On December 24, 1916, my maternal great uncle Alexander Farkas (1885-1948) married Jennie Katz (1886-1974). Alex, an immigrant from Hungary, was a salesman for Singer Sewing Machines, and would turn 31 years old on the day after his wedding. Jennie, also an immigrant, was 30 years old and an accomplished dressmaker, able to look at a fashion item and sew it up with her own special flair.
Their wedding was a fun family affair, including Alex's many siblings and their spouses plus a few of Jennie's Katz relatives. The one child at their wedding was Alex's nephew Fred Schwartz, who was only four years old. In the surviving wedding photo, the guests are wearing party hats and smiling broadly. Must have been quite the celebration!
Alex and Jennie got married in what was then the First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek, a beautiful Greek Revival-style synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Today, the building is a performance space just a few blocks from the Tenement Museum that illuminates immigrant life in the Big Apple from 1860s-1970s.
The couple had no children and doted on their many nephews and nieces. Jennie eventually became so successful under the professional name Madame Jennie Farkas that Alex quit his job to help manage her business. After Alex died in 1948, at age 62, Jennie continued to stitch custom creations for clients and also made fashions for special family events. She passed away at age 88 in 1974, deeply mourned by the Farkas family.
