I went to Hebrew school four days a week, and Sunday. It was a very traditional Hebrew school. Most of the teachers in that Hebrew school were themselves immigrants.

I think I started going to the JCC probably as a fairly young kid when I was still living in West Lynn, to certain play programs.

I think it gave me some very, very important values. Values of kindness to other people. Values of giving back to the community from which you came.

What I would do is go home for Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippu—to celebrate the Jewish holidays.

I became involved in AZA. I eventually became aleph godol; I became the head of that organization. A lot of the focus of AZA in Lynn was sports.

It was right next to a public school which also housed what was called then the Americanization School. It was a place where the immigrants first started to learn English.

Pierce: Did you go to Hebrew school?
Sherman: I did.

We would go to shul on all of the important Jewish holidays. My father knew how to daven.

My mother came here when she was much younger. I think when my mother came, she was 10 or 11, so she had much more of an American background than my dad. My dad came when he was 16 and went to work right away.

My father came from a village called Romanov and my mother came from a little shtetl called Pativka.