My full Hebrew name is Yakov Moshe Block. I am names after my great-grandfather, Yakov Moshe Horowitz. He was born in Vishuv, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains. An interesting story about how he came to America. When my great-grandfather first came from Romania, he did not have a job. A strange man once gave him a tip about a position in Scranton, Penn. as a Shochet, a ritual slaughterer. Yakov Moshe was very grateful for the man’s help and wanted to thank him, but when he went to go wash his hands the man disappeared.
My great-grandfather worked in this position until he had enough money to send for the rest of his family. He unfortunately died at a young age from heart complications, but was survived by a very tightly-knit family. He had four children who each had at least 5 children of there own and each family is close to one another.
My mother moved from Scranton, where she grew up, when she went to school at Stern College in 1968. After graduating in 1972, she worked for the soviet Jewry under the direction of Malcolm Hoenline. This went on until she married my father in 1975, and moved to Roslyn, where I live now, and my father serves as the local orthodox rabbi.