Elias Sanders

Elias Ben Yehuda "Eli" Sanders (born Eliasz Gitman; September 14, 1904 - August 4, 1962) was the father of Senator Bernie Sanders and Larry Sanders.
Biography
Elias was born as Eliasz Gitman or Gütman/Güttman on September 14, 1904 in , Galicia, then Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland) to Leon (in Yiddish Leib) and Ethel (also spelled Jetti). The village became part of Austria after the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, but was reincorporated into sovereign Poland again in 1918. Sanders' family were Polish Jews. The family name could have been Polonized to Gitman from the Germanic Gütman or Güttman, with both pronunciations remaining the same. His mother Ethel was previously married to Maurycy Schnützer and had one son named Abraham "Romek" Schnützer, the half-brother of Elias. Elias was the younger brother of Henry Sanders, born in 1900.
The impoverished rural farm regions of Galicia, World War I and the difficulties of being Jewish in the area made life difficult for Elias. In 1921, Eli and Henry immigrated to the United States while their siblings and parents remained in Poland.
On June 5, 1921, Sanders arrived in New York City from Antwerp as Eliasz Gitman, and was allowed entry. He was later naturalized as Eli Sanders.
In New York, Sanders stayed with his uncle Abraham Louis Horn, in Brooklyn, working as a paint salesman.
In 1934 Sanders married Dorothy Glassberg, the daughter of Jewish parents from the eastern Polish town of and Russia. Eli and Dorothy's two sons, Larry and Bernie Sanders, were born respectively on April 29, 1935, and September 8, 1941. Sanders raised his family in Flatbush, Brooklyn in a rent-controlled apartment where he also ran a general store.

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