MATSEN:

Good afternoon this is Elysa Matsen from the National Park Service. Today is the 16 th of September 1994, and I'm in the home of Mrs. Eva Borofsky in California. We're here in Laguna Hills. Mrs. Borofsky came from Romania in 1923 when she was six years old?

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

Mrs. borofsky why don't you start by giving me your full name and your date of birth please.

BOROFSKY:

I am Eva Borofsky and I was born march 4th- no February 28, 1917. And uh...

MATSEN:

What is your maiden name?

BOROFSKY:

Glazer, G-L-A-Z-E-R.

MATSEN:

Okay. What can you tell me about the town you came from? Can you tell me what it looked like?

BOROFSKY:

All I can say is that um, we lived in a very small house and uh, I don't remember anything about the town and we lived with- the floors were made of earth. We had a coal- a wood stove and uh, I remember my mother having to go outside to chop the wood so that we can keep warm. At the time I was born my father was in the army and my mother told me that they had to get him to come home because I was- she was gonna have the baby.

MATSEN:

Um, what was the major- what did people do for a living in this town, what was the major industry?

BOROFSKY:

I really- my father was a 'lectrician of some kind. And he worked people doing some kind of making fixtures I think that was it.

MATSEN:

What did your father look like? Can you describe him for the tape?

BOROFSKY:

I have a picture of him.

MATSEN:

Tell me what he looks like.

BOROFSKY:

Well, he was a short man, small features like myself. He um, is a very spry person. He had a hobby of singing in the Jewish- for the Jewish holidays at the temple. He organized the choir and he sang for the most of my life that I could remember. And he used to practice with these young boys. He would pick them- meet them on the street. And asked them to give him the tone of do-re-mi. And uh, when he thought they were qualified he would bring them home and teach them the songs. And they would practice in our house in a 100 degrees temperature. Well, this was when we were in America. And that's all I can say about him.

MATSEN:

Is there anything that you- a story that you remember being a young child with your father?

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

Tell me.

BOROFSKY:

Well when my father was practicing with these young boys he met a young boy and brought him into the house to practice. And we were always there because he took one part of the house and this young boy seemed to like me and he would follow me all over. But I didn't like him he was a very heavy young boy and he was red faced and he turned out to be an opera singer this young boy. So, this is a good memory that I have of my father's upbring- bringing us up.

MATSEN:

How about your mother what can you tell me about her, what did she look like?

BOROFSKY:

She looked like me. I mean I looked like her. And uh, she worked very hard. She was an excellent cook. Romanian people made very good food.

MATSEN:

Can you tell me some of the things she used to make?

BOROFSKY:

Oh she would make um, creplah, which was like a wonton. She would make all kinds of cakes she made sponge cake. And she would make very good soup and chicken and all the delicacies that she knew in America. I- I make stuffed cabbage like she made it.

MATSEN:

Oh, wonderful.

BOROFSKY:

And uh, we-

MATSEN:

Is there a story that you remember about your mother, growing up?

BOROFSKY:

Yes. My mother always liked when- since we came here we went to school and she always spoke... liked to speak English. She learned it from us. But she spoke it very- ya know- Jewish accent. And then came the time when we um, she wanted to become a citizen. And we practiced with her. We were three girls, two younger sisters. And we practiced with her and we worked very hard, and she worked very hard. And finally the day came when we took her down to New York. And she became a citizen. She was very, very happy. And our life at home, we had five children. Four of us came from Europe. And then there was my sister. My younger sister was born here. I was a poor existence, but we all got along very well.

MATSEN:

Can you tell me your sisters- your brothers and sisters...their names are and a little about them?

BOROFSKY:

Alright here I am. Um, my bother Abey, was the eldest. He was belong- born July 6, 1912. He was a short chubby man and he too worked very hard to keep us in food and in clothing. At the age of 10 and 12 he had to go to work. So he- he worked very hard. And then our brother Harry was born August 34 th - 31 st , 1914. And he too couldn't go to school. He went to public school, but nothing further. Then my sister Minnie, January 26 th , 1920. And then my sister Shirley was born in America august 10 th 1925. We were very close family. And to this day we all keep in touch.

