I have been trying to do research on my grandmother Sonya Levin.
I remember my father telling me that she was buried at the Montefiore
cemetery in New York & they have no record of a Sonya Levin buried
there.They were >from Grodno, Poland. Does any one know what the Hebrew
or yiddish equivalent of what Sonya would be? Can you also tell me if
Grodno was a town or Gubernia in the early 1900's ? If so what would the
town be? My father said the area was called White Russia?
Thanks so much for your help!
Gail Levin Dechter

I have been trying to do research on my grandmother Sonya Levin.
I remember my father telling me that she was buried at the Montefiore
cemetery in New York & they have no record of a Sonya Levin buried
there.They were >from Grodno, Poland. Does any one know what the Hebrew
or yiddish equivalent of what Sonya would be? Can you also tell me if
Grodno was a town or Gubernia in the early 1900's ? If so what would the
town be? My father said the area was called White Russia?
Thanks so much for your help!
Gail Levin Dechter

To all who have a South American connection:
My fathers family had a cousin who wound up in Argentina somewhere around the
turn of the century. My brother once met someone on a plane who confirmed that
indeed there was such a family. The original name was GOLUBCHIK or something
like that.

I have recently found some cousins >from the same family but they have no info
on our S.A. family.

Please respond if the name sounds at all familiar. Thanks for the help.

Joy Torchin (joytorch@aol.com)

MODERATOR NOTE: The Latin American Special Interest
Group - LatamSIG - for short, was officially formed at
the Los Angeles Seminar. It is hosted by JewishGen free
of charge... If you are interested in participating in
this group there are two ways to sign up:

1- Go to our homepage: http://www.jewishgen.org
and in the Discussion Group category, click on Special
Interests Groups. This will take you to a listing of all
the SIG's hosted by JewishGen. LatamSig is the last one
on the list. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and
click on: I want to Subscribe To A Mailing List.
The webform page will take you through the process.

2 - E-Mail - Address an e-mail to:
Listserve@Lyris.jewishgen.org and say :

subscribe LatamSig your first name your last name

If you have any questions contact :
Rob Weisskirch: rweisskirch@fullerton.edu

To all who have a South American connection:
My fathers family had a cousin who wound up in Argentina somewhere around the
turn of the century. My brother once met someone on a plane who confirmed that
indeed there was such a family. The original name was GOLUBCHIK or something
like that.

I have recently found some cousins >from the same family but they have no info
on our S.A. family.

Please respond if the name sounds at all familiar. Thanks for the help.

Joy Torchin (joytorch@aol.com)

MODERATOR NOTE: The Latin American Special Interest
Group - LatamSIG - for short, was officially formed at
the Los Angeles Seminar. It is hosted by JewishGen free
of charge... If you are interested in participating in
this group there are two ways to sign up:

1- Go to our homepage: http://www.jewishgen.org
and in the Discussion Group category, click on Special
Interests Groups. This will take you to a listing of all
the SIG's hosted by JewishGen. LatamSig is the last one
on the list. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and
click on: I want to Subscribe To A Mailing List.
The webform page will take you through the process.

2 - E-Mail - Address an e-mail to:
Listserve@Lyris.jewishgen.org and say :

subscribe LatamSig your first name your last name

If you have any questions contact :
Rob Weisskirch: rweisskirch@fullerton.edu

Dear Folks:

I previously wrote asking about the Volhynia SIG, which had disappeared from
the SIG listing. It's back now, but still inaccessible. That is, every SIG
but Keidan and Volhynia shows up on my list (on AOL) in blue, as something I
can double click and access. Those two are not available in that way. Is that
how it should be? I might be able to subscribe, haven't tried to thus far.

