The Tale of the Rabbi's Wife #general
David Frey <dfrey@...>
In the tale of the Trip to Beshincovichi, written by yours truly a
year or two ago, see the Belarus Sig, I humbly suggested that the purpose of my trip was to find some evidence that the family tale of Rabbi Avram Isroel Gildenson was in some sense true. Upon finding the "lost" cemetery of the town it became apparent that at least certain facts were true. There was such a town. Some of the gravestones suggested that members of my current family were named after their parents or grandparents. However since the gravestones contained only references such as Rifka, daughter of Rev. Mendel and some dates, actual verification would be difficult. One of the central components of the story of the Rabbi was that he was married twice and his second wife was married three times. All we knew of this prolific woman was that her first husband had the last name of Steinhart by whom she bore a daughter named Elka Leah, the second husband's name has been lost to history and the third was named Gildenson, The Rabbi of the town, and possibly a student of Menachem Mendal of Vitebsk. But even though I found the cemetery, I found not one shred of direct evidence that the family tale was true. The story passed on by my Grandmother, Beila, and told to me by my mother was that the woman at the centre of this saga was named "Frumma Chana, and that she owned and ran a grocery store. Tonight, this very night I looked through: "The Vsia Rossiia translation team for the 1911 Vitebsk data: Roberta Solit supplied the paper copies of Vsia Rossiia used in the translation. The data was translated by Tom Gartman, Vitaly Charney edited the data and supplied the list of abbreviations." And to my amazement I did a search on Gildensohn and came up with: Surname - GILDENSOHN Given Name - Khava Patronymic - Mord. Occupation - Grocery Goods Year - 1911 Column # - 407 Town - Beshenkovichi Uyezd - Lepel Gubernia - Vitebsk So here it was, the first actual proof that someone name Khava Gildenson, grocery store owner, actually existed. >from Frumme Chana to Khava, daughter of Mordichi, is not such a big leap. Perhaps the Mordichi that my uncle Morris the Doctor was named after, and probably the Mother of Elka Leah, named after the first wife of the Rabbi. And just make the story complete, my lately departed Mother's name was Elka Leah. I was with her for five years as she slowly died of Alzheimer's. And so while the details of the story are not complete, as they never are, the G-d of my people, the G-d who I prayed to, while standing in front of that overgrown cemetery, G-d granted me a pearl to wear in my heart, as long as it lasts, and to pass on to my sons when it finally gives out. Baruch Ha Shem David Frey dfrey@bigpond.net.au MODERATOR NOTE: The search performed was >from the Vsia Rossiia - "All Russia" Business Directory 1903 & 1911 Minsk Gubernia, 1911 Mogilev Gubernia, 1911 Vitebsk Gubernia provided by the Belarus SIG and searchable at <http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/vsiabelarus.htm>.
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