The Race of My Grandfather

Last  week, Whoopi Goldberg - a celebrity whose birth name is Caryn Johnson - created a fuss by saying on television that the Holocaust was not about race. This is a remarkably ignorant claim, considering that the person behind the Holocaust said himself that he wanted to destroy the Jewish race.

Surely everyone reading this in real time will have heard this story. Perhaps it is sufficiently scandalous that it will be familiar to readers decades from now.

But I am writing this not because a celebrity - whose main claim to fame may be the absurd name she chose for herself, complete with a typically Jewish surname - was (perhaps still is) so obviously ignorant. I am writing this to make one small observation about the Jewish condition, having married amongst ourselves for hundreds of years. 

Meet my maternal grandfather, Rachmiel ("Raymond" in the US) Gordon. He was born in 1886 in Dolginov (aka Dahlinav) Lithuania. His male-line ancestors had lived in the area since at least 1700. (I cannot speak for his maternal ancestors, most of whom we know only by their given names.)

That is what he looked like.

This is how the US government saw him when he registered for the Old Men's Draft in 1942.

 

 

Race Negro, Complexion Black

Although he owned a successful business, he really didn't read or write English. I do not assume he actually read the description.

Jewish race, yes. We earned that.

White? Not then, not now.

The Fifth Commandment and Genealogy

The words of R' Yoel

We had a bar mitzvah in shul yesterday. We don't generally have anyone speak in the morning, but when there is a bar mitzvah, one of the members speaks about the weekly reading while presenting the boy a siddur.

The member - R' Yoel - who spoke (and I am bringing what he said, without my own comments except by way of explanation) brought an interesting take on the Fifth Commandment, the one about honoring your father and mother. His question was why is this a mitzvah, let alone one of the Big Ten.

We tend to think that the idea here is either that your parents gave you life or that they fed, clothed, educated and otherwise supported you into adulthood.

R' Yoel pointed out that there is no traditional source that applies this mitzvah to others who serve in loco parentis should the parents be unable to support the child. No one applies this to an orphanage or foster family or family member even though these can provide the principle support for a child whose parents are not available. So that cannot be the reason for the Fifth Commandment.

And as far as giving you life is concerned, the Talmud (Eruvin page 13b) discusses whether a person is better off to have been born or not to have been born. The "House of Shammai" argued the latter and the "House of Hillel" - whose positions were almost always accepted - argued the former. After two and a half years, the House of Shammai's position was accepted. Better to have never been born. Given that position, our parents have done us no favor by bringing us into the world. So, argues R' Yoel, that cannot be the reason behind the mitzvah and the Fifth Commandment.

So what does R' Yoel suggest is the reason for this mitzvah? He pointed to the multitude of prayers that begin "Our Gd and Gd of our fathers," emphasizing three or four times that this includes mothers as well. He referred to the opening of the Amidah prayer which we say three times a day - "Our Gd and the Gd of our fathers, Gd of Avraham, Gd of Yitzhak and Gd of Yaakov." He could have brought additional examples, but it was not necessary. We connect to Gd and His Torah through our previous generations and most directly our own parents.

There seems to be an implication that doing genealogy is a way to fulfill the Fifth Commandment.

 

Some personal thoughts on the day

1. I serve as second gabbai at our service, the person who does the blessing for the person called to the Torah.  I stand to the right of the Torah reader and the first gabbai, Dov, stands to the left. What Fred, the leader of our youth service, used to call "doing honor to the Torah." The portion we read this week was the portion at the time of Dov's bar mitzvah. And mine. Dov was called up to the Torah and gave a donation of seventy-two sheqels, as he had just turned seventy-two. I was called up after him. I usually do not specify an amount, but under the circumstances, I said I was giving seventy-four.

2. My sister's yahrzeit (35 years) is this week, so I was asked to lead the mussaf service. I am reminded that the last time I saw her alive was when she came to my shul three days before her death specifically to hear me read my bar mitzvah portion.

3. I offered several bar mitzvah reminiscences last year. No need to repeat them here.

Free Webinar

 

Lessons in Jewish DNA - free webinar by Israel Pickholtz now online for limited time

June 05, 2019

The recording of today's webinar, "Lessons in Jewish DNA: One Man's Successes and What He Learned On the Journey” by Israel Pickholtz is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

The hottest topic in genealogy in recent years has been genetics and many thousands of genealogists have ordered DNA tests. Most of those haven't a clue what to do with their results. The situation is more complicated among Jews, who have married "within the tribe" for hundreds of years, thus ensuring that everyone is related to everyone else, multiple times. Marrying within a closed community - "endogamy" – has barely been addressed by the non-Jewish genetic genealogy community. This presentation – as in the speaker's book" ENDOGAMY: One Family, One People" – does not bring a "how to" approach, as every family is different. The speaker prefers a "how I did it" approach, demonstrating the successes he has had in his own families and the general lessons which are applicable to all genetic genealogy research. His goal is to inspire his listeners and readers to say "I can do this!"

