The FREIDINS of ZELVA Family Newsletter

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On Line! 

A Circle of Serendipity 

At the beginning of the year, I was contacted by Rishona "Rishy" Savin, who lives in Florida, and who identified herself as  a scion of two Zelva families: Perelmuter (which we spell Perlmutter), and Kraines. We went around, and around, and were able to identify that she had antecedents from Volkovysk as well. In an attempt to pin down the origins of her Kraines forbears, she sent me a tape of her great-grandmother being interviewed by her family, some fifty years ago. I have since played this tape for Faygl Garber York, who is quite familiar with the Perlmutter family, but drew an equal blank on Kraines.

About a month ago, Rishy's mother, Riva Perelmuter Ruran, sent me copies of two Polish documents, in her possession, that contained some information about their family. These were translated for me by Leon Szyfer, a landsman with roots in Zamosc (this is my father's side of the family), which revealed some interesting things. These two documents, which Leon translates as 'Protocols,' are apparently affidavits as we know them, in which the first attests to the birth of Yaakov Perlmutter, in Zelva, and the second,  to the marriage of Shlomo Perelmuter of Zelva, to Rasza Kraines identified as 'residents of the city.' It leaves the question of the bride's birthplace open to question, since she could have come to Zelva from Volkovysk. The great-grandmother on the tape is very clear in identifying herself as a Kreines from Volkovysk, whose family lived on the well-known 'Wide Boulevard' called Die Breiteh Gasse in Yiddish. The living descendants express certainty that the Kreines family was from Zelva, but we have yet to substantiate this with physical evidence.

The documents put forward by Riva are interesting in another respect. Both of these affidavits contain the following verbiage:

"This protocol of marriage is being issued to the resident of the city of Zelwa Rasza Perelmuter as per paragraphs 35, 36 and 122 of the Collection of Civil Laws vol. X, part I instead of a marriage certificate, as the books of civil registry of Jewish population of the city of Zelwa, as well as the entire Wolkowysk county have been misplaced as a result of the world war, and the law states that in the absence of the books of civil registry records from the past among Jews are reinstated through witnesses."

The 'world war' referred to here, is The First World War (these documents are dated from 1928). Accordingly, we learn that documents of civil registry in Zelva were seriously compromised as far back as WW I. I believe this is of paramount importance to all of our landsleit who are engaged in trying to better identify their ancestry and family roots. 

It would appear that these documents were procured to legitimately establish identity, as part of the process of qualifying for emigration. In the documents, we came across the signature of Hillel Borodowsky, as a witness to one of these 'Protocols.' This was immediately identified as the brother of Mottl Borodowsky, the husband of Faygl Garber York's late sister Rosa, who emigrated to Argentina with her husband in 1929.

But it doesn't end here -- it just starts here!

As Riva and I were exchanging messages, she lets slip that her parents came from Europe to Borough Park in Brooklyn. I then identified myself as a native of Borough Park, who graduated from Yeshiva Etz Chaim in 1953. Riva then revealed to me that she is a graduate of Shulamith School for Girls 1954. It turns out that we lived and grew up about two blocks from one another, but our paths never crossed. Yet, she also recognized the names of all the girls from the Shulamith class of 1953, who ended up being my high school classmates at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, and graduated with me in 1957.

Having digested this bit of coincidence, I pressed on with her Volkovysk roots. I discovered that one side of her family were Bartnovskys from Volkovysk. It did not take long to find members of her Bartnovsky family in the Volkovysk Memorial Book: they too, lived on the 'Wide Boulevard.' We confirmed an alignment with a branch of this family that emigrated to Chicago, where they shortened the name to Barth. Furthermore, there is a classic picture on page 77 of the Wolkowysker Yizkor Book, by Dr. Moses Einhorn, that shows various balebatim, and a war relief delegation from the U.S. with the Rabbi of the city, R' Abba Yaakov Borukhov. In this picture, we find two Nakhumovskys -- the relatives of my Yeshiva classmate Rabbi Dr. Stanley Nash, and Zelig Bartnovsky, a forbear of Riva and Rishy.

It's not over.  It appears that Riva's husband David is a Hebrew Day School Director at the Beth El Temple in West Hartford, CT. He took this position over, many years ago,  from Fred Nathan, another Yeshiva classmate of Stanley and myself, and who is today a Hebrew School Director in Dallas, TX.

When I think about this, I say to myself 'you couldn't make this up -- and if you did nobody would believe you.' 

This is  an example, of one small dividend that can be derived, by unlocking the contents of these Yizkor Books, so that a larger audience of readers can probe them, for the faint spoor of a past, that is rapidly slipping away from us.

Miriam, born July 31, 2006 to  Farrell & Joanna Goldsmith, baby sister to Elisheva, Simcha Hersh, and Levi Yitzhak. Special best wishes to grandparents,  Alan & Fran Rosenblatt and great-grandmother Sylvia Krugman. 

When we reported that Sylvia Kleinberg,  aunt of Carol L. Berger passed away at age 92, on April 7, 2006, we could not know that this was a harbinger of an ill wind that would sweep through and take away a total of three of the venerable nonagenarians in that family, and one in my own.

We lost my father-in-law, Dr. Morris Kleinberg on April 16, 2006 at the age of 96. He is survived by his wife, Frances E. Kleinberg, my wife Carol, and her sister, Dr. S. Jay Kleinberg-Flemming who lives in England. He is mourned by his eight grandchildren of the Berger and Flemming families, and seven great-grandchildren. A tribute to Dr. Morris Kleinberg appears below.

On June 8, 2007, my wife's aunt, Mollie Kleinberg Mandel, sister of the late Dr. Morris Kleinberg, passed away at the age of 91-1/2. She is survived by her children, Natalie Arnold, Phyllis Lynd, Sheryl Schmidt and Michael Mandel, eight grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

Yoni (Jonathan) Siegal, on August 4, 2006 at age 44. Profoundly beloved husband and best friend of Yonina Helman Siegal, and the adored daddy of Avi, Zevi and Yehuda. Devoted son-in-law of Rabbi Boruch Koppel Helman and the late Judy Helman k"z. Uncle, Rabbi Eddie Gershfield related to me, that Yoni v"g had been felled by a massive cerebral hemorrhage in April 2005. Despite valiant efforts to save his life, this blow ultimately proved fatal. The ache, for me personally, is particularly poignant, since I can recall with great clarity, attending, and then documenting their wedding in Brooklyn, a scant eleven years ago....

It is indeed, with a heavy heart, and profound personal sorrow, that I must now record the passing of my dear mother, Sarah Freed Berger, at 8:35PM Friday, September 15, 2006.  She would have been 93 years old with the coming of Sukkot next month. She was brought to her final rest at the Zelver Benevolent Association plot, in the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, NY on Sunday, September 17, 2006. In addition to myself, her only son, she is survived by my childern, Sharon Javer, Dr. Daniel Berger, David Berger, Judyth Greenbaum, Rachel Berger and Robert Berger. She was privileged to also see come into the world, seven great-grandchildren, Daryn & Deanna Javer, Zachary, Adam, Jordan, Isaac & Gabriel Berger. She is also survived by her two brothers, Harold & Joshua Freed, six nephews and nieces and their families. Her passing marks the end of an era for the branch of our family residing in the greater New York metropolitan area: she was the last living link we had to the Old World. A bit more about her, and her life is given below.

Dr. Morris Kleinberg Remembered

(The following text appears as a dedication in the recently published English Translation of The Cieszanow Memorial Book)

v"g 'vekg vrau cegh iC van

(1910 - 2006)

Sarah Freed Berger -- An Appreciation

v"g  vecr vbju ihnhbC ,C vra

Sukkot 1913 - September 15, 2006

My mother was born, in Zelva, the second child of my maternal grandparents Benjamin & Anna Freidin (to become Freed, when they came to the United States). As related to us, my grandmother had a firstborn son four years earlier named Boruch (called "Bochak"). This would not be worth noting, except for the fact, that while in confinement, my grandmother contracted smallpox. She told us about how all her hair fell out during the worst of the disease, but how she eventually pulled through. The pockmarks on her face remained a lifelong testimony to that struggle to survive. Accordingly, we have to consider the fact that my mother was born at all, to be one of a series of miracles....