MATSEN:

You seem to have some loud traffic in the background for those listening today.

BOROFSKY:

Oh yeah. But you can't help it. And um, we have a quite a large family. I have two daughters. My eldest brother had two sons. My brother Harry had three children. My sister minnie had three. And my sister Shirley has two. They're all married and have grandchildren. We have a-

MATSEN:

Can you remember your grandparents?

BOROFSKY:

Not the one in Europe.

MATSEN:

Okay.

BOROFSKY:

Not the one in Europe because we were very young when we came here. We came here; my father had a mother. And my father left Europe when he was young. He left his mother and father there when we were young. And when we came here this grandmother and this step-grandfather.

MATSEN:

What were their names?

BOROFSKY:

Oh I don't remember their names.

MATSEN:

Okay.

BOROFSKY:

And we- we used to visit them often, my father's family. My mother didn't have much of a family here. My father had a big family. And they all visited with us. And we were always together. And my grandmother, at the time, was sickly. She had a stroke. And I remember going to the nursing home and helping her and everybody was always around her. Very lovely lady.

MATSEN:

What can you tell me about religious life and holidays that you celebrated when you were in Romania?

BOROFSKY:

I can't say that. I was very young and I don't remember that. But I do remember coming here to America. My father was a religious- my parents were religious, orthodox religious. And he used to sing at the holidays so we always had holidays- two holiday celebrations, and we were brought up that way. And to this day we do carry it through.

MATSEN:

Why don't you tell me about coming to this country...coming to America? Who decided to come to America? Why did you come to America? Tell me the story.

BOROFSKY:

Well, my father decided. See my father came here first and he stayed here. And um, then he decided that he wanted his family. So he sent for us, my father sent for us. And um, I remember, I do remember going on this large boat, huge boat. We were four of us and my mom. And I remember that we were not in steerage. That I found out when we went to Ellis Island.

MATSEN:

Do you know the um, the name of the ship that you came on?

BOROFSKY:

Amster- the Amsterdam.

MATSEN:

Okay.

BOROFSKY:

The Amsterdam. And when I went to Ellis Island and I saw the path that we were going through. And the way that people form steerage came, and the others I realized that we were not in steerage. That we were probably on one of the decks.

MATSEN:

Second class...

BOROFSKY:

Whatever. Yes, second class. And we had very nice time there. We were not sick. And I do remember there was the men that brought their instruments along would play their instruments there. And it was a happy time. And I imagined the food was good. Nobody complained, we didn't complain.

MATSEN:

Do you remember any of the food that you ate on the ship?

BOROFSKY:

Well we did have herring. And we did have soup, and what they call a Jewish holly. And the immigrants brought food from Europe. That they-

MATSEN:

Do you remember bringing any food with you?

BOROFSKY:

Well, I don't remember that my mother did. But we ate-

MATSEN:

Do you remember anything that you took with you that you wanted to take or...?

BOROFSKY:

I really don't.

MATSEN:

Okay.

BOROFSKY:

I don't remember. But I did remember the boat- the ship that we were on. And um, when we came to America, we got off at Ellis Island.

MATSEN:

Well, where- uh, a little more about the ship. How long do you think it took you to get to Ellis Island?

BOROFSKY:

Hmm, I think it took us about 2 weeks.

MATSEN:

And do you remember where you slept on the boat? What was that like?

BOROFSKY:

Well, we slept on beds. I- I think my sister and I slept in one bed, and my brothers slept in another, and my slept there. We had a room and we each doubled up.

MATSEN:

Do you remember any storms at sea?

BOROFSKY:

No. No. It was a pleasant- very pleasant voyage. Even though I wouldn't remember it directly and we never heard about it when we came to America. There was a cousin of mine. His name was Nathan Prepuce. And he-we was very close. And he came on this voyage with us and he came to meet his family at America. And then he brought his real family with him. But he-we were very close. And he was very happy to be with us.

