Fran Lebowitz

He didn't speak English.

When he got here, they asked him what was his profession.

Because he thought you get to the United States, they give you a job.

And so he said in whatever dialect they spoke, splover, which meant woodcutter.

So they wrote down Splaver.

I mean, the people who were in Ellis Island were mostly like, you know, like Irish, first of all.

And so everyone in the world named Splaver is related to me.

What his last name really was, was probably nothing because Jews in Russia didn't really have last names.

They didn't have birth certificates.

They were not citizens.

And so that became their last name.

Well, he wasn't killed in a pogrom.

I mean, I have to tell you that, you know, this idea that

You know, immigrants in that era where it was a huge immigration of Eastern European Jews, of Irish, of Italians, but they came for different reasons.

The Jews didn't come here to get rich.

They came here to not get killed, okay?

That's a very big motivation.

They were escaping.

You know, the czar was incredible, you know.

So they, I mean, he deserted the army.