All of us know the First World War began in 1914. By 1915, history tells us that all semblance of sanitation and hygiene had broken down in Eastern Europe, and pestilence reigned the land. A fever swept through Zelva (some say Typhus, others, meningitis), bringing down the two young children. The elder boy died at the age of 6, and my mother age 2, survived. It took a year before adults around her realized that she could not hear, and that the fever had left her permanently deaf. It is worth mentioning, that Odded Ritz once let it drop in a conversation, that his late father, Eliezer ("Lou") Futritzky was deaf in one ear. When I asked him why, he unhesitatingly pinpointed a febrile disease that his father suffered as a child -- in 1915. So, the fact that my mother (and Eliezer Futritzky as well) survived at all, needs to be counted as yet another miracle...

My grandmother subsequently bore another daughter, named Mindl, and the family struggled through the war years and survived. Late in 1920, my great-uncle Isidore Freed, who was in the United States, had arrived at a position that enabled him to send for his sister and her family. A week before their departure, the little girl, Mindl, contracted appendicitis, and for lack of any medical care, died in my grandfather's arms days before they departed. My grandparents, and seven-year-old mother, landed on Ellis Island in January 1921. My grandmother was eight months pregnant, and her greatest fear was that they faced potential rejection by the immigration authorities should they discover that my mother was deaf. Her contingency plan was to return to Europe, and permit my grandfather to go on alone and hopefully get them in once he had established himself. Instructing my mother to say nothing, but smile sweetly, they got through immigration with no trouble. My grandfather was compelled to return the one unused ship's ticket to my great-uncle. One month later, my uncle, Harold Freed was born, followed four years later,  by my uncle Joshua Freed.

So you can see, that by age 7, my mother had already become marked as a survivor. Her mettle would continue to be tested, sometimes pitilessly, as she matured to adulthood. She attended the Lexington School for the Deaf, graduating from that institution, and worked for a number of years a seamstress. She met my father, Louis Berger, in the late 1930s, and they married in May 1940 under inauspicious circumstances. This ill-fated union broke apart when she was six month pregnant with me, and she returned to her parents' home. I was born on February 21, 1941. I would live with her, and be reared by her and my maternal grandparents, of sainted and blessed memory, until I reached adulthood. 

When I was about eight years old, she suffered an emotional setback as a result of surgical procedures to correct gynecological problems she had. She was never quite the same afterwards, and became increasingly less communicative behind the wall of silence that already surrounded her. Yet, for nearly sixty years afterwards, she enjoyed a remarkably uninterrupted span of normal health, up to the week before she passed away. But during all this time, she was a loving and attentive mother, always showing her concern for me, and making sure that 'my son' would not lack for anything that she could provide. She became an essential support to my grandmother, who continued to work as a customer peddler late into life, providing the necessary muscle to lug packages from the Lower East Side back to Brooklyn, to be sold door-to-door in the neighborhood. She became the wind under my grandmother's wings, and I was the young eaglet riding on her shoulders.

My grandfather passed away at the age of 90, in November 1960, and shortly thereafter, I graduated from college. I know she was overjoyed. Perhaps she was less than happy that I elected to attend graduate school out of town, but I was back for visits during holiday breaks, and she was delighted when I took employment locally after finishing school. When I married, it seemed finally, that things had begun to turn the corner for her, and indeed, this was a good augury.

Shortly after I married, my grandmother passed away. This was in 1967, and my mother began the later phase of her life, where she would be living alone, but looked after by myself and my uncles. My wife and I were blessed with the arrival of children, which gave her the inestimable joy of becoming a grandmother. She reveled in it, doting first on the older four, and then on the younger two. In 1981, it became clear that it was not in her best interest to continue residing in the 'Old Homestead' at 4312 14th Avenue in Brooklyn. We moved her to a small apartment in Monsey, NY, just ten minutes from my home, where we, collectively, were much better served with assuring she was properly cared for. She lived there for twelve years. In 1991, she had the pleasure of participating in the wedding of her oldest granddaughter, Sharon, to Dennis Javer. She danced with me. She danced with her handsome dashing grandsons....

Shortly after this, it became evident that age was beginning to take its toll, and we grew increasingly concerned for her safety. We saw fit to have her admitted to the Northern Riverview Nursing Home, in Haverstraw, NY, where she spent the rest of her life. There is no question in my mind, that the quality of compassionate care that she received, measurably contributed to the venerable longevity that she achieved.

