Wednesday, October 13, 2021

 

The Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Our Family Goldfus



 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 


The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, the Commonwealth of Poland, was a country and bi-federation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.(Many of the people we have matched by DNA have ancestors from Ukraine or Poland).  

My 4th paternal ggggrandfather was Iankel/ Yankel ben Abram Goldfus born Bet. 1768 - 1774 in Telsiai, Lithuania.  His father, our 5th, was Abram Goldfus, b: between 1750-1752 in Telsiai, Lithuania, the era of the Baal Shem Tov.   

                Baal Shem Tov (הבעל שם טוב in Hebrew) (1698–1760), considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism;came from this place. 

In this time of mysticism and overly formal Rabbinism came the teachings of Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760), which had a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. His disciples taught and encouraged the new fervent brand of Judaism based on Kabbalah known as Hasidism. The rise of Hasidic Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world, with a continuous influence through its many Hasidic dynasties including those of Chabad-Lubavitch, Aleksander, Bobov, Ger, Nadvorna, among others.

                                                   

"Zaporozhian Cossacks write to the Sultan of Turkey" by Ilya Repin (1844–1930)                                                                                                      

        Meeting of Khmelnytsky with Tuhaj Bej by Juliusz Kossak

Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history.                                


A major rebellion of self-governed Ukrainian Cossacks inhabiting south-eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth rioted against Polish and Catholic oppression of Orthodox Ukraine in 1648, in what came to be known as the Khmelnytsky Uprising. It resulted in a Ukrainian request, under the terms of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, for protection by the Russian Tsar. In 1651, in the face of a growing threat from Poland, and forsaken by his Tatar allies, Khmelnytsky asked the Tsar to incorporate Ukraine as an autonomous duchy under Russian protection. Russian annexation of Zaporizhian Ukraine gradually supplanted Polish influence in that part of Europe. In the years following, Polish settlers, nobles, Catholics and Jews became the victims of retaliation massacres instigated by the Cossacks in their dominions.                     


     Grandfather Nathan Abraham Goldfus/Goldfoot b: January 1, 1871 in Telsiai, Lithuania.  He and Zlata met in Council, Idaho and married in Boise, Idaho. A long line of Goldfus lived in Telsiai.  I went back to an Abram Goldfus, my 5th grandfather, b: about 1751.                                                

My paternal  Bubba, Zlata (Addie/Hattie/Ettie) Jermulowske, was born on January 11, 1886 in Lazdijai/ Lozdzieje, Alytraus, Suwalki /Zuwalta", Lithuania which had been taken over by Poland.  Bubbie was prouder of being a Litvak than Polish, so she said.  She really didn't speak English, only Yiddish.  She didn't read or write  in any language, either.                            

                      Jewish dress in 17th (top) and 18th centuries

This Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 square kilometres (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million.  Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages.  By comparison, the state of Oregon is only 98,466 mi.²The commonwealth was about 4 Oregons put together.  

Under "languages, it said, "

                                                 

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy which ended after the Partitions of Poland in the 18th century. During World War II there was a nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community by Nazi Germany and its collaborators of various nationalities, during the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945, called the Holocaust. Since the fall of communism in Poland, there has been a renewed interest in Jewish culture, featuring an annual Jewish Culture Festival, new study programs at Polish secondary schools and universities, and the opening of Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

According to some sources, about three-quarters of the world's Jews lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century. After the Partitions of Poland in 1795 and the destruction of Poland as a sovereign state, Polish Jews became subject to the laws of the partitioning powers, including the increasingly antisemitic Russian Empire, as well as Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Prussia (later a part of the German Empire). 

According to some sources, about three-quarters of all Jews lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century. In the 16h and 17th centuries, Poland welcomed Jewish immigrants from Italy, as well as Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews migrating there from the Ottoman Empire. Arabic-speaking Mizrahi Jews and Persian Jews also migrated to Poland during this time
                                              

Still, as Poland regained independence in the aftermath of World War I of 1918, it was the center of the European Jewish world with one of the world's largest Jewish communities of over 3 million. Antisemitism was a growing problem throughout Europe in those years, from both the political establishment and the general population.
                                                                                      


On the eve of the German occupation of Poland in 1939, 3.3 million Jews lived there. At the end of the war, approximately 380,000 Polish Jews remained alive, the rest having been murdered, mostly in the ghettos and the six death camps: Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

June 1941 marked the beginning of a dark episode in Lithuania’s history: amid World War II and the occupation of the country by Nazi Germany, on or about June 23 the slaughter of nearly the entire Jewish population of Lithuania began.  Lithuanians had waged anti-Jewish mob violence even before the German occupation. When Nazi Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) began the large-scale murder of Lithuania’s Jews in late June, other Lithuanians were on hand to aid and abet them. The first pogrom may have been that of Gargždai, near the German border, where some 800 Jews were killed on June 23 and 24. In one of the largest massacres, more than 70,000 people were killed at Paneriai (Ponary), outside Vilnius, that summer.
                                                   

We are so fortunate that Bubbie came to the USA when she did on May 6, 1903, before WWI and before the Holocaust!   Jews lived in Poland for 800 years before the Nazi occupation. On the eve of the occupation 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland – more than any other country in Europe. Their percentage among the general population – about 10% – was also the highest in Europe.  Right now, Jews make up 2% of the USA population, and we're again confronting anti-Semitism that's more than usual.   Blacks make up 13%.  


Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/12/our-famous-rabbis-and-gifts-they.html
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/05/two-aspects-of-orthodox-judaism-chabad.html
https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/fate-of-jews/poland.html#narrative_info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmelnytsky_Uprising#:~:text=Between%201648%20and%201656%2C%20tens,traumatic%20events%20in%20their%20history.

  

Labels: , , , ,


# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 7:02 AM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?