Introduction to the Diamond Family
Our brief introduction to the Diamond family begins in the 1880's with a young couple named Hascal Cuciureanu and Taube Heifler.
There is some evidence that the Cuciureanu family originated in the Ukraine. What is known is that Hascal and Taube married, and lived in Botosani, Romania, operating a farm and wine garden.
They raised eight children.
Somewhere around the turn of the 20th century, presumably due to unrest at home, Hascal was asked by his townsmen to head up a band of "Fusgeyers" (literally "one who goes by foot"),
on an arduous trek across a divided and anti-Semitic Europe to Palestine to investigate its potential. He left taking his son Max.
Being disappointed to find that the land alloted to them by the Turkish government was little more than barren and unproductive wasteland, Hascal returned home.
Unrest was brewing at home and many families were considering emigration.
If more was needed to persuade Hascal to do the same, it came when the latest pogram saw the mayor standing on
the steps of the Cuciureanu residence holding back the riotous mob at gunpoint.
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Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
- Emma Lazarus (from The New Colossus)
Our narrative now takes us to 1908. The
four boys had by now left Romania and started new lives for
themselves in New York.
Driven by the promise of a new life and, most importantly, a
burning desire to see her family together once more, Taube
was keen to join her sons in America.
So it was that, in 1909, despite some personal misgivings,
Hascal packed up the remainder of his family and together
they boarded the S.S. Rotterdam bound for New York. Sarah
Leibowitz would later recall the impact that the first sighting
of the Statue of Liberty had on the weary passengers of the
immigration ship. It was an extremely tearful and emotional
experience. The Cuciureanu family was reunited.
As their homeland changed, so did their name. They were to be known as the Diamond family.
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Earliest photographs/documents and related research
Excerpt from Herbert Lee's
account of his trip to Romania with Robbie Lee
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