Creative Activities
Lotte’s sudden fall from the stairs resulted in a broken ankle; but while lying in bed, despite her pain… she had the most original ideas when it came to make someone happy, like her sister-in-law, Aunty Miriam Cohn from Hamburg, or her mother, Grandma Preuss in Berlin. She created fantasy albums by pasting together newspaper cuttings and old pictures, moving little wishes and daily miseries into an amusing light (according to testimony of secretary Jumbo). She then signed
“Editorial staff – unchanged mother – increased daughter’s dividends”
Leaf through the Photo Album:
Your Rabbi Carlebach Family: Aunty Miriam Cohn (46 years old) –
Album for the Silver Wedding Anniversary, 1934
From a letter written by Lotte Carlebach to Aunt Miriam Cohn in Tel Aviv, 23 April 1939:
“…It is most unlikely that we will ever cross the Alster together again. But let’s hope, despite and in spite of everything, that in the not too distant future we will stroll along the beach of the (Mediterranean) Sea and we will be united in old and ever new affection and love.
Yours Lotte”
Miriam Cohn
Leaf through the Photo Album:
My (Doctor Preuss) Family – Grandma Preuss, Picture Album for the 60th Birthday, 1936
Martha Rachel Preuss
Grandma Preuss’ 60th birthday was supposed to be celebrated on 16th February 1936, but Grandma decided “all of a sudden and on her own” to visit her unmarried son who had been living in Israel since 1934. In honor of this day, which consequently was not celebrated, Lotte Carlebach wrote a poem. It does not only convey her admiration and love towards her mother, but also her humor, her knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish matters and – one can almost say – also Israeli issues.
The poem hints at her longing for the Holy Land and speaks of her love for Zion like a Hebrew melody.
For Grandma’s 60th Birthday
We have been waiting for sixty years
For Grandma’s special birthday here.
We told the stork especially:
Don’t bring us into the world too briskly,
No, slowly peu a peu,
Lest the celebration, the beautiful one, will disappear.
So the five of us in Leipzig, the nine of us in Altona
Will be present at the birthday of Grandma.
Father the Rabbi, has prepared a sermon long since,
Choir songs – the children are practicing.
And the Rebbetzin, quite beside herself, beaming with happiness,
Buys herself at Hirschfeld’s a new dress…,
However, all went wrong at the last minute,
And Grandma is in faraway Tel Aviv.
What is it that fascinates Grandma and draws
To the shells of Yaffa’ s shores?
Is Grandma’s love truly that deep
To Allenby Street in Tel Aviv?
But we are not angry at you, Grandma beloved
Even though longing nearly breaks our hearts.
The most beautiful birthday is surely held
In the spring charm of Eretz Israel,
Where the sunlight streaks brightly across the skies,
Shalom, peace shall greet you everywhere.
No, Grandma, beloved, we are satisfied indeed
That such great happiness was coming to you:
To live and enjoy your sixtieth birthday, a special day
In the homeland of Zion, with little angels weaving there,
We are making a birthday wreath, full of joy
For Grandma Preuss in the homeland of Zion:
May G-d give you good health, love and vigor
Providing you the joie de vivre anew each day,
May you be blessed to see the bliss in the future then,
When your grandchildren, now fourteen, will be fourteen times ten.
And slowly then, peu a peu
The flock of grandchildren will also cross the sea
And will build a Bet Mishpacha with many floors,
The kind Tel Aviv has not yet born,
With Grandma on ground floor and the grandchildren, countless,
Will trample, all together, on your head,
And when with G-d’s help the seventieth day will arrive
I cannot even imagine the delight,
A swarm of children and grandchildren, united again,
Will go up to Grandma’s – tears of joy she’s wiping away,
Blessing all of them while raising her hand
With a Jewish future in the Jewish land.
Then all of us will give thanks, heartily
To all merciful G-d – in Tel Aviv.
