The FREIDINS of ZELVA Family Newsletter

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It has been nearly a year since I last published a Newsletter, but it has not been for lack of input. There is an old Yiddish saying, 'Der mensch trakht, und Gott lakht'.... which is generally taken to mean that, no matter how much you like to plan and organize things, the exigencies of life will come along and play their own form of havoc with your most carefully constructed intentions. The best you can hope for is, that the havoc is relatively benign, but as you all know -- there are no guarantees....

Among the several hiccups to come along during the year, the most relevant to this undertaking was Randi Ostro's decision to make a career shift. Changing interests and priorities have caused her to focus more on her initiatives in photography, and therefore, she took a decision to outsource her internet work to a third party, to give her more freedom to travel and take pictures. Accordingly, she advised me of her desire to step back from her role as Web Host. Curiously, this comes at a very good time in the 'state of the art:' In the past few years, since we have gone on line, the costs associated with hosting and maintaining a website have fallen dramatically. I was also fortunate, insofar as my daughter, Sharon Javer, had honed these skills as a librarian, and had undertaken to be the 'Webmacherkeh' for our Temple (you can see her handiwork at our Temple website: www.bethrishon.org). When I approached her to assume parallel duties for the Zelva website, she readily agreed. So what you see, is the great foundation laid by Randi, relocated in its own domain, under Sharon's guidance.

All of us truly owe Randi Ostro a tremendous vote of thanks. At a time, when going on line and creating websites was still considered to be somewhat arcane, expensive, and complicated, she stepped into the breach, and assured that this 'endeavor' would be nurtured and would prosper. Her sponsorship, and incredible responsiveness, was essential to freeing me from the tyranny of paper and snail mail, and has given all of us a new dimension of connectedness in the Brave New Wired World. For this I thank her on behalf of all those who read and benefit from these communications. We also wish her all the best and much success with her 'discerning eye' as she goes out to make her mark in photography. 

All of this transpired on the heels of the completion of the translation of Pinkas Zamosc into The Zamosc Memorial Book. For the five month period from May to October, I was quite busy responding to the various subscribers around the world. We had a really good production run of 160 books, of which 55 have been lodged with the various libraries and archives in the English-speaking world (this is turning out to be a pretty predictable number). None of this prevented me from participating in a two-week sailing trip with my mekhutan, Herb Javer. We sailed his 37.5 foot sloop, 'The Berdie E' from her home port of Stamford, CT to Martha's Vineyard and back, late July and early August.

During the year, my wife Carol regrettably developed a problem with her ankle, which ultimately required surgical repair. This was successfully done in mid-November, but she needs to spend a couple of months without putting any weight on the repaired foot to let it heal completely. Needless to say this has brought some unnecessary excitement into our lives, but we are managing reasonably well. 

With all this, I have nevertheless not lost sight of this publishing imperative, and while we are somewhat later than we would have desired, here we are -- ready to go!

Carmi, a little girl, was born to Michal Bratt & her husband Shmuel Cohen, a granddaughter to Irit & Chaim Bratt .

Asaf, a little boy was born to Chaim & Ophrah Waxman. He joins his sister Yaela & two brothers Gilead & Jonathan. He is a grandson to Ammihud & Ora Gilony.

Meagan Leah, born to Randi & Jared Schoenfeld, August 6, 2004, at 6lbs 6 oz, 20 ½ in. She is a granddaughter of Amy Schoenfeld.

Ido, a little boy, was born to  Dror & Hagit Gilony , grandson to Ammihud & Ora Gilony. 

Noam, a little girl, was born on October 25, 2004 to to Ayelet & Yohanan Benvenisti. She joins her big sister, Maya, a granddaughter to Odded & Jochi Ritz, and a great-granddaughter to Manya Ritz.

Baby Noam Benvenisti                                         Big Sister Maya, Noam, and Mommy Ayelet

Dr. Leonard Freed died on May 29, 2004 at the age of 85. He was the oldest surviving son of Isidore & Sarah Freed. Pre-deceased by his younger brother, Arnold, he is survived y his two sons, Leonard, Jr. and Frederick, several grandchildren, his younger sister, Beatrice Melnick and several nephews and nieces.

Well-remembered, as a vigorous and strapping man in his youth and throughout life, Leonard sought to pursue a career in medicine in the late 1930s, at a time when the notoriously anti-Semitic numerus clausus restrictions were keeping Jewish students out of American medical schools. He credits his ability to get into the Boston Middlesex Medical School to the outbreak of the Second World War, which consigned such restrictions to the dustbin of history. Upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Navy, where he served as a medical officer in the Pacific theater of the war.

