Sunday, May 29, 2022
Possible Connections Between Rabbi Naphtali Cohen and Rabbi Naftula Gertz Ha Cohen-Both of Ukraine and Poland of 1600-1700s
Nadene Goldfoot
Is it possible that the following rabbi could be the grandfather of Rabbi Naftula Gertz Ha Cohen (1725-1797) of Belaya Tserkov, Ukraine? The city was 50 some miles south of Kiev on the Dnieper River.
Naphtali Cohen (1649–1718), also known as Naphtali HaKohen Katz, was a Russo-German rabbi and kabalist born in Ostrowo in Ukraine.Looking Ostrowo up today in Jewishgen tells me that it was a part of Poland. Jewishgen did not list this in Ukraine....
He belonged to a family of rabbis in Ostrowo, where his father, Isaac Cohen, a great-great-grandson of the Judah Loew ben Bezalel, had fled during the Polish–Cossack–Tatar War.
Bezalel is the name of the craftsman of the tribe of Judah, responsible, with Oholiab, for the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness (Ekxod.35-30. He also designed the sacred vessels and the decoration.
Searching for Town (Phonetically like) : OSTROWO
in modern country Poland
| Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland 51°39' N 17°49' E 142 miles WSW of Warszawa | Ostrów Wielkopolski [Pol], Ostrowo [Ger], Ostrów, Ostrov, Ostrów Wlkp., Ostrovia [Lat] | Ostrów Wielkopolski Poland | Ostrów Ostrów Poznań Poland | Ostrowo Posen Preußen Germany | 94 |
 Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland52°48' N 21°54' E 54 miles NE of Warszawa | Ostrów Mazowiecka [Pol], Ostrov-Mazovyetsk [Yid], Ostrova [Yid], Ostrów, Ostrov, Ostrova, Ostrove, Ostreve, Mazovyetska, Ostrov-Mazovetskiy, Ostrów Mazowiecki | Ostrów Mazowiecka Poland | Ostrów Mazowiecka Ostrów Białystok Poland | Ostrów Ostrów Łomża Russian Empire | 571 |
| Ostrów Lubelski, Poland 51°30' N 22°51' E 94 miles ESE of Warszawa | Ostrów Lubelski [Pol], Ostrova [Yid], Ostruv-Lyubelski [Rus], Ostrov, Ostrov Lubelski, Ostrów Podlaski, Ostrów | Ostrów Poland | Ostrów Włodawa Lublin Poland | Ostrów Włodawa Siedlce Russian Empire |
Polish-Cossack-Tatar War was the war between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire (in practice, a proxy war between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate) over Ukraine. It was one of the aftermaths of the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and a prelude to the Polish–Ottoman War (1672–1676).
In 1663 Cohen fell into the hands of the Tatars, who kept him in servitude for several years. Tatars have become the largest ethnic minority in Russia today. Escaping, he returned to Ostrowo, and was chosen to succeed his father as rabbi. In 1690 he was called to Posen, where he officiated as chief rabbi until 1704. There he devoted himself to the Kabbalah, and collected a large library of cabalistic literature.
In 1704 he was called to Frankfurt am Main (Frankurt, Germany today) . On the occasion of a fire which, breaking out in his house on January 14, 1711, spread to and consumed the entire Jewish quarter, it was charged that, relying on the efficacy of his cabalistic charms, he had prevented the extinction of the fire by the ordinary means. He was arrested and thrown into prison, and regained his liberty only upon renouncing his office.
He then went to Prague, capitol of Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia., where many members of his family lived. There another misfortune, which embittered his life more than the loss of his wealth and position, befell him.
The Shabbethaian kabbalist, Nehemiah Hayyun (1655-1730), who was probably born in Safed, Israel, appeared in Prague, declaring himself a preacher or an emissary from Palestine, and by his duplicity gained the confidence of the credulous Cohen.
Being a believer in practical Cabala, Cohen found no fault with Ḥayyun, even when the latter began to sell amulets. It is not astonishing, therefore, that when Ḥayyun asked for an approbation for his mystical work Mehemnuta de Kula, Cohen, to whom he had prudently submitted only the main text, but not the commentaries which accompanied it, and in which the author openly professed the doctrine of the Trinity, readily granted it, and gave him a glowing recommendation. Provided with this and with other recommendations secured in the same way, Ḥayyun traveled throughout Moravia and Silesia, propagating everywhere his Shabbethaian teachings.
