmm.
07:59Oh, I'm seeing something that could be good.
08:02That one thing.
08:02This could be.
08:03Mm-hmm.
08:03Yeah.
08:04Yeah.
08:05Yeah.
08:05This one says Israel Braver.
08:08Okay, that is like the Russian version of Brower.
08:11So...
08:11Oh, okay.
08:12Got it.
08:13All right.
08:13So Izzy would have been 16.
08:15Huh.
08:16So 16, 1907.
08:19Oh, do I have to do 1907 minus 16?
08:22Mm-hmm.
08:221891.
08:23Okay, so we have a birthday.
08:24It's his birthday.
08:25This is really important.
08:26Yeah.
08:26And it says that he's a compositor.
08:30What's compositor mean?
08:31So a compositor is someone who's working in printing.
08:34Who's like someone who would set the type together.
08:36So that's a pretty skilled job.
08:38It means he's a pretty smart kid already.
08:40So most likely he's gone through some kind of apprenticeship.
08:44So some kind of training.
08:45At 16.
08:46Even younger, right?
08:47Yeah.
08:47To have this role.
08:48If you're smart and you're able, get to it.
08:51Exactly.
08:52Okay, so some of these names I don't recognize because they might be Americanized versions
08:58of this.
08:59Yeah, so what happens is when some of the immigrants came over, their names didn't sound American
09:04enough.
09:05So they would sometimes alter the Yiddish names to be more American names.
09:09Yeah, I understand.
09:10And it says that he came over with his sister.
09:13The 18-year-old Rose.
09:15Heskel could be Charlie, his younger brother, the 14-year-old.
09:19So would Talby maybe be Tilly, Izzy's younger sister?
09:24I think that's right.
09:25Yeah.
09:26Because Tilly sounds like an American nickname.
09:29That's like an American name that a lot of girls are going to pick up.
09:31Or like Izzy would be to Israel.
09:33Exactly.
09:33You've got it.
09:34Now let's go to the top and see what these columns can tell us about them.
09:38Okay.
09:39And so this is where they're from.
09:45Yanpol.
09:47Is that in Russia?
09:48Exactly.
09:49Okay.
09:49So this is interesting.
09:51Whether going to join a relative or friend, and if so, what relative or friend, and his
09:58name and complete address.
10:02And it says Brooklyn.
10:05I'm seeing, I think that says Solomon Braver.
10:09I think it's like Sholem.
10:12Sholem, which is Hebrew for Solomon.
10:14Father Solomon Braver or Brower.
10:17Oh, maybe they're coming to visit his father was already here.
10:22But where's the mother?
10:24How is she sending three teenagers and a nine-year-old by themselves on a boat?
10:29How long was the trip?
10:30The trip was at least two weeks.
10:33Two weeks on a boat with no mother or father.
10:36The fact that the mother, my mom doesn't know her, maybe she never made it.
10:40Maybe she wasn't well.
10:42Maybe she was already there illegally.
10:45She could have died in childbirth.
10:46We just don't know.
10:47Is there any other way to track where she might be?
10:52Well, what we can do is see where the other family members are.
10:55So the ones that we know got to New York, we can look at the census record.
10:59And the census record might be able to tell us whether the mother will be joining them.
11:04And so we'd want to go to if they're arriving in 1907.
11:08The next census would be 1910.
11:10Okay, so this is the 13th census of the United States 1910 population.
11:17Um, all right.
11:19Oh, I found Brower, Solomon, William, Rosie, Israel, Charles, Tilly.
11:26So we still have no mother.
11:29So now we should check if he's married or single because that, let's see, married, widowed,
11:38or divorced.
11:38I'm afraid I'm going to find out some bad information.
11:41Looks like Solomon Brower, head of family.
11:46Oh, it says he was widowed.
11:49Oh.
11:51That's why my mom didn't know her name.
11:54And that's why she didn't come over.
11:58Oh, these kids don't have a mom, and they're on the boat, and their dad's not with them,
12:05and their mom's either sick or already died or dying.
12:09Oh.
12:10Okay.
12:11So I think what you were saying about that family was so, you know, observant.
12:14Like, here they are without a mother, with a father.
12:17What are they doing?
