Please click on each image below for ease of reading.
Shmuel Gorr
Elul 21, 5768; September 21, 2008 marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of pioneer genealogist the late Rabbi Shmuel Gorr of blessed memory. Two obituaries were published in "Search" Volume 8, Number 3, 1988, one by Chaim Freedman and the other by Charles Bernstein.
Please click on each image below for ease of reading.
Please click on each image below for ease of reading.
Edna Berliner
Obituary by her son-in-law Chaim Freedman
On the 6th of Av 5768, August 6th 2008, Edna Berliner passed away in Melbourne one week short of her 92nd birthday.
Edna Berliner was born August 15th, 1916 in Carlton, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super. She had six brothers. In 1941 she married the late Reverend Phillip (Pinchas) Berliner, London born graduate of English and Eastern European Yeshivot who narrowly escaped the Holocaust and arrived in Australia in 1940. Edna was educated at St.Kilda Park State School and Melbourne Girls High School. Her Jewish education she received at Sunday school and basked in the rich tradition and love of Yiddishkeit of her parents.
Widowed at the age of 43 Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up three daughters, Muriel Kleerekoper (Sydney, deceased), Lena Pose (Melbourne) and Jane Freedman (Israel). Edna contributed ably to her father and husband’s communal activities. In her youth she acted as secretary to the late Rabbi Dr. Joseph Abrahams who spent his last years living with the Supers and treated Edna lovingly as if she was his daughter. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women and the women’s auxiliary of South Caulfield Shule where she attended after nearly a half century living in Crimea Street, St.Kilda and attending St.Kilda Shule with which her father and husband were associated.
Edna was a wealth of information about communal history, particularly Carlton, and loved to talk about old times, people, Shule and Beth Din intrigues. She was interviewed by historians for material for their books.
Edna had a wide circle of friends who appreciated her keen sense of humour, warm hospitality, home wisdom and common sense.
In particular she staunchly maintained her love and allegiance to her father’s and husband’s Yiddishkeit. She read voraciously and diligently reviewed Parshat Hashavuah each week in preparation for Shabbat. She attended Shule every Shabbat until her health no longer permitted. Such was her inspiration in this respect that kind members of the congregation came to her home to blow Shofar, to bring her Lulav and Etrog and invited her to eat in their Sukkah. Deprived of the male role in the home after the death of her husband and father, she took on the task of making Kiddush, Zemirot, Benching and Havdalah, ever a staunch advocate for women’s equality in Judaism. Her habit of being ready for Shabbat and Chagim several days in advance was a source of good humour for her family.
Edna’s life was fraught by many illnesses that she coped with in courage and determination. She was like a cat with nine lives twice over and considered every day that she was spared as a blessing. In her latter years she was handicapped in her mobility but was determined to retain her independence and continue to live in her own home in dignity. Her last years were spent at Montefiore Homes.
She was scrupulous in account keeping and one of her typical sayings was “I hate owing money”. She loved shopping and would tell the shopkeepers “I’m looking for my daughter”. Despite her incapacity she diligently carried out her exercises and persisted to walk up her drive to collect the mail until she was no longer able and accepted the help of her neighbors with whom she maintained warm relationships.
She was a determined lady and typical was the occasion when visiting Israel and unable to find other transport to the Kibbutz where her daughter and son-in-law were staying, joined them hitchhiking, even when it involved clambering into the back of a van. On the Kibbutz she insisted in pulling her weight and spent the time of her visit there working in the communal kitchen and exchanging opinions with the ladies in a variety of languages. She traveled to Israel five times by herself and was daring enough one trip to book a tour and get her hair cut in Athens.
The highlight of one of those trips was her reunion in Israel with her brother the late Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super, whom she had not seen for 51 years.
Edna always maintained contact with her many longstanding friends and made phone calls to enquire about their health and the wellbeing of their families.
She was very much part of Australian culture being the first of her parents’ children to be born in Melbourne. So she liked her little flutter on the Melbourne Cup. She was a fun loving parent who read and composed stories to her children when they were young and was not above playing “skippy” with them on a Shabbat afternoon. She liked a dip in the sea and took the children to St.Kilda beach on a Friday morning. In summer she would arise at 5 AM, get Shabbat prepared and thus have the whole day to take her daughters out. She was modest and would say, “I can always learn from my daughters”. She liked a good joke even if it was a bit risqué and had an infectious rollicking laugh.
Edna loved the movies and music. She had a number of favourite songs such as “Danny Boy”, “Roses Whisper” and “Esah Einei”, although her singing voice was ever a source of amusement for her family.
She used to jokingly say that she would come to Israel to help her daughter do the mending. She hated wastefulness and would save pencil ends, envelopes, jars and plastic bags. She loved her garden and had “Green fingers”. Her garden was a riot of colour and fragrance, winter and summer. Even when she had to walk with a frame she was determined to potter amongst her plants.
Always interested in current affairs at one time she worked voluntarily for a radio station collecting news items. Similarly she combed the newspapers and sent clippings to her family in Israel.
Edna was a proud grandmother and great-grandmother and called her extended family her “treasure”. She loved to entertain and cook them their favourite dishes. Her greatest pleasure she derived from being surrounded by her loving family. In particular her grandchildren and great-grandchildren after whose welfare she constantly enquired, despite them being spread over four continents.
She was loved and respected by her sons in law whom she treated as if they were her own sons.
Edna is survived by two daughters, six grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren.
Long will she be remembered – a true Eshet Chayil.
Eulogy at the funeral of Edna Berliner
Written and delivered by her granddaughter Deborah (Pose) Lazerow.
Edna Berliner was born August 15th, 1916 in Faraday St Carlton, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super. She had six brothers and was proud of saying that she was the first of the Aussie batch. Edna was educated at St.Kilda Park State School and Melbourne Girls High School and had classes at Government house. Her Jewish education she received at Sunday school and she basked in the rich tradition and love of Yiddishkeit of her parents.
In her youth she acted as secretary to the late Rabbi Dr. Joseph Abrahams who spent his last years living with the Supers and treated Edna as if she was his daughter. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women and the women’s auxiliary of South Caulfield Shule.
In 1941 she married the late Reverend Phillip (Pinchas) Berliner, who arrived in Australia from London in 1940 and later became chazzan at St Kilda Shule, community shochet and bar mitzvah teacher.
Widowed at the age of 43 Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up three daughters, the late Muriel Kleerekoper, Lena Pose and Jane Freedman.
Throughout her life she staunchly maintained her love and allegiance to her Judaism. She read voraciously and diligently reviewed Parshat Hashavuah each week in preparation for Shabbat. She attended Shule every Shabbat until her health no longer permitted and continued to pray at home throughout her days. Such was her inspiration in this respect that members of the Shule congregation came to her home to blow Shofar, to bring her Lulav and Etrog and invited her to eat in their Sukkah.
Deprived of the male role in the home after the death of her husband and father, she took on the task of making Kiddush, Zemirot, Benching and Havdalah, ever a staunch advocate for women’s equality in Judaism. Her habit of being ready for Shabbat and Chagim several days in advance was a source of good humour for her family and continued to be the top of her mind even in her last days.
Edna’s life was fraught by many illnesses that she coped with in courage and determination. She was like a cat with nine lives and considered every day that she was spared as a blessing. In her latter years she was limited in her mobility but was determined to retain her independence and continue to live in her own home in dignity until her late 80’s. Edna had a green thumb and one of the saddest things for her to give up besides her independence and loving neighbors when she moved to the Montifiore was her beloved pot plants.
Despite her growing frailty she diligently carried out her exercises and persisted to walk up her drive to collect the mail until she was no longer able and accepted the help of her neighbors with whom she maintained warm relationships
She was a determined lady and typical was the occasion when visiting Israel and unable to find other transport to the Kibbutz where her daughter and son-in-law were staying, joined them hitchhiking, even when it involved clambering into the back of a van. She traveled to Israel five times by herself and was daring enough one trip to book a tour and get her hair cut in Athens. The highlight of one of those trips was her reunion in Israel with her brother the late Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super, whom she had not seen for 51 years.
Edna always maintained contact with her many longstanding friends and made phone calls to enquire about their health and the wellbeing of their families, children and grandchildren.
Edna loved the movies and music. She had a number of favourite songs such as “Danny Boy” and “Roses Whisper” although her singing voice was ever a source of amusement for her family.
She used to jokingly say that she would come to Israel to help her daughter do the mending. An early environmentalist, she hated wastefulness and would save pencil ends, envelopes, jars and plastic bags. Always interested in current affairs at one time she worked voluntarily for a radio station collecting news items. Similarly she combed the newspapers and sent clippings to her family in Israel and her granddaughters when they traveled.
Edna was a proud grandmother and great-grandmother and was fondly known as Super Nanny.
Roses whisper good night neath the silvery light asleep in the dew while the dawn peepeth through. These words, sung out of tune and full of love, were the words that Nana used to sing us to sleep as kids. It was also the words that we whispered to her last night as she slipped into her final sleep.
It’s poignant that nana sang about roses because she herself was like a rose.
Like a rose, Nana was held aloft by a strong stem. Her will and her faith gave her a strength that was hard to equate with such a frail elderly woman.
Nana’s personal motto was PMA – positive mental attitude. She strongly believed in the power of the mind to influence everything and kept her mind active by clipping newspaper stories for her loved ones overseas. To keep her mind positive, she always chose to surround herself with positive imagery. No matter the occasion, she always chose to wear happy colours, pretty beads and bright red lipstick and she always asked the same of the women that she loved. She was fond of saying that a woman is never dressed without her lipstick so for you nana, we are properly dressed today.
Her positivity was infectious. It was impossible to visit her without cheering up and the nurses and staff that cared for her , particularly those at Montifiore who showed such affection and professionalism always loved to pay her a visit. She never complained about physical discomfort, after all there was nothing that a bit of dencorub and a panamax couldn’t fix and nothing that avocado cream couldn’t make beautiful.
Nana was testament to the power of faith. A deeply religious woman, her life was steered and steeled by Judaism. This was epitomized by the fact that she held on to say shema and sing tehillim on her last night with, Rabbi Sufrin, who she called “her boyfriend” and who proved to be an amazing support to her and all our family over that past few years.
While she was still living at home, to visit Nana on a Friday afternoon was inspirational. Her table would be set immaculately with white table cloth and polished silverware. The kitchen would contain one setting of entree, soup decorated with parsley, main course, her famous coleslaw (when she remembered to put it on the table) and of course desert followed by biscuits to go with her tea. Her bedroom would be set up with her shabbes outfit, including her brightest jewellery, lipstick and shabbes shoes. She even kept a special pair of shabbes slippers to wear after dinner, which she often chose to eat alone to avoid breaking Shabbat by travelling to her family.
Nana had the self-respect to spoil herself for Shabbat and Yom Tov but her greatest love was spoiling others. Even at Montifiore she kept her not so secret stash of chocolates, wafers and suck lollies to share with all her visitors.
Like any flourishing rose bush, Nana had strong roots that she was proud of. While she was modest in her own right, she was always delighted to tell us about the achievements of her scholarly brothers, her elegant mother and her father who was a member of the Beth Din in Australia. Nana’s stories were filled with words about the rabbonim that the family would entertain in Crimea Street and the grand social gatherings that she attended with her accomplished brothers.
