A few old videos

• The Press family around 1949-50 at 321 Winona, the home of Isadore and Rebecca Press in Pasadena.
• Press family history video shown at Joe Press' 90th birthday, produced by Jim Press.
• Joe Press's 90th birthday party with many family members present
• Additional video from Joe Press's 90th birthday party.
• Joe Press's 75th birthday party with many family members present.
• Lillian Press's 70th birthday party with many family members present.

Press Family Tree

Dan Nemzer created a Press family tree on the Geni.com Web site. For a limited, read-only view of a portion of the full tree, click here. This view will show only relatively recent family members and it can not be edited. For example, it shows only the names of my cousins and their spouses, kids, and grandchildren.

In my case, the full tree spans 6 generations -- from my great-grandparents to my grandchildren. (It is also linked to my wife's family tree which goes back to her 11th great-grandparents on her mother's side and 9th on her father's side). 

From Europe to Bay Minette, Alabama and Pasadena, California

In compiling notes on the history of the Press family, I was struck by my grandparents' exceptional courage and achievement.

Isadore Press was born in Vyshnivetz around 1882 and Rebecca Plotka was born in Kolodne in 1885 (Both are in Ukraine today). According to the Wikipedia article on the history of the Jews in Poland, the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 was falsely blamed on the Jews,  prompting a large-scale wave of pogroms throughout 1881–1884. The new czar, Alexander III, blamed the Jews for the riots and issued a series of harsh restrictions on Jewish movements. The pogroms and restrictions prompted a wave of Jewish emigration to the United States. 

Morris Plotka, Grandma's nephew, recalled that Grandpa Press was drafted into the Russian army in 1905 and taken away from his family. He was sent by an officer to mail a letter and never returned. He and Grandma fled to Lemberg Austria, where Rachel was born in 1905. 

At ages 20 and 23, they were refugees with a baby living in a foreign country! Could they get by speaking Yiddish? Did they speak German? Grandpa worked as a tailor, and they had enough money to leave for the US in 1907. Before they left, Grandma took Rachel back to Poland to say goodbye to her family and left immediately. Did she ever see her mother and father again? 

In 1907 they went to New York where Grandpa went to work as a tailor in a factory, and they had three more children, Joe, Harry, and Dave. Grandpa must have been an outstanding worker because Morris Plotka recalled that he was a foreman and as part of management, crossed a picket line during a strike. While in New York, they sent boat fare for Grandpa’s brothers Ysrul and Shaye and Grandma’s brother Menachem-Mendel and his son Isadore. 

Around 1913, a colony of 10 or 20 (I’ve read both) Jewish families left for Bay Minette Alabama where they bought 25 acres of farmland and Grandpa opened a tailor shop. They lived in a small four-room house with six kids and built a smaller “shack” for three Plotkas. (I believe it was Menachem-Mendel and his sons Isadore and Morris Plotka).

When I visited the house in 1956 or 7 an elderly couple lived there. They recalled that the tree in the front yard had been planted by a Russian. There was also a well with a water pump in the front yard and an ice box. Since the Press family lived there years before Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act, it is unlikely they had electricity or indoor plumbing. They must have used a wood stove for heating and cooking.  

They grew vegetables and yams, and Grandma had a roadside stand as well as cooking, canning, driving a horse and buggy into town every day, and watching the kids.

Pasadena, 1949

When their daughter, Rachel, was old enough to be married, there were no suitable Jewish boys, so they left Alabama for Pasadena, Califonia. (The Plotkas moved to Mobile, Alabama).

I can’t imagine having the courage to take the risks my grandparents took in their early 20s and their generosity, sense of family, and their hard work and energy. Yet, when I met them, they were unassuming grandparents. Grandma had a pantry full of pastry and preserves and Grandpa had a tailor shop where I could sit on the floor and play with empty spools. I was afraid of the mangle and I remember him picking me up and kissing me with his mustache.

I wish I could tell them how much I love and admire them today.

In the beginning ...

Isadore Press was born in Vyshnivetz around 1882 and Rebecca Plotka was born in Kolodne in 1885 (Both are in Ukraine today). They married, surreptitiously crossed the border to Austria-Hungary where Rachel was born in 1905, and made their way to Delancey Street on the lower east side of Manhattan where Joe, Harry, and David were born. The next stop was Bay Minette, Alabama, and finally Pasadena, California.

Short autobiography of Joseph Press

The autobiography

• Ten years in Bay Minette
• School and early work in Pasadena
• World War II
• Community service and work at a unique underground warehouse in Kansas City
• Retirement in Palm Springs.

The warehouse was underground in a quarry. The quarry was run by "Scotty" Scott,
left, and Ted Barbon, right, was the refrigeration engineer.

Ohio State University Hillel Faculty Appreciation Tribute for Professor Louis Nemzer

On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops opened fire on demonstrators protesting the Vietnam war at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine students. Demonstrations spread and the Ohio State University campus was shut down From May 7th to 18th, Ohio. These photos are of Luis Nemzer, a beloved professor and campus leader calming demonstrators later in the month. They are from a tribute written by his grandson and namesake who was a graduate student at Ohio State in 2008. 

(A personal note -- he was my uncle and a wise, kind man. Larry)

Bay Minette

Census pages from 1920 and 1930, short notes on the Press and Plotka families, and records from the Industrial Removal Office which moved urban Jews to rural areas of the country. The Presses and Plotkas went to Bay Minette, Alabama.

Census pages (from John Press)

• 1920
• 1930 page 1
• 1930 page 2

Notes (from Dan Nemzer)

• Press family
• Plotka family

Industrial Removal Office (IRO) record at the Center for Jewish History (from John Press)

Press, Is. 

Spouse's Name: Rivka 

Date of Relocation: 3/24/1913

Relocated to: Bay Minette, AL Box: 11

Ledger Page: 202, Entry: 35948 

There is no entry for the Plotka family.

1913 IRO ledger record (from John Press)

• Press record
• Ledger page left
• Ledger page, right

Notes from Edie and others

• The Press Family in Alabama
• Notes by Dan, John and Larry
• Notes from the Press family tree
• The Plotka Family in Alabama
• Memories of Morris Plotka

Press family 1923

Plotka-Press reunion in Mobile AL, May 2008

One afternoon, many of us drove (on a new highway) to Bay Minette. We did find the original house (on North Hand Avenue) and carefully walked inside it. (Loose floorboards). It seemed like a cabin to me. The house was not occupied then. Since then, it was torn down. Dan