MATSEN:

Okay, tell me uh, about landing, coming to Ellis Island.

BOROFSKY:

Okay, that I remember. When we came we all came off the ship. And I remember having to go into a large room, we all went into a very large room, and we were examined. We had long braids my sister and I had long black braids, and they took those braids apart and examined us to see if there were any lice I guess and examined our eyes and we were all fine. My mother took very good care of us in that respect. And my brothers were fine, we were all fine. And-

MATSEN:

So how long would you say you were at Ellis Island?

BOROFSKY:

I think were there for two days. I think until my father came to pick us up with family. They must've had a car at the time. But it was pleasant we didn't have any problems compared to the things I heard at Ellis Island. We were really well off.

MATSEN:

Do you remember having lunch or dinner at Ellis Island?

BOROFSKY:

Well I remember them giving us fruit when we got there.

MATSEN:

What did they give you?

BOROFSKY:

And they gave us bananas and oranges, and my eldest brother Abe took a bite of the bananas. But he didn't peel it and he ate it straight through. And he never ate a banana for the rest of his life. We probably were told or done for us- opened it up for us. So that's a very strong in our mind because we always mentioned that. And everything seemed to be alright. We didn't have any problems.

MATSEN:

Do you remember playing outside, going outside at all on Ellis island at all or...

BOROFSKY:

No.

MATSEN:

...exploring?

BOROFSKY:

No, we just stood together. 'Cause there were like- probably from what I heard there were many people that came and was very crowded.

MATSEN:

Where did you sleep?

BOROFSKY:

When we came?

MATSEN:

Mmhmm, at Ellis Island.

BOROFSKY:

Oh we went into a room. They went into a room and we all slept in one room again 'til the following day.

MATSEN:

And who came to pick you up?

BOROFSKY:

My father and his relatives.

MATSEN:

Who-

BOROFSKY:

'K...

MATSEN:

were those...

BOROFSKY:

And uncle, he was an uncle of ours. My father's brother.

MATSEN:

Do you remember his name?

BOROFSKY:

His name was Benny Jaffy. He came and he picked us up and took us- then he took us to an apartment that we had in, uh, on Second Avenue. My father had already rented an apartment. And he took us to this apartment. And it was on the fourth floor.

MATSEN:

What did it look like? Do you remember?

BOROFSKY:

It was a railroad apartment. They called it a railroad; it was three rooms, bedrooms. And I think we lived there for two years. It was upstairs on the fourth floor. And there was a street on Second Avenue where mostly Jewish people lived.

MATSEN:

So your neighborhood was primarily Jewish immigrants, or...

BOROFSKY:

Jewish immigrants because most of the people spoke Jewish.

MATSEN:

Did you speak any English when you came over.

BOROFSKY:

No, didn't speak any English at all.

MATSEN:

Anyone in your family...

BOROFSKY:

No.

MATSEN:

speak English? Your father?

BOROFSKY:

My father spoke very little English. Because he was working... he was working- he learned. But he learned, he learned. He didn't go to school but he learned the language pretty well. From the people surrounding him.

MATSEN:

Do you remember learning English?

BOROFSKY:

Yes I do. We went to school, uh, I came into a classroom. And we were- we didn't know the language, but we just sat there and we listened. Because there were a lot of immigrants and they probably, now I don't recall, maybe there were people speaking Jewish. Spoke to us. The teachers, maybe they had teachers. And we just picked it up. My bothers and myself...

MATSEN:

So this is how you all learned.

BOROFSKY:

Oh yeah, on the street and in school. My brothers- my younger sister didn't' go- didn't go yet. I remember the first time we had to take her to school it was snowing and I was the oldest of the dau- girls. So I was chosen. And I was already- I knew what to do. She fell in the snow and she did not wanna get up (laughs) to go to school. I had to take her home. I remember that very distinctly. (Sniffs)

MATSEN:

What else can you tell me about school? What was your favorite subject? Do you remember your best friend in school or meeting other children?

