Big Hersh let out a bitter laugh. “You got me on that one. Well, I was young but I couldn’t see it. Uncle Perry was nothing like him. He had nothing but disdain for the fish business and it seemed like he had nothing but disdain for his parents, also. But he had grown up poor. My mother used to say they had nothing. So when Aunt Bracha came along, my mother said, Peretz jumped.”

“How did your Uncle Perry relate to his son?” Decker asked.

“I couldn’t see any…any bond,” Big Hersh said. “But I wasn’t with them a lot, so who am I to judge, nu? Most of his disgust seemed to be directed toward Bracha. He hated everything about her, but if he wanted the money, he had to stick with her. Bracha’s parents didn’t give him the money all at once. They doled it out, bit by bit. And my mother told me they had put all sorts of conditions on the money. Uncle Perry had to be a Satmar Chasid—which he was at the time. So that wouldn’t present a real problem. Bubbe and Zeyde Schaltz were Satmar Chasidim, grew up in Williamsburg. But Uncle Perry hated that too, couldn’t wait to get away from the whole thing. Then Bracha came along. I guess the money was too tempting. So Uncle Perry had to dress like a Satmar, speak Yiddish like a Satmar, raise his son to be a Satmar.”

“So why’d they live in Kew Gardens?” Decker asked.

“Uncle Perry put his foot down on that,” Big Hersh said. “He said he wouldn’t marry her if they had to live in Williamsburg because she was a big embarrassment. So my mother told me they reached a compromise. They could live in Kew Gardens until Hersh was ten. Then Mr. Kornitski wanted his grandson to be part of the Satmar community. Uncle Perry agreed because he really wanted the money. And once he got it, he spent it as fast as they gave it to him.”

Decker asked him what he spent the money on. Big Hersh answered on things—and on women. Everyone knew Uncle Perry ran around with women.

“Did his son know?” Decker asked.

“He found out as soon as Uncle Perry married a shiksa,” Big Hersh said. “He divorced Aunt Bracha as soon as Mr. Kornitski died. The old man left him a little cash in his will, but the bulk of the money was left to Bracha’s brother, who wouldn’t loan Uncle Perry half a cent if his life depended on it. So Uncle Perry divorced his wife and married his kourve—the shiksa.”

Big Hersh didn’t speak for a moment.