12:18So this census is, like, almost like a little novel.
12:21Because if we read it right, it can tell us, you know, what jobs the kids are doing.
12:25Are they going to school?
12:27Who's learned English?
12:28Okay.
12:29Well, it says here that Izzy speaks English.
12:32And it says that he's a compositor, and it says his place of work is printing.
12:38So, since I know that Izzy arrived in America with this skill set to be a printer compositor,
12:45but then I know him as an adult to be a pharmacist, my question is, how do you make that
12:52jump?
12:53Why do you make that jump?
12:54So the only pharmacy school at the time in Brooklyn, there was just one in Brooklyn.
12:58It was called the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy.
12:59Is it, do you think it was the place Izzy went?
13:02It's very likely.
13:03You can go there.
13:04You can go to the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy.
13:07It still exists.
13:07The school is now part of Long Island University.
13:10That is wild.
13:11Okay.
13:11This is fantastic.
13:13Thank you so much.
13:14It was really a pleasure.
13:15My pleasure.
13:25I'm at Long Island University where I'm really curious to find out what it took for my grandfather,
13:30Izzy, to become a pharmacist.
13:32We searched our archives and we were able to find some information about the year that your
13:37grandfather graduated from school.
13:39Oh, great.
13:40Take a look.
13:43The Brooklyn College of Pharmacy 25th annual announcement session of 1915 to 1916.
13:52Okay.
13:54So this is like a, like a yearbook.
13:56It's like a yearbook.
13:58Graduates in pharmacy, May 13th, 1915.
14:02So now I'm looking.
14:04Oh, I found him.
14:05Israel Brower.
14:07So in 1915, he was 24.
14:10How is being a pharmacist now as we know them?
14:15How does that compare to a pharmacist in the early 1900s?
14:20So in the early 1900s, pharmacy 95% was owning your own drug store.
14:27Oh.
14:27There was a drug store on almost every corner.
14:32In the early 1900s, pharmacists were often at the hub of their immigrant communities.
14:39As educated health professionals, druggists could dispense both medical advice and medication.
14:45In addition, many pharmacists, including Izzy Brower, also served as community leaders
14:51and mentors for immigrants facing a new life in a strange land.
14:56To enter the professional class would have been a great honor for the family, for himself.
15:04So this was a very prestigious thing for him to do.
15:08Do you have any idea why somebody would go from being a typesetter, printer, to a pharmacist?
15:16Well, at the time, in 1915, 1916, many Jews were not being hired because they...
15:23If you looked at a newspaper ad, it might say Jews need not apply for a job.
15:28Oh, stop it.
15:28So many immigrants, Jewish immigrants, went into the professions to work for themselves.
15:33So they didn't want to have to be vulnerable to anti-Semitism.
15:38It was a form of self-reliance.
15:41That's amazing. That's so interesting.
15:43I don't know if this is in your purview, but I'm curious as to what happened in my grandfather's life
15:49after he graduated pharmacy school.
15:52Do you know anything?
15:53I have one more document for you to see.
15:58Okay, what am I looking at here?
16:00This looks to me like a registration for the draft.
16:05It's for World War I.
16:07Mm-hmm.
16:07All men between 21 and 31 were required to register for the draft at the time.
16:13And he was 26 here.
16:15That's correct.
16:16Okay.
16:17Uh-huh, uh-huh.
16:20By whom employed myself...
16:23Okay.
16:23Do you claim exemption from draft support...
16:29Can you help me read that?
16:33Conscientious...
16:35Objector!
16:37Oh!
16:38Wow.
16:40Oh, my lefty roots.
16:43Do you know if it was very unusual to be a conscientious objector in 1917?
16:49I don't know, but I can send you to an expert Jewish historian who can give you more information.
16:57Fantastic!
16:59You're welcome.
17:00That's so incredible.
17:03It's such a new idea to me that he was so different from how I remembered him.
17:10He was very ambitious, very hardworking, super smart.
17:14The idea of helping people and healing people and learning skills and being a self-made person, that is moving
17:22to me.
17:39I would like to know what the term conscientious objector encompasses.
17:46Well, I have an interesting document.
17:49This is the Board of Elections of the City of New York, December 31st, 1917.
