Mose Ginsberg, born in 1879, spent his first twelve years in the small Russian town of Devinsk. In 1888, his father, a tailor making $5.00 a week, left home to try to find a better life for his family in America. We had "black bread every day except Friday," Mose recalls, " then white bread with sugar on it, and that was the only time all week." Three years later Mose's father, now earning $15.00 a week as a custom tailor in New York City, was able to send steamer fare for his wife and three children.

The Ginsberg family began their trip on a train to Riga and then caught a ride to the border with a peasant on a buckboard. There were many small roadside icons (shrines) and the peasant stopped at every one to pray and leave food. Mose recalls, "His horse was very old, and he thought if he didn't pray and leave some food at every icon, the horse would drop dead out of revenge."