Cohen soon discovered his mistake, and endeavored, but without success, to recover his approbation, although he did not as yet realize the full import of the book. It was in 1713, while Cohen was staying at Breslau (where he acted as a rabbi until 1716), that :
Ḥakam Ẓebi Ashkenazi of Amsterdam informed him of its tenets. Cohen thereupon acted rigorously. He launched a ban against the author and his book, and became one of the most zealous supporters of Ḥakam Ẓebi in his campaign against Ḥayyun.
In 1715 Cohen went to see August II, King of Poland, to secure reinstatement in his former rabbinate of Posen, at that time vacant; but failed because of the opposition of the leaders of the community. He then returned to the Ukraine, and in 1718 started for the Holy Land, but died on the way at Constantinople on Dec. 20, 1718.
Nehemiah Hayyon 's son became converted to Christianity in Rome and leveled spiteful accusations against the Jews.
Cohen was the author of the following works:
- Birkat Adonai (Blessing of the Lord), a commentary on Berakot, with an introduction on the correlation of the Mishnaic tractates, having the subtitle Semikut Ḥakamim (Connection of the Wise), Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1702 (Cohen was so proud of this work that he ordered it to be buried with him)
- Meshek ha-Zera (Sowing of the Seed), commentary on the Mishnaic order Zeraim (not published)
- Pi Yesharim (Mouth of the Righteous), a kabalistic introduction to Genesis, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1702
- Sefer Bet Raḥel (Book of the House of Rachel), quoted in his will, probably identical with Tefillat Bet Raḥel (Prayer of the House of Rachel), published at Amsterdam in 1741[1]
Cohen also edited a number of prayer-books, including Seliḥot (Penitential Prayers), with a commentary, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1702; prayers for the Society for Burial, ib., n.d.; a prayer for the staying of the plague, Prague, 1713;
and an ode on a Sefer Torah donated by Baruch Austerlitz. He also wrote an epistle directed against Nehemiah Ḥayyun. Cohen's ethical will, Ẓawwa'ah, is replete with lofty moral instructions (Berlin, 1729).[1]
Resource:
Labels: August II, Bellaya Tserkov, Dnieper River, king of Poland, Nehemiah Hayyun, Raabbi Naphtalai Cohen, Rabbi naftula Gertz ha cohen, Ukraine
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Portland, Oregon's Jewish History of Synagogues
Nadene Goldfoot
In 1911 a group of Sephardi Jews from the Island of Rhodes founded Congregation Ahavat Achim. The Jewish community of Rhodes goes back to the first century AD. Kahal Shalom Synagogue, established in 1557, during the Ottoman era, is the oldest synagogue in Greece and still stands in the Jewish quarter (La Juderia) of the old town of Rhodes. At its peak in the 1920s, the Jewish community was one-third of the town's total population.
By the 1960s, much of the largely immigrant South Portland neighborhood was slated for demolition under urban renewal. Congregation Ahavath Achim tried to move its synagogue from Southwest Third Avenue and Sherman Street to a new location in 1962. But only 100 feet down the road, a wall cracked and the building had to be demolished on the spot.
PORTLAND, Oregon's largest city with a population of approximately 1.5 million, situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers on the west coast of the United States; Jewish population (2005) approximately 25,000.
The earliest Jewish settlers arrived from Central Europe in the early 1850s. The first Jewish woman, Mrs. Weinshank, opened a boarding house in 1854. Early occupations included peddling and storekeeping. Caroline Weinshank married in 1858 to Elias Mill. David Weinshenk, born in Bavaria, Germany, may be her husband, buried in Temple Beth Israel's cemetery at Block B Section Plot 33 at 426 SW Taylors Ferry Road.
Pioneer Jews, mostly concerned with making a living, recognized that the community would grow only if religious needs could be met. On May 2, 1858, eight men
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Temple Beth Israel, organized in 1858, is Portland’s oldest Jewish congregation. The members worshipped above commercial space on Front Street before moving to this synagogue on Southwest Fifth and Oak in 1861.
In 1888, Beth Israel moved to larger quarters at Southwest Tenth and Main streets, where the auditorium accommodated 750 people. A prosperous congregation supported the building of a new synagogue, graced with a Spanish cedar and maplewood organ and elaborate stained glass. This 1888 building was destroyed by fire in 1923.
When its replacement was finished at Northwest Nineteenth and Flanders in 1928, rabbis from across the nation attended its dedication.
Written by Trudy Flores, Sarah Griffith, © Oregon Historical Society, 2002.
Rabbi Joshua Stampfer was born in Jerusalem, in pre-state Israel, in 1921. He died Dec. 26, 2019.
Stampfer was the rabbi at Congregation Neveh Shalom from 1954 to 1993 and served as rabbi emeritus until his death.
Major institutions he helped create include Camp Solomon Schechter, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, the Oregon Board of Rabbis, Foundation School and Neveh Shalom’s Library. He also cofounded two international organizations – the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies and the Sino Judaic Institute. Programs he created include Weekend in Quest; the Portland Jewish Film Festival; and a Writers and Scholars Lecture series. He was also instrumental in the formation of Judaic studies programs at three Portland universities – Portland State University, Reed College and Lewis & Clark College.
Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer, z”l, had five children, 20 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.
A service for Stampfer was held Dec. 29, at Congregation Neveh Shalom. A special memorial service in memory of Rabbi Stampfer to mark the conclusion of the month-long Sheloshim was held Jan. 26 in Neveh Shalom’s Stampfer Chapel.
Eight men formed Ahavai Sholom, one of the congregations that would become Neveh Shalom, in 1869, when Portland had about 460 Jews. The new congregation, which appealed to traditional Jews from Prussia and Poland, purchased a cemetery and land for a building and hired a rabbi, Julius Eckman. Rabbi Eckman had previously held the pulpit at Temple Beth Israel, Portland’s first Reform congregation, primarily made up of German Jews. For the next thirty-five years, Ahavai Sholom made its home on Southwest Sixth Avenue between Oak and Pine.
As early as 1902, a group of Jewish Portlanders, unhappy after the merger of two other synagogues, began to hold religious services together. Three years later in 1905, they officially formed Congregation Shaarie Torah. Joseph Nudelman, the congregation’s first president, led the effort to purchase a church building, which they moved to First Avenue near Hall Street.
Once the church was reopened as a Jewish synagogue, it became known fondly as the First Street Shul.
Originally formed by men who had come to Portland from the same part of Eastern Europe, Shaarie Torah grew steadily as more Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe arrived in Portland. Initially, the congregation engaged rabbis and cantors on a short-term basis, but in 1916 they brought Rabbi Joseph Faivusovitch to Portland in a permanent position. He soon changed his name to Fain, because his daughter disliked writing her long surname on school papers.
Kesser Israel is the stronghold for Torah Judaism, for Yiddishkeit, in the Pacific Northwest, and for Oregon in particular. Located in the progressive city of Portland, it is a laidback congregation that is attracting new young families and individuals. It’s origins date back to the California Gold Rush, which, from 1848-1856, brought approximately 300,000 people to California. About half of those arriving came by sea from abroad and the other half came over land. The United States had an estimated Jewish population of 15,000 in 1840; by 1848 it had grown to 50,000. Included in the 300,000 gold-diggers heading west were approximately 4,000 Jews hoping to strike it rich. Rather than miners and diggers, most of the Jewish immigrants, in large part from Prussia and German speaking countries, were merchants. They established businesses offering clothing, supplies, and equipment to the miners, the mining companies, and local communities. These frontier Jews subsequently moved to other states, with Oregon holding prominence, servicing farmers and towns, bringing commerce and providing leadership. They also served in various government and political roles – there were Jewish mayors in the Oregon cities of Astoria, Pendleton, Troutdale, and Burns.
Originally located in the heart of the historic Jewish immigrant neighborhood, Old South Portland, Kesser moved to its current building, in the heart of today’s Jewish community, in 2008, on Capitol Highway with Rabbi Brokkin.
Reconstructionist Havurah Shalom was founded in 1979. Havurah Shalom is a vibrant, diverse, participatory Jewish community steeped in spirituality, learning, and acts of social responsibility. We welcome people of all ages, identities, abilities, and backgrounds. As a part of the Reconstructing Judaism movement, we envision a just and compassionate world where creative Jewish living and learning guide us toward lives of holiness, meaning, and purpose.
welcomes you and invites you to share in the wellspring that is Jewish Renewal!
Our joyous worship is infused with singing, chanting, and dance. We “pray with our feet” through tikkun olam (social justice) partnerships within and beyond our local community. We dive deeply into Torah, learning from Chassidic masters as well as other wisdom traditions. And we celebrate the divine image reflected in the rich tapestry of individuals and families – LGBT, Interfaith, Jews by Birth, and Jews by Choice – who journey with us. P'nai Or means 'Faces of Light' in Hebrew.
Eastern European immigrants had begun arriving around 1900 and became the core of the Portland Jewish community. Settling at the southern end of the center of Portland's downtown, they formed a nearly self- sufficient community lasting more than 50 years. Everything – a kosher shopping district, five synagogues and a community center – contributed to a lively Jewish culture that intermixed with other immigrant groups who also lived in South Portland.
