Finding My Cousin Zara Smushkovich

This is how my story unfolds, reaching a climax a week before Jewish New Year 5777

Zara Zeldin Smushkovich

relationship-chart-eli-moses-rabinowitzzara-zeldin

I met my first cousin Zara, known to us as Sofka, in late 1975 on Kibbutz Tzora in Israel.

As far as I can recall, this was our only meeting.

Zara had arrived with her family in 1973 from Riga, Latvia.

I took this photo of Meir, Zara, Ossie, Bessie, Uncle Isaac,

Aunty Luba, Alla, Aunty Esther, and my mother Rachel.

Zara’s father David Zeldin and my mother, Rachel were siblings.

Aunty Esther, David Zeldin’s wife, her daughter Zara and grand daughter Alla.

My grandparents Socher and Chasa Zeldin

and their six daughters left Riga for South Africa between 1927 to 1937.

Five of the sisters Yetta, Annie, Rachel (my mother), Guta and Luba (taken in the 1970s)

Chana, the youngest sister

My grandparents, Isocher and Chasa, the married Zeldin sisters and their husbands.

11 of the 15 grandchildren all born in Cape Town

A typical family gathering in the 50s.

Two brothers, Moisey and David were left behind in Latvia.

Uncle Moisey, the eldest, died in the Holocaust, around 1941 while his younger brother David joined the Soviet Army and survived.

David’s children, Mendel and Zara, spent the war years with their mother Esther in a refugee camp near Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

Documents from the Latvian archives showing their refugee status in Uzbekistan.

Uncle David, his wife Esther and their daughter Zara at her wedding in Riga in August 1957.

This photo: Aunty Luba, Alla, my mom Rachel, cousin Solly, Zara, Esther, Sorrel and her son Gil in late 70s in Israel.

Zara and her family left Israel for Canada in 1984.

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In 2001, thanks to Saul Issroff, London based president of South African SIG, I made contact for the first time with Ferenc Koszeg, my Zeldin second cousin in Budapest, Hungary.

The article below describes the amazing way we connected!

Additionally, Ferenc, known as Feri, introduced me to additional Zeldin family, living in Istanbul:

My grandfather Socher Zeldin, had another sister, Masha who, with her Hungarian husband Sandor, moved to Turkey in the early 1920s. Although they were no longer alive, their daughter and their grandchildren (my second cousins) were in Istanbul.

There was also a second cousin in Washington DC and other Zeldin family, the Bock family, in Dallas. I started corresponding with them.

I made my first trip to the Baltics, Central and Eastern Europe in May 2011, starting in Riga, where I had commissioned research by Rita Bogdanova, archivist at the Latvian State Archives.

With Rita Bogdanova and Saul Issroff in Israel July 2015

Rita found pre WWll material on the Zeldin family in Riga and Dvinsk, known today as Daugavpils.

Rachel (Rael) Zeldin’s passport document.

Using this research as my foundation, I was able to visit family addresses with my guide, Elena Spungina.

Just after leaving Riga, I received the 1960 diary of my late cousin Phyllis Jowell. In it she wrote about meeting our uncle David Zeldin, his wife Esther and children, Mendel and Zara.

The cover of Phyllis’s diary and photos she had pasted in it:

Rivka & Mendel Zeldin, my cousin, with their son Alex

In the diary he was referred to as Mishka, and his wife and son’s names weren’t given.

Zara with daughter, Mira

In the diary, she was referred to as Sofka and her daughter’s name wasn’t given.

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After visiting Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in May 2011, I arrived in Budapest, Hungary and met my second cousin Feri Koszeg for first time, since connecting in 2001.

Other family members joined the party, including Feri’s family, Fanni and her husband David Waitz from New York; Sarah, her husband Peter Magyari, and her brother Aron; my son Neil from Oxford; my nephew Ronen Katz and his daughter Shachar from Israel. Visiting Budapest from Istanbul was our mutual second cousin Mehmet Imre and his wife Billur.

It was a most memorable evening with the three Zeldin second cousins, all grandchildren of three Zeldin siblings from Dvinsk, Latvia.

With Feri and the photos that helped bring our families together. The three second cousins: Mehmet, Feri & Eli.

Feri with a famous photo of himself running from Soviet agents.

If you are interested in the background story of this famous photo, go to the 6 minute mark of this video filmed at the Library Of Congress Washington DC in 2014.

I continued my journey to Istanbul where I met Mehmet’s brother Ahmet Imre and his wife, Pinar.

In 2013, I returned to Istanbul, where I met two more of my second cousins, Haluk Atasoy and his wife Sena, and Cihad Atasoy and his wife Seda. These men are second cousins of mine and all have the same Jewish Hungarian grandfather and their grandmother Masha, was my grandfather Isocher Zeldin’s sister.

L-R Back: Haluk, Cihad, Ahmet, Mehmet & Eli. Front: Sena, Seda, Pinar & Billur

In the past few years, having found this expanded family, the question of Zara (known to us as Sofka) came up, but no one really knew where to find her nor most importantly, did anyone remember her surname.

I had tried looking for Zeldins on Facebook, but had no luck.

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Then in June this year I wrote to the Latvian Archives again, but this time to the section of the archives that deals with post WWll and the Soviet era. My friend Rita had suggested I contact the Personnel Archives which has files of families living abroad.

The Archives replied that they had found such documents of the Zeldin family.

On 22 September 2016, our postie delivered a registered letter from the Latvian Archives.

Included were Zara’s and her daughter Alla Khelem’s 1973 joint Soviet passport.

I asked Avigdor Shligel, my Ukrainian friend, to translate Zara’s surname which was written in Russian / cyrillic script.

The answer and the key was: SMUSHKOVICH

I posted the following on Facebook and JewishGen:

Within an hour a Facebook member, Elena Shapiro Wayne, sent me the Geni page of the late husband of Zara – Meir Smushkovich. I then looked up the names on that Geni tree on Facebook, including Alon Gold, who, according to Geni, was Zara’s grandson.

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Gert Rogers, from Toronto, saw my post on JewishGen, sent me an email with Zara’s telephone number, which she had looked up in the telephone directory and then called to check that it was Zara.

I spoke to my first cousin Zara in Toronto that night. What an amazing experience to make this call!

We were both ecstatic to make this connection! Zara was so happy to be in contact again with her 13 surviving Zeldin first cousins after more than 35 years.

Zara told me that Alon called to tell her that he had been contacted by a “stranger” on Facebook with information about his Zeldin family. As I was unknown to him, he needed to clear it with her as it had come out of nowhere.

I called Alon Gold the following morning and we spoke for two hours. Like me, he is the go-to person in his family when it come to maintaining family records and ties.

Mendel Zeldin with his children Bella and Alex

Sadly, Zara’s brother Mendel, passed away less than two months ago on 28 July 2016 in Brooklyn, NY. He was 81.

We never met him. Only our late cousin, Phyllis Jowell, met him in 1960 in Riga.

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L-R: Bella, Mendels daughter; Alla. his niece; Mendel, Mira, his niece; Angela, his great niece.

Zara with her daughters Alla and Mira.

Here are photos of our “new” family.

Lucy’s wedding in NY in 2010

Angela’s wedding in Toronto in 2015

Our new family’s tree!

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Once I received that registered letter from the archives in Riga, I knew that things would develop quickly.

My thanks go out to my friend Rita Bogdanova at the Latvian State Archives, Avigdor Shligel, Elena Shapiro Wayne and Gert Rogers.

Thanks to Jewishgen.org and Geni.com, it took less than an hour to find Alon Gold and his “baba Sofa”, Zara Smushkovich, my long lost cousin!

There is so much history still to share. We are so looking forward to it.

A rip roaring success story, if ever there was one!

Thanks to my daughter in law Tami for calling me “tangential”. You are right! Just what my sons, the doctors, ordered!

Chag Sameach 5777.

******************************************

From

Elena Shapiro Wayne

3 October at 01:14 ·

As many of you know I have been extremely immersed in the Genealogy of my family and Gary’s. I have been active in the genealogy community on Facebook. I had the pleasure of stumbling on a request from a very nice man in Australia looking for family members. I was able to very quickly find a record for one of his ancestors which helped him reconnect after decades! Today on the Jewish NEW YEAR I received a note and this link. At the end of this very wonderful family history I was honored to be mentioned. What a wonderful gift on Rosh Hashana! Eli Rabinowitz here is wishing many years of happiness with your newly found family. I am humbled to have been a small part of this wonderful Mitzvah.
L’Shana Tova.
Please check out this link to hear his story!
http://elirab.me/finding-my-cousin-zara-smushkovich/

**********************************************

From Gert Rogers, Toronto

2 October 2016

Dear Eli

I am so glad that I could help you. Your blog was amazing. I wrote Bubble Segal many years ago and she answered me so I know her by correspondence. Again I am happy for you.

