Peter Hochstein (PeterHochstein@mac.com) on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at
16:24:25
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Question

Message: Better late than never. At the age of almost 69, I'm trying to trace
records of my paternal grandparents and my father from Minsk. Any help would be
appreciated. None of the dates and names on the Ellis Island website seem to

work. My grandfather was Nathan Hochstein (Hebrew name possibly Naftali) and
his wife was Dora Hochstein, maiden name Berger. They immigrated to America
(New York, to the best of my knowledge) in 1905. My father was about 4 months

old at the time, I was told.
My birth certificate, lists my father's birthplace as "Minsk, Russia." His
name was Murray Hochstein. I remember hearing that he had changed his name from
Morris. I also remember a cousin of his saying that when he was a kid, my

father was called "Misha." All are now deceased. I do not believe we are
related at least not closely, to the Radiskovitz Hochsteins.(Reasons too long
to go into here.) Any suggestions? Connections?

I'm a descendant of Tziril Minah first husband Aaron Leibe Haneles (by his
previous wife). I'm interested in any descendents of Haneles or the Botwiniks.

Haneles was also variously spelled as Khaneles or Ganeles and were concentrated
in the Minsk area.

Thanks
Michael

I have been trying for some time to find documentation about my maternal GGF
Shale GREENGOUS, who served as chief Schochet (Jewish ritual slaughterer)
for the city of Minsk in the early years of the 20th century. I'm looking
for a municipal record of his service, or documentation in the records of
the Jewish Community (Kehillah).
Several years ago, I wrote to the archivist, and received a rather vague
reply about non-existence of such records. Are there more potential sources
that any of you could suggest? Do the Kehillah records exist, or were they
all destroyed by the Nazis?
Thanks,
Beryl BLICKSTEIN
(researching GREENGOUS, SASONKIN, BLICKSTEIN, and GITLER)

Archives in Minsk followup

Since several people asked me about my info regarding the National
Historical Archives of Belarus in Minsk, I am following up on this list.

Here is the link to the page that has the addresses of the archives in
Belarus:

http://www.rtrfoundation.org/archdta2.shtml

I'm seeking information about my Russian Jewish grandfather, Boris L.
Bobroff. I have a photo of him taken in Minsk I know that for some
period of time, he worked in an agricultural implements factory in Ryazan.
So I don't know whether he grew up in Minsk and just went to Ryazan for
a job, or whether he grew up in Ryazan and had his photo taken in Minsk on
a visit there.

I heard via Jewish Gen that the Bobroffs were "an engineering family," so
I'm wondering whether Bobroff family members had engineering business in
Minsk. My grandfather was an inventor and engineer in the US, and was, I
think, doing engineering work in the agricultural implements factory.
but he apparently had no engineering training.

Anyway, if anyone has any information about this, I would love to hear it,
and to contribute in my turn to weaving a tapestry portraying life in Minsk
I have interesting historical information about my grandfather's relationship
with Russia after he came to the US (through his Bobroff Foreign
Trading and Engineering Company in Milwaukee, WI). But I would really
like to learn more about the world he came from in Russia and/or Belarus.

Thanks,
Anne Bobroff-Hajal

From: David Schonberg <avraba@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM
To Minsk site

I happened to come across your interesting site...

I noticed, however, 2 photos (min-os_27, and min-os_29) which I had seen elsewhere (I'm not sure whether in Yad Vashem, or in another Yizkor book) which are specifically ascribed NOT to Minsk, but to the Tarnow ghetto.

I hope to check the matter further- as the buildings surrounding the central square (in Tarnow) are known...

Please can you clarify whether these photos have proper source-provenance information. I think they may be misdescribed and not show the Minsk ghetto.

