Thursday, April 1, 2021

The Mourner's Kaddish

George Eliot once said, "Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them." I hope that is not the case for David Isaac Pushkin.

So far I have been unable to find an obituary for David other than what was published in the O.S.U. Lantern on Monday, Feb. 2, 1925:

courtesy of Find a Grave
DAVID PUSKEN

The news that a second Ohio State student has died from causes apparently similar to those which caused the death of Charley Huls brings the tragedy to us more sharply.

We did not know David Pusken as we knew Charley Huls, but that is our fault, and our loss, we are sure.

Death does not stride the University often, and when it does it affects us all the stronger. We grieve at the death of a fellow student, although we did not know him, for he had a great deal in common with all of us. He went to school here, and that gives us a community of interest.

The Lantern extends its sympathy to the relatives and friends of David Pusken with all sincerity.

 

Just as A.E. Huls, was "satisfied" his son Charley had died from meningitis, Louis Pushkin was equally convinced his son David had suffered a wrongful death. I made a mistake when I said in Star of David there was no autopsy on David Puskin. Apparently one was conducted that same day before his body was released to his family. I have seen it hinted that authorities knew about the strychnine that day but kept it quiet.

Louis Pushkin (his 1957 grave says Pushkin, but Puskin and Pusken were also used) immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1902 and settled in the Canton area with his wife, Mansir or Mamie. In the censuses he is listed either as a junk dealer (1910) or janitor (1920), and there are four children listed: David (or Isaac, his middle name), Abraham, Ethel, and Harry. (Strangely, Harry's obituary lists an Edward Puskin as a surviving brother. Maybe Abraham's middle name?)

I have been unable to find any online mentions or living family members at this time. Who was there to mourn David when he was buried at Canton Hebrew Cemetery on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1925? Who now remembers him?

-30-

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