BOROFSKY:

Well we met a lot of children. And my subjects were...I don't remember that. Just learning it was very difficult. But we caught on, caught on quickly. And we'd come home and my mother would ask us what we did. And she used to learn the language from us. But we spoke Yiddish at home, but we spoke a lot of English, mostly English. I met some very close friends at the time but ya know as you get older you don't remember these people you don't see them. 'Cause after two years we moved up to the Bronx, which was a step up. And there I met some very friends.

MATSEN:

What was your father doing at the time?

BOROFSKY:

He worked for a relative of his who was making fixtures, electrical fixtures.

MATSEN:

So he did that in the United States...

BOROFSKY:

Yes, yes.

MATSEN:

...as well.

BOROFSKY:

He knew-he knew the art and nact of doing it and he had a relative who had a factory. And this is what he did. He worked at fixtures, making.

MATSEN:

What don't you describe a holiday for me in your house in America?

BOROFSKY:

Alright now this is like that holiday we just went through Roshashanadian Kipper (sp?). That- this holiday is the end of a new year and a beginning- an end of the old year and the beginning of a new year for Jewish people. And because we were so very religious. The night before the holiday we ate our regular we lit the candles mom lit the candles and we could not listen to the radio it was forbidden because we weren't allowed to use electricity we just had to concentrate on the holiday. And then the next day we all went to temple. The temples in the Bronx were very close to the people's homes so you would walk because on this holiday you couldn't even ride in anything. So you had to get to- and there was a temple right nearby. And our parents were in this- were in the temple and we would go in and out and play with friends on the outside. It was a very joyous day. And the next day was Yom kipper. It was a fast day and the night before we would eat our dinner and everything was- the lights were out.

MATSEN:

What would you have for dinner the night before?

BOROFSKY:

Oh we had soup and chicken.

MATSEN:

What kind of soup?

BOROFSKY:

Chicken soup, chicken soup. And we had gafiltah fish, which is made chopped fish. My mother would buy a fresh fish, a carp, a large fish. And before the holiday this fish was swimming in our bathtub. And to this day I dunno where we took a bath but we would clean people and the day before, when she had to cook, she killed that fish herself. And she cooked it and chopped it and made gafilta fish.

MATSEN:

And how would you make gafilta fish? Do you know?

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

Can you tell me about it?

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

Give me the recipe.

BOROFSKY:

Okay. Well you can buy the fish today in the stores and they can grind it for you. It's very — Do you want me to close the windows and the doors?

MATSEN:

Um, why don't we stop the tape just for a second.

BOROFSKY:

Okay lemme do that.

MATSEN:

Okay we're back with Mrs. Borofsky. We've quieted the noise. But we have an air conditioner going. So you'll hear that noise in the background. Mrs. Borofsky you were telling us how to make gafilta fish.

BOROFSKY:

Well you buy the fish. You buy carp and white fish at the fish stores. For the holidays they will grind it for you. And when you take it home. You'll...

MATSEN:

This is before it's cooked?

BOROFSKY:

Yes, before- when it's raw. When it's raw you take it home and you add car- you add eggs, onions, and you'll mix it up with your spices. Whatever spices, salt and pepper and you can mix it up. And you put in; there's one ingredient you can put in there. Its called matza meal, its like a bread crumb and that makes it hard enough to make a lil' meat- like a fish ball. So you make fish balls out of that. And you put into a 2-quart pot of water, boiling water and you add carrots and onions into the water. That cooks with the fish, and that should cook for about 2 to 3 hours before its done. And when it's done, it's delicious. And you serve that with horseradish and holy, the egg bread, the Jewish egg bread, Swiss. And that's the meal, you can add salad with it, you can add tomatoes, you can add anything you want with that. And that's the traditional holiday fish for rashashana, and Yom kipper. And...

MATSEN:

So that would be your meal...

BOROFSKY:

meal, that and you ate chicken soup with um, they call candela (sp?), you put into the soup. It's little...