Wishing you and all your family a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Gert

Gert Rogers – Toronto – Searching Goldman Woda Sziiakovich from Mordy, Losice, and Miedzyrzec Podlaski and Solnik Djtelbaum from Staszow all in Poland

September 22, 2016

Looking For My Cousin Zara SMUSHKOVICH

September 2, 2016December 9, 2016

From One Photo….

August 31, 2016September 1, 2016

Our South African Jewish Inheritance

David Sandler has just launched his latest book.

Selfie of David Sandler and me at my home in Perth

Just in from David:

OUR SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH INHERITANCE compiled by David Solly Sandler published August 2016

The matching volume to OUR LITVAK INHERITANCE published in March 2016

These two volumes tell of the history, life and times of South African Jews originating in Eastern Europe

Like most South African Jews, my ancestors emigrated from Lithuania to South Africa between 1880 and 1920. We were the lucky ones escaping the horrors of the Holocaust and most of us have relatives left behind in Lithuania who perished in the Holocaust.

For about 100 years we generally prospered and multiplied in South Africa and then in the early 1970s, seeking more secure futures for our families, we commenced immigrating to Israel, the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia and by the year 2000 about 50,000 of the 120,000 South African Jews had emigrated.

Like my other books this is a compilation and not a single narrative. It is a gathering of articles, stories and histories that tell us of life and history and Jewish life and history in South Africa from 1880 to 1990. As it is a gathering of articles, stories and histories in some cases we will have two or more different views of the same event.

The purpose of this book is to tell the history of South Africa and our Jewish contribution, with its rich Litvak culture, and to share it with our children and grandchildren. Another purpose of the book is to raise funds for Arcadia and Oranjia, formerly the two Jewish Orphanages in South Africa.

This 511 paged softcovered book has the following sections

1 The early history of South Africa in the Western and Eastern Cape Province.

2 Kimberley and the discovery of Diamonds (Northern Cape)

3 The Establishment of Natal, The OrangeFree State and The Transvaal Boer Republics

4 The discovery of Gold in the Witwatersrand and the founding of Johannesburg

5 The Anglo Boer War 1899-1902

6 Immigration, Yiddish, Zionism and Jewish Culture

7 World War One

8 The Generosity of the S A Jewish Community

9 Landsmanschaften Mutual Aid Societies

10 World War Two

11 Jewish Life in Country Communities (1947 & 1948)

12 Jewish Communities and Personalities

13 Support for Israel during the Israeli War of Independence (1948 & 1949)

14 The Struggle from Apartheid to Multi-racial elections

Between 1981 to 2005 some 40% of Jews, about 47,000 left South Africa. About 13,000 went to Israel, 12,000 to the US, 11,000 to Australia and New Zealand, 6,000 to the UK and 5,000 to Canada.

Most South African Jews today live in Johannesburg (50,000) and Cape Town (16,000), while the other main centres are Durban (2,700) and Pretoria (1,500). Originally, the community was evenly spread throughout the country, but the rural communities began declining shortly after World War II and are today largely defunct.

PG compilation still to come:

I invite all South Africans to share their family histories and photos for the following two books.

– Kehilas (Jewish Communities) of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand – Jewish Communities of Johannesburg and those larger Rand towns and that fall outside the net of the great work being done by Beyachad in their Jewish Life in the South African Country Communities.

-From Eastern Europe to South Africa – a collection of family histories.

– English translations of the Keidan Yizkor book and The Rakishok Yizkor book.

-The Ochberg Orphans – Volume Two and My Inheritance – my family history – the stories of my four grandparents

Shalom, best wishes and good health to you all and may there soon be peace in Israel

David

David Solly Sandler sedsand@iinet.net.au

Compilations by David Solly Sandler

100 Years of Arc Memories published 2006

The Arcadia Centenary book contains the memories of over 120 children of The South African Jewish Orphanage.

More Arc Memories published 2008

A follow-up of the Centenary book with the memories of more than 100 children. This book includes a section of 17 chapters on the Ochberg Orphans.

The Ochberg Orphans and the Horrors From Whence They Came published 2011

The rescue in 1921 of 181 Ukrainian War and Pogrom Orphans by Isaac Ochberg, the representative of the South African Jewish Community, from the horrors of the Pale of Settlement.

The Pinsker Orphans published 2013

The Pinsker Orphans book – in part a follow up of The Ochberg Orphans book – tells of the life and times of the children from the three Pinsk Jewish Orphanages in the 1920s and like The Ochberg Orphans book is but a small part of a much larger and forgotten part of Jewish History, the horrors suffered by the Jews in The Pale of Settlement between the two world wars.

This Was a Man Reprinted 2014

This book is the life story of Isaac Ochberg as written by his daughter Bertha Epstein and first published in 1974.

Reprinted with the permission of the family of Isaac Ochberg z”l with an addendum added.

Memories of Oranjia, The Cape Jewish Orphanage (1911-2011) published 2014

The book is a collection of the memories of many generations of children (over 120) who were in the care of The Cape Jewish Orphanage which was established in 1911 in Cape Town South Africa.

The Memorial Section of the Rakishok Memorial Book

This book was originally published in 1952 in Yiddish by the Rakishok Landmanschaft in Johannesburg. The book has been translated into English by Bella Golubchik and is for sale with all proceeds going to Arcadia Oranjia and the JDC.

Our Litvak Inheritance published 2016

This book tells of Jewish history, life and times in Lithuania and surrounds – the inheritance of most South African Jews and is the matching volume to Our South African Jewish Inheritance.

Please contact me to order your book – David Solly Sandler sedsand@iinet.net.au

THE SECTIONS OF THE BOOK AND THEIR CONTENTS IN DETAIL

1 The early history of South Africa in the Western and Eastern Cape Province.

This section tells of the early history of South Africa from the first Europen settlement in the Western Cape of the Dutch followed by theEnglish and the spread to the Eastern Cape.

It tells of the expansion eastwards, the exploits of the 1820 Settlers, the clash and 100 year war with the Xhosas (Bantu) and the Great Trek.

It relates the Jewish history during the periods of the Jewish Ministers in the Cape: The Rev. Isaac Pulver 1849-1851, The Rev. Joel Rabinowitz 1859-1882, The Rev. Abraham Frederick 1882-1894 and The Rev. Prof. Alfred Phillip Bender 1895-1894

2 Kimberley and the discovery of Diamonds (Northern Cape)

This section starts with the discovery of diamonds , the early history of Kimberley, and early Jewish Communal history

It tells of the amalgamation of the Kimberley Mines and about the important roles Jews played to bring this about.

It tells of the Jewish Pioneers of Kimberley and of Jewish Communal life

3 The Establishment of Natal, The OrangeFree State and The Transvaal Boer Republics

On the way to the the ‘Promised Land’, be it the highveld of the Transvaal or subtropical Natal, the Voortrekkers (pioneers) engaged in many violent confrontations with the Matabele, the Zulus and other Bantu tribes. At each major encounter, after an initial reverse, the tribes were subdued, their land taken by right of conquest and their people taken as labour.

In Natal the Voortrekkers established a short-lived republic, but, after its annexation by the British in 1843, many Voortrekkers trekked back over the Drakensberg on to the highveld, the lands between the Orange and Vaal Rivers and across the Vaal River.

In 1852 and 1854 the British granted independence to the trekkers in the Transvaal (‘country across the Vaal River’ that became the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek) and in the Orange River Colony ( the Free State Republic)

The English, bankrupted by the Napoleonic Wars, could not afford to annex the states and the enmity between the English Colonial Government and the farmers (‘Boers’) continued.

Thus, the seeds for further conflict – this time between the Boers and the English – were sown. It needed the spark provided by the twin discoveries of gold and diamonds in 1886 and 1867 respectively – desparately needed by the bankrupt English Government.

Historical Dictionary of the British Empire.

4 The discovery of Gold in the Witwatersrand and the founding of Johannesburg

This section tells of the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, the founding of Johannesburg, the early Jewish Pioneers and the formative days of Johannesburg Jewry. It includes details of the Randlords, Notable Jewish Personalities, the opening of the Park Synagogue by Paul Kruger and the Jamesion Raid.

5 The Anglo Boer War 1899-1902

This section discusses the phases of the Anglo Boer War: the scorched earth policy adopted by the British and the concentration camps they established in which over 26,000 Boer women and children perished from starvation and disease.

It tells of the Boer prisoners of war and The Treaty of Vereeniging followed by The Boer War in the Hebrew Press, Boerejode, Jews in the Boer Forces, The Russians and the Anglo-Boer War and the Jews on The British Side.

Next we tell of Jewish Refugees at the Cape during The Anglo-Boer War followed by Life in Pretoria and Johannesburg during and after the Boer War and we have the life story of Samuel Marks, Pretoria’s most prominent Jew.

We end with the Union of South Africa in 1910

6 Immigration, Yiddish, Zionism and Jewish Culture

In this section we pause, step back and revisit our South African Jewish Inheritance from different perspectives.

We start off with Jewish Immigration and the struggle to get Yiddish accepted as a European Language.

It tells of the birth of Zionism and Jewish Culture in South Africa and the culture clash between the English and Litvak (Eastern European or Russian) Jews.

We end with the Traditions of South African Litvak Jews

(In the next section are details of The South African Jewish Congress that gained the support of Jan Christiaan Smutsthe SA Boer leader who shared in the creation of Israel. )

7 World War One

This section tells of World War One (The Great War) first from a global and then a South African perspective.

It tells of the horrors of the war in ‘The Pale of Settlement’ (Eastern Europe) and the help given by the South African Jews to their bretheren in the Pale and in Palestine

Then we have details of The South African Jewish Congress seeking and gaining the support of Jan Christiaan Smuts the Boer who shared in the creation of Israel

We end with the The Spanish Influenza Pandemic 1918-1919

8 The Generosity of the S A Jewish Community

“This may help to explain how South African Jewry has acquired the characteristics which distinguish it as a group. It has a world-wide reputation for liberality towards those of its co-religionists who are in need, and for staunch support of the Zionist movement. It is also recognised as a well-organised and relatively united community.

Being largely descendants of Lithuanian Jewry, South African Jews are a fairly homogeneous group, unlike those of the United States of America. They have inherited some of the qualities of the Litvaks – their warm-heartedness and generosity, their practical-mindedness, a strong feeling of Jewish solidarity, and a love of learning combined with a somewhat critical attitude to religious traditions, their religion being often more of the head than of the heart.

Enterprising and hard-working, they have been able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by a new and developing country.”

Extract from THE JEWS IN SOUTH AFRICA Edited by Gustav Saron and Louis Hotz. Printed in 1955

The Generosity of the S A Jewish Community, Jewish Institutions, Funds and Appeals

This section starts with the early history of The Johannesburg Chevrah Kadisha, The South African Jewish Orphanage (Arcadia) and The Cape Jewish Orphanage (Oranjia), two institutions that still look after Jewish children in need today.

This is followed by three chapters of the good work done byThe United South African Jewish Relief, Reconstruction and Orphans Fund (1915-1925) that funded the rescuein 1921 of 181 Pogrom Orphans from the horrors of the Ukraine and Poland by Isaac Ochberg.

We end withThe 1930 Annual Report of the South African Jewish Orphanage with the names of thousands of supporters not only from Johannesburg but from many surrounding country areas.

9 Landsmanschaften Mutual Aid Societies

To help one another and the new immigrants arriving with virtually nothing Landsleit (people from the same towns or districts) banded together to form Landsmanschaften (Mutual Aid Societies) that helped the sick and poor, burried the dead and provided interest free loans to help members start businesses. They also provided a place where mainly men could gather and socialise.

In South Africa there were Landsmanschaften from numerous towns: Anykster ,Birzer ,Dwinsk, Keidan, Kelmer, Kovno, Krakinover, Kroze, K]

10 World War Two

This section first documents the rise of Anti-Semitism in the 1930s from news articles and from Worlds Apart

It details South Africa’s military contributions and casualtiesand lifeduring the war and tells about”up north”

It tells of the Jews in WWII and gives details of individuals who made the supreme sacrifice, individuals who served and life as a POW

This section ends with Victory Day and with the arrival of the news of the Holocaust

11 Jewish Life in Country Communities (1947 &1948)

In this sectionArthur Markowitz tells of Jewish Life in South African country communities in his Nationwide Survey of Jewish Communities published in The South African Jewish Times in 1947-8

He tells of the Jewish contribition to the developement of agriculture and industry in the towns throughout South Africa and highlights the special contributionsof some Jewish individuals.

From the very early days Jews lived in almost every country town in South Africa and they played a very important roles from the early development of these towns. Typically they were the traders and professionals,running the General Dealer Store (Algemeene Handelaar), the Hotel and bar and they were the Doctor and Lawyer and some were Farmers

12 Jewish Communities and Personalities

This section of the Jewish Communities and Personalities of Durban, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg, supplements Arthur Markowitz’s Nationwide Survey of South African Jewish country communities in section 10.

We commence with compilations on Durban and Bloemfontein the main cities of Natal and the Orange Free State. This is followed by compilations on three Johannesburg Jewish Communities: Rosettenville / La Rochelle, Fordsburg / Mayfair and Parktown.

In Parktown, a suburb of very large estates, we focus on the South African Jewish Orphanage (Arcadia) and remember individuals connected to Arcadia, not only for their contribution to Arcadia, but because of their contribution to the broader community. (These articles come from the two Arcadia Memory Books and The Ochberg Orphans by David Solly Sandler )

13 Support for Israel during the Israeli War of Independence (1948 – 1949)

This section tells of thesupport given to the newly created State of Israel in their fight for independence by the Jews in South Africa

The Zionist Federation in South Africa actively recruited those experienced and who had fought in WWII and sent them to Israel. They specifically recruited pilots and if fact had a flying school in Germiston.

There are extracts from South Africa’s 800 and the names of the 800 South Africans volunteers who fought in Israel’s War of Birth and we remember the 85 South Africanswho fell.

The section ends with details of some who fought and fell in defence of Israel

14 The Struggle from Apartheid to Multi-racial elections

This section commences with the history of Apartheid and is followed by the treason trials and details the resistance and events leading to multi-ratial elections.

This entire section is sourced from Worlds Apart by Colin Tatz, Peter Arnold and Gillian Heller, apart from ‘The facts about South African Jews in the Apartheid Era’ by Maurice Ostroff.

We end with details of White Emigration

Once again I feel honoured to be the compiler of this book that belongs to the Jewish Community and is a collection of articles, extracts of books and family histories kindly shared and entrusted to me by many people.

Thank you to the following that have shared their family histories, their articles and their books:

Andrew Cassel and Aryeh Shcherbakov, of the Keidan Association of Israel and the USA, for permission to use extracts of The Keidan Yizkor Book published in Hebrew in 1977

Colin Tatz, Peter Arnold and Gillian Heller, for sharing parts of their book Worlds Apart

Diane Wolfson for permission to use extracts of The Pretoria Jewish Community up to 1930 by Mrs Myrtle Todes, Mr Selwyn Zwick, Mrs Naomi Nowosenetz, Dr Rayme Rabinowitz, Mrs Avril Cohen, Mrs Jill Katz (editor), Mrs Mary Kropman and and Mr Ralph Lanesman.

Joe Woolf for sharing his family history From Shatt (Seta) to South Africa and parts of South Africa’s 800 The Story of South African Volunteers in Israel’s War of Birth Henry Katzew.

Louis Zalman Glick Touyz for sharing his article Traditions of South African Litvak Jews and other articles

Dave Sacks of the SAJBD for sharing his articles on the Boer War

Saul Issroff, London UK of South African Jewish Genealogy for sharing his article early South Africa Jewish History and Bloemfontein

Other books sourced

-Birth of a Community by Chief Rabbi professor Israel Abrahams

-The Fordsburg-Mayfair Hebrew Congregation 1893-1964 by Bernard Sachs

-The Jews in South Africa, Edited by Gustav Saron and Louis Hotz

-The Nationwide Survey of the South African Jewish Community By Arthur Markowitz

-The Vision Amazing by Marcia Gitlin

-The War Report by J E H Groble

Much thanks go to Bennie Penzik for helping with the editing of the book

Thank you to Michael Perry Kotzen, an Ex Arcadian actor and nonagenarian, from Sydney, the most prolific contributor of Arc Memories, who has helped willingly with the proofreading of this book.

