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Morris Raphael Cohen:

Morris Raphael Cohen (1880-1947) was born in Minsk, Russia, the youngest son in a family of four children. Morris was malnourished and sickly, often called Kalyleh, Yiddish for half-wit. "Never mind; some day," predicted his mother Bessie Farfel, "they will all be proud to have talked to my Meisheleh." His family emigrated to the United States in 1892. When his father, Abraham Cohen, first came to New York with his wife Bessie Farfel, three sons and a daughter, he had a very difficult time earning a living because most of the available jobs were in the garment industry, and he was not trained as a tailor. Fortunately, Abraham Cohen was guided by those he met at a synagogue on Norfolk Street to a nearby family that rented rooms to immigrants at modest cost. After trying a few trades, Abraham Cohen became a peddler. Traveling small goods salesmen were common figures throughout rural America and the streets of the urban centers.