Goldfoot Genealogy

My father's uncle was Max Turn, originally Turshinsky of Równa, Lódzkie, Poland, who immigrated to the States in April 1903 with Nate at age 17 and later  married his Aunt Alice Jermulowski/e., half sister of his mother, Zlata Jermulowske.  I found on his living room table, a black and white photo of his great grandfather, a Talmud Scholar.  I was allowed to borrow it and use it as a model for my picture, above, that I did in oils.  

Max and Alice lived for many years in LaGrande, Oregon.  He finally was the owner of the Turn Furniture Store in LaGrande.  Max and Alice were perfect for each other.  Both were very short people, like my Bubba, Alice's sister.  Alice was what you call a balla-boostah, a perfect wife.  She always had goodies in the freezer to pull out and use in entertaining.  One time I dropped in late at night and she did that;  had cake and ice cream to serve.  She was always prepared.  I think they did a lot of entertaining in LaGrande. Max died in 1986 in Portland.  Alice died in 1990.  I had visited them at the Robinson Home in Portland, a retirement home which they had helped to start.  I remember that Alice called out to Max, thinking he was "upstairs."  She didn't realize he had passed away. 

          Alice and myself at the Robinson Home                             

She was 93 years 11 months and 25 days old when she passed away, outdoing my mother's life span.  Max had been 96 years 4 months and 20 days old when he passed away!  They were both doing something right! 

The Talmud was one of two created, the Palestinian one and the Babylonian one.  They both were the collection of the records of academic discussion and of judicial administration of Jewish Law in more than one country during many academics and in more than one country during several centuries after 200 CE.  In essence, you had to know your Tanakh (bible) pretty well in order to understand the discussions about it all.  It was the academic end of knowing the Tanakh.  He must have been very smart.  

No wonder when my mother, young brother and I were invited to Max and Alice's home for a seder during Passover.  I was a little girl, as I remember, maybe in 1950 then, and it was the longest seder I have ever had the pleasure of participating in.  Our great uncle Max read every word.  Nothing was left out.  I was too young then to be impressed, but I am now.  Wow!  He was good!  Where was my father-Max's direct relative?  Working as usual.  Our Jewish education was happening during that seder.  This is what happened to one Jewish man's family, how it was acclimated to living in a free society.  My father's father had been accidently killed in a horse and wagon accident when my father was 4, so he had been fatherless.  Uncle Max was trying to supplement his education this way since he didn't have a father figure.  

                                                                                                               David and Nadene Goldfoot             

Joel Verbin                                                                                                                             David Verbin

Also at the seder  was Alice and Max's daughter, Sylvia and her little boys, Joel and David Verbin who were about 10 years younger than me.  I can't remember if Abner from Nebraska, their father, was there or not, just the boys.  Joel went on and became the father of Daniel who I have contact with today.  He's also like me;  a writer.  He's been a reporter for a newspaper for many years and lives in Canada.  

I met Max and Alice's  other daughter, Annette one time, a beautiful lady and tall!  She married a doctor Sagall  and lived in Massachusetts.  I was so impressed with her.  She was like a model.  

I was  able to trace Max's family line to Shal "Saul " Turshinsky born about 1845 and his wife, Rebecca.  Their son, Samuel "Yiserol Leib" Turshinsky TURSZYNSKA" was born in Lodz, Poland in 1866.  He had married a well-known surnamed lady, Sussa Etta "Sarah" Yeta Packouz.  As it turns out, my father's insurance company for years was the Packouz Insurance Company.  Ah, he was keeping it in the family !  I never knew we were related!  

This is about one Jewish descendant from Poland and how his ancestors have spread out all over North America.  It's what happens so often.  My painting hangs in my living room, reminding me of my heritage.  Without it I'd feel deprived.  What brought Max to the States in 1903?  

 A considerable segment of the Polish peasantry abandoned the overburdened land. Millions of Poles emigrated to North America and other destinations, and millions more migrated to cities to form the new industrial labour force. 

These shifts stimulated fresh social tensions. Urban workers bore the full range of hardships associated with early capitalism, and the intensely nationalistic atmosphere of the day bred frictions between Poles and the other peoples remaining from the old heterogeneous Commonwealth of Two Nations. 

The movement of the former noble class into cities created a new urban professional class. However, the peasants that tried to move to the cities, found all the better positions already occupied by Jews and Germans. 