 

 

Redemption of a Fifth-Generation First-Born Son

והעברת כל-פטר-רחם לה', וכל פטר שגר בהמה אשר יהיה לך הזכרים לה'. וכל-פטר חמר תפדה בשה ואם-לא תפדה וערפתו, וכל בכור אדם בבניך תפדה. והיה כי-ישאלך בנך מחר לאמר מה-זאת, ואמרת אליו בחזק יד הוציאנו ה' ממצרים מבית עבדים.  ויהי כי-הקשה פרעה לשלחנו, ויהרג ה' כל-בכור בארץ מצרים מבכר אדם ועד-בכר בהמה, על-כן אני זבח לה' כל-פטר רחם הזכרים וכל-בכור בני אפדה.

                                                                                                             שמות י"ג יב-טו

And you shall set aside for G-d the first of all wombs, and every first-born of your animals, the males shall be for G-d. And you shall redeem every first-born donkey with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck, and your first-born sons, you shall redeem. And when it comes to pass that your son asks you “What is this?” and you shall say to him “By the strength of His hand, G-d brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And it came to pass that when Pharaoh would not send us out, G-d slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of man to the first-born of beast. Therefore I sacrifice the first-born male animals and my first-born sons I redeem." 

                                                                                                   Shemot 13, 12-15

So commands the Torah. We redeem our first-born (to the mother) sons, whom we "owe" to G-d because he did not kill them in Egypt. In Bamidbar 18, 15 the Torah tells us that this is to be done when the child is one month old and that the price of redemption is five silver sheqalim. The rabbis later clarify that this mitzvah is only relevant if neither parent is a Kohen or a Levi, so the chances of a redemption ceremony in any Jewish family is probably not much more than forty percent.

The ceremony (called pidyon haben) is highlighted by the kohen asking the father if he wants his son or the five sheqalim and the father says that he wants to redeem the child. This is followed by two blessings by the father, several verses by the kohen and wine. Then everyone eats. And perhaps someone speaks.

The first-borns are in red.

My late father was a first-born, as am I. So when my first-born son's first born son became a father last month, the baby is a fifth-generation first-born to be worthy of a redemption ceremony. The kohen was one of my grandsons rabbis in his Lakewood yeshiva. There were about forty people in attendance. I made last minute plans to be there - unannounced - but it didn't happen. (See my next blog for that story.)

The kohen for both my father and me was my grandfather's brother-in-law, Uncle Harry Katz. I didn't really know him, my only memory was from going to his shiv'a when I was ten. As it happens, one of Uncle Harry's two granddaughters lives about an hour drive from Lakewood, so I asked her to join us. She was planning to but when my plans were aborted, she decided to skip it. (Rhoda is named for her grandmother, Uncle Harry's wife, who was named for our second-great-grandmother Rivka Feige Pikholz.)

The baby is named for his mother's paternal grandfather whose first yahrzeit was the day of the pidyon.

My trip was aborted, but I told them that I fully intend to attend the pidyon of first-born number six in twenty-five years.

Erzsebet Kornberg(er) in Budapest

The inimitable Lara Diamond gave me a heads-up just before her most recent blogpost, telling me that she had seen some of my Pikholz (assorted spellings) in a Hungarian archival database she was writing about. She also sent me a Budapest death record which she had happened across.

The 9 December 1938 report of the death three days previous of Erzsebet Kornberger, wife of Jozsef Pikholz. She was seventy-two and her parents were Abraham Kornberger and Roza Korberg.

This looked familiar, but not quite as I remembered this person.

I have a Budapest birth record for Sara Rebekka Stefania born 24 August 1898 to Mozes Pikholz (mentioned in the notes on the record) and Erzsebet Kornberg, age 31 of Tarnopol Galicia. Close but no cigar.

We have additional information on this couple from their 1908 (late) Budapest marriage registration. We see Mozes' mother and birthdate, both of which we know from the Rozdol birth records. Erzsebet is called by a Jewish name "Lifsche" and she was born 30 May 1867 to Chaim Kornberg and Sara Rivka Stein.

