Family Newsletter

On Line!

Volume 15 Number 1 April 2006

After Purim, Before Passover

With the ebb and flow of daily events, the calendar got away from me, and I have ended up writing the 'winter' letter in the early spring. The intervening time has been filled with a little bit of everything, as you will see in reading the news column below.

I thought I might devote a few words here to a sociological phenomenon that is 'very 21st century' and is at variance with what we have come to expect in a traditional sense. This thought occurred to me, when I learned that my cousin Moshe Freidin had decided to retire, and close up his butcher shop at 174 Dizengoff Street in Tel-Aviv. There is the wistful side of this: we are able, with confidence, to say that Moshe was the fifth generation in our family line to earn his livelihood from the trade of being a 'katsav' or butcher. We cannot know how many more generations of men before Tanhum Yitzhak Freidin, also earned their livelihood this way, but it would not come as a surprise to know that the trade was handed down from father to son over more than half a millennium.

It was interesting to hear from Moshe's son Zvika, that his father expressed an interest in handing the business over to him. After all, Moshe himself, took over this store from his father, Itchkeh Freidin, who established it in the late 1930s after the family emigrated from Zelva in (then) Poland to the Holy Land. There is a small difference: Zvika is a Lt. Colonel (ret.) in the IAF, and a Vice President of Operations in an Israeli shipping and distribution company.

That this is not quite the 'same fit' as was the case a half century ago, is a testament to the changing times, and also a tribute to the development of the State of Israel economically. In the United States, we are more used to observing this. Jewish immigrant workers, who populated the garment center trades a half century ago, had children who went on to become skilled professionals. The children of the the Korean grocers in the greater Metro NYC area, by and large, don't run those stores: they are doctors, lawyers and engineers.

So, while the traditional unbroken chain of an inherited trade is consigned to the dustbin of history, we can wish everyone involved a hearty 'LaBriut!', as a wish for continued good health and prosperity.

Family Births

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Alex, born March 1, 2006 to Jason & Robin Boyarski, son of Joel and Ellie Boyarski. We offer our special warm and loving wishes to Gertrude "Gutka" Salutsky-Boyarski, our landsfrau from Dereczin and Zelva, on the birth of her first great-grandchild.

It is often said that the best revenge we can have for the calamity of the Holocaust is to live well. Here, we can document that, for all the unspeakable suffering that they endured, both of our oldest survivors, Faygl Garber York, and Gertrude 'Gutka' Salutsky-Boyarski have been granted the privilege of seeing great-grandchildren come into the world.

Thus shall your enemies perish O Lord,

And those who love Him shall be like the sun emerging at its zenith

--Judges 5:31

Mazel Tov to All!

In Memoriam

Sylvia Kleinberg, aunt of Carol L. Berger at age 92, on April 7, 2006, wife of Carol's late uncle, Max Kleinberg. Survived by her daughters, Laura Chevinsky and Nancy Sovisky, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Odded Ritz reminds us, one year later, after the first Yahrzeit, that April 4 would have been the 100th birthday of his later mother, Manya Kaganovich Ritz.

We extend the sincerest condolences of our entire family of readers to those who have been bereaved.

News from All Over

During Late December and into early January, Odded Ritz made a vacation trip to the United States. It was an opportunity to do some skiing in Colorado, and in addition to visiting with his daughter Ronit Bueno, and her husband Aviv and his nephew Ronen Neutra, he got in touch with a variety of his relatives on the East Coast. We got together for a nice chatty lunch in Nyack, NY on a chilly weekend morning, and a good time was had by all....

All of us pursue passions that have caught our imagination, and Arthur Melnick, oldest son of Bea and the late Dr. Jacob, is no exception. A life-long resident of Brooklyn, he has nurtured his love for the trolley cars of that borough, as part of a nostalgia for a bygone era, rich with many memories that all of us from there cherish. His endeavors to bring back that era, are summarized in this extract from an article, entitled 'A Desire Named Streetcar,' that appeared in the New York Times on January 15, 2006:

Ah, trolleys! In 1930, 1,800 of them crisscrossed Brooklyn, traveling on a 300-mile latticework of steel track. But as city residents moved to the suburbs after World War II, the trolley infrastructure grew increasingly rundown, and tracks were pulled up and sold as scrap. New York cast itself as a progressive city, and trolleys were thought of as old-fashioned. Buses had become cheaper to run, and private automobiles more common.

The borough's last trolley made its lonesome way down McDonald Avenue in 1956. Like the Dodgers at Ebbets Field and Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, trolleys were interred in Brooklyn's wistful collective memory.

If Mr. Melnick has his wish, they may be revived. In 2002, he formed the nonprofit Brooklyn City Streetcar Company, and he has spent the last three years meeting quietly with community leaders and city officials as a one-man advocate for trolley lines in Brooklyn.

Like all such endeavors, a mix of competing interests and Byzantine municipal politics dogs it at every turn. Nevertheless, Arthur champions on....