A very great thanks goes to Antoinette Weber, my partner of the past 14 years, who gave very generously of her time and assisted with the typing and proofreading. I have once again tried to match the very high standard of formatting she set in the first volume.

Thanks must again go to two very close Arc ‘brothers’, David Kotzen and Dr Solly Farber who passed away in July 2002 a day apart. They both inspired and encouraged and helped me and set me on the path to compiling books. I sometimes feel that it is not by chance that I share with them my names David and Solly. I hope that David and Solly, as well as Doc and Ma and all Old Arcs who have ‘bunked over the hill’ enjoy this book from above.

As at the end of February 2016 over R1,150,000 had been raised for Arcadia and R60,000 for Oranjia from book sales. We still have many copies of the Arcadia Memory books, The Ochberg Orphans books and other books for sale with the full proceeds going to the charities that still continue to look after children. See the back of the book for details of books and charities and contact me please. You can pay for the books locally and have them delivered to friends overseas.

PG compilation still to come:

I invite all South Africans to share their family histories and photos for the following two books.

-From Eastern Europe to South Africa – a collection of family histories.

– English translations of the Keidan Yizkor book and The Rakishok Yizkor book.

-The Ochberg Orphans – Volume Two and My Inheritance – my family history – the stories of my four grandparents

Shalom, best wishes and good health to you all and may there soon be peace in Israel

David

David Solly Sandler sedsand@iinet.net.au

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016

The Stropkover Rebbe and Me

The Stropkover Rebbe has just completed a visit to Perth Australia from Jerusalem.

We were honoured to have him spend Shabbat with us at the CHABAD shul in Noranda WA.

He has visited Perth before.

I took the opportunity on Saturday night to learn more about him and his town.

The Rebbe was born in Germany and lives in Jerusalem. The Stropkover Rebbe’s “once upon a time” community was based in Stropkov in Slovakia.

Stropkov

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stropkov

Town

View of Stropkov

Coat of arms

Country

Region

District

River

Elevation

202 m (663 ft)

Coordinates

49°12′18″N 21°39′05″ECoordinates:

49°12′18″N 21°39′05″E

Area

24.667 km² (9.524 sq mi)

Population

10,866 (2012-12-31)

Density

441 / km² (1,142 / sq mi)

First mentioned

1404

Stropkov (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈstropkow]; Hungarian: Sztropkó, pronounced [ˈstropkoː], Yiddish: סטראפקאוו‎) is a town in Stropkov District, Prešov Region, Slovakia.

Jewish community

Jews first arrived in Stropkov, possibly fleeing Polish pogroms, in about 1650. About fifty years later, the Jews were exiled from Stropkov to Tisinec, a village just to the north. They did not return to Stropkov until about 1800. The Stropkov Jewish cemetery was dedicated in 1892, after which the Tisinec cemetery fell into disuse.

In 1939 the antisemitic Hlinka Party gain control of the Stropkov Town Council. From May–October 1942 the Hlinka deported Jews from the Stropkov area to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Maidanek, and “unknown destinations”. By the end of World War II, only 100 Jews remained in Stropkov out of 2000 in 1942.

Chief Rabbis of Stropkov

The first rabbi of Tisinec and Stropkov was Rabbi Moshe Schonfeld. He left Stropkov for a position in Vranov. He was succeeded in 1833 by Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Teitelbaum (I)(1818–1883) who served as Stropkov’s chief rabbi until leaving for a post in Ujhely. The next incumbent was Rabbi Chaim Yosef Gottlieb (1790–1867), known as the “Stropkover Rov”. He was succeeded by Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam (1811–1899), a son of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz. His scholarship, piety, and personal charisma transformed Stropkov into one of the most respected chasidic centers in all Galicia and Hungary. Rabbi Moshe Yosef Teitelbaum (1842–1897), the son of the aforementioned Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum, was appointed as Stropkov’s next chief rabbi in 1880.

The charismatic and scholarly Rabbi Yitzhak Hersh Amsel (c1855–1934), the son of Peretz Amsel of Stropkov, was first appointed as a dayan in Stropkov and then as the rabbi of Zborov (near Bardejov). As legend has it, Rabbi Yitzhak Hersh Amsel died while praying in his Zborov synagogue. He is buried in the Stropkov cemetery where a small protective building ohel was erected over his grave to preserve it. Rabbi Amsel was succeeded in 1897 by Rabbi Avraham Shalom Halberstam (1856–1940). Jews, learned and simple alike, sought the advice and blessing of this “miracle rabbi of Stropkov”, revered as a living link in the chain of Chassidus of Sanz and Sienawa. Rabbi Halberstam served in Stropkov for some forty years, until the early 1930s, when he assumed a rabbinical post in the larger town of Košice. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Halberstam (1873–1954),the son of the aforementioned Rabbi Avraham Shalom Halberstam was then appointed chief rabbi of Stropkov and head of the Talmud Torah. After World War II Rabbi Menachem Mendel Halberstam lived in New York until the end of his life, teaching at the Stropkover Yeshiva, which he founded in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The present day Admor of Stropkov is HaRav Avraham Shalom Halberstam of Jerusalem. The Admor runs several yeshivas and kolelim in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel. The Admor dedicates himself to Ahavat Yisrael and to helping many who need to return to their Jewish roots.

Rebbe-Images

I then went into my Geni account and looked up the Stropkover Rebbe and found what appeared to be his family line.

I recalled that on Shabbat, he had been called up to the torah as HaRav Avraham Shalom ben Yechezkel Shrage.

Havdalah after Shabbat.

On Sunday I printed out this page on Geni and showed it to the Rebbe who confirmed that this was indeed him – i.e. Avraham Shalom Lipschutz (Halberstam). He also confirmed that his mother was Beila, daughter of Avraham Shalom Halberstam.

Stopkov-4

I also printed out the Geni page which shows our relationship and presented a copy to the Rebbe.

So, besides all the friends he has Downunder, he now is happy to have added a 8th cousin in this isolated Jewish community!

We are both members of the Katzenellenbogen Rabbinic Tree.

July 27, 2016July 14, 2018

Warsaw, Poland

The Polin Museum

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Magdalena Mizgalska

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich
The museum building
Established	2005 (opened April 2013)
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Coordinates	52°14′58″N 20°59′34″E
Type	Historical, cultural
Collection size	History and culture of Polish Jews
Visitors	expected 450,000
Director	Dariusz Stola
Curator	Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Website	Museum official website

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polish: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum’s name means, in English, either “Poland” or “rest here” and is related to a legend on the arrival of the first Jews in Poland.^[1] The cornerstone was laid in 2007, and the museum was first opened on April 19, 2013.^[2]^[3] The museum’s Core Exhibition opened in October 2014.^[4] The museum features a multimedia narrative exhibition about the vibrant Jewish community that flourished in Poland for a thousand years up to the Holocaust.^[5] The building, a postmodern structure in glass, copper, and concrete, was designed by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.^[6

History

President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the POLIN Museum, 26 June 2007

The idea for creating a major new museum in Warsaw dedicated to the history of Polish Jews was initiated in 1995 by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland.^[7] In the same year, the Warsaw City Council allocated the land for this purpose in Muranów, Warsaw’s prewar Jewish neighborhood and site of the former Warsaw Ghetto, facing the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes. In 2005, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland established a unique private-public partnership with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw. The Museum’s first director was Jerzy Halbersztadt. In September 2006, a specially designed tent called Ohel (the Hebrew word for tent in English) was erected for exhibitions and events on the museum’s future location.^[7]

An international architectural competition for designs for the building was launched in 2005, supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. On June 30, 2005 the jury announced the winner; a team of two Finnish architects, Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.^[8] On June 30, 2009 construction of the building was officially inaugurated. The project was to be finished in 33 months at a cost of PLN 150 million zlotyallocated by the Ministry and the City.^[9] and a total cost of PLN 320 million zloty.^[10]^[11]

The museum opened the building and began its educational and cultural programs on April 19, 2013 on the 70th Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During the 18 months that followed, more than 180,000 visitors toured the building, visited the first temporary exhibitions, and took part in cultural and educational programs and events, including films, debates, workshops, performances, concerts and lectures. The Grand Opening, with the completed Core Exhibition, was on October 28, 2014.^[12] The Core Exhibition documents and celebrates the thousand-year history of the Jewish community in Poland that was decimated by the Holocaust.^[4]^[5]

In 2016 the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award from the European Museum Forum.^[13]

The Jewish Historical Institute

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Three videos from Matan Shefi, whom I bumped in the street, not far from Polin

Matan1

Matan2

Matan3

Jewish Historical Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jewish Historical Institute (Polish: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny or ŻIH) is a research institute in Warsaw, Poland, primarily dealing with the history of Jews in Poland.