Hope to hear from you,

David Schonberg
Jerusalem

Recently I received the first file containing Minsk Birth records. These
records are one of the first files that will be available to those researchers
making a donation to this project. The file has over 1000 family names
and listings for people born in the 1880's in Minsk (town, uyezd and gubernia
What an exciting find and addition to BelarusSig researchers! I look
forward to receiving more files as soon as enough funds are accumulated.

Help fund these files. Read the information below and please make a donation
on to help all Minsk / Belarus researchers.

Thanks and Good Luck with your research.

Hope Gordon

These records are primarily for Minsk City, but some of
them also include a few shtetls in Minsk District.

Some of the records included are:
1. birth records 1866 Zaslsavye
2. death records 1867 (some months) Minsk
3. birth records 1879-1900 and 1906 and 1917 Minsk
4. birth records 1890 (incomplete) Rakov
5, marriage records 1907 Ostroshitskiy Gorodok
6. death records 1908 Kaminsk
7. marriage records 1914 Minsk
8. In addition to these metrical records, tax records, conscription
lists, and resident lists are also available.

If you want to make sure these records are translated and made available
for your personal research, please make a generous donation to the Minsk
Gubernia: Revision Lists and Metrical Records Project by going to:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=1

Scroll down the page till you find the project.

Thanks for all your support!

To post to the Belarus SIG discussion group, send your message to:
<belarus@lyris.jewishgen.org>
Remember to send your message in PLAIN TEXT and sign
with your full name and location

Belarus SIG Webpage: <http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus>
Online Newsletter: <http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/newsletter/bnl_index.htm>
***************************************************
****************************************************************
Join us at the
31st IAJGS International Conference
on Jewish Genealogy
"A Capital Conference"
Washington, DC USA
http://www.DC2011.org
August 14-19, 2011 Grand Hyatt Washington

I was looking for a Maurice Axelrad and found instead an interesting Maurice
Axelrod. For those of you who might be related to this person, I am
providing info from his manifest: He had been living in Oudtshoorn, South Africa,
and left and came to America on the SS Lusitania in 1914, was 21, a bookkeeper,
born in Gorobin, Russia, left his mother Hoda Axelrod in Minsk, Belarus. The
original info on the manifest looked like he was going to his brother in America,
but it was crossed out and very difficult to read. It appeared that instead he was
going to a friend in Ridgefield (probably Connecticut).

Ann Rabinowitz

From: Anne Faivus <faivus@comct.net>
Date: Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 10:40 AM

My grandmother, Lena Starobin, was from Minsk. She came to America in the 1880's-1890's. Her sisters Florence and Sara, brothers Thomas and Sam also came to America---Connecticut and Wetchester, NY. I cannot find any ship manifest, etc., for any of them. Can someone lead me in the right direction?
Anne

From: Lawrence Litwin
Dear Eilat.

My father and I are going to Minsk in May for the IIHF hockey tournament.  The Ltiwin's left Svislac Belarus in 1885 and came to Montreal Canada.
We are going to do some family research and learn a bit of history of belarus.  I am wondering if you can suggest places to go in the area.  We are also going to Bobryusk.

Thanks

Lawrence Litwin
BA Religious studies Concordia Montreal Quebec Canada.

The following two YIVO links elaborate on Lynn Saul's helpful reply to
Judith Larsen, who is new to the list.  Lynn goes to the heart of the
matter in giving historical background:  "Suwalki Gubernia was a region
populated by Litvaks--"Lithuanian Jews." Lithuania as a country was not
recognized during most of the 18th and 19th centuries. Poland and Russia
controlled the area..."

The terms "Lithuania" and Litvak" may lead to befuddlement if considered
separately from the history that is essential to their definition with
respect to Jewish genealogy.

1) WHERE IS LITHUANIA?

Take a look at this chronological set of maps in YIVO's digital history
of Jewish Life in Poland:   http://polishjews.yivoarchives.org/maps

You'll immediately see how many ways this question might be answered
depending
on the period that you are researching.

2) WHAT IS A LITVAK?

YIVO's answer (caps mine): Yiddish term for a Jew of HISTORICAL, or
"GREATER," Lithuania. http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Litvak

All the material that follows is from this article, with spacing added for
clarity.

The Litvaks' territory of origin is significantly larger than the borders
of both the independent Lithuanian Republic of the interwar period
(1918-1940)--which did not include the center of Litvak culture, Vilna
(Vilnius)--and the contemporary state of Lithuania.

From a Jewish historical and cultural perspective, Lite (Yiddish for
Lithuania; Heb., Lita) includes large swaths of

northeastern POLAND (notably the Bialystok and Suwalki regions);

northern and western BELARUS (notably the Grodno [Hrodna], Minsk, Slutsk,
Pinsk, Brisk [Brest Litovsk], Shklov, Mogilev [Mohilev], Gomel [Homel'],
and Vitebsk [Vitsyebsk] regions);

southern LATVIA (notably the Dvinsk [Daugavpils] region);

northeastern PRUSSIA (notably the region of the Baltic port city Memel
[Klaipeda]).

This expansive definition of Lithuania in Jewish historiography and
culture corresponds roughly to the large territory under the jurisdiction
of the Lithuanian Jewish Council (Va'ad Medinot Lita), which governed
Lithuanian Jewish communal affairs fro 1623 to 1764.

Sonia Kovitz
Visit our home page at http://www.litvaksig.org

To: Belarus SIG <belarus@lyris.jewishgen.org>

My grandfather, David Pyenson (Paenson/Paiensohn in cyrillic/yiddish),
graduated from an agronomy school in Minsk in 1905 and shortly
thereafter arrived in the US. According to a letter he wrote circa 1950
(in yiddish, which I have had translated) that accompanied his class
photo, the school was founded in 1900 by "VEKO" and disbanded in 1908.
Can anyone tell me what "VEKO" (yiddish transliteration/?abbreviation)
stands for and anything about this school?

Thank you.
Leslie 

I have unsuccessfully researched the final years of my 2nd great grandfather Ivan SCHOTOFF aka SCHATOFF who directed the Imperial Russian Orchestra which visited the United States approximately 1894-1899.  During that period the Orchestra (presumably home-based in St. Petersburg) played in NYC, Atlantic City and other towns in NJ, Washington D.C., Baltimore et al.  Ivan appears to have retired to Minsk circa 1899 and was alive until at least 1906.  Any information related to Ivan Schotoff, his descendants, or the Imperial Russian Orchestra would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Gail M. Schotoff-Patterson

Jews of Minsk Cling to Yiddish Speech But Cultural Institutions Are Lacking

PERMISSIONS
By HARRY SCHWARTZSpecial to The New York Times. ();
October 03, 1955,
, Section , Page 8, Column , words
Jews of Minsk Cling to Yiddish Speech But Cultural Institutions Are Lacking
MINSK, U. S. S. R., Oct. 1 -- The Germans murdered 100,000 Minsk Jews during the World War II occupation. Now 30,000 to 50,000 Jews are estimated to live here. They make up almost 10 per cent of the city's
October 03, 1955 - By HARRY SCHWARTZSpecial to The New York Times - Print Headline: "Jews of Minsk Cling to Yiddish Speech But Cultural Institutions Are Lacking"
[ DISPLAYING ABSTRACT ]
MINSK, U. S. S. R., Oct. 1 -- The Germans murdered 100,000 Minsk Jews during the World War II occupation. Now 30,000 to 50,000 Jews are estimated to live here. They make up almost 10 per cent of the city's population.

October 03, 1955

GIVE $50,000 TO AID JEWS.; Ex-Residents of Minsk, Russia, Hear of Townspeople's Suffering.

