PROFILE
BUILDING A DREAM My journey from New York City’s Lower East Side to the heights of Orlando’s hospitality industry.
MY STORY BEGINS in the early 1900s, when my grandfather, Harry Rosenofsky, arrived at Ellis Island to start a new life. Harry left his wife and four sons in Russia (now Ukraine) because he believed there was no future for his family there. Around the same time, Samuel Rosenhaus, a captain in the Austrian Cavalry, also left for America, leaving behind a wife, two daughters and two sons, to pursue his dream to create a better life for them. During the immigration process at Ellis Island, both men’s last names were shortened to “Rosen,” and like so many others they settled in small settlement apartments on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, alongside many thousands of other immigrants, mostly from Italy, Ireland and Eastern Europe. In time, both men achieved some semblance of the American dream. After several years, Harry eventually rented a storefront on Hester Street and opened a small, 25-seat restaurant. With the help of his wife and sons, he performed virtually all of the restaurant’s duties, from server to cook and dishwasher to night cleaner. Samuel, on the other hand, started his career as an apprentice barrel maker in a small shop near the Fulton Fish Market where he worked directly for the owner. When the owner passed suddenly, Samuel, much to his own surprise, became the new sole proprietor of the business. Roughly three years after their arrival, both men sent for their wives and children. Shortly thereafter, there were additions to both families. Harry had a fifth son, Jack; and Samuel had a third daughter, Lena. Jack and Lena met shortly after Jack’s high school graduation. They dated, fell in love, married and on September 9, 1939, I was born. We lived in a rented apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Our apartment was on the seventh floor, and it
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PHOTO CREDIT AVENIR LT STD 55 ROMAN 5/9PT
By Harris Rosen