MATSEN:

It's a little uh, ball of dough that you either make by yourself you mix up ingredients and you make it by yourself, and you mix up a matza meal and eggs, the salt and pepper and it becomes a little heavier and you also make- and that you drop into your boiling chicken soup and that cooks into the soup and that becomes like a akadumplink (sp?). I have to remember. (?) So um, you have that with your meal your chicken your roast chicken our boiled chicken and potatoes and then you a desert. The desert is cooked fruit, peaches and pears and prunes and carrots in it and with some syrup with water and sugar and stuff and that is your desert. That's the holiday meal. We make also, we make a brisket, which you buy it in a butcher and then you cook that for two days, which I've done recently. And potatoes and that's the meat of the meal. And that's the holiday meal.

MATSEN:

Now describe what would have been- was yesterday, the holiday of (stutters)...

BOROFSKY:

(?)

MATSEN:

of what...

BOROFSKY:

Yes...

MATSEN:

what would you do...

BOROFSKY:

Yes...

MATSEN:

...during that day in your-

BOROFSKY:

Yes...

MATSEN:

...and what was traditional in your family.

BOROFSKY:

Right now. I have a daughter that lives here in California. She lives in mission VA home, and she- we went the night before to the temple and we had the services there before- we ate first and then we went. And there was lovely services there. There was a rabbi, there's a cantor and they had twenty-four people in a choir. This is the kind of choir that my father used to lead on Rashashanian Yom Kipper (sp?). We were always very proud of him. And every ti- every year, I just looked- pictured him doing this. It's just wonderful. And we sat in temple for about three hours and was wonderful services, music, singing, and prayers. And then we- yesterday morning my daughter picked us up and we went to services again, and that was for about three hours. Same type of thing, praying singing, and then in the afternoon, there's a service for the people that had passed away. So you say your yisker, which is a prayer for the people that have passed on. And you think about them. And then, most people fast the whole day for this holiday. It's a day of fast and a day of remember, and then when the holiday is over a- they stay there all day. About seven o'clock when the sun goes down you go home and you eat. But you have to eat very light food because you've fasted. So they generally have bagels and locks and fish- gafilta fish and sour cream, whatever you want, put into it, fruit, And coffee and cake. This will give you a feeling, a good feeling after a day of fast. And that's the end of the rashashana Yom kipper holiday.

MATSEN:

That's a very good description of holidays here. (Pauses) Okay so you moved to New York and then from there you moved to the Bronx, back to chronology...

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

...of all of this.

BOROFSKY:

Yes.

MATSEN:

Um, can you tell me what your house was like when you were living the Bronx.

BOROFSKY:

Oh.

MATSEN:

Or apartment...

BOROFSKY:

Yeah.

MATSEN:

...or...

BOROFSKY:

We lived in a four room apartment, that had three bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room and we all doubled up sleeping together in one bed. Because sometimes we had relatives that came from Europe and they would visit us and they had to stay with us because we were their relatives. Everybody did that. My mother, being a good cook would cook for these relatives. She had like a little boarding house. Which helped with the money for the family, but these relatives were wonderful people. They took care of us if we needed clothing. And the depression came on; we were there during the depression.

MATSEN:

Now were these relatives moving to America as well or were they just coming to visit?

BOROFSKY:

No, these people were moved to America- came to America.

MATSEN:

Okay.

BOROFSKY:

These were relatives that came to America. And they knew that they came to- my mother's name was Hikah (sp?). Her Jewish name was Hikah (sp?). And they knew that they were going to Hikah's house. And they're wonderful people. And so they took care of us too, as far as clothing was concerned. Because if we needed a dress or something they would buy it for us. Because they knew, we were five children. And during depression it was pretty hard. So that's what we had living in America. And as we got older, my mother, in order to be able to make some money for my family to live on. My father was working but during the depression there wasn't that much so he did what he could but there wasn't enough money. We took homework. I was thirteen years old. We took homework we were making strings of beads, pearls- beads. We were putting clasps on necklaces, whatever it was. And we lived in the Bronx and I being the eldest girl would have to go with my mother downtown to 38 th St I think it was, and help her with the package to bring up to the Bronx. Carry the very heavy packages and we would bring it home and we would sit down and work on this thing, there were days when I had to go to school. And my mother said "well you cant do any homework because we have to finish this job and bring it back the next day.' So on many days I didn't do homework. I really don't know how I went through school. I really don't know. But I did it. And I went through as far as- I graduated junior high school. And I don't know but one of my teachers thought I should go to an academic school. She recommend Morris High school in the Bronx. I went there for two terms. I could not make it. So I had to quit school. Like my brothers, they had to quit school.