If I were to subscribe, are the messages available without unscrambling
something? I have always preferred the newsgroup method of obtaining messages

from the general discussion group. When I wasn't able to get them due to

central systems problems, I subscribed, but most of the messages came in MIME
and I was never able to unscramble them. (Friends of mine who are computer
mavens but live a few hours away spent 2 hours with me on the phone- I have 2
lines- trying to tell me what to do to decode MIME, but then it was late and we
left it for another day. I put off calling them again, knowing how much
trouble I put them through the first time, and then the newsgroup method
started working again, so I never did call. My computer is a 486 and I use an
older version of AOL.)

Lynne Shapiro
Lshapski@aol.com

P.S. After my first message on this subject, I received an E-mail >from someone
else who said they were also unable to access the Volhynia SIG on their
computer.

Dear Folks:

I previously wrote asking about the Volhynia SIG, which had disappeared from
the SIG listing. It's back now, but still inaccessible. That is, every SIG
but Keidan and Volhynia shows up on my list (on AOL) in blue, as something I
can double click and access. Those two are not available in that way. Is that
how it should be? I might be able to subscribe, haven't tried to thus far.

If I were to subscribe, are the messages available without unscrambling
something? I have always preferred the newsgroup method of obtaining messages

from the general discussion group. When I wasn't able to get them due to

central systems problems, I subscribed, but most of the messages came in MIME
and I was never able to unscramble them. (Friends of mine who are computer
mavens but live a few hours away spent 2 hours with me on the phone- I have 2
lines- trying to tell me what to do to decode MIME, but then it was late and we
left it for another day. I put off calling them again, knowing how much
trouble I put them through the first time, and then the newsgroup method
started working again, so I never did call. My computer is a 486 and I use an
older version of AOL.)

Lynne Shapiro
Lshapski@aol.com

P.S. After my first message on this subject, I received an E-mail >from someone
else who said they were also unable to access the Volhynia SIG on their
computer.

As a result of posting a note about the CD-Rom of the International
Jewish Cemetery Project on the JGSGB discussion group it became apparent

from replies that many people had no idea of what this project is about.

So, here is an abstract of the factsheet.
Arline Sachs, IAJGS Cemetery project chair
e-mail: sachs@axsamer.org

The cemetery project is now five years old. There is now data on over
22,000 cemeteries and names of over 400,000 of those interred have been
collected. AU the data is now on a CD ( given to all societies). It is
readable by both Windows and Maclntosh environments. The CD is
available for purchase by individuals at $35.00 .
The cost presently for the disks is $35.00 for one or $60.00 for two
(GBP22 or GBP37 for two) including postage, anywhere in the world. The
second disc is the forthcoming Family Tree of the Jewish People. It
should be available in the next two months.
Checks can be sent in any curency, made out to IAJGS.

In phase 1 we are trying to find out where Jews are buried. In some
cases the data is quite sparse, only that one exists in a particular
location. In other cases, there is a lot of detail including who nms
it, which synagogues use it etc. Cemeteries can be all Jewish or Jewish
sections in a non-Jewish cemeteries or even where a few Jews are buried
in a non-Jewish cemetery.
Specifically the following information is
requested: country, state, city, name of cemetery, location of cemetery,
street address; additional instructions about where it is; years used;
contact person (may be the caretaker, whoever has the key (and how to
get it); the society caring for it, or even the person submitting the
data, who would help interested people.); phone number of contact
person; synagogue(s)
who use(d) it; approximate size (30 or 3000
graves); all Jewish cemetery or not The US Commission for the
Preservation of America!s Heritage Abroad is also concerned about
preserving our heritage. Their area of concentration is Eastern
Europe. They are cooperating with us and have supplied us with phase I
information >from over 3000 cemeteries in Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Poland and Hungary and Ukraine.
A questionnaire for use on phase 1 data in
Eastern Europe is available on the web at:
http://wwwjewishgen.orgtcemetery/ccm3.htm. The
questionnaire has also been translated into Dutch, German, Portugese,
Romanian and Spanish- These are available at that address as well. Not
all questions are applicable to all cemeteries so you can a4just it to
your needs.

On the web at htip://wwwjevnshgen.org/cemetery and on the
CD the data is arranged in order by country, then
state, and then by city or town, and then ff there are
several cemeteries in a community they are arranged in
alphabetical order.

