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SERVING YOU SINCE 1932   

132 ELDRIDGE STREET

  
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It's About One Thing--HERITAGE
 

 

Avraham Futterman was born in a town named Hotin (pronounced ho-teen) in what was then Moldova and what is now the Ukraine.  His parents, Chaim and Yetta Futterman, were illiterate and beat young Abe out of spite every time they saw him reading.


Needless to say, when the Cossacks came, Abe’s parents turned him in for anti-Czarist activities and at the age of 11, Abe was off to prison.  In prison, Abe protected himself against the other inmates by mending their clothes and soon realized his skills with the needle might be valuable in other prisons and soon arranged for himself to be transferred to Bergen Belsen. 

 

At B-B, Abe’s career really took off.  He was the personal tailor to the Commandant and once had to repair a torn hem seconds before Goebbels was to arrive. 

The details of Grandpa Abe’s journey to America are murky. Sometimes he said he came on a ship, sometimes on a boat.

 
 

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Abe’s first job in America was selling needles door to door for a notions company.  When he had enough money, he bought a used sewing machine from a pawn shop and began making gloves for New York City policemen.  Abe’s gloves were warm, stylish and had suede in the palms to give a cop better grip on a blackjack.