History

The Jewish Historical Institute was created in 1947 as a continuation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded in 1944. The Jewish Historical Institute Association is the corporate body responsible for the building and the Institute’s holdings. The Institute falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2009 it was named after Emanuel Ringelblum. The institute is a repository of documentary materials relating to the Jewish historical presence in Poland. It is also a centre for academic research, study and the dissemination of knowledge about the history and culture of Polish Jewry.

The most valuable part of the collection is the Warsaw Ghetto Archive, known as the Ringelblum Archive (collected by the Oyneg Shabbos). It contains about 6000 documents (about 30 000 individual pieces of paper).

Other important collections concerning World War II include testimonies (mainly of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust), memoirs and diaries, documentation of the Joint and Jewish Self-Help (welfare organizations active in Poland under the occupation), and documents from the Jewish Councils (Judenräte)

The section on the documentation of Jewish historical sites holds about 40 thousand photographs concerning Jewish life and culture in Poland.

The Institute has published a series of documents from the Ringelblum Archive, as well as numerous wartime memoirs and diaries.^[1]

In 2011, Paweł Śpiewak, a Professor of Sociology at Warsaw University and former politician, was nominated as the Director of the Jewish Historical Institute by Bogdan Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage.^[2]

The Nosyk Synagogue

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Nożyk Synagogue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nożyk Synagogue Synagoga Nożyków

Basic information
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Geographic coordinates	52°14′10″N 21°00′04″ECoordinates: 52°14′10″N 21°00′04″E
Affiliation	Orthodox Judaism
District	Śródmieście
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Active Synagogue
Leadership	Rabbi Michael Schudrich
Website	http://www.warszawa.jewish.org.pl
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Karol Kozłowski
Architectural style	neoromanesque
Completed	1902
Construction cost	250.000 rubles
Specifications
Capacity	600

Interior of the synagogue

The Nożyk Synagogue (Polish: Synagoga Nożyków) is the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland. It was built in 1898-1902 and was restored after World War II. It is still operational and currently houses the Warsaw Jewish Commune, as well as other Jewish organizations.

History

Before World War II the Jewish community of Warsaw, one of the largest Jewish communities in the world at that time, had over 400 houses of prayer at its disposal. However, at the end of 19th century only two of them were separate structures, while the rest were smaller chapels attached to schools, hospitals or private homes. The earliest Round Synagogue in the borough of Praga served the local community since 1839, while the Great Synagogue (erected in 1878) was built for the reformed community. Soon afterwards a need arose to build a temple also for the orthodox Jewry. Between 1898 and 1902 Zalman Nożyk, a renowned Warsaw merchant, and his wife Ryfka financed such temple at Twarda street, next to the neighbourhood of Grzybów and Plac Grzybowski. The building was designed by a famous Warsaw architect, Karol Kozłowski, author of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra Hall.^[1] The façade is neo-romanticist, with notable neo-Byzantine elements. The building itself is rectangular, with the internal chamber divided into three aisles.

The synagogue was officially opened to the public on May 26, 1902. In 1914 the founders donated it to the Warsaw Jewish Commune, in exchange for yearly prayers in their intention. In 1923 the building was refurbished by Maurycy Grodzieński, who also designed a semi-circular choir that was attached to the eastern wall of the temple. In September 1939 the synagogue was damaged during an air raid. During World War II the area was part of the Small Ghetto and shared its fate during the Ghetto Uprising and then the liquidation of the Jewish community of Warsaw by the Nazis. After 1941 the Germans used the building as stables and a depot. After the war the demolished building was partially restored and returned to the Warsaw Jewish Commune, but the reconstruction did not start. It was completely rebuilt between 1977 and 1983 (officially opened April 18, 1983). It was also then that a new wing was added to the eastern wall, currently housing the seat of the commune, as well as several other Jewish organizations.

Ghetto Wall Marking

Meetings

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Chopin and Kopernicus

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The Storm

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The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Polish: Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza) is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, dedicated to the unknown soldiers who have given their lives for Poland. It is one of many such national tombs of unknowns that were erected after World War I, and the most important such monument in Poland.^[1]

The monument, located at Piłsudski Square, is the only surviving part of the Saxon Palace that occupied the spot until World War II. Since 2 November 1925 the tomb houses an unidentified body of a young soldier who fell during the Defence of Lwów. At a later date earth from numerous battlefields where Polish soldiers have fought was added to the urns housed in the surviving pillars of the Saxon Palace.

The Tomb is constantly lit by an eternal flame and assisted by a guard post by the Representative Battalion of the Polish Army. It is there that most official military commemorations take place in Poland and where foreign representatives lay wreaths when visiting Poland.

The changing of the guard takes place on the hour of every hour daily and this happens 365 days a year.

History

In 1923, a group of unknown Varsovians placed, before Warsaw’s Saxon Palace and the adjacent Saxon Garden, a stone tablet commemorating all the unknown Polish soldiers who had fallen in World War I and the subsequent Polish-Soviet War. This initiative was taken up by several Warsaw newspapers and by General Władysław Sikorski. On April 4, 1925, the Polish Ministry of War selected a battlefield from which the ashes of an unknown soldier would be brought to Warsaw. Of some 40 battles, that for Lwów was chosen. In October 1925, at Lwów’s Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, three coffins were exhumed: those of an unknown sergeant, corporal and private. The coffin that was to be transported to Warsaw was chosen by Jadwiga Zarugiewiczowa, mother of a soldier who had fallen at Zadwórze and whose body had never been found.

On November 2, 1925, the coffin was brought to Warsaw’s St. John’s Cathedral, where a Mass was held. Afterward eight recipients of the order of Virtuti Militari bore the coffin to its final resting place beneath the colonnade joining the two wings of the Saxon Palace. The coffin was buried along with 14 urns containing soil from as many battlegrounds, a Virtuti Militari medal, and a memorial tablet. Since then, except under German occupation during World War II, an honor guard has continuously been held before the Tomb.

Architecture

The Tomb was designed by the famous Polish sculptor, Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski. It was located within the arcade that linked the two symmetric wings of the Saxon Palace, then the seat of the Polish Ministry of War. The central tablet was ringed by 5 eternal flames and 4 stone tablets bearing the names and dates of battles in which Polish soldiers had fought during World War I and the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21). Behind the Tomb were two steel gratings bearing emblems of Poland’s two highest Polish military decorations — the Virtuti Militari and Cross of Valor.

During the 1939 invasion of Poland, the building was slightly damaged by German aerial bombing, but it was quickly rebuilt and seized by the German authorities. After the Warsaw Uprising, in December 1944, the palace was completely demolished by the Wehrmacht. Only part of the central colonnade, sheltering the Tomb, was preserved.

After the war, in late 1945, reconstruction began. Only a small part of the palace, containing the Tomb, was restored by Henryk Grunwald. On 8 May 1946 it was opened to the public. Soil from 24 additional battlegrounds was added to the urns, as well as more tablets with names of battles in which Poles had fought in World War II. However, the communist authorities erased all trace of the Polish–Soviet War of 1920, and only a few of the Polish Armed Forces’ battles in the West were included. This was corrected in 1990, after Poland had regained its political autonomy.