In phase 2 we are trying to find out the names of those
interred in the individual cemeteries. So far we have over 400,000
names of individuals >from all around the world >from cemeteries that have
already been indexed. In non- Jewish cemeteries only Jews are included
in this project. As much of the following data as possible is included.
We are looking for as much of the following type of
information that is available about the individuals. Last name. First
and other names, Death date (use a 4 digit number for the year); Place
of death, Birth date (use a 4 digit number for the year); Birth place,
Cemetery, Location in cemetery, Father/Mother, Informant/Relation,
Comments, Funeral Home, Spouse
If you have data collected in ANY different format, or
sequence, send it to me anyway and we will convert it to work with our
files. We can work with almost any computerized data that has been
collected and will convert it to our needs. Data on a spreadsheet is
the easiest for us to handle.

On the CD the user wis be able to click on the word names
if it appears after the name of a cemetery and browse through the names
of all those interred in that cemetery.

In phase 3 the names are combined to make it possible for the user to
look for a particular name, anywhere in the world. On the CD it will be
able to do this without having to wait a day for the response as is
neccessary on the web now. The data can be searched by the exact
spelling of a name and by a version of the Daitsch-Mokotov soundex.

All people worldng on this project are volunteers. No profit is to be
made >from the use of this information.
Any profits made >from the sale of the CD will be used to
continue this project and applied to other IAJGS projects.

For this project to continue to grow it needs the help
of everyone who uses it. Can you do any of the following or provide
additional suggestions?

Contact the Jewish Cemetery Association to get them to
urge their cemeteries to provide the names to us.
Contact Jewish Historical Society:
Contact all branches of Judaism, to have them urge their
synagogues to contribute.
Boy and Girl scout contact?
Need to contact libraries that have data
Getting data >from books that are no longer under
copyright What will you volunteer to help do? Can you suggest other
sources of data. What will you do to help?


--
Dr Saul Issroff Secretary International Association of Jewish Genealogy
Societies

As a result of posting a note about the CD-Rom of the International
Jewish Cemetery Project on the JGSGB discussion group it became apparent

from replies that many people had no idea of what this project is about.

So, here is an abstract of the factsheet.
Arline Sachs, IAJGS Cemetery project chair
e-mail: sachs@axsamer.org

The cemetery project is now five years old. There is now data on over
22,000 cemeteries and names of over 400,000 of those interred have been
collected. AU the data is now on a CD ( given to all societies). It is
readable by both Windows and Maclntosh environments. The CD is
available for purchase by individuals at $35.00 .
The cost presently for the disks is $35.00 for one or $60.00 for two
(GBP22 or GBP37 for two) including postage, anywhere in the world. The
second disc is the forthcoming Family Tree of the Jewish People. It
should be available in the next two months.
Checks can be sent in any curency, made out to IAJGS.

In phase 1 we are trying to find out where Jews are buried. In some
cases the data is quite sparse, only that one exists in a particular
location. In other cases, there is a lot of detail including who nms
it, which synagogues use it etc. Cemeteries can be all Jewish or Jewish
sections in a non-Jewish cemeteries or even where a few Jews are buried
in a non-Jewish cemetery.
Specifically the following information is
requested: country, state, city, name of cemetery, location of cemetery,
street address; additional instructions about where it is; years used;
contact person (may be the caretaker, whoever has the key (and how to
get it); the society caring for it, or even the person submitting the
data, who would help interested people.); phone number of contact
person; synagogue(s)
who use(d) it; approximate size (30 or 3000
graves); all Jewish cemetery or not The US Commission for the
Preservation of America!s Heritage Abroad is also concerned about
preserving our heritage. Their area of concentration is Eastern
Europe. They are cooperating with us and have supplied us with phase I
information >from over 3000 cemeteries in Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Poland and Hungary and Ukraine.
A questionnaire for use on phase 1 data in
Eastern Europe is available on the web at:
http://wwwjewishgen.orgtcemetery/ccm3.htm. The
questionnaire has also been translated into Dutch, German, Portugese,
Romanian and Spanish- These are available at that address as well. Not
all questions are applicable to all cemeteries so you can a4just it to
your needs.