This contributed to the national tensions among the Poles, Germans, and Jews. At this time the Jewish population in Prussian Poland tended to identify with and want to belong to Germany, insofar as the latter, like the Jews themselves, had a more urbanized, cosmopolitan outlook. Another factor, not to be overlooked or underestimated is the traditional language spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, Yiddish, is also a Germanic language written in Hebrew characters, which afforded some natural compatibility with the German language dominated Austria-Hungarian and Prussian cultures.                       

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_(1795%E2%80%931918)

Labels: genealogy my oil painting, Goldfoot, Packouz, Poland, Turshinsky, Verbin

# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 8:15 AM 0 comments

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

In 1432 -1438 there was war in Lithuania.  It was Lithuania and Poland against Russia.  

From 1487-1494 a 2nd war was fought; the Lithuanian Muscovite War of Lithuania, the Golden Horde against Moscow.  

From 1492-1537, the war raged on as the Muscovite-Lithuanian wars of Lithuania and Moscow.  (1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue)  and Jews had to  leave Spain, start moving all over trying to find a home...

By 1495, Jews were living in  Vilna, Grodno and Kovno totaling 10,000.  

1508 was the Glinski Rebellion against Lithuania by Glinski supporters

1524 was the big Ottoman-Tartar invasion of Lithuania and Poland

1561to 1570 was the Northern 7 Years War of Lithuania/Poland against Sweden

They received a charter in 1529 guaranteeing freedom of movement and employment.  Soon they were the leading workers in foreign trade and taxing and farming.  However, from 1495-1502, the first 7 years of being in Lithuania, they were excluded FROM Lithuania.  In 1566-1572, the Jewish badge was introduced for Jews to wear to distinguish themselves from citizens.  Jews were disqualified in the court system for giving evidence.  

1576 to 1582 was the Livonian War of everyone (Lithuania/Poland/Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Transylvania);  being against Tsardom of Russia

1600-1629 was again the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and  Swedish War and 1605-1618 included war against Russia  and 1606 -1608 the Zebrzydowski Rebellion of nobles against the king.  

Organization took place.  Jews were represented in the COUNCIL OF THE FOUR (then 5) LANDS, but that wasn't helping, so the Jews formed a separate COUNCIL OF LITHUANIA in 1623 when a separate tax-system was  established.  

By 1762, Catherine II permitted all aliens to live in Russia, except Jews.  Partitions of Poland, resulting from wars, took place in 1772, 1793, and 1795, when the large group of White Russian Jews, Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland  became Russian subjects.  For more than a century, they were all under the reactionary rule of the Czars.

Lithuania became part of Russia in 1795 which lasted until WWI of 1918.  It had become a major part of the Jewish culture so was most important.  It was the home of  distinguished yeshivote (Jewish schools)  and leading rabbis such as the Gaon of Vilna.  It became the seat of MUSAR movement, and a center of Haskalah.

During World War I, 100,000 Jews were expelled or actually emigrated to the Russian interior, leaving their shtetles.  In independent Lithuania, Jews received national autonomy from 1918- 1924.  A Jewish National Council was established under a Ministry for Jewish Affairs.  They had the right to levy taxation under government auspices.  

Polish forces stops Austrian advance at Raszyn, only to retreat to the other side of the river soon afterwards.

The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 14 April 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria). It ended October 14, 1809.  It lasted 6 months.  

Vilna, the largest city as well as capital, was lost to Poland in 1919, the result of WWI.  This weakened the Jews of Vilna.  After 1924, autonomy was restricted solely to religious matters, while the economic position of the Jews deteriorated in the oncoming years. 

No Jews survived the expulsion of Jews of 1290 when Jews were also expulsed from England.  A few former Marranos settled in Dublin after 1660 and more arrived as military purveyors after the 1689 revolution. Original Jews were displaced by Ashkenazim, but by 18th century, population declined and by 1816 there were only 3 Jewish families in Dublin and a few in other Irish towns.  They were joined by others in 1822 and the population was 400 by 1880.  Emigration from Eastern Europe took place at the end of the 19th century and many went to Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Belfast.  the chief rabbinate was founded in 1918 being Yitzhak Halevi Herzog with the Jewish population in 1990 at 1,600, mainly in Dublin,

Many Jews of Lithuania moved on to Dublin, Ireland and from there, to South Africa which Jews started settling in the early 19th century.  Capetown had a synagogue by 1841.  The settlers were traders and peddlers who traveled among the Boer farmers.  Later they went to the towns.  Gold was discovered there in the end of the 19th century, which eastern European Jews which drew many.  Johannesburg became the main Jewish settlement, and they enjoyed the political equality in Cape Colony and Natal, but obtained it in the Transvaal only after the 2nd Boer War.  Immigration to South Africa was popular following WWI and  came mostly from Lithuania.  