We are pleased to report that Dr. Daniel Berger has met the qualifications to be appointed a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists. We are planning a bit of a hegira to Washington D.C. in May, at which time he will be invested at the annual ACOG Meeting that will take place there at that time...

.I am pleased to report that the raw translation of the Cieszanow Yizkor Book is now complete. Subsequent to editing, I anticipate offering it for publication early in May 2006. This is my sixth such endeavor, and I am on the prowl for the seventh. With over 430 Yiddish Yizkor Books to choose from, I do not anticipate running out of subject matter anytime soon....

Following our usual practice, Jack & Carol Berger made their January- February pilgrimage to the Bay Area in San Francisco, catching the birthdays for David's two older boys, Zachary & Jordan. While the kids were off skiing one weekend, we went off to Monterey, saw the aquarium (a world class facility), and did some winter whale watching. We note, with satisfaction, that Master Gabriel celebrated his first birthday in fine fettle at the end of March. As we write, Zachary, his first cousin Jesse Neugarten, under the watchful eye of their Uncle Bernard Spanger, are winging their way off to visit their Granny Francie Spanger in Johannesburg, South Africa....

Continuity in relationships is something that is precious, but difficult to value. Granddaughter Daryn Javer, who attends Betsy Ross School in Mahwah, has Mrs. Lucy Spezzacatena as a third grade teacher. What makes this interaction noteworthy, is that well over thirty years ago, Mrs. Spezzacatena was a newly-minted teacher, who taught Daryn's mother, then Sharon Ann Berger, in kindergarten. It is very special....

We wish to extend our heartiest best wishes to uncle Harold Freed, who reached the milestone of his 85th birthday on February 26. To take a leaf from his own book, we wish him many, many more happy and healthy years, as a 'fugitive from the law of averages....'

A new animal has come into the life of the Berger family. Son Robert, impressed by his sister's Pug, Prince Winston Reginald Greenbaum III, has seen fit to acquire one of his own. We introduce, Muggle J. Berger:

Mug Da Pug

Robert does not approve of me calling him Guggle Muggle, but then again, he wasn't raised the way I was.....

Wedding bells will ring for Brian David Jackelow and Ann-Helene Schechter. on September 16, 2006. Brian is the son of Eddie & Gloria Jackelow of East Meadow, NY.........

A Bit of Moorstein Family History

Jack: I had a chance to look at the Zelva Newsletter and I thought I would write about the Moorsteins. We've had some ups and downs --- as everyone does.

Here's the history of my family as I know it: My grandfather, Abraham, was the uncle of Rachmiel (Yerachmiel) Moorstein. Abe came to the US about 1912 after hopping a freighter to Galveston. He made his way to Michigan and worked in Flint making cars. He married my grandmother in the US who was originally from, I think, Pieski, near Zelva. My grandparents had two children, Benjamin (my father) and Harry. Abe was entrepreneurial and started a bus company in upper Michigan, but lost it during the Depression.

My father went to medical school at the University of Michigan and then joined the Army Medical Corps in 1944. Harry had suffered a serious injury as a child and had problems hearing, but graduated from Michigan and became a CPA.

My father married my mother, whose family had started El Producto Cigars. After the war my father was certified as a psychiatrist in order to treat "shell-shocked" soldiers and after leaving the army taught at Michigan. My family moved to Akron in 1950 where my father still lives (and plays golf) at 87 years of age. He and my mother had my older brother Bruce in 1947. Bruce is now Chief of Surgery for a hospital in Oakland, California. I was born in 1949 and am a business and land use trial lawyer in Virginia. In 1951 my younger brother, Ron, was born. Ron died this summer of complications from diabetes. I have two grown kids, Katie and Tim. Katie is a counselor at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. Tim is a branch manager for Bank of America.

Harry had two children, Debbie and Bart. Debbie lives in Detroit. Bart is a lawyer in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. Debbie has two grown kids and Bart has two kids as well.

As you know, I've visited Zelva and have even visited the original houses of my grandfather. I took your translation of the Zelva book with me when I went and used it to find the houses.

I went to Princeton and studied in Germany and later participated in the Moscow Conference on Law and Economics (which was an effort to revise the Soviet Constitution) in 1990. As a result of the contacts I made in Moscow, I've learned a good bit of Russian. This has helped me understand the history of Zelva. I have written two books, Red Reflections and Frameworks: Conflict in Balance. I'm working on a third tentatively called The Perfect President. I have my own law firm, fly a Mooney and ride a bike when I can. I drive a pick-up truck.

We think there are a lot of related Moorsteins "out there." The best Moorstein, however, is the wine we found on-line. I don't think it comes from Zelva.

In any event, I wish you and everyone well.

Mark Moorstein

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A Happy & Sweet Passover!

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: mailto:JSBerger@Sigmaxi.org
© Copyright 2006
All rights reserved

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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: