Ziskind to Siskin and scraps to treasure
Whenever groups gather to talk about local history, the family stories are always the best. When talking Chattanooga history, few family stories can rival one that involves religious persecution, conscription into the tsar’s army, being smuggled across borders and eventually finding a home in the Tennessee Valley — and that’s just the beginning of the Siskin story, a journey that epitomizes the American Dream.
The story begins in Kavarskas, a tiny town in Lithuania where Issac Asher Ziskind and his family worshipped, along with other Jewish families, in the local synagogue. He learned the Jewish admonition of “tzedakah,” or righteousness involving charitable love, as a young man, and in turn taught his family that same concept of faith in action.
While Lithuania had been a haven of relative religious freedom and learning, all of that would change in the late 18th century when the small Baltic province was annexed by a Russian empire seeking an outlet to warm water for trade. Within weeks, Jewish communities ceased to flourish. Formerly successful merchants found their businesses shuttered, while their children were denied access to advanced education. Basic human rights became only a dream of the past.
It was into this repressive environment that Isaac’s oldest son, Chaim Raphael Ziskind, was born in 1868. A charismatic young man who worked as a teaching assistant, his life changed drastically when he was ordered into the tsar’s army, often serving alongside men whose antiSemitism made the threeyear conscription even more difficult.
After service, he married Hannah Trumpeofsky, and seeing few opportunities for themselves the young couple with other family members made plans to immigrate to America. Since the danger existed that Chaim Raphael Ziskind (soon to become Robert Hyman Siskin) might be forced back into military service, it is said that he hid beneath the floorboards of a wagon for three days until they could cross the border to reach Germany and board a ship for America.
Several stories exist in slightly different versions about how Robert and Anna Siskin made their way to Chattanooga. Perhaps it was a chance meeting with a member of the Winer family, but whatever the motivation the couple began their new life in Chattanooga during a period of economic growth and opportunity. Robert became a peddler and, willing to work long days and walk miles each day, sold pots, pans, threads, needles and the other goods difficult to obtain in rural communities.
He left each Monday morning on a circuit of communities in a radius of 70 miles around Chattanooga, sleeping each evening wherever he could find shelter. He walked quickly, engaged with his customers and earned the coins necessary to support his family, but made certain that he was home before sunset on Friday. For Robert Siskin, his faith was central to any success he might find in life.
By 1903, the Siskin family included three children, Sarah, Moses and Garrison, and the family’s life was changing. Robert Siskin continued as a “traveling man on road” until he saw an opportunity to work closer to home, with a greater potential for success — in scrap metal. With little initial investment, one could start a business that focused more on hard work than capital. An additional bonus was that the scrap yard could be closed on Saturday, which allowed the family to continue observing the Sabbath together, while many Jewish neighbors felt pressured to open their stores on Saturdays, the busiest shopping day.
Trained to understand the connection between selfdiscipline, innovative business practices and family commitment, the younger Siskins learned to combine work and education. Mose, as he was now known, left school after 10th grade to work full-time with his father, becoming adept at scouring the city and collecting metal while also hiring the work crews that maintained the scrapyard. Garrison, who graduated from City High School in 1920, was offered a scholarship to Syracuse University but declined the opportunity because, while the scholarship covered tuition, the other financial requirements were simply beyond the family’s ability. Instead, he joined the family business, where Sarah also was working as the bookkeeper and office manager.
By 1929, R.H. Siskin and Sons was a Chattanooga business, and the family was working and worshipping together.
From tsarist Russia to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Ziskind to Siskin, the first chapters in a new life had been written by Robert and Anna Siskin. Now their children were poised to write their own stories.
Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga-Hamilton County historian, is looking forward to attending Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation’s 2023 Possibilities Luncheon on March 21.
For more, visit Chattahistoricalassoc.org.