On the web at htip://wwwjevnshgen.org/cemetery and on the
CD the data is arranged in order by country, then
state, and then by city or town, and then ff there are
several cemeteries in a community they are arranged in
alphabetical order.

In phase 2 we are trying to find out the names of those
interred in the individual cemeteries. So far we have over 400,000
names of individuals >from all around the world >from cemeteries that have
already been indexed. In non- Jewish cemeteries only Jews are included
in this project. As much of the following data as possible is included.
We are looking for as much of the following type of
information that is available about the individuals. Last name. First
and other names, Death date (use a 4 digit number for the year); Place
of death, Birth date (use a 4 digit number for the year); Birth place,
Cemetery, Location in cemetery, Father/Mother, Informant/Relation,
Comments, Funeral Home, Spouse
If you have data collected in ANY different format, or
sequence, send it to me anyway and we will convert it to work with our
files. We can work with almost any computerized data that has been
collected and will convert it to our needs. Data on a spreadsheet is
the easiest for us to handle.

On the CD the user wis be able to click on the word names
if it appears after the name of a cemetery and browse through the names
of all those interred in that cemetery.

In phase 3 the names are combined to make it possible for the user to
look for a particular name, anywhere in the world. On the CD it will be
able to do this without having to wait a day for the response as is
neccessary on the web now. The data can be searched by the exact
spelling of a name and by a version of the Daitsch-Mokotov soundex.

All people worldng on this project are volunteers. No profit is to be
made >from the use of this information.
Any profits made >from the sale of the CD will be used to
continue this project and applied to other IAJGS projects.

For this project to continue to grow it needs the help
of everyone who uses it. Can you do any of the following or provide
additional suggestions?

Contact the Jewish Cemetery Association to get them to
urge their cemeteries to provide the names to us.
Contact Jewish Historical Society:
Contact all branches of Judaism, to have them urge their
synagogues to contribute.
Boy and Girl scout contact?
Need to contact libraries that have data
Getting data >from books that are no longer under
copyright What will you volunteer to help do? Can you suggest other
sources of data. What will you do to help?


--
Dr Saul Issroff Secretary International Association of Jewish Genealogy
Societies

This distinction between 2 geographical, ideological, linguistic and
gustatory Jewish groups has a long and bitter history.
Maybe my gloss on this history betrays my own prejudices but I will give it
none the less.
First, the Litvak area is in the region formerly controlled by the Kingdom
Of Lithuania, much larger than it's present size. So, people whose parents
were in what might today be called Poland or Belarus were under the
influence of the old Lithuania. The area called Galicia is further south
and encompasses today's Austria, Hungary, Romania, etc.
Second, the center of Jewish learning and scholarship in the old days, say
1650 onwards, was in Vilna, the Jerusalem of Europe. This center radiated
its influence to the entire Lithuanian kingdom and empahsized learning,
piety, strict observance of halakha, etc. Thus, in time, these properties
characterized Litvaks. Along with these wonderful qualities came a scorn
for the untutored masses, many of whom lived inside Lithuania but more of
whom lived far >from the center of learning, in Galicia.
Third. Around 1750 emerged the mystical, populist Baal Shem Tov (Master of
the Good Name) who started the Hassidic movement. This movement emphasized
that piety was accessible to the untutored, that personal, emotional
identification with God was the real goal of Jewish living. It wasn't quite
a New Age Judaism because it used the traditional texts and prayers to
achieve this goal. It also created many new prayers (like L'kha Dodi, sung
Friday nights) which are today incorporated in our prayer books. Naturally,
this movement attracted most of its followers in Galicia, although there
were plenty of Hassidim in Lithuania.
Fourth. The rabbinic leadership in Vilna reacted against the upstarts and
they and their followers were called "Mitnagdim", i.e. opponents.
Fifth. So the Litvaks and the Mitnagdim bacame one group and the Hassidim
and the Galicianers became another group. So serious was the schism that
intermarriage between the 2 groups was forbidden.
Sixth. Nowadays the 2 groups exist uneasily side by side while most Jews
have lost their strong pietistic allegiances. However, the pronunciations,
the style of cooking, etc have been projected thru the mothers onto
succeeding generations so that even today one can tell a Litvak >from a
Galicianer by their pronunciation of certain words.
Seventh. The rest of the Jewish world was influenced by this major struggle
going on in Eastern Europe, but not as strenuously. There were many who did
not ally themselves with either side. As usual, individuals don't make a
mark on history unless lots of other people are affected so these
unaffiliated were much more easily drawn into the non-religious,
enlightenment movements such as Zionism and Socialism that swept Eastern
Europe in the 1800s.
Gene and Ellen Sucov in Pittsburgh and Jerusalem


MODERATOR NOTE: This is a very interesting subject and
we are sure it is going to generate many responses. Since
the topic is only marginally genealogical, we ask that you
keep all your responses well within the main topic of this
Forum: *genealogy*. Perhaps someone could post a reference
to a good article or book on the question.

This distinction between 2 geographical, ideological, linguistic and
gustatory Jewish groups has a long and bitter history.
Maybe my gloss on this history betrays my own prejudices but I will give it
none the less.
First, the Litvak area is in the region formerly controlled by the Kingdom
Of Lithuania, much larger than it's present size. So, people whose parents
were in what might today be called Poland or Belarus were under the
influence of the old Lithuania. The area called Galicia is further south
and encompasses today's Austria, Hungary, Romania, etc.
Second, the center of Jewish learning and scholarship in the old days, say
1650 onwards, was in Vilna, the Jerusalem of Europe. This center radiated
its influence to the entire Lithuanian kingdom and empahsized learning,
piety, strict observance of halakha, etc. Thus, in time, these properties
characterized Litvaks. Along with these wonderful qualities came a scorn
for the untutored masses, many of whom lived inside Lithuania but more of
whom lived far >from the center of learning, in Galicia.
Third. Around 1750 emerged the mystical, populist Baal Shem Tov (Master of
the Good Name) who started the Hassidic movement. This movement emphasized
that piety was accessible to the untutored, that personal, emotional
identification with God was the real goal of Jewish living. It wasn't quite
a New Age Judaism because it used the traditional texts and prayers to
achieve this goal. It also created many new prayers (like L'kha Dodi, sung
Friday nights) which are today incorporated in our prayer books. Naturally,
this movement attracted most of its followers in Galicia, although there
were plenty of Hassidim in Lithuania.
Fourth. The rabbinic leadership in Vilna reacted against the upstarts and
they and their followers were called "Mitnagdim", i.e. opponents.
Fifth. So the Litvaks and the Mitnagdim bacame one group and the Hassidim
and the Galicianers became another group. So serious was the schism that
intermarriage between the 2 groups was forbidden.
Sixth. Nowadays the 2 groups exist uneasily side by side while most Jews
have lost their strong pietistic allegiances. However, the pronunciations,
the style of cooking, etc have been projected thru the mothers onto
succeeding generations so that even today one can tell a Litvak >from a
Galicianer by their pronunciation of certain words.
Seventh. The rest of the Jewish world was influenced by this major struggle
going on in Eastern Europe, but not as strenuously. There were many who did
not ally themselves with either side. As usual, individuals don't make a
mark on history unless lots of other people are affected so these
unaffiliated were much more easily drawn into the non-religious,
enlightenment movements such as Zionism and Socialism that swept Eastern
Europe in the 1800s.
Gene and Ellen Sucov in Pittsburgh and Jerusalem


MODERATOR NOTE: This is a very interesting subject and
we are sure it is going to generate many responses. Since
the topic is only marginally genealogical, we ask that you
keep all your responses well within the main topic of this
Forum: *genealogy*. Perhaps someone could post a reference
to a good article or book on the question.