After a brief unsuccessful marriage, he relocated from the New York area, to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he became distinguished as a pioneer in the introduction of radiation treatment to that part of the country. A radiologist by specialty, he brought the first radioactive cobalt equipment to the Florida peninsula. In time, he would persuade his father and mother to relocate to St. Petersburg, where they would live out the substance of their later years.

While there, he met and married Rose Juliani, the mother of his sons, but this marriage too, ended in divorce. He met his third, and final wife, Dr. Gloria Greene Freed, while she was treating his sister-in-law Pauline Freed, in her capacity as an obstetrician. They, too, divorced late in life.

During his later years, he shuttled back and forth between northern Florida and southern Alabama, sometimes taking a position as a physician with the U.S. Army. He was known to indulge in many flamboyant pursuits, both from a business and recreational point of view. I have previously reported, that I derived a great deal of pleasure in bringing my son Dr. Daniel Berger, to visit with him while Dan was doing his OB/Gyn residency in Pensacola, FL. 

In recent years, even so seemingly impervious an individual as he, began to succumb to the ravages of old age and the onset of disease. The following picture shows him with his dear sister Beatrice, during a visit she made to see him late last year.

We will not likely see anyone of his ilk any time soon.

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Pauline (Pessie) Freed died on June 11, 2004 at age 84. Predeceased by her husband, Bernard Freed, she is survived by her daughters, Gloria Jackelow and Evelyn Freed Nebel, and her grandchildren Meryl, Brian & Melissa Jackelow. A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, NY, she is warmly remembered by all for her friendliness, cheer and good humor.

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Ari Reisner, father of Pessia Freidin, her sister Miriam Griever and brother Simcha,  passed away on June 22, 2004. He is survived by his wife, Leah, children and grandchildren.

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Alexander Marshack, husband of Dr. Elaine F. Marshack, a scion of the Walitsky Family of Dereczin, passed away on December 20, 2004, at the age of 86 . In an impressive obituary in the New York Times,  he is identified as: "a self-taught anthropological researcher who first interpreted certain Stone Age artifacts as primitive calendars, advancing the notion that prehistoric man was more inventive than previously thought." A journalism graduate of CCNY, his work earned him a position as a research associate at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard in 1963, and his maverick findings attracted widespread interest when they were published in Science in November 1964.

He is survived by his wife. A previous marriage was annulled.

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We were advised by Dr. Ruthie Lapid-Gortzak  that her mother, Nitza Gortzak-Moorstein passed away  in Amsterdam, on   December 27, 2004 16 Tevet 5765, with the funeral  in Amstelveen the following day.  Ruthie's late mother was the daughter of Yerakhmiel Moorstein, the late editor of The Zelva Memorial Book.

Early this spring,  Matan Getz, son of Osnat & Menachem Getz, grandson of Eli-Emil Neutra and the late Maxima, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. Special Mazal Tov to great-grandmother, Manya Ritz.....! The May-June Issue of  "Martyrdom & Resistance" on page 5, an article by Jack Berger  appears, under the title, "Urgency to Document History of Destroyed Communities." In this article, Jack explains his thoughts on the importance of translating Holocaust Memorial Books from Yiddish into English... We send a Refuah Shlema to Zvika Freidin, who had his gall bladder removed in late August. We understand he is doing well, and pursuing advanced studies in law... Here is some news from Odded Ritz concerning the summer adventures of his family:  Uri (our son)  yesterday returned from a half a year journey in South America and Cuba. Jochi joined him for two weeks in Cuba just before the hurricane hit Cuba. Uri was stuck there for a while. He will start studying  Industrial Engineering immediately after Sukkot. Ronit (our middle daughter) is visiting us, and will stay another week here in Israel before joining her husband Aviv in New York in the  USA. Aviv is studying for his MBA in Columbia University. One of our elders had a setback earlier this year, as reported by Odded. As he was traveling in Central America -Guatemala and Mexico during April, his mother Manya fell down and broke her hip in two places. She was hospitalized and it looked like she would not be able to walk again. Odded felt otherwise, feeling that his mother would recover, since she has such a strong  will to remain independent, and that would override her pains. He reported that she started to do all the exercises 3 times daily as she was instructed to do. With unbelievable pains and with help she got out of her bed, and after a month, the two places where she broke the hip healed almost completely. The doctors said they have never seen such an old person with such  clear mental power and a will to be an independent person. But these setbacks in the winter of life do not come without a cost. As Odded wrote several months later: "My mother Manya is 'starting to become old' as she said. She is OK, still living in the same place not too far from us, well recovered from her fall in which she broke her pelvis......" We are happy to report, by way of follow-up, that Jason Shapiro & Camerin Fischer were duly married on October 23 in San Diego, as advertised... A hearty Mazal Tov to all the families involved! With the completion of the Zamosc Memorial Book, I immediately turned to my next target of opportunity: the translation of the Szczebrzeszyn Yizkor Book. This book is nowhere near as formidable in size or scope as the notorious 'Z-Monster,' and I will probably have it done sometime in the spring of 2005...