1919
The first paragraph is not available for this article.
. GIVE $50,000 TO AID JEWS. Ex-Residents of Minsk, Russia, Hear of Townspeople's Suffering. More than 3,000 men and women who wero born in the Province of , Russia, now under Polish rule, listened y esterday to stories of persecutions
December 22, 1919 - - Print Headline: "GIVE $50,000 TO AID JEWS.; Ex-Residents of Minsk, Russia, Hear of Townspeople's Suffering."

.
REPORTED MASSACRE OF JEWS IN MINSK

December 22, 1919
REPORTED MASSACRE OF JEWS IN MINSK


The first paragraph is not available for this article.

August 29, 1919

The Jewish Cemetery in Minsk.
It was situated in the territory bordered by the streets Perekopskaya (now - Jerusalimskaya), Sukhaya, Kollektornaya (former Evreiskaya) and Mebelnyj alley (now - Gebelewa street).
In may 2007 during pipelines construction along the street Jerusalimskaya the workers found several headstones in Hebrew. The news of the old Jewish cemetery draw the attention of mass media.
The place where there is a park now and where boys are playing football on the sand field, was not only a cemetery, but also a Jewish ghetto, during the war. Some burials were transported from the cemetery of what is now Dinamo stadium. The cemetery existed from 1868 till 1946, in 1970 it was closed, and in 1990 - completely demolished. 
The authorities did not even find time to take care of the memory of the deceased. Not a sign, no commemorative plaque about the old cemetery here until now. Miraculously remained headstones are all gathered not far from the place of ghetto memorial. Every year several headstones are found during reconstructions or building of houses. They all tend to be collected here. Some people whose relatives were buried there were able to move the graves to other cemeteries in Minsk, but there were many graves whose relatives had already immigrated and were not there to re-bury them elsewhere.
Listed below is the 1901 list of 45 donors from the Minsk Jewish community who had each donated more than 100 rubles for the new Minsk Jewish cemetery. At the time, the price of an average house in the city was about 300-400 rubles. (https://jhrgbelarus.wordpress.com/…/1901-list-of-major-don…/)
Photos: Current state of Jewish cemetery in Minsk.

From: LAUDET <annie.laudet@g.....com>

I am Annie Laudet from France and my family was from Volozhyn. Perhaps you can give me more information about my family. The only information I have been able to recap are the following:

The mother of my grandfather, Rouchia Rubinstein or Rubenstein was born in 1851 I dont know where.

The father of my grandfather Aba Chaim Aaron Melzer was born in 1851 at Volozhyn. His parents were Meyer and Anna Melzer.

My grandfather Chmouil Fishel Melzer was born the 19/07/1882 at Volozhyn his wife Esther Ekeltchik in 1889 at Minsk.They married in 1906 at Minsk.

My grandfather had 3 brothers and a sister :

Salomon was born in 1877 at Volozhyn
Meyer was born the 5th of january 1887 at Minsk
Abraham was born the 6th of july 1890 at Minsk 
I know nothing about the sister except she moved in USA

If you see other means to obtain information let me know.

From: Danny Kaplan <dannykaplan@gl.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 12:20 PM
Subject: Kaplan from Minsk

Hi,
I was wondering if you can help me. Im trying to research the Kaplan family. Here is what I know.

My Grandfather Moshe Kaplan (1925-1983) studied in Grodno Yeshiva before joining the Mir Yeshiva in Shanghai later moving to Toronto.
His Father was Abram Kaplan married to aides Kaplan a Jeweler in the Minsk Area.  Abraham’s fathers name was Moshe Kaplan.
Moshe had a Brother in Grodno also, named Gershon but never made it to Mir.

Any help or direction would be very helpful.

Thanks
Danny

From: Maria Amalia Robbin <marobbin@marwwtrading.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 9:21 PM
Subject: looking for my Jewish Family
My name is Maria Amalia Robbin.  I was just looking at your website and I am hoping you can help me. 

My paternal grandfather, Michel Rabinovitch was Jewish and his mother was from Rudamina and his father from Minsk.

The family emigrated to Paris from Russia I believe before the Russian Revolution in 1917 (I have no clue what year they moved but somehow I think it was before the Revolution).  My great grandparents and their children were: 

 David Mikhelevich Iloselevich  Rabinovitch:  Born in Russia July 1, 1874 died in Paris 18th of March 1939 (his parents were  Mikhel Yosel Rabinovitch and Rebeca Matalon)

Soraya Rasey Lazarevna Rabinovitch (nee Aron) born in Luthuania January 9/1882 died in Paris February 3/1931 (her parents were Lazare Aron and Mussia Began)

They married on June 3, 1988 in Vilna.  Their children were:

Mura Rabinovitch born in Vilna, Lithuania February 22/1900 died in Paris March 13/1950

Michel Rabinovitch born in Minsk, Belarus July 20/1905 died in Basle, Switzerland May 17, 1950 (that’s my grandfather)

All of the above family members are burried in the Cimetere de Bagneux in Paris.

There is one child who I don't know her birth date or death date and I wonder if she was born in Paris.  Her name was Marie Rabinovitch.  She married someone by the name of Marx because there are some letters from her that come as Marie Marx but they are sent from London in 1950.

When my grandfather Michel died, my grandmother never spoke of him again.  Therefore, since my father was 6 years old at the time, he basically didn’t remember his father.  My parents now have died as well as my uncle and therefore, I am doing this research completely on my own.

I am trying to decipher the Paris archives to see if I find information there and see if there are records of when they emigrated and also if Marie was born there (the only problem is that my French is not the best!).

I am sure that I must have some living relatives.

Do you have any ideas?  Can you guide me/help me?

Thank you very much!

Maria Amalia Robbin

From: Herzl Regev <hregev@yahoo.com>

Shalom,

In the past we corresponded regarding a photo on your site that features my grandfather Herzl Berger as a 17-year-old (1921) in Minsk. Now I see that you are interested also in the yeshiva of Volozhin, so you might be interested in some of the following.

Herzl Berger's father Yitzhak-Yosef and uncle Yehuda-Leib have studied there. Yehuda-Leib was born in 1867 and studied alongside the future Rabbi Kook. Yitzhak-Yosef arrived a few years later, after his elder brother already left. He was given a "sponsor", an elder pupil by the name of Yaakov-Simcha Ritov. They were relatives, and I am trying to figure out how.

Yaakov-Simcha Ritov later became the rabbi of a town called Osipovich. He had many children by two wives. One of them was called Yisrael Ritov. Yisrael was active in organizing the defense of Jews during the civil war of Russia that followed WWI. He made Aliya and headed the "Center of Cooperations" in Israel from 1934 until 1969(!). He also apparently wrote about the history that he participated in, but did not sign his name to at least some of his writing. My (and others') guess is that he wrote two chapters of a memorial book about the nearby city of Babruisk. These chapters deal with his own father, and with Osipovich during the Russian civil war.

He also wrote the historical part of a memorial book dedicated to my grandfather that was published in 1966. So everything that I know about the Ritovs, essentially comes from him. But only he knew what the family relation between us was, and he has been dead for over 30 years.

Yaakov-Simcha Ritov had several grandchildren by the name Yaakov Ritov. One of them is a renouned Statistics professor in the Hebrew U. Another one fought in Israel's Independence War and was awarded the highest commendation for valor.

The Ritovs are somehow connected to the family of Chaim Weizmann, but I don't recall how. Aluf Ben, the editor of "Haaretz", is a g-g-son (or g-g-g-son) of Yaakov-Simcha Ritov's 2nd wife, and Ben is the one that entered profiles of a part of the Ritov family into Geni.com.

