Weiss

"VERY little is known of the ancestry of Isaac Mayer Wise. He could not be induced to talk about his early years, and often said they were too terrible to contemplate. No authentic data are to be found in Wise s writings; and, unlike many another great man who rose from humble beginnings to a position of influence and prominence, he never referred to his early years. While nothing is known of his maternal ancestors, there are a few meagre facts concerning his paternal great grandfather, grandfather, and father.
"His great grandfather was a physician named Leo, who had studied medicine at Padua , practised at Marienbad, and lived in the neighbourhood, in the village of Durmaul. This physician was known as Dr. Leo, and spoken of by his co-religionists as Leo "Chakam," the Hebrew for Wise.
"The son of this Dr. Leo, or Leo Weis, was Isaiah, who also studied medicine at Padua and likewise settled at Durmaul. This Doctor Isaiah lived to be over ninety years of age. Besides learned in his profession he was well versed in Talmudical and rabbinical literature, and became the teacher of his son, whom he named for his father, Leo.
"This Leo, grandson of the Doctor Leo who had studied at Padua , was educated by his father and became a teacher. Leo Weis was never a vigorous man, and died shortly after the birth of his youngest child, a daughter. Nothing certain is known of his early life. Shortly after receiving his education he removed from Durmaul to Steingrub, a small village of a few hundred inhabitants near the town of Eger, in Bohemia, overlooking Saxony and Bavaria. In this village of Steingrub, in which there dwelt a large number of Catholics, Leo Weis was married twice.
"His second wife was Regina Weis. The families were distantly related. As already stated, nothing is known of the ancestry of Regina Weis. She was, however, a handsome woman, bright, cheerful, lovable, and devoted. She emigrated to America in 1867 with her son Samuel and later lived in Peoria, Illinois, with her daughter, Caroline Korsosky, where she died in 1880 at a ripe old age."
"In July, 1877, Dr. Wise, en route to the Coast, stopped at Peoria to visit his mother, and he writes delightfully of her as follows "You need not laugh, we must stop to see the ladies. Here is one of them, a wonderful woman. She is eighty- six years old, speaks, hears, and sees like a young woman, and goes every Sabbath to the temple even if it rains or is right hot. She tells beautiful stories of sixty to seventy-five years ago, and She is never cross, never displeased, and has a kind word for everyone. She speaks, thinks, and feels as I do, and like me she laughs over the world s numerous follies. She looks like me, and is as incurable an optimist as I am. She is my mother. God bless her. I stopped over to see her and my baby sister."
"Of this marriage there were born thirteen children, seven of whom died in infancy. Isaac Mayer was the oldest surviving son. He was born on March 29, 1819 . The Hebrew date, which in later years was always observed as his birthday, was the third day of Nissan, 5579. The family was very poor and barely eked out an existence. The father was the typical Jewish school teacher of the Bohemian village. Besides conducting a small school he performed all the necessary duties as functionary of the Jewish community, such as reading the prayers morning 1 Israelite, vol. xxix., No. 2. and evening, slaughtering the cattle and fowl, and officiating at times as minister. Young Wise began at the age of four to attend his father's school; when he was six years old he received his first instruction in Talmud, and within three years thereafter he showed such precocity that his father was unable to give him individual attention. It was then decided that he should live with his grandfather, Dr. Isaiah, at Durmaul. Here he attended the Jewish day school, where most of the time was taken up in the study of the Talmud, and once a week the Pentateuch with Aramaic translation and Rashi commentary was studied. The young boy, however, had the advantage of receiving in the evening personal instruction from his learned grandfather, Dr. Isaiah. The following anecdote is told of his stay with the learned physician: "At ten the boy was invariably sent to bed, but the grandfather sat up till midnight poring over huge tomes. These midnight vigils excited the boy's curiosity, especially as he had noted a large wooden box which was never opened in his presence, but from which the child, who was supposed to have been asleep, saw his grandfather take books; the mysterious box was meddled with, and one day yielded to manipulation, when it was found to be filled with cabalistic works, with the mysticism of which the physician busied himself in the still hours of the night. "
When the lad was twelve years old his learned grandfather died. Inasmuch as his parents in Steingrub were in no position to care for him, and as he had already determined to become a rabbi, he set out for Prague, the capital of Bohemia, and at that time the centre of Jewish learning of Bohemia. He started on his journey afoot, with a small bundle of clothes and twenty-seven kreutzer in his pocket. En route he stopped at Mies where a cousin gave him five florins, and at Pilsen an uncle, an officer in the artillery, bestowed upon him ten more. When he arrived at Prague he at once attended the Jewish school called the Beth Hammidrash, which adjoined the Alt-Neu-Schul, the famous Synagogue of Prague. In his "Recollections of Bohemia ," quoted in the first chapter of this book, Dr. Wise tells of the custom of the well- to-do Jews to give to poor and deserving students "day-board," so that they could pursue their studies. Had it not been for this custom and charity it is doubtful whether the young student could have reached the goal of his ambition. In later life he never forgot this great boon shown him in youth, and no young man who wished to study ever left him unassisted. In his home there were always to be found young men who lived with him, and when more than forty years later the Hebrew Union College at Cincinnati was opened he became the guardian angel of many a young student. In Prague he was assisted first by the widow of Rabbi Bezalel Ronsperg, an uncle of his mother. ..