Stephanie Gutman McCaw

In 1912, my Grandpa Philip left Russia to avoid going into the Russian army, which would have been a fairly certain death sentence. He was 18 when he came to the United States via England. He established himself, married, and had children, one of which was my father.

About a year after he left Russia, he tried to get his younger brother to join him in the United States but Natan was unable to get out of Russia by then. Shortly after that, they completely lost touch with each other. Although Grandpa had reason to believe that his brother was somewhere in South America, he did not know what country, where to begin looking for him, or if he was even alive.

Many years passed and in the late 1950’s, at the suggestion of a relative, Grandpa placed an ad in a Jewish newspaper, the Forward. Miraculously, Natan responded! In 1958, Grandpa boarded a plane for Sao Paulo, Brazil to visit his brother after 45 years! There he found a large, warm extended family that looked very much like ours, but spoke a different language. They communicated in Yiddish, English, Portuguese, & Spanish. This was the beginning of many trips back and forth with newfound family and sharing of stories and traditions.