I was born in London, England, on July 27, 1870, of Netherlands Jewish parents who were married in London. I was just a little over a year old when, in 1871, my parents came to America to live in New York City. From thence—in 1888—on to Boston they moved, there to live until they went to their eternal reward within the past ten years... Poverty was the lot of my father and mother. This they struggled through with courage, with devoted love for each other and the children. My parents and their four children had to be supported on the meagre earnings my father obtained from long hours of toil at the bench, making cigars. Though born of strictly Orthodox Jewish parents, they like most Jews who attend the synagogue were Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Jews. Thus, my father and mother, during my boyhood days, attended synagogue services on those two leading Jewish holidays, "if only for the children's sake," as Jewish fathers and mothers often say.〔David Goldstein, ''Autobiography of a Campaigner for Christ'', page 1.〕