Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

MY FATHER AND MR. LEBOVITZ 45

At those words Grandmother would shut her mouth abruptly.

My father was a diamond polisher by trade, like tens of thousands of other working Jews in Amsterdam. Because the diamond industry was hit tw^rice a year by periods of unemployment, periods that lasted six months each time, Father polished more cobblestones than diamonds. Finally, he took up the pushcart with a load of lemons and tried to earn a couple of guilders. When the period of unemployment came in wintertime, he hoped fervently that the whole population of Amsterdam would have to take to bed with flu and drink hot lemon squash. During the summer unemployment, he prayed that a heat wave would come sizzling down from heaven and create a terrific demand for lemon squash with ice.

And what did he report after a typical day of hard work?

"I earned tine guilder and a half today."

"Then stop that cursed pushing of the cart," grumbled Mother.

"I saw Mr. Lebovitz today. Next week the entire population of Amsterdam will be running a temperature of 110 degrees."

"Blind Moishe,"said Mother.

(Blind Moishe was a character in the Jewish district. If anyone ever said something that the blind man did not believe, he used to say: "Seeing is believing")

"I bought a stock of ten crates of lemons," said Father. "Mr. Lebovitz says that the prices will rise, so next week I will be a rich man."