Help....Vitaly Charny presents a list of places, one of which is Logishin
Can somebody send me a phonetic representation of how this would be
pronounced? For years now I have been looking for someplace that sounds
like Ladgin with the accent on (soft g) gin ...have I finally found it?

Carol Skydell
Chilmark MA

Help....Vitaly Charny presents a list of places, one of which is Logishin
Can somebody send me a phonetic representation of how this would be
pronounced? For years now I have been looking for someplace that sounds
like Ladgin with the accent on (soft g) gin ...have I finally found it?

Carol Skydell
Chilmark MA

There is the well-known Hanna restaurant, and I believe also another
newer one. Being a vegetarian, I did not patronize these. (I checked
ou the Hanna, but left as soon as I read the sign that even their
pastries are fleishig.) However, I can heartily recommend Frohlich's
Cukrazda (pastry shop) at 22 Dob Utca. There are a few Rothschild's
supermarkets that sell kosher products, plus one small Rothschild's (I
think on Dob Utca or Wesseleny, near the Dohany synagogue) that is
exclusively kosher, selling some meat and packaged groceries.
--

| Peter Spiro ----- Toronto, Canada |
| Visit my homepage at: |
| http://webhome.idirect.com/~spirop/ |

There is the well-known Hanna restaurant, and I believe also another
newer one. Being a vegetarian, I did not patronize these. (I checked
ou the Hanna, but left as soon as I read the sign that even their
pastries are fleishig.) However, I can heartily recommend Frohlich's
Cukrazda (pastry shop) at 22 Dob Utca. There are a few Rothschild's
supermarkets that sell kosher products, plus one small Rothschild's (I
think on Dob Utca or Wesseleny, near the Dohany synagogue) that is
exclusively kosher, selling some meat and packaged groceries.
--

| Peter Spiro ----- Toronto, Canada |
| Visit my homepage at: |
| http://webhome.idirect.com/~spirop/ |

Searching descendants of CHOLFIN in BRAZIL
CHOLFIN >from Brichany, Moldova (Romania)
descendants of brother of Samuel
Learned thay SAMUEL CHOLFIN, possibly son or grandson of brother
of SAMUEL, worked as executive for American Machine and Foundry
in Brazil during early 1960s. Does anyone have access to those
employment records to learn address or family relationships?

Searching descendants of CHOLFIN in BRAZIL
CHOLFIN >from Brichany, Moldova (Romania)
descendants of brother of Samuel
Learned thay SAMUEL CHOLFIN, possibly son or grandson of brother
of SAMUEL, worked as executive for American Machine and Foundry
in Brazil during early 1960s. Does anyone have access to those
employment records to learn address or family relationships?

Hello,
For any of you who miss any digest issues, whether it
be due to an e-mail glitch or an overly large digest, you
can read them at (www.dejanews.com) in the dejanews
newsgroup area. I tried this last night and found posts
I haven't even received yet! So its definately up to date.

James H. Gross
Cherry Hill, N.J.
e-mail: larklane@juno.com
Gross-Steinberg Family Tree
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6721/

Hello,
For any of you who miss any digest issues, whether it
be due to an e-mail glitch or an overly large digest, you
can read them at (www.dejanews.com) in the dejanews
newsgroup area. I tried this last night and found posts
I haven't even received yet! So its definately up to date.

James H. Gross
Cherry Hill, N.J.
e-mail: larklane@juno.com
Gross-Steinberg Family Tree
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6721/

Does anyone have information about the Moses Kaminsky Family Society? I
have been trying to find the minutes of the meetings without success. The
Society met in The Bronx, NY during the 1940's and 1950's.

SHELDON I. CLARE

Does anyone have information about the Moses Kaminsky Family Society? I
have been trying to find the minutes of the meetings without success. The
Society met in The Bronx, NY during the 1940's and 1950's.

SHELDON I. CLARE