FrancineSMiller@aol.com wrote:
<Does anyone know if there were instances in which immigrants would leave
America only to return to Poland once more? For what reason would they have
done this? Unfortunately, many of them would later perish in the Shoah.>

My mpggf planned a return to his shtetl of Vasilishki, Belarus in 1914 to
visit his aging mother. For this purpose, he regrew the beard he'd shaved as
a new immigrant to the States. He didn't want to embarrass her or cause her
to believe he'd abandoned the ways of religion.

My ggparents' had a department store, and it was common for the immigrants
of the time to buy impressive suits to wear for travel back to the shtetl,
along with gifts for the folks back home. Visits back home were usually for
the purpose of showing off new-found prosperity.

One such sojourner became ill while visiting Moscow and by happenstance, the
doctor called in to treat him discovered he was >from Arnold Pennsylvania and
asked him if he knew my ggparents, who lived in nearby New Kensington. It
turned out that the doctor was my ggm's niece!

For more about my family, see:
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Lida-District/vas-yan.htm

Varda Epstein
Efrat
Israel