While there were many events on the sailing trip that Jack took with his mekhutan, Herb Javer, one was particularly interesting. On our way from Block Island to New London, CT, we were enveloped in fog, and we kept hearing the report of a very loud fog horn from our stern, which puzzled us. It was not until we got to the mouth of the New London harbor, that the fog lifted, and we saw that we had been followed by a 'boomer' on its way to berth at the Groton Naval Yard. We took the following picture,  as it passed about 100 yards from our port bow:   We eventually got to see three of them, constituting about $6 Billion of taxpayer funds, on the fin....   This proved to be enough of a delight, that we are now thinking of a repeat engagement for the summer of 2005.  We are going to explore the possibility of going down through New York Harbor and on to the Jersey Shore. This will give us a potential second venue to alternate with the LI Sound shoreline.... Late in August, the West Coast Bergers invaded the East Coast, repeating the success of a precedent we had established in the prior year.  A good time was had by all, and we were delighted to get a report back afterwards,  that a new arrival is expected in San Mateo, sometime late in March, or early in April.... Getting established in an obstetrical practice has proven more of a challenge to Dr. Daniel Berger than he would have liked, or expected. After having a a second opportunity disintegrate from under him in two years, he, and his family, came back home to Mahwah, NJ to enable him to concentrate on passing his board exams. He accomplished this in mid-November, and is now a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.  Equally gratifying, he found a promising opportunity with a practice in Newton, NJ, not too far from here, and will be starting work there in mid-January 2005.... We look forward to wedding bells on July 23, 2005 for Melissa Jackelow and Kyle Clendennen. Melissa is the daughter of Eddie & Gloria Jackelow of East Meadow, NY.........

Here is Great-Grandma Manya Ritz, watching Maya Benvenisti light Hannukah candles with Grandpa Odded Ritz

From the Archives

We are indebted to Maribeth Solomon Erbe for this 'passport photo' taken of her grandmother, Rebecca Ritz, and her two twins, Eva and Irwin, shortly after the death of her husband, Moshe Beryl Futritzky, and the subsequent immigration of this family to Canada.

This candid shot was found among the effects of the late Jack Fried. It depicts the late Yehoshua Freidin in Israel, with his wife Chaya, and the two children, Avraham and Sari Fisher...

Reminiscences

Zelver Benevolent Association

In going through the effects of the late Jack Fried, his family discovered that he had in his possession souvenir copies of the 25th and 40th Anniversary programs of the Zelver Benevolent Association Banquets of those years.  We have completed scanning the material for  the 40th anniversary document for permanent display on our website. Here, we repeat the frontispiece of the Fortieth Anniversary program:

The complete program can be seen at http://www.zelva.org/ZS40.htm . This link will be accessible on an ongoing basis from the historical page dedicated to the Zelver Benevolent Association.

It's a little early, but what the heck..................

 

The  Freidins of Zelva  Family Newsletter Editor-Publisher.................................................  Jack S. Berger  Webmacherkeh....................................................  Sharon Javer    Web Host Emeritus.............................................. Randi Ostro Publisher Emeritus..........................................Samuel K. Rubin The Family Newsletter of the Freidins of Zelva is published periodically to foster communications between the descendants of TANHUM YITZHAK FREIDIN ritual slaughterer of the town of Zelva in the Grodno Province of Belarus. For further information, the Editor-Publisher may be reached as follows: Jack S. Berger 12 Janice Court Mahwah, NJ 07430-1515  USA Telephone: 201-529-3391 E-mail: JSBerger@Sigmaxi.org  ©  Copyright  2005  All rights reserved