MATSEN:

And did you- where did y- did you work? What did you do when...

BOROFSKY:

I did this homework at home with my mother... I went to continuation school to finish...

MATSEN:

Oh okay so you finished that way.

BOROFSKY:

...my high school. I didn't get a diploma but I just had to finish my schooling. It was required I suppose. And then (sighs) as I got older, my brothers went to work and I went to work and I went- and my mother was working very hard. And I told her that I would go to work and she would have to stay home. And so I went to work in that factory that was making these beads, costume jewelry. And I worked there doing the same thing. Of course I was manager or whatever, I knew the job very well. Until I got married.

MATSEN:

Now this is not an easy subject. But do you remember when you were in America any bigotry or persecution towards your family.

BOROFSKY:

No. There was no bigotry. I often talk about this. We lived on- on Bathgate Avenue at the time. We lived- during the depression we moved to several places; Washington Avenue, Clammon parkway. Because the landlords would give you a month's free rent. So we moved that was because it was difficult to pay the rent. But our last time before I got married I was living on Bathgate avenue and all through my life I always had very good friends and we had all different kinds of nationalities. We had what would call black people; we had Italian people we had Irish people. We all got along very well. There was no problem in robbery or mugging or anything like that. I remember it was very hot during the summer, we didn't have fans and we certainly didn't have air conditioners. And we lived on the third floor, we used to sleep on the fire escape. And one time we decided my friends my family we'd go to the park we lived near Critona (sp) park. And we took blankets and we went into the park and we went to sleep. Nobody bothered us in the park. We came home the next day. It was nothing like that. At all. Um, what else do you wanna know?

MATSEN:

Well do you remember was there ever was there ever, when you came to America, a tragedy in your family?

BOROFSKY:

Well this- my grandmother died, the one that I helped take of. She passed away. And we remembered it was a very sad event. That was the first death that we had in the family.

MATSEN:

Was there a funeral, a formal?

BOROFSKY:

There was a formal funeral. There always is, yes. You go to the- you go to the funeral parlor and they say prays there. And the people come and the family's close together. And then there's a burial in one of the cemeteries, a Jewish cemetery. And that was the first tragedy. Being older I remember that.

MATSEN:

On to a happier subject, can you tell me about how you met your husband?

BOROFSKY:

Oh that was very good. Well my eldest brother Abey, is a very good friend of my husband, Jerry. We lived on Bathgate Avenue. And jerry would come into our house; a lot of people came to our house. We were a big family. There was always good food there. And he would come to visit- stay with my brother and visit the family. And I was a teenager and I never really thought about him being a boyfriend. I had other boyfriends. And then the last time, about twenty years of age I broke off with one off with one of my boyfriends and my brother was getting married and he said 'Ya know, I think I'll sit you next to Jerry at the wedding'. I was a bridesmaid. And some how or other. From that time on. We became closer. And then he asked me out. And my brother moved to Brooklyn. And when he heard that I was going with jerry he was the happiest man in the world. Until the time he passed away. They were very, very close friends. And um, we were very happy. We moved to- in the Bronx to an apartment and we bought our-

MATSEN:

What did your husband do?

BOROFSKY:

He was a salesman for Deveega Corporation. He would sales men's sporting goods. He sold all the appliances and everything. He worked there before I married. And I have to say that he was a well-dressed man at the time. And he had a lot more money than I did. And this was a big factor in my life. Because I went to work and I had to put money into the house to help support the rest of the family. So everything worked out fine. And he still worked for Deveega when got married and then I worked. I worked for another house, another costume jewelry place, managing it. And I worked for a year after that. And then I decided we'd have some children.