Like a the leaves on a rose, Nana has sprouted bountiful offspring and I know she was fulfilled to attend marriages of 3 daughters, dance at the weddings of three granddaughters, send messages to the weddings of two grandsons and to receive an invitation to the wedding next week of her great granddaughter, Mirel. Nana waited almost 90 years to give her debut speech in public and I’m sure many of you will remember the touch words that she delivered at both Karyn and my weddings. Into her later years, Nana could still remember all the important family dates and would be the first to call for birthdays, Hebrew birthdays, half birthdays and anniversaries.
Like the thorns of a rose bush, Nana had the surprisingly sharp barrier of self protection. A feminist before her time, her feistiness when her rights and comforts were at stake was renowned, even at Montifiore. But even with this assertiveness, her guiding principle was respect for everyone so she would demand a cup of HOT tea with a smile. She fought death on a number of occasions and only went when she was ready to go.
Although a rose is held aloft by strong stem, roots and leaves it is the perfumed flower that everyone admires and so it is with Nana. Nana’s Hebrew name was Yenta, and rather than the gossiping yenta of folk law, Nana adhered to her namesake in being a gentle woman with the softness of rose petals. Nana kissed and hugged with the softest of arms and cheeks. Last week mum celebrated her birthday and Nana still found the energy to give her 61 gentle birthday smacks, with one to grow on.
Our rose wilted 10 days short of her 92nd birthday but her perfume remains in all of us and we are truly blessed to have known this Eshet Chail.
On the 6th of Av 5768, August 6th 2008, Edna Berliner passed away in Melbourne one week short of her 92nd birthday.
Edna Berliner was born August 15th, 1916 in Carlton, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super. She had six brothers. In 1941 she married the late Reverend Phillip (Pinchas) Berliner, London born graduate of English and Eastern European Yeshivot who narrowly escaped the Holocaust and arrived in Australia in 1940. Edna was educated at St.Kilda Park State School and Melbourne Girls High School. Her Jewish education she received at Sunday school and basked in the rich tradition and love of Yiddishkeit of her parents.
Widowed at the age of 43 Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up three daughters, Muriel Kleerekoper (Sydney, deceased), Lena Pose (Melbourne) and Jane Freedman (Israel). Edna contributed ably to her father and husband’s communal activities. In her youth she acted as secretary to the late Rabbi Dr. Joseph Abrahams who spent his last years living with the Supers and treated Edna lovingly as if she was his daughter. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women and the women’s auxiliary of South Caulfield Shule where she attended after nearly a half century living in Crimea Street, St.Kilda and attending St.Kilda Shule with which her father and husband were associated.
Edna was a wealth of information about communal history, particularly Carlton, and loved to talk about old times, people, Shule and Beth Din intrigues. She was interviewed by historians for material for their books.
Edna had a wide circle of friends who appreciated her keen sense of humour, warm hospitality, home wisdom and common sense.
In particular she staunchly maintained her love and allegiance to her father’s and husband’s Yiddishkeit. She read voraciously and diligently reviewed Parshat Hashavuah each week in preparation for Shabbat. She attended Shule every Shabbat until her health no longer permitted. Such was her inspiration in this respect that kind members of the congregation came to her home to blow Shofar, to bring her Lulav and Etrog and invited her to eat in their Sukkah. Deprived of the male role in the home after the death of her husband and father, she took on the task of making Kiddush, Zemirot, Benching and Havdalah, ever a staunch advocate for women’s equality in Judaism. Her habit of being ready for Shabbat and Chagim several days in advance was a source of good humour for her family.
Edna’s life was fraught by many illnesses that she coped with in courage and determination. She was like a cat with nine lives twice over and considered every day that she was spared as a blessing. In her latter years she was handicapped in her mobility but was determined to retain her independence and continue to live in her own home in dignity. Her last years were spent at Montefiore Homes.
She was scrupulous in account keeping and one of her typical sayings was “I hate owing money”. She loved shopping and would tell the shopkeepers “I’m looking for my daughter”. Despite her incapacity she diligently carried out her exercises and persisted to walk up her drive to collect the mail until she was no longer able and accepted the help of her neighbors with whom she maintained warm relationships.
She was a determined lady and typical was the occasion when visiting Israel and unable to find other transport to the Kibbutz where her daughter and son-in-law were staying, joined them hitchhiking, even when it involved clambering into the back of a van. On the Kibbutz she insisted in pulling her weight and spent the time of her visit there working in the communal kitchen and exchanging opinions with the ladies in a variety of languages. She traveled to Israel five times by herself and was daring enough one trip to book a tour and get her hair cut in Athens.
The highlight of one of those trips was her reunion in Israel with her brother the late Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super, whom she had not seen for 51 years.
Edna always maintained contact with her many longstanding friends and made phone calls to enquire about their health and the wellbeing of their families.
She was very much part of Australian culture being the first of her parents’ children to be born in Melbourne. So she liked her little flutter on the Melbourne Cup. She was a fun loving parent who read and composed stories to her children when they were young and was not above playing “skippy” with them on a Shabbat afternoon. She liked a dip in the sea and took the children to St.Kilda beach on a Friday morning. In summer she would arise at 5 AM, get Shabbat prepared and thus have the whole day to take her daughters out. She was modest and would say, “I can always learn from my daughters”. She liked a good joke even if it was a bit risqué and had an infectious rollicking laugh.
Edna loved the movies and music. She had a number of favourite songs such as “Danny Boy”, “Roses Whisper” and “Esah Einei”, although her singing voice was ever a source of amusement for her family.
She used to jokingly say that she would come to Israel to help her daughter do the mending. She hated wastefulness and would save pencil ends, envelopes, jars and plastic bags. She loved her garden and had “Green fingers”. Her garden was a riot of colour and fragrance, winter and summer. Even when she had to walk with a frame she was determined to potter amongst her plants.
Always interested in current affairs at one time she worked voluntarily for a radio station collecting news items. Similarly she combed the newspapers and sent clippings to her family in Israel.
Edna was a proud grandmother and great-grandmother and called her extended family her “treasure”. She loved to entertain and cook them their favourite dishes. Her greatest pleasure she derived from being surrounded by her loving family. In particular her grandchildren and great-grandchildren after whose welfare she constantly enquired, despite them being spread over four continents.
She was loved and respected by her sons in law whom she treated as if they were her own sons.
Edna is survived by two daughters, six grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren.
Long will she be remembered – a true Eshet Chayil.
Eulogy at the funeral of Edna Berliner
Written and delivered by her granddaughter Deborah (Pose) Lazerow.
Edna Berliner was born August 15th, 1916 in Faraday St Carlton, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super. She had six brothers and was proud of saying that she was the first of the Aussie batch. Edna was educated at St.Kilda Park State School and Melbourne Girls High School and had classes at Government house. Her Jewish education she received at Sunday school and she basked in the rich tradition and love of Yiddishkeit of her parents.
In her youth she acted as secretary to the late Rabbi Dr. Joseph Abrahams who spent his last years living with the Supers and treated Edna as if she was his daughter. She was active in the National Council of Jewish Women and the women’s auxiliary of South Caulfield Shule.
In 1941 she married the late Reverend Phillip (Pinchas) Berliner, who arrived in Australia from London in 1940 and later became chazzan at St Kilda Shule, community shochet and bar mitzvah teacher.
Widowed at the age of 43 Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up three daughters, the late Muriel Kleerekoper, Lena Pose and Jane Freedman.
Throughout her life she staunchly maintained her love and allegiance to her Judaism. She read voraciously and diligently reviewed Parshat Hashavuah each week in preparation for Shabbat. She attended Shule every Shabbat until her health no longer permitted and continued to pray at home throughout her days. Such was her inspiration in this respect that members of the Shule congregation came to her home to blow Shofar, to bring her Lulav and Etrog and invited her to eat in their Sukkah.
Deprived of the male role in the home after the death of her husband and father, she took on the task of making Kiddush, Zemirot, Benching and Havdalah, ever a staunch advocate for women’s equality in Judaism. Her habit of being ready for Shabbat and Chagim several days in advance was a source of good humour for her family and continued to be the top of her mind even in her last days.
Edna’s life was fraught by many illnesses that she coped with in courage and determination. She was like a cat with nine lives and considered every day that she was spared as a blessing. In her latter years she was limited in her mobility but was determined to retain her independence and continue to live in her own home in dignity until her late 80’s. Edna had a green thumb and one of the saddest things for her to give up besides her independence and loving neighbors when she moved to the Montifiore was her beloved pot plants.
Despite her growing frailty she diligently carried out her exercises and persisted to walk up her drive to collect the mail until she was no longer able and accepted the help of her neighbors with whom she maintained warm relationships
She was a determined lady and typical was the occasion when visiting Israel and unable to find other transport to the Kibbutz where her daughter and son-in-law were staying, joined them hitchhiking, even when it involved clambering into the back of a van. She traveled to Israel five times by herself and was daring enough one trip to book a tour and get her hair cut in Athens. The highlight of one of those trips was her reunion in Israel with her brother the late Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super, whom she had not seen for 51 years.
Edna always maintained contact with her many longstanding friends and made phone calls to enquire about their health and the wellbeing of their families, children and grandchildren.
Edna loved the movies and music. She had a number of favourite songs such as “Danny Boy” and “Roses Whisper” although her singing voice was ever a source of amusement for her family.
She used to jokingly say that she would come to Israel to help her daughter do the mending. An early environmentalist, she hated wastefulness and would save pencil ends, envelopes, jars and plastic bags. Always interested in current affairs at one time she worked voluntarily for a radio station collecting news items. Similarly she combed the newspapers and sent clippings to her family in Israel and her granddaughters when they traveled.
Edna was a proud grandmother and great-grandmother and was fondly known as Super Nanny.
Roses whisper good night neath the silvery light asleep in the dew while the dawn peepeth through. These words, sung out of tune and full of love, were the words that Nana used to sing us to sleep as kids. It was also the words that we whispered to her last night as she slipped into her final sleep.
It’s poignant that nana sang about roses because she herself was like a rose.
Like a rose, Nana was held aloft by a strong stem. Her will and her faith gave her a strength that was hard to equate with such a frail elderly woman.
Nana’s personal motto was PMA – positive mental attitude. She strongly believed in the power of the mind to influence everything and kept her mind active by clipping newspaper stories for her loved ones overseas. To keep her mind positive, she always chose to surround herself with positive imagery. No matter the occasion, she always chose to wear happy colours, pretty beads and bright red lipstick and she always asked the same of the women that she loved. She was fond of saying that a woman is never dressed without her lipstick so for you nana, we are properly dressed today.
Her positivity was infectious. It was impossible to visit her without cheering up and the nurses and staff that cared for her , particularly those at Montifiore who showed such affection and professionalism always loved to pay her a visit. She never complained about physical discomfort, after all there was nothing that a bit of dencorub and a panamax couldn’t fix and nothing that avocado cream couldn’t make beautiful.
Nana was testament to the power of faith. A deeply religious woman, her life was steered and steeled by Judaism. This was epitomized by the fact that she held on to say shema and sing tehillim on her last night with, Rabbi Sufrin, who she called “her boyfriend” and who proved to be an amazing support to her and all our family over that past few years.