I know that Simon Goldfoot moved from Lithuania to South Africa in the 20's.  His son, Stanley Goldfoot b: May 2, 1914,  was born there in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa.  Immediately after graduation high school, he made Aliyah to Palestine, and he lived in Jerusalem, becoming the Chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group which the British called the Stern Gang.  

Polish–Lithuanian Conflict) was an undeclared war between newly independent Lithuania and Poland following World War I, which happened mainly, but not only, in the Vilnius and Suwałki regions. The war is viewed differently by the respective sides. According to Lithuanian historians, it was part of the Lithuanian Wars of Independence and lasted from May 1919 to 29 November 1920. Polish historians deem the Polish–Lithuanian war as occurring only in September–October 1920. Since the spring of 1920, the conflict became part of the wider Polish–Soviet War and was largely shaped by its progress. It was subject to international mediation at the Conference of Ambassadors and the League of Nations.

Though most emigration from Lithuania went to Israel, it is now going to other English-speaking countries.  The rabbis of the principal congregations in Johannesburg (Jewish population was 63,620. Cape Town of which Cape Peninsula  had 28,000.  Chief rabbis and 65 synagogues are affiliated to the Orthodox Federation of Synagogues. A Reform Movement started in 1933 and has 14 affiliated congregations.  Also, there are 69 nursery schools, 10 primary schools and 8 high schools.  They have an extensive Jewish press and a lot of cultural  activities.  By 1990 there were 120,000 Jews living in South Africa.   

In 1923, there were 300 Jewish elementary schools, the majority teaching in Hebrew, a minority in Yiddish (Hebrew-German Combo).   

Jews of Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries immigrated to Ukraine and from Poland in the 16th to 17th  centuries.  Severe massacres happened during the Chmielnicki and the Haidamak uprising in the 17th to 18th centuries.  

The Frankist and Hasidic movements originated in the 18th century in Ukraine which was also associated with the early Zionism in the 19th-20th centuries.  Jews of Galicia and White Russia had emigrated there.  

The Soviet Government promoted Jewish settlement in the Ukraine in the 1920's, however.  They used the funds of the American Joint Distribution Committee in the regions of Kalinindorf, Zlatopol, and Stalindorf.  By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish agriculturists there.  In January 1918 , a regime of national autonomy was estalished in the Ukraine.  Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet rule.  About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII.  Under Nazi rule, the Jewish people who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians from 1941 to 1942.  The Jewish population was officially put at 777,126 in 1970 and at 484,129 in 1989.  

There were restrictions on them imposed during the 1930's limited the influx (when Germany and Nazism were affecting all countries towards Jews), although many German Jews were able to settle in South Africa.  After 1939, however, Jewish immigration was small to nothing.  It has increased again in the late 1980's.                                                                                        

In 1939 when Germany marched into Poland, starting WWII, the Jewish population numbered about 175,000.  About 25,000 were deported by the Russians from Lithuania and Latvia in July 1940.  The remaining Jews were massacred by the Germans and Lithuanians by 1943.  24,000 Jews were living there in 1959, but by 1989 about half of these had left for Israel, leaving 12,312.  Today of 2023 there are 52,300.  I presume most have made aliyah to Israel.

Jews of Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries immigrated to Ukraine and from Poland in the 16th to 17th  centuries.  Severe massacres happened during the Chmielnicki and the Haidamak uprising in the 17th to 18th centuries.  

The Frankist and Hasidic movements originated in the 18th century in Ukraine which was also associated with the early Zionism in the 19th-20th centuries.  Jews of Galicia and White Russia had emigrated there.                         

Ukraine was the center of anti-Semitism.  It was the scene of pogroms in 1905 and 1918 to 1920.  Fiddler on the Roof was situated in Ukraine. As the play begins, Tevye, a Jewish milkman, tells of the customs in the little Russian town of Anatevka. It is 1905, and life here is as precarious as a fiddler on the roof, yet, through their traditions, the villagers endure. Anatevka (Ukrainian: Анатевка) is a Ukrainian refugee village that provides food, housing, education, and medical support for refugees resulting from the 2014 Russian invasion and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The village was established in 2015 and currently houses hundreds of families.

The Soviet Government promoted Jewish settlement in the Ukraine in the 1920's, however.  They used the funds of the American Joint Distribution Committee in the regions of Kalinindorf, Zlatopol, and Stalindorf.  By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish agriculturists there.  In January 1918 , a regime of national autonomy was estalished in the Ukraine.  Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet rule.  About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII.  Under Nazi rule, the Jewish people who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians from 1941 to 1942.                                    

The Jewish population was officially put at 777,126 in 1970 and at 484,129 in 1989.  Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy; born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. 

Reference;

https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/blog/ironies-history-ukraine-crisis-through-lens-jewish-history

https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/jewish-population-by-country/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Polish_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_War

Labels: Anaatevka, Catherine II, Czars, Dublin, Gaon of Vilna, Lazdijai, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Soviets, Tartar, Telsiai, Ukraine, Vilna

# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 4:41 PM 0 comments

 Nadene Goldfoot

Andi Ziegelman nee Alpert, co founder of Halpern & Branches on Family Tree DNA, had written," My particular interest comes from having an ancestor, Nachum Eliyahu Halpern, who claimed descent from Jehiel Heilperin, a great talmudist from Minsk, Belarus. There are other HALPERN who descend from rabbinic families of the Russian Empire, as well as others who simply adopted the surname in the 19th century when it became necessary to chose a name.

So I am looking to dissect the different HALPERN groups to see which, if any, share a common ancestry. As of now (August of 2009), it looks as if my HALPERN family does NOT descend from the large HEILPERIN descended from Zebulun HEILPERIN, at least not via a direct male line. If I do descend from Rabbi Jehiel mentioned above, its likely also through a female line that later adopted the surname (or, alternatively, I either do not relate to Jehiel at all, OR Jehiel does not descend from this greater Heilperin family, as documented by Rabbi Meir Wunder.)"

https://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/journal/wunder.htm

The Reliability of Genealogical Research
in Modern Rabbinic Literature

by Rabbi Meir Wunder

Rabbinic literature deals very sparsely with genealogical research, a fact that is quite surprising, considering the importance that is ascribed to family yuchsin (lineage).

Rabbinic literature deals very sparsely with genealogical research, a fact that is quite surprising, considering the importance that is ascribed to family yuchsin (lineage). In the Tanach (Bible) almost all of Chronicles I deals with yuchsin, and the seeming contradictions to the genealogical facts recorded in the Torah and the Prophets are explained away by the classic commentaries.

Toward the end of the Babylonian Exile, we find Ezra the Scribe clarifying the yuchsin of the returnees to Eretz Yisrael, so that the fourth chapter in Tractate Kiddushin of the Babylonian Talmud begins, “The people who came up from Babylon were of ten types of familial background.” It also states in the same chapter (70:2), “The Almighty's Presence dwells only among families of pure lineage in the Nation Israel.” True that in Ezra's time there were still prophets able to make the clarification through prophesy, but even lacking this, there were live eyewitnesses among the older people who remembered and could identify individuals in the relatively short historical span of 70 years. (beginning of long essay).  

Dan Rottenberg in his book, Finding Our Fathers, tells us that Heilperin has many derivatives: Halpern, Heilbronn, Heilbroner, Heilperin, Heilpern, Heilborn, Hallperin, Helpern, Alpron,Alpern, Galpern, Heilprin, Galperin, Halper, Helpern:

He explains that it is a German name derived from the town of Heilbronn in Wurttemberg. All Jews with variations of this name are not necessarily related. Many Jews of Austria, Germany and Russia indiscriminately assumed these names when ordered to take family names in about 1800. However, there are 4 distinct branches of the Heilprin name. JE )Jewish Encyclopedia) has charts for 3 branches: many Heilprins in Russia claimed in 1900, descent from the 4th branch.

The oldest branch dates back to Zebulon Heilprin: 16th century, whose son, Moses of Brest-Litovek, was the father-in-law of Samuel Edels.

Another branch descends from Lithuanian rabbi, Jehiel Heilprin (1660-1746), a descendant of Solomon Luria, who traced his genealogy back through RASHI (1040-1105) which is a very important fact.

