The FREIDINS of ZELVA Family Newsletter

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A Quiet Few Months

It isn't as if nothing has been going on, but it has been relatively still since I last published the Newsletter. This will account for the delay till April, whereas I normally write in February, or March the latest. During October, we traveled to the West, largely in connection with a reunion of my colleagues, which was held in Las Vegas. We subsequently went on to California to visit with my son David and his family, during which time we did get to see Dr. Allen & Christina Rubin who were in the Bay Area for a convention. 

We are saddened to report that my mother-in-law, Frances Edith Krantz Kleinberg passed away early in February (see obituary below), and note thereby that we are continuing to lose the most venerable among us. Despite this, reports of new life also flow in, giving us the comfort in knowing that the continuity of life does go on.

If you check the masthead, you will see that this is the seventeenth year in which we are publishing this Family Newsletter. This thought was brought home to me, when Devon Rubin wrote to me concerning the Bar Mitzvah of his son, Avi Samuel. It seems the young man wanted to partner -- and memorialize -- a Freidin Family Member who died too young in the Holocaust to have a Bar Mitzvah. It also caused me to verify  that we had recorded Avi's birth on March 18, 1995 in the following edition of the Freidin Family Newsletter, which at that time was still being published in hard copy. Tempus fugit!  Since it is likely that Avi has already celebrated his Bar Mitzvah by now, we pass along a Mazel Tov to all the Rubins!

In this connection, I once again want to urge all of you to write to me. This is not a work of fiction: the content depends on what you let me know, and I am not --repeat -- not a mind reader!

I hope that you all have a prosperous and enjoyable summer in the coming months, and I look forward to communicating with you once again, around the time of the new Jewish New Year.

מזל טוב !

Adelyn Claire Shapiro, a bouncing baby daughter, on October 11, 2007, to Jason & Camerin Shapiro at 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches long. Elaine & Philip Shapiro proudly announce that they are "thrilled to have Adelyn as number six of their precious grandchildren...."

Raphael Moshe Goldsmith born to Farrell & Joanna Goldsmith, at 6AM on Wednesday December 19, 2007, weighing in at 7lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. The new little youngster joins his older siblings, Miriam, Elisheva, Simcha Hersh and Levi Yitzhak. Special best wishes to grandparents,  Alan & Fran Rosenblatt and great-grandmother Sylvia Krugman. 

Braeden Jacob Jackelow, born to  Brian & Ann Jackelow, on January 10, 2008 at 6lbs 11oz and 21 inches long. Special best wishes to first-time grandparents Eddie & Gloria Jackelow...

Tom, born to Yarden & Shirli Mattatia, in March 2008. A special Mazel Tov to grandparents Dr. Nahum & Doris Freidin....

Shira Benvenisti, born on Friday April 18, 2008, to  Yohanan & Ayelet Benvenisti, and older sister Maya & Noam.  Congratulations to Odded & Jocheved Ritz on the arrival of a new grandchild... While the parents are deliberated  about a suitable name for the little lady, she was being called 'Betten' (Hebrew for 'Tummy').

Mazel Tov to One &All!
 

Raymond Krantz, uncle of Carol L. Berger and younger brother of Frances Edith Krantz Kleinberg, in Palm Beach, Florida during October  2007, at age 84. He is survived by his wife, Bertha Lee Krantz (nee Blonder), and his children Kenneth and Noreen and their families...

Israel Drory, father of Nurit and Asher Drory, in Winnipeg, on December 16, 2007 just short of his 96th birthday. In writing to me about her father, Nurit had the following to say:

"...My father was a complex person, with contradictory personality traits and a history that parallels the history of the Jews from Poland, who arrived in then-Palestine in 1938, off the coast, in the middle of the night, with only the shirts on their backs. He lived in Hadera and then Kiryat Frostiz until he left for a visit to Canada in late 1949. My mother, brother, and I, made the trip 18 months later. 

My parents bought a grocery store of their own in 1960 (after renting one for five years downtown) and built a successful business until 1979, when my dear mother Itka (nee Sztokman) died at age 66. A year later, my father returned to Israel and lived there with Hadassa Degani for 17 peaceful years. In 1997, I brought our father back to Canada, where he and I got a chance to know each other better. I feel fortunate for that, and do miss him very much..."

Frances Edith Krantz Kleinberg, mother of Carol L. Berger of Mahwah, NJ, and Dr. Susan Kleinberg-Flemming, of Surrey, in the U.K., passed away in Boca Raton, Florida, on Tuesday, February 5, 2008, at the age of 92 1/2. My mother-in-law was a 1937 graduate of the Hartford Connecticut School of Nursing.  She met and married my late father-in-law Dr. Morris Kleinberg, when she went to work in New York City after her graduation. They lived together for sixty-four years, until my father-in-law passed away on April 16, 2005, as was previously reported. She was truly his helpmeet in every sense of that word. Emerging from the hardscrabble life, of being one of twelve children, she sought and won the education she worked for, that  became the passport  to mainstreaming herself into the great American middle class. She lived to see eight great-grandchildren come into the world, in addition to the eight grandchildren that her children gave her. She is also survived by three younger siblings,  her sister Lillian Shapiro, of Scottsdale, AZ, and brothers, Irvin Krantz of West Hartford, CT and Dr. Milton Krantz of Waverley, RI.  

She was a tough old lady, but she was our tough old lady, and we will miss her very much...

***

I was delighted to receive a copy of "Abe & Ida Friedman and Their Family" published by Michael Friedman, which was a culmination of many years of genealogical research that Mike had undertaken. In this book, he traces his own family genealogy, with substantive roots in Zelva.  As we have previously mentioned, Mike is a scion of the Bereshkovsky clan of Zelva. Because of the marriage of Atara ("Kreineh") Bereshkovsky, to my grandfather's older brother, Zvi Hirsch ("Hirschkeh") Freidin, we share a number of cousins in common. Regrettably, it is those who are among the many who perished in the Holocaust. The book is a valuable addition to the written record, that helps to capture the history of our little corner of the Pale of Settlement. I was equally gratified for Mike's acknowledgment to the work we did on Sefer Zikaron Zelva, and its translation into English, as The Zelva Memorial Book.