Marcia Bass Brody

Vos Makhstu Y'all: the Bass Family of North Marcia Bass Brody

'Vos makhstu" in Yiddish means, roughly, "how are you?" When Yiddish speaking Nathan Bass, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, settled in the small rural cotton-farming community of North, South Carolina, he would greet his fellow Jewish merchants and peddlers with "vos makhstu y'all." Nathan found himself a wife, Esther Cohen, on a buying trip to Brooklyn, after which they started a family in North, eventually raising seven children in the town. Those children had a quintessentially American upbringing, working in their parents' store and eventually all going on to college. Today, there are nearly 100 direct descendants of Nathan and Esther living throughout the United States. This is the story of Nathan and Esther Bass, and how they achieved the American dream while raising their Jewish children in rural South Carolina.