Zelia Goldberg

The advice I am going to give you is what your parents and teacher probably tell you. If you want to get along in the world you have to get a good education. No one can give you an education. They can help you get it. It’s up to you to work at it. My greatest wish for all of you is to really find something you want to do and learn how to do it well. You have to study. You have to work for it.

Zelia Goldberg

My name is Zelia Goldberg. My last name when I was born was Fidanque. I was born in 1921. I was born to a family where my mother had 10 sisters and brothers and a father with 10 sisters and brothers. I grew up with a lot of cousins and a lot of friends. I was born in Panama, a little, tiny, narrow piece of land that connects two large pieces of land. Panama is close to the equator. It is very hot and is rainy for nine months and dry for three months.

My family’s history is interesting. The Sephardic are a group of Jewish people who lived in Spain many years ago. The Jewish people lived in Spain at the same time as the Muslims and they got along very well. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand became the rulers of Spain and didn’t like the Jewish people and made them convert to another religion against their will. We are the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who left Spain during the Inquisition in 1491. We went from Portugal, to Holland, to Curaçao, and then to St. Thomas. Finally, we went to Panama during the time that the canal was to be built in 1855. They owned ships and traded with the colonies. They had to learn English for business reasons. My father and mother both spoke English when growing up. I learned Spanish first but also learned English at the same time. I have been bilingual my whole life. Makes it easier to get along in this world.

The most important thing in the Jewish religion is Tikkun Olam, which means to repair he world. The basic Jewish belief is that God put us here to do his work, to do the good. God has given us the will to be either good or bad and it’s up to us to choose the right way.

My mother taught me how to read before going to school. I went to 2nd grade right away. First four years of school I went to an American school. When I was 15 years old I was sent to the States to a boarding school. All the years I spent in the states studying I never went home but three months of the year. In those days the airplanes didn’t fly like now. I had to sail on a ship for six days to get from the States to Panama.

I went to college at Northwestern University. I went there for four years. Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. I was in college when I heard the news. I went back to Panama while World War II was going on. During WWII they had a lot of American soldiers in Panama. I met a young man who was a Major in the Army. We fell in love and got married.

When the war was over, we came back to the States. I’ve lived in Boston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and even Florida. Here in Minneapolis I love to get outdoors. I love to walk around the lakes.

I have four kids, 11 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. I’ve buried two husbands and married three times. My first husband died at 63 and I was 57. I remarried at 61 and he lived eleven years. At 74 I remarried again. Now I’m 85.

Now I volunteer at the school. I have been very fortunate my whole life. I have not gone out and done great things in the community. This is one thing I can do. New immigrant children they should be in a different school system. I’ve learned this system is wrong because it pushes them into the next grade level so they’ll know less than the year before. Some of these kids won’t be able to read enough to get a job, if they can even make it through high school.