The Way We Were - about 1918

This photo, of Rabbi Abraham Wolf, with cousins Barbara (“Babe”) Millen (later Fay) on the left and Ethel (“Sister”) Millen (later Brown) on the right, had to have been taken before November of 1919 (Rabbi Wolf died that October), but late enough that Babe, born in 1914, remembered him.

Babe’s granddaughter Allison Fay and Sister’s daughter Sondra Brown Brody and grandson Adam Brown live in Knoxville.

See below for more about Rabbi Wolf and how the Archives identified the two girls in the photo.

Send your photos of "The Way We Were" (identifying who, what, when, and where) to archives@jewishknoxville.org, or contact the archivist at (865) 690-6343.

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How the Archives Discovered the Identities of “Rabbi Wolf” and the two girls….

  The Archives has many photos in its possession, far too many of them unidentified, either in whole or in part, regarding who is in them, when the photo was taken, where it was taken, and /or what the event was.  One such photo was that of a man identified as “Rabbi Wolf” with two little girls perched on his lap (well, a very close looks suggests one was on a knee and the other probably on the wide arm of the upholstered chair he was sitting on).   This photograph was housed in a category of photos the Archivist found when she began working in the Archives with the label “Individuals in Groups,” along with many other photos, many of them partially identified (at best).  Rabbi Wolf was identified, but not the children.  The assumption was that Wolf was his surname, but even that could not be certain.

  Rabbi Wolf was not included in the list of rabbis Wendy Besmann compiled for her work on Knoxville Jewry, A Separate Circle, at either Temple Beth El or Heska Amuna Synagogue.  The photo clearly was “old,” but other than that, its history was not known, at least not to the Archivist, or to members of the Archives committee when queried perhaps eight or nine years ago.

 The Archives is currently working on obtaining transcriptions of its 1980s’-era audiotapes of interviews of Jewish community members.  The Archivist recently began to listen to the tape of the interview of Babe Fay (1914-1993), reading along with the transcript, to edit the work of the transcriber.  Not quite half way into the interview, which Barbara Bernstein and Natalie Robinson conducted in August of 1984, in answer to a question of what rabbis did she remember from her childhood, Babe mentioned that she “was crazy” about Rabbi Wolf, whom she remembered well,  and “you saw us sitting on his lap in that picture, Sister and I.”

  The interview, conducted at Babe’s home, was interrupted at that moment by her doorbell, and when the interview resumed, the subject of Rabbi Wolf was not revisited.

  But Babe’s comments were enough.  The photo she referred to had to be that of Rabbi Wolf with the two little girls.  Babe Millen was the daughter of Fred Millen and Rebecca Friedman.  “Sister” (Ethel) – Millen was Babe’s first cousin and bit older.  Babe (born Barbara but known as Babe) was born in 1914, and Sister in 1912.[i]  Sister’s parents were Fred's brother Sam Millen and Rebecca Golumbeck.  The photo is that of young girls – Babe perhaps four or five, and Sister two years older.  This meant that the photo must have been taken around 1918 or 1919.  In fact, the archivist was able to establish that an Abraham B Wolf, occupation rabbi,[ii] died of myocarditis in Knoxville on the 15^th of October, 1919.  He then lived at 113 McKee Street, in the heart of what was then Knoxville’s Jewish community.  According to his death certificate, he was married, age 48, born in Russia, son of Mayer.  Anyone familiar with the New Jewish Cemetery knows he is not buried there, or perhaps his identity might have been discovered years earlier.  His death certificate indicates he was to be buried in Washington, DC.  The informant on this death certificate was Morris Bart.  The 1920 American Jewish Yearbook (available online) in its necrology section mentions Rabbi Abraham Wolf, aged 40, Knoxville, died October, 1919 [yes, a discrepancy in his age; who informed the American Jewish Yearbook of his passing ?  – that probably will remain a mystery].   He had a wife and daughter, and apparently they had lived in Washington before moving to Knoxville some time after 1910, and returned there upon the rabbi’s death.  The daughter was born in New York City, and her mother died in DC eleven years after her father.

  The story would not be complete without another nod to modern technology.  A good color scan reveals that someone had written not only “Babe” above Babe’s head in the photograph, but “Sister” along the margin next to her.  The “R Wolf” had always been visible.  But it was the interview transcription that was the catalyst for revealing all of their identities, though at least those of Babe and Sister had been sitting here all along.

 And, though this is not new information, interviewer Natalie Robinson (nee Levison) is also a Millen, a granddaughter of a sister of Fred and Sam Millen.

   Contact the archives at archives@jewishknoxville.org or 865-690-6343 for more information.