Lifsche's birthdate and parents' names (plus her maternal grandfather Eisig) appear in the Tarnopol birth records.

So are these two women the same person?

The ages look right. The surname Kornberg vs. Kornberger are within the norm of clerical error. (Mozes is dead by then, and he would have been the best source of information when his wife died.)

On the other hand, the husbands - Mozes and Jozsef - are different. We have no evidence of any Jozsef either in that part of the family or in any other Pikholz Budapest family. And the parents of Erzsebet/Lifsche are completely different - Chaim vs Abraham and Sara Rivka vs. Roza.

(I suppose it is possible that after Mozes Pikholz died, Erzsebet married Jozsef Pikholz, but I find that highly unlikely. And it only solves part of the contradiction.)

I really find it hard to believe that these are two different women, but the errors look too great to be clerical.

There is one other bit of information which seems to seal the deal. The address 36 Nyar Street appears for both. It appears on the 1938 death record, on the 1908 marriage record and on several birth records for the children.

As it happens, Mozes and Lifsche have a granddaughter living in Belgium. She has done DNA for our project and I am Facebook friends with her daughter. I do not assume that the granddaughter - who was born after the Holocaust - will be able to clarify this, but we shall ask.

In the meantime, I shall hold off on recording Erzsebet's death record in my database. And hope for the best.

Wolf Pickholz

ANNOUNCEMENT TO SUBSCRIBERS

Blogger - the host of this blog - has announced that "the email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021," meaning that subscribers will no longer received notices of new blog posts. Those who follow me on Facebook (or Tracing the Tribe or Jewish Genealogy Portal) will see announcements there. I will put together an email list, as well. Let me know if you wish to be included on that list.

Wolf and Ryfka Pickholz: Voters for the Polish Senate

The name "Pikholz" in its various forms, is both uncommon and unusual, so when people see it, they notice. Since I have been in contact with so many researchers over the years, I hear from people from time to time that they have run across a Pikholz reference that I had not previously seen. I received one of these about two weeks ago from a fellow named Oded Vardi, with whom I had a brief correspondence eighteen months ago.

1928 Polish Senate Elections

Oded has Skalat and Grzmaylow interests and was looking at records of voters in the 1928 Polish Senate elections, for people registered in Skalat. He passed on this listing for Wolf and Ryfka Pickholz, both age 52. Wolf is not a common Pikholz name. It appears in my Given Name Analysis only thirty-two times, seventeen in Skalat families and fifteen in Rozdol families. One of the seventeen from Skalat is married to Rivka Reisel with known children born 1896-1907 - so the age fits. I do not consider it jumping to conclusions to say that the couple in the elections list is the one we already know.

Wolf and Rifka Reisel's first child married a man named Izak Bergman in 1923 and we know nothing further about her. The second died at seven months. The third was killed in the Holocaust, with a wife and children. The fourth died in Israel, just short of her fortieth birthday, leaving a young son and a fifteen-month old daughter. I have been in contact with the daughter over the years. She is always polite, always answers my letters, knows nothing about her mother's family and has no real interest in the family history. She has declined my suggestions to do DNA.

The issue with this family is that we have no parents for Wolf, though we do for his wife Rifka Reisel. Wolf, who was born about 1875-6 could be a descendant of any of the Skalat Pikholz ancestors from the period 1780-1805.

From my Given Name Analysis

Horodnica

But this new document has one bit of new information. The voters are Skalaters, but did not necessarily live there at the time. The towns of residence are listed in the left-hand column and Wolf and Ryfka are listed as living in Horodnica.

Horodnica, on the road from Skalat to Husiatyn

Horodnica is 18 miles (29 km) SSE of Skalat towards Husiatyn, in the Kopicienice District and according to the JewishGen Communities Database had 21 Jews in 1920. I have discussed our connection to Husiatyn several times, including here and here but I have not mentioned Horodnica until now - yet it is a town I have seen in our records.

David Samuel Pikholz, who lived in Skalat and died 30 October 1920 at age 68 was married to Freude Linczycz of Horodnica. Freude died 12 November 1930 at age 75. They had three children that we know of - Golde (1878), Marjem (1879) and Chanzie (1880). I am thinking that Wolf may be a child of this couple and wonder if perhaps he and his wife moved to Horodnica after David Samuel died, to help look after his widow Freude.

Keep in mind that in 1877, there was a major change in record-keeping in Galicia and it doesn't surprise me that we find no record for Wolf in 1875-6. Wolf's missing birth record is a problem regardless of who his parents are, not specific to the David Samuel - Freude hypothesis.