While she was still living at home, to visit Nana on a Friday afternoon was inspirational. Her table would be set immaculately with white table cloth and polished silverware. The kitchen would contain one setting of entree, soup decorated with parsley, main course, her famous coleslaw (when she remembered to put it on the table) and of course desert followed by biscuits to go with her tea. Her bedroom would be set up with her shabbes outfit, including her brightest jewellery, lipstick and shabbes shoes. She even kept a special pair of shabbes slippers to wear after dinner, which she often chose to eat alone to avoid breaking Shabbat by travelling to her family.
Nana had the self-respect to spoil herself for Shabbat and Yom Tov but her greatest love was spoiling others. Even at Montifiore she kept her not so secret stash of chocolates, wafers and suck lollies to share with all her visitors.
Like any flourishing rose bush, Nana had strong roots that she was proud of. While she was modest in her own right, she was always delighted to tell us about the achievements of her scholarly brothers, her elegant mother and her father who was a member of the Beth Din in Australia. Nana’s stories were filled with words about the rabbonim that the family would entertain in Crimea Street and the grand social gatherings that she attended with her accomplished brothers.
Like a the leaves on a rose, Nana has sprouted bountiful offspring and I know she was fulfilled to attend marriages of 3 daughters, dance at the weddings of three granddaughters, send messages to the weddings of two grandsons and to receive an invitation to the wedding next week of her great granddaughter, Mirel. Nana waited almost 90 years to give her debut speech in public and I’m sure many of you will remember the touch words that she delivered at both Karyn and my weddings. Into her later years, Nana could still remember all the important family dates and would be the first to call for birthdays, Hebrew birthdays, half birthdays and anniversaries.
Like the thorns of a rose bush, Nana had the surprisingly sharp barrier of self protection. A feminist before her time, her feistiness when her rights and comforts were at stake was renowned, even at Montifiore. But even with this assertiveness, her guiding principle was respect for everyone so she would demand a cup of HOT tea with a smile. She fought death on a number of occasions and only went when she was ready to go.
Although a rose is held aloft by strong stem, roots and leaves it is the perfumed flower that everyone admires and so it is with Nana. Nana’s Hebrew name was Yenta, and rather than the gossiping yenta of folk law, Nana adhered to her namesake in being a gentle woman with the softness of rose petals. Nana kissed and hugged with the softest of arms and cheeks. Last week mum celebrated her birthday and Nana still found the energy to give her 61 gentle birthday smacks, with one to grow on.
Our rose wilted 10 days short of her 92nd birthday but her perfume remains in all of us and we are truly blessed to have known this Eshet Chail.
Death In Venice - seeking the Katzenellenbogen tombstones
Death In Venice - seeking the Katzenellenbogen tombstones
(Chaim Freedman, July 2008.)
Having recently discovered my descent from the Katzenellenbogen family, I decided to trace the graves of members of the early generations while I was in Italy (May 2008).
http://chfreedman.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancestry%20of%20the%20Vilna%20Gaon%20-%20Descent%20from%20King%20David
My wife and I were staying in Venice for a week in a conveniently located Pension in the Ghetto Nuovo, the oldest part of the Ghetto which was founded in 1516. We visited the adjacent Jewish museum and I asked one of the curators, Daniela, whether she knew of Katzenellenbogens who might be buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Venice located on the Lido Island. Daniela looked up several books which were in the museum library and which included lists of the burials in the Lido cemetery. There were no Katzenellenbogens, neither listed under that surname, nor were any of the deceased who were listed without surname, of suitable personal names.
I was aware that the two Katzenellenbogens who had held the official position of Rabbi of Venice were buried in Padua, but it was not clear where the wife of one of them was buried and so I suspected that she might be buried in Venice. It turned out that I was wrong.
The earliest member of the family to be known by the surname Katzenellenbogen was Rabbi Meir the son of Yitskhak. His family apparently came from the small village overlooking the Rhine called Katzenellenbogen. Meir’s father Yitskhak moved to Padua in Italy, a rich centre of Jewish and secular scholarship. Yitskhak wife was believed by many rabbinic genealogists to have been a daughter of Yekhiel Luria (died 1470), whose family held a tradition of descent from Rashi (1040-1105), himself a reputed descendant of King David.
Meir Katzenellenbogen was born in Germany in 1482 and was known by an acrostic of his name as the “Maharam Padua”. His wife Khanah was a daughter of Rabbi Avraham Mintz, a son of Rabbi Yehudah ben Eliezer Halevy Mintz (c.1405-1508). The Mintz family came from Maintz, Germany and Rabbi Yehudah established the Yeshiva in Padua which was attended by prominent scholars. On his death his son Rabbi Avraham succeeded as Head of the Yeshivah and Rabbi of Padua. On Avraham’s death in about 1535[1] his son-in-law Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen became rabbi both of Padua and Venice. He lived in Padua and only visited Venice periodically.
On the death of the Maharam Padua in 1565, his son Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah became Rabbi of Venice where he resided. His wife’s name was Avigayil (her father’s name is not known) and she died in 1594 in Venice, followed by Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah in 1597, also in Venice. However Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah was taken to Padua for burial next to his father and mother.
According to Rosenstein[2] “Over the centuries, the tombstone of the Maharam began to crumble being made of soft stone, and its inscription was becoming illegible, so that in 1966, four hundred years after his death, the community of Padua replaced the tombstone with a new one in the original site. The old stone now stands in the new cemetery of Padua. This was witnessed by the present writer on a visit to Padua in 1968.” *
During my vacation in Italy I was anxious to visit the Katzenellenbogen graves, both out of sentiment for my ancient ancestors (I am an 18th generation descendant of the Maharam Padua through the Vilna Gaon) but also to ascertain the burial place of Avigayil and perhaps her father’s name which I expected to appear on the inscription on her tombstone.
Padua has several old cemeteries and I consulted the Jewishgen’s International Cemetery project http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/ to determine which housed the Katzenellenbogen tombstones. This indicated that there were two ancient cemeteries. So I consulted a site for Jewish Padua
http://www.kosherdelight.com/ItalyVenetoPaduaSynagogue.htm
which stated that “The Jewish cemeteries in the city make a separate itinerary: there are seven in all, and some can be visited by arrangement with the community offices.The first cemetery is at San Leonardo and dates from before 1348. Among the tombs is that of the famous Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen (1482-1565) with its carving of a cat (Katze in German).”
I posted on the Jewishgen forum a request for information about the accessibility of the cemetery. I received several replies including one from Israeli genealogist Schelly Talalay-Dardashti http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/ who referred me to an expert on Italian Jewry, Nardo Bonomi who lives in Florence and is the coordinator of the site
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/genealogy.html . He very kindly phoned the Jewish Community Centre in Padua and made enquiries for me. Likewise I was informed by Elieser Rosenfield of Jerusalem that he had visited the cemetery and he gave me the contact details of the person who guided him, an official of the Padua Jewish Community Raffaele D'Angeli.
I emailed the latter and we set a date for my visit as the cemetery is not readily open to the public other than by prior arrangement.
Meanwhile in Venice we arranged to visit the cemetery on the Lido in the hope of perhaps finding the grave of Avigayil Katzenellenbogen. There was only one weekly tour available, led by Daniela of the Jewish museum. However this was cancelled due to heavy rain.
So on the day before we were due to leave Italy we set off by train on a short thirty minute journey to Padua. We met Rafi as arranged outside the Plaza Hotel. A twenty minute walk through the old cobbled streets of Padua led us to the locked gate set in the high brick wall surrounding the cemetery. Rafi unlocked the gate to let us in and took us the back row of the cemetery. The grounds are well looked after and there is an ongoing project to restore and identify the tombstones.
The Katzenellenbogen tombstones stand in a row against the rear wall of the cemetery. According to Rafi this was their original site. It was a very moving moment to be confronted by the tombstones of my ancestors of 450 years ago.
There are five stones from left to right:
Rabbi Shmuel Yehudah, 1521-1597 son of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen.
Rabbi Meir the “Maharam Padua”, 1482-1565.
Khanah, died 1564, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Halevy Mintz
and wife of Meir Katzenellenbogen.
The bottom fragment of a tombstone, most of the inscription being illegible.
Avigayil, the wife of Shmuel Yehudah, died 1594.
This last stone cleared up the mystery as to where Avigayil was buried. Like her husband who also died in Venice, her body must have been taken to Padua for burial. Her father’s name does not appear on her tombstone, so that remains a mystery. Had I read Edelman’s book “Gedulat Shaul”[3] thoroughly I would have noted that his copies of the inscriptions of the Katzenellenbogen tombstones in Padua included Avigyail. Apparently Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, the author of “Yesh Mankhilin” (1758) had no access to the Padua cemetery as not only does he omit the tombstone incriptions, but he confuses the names of the wives[4] . The manuscript of Yesh Mankhilin was published in 1986 and the editor likewise appears to have been unaware of the inscriptions published by Edelman in “Gedulat Shaul” (1854).
Set on the wall over the fragmented stone is an architrave bearing the figure of a cat. This also appears at the top of the other stones and indicates the source of the surname from the town Katzenellenbogen “cat’s elbow”.
As to the fragmented stone between Khanah and Avigayil, I believe it can be identified from the wording on Khanah’s tombstone which states that she was buried to the right of her father, Avraham Mintz. That indeed is the location in relation to the fragmented stone.
A personal note: our daughter’s name is Avigayil Khanah, like the two female Katzenellenbogens, a coincidence I only realized when standing by the tombstones.
I was interested in seeing the tombstone of Rabbi Yehudah Mintz, the grandfather of the Maharam’s wife, but Rafi informed me that he had been buried in another cemetery next to Rabbi Yitskhak Abarbanel and the stone had been destroyed. This is confirmed in “Elef Margaliot”[5] which states that the stone was destroyed during a war a year after the burial, in 1509.
The Hebrew inscriptions on the tombstones match those cited by Endelman[6] (see copies above) and the English translation can be found in Rosenstein[7], with the exception of that of Avigayil.
* It appears to me that the stone which was restored was that of Shmuel Yehudah and not of his father the Maharam. Shmuel-Yehudah’s stone is white with a clearly etched inscription. The adjacent stones of his relatives are of uniform condition and apparent age. I have asked Rafi for clarification.
I am also awaiting the arrival of Rosenstein’s new book on Shaul Wahl, a son of Shmuel Yehudah Katzenelenbogen to ascertain whether he has included an updated reference to the tombstones.
Sources:
“Yesh Mankhilin”, Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, manuscript from 1758 , published Jerusalem 1986.
“Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hersh Edelman, London 1854.
“The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, CIS Publishers, New Jersey, U.S.A. 1990.
“Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem, 1993.
“Saul Wahl : Polish King for a Night, Or, Lithuanian Knight for a Lifetime”, Neil Rosenstein, 2006.
“The Venetian Ghetto”, Sullam and Calimani, Milan 2005
“The Ghetto On the Lagoon:, Unberto Fortis, Venice 1995.
“Ancestry of the Gaon of Vilna – Descent from King David”, Chaim Freedman, Petah Tikvah, Israel, September 2005, published in "Avotaynu" Volume XXI, Number 3, Fall 2005.
Links:
Chaim Freedman’s blog http://chfreedman.blogspot.com/
Photos of trip to Italy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chaimjan/Italy2008
Information about the Katzenellenbogen family.
Wikepedia links have been used for convenience of access, but the information is not necessarily accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Padua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Judah_Katzenellenbogen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Minz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Minz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenellenbogen,_Germany
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html
http://www.archipelago.org/vol2-3/lido.htm
http://www.museoebraico.it/english/home.asp
http://www.museoebraico.it/english/ghetto.html
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/genealogy.html
http://www.kosherdelight.com/ItalyVenetoPaduaSynagogue.htm
http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/
[1] “ Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem 1993, p.186
[2] “The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, 1990, Volume I page 3.
[3] “Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hirsh Edelman, London 1854, introduction pp.xii,-xiv
[4] “ Yesh Mankhilin”, Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, manuscript from 1758 , published Jerusalem 1986, page 59.
[5] “ Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem 1993, p.190.
[6] “ Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hirsh Edelman, London 1854, introduction pp.xii,-xiv
[7] “The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, 1990, Volume I, pp2-4.
(Chaim Freedman, July 2008.)
Having recently discovered my descent from the Katzenellenbogen family, I decided to trace the graves of members of the early generations while I was in Italy (May 2008).
http://chfreedman.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancestry%20of%20the%20Vilna%20Gaon%20-%20Descent%20from%20King%20David
My wife and I were staying in Venice for a week in a conveniently located Pension in the Ghetto Nuovo, the oldest part of the Ghetto which was founded in 1516. We visited the adjacent Jewish museum and I asked one of the curators, Daniela, whether she knew of Katzenellenbogens who might be buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Venice located on the Lido Island. Daniela looked up several books which were in the museum library and which included lists of the burials in the Lido cemetery. There were no Katzenellenbogens, neither listed under that surname, nor were any of the deceased who were listed without surname, of suitable personal names.
I was aware that the two Katzenellenbogens who had held the official position of Rabbi of Venice were buried in Padua, but it was not clear where the wife of one of them was buried and so I suspected that she might be buried in Venice. It turned out that I was wrong.
The earliest member of the family to be known by the surname Katzenellenbogen was Rabbi Meir the son of Yitskhak. His family apparently came from the small village overlooking the Rhine called Katzenellenbogen. Meir’s father Yitskhak moved to Padua in Italy, a rich centre of Jewish and secular scholarship. Yitskhak wife was believed by many rabbinic genealogists to have been a daughter of Yekhiel Luria (died 1470), whose family held a tradition of descent from Rashi (1040-1105), himself a reputed descendant of King David.
Meir Katzenellenbogen was born in Germany in 1482 and was known by an acrostic of his name as the “Maharam Padua”. His wife Khanah was a daughter of Rabbi Avraham Mintz, a son of Rabbi Yehudah ben Eliezer Halevy Mintz (c.1405-1508). The Mintz family came from Maintz, Germany and Rabbi Yehudah established the Yeshiva in Padua which was attended by prominent scholars. On his death his son Rabbi Avraham succeeded as Head of the Yeshivah and Rabbi of Padua. On Avraham’s death in about 1535[1] his son-in-law Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen became rabbi both of Padua and Venice. He lived in Padua and only visited Venice periodically.
On the death of the Maharam Padua in 1565, his son Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah became Rabbi of Venice where he resided. His wife’s name was Avigayil (her father’s name is not known) and she died in 1594 in Venice, followed by Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah in 1597, also in Venice. However Rabbi Shmuel-Yehudah was taken to Padua for burial next to his father and mother.
According to Rosenstein[2] “Over the centuries, the tombstone of the Maharam began to crumble being made of soft stone, and its inscription was becoming illegible, so that in 1966, four hundred years after his death, the community of Padua replaced the tombstone with a new one in the original site. The old stone now stands in the new cemetery of Padua. This was witnessed by the present writer on a visit to Padua in 1968.” *
During my vacation in Italy I was anxious to visit the Katzenellenbogen graves, both out of sentiment for my ancient ancestors (I am an 18th generation descendant of the Maharam Padua through the Vilna Gaon) but also to ascertain the burial place of Avigayil and perhaps her father’s name which I expected to appear on the inscription on her tombstone.
Padua has several old cemeteries and I consulted the Jewishgen’s International Cemetery project http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/ to determine which housed the Katzenellenbogen tombstones. This indicated that there were two ancient cemeteries. So I consulted a site for Jewish Padua
http://www.kosherdelight.com/ItalyVenetoPaduaSynagogue.htm
which stated that “The Jewish cemeteries in the city make a separate itinerary: there are seven in all, and some can be visited by arrangement with the community offices.The first cemetery is at San Leonardo and dates from before 1348. Among the tombs is that of the famous Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen (1482-1565) with its carving of a cat (Katze in German).”
I posted on the Jewishgen forum a request for information about the accessibility of the cemetery. I received several replies including one from Israeli genealogist Schelly Talalay-Dardashti http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/ who referred me to an expert on Italian Jewry, Nardo Bonomi who lives in Florence and is the coordinator of the site
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/genealogy.html . He very kindly phoned the Jewish Community Centre in Padua and made enquiries for me. Likewise I was informed by Elieser Rosenfield of Jerusalem that he had visited the cemetery and he gave me the contact details of the person who guided him, an official of the Padua Jewish Community Raffaele D'Angeli.
I emailed the latter and we set a date for my visit as the cemetery is not readily open to the public other than by prior arrangement.
Meanwhile in Venice we arranged to visit the cemetery on the Lido in the hope of perhaps finding the grave of Avigayil Katzenellenbogen. There was only one weekly tour available, led by Daniela of the Jewish museum. However this was cancelled due to heavy rain.
So on the day before we were due to leave Italy we set off by train on a short thirty minute journey to Padua. We met Rafi as arranged outside the Plaza Hotel. A twenty minute walk through the old cobbled streets of Padua led us to the locked gate set in the high brick wall surrounding the cemetery. Rafi unlocked the gate to let us in and took us the back row of the cemetery. The grounds are well looked after and there is an ongoing project to restore and identify the tombstones.
The Katzenellenbogen tombstones stand in a row against the rear wall of the cemetery. According to Rafi this was their original site. It was a very moving moment to be confronted by the tombstones of my ancestors of 450 years ago.
There are five stones from left to right:
Rabbi Shmuel Yehudah, 1521-1597 son of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen.
Rabbi Meir the “Maharam Padua”, 1482-1565.
Khanah, died 1564, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Halevy Mintz
and wife of Meir Katzenellenbogen.
The bottom fragment of a tombstone, most of the inscription being illegible.
Avigayil, the wife of Shmuel Yehudah, died 1594.
This last stone cleared up the mystery as to where Avigayil was buried. Like her husband who also died in Venice, her body must have been taken to Padua for burial. Her father’s name does not appear on her tombstone, so that remains a mystery. Had I read Edelman’s book “Gedulat Shaul”[3] thoroughly I would have noted that his copies of the inscriptions of the Katzenellenbogen tombstones in Padua included Avigyail. Apparently Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, the author of “Yesh Mankhilin” (1758) had no access to the Padua cemetery as not only does he omit the tombstone incriptions, but he confuses the names of the wives[4] . The manuscript of Yesh Mankhilin was published in 1986 and the editor likewise appears to have been unaware of the inscriptions published by Edelman in “Gedulat Shaul” (1854).
Set on the wall over the fragmented stone is an architrave bearing the figure of a cat. This also appears at the top of the other stones and indicates the source of the surname from the town Katzenellenbogen “cat’s elbow”.
As to the fragmented stone between Khanah and Avigayil, I believe it can be identified from the wording on Khanah’s tombstone which states that she was buried to the right of her father, Avraham Mintz. That indeed is the location in relation to the fragmented stone.
A personal note: our daughter’s name is Avigayil Khanah, like the two female Katzenellenbogens, a coincidence I only realized when standing by the tombstones.
I was interested in seeing the tombstone of Rabbi Yehudah Mintz, the grandfather of the Maharam’s wife, but Rafi informed me that he had been buried in another cemetery next to Rabbi Yitskhak Abarbanel and the stone had been destroyed. This is confirmed in “Elef Margaliot”[5] which states that the stone was destroyed during a war a year after the burial, in 1509.
The Hebrew inscriptions on the tombstones match those cited by Endelman[6] (see copies above) and the English translation can be found in Rosenstein[7], with the exception of that of Avigayil.
* It appears to me that the stone which was restored was that of Shmuel Yehudah and not of his father the Maharam. Shmuel-Yehudah’s stone is white with a clearly etched inscription. The adjacent stones of his relatives are of uniform condition and apparent age. I have asked Rafi for clarification.
I am also awaiting the arrival of Rosenstein’s new book on Shaul Wahl, a son of Shmuel Yehudah Katzenelenbogen to ascertain whether he has included an updated reference to the tombstones.
Sources:
“Yesh Mankhilin”, Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, manuscript from 1758 , published Jerusalem 1986.
“Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hersh Edelman, London 1854.
“The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, CIS Publishers, New Jersey, U.S.A. 1990.
“Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem, 1993.
“Saul Wahl : Polish King for a Night, Or, Lithuanian Knight for a Lifetime”, Neil Rosenstein, 2006.
“The Venetian Ghetto”, Sullam and Calimani, Milan 2005
“The Ghetto On the Lagoon:, Unberto Fortis, Venice 1995.
“Ancestry of the Gaon of Vilna – Descent from King David”, Chaim Freedman, Petah Tikvah, Israel, September 2005, published in "Avotaynu" Volume XXI, Number 3, Fall 2005.
Links:
Chaim Freedman’s blog http://chfreedman.blogspot.com/
Photos of trip to Italy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chaimjan/Italy2008
Information about the Katzenellenbogen family.
Wikepedia links have been used for convenience of access, but the information is not necessarily accurate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Padua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Judah_Katzenellenbogen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Minz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Minz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzenellenbogen,_Germany
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html
http://www.archipelago.org/vol2-3/lido.htm
http://www.museoebraico.it/english/home.asp
http://www.museoebraico.it/english/ghetto.html
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/genealogy.html
http://www.kosherdelight.com/ItalyVenetoPaduaSynagogue.htm
http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/
[1] “ Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem 1993, p.186
[2] “The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, 1990, Volume I page 3.
[3] “Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hirsh Edelman, London 1854, introduction pp.xii,-xiv
[4] “ Yesh Mankhilin”, Pinkhas Katzenellenbogen, manuscript from 1758 , published Jerusalem 1986, page 59.
[5] “ Elef Margaliot”, Meir Wunder, Jerusalem 1993, p.190.
[6] “ Gedulat Shaul”, Tzvi Hirsh Edelman, London 1854, introduction pp.xii,-xiv
[7] “The Unbroken Chain”, Neil Rosenstein, 1990, Volume I, pp2-4.
Leopold Quint: The mystery of his fate.
My late grandmother Annie Freedman (born 1885 Pikeliai, Lithunia; died 1967 Melbourne, Australia) told me that her younger brother Leib/Leopold Kvint returned to Lithuania from England in order to marry. I have a photo of him and his wife taken in Kursenai in 1928.
My grandmother told me that her brother moved to Riga and was killed on the first day of the German occupation of the city. She believed that Leopold's wife and children were killed subsequently. She did not recall the name of her brother's wife or children.
For over 40 years I have been seeking evidence as to my great-uncle's fate.
Recently I received a prompt reply from The International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen, Germanyinforming me that they had no record of him.
An on-line database "Victims of Political Terror in the USSR" http://www.lists.memo.ru/index11.htm includes
"Leopold Yudelevich Kvint, born 1888 in Lithuania, Jewish, without specialoccupation, lived in Orlov, convicted 15.01.1944 by a special committee ofthe NKVD under law 58.10 and sentenced to 5 years deprivation of freedom. Rehabilitated 07.04.1961. Source: Kniga Pamyati (Memorial Book) of Kirov Oblast."
As my great-grandfather's name was Yoel-Yehudah (Yudel), and my greatuncle was aged 16 according to a Hamburg Passenger list from 1903 en-route to London(therefore born about 1887), and was born in Lithuania, then I believe that the above was indeed my long-looked-for great-uncle Leib or Leopold Kvint.
My grandmother told me that he reurned to Lithuania to marry and Latvian records include his marriage in 1923 in Kursenai to Sare Luriye.
What I do not understand is why my grandmother thought he had perished in1941, how he survived, what he was doing between 1941 and his arrest in1944, why he was arrested in Orlov, was he alive when he was "rehabilitated", and what then became of him (if he survived his imprisonment) !
I have studied various sources for the period, but fail to understand why he and many other Jews were arrested in 1944 by the NKVD, that is after theGermans had been defeated in the USSR.
Details of the period are to be found on "Gulag during World War II" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag and details of the Penal Code of theRSFSR at http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk58-e.html#58-1a give the following information:
"Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on February 25,1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities.Sentences were long, up to 25 years, and frequently extended indefinitely without trial or consultation. Inmates under Article 58 were known as"politichesky" as opposed to common criminals, "ugolovnik". Upon release, the prisoner would typically be sent into an exile within Russia without the right to settle closer than 100 km from large cities.Section 10 of Article 58 made "propaganda and agitation against the Soviet Union" a triable offence, whilst section 12 allowed for onlookers to be prosecuted for not reporting instances of section 10. In effect, Article 58was carte blanche for the secret police to arrest and imprison anyone deemed suspicious, making for its use as a political weapon. A person could be framed: The latter would arrange an "anti-Soviet" incident in the person's presence and then try the person for it. If the person pleaded innocence, not having reported the incident would also make them liable to imprisonment. During and after World War II, Article 58 was used to imprison many returned Soviet prisoners of war on the grounds that their capture and detainment by the Axis Powers during the war was proof that they did not fight to thedeath and were therefore anti-Soviet."
The fate of Leopold Quint remains a mystery.
My grandmother told me that her brother moved to Riga and was killed on the first day of the German occupation of the city. She believed that Leopold's wife and children were killed subsequently. She did not recall the name of her brother's wife or children.
For over 40 years I have been seeking evidence as to my great-uncle's fate.
Recently I received a prompt reply from The International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen, Germanyinforming me that they had no record of him.
An on-line database "Victims of Political Terror in the USSR" http://www.lists.memo.ru/index11.htm includes
"Leopold Yudelevich Kvint, born 1888 in Lithuania, Jewish, without specialoccupation, lived in Orlov, convicted 15.01.1944 by a special committee ofthe NKVD under law 58.10 and sentenced to 5 years deprivation of freedom. Rehabilitated 07.04.1961. Source: Kniga Pamyati (Memorial Book) of Kirov Oblast."
As my great-grandfather's name was Yoel-Yehudah (Yudel), and my greatuncle was aged 16 according to a Hamburg Passenger list from 1903 en-route to London(therefore born about 1887), and was born in Lithuania, then I believe that the above was indeed my long-looked-for great-uncle Leib or Leopold Kvint.
My grandmother told me that he reurned to Lithuania to marry and Latvian records include his marriage in 1923 in Kursenai to Sare Luriye.
What I do not understand is why my grandmother thought he had perished in1941, how he survived, what he was doing between 1941 and his arrest in1944, why he was arrested in Orlov, was he alive when he was "rehabilitated", and what then became of him (if he survived his imprisonment) !
I have studied various sources for the period, but fail to understand why he and many other Jews were arrested in 1944 by the NKVD, that is after theGermans had been defeated in the USSR.
Details of the period are to be found on "Gulag during World War II" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag and details of the Penal Code of theRSFSR at http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk58-e.html#58-1a give the following information:
"Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on February 25,1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities.Sentences were long, up to 25 years, and frequently extended indefinitely without trial or consultation. Inmates under Article 58 were known as"politichesky" as opposed to common criminals, "ugolovnik". Upon release, the prisoner would typically be sent into an exile within Russia without the right to settle closer than 100 km from large cities.Section 10 of Article 58 made "propaganda and agitation against the Soviet Union" a triable offence, whilst section 12 allowed for onlookers to be prosecuted for not reporting instances of section 10. In effect, Article 58was carte blanche for the secret police to arrest and imprison anyone deemed suspicious, making for its use as a political weapon. A person could be framed: The latter would arrange an "anti-Soviet" incident in the person's presence and then try the person for it. If the person pleaded innocence, not having reported the incident would also make them liable to imprisonment. During and after World War II, Article 58 was used to imprison many returned Soviet prisoners of war on the grounds that their capture and detainment by the Axis Powers during the war was proof that they did not fight to thedeath and were therefore anti-Soviet."
The fate of Leopold Quint remains a mystery.
Yoel of Brisk
Research to establish identity of Yoel of Brisk (Brest)
Chaim Freedman, February, 2008
Enquiry from Nancy Holden (December 2007):
Can you recommend a way to find out more about Joel of Brest who married oneof Yom Tov Lipman Heller's daughters?
“Yahrzeit letter which surfaced in South Africa, Israel and Canada...the originator gives the first mention of the manuscript "Chemdat Yamim" by Eliezer son of Jacov of Slonim, published 1807. And the Dedication page of the manuscript itself. Three editions of this manuscript have been located, one at the British Museum Library, another at the Widener Library at Harvard University and all five of his works at Yeshiva University in New York (four unpublished).
My ancestor, Eliezer Kaler of Amstibava (Mscibow), Belarus, (born 1749) wasmarried to Friedel (born 1759) the daughter of a Moses (lineage unknown) andMiriam (name according to 1784 GDL for Mscibow). Miriam was the daughter of Moses of Copenhagen and the daughter of SolomonZalman (her name unknown). The other daughter of Solomon Zalman was Estherwho was to married Ezekiel Katzenellenpogen (author of "Kenesset Yezekiel".Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, ABD of Altona,Hamburg and Wandsbeck) as listed inRosenstein's "These are the Generations") and Solomon Zalman was the son ofJoel of Brest-Litovsk.The father of Moses of Copenhagen was "Rosh Josef" who was married toDevora, daughter of Moses of Vilna. And he "Rosh Josef" (Josef ben JacobJoshua of Pinchow) was a grandson (most likely great grandson) document says"necad" of Jacob Polak of Krakow (died 1552).These documents say Joel of Brest was descended from Yom Tov. One translatorsays Solomon Zalman was known as "the great traveler" but I have not seenthat anywhere else.Another translator translates from the Dedication paragraph of "ChemdatYamin" "an uncle of Friedel, Jacob son of Benjamin of Grodno, supportedEliezer and Friedel while Eliezer wrote his manuscript "Sha'ar HaDerushimChemdat Yamim."
Sources extracted by Chaim Freedman:
Note contradictions between the sources.
“The Feast and the Fast”
Chaim Uri Lipshitz and Neil Rosenstein (1984)
Chart 1.
Yom Tov Lipman Heller 1579-1654,
Daughter who was the wife of Joel of Brest.
Chart 2.
Joel of Brest d.1709, son of “son/dau Joel Sirkes Bach”
father of:
1) Solomon Zalman of Brest
Father of Esther married Ezekiel Katzenellenpogen b. 1668A.B.D. Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbeck.
2) Jehiel Michal
Father of Zvi Hirsch A.B.D. Charkov
Father of Jehiel Michal Michelson, A.B.D. Minsk and first Rabbi of Kaluszyn
Father of Solomon
Father of Mordecai Mottel Michelson 1800-1872
Father of Abraham Haim d.1857
Father of Zvi Ezekiel Michelson 1853-1942
[I have omitted others who are not relevant]
Rosenstein erred in the sequence of the generations: Abraham Haim’s father was Yaakov Yekhiel Mikhel son of Mordecai Mottel as stated in Zvi Ezekiel Michelson’s books.
Rosenstein also erred in stating that Zvi Hersh was ABD Charkov, it was Tsherkov, Nor was his father Jehiel Michal ABD of Minsk, but of Novominsk.
“The Unbroken Chain”
N. Rosenstein page 841
G.12.1 Chava married R. Michael Klausner (note 60 E.J.Michelson etc) …. His ancestry appeared in Ma’amar Mordechai” …… [see below]
Rosenstein erred in ascribing a surname Klausner – he was referred to as “Kolshiner” since that was the town where he lived. His descendants took the surname Michelson.
“Shem Hagedolim Hekhadash”
Azulai 1874
#38 Yoel son of Moshe Gad, author of “Khidushei Halakhot” Altona 1836.
Grandson of the Taz and the Bakh.
“Toldot Anshei Shem”
Efrati 1875
Page 21 family of the Tosfot Yomtov does not include any daughter married to Yoel of Brisk.
“Ir Tehilah”
Arye Leib Feinstein, Warsaw 1885
p.33: Zalmen son of Yoel, father-in-law of the author of Knesset Yekhezkel.
p.103: The Aluf Yoel Segal of Brisk. [none of the sources refer to Yoel of Brisk as a Levi, indicated here by “Segal”, so this Yoel Segal of Brisk must be another person.
“Dagan Shamayim”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1901
Son of Avraham Khaim
Son of Yaakov Yekhiel
Son of Motel of Kolshin
Son of Shlomo
Son of Mikhel
Of the stock of the Bakh and the Tosfot Yomtov.
“Beit Meshulum”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1905
Page 73, Will of Mordekhai Mottel Michelson.
Mordekhai Mottel “Kolushiner”
Tombstone includes “ of the family of the Tosfot Yomtov”.
Son of Shlomo “Yospes” after his mother Yospe.
Son of Yekhiel Mikhel, brother-in-law of Mottel of Praga)
Son of Tzvi Hirsh of Tshorkov
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of Yekhezkel Katzenellenbogen …)
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Brisk
son of a son of Yoel Sirkes
[continues with the ancestry of Sirkes via Jaffe]
The wife of Yoel of Brisk was the modest Mrs Khana, daughter of Yomtov Lipman Halevy Helir etc.
“Ma’amar Mordekhai”
Mordekhai Mottel Michelson, edited by Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1907.
Mordekhai Mottel of Kolshin
Son of Shlomo
Son of Yekhiel Mikhel ABD Novominsk, Shenitza, Kolshin.
Son of Tzvi Hirsh ABD Tsherkov
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of the author of “Knesset Yekhezkel, ABD A.H.V.)
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Brisk
Son of a son of Yoel Sirkes ABD Krakow, author of the “Bakh”
The wife of Yoel of Brisk was a daughter of Yomtov Lipman Halevu Helir ABD Krakow, author of “Tosfot Yomtov”.
There is much information in the introduction of this book about this family but nothing further about Yoel of Brisk.
Note that he is designated “son of a son of Yoel Sirkes” while Rosenstein has son of a “son/dau”. It seems this point is not clear, particularly as references to the family of Sirkes do not show such a son of a son.
“Beit Yekhezkel”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1924
Son of Avraham Khaim
Son of Yaakov Yekhiel
Son of Mottel
Son of Shlomo
Son of Yekhiel
Son of Tzvi Hirsh
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of the “Knesset Yekhezkel”
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Bikhov
Son-in-law of Shmuel of Brisk who lived in Nemirov
Son of the “Tosfot Yomtov”.
Yoel of Bikhov was a son of Arye Yehudah Leib ABD Krakow, author of Shaagat Arye and Kol Shakhal.
Son of Naftali Hertz ABD Pinczow
Son of Yoel Sirkes the “Bakh”.
Note that the above differs considerable from the above genealogies by the same author, Michelson
“R. Joel Sirkes”
E.J. Schochet, 1971
No mention of Yoel of Brisk among the family of Sirkes.
“Megilat Yukhsin Mishpakhat Heller”
Yekhiel Horowitz-Heller, Tel Aviv 1978
Does not mention Joel of Brisk.
“Sefer Meginei Zahav”
Prague 1720.
Comments on the Taz.
Yoel ABD Szebrezin, edited by his grandson Yoel son of Moshe Gad son of the author Yoel.
The author Yoel of Szebrezin was a grandson of the Taz.
The Taz, David Halevy, was a son-in-law of the Bakh, Yoel Sirkes.
Conclusion:
It would appear that Yoel of Brisk, Yoel of Bykhov and Yoel of Szebrezin were three separate individuals, although related via the Bakh and the Taz.
Further research is required to clarify these identities.
Chaim Freedman, February, 2008
Enquiry from Nancy Holden (December 2007):
Can you recommend a way to find out more about Joel of Brest who married oneof Yom Tov Lipman Heller's daughters?
“Yahrzeit letter which surfaced in South Africa, Israel and Canada...the originator gives the first mention of the manuscript "Chemdat Yamim" by Eliezer son of Jacov of Slonim, published 1807. And the Dedication page of the manuscript itself. Three editions of this manuscript have been located, one at the British Museum Library, another at the Widener Library at Harvard University and all five of his works at Yeshiva University in New York (four unpublished).
My ancestor, Eliezer Kaler of Amstibava (Mscibow), Belarus, (born 1749) wasmarried to Friedel (born 1759) the daughter of a Moses (lineage unknown) andMiriam (name according to 1784 GDL for Mscibow). Miriam was the daughter of Moses of Copenhagen and the daughter of SolomonZalman (her name unknown). The other daughter of Solomon Zalman was Estherwho was to married Ezekiel Katzenellenpogen (author of "Kenesset Yezekiel".Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, ABD of Altona,Hamburg and Wandsbeck) as listed inRosenstein's "These are the Generations") and Solomon Zalman was the son ofJoel of Brest-Litovsk.The father of Moses of Copenhagen was "Rosh Josef" who was married toDevora, daughter of Moses of Vilna. And he "Rosh Josef" (Josef ben JacobJoshua of Pinchow) was a grandson (most likely great grandson) document says"necad" of Jacob Polak of Krakow (died 1552).These documents say Joel of Brest was descended from Yom Tov. One translatorsays Solomon Zalman was known as "the great traveler" but I have not seenthat anywhere else.Another translator translates from the Dedication paragraph of "ChemdatYamin" "an uncle of Friedel, Jacob son of Benjamin of Grodno, supportedEliezer and Friedel while Eliezer wrote his manuscript "Sha'ar HaDerushimChemdat Yamim."
Sources extracted by Chaim Freedman:
Note contradictions between the sources.
“The Feast and the Fast”
Chaim Uri Lipshitz and Neil Rosenstein (1984)
Chart 1.
Yom Tov Lipman Heller 1579-1654,
Daughter who was the wife of Joel of Brest.
Chart 2.
Joel of Brest d.1709, son of “son/dau Joel Sirkes Bach”
father of:
1) Solomon Zalman of Brest
Father of Esther married Ezekiel Katzenellenpogen b. 1668A.B.D. Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbeck.
2) Jehiel Michal
Father of Zvi Hirsch A.B.D. Charkov
Father of Jehiel Michal Michelson, A.B.D. Minsk and first Rabbi of Kaluszyn
Father of Solomon
Father of Mordecai Mottel Michelson 1800-1872
Father of Abraham Haim d.1857
Father of Zvi Ezekiel Michelson 1853-1942
[I have omitted others who are not relevant]
Rosenstein erred in the sequence of the generations: Abraham Haim’s father was Yaakov Yekhiel Mikhel son of Mordecai Mottel as stated in Zvi Ezekiel Michelson’s books.
Rosenstein also erred in stating that Zvi Hersh was ABD Charkov, it was Tsherkov, Nor was his father Jehiel Michal ABD of Minsk, but of Novominsk.
“The Unbroken Chain”
N. Rosenstein page 841
G.12.1 Chava married R. Michael Klausner (note 60 E.J.Michelson etc) …. His ancestry appeared in Ma’amar Mordechai” …… [see below]
Rosenstein erred in ascribing a surname Klausner – he was referred to as “Kolshiner” since that was the town where he lived. His descendants took the surname Michelson.
“Shem Hagedolim Hekhadash”
Azulai 1874
#38 Yoel son of Moshe Gad, author of “Khidushei Halakhot” Altona 1836.
Grandson of the Taz and the Bakh.
“Toldot Anshei Shem”
Efrati 1875
Page 21 family of the Tosfot Yomtov does not include any daughter married to Yoel of Brisk.
“Ir Tehilah”
Arye Leib Feinstein, Warsaw 1885
p.33: Zalmen son of Yoel, father-in-law of the author of Knesset Yekhezkel.
p.103: The Aluf Yoel Segal of Brisk. [none of the sources refer to Yoel of Brisk as a Levi, indicated here by “Segal”, so this Yoel Segal of Brisk must be another person.
“Dagan Shamayim”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1901
Son of Avraham Khaim
Son of Yaakov Yekhiel
Son of Motel of Kolshin
Son of Shlomo
Son of Mikhel
Of the stock of the Bakh and the Tosfot Yomtov.
“Beit Meshulum”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1905
Page 73, Will of Mordekhai Mottel Michelson.
Mordekhai Mottel “Kolushiner”
Tombstone includes “ of the family of the Tosfot Yomtov”.
Son of Shlomo “Yospes” after his mother Yospe.
Son of Yekhiel Mikhel, brother-in-law of Mottel of Praga)
Son of Tzvi Hirsh of Tshorkov
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of Yekhezkel Katzenellenbogen …)
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Brisk
son of a son of Yoel Sirkes
[continues with the ancestry of Sirkes via Jaffe]
The wife of Yoel of Brisk was the modest Mrs Khana, daughter of Yomtov Lipman Halevy Helir etc.
“Ma’amar Mordekhai”
Mordekhai Mottel Michelson, edited by Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1907.
Mordekhai Mottel of Kolshin
Son of Shlomo
Son of Yekhiel Mikhel ABD Novominsk, Shenitza, Kolshin.
Son of Tzvi Hirsh ABD Tsherkov
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of the author of “Knesset Yekhezkel, ABD A.H.V.)
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Brisk
Son of a son of Yoel Sirkes ABD Krakow, author of the “Bakh”
The wife of Yoel of Brisk was a daughter of Yomtov Lipman Halevu Helir ABD Krakow, author of “Tosfot Yomtov”.
There is much information in the introduction of this book about this family but nothing further about Yoel of Brisk.
Note that he is designated “son of a son of Yoel Sirkes” while Rosenstein has son of a “son/dau”. It seems this point is not clear, particularly as references to the family of Sirkes do not show such a son of a son.
“Beit Yekhezkel”
Tzvi Yekhezkel Michelson, Piotrykov 1924
Son of Avraham Khaim
Son of Yaakov Yekhiel
Son of Mottel
Son of Shlomo
Son of Yekhiel
Son of Tzvi Hirsh
Grandson of Yekhiel Mikhel (his sister was the wife of the “Knesset Yekhezkel”
Son of Shlomo Zalmen
Son of Yoel of Bikhov
Son-in-law of Shmuel of Brisk who lived in Nemirov
Son of the “Tosfot Yomtov”.
Yoel of Bikhov was a son of Arye Yehudah Leib ABD Krakow, author of Shaagat Arye and Kol Shakhal.
Son of Naftali Hertz ABD Pinczow
Son of Yoel Sirkes the “Bakh”.
Note that the above differs considerable from the above genealogies by the same author, Michelson
“R. Joel Sirkes”
E.J. Schochet, 1971
No mention of Yoel of Brisk among the family of Sirkes.
“Megilat Yukhsin Mishpakhat Heller”
Yekhiel Horowitz-Heller, Tel Aviv 1978
Does not mention Joel of Brisk.
“Sefer Meginei Zahav”
Prague 1720.
Comments on the Taz.
Yoel ABD Szebrezin, edited by his grandson Yoel son of Moshe Gad son of the author Yoel.
The author Yoel of Szebrezin was a grandson of the Taz.
The Taz, David Halevy, was a son-in-law of the Bakh, Yoel Sirkes.
Conclusion:
It would appear that Yoel of Brisk, Yoel of Bykhov and Yoel of Szebrezin were three separate individuals, although related via the Bakh and the Taz.
Further research is required to clarify these identities.
Reverend Phillip Berliner
Pinkhas (Phillip Berliner)
(Written by his son-in-law Chaim Freedman in “The Pen and the Blade, Super Family” 1992).
Pinkhas (Phillip) Berliner was born in London, England in 1916, the youngest son of immigrants from Lodz, Poland. He attended Yeshivah Etz Chaim in London where he learned under the prominent Lithuanian leaders of English ultra-orthodoxy at the time, Rabbis Eliya Lopian and Eliyahu-Eliezer Dessler. He was such an excellent student that his teachers selected him to join a group which went to study at the recently established Gateshead Yeshiva in 1931 under Rabbi N.D.Landinsky.
In the mid 1930’s a proposal was made by the rabbis of Etz Chaim and Gateshead to further the higher religious education of English Yeshiva students at prominent eastern European Yeshivot. Pinkhas Berliner was selected to join a group of about ten students who went to Mir Yeshiva in Poland (now Belarus) and to Telz (Telsiai) Yeshivah in Poland. The group included Rabbi Nakhum-Zev (Velvel) Dessler, Josh Chinn, Rabbi Shlomo Davis, Rabbi Koppul Rosen, Rabbi Chaim Gutnik, Montie Moore, Rabbi Shmuel Bloch, Rabbi Dovber Silver and others who became leading orthodox rabbis and scholars, mainly in the United states. Details are to be found at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rkimble/Mirweb/YeshivaStudents.html .
Pinkhas Berliner studied in Mir under the renowned Rosh Yeshivah Rabbi Eliezer-Yehudah Finkel and the Mashgiakh Rabbi Yekhezkel Levinstein. On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the foreign students fled Poland, by order of the Rosh Yeshivah, the day before the Germans invaded Poland. For several months the group wandered backwards and forwards through Latvia and Estonia since they had inadequate papers. During this period of extreme physical deprivation and exposure. Pinkhas’s health suffered irreparably. Eventually visas were obtained through a Jewish member of the Latvian parliament, Rabbi Mordekhai Dubin, and the group settled in Lithuania at Telz Yeshivah under the soon to be martyred Rabbi Avraham-Yitskhak Bloch.