17:56List of enrolled voters, 23rd Assembly District, Borough of Brooklyn.
18:01These are the residents of the citizens of a given district and how they registered.
18:07Okay, 16th Election District, which is the neighborhood?
18:10Yes, in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
18:11In Brownsville, Brooklyn.
18:12Brower, Israel.
18:13And it says that he is a socialist.
18:16A member of the Socialist Party.
18:17Mm-hmm.
18:18Do you have more information about that?
18:20The fact that he was a socialist meant many things.
18:22But when it came to the war, it meant that he was opposed to the war.
18:25So that was the position of the Socialist Party in 1917 was to oppose World War I.
18:30Yes.
18:30Why?
18:31The Socialist Party opposed the war because they viewed it as a war instigated by capitalists
18:37and imperialist countries for their own enrichment.
18:40Mm.
18:40And that the workers not only did not stand to gain from it, but that they would be used
18:46as cannon fodder in this war.
18:48And so...
18:48They would be dispensable.
18:50Their bodies would just be used to an end that they didn't believe in.
18:53Exactly.
18:54So when Izzy Brower wrote down that he was a conscientious objector, he was taking that position.
19:00He was saying, as a socialist, I oppose this war.
19:04So in stating that he was a conscientious objector, he was making a statement.
19:09That's interesting.
19:09And putting himself out there.
19:11He was making a strong statement.
19:11And that took some courage.
19:13So the idea of Izzy identifying as a member of the Socialist Party.
19:19Mm-hmm.
19:20And where did he get that idea?
19:21The idea I know Izzy and his family came from Yenpol?
19:25Mm-hmm.
19:26Yenpol is a town in the region of Podolia, which is in Ukraine, in Russia at this time, when
19:31he was coming up in the early 1900s.
19:33And did it come with him from Ukraine?
19:36Mm-hmm.
19:37He probably came over with some strong socialist leanings.
19:42And the reason why I say this is because in his part of Ukraine, in the Russian Empire, in Podolia,
19:49there was already a burgeoning workers' movement among Jews that was revolutionary.
19:57From 1791, all Jews living in the Russian Empire were forced to reside in the impoverished region known as the
20:04Pale of Settlement.
20:06In addition, Jews were barred from many employment and education opportunities.
20:13During the Russian Revolution of 1905, different revolutionary groups, including some Jewish socialists, played a significant role in the fight
20:22for working-class equality.
20:25When the revolution failed, Jews faced increased anti-Semitism and violence.
20:31To escape the oppression, many people, like Izzy Brower, took a risk by leaving everything behind for the chance of
20:38a better life.
20:43And so all this is in the mix at the time that Izzy is a teenager, which suggests he was
20:49exposed to socialist revolutionary ideas beforehand.
20:52Mm-hmm.
20:54I found another document, something very interesting, that sheds light on your grandfather and who he was.
21:03This looks like a magazine called Health and Hygiene, April 1935.
21:09This magazine, Health and Hygiene, is the medical magazine of the American Communist Party.
21:14I'm sorry.
21:15Communist?
21:16So he went from being socialist and now he's being a communist?
21:19Yes.
21:20No, what I'm trying to suggest is he's a sympathizer of the Communist Party.
21:23Probably because the Communist Party of 1935, when this magazine came out, was not a revolutionary party at that moment
21:31in time.
21:32It was more centrist.
21:32It acted often as a kind of a liberal party.
21:36It supported Roosevelt.
21:38Liberals or moderate socialists could find common ground with communists in this point.
21:45The idea behind the magazine was that healthcare was not a privilege but a right.
21:51If you flip to the back, you'll see something interesting.
21:55Oh, check this out.
21:57The drugstores.
21:59Official IWO drugstores in Brooklyn.
22:03What's IWO?
22:04The IWO stands for the International Workers' Order.
22:08This page is very revealing.
22:11Tell me.
22:13This was a nationwide workers' mutual aid and self-help association.
22:20The idea here is that workers ought to help themselves.
22:23So more like a co-op then?
22:24That's correct.
22:25So they would pool their resources through dues and receive insurance and benefits.
22:31They were really substantially discounted rates so that members of the community could afford.
22:37Wow, look at this.
