Joel Shapiro, Interviews with Jews in Utah, Accn 998

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Joel Shapiro 5/26/82 tp L \'v'hat is your birthdate ? JS !·"arch 12th, 1922. L And where were you born? JS In the L .D.S Hospital, Se:lt Lake City, 6 o'clock in the morning , just before choir practice. Well, Sunday morning just before choir practice, if you're looking for the punchy line. Cause every morning, every Sunday morning, the church choir practices over there. And I was born at 6 o'clock on a Sunday morning at the L.D.S. Hospital. Just before choir practice. L Your parents came from Europe? JS No , my father came. My father is European born. M.y mother is Colorado born. A little town in Colorado. My mother's family were the only Jews in that town. They grew up as--a Jewish family aware of being Jewish but, of course, not being able to practice or have any synagogue relationships. They eventually migrated to Denver. fl:y father was born in the Russia-Poland area. L You don't know where though? JS No. Minx ••• Binx •• I don't know that area. I could find out, but-­in fact, that's in a book that--we have a semi-self style historian in our family. And he did compile a. book of his own life that does have ••• L Who's that? JS He's a chap in New York area. who has kept track of family. L I would love to see the book. JS I've got it at home. It's just a. little thing. But he talks about his family and about himself. He talks about his family; he's tracked down on a good many people -- he has a page or two on my father ••• (my father) was born in 1879. He was born and he entered this country with his father and another brother, I believe, in 1890 or 1891. L Do you know what it is that made them come here? JS Only ••• I know only that it is by in a broad brush. I don't know the precise circumstances nor did he ever -- I don't know that he really knew. I think he had a -- in that group of people at that time, of course, that's the great exodus of the Russian-Polish