There are plans to rebuild the Saxon Palace, but as of May 2016, these plans have been indefinitely on hold due to a lack of budget.^{[citation needed]}

The Hotel Bristol

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Hotel Bristol, Warsaw

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hotel Bristol, Warsaw
Hotel Bristol, Warsaw (2011)
General information
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Address	Krakowskie Przedmiescie 42/44
Opening	November 19, 1901
Owner	Towarzystwo Akcyjne Budowy i Prowadzenia Hotelów, (1901-1928), Bank Cukrownictwa (1928-1948), City of Warsaw (1947-1952), Orbis (1952-1977), University of Warsaw (1977-1981), Orbis (1981-2011), Rosmarinum Investments (2011-)
Management	Starwood Hotels
Design and construction
Architect	Władysław Marconi
Other information
Number of rooms	168
Number of suites	38
Website
www.hotelbristolwarsaw.pl

Hotel Bristol, Warsaw is a historic luxury hotel opened in 1901 located on Krakowskie Przedmieście in Poland‘s capital, Warsaw

History

Hotel Bristol in 1901

The Hotel Bristol was constructed from 1899-1900 on the site of the Tarnowski Palace by a company whose partners included Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. A competition was held for the design of the building, and architects Thaddeus Stryjeriski and Franciszek Mączyński won with their Art Nouveau design. However the builders decided to change the style to a Neo-Renaissance design, and brought in architect Władysław Marconi to design the final hotel. Some of its interiors were designed by the noted Viennese architect Otto Wagner. The cornerstone was laid on April 22, 1899 and the hotel was dedicated on November 17, 1901 and opened on November 19, 1901.

Elegant cafe in the Bristol designed by Otto Wagner, 1901

After Poland gained its independence in 1919, Paderewski became the Prime Minister and held the first session of his government at his hotel. Paderewski and his partners sold their shares in the hotel in 1928 to a local bank, which renovated the hotel in 1934 with modern interiors by designer Antoni Jawornicki.

Upon the German invasion in 1939, the hotel was made into the headquarters of the Chief of the Warsaw District. It miraculously survived the war relatively unscathed, standing nearly alone among the rubble of its neighborhood. Following the war, the hotel was renovated and reopened in 1945.

Hotel lobby

The City of Warsaw took over operation of the hotel in 1947 and it was nationalized in 1948 and joined the state-run Orbis chain in 1952, exclusively serving visitors from abroad. By the 1970s its outdated facilities had seen it demoted to a second class ranking by the government and the hotel was donated by Prime Minister Peter Jaroszewicz to the University of Warsaw in 1977 to eventually serve as their library. It closed in 1981. However no work was done and the building languished through the waning days of the Communist government.

After the fall of Communism in 1989, the hotel was finally completely restored it to its former glory from 1991-1993, with the original interiors of the public rooms recreated to match the 1901 designs. The Bristol was reopened on April 17, 1993, with Margaret Thatcherin attendance, as part of the British Forte Hotels chain. From 1998 to 2013, the hotel was part of the Le Méridien hotel chain. The exterior was further restored in 2005, and the interior redecorated in 2013, after which the hotel joined The Luxury Collection division of Starwood Hotels.

Warsaw Uprising Youth Monument

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Mały Powstaniec

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Little Insurgent
Mały Powstaniec

Coordinates	52°14′59″N 21°0′34″ECoordinates: 52°14′59″N 21°0′34″E
Location	Warsaw Old Town, Warsaw, Poland
Designer	Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz
Material	Bronze sculpture
Completion date	1 October 1983
Dedicated to	The child soldiers of the Warsaw Uprising

Mały Powstaniec (the “Little Insurgent”) is a statue in commemoration of the child soldiers who fought and died during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. It is located on Podwale Street, next to the ramparts of Warsaw’s Old Town.

The statue is of a young boy wearing a helmet too large for his head and holding a submachine gun. It is reputed to be of a fighter who went by the pseudonym of “Antek”, and was killed on 8 August 1944 at the age of 13. The helmet and submachine gun are stylized after German equipment, which was captured during the uprising and used by the resistance fighters against the occupying forces.

Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz^[1] created the design for the monument in 1946, which was later used to make smaller copies of its present state. The statue was unveiled on October 1, 1983 by Professor Jerzy Świderski – a cardiologist who was a courier for the resistance during the uprising (pseudonym: “Lubicz”) serving in the Gustaw regiment of the Armia Krajowa. Behind the statue is a plaque with the engraved words of “Warszawskie Dzieci” (“Warsaw Children”), a popular song from the period: “Warszawskie dzieci, pójdziemy w bój – za każdy kamień twój, stolico damy krew” (“We’re the children of Warsaw, going into battle – for every stone of yours, we will give our blood”).

More Warsaw

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Warsaw at night

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July 23, 2016July 23, 2016

Lublin, Poland

My thanks to Emil Majuk for showing me around and for being such an excellent guide!

The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva Synagogue

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With Jery Litman

Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva Synagogue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Synagogue in Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva Synagoga w Jeszywas Chachmej Lublin

Basic information
Location	Lublin, Poland
Affiliation	Orthodox Judaism
Status	active
Materials	brick

The Synagogue in Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva is a synagogue located in Lublin, Poland, in the building of Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, on Lubartowska 85 (originally 57) Street.

History

The synagogue was completed in 1930 along with the rest of the complex of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva. Apart from religious functions, it was used as a lecture hall for the yeshiva^[1] ^[2] , having been able to seat over 200 students. During the Second World War, the building was vandalized by the Nazis, and all of the contents were damaged or dispersed.

After the war, the building of the yeshiva was taken over by the Medical University of Lublin. The room of the synagogue was redecorated and adjusted to needs of the University. The colouring of walls and columns was changed, and the windows located on the Eastern wall were bricked up.

In late 2003, the building was returned to the Jewish Community of Warsaw, which decided to redecorate and reconstruct the synagogue. The restoration commenced in May 2005, following the University’s departure from the structure. A rotten ceiling over the prayer room was replaced, and a new parquet floor was laid. Relying in part on pre-War photographs, the original colouring of columns and the windows on the Eastern wall were recreated. Also, the bimah and steps to Ark, which were surrounded by a balustrade, were restored.

However, the Ark could not be recreated at the time. In its place, a wardrobe and 2-metre (7 ft) high chandelier with 16 lights was installed. In the second half of 2007, the kehilla ordered the missing elements of the interior.

Renewed opening

Official opening of the synagogue took place on February 11, 2007. As the reconstruction of the interior of the synagogue was funded entirely by the Polish-Jewish Community, it was the first such ceremony in the post-War Poland.

During the ceremony, two replicas of mezuzahs with Polish Eagle were placed- the first one on the front door of Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, and the other one on door of the synagogue. The original mezuzah had been donated during the opening in 1930 by a tzadik from Czortków(now Chortkiv, Ukraine), Israel Friedman. Next, the chief rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich carried in a Sefer Torah, funded on June 17, 2005 by Americans Harley and Marie Lippman, on the occasion of their daughter Juliet’s Bat Mitzvah. Originally the Torah was located in Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw, but on January 22, 2006 it was carried into the Small Synagogue in Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, after which it was returned to Warsaw. The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland donated a gold-plated menorah and a plaque about the extermination of the Jews of Lublin.

There was over 600 guests for the ceremony, including representatives of Polish and foreign Jewish community as well people from university, cultural and religious fields: Michael Schudrich, Piotr Kadlčik, chairman of Lublin branch of the Jewish Community of Warsaw Roman Litman, Israel‘s ambassador to Poland David Peleg, metropolitan archbishop of Lublin Józef Życiński, president of Lublin Adam Wasilewski, representatives of local government, rabbi Yehiel Kaufman from Borough Park, Brooklyn, Jehuda Widawski, inhabitant of Lublin and other guests.^[3] ^[4]

For more info, visit the Lublin KehilaLink

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/lublin/Yeshiva_Synagogue.html

The Hotel Ilan

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With Eva

The Mikvah in the Hotel

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The Old Jewish Cemetery

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Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin
Details
Graves at Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin.
Established	1541 (probable)
Location	Lublin, Poland
Country	Poland
Coordinates	51°15′08″N 22°34′45″ECoordinates: 51°15′08″N 22°34′45″E
Type	Jewish cemetery
Size	1 ha

The Old Jewish Cemetery (Polish: Stary Cmentarz Żydowski w Lublinie), in Lublin, Poland, is located on a hill between Kalinowszczyzna and Sienna Streets. The cemetery overlooks the Old Town and is entirely surrounded by a high, seventeenth-century wall. It is located on the site of a former medieval fortress, and was once surrounded by numerous backwaters.

The cemetery was probably founded in 1541, although some sources give a much earlier date. The first written mention of the cemetery dates from 1555, when a privilege was issued to Polish Jews permitting burial in the area.

Many distinguished representatives of the Lublin Jewish community are buried there. Many of them have monumental and richly decorated matzevot headstones, but there are also matzevot without ornaments, which are evidence of modesty. In 1939 the cemetery probably held up to 3,000 matzevot. After the German occupation of Poland in 1939 and the start of the Holocaust, many of the matzevot were demolished or were used for street paving. The matzevot of several significant figures, however, remain.

In the 1980s, the Association for the Preservation of the Jewish Heritage in Lublin (Towarzystwo Opieki nad Pamiątkami Kultury Żydowskiej) began to put the cemetery in order and to make a detailed inventory. Between 1988 and 1991 several antisemitic acts of vandalism took place, as a result of which 40 further matzevot (Macewy) were destroyed.

Currently, the Old Jewish Cemetery in Lublin provides some of the last surviving physical evidence of the centuries-old presence of Jews in the city.

Aerial photo from 1964

Notable interments

Grodzka Gate

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With Izabella & Emil

Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre
Ośrodek “Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN”

Predecessor	NN Theatre
Location	Grodzka street, 21 20-112 Lublin, Poland
Coordinates	51°14′58″N 22°34′11″ECoordinates: 51°14′58″N 22°34′11″E
Fields	culture heritage, education
Director	Tomasz Pietrasiewicz
Vice director	Witold Dąbrowski
Website	teatrnn.pl

The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre (Polish: Ośrodek “Brama Grodzka — Teatr NN”) is a cultural institution based in Lublin. It is housed in the Grodzka Gate also known as the Jewish Gate that historically used to be a passage from the Christian to the Jewish part of the city. In its activities the Center focuses on issues of cultural heritage. Polish-Jewish past of Lublin is the corner stone of art and educational programmes carried out by the “Gate”.^[1]

History and Theater activities of the Center

NN Theater was established in 1990 in Lublin Drama Group, accommodated at that time in the Grodzka Gate and adjoining buildings.^[2] In 1998 the theater became a detached, independent organization and received its current name Ośrodek “Brama Grodzka — Teatr NN”.^[1]

In its infancy theater staged the plays based on works of Kafka, Hrabal and other authors. As Tomasz Pietrasiewicz explains, literary adaptation of Herman Melville novel “Moby-Dick” played on the stage in June 1995 became a farewell to the certain period of producer’s theater life. When after a long break he returned to stage direction again, the spotlight shifted to the storytelling.^[3]

The Center also organizes festivals, such as “Miasto Poezji” (English: “City of Poetry”) and “Śladami Singera” (English: “Following I. B. Singer’s Traces”).

Expositions in the “Grodzka Gate”

Building of the Center has hosted many expositions, though its structure, characterized by a range of narrow corridors, some dead-end ones, is far from being an idyllic place for a “typical” exhibition. Thus, their creators had to “fit” their exhibit items in the space available.

In 2010 with financial endorsement of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland an exposition “Lublin. Pamięć Miejsca” (English: “Lublin. Memory of the Place”) was launched and has been operating ever since. It included some objects from the previous display “Portrait of the Place” and was enriched by some multimedia materials. One of the halls opens to visitors’ eyes a “Wall of voices” – boxes with installed speaker system. Pressing on one of the buttons you can listen to the stories about old Lublin – its smells, tastes, and sounds.

Numerous pieces of Kaiserpanorama, accompanying visitors through the whole course of exhibition, offer to have a look at pictures of interwar Lublin. In addition, there is a room dedicated to the Holocaust victims with seventy coloured photos of Lublin ghetto, taken by a German soldier Max Kirnberger.^[4] In 2012 new photos were added to the gallery. They had been found on the roof of the building on Rynek 4 during its renovation. There, under the leads, wrapped in papers and rags 2,700 photocopies were discovered. The owners of the house handed them over to the “Grodzka Gate” for a period of ten years. Author of the photos is still unknown.^[5]

A separate room is devoted to the Righteous Among the Nations from Lublin region (people who had been rescuing Jews during the Holocaust). It is a place, where visitors can read their personal stories and listen to their reminiscences. Another eye-catching item of the exposition are models of the old part of the city in 1930s – one actual and one multimedia one with replicas of 840 buildings, such as town houses, shops, synagogues etc.^[6]

Historical and educational activities of “The Grodzka Gate – NN Theater”

Jews who come here ask us: why do you do this? After all, you are not Jews, but Poles, and Jewish town is not your history.

Poles ask us: why do you do this? After all, you are Poles, and Jewish town is not our history. Maybe you are Jewish?

We patiently explain that it is our common, Polish-Jewish history. In order to remember the killed Jews, you don’t have to be a Jew as well.

There must be more such gates in the world we live. Not only Polish-Jewish ones.^[7]

Former Synagogue Complex of The Maharshal – Shlomo Luria

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Videos

Emil Majuk

Pawel & Luba Lublin

Chevra Nosim Synagogue

Thanks to Pawel and Luba Matraszek for their hospitality.

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Ghetto Memorial

Other views of Lublin

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The Train to Warsaw

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July 16, 2016

Podil & Walking Up The Descent!

Podil

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Podil (Ukrainian: Поділ) is a historic neighborhood in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Kiev, and the birthplace of the city’s trade, commerce and industry. It contains many architectural and historical landmarks, and new archaeological sites are still being revealed. It is a part of the city’s larger administrative Podilskyi District.

The Podil Synagogue

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Inside The Synagogue

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Great Choral Synagogue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Great Choral Synagogue

Basic information
Location	Schekovytska 29, Podil Kiev, Ukraine
Affiliation	Orthodox Judaism
Status	Active
Leadership	Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich
Architectural description
Architect(s)	1895 – Nikolay Gardenik 1915 – Valerian Rykov^[1]
Architectural style	Moorish Revival
Completed	1895

The Great Choral Synagogue of Kiev, also known as the Podil Synagogue or the Rozenberg Synagogue, is the oldest synagogue in Kiev, Ukraine. It is situated in Podil, a historic neighborhood of Kiev.

History

The Aesopian synagogue was built in 1895.^[2] It was designed in Neo-Moorish style by Nikolay Gordenin. Gabriel Yakob Rozenberg, a merchant, financed the building.^[2] In 1915 the building was reconstructed by Valerian Rykov. The reconstruction was financed by Vladimir Ginzburg, a nephew of Rozenberg.

In 1929, the synagogue was closed. During the German occupation of Kiev in World War II, the Nazis converted the building into a horse stable.^[3]

Since 1945, the building has again been used as a synagogue. In 1992, Yaakov Bleich was appointed rabbi of the Jewish community of Kiev and chief rabbi of Ukraine.

Yaakov Bleich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012

Yaakov Dov Bleich (born 19 October 1964) is an American-born rabbi and member of the Karlin-Stolin Hasidic dynasty. He has been widely recognized as Chief Rabbi of Kiev and all of Ukraine since 1990^[1] and has served as vice-president of the World Jewish Congress since 2009.^[2]

He graduated from Telshe Yeshiva High School in Chicago, Illinois where he began his rabbinical studies. From 1984-1986, he studied at the Karlin Stolin Rabbinical Institute in Jerusalem, and received his Rabbinical ordination (semicha) at Yeshiva Karlin Stolin in Brooklyn.

In 1990, Bleich was appointed by his Karlin-Stolin community as Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine. Since his arrival in Ukraine, Bleich has been instrumental in founding the Kyiv Jewish City Community, the Union Of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, the first Jewish day school in Ukraine, the first Jewish orphanage and boarding school in Ukraine, the Chesed Avot welfare society of Kyiv, the Magen Avot social services network of Ukraine, and a host of other organizations.

In 2005 he was one of three contenders for the role of chief rabbi, alongside Chabad Lubavitch appointees Azriel Chaikin (appointed 2002) and Moshe Reuven Azman (appointed 2005).^[3] There is also a Progressive (Liberal/Reform) Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine, Alexander Dukhovny. But Rabbi Yaakov Bleich has always been recognized by the government as chief rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine.

In 2008, Kievan weekly magazine Focus named Bleich among the most “powerful foreigners” in the country.^[4]

Personal

Rabbi Bleich grew up in Borough Park, Brooklyn. In 1987, he married Bashy Wigder of Monsey, New York.History of the Jews in Kiev

History of the Jews in Kiev

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of the Jews in Kiev stretches from the 10th century CE to the 21st century, and forms part of the history of the Jews in Ukraine.

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Entering Kievby Mykola Ivasiuk.

The first mention of Jews in Kiev is found in the 10th century Kievian Letter, written by local Jews in ancient Hebrew. It is the oldest written document to mention the name of the city. Jewish travelers such as Benjamin of Tudela and Pethahiah of Regensburg mentioned the city as one with a large Jewish community. During the Mongol occupation the community was devastated, together with the rest of the city, but the community revived with the acquisition of the city by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During Polish–Lithuanian rule, Jews were allowed to settle in the city, but they were subject to several deportations in 1495 and again in 1619.^[1]

During the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648 most of the Jews in the city were murdered by Zaporozhian Cossacks, along with most of the Jews in Ukraine. After the Russian occupation in 1654, Jews were not allowed to settle in the city. This ban was lifted only in 1793 after the Third Partition of Poland.

Modern history

Percentage of ethnic Jews in Kiev’s districts according to the 1919 municipal population census

Brodsky Synagogue around 1970; then used as a puppet theatre and currently used as a synagogue^[2]^[3]

In the 19th century the Jewish community flourished and became one of the biggest communities in Ukraine. In that period many synagogues were built including the city’s main synagogue, the Brodsky Synagogue. Jewish schools and workshops were built all around the city.

The community suffered from a number of pogroms in 1882, and again in 1905, when hundreds of Jews were murdered and wounded. The Beilis trial, in which a local Jew, Beilis, was accused of the ritual murder of a child, took place in the city in 1903. Beilis was found innocent.

During the Russian revolution and the Ukrainian War of Independence the city switched hands several times with new pogroms against the Jews. After the establishment of the Ukrainian SSR the Jewish population grew rapidly and reached approximately 224,000 people in 1939.^[1]

At the beginning of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union most Jews escaped from the city. The remaining 33,771 Jews were concentrated in Babi Yar, and were executed by shooting on September 29-30th 1941, in an act that became one of the most notorious episodes of the Holocaust. Another 15.000 Jews were murdered in the same place during 1941-1942.

After the war the surviving Jews returned to the city. On September 4–7, 1945 a pogrom took place and ^[4] around one hundred Jews were beaten, of whom thirty-six were hospitalized and five died of wounds.^[5] In 1946 there was only one operating synagogue in Kiev. The last rabbi to officiate in Kiev was Rabbi Panets, who retired in 1960 and died in 1968; a new rabbi was not appointed.^[1] After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of the Jewish population emigrated from Kiev. After Ukrainian independence there was a revival of Jewish community life, with the establishment of two Jewish schools and a memorial in Babi Yar, where an official ceremony is held every year.^[6]

Today there are approximately 20,000 Jews in Kiev, with two major religious communities: Chabad (rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman); and Karlin(rabbi Yaakov Bleich). Тwo major synagogues, the Brodsky Choral Synagogue and the Great Choral Synagogue, servе these communities.^[7]

Antisemitism

Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman called on Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and the country if possible, fearing that the city’s Jews will be victimized in the chaos during Ukrainian revolution of 2014: “I told my congregation to leave the city center or the city all together and if possible the country too… I don’t want to tempt fate… but there are constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions”.^[8]Moreover, the CFCA (the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism) reported more than three antisemitic incidents occurred in Kiev since the 2014 Crimean crisis.^[9] Both the pro-Russian Ukrainians and the Ukraine-government supporters blame each other in the exacting situation of the Jews of Kiev. Leaders of Ukraine’s own Jewish community have alleged that recent anti-Semitic provocations in the Crimea, including graffiti on a synagogue in Crimea’s capital that read “Death to the Zhids,” are the handiwork of pro-Russian Ukrainians. Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, who presides over Ukraine’s Jewish Federation, signed a letter asking Russia to end its aggression, and compared the current climate in Crimea to that of pre-Anschluss Austria.^[10] The memorial Menorah in Babi Yar was desecrated twice with sprayed swastika, during Rosh Hashana and a couple of months later. ^[11] ^[12] During June 2015 there was an explosion in a Jewish-owned shop in Kiev. An extreme right-wing organization claimed responsibility for the incident.^[13] Later that month, the memorial Menorah in Babi Yar was desecrated again.^[14]

Walking around Podil

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Up Andriivs’kyi Descent past St Andrew’s Church to Saint Sophia’s Cathedral

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St Michael’s Monastery to Maidan Square

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Activities along Khreschatyk Street

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Videos

Street Video

Street Video 2

Street Video 3

July 10, 2016July 10, 2016

Bubbles – From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End

Bubbles – From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End

a new publication by Bubbles Segall

Bubbles Segall was born in South Africa and moved to Australia in 1974.
She moved to the Northern Territory in 1976 where she worked for thirty-three years as a midwife, as a Community Health Nurse and as a Community Development Officer in Darwin and in remote Aboriginal communities.

“This autobiography of Bubbles tells the story of her journey from Cape Town to the Northern Territory of Australia, which more than lived up to the enchantment she held in her childhood.”

This is her story.

From Bubbles:

After many months of slaving over my laptop, I have finally finished a book about my life.

The title: Bubbles. From Stellenbosch to Australia’s Top End.

To celebrate, I had a launch at our favourite Irish pub on Sunday 26 July 2016 with somewhere between 60 and 70 people friends and family.

To order copies go to the website http://www.underthesun.net.au/

Click on Buy Books

Scroll down to Quick Links (listed by author’s surname).

Click on S-Z and find my book
Love from Bubbles Segall” bubblessegall@gmail.com

July 4, 2016October 16, 2019

Kalvarija Gymnazija & Survivor Meiškė Segalis

Kalvarija, Lithuania

City in Lithuania

Kalvarija is a city in southwestern Lithuania, located in the Marijampolė County, close to the border with Poland. Wikipedia

Population: 5,066 (2005)

Municipality: Kalvarija Municipality

The Kalvarija Gymnazija

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The library and museum

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The students with teachers – Daura & Arune – History & Giedre – English

The Turkish exchange students

Giedre talking about the visiting Turkish students

Video presentation by students – Meiškė Segalis

Meiškė Antanas Segalis- Miliauskas was born in about 1938 (original birth certificate is missing), his father Abraom-Povilas Segalis, who was born in 1920 ,was an artistic personality both a painter and an artist. He was a baptised Jew, his mother Adelė Balevičiūtė Segalienė Miliauskienė was a Lithuanian, she was a maiden and after the war a shop-assistant.

In summer 1941, father together with other Jews was taken to the stables. (It was built in the place where the boiler house is nowadays). Father was with son while mother was free. On the execution day, standing close to the ditch, father was ordered to give the son to the guard who later handed him to mother. At the shooting site (the beginning was on the hill, downside the military barracks, close to the old lime tree) there were three ditches as big as the area, later the corps were covered with something white ( most probably calx).

A rescued son was hidden at mother‘s friend Maryte Griciute home in Rugiu street in Marijampole. (The second house on the corner) She was a single woman looking after parents‘ farm.She was also Adele‘s peer and lived in the neighbourhood. A child lived quite freely and called her “Mom Maryte“, yet he was hidden from a public eye and till 1947 he was constantly taken to Kalvarija to stay at Virbickai or Malisauskai so that he could play with children. On December 15th, 1942, mother was deported to the labour camp in Sulihau, Germany.

On February 24 th, after liberating the camp, the mother came back home to Lithuania on foot, it took three months for her. Afterwards, she married, became Miliauskiene and changed her son‘s birth date and other documents. What is more, her son Antanas did not want to acknowledge her as a mother as it was very complicated for him to leave his care taker.

Meiškė Segalis’s documents

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Meeting survivor Meiškė Segalis

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Meiškė at the synagogues

Meiškė is looking for his family in Canada

Please contact me if you have any information about Meiškė’s family in Canada.

Here are my images from my trip last year:

My Jewish Virtual Heritage Tour post from 2015

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Stropkov

Jewish community

Chief Rabbis of Stropkov

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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

History

Jewish Historical Institute

History

Nożyk Synagogue

History

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

History

Architecture

Hotel Bristol, Warsaw

History

Mały Powstaniec

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Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva Synagogue

History

Renewed opening

Old Jewish Cemetery, Lublin

Notable interments

Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre

History and Theater activities of the Center

Expositions in the “Grodzka Gate”

Historical and educational activities of “The Grodzka Gate – NN Theater”

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Podil

Great Choral Synagogue

History

Yaakov Bleich

Personal

History of the Jews in Kiev

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Modern history

Antisemitism

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