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Archived on October 1, 2003

My name is Eva Floersheim and I am new to this SIG. I am trying to obtain a birth certificate from Rakov, Belarus for Elijahu POZNIAK, son of Samuel and Malka (Ester?) POZNIAK. Elijahu was born in 1936 or 1937. What would be the proper procedure for doing that in Belarus? And is there any way of knowing beforehand if the birth registers for Rakov still exist? Elijahu's father Samuel POZNIAK served in the Red Army during World War Two. He did not survive. Is there anybody out there with information about him and his fate? Sincerely, Eva Floersheim Shadmot Dvorah Israel I am researching the names listed below and am interested in knowing if there any resources or persons who have taken photographs of headstones in either Rakow or Volozhyn? Edward Meltzer Kansas City Researching: Meltzer Sukon (Zuken) Botwinik Sklut --- . USA - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 at 15:02:40 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Immigration inspectors weren't very good spellers and the map of Europe changed, especially in the 18th century as Prussia, Russia and Austria partitioned Poland. I noticed on frquent drives from Warsaw to Gdansk (Danzig) a sign near the latter saying "Rochow," with an accent-type mark over the second "o." making it "Rokhoof" in Polish. I found a Susan Rochow at George Washington University in Washington, DC, whose father said his family came from "Rochow" in Lithuania, which was in royal union with Poland before partition. In the 19th century, the three Baltic states were considered part of Russia. . - Friday, July 25, 2003 at 09:26:54 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jason Alpert writes; My mother Dorothy (OBM) had a best friend. Her name was Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson. Ada and her husband John retired to Phoenix Arizona. I believe that Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik was a close relative of Ada or John. Dear all; I received a family tree from Jewel Fishkin that tells the connection; Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson was married John (born 1909 died 1992) the brother of Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik (she was the youngest child of the family). Here is the Abromson family tree in a short version; Chana nee Edelman [daughter of John Adelman and Anne nee Skloot was born on May 18, 1874 in Russia. She died on February 2, 1960 in Auborn, Main she was married to; Luis Abromson died on December 25, 1947. Children; 1.Hyman Abromson was born in Krasne in 1894 and died in Lewiston, Maine in 1972 Spouse; Lena nee Cohen.Daughter Charlotte married Ernest Bart (Susan, Nancy, Laurnce) 2.Celia abromson was born April 5, 1900 and died in Lewiston, Maine January 25, 1996. Spouse; Morris Supovitz.Children; Paul and Beverly Supovitz+ Paul Hurvitz (son James Hurvitz) 3. Fannie Abromson born May 10, 1902 and died ? Spouse;Israel Abraham Miller Married in Old Orchard Beach, Maine 9-19- 1926. Children; Stanley John Miller (Scott, David, William) Maynard Miller (Diana and Anita). Judith + Henry Jordan.Joseph Milton Miller (Matthew). Michelle Lynn+ Ryan Damare 4. Esther Abromson born 11- 21- 1903 in Auborn, Maine.Died 11- 27- 1995 in Chicago. Married Max Gordon in Portland, Maine ( children; Howard died as a baby in 1944, Ruth Adele married Herbert Halperin) 5. Benjamin Abramson Spouse; Natalie Supovitz (Son Michael died in 1993, grandsons; Richard and Daniel) 6. John Abramson born 1909 died 1992 in Portland, Maine married Ada Meltzer (sons; Irving Joel Abromson and Morton Colp Abromson) 7. Mary Abromson Spouse; Sam Skolnick (sons; Louise and Steve.) ..------------------------------------------ 1. Towns (Shtetlakh) within area of former Vilner Gubernia where Jason's family once lived --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dieveniskes (Yiddish: Di-VEN-i-shok) Dolhinov/Dolhinow/Dolginovo (Yiddish: Dal-HI-nev) Dokshitzy (Yiddish: DOK-shitz) [Home of Yiddish journalist Nissan Gordon (OB"M)] Horodok/Grudek/Gorodok (Yiddish: Ha-ro-DOK) Ilja/Ilya (Yiddish: IL-ye) Krasne/Krasnoje-Nad-Usza [Krasnoye on the Usha River] (Yiddish: KRAS-ne) Kurenets/Kurenitz/Kurzeniec (Yiddish KU-re-nitz) Molodechno (Yiddish: Ma-lo-DETCH-ne) Oshmyany (Yiddish: Osh-mi-YE-ne) Radoshkovichi (Yiddish: Ra-desh-KO-vitz) [At the former "Russian-Polish" border] Rakov (Yiddish: RA-kev) Smorgon (Yiddish: Smar-GON) [Birthplace of famed Cantors Koussevitzky (OB"M)] Vileyka/Vileika/Vilejka/Wilejka (Yiddish: ViLEYke) Vishnevo (Yiddish: VISH-ne-ve) Volozhin (Yidish: Va-LO-zhin) [Home the the famed Volozhiner yeshiva] Below are some scattered notes from my files and my memory on the Scolnik and Manpel Families (who are among the descendants of Eliyohu Zaludik) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Kalman and Mary Scolnik (both deceased) 210 Ash Street Lewiston, Maine 04240 Tel. 207-782-5794 Kalman and Mary were married 9/23/1910. They are the parents of Samuel, Bill, and Eddy Scolnik. Mary's yortsait is 24 Nissan. I (Jason I Alpert) knew Kalman and Mary well. (I was born in Lewiston, Maine, March 8, 1940.) My mother worshipped her Aunt Mary, and repeatedly took me to visit her. Many years ago, I spent a few hours with Kalman Scolnik at 210 Ash Street. I picked his brain in compiling our family tree. Unfortunately, Kalman has passed on, and the piece of paper containing that family-tree has been lost. Some things survive in my memory, to wit: Kalman said that our ultimate ancestor was named Eliyahu Der Vilner (meaning Eliyahu from the City of Vilna). This is undoubtedly the Eliyahu Zaludik that is listed on Dave Fessler's excellent family-tree (see below). (And, no -- this is NOT the Vilner Gaon.) Kalman lived to the age of perhaps 110 or 120. In case you want to try to figure out his exact age, consider this: Kalman once told me that he (Kalman) was born in Kurenitz (Kurenets in Belorus) "the year of the big fire." Kalman also told me that he'd had a brother who'd changed his name to Alperowicz (a very popular family-name in Kurenitz), and that this brother had then moved (from Kurenitz) to Bobruisk (Belorus). Someone should try to locate any descendants of this displaced family-member ... Kalman's wife (and first-cousin) was Mary. "Aunt Mary" was a sister of my grandfather (Eliyohu-Shlomo or "E-le-SHLEY-me") Gurewitz. My mother Dorothy Gurewitz Alpert (Eleshleyme's daughter) used to address her as " Mi-YA-she" (probably from the Russian name Mar-ya-sha)" My mother OB"M passed away Feb 1991. Kalman and Mary's two unmarried sons, Bill and Eddy, still live at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston. Bill and Eddy probably possess a treasure-trove of information that could be used for family genealogical research. By this I mean correspondence from pre-war Europe. This is because the Scolniks have lived at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston "forever", and that address has for many years served as a rally point for separated and dispersed family members to seek each other. (According to Dave Fessler's family-tree, Bill was born in 1913, and Eddy in 1917 -- so I wouldn't procrastinate contacting them.) For example, cousin Ida Manpel Rubin (see below) once told me the story of how she'd been reunited with her brother Elye after the Holocaust. She said that Elye had written to the Scolniks at 210 Ash Street saying that he was still alive. He'd survived the Nazis, and was living in Russia. (The only American address that he had was 210 Ash Street.) The Scolnik's contacted Ida in NYC upon receipt of this letter (more about this below). Nevertheless, Ida disliked her uncle Kalman. She called him "a miyeser shlang!". (Perhaps she was jealous of his great wealth???) Ida (Chaya-Hinda) MANPEL was born in Dalhinov (Dolginovo), which is now in Belarus. Ida emigrated to the USA, where she married Israel "Tulie" RUBIN. They lived in Brooklyn, NY. I used to have a b/w photo of Ida Manpel and her parents and siblings, sent from Dalhinov to my grandfather Louis Sam Gurewitz in Auburn, Maine. It was sent before she emigrated to the USA. Does anyone have a copy of this priceless photo? I doubt that Ida is still alive. You could check with her son Lewis -- with whom I once played chess while the Rubin family lived on (367?) Miller Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn -- around 1954 or so. Here is his address: Rubin, Lewis MD (Urologist) 2320 Bath St # 309 Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Phone: 805-682-7661 After Ida Manpel emigrated to the USA, her brother Elye Manpel remained behind in Dalhinov (Dolginovo). Elye was there during the Holocaust. Fortunately, Elye caught the very last train that managed to leave Dalhinov before the Nazis arrived, and thus miraculously escaped the invading Nazis. MANY YEARS LATER, a letter from him was received by the Scolniks at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston. He was (is?) living in the Russian city of Orel (pronounced Aryol). I am attaching a file named Manpel.GIF. This is an image of Elye's address written in Cyrillic characters. Here is my transliteration of the Cyrillic version, and it may be WRONG. Elye Manpel Komsomolskaya Street 46, Apt. 3 Orël, Russia 302001 (ANSI character-set, used in Windows) Or‰l, Russia 302001 (ASCII character-set, used in DOS) I believe that Elye was Ida's YOUNGEST sibling. Therefore, he might still be alive. Someone should try to locate him, and any possible descendants (as well as Kalman's brother in Bobruisk, mentioned above) ... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Lewis Rubin's older brother is Seymour, and the oldest is Jackie. I found these 2 addresses for Seymour on the Internet. I don't know if either is correct. Rubin, Seymour 2085 Rkwy Pkwy Brooklyn, NY 11236 (718) 763-5419 Rubin, Seymour 4218 Bedford Ave Brooklyn, NY 11229 (718) 769-2444 I also found Jackie's address on the Internet. I KNOW that this address is correct, because I used to visit Ida there. Rubin, Jack 2896 W 8th St Brooklyn, NY 11224 (718) 373-2049 (718) 373-0230 Since Jackie Rubin is occupying his parents' apartment, and since he is the oldest son -- I would think that he might be in possession of old family photos and correspondence from pre-war Eastern Europe. (Similar situation to Bill and Eddy Scolnik, above) ------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** More About the Family ***** During the years 1953-1956 (when I first came to NYC from Maine to study in a yeshiva), I used to regularly visit cousin Ida Manpel-Rubin and her husband Israel (Tulie), and their three sons. They lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn, at 367 ? Miller Avenue. (Later, they moved to 2896 West 8th Street in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.) After visiting with Ida, I would walk over to (129?) Miller Avenue, and visit with cousin Sadie (Mrs Jake) Friedland, and her daughter Pauline. (I was just 13 or 14 years old. Ida and then Sadie would both feed me well.) I believe that Sadie had a sister (Becky Williams?) maybe in Far Rockway,NY. Besides their daughter Pauline, Sadie and Jake had a son named Al Friedland. Al married his second-cousin Estelle (nee Gurewitz), from Ithaca, New York (more below). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- My grandfather Louis Sam (Eleshleyme) Gurewitz (changed from Zaludik) had these siblings (as far as I recall): 1. Mary (Maryasha), who married her first-cousin Kalman Scolnik. (They lived at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston, Maine, as mentioned above.) 2. David, of Lewiston, Maine. He never married. 3. Harry, of Ithaca, New York. [I recall now that Mary's husband Kalman couldn't stomach Mary's brother Dovid. Dovid would have to sneak over to 210 Ash St. for a meal when Kalman wasn't home. Maybe this is one of the reasons that cousin Ida Manpel-Rubin didn't like him. (As I mentioned above.) I never met Harry Gurewitz. According to my records, Harry's daughter Estelle married her second-cousin Al Friedland. They had three children: Rickie, Phillip, Jay Lee, and Lisa Sue. I don't remember if I ever met any of Estelle's children. I MAY have met Estelle and Al Friedland, possibly at Sadie's home on 129 Miller Avenue in Brooklyn. I don't remember.) I vaguely remember that family members would stay with Estelle, whenever they visited Florida. (Why pay for a hotel?) My records show her address as: Estelle Friedland 17521 N. E. 1st Court North Miami Beach, Florida 33162 But I couldn't find it on the Internet. I am fairly sure that her husband Al Friedland has passed away. I don't know about her. The children are probably alive. ------------------------------------------------------------------- A 3rd son of Kalman and Mary Scolnik is Sam Scolnik. Sam is married to the former Mary Abromson. He is a (retired?) lawyer. Here is their address: Samuel and Mary Scolnik 3700 Calvert Pl Kensington, Maryland 20895 301-949-0519 ------------------------------------------------------------------- ******** Re the surname "GUREWITZ" ******** Ida Manpel once told me that the family-name Gurewitz wasn't genuine. The name was really Zheludek (Ida even wrote Zheludek for me on a paper.) Also, As a child, I once questioned "Uncle Dovid" (as I used to fondly address him) as to why the family name had been changed from Zheludek to Gurewitz. His reply was something like: "Vos bin ich shul-dik vos der ta-te hot amol ge-ton?" -- which gave me the impression that he couldn't, or didn't want to, explain why his father Yosef (after whom I'm named), had changed the name. Well, this is confirmed by Dave Fessler's family-tree. Only there, the name is spelled Zaludik -- which is probably more correct. There is a Yizkor-book commemorating a TOWN named ZHELUDOK. See http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/zaludok/zheludok.html Many years ago I skimmed through this book. In it I found some cousins of mine (from a different side of the family, not related to the Scolniks and Zaludiks) named ALPEROWICZ (ALPEROVITCH) and SZYFMANOWICZ (SHIFMANOVITCH). (Lyuba SZYFMANOWICZ died in the Holocaust according to page 314 in this book.) It doesn't make sense for a family-name (surname) to be identical to a town name. Someone from Vilna might be named Vilner (not Vilna). Someone from ZHELUDOK might be named ZHELUDKER. That's why I think that Zaludik is correct. An alternate spelling might be Zaludok or Zaludek. ------------------------------------------------------------------- According to Lester Solnin (changed from Sosensky) and Marian Anderson, Dave Fessler of Houston, Texas, has a large amount of information. They sent me a paper copy of Dave's family-tree, which is entitled "Descendants of Eliyohu Zaludik. It is a masterpiece ... They also sent me a digitized image (Paperport .MAX file) of a 1-page Report, which is information extracted from Dave's family-tree (database). Dave's email address is dfessler@houston.rr.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaking of "Sosensky", I vaguely recall seeing a photo of an old bearded man. I think he was a cousin named Sosensky. And I very vaguely recall being told that he was referred to as "Der Feter" ("The Uncle"). ==================================== I know nothing about the following person: P Scolnik Lewiston, Maine 207-784-5573 ------------------------------------------------------------------- I know nothing about the following person (Helen Manpel). Perhaps she is Ida's sister-in-law or niece? Manpel, Helen 1071 Eglinton West Toronto, Ontario, Canada Tel. 416-782-6465 ------------------------------------ Same is true for the following couple: Manpel, Jack & Frida 569 Sheppard Avenue, West Toronto, Ontario, Canada Tel. 416-636-9640 ------------------------------------ This is Ida's brother (a wealthy merchant?). Manpel, Louis 989 Eglinton Avenue, Apt. #223 Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M6C2C6 ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ On 10/13/1985 I (Jason I Alpert) attended a meeting of the KURENITZER FAREYN (Kurenitz Landsmanschaft or "Society"), held in New York City. There I unexpected ly met a man named Julius Scolnik, of the Bronx, NY. (This is NOT the Julius Scolnik of Lewiston, Maine.) Julius said that he is a cousin of Kalman Scolnik of Lewiston, Maine. Julius was born circa 1897. At that time, Julius's telephone was 933-1062 (now area-code 718). On 5/15/1986 I spoke with Julius by phone. He said that a meeting of the KURENITZER FAREYN had just been held on Sunday, 5/4/1986. ============= RESOURCES ============= *** Jewish Home for the Aged in in Portland, Maine ("Cedars Campus") *** My mother Dorothy (OBM) had a best friend. Her name was Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson. Ada and her husband John retired to Phoenix Arizona. I believe that Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik was a close relative of Ada or John. An Internet search that I just made for "Abromson AZ US" yielded no matches. But a search for Ada and John's son Joel yielded the following: I J and Linda Abromson 25 Fall Ln, Portland, ME 04103 207-797-4438 I believe that Linda is on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Home for the Aged in in Portland, Maine -- which is now called "Cedars Campus" http://www.thecedarscampus.com/ppf.html I mention this because the records of Cedars could possibly be a great source of info for people researching Jewish families in Maine. For example, I believe that a cousin from Auburn, Nochum Widrowitz (who was called Kop-Af-Kop) and possibly his wife Reyze ("Reize-Nochum's"), retired to this Home for the Aged. ------------------------------------ ******* Zalman Alpert ******* Zalman is librarian @ Yeshiva University's Mendel Gottesman Library. Zalman has published scholarly articles on Lubavitch history -- in the English section of the ALGEMEINER Journal. Zalman's father was born in Kurenitz, and Zalman is an expert on Kurenitz. He's from New Haven, Connecticut -- a city where many Jews from Vileyka, Kurenits, and Krasne area settled. Zalman's email address is alpert@ymail.yu.edu ------------------------------------ **** Websites **** Eilat Gordin-Levitan's Kurenitzer website is http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/kurenets.html JGFF (Jewish Genealogical Society Family Finder) website is: http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/ Miscellaneous other genealogical websites: http://www.ajhs.org/genealog.htm http://www.avotaynu.com http://www.jgsny.org http://www.JewishGen.org http://www.jewishgen.org/ajgs http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/database.html http://www.jewishgen.org/jgsgw/links.html http://www.lds.org/site_main_menu/frameset-global-bas_bel.html http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html http://members.aol.com/rechtman/yizkorbk.htm http://www.remember.org/children/tracing.html http://shamash.org/holocaust http://home.att.net/~JGSNYCem/WPAForm.htm http://www.yivoinstitute.org/archlib/genealog.htm#resources ------------------------------------ As cousin Steve Sosensky once wrote, I "have a lot of other things to take care of, and am putting genealogy on hold..." I will try to assist others in such research, by providing information that I have, and/or by translating from the Yiddish or Hebrew. But I cannot actively engage in the research myself ... maybe, later. So, please -- don't send me info -- just questions. Also, I am quite knowledable in Yiddish. I've spent vast amounts of time reading old Yiddish correspondence. If you have such correspondence, please mail same to me. ------------------------------------ For more info, please telephone me on 212-414-8738, or email me. -- Jason I Alpert (Yos'l ) ~~~~~~~~ END of Scolnik.txt FILE ~~~~~~~~ . - Friday, June 27, 2003 at 10:42:37 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What my eyes have seen by Pnina Hayat nee Potashnik Translated by M. Porat 1941; The Soviets left Volozhyn in haste. The Germans entered the town without any resistance. The first sign of the Germans in the area was the unit of parachutists that descended near our home. Armed forces entered the town shortly after. The constant air bombing set the town on fire. We were immediately forced to participate in various hard labor chores. The principal forced labor sites were the Polak's & Rapoport-Perelman's saw-mills. The women cleaned the Gestapo lodgments. We walked to work in groups. As soon as we would arrive they would start thrashing us with whips. We were ordered to put yellow patches on our sleeves. With time it changed to a yellow Star of David with the word “Jude” in the middle. We were forbidden to use the sidewalk. We had to walk in the middle of the road like horses. They ordered us to move into a designated Ghetto area. Shortly after enclosing the Volozhyn Jews in the Ghetto the Germans pushed inside its fence also the Jews of Olshan with their town-Rabbi. The congestion became unbearable. We were very deficient in nourishments. Bringing food inside the Ghetto was difficult and dangerous. From time to time the bandits harassed the ghetto inhabitants. They encroached into our lodgment and beat us mercilessly demanding money and valuables. On October 28ththe Gestapo ordered us to assemble on the Ghetto Street. All the inhabitants were forced to come. They chose some 200 people and enclosed them into the cinema local. Leading them on the walk to the cinema area was Yani Garber, the Judenrat Head. He was told that they are all taken to work. However they were all led by groups of ten to the adjacent sport square and shot to death. Zviya Lunin was among the conveyed to die, but she survived. The Nazis let her free. The quota, as they said, was completed. This time the German accuracy saved a Jewish life (not for long). After that “First Action” the ghetto area was reduced. Shneur Kivelevitsh was elected as the Judenrat Head. Many months passed and then some tormenting news reached the ghetto. The Germans geared up for a new slaughter. Rivka Dratvitski's husband, a gentile, who was friendly with the Jews, brought the information. Thanks to him many people were saved. Sunday, May 10th, 1942, at five in the morning Shneur Kivelevitsh appeared in our home and told us that the ghetto is surrounded. He advised every one to hide. The Germans enclosed the ghetto and meticulously looked for the Jews. They killed on the spot those who were found and refused to expose friends or relatives hiding places. My brother Yehuda, Osher (Itshe Bers) Perski, his son Ruvke and I, decided to run away. We passed the Volozhynka stream near the bridge and concealed ourselves in a grove. Some local Christians chased us. We could hear them saying that they are looking for us. When they left, I walked to Horodok; Osher Perski with his son to went to Zabrezhe. The Jews I met in the Horodok Ghetto were in a very agitated spirit. They just heard about the recent mass slaughter in Volozhyn. After the “second Action” the Volozhyn authorities reduced the ghetto area and enclosed inside the remaining little group of Jews. They assured them that the rest would work and be safe. I believed this false promise and returned home. I worked with some Jewish girls, among them Miriam Kagan and Rachel from Mejeyk, in a carpenter's team. Our manager was Yezierski. Once, as we were ready to return to the ghetto, we realized that the Germans were surrounding the ghetto, and some Jews were running out of the gate. We threw away the yellow patches and looked for a place to hide. The Germans shot at us and killed ten girls. Miryam Kagan and I hid in a wheat field. At night we went in the Mejeyk direction. After a lot of wandering we arrived in the Kaldiki hamlet. We knocked at a peasant's door and implored him to give us some nourishment. We were swollen from hunger. Despite the fact that they were poor they shared their food with us. We walked through the hamlet and deciding that we have nothing to lose. We knocked at a door of another remote house. A peasant opened the door, led us into the adjacent barn and locked the door. After a couple of frightful hours the landlord opened the barn and invited us to his house. It was a single room house with two big beds, a broken table and an oven. Here lived the Righteous Gentile Ivan Kovalski with his family: wife, three daughters and two sons. This poor family received us cheerfully and with unusual warmth. They cried with tears seeing our wretched appearance. After we warmed our frozen bodies and had a hot meal, they equipped us with blankets and led us back to the barn. It happened at Saturday evening, November 14th1942. On Sunday morning we were served with a breakfast. We left some food to take away, being sure that Kovalski will expel us. At noon he came in and seeing the food remnants he asked us “Why?”. We answered: “We are sure that you would not hide Jewish girls much longer. You are endangering the life of your entire family. For that reason we decided to go our way”. Kovalski, offended by our answer, said: “ Dear girls, my family and I, we decided to let you live with us. Your fate is our fate, our home is your home”. It was a very cold winter. We froze in the barn. Kovalski, the good soul, invited us in his house to conceal us upon the oven. It was a not aired, a very hot place. Kovalski used to lead us every day for a couple of hours into the potatoes cellar to breath some air. The children cooperated with their parents, and at danger, they warned us with agreed signs. One day German soldiers encircled the Krazhina hamlet, some 500 meters from us. They assembled all the hamlet inhabitants, spilled kerosene, set fire and burned all of them. They did it as revenge. Some partisans killed Germans soldiers, and took their retreat through Krazhina. Kovalski was conscious of the danger that awaited him and us. But he did not abandon us, on the contrary, as a good softhearted father he calmed and encouraged us. However I had a premonition that we are in danger staying at this house. Partisans were very active in the near by area. Fights and shootings broke from time to time. The Kovalskis asked and begged us to stay. But we decided to go. Kovalski made some journeys in the surrounding communities looking for traces of the Partisans. He found a troop of Partisans and brought us to them. They were hostile, suspecting us as agents of the German intelligence services. They arranged a quick trial and convicted us to death. Before the execution hour approached a Krazhina partisan asked us who we were and from where we came. When I told him my name, he informed me that my brother Yehuda Yosef Potashnik is serving as a partisan near by. The Krazhina partisan told his commander that I am a well-known partisan's sister and he tore the paper with the verdict. I was transferred with Mariyasha Kagan to Baksht. There were many active partisan units in the area. My brother Yehuda Yosef took me to the Lidayev partisan unit, in the Nalibok forest. After some days the Germans surrounded the entire area. We hid in pits and other hiding places. When they left we concentrated in an outlying corner of the Nalibok forests. We established there a winter camp in which we lived until the Volozhyn liberation. After the liberation we returned to Volozhyn. I went to see Kovalski. The relations between us tightened. He visited us every day. His son and daughter worked in town and dwelled in my house. In 1945 I left Volozhyn to Poland. In 1947 I made Aliya. All that time I wrote letters to Kovalski but I had no answers. In 1966 I received his address. Kovalski with his family lived in Ural. Without delay I sent him a vestments package. He confirmed with joy its reception and sent his thanks. Since then we correspond and I send him and his family members presents, thanking this noble man for saving my life. . - Friday, June 20, 2003 at 18:59:33 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I would like to share with you another report I received from Belarus: In Vyazyn’(not far from Iliya) a burial place of Jews was found. In the garden of a local citizen there were found about 60 remains of local Jews executed in 1944 David Fox . - Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 23:48:30 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I LOVETHIS SITE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ....In every village a Jewish family or two remains. These are the people who have the keys to the Jewish cemetery and who show visitors the way to the buildings that were once yeshivos or homes of rabbonim. In Volozhin it is Moshe Alterman who performs this function. He, his wife, and his daughter live isolated among the gentiles. Their life is not easy in the material sense, and it is certainly not easy to live with the memories that stare them in the face. Opposite the Alterman home is the mass grave where the Jews of Volozhin were slaughtered. "Every morning when I open my eyes," says Mrs. Alterman in tears, "I see the spot where they murdered my mother." In Mir one Jew is left alive. Likewise in Radin. In Rakov, the hometown of R. Osher Katzman, where his uncle R. Avrohom Kalmanowitz zt"l served as rav, not a single Jew remains. All the local inhabitants know of Jews is the story of how the Nazis herded them all into the synagogues and burned them alive. In Kovno there are still Jews, not all of whom are aware of their history. Chatzkel Zak, the gabai who used to act as tour guide to Jewish visitors, emigrated to the United States a few months ago, so we find our way with the help of Yehudah Ronder, who speaks perfect Hebrew and is excited to meet us. Listening to the exchange between him and R. Leib Baron, we are impressed once again by R. Leib's acute memory.The first time had been when Moshe Alterman had come to unlock the gates of the Volozhin cemetery for us. R. Leib remembered that he had known a family called Alterman in his childhood hometown, Horodok. Soon the two of them were reminiscing about their youths and R. Leib was recalling various members of the Alterman family by name, wondering what had become of them.Now, as we meet Yehuda Ronder, we are just as astonished as R. Leib recalls that he and his friends from Yeshivas Mir had stayed with a family called Ronder during their escape from the Nazis. Our guide is almost struck speechless. To think that sixty years later he is face to face with one of the Mirrer bochurim that his family had taken in. "I never dreamed I would be zoche to such a miracle, to meet Jews like you and walk with you on Lithuanian ground," he says. On the way, Ronder reminds us repeatedly that the Nazis had plenty of help in their work from local citizenry. He sees it as one of his life's purposes to try to bring these criminals to justice.... CLICK FOR THE REST - Wednesday, June 04, 2003 at 05:48:31 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My father Leyba was born in 1865 in the small town of Michalishki, within 50 miles of the city of Wilno, to the less than well-to-do family of Gershon and Chava Esterowicz. According to the stories of my grandfather, his father, Moishe Goldstein was 14 years old when the Grand Armee of Napoleon crossed through the hamlet in its march on Moscow in 1812. Moishe's wife, my great-grandmother Esther, came from the small town of Ivenetz. They had three sons and, in order to protect them from the horrible snatching of the Jewish little boys into the infamous "Cantons" of Czar Nicholas Ist and the inhuman 25 year conscription, they gave each one a different last name. With this they transformed each one into an "only son" and saved them from the "Cantons" and the conscription. The eldest son retained the last name of the father, Goldstein; for the last name of grandfather Gershon they used the name of the mother - Esterowicz, while for the last name of the third son they used the name of the place of birth of my great-grandmother - Ivenitzki.... click to read the rest - Monday, June 02, 2003 at 08:14:38 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My name is Avraham Yeshaiah (nee Arnold Sheldon) Greenhaus. I was born in Brooklyn NY in November 1935. My grandfather was Jeschaia (later Samuel) Grinhaus (spelling uncertain). My grandmother was Hanna Reichel (later Anna Rachel)Grinhaus (nee Zimmerman).At what point the name was given its partially Americanized spelling is uncertain. They came to the US in 1891(?), from Rozhnevitz(?), Radoschkovitz(?). Anyone having any information please contact me. Avraham Yeshaiah Greenhaus <avgree@yahoo.com> - Thursday, May 15, 2003 at 14:07:32 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today I called Moshe Baran. Moshe was born in 1919 in Horodok to Ester nee Weisbord from Volozhin (born in 1902 and Yosef Baran who was so born in Horodok 1890 (His grandfather; Avraham Pinchas was born in Oshmina grandmother; Riva Risha). Moshe's parents met when his father attended the Volozhin Yeshiva and he had a "Keset" (room and board) at the house of of the Weisbord family in Volozhin. Ester nee Weisbord had four sisters; 1. ? Married a Persky in Volozhin and had two daughters; Gitel born c 1912 and Zila born c 1916. Gitel was married before the war. The family perished in Volozhin. 2. Shoshke married Yisrael Mayzel and lived in Horodok. At one point they immigrated to the U. S and some of their children were born there. The family returned to Horodok were the mother died. some of their children went to Cuba and in 1950 went to Luisiana.the rest of the family perished in Horodok. 3. Bela, a twin sister to Ester went to Louisiana (Shreveport) she had a family there. 4. Chana married a lampart and perished in Volozhin. Moshes' father; Yosef Baran had a brother; Hirshel Leib Baran who moved to Kurenets after his wife died. one of his sons also moved to Kurenets. Hirshel perished in Kurenets. His son escaped to the forest and was later killed. Moshe had twin sisters; Mina and Musha, they were born in 1928 his brother Yehoshua was born in 1922. In 1928 the family moved to Rakov. The father had a leather factory there. Yakov Lifshitz was Moshes' teacher in Rakov. Pruma nee Shulman lifshitz (Yakov's wife) was his teacher in Horodok. The family lived in Rakov until 1932 and then returned to Horodok. Moshes' father and one of his sisters perished in the holocaust. Moshe, his mother, his brother Yehoshua and the other sister were sent to the work camp in Krasne. One time when Moshe was working on the rail road for the Germans two Jews from Warsaw were working near by. They were ordred to put away some Russian weapon that the Germans found.Moshe and the guys were able to hide some of it and take it to the Ghetto. in January of 1943 a Jewish woman asked Moshe to help her to escape with her two children (7 and 9) she told him that she knew of a forest were other Jews from the area were hiding and she would take him there if he would help them. Moshe took his weapon and escaped with the woman and her children. They arrived in the area of Kramnitz near Ilja and found the Jews. Since Moshe had weapon he became a member of the partisan unit Hanokem (Masitel) the leader was Lunin and the Komisar was Patashkevitz. Moshe was able to help his mother, sister and brother escape from the Krasne camp on March 17,1943 two days before the camp was annihilated. Moshe served with the partisans until 1944. in the spring of 1944 when the Germans knew that they had lost the war in the East (Of Europe) they started a huge blockade against the partisans. Moshe and his unit were hiding in the marshes for many days. Moshes' Mother; Ester was the only Jewish mother in Horodok who survived the Holocaust. after the war ended the family was on the way to Israel when the family of Ester's sisters in Shreveport, Louisiana found out that they survived. They pleaded with them to join them in the U. S. They were well of and helped them to settle in America. Today Moshe lives in Pittsburgh next to his sister. Yehoshua lives in Los Angeles. Moshe told me that some years ago he visited Yisrael Garber the son of the Shochet of Hordok who now lives in New York. Yisrael had a movie that was made in Horodok in 1933 by Dov Shapira who was born in Horodok. Dov left Horodok when he was 13. He did well in America and in 1933 he and his wife came for a visit and Gave large sums of money to the Rabbi of Horodok for the community. They also gave five dollars to each person even to the little children. They also made a film of their visit. Moshe knew that the film must be for more then a personal use. He transferred it to a video and send copies to Horodok people in Israel and also gave copies to Jewish organizations. the video Horodok could be ordered for $30 at; http://www.brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/titlepricestart.html "Image Before My Eyes," is the name of a 90-minute film about Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement between the two World Wars. The video includes some, but not all, of the footage from the Horodok silent video, as well as some different footage of what was obviously the same visit. This excerpt also includes interviews, segments on other locations and on other topics, including the wooden synagogues, of which so very few remain. The modern parts are in color, and the entire 90-minutes is also available through The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis. http://www.brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/titlepricestart.html Moshe told me that there are other videos of Resistance and Stories of Jewish Partisans that he (and some other partisans from the area of Horodok and other areas ) detail their battle first for survival and then for revenge in the towns and forests of Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus between 1941 and 1945. . . - Wednesday, May 14, 2003 at 21:28:21 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I heard from Leah Nakhshon-Shiff that the Radoshkovitsh, Krasne, Rakov, Horodok meeting on May 4 was successful. I could not come; my sister was landing at the airport, coming from Paris during the conference time. Regards, Moshe Porat . - Wednesday, May 14, 2003 at 10:53:29 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ .....Byelorussia's Jewish population numbered almost 1.1 million on the eve of the German invasion. In fact, many of Byelorussia's largest cities - Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Bobruisk, Orsha - had Jewish majorities. The invading Germans began the murder of Byelorussian Jews soon after their arrival. Jews who were not killed during the initial operations were forced to move into ghettos. These ghettos were systematically liquidated from the fall of 1941 to the fall of 1943. German authorities a lso accused the Jews of being the driving force behind the Soviet partisan movement, whose members began to operate in growing numbers behind German lines in the spring of 1942. For example, Wilhelm Kube, the Commissar General for White Ruthenia, equated Jews with partisans in the same report in which he proudly told his superiors about the murder of 55,000 Byelorussian Jews during a ten-week period in the spring and summer of 1942. (3) Most Nazi crimes in Byelorussia, particularly the murder of Byelorussian Jewry, were committed by mobile forces. Units belonging to two of Heydrich's Einsatzgruppen - A and B - were operating in Byelorussia. They received assistance from regular German police battalions and Waffen-SS units. To be sure, some of the Einsatzgruppen headquarters became stationary at the end of 1941 for the purpose of establishing an SS/police structure in the occupied Soviet Union. Yet, the occupiers' killing opera tions never really lost their mobile character throughout the occupation owing to the expanse of the areas to which these forces were assigned. After the war, members of the Einsatzgruppen were the subjects of several trials, most notably that of Otto Oh lendorf and 20 other officers before a U.S. military tribunal from July 1947 to April 1948. (4) Beginning in 1950 West German courts also tried Einsatzgruppen men. (5) In addit ion to the courts, historians also began to investigate the Einsatzgruppen and publish their findings. (6) While the history of the Einsatzgruppen is by now well-documented, the same cannot be said for most of the indigenous units who assisted the Germans in the murder of Soviet Jews and gentiles. Some - like the Arjas Commando, the Kaminsky Brigade an d the SS unit "Druzhina" - have attained great notoriety. However, historians have paid little attention to the large numbers of lesser-known indigenous "security" forces without which the Germans would have encountered greater difficulty in liquidating entire ghettos and staging massive murder and pillage operations disguised as anti-partisan actions. The Germans established two types of local units: the Schutzmannschaft and the Ordnungsdienst. The forme r generally operated in areas under civilian administration and fell within the SS/police command structure; the latter was established in army and army group rear areas and placed under the authority of local and district military commanders. Historians have only recently begun to study the Schutzmannschaften and the Ordnungsdienst. (7) ..... From; Investigating Nazi Crimes in Byelorussia: Challenges and Lessons by Frank Buscher http://muweb.millersville.edu/~holo-con/buscher.html click to read the entire article - Monday, May 05, 2003 at 23:07:38 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Central events of Holocaust Remembrance Day Monday, April 28 20:00 - Official opening ceremony, Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 20:00 - Lighting of torches and memorial ceremony, Massua amphitheater, Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak Tuesday, April 29 10:00 - Siren 10:02 - Wreath-laying ceremony, Warsaw Ghetto Square, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 10:30-12:30 - "Unto Every Person There is a Name" - recitation of names of Holocaust victims at Yad Vashem and at the Knesset; another ceremony of name recitation will begin at 9 A.M. and continue until nightfall at Beit Wohlin, Givatayim 13:00 - Main memorial ceremony, Hall of Remembrance, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 19:30 - Closing ceremony, amphitheater of the Ghetto Fighters' House, Kibbutz Lochamei Hagetaot. Mourners march at Auschwitz, mark ghetto uprising By Reuters OSWIECIM, Poland - High school students joined Holocaust survivors from around the world in Poland on Tuesday to mourn Jews killed at the Auschwitz death camp and mark the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule 60 years ago. President Moshe Katsav and his Polish counterpart, Aleksander Kwasniewski, led 3,000 people in the "March of the Living" through Auschwitz's gate, bearing the infamous German inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free), to the nearby twin camp at Birkenau. "With the sun, birds singing and blue sky you can't really imagine that these heinous crimes happened here," said Avishai Nalka, 16, a high school student from Ashdod. "I only saw this place in black-and-white history films, now I see it in color." More than a million people, mostly Jews, died in the gas chambers or from disease and starvation at Auschwitz, the German name for Oswiecim, during World War Two. Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. Poland's pre-war Jewish community of 3.5 million was reduced to 300,000. Organizers of the march, which was part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, said there were fewer marchers than in recent years due to security concerns over the recent war in Iraq. The event also marked the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which has become a symbol of Jewish resistance against rule by Nazi Germany. On April 19, 1943, Jewish fighters launched a desperate last stand against German occupying forces to resist looming deportations to death camps. They held off the Nazis for several weeks with homemade explosives. Also marching was Norman Frejman, 72, who as a child survived the Warsaw Ghetto, deportation to the Majdanek death camp and slave labor in Germany. "God wanted me to survive: All my family perished either in the Warsaw Ghetto or in the camps. I am getting old, so I had to come here to see it once again. This is hallowed ground, because the ashes of Jews are scattered here," he said. "I also wanted to attend the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. This is very near to me," said Frejman, who left for the United States after the war and lives in Florida. Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked on a different day each year because it is linked to the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, when the uprising began. In Israel, sirens brought the country to a standstill for a two-minute silence and flags were at half-mast for the memorial. . - Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 08:56:33 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.thejewishexchange.com/images/holidays/yomhashoah/sixmillion.html?source=tea Jewish Exchange Holocaust Presentation (IsraelNN.com) The Jewish Exchange offers Internet viewers a Holocaust Day presentation, a time for reflection click here for the Holocaust Presentation - Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 08:11:16 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rakov/ Rakow was part of Poland between 1921 and 1939; Poland emerged as a bourgeois republic under the influence of the great revolutionary movement which swept the whole of Eastern and Central Europe in the years 1917-19. Although the reborn state did not solve the basic economic and social questions, its legislation granted equal rights to all citizens irrespective of nationality and religious convictions. This was guaranteed by its constitution adopted by the Sejm in March 1921 . Thus were abolished the legal norms inherited from the partitioning powers, which gave different legal status to various groups of society. However some questions as laid down in the constitution lent themselves to various interpretations. In 1931 the Sejm passed a law which abrogated expressis verbis all regulations which were discriminatory on grounds of religion, nationality and race. In this respect independent Poland fulfilled the people's hopes. The matter was different in the field of economic relations. In the inter-war period Poland found herself in an extremely difficult situation. Leaving aside the fluctuations of economic development experienced by all capitalist countries (a particularly deep drop in production, employment and incomes was noted in the first half of the 1930's), the average increase in the number of places of work was far behind the population growth. Overpopulation of the countryside became more acute, which in turn brought about the shrinking of the internal market and the resultant impoverishment of petty tradesmen and craftsmen. Unemployment in towns took on catastrophic dimensions. In these circumstances, especially in the 1930's, the pauperization of those strata which earned their living from small shops increased. Economists spoke of the overcrowding of trade and crafts. According to the 1931 census of the nearly 32 million Polish citizens, 10 per cent (or some three million) were Jews. Of this figure 42 per cent worked in industry, mining and crafts and 36 per cent in trade and kindred branches. Other occupations played a lesser role in the Jews, occupational structure. In some branches of the economy Jews constituted a majority. This concerned above all the retail trade where 71 per cent of all tradesmen were Jewish. In the clothing and leather industry this percentage was almost 50. Typical Jewish occupations were tailoring and shoemaking. However in the conditions of massive unemployment, in spite of the over abundance of certain specialties in crafts, they had no chance of finding employment. At the same time there was a growth in the number of merchants and craftsmen of other nationalities. In the countryside, the expanding cooperative movement became a serious rival to the private merchants. It would be wrong to assume that the concentration of Jews in certain branches of the economy and their pauperization were the result of a deliberate policy on the part of the state. It is true that the administration was unfavorably disposed towards employing other than Polish nationals in state enterprises, especially those of military importance (for example railways and armaments factories) and therefore removed Jews from these establishments. However, the direct reason for anti-Jewish discrimination has to be sought in the past, in the relations which had been formed in the period of the partitions. The overcoming of the traditional occupational and social structure of the Jewish community could be accomplished only by the acceleration of the economic development of the country as a whole and also by the creation of conditions favoring the acquiring of new trades which had not been popular among the Jewish community. This problem was also perceived by some Jewish organizations which undertook actions aimed at training young people in various specialties. This was done most often by the Zionist organizations which in connection with their Palestinian plans attempted to prepare groups of settlers having definite trades. However the scope of this action was very modest indeed since it depended on winning financial means as well as those willing to go to Palestine. Similar undertakings could not be carried out on a mass scale without appropriate assistance from the state in a situation where the government found it difficult to acquire sufficient financial resources for the most urgent needs. What is more, even if money had been available, the specialists trained in this way would not have been able to find employment anyway. The same objective reasons made it impossible to overcome the concentration of Jewish laborers in small enterprises and workshops, while it should be borne in mind that over 70 per cent of the Jewish urban proletariat were employed in such small establishments. This adverse situation was also affected by some traditional customs and religion. Since Jews observed Sabbath, it was difficult to employ in one enterprise both Jewish and Christian workers without disorganizing the rhythm of production. Even Jewish entrepreneurs unwillingly employed a Jewish labor force. Of course not all of them were Orthodox Jews and not all of them refused to work on Saturdays. However those who wanted to work on Saturdays were treated with suspicion by their employers who feared lest they belonged to a socialist or communist organization and one day might organize the factory work force in struggle for their interests. In smaller establishments, in which the owner himself took part in both the production process and management, work on Saturdays was suspended. The Jewish question in inter-war Poland was above all a social problem. Without solving the problems which were common to all working people, there was no chance of changing the lot of the Polish Jews. And the capitalist system provided no prospect of a radical overcoming of backwardness and increasing the number of jobs, despite efforts on the part of the state undertaken in particular in the second half of the 1930's. Thus emigration continued. There are no exhaustive data on this subject. However, it is known that between 1927 and 1938 nearly 200,000 Polish Jews left Poland, of which number 74,000 went to Palestine, 34,000 to Argentina and 28,000 to the United States. The largest waves of emigration were recorded in the 1920's. Following the great slump, after 1929, those countries which up till then accepted immigrants, introduced new, ever more severe restrictions on immigration. This concerned, among other countries, the United States. For this reason in the 1930's overseas emigration limited in scope while the number of those going to Palestine increased. According to the most reliable calculations, between 1919 and 1942 almost 140,000 Polish Jews went to Palestine, that is, some 42 per cent of the total number of immigrants accepted by that country; the largest intensification of Palestine-bound emigration took place in the years 1933-36 when the number of emigrants amounted to 75,000. In the difficult economic situation and the changes in legal and political status of Jews after Poland had regained her independence, various programs of activity were formed. The traditional program of the Agudat Israel, which boiled down to the observance of religious prescriptions, loyalty towards the state and the expectation of the Kingdom of God, could not suffice. Although the position of this party among the petite bourgeoisie was maintained by the authority of the zaddikim (a particularly important role in the leadership of the Agudat Israel was played by the famous zaddik of Gora Kalwaria who was however criticized by many), its attempts at consolidating a specific kind of ideological ghetto (the isolation of the Jews from the goyim) resulted in a gradual decrease of its influence. Step by step the party moved towards the acceptance of the prospect of building a Jewish state in Palestine. On the other hand, the influence of the workers' parties continued to be strong. The most important role was still played by the Bund, some concepts of which were close to those of the radical left wing, though its members represented a whole variety of views. The Bund differed from the program put forward by the communists in that it demanded cultural and national autonomy for national minorities, especially for the Jews, and perceived the necessity of organizing the whole of the Jewish proletariat in one, separate national party. Many Bund leaders saw the need for dictatorship by the proletariat (the Bund program adopted in 1930 mentioned the possibility of such dictatorship). The party was decidedly opposed to the conservatives and discarded religion. It accused the Agudat Israel of defending the interests of the propertied classes to the detriment of the needs of the masses. The most outstanding leaders of the Bund were Victor Alter (1890-1941), Henryk Erlich (1882- 1941) and Samuel Zygelbojm (1895-1943). The Bund, like the illegal Communist Party of Poland to which many Jews also belonged and the Polish Socialist Party, saw the only chance of solving the Jewish question in Poland in building a socialist society without man's exploitation by man. It sought its allies among workers of all nationalities living in Poland. It opposed all concepts of emigration since it perceived the impracticability of the idea of organizing emigration of a several million strong nation. The socialist leaders considered the Palestinian campaign to be an element weakening the forces of the proletariat fighting for a change in social relations and as a solution which at best could constitute a chance for only few. A radical social program was also voiced by the left wing of the Po'alei Zion which saw prospects for the Jews in a socialist revolution and in introducing cultural and national autonomy. For the future, it accepted the idea of building a socialist Jewish state in Palestine and therefore it supported the Palestinian campaigns. Its leading members were Antoni Budhsbaum, Szachna Sagan and Jozef Witkin-Zerubavel (1876-1912). A much smaller following was enjoyed by the right wing of the Po'alei Zion which concentrated above all on Palestinian works, that is all activity aimed at forming. a future Jewish state, including education of qualified farmers, workers and soldiers. All the workers, organizations, irrespective of the differences that separated them, cooperated in many important issues. They undertook a common struggle against campaigns organized by the right wing of the National Democratic Party. In Warsaw they even formed an underground organization the task of which was to put up armed resistance to the nationalist militants. Both Jews and Poles connected with the workers, movement took part in its work. http://members.core.com/~mikerose/history2.htm Click for the rest - Sunday, April 27, 2003 at 15:44:58 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I am from a Russian Jewish ( we still might be relatives) family Biblin and have a tree going back to my great great grand father from Grodno (the Lithuania/Polish Russian land now called belarus); but I have found Russian /Ukraine Jewish families in The U.S.A and Israel and don't know where to connect them; I have found Biblin families mentioned on family trees from England, Australia and Ireland some are methodist some catholic but they do not have enough information to be connected; some from Germany to usa late 1800's went to Ohio, New York. Kansas etc.I don't know if they are really related; LIN endings are originally from Germany- I -think it is like a polish sky/ski ending; the name means bible in polish; someone in India named his children with abc initials the b standing for biblin and some guy in usa has a dungeons dragon type internt game (sounds like it has porno in it) in which he has a land of biblin and a character named biblin--but he is not a relative and just made up the name in welsh the word bubblin' is spelled like biblin and it's a place with a water fall that bubbles and people there say they are going to the Biblins--this resort area--and a lady who used to live there roz-named here herd of goats the biblins--also not a possible relative In old script a capital G or R can be mistaken for a B so some Riblin and Giblin persons are mistaken for Biblin--one such error exists on ancestry.com and kindred kousins--I spent over 16 hours researching Martin Katherine/catherine Biblin only to find out they were a Riblin Kern family--the companies will not correct the error--I wrote to them and they say only the people on it can delete typo--well the people on their died in the 1800's!!!! My father was named; Charley/Chas. Biblin (father of Allan and Elaine; Allan's son is David whose son is Sky Biblin in calif.) Charles's father was Daniel (Jack Daniel--named for Yaakov Daniel) His father Eli or Elijah Brev; his father was Yaakov Daniel and his father was Yeshia Biblin (a rev) in another letter I will send in fo about Biblin families i have found one might be yours--Elaine am trying to locate relatives that may have survived holocaust but i only know surname and not 1st names; the surname is BIBLIN and they may be anywhere in soviet union or France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Grodno/Grodna, Odessa, Poltava, St Petersburg, Drochitchen; also surnames of KOSOVSKY/KOSOFSKY/KOSOVSKI/KOSOVSKE/KOSOFFSKY; CHEMERINSKY Thank you Elaine Biblin Spiegel Email address:"el529@aol.com Biblin, Daniel Age: 46 Year:1920 Birthplace: Russia;Grodno Roll: T625_325 Race: White Page: 1A State: Illinois ED: Yiddish speaking Biblin, Molly Age: 41 wife Birthplace: New York Biblin Mildred Age: 21 daughter Birthplace: Illinios Biblin, Rose Age: 19 daughter Birthplace: Illinios Biblin, Charles Age:18 son Birthplace: Illinios 908 County: Cook Image: 1014 Township: Chicago Biblin, William F Age: 60 Year: 1920 Birthplace: Indiana Roll: T625_1463 Race: White Page: 1B State: Oklahoma ED: 51 County: Ellis Image: 0078 Township: Ivanhoe Wife; Mary age 55 son Fred age 24 it seems like the family origin is from Ireland Biblin, Daniel Age: 50 Year: 1930 married at age 21 Birthplace: Russia Roll: T626_476 Race: White Page: 1B State: Illinois ED: 1416 County: Cook Image: 1045 Township: Chicago Relationship: Head came to the country in 1887 Biblin, Molly Age: 49 Year: 1930 married at age 20 Birthplace: New York City to Russian parents Roll: T626_476 Race: Page: 1B State: Illinois ED: 1416 County: Cook Image: 1045 Township: Chicago Relationship: Wife Biblin, Charles Age: 28 Year: 1930 Birthplace: Illinois Roll: T626_476 Race: Page: 1B State: Illinois ED: 1416 County: Cook Image: 1045 Township: Chicago Relationship: Son CELIA BIBLIN SSN 343-09-6271 Residence: 60062 Northbrook, Cook, IL Born 6 Aug 1906 Last Benefit: Died 26 Apr 1999 Issued: IL (Before 1951) CHARLES BIBLIN SSN 344-20-2239 Residence: 60625 Chicago, Cook, IL Born 19 Dec 1901 Last Benefit: Died Jul 1969 Issued: IL (Before 1951) hi sharon (blakeslee) Is your family from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland Australia or Germany? oringinally--the surname Watson can be Swedish or English ( i have also found the name Biblin in Denmark or some nordic country) an elizabeth frances Biblin (born 1909 in England) married a guy named ?? moon cousin to ?/Clarke family moved to Australia I have a listing that might be yours of a Michael Biblin who married Margaret Biblin 2 daughters Mary and ? son Patrick born in usa 1800's and I have several more but I start work at 7:20 am tomorrow and thurs so I will have to write to you in a few days Elaine I hope you will open, read, and enjoy (or dependending on what, it is prosper from, or appreciate this forwarded e-mail. I sent it to you cuz I thought you'd like to send it to someone else. regards, elaine Hi: I am replying to your message. I've seen the name Charles Biblin in the 1860 ensus, and that's the family I "think" may be my line, but I can't find any verifiable proof to connect them. The problem is that my gg-gf's father's name was George, and he married Mary Watson. My ggf was born in 1872, so George in this census would only have been 18 when he got married. My ggf's name was John, and his first born son was also named John. So this would point to his gf being John (father of George). My ggf lived with his Aunt "Rae" and Uncle "Orr", which I take as Rachel. George in the 1860 census had a sister Rachel. The area of the state is correct, too. My ggf named one of his sons Charles Orr Blakeslee. So close, yet so far away Do you know anything of this family? If so, I'd appreciate a reply back. I've been working on this line for 12 years, have 1 1/2 banker's boxes (full size) full of Blakeslee stuff, but still unable to find the key to unlock the connection. Can't find a marriage for my ggf, and obit doesn't mention his parents. Unable to find SS#, but did send request anyway. Anxiously waiting to hear...after all, he had to "live on something" when he retired. He retired from the Lehigh Valley RR after working for them for 50 years, but there are no records of a pension of the RR prior to 1937 when he retired. Sharon Dictionary of Jewish Surnames in Russian Empire Biblin (Grodno, Poltava gub.) N:, O: from `biblia' [Polish] the Bible. Boblin,Anna Stockholm, Sweden 1907 23 3 Boblin,Emelia Lucie Stockholm, Sweden 1907 16 4 Boblin,Macej Kairhi 1902 20 1 Bablan,Domenica Sospinolo, Italy 1912 0 2 Bablan,Giovanna Sospinolo, Italy 1912 19 . - Wednesday, April 23, 2003 at 19:05:48 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: irvs5@mindspring.com To: eilatgordn@aol.com Sent from the Internet (Details) Are any of your Lifshitz from the area of Senno, Belarus? My paternal grandmother was a Lifshitz by birth...Dvora, daughter of Shalom and Rivka. granddaughter of Hatche Other family names: Musha, Yankele, Saidie, Basha If this sounds familiar, please contact me. Ann Schoenberg Atlanta, GA . - Wednesday, April 23, 2003 at 17:30:28 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please help!!!! I need the book; Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Rakow English Title: Memorial book of the community of Rakow Editor: H. Abramson Published: Tel Aviv 1959 Publisher: Former Residents of Rakow in Israel and the USA Pages: 197 Languages: H, Y Libraries Leopold Muller Memorial Library, Yarnton, Oxfordshire, England, Call No: Shelf 85 University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, Call No: 0660168 Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, Call No: 1830913 Florida Atlantic Univ, Boca Raton, FL, Call No: DS 135 B38 R36 1959 Bund Archives (collection at YIVO), New York, NY, Call No: 946168 Jewish Theological Seminary Library, New York, NY, Call No: nc 75-1176 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Library, New York, NY, Call No: 3/64347 . - Saturday, April 19, 2003 at 22:11:11 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaplan, Avraham Eliyau son of Avraham Eliyau Born in Kaedan in 1890 a few months after his father who was born in Rakov died. His mother was the granddaughter of Rabbi Shimon Troyev. He was raised in the house of his grandfather, Zalman Troyev, the Rabbi of Kaedan. He studied four years in the Talaz Yeshiva and later studied in Kelm, Lithuania in the Musau Yeshiva. From there he transferred to the Slobodka Yeshiva where he studied for eight years. There he became very close with the spiritual head of the Yeshivah, Rabbi Netatzvi Finkel who was known as the Sabbah (grandpa). He was deeply influenced by him. He was also very educated in Hebrew literature and in secular studies. Had a literary approach to his religious studies. He also wrote poems and music. During the days of World War I he settled in Talaz, and locked himself in a room, studying. After the war he became involved in the civil service. He took part in the meetings of the Jewish communities and meetings of the committees of the Jews of Lithuania. Was amongst the founders of the religious youth organization Tzeirei Israel (the Youth of Israel) and became its spiritual leader. In the middle of 1919, he accepted the invitation of the rabbinical school of Berlin, which was founded by Azrael Hildsheimer, and became a teacher of the Talmud there, and established there the style of the Lithuanian Yeshiva. In the monthly newsletter he wrote answers to questions about Jewish studies. He planned to write a new interpretation of the Babylonian Talmud that had to do with a more scientific interpretation. He started writing the introduction, a very sophisticated piece of research that was printed in Yeshurun, but while he was writing it, he died at the age of 34. Despite his short life, he still left behind a rich literary legacy. . USA - Thursday, April 17, 2003 at 13:54:04 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avraham Eliyau Kaplan Born in 1854 in Rakov, died in 1899 in Kaedan. Avraham Eliyau of Rakov studied in Volozhin and Minsk. After the death of his first wife, who was the daughter of the rabbio of Rakov, He moved to Kaedan with Wenia, where he became the husband of the daughter of Zalman Troyev. He had a unique explanation of Talmuid studies and the studies of Rambam. He wrote many essays, but most of them burned during a big fire in Kaedan. Some of it survived, amongst them a book of poems that he wrote that was typical of the poetry of those days. In the foreword, he wrote with excitement about the revival of the Hebrew language. He died at a young age in Kaedan, and his son who was born after his death was named for him. . USA - Thursday, April 17, 2003 at 13:44:06 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Victor (Wigdor) SULSKY Born: 1863 Died: 1928 Spouse: Golde SOLER Born: 1871 Died: 1938 Children: 1.Sara SULSKY 2. Ruth SULSKY 3. Zalman SULSKY Born: 1890. 4. Leah (Lena) SULSKY Born: 1895, Rakov, Poland. Married: New Haven, Conn. Died: 1957, Washington, D. C. . Spouse: Benjamin ORLOFF Married: New Haven, Conn Children: .........Kaye Miller ORLOFF, Living. Spouse: William MARENBERG Born: New York City, New York Died: 1998, Balitmore, Md Children: ////////////////////////////Sandy Joel MARENBERG, Living.Spouse: Helaine ROMBRO, Living Children: ---------------------------------------Lisa MARENBERG, Living. Spouse: Assaf DAYAN, Living Children:Tal DAYAN, Living. ------------------------------------------Jill MARENBERG, Living ///////////////////////////////Lois MARENBERG, Living. Spouse 1: Andy GOETZ Spouse 2: Jim ASBURY, Living Children: ............................................Shanna ASBURY, Living. ..........................................Kori ASBURY, Living -----Stella ORLOFF Born: 19 Oct 1915, New Haven, Conn. Married: 16 Nov 1936, Washington, D. C. . Died: 5 Jun 1984, Columbia, Md.Spouse: Hyman LIPOV Born: 12 Dec 1906, Kiev, RussiaMarried: 16 Nov 1936, Washington, D. C. Died: 10 Sep 1987, Rockville, Maryland Children: ///////////////////////Barry Irwin LIPOV, Living. Spouse: Rose Wilma HALLE, Living Children: ...................................Larry Alan LIPOV, Living. Spouse: Janet PEARLSTINE, Living Children: ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Edwin Pearlstine LIPOV, Living. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Halle Langer LIPOV, Living ...................................Beth Arlene LIPOV, Living. Spouse: Neil Arthur BRAMI, Living Children: ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Lauren Danielle BRAMI, Living. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Adam David BRAMI, Living ................................Jill Francine LIPOV, Living. Spouse: Ronald Lawrence TIEVY, Living Children: ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Bryan Edward TIEVY, Living. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Erika Lynn TIEVY, Living /////////////////////Richard Sylvan LIPOV, Living.Spouse 1: Leann BABCOCK Spouse 2 Geraldine (Jeri) DAVIS, Living Children:........................................................Benjamin Elliott LIPOV, Living. //////////////////////Vicki Judith LIPOV, Living. Children: Stephen Marcus LIPOV, Living . - Monday, April 14, 2003 at 00:54:05 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ David-Leib SULSKY Born: Rakov, Belarus Died: 1942, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto Spouse: Eta [Etka] ? Died: Abt 1931, Minsk, Belarus Children: 1. Iosif SULSKY Born: Bef 1890. Died: Abt 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. Children: ------------Lazar SULSKY Died: 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. ---------------Semyon SULSKY Died: 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. ----------------Liza SULSKY Died: 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. 2. Moisey SULSKY Born: Abt 1891, Rakov, Belarus. Died: 1980, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Khaya-Freidl ? Children: --------------------Vladimir SULSKY Died: Aft 1980, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Lubov ? Children: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////Ernest [Edik] SULSKY ///////////////////////////////////////////////////Grisha SULSKY /////////////////////////////////////////////////////Sonya SULSKY ------------------Sonya SULSKY Died: Abt 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. - ---------------Lazar SULSKY Died: Abt 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. ------------------Liza SULSKY Died: Aft 1941, ?, Russia. ------------Grisha SULSKY Died: 1943, Pesochnoye, Belarus - Kia 3. Bluma [Luba] SULSKY Born: 1892, Rakov, Belarus. Died: 1967, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Evsey GOLFMAN Born: 1892 Children: -----------Victor [Isaac] GOLFMAN, Living. Spouse: Wife1 ? Children: //////////////////////////Daughter GOLFMAN, Living. Spouse 2 : Galina ? Children: ////////////////////////////Lusya GOLFMAN ///////////////////////////////Galina GOLFMAN -------------Mikhail GOLFMAN Died: Abt 1942, Wwii Kia 4. Efim [Hayim] SULSKY Born: 1 Jun 1896, Rakov, Belarus. Married: 1 Jun 1919, Smolensk, Russia. Died: 11 Aug 1971, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Liza [Leah] MUSIN Born: 12 Oct 1898, Dokshitsy, Belarus Married: 1 Jun 1919, Smolensk, Russia died: 7 Mar 1986, Minsk, Belarus Children: -----------------------------------Nina SULSKY, Living. -----------------------------------Sofia SULSKY, Living. Spouse: Iosif BINDLER Born: 6 Apr 1929, Minsk, Belarus Died: 1 Mar 1990, Minsk, Belarus Children: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////Ilia BINDLER, Living. Spouse: Ella TAITZ Born: 28 May 1954, Minsk, Belarus Died: 26 Jan 1998, Jerusalem, Israel Children: ........................................................................Oleg BINDLER, Living. ........................................................................Natasha BINDLER, Living. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////Larissa BINDLER, Living. Spouse: Vitaly CHARNY, Living Children: ...................................................................Olga CHARNY, Living. .................................................................Irina CHARNY, Living. //////////////////////////////////////////////Vadim BINDLER, Living. 5. Yakov SULSKY Born: Abt 1898. Spouse: Esfir [Ester] ? Born: 1902 Died: 1955 Children: ----------------Hanna [Anya] SULSKY Died: 1988, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Matvey [Motya] KLUGMAN Born: 1917 Died: 1987 Children: /////////////////////////////////////////Oleg (Alik) KLUGMAN /////////////////////////////////////Semyon KLUGMAN ------------------Musya [Maria] SULSKY, Living. Spouse: Efim RUBINSTEIN, Living Children: /////////////////////////////////Rimma RUBINSTEIN, Living. Spouse: Mark [Marik] ESIN, Living Children: ................................................Dima ESIN, Living. .................................................Zhenya ESIN, Living. ////////////////////////////////////Fira RUBINSTEIN, Spouse: Leonid GLADSTEIN, Living Children: ................................................Oleg GLADSTEIN, Living Living. I--------------------Iosif SULSKIJ Spouse: Vina VOSKOBOYNIKOV, Living Children: /////////////////////////////////Natasha SULSKIJ, Living. ///////////////////////////////////Irina SULSKIJ, Living. Spouse: Zyama ? Children:Vika ? 6. Vladimir [Vulf] SULSKY Born: 1902, Rakov, Belarus. Married: Aft 1945. Died: 1983, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: Ginda ? Died: Bef 1943, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto Children: -----------Liza SULSKY Born: Minsk, Belarus. Died: 1981, Minsk, Belarus. Spouse: David GRECHANIK, Living Children: ///////////////////////////////Misha GRECHANIK, Living. ////////////////////////////////Galina GRECHANIK, Living. Spouse: Konstantin ZHUR, Living Children:..................Michael ZHUR, Living. ------------------Emma[Emilia] SULSKY, Living. Spouse: Israel BLOK, Living Children: ////////////////////////////////////Galina BLOK, Living. Spouse: Lev BRASLAVSKY, Living Children: ..........................................Anthony [Antosha] BRASLAVSKY, /////////////////////////////////////Dina BLOK, Living. Spouse: Jean-Claud FALMAGNE, Children: ......................................Sofia FALMAGNE, Living ------------------Semyon SULSKY Died: Abt 1941, Minsk, Belarus Ghetto. Spouse 2: Polina GOLIKMAN Born: 1912 Married: Aft 1945 Died: 1985 Children://////// David SULSKY, Living. Spouse: Anna ?, Living Children:............................................. Lena SULSKY, Living. . - Monday, April 14, 2003 at 00:27:04 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chaim Weizmann was born in Motol, Russia (now Belarus) in 1874. He received his education in biochemistry in Switzerland and Germany. Already in Geneva, he became active in the Zionist movement. In 1905 he moved to England, and was elected to the General Zionist Council. Weizmann's scientific assistance to the Allied forces in World War I brought him into close contact with British leaders, enabling him to play a key role in the issuing of the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917 úú in which Britain committed itself to the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. In 1918, Weizmann was appointed head of the Zionist Commission sent to Palestine by the British government to advise on the future development of the country. There, he laid the foundation stone of the Hebrew University. That same year Weizmann met in Aqaba with Emir Feisal, son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca, the leader of the Arab movement, to discuss prospects of reaching an understanding on the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish states. Shortly after, Weizmann led the Zionist delegation to the Peace Conference at Versailles, and in 1920 became the president of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). He headed the Jewish Agency which was established in 1929. In the 1930's, Weizmann laid the foundations of the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot, later to become the Weizmann Institute, a driving force behind Israel's scientific research. In 1937, he made his home in Rehovot. Chaim Weizmann again served as President of the WZO from 1935ú1946. During the years that led up to World War II, he invested much effort in establishing the Jewish Brigade. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the issuing in 1939 of the White Paper, which in effect halted Jewish immigration to Palestine. After the end of World War II, Weizmann was instrumental in the adoption of the Partition Plan by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, and in the recognition of Israel by the United States. With the declaration of the State of Israel, Weizmann was chosen to serve as the first President of Israel. This role he filled until his death in 1952. . - Friday, April 11, 2003 at 21:40:07 (PDT) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Eilat, Just two lines to thank you for your great work in the shtetl pages. I am in contact several times a year with other Alperovich and variants in Argentina. Pedro, whose family is from Kurenets, and who has kept in contact with your page after I helped him reach it for the first time (and where he suddenly found his family pictures!) and Ben Ami, a member of an Alperovich family in our Tucuman province, whose father was from Vileyka. I have still not reached Kurenets... My own genealogical research is almost postponed because I am researching for other people and always several eMails behind schedule! - butI hope to uncover some day the link of my Alperoviches to Kurenetz - and to my fellow Alperovich. Warm regards, Carlos Buenos Aires . - Sunday, March 30, 2003 at 19:23:38 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Mrs. Eilat Levitan, I found your site on the Internet. You really do a great and outstanding work. Thanks to the information I found on your site I managed to contact a number of its visitors it is for sure that it will help these people to learn more information about small Belarusian towns where their roots are from. I am ready to offer my services for the realization of plans and wishes of people who are united by mutual interests presented on your site. First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Yuri Dorn. I’m the President of the Union of Religious Jewish Congregations of Belarus. This organization comprises more than 13 000 Jews from 19 Belarusian towns. About 12 years ago I started to research Jewish heritage which has preserved until today on the territory of Belarus. I have visited more than 70 towns and ‘stetls’ where Jews lived earlier. I have gathered the collection of pictures. I also managed to gather a number of memories of local citizens about Jewish life before the Holocaust. During my visits I noted every time that actually Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and places related to the Holocaust came to desolation. It is difficult to realize that Jewish Heritage of Belarus is fading away. However, lately people who are interested in the search of their roots and forefathers’ memory preservation have begun to visit our country in increasing frequency. Our organization does what one can to help these people in their work during their being in Belarus. We have a wide experience in the field of mutual work on the Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust places restoration. In connection with this I would like to apply with your help to everybody who is interested in work in Belarus with the proposal of cooperation. We hope that with mutual efforts we will be able to restore and to preserve our forefathers’ memory! Sincerely, (Mr) Yuri Dorn iro@open.by President of URJC of Belarus . - Monday, March 24, 2003 at 10:05:24 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Karol Stanislaw Prince Radziwill Born 27 November 1669 Krakow Died 2 August 1719 Biala Married 6 March 1691 Wilno Princess Anna Katarzyna Sanguszkowna, daughter of Prince Hieronim Sanguszko, starosta suraski and Konstancja Sapieha Born 23 September 1676 RAKOW Died 23 December 1746 Biala Children, Generation IX-1 IX-1 (VIII-1-2) 1 Princess Maria Radziwill Born 6 December 1693 Biala Died 16 October 1730 Bialystok Married 1 October 1720 Biala Jan Klemens Branicki, Kasztelan Krakowski Died 9 October 1771 2 Prince Mikolaj Krzysztof Radziwill Born 14 August 1695 Biala Died 2 June 1715 Biala 3 Princess Constancia Radziwill Born 20 December 1697 Biala Died 8 December 1756 Kamieniec Litewski Married 16 September 1717 Jan Frederik Sapieha, Chancellor of Lithuania Died 6 July 1751 4 Michael Casimir Prince Radziwill, 10.Duke of Nieswiez Born 13 June 1702 Biala Died 15 May 1762 Nieswiez Married (1) 23 April 1725 Biala Krynica Princess Ursula Francisca Wisniowiecka, daughter of Janusz, Prince Wisniowiecki and Countess Theophila Leszczynska Born 13 February 1705 Czartorysk Died 23 May 1753 Pucewicze Married (2) 2 January 1754 Lemberg Anna Luisa Mycielska, daughter of Maciej Mycielski, Castellan of Poznan and Veronica Konarzewska Born 24 October 1729 Died 19 March 1771 Dresden Children, Generation X-1 5 Princess Thekla Radziwill Born 5 September 1703 Biala Died 25 November 1747 Gdansk Married (1) 9 January 1725 Biala Count Jakob Heinrich von Flemming Born 3 March 1667 Died 30 April 1728 Wien Married (2) 21 February 1730 Michael, Prince Wisniowiecki Born 1680 Died 16 September 1744 Married (3) 23 December 1745 Michael Anton Sapieha, Palatin of Podlasie, Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania Died 12 October 1760 6 Princess Karolina Teresa Pia Radziwill Born 19 January 1707 Stettin Died 27 April 1765 Stranibaby Married (1) 26 August 1727 Biala Prince Kazimierz Leon Sapieha, son of Prince Aleksander Pawel Sapieha, Marshall and Marie Catherine de Bethune Born 28 March 1697 Warszawa Died 30 May 1738 Wschow Married (2) 1 May 1740 Wysokie Prince Jozef Aleksander Jablonowski, Palatin of Nowogrodek, son of Aleksander Jan Jablonowski, Standard Bearer of the Crown and Teofila Sieniawska Born 4 February 1711 Died 1 March 1777 Leipzig 7 Prince Hieronymus Florian Radziwill Born 4 May 1715 Biala Died 17 May 1760 Biala Married (1) 9 September 1740 Div. Theresa Sapieha, daughter of Josef Sapieha and Christina Branicka Married (2) October 1745 Warszawa Div. Magdalena Czapska, daughter of Peter Czapska, Palatin of Pommern and Constancia Gninska Died 28 February 1763 Married (3) 1 January 1755 Angelica Miaczynska, daughter of Peter Miaczynski, Palatin of Czernichow and Anna Rzewuska Born 1731 . - Saturday, March 22, 2003 at 14:56:17 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: ewenczyk@wanadoo.fr To: EilatGordn@aol.com Sent from the Internet (Details) This Evenchiell Harry from the 1930 new York census is actually an Evenchick. The guy who did the indexing just made a reading error ... The image can very easily be read Evenchick, once you know such a name exists ... Do you use the enhancer program to read the images ? It's just extraordinary ! The images load rather slowly, but they are much sharper, and you can use a magnifying glass and move it around the image. A pleasure to the eyes. Many thanks for the sharing !!!!!! Daniel Evenchiell, Harry View Image Online Age: 34 Year: 1930 Birthplace: Russia Roll: T626_1572 Race: White Page: 5B State: New York ED: 842 County: New York Image: 0638 click for the image - Saturday, March 22, 2003 at 10:22:11 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ .....A detailed biography on Freed, printed in the Philadelphia Sunday Item on July 31, 1910, confirms part of the family record and adds to it. "Morris Freed .... was born in Rakow, a small town in the Province of Minsk, Russia, thirty-eight years ago, and learned the game of chess in his early years. At the age of twenty-nine he located in Lodz, Russia, a city noted for its chess activity and the strength of its players. There he devoted considerable time to the game and ranked as one of the strong players of Lodz. He played frequently with both Rubinstein and Salwe, who were able to give him odds of pawn and move with only partial success. Freed came to this country six years ago, and locating at Philadelphia, at 1711 South Seventh Street, where he established a musical supply and repair shop, he devoted himself to his business and temporarily gave up the game of chess." By the time this biographical sketch was published, the readers of the Sunday Item had become very familiar with Freed, as Chess Editor Russell Ramsey had included a number of Freed games in his column. The first appearance of a Freed game in the Item column was his third round loss to Stasch Mlotkowski from the just completed Pennsylvania State Chess Association Championship tournament of February 22. This game helped decide the state title for 1910. Philadelphia Sunday Item, March 6, 1910 The following week the Item featured a happier effort of Freeds from the PSCA tournament, a win against the strong correspondence player H. L. Bauder. Morris Freed — H.L. Bauder [C11] PA Championship (1), 22.02.19 10 Philadelphia Sunday Item, March 13, 19 10 In April the Item featured two games by Freed, this time with his notes. The first was Freed's win from the just-completed match between the two largest chess clubs in Philadelphia. Freed played on behalf of the Mercantile Library Chess Association, the larger of the two clubs, but not considered as strong as its rival the Franklin Chess Club, perhaps the second strongest chess club in the United States at that time..... http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/rakov/rkv_pages/rakov_stories_freed.html click to read the entire story - Friday, March 21, 2003 at 11:49:26 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I spoke with Zila Zilburg in Rishon Lezion (phone # 03-9647532). Zila was born in Radoshkovichi about 80 years ago and she was there during the holocaust. She escaped from the Ghetto in Radoshkovichi and joined the Russian and Jewish Partisans from the area in the forests near Plashntzitz. Today she is the head of the memorial meeting for shtetls in the area; Radoshkovichi, Rakov, Horodok and Krasne. This year's meeting will take place on March 25th at Beit Vitzo in Tel Aviv.(depending on the war) Zila told me that they received money to video tape the meeting professionally and they would like to send it to descendants who would not be able to join them in Israel. She would also like to receive addresses of people who had families in those places who nowvlive in Israel that she could invite them to join. Zila told me about Aharon Gringoltz from Rakov who heads the Rakov Society in Israel. Aharon Gringoltz; phone # 036042605. Aharon was born in Rakov in 1927. Aharon's mother was from the Botwinik family, Aharon and his father were the only survivors from the family, the rest perished in Rakov. Aharon told me that a few years ago he, with others, (mostly form the Horovitz family who left Rakov for South Africa in the 1930s) collected $12,000 to build a fence around the large Jewish cemetery in Rakov. Yuri Dorn took charge of the project. (Yuri takes Jewish visitors from Minsk to Rakov, less then an hour drive) Zila also gave me the phone number of Shimon Greenhose (#039226130 ) the head of the Krasne Society in Israel. He was born in Krasne about 72 years ago. Shimon told me that he and his mother Rosa (from the Kopilovitz family of Dockshitz) were the sole survivors from his family. The Jews in ghetto/camp in Krasne were amongst the very last to be annihilated. Survivors from other ghettos massacres were taken or escaped to the Krasne ghetto/ camp. Some Jews from the Camp, including children, were able to obtain arms. They escaped and joined the Russian partisans. After the war, Shimon Greenhuse came with his mother to Israel. He was a math teacher. A few years ago he took a group of students from "Camera abscura school of Tel Aviv" to Belarus and they filmed a movie in Krasne. I received a note from The head of the Volozhin Society; Moshe Porat poratm@netvision.net.il ...As I wrote you , I spoke with Zila . She invited us (from Volozhin) to be present at the next Radoshkovitsh reunion. I'll be there with Lea Shif (Nahshon) and with Fruma nee Shulman Lifshitz Gafnovitz Fruma paid for the memorial site in the Horodok Cemetery http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pix/lifshitz/30304_2_b.gif. The Volozhin Region Book that I received from the district chairman contained a list of Rakov martyrs in Belarus language. I will rewrite it into latin characters. When ready I'll send it to you. Kol tuv - Moshe Moshe Porat (a descendant of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin) has almost single handily translated the Volozhin Yizkor book (written in Hebrew and Yiddish) and other books about the area that were written in Russian and he also posted many pictures (old and recent) from the area. Moshe also wrote me in his note; Next autumn two hundred years will pass from the day that Rabbi Hayim Volozhiner founded the Volozhin Yeshivah "Eyts Hayim - Tree of Life". It Should be a day to unite and devote our thoughts, prayers and memories to Volozhin, its Yeshiva "Tree of Life" and its congregation that was annihilated sixty years ago. Could the representatives of prominent Jewish congregations in the States organize such a celebration this year in Volozhin? To understand the importance of the Volozhin Yeshiva for the Jewish people read "The Yeshiva in its first days" Extracts translated from Volozhin Yizkor Book at www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/volozhin/vol077.html Kol tuv - Moshe. . - Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 09:27:12 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JewishGen Discussion Group SigLists Full Message Text Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 08:16:08 -0700 From: Ellen Naliboff Subject: Re: Poav(?)chkinskaya, KAVALYCHIK Have you read the passenger manifest? One of the 29 questions answered is the last place of residence. In my NALIBOTSY case, all we had known was Minsk until I found Rakow on the arrival list. Good luck. Ellen . - Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 09:21:34 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JewishGen Discussion Group Archives Full Message Text Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 07:20:25 +0200 Reply-To: Wendy Roth Sender: Jewish Genealogy Discussion Group From: Wendy Roth Subject: Searching: METLITSKY from Rakov Comments: To: Multiple recipients of JewishGen Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm helping a friend search for her family. She has a grandfather Abe (Avraham) Metlitsky who came from Racov / Rakov. He is wanting to find out any information regarding any Metlitskys including his brother Yisroel Metlitsky, who he assumes has passed away. Can anyone help?? Please reply directly to my e-mail address. Thanking you, Wendy Roth zodiac@pixie.co.za (MODERATOR NOTE: There are two major towns named Rakov / Rakow: - one near Volozhin, Minsk gubernia, now Belarus; - one near Opatow, Kielce gubernia, now Poland. WB). . - Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 09:18:11 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kurenets/kur015.html This is how Hendel decided the ......fate of the entire community. Standing on the side trying to be seen as little as possible, I didn't know whether it was good or bad that I had lied to Hendel. What if tomorrow I would have to prove my knowledge in this profession? In front of Hendel stood a huge man, a survivor from the slaughter in Rakov. He was dressed like a villager with a rope around his waist. When he was asked, he also said that he was a tanner and obviously he was immediately chosen as a professional. All my hopes and thoughts were with him thinking that he was a real leather man. As soon as they sent him to the right, he approached me as a member of the same profession, and, at first, I was very happy. He immediately said that he would assist as much as he could. He told me how strong he was, that he was as strong as ox and that he could help me with anything if he were next to me, the professional! When I heard that, it was as if my world as darkened. All hopes with him were lost. One liar meets another liar..... ....Shortly, all the professional people started working. The carpenters were making furniture, the shoemakers were making boots, the tailors were working, the blacksmiths were working, and everyone was busy except for me and Gershon from Rakov. We were walking around aimlessly. I approached Shuts and explained that for our job we needed a separate area. The smell of the leather is very strong and the process of the leather was very slow. It would take a long time until we could produce anything. Therefore, I asked that he would arrange for us a separate house where I could mend the leather according to the rules of the profession. Shuts, the director, understood my explanation and said that very soon I would get the raw materials to fix the leather for fur coats. While he was talking, he said that making fur coats were not as difficult of a job and the smell was not so bad and could be done in one week. Immediately, I told Shuts that I did not want to wait and be idle until the raw material got there, so maybe I could meanwhile be a painter. I knew much more about painting. My request was transferred to Hendel and, with the help of God and my good friend Yosef Zuckerman who tirelessly talked to the other painters and asked them to help me, I became a painter. Gershon from Rakov, who was such a strong man became a woodcutter and would do any work that required strength. At first, we were told to paint the house of one of the heads of the camp, Graveh, a Latvian killer who killed many of the Jews of the towns in the Vileyka district. His apartment was very near the jail..... Click for the entire story; - Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 09:02:55 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ After that I went in the direction of Lida and stopped in two cities - Rakov and Ivenets. Rakov was completely burned down. The senior priest of a catholic chapel Ganusevich, whom I talked with for a long time, told me about the murder of the Jews. He told it in detail. It's true. His tooth was hurting and he was sitting at the dentist's, a Jew, when the talks were in progress. The dentist thought that they were going to kill him, and the Germans bargained to postpone his departure until he finishes filling the tooth. The Germans, who flirted with the residents, asked how much time it would take. If it's half an hour, that is permissible, but if it's two hours, then it is not - they are in a hurry. The Jews were gathered in the Synagogue and burned. Ganusevich saw how the Jewish women attempted to throw their children out of the fire and how the Germans killed the children. There was an executioner in Ivenets who was called "The German", he performed the killings himself. He enjoyed it. He was a sadist. He killed in different ways. Mainly, he formed up the people and tried how many he could shoot at one time. I visited the tank division outside Ivenets. In the evening the general heading the division was visited by a partisan group representative, a young girl. It was dark, and we sat under a tree in the courtyard. I couldn't see her face. We were having supper. She informed us that the partisans have already prepared a bridge for the tanks and that they can move to the west without delay. T he partisans have cleared the Naliboskaya Pushcha near Ivenets from Germans and the road was open forth tanks. From her accent I determined her nationality. They had her stay for supper. The girl turned out to be a student of the Minsk University (3) and she said that there was quite a lot of them (Jews - L. S .), without stating the number. She said that many Jews-vostochniki are fighting in groups in Western Belarus (4). The talk was all business, the girl was in a hurry and I couldn't question her in detail about the fate of other Jews. This was a first encouraging meeting. Later, when saying goodbye in the hut, I could see her more clearly, and I saw a young pretty Jewish girl with a revolver, fighting. This was a great consolation and a great support. http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/Newsletter/ilya_ehrenburg.htm to read the entire article click here; - Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 08:44:30 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Chofetz Chaim In a work called "Likutei Omrim" quotes this piece of Talmud. When we see something wrong and don't protest or intervene, then ultimately it will be those whom we didn't try to stop who will condemn us. He recalls witnessing a Jew who lived near the town of Rakow. This Jew had been found guilty of some crime and sentenced to fifteen years in Siberia. As he was being taken through Rakow on his way to Minsk for transportation, he asked if the Rabbi of the town could be brought to see him. When the Rabbi arrived the Jew said "Rebbe, I have a complaint. The situation I am in is due to you. I didn't start out like this. I started committing small crimes and graduated, till I find myself in the state I am today. At no stage in my "Career" did you tell me off or protest at what I was doing. Had you stopped me when I was young I wouldn't be here like this today" The Chofetz Chaim says that if a Jew has the ability to protest and doesn't then indeed he shares some of the guilt. If they wont listen to you in your own town then protest elsewhere. We are simply not allowed to stand back and ignore wrong doing as Jews we must protest. . - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 19:52:19 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ...I served in the communications branch in Gomel near the big city of Minsk. I was scouting the enemy's air force activities. One day German planes bombarded our region. Our regiment withdrew towards Volozhin where we camped for a few hours. When the German army advanced toward us we fled to Rakov. Then we had to flee Rakov. While trying to cross the bridge on the Berezina River under heavy shelling, one half of our unit managed to cross over before the bridge collapsed. The other half of the unit, myself included, was captured by the Germans. Near Minsk, we were chased into a field that was fenced with barbed wire. Thousands of POW's were herded into this field like cattle. While in captivity, I noticed that every now and then another group of POW's was loaded on a truck and driven away. None of them returned. I concluded the conclusions and escaped after three days. The Escape I escaped with two Jewish POW's. We took advantage of a dark, foggy and rainy night. The German guards entered their "Budkes" (guarding booths). We crossed the fences and ran into a field of very tall rye where we could hide. Then we split. I started toward Vishnive. It took me a whole week to walk there. I walked at night and hid in the forest in the daytime. Sometimes I could find food and sometimes I could not. Initially I was dressed in my Russian Army uniform. When I passed near Rakov, I stopped at the home of one of my Gentile acquaintances. I told him, "Save me, give me Alte Zachen (used clothing) and take away my uniform and shoes." He did what I asked. He gave me clothing and a loaf of bread. After a week I arrived in Vishnive..... http://www.geocities.com/biography1915/e_shlomo.html Click here to read the rest - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 19:25:14 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ....We fled Volozhin at night, four days after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The day before we arranged our valuables in our neighbor's, Sholom Leyb Rubinstein's cave. We left the town empty handed. Our son Grisha took his bicycle. Reuven left wearing slippers. Good friends persuaded him that in soft slippers the walking would be easier. After some kilometers of stony road his slippers were torn exposing the bare flesh of his feet. We felt better when we arrived at Mizheyk. Here we met many horse-drawn carts. Some of them transported Volozhin families: the Semernitski brothers, Berl Spector, Avrom Mlot, Khatskl der Olshaner, Hershl Sheyniuk with his wife and others. They had left the town before us and wanted to hear news from Volozhin. We told them that although it seemed quiet now, it was not a sign for the future. We wanted to cross the Russian frontier with them. But they decided to return home. They had run away, Avrom Mlot told us, because they had been afraid of the bombings. Now that Volozhin was peaceful they would go back. The entire group went back directly into the lion's muzzle, into the Nazi hands. All of them were murdered. We continued to walk and arrived into Rakov. There we met acquaintances, who received us cordially. Khayke Rubentshik (Guetsl Perski's sister) invited us to leave the children with her family. She promised to guard them. The Germans, she said, are after Communists and their assistants only; they will not do any harm to Jews and to Jewish children. We did not depend on the good woman's “German expertise”; we left Rakov taking our children with us. At night we arrived at the 1939 frontier. We found there a crowd of refugees. But the military guards closed the passageway and forbade passing it. Having no other choice we returned to Rakov. On the way we met Leybke Hayim der Slovensker's son. Wearing a military coat, he told us that he brought wives and children of Soviet Officers on his cart to the frontier. He advised us to try the frontier passing in Volma, 15 Km from Rakov. We went in this direction. To our sorrow we found also this passage blocked. At noon we heard firing and saw people advancing on carts eastward. Leybke harnessed his horse and we succeeded in passing the frontier. We arrived in the town of Derzhinsk. Here Leybke announced that he was returning home. Our arguments did not help. He left us the horse and cart and returned into the lion's muzzle, where he perished with all of our shtetl's inhabitants.... Click here for the entire story - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 17:15:43 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ......In 1944 my mother, Botwinnik Evgeniya Samuilovna (Zelda daughter of Shmuil Botwinnik born in 1920 in rakov) came to Kurenetz. After her release from partisans she looked for her relatives. She found out that all her family was killed in Rakov. She moved to Kurenetz following some of her Jewish friends from the partisans. And that is how to lonely people met each other and established a family. At first they lived in the house of Aaron’s brother Hirsh who was killed with his entire family (wife and two children). Here in August of 1946 their first son Abram was born. At that time Arye Leibe (Lior's grandfather), the brother of Aaron returned from evacuation to Russia, also their two sisters Hava and Feiga returned after being partisans during the war. They all married and started their own families. My father moved to a new house of his own, that he build with his own hands, he left the old house for his brother Leibe And sister Hava. In July of 1948 in the new house, a new citizen of Kurenetz was born — that was I. About my birth I will tell you the following story: My mother felt that she is about to give birth so my father took her to the Vileyka’s hospital what was 8 k.m. Away, riding on a horse. However it was too early, and after one day in the hospital she asked to be taken home because she had a lot of work to do there. And so my father brought her back. A few days later he had to set the horse again to take mother to the hospital. This time she was left there for several days, while my father had to return home to take care of the housekeeping chores. A Few days passed and then a fellow Kurinitz resident by the name of Nikolay met my father and told him:" Vorchik, I’ve visited my wife in the hospital and saw your Zelda. You have a boy". Father took a horse and went to meet us. Mother asked to go home right away so father took of his jacket, put me inside and brought me home. That is how my life in Kurenetz begun. At that time almost every Jewish family in Kurenetz had a new born. In Kurenetz after the war remained about 15 Jewish families. On Saturdays and at Jewish holidays Jewish people were gathering at the old Leizer Shulman house. There they had their prayers and after the religious ceremony they were drinking "lehaim". We, kids, played outside the house, and never forgot that Leizer had an apple orchard. We, all the Jewish kids, were raised together among the other gentile kids — together we went to the river and to the forest. Sometimes we had our fights. During winter we would build snow forts and have snowball battles. Starting at the age of 7, every kid in kurenets would attend school,there we met with new duties and challenges and made new friends. Click here to read the entire story - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 16:31:27 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a message dated 3/16/03 8:57:39 PM Pacific Standard Time, EilatGordn writes: I found a very old note in Jewishgen; From: CLARE@vms.cis.pitt.edu Subject: Town of Rakov I believe that my grandfather was buried in the shtetl of Rakov about 1917. The town would now be in Belarus. Has anyone visited there recently and if they have, is there any way that I might find out if a Jewish cemetery survives. His name was Shmuel Grodzenski. Sheldon Clare Dear Sheldon, I just started a site for Rakov. there are pictures from the Jewish cemetery of Rakov http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/rakov/rakov.html My Dear Eilat - Thank you so very much for your website. Has anyone recorded the names on the tombstones in the Rakov Cemetery? My mother and her parents did not live in Rakov but I recall that my mother told me of her father's death from starvation and Rakov burial. They originated from the shtetl of Olshon(Kholshanyi). Toda Raba Sheldon Clare click for pictures - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 16:24:41 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The All Belarus Database Searching for Town RAKOVRun on Tuesday 18 March 2003 at 11:56:23 The Vsia Rossiia 1903 & 1911 Minsk, 1903 & 1911 Mogilev & 1911 Vitebsk Gubernias Database List 14 records The Belarus Names Database List 14 records Births Database List 138 records http://www.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.isa?jg~jgsys~allcountry~belarus Click here to do the research - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:51:15 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/Shtetls/srakovmm.htm There is an article about Rakov in the Russian language Jewish Encyclopedia (Evreiskaya Encyclopedia). The article can be found in volume XIII, page 299, and is 6 lines long. (contributed by Joel Spector) Rakov was in the Rakovskaya volost' (courtesy of Vitaly Charny) The surnames AGINSKY, ANBINDER, ARIEV, ARUKER, BATVINNIK, BENYAMIN, BEREZIN, BERMAN, BLYAKHAR, BOTVINIK, BOTVINNIK, CHERCHES, CHERTOK, CHERTOV, CHINKIN, DANTSIG, DIREKTOR, DREKTOR, DRUKER, DUKOR, ELEVICH, ELKIN, ELYASBERG, FAIBISHEV, FAIN, FAINBERG, FAITSBER, FEIGELMAN, FINKEL, FISHER, FISHKIN, FODRMAN, FREIDIN, FRIDMAN, FRUMKIN, FURMAN, GALPERIN, GALYNKER, GARBUZ, GAUFELD, GDALEVICH, GELLER, GERTS, GERTSOV, GINZBURG, GISHELMAN, GOLDBERG, GOLDSHMID, GOLER, GOLOVENCHITS, GOLSHMID, GOLSHMIDT, GOLYNKER, GRAIVER, GRESER, GRIF, GRINGAUZ, GRINGOLTS, GRINMAN, GURVICH, GUTNER, ITKIN, ITSKHOKIN, KACHAN, KACHANOVICH, KAGAN, KANTOROVICH, KAPLAN, KAUFMAN, KAZHDAN, KERZNER, KHAIT, KHANT, KIRZNER, KISEL, KLEIMAN, KLEINGON, KLOTS, KONTOROVICH, KORCHAN, KRASNER, KRASNOPIORKA, KRASNY, KRIMEVER, KRUPETSKY, KUKES, KUKUS, KURCHER, KURCHGON, KURGAN, KURTSER, LAPIDUS, LEVIN, LIBERMAN, LIFSHITS, LYUCHIN, MAL, MALY, MARIN, MAZELEV, MELAMED, MERIN, METER, MIRSKY, MISHEN, MOTER, MOZELEV, NALIBOTSKY, NODENMAN, NOKHIMOVICH, PAKULYAVIK, PEKAR, PELMAN, PERELMAN, PLOTKA, PLOTKIN, POGULYANIK, POGULYANSK, POZNYAK, RABINOVICH, RAIKHELSON, RATINETS, RATNER, RATYNETS, REZNIK, RIVKIN, RUBENCHIK, RUBINCHIK, RUBINSHTEIN, RYTYNETS, SAGALEVICH, SAGALOVICH, SHAGALOVICH, SHAPIRA, SHEFER, SHEIKERMAN, SHEINERMAN, SHEKT, SHKOLNIK, SHNEPER, SHTEINBERG, SHTEINGAUZ, SHTEINGOLTS, SHVARTS, SINROD, SISPER, SLIOZBERG, SNEPER, SONIN, SONKIN, SOSNOVICH, STOLF, STRASHUN, SUSTER, TALESMAKHER, TALESNIK, TOKAR, TOKER, TOUMEN, TROTSKY, TSOFUN, TSUKERMAN, TURMAN, USA, VAINER, VAINSHEL, VAINSHTEIN, VIDRIN, VIGONICH, VIGOVICH, VINIK, VOLMAN, VYGONICH, ZAINER, ZEGER, ZELTSER, ZILBERGLEIT, ZILBERKVEIT, ZVINITS ?, and ZYSMAN were found in the Vedomosti records (1870s-1890s) for Rakov (contributed by Vitaly Charny) click here for the original Jewishgen page - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:46:30 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Searching for Town RAKOV; Zalcberg Rakow Belarus Rifka Wassercier Spiszman RifkaTree@AOL.com Efron Rakow Belarus Jim Yarin jimyarin@attbi.com Sulsky Rakow Belarus Vitaly Charny (#5297) 101 Old Rocky Ridge Lane Birmingham, AL 35216 United States Vcharny@aol.com Slepyan Rakow Belarus Perleman Rakow Rakovsky Rakow Belarus 24 Jul 1999 Researcher #6886 Segal Rakow Belarus Sara Segal Loevy (#7050) segalloevy@aol.com Segalovitch Rakov Latvia 26 Apr 1997 Rogoff Raguva Lithuania 2 Aug 1997 Sulsky Rakow Poland Rose Halle Halle Lipov (#12194) 18020 Overwood Drive Olney, MD 20832 United States HallesGram@aol.com Shapiro Rakow Belarus Frances Kahn (#12537) 269 Lake Hill Rd. Burnt Hills, NY 12027 United States Karchemnik Rakow Belarus Racine Rakow Belarus Eileen Gaffen (#14205) 6005 W. Goldring Road P. O. Box 693 LaPorte, IN 46352 United States gaffen@csinet.net Weiner Rakow Belarus Levin Rakow Belarus Nalibotsky Rakow Belarus 1998 Ellen M. Naliboff (#15754) 6114 Madra Ave. San Diego, CA 92120-3906 United States Zinkin Rakow Belarus Evenchik Rakow Belarus Daniel Ewenczyk (#18241) 199 rue des Pyrenees Paris, 75020 France ewenczyk@wanadoo.fr Lapides Rakow Belarus Heidi Horowitz (#22761) 6203 34th Ave NE Seattle, WA 98115 United States Heidihoro@aol.com Botwinik Rakow Belarus 2 Mar 1999 Lipshitz Rakow Belarus 2 Mar 1999 Sagalovich Rakow Belarus Pablo Siegal (#24161) 11106 Whisper Ridge San Antonio, TX 78230 United States psiegal@aol.com Gildenberg Rakow Botwinik Rakow Poland Ellen Shycon Shycon Cohen (#24678) EllenC7@aol.com Taif Rakow Belarus Russell I. Moore (#25481) Russ_Moore@msn.com Botvinick Rakow Belarus Steven Jacobs (#28660) 4935 West Maple Rd West Bloomfield, MI 48322 United States noahben99@yahoo.com Rakov Rakow Belarus Melvin Rackoff (#33877) Emrack1@worldnet.att.net Rakow Rakow Belarus 25 Sep 1999 Kleinman Rakow Poland Mandy Harpaz (#34378) 11/2 Shachar Street Beit Hakerem Jerusalem, 96263 Israel mharpaz@netvision.net.il Rolnik Rakow Belarus Ehud Bachrach (#48630) 32 Sachlav Kibbutz Mizra Kibbutz Mizra, 19312 Israel Rotstein Rakow Belarus Ruth Wilnai (#50137) ruth@wilnai.com Rothstein Rakow Belarus 8 Feb 2001 Lifshitz Rakow Belarus 8 Feb 2001 Edelman Rakow Belarus 12 Jan 2001 contact Researcher #52877 Eidelman Rakow Belarus Ejdelman Rakow Belarus Pupkin Rakow Belarus Jechiel Ladyzhenski (#57713) 4 Ziyonut Road Ariel, 44837 Israel Ladizinv@netvision.net.il Owsiani Rakow Poland 5 Nov 2001 Rosa Nirenberg (#65108) rniren@home.com Cukierman Rakow Poland 5 Nov 2001 Rolnik Rakow Belarus Abraham Burnovski (#70321) 6a Ravutski Street Ra'anana, 43212 Israel Burnovsk@netvision.net.il Click for the entire list - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:37:08 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unfortunately I don't know the names of all of my father's siblings, but the ones I know are: My grandfather: Faibe Itzik (Shraga Itzhac) Sagalowitz (burnt alive in the Rakov shul) My grandmother: Sarah Gildenberg (died long before the war. Some of my father's siblings: Chaim Sagalowitz (immigrated to the U.S. around 1912 and became Hymie Siegel) Rachel Sagalowitz, who also immigrated to the U.S. around 1912 and married Samuel Kazdin Moshe Sagalowitz, who perished in a concentration camp with his family (one son survived the camp) Shaya Sagalowitz, who I think was one of the Jews burnt alive with his family Yehuda Sagalowitz, born in 1905, immigrated to Mexico with my father in 1924 Yosef Sagalowitz (my father), born in 1901, emigrated to Mexico in 1924. There were several other siblings, but I do not have the names, and all perished in the holocaust. Pablo Siegal . . - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:17:49 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My name is Ken Perlman, my great grand father Shmuel Zvi Perlman came from Rakov Belarus to the U.S. in approximately 1890.He settled in Bayonne and Linden ,N.J. He worked as a carpenter and a house builder.My family is related to a Rockoff family that also came from Rakov. I am interested in any information that you may have on Rakov or other Perlman's that came from this town. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks... Ken Perlman USA - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:13:28 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My father is Jacob pearlman ( original spelling Perlman). I don't know if there is any relationship. Our family came from Rokov, Belarus which is about 7 kilometers from Minsk. My father came in 1913 at the age of 5. His father was already here working on a pig farm in New Jersey ( which is some job for orthodox Jews) . they then moved to Brooklyn. The Perlman's in Belarus were business people and " intellectuals" ( whatever that means) If your family comes from that part of the world write and I will furnish you with more information the original note is on Ancestry.com Linda Pearlman - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 09:09:27 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My wife Larisa's grandmother was Braina, daughter of Tanhel Pupkin and Nehama. Braina was born in Rakov about 1885 and died in Leningrad in 1936 where she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery. Braina's daughter Nehama Neiman (Hayutin) was born in Slutsk in 1917 and she now lives with me and her daughter Larisa in Ariel I am sending the photo of Hehama's uncle Reb Mikhl Pupkin (Braina's brother) and his family. The inscription on the back in Yiddish reads : FOR BEST MEMORY TO MY SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW FROM MY FAMILY PUPKIN. RAKOV 8TH DECEMBER 1924. Seated are Mikhl and his wife Henya, my mother-in-law's aunt. Standing from right to left are their children: Tankhum, Hinda, Abram and Naftali. All of them perished in Rakov. There were two other children who lived in Leningrad: Isaac and Wolf. Isaac escaped the Poles (who beat him for being a Communist in Rakov)during the Civil War and worked as Nachalnik Tsekha (production chief) at the Kirov Works in Leningrad. He was shot dead during the Stalin purges of 1937. His brother Wolf had then a heart attack and died. (He adopted his wife's surnam Khotenever, they had a daughter). Isaac's wife Regina was deported to Smolensk as the "wife of the enemy of the people" and their son Yoseph fell in the battle of Berlin in May 1945. There was another brother, Reb Benzion Pupkin, married to Feiga (We have their photo, too), and they were a childless couple presumably in Rakov who did not survive the war, either. My wife's aunt Tsilia went to Rakov after 1945 and did not dind any Jews there. I can add some information about the Rabbi of Rakov, Reb Hirsh-Shlomo Finkel, who died on the 23d of February, 1942 in Rakov. He managed to send the Pinkas of Rakov to his son Uri Finkel in Minsk (a cousin of Avraham Even-Shoshan) and now the Pinkas is in the Archives of the Hebrew University of Ramat Ram. The Pinkas (1810-1913 in Hebrew) has an addition written by Uri Finkel in Yiddish. Sincerely yours, Yehiel (valery)Ladizhinski of Ariel click here for the pictures - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 08:42:01 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My father was born in Rakow in 1901 and emigrated to Mexico in 1924 together with a brother and a cousin. My grandfather and many of my father's siblings stayed in Rakow, and I do know that my grandfather and some of my other relatives were part of the 950 Jews burnt alive in the Synagogue. I saw a "Yizkor" book about Rakow in New York (it was printed in Israel), and they list the names of the Jews that were killed that way, and, in addition of me knowing the fact from before, my grandfather's name is among them. As a matter of fact, in one of the stories in Yiddish from a survivor that was with the partizaners and came back to Rakow after the war to visit the ruins, he mentions the "Kalter Shul", were, according to him, on all Saturdays you could hear the voice of the person davening, "Faibe Itzie the Katzev" (who's complete name was Faibe Itzik Sagalowitz, and who was my grandfather). Since none of my relatives born in Rakow is still alive, I don't have even the names of the other Jews from the town, so the other descendants of people from Rakow would not mean anything to me. But if in the tape that is going to be made there will be some description of life in Rakow, I would be interested in a copy of the tape. By the way, you mentioned that Aharon Greengoltz' mother was Botwinik. There was a Botwinik in Mexico (I was born in Mexico), who was also from Rakow. I don't remember the first name of that person, but his son was named Moshe, probably in memory of a relative from Rakow. Pablo Siegal . - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 08:37:37 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a message dated 3/2/03 3:33:05 PM Pacific Standard Time, davefox73@earthlink.net writes: There are 20 people listed in the JewishGen Family Finder who are researching the shtetl of Rakow. While I have no know connection to Rakow (Rakov), I did visit there in 1999 and walked through the cemetery, taking my photographs. While I did not see any overt vandalism, the cemetery was not adequately protected by a fence and young children were playing soccer in the cemetery. There were many readable stones, but there were also stones that had fallen over face down and others that had sunken below ground level that were not readable. As will most cemeteries in Belarus, overgrown vegetation made it difficult to reach certain parts of the cemetery. About three years ago, the Union of Religious Jewish Congregations of the Republic of Belarus with the financial help of sponsors from South Africa and Israel built a new fence around the Jewish cemetery in Rakov. There are more then 100 tombstones in the cemetery and the Union would like to carry out a restoration of the tombstones. If you have any interest in seeing this cemetery restored, please contact Yuri Dorn at .( You should email Dave for his email information- it was erased when I put it in the guest book) David Fox, Belarus SIG Coordinator <davefox@jewishgen.org> USA - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 08:33:00 (PST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rakov webpage is dedicated to the remembrance of the families who perished in the area during World War II. If you have relatives who originated in the area of Rakov, please share information, stories, and pictures. You can scan pictures and email it to eilatgordn@aol.com and I will post them on the site. Thank you very much, Eilat Gordin Levitan Eilatgordn@aol.com USA - Tuesday, March 18, 2003 at 08:26:01 (PST)