22:38Israel Brower, pharmacist and chemist.
22:43So what this means is that in his desire to serve the interests of the community,
22:51he adheres to the standards of the International Workers' Order.
22:55And the International Workers' Order approves of him and recommends him to the community,
23:00saying to the workers, you can go to Izzy Brower's pharmacy without concern that you're going to be ripped off.
23:05His socialism has found a way to be giving back.
23:10He has a commitment to social justice.
23:12Okay, so I started off this journey looking at a photograph from about 1932 of my grandfather, Izzy, holding my
23:21mother.
23:21And this is 1935, so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of the journey up to this
23:28point.
23:29There's a few things that I, a few holes for me.
23:33One of them is Izzy's mother, my great-grandmother.
23:37All I know is she's never made it to America, and that's it.
23:40I've done a little bit of digging and came across a document that might be interesting to you.
23:46Okay.
23:47This just arrived yesterday from the Venitsa State Archives in the Podolia region,
23:52which is the location of documents, official documents related to Yampol.
23:59Okay, this is in Russian. I don't know what I'm looking at.
24:04I have here a translation of item number eight.
24:09Thank you so much.
24:10Item number eight.
24:13Number eight, Shandle, a wife of Shulem Brauermann.
24:20Whoa.
24:22Sounds like it might be. I'm a little nervous. Okay.
24:27Okay.
24:29Shandle, a wife of Shulem Brauermann.
24:36from Jigovka, died 27th of August, 1897, in Yampol, at the age of 35 from childbirth.
24:58So, 35, she dies in childbirth.
25:04Izzy was six.
25:05Yes.
25:06This is in 1897.
25:09Left all of the rest of them without a mom.
25:11Mm-hmm.
25:13Yeah.
25:16Izzy came over in 1907.
25:18Do we know anything about, like, who took care of them when the dad and the...
25:21That information has been lost to history.
25:26The immigration experience was a rupture.
25:32So, a lot of family history was simply lost, forgotten or not handed down to the children and grandchildren.
25:40Was it because it was so traumatic for the family that they just didn't want to talk about it or
25:44they just didn't, like, they just wanted to pretend it didn't happen or something?
25:49That's a good question.
25:50I think if his memories of the old country were not pleasant ones, that could be yet another reason not
25:56to, not to reminisce.
25:58He grew up in circumstance, in insecure circumstances.
26:02Without a mother.
26:03He grew up...
26:04Political unrest.
26:06Political unrest.
26:06And anti-Semitism.
26:06And the insecurity of being Jewish.
26:08Yeah.
26:08Being a Jew in a time of mounting anti-Semitism.
26:12Mm-hmm.
26:12I'm very grateful to you.
26:14And you explained it so well.
26:16And I really appreciate your patience.
26:19You're welcome.
26:19Thank you very much.
26:20My pleasure.
26:24As soon as I was handed the translation, and I saw the name, Shandell?
26:31A name I've never heard or read before.
26:36And all of a sudden, she became real.
26:39I was surprised by how much sadness it filled me with, and it fills me with now, just because for
26:46a child to be without a mother is just devastating to me.
26:52I wasn't able to appreciate that information at nine years old when Izzy was still alive.
27:01Basically, you could fit into a thimble what I knew, which was my grandfather Izzy was a pharmacist.
27:09He was in Brooklyn.
27:11But what I perceived was a sadness in his soul.
27:17It could be that that was his childhood, the wound from it and trauma from losing his mother and being
27:25alone in the world.
27:26No wonder he always looks sad to me.
27:28Now that you know this stuff, you are able to kind of, like you said, empathize with him and kind
27:35of understand, try to understand what it must have been like for him.
27:40When I started this, just poring over photographs, I feel like my experience of Izzy is very different now.
27:49He's a whole person who went through such an incredible journey.
27:55He was someone that people looked up to and respected.
27:59We say shtarker in my family.
28:01That's a word we use a lot.
28:03It's a Yiddish word, which means you're just a survivor.
28:11What Izzy had that I have is the fight.
28:17I come from a people who are strong enough to make it onto a new world where they could survive.
28:25I would hope that you would tell your kids about this story just so that they have some clue as
28:32to where they came from and how they got there.