Aphraim Bloch – tangential travel

Maftir and Haftorah at the Nozyk Synagogue and related stories

Back From the Polish and Litvak Diaspora

I am pleased to advise that for those of you arriving early in Warsaw for the IAJGS Conference, I will be reciting / singing my barmitzvah Maftir and Haftorah at the Nozyk Synagogue on 28 July 2018 – Shabbat Nachamu.

My barmitzvah was held on 14 August 1965 – 16 Av 5725 at the Waverley Shul, Bramley in Johannesburg, South Africa.

My good friend Phillip Levy’s barmitzvah book – our barmitzvahs were on the same day on 14 August 1965. We didn’t know each other yet!

Books as gifts

My zaida, Rev Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz

This is a significant milestone for our family both historically and genealogically speaking. My zaida, Rev Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz, left Poland in 1905 for Jerusalem, and then in 1911 for South Africa. I have sung in shul choirs in South Africa and Australia since 1960, but this will be the first time since 1905 that the voice of one of our Rabinowitz family will be heard in a shul in Poland! My zaida, my father and my uncle were all cantors.

In 2011 in Orla, I played a recording of my zaida from Johannesburg made in 1961

Video

Nachum Mendel sings in Orla Synagogue, Poland

Source: youtu.be/vvXPavvJPNo

Now in 2018, I return not to play a recording, but to sing in the only synagogue in Warsaw that survived the Holocaust – a return to my roots!

My lecture at IAJGS: Back From the Polish and Litvak Diaspora: Virtual Journeys That Connect Us To Our Roots, is on Thursday 9 August at 4-5pm.

A repeat of my barmitzvah was held in Perth in 1992 – the invitation

Nozyk Synagogue 2018

Send-off from Noranda CHABAD Thursday 26 July 2018

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Cantor Jakub Lichterman

The last cantor at the Nozyk before the Holocaust

The visit of the Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezh’s Rav to Cape Town in 1953. My zaida – Rev Nachum Mendel Rabinowitz – seated third from the left. Cantor Jakub Lichterman 2nd from the bottom right.

Pinelands Cemetery, Cape Town

Vredehoek Shul Closing 1993

Video

8 August 1993 Cape Town South Africa – edited speech

Source: youtu.be/RGsYvLVsSpc

Full video here (1 hour 19 mins)

https://youtu.be/37lR9uqODOk

Cape Town Kehilalink – Vredehoek Shul

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/capetown/Vredehoek.html

Richard Shavei Tzion

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his barmitzvah at Camps Bay Shul, Cape Town

28 July 2018

Richard Shavei-Tzion

Thanks so much Eli for posting the Sefer story. Here’s the continuation: 70 Years after its consecration and 20 years after I first came across and read from it, with HH’s permission I hope to borrow it for a Shabbat. Cheryl and I and our 3 daughters will be spending Shabbat Nachamu, 27-28/7/18 at the Camps Bay Shul, celebrating the 50th anniversary of my Barmitzvah. once again a special connection- the Sefer was installed just weeks after the founding of the State of Israel, now to be used by Jerusalem family with all the significance attached to the number 70 in Jewish tradition. All Blochs-Saevitzons-Sloans-Wienburgs invited to the Brocha after Shabbat morning service.
Richard Shavei-Tzion

Richard in 1968

Audio

The Bloch Sefer Torah

More about Aphraim and Chava and the Bloch & Cynkin Families: Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/mir/Bloch_Cynkin.html The visit to Cape Town from Israel by Beverly Jacobson and her children on …

Source: elirab.me/bloch-torah/

With Miriam and Ivor Lichterman 2018

The Cape Town Holocaust Centre

Herzlia School 2018

Miriam and Ivor Lichterman at Highlands House 2018

With Cantors Ivor Lichterman & Joffe at Cafe Rieteve 2018

The Global Partisan Song Project 2018

Video

Every year on Yom Hashoah â the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism, Holocaust survivors and Jewish communities sing the song Zog Nit Keynmol (âW…

Source: youtu.be/tnaCtuqVBgg

Aphraim and Chava Bloch. Chava’s maiden name was Cynkin

Aphraim and Chava’s Ketuba 9 January 1891 – Mir, today in Belarus

More about Aphraim and Chava and the Bloch & Cynkin Families:

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/mir/Bloch_Cynkin.html

Beverly Jacobson (middle) & her children

The visit to Cape Town from Israel by Beverly Jacobson and her children on a “roots” trip precipitated the search for the Sefer Torah her great grandfather, Aphraim Bloch, donated to Highlands House back in 1948.

The last time it was “seen” by a family member was by Beverly’s brother, Richard Shavei Tzion.

Richard: ‘This occurred in 1998, exactly 50 years after it was dedicated to my Great-grandmother Chava Bloch and to their daughter Rachel who I am named after.

While going through old family documents, I discovered a “Cape Times” article dated 1948, describing the dedication of a Sefer Torah which had been donated by my late great-grandfather Efraim Bloch to the shul at Highlands House, the Jewish retirement home.

Intrigued by this, I spoke to my friend, who together with his sons takes a very active role in conducting the Shul Services there. I asked him if he could identify the scroll, and indeed he found the inscription on the handles of a beautiful Sefer in the Aron Hakodesh. When it turned out that I would be visiting Cape Town, I asked if I could see it. The shul responded by suggesting that I attend a Shabbat Service, act as Ba’al Tefillah and be called up for “Maftir” using the scroll which my great-grandfather had donated. I was of course delighted to accept.

A number of relatives, amongst them descendants of Efraim Bloch, were present at the service. My feelings of family pride, personal humility and a sense of the closing of a circle were compounded when I was called up to the Torah. There I stood, a third generation descendant of Efraim Bloch. The reader pointed to the very first verse of the Aliya to which I had been called up and began to read. Of all the thousands of verses in the Torah, the one that commenced my Aliya read: “And Joseph saw Efraim’s children of the third generation…”’

Eli: ‘In August 2017, my mother-in-law and grand-daughter of Aphraim Bloch, Ruth Saevitzon Reitstein, and my father-in-law, Leonard Reitstein, became residents at Highlands House.

On 14 March 2018 Ruth wrote to her niece Beverly Saevitzon Jacobson telling Beverly that there was no sign of her Zaida’s torah in the Highlands House shul.’

Ruth: ‘Rabbi Serwator inspected all five Torahs and could not identify the Sefer Torah. The only reason we can think of is that maybe the Torah was loaned to another shul and that’s where it is.

On 15 March 2018 Richard sent Ruth this picture of the Sefer Torah in its mantle.

Richard: ‘The ID as I remember is a small silver strip on one of the wooden posts.’

On 17 March 2018, Ruth wrote to her daughter Jill (my wife), here in Perth.

‘Hallelulah!!!!! We found the TORAH!!!!!!. I went to shul this morning and Gilad Stern, Richard’s friend, took me to the ark and showed me the torah. It has markings on the Eitz Chaim.’

Photos taken by the family on 25 March 2018

Ruth & Leonard Reitstein at Highlands House. Ruth is Aphraim’s grand daughter

Beverly Saevitzon Jacobson & her children

Bloch descendants (and by marriage) at the Gardens Shul

The Descendants of Aphraim Bloch

Molotov

This interesting article was written many years ago about Aphraim Bloch (mistakingly called Avraham Bloch in this article) and Molotov, the Foreign Miniser of the USSR.

The Geoff referred to in this article was the late Geoff Saevitzon, brother of Ruth Reitstein. The mystery has never been solved.