In two previous posts, I explored the efforts of my great grandfather, Chone (pronounced Kho-ne) Wierzbowicz (pronounced Verzbovitch), to immigrate from his native Zambrow, Poland, to the United States. With a guarantee of support filed by his son, my grandfather, Chone applied for a visa in 1934, and, through a combination of luck and perseverance, …
Tag: Lower East Side
Likely to become a public charge
In a previous post, I explored the efforts of my great grandfather, Chone Weirzbowicz, to get a visa to immigrate to the United States. He tried for more than four years, from mid-1934 to late 1938. His task was not easy, because he was from Poland, and the law at that time—the Immigration Act of …
Generational wealth: a family story
A few years ago, my daughter, in her late 20s, bought an apartment in Brooklyn that cost nearly a million dollars. How could a youngster, just six years out of college, afford such a place? The answer is, in part: generational wealth. While initially skeptical of her idea of buying an apartment, I figured it …