Robert "Bob" Feinberg, 2022-07-11

File — Box: 1, Folder: 5

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

This series contains the transcripts of the oral history interviews. The transcripts are organized by neighborhood, and then alphabetically by last name.

Dates

2022-07-11

Creator

From the Collection: Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society (99 Newbury Street Boston, MA ) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for researcher use. Please contact us to make an appointment to view this collection at jhcreference@nehgs.org.

Biographical / Historical

Robert “Bob” Feinberg was born in Chelsea, MA, in 1931 to Mary (née Melamed, b. 1900 in Russia) and Charles (b. 1898 in Boston, MA). Bob grew up across from the Walnut Street Shul in Chelsea. After earning Master’s degrees from Boston College and University of Rochester, he became a nuclear physicist with General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He married Carole Feinberg, and had two sons, Curt, and Mark. In his interview, Bob tells of his immigrant grandparents’ experiences working and prospering in Boston and Chelsea, and his own experience growing up poor and Orthodox. Among his many colorful memories and stories, Bob recounts his grandmother’s living-room-based funeral through a child’s eyes, and he describes being harassed for money by another boy, Albert DeSalvo—who years later was identified as the Boston Strangler. While he now lives in Niskayvna, NY, Bob speaks movingly throughout his interview, of the deep, lifelong impact growing up in Chelsea had on him.