Shalom Israel Pikholz,

In the recent JewishGen discussion of arranged marriages, you wrote about
haredi marriages:

"I speak >from parental experience."

I was wondering whether you might have some suggestions for me concerning my
inability to find out about a haredi branch of my family tree. I know they
exist, because a late grandaunt of mine visited them in Mea She'arim in
Jerusalem in the 1950s, when I was much too young to be curious about such
distant relatives.

I have been in contact via e-mail with non-haredi cousins of this family who
live in Israel whom I have asked a couple of times to try to find out their
names for me and make contact with them for me, but they have not responded
directly to these questions. (Part of this problem is undoubtedly related to
my inability to speak Hebrew. These non-haredi cousins of mine have varying
levels of English. Also, I suspect there may be some unstated history of
antagonism between the haredi and non-haredi cousins.)

This family is included on the tree >from my Web site at:

http://mefischer1.home.comcast.net/Trees/Lifschitz.pdf

The haredi are descended >from three of the children of Gershon Joseph
LIFSHITZ (right of center, 2nd generatiion): Abraham Lifshitz, Moshe
Lifshitz and Leibel Lifshitz Cohen (?) (Isn't Leibel a man's name? If so,
then I am mistaken about listing Leibel and Leibel's offspring as being
surnamed Cohen.).

The non-haredi cousin who provided me with this section of the tree did not
give me the actual names of the next generation, only the numbers of boys
and girls in each nuclear family. I sought further details >from her, but she
was unable to provide them.

So, do you have any suggestions as to how I, as a non-Hebrew-speaking
American, can learn the names of and make contact with my distant haredi
cousins? Or, should I just assume that this is an unbridgeable gap in my
family tree?

Martin Fischer
Oak Park, Illinois, USA

---
The Fischer and Levin family history Web site is at:
http://mefischer1.home.comcast.net/

MODERATOR NOTE: We are posting this message as the answers may be of general
interest. Specific suggestions concerning Martin's family should be sent
privately.