Leah Kejlis Ingber
Dedicated to the memory of Leah Ingber, Remembering Luboml makes a personal connection with the Twin Cities in a very unique way bringing together the Old World traditions and practices of life with the New World.
Born 9 November 1909 in Luboml, Leah was one of six daughters. Her oldest sister, Fruma, married Yaacov Meisels when Leah was only 13. The couple migrated to Palestine-the last time Leah saw the bride. Leah left her Shtetl when she was 21 years old and came to Canada. Her mother, Nechuma Kejlis, sent Leah to her brother Bernard Goldfeather, an optometrist in St. John, New Brunswick, in order to earn enough money to bring over the entire family. Of all the sisters Leah was considered to have the biggest heart and would work to save enough money to bring the rest of the family to America.
Leah's arrival in Canada, however, coincided with the Great Depression. She moved to Montreal, Quebec in search of work. Then, through family, arrangements were made for her to travel to St. Paul, Minnesota to meet Sam Ingber, a milkman and devout Jew who was a widower with two small sons, Harry and Joe. Leah and Sam married in 1936 and had two sons of their own, Marvin and Jerry, who are today Minneapolis attorneys. In their family home in St. Paul, Leah was fond of saying to her children, "Ah leben auf dein kopf! You should always have a good life."
Leah was unable to save her mother and sisters (Chava, Rose, Pessie and Bayla) or their families from the Nazis. They all perished in the Holocaust. In the 1970s, Leah was reunited in Israel with her only surviving family member, her brother-in-law, Yaacov Meisels, and his family.
This exhibit is dedicated to the loving memory of Leah Kejlis Ingber and her shtetl, Luboml, the little town in Poland where she was born, and to those in her family and all others who perished in the Holocaust.