After nine months in Telz, in February 1940 Pinkhas rejoined Mir Yeshiva which had been relocated in Keidan, Lithuania. There he was finalizing his studies to qualify for Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) when the Soviet Army invaded the Baltic States. The Yeshivot were constantly harassed by the Communist regime and as the Germany army hovered in nearby Poland, the future looked ominous.
The British Government finally arranged a means of evacuating British and other foreign nationals. Travelling on visas issued by the famous Japanese consul in Kovno (Kaunas) Sugiharo, the group was sent eastwards via the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. From there they went to Hong Kong but were unable to continue to America due to hostilities at sea. Instead the group travelled to Brisbane, Australia. After several months of futile attempts to establish a Yeshivah in Melbourne, most of the group made their way to America and were amongst the founders of Mir, Telz and Lakewood Yeshivot. Some returned to England after the war.
Those remaining in Australia were Rabbi Dovber Silver, Rabbi Chaim Gutnik and Pinkhas (now Phillip) Berliner. Although he had a visa for America and had been accepted to Yeshiva Mesifta Torah Vadaat in New York, Phillip remained in Australia. He taught briefly in Sydney until he went to Melbourne in 1941 to marry Edna, daughter of Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov and Lena Super. They had three daughters Mirel-Shulamit (Muriel) Kleerekoper, Leah-Nekhama (Lena) Pose and Sheindel (Jane) Freedman.
In order to support his family Phillip learnt Shekhitah and joined his father-in-law at this arduous vocation. He also taught religious classes for the United Jewish Education Board and was assistant Chazan at the St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation. In 1946 he was granted the title “Reverend” by Rabbi Jacob Danglow in recognition of his services to the congregation.
Phillip Berliner was widely respected throughout the community. He approached his vocation with a deep sense of dedication and his sincere enthusiasm for Judaism inspired his students, in particular a small group that studied with him. One of these, Professor Louis Waller wrote to Phillip’s daughter Jane Freedman:
“Your father was a generous teacher in terms of time and energy. He drilled us rigorously in formal Hebrew grammar, introducing me to the patterns and paradigms which became ingrained. Though he was not a scientific linguist, he was very knowledgeable and very determined that our foundations in structure would be well laid. He invited Max Jotkovitz, Sonja Black and me to your home in Crimea Street on Saturday afternoons in the latter part of 1948 and 1949 for revision of the set books and lightening like parsing, declension and conjunction. Your mother would give us tea and cake to sustain us, and your grandfather viewed us with a bemused but benevolent eye. In addition to the biblical set books, grammar and history, we also studied a tractate of Mishnah, Baba Batra.”
Berliner’s work as a Shokhet was very taxing, both from the long work hours and the nature of the work. As recalled by Waller: “I asked your father about his work as a Shochet. He showed me his Khalef (blade) which he carried in a case in his breast pocket. I have an impression, but not a strong one, that he found his work in the slaughter house not only physically but also mentally very demanding.”
Reverend Berliner had regular duties to perform for the St.Kilda synagogue. Aside from services, in particular reading the Torah and teaching, he had to attend weddings, funerals and other occasions in the life of the congregants. In this way he built up a wide circle of people who held him in respect for his mild manner and friendly disposition. Professor Waller, in a memorial to Rabbi Danglow (St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation Chronicle, March 1981), mentions Berliner both as his teacher and paints a picture of the Bimah at the St.Kilda synagogue whilst Rabbi Danglow conducted the Neilah service:
“It is Neilah. On the Almemar stand Reverend Kowadlo and Mr. Berliner – as always. Each is enveloped in white Kittel and woolen Tallit. But both are at the back of the Almemor, in their respective corners. At the desk stands the Rabbi. He is davening Neilah.”
Berliner’s communal duties were not without considerable aggravation, as was common among the Melbourne synagogues, internal politics often claimed innocent victims, in this case Phillip Berliner. His health was never the best, he suffered severely from asthma, and the machinations of several members of the Board of his synagogue wounded him deeply.
On Shabbat, 20th Kheshavn 5720, November 21, 1959 Phillip Berliner died suddenly following a severe asthma attack. The entire community was shocked that this man, beloved by so many, had been struck down in his prime at the age at the age of forty-three.
Phillip’s widow Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up their three daughters.
Phillip Berliner C.V. (click to enlarge)
Novoyelna summer camp about 1938
Reference from Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, Rosh Yeshiva of Mir
Reference from Rabbi Avraham Yitskhak Bloch, Rosh Yeshiva Telz.
Visa from Japanese Consul Sugihara, Kovno 1940
Phillip Berliner married in 1941 Edna, the daughter of Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov Super of Melbourne. Berliner served the Melbourne community as Shokhel, Chazan and teacher until his premature death in 1959.
+Melbourne+1941.bmp)
An archive of his papers is to be donated to the Jewish Museum in Melbourne.
(Written by his son-in-law Chaim Freedman in “The Pen and the Blade, Super Family” 1992).
Pinkhas (Phillip) Berliner was born in London, England in 1916, the youngest son of immigrants from Lodz, Poland. He attended Yeshivah Etz Chaim in London where he learned under the prominent Lithuanian leaders of English ultra-orthodoxy at the time, Rabbis Eliya Lopian and Eliyahu-Eliezer Dessler. He was such an excellent student that his teachers selected him to join a group which went to study at the recently established Gateshead Yeshiva in 1931 under Rabbi N.D.Landinsky.
In the mid 1930’s a proposal was made by the rabbis of Etz Chaim and Gateshead to further the higher religious education of English Yeshiva students at prominent eastern European Yeshivot. Pinkhas Berliner was selected to join a group of about ten students who went to Mir Yeshiva in Poland (now Belarus) and to Telz (Telsiai) Yeshivah in Poland. The group included Rabbi Nakhum-Zev (Velvel) Dessler, Josh Chinn, Rabbi Shlomo Davis, Rabbi Koppul Rosen, Rabbi Chaim Gutnik, Montie Moore, Rabbi Shmuel Bloch, Rabbi Dovber Silver and others who became leading orthodox rabbis and scholars, mainly in the United states. Details are to be found at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rkimble/Mirweb/YeshivaStudents.html .
Pinkhas Berliner studied in Mir under the renowned Rosh Yeshivah Rabbi Eliezer-Yehudah Finkel and the Mashgiakh Rabbi Yekhezkel Levinstein. On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the foreign students fled Poland, by order of the Rosh Yeshivah, the day before the Germans invaded Poland. For several months the group wandered backwards and forwards through Latvia and Estonia since they had inadequate papers. During this period of extreme physical deprivation and exposure. Pinkhas’s health suffered irreparably. Eventually visas were obtained through a Jewish member of the Latvian parliament, Rabbi Mordekhai Dubin, and the group settled in Lithuania at Telz Yeshivah under the soon to be martyred Rabbi Avraham-Yitskhak Bloch.
After nine months in Telz, in February 1940 Pinkhas rejoined Mir Yeshiva which had been relocated in Keidan, Lithuania. There he was finalizing his studies to qualify for Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) when the Soviet Army invaded the Baltic States. The Yeshivot were constantly harassed by the Communist regime and as the Germany army hovered in nearby Poland, the future looked ominous.
The British Government finally arranged a means of evacuating British and other foreign nationals. Travelling on visas issued by the famous Japanese consul in Kovno (Kaunas) Sugiharo, the group was sent eastwards via the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok. From there they went to Hong Kong but were unable to continue to America due to hostilities at sea. Instead the group travelled to Brisbane, Australia. After several months of futile attempts to establish a Yeshivah in Melbourne, most of the group made their way to America and were amongst the founders of Mir, Telz and Lakewood Yeshivot. Some returned to England after the war.
Those remaining in Australia were Rabbi Dovber Silver, Rabbi Chaim Gutnik and Pinkhas (now Phillip) Berliner. Although he had a visa for America and had been accepted to Yeshiva Mesifta Torah Vadaat in New York, Phillip remained in Australia. He taught briefly in Sydney until he went to Melbourne in 1941 to marry Edna, daughter of Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov and Lena Super. They had three daughters Mirel-Shulamit (Muriel) Kleerekoper, Leah-Nekhama (Lena) Pose and Sheindel (Jane) Freedman.
In order to support his family Phillip learnt Shekhitah and joined his father-in-law at this arduous vocation. He also taught religious classes for the United Jewish Education Board and was assistant Chazan at the St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation. In 1946 he was granted the title “Reverend” by Rabbi Jacob Danglow in recognition of his services to the congregation.
Phillip Berliner was widely respected throughout the community. He approached his vocation with a deep sense of dedication and his sincere enthusiasm for Judaism inspired his students, in particular a small group that studied with him. One of these, Professor Louis Waller wrote to Phillip’s daughter Jane Freedman:
“Your father was a generous teacher in terms of time and energy. He drilled us rigorously in formal Hebrew grammar, introducing me to the patterns and paradigms which became ingrained. Though he was not a scientific linguist, he was very knowledgeable and very determined that our foundations in structure would be well laid. He invited Max Jotkovitz, Sonja Black and me to your home in Crimea Street on Saturday afternoons in the latter part of 1948 and 1949 for revision of the set books and lightening like parsing, declension and conjunction. Your mother would give us tea and cake to sustain us, and your grandfather viewed us with a bemused but benevolent eye. In addition to the biblical set books, grammar and history, we also studied a tractate of Mishnah, Baba Batra.”
Berliner’s work as a Shokhet was very taxing, both from the long work hours and the nature of the work. As recalled by Waller: “I asked your father about his work as a Shochet. He showed me his Khalef (blade) which he carried in a case in his breast pocket. I have an impression, but not a strong one, that he found his work in the slaughter house not only physically but also mentally very demanding.”
Reverend Berliner had regular duties to perform for the St.Kilda synagogue. Aside from services, in particular reading the Torah and teaching, he had to attend weddings, funerals and other occasions in the life of the congregants. In this way he built up a wide circle of people who held him in respect for his mild manner and friendly disposition. Professor Waller, in a memorial to Rabbi Danglow (St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation Chronicle, March 1981), mentions Berliner both as his teacher and paints a picture of the Bimah at the St.Kilda synagogue whilst Rabbi Danglow conducted the Neilah service:
“It is Neilah. On the Almemar stand Reverend Kowadlo and Mr. Berliner – as always. Each is enveloped in white Kittel and woolen Tallit. But both are at the back of the Almemor, in their respective corners. At the desk stands the Rabbi. He is davening Neilah.”
Berliner’s communal duties were not without considerable aggravation, as was common among the Melbourne synagogues, internal politics often claimed innocent victims, in this case Phillip Berliner. His health was never the best, he suffered severely from asthma, and the machinations of several members of the Board of his synagogue wounded him deeply.
On Shabbat, 20th Kheshavn 5720, November 21, 1959 Phillip Berliner died suddenly following a severe asthma attack. The entire community was shocked that this man, beloved by so many, had been struck down in his prime at the age at the age of forty-three.
Phillip’s widow Edna was faced with the awesome task of bringing up their three daughters.
Phillip Berliner C.V. (click to enlarge)
Novoyelna summer camp about 1938
Reference from Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, Rosh Yeshiva of Mir
Reference from Rabbi Avraham Yitskhak Bloch, Rosh Yeshiva Telz.
Visa from Japanese Consul Sugihara, Kovno 1940
Phillip Berliner married in 1941 Edna, the daughter of Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov Super of Melbourne. Berliner served the Melbourne community as Shokhel, Chazan and teacher until his premature death in 1959.
+Melbourne+1941.bmp)
An archive of his papers is to be donated to the Jewish Museum in Melbourne.
Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov Super
Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov (Isaac Jacob) Super
(Written by his granddaughter Jane Berliner’s husband Chaim Freedman on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1981. Published in the Australian Jewish News, August 7, 1981)
Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov Super served the Melbourne Jewish community for half a century of its religious life. Many passed through his hands from Brit Milah through Cheder to Barmitzvah and benefitted from his meticulous and relenting supervision of Kashrut.
Son of Shmuel (son of Yosef-Yehoash) Super and Khaya-Minna (daughter of Avraham) Dobrin, Yitskhak-Yaakov was born in 1881 in Lutzin (Ludza) Latvia, a community known as “Jerusalem of Latvia”. The Super family were merchants, scribes, and butchers. He grew up in Karsava (Korsovka). Rabbi Super was educated at local Yeshivot in Rezekne (Rezhitza), Daugavpils (Dvinsk) and Vilnius (Vilna) and then received certification as a Shokhet at the young age of seventeen. He served in that capacity in several small towns in Latvia including Rofe, Sloboad and Lipne.
In 1901 he was obliged to flee from the threat of military conscription which, in Tsarist Russia, was the scene of violent anti-Semitic persecution of Jewish recruits. He arrived in London in 1899 where his services were eagerly sought by the United Synagogue which appointed him as minister to several congregations including Yarmouth and Croydon.
In 1906 Rabbi Super married Lena (Leah) a daughter of Reb Mordekhai Zev (Marks) Bull, one of the first Chabad Chassidim in England. The Bull family was from Karsava (Korsovka), Daugavpils (Dvinsk) and originally from Livani (Lewwnhoff). See separate article.
In 1911 he gave up ministerial duty to serve the London United Shechitah Board in the village of Evercreech, Somerset.
In 1914 Super was sought out by Rabbi Jacob Danglow who had been sent on a mission by the Melbourne community to find a Chief Shokhet for the Melbourne United Shechitah Board. The candidate recommended by Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz was Yitskhak Yaakov Super.
Arriving in Melbourne on August 17th, 1914, Super immediately acquainted himself with the then inadequate Kashrut facilities. The early years were not without conflict and turmoil as he strove to provide strict control over the standard of meat. Many anecdotes are related of his zeal in raiding butcher shops which he suspected of evading the regulations.
Yitskhak Yaakov Super is remembered by numerous families for his services as Mohel which often took him to provincial communities. Likewise he served as a Hebrew teacher and his soundly based European learning enabled him to raise the standard of Jewish knowledge which he imparted to a generation of Australian children. He was also responsible for the training of Shochtim interstate and in New Zealand. At the Chief Rabbi’s request he wrote a report on the state of Kashrut in New Zealand.
In 1929 he was appointed a member of the Melbourne Beth Din under Rabbi Israel Brodie (later Chief Rabbi of the British Empire). Super continued to serve as one of the Dayanim (judges) of the Beth Din for the duration of his life under Rabbis H. Freedman, H. Stransky, and I. Rapaport. He participated in the conferences of the Australian Rabbinical Council and submitted a paper on Kashrut.
He was often vocal through the Jewish press when he felt the need to raise his voice to condemn lapses in religious observance. He was an active and enthusiastic supporter of the Zionist cause and visited the State of Israel in 1956.
In 1944 Super completed thirty years of service to the community and British Chief Rabbi J. Hertz conferred upon him Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) in recognition of his learning and contribution to the community.
In 1949 Rabbi Super retired from active service and was presented with a testimonial by the community. But his drive to serve Kashrut would not let him rest and he soon came out of retirement to accept the appointment in 1950 of Mashgiakh Rashi (Chief Supervisor) for the Kashrus Commission of Victoria, a body he fought for many years to have established, even to the extent of personal financial support.
This position gave him ultimate authority over the State’s kosher meat supply, Matzah production and all catering establishments carrying the Kashrut Commission license. In this capacity he often resorted to seeking the support of Chief Rabbi Brodie in England on contentious issues.
In his later years Rabbi Super was associated closely with the St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation. At his nearby home in Crimea Street he and his wife Lena Super (until her untimely death in 1945) held open house to the congregation. Hardly a Shabbat passed when he did not bring home a guest for Kiddush. There he held a regular Shiur on a Shabbat afternoon.
Super continued to function as a Shokhet until his last days, despite failing health, assisted by his son-in-law Rev. Phillip Berliner, husband of his daughter Edna.
He passed away on June 28, 1961 (Tamuz 14th 5721).
Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super were the parents of seven children:
Susaman-David (Cecil), Nakhum (Newton) Melbourne solicitor, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super of South Africa and Israel, Adolf (died a small child), Shlomo-Meir (Montie), Edna-Yenta (Edna) married to the Reverend Pinkhas (Phillip) Berliner, and Zalman-Ber (Albert).
Below are some documements reflecting his life including an article published in the Ausralian Jewish News marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Click to enlarge
An archive of Super's personal and communal papers is to be donated to the Jewish Museum in Melbourne.
Rabbi Super and family, Evercreech, England 1914
Rabbi Super's parents Shmuel and Khaya Minna Super with his sister Fruma, Korsovka (now Karsava) Latvia, about 1905
Mohel certificate Chief rabbi Adler 1910
Semikha (rabbinical) ordination by Chief Rabbi Hertz 1944.
Congratulations to Rabbi Super's son Newton on his father's ordination, from Sir Isaac Isaacs, later Governor General of Austalia.
Appointment to Melbourne Beit Din 1931
L-R: Rabbis J.L. Gurewicz, J. Danglow, I.J. Super, I. Brodie
Inspection of Melbourne abbatoirs 1930's
Super Family tree showing selected relationships
(Written by his granddaughter Jane Berliner’s husband Chaim Freedman on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1981. Published in the Australian Jewish News, August 7, 1981)
Rabbi Yitskhak Yaakov Super served the Melbourne Jewish community for half a century of its religious life. Many passed through his hands from Brit Milah through Cheder to Barmitzvah and benefitted from his meticulous and relenting supervision of Kashrut.
Son of Shmuel (son of Yosef-Yehoash) Super and Khaya-Minna (daughter of Avraham) Dobrin, Yitskhak-Yaakov was born in 1881 in Lutzin (Ludza) Latvia, a community known as “Jerusalem of Latvia”. The Super family were merchants, scribes, and butchers. He grew up in Karsava (Korsovka). Rabbi Super was educated at local Yeshivot in Rezekne (Rezhitza), Daugavpils (Dvinsk) and Vilnius (Vilna) and then received certification as a Shokhet at the young age of seventeen. He served in that capacity in several small towns in Latvia including Rofe, Sloboad and Lipne.
In 1901 he was obliged to flee from the threat of military conscription which, in Tsarist Russia, was the scene of violent anti-Semitic persecution of Jewish recruits. He arrived in London in 1899 where his services were eagerly sought by the United Synagogue which appointed him as minister to several congregations including Yarmouth and Croydon.
In 1906 Rabbi Super married Lena (Leah) a daughter of Reb Mordekhai Zev (Marks) Bull, one of the first Chabad Chassidim in England. The Bull family was from Karsava (Korsovka), Daugavpils (Dvinsk) and originally from Livani (Lewwnhoff). See separate article.
In 1911 he gave up ministerial duty to serve the London United Shechitah Board in the village of Evercreech, Somerset.
In 1914 Super was sought out by Rabbi Jacob Danglow who had been sent on a mission by the Melbourne community to find a Chief Shokhet for the Melbourne United Shechitah Board. The candidate recommended by Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz was Yitskhak Yaakov Super.
Arriving in Melbourne on August 17th, 1914, Super immediately acquainted himself with the then inadequate Kashrut facilities. The early years were not without conflict and turmoil as he strove to provide strict control over the standard of meat. Many anecdotes are related of his zeal in raiding butcher shops which he suspected of evading the regulations.
Yitskhak Yaakov Super is remembered by numerous families for his services as Mohel which often took him to provincial communities. Likewise he served as a Hebrew teacher and his soundly based European learning enabled him to raise the standard of Jewish knowledge which he imparted to a generation of Australian children. He was also responsible for the training of Shochtim interstate and in New Zealand. At the Chief Rabbi’s request he wrote a report on the state of Kashrut in New Zealand.
In 1929 he was appointed a member of the Melbourne Beth Din under Rabbi Israel Brodie (later Chief Rabbi of the British Empire). Super continued to serve as one of the Dayanim (judges) of the Beth Din for the duration of his life under Rabbis H. Freedman, H. Stransky, and I. Rapaport. He participated in the conferences of the Australian Rabbinical Council and submitted a paper on Kashrut.
He was often vocal through the Jewish press when he felt the need to raise his voice to condemn lapses in religious observance. He was an active and enthusiastic supporter of the Zionist cause and visited the State of Israel in 1956.
In 1944 Super completed thirty years of service to the community and British Chief Rabbi J. Hertz conferred upon him Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) in recognition of his learning and contribution to the community.
In 1949 Rabbi Super retired from active service and was presented with a testimonial by the community. But his drive to serve Kashrut would not let him rest and he soon came out of retirement to accept the appointment in 1950 of Mashgiakh Rashi (Chief Supervisor) for the Kashrus Commission of Victoria, a body he fought for many years to have established, even to the extent of personal financial support.
This position gave him ultimate authority over the State’s kosher meat supply, Matzah production and all catering establishments carrying the Kashrut Commission license. In this capacity he often resorted to seeking the support of Chief Rabbi Brodie in England on contentious issues.
In his later years Rabbi Super was associated closely with the St.Kilda Hebrew Congregation. At his nearby home in Crimea Street he and his wife Lena Super (until her untimely death in 1945) held open house to the congregation. Hardly a Shabbat passed when he did not bring home a guest for Kiddush. There he held a regular Shiur on a Shabbat afternoon.
Super continued to function as a Shokhet until his last days, despite failing health, assisted by his son-in-law Rev. Phillip Berliner, husband of his daughter Edna.
He passed away on June 28, 1961 (Tamuz 14th 5721).
Rabbi Isaac Jacob and Lena Super were the parents of seven children:
Susaman-David (Cecil), Nakhum (Newton) Melbourne solicitor, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Saul Super of South Africa and Israel, Adolf (died a small child), Shlomo-Meir (Montie), Edna-Yenta (Edna) married to the Reverend Pinkhas (Phillip) Berliner, and Zalman-Ber (Albert).
Below are some documements reflecting his life including an article published in the Ausralian Jewish News marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Click to enlargeAn archive of Super's personal and communal papers is to be donated to the Jewish Museum in Melbourne.
Rabbi Super and family, Evercreech, England 1914
Rabbi Super's parents Shmuel and Khaya Minna Super with his sister Fruma, Korsovka (now Karsava) Latvia, about 1905
Mohel certificate Chief rabbi Adler 1910
Semikha (rabbinical) ordination by Chief Rabbi Hertz 1944.
Congratulations to Rabbi Super's son Newton on his father's ordination, from Sir Isaac Isaacs, later Governor General of Austalia.
Appointment to Melbourne Beit Din 1931
L-R: Rabbis J.L. Gurewicz, J. Danglow, I.J. Super, I. Brodie
Inspection of Melbourne abbatoirs 1930's
Super Family tree showing selected relationships
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