Etymology of Pollack My great grandmother was one of four girls, she had no brothers. They all married and took the last names of their husbands. She changed her name when she got married to "Becker". My great great great grandfather changed his last name to Pollack, before coming to America. HIs last name was originally Rosenfeld. The name "Pollack" has a very simple meaning. Pollack simply means "from Poland."
Family Values According to my great grandmother, education has always been a very important value to our family. When my great great grandmother Clara was a child in Chortkiv, Poland, Jews were treated poorly by many people. This bad treatment of Jews only started in Chortkiv after the Soviet Union took over Poland. My grandmother Clara had said that whenever she went to school, all the Jewish children would have to wait until all the non-Jewish children were seated at a desk. Then, the Jewish children would sit at any remaining desks. The problem with this is that there weren't enough desks for all of the Jewish students afterwards. Some of the Jewish children would have to sit on the floor. This made it difficult for them to learn. Clara's father felt the need to do something about this. He spent much of his time building desks for Jewish children so they would always have somewhere to sit in school.
Family Tree
My Family's Journey My mother's side of the family was fortunate enough to leave Poland in 1921 and go to the United States before WWII. Below is a map of my family's journey starting from the beginning of the Jewish nation.