Archives West Finding Aid

Tape-recorded interview conducted by Meta Kaplan on September, 1976 and covering the years ca. 1900-1976.

Harry Russak, Joseph's father, arrived in Seattle in 1907 with not one cent and left a multi-million dollar estate when he died in 1969. He came from Schtapes in Minsk in Russia where the family had lived for about 300 years. Joseph tells of the family life in Minsk. He tells of his father's upward mobility from selling vegetables door to door with a horse and wagon to owning industrial parks where he was a landlord to big corporations. He tells of the Mir Yeshiva which his father attended and his father's life in Europe. He gives insights into the life of an orthodox Jew in the world of big business. Russak also includes interesting details of early years in auto wrecking and land buying and of selling kosher meat at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition.