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I called Lea Nee Shiff Nachshon in Israel. Here is some of what she told me;

My father Meir was born in 1888. He had a brother Chaim Shiff who was born in 1895. He had two sisters; Golda and Rashka. They were also some years younger then he. My father was forced to serve in the Russian army for many years before and during the First World War. When the war started the Russians ordered his younger brother Chaim to "enroll" in the army. My grandmother panicked, she could not let another son risk his life. The family quickly arranged for him a "trip" to Toronto where he settled and had two daughters.

My father’s sister Rashka had heart problems since her early childhood. Eventually she married Eliezer Levin and had a daughter named Lea. both of us were named for our grandmother who died shortly before I was born. When the daughter was still a very young child my aunt became very sick. The family did everything to find a cure for her, but she died Shortly after. Some years later Eliezer Levin married another woman. The family perished in the Holocaust. My cousin Lea was about fifteen years old when she perished. My grandfather died at age 81 in January 1940 shortly before we were deported by the Soviets to Kazachstan for my father being a successful businessman and owning a mill.

My father other sister Golda lived with my grandfather Avraham Moshe the first year that I lived with him in Volozhyn. I lived there because there were no schools in the village were I lived with my parents. Some times later my aunt married Mendel Alperovitz son of Shimon from Kurenets. Our family visited them and I can still remember the train ride to Vileyka and the walk via the tree-lined road from Vileyka to Kurenets. They said that Catherine the great ordered to plant the trees when she spent a night there in the 1790’s. Mendel lived next to his brother Zishka and I remember that Zishka had a son named Shimon. (He was killed as a partisan while fighting the Germans). During my school years in a Vilna high school my aunt Golda came there to receive some treatments since she was unable to conceive. She perished in Volozhin with her baby Shimon.

My mother was from the Kivilovitz family. She had four sisters and one brother. Her brother was Shneor Kivilovitz, he married Rachel nee Meltzer who was a teacher in the "Tarbut" school in Volozhin, and they had a son. Shneor was very involved with the Zionist organization in Volozhin. During the Holocaust Shneor was appointed as the second head of the Jodenrat in Volozhin. Pnina nee Potashnik wrote in the Volozhin Yizkor book;…

"Sunday, May 10^th, 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…" Shneor was not able to save himself, he perished with his family.

His sister Sonia shared the same fate. she married Mordechai Berman and perished with her family. Berman Mordhay, his wife sonia Sara, their children; Monia, Moyshe

My mother other sisters came to Ertz Israel prior to the war; first came her sister Fanya in 1925. She married and had two sons, one died as still a young man the other changed his last name from Levizki to Landers and now lives in Mexico.

My mothers’ sister Fruma made "Aliya" in 1932. Her sister Lea came in 1936 she has family in Chavazelet Israel (Hotman family). My mothers’ mother died in 1939 a heart attach after hearing the news of the start of World war II. My grandfather died shortly after. (1940) at that point I moved back to Volozhin. ( In 1939 I was in Vilna sometimes after the Russians invaded the eastern part of Poland Vilna became part of Lithuania and Volozhin was on the Soviets side so I went to high school in Molodechno, the Town of my mothers’ mother from the Shrira family.

Lea’s husband is from the Cherches family of Radoshkovichi. Her son is Ehud Nachshon a writer.

Meir Shiff wrote a chapter in the Volozhin Yizkor book. For pictures of the family look at portraits and family portraits or paste;

Golda nee Shiff Alperovitz;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/13001_2_b.gif

eliezer and rashka Levin with daughter Lea; http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20401_4_b.gif

grandparents Avraham Moshe shiff born 1859 Lea was born 1865;

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Sima nee Shrira Kivilovitz;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20201_6_b.gif

Sonia nee Kivilvitz Berman;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20101_1_b.gif

Baby Monia Berman;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20601_20_b.gif

Rachel nee Meltzer Kivilovitz

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20101_4_b.gif

baby Yigal Kivilovitz;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20601_19_b.gif

Shneor Kivilovitz;

http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_images/20801_12_b.gif

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Subj: donors list
Date: 1/21/02 1:55:26 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: rubinlj@netvision.net.il (RUBIN LEON)
To: EilatGordn@aol.com (eilat gordn)


21 of January 2002

Here is an updated list of donors for the Dolhinov Cemetery Project:

1. Alperovich Tova Ramat Gan, Israel $250
2. Blum Bushke Givataim, Israel $250
3. Berzam Chaya Ramat Gan, Israel $250
4. Baranovski Chava Ramat Gan, Israel $250
5. Gitlitz Yecheskel Tel Aviv, Israel $250
6. Gitlin Avi Ramat Hasharon , Israel $375
7. Grosbein Chaim Petach Tikva, Israel $250
8. Golan (Goltz) Yechezkel Rehovot, Israel $185
9. Dr. Goltz- Doytch Miryam Haifa Israel $250
10.Chafetz Asya Tel Aviv, Israel $250
11.Chafetz Gutman Tel Aviv, Israel $250
12.Cheres Yehuda Herzelia, Israel $500
13.Finesilber Beny Haifa, Israel $250
14. Lenkin Nachum Holon, Israel $250
15. Norman Shimon Petach Tiqva, Israel $250
16. Norman Yitzhak Givataim, Israel $250
17. Fridman Moshe Kfar Saba, Israel $250
18. Koton Levi Ytzhak Holon, Israel $250
19.Kravchinski Rachel Petach Tiqva, Israel $250
20. Kremer-Sosenski Batya Ashdod, Israel $250
21.Dimshtein Lev Alfey Menashe, Israel $250
22.Perevoskin Aharon Ganey Yochanan, Israel $250
23.Shlechtman (Sosensky) Sima Ashdod, Israel $250
24.Shinuk David Rishon Lezion, Israel $250
25.Shulman Hinda Ramat Gan, Israel $250
26.Shamgar (Smorgonski) Shlomo, Givataim, Israel $250
27.Sosenski Yehuda Ganey Yochanan, Israel $250
28.Rubin Leon Ramat Efal, Israel $250
29.Rubin Arye Givataim, Israel $250
30.Rubin Victor Chedera, Israel $250
31.Rubin Israel Neveh Mivtach, Israel $250
32.Rapson/ Ekman Michael Avichail, Israel $250
33.Radashkovich Gideon Givataim, Israel $250
34.Radashkovich Mordechay Givataim, Israel $250
35.Radashkovich Roni Givataim, Israel $200
36.Podshivalov (Shpreregen) Fanya, Nesher; Israel $ 200
37.Fridman Eli Argentina $250.
38.Griner Chasya Brazil $375
39.Drewiacki Max Berlin, Germany $375
40.Mr. & Mrs. Jack Diamond Omaha, U.S.A $250
41.Eilat Gordin Levitan, Studio City, Ca U.S.A $250
42.Shmilovich Avraham Kvar Saba Israel $125
43.Tych Raja (nee Bronshtein) Ramat Gan Israel $275
44.Zolotov Zipora Lahavim Israel $250
45.Markman Sonya New Haven U.S.A. $100
46.Yofe Sima Ramat Gan Israel $125
47.Labunski Fanny(nee Ruderman) Haifa Israel $125
48. Radashkovich Eliyahu Ramat Gan Israel $100
49. Radashkovich Arie Tel Aviv Israel $125
50. Gayer Rita Petach Tiqva Israel $250
51. Rapson Dov (Melamed) Avichail Israel $250
52. Rapson Avigdor (Ekman) Herzelia Israel $250
53. Paz Yosef & Dvora Haifa Israel $250
54. Sosenski Yaakov Ashdod Israel $125
55. Sosenski Sima Ganey yochanan Israel $125
56. Ben Barak Gallia Rechovot Israel $125
57. Shor Maya (nee Sosenski) Bizaron Israel $125
58. Sosenski Eli Ashdod Israel $125
59. Kaplan Klila Tel Aviv Israel $125
60. Kanter Laura (nee Libe Rubin)Boca Raton Fl. U.S.A $500
61. Schuster Riva Kvar Saba Israel $125
62. Brant Sara Navei Mivtach Israel $100
63. Aminetsach Yehuda Herzelia Israel $125
64. Aminetsach Avraham Jerusalem Israel $125
65. Dr Shmilovich Zelig Omer Israel $125
66. Ruderman Florence New York U.S.A. $150
67. Chalifa Raya(nee Rubin)Navei Mivtach Israel $125
68. Shap Gerald & family (Grosbein)Cape-Town,South Africa $650
69. Harcavi (Furman) Meier Ramat Hasharon Israel $250
70. Harcavi (Furman) Chanan Ramat Efal Israel $250
71. Rosen Lester & Debby Glencoe , Chicago U.S.A. $250 + $50
72. Susan M. Goldsmith of Piedmont, CA ,U.S.A. $500
73. Jacob Chevlin, Florida, U.S.A $250
74. Simon Chevlin, New Haven, U.S.A $250
75. Shifra( nee Chevlin) Zamkov, New Haven, U.S.A. $500
76. Ester Telis (Dockshitzki) Cheshire, Con. U.S.A. $500
77. Prof. M. Shapiro Hod Hashron, Israel $100
78. Zipi Asafi (Grosbein) Kfar Saba, Israel $125
79. Dr. Orania Yanay Tel Aviv, Israel $250
80. Dr. Dimenshtein Victor Tel Aviv, Israel $250
81. Liberman Batya & Esar Fridman Kvar Saba, Israel $125
82. Rabani Ziva Jerusalem, Israel $125
83. Evalyn Krown New York,U.S.A.$100
84. Shamgar Giora ,Ramat Gan,Israel $125
85. Lechterman Chaim Tzahala,Israel $125
86. Malerevitch Batya (nee Lechterman) Tel Aviv,Israel $125
87. Gitlitz Orah & Tzipi, Givataim, Israel $125
88. Bronshtein Chana Ramat Gan , Israel $250
89. Doytch Israel, Petach Tiqva, Israel $125
90. Dr. Bronshtein Michael Tel Aviv ,Israel $250
91. Gutman Palant, Moshav Magshimim,Israel $250
92. Radashkovich Viera, Ramat Gan,Israel $125
93. Holland Nate, Winetka, IL,U.S.A. $125
94. Holland Bill , Chicago, U.S.A. $125
95. Garson Charllotte, Atlanta,Georgia,U.S.A. $250
96. Ben-tov Chaya, Ramat Gan, Israel $75
97. Gitlin Mordechy, Haifa, Israel $50
98. Kagan (Gendel) Malka, Haifa Israel $50
99. Adin (Eidelman) Dov, Beit Avot Efal, Israel $75
100. Rubin Elyakim, Givataim, Israel $50
101. Dr Pryss Leon, Natanya, Israel $60
102. Even Bila,Ramat Yitzchak,Israel $50
103. Prof Samuel Kassov, Hartford,USA $100

This is a list of donors who participated financially so far in the restoration of
the Jewish Cemetery in Dolhinov.
The project is estimated to cost 30000 US dollars . 23000 of the sum has been already collected.
For address of people on the list - email:
rubinlj@netvision.net.il (RUBIN LEON)
For letters:
Leon Rubin, 2 Hartsit str.,Ramat Efal, 52960, Israel
Tel. 03-6356469


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Today I talked with Sara (From the Norman, Kooperstooch/ Baskin family of Vileyka) and Boris Klor (Michalishek near Vilna.) The Klors have homes in Hamden, CT and in
Delray Beach, FL.
Boris was born in Michalishek in 1921. Sara was born in Vileyka. her mother was from the Norman family (a relative of Shalom and Moshe Norman) Her father was from the Baskin/ kooperstooch family of Ilja. The original last name was Baskin but some of the family changed their last name to Kooperstooch to avoid serving in the Russian army prior to the first World war. I found some Information on the Baskin family by using a search engine. I will post it in the next note.
Saras' family moved from Vileyka to Michalishek when she was still a young child.
She practically grew up with Boris Klor. As they grew they fell in love. Sara moved to Vileyka during the rule of the Soviets (1939-1941) It was easier the get a job in Vileyka that had many official Soviet offices.
In the summer of 1941 the day before the German invaded the Soviet Union one of Saras' sister came for a visit in Vileyka as summer vacation started. Both sister were able to get on a train to Russia on the first days of the German invasion. they survived the war in the eastern region of Russia. Unknown to them a brother was also able to arrive in Russia. Two sisters were in German camps. One Perished and the other survived.
Boris klor is the only person who survived the war from his entire family. He was taken to ghetto Vilna with most of the Jews of his shtetl. He was able to escape with a group of 27 young people who were helped by some Jewish partisans from the Narootz forest. He later joined Warshilov Brigade under markov. he served there with many from Kurenets, Svir, Myadel, Postov, Krivichi and more. he knew many families from Kurenets who hid in the area.
After the war Sara and Boris found each other. They came to Germany via Poland and tried to get papers to settle in Israel. Saras' grandmother from the Baskin family- was in the U. S for many years. she looked for survivors and when she found them she was able to get papers for them and they all came to America.
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As I at last begin writing a history of our family, my greatest regret is that my sister Rose is not alive. She would have given me much information of an interesting nature that I only possess slightly.

Our family came from what is now either Poland or Lithuania. We are classed however as Litvoks. My fathers family lived in a village called Ilya. If you can find a large map of Russia or Poland you might spot it. I once saw it on a map, but I don't recall what book. It is somewhat south of the larger city of Vilna.

My father, born about 1861 was the second oldest of a family of six boys and one girl. The oldest was Chai Mendel, although in my cousin Joseph Baskind's book he calls him Menachim Mendel. Next was my father, Avrum Pesach, then David "Cooperstock," followed by Hirschl, Itche, Rivka (who became an Arian) and Shmeul. In Russia the eldest son was exempt from army duty so somehow David was made the eldest son of a Cooperstock family. They were the only family that never came over, although some of the children came here, and some landed in Israel.

How they all made a living before coming to America, I can't tell you. Their parents names were Berel and Rashi. Their father died rather young, and they were all out on their own when youngsters. Their mother died about 1904 or 1905, and I believe at the time, only my Aunt Rivka was living in Europe.

How well I remember the peculiar custom prevailing then that when a letter came from Europe announcing the death of a parent or close relative, the news was kept from the immediate family member. Sometimes, for a year. It would seem that this would have an effect on saying kaddish, and why a death was kept secret, I don't know.

Chai Mendel who landed and stayed in New York was a shammes and part reverend. He was the father of Joseph, a prominent member and General Secretary of the ARBEITER RING, the national Jewish Labor organization. His other children were Louie, who has some children living in Miami Beach. Tillie Broida, who lived in Pittsburgh for awhile, and then moved to New York, and Fannie, who also lived in New York. The other son who stayed in New York was Uncle Schmuel. The was the father of Rose Somberg, now living in Cleveland.

I believe Uncle Hirshel, the father of Dinah Slavin, Minnie Baskind, Beckie Minister, Rose Kohl, and Manny was the first to arrive in the United States. His wife, Tante Sarita, was distantly related to the Brudno family of Cleveland and perhaps that is why they came to Cleveland. The Brudno's already had a large stogie factory in Cleveland. I remember it on lower Broadway. It must have been five or six stories high. When Uncle Hirschel came to Cleveland, he immediately went to work for the Brudno's. My Aunt Sarita was very proud of her ancestor, Menasseh of Ilya, who is mentioned in the Encyclopedia Britanica as one of the five famous pupils of the Vilna Gaon. That is why there are so many Emanuel's in their family.

Tante Rivka married an Arian who was either a first or second cousin to the Baskind's. They were the last of my fathers family to come over and consisted of Ida Newmeyer, George who lived in California, Rose, now with the Blonder company and retired. Harry a druggist who passed away early in life, and Ben, the only one born in this country Ben passed away in 1973. The reason they came later was due to the inability of my Uncle Isaac Arion to enter this country on his first attempt. How well I remember his efforts, only to be turned away at Ellis Island in New York because of weak eyes. I don't remember how many times he tried but finally made it.

My Uncle Itche came over as a single man, and then brought over his future wife Sarah. I vaguely remember their wedding, although Minnie Baskind says she remembers it well. I think it about 1901 or 1902. They had four sons and one daughter. All the sons became the famous druggists of Cleveland. Harry, the oldest became the first Jewish Chairman of the State Pharmacy Board in Ohio. Perhaps the first Jew in that capacity of any state. Harry died in 1975. Next was Jack, now retired, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday. Then came Al and David, who passed away early in life, and last, the only girl Florence. Of course all of these cousins of mine have numerous children. There were many other cousins from Uncle Schmuel's family as well.

Now some information of my mother's family. She was born about 1863. They were not poor as my fathers. Her father and mother, Beritche and Pia, lived in Kablonka, a small village not too far from Ilya. My grandfather inherited the rights to the lease of a grain mill plus some small acreage of land. I call it rights because they were not allowed to own any land. However their ancestors received that right from the Poretz or Count who owned the land for many miles around.

My mother had an older sister Shana who married a specter and had one son, Abe. None of Abe's children survive today. Other children of Shana are Dinah Kline, who had several children. Gute Friedland, who had Dorothy and other daughters and sons whom I don't remember.

A younger brother of my mother Moshe Hirschel Alpert had to leave a daughter in Europe because of illness. Another daughter was Freda Rubenstein who lived in Denver and passed away in 1976. Freda had a son and a daughter. Her daughter lives in Denver and is called Mrs. Mosco. Abe, a son of Moshe Hirschel was a druggist, now passed away. How many children, I don't know.

I'm not sure how my parents met. But in the usual manner of those days, my grandfather Alpert could afford son in laws, and got them. How my father received an education as all young men did in those days is best described in Maurice Samuels "World of Sholem Aleichem". My father, poor as many young men of his generation, was able to continue his religious education and still eat by getting food from the villagers and in a different home everyday. Sometimes they slept with some villagers but most often slept in the synagogue on hard chairs. Uncle Itche tells the best story of those days. He was sleeping in a villagers home in the same bed as their son. One night a big thunderstorm came on and the father came into the bedroom and took his son to his own bedroom. My Uncle said he never felt so much an orphan as he did then. Harry Blonder was also an orphan and had many stories to tell of his "Yeshiva Bochers" days. I do not remember them, but I do remember telling that many a day he only had a piece of herring and stale bread to eat all day. My father must have continued like that until he was almost 21. At that time around 1882, he married my mother and received two years of Kest or board. In other words, two free years of living in my grandfather's house. All he had to do was study Talmud. I know that later he became a Hebrew Teacher, or Melamed in Vilna and other towns. I also know that my mother had her children in various places, either Ilya or Kablonka. I was born in Kablonka.

My father left for this country in 1895, four months after my birth. Until we emigrated we lived in both Ilya and Kablonka. Believe it or not I can remember both places, even though I was just four and one half when we came to America. I remember Rose, my sister, not believing that I could, and was astonished when I described where we lived in Ilya. She thought I remembered by listening to family talk, but only my own memory could help me describe the area. It was a very small village, and we lived on top of a hill running off the main street. To this day, I recall a parade or as I know now a religious procession going through the streets below us. During those processions the Jews kept indoors. Our street ran into a lake or river, and my sister Ann Blonder almost drowned in that body of water. It is indelibly on my mind how she was brought back into the house, on her feet and alive. She seemed to me then as a heroine. I can describe Kablonka as if I were there yesterday. Between our house and the mill was a little bridge over a small stream. I can recall getting caught going from the mill to the house bare footed, and the little bridge full of bugs. I also recall when a large cow was sitting in front of the house and I had to yell for someone to get me past this frightening animal. Both incidents are forever inscribed in my memory. There is also the story of the drunken horse. When I told my Uncle Moshe Herschl about it years later he said it was possible that the horse could have eaten some fermented vegetables that made it drunk. Since I can remember these stories from both Ilya and Kablonka we must have spent our time divided between these two villages.

My father tarried only a short while in New York, going on to Cleveland and to work at the Brudnos as a cigar packer. He was making six to eight dollars a week and was able to send for Abe. Abe was Bar Mitzvah'd in Cleveland before the rest of us came, so he must have been not quite 12 when he came over. After two years the rest of us came. In those days everyone had to travel on a false passport, or steal over the border through graft. By this time, we were affluent (in a way) and we came on a false passport. An additional problem was that if you had boys in the family eligible for army duty in the future, Russia wouldn't allow you to get out. But we did: my mother, Rose, Ann, Harry and me.

I remember the trip over, going through the Kiel Canal, staying over in Liverpool England for several days, and then landing in Canada. In leaving Russia, I remember being blessed by the Rabbi. I also remember Rose and Ann constantly reminding me that my name was Lazar, which appeared on the false passport. In case I was asked I had to forget my real name. I was then four and one half years old, Harry was about six, Ann close to nine, and Rose about 11 or 12.

After starting to read "World of our Fathers" I thought I ought to give you more detail about our emigration and early years in Cleveland. My father and Abe stole over the border. Mother and the rest of us came as noted on false passport. I know we went through Germany and then to England. We stayed in England and Liverpool for more than a week. Why I can't tell you. We were in Steerage, of course. I remember the bunks we slept in. Being so young I can't remember the stink it must have been. But I do remember a rumor that we would be vaccinated. I was scared and remember that I got on the bunk and covered myself so that they couldn't find me. That episode sticks in my mind and also the passengers constantly standing at the rail and a big wave would come overboard and everybody scattered. My father considered himself as wealthy and he avoided us gong to Ellis Island and we came through Canada. I think we went up the St. Lawrence River and entered the United States at Buffalo. It still strikes in my mind that on the train from Buffalo to Cleveland, we ate our first Banana.

Father was working at Brudnos' packing cigars or stogies as they were called, and making about $8 a week. I believe Abe worked there also, but made less money. And between these two (by not going to Miami for the winter) saved enough to bring the rest of us over. The first place we lived was on Perry Street (now 22nd Street) just west of Grange Avenue. We had a lady boarded to help with expenses. We didn't live there very long and moved to a house on Orange Ave. about two blocks closer to town from Perry Street. I don't believe Rose or Abe went to school then, but I believe Ann did for one year. Rather than go to school they began working, but where it was I don't recall. Harry and I the two youngest went to Harmon school, corner of Woodland and 18th or 19th. I wonder if it is still standing? I'm sure the houses we lived in are no longer there.

One thing I remember from the era is the assassination of President McKinley. The extras in the newspapers being shouted on the streets, the peddlers selling McKinley buttons with black ribbons. I believe he died on late Friday night or Saturday morning. I remember walking downtown on Saturday afternoon with the family and watching the newspapers being printed announcing the particulars of his death. Of course there was no radio or television, so whenever anything important happened the papers printed 'extra' editions.

About 1902 or 1903 we moved to Henry Street, now 25th Street. The house was near Scovill across from the then Scovill avenue Temple, now Euclid Ave. Temple. The lot had a house in front and one in the rear. Also a barn above which was a large room, that my father converted to a stogie or tobacco factory. This was his first venture in his own business.

The cuttings remaining from the stogies were converted into raw chewing tobacco and packed into bags. Although most chewing tobacco was flavored, this was not. The foreigners working in the mills used this raw tobacco for chewing and also smoked it in their pipes. So my father bough a horse and wagon and peddled his merchandise to saloons all over Cleveland. Later Abe took over that part of the business. All of the family, including my Mother, worked in the tobacco factory. We even had a maid, a Jewish one at that, so that my mother could spend time on the job. During the summer months Harry and I worked there, and later on after school as well.

Since Rose and Ann were not going to school they had a student teacher, who bicycled over in the evenings. He later became a famous judge, Judge Levine. I believe he was a US Circuit Court Judge before he passed away. That was still on Orange Street. When we moved to Henry Street, Harry and I attended Marion School, around 24th and Marion, from which we both graduated. Harry in 1908 and I in 1909.

At that time, the Hirschel and Sarita Baskinds lived on Scovill between 25th and 26th. I believe the Itche Baskinds lived on 33rd street. It was during this period that Uncle Isaac Arion finally brought his family over. Meanwhile, my mother's brother, Moishe Hirschel came back from Europe on his second trip, and brought with him my maternal grandmother whose husband had passed away. She was near 70 - very squat and heavy.

Here I must tell you how immigrants came from New York. They were put on trains for immigrants only and we in the interior would get a wire from Ellis Island telling when they would arrive. As trains still do today, they generally arrived late, scheduled or not. I remember when Uncle Isaac came we must have gone to the train station three or four times by street car. The train finally arrived a day or two late! However, when Uncle Moishe Hirshel came with Grandma, this being his second trip, he wasn't afforded the luxury of a welcoming crowd. I can still see him and grandma now getting off the streetcar themselves, loaded down with heavy baggage.

There is an amusing story of my grandmother on her first morning in our house. She was busying herself when the mailman knocked on the door. She answered it and became speaking Polish to him. Upon being told that the mailman couldn't understand Polish she was surprised and said "But he's a Goy, isn't he?" Where she came from, all Gentiles spoke Polish.

My grandmother also had trouble getting accustomed to the wealth in America. Not only heavy of foot, but with poor eyesight, she constantly tripped over the carpets. Although we didn't have wall to wall then, neither did we have rugs in Europe.

I think the Spectors came shortly after we did. My Uncle Spector became a peddler of notions. He knocked on doors with his stock in a basket, consisting of collar buttons, safety pins, matches, etc. One day when he returned we asked him now business was, and he said he didn't do too well, since he didn't have the right merchandise. What was he missing we asked? He replied that if he only had an item called 'not today' he would have had a big day. A real wit.

It was in this period that the depression of 1907 occurred. I remember fairly well dressed men knocking on the door, and asking for a meal. There were no questions asked as to why. One knew and gave.

It was at this time my father became ambitious and opened a cigar store on Ontario Street, somewhere between sixth and ninth streets. The factory was in the rear. One of the brands we sold was called Baskinola. My father ran the factory and Abe was out with the horse and wagon, peddling direct to the saloons. After awhile, with the store doing poorly, further misfortune occurred when a fired burned the building down. To add to that, it was not fully covered by insurance. Back went the factory to the room above the barn on 25th street. You'll recall I mentioned a second house on the lot on 26th street. This house was occupied by the Friedland family and that is how Gute met one of the brothers and was married to him. How can I ever forget that wedding? It must have occurred about 1903 or 1904 and in the manner of the time, a carriage was sent for our family. It took us to Tevtonia Hall, which was on Scovill Avenue at 30th or 33rd street. Some class, I thought.

In addition to attending public school, Harry and I received our Hebrew education as well. My father felt that there wasn't any Hebrew school good enough and so we were given private lessons by a Mr. Siegel. In the summer, we would go to his Cheder with the rest of his pupils. One day, Harry and I were playing ball on the street and forgot to go to Cheder. But the teacher, the melamed was not going to allow us to miss a lesson that easily. He came to our house after Cheder to give us a catch up lesson. I shall never forget the licking my father gave us. He used a rope and a belt in order to impress us not to miss a lesson. He impressed our backsides, but not our minds. Both Harry and I had a negative reaction and when we got old enough we skipped the lessons altogether. My fathers idea of discipline in order to make good Orthodox Jews out of Harry and me was to say the least oppressive. We were never allowed to play on the street. He thought that only bums did that. Whenever he went downtown on business we of course played on the street and we could watch the street cars on Scovill as we lived only four or five houses from the corner. If we saw a street car stop and he coming off it we would run back to the yard. How often we stayed in the yard when he was home, looking out on the street, watching the other boys play ball. I don't think it worked too well. We went to services every Friday night and Saturday morning. I did enjoy Saturday mornings because at Torah reading time we went out with the other boys and discussed athletics of all kinds. But we had to miss high school football games played often on Saturday Mornings. As soon as we quit high school, all that discipline and training went down the drain.

About this time, we acquired our first telephone. Those days they were attached to the wall. Seventy five years later, wall attached phones are considered new and up to date!! We were one of the first, chiefly because we were in business. When we moved into the house, it was lit with kerosene lamps. The toilet was in a little shack in the backyard called a privy. In due time, they dug up the street in front and installed gas lines. Inside the house, we used a gas jet and later when we got affluent, a gas mantle. Our heating was done by coal stoves and alter with gas in stoves and the fireplace. Bathing was done in large wash tubs in the house or in the many public bath houses, usually before a Holy day or on the Friday before the Sabbath.

Also our house of 57th street was the first that had an inside toilet and bathtub. My father planted on the side yard on Henry street, sunflowers and corn. On 57th street we had a flock of chickens. My father never passed a yard with chickens that he didn't stop and watch them. Until we got to 57th street, my mother shopped for fruits and vegetables at the farmers market which in those days was on Woodland street, from 14th to 22nd street. We had a dog on Perry Street, and I remember we gave him to one of the farmers at the market, and I remember we gave him to one of the farmers at the market and that the dog would come in town on market day, visit us, and then go back to the farmer. My mother somehow got an old baby buggy and went to market every Thursday and came back loaded with fruits and vegetables. But of course the older folks always talked about how much better they tasted in the old county. It must have been so since they ate them just as they got them off the trees and out of the ground.

Contrary to what happened in a lot of Jewish families in the Shetlach, my mother was not a breadwinner. My father was a dominant person, and ruled the roost. He was very argumentative and did have a good knowledge of the Talmud. He always lead the discussions on a blat (page) gemorrah in whatever synagogue he attended. He was always the shofar blower too. My most painful experience was one Rosh Hashonah when he was in his 60s. His breath was so shortened that the vice president had to take the shofar out of his hands and finish the job.

My mother was not the typical Jewish mother as portrayed in so many Jewish Novels. She was very docile letting my father be boss. And she was a good hearted woman, also very pessimistic. Her favorite express as I remember was "Oy vey is mir". She constantly worried about everything and everybody. She stayed up nights worrying about her nieces getting married. She and her sister were the cleanest housekeepers you could find. One of our landlords said he might not renew our lease because my mother scrubbed the back stairs too often, and he was afraid she'd wear them down.

The story of Harry Blonder, whose life affected so many of ours, begins during the depression of 1907. He was working at that at time in a rubber factory in Woonsocket, Rhode Island but due to the economic conditions of the time, he was laid off. He was a first or second cousin to my father and had already met all of us in New York. He decided therefore to follow us to Cleveland and try his luck there with a supply of gas mantles he had shipped in from a friend in Woonsocket.

I will never forget that one evening when about 5 o'clock Harry Blonder came to our house. Brother Harry and I were studying our Hebrew lessons while waiting for the Rebbe to come. Cousin Harry, wanting to show my mother how much he knew, sat down with us for a little coaching. As any young students would react, we didn't exactly appreciate it. That was the first of many lessons he taught me, although those later in life were much more valuable, and appreciated.

Anyhow, after a few days of his arrival, the gas mantles came and we got Harry is first sale at the house next door. We all watched nervously through the window as Harry made the installation. It was a tricky operation as you generally first put a match to the mantle to burn off the coating. Then you lit it, sometimes putting the gas on before the coating was completely burnt off. We looked in amazement as three mantles went up in smoke. A disaster. Of course, Harry would have to take the loss and we all felt rather blue as there would be no profit on this sale. After the third explosion, Harry dejectedly came back to the house. We all sat down and tried to figure out what had happened. Finally, we discovered upon reading the instructions, that the mantles were made for artificial gas only while in Cleveland we had natural gas. Harry there upon returned his gas mantles and ventured into another industry. Repairing foot rubbers. He set up a table in our shop, and went to work. Again, chaos. As a 25 cents charge per pair he soon exhausted his potential and ran out of customers. Anyhow the summer months were approaching and the foot rubber season was rather short.

And so Harry got into another line of work and the third time was a charm. Our Uncle Isaac was a paperhanger, a natural vocation for bookbinders, which he was in Europe. He already had taught his trade to one of his nephews, Louis Arian and since Harry was an unemployed gas mantle installer and foot rubber repairer, Uncle Isaac took him in as an apprentice. Harry was a natural and in no time he was a full fledged paperhanger working out of a downtown decorators office. This was the beginning of what eventually became the overwhelming success of the Blonder name in the wallpaper business in this country. The Blonder boys will have to fill out the details of the years in between.

About 1908 my father bought the house and barn on 57th between Quincy and Central. If I remember the address it was 2357, near Central. The big barn in back was remodeled as a two story factory. We had about fifteen or twenty employees making stogies and Abe continued on that route with the horse and wagon selling tobacco. Harry and I continued in Marion School, Harry only needing a few months to graduate and I needed one year. We would graduate public school in those days after the eighth grade. One of the events I remember was about April or May 1909. Running back to school after lunch a tornado blew up. I remember stopping in a confectionary store at 46th and central to wait out the storm. I watched a building cave in across the street. When the storm abated I continued to school which was at 24th street and when I got there my father was waiting for me. You see, he got on a street car and came to school. Our teacher then gave a lecture on how parents love and care for their children. My father was worried about how I got to school through that storm.

Harry was by that time in Central High School on 55th Street between Central and Cedar. I entered in the fall of 1909.

After school and in the summer we worked in the factory. Harry, I think was making stogies as was Ann. Rose was a packer and I helped my father spread the tobacco to dry. Tobacco first came in bunches. Then we soaked it in water after which it was stripped, that is the stem was removed. Then it was dried on screens. Not too dry or it would be ruined. Just supple so that we could make bunches, and then it was rolled in a wrapper of tobacco. We thought we were rich but now I know it was almost impossible to make money because we were only contractors, not selling our merchandise direct but to wholesale distributors.

During this period Rose was being put on the 'market' as all decent girls were. There were marriage brokers constantly bringing out prospects. That is the way all good girls got married. But Ann was a rebel especially since Harry Blonder started courting her. Of course, it was a breech of custom to court the younger sister but those two were the first ones I know to press the generation gap. But fortunately for all concerned Izzy Levinson was visiting his sister Mrs. Appelbaum. Harry and I attended services every Saturday with our father on 37th Street at the 'Polish Shul' as it was known, and now the Park Synagogue. And then one Saturday Izzy was with his brother in law, Mr. Appelbaum, who sat next to my father and one word led to another. Izzy and Rose were married about January, 1910 in the Globe Hall on Woodland near 55th. Ann and Harry were married the following July in an outdoor wedding in our yard on 57th. The custom was preserved!

Previous to the girls getting married, or around the 1907 depression, Joseph Baskin (I don't know why, but the New York Baskin's spelled theirs without the D) our cousin came on to Cleveland looking for a job. He left his wife in New York, with whom he had just recently come over. He was an electrical engineer with a degree from a French University, but that didn't do him much good. After working as one for awhile, he landed a job as a motorman on a street car, through the influence of one of the Brudno's who was an assistant city solicitor. later, he got a job at Weestinghouse in Pittsburgh. It was at this time that his wife ran off with another man, and he came back to Cleveland to Ann and Harry's wedding. I remember my father admonishing him that he shouldn't care about his wife leaving him, because he was a socialist and evidently believed in free love. Later, he returned to New York, becoming the General Secretary of the "Arbeiter Ring", a Jewish Labor fraternal organization. He became so prominent that he was one of the eulogizers at Abe Cahan's funeral, the editor of the 'Daily Forward'.

It was shortly after, that the fortunes of my father deteriorated. The factory was given up and my father opened a series of grocery stores. The first one was on 53th street at south of Woodland. I don't remember the exact sequence of events after that. Abe had gone to Chicago, to seek work and there met Lena Shapiro who was visiting a sister, and Abe then moved to Pittsburgh and married Lena. Harry quit High School and went to work in a cigar store. I stayed on by buying a newspaper route, later worked as a cash boy Saturday night at the Bailey company. Department stores were open till ten o'clock Saturday night. I worked from six to ten PM for 50 cents. A cash boys duty was to take the sales slip from the salesman to the cashier and bring the change back to the salesman. Later I got a job with Keith's Hippodrome Theater as an usher. This was all done after school and affecting negatively my class work where I was one of the best students in my various rooms.

We owned our house on 57th street, but after giving up the factory we lived in various parts of Scovill avenue. Abe, Rose, and Ann married while we lived there. It was on 57th street that my maternal grandma became a victim of civilization. The whole family was invited to a latke party at Rose's house on the West side. They had opened a jewelry store on west 25th near Clark. In those days you had to be real rich to buy and icebox, and it being winter Rose kept the butter on a shelf going down the cellar steps. Somehow my grandmother went after the butter and fell down the steps. She was brought home in an ambulance and never really recovered although she lived several years after that. She also became sort of famous in Cleveland, having Dr. Grile remove a tumor from her stomach about the size of a melon and she being over seventy then.. She died at the age of 74 or thereabouts and is buried in a cemetery off Lansing Road, if I remember correctly. I was not in Cleveland at the time of her death. Where was I? I shall tell you as I go along. As noted, in order to stay in high school, we had to do a lot of work, after school hours. Harry finally quit going to work and then went back to finish high school and went on to dental school. As I noted my grades deteriorated and I couldn't take the pressure so I left school and went to work. My first real job was as a timekeeper in the Cleveland Cliffs iron Works, but one day, disappointed because I couldn't graduate high school with my class and classmates, I left home or rather ran away from home and went to Toledo. I didn't tell my family where I had gone until several weeks later, when I got a job as a new butcher on the Ann Arbor Rail Road. You wouldn't believe how I lost my job there. At that time, the famous picture "September Morn" was painted showing a nude girl in a stream but in such a way that most of her nudity was covered up. A man got on the train one day, came up to my trunk where my merchandise was displayed. He bought one of the "September Morn" postcards, and immediately disclosed he was a vice-president of the Rail Road and made me close up my shop. When we returned to Toledo, I was ordered to stay away from that job. So I became a waiter in the Union Depot restaurant of Toledo. Soon I returned to Cleveland. Through one of my friends Sid Amster, I got a job at the Coca Cola Company in the office. It was then in 1917 that I was drafted in the army. I left for the army the day after Rosh Hashanah being among the first to be drafted. My numbers at Jai Lai, or the horse races don't come up, but it was one of the first for World War I.

My father at this time had a grocery on 53rd street south of Woodland.

I stayed in the army until February 1919. I luckily came home from France. I may get a chance to tell you more about it later. But during my service my father gave up his grocery due to illness. He smoked a lot and boy did he cough. You could hear him blocks away. The doctors diagnosed it a s asthma and he was told to go to California. My mother when she returned from California told how disappointed she was . Looking out the window as the train was approaching Los Angeles in bright sunshine in Winter she noticed a cemetery and commented to herself "My God, they die here too".

It was at this time that Harry Blonder together with Nathan Milner bought out a wallpaper store. My brother Harry was their first bookkeeper. He was going to dental school then. Since Harry was a dental student he was exempt from army duty. I didn't like army life at all particularly that I was in the infantry and drilled all day. It sure got monotonous. And one day I heard a rumor from boys just coming to Camp Sherman in Chillicothe where I was, that in the train depot they saw dental and medical students from Western Reserve going to the Army. I was really worried for Harry and was beside myself. I was so upset that Harry would have to be in the army, but it was only a rumor. One of my most disturbing moments was when we were in high school and Harry went with his club to Canton for a debate. Sunday evening came and Harry wasn't home. The whole family slept but I couldn't fall asleep until Harry came home after midnight. That could only happen when we were young. In later life you are far apart.

My story now ends during the first world war. With all the Baskind brothers and sisters married with the exception of myself, the next decade brings the birth of many families that began with Avrum Baskind, and his wife. It is now up to you, dear readers, to continue with you own branches. I am merely one link of a family that began thousands of years before Christ was born, but whose specific written history begins in the middle of the 19th century. If you carry it on, who knows, some day we might be on television in the 21st century as another "Roots".


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Looking for family members of the Zimerfoigel or Zimerfogel
family.
Lewis B. Sckolnick <info@rectorpress.com>
Leverett, MA USA -

1910-1945

General Azi Aslanov was born at 1910 in southern city of Lenkoran in Azerbaijan. From the first day of World War 2 he found himself fighting with invading nazi forces in Ukraine.Tank brigade under his commadership run from Stalingrad through Borisovo, Vileyka, and Minsk to Vilnus and Riga. On 24 of January 1945 he met his death during new operation bringing freedom to people of occupied Baltic Republics. In the memory of Azerbaijan people his name has left forever as a hero who died in the name of freedom.




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WILLMAR CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
MINNESOTA March 21, 2001
7:00 p.m.


Mayor Heitke recognized Richard Hoglund who introduced Ruslana Levanovitch.
Ms. Levanovitch, from the Sister City Vileyka, Byelorussia, presented a
Byelorussia flag to the Mayor and Council, and briefly discussed the reasons for
her visit to Willmar. Mayor Heitke thanked Ms. Levanovitch for her gift and
expressed his best wishes for a continuing, successful Sister City relationship
with Vileyka

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Congregation of the Vileyka Church, Vileyka, Minsk Region (From August 10, 1938 )http://www.gospel-web.org/eng/album/history/h01.htm

clic here for the picture from 1938
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Regional Newspaper - Independent weekly newspaper published in small Belarusian towns Molodetchno, Vileyka, Smorgon, Oshmyany, Volozhin, Myadel, Ostrovets. [Bel.]
http://www.zubr.com/Eng/Mass_Media/Newspapers/index.shtml

http://regionnews.promedia.minsk.by/
click here for the site
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The district department of Children Fund of Vileyka searches partners for publication the book of Natalia Volynets "Near Final Line". This book is about the activity of Children Fund about the destiny of children from Vileyka. Nowadays we have a big alarm with our young generation of criminality. We have a big alarm that grows the quantity of crimes in republic and in a region. The sources of all actions of people are in their childhood, in those moral principals that they learned in their family.

For publication of a book, that decided of publishing house of Children Fund "Chata", it's demand 280 millions of Belarusian rubles.

the book has 280 pages
language -- Belarusian
edition -- 500 copies
time of publishing -- 40 days after getting money

If you have possibility, you can publish this book behind frontiers. The author have a rich additional (research) material about children's rights in Republic of Belarus, which, if you can publish it, will have big practical meaning.



Contact information




tel: +375-01771-5-45-82; +375-01771-5-48-02


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I called Michael Gibelman (Gable) in Florida.
Michaels’ maternal grandfather was Velvel Alperovitz of kurenitz. Velvel had thirteen children (with more then one wife) most of his children came to the U.S c 1900 and settled in New York. Some if his children were:
1. There was a son Motel — Morris Alperovitz who lived in New York and changed his last name to Alpert. He had two children.
2. A daughter Chaya Zipa married .. Taryevitz. They had four children. Two of them never came to the U.S. —Motka and Zalman lived in Gorki after the war. 3.
3. There was a daughter Ester Goss who lived in New York and had a son and a daughter.
4. Another daughter was liza Dimond of New York
5. Michaels’ mother was Gitel who was born c 1895. She married Chaim Gitelman and moved to Krivich to open a shoes manufacturing business. In Krivich Michael and his sisters were born. (Michael 1920?). Later own the family returned to Kurenitz. From 1934- 1937 michael attended the "Tarbut" School in Dolhinov. In 1939 Michael left the Kurenitz area and lived in Gorki. During the war he was in the far southeast region of the Soviet Union. After the war ended he was in germany and tried to get papers to go to Israel but was not able to. During that time he found out that both his mother and his father had a large family in the U.S that was looking for any relatives who survived.In 1949 he came to the U.S. The only other relatives who survived were the Norman brothers (Tuvia and Reuven).Tuvias' and reuvens' Grandfather was;
6. Meir Aharon Alperovitz, died in Kurenitz before the war. see end of next post for information about his family.


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Today I called Shalom Norman in Israel. He told me that every year he attends the memorial meetings for the Jews who perished in Vileyka. The meetings are held during Purim since most of the residents of Vileyka and other Jews who worked there from near by shtetls, were killed during Purim of 1942. In 2002 the meeting will be held on the 28 of February.
Most of Shaloms' family was able to escape from Vileyka by train to Russia during the first days of the German occupation. Shalom thinks that hundreds of people from Vileyka were able to escape by trains, and most of the towns’ Jews survived.
From reading the Yizkor books of other communities in the area and talking to people I know that it is not so in other communities. At the most about 10% of the Jews survived and very few of them were able to escape during the first days. Most who tried were turned back when they reached the old Polish-Russian border. Many did not try because they had no idea of the coming horrors.
In 1939 when the Russian invaded they sent people to Siberia but did not kill any.
So most people in other communities were then under the impression that only the communist Jews would be in danger from the Germans and others, especially women and children would be safe.

Later I called Reuven Norman in Israel. Reuven was about sixteen in 1941. I asked him if he knew if most of the Jews of Vileyka were saved. He said that hundreds escaped by taking trains and others (like him) later on, but more Jews from Vileyka perished then escaped. He said that he would try to find the numbers. He told me that hundreds escaped because Vileyka had a train station and two trains were able to go deep in to Russia during the first days of the occupation by Germany. I asked Reuven why his family did not try to escape. He told me that his father was a guard at the palace in St. Petersburg in 1914. At the start of World War I he was sent to the front and was captured by the Germans. He was a P.O.W for four years and felt that the Germans treated him very fairly during that time. He truly disliked the communists- and said "The Germans are very civilized people as far as my experience goes- why would they be different now?"
The family did not question his decision. At that time the father ruled.
A few weeks later, some time in July of 1941 he immediately volunteered to work when the Germans gave an order to all the Jewish man to come.
With another about fifty Jewish men from Vileyka he was a taken to work. All day they dug holes in the ground and at the end of the day they were shot and fell in the holes they dug. Some local Christians, who watched it, later told their families about it.
Reuven told me that he was hiding in Kurenets with his grandfather’s family during the first months of the war.
His mother was the daughter of Meir Aharon Alperovitz of Kurenitz. She was a sister to Yermiyau, herzel, Shlomo and Feyga Michla Shmukler. Meir Aharon had a sister who married an Eidelman in Krivichi and had a son Michael who now lives in Florida. Yermiyahu and Hertzel Alperovitz died in the Vileyka camp. Both were very helpful to the other people in the camp and hertzel was one of the organizers of the escape. Hertzels’ wife Leyka survived the escape, Her sister Liba was killed and her husband Mordechai and the two children survived. After the war Leyka married Mordechai Alperowitz (the father of Yeoash). The youngest brother Shlomo was a prisoner of war since 1939. (He was in the Polish army). The family received letters from him for two years until the Germans started the war with Russia. They do not know where he perished.

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Nancy Holdan wrote;
My Svir website is up. It is just for a preview until I get more
information.

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Svir
nholden@interserv.com
I am pasting here some information from the site;
Our Small Town - Swir

Extracts from a book from the Yivo Institute in New York written in Yiddish. The extracts (ca. 8 pages on the description and history of the town Swir) were sent to Belarus SIG by Arnold H. Wolfe, who had them translated into English by a friend.

The town of Swir, where we saw for the first time in our lives the rays of the sun: the town that first heard our childish delight; the town where our first tears dropped: the town in which we played and joked throughout our childhood; this was the town that became a part of ourselves like our own flesh and blood.

A long street with two squares and a few small alleys actually made up the whole of Swir, and despite the description it was, in our eyes, the children of Swir, nicer than any other town. Truthfully speaking there were no brick houses in Swir. It was only one side wall and all the other parts of the house were built of wood. The roofs were covered either with shingles, metal or plain straw. Throughout our lifetime many houses grew old. There were houses which were practically sunken in the earth up to the windows. Some homes did not even have wooden floors.

It was a rarity to have plumbing in the town of Swir. Most of the water was derived from a well quite far away, and yet it seemed a wonder that no one hated this place. On the contrary, everyone was tied to this town with their very lives.

Anywhere a person of Swir was to be found, be it in New York or Los Angeles, in Buenes Aires or in Cuba, in Paris or in Brazil, in London or Tel-Aviv, in that place the one same heart was beating. All of them are bound like brothers and sisters, their lives like one, and all this because of the forlorn little town in a section of Vilna.

The town was very friendly. Even the nature around us was a witness that our grandparents knew where to build their homes. From one side a stream, and from the other side a lake, and the stream actually flows out of the lake near the houses of the town. Around and around were forests, fields and small towns. The town was not dipped in milk and honey, rather in green fields and flowers and as far as the eye could see were various fruit trees. There were apple and pear trees, plum and cherry trees, and blueberries without end.

During the summer the town was surrounded by ears of corn and stalks of wheat. In the winter is was covered with a big white blanket of snow. The Jews of Swir , therefore, lived a very contented life. In the old huts there lived good people and devoted friends. Everyone felt secure in their homes, like a bird in its nest, that is, until the wild barber came and the nest together with is birds was broken and destroyed. Woe! Woe unto the faithful and devoted birds of Swir! Woe! Woe unto their burned and destroyed nest.

Highlights of the History of Swir
Unfortunately, a lot of historical material and documentation is missing, thus making it difficult to relate the exact history of Swir. Not only was our whole city destroyed, but also our cultural and social life was uprooted. We were physically uprooted from our very origin, as well as geographically lost. The sources for further basic knowledge are lost to us today. Unfortunately, the generation that could have enriched us with its knowledge has perished. Yet we made an effort to relate the history of this town in a concise form.

It is clear that the town carries the name of the great Duke Swerski. His dynasty ruled for hundreds of years over all the surrounding areas. It is also said that on the peak of the mountain there stood a beautiful castle. In his honor not only was the town named after him, but also tens of families named themselves after the great Duke. It was extremely difficult for us to confirm with certainty if the families today named Swirski spread throughout the world originated from Swir.

According to all estimations the Jewish community was is existence for hundreds of years. The old cemetery can be a witness to this as most graves are sunken in the earth. The few monuments whose engraving was still legible dated back one hundred and fifty years. The ledger that had all the deaths recorded on it, and their place of burial was passed from one generation to the next, and was an important historical document.

Most Jews of the town wandered in from surrounding towns or close cities. It is difficult to know today whether they came of ther own free will or because of the decree from the Czarist regime that Jews must leave the towns. Therefore, many families who were forced to leave carried the name of their town. The Fuzileher, Shpialer, Dubnikirer according to the origin of their town, for example, the Kurgatkes originated from the town of Kureniaz, Miadler and Shuentzianer. The big fire that broke out at the end of the century practically wiped out the city. Therefore there are no old historical buildings or antiques left. The synagogue was rebuilt after the fire in a modern style.

The town endured many wars. Napoleon and his army reached there. There is a legend that the Swirer hills thinned out through him. Through the First World War the town practically remained unharmed because the fighting front was further away by several kilometers. Later however, by the Polish-Bolshevik War in 1920 there was a battle before the town was captured.

The stronghold of the Polish Army was on the hill of Swir, while the yet stronger Bolshevik Red Army was located at the other side of the river. During the fierce battle between the two armies which heavily destroyed many homes, the Jews escaped to the cemetery. The cemetery was in close proximity to the city. The day after the surrender of the Polish Army the Jews returned to their homes.

They later found out that it was a coincidence that they were saved because they all hid behind the trees of the cemetery. The Russian Army saw that there were large groups of people hiding there and mistook them for the Polish. They were prepared to fire with their artillery when they heard the cry of a child and the sound of animals. They realized then that they were only civilians. In that war an eleven year old boy was wounded. He was Velvel, the son of the Chassid.

The people who remained alive claimed that after the Second World War the greatest majority of the town was destroyed. The synagogue became level with the earth. The whole area was virtually uprooted. The Christian neighbors made the area into gardens. No vestige of Jewish life, as it was, remained. Most tragic of all, was that from approximately 200 families who lived there, remained only 100 survivors. These people were scattered all over the world, but the majority of them are in Israel.

Geographical and Economic Situation
Even from a distance of 5 to 6 kilometers the contours of the town are visible in the blue sky and extend long and narrow. Especially visible is the hill, the Swir Everest in the middle of the market place, and the Swirer skyscraper the Yedes wall.

The German occupation of the First World War extended the railroad to Constantine.

Swir is geographically located in west White Russia. The neighboring towns and distances are as follows:

Kabilnik - 20 Kilometers
Michlisbak - 21 Kilometers
Sventzion - 37 Kilometers
Kurenetz - 49 Kilometers
Smargon - 42 Kilometers
Aside from the fact that the town was above sea level and the paths were cemented, it was still very muddy on rainy days.

In back of the town there were lots of mud puddles. The farmers used to go to town through the mud as a short cut. In a dry summer they picked up their pants to their knees and splashed through the mud. During the fall and Spring it was impossible to pass through the mud.

On the other side of town the ground was normal.

There were 1900 people in the town of Swir - 1100 Jews and 800 non Jews. Among the gentiles there were White Russians and Poles. It was difficult to differentiate who belonged to which nationality, because many rich people found it below their dignity to admit they belonged to the White Russian nationality. They broke their teeth in order to speak like Poles and claimed they belonged to the Polish nationality. They let these people have their way, in letting them think they were Polish.

The Jews lived in "The Street of the Third of May", which starts at the cloister and goes till the horse market, a length of about one kilometer. That marked the boundaries of the town. Many Jews also lived in smaller streets.

The people called Staravieren and tens of families built a village at the side of the river and called Sloboda.

Most of the Jewish people in Swir were merchants. In front of every house on the main street where goods were sold, there were many different types of stands. There were textile, dry goods, hardware, building materials, bakeries, butcher and other stands as well. For many people these stands were not their only means of sustenance. In many families it was the job of the wives and daughters to take care of these stands.

The men were the dealers, and dealt in many different trades. Some dealt with wheat in large scale production. They used to purchase the wheat at the market and exported large quantities to Vilna. Another dealt in the same manner with potatoes, with fruit, with poultry, with eggs, with leather skins, with pig hair and many others. There were many merchants who were occupied only during certain seasons of the year, like fruit gardeners. Besides this, there were many peddlers, and those who worked with their hands like shoemakers and tailors. The Jews of Swir received the main financial help from the bank and the town's Jewish Charity Organization. According to a report from Vilna, there were a total of 140 members who belonged to the Jewish Charity Organization.

The greatest majority of the Jewish congregation lived very modestly, and yet they were very satisfied and happy. Unfortunately, when the Second World War broke out this contented life was utterly destroyed...
to look at the site with beautiful pictures from Svir click
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Yehiel Burgin
(Hilke )


Born in:
Wilejka , Poland

Date of Birth: 1914

.
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http://www.normanpublishing.com/wisdom_and_achivements.htm
Wisdom and Achievements A Celebration of Haskell F. Norman
The family name, Norman, strangely was not Anglicized from a Polish or Russian form. On several occasions I heard my Grandfather Isaac Norman tell how, as a boy, he had visited the cemetery in his home town of Vilejka, which was then part of Russia. In the cemetery Isaac saw numerous tombstones with the name, Norman, which, he said, was the most common name in this small Jewish community. Thus he did not have to change the name when he arrived at Ellis Island or later. Yet one has to suspect that sometime in centuries of wanderings, members of this Jewish family had lived in Normandy.
Isaac, had emigrated from Vileyka to the United States at the age of 13. Isaac had found employment with relatives who owned shoe factories in Massachusetts and Maine. He eventually completed his high school education, and became the trusted manager of various shoe factories, then an expanding industry in New England. Isaac was a hard worker, a steady, capable provider, but never his own boss. Like many loyal managers he had deep unrealizable dreams of controlling his own destiny, of running is own company, dreams that his wife would not quite let him forget. This dream of independence would eventually be realized by his son.

Dad’s mother, Ida, had also imigrated from Poland, meeting her husband in the Jewish immigrant community of Boston. Without much education, she was a capable mother for Dad and his sister, Helen Atkins, and also an accomplished east European Jewish cook and seamstress, specializing in elaborate cross-stitch patterns. She selected Haskell, a Yiddish version of the Hebrew name Ezekiel, as Dad’s first name. Presumably in Yiddish the name does not have the raspy sound it carries to English ears. Dad never liked his first name, but he never disliked it enough to change it. The middle name his mother selected for him, Field, an English version of the family name, Feld, never seemed appropriate to Dad. But having chosen to retain the first name, Haskell, he had to retain his equally strange middle name as well. Ironically, the raspy-sounding Haskell, derived from the Hebrew for wisdom, was an appropriate name for Dad, who eventually came to personify wisdom to some of us

click to read the entire story
USA -

July 1853 service list

From the 17 July 1853 issue of the Minsk Vedomosti. (Special insert without page numbers located after Issue Number 29 in the microfilm edition of the bound volumes.)

List of persons subject to service to the Minsk guberniya corporation department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

[Original column headings]
Number in line; Number on revision list; First name, patronymic, surname; Age; Notes from public record on the recruit.

Town (draft zone);Minsk (4 Thousandth); Jewish burgher; line #; 185;revision #; 1694;
first name; Yudel, patronymic; Girshov, surname; Isaakov, age; 24; in Vilejka, violation; exiled
about:blank

http://members.tripod.com/~allbell/minsk/
click
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The Red Cross 1942.


Bela nee Kramnik (her father was from Kurenets) Saliternik (see her story http://eilatgordinlevitan.com/volozhin/vol_pages/vol_stories_eve.html) sent me two documents. Scanning attached.

The first one is an enquiry she had submitted to The Red Cross in Jerusalem on December 11th 1941. It is printed in Polish language on a Red Cross official form as follows: "Salitenik Bela, from Tel Aviv, 7 Nezah Israel St., Palestine is asking the Red Cross to find out and to let her know the whereabouts and of her mother Freyda Kramnik and family, from Volozhin, Market Square 7, Novogrudek District, Occupied Poland - Belarus" . The enquiry bears several stamps "Jerusalem Postage office", "Palestine Censor pass", "Red Cross Committee — Geneva" and "January 9 1942".

The second document is the Red Cross in Geneva official answer, typed in Minsk, dated September 23th 1942. It tells in German language that the Gebits comissar in Vileyka could not find out Freyda Kramnik’s whereabouts.

It was all the Red Cross in Minsk agents had to tell.

It happened on the spring and summer months of 1942 when the Nazis executed hundreds of thousands Jewish families in Belarus. The mass slaughters were accomplished at daylight, in sight of the local gentiles, accompanied by music, dancing and ringing the church bells. The sondercomando expeditions acted at this time overall the entire Belarus-Litwak Yiddish Land. Frantz Karl Hess, second lieutenant of the thirty second " Zondercommando" had accomplished on may 1942 his bloody acts in Volozhin, Vishnievo, Dolginov and Ivia brutally killing hundreds of Jewish children, men and women among the thousands executed by his unit and its local assistants. (See Frranz Karl Hess Trial in Volozhin Yizkor Book, page 576)



It was done before the eyes of the entire local gentile population.

The Red Cross agents certainly knew it, but did not yell. They did not tell a word.


Porat Moshe
972-3-5230085
Byron St, 10
Tel Aviv 63411
poratm@netvision.net.il

to read Bela story click here
-

http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/source/vm1155.html,
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/source/vm1156.html, and
http://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/ALL/source/vm1157.html, respectively.
click here
USA -

Today I decided to call the Normans who wrote to the site.
I called the information in Israel and asked for the number for Shalom Norman in Rishon LeZion. I was told that there are two Shalom Niormans in Rishon LeZion!!
I took both numbers and one of them kept ringing busy (always on the net!).
I called the other number and the young man who answered as Shalom Norman said that he had never seen the Vileyka site but his father Eli was from Vileyka!! I called Eli Norman from Rishon and he told me that he was born in Vileyka but he does not know; Shalom or Moshe or Avi Norman. he left Vileyka as a young boy in July of 1941 when the Germans arrived. he left for Russia with his family and in the last few years- all who are still alive from his Norman family live in Israel. his fathers name was Shalom Norman and since he left vileyka as a very young child he could not give me much information.
Since the other Shalom Norman was still unavailable and it was getting to late to call in Israel, I called Shalom's brother; Moshe Norman
Woodbridge, CT USA.
Moshe had a "huge" amount of information to tell;
His father; Zvi Hirshel Norman was born in 1924 in vileyka. He was the son of Shalom and Rosa Norman. (Rosa's family owned a hotel prior to 1939.) Zvi Hershel had a sister who died of illness long before the war. He had a brother named Izik who was born in 1929.
sometime after Vileyka became part of the U.S.S.R (September 1939) Rosa took her youngest son to Moscow, to visit her brother; Leyzer, A General!!! in the Red Army.
They found themselves in Russia when Germany invaded the Vileyksa area. Zvi Hirshel Norman took a ladrge amount of money from the store he worked as soon as the invasion started and boarded a train to Russia. The soviets were very suspicious of him for his last name that sounded German to them and for the large amount of money that he had. They decided that he was a spy for Germany and sent him to Siberia.
Later he Joined the Red Army and after the defeat of the Germans he moved to Vilna near his uncle; Zusman Norman who also survived the war by escaping to Russia.
Later zvi Hirsh Norman Married Asia and had; Mosahe who is 54 years old and Shalom who is 48 years old. Moshe remembers that during the jewish holidays his uncle Zusman Norman took him to the synagugue in Vilna.
The uncle; Izik norman(born in 1929 in Vilyka) felll into a bad company and in his youth lived the live of a" Russian hooligan" robbing trains. as I understand now he lives in Israel with some of his children; Moshe, Raya (in Moscow) and another daughter.


.
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I wrote to some of the Normans from Vileyka asking if they are all related here is wa reply from Shalom Norman ;
Subj: Re: A page for Normans
Date: 12/28/01 11:23:38 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: ns_snorman@bezeqint.net (Shalom Norman)
Reply-to: snorman@nonstop.net.il (Shalom Norman)
To: EilatGordn@aol.com
CC: MNorman515@aol.com, avinor@yahoo.com, activdot@earthlink.net (Dorothy Blaustein), Wmim@aol.com

Dear Eilat, (Mr. or Ms.????)
IN a way all the VILEIKA Norman's are related since the first Norman ( a deserter of
the French forces ?) got to Vileika .
Moshe (lives in Woodbridge CT ) is my brother. Avi is Tuvia Norman's son .
Tuvia, his brother Ruven and my father Zvi (Hircshel) shared the same cousins : Gitel & Zila .
Today in the afternoon we attended the Azkara for the "shloshim" of zila
(born 1911) who died 30 days ago . Her 3 sons live in Israel and a daughter
in California.
Zusman Norman ( Batia Norman was his wife) was the brother of my
grandfather. Their son Peisl (born 1922) lives in Israel as well as the
daughter Sara and grandchildren.
Tuvia Avi's father attended the service today as well.
On Purim is the Memorial service to commemorate the Holocaust victims . I
will take pictures and scan them for you . I am the youngest one that attend
this service, unfortunately.

These Norman's are the last ones to live in Vileika .....They witnessed the
end of the community!

All the pictures you have are scanned from the Yizkor book. Mula Norman
(in uniform) was my fathers cousin - he survived the massacre on Purim 1942
together with Yossil Norman (Z"L) of Haifa . His story is in the Yizkor book
(in Yiddish)

I still remember when they were putting together the Yizkor Book in the
early 60th (Meishi Bezprozvani Z"L coordinated the production)

It will be a good idea to put together all the information related to the
last days of this community in 1942 .

I have to run now . I will be more than happy to communicate with any Norman
and share more interesting staff.

Where do you live? Who else do you know of the Norman - Vileika connection .

Shabbat Shalom ,

Shalom NormanNikolai Nikodimovich MALINOVSKYI
Main Surgeon of the Medical Center, Academician
of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Russia,
Hero of Socialist Labour,
Professor of the Department of Surgical Diseases of
Moscow Medical Sechenov Academy
http://www.pmc.ru:8100/eng/publ/Stell/malinovsky.html

While at a hospital of a small Belarussian town Vileika as a doctor there was the Minsk Medical Institute in his past, but in his future there was his dream about performing complex operations on the heart. Having passed a course of studies of a distinguished surgeon and scientist B.V. Petrovskyi Nikolai Nikodimovich Malinovskyi became one of the best surgeons in our country.
He has got a long list of thousands successfully performed operations on the heart. In 1969 he was the first who performed embolectomy from the pulmonary artery. It was the most complicated surgery and it became a milestone in our medicine because it was performed without the help of artificial circulation system. So it was finished with such a fate as pulmonary arterial embolism. This problem was the subject of his report at the meeting of the Scientific Surgical Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He was elected "The man of 1997".

Malinovskyi was twice awarded with the State Prize of the Soviet Union. He is an Honored Member of Krakow Jageldonskyi University ( where he surprised his colleagues with his fluent Polish language).

But first of all Nikolai Nikodimovich Malinovskyi considers himself as a surgeon. This is the most important duty of his life.


Nikolai Nikodimovich MALINOVSKYI
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http://www.greatwar.org/onthisday/1915_09_23.htm
First World War.org - On This Day: 23 September 1915 On This Day:

23 September 1915
Eastern Front

Russians recapture Vileika (Minsk).
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)

Western Front

Numerous artillery engagements along whole line; successful French air-raids.

Eastern Front



Germans driven back across Oginski Canal (Pinsk).

Russians take Lutsk and capture nearly 12,000 prisoners.

Southern Front

General mobilisation of Hellenic forces as "measure of elementary prudence" in view of Bulgaria's attitude.

Bulgaria issues decree of mobilisation; Premier repeats declaration of "armed neutrality".

Political, etc.

Conciliatory German Note to U.S.A. in the "William P. Frye" case.

U.S. refuse safe conduct to Dr. Dumba unless officially recalled.

Meeting of South African Party at Johannesburg, organised attack on General Smuts.



Website © Michael Duffy,
23 September 1915
-

I would like to thank the Norman family for scanning a very important letter they received on August 3, 1944.
I will post the letter on the Vileyka site in a few days.
Here is what the son of Reuven Norman wrote me;
In 1944, My father and his brother did not know what has
happened to their families back in Vileika.
They did not know back then about the holocaust.
They were in Uzbekistan and as soon as they heard on the news that Vileika
was freed from the Nazis, they wrote a letter to the Vileika city council
asking for information about their families and other relatives.

The city (it seems) asked a man named Shmokler to send a reply to people that
asked for information about the Jews who lived in the area prior to the war.
Shmokler was one of the three Jewish partisans from Vileika that survived and stayed back then in Vileika in 1944.
The reply letter;
Dear Reuven Zusmanovitz; (Reuven, son of Zusman norman)
In reply to your two letters I have some very sad facts to tell you.
your father was killed on the very first pogrom in Vileyka on July of 1941.
Your mother and sister perished during the third pogrom on 3-3-1942.
Barash David, Metuka and Shlomo Leibe; the three sons of Zelik, perished during the first pogrom. Their wifes and children on the second pogrom; July 30th, 1941.
During that second progrom I also lost my wife, my sister Berta and her twins.
My mother, my brother in law and your aunt; Sara Mirka were killed on 3-3-1942.
The only people who survived -other then me- are;
Nany Shulman, Yosef Norman (son of Baruch)
Mulka Norman (son of David Mordechai the baker)
and Lazer Kopelovitz. We all joined the partisans during the war.Yosef , Mulka and Lazer did not return yet to Vileika.
Noach Dinerstein, the son of Yosi leibe was also a partisan. He was killed in action.
When you escaped to Russia my sister's son Aharon Shtieman was with you. I did not hear from him yet. Could you write me as soon as possible if you know where he is?
When the Germans left they burned the town - only a few homes in the outskirts are left standing.Your home is gone. your relatives home is also gone.
Itza meir Bezporzany with his wife and their daughter, Malka- perished on 3-3-1942.

A. Shmokler
Some of the other surviving partisans were:
Shmuel Norman (died 10 yrs ago in Bat-Yam, Israel.)
Yosef Norman (died 2 yrs ago in Haifa, Israel)
After surviving as a partisan during the war, Shmokler (the writer of the letter) died in 1947 on his way to Israel in a car accident at a refugee camp in Germany.

Names mentioned in the letter:
Barash David is actually Berl David (probably translation
error) who was my grandfather, Zusman Norman brother.
The mentioned Metuka is actually Moshe (probably translation error) who was
also Zusman Norman brother. (my father uncle)
The mentioned Shulman Leibe who was married to my fathers' aunt. His son "Israel
Shulman" is living today in Russia in Rostov and was in contact with my
father a few years ago.
The mentioned 3 sons of Zelik who were my fathers' uncles.
The mentioned Sarah Mirke was my father aunt.

The mentioned Itzhe Meir Bezprozbany was my father neighbor.

By the way, my father his brother and the other "old folks", are excited about the
fact that you took the trouble to upload some of their heritage to the
internet.
They feel that somehow this gives this information some form of eternity.

Warm Regards
Avi Norman
Israel
mailto:avinor@yahoo.com


.
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I am the son of (Hirshl) Zvi Norman from Vileyka who moved to Israel after WWII and grandson of Salomon and Rosa Norman
also from Vileyka.

Moshe Norman <mnorman515@aol.com>
Woodbridge, CT USA -

I am son of Zvi (hirshel)Norman of Vileyka (moved to Israel after ww2 )is willing to share information about Vileyka
Shalom Norman
snorman@nonstop.net.il
Israel
Shalom Norman <snorman@nonstop.net.il>
Rishon Letzion, Israel -

Today I talked with Eda Rosengaus Feldbaum (via her daughter) who was born in Vileyka in 1902.
her father was Hirsh Rosengaus/Rosenhouse who was born in Vileyka and her mother Rivka nee Rivlin was born in Kochanow.
During WW1 the family fled to Samara exept for the oldest brother who was able to get false papers for the name Margolin to come to New york to be with his katznelson / Nelson uncle and aunt. two years later he went to Mexico.
After the war the rest of the family returned to Vileyka . By 1921 they all joined Saul/Paul Margolin (he never changed his name back to Rosengaus) in Mexico. One sister (Pola) married Shmuel Katzovitz of Vileyka in Mexico. In 1930 Eda married Sol Feldbaum in NY. Eda kept in touch with freinds from Vileyka amongst them the Bunimewitz/ Benet family of New York.



.
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Eilat - Hi !
Saw your Vileyka page.
Eda Rosengaus Feldbaum was born in Vileyka in 1902.
Parents : Hirsh Rosengaus and Rivka Rivlin
During WW1 the family fled to Samara and after the war returned to Vileyka . By 1921 they were in Mexico. In 1930 Eda married Sol Feldbaum
in NY.
Eda is still alive and apparently with a good memory and living in Brooklyn in her own home.
.
USA -

WWI Civilian Draft Registrations
Name Birth Date Ethnicity Birth Place City/County State
Ancestry.com - Individual Database Search Results
Bernard Alperowitz 16 Jun 1893 W Vileka Vileka Russia NYC (Bronx)# 11 NY
Isidore Alperowitz Jun 1877 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 51 NY
Boris Alperowitz 12 Dec 1890 W Chigirin Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 75 NY
Mendel Alperowitz 15 Nov 1888 W Chicerene Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 75 NY
Alex Alperowitz 20 Dec 1895 W Wilna Schwentzen__ Russ. NYC (Brooklyn)# 85 NY
Harry Alperowitz abt 1882 W b. 15 Dec NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Henry Alperowitz 15 Jul 1877 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Alex Alperowitz 20 Jul 1888 W Borisof Minsk Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 88 NY
Julius Alperowitz 12 May 1882 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 88 NY
Kushvell Alperowitz 1884 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Meyer Alperowitz 5 May 1891 W New York City NY NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Beny Alperowitz 7 Apr 1900 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Irving Alperowitz 28 Jan 1898 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Simon Alperowitz 15 Aug 1894 W Krementschug Pottava Russ NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Ruchos Alperowitz 25 Nov 1894 W Vilno Russia NYC (Manhatta# 113 NY
Rubin Alperowitz 9 Feb 1895 W Russia NYC (Manhatta# 114 NY
Jacob Alperowitz 14 Apr 1877 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 147 NY
Max Alperowitz 4 Jul 1900 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 147 NY
Hyman Alperowitz Mar 1876 W works in Brooklyn NY NYC (Manhatta# 160 NY
Uriah Harry Alperowitz 8 Aug 1891 W Vinala Russia NYC (Manhatta# 161 NY

Name Birth Date Ethnicity Birth Place City/County State
Morris Alperowitz 15 Jul 1887 W Minsk Russia NYC (Queens)# 176 NY
Rubin Alperovitz Mar 1889 W Minsk Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 85 NY
Louis Alperovitz Aug 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Morris Alperovitz Sep 1873 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 102 NY
Sol (Sal) Alperovitz 10 Dec 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 108 NY
Benjamin Alperovitch 18 Apr 1890 W Russia NYC (Manhatta# 126 NY
Walter Alpert 1 May 1897 W Lion Mt. NY Chittenden VT
Walter Alpert 1 May 1897 W works in Hartford CT Chittenden VT
Hyman Alpert Jul 1889 W Wilna Russia NYC (Bronx)# 3 NY
Louis Alpert 28 May 1878 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 3 NY
Meyer Alpert 3 Oct 1893 W Zussly Russia NYC (Bronx)# 4 NY
William Isaac (Iaas) Alpert 15 Dec 1882 W naturalized citizen NYC (Bronx)# 4 NY
Joseph Alpert Jun 1880 W naturalized citizen NYC (Bronx)# 6 NY
Maurice Alpert 12 Feb 1897 W Russia NYC (Bronx)# 9 NY
Harry Alpert 15 Jan 1886 W Minsk Minsk Russia NYC (Bronx)# 10 NY
Joseph Alpert 5 Jul 1889 W Vilna Russia NYC (Bronx)# 10 NY
Louis Alpert 5 Jul 1892 W Dokchitz Russia NYC (Bronx)# 10 NY
Isador Alpert 19 Nov 1891 W Russia NYC (Bronx)# 11
Herman Alpert 8 Sep 1900 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 13 NY
Philip Alpert 10 Apr 1896 W Krinick Russia NYC (Bronx)# 13 NY
Barney Alpert 2 Jun 1885 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
George Alpert 10 Oct 1872 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
Herman Alpert 15 Oct 1895 W Pinsk Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
Isaac Alpert Dec 1884 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
Nathan Alpert 14 Jul 1888 W Wilna Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
Sam Alpert 6 Apr 1893 W Leunza Russia NYC (Bronx)# 14 NY
David Alpert 10 Mar 1880 W citizen of Pilsk Russia NYC (Bronx)# 15 NY
Henry A. Alpert 19 Jul 1884 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 15 NY
Nathan Alpert 12 May 1885 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 15 NY
Joseph Alpert 11 Mar 1875 W naturalized citizen NYC (Bronx)# 16 NY
Solomon Alpert Sep 1896 W Odessa Russia NYC (Bronx)# 17 NY
Alex Alpert 28 Jul 1899 W NYC (Bronx)# 19 NY
Harry Alpert 20 Apr 1897 W he & dad b. Grodney Russia NYC (Bronx)# 19 NY
Herman Alpert 22 Sep 1898 W naturalized citizen NYC (Bronx)# 19 NY
Samuel Alpert 22 Oct 1896 W Brooklyn NY NYC (Bronx)# 19 NY
Louis Alpert 15 May 1894 W Docsitz Russia NYC (Bronx)# 20 NY
Oscar Alpert 1 Jul 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 20 NY
Morris Alpert Sep 1883 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 21 NY
Max Alpert 18 Nov 1896 W Batrimancy Lithuania NYC (Brooklyn)# 29 NY
Isaac Alpert 12 Nov 1895 W Zetal Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 29 NY
Max Alpert 15 Aug 1875 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 29 NY
Samuel Alpert 20 Sep 1894 W Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 29 NY
Edward Alpert 22 Aug 1895 W Brooklyn NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 32 NY
Morris (Movus) Alpert 10 Sep 1882 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 34 NY
Eli Alpert 17 Dec 1896 W New York City NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 35 NY
Morris Alpert 21 Oct 1891 W New York NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 35 NY
Samuel Alpert 4 Jan 1888 W Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 35 NY
Hyman Alpert 15 Jun 1874 W NYC (Brooklyn)# 43 NY
Samuel Alpert May 1883 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 55 NY
Louis Alpert 28 Jan 1895 W Villna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 57 NY
Paul Alpert 20 Mar 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 59 NY
Samuel Meyer Alpert 25 Dec 1887 W Kovno Kovno Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 62 NY
Harry Alpert 15 Sep 1890 W Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 65 NY
Jacob Alpert Apr 1875 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 75 NY
Louis Alpert 1887 W Alexo? Kovno Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 75 NY
Herman Alpert 8 Jan 1887 W Germany NYC (Brooklyn)# 77 NY
Leo A. Alpert 16 Apr 1891 W Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 78 NY
Reginald H. Alpert 2 Nov 1896 W Brooklyn NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 78 NY
Jacob Alpert 15 Jul 1883 W citizen of Minsk Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 79 NY
Sam Alpert 15 Mar 1879 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 79 NY
Harry Alpert 1 Jan 1896 W New York City NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 79 NY
Abraham Alpert 1 Apr 1882 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Benno Alpert 12 Jun 1885 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Edward Alpert 21 Apr 1892 W Berlin Germany NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Harry Alpert 1888 W Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Ludwig Alpert 18 May 1898 W citizen of Germany NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Jacob George Alpert 26 Dec 1898 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Martin M. Alpert 13 Jul 1890 W Berlin Germany NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Max Alpert 27 Feb 1883 W relat. lives Glasgow Scotland NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Rubin Alpert 15 May 1877 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 80 NY
Ike Alpert 14 Jan 1880 W NYC (Brooklyn)# 81 NY
Nathan Alpert 15 Sep 1888 W Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 81 NY
Louis Alpert 11 Jan 1878 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 83 NY
Alie (Alec) Alpert 13 Mar 1887 W Russia
Nathan Alpert 21 Sep 1894 W Kurscha Btolea Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 85 NY
Morris Alpert 2 Jul 1883 W citizen of Rico Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 85 NY
Alex Alpert May 1898 W citizen of Batnek? Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
David Alpert 15 May 1876 W naturalized citizen NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Harry Alpert Jul 1887 W Wilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Murray Alpert 14 Sep 1899 W NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Barnett Alpert 25 May 1879 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 87 NY
Benjamin Alpert 29 Sep 1895 W Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
David Alpert 18 May 1894 W Brooklyn NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
David Alpert 25 May 1890 W Prusino Grodno Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Joseph Alpert 1 Jan 1893 W Vilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 168 NY
Abraham Alpert 1 Aug 1880 W Russian; rel. lives Ft. Worth TX Denver# 2 CO
Louis Alpert 8 Oct 1894 W Denver CO Denver# 2 CO
Morris Alpert Jul 1875 W Russian; rel. lives New York NY Denver# 2 CO
Morris I. Alpert 8 Jul 1894 W Boulder CO Denver# 2 CO
Joseph Samuel Alpert 17 Sep 1896 W Boulder CO Denver# 6 CO
Myer Alpert 1 Mar 1893 W Denver CO Denver# 7 CO
Joseph Israel Alpert 15 Dec 1877 W naturalized in Hamilton Co. OH Larimer CO
Pearl Alpert Hawk 27 Nov 1881 W lives Swartwood ND Harding SD
Louis Alpert 15 Oct 1899 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Sydney Alpert 22 Dec 1899 W NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Isidor Alpert 1890 W Zezmir Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Jacob Alpert 15 Jun 1890 W Slonim Rudna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Leon Alpert 9 Oct 1896 W New York City NY NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Max Alpert 15 Jul 1894 W Slonim Grodno Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Nathan Alpert 10 May 1890 W Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 86 NY
Joe Alpert 10 Apr 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 88 NY
Abraham Alpert 10 Apr 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Berel Alpert 19 Mar 1874 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
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WWI Civilian Draft Registrations

Name Birth Date Ethnicity Birth Place City/County State
Hyman Alpert 15 Sep 1897 W Velaika Vilna Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Himy Alpert 1881 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Iver Alpert 25 Sep 1892 W Chicago IL NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Hymy (Himy) Alpert 1881 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Louis Alpert 4 Feb 1881 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Louis Alpert 12 Feb 1892 W Wilna Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Louis Alpert 1 Nov 1894 W Janova Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Max Alpert 26 May 1896 W Kurnetz Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Sam Alpert 1891 W Benezno Minsk Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Samuel Alpert 15 Apr 1892 W Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
William Alpert 17 Aug 1890 W Bialstosk Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
William (Abraham) Alpert 24 Jul 1900 W NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Bernie Alpert Jun 1887 W Vilna Russia NYC (Manhattan# 93 NY
Bernard Alpert 7 Feb 1897 W he & dad b. Vilna Russia NYC (Manhattan# 96 NY
Dave Alpert 5 Jul 1887 W Minsk Minsk Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
George Alpert 22 May 1900 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Hyman Alpert 22 Jun 1898 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Isidore Alpert 22 Jun 1898 W citizen of Minsk Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
David Alpert 1892 W Vilna Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Sam Alpert 2 Sep 1894 W Korynitz Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Robert Alpert 18 Oct 1898 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Sender Alpert Apr 1877 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhattan# 97 NY
Julius Alpert 15 Apr 1896 W Bylestock Grodno Russia NYC (Manhattan# 98 NY
Morris Alpert 1 Nov 1899 W NYC (Manhattan# 99 NY
Max Alpert 8 May 1885 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 101 NY
Abraham Alpert 12 Aug 1891 W New York NY NYC (Manhatta# 104 NY
Henry Alpert 15 Dec 1871 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 104 NY
Barnet Alpert 1873 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 107 NY
Joseph Alpert 15 May 1893 W Sloman Grudner Russia NYC (Manhatta# 107 NY
Moe Alpert 28 May 1891 W Bialastock Russia NYC (Manhatta# 107 NY
Morris Alpert 5 Aug 1886 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 107 NY
Morris Alpert 10 Jun 1892 Zetel Grodny Russia NYC (Manhatta# 108 NY
Charles Alpert 17 Jan 1899 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 108 NY
Louis Alpert 4 Jan 1886 W Dalhinov Russia NYC (Manhatta# 109 NY
Charles Alpert 1 Sep 1887 W New York City NY NYC (Manhatta# 110 NY
Charles Alpert 1 Jan 1890 W citizen of Romania NYC (Manhatta# 112 NY
Louis Alpert 2 Sep 1893 W Yasse Romania NYC (Manhatta# 112 NY
William Alpert 6 Feb 1898 W citizen of Romania NYC (Manhatta# 112 NY
Elias Alpert 15 Dec 1898 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 115 NY
Isidor Alpert 12 Feb 1874 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 115 NY
Samuel Alpert 23 May 1878 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 115 NY
Samuel Alpert 10 Nov 1882 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 119 NY
Walter Alpert 7 Mar 1892 W New York NY NYC (Manhatta# 121 NY
Rubin Alpert 15 Sep 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 135 NY
Adolph Alpert 9 Feb 1879 W works in Hoboken NJ NYC (Manhatta# 136 NY
Alex Alpert 25 Mar 1890 Dannemora NY NYC (Manhatta# 146 NY
Jacob Alpert 4 Feb 1886 W Villina Russia NYC (Manhatta# 150 NY
Nathan Alpert 1879 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 151 NY
Sol Alpert May 1893 W Dokshitz Minsk Russia NYC (Manhatta# 151 NY
Joseph Alpert 15 Mar 1886 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 152 NY
Louis Alpert 26 Oct 1894 W Connecticut NYC (Manhatta# 152 NY
Benjamin Alpert Oct 1892 W Kremtz Wilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 155 NY
Hyman Alpert 24 Dec 1891 W Chicago IL NYC (Manhatta# 156 NY
Ike Alpert Dec 1881 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 156 NY
Louis Alpert 1 Jun 1887 W Wilner Russia NYC (Manhatta# 156 NY
Theodore Alpert 15 Oct 1899 W works in Norfolk VA NYC (Manhatta# 156 NY
David Alpert 18 Oct 1896 W Constantinople Turkey NYC (Manhatta# 157 NY
Jacob Alpert 15 Oct 1880 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 157 NY
Sam Alpert 25 Dec 1878 W NYC (Manhatta# 157 NY
Sam Alpert 12 Oct 1878 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 157 NY
Joseph Alpert 1894 W Wilner Russia NYC (Manhatta# 161 NY
Barnet Alpert 15 Apr 1875 W citizen of Russia NYC (Manhatta# 162 NY
Isidor Alpert 27 Jun 1900 W NYC (Manhatta# 162 NY
Simon Alpert 1 Jun 1893 W NYC (Manhatta# 162 NY
Simon Alpert 7 Mar 1899 W NYC (Manhatta# 162 NY
Nathan Alpert 2 Oct 1884 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 165 NY
Isaac Alpert 1 Mar 1889 W Kransk Vilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 166 NY
Alexander Alpert 22 Mar 1897 W he & dad b. Vilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 168 NY
David Alpert 7 Mar 1894 W Vilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 168 NY
Isidor Alpert 12 Jul 1900 W naturalized citizen NYC (Manhatta# 168 NY
Joseph Alpert 1 Jan 1893 W Vilna Russia NYC (Manhatta# 168 NY
Abraham Alpert 1 Aug 1880 W Russian; rel. lives Ft. Worth TX Denver# 2 CO
Louis Alpert 8 Oct 1894 W Denver CO Denver# 2 CO
Morris Alpert Jul 1875 W Russian; rel. lives New York NY Denver# 2 CO
Morris I. Alpert 8 Jul 1894 W Boulder CO Denver# 2 CO
Joseph Samuel Alpert 17 Sep 1896 W Boulder CO Denver# 6 CO
Myer Alpert 1 Mar 1893 W Denver CO Denver# 7 CO
Joseph Israel Alpert 15 Dec 1877 W naturalized in Hamilton Co. OH Larimer CO
Pearl Alpert Hawk 27 Nov 1881 W lives Swartwood ND Harding SD
Louis Samuel Alpert 20 Feb 1892 W Dvinski Russia New Orleans# 1 LA
Ike R. Alpert 6 Dec 1887 W Springfield MA Chicopee MA
Harry Alpert 25 Jul 1874 W citizen of Russia NYC (Bronx)# 2 NY
Isaac Maier Alpert 16 Sep 1879 W relative lives Corning NY Elmira NY
Max Alpert 8 Jul 1884 W citizen of Russia Elmira NY
Nathan L. Alpert 22 Aug 1897 W he&hisdad b.RadomeselRuss Herkimer# 1 NY
Ewald Alpert 3 Apr 1875 W Stark ND
William Alpert 15 Sep 1886 W Richardton ND Stark ND
David Alpert 27 Nov 1899 W Pittsburgh# 1 PA
Frank Alpert 20 Mar 1890 W Pittsburgh PA Pittsburgh# 1 PA
Morris Alpert 17 Oct 1896 W Pittsburgh PA Pittsburgh# 1 PA
Jack Alpert 20 Jul 1895 W Pittsburgh PA Mariposa CA
Solomon Alpert 15 Sep 1881 W citizen of Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 36 NY
William Alpert 15 Nov 1887 W Sacargoa? Vilna Russia NYC (Brooklyn)# 36 NY
Erice Middlton Alpert Scavella 8 Apr 1898 B citizen of Britain Dade FL
Abraham Alpert 15 Mar 1876 W Russia Ogden UT
Harry Alpert 18 Apr 1893 W Lyon Mt. NY Chittenden VT
Julius Leo Alpert 1 Mar 1899 W Chittenden VT
Louis R. Alpert 12 Oct 1888 Kovno Russia Chittenden VT
Michael Alpert 17 Apr 1894 W Kuovnia Russia Chittenden VT



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I would like to congratulate Nancy Collier Holden nholden@interserv.com and Chaya Lupinsky mailto:lupinsky@netvision.net.il for the most beautiful and informative job they have done in creating a site for Myadel
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/myadel/index.htm
From the site map;
Myadel ~ Stary Myadel ~ Miadel ~ Miadelai ~ Miadziol ~ Miadziel ~ Stary Miadziol ~ Nowy Miadziol

in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ~ Poland ~ Russia ~ United Soviet Socialist Republics ~ Belarus

The Myadel Region: Myadel ~ Stary Myadel
1. Region of Calm and Dreaming Lakes Part I (Three part article from a biography of Rabbi Eliahu Gordon)
The Myadel Region (links to maps and locators, geology, geography, industry, architecture and travel)
Aerial Map of Myadel Landscape

Print enlarged Aerial Map
2. How Miadziol adopted Family Names Part II
Surnames in Myadel

1923 Myadel Business Directory

Households in Myadel
Printable Map


Lithuanian State Historical Archives
Supplemental Lists


Miadziol 1765

Miadziol 1784


Stary Miadziol 1765



3. Jews and Lithuanians Part III
History of the Jews in the Myadel Region (links to history, timelines, Jews in the Pale of Settlement)

Life in Myadel by Arye Geskin

Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Kosczevsky of Myadel

Pandemics 1800-1900 in Myadel Region

Deaths in Myadel 1811-1831

The cemetery in Myadel 30th of August, 1941

Memorial 1993

To my dear friends Miadler (An open letter from Sarah and John Alper of Canada)

Memorial and names from the murder site, September 21 1942

Deaths in Myadel 1941-1944

4. Photographic Portraits of the Myadel Region
5. Contacts
From the Visitors Journal;
I have always tried to form a picture of the towns in the Myadel Region, especially Myadel and Kobylnik.

I wanted to walk on the streets of our past. I longed to see the stream where the fish were caught; the river where my great great grandfather set the cut trees adrift; the lake when the sun set; the dusty roads that led to Vilna and the forests where the wolves howled. My grandmother was born there. My great grandfather ran the mill nearby. My great great grandmother had a store on the Jewish Street. My great great great grandfather was the box tax collector. My family lived in Myadel for at least seven generations before coming to America in 1894.
This site is my patchwork. It longs for your stories and your family names. It will be richer for the memories of all our ancestors. In hopes that I have been able to bring you some of what I longed for, please contribute your comments.
What kind of comment would you like to send?
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/myadel/Journal.htm
visit the site at http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/myadel/index.htm and click here to write a note to Nancy nholden@interserv.com <nholden@interserv.com >
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FROM
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/myadel/How%20Myadlers%20chose%20Names.htm

HOW MYADSIOL ADOPTED FAMILY NAMES

Part II


One of the Myestetchkos in that region is that of Myadsiol. Its history goes back more than eight centuries and is quite prominent on mediaeval geographical maps. Local legends ascribe to it great prominence in the period of the ancient Lithuanian monarchy. Its Jewish community, numbering about 200 souls, is also of very remote beginnings. Most of them bear the family name Gordon, while the remainder of the surnames are Hodosh. Gordon and Hodosh are still predominating names in the membership list of the Myadsiol Benevolent Association of New York City, the president of which is Mr. L. Gordon, a brother of Rabbi E. Gordon. According to local tradition the surname Gordon was suggested for adoption by one of the Jewish burghers of Myadsiol, a business woman, who on her travels met venerable merchants by that name. But, as a matter of fact, the Gordons seem to be related to the reputed Gordons of Bialystock. The surname Hodosh is said to have been bestowed upon the latter settlers of Myadsiol to denote their recency; Hodosh, meaning "new" in Hebrew.


ELIAHU’S PARENTS AND CHILDHOOD


One of the most esteemed citizens of Myadsiol was David Zeeb Gordon (d. Oct. 24, 1913),*(all dates are according to the Gregorian Calendar) who with his wife Esther Hayah (d. April 12, 1917) represented the ideal type of Lithuanian Jewry. Well versed in the Bible and Rabbinical lore, virtuous and upright above all praise, with almost saintly piety and meekness and with the ever hopeful endurance that sweetened and gladdened their toilful life, they were living examples of the righteous and pious eulogized in the Psalms. On February 27th, 1865, Esther Hayah gave birth to her first child, Elijah, who was immediately consecrated to a divine life. Elijah entered one of the local Heders at the age of five and his unusual intelligence very shortly won for him the fame of a prodigy. The facility with which he acquired the difficult parts of the Hebrew Bible and the keen pilpul (casuistry) of the Talmud, was above any precedent in his birthplace and in the neighboring Jewish towns. After he had been transferred from one Melamed (teacher) to the other, they finally decided that he exhausted their erudition and by their advice he was sent to the Rabbinical school of Smorgoni, about 60 viersts north of Myadsiol, under the presidency of Rabbi Loew Lichtmacher, His preciosity amazed his new masters and when he reached the age of thirteen he was transferred to the Mayleh Yeshiva of Vilna, founded in 1832.


CLICK FOR THE SITE
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Memories of Solomon son of Orchik Alperovich - Jewish life in Kurenetz after the Holocaust:

I was born in "shtetle" Kurenetz – (Belorus) in 1948, and I wish to share my own memories and stories that I heard and remember from the Jewish natives about the Jewish life in Kurenetz and it