Born in Lithuania in 1885 under the rule of Russian Tsars, Nettie was ever aware of the injustice levied on her Jewish people. Rules limited their freedom reducing their status to that of second-class citizens. Additionally, Nettie challenged her own religion’s system of excluding girls from Talmud instruction, which the male-dominated Jewish society deemed to be the exclusive right of men.
Nettie fled to America with Russian Cossacks hot on her trail for a murder that occurred during a pogrom while she was defending her husband. In America, she found opportunity but not without its perils. She took advantage of America’s freedoms and became educated, continuing to navigate the male dominated society with her resolve to live the American Dream. Nettie’s natural sexuality and intelligence attracted five husbands and produced six children, who in turn contributed twelve grandchildren. This was her legacy to America. Her life’s story unfolded as her adopted country fought two wars, saw the start of the union movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and segregation, and adjusted to an immigrant crisis.
Tragically, Nettie ---a young widow ---lost her life at age 37 at the hands of the son of a man whose romantic interest she had rejected years before in the old country. Envious of her newfound wealth, he was determined to claim it as his own. He sent his son, 13 years younger than Nettie, to court her, then marry her. Evil occult forces seemed to follow Nettie’s every move after her third marriage, only ending with her death after the fifth. The sensational trial of her last husband for her violent murder was followed in newspapers across the country.
Her life in America played out against a backdrop of the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, bootleg liquor, ragtime music, and speakeasies. Nettie became in her mind, and in reality, a true American. She did her best to raise her children and instill in them her passion for justice and freedom.
