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The Schooling of David Dubinsky:
A Democratic Labor Leader in the Making
- Abstract
David Dubinsky was born David Dobnievski in Brest-Litovsk fifty-seven years ago. While he was a small child, his family moved to Lodz, where he went to a primary school and learned to read and write Polish, Russian, and Yiddish. His school days ended when he was thirteen.
His father owned a small bakery. It was in a semi-basement: one room with one small window and a large baking oven in the middle. Behind it was a narrow hall that served as a kitchen, and behind this was one bedroom used by David’s father, stepmother, and older brother. David himself usually slept in the delivery wagon in the yard—but in winter his bed was in the kitchen. The bakers worked at night, putting the fresh bread and rolls to cool on a large board at the head of his bed. Lying there, David was able to pick up the secrets of the baker’s trade—no simple matter—with unusual rapidity. At fourteen he became a master baker in his father’s shop, earning twelve rubles a week—about six dollars. In 1907, six dollars went about as far as twenty-five do today.
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