Barash, Abraham Morris "Abe"

Born in the Jewish shtetl of Delinkas in Russia; deafened at 10 months from a high fever, which also left his older sister Lillian hard of hearing. Both very briefly attended a nearby crude school for the deaf, but were pulled out. The turmoil of the Russian Revolution prompted the family to emigrate, first stopping over in Warsaw, Poland in 1920 and then to America in 1921. They settled in Fond du Lac, WI. Abe and Lillian both started in regular public schools, but Abe transferred at age 14 to the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, leaving there at age 21 with a vocational training in shoe repair. Married Hilda Nathenson in 1934. Established his own shoe repair shop in Madison,WI, and ran it continuously for 50 years right up to his death. Biography by two of his children, Harvey L. Barash and Eva Barash Dicker, is Our Father Abe (1991).