Goldie & “Mickey” Berger
In 1910, widower Isaac Berger journeyed from Zarshunow, Russia to Houston, Texas, leaving behind his wife Bessie and their four children. Isaac opened a grocery store but, before he could send for his family, Bessie died. With his savings, Isaac (who by now had married a woman named Mary) retrieved his three youngest children: Meyer, Goldie, and Minnie (known as “Mickey.”) Sarah, the oldest child, chose to remain in Russia with her grandmother.
In 1916, following Isaac’s death from illness, Mary admitted step-daughters Goldie (12) and Mickey (8) to the Home. Meyer, who was too old to be admitted, was placed in a foster home and later joined the Merchant Marines.
Isaac Berger (far left), is shown with his second-wife, Mary, and a family friend, Mr. Brodsky (far right), shortly after Isaac’s children – Meyer, Goldie (pigtails), and Mickey – arrived in Houston from Russia. Except as otherwise noted, all photos courtesy of Betty Knobler Freedman, daughter of Goldie Berger Knobler.
By her own account, Goldie thrived in the Home, where she learned not only to speak English but also “refinement and culture” from her volunteer Big Sister, Bonita Hiller Godchaux. Goldie recalled with amusement being ferried from the Home to Mrs. Godchaux’s chauffeur where she was greeted by a butler. As for other aspects of her childhood in the Home, Goldie also recounted chores and discipline for rule-breaking, as well as violin lessons, summer camp on the Gulf Coast, and celebrating Sabbath and Jewish holidays. As part of the Golden City, the Home’s system of self-government, Goldie recalled taking responsibility for younger peers and for her younger sister, Mickey.
Sisters Mickey (left) and Goldie (right) Berger in from of the Home, c. 1920, with a woman believed to be their volunteer Big Sister, Bonita Hiller Godchaux.
Goldie, at right, with unidentified girls in Home courtyard, Dec. 1920.
Goldie, second from left, with unidentified girls in Home courtyard dressed in costume for Purim, 1921.
Goldie, second from left, with unidentified girls, ready for tennis, 1920.
Goldie at summer camp in Bay St. Louis, c. 1920.
Goldie (apparently also called “Gussie”) graduated from Isidore Newman Manual Training School in 1922. Senior photo and poem, from The Pioneer, courtesy of Isidore Newman School archives.
In 1922, following her graduation from Newman School, Goldie was discharged from the Home into the care S.J. Westheimer of Houston, Texas, who had just been elected president of B’nai B’rith District 7. Westheimer took Goldie into his home and also employed her as B’nai Brith’s secretary. When Goldie married Isidore Knobler in 1925, Westheimer hosted the wedding and walked her down the aisle.
Goldie remained in Houston where she raised a family, and operated a men’s clothing store with her husband, also making time for volunteer work, including seeking out and offering aid to any child who returned to Houston from the Home. Goldie died in 1996.
S.J. Westheimer, Houston Chronicle, April 26, 1922.
Undated wedding photo of Goldie Berger and Isidore Knobler.
Undated passport photo of Goldie Berger Knobler.
Mickey remained in the Home until June 1925, when she was discharged to her married sister, Goldie. In 1929, the Golden City Messenger congratulated Mickey on her marriage to Gappelberg who worked as manager of a men’s store in Houston. Four years after Dave’s death in 1957, Mickey married Aaron Brodsky, the son of the family friend who helped bring the Berger children from Russia to the United States. After Aaron died in 1984, Mickey married Sol Greenberg, whom she preceded in death by five months in 2004. Although Mickey had no children of her own, she remained close to her sister and her sister’s children and grandchildren.
Mickey was buried in Beth Israel Cemetery in Houston, Texas, with her first husband, Dave Gappelberg. From Find A Grave.
In Goldie's Own Words
In 1984, JCRS Executive Director Viola Weiss interviewed Goldie Berger Knobler by phone. Click hear to read Weiss’s summary of Goldie’s recollections of life in the Home,