MATSEN:

Tell me about your children? What are their names and...

BOROFSKY:

Um, my eldest daughter. Her name is Arlene (pauses), Samuelson; her married name was Samuelson. And we have two grown grandchildren. My eldest grandson just graduated medical school. He's a podiatrist. I went to his graduation in June. I went to all their graduations. No matter where I lived. I was there. And his- and we have a granddaughter, she's twenty-three, Lisa. And she graduated she went for a business administration. She graduated last year and she's working at a job in New Jersey for a shoe factory. And she's in- does public relations and everything to do with what she learned in school. And they're the eldest. Now I have a grand- I have a daughter here Carol (sp) Myers. And we have a granddaughter who's 21 years old. And she too is going for business administration. She's in college, San Diego. And well I have a grandson who's 16, he goes to high school here. And they're very helpful to me. When we had the earthquake. Well first I have to prefecit, I moved from New York to California 14 years ago. The weather in cal- in New York was very bad for me. I did work in the public schools, in the lunch room previous to that I started to work there when my children were teenagers and they were in school and I would work part time from ten to two in the lunch room, serving the children lunch. I also worked at the red cash register at the time. I can tell you that I had some black boys they were- Mexican- Puerto Rican boys in New York its Puerto Rican. We lived- we worked near co op city in the Bronx this school and they were all wonderful children, there were some delinquents there but they liked me there they called me grandma. I was kind to them. And I worked there for twenty years. And I didn't realize it was so long cause it was a pleasant job. And then, I dec- we decided the weather was too bad for me. I was 62 years of age and I said to jerry I think its time to move. We used to visit carol in California for 8 years back and forth and it was the place I wanted to live. So we decided to move and we came out here in 1979. And – the end of 79 and we lived in the valley for 14 years we had many little earthquakes there but didn't mean anything. This was the worst. The apartment was demolished the buildings we lived in, 3 buildings. They were all three demolished. They were condemned. And immediately my daughter came picked us up and came out here to stay with her in mission vahole (sp). And when we were able to get back to the apt we rented a van and we moved out everything we could possibly move out. There were a lot of things broken we had a lot of broken- I had to buy this new dinette 'cause it was broken. My couch and dishes and everything was broken. We took whatever we could take with us and we took this apartment, which I love very much.

MATSEN:

Well if I was ask you if you are happy that you are here, that you're happy that you came to America.

BOROFSKY:

Very happy. Well as a youngster I didn't know any better. Ya know.

MATSEN:

And your parents?

BOROFSKY:

they were happy. My father died. And then my mother passed away. He was 80. She was 80. And we lost our two brothers. Which it a very sad situation. But the rest of the family's still together. And whenever there's an occasion to come in I go in. I don't miss anything. Because I- we wanna keep in touch for as much as possible.

MATSEN:

Well that's great.

BOROFSKY:

Yeah.

MATSEN:

That's great.

BOROFSKY:

The family is very close net. I spoke to my sister in law yesterday. My brother's- my eldest brother's wife. And she said ya know, "I cant believe"- her son is a oral surgeon, he came in from AZ, he said she says they keep talking about my mother was bubby, he Jewish name for grandmother. They keep talking about the family how wonderful it is. His son just got married here in ca. Everybody that was able to come came to the wedding. We all tried to go to whatever function there is. Because we're all a very close knit family. So and I'm very happy being here, especially here in Laguna Hills.

MATSEN:

Well thank you, I wanna thank you very much for doing this interview with us... agreeing to allow us to come into your home and interview you for the project, we really do appreciate that.

BOROFSKY:

Well you're welcome and I'm very happy you came. It took a little while, but we made it.

MATSEN:

We made it.

BOROFSKY:

and I'm so happy to meet both of you. It was really a pleasure.

MATSEN:

Oh and this is Elysa Matsen. I'm signing off with peter Hom. Who's been doing the recording here. And this is Eva Borofsky on 9/16/94 for the Ellis Island oral history project.