Silverstein Siblings: Jonas, Lena, Bertha, Fanny, and Caroline

Lena Silverstein Weiss

Undated photo of Lena Silverstein Weiss, from her granddaughter’s book, Leta Weiss Marks, Time’s Tapestry: Four Generations of a New Orleans Family (LSU Press, 1997). 

(This profile was revised in December 2023, with information generously provided by Jonathan L. Marks, great-grandson of Lena Silverstein Weiss.)

In October 1867, in New Orleans, Solomon Silverstein became the tutor (guardian) of his brother’s children. The children’s widowed mother, the former Sarah Schklarscki (and various other spellings) had just died while living in Bayou Sara, Louisiana, predeceased four years earlier by her husband, Lazarus Silverstein. In November 1867, upon Solomon’s petition, the board admitted the four youngest children: Jonas (10), Lena (7), Bertha (5), and Fanny (4). In January 1868, the board also admitted their sister, 12-year-old Caroline (“Carrie”). 

Jonas left the Home in  1871, discharged to employment with Mr. E. Newman. Evidencing positive sentiments for the Home, by 1885, Jonas became a dues-paying member of the Association for the Relief of Jewish Widows and Orphans, and the following year, his older brother Charles, who had never lived in the Home, was elected to serve as a director on the Home’s board. When Jonas died in 1913, at age 56, the Times-Picayune reported that he had never married and had spent most of his adult years in Greenville, Mississippi. He had remained close with his surviving siblings: Lena, Carrie, and Bertha.

Jonas Silverstein certificate, 1885

Jonas Silverstein’s certificate of membership in the Association for the Relief of Jewish Widows and Orphans, 1885. This and all following photos courtesy of Jonathan L. Marks, great-grandson of Lena Silverstein Weiss.

During her seven years in the Home, Lena left an impression on the board, although not in her favor. On November 15, 1874, after President Isaac Scherck called a special meeting to address “the case of Lena Silverstein in her conduct towards Matron Schoenberg &c,” the board gave Lena’s relatives “one month’s time” to “remove her from the Home.” Lena was discharged to her brother twelve days later. After Lena’s discharge, she married Theodore Weiss and lived in New Orleans where they raised two sons. Lena died at age 66 in 1926.

Lena Silverstein, age 5

Lena Silverstein, age 5.

Lean Silverstein, undated

Lena Silverstein, undated.

Bertha remained in the Home until 1878. In 1873, at age ten, Bertha performed at the Home’s anniversary celebration, where she recited a poem, “My mother’s dead.” As described by the Times-Democrat,  after reciting the first stanza, Bertha “broke into a passion of tears and sobs.”  Bertha’s “slight figure and attitude of utter woe,” continued the account, “made a picture that not a soul in that assembly could look upon unmoved.” Bertha attended the public high school until 1875, when the board recommended that she and several other Home girls be withdrawn and “put to some useful employment within or outside the Home.” Reflecting her apparent usefulness within the Home, two years later the board awarded $25 (worth approximately $750 in 2023) to Bertha “in consideration of services rendered.” After her discharge from the Home in 1878 at age 16, Bertha married Edward Eleazar Lazarus and lived in London, England.

Fanny and Bertha Silverstein, undated

Sisters Fanny and Bertha Silverstein, undated.

Bertha Silverstein, undated

Bertha Silverstein, undated.

At the Home’s 1870 anniversary celebration, Carrie recited a poem, “The Wine Cup.” She was discharged from the Home in 1872. Five years later, she married George Stern, with whom she raised two daughters. By 1900, Carrie lived in New York, where she remained for the rest of her life. She died in 1944, at age 88.

Caroline "Carrie" Silverstein Stern, undated

Caroline (“Carrie”) Silverstein, undated.

Fannie lived in the Home until 1878, when she was discharged to her married sister, Carrie. In 1884, Fannie married Isaac Strauss, with whom she had a son. Fannie died in 1888 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in New York.

Fanny Silverstein, undated

Fanny Silverstein, undated.

Fanny Silverstein Strauss, undated

Fanny Silverstein, undated.