Bye,
Tselly Regev

From Facebook
A few days ago construction works began on the site of a former Jewish cemetery on Sukhaya street, in Minsk, Belarus.
The workers began digging trenches for pipes, and as a result tombstones and human remains were found. The found human remains were reburied.
The Jewish cemetery on Sukhaya street operated from the XIX century until the middle of 1960s. During the German occupation, the cemetery was part of the Jewish ghetto....
Katya Makarevich

From: Herzl Regev <hregev@yahoo.com>
We found a photo of my grandfather Binyamin Herzl Berger, his brother Max (Markus) and three more young men, but the time and place is unknown.

The appearance of the brothers suggests that the picture had been taken in the mid-1920s. At that time the brothers, originally from Minsk, had already fled Russia altogether and were in France (Max) and Germany, Poland etc (Herzl). It seems that the only place in which they were together at the same time was Vilna.

The seating seems to indicate that my grandfather had some leading position among those photographed, and they could be any group of Jewish activists: Zionists or Journalists.

I wonder who all these other were. My GF is on the center, and his brother is on the left. The question is who are the others and what is the setting. Or maybe before that, we should ask how this picture even got to us? It is not a physical copy. I got it scanned, digital. It must come from some book. Which?

Best,
Tselly
----------------------------------
Herzl (Tselly) Regev
herzl.regev@alumni.weizmann.ac.il
hregev@yahoo.com

As we agreed, No. 2 in the picture is my grandfather Herzl Berger. No. 4 is named Uri Astrakhan. I know nothing about him or the "friend" movement. Anyway, I found out that Abba Ahimair's second wife was called Sonia nee Astrakhan, from Minsk. She was my grandfather's age. I wonder if she's close to Uri from the picture.

In the past I was able to find information about Sonia's family, but I did not find any Uri there. Apparently her family came from somewhere else and there may not be an immediate connection. On the other hand it turns out that they are something like cousins of some order of cousins of some order of my grandmother's family, from Lithuania. Who knows?

Besides, there appears number 6 Boris Margolin. About him I know he came to the United States, probably to New York, and later donated money for the publication of the "Herzl Berger" book in 1965. A year or more ago I found on the Internet a listing of a copy of the book offered for sale in a Brooklyn store for about $ 10. The listing includes photographs of the first pages and there is a dedication to Boris Margolin, meaning that the Margolin family did not keep the copy to themselves.
Another matter is Avraham [Walt] Leissin, 1872 - 1938. He was born in Minsk and lived for about 40 years in the United States. I found an obituary about him in "Davar" where it is written that he is a grandson of Rabbi Eisel Harif. On the other hand, he is probably the fifth generation of Rabbi Raphael of Hamburg The subject of Rabbi Raphael's Minsk descendants is undeveloped.

Besides, there appears number 6 Boris Margolin. About him I know he came to the United States, probably to New York, and later donated money for the publication of the "Herzl Berger" book in 1965. A year or more ago I found on the Internet a listing of a copy of the book offered for sale in a Brooklyn store for about $ 10. The listing includes photographs of the first pages and there is a dedication to Boris Margolin, meaning that the Margolin family did not keep the copy to themselves.
Another matter is Avraham [Walt] Leissin, 1872 - 1938. He was born in Minsk and lived for about 40 years in the United States. I found an obituary about him in "Davar" where it is written that he is a grandson of Rabbi Eisel Harif. On the other hand, he is probably the fifth generation of Rabbi Raphael of Hamburg The subject of Rabbi Raphael's Minsk descendants is undeveloped. found a tree in Zhuizhen that features a fairly large American family called Berger. It begins in the 19th century. And suddenly two familiar names appear there: Gershon-Avraham Berger, and Herzl Berger. My grandfather, and his grandfather. Both appear as sons of the tree trunk, and all the rest of the tree are descendants of the third son. My conclusion is a question from my relatives, that whoever built the tree from that side (and has since died) knew the two names from my side, and planted them in the tree so that the connection would be revealed sometime. The race is perhaps fictitious. I have a contact person there from Los Angeles. The exact connection has not yet been determined. That father of the family lives outside Minsk, if I am not mistaken, in Pinsk.