I used to excoriate God for the way he treated her (what chutzpah....!), and so, it is gratifying to add that her nachas did not stop here. The arrival of my grandchildren meant that she was now a great-grandmother. And, oh, did that go over well with her! We would bring the little ones up to see her at the Nursing Home, and despite her diminishing powers of perception, she knew what it was she was looking at. She personally saw the first six of the seven born in her lifetime. She would smile radiantly, when her two little girls, Daryn & Deanna Javer, who lived close enough, would come up for a Sunday visit, exchange a few pecks on the cheek and squeezes of the hand. In the end, I forgave God (this guy's chutzpah knows no bounds....!), since it seemed to me that he honored the IOUs that He had given her for the tribulations He imposed on her during the first part of her life.

Her end came speedily and mercifully, and I want to believe that He took her soul with a kiss. I feel -- not grief -- for how can one grieve for what she achieved in such a life -- but rather a terrible sadness and an emptiness. In writing a note of condolence to me, Rabbi Zalman Kossowsky made the sagacious observation that : I remember that as long as my mother k"z was here, I still somehow remained a child.  With her passing I was forced to become the “elder generation”. 

May her soul be bound up in the bond of life for all eternity.

Two Brothers On Their Way.....

We previously reported that Dr. Daniel Berger  had met the qualifications to be appointed a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.  Carol & Jack followed through, and did make the 'bit of a hegira' to Washington D.C. in May, when Dan was invested at the annual ACOG Meeting that took place there at that time. Here is a snapshot of us after the investiture took place:

Carol, Daniel & Jack Berger

(Washington D.C. May 10, 2006)

But while this was clearly a joyous occasion for all that were involved, this little memoir concerns one of our many side-trips, and sightseeing expeditions, while we were in the nation's capitol. 

Most visitors to Washington D.C. find the time to visit the Arlington National Cemetery. Considering that the nation is presently at war, such a visit becomes more meaningful at this time. And while all are attracted to such sites as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the gravesite of the two Kennedy brothers, we had an additional mission.

Two dear cousins of ours are buried in Arlington, veterans of The Second World War. These are the brothers Arnold & Leonard Freed, who served in the U.S. Army and the Navy respectively.  We took it upon ourselves to locate these graves and visit them. Here are the pictures we took:

While not co-located, they are not far from one another. Arnold is interred in one of the cemetery plots. Curiously, the gravestones typically do not have the lettering darkened, though one sees this every now and then. Accordingly, the lettering may not be easy to read. I reproduce them for you here:

"ARNOLD FREED  PFC  U S ARMY WORLD WAR II  SEPT 23, 1924 AUG 15, 1992 SILVER STAR PURPLE HEART"

Arnold was a medic in the European theater, where he was wounded in action. One of the enduring family mementos is a photograph of (then) Major General Omar N. Bradley pinning the Silver Star to his chest.

Because he elected cremation, Leonard's remains are in a wall sarcophagus, sized for this purpose. He served, as a physician, in the Pacific theater of the War.

Annals of Heroes

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Morris (Moshe) & Delores Spector, of Connecticut sent along a most interesting New Years greeting that is well worth sharing with the readership of this Newsletter. Morris himself has roots in and around Zelva, in particular, the small agricultural settlement of Kolonia Sinajska not far from both Zelva and Dereczin. He is part of the family that claims the great  19th Century Rabbinic luminary, Rabbi Yitzhak Elchanan Spector, for who the Yeshiva University Theological Seminary is named. Here is Morris' note:

---

The Fishing Journal

Vengeance is Ours

Not to be frustrated by party boat operators who snookered us the last time he visited, my son David suggested we -- once again -- take to the high seas and venture after the North Atlantic Bluefish. So, during his summer sojourn with us, and adopting a 'no more Mr. Nice Guy' attitude, we went to 'the pros:' Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. We were not disappointed.

On Sunday evening, August 13, 2007, we ventured out on the Brooklyn VI, accompanied by two of my former colleagues, and we slaughtered 'em.

Here is some photographic evidence of well over two dozen good-sized denizens of the deep we managed to snag. 

David & Jack Berger

The King is Dead -- Long Live the King!

 His Majesty, King Winston Reginald Greenbaum III

 

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.net  ©  Copyright  2006  All rights reserved