A Heilprin branch is also related to the BAAL SHEM TOV, founder of Hasidism. There evidently are many biographies in JE, most from Poland, Russia and Germany.

Also, see EJ article on Abraham ben Hayyim of Lublin, Poland who died in 1762, grandson of Isser, whose son married Fortis.

CAJ has a Heilprin family tree. LBl has a Heilbrunn family tree beginning 1683. LBIS has notes of a Heilbron family from Posen. CAJ has Halpern family records. Relationships to other prominent rabbinical families can be traced in Anaf Ex Aboth, by Samiuel Kahan, and Da'at Kodoshim, by Israel Eisenstadt.

Relatives include: Katzenellenbogen, Hurwitz, Horovitz, Jaffe, Wahl, Hen-Nigson, Ornstein, Kaminski, Epstein and Raphael.

Also see JE article on Pinsk, Russia, where Samuel Halpern was rabbi."

"This project has as its goal the expanding the Autosomal DNA (atDNA) Family Segments, for each branch – and some sub-branches – of the greater Halpern family. These segments have been made through the use of the triangulation software utility on the web site, GedMatch.com. If you have an unsubstantiated oral tradition of Halpern descent, or if you see a large number of Halperns on your FamilyFinder match list, and you thus suspect that you may be a Halpern, this project is for you. All you need to do is join our project and then upload the RAW DATA and X FILES from your FamilyFinder Autosomal DNA test to the web site, GedMatch.com, and inform the project’s administrators that you have done so. If you have difficulty carrying out the task, just ask the project’s administrators for help. Once on GedMatch, this project’s administrators will try to triangulate “suspected Halperns” on Halpern atDNA Family Segments. If successful, such triangulations will be a very good indication to this project’s members, of belonging to the Halpern family.

The main branches of the Halpern family are Halpern, Alperovich, Wertheim/er Rubenstein and Guggenheim. The Halpern branch breaks down into the Heilbronner, Heilbron, Heilborn, Heilprin, Halperin, Hellman/Hillman, etc. sub-branches.

The Alperovich branch apparently is a sub-branch of the Zevulun Eliezer Heilprin branch. The Wertheim/er branch is one of two sub-branches of the family tree of R. Isaac of Worms; the second sub-branch of R. Isaac’s family tree is the Rubenstein/Rubinstein branch. And some descendants of R. Isaac bore the Heilprin/Halpern surname. The Guggenheim branch is connected by Y DNA to the R. Zevulun Eliezer Heilprin sub-branch; the Guggenheims never went by the Heilprin/Halpern surname." To know more, see the rest of the page of Halpern & Branches.

I want to know more about Rabbi Meir Wunder ! I found http://www.jgaliciabukovina.net/134921/worker/rabbi-meir-wunder. He is a historian, Author of "Meori Galicia: The Encyclopedia of Galician Rabbies and Scholars".

Meorei Galicia: Encyclopedia of Galician Sages by rabbi Meir Wunder is one of the most extensive and reliable sources of rabbinical genealogy written in the twentieth century. Its six volumes, published from 1987 contain extensively detailed genealogies of Galician rabbinical families, arranged alphabetically by surname according to the Hebrew alphabet. For prominent rabbis of each family biographical material is included, in particular, rabbinical compositions, responsa correspondence, and photographs.

Now you can enjoy a free access to a limited edition of this collection with a minimal charge for access to the full edition. We invite you to a unique insight into the Jewish world of Galicia. To register click the big red button on top. 

 He's listed on a Chabad page.  https://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/23121/jewish/Meir-Wunder.htm.  Rabbi Meir Wunder is the founder and director of the Center for Torah Libraries. He was interviewed in his home in Jerusalem in February of 2011.

Tel Aviv: Rabbi Meir Wunder on May 14

The May 14 meeting of the Israel Genealogical Society’s Tel Aviv branch features Rabbi Meir Wunder on new possibilities in contemporary genealogical research of rabbinical families. His talk will be in Hebrew.

Born in Haifa, Wunder studied at the Paniewicz Yeshiva (Bnei Brak) and at Hebrew University’s School for Librarians (Jerusalem). For 30 years he headed the National Library’s Legal Deposit. Wunder has authored many books and articles, including the seven-volume Meorei Galicia: Encyclopedia Lekhakhmei Galicia (Encyclopedia of Galician Sages).