The neighborhood changed radically in the late 1950s with an urban renewal project designed to replace residences with a business and commercial district. By this time, many of the second and third generation had moved to the suburbs. Most remaining residents were forced to move. Shops closed or relocated, buildings were razed and a unique part of Portland's history ended.
Resource:
https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/temple-beth-israel/#.YoSPEajMKUk
https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/series/historical-photo/oregon-historical-photo-destruction-of-a-synagogue/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jews-in-oregon/#.YoSG46jMKUk
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/portland-jews
https://www.thenewsguard.com/community/offbeat-oregon-how-portland-s-rabbi-got-in-a-gunfight-at-the-president-s-hotel/article_0248b036-3683-11eb-8c9a-bf2e03252d8e.html
https://www.havurahshalom.org/%20
https://www.jewishportland.org/community-directory/pnai-or-of-portland-jewish-renewal
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/FMfcgzGpFzsrstjcHBqKrwgpVhqtHHhN
Labels: Ahavat Achim, Havai Shalom, Havurah Shalom, Kesser Israel, P'nai Or, Shaari Torah, Talmud Torah, Temple Beth Israel
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Here's Looking At The Ups and Downs of Jewish American immigrants Compared to my Father's Experience
Nadene Goldfoot
My father's DNA shows us that his Y haplogroup is of QBZ67 a Q line of Jewish men. Moses/Morris/Maurice Goldfoot was born in Portland, Oregon on July 1, 1908 to Nathan Abraham Goldfoot of Telsiai, Lithuania and Zlata Goldfoot nee Jermulowske of Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania/Poland.
I'm going to take a look at two other Jewish men born at about the same time in Chicago and see what advantages they had in life.
Dad attended Failing Grade School and Commerce High School, having to quit after his junior year to work and help support his family, fatherless since 1912 when Nathan was killed in his horse and wagon accident. Dad became a kosher butcher which led to having his own business of Lincoln Wholesale Meats to designing, owning and running his own business called Silver Falls Meat Packing Co. in Portland. He died on July 23, 1967 at age 59. He had a brother, Charlie, who moved to Grand Coulee, Washington with his wife and son sometime in the late 30s.. Portland only had the two families of Goldfoot left, Morris's mother with his sisters and his own new family.
Portland's city college wasn't built until the 1950s as Portland State U. " We first opened in 1946 as the Vanport Extension Center for 220 students in Vanport, a city built to house wartime shipyard workers. After surviving a devastating flood in 1948, we moved three times before finding our permanent home in 1952 in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon." I was the first to enter it from our family in 1956. I was able to take my 2 babes to Fruit and Flower Nursery School a few blocks away while I attended classes. My dad had worked at the shipyards during WWII, keeping his own business going and working at his 2nd job at the shipyards as a boss of crew.
Dad's DNA shows that we match such people as the Rubensteins and the Oppenheim/Oppenheimers. They are all in the group of FTDNA of Halpern & Matches.
Jews arrived in Chicago immediately after its 1833 incorporation. The Ashkenazi were the first Jewish group settling in Chicago. In the late 1830s and early 1840s a group of German Jews came to Chicago. Most of them were from Bavaria. On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) 1845 the first Jewish religious service in Chicago was held. Many Jews peddled items on streets. They later opened small stores, which were the basis of several companies. In this time the Jewish community was constantly growing, and when the American Civil War began, the community itself recruited a company of 100 Jews to join the 82nd Regiment of Illinois Volunteers.
Originally the Jews lived in the Downtown area, but this changed after the Great Chicago Fire occurred in 1871. Many moved to lakeside communities such as Hyde Park, Kenwood, and South Shore.
By 1930, I find a Boris B. Rubenstein attending U. of Chicago and living in the dormitory on April 30, 1930 at the age of 22. He was also born in 1908 but in Massachusetts. His father was from Germany and mother was from Russia. All eastern European countries were then labeled as Russia. He was not working. I found that Boris had become a doctor, an Endocrinologist and died at age 67 in Chicago, Illinois in 1975. CHICAGO, Jan. 1 (AP)—Dr. Boris B. Rubenstein, an endocrinologist noted for research on the relationship between ovarian hormones and human... I had found him on the 1940 census in Cleveland, Ohio, married to Dorothy with a daughter, and he was a doctor, a medical researcher.
Then I found a Paul Rubenstein, my 4th cousin, living near Portland, not too far from me. We got together several times. That was a fantastic find; We found that we had many of the same interests, such as our ancient history. We had some weird coincidences, too, like having Hillsboro, Oregon as part of our history.
In FTDNA, I have 81 Rubenstein matches including Paul. Some are 3rd to 5th cousins, most are all 4th cousins.
Joseph Allen Hynek (1910-1986) whose father was from Czechoslovakia. J. Allen Hynek studied astronomy at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty at Ohio State University. He died at age 76.
Both men were in the same dormitory at the same time as Joseph Allen Hynek who became a famous astronomer who is best known for investigations of unidentified flying objects and efforts to promote "ufology" as a legitimate scientific pursuit..No, I have no DNA connection to any Hynek.
In the same dormitory I also found Alexander Oppenheim, age 27, born in England in 1903. Both his parents were from "Russia." He was not working, either.
Oppenheim was born on 4 February 1903 in Salford, England to an immigrant family from Lithuania. His first language was Yiddish. He grew up in Manchester and attended Manchester Grammar School, where he was recognised as a mathematical prodigy. His teachers considered him too young to attend university and delayed his entrance to scholarship competitions until 1921, when he received a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. In each of his three undergraduate years at the University of Oxford, Oppenheim was the Oxford University mathematical scholar. He also captained the university chess team.He graduated with first-class honours in 1924 and was the senior mathematical scholar in 1926.
He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to study at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. He completed a PhD at the University of Chicago in 1930 under the supervision L.E. Dickson with a thesis titled Minima of Indefinite Quadratic Quaternary Forms. Oppenheim received a second doctorate, a DSc, from the University of Oxford in 1954 for his academic work later in his career.
Sir Alexander Oppenheim, (4 February 1903 – 13 December 1997) was a British mathematician and university administrator. In Diophantine approximation and the theory of quadratic forms, he proposed the Oppenheim conjecture. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Malaya, the University of Singapore, and its predecessors. During the Second World War, he was a prisoner of war in the Changi Camp and helped organized a "POW University". After the war, he served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya before holding two professorships in Ghana and Nigeria. He died at age 94 despite being held in a prisoner of war camp.
I personally match 4 male Oppenheims that are all my 4th to remote cousins, and a female who is 3rd to 5th cousin and another female that is 4th cousin. They are all on FTDNA. In all, I have 70 Oppenheim and Oppenheimers in FTDNA.
OPPENHEIM, town in Germany. Jews are first mentioned there in the tax register of 1241, according to which they were obliged to pay the emperor an annual tax of 15 marks. The Jews of the town, legally the property of the emperor, were placed under the protection of the officers in charge of the local fortress, to whom they paid their taxes. They also paid a house tax to the archbishop of Mainz.The burden of their taxes appears to have caused several Jews of Oppenheim to join the group that fled from the Rhineland and, under the leadership of *Meir b. Baruch of Rothenburg, attempted to emigrate to Ereẓ Israel (1285). At the end of July 1349, during the persecutions that followed the *Black Death, most of the Jews of Oppenheim were murdered, while others chose martyrdom (*kiddush ha-Shem) and burned themselves to death in order to escape forced conversion at the hands of the mob.
Some time later the community was reestablished. After 1400 the right of residence was made renewable at the end of every six years, and the amount of taxes to be paid was fixed. In 1422 a plot by two Christians to kill the Jews of the town was frustrated by the municipal council. Certain protection fees and "gifts" that the Jews of Oppenheim were compelled to pay weighed upon them so heavily that despite the additional support of such communities as Worms, Mainz, and Frankfurt, Oppenheim Jewry could not meet their payments and were therefore penalized (1444). In 1456, R. Seligmann Bing (or R. Seligmann Oppenheim) attempted to establish a union of the communities of the Upper Rhine, but because of community
The community suffered during the wars of Louis XIV, and by 1674 only three families remained in the town. By 1722 the number had grown to eight. Many Oppenheim Jews settled in Frankfurt and other south German cities, where they were known as "Oppenheim" or "Oppenheimer," and the name became widespread. The community numbered 20 families in 1807; 257 in 1872; 189 in 1880; and 56 in 1933. Of the 17 Jews who remained during World War II, 16 were deported. In 1970 no Jews lived in Oppenheim.
There were poor Jews and wealthy Jews who came to the USA who made an impact, even though we are only 0.02% of the population. Though our grandfather, Nathan died in his 40s, he left 4 children who produced 9 grandchildren, of which 2 are PhDs, 1 with a Master's degree and all were college graduates. with the great grandchildren doing well, too.
ancestry.com April 30, 1930 census of U Chicago dormitory
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/02/archives/dr-boris-b-rubenstein-endocrinologist-67-dies.html
https://goldfoot_genealogy.blogspot.com/2021/05/oppenheim-or-oppenheimer-connection.html
https://goldfoot_genealogy.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-gaon-of-vilna-connection-rubenstein.html
Labels: Goldfoot, Oppenheim, Rubenstein
