Salomon Singer and Family, Escapees from Communism, at Idlewild, 1954

New York · 16 February 1954

Salomon Singer and Family, Escapees from Communism, at Idlewild, 1954

Published October 9, 2026

At Idlewild Airport, Salomon Singer, in a black hat, stands among the arrivals from a Pan American flight out of Munich.

Idlewild, 16 February 1954. About 49 seconds. Salomon Singer, in the black hat.

A black hat on the tarmac

At about twenty-two seconds, Salomon Singer is in the group at Idlewild Airport (today’s John F. Kennedy International Airport): black hat, beard, his wife, Malvin Singer, at his side, and their daughters, Diana and Perl.

Close view of Salomon Singer at Idlewild, about 0:33 — About 0:33. Salomon Singer.

Close view of Malvin Singer holding one of their daughters at Idlewild, about 0:32 — About 0:32. Malvin Singer and one of their daughters.

Malvin, Diana, and Perl

On 16 February 1954 the family is on the Pan American flight from Munich to Idlewild, and on the matching resettlement list. Salomon Singer was 51. His wife, Malvin Singer, was 39. Their daughters were Diana, about two and a half, and Perl, about one and a half, both born in Germany. The AJDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), the Joint, sponsored them. They came under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, on one of its early flights.

Pan American passenger manifest rows for Salomon Singer, Malvin, Diana, and Perl — Pan American World Airways passenger manifest, 16 February 1954, Munich to New York. Salomon Singer is line 8, with Malvin, Diana, and Perl.

From Buzinka

He was born on 17 April 1902 in Buzinka, then in Hungary. Buzinka was a small village just outside Kassa. Today it is part of Košice. His father was Reb Shmuel Singer, a shochet. His mother was Roza Mandel.

Birth index for Salamon Singer of Buzinka, 17 April 1902, father Samuel Singer, mother Roza Mandel — Košice archive birth index: Salamon Singer, Buzinka, 17 April 1902. Father Samuel Singer, a shochet. Mother Roza Mandel.

His father came from Fancsika, his mother from Mezőkaszony. The family later lived in Bátyú, a small railway town near Beregszász.

In May 1944 the Jews of Bátyú were deported to Auschwitz. His father, his sister Fanny, and it seems a young son never came back.

After the war the family lived on Michigan Street in Föhrenwald, a DP camp whose streets were named after American states. His 1948 refugee card shows him bearded, in a yarmulke.

1948 United Nations refugee identity card for Salomon Singer, with his photograph — United Nations displaced-person identity card, duplicate no. 845484, 17 July 1948. Salomon Singer, born 17 April 1902. Arolsen Archives.

The flight list calls his wife Malvin. The grave identified for her names Rachel, daughter of Reb Chaim Dov. She lies on the women’s side of the same cemetery, row 8, grave 13.

The film and what followed

Reb Shlomo Singer was niftar on Shabbos, 13 Menachem Av 5733, 11 August 1973. The stone at Floral Park Cemetery, row 3, grave 10, calls him Moreinu Harav Shlomo, son of Moreinu Harav Shmuel Singer, and says he raised many students. His last home was Brooklyn, 11219.

The two little girls from the airport grew up in Brooklyn. Diana, called Dina, married Yoseph Yide Jacobowitz there in 1970, and Perl married Robert Mendlovic (Mendlowitz) in 1972.

Grave of Moreinu Harav Shlomo Singer, son of Moreinu Harav Shmuel, at Floral Park Cemetery — Floral Park Cemetery. Moreinu Harav Shlomo Singer, son of Moreinu Harav Shmuel. Niftar Shabbos, 13 Menachem Av 5733.

Timeline

17 April 1902: Born in Buzinka. Father Reb Shmuel Singer, a shochet. Mother Roza Mandel.
17 July 1948: Refugee identity card, no. 845484. Photograph: beard and a yarmulke.
16 February 1954: Pan American flight from Munich to Idlewild. Salomon Singer arrives with Malvin, Diana, and Perl. The Joint is their sponsor.
11 August 1973 / 13 Menachem Av 5733: Petirah of Reb Shlomo Singer, on Shabbos. Buried at Floral Park Cemetery.