I am not yet recording Wolf as the son of David Samuel and Freude. My own rule says that absent clear documentation, even once I am certain, I must find at least one more piece of supporting evidence. But it feels like I am on the right track.

David Samuel  

Even if this hypothesis is correct, I remain stuck at David Samuel, whose parents are unknown, or at least not identified. (As a side note, David Samuel is a name which appears multiple times in the Rozdol Pikholz branch, but only twice in Skalat. You can see a brief summary of those here.)

Gesher Galicia has recently made available some new birth indecies, including Skalat for 1827-1858. They are available to members only and are very difficult to work with, though the writing is clear. And since they are only indecies, they do not show parents' names or other critical information. I see no David Samuel (or David or Samuel) on any of the "P" pages, though I would expect to see this one in about 1852.

Perhaps he is listed under a different name (his mother's, for instance) but I would have to comb through the forty-six pages of scans to find even a candidate for ours. It is now on my to-do list.

Linczycz

Let me mention that David Samuel and Freude are not the only Pikholz-Linczycz couple. Ester Linczycz (also from Horodnica) and Israel Pikholz had a daughter who died at birth in 1901. I have no idea how these two couple are related, on either the Linczycz side or the Pikholz side.

My friend Jill Chozen is a Linczycz descendant from Horodnica and I have begun a bit of inquiry into that rabbit hole, in case there is more than meets the eye. Ester is definitely a sister of one of Jill's ancestors.

Dr. Egon Riss, My Father's Half Second Cousin

On the seventy-third anniversary of the founding of our modern state, let me introduce you to a family hero.

The following is my translation of a Hebrew-language Facebook post by Eviatar Lichtman. Dr. Egon Riss is a Pikholz descendant, my father's half second cousin. I have been in contact with his widow Jona for twenty years and even visited with her once, and am Facebook friends with two of their three children, but I never heard any of this before. Nor did I know that he had a wife who was killed during the War of Independence. (More about her in a separate post.)

The 1989 grave of Egon Riss in Haifa. His Jewish name is Noah.

Eviatar is not a family member, but a tour guide to whom Israel's history is important. Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidence), I met him in shul last week!

How many of you have heard the name Egon Riss? Dr. Egon Riss. And how many of you knew of this hero?

Seventy-two years ago today, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem fell. The State had already been established. But its heart was detached. The Old City and the holy places. No longer in our hands. Curiously, it is a cardiologist who, to me, symbolizes not only the loss of the city and its heart, but the victory of the people.

Dr. Egon Riss, who married Hava Jezmer-Riss.

Egon and Hava, who worked together as doctor and nurse as part of the Haganah militia, Egon who was wounded by a bullet on his way to the hospital on Mt. Scopus, the same Egon who nonetheless resumed going up to the mountaintop hospital several weeks later. In the same convoy where seventy-eight of his colleagues were murdered and burned alive.

Dr. Egon Riss, who was not a Jerusalem resident himself, but his heart could not accept that his brethren were there alone, a Jewish minority, against an Arab throng hungry for their blood and their homes. So he went. There.

Dr. Riss who said "I knew that no one would relieve our shift because the Arab attacks were intensifying and we were the last ones to enter the [Jewish] Quarter," he said, understanding the significance of his words for his own life.

Egon, whose wife remained outside [the city walls], continuing to work on behalf of the Haganah, until she was struck by a shell. And Egon, who tried to raise a Red Cross flag above the hospital so it wouldn't be shelled. Which of course drew increased fire.

Egon and his colleagues, the doctors and nurses, kept apologizing for being relatively secure while the Quarter's defenders had to fight. (They said this as the hospital absorbed constant shelling.)

And when the Jewish Quarter fell, Egon volunteered again. The Red Cross called on him over and over to evacuate to the western part of the City. And Dr. Riss said "How can I leave the wounded to remain alone in captivity?" And he went with them. This was after everyone knew what had happened in Kefar Etzion, and what "going into captivity" might well mean.

Fortunately, he returned alive from captivity and was involved in developing cardiology in Israel, becoming a pioneer in his field in the north. He married again, to Jona Itzkowitz, with whom he had a family.

During this period [the corona virus], when we are so grateful to all the medical personnel and in this period between Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, it is an appropriate time to remember the modest Dr. Egon Riss, who rarely granted interviews so few of us know of his actions.

Everyone should remember him and the defenders of the Jewish Quarter, where the few stood against the many, in defense of the heart of the City.

Incidentally, there are three Riss cousins named Egon, all born within a sixteen-year period.  You can see their places in the family here, about a quarter of the way down the page.