The program will begin at 7 p.m., at Beit Hatanach, 16 Rothschild Blvd., TelAviv. The library will be open from 6-7 p.m. Non-members, NIS 20.

Meorei Galicia: Encyclopedia of Galician Sages by rabbi Meir Wunder is one of the most extensive and reliable sources of rabbinical genealogy written in the twentieth century. Its six volumes, published from 1987 contain extensively detailed genealogies of Galician rabbinical families, arranged alphabetically by surname according to the Hebrew alphabet. For prominent rabbis of each family biographical material is included, in particular, rabbinical compositions, responsa correspondence, and photographs.

Resource:

https://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/journal/wunder.htm

Labels: Baal Shem Tov, dna, family trees, Germany, Halpern & Braanches, Poland, Rabbi Meir Wunder, Russia

# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 12:14 PM 0 comments

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Helping a young first cousin once removed to do research on her genealogy via the internet, I told her about our connection to the Kalonymos family that I had been told were on our family tree.  My young cousin wanted verification, facts for proof.  This family was so important to our Ashkenazi line,  which went back, it was said, to Hillel and Rashi who had a pedigree to King David.  Rashi's tree can be found in Dan Rottenberg's book, FINDING OUR FATHERS.

He wrote on page 255, "Kalonymus--Prominent family from 8th century, Italy and 10th century Germany.  JE has a family tree and 12 biographies.  LBI also has a family tree relate to Ullstein.  Also see JE articles on  David ben Jacob Meir, David ben Kalonymus, David Kalonymus of Naples, and Mayence (Mainz) and see EJ article on Eleazar ben Judah of Worms.  Related to Salman, Darshan and Jaffe."  (JE=Jewish Encyclopedia,, LBI=Leo Baeck Institute, EJ=Encyclopedia Judaica.)  

 Kalonymos or Kalonymus (Hebrew: קָלוֹנִימוּס Qālōnīmūs) is a prominent Jewish family who lived in Italy, mostly in Lucca and in Rome, which, after the settlement at Mainz and Speyer of several of its members, took during many generations a leading part in the development of Jewish learning in Germany. The family is according to many considered the foundation of Hachmei Provence and the Ashkenazi Hasidim.

A genealogy tree from 1080 has been developed.  Our group of DNA testers on Family Tree DNA have discovered that Kalonymos is one of the founders of the Halpern & Branches group.  It's an important surname for many of the Jewish people who are doing genealogy research.  

I finally got so curious that I used Kolonymos in Family Tree DNA where I have my test and up came someone with Klonymus Kalman.  We connected and messaged.

I just now discovered right on Wikipedia, 2 rabbis, related to each other.  Rabbi Klonymus Kalman Epstein born in Nowy Korczyn (Neustadt), Poland, 1753 – Kraków, 1825) son of Aaron Halevi Epstein, descendant from the Prophet Samuel and King David. ;  was a rabbi and Kabbalist, one of the great leaders of the Chassidic movement, known as the Maor Vashamesh (מאור ושמש) after his sefer.

 Rabbi Shapira's only son, his daughter-in-law, and his sister-in-law were killed during the Nazi aerial bombing of Warsaw in September, 1939. After the invasion of Poland, Rabbi Shapira was interned with a few of his hasidim in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he ran a secret synagogue. He invested enormous efforts in maintaining Jewish life in the ghetto, including arranging for mikveh immersions and kosher marriages. Rabbi Shapira was able to survive in the ghetto until its liquidation, avoiding the tragic deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942, because of the support of the Judenrat. Like other notables, he was given work at Schultz's shoe factory—a path to ongoing survival.

After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was crushed in 1943, Rabbi Shapira was taken to the Trawniki work camp near Lublin. Although offered the opportunity to escape from the concentration camp, he apparently refused. Following the Jewish uprising in the Treblinka death camp (August 2, 1943) and in Sobibor extermination camp (October 14, 1943), there was increasing concern among the Nazi authorities that there would be further outbreaks of violence at other concentration camps. For this reason, Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival) was launched. During this operation, carried out on November 3, 1943, all the remaining Jews in Trawniki, including Rabbi Shapira, were shot to death.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klonimus_Kalman_Epstein

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalonymus_Kalman_Shapira

Finding Our Fathers-a guidebook to Jewish genealogy by Dan Rottenberg

Labels: Ashkenazim, genealogy, Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Klonimus Kalman Epstein, Poland, Rabbis

# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 8:45 AM 0 comments