Using the information found by Odeda Zlotnick, Marshall Lerner and Larry Bassist, I looked at the various spellings. From my own personal experience, I decided that the ship manifest was probably the most reliable. The town name appears three times on Elie Akerman's arrival record. Examining all 3 spellings, I come up with Orzawenets, with Arzawenets or Orzavenets being reasonable alternatives. Although I cannot find any information on such a town, I've learned from experience that not being able to find this town name on JewishGen or using Google does not mean it didn't exist. It may have been quite small, or the spelling might be off just enough to keep it from showing up in a phonetic search. I've seen it happen before, and I know I will see it happen again. I believe you are right that the "Bess." notation on the WWI draft registration refers to Bessarabia, as I have seen that notation appear before.

The closest town name I found was Zhvanets, which is roughly 5 miles from Khotyn, Ukraine. Although Zhvanets was reportedly in Podolia gubernia, nearby Khotin/Khotin was in Bessarabia gubernia. It may or may not be the town you are looking for, and I'm not saying that it is, but I believe the town you are looking for might potentially be in this region.

Regards,

Cary Pollack

Tamarac, Florida

Based on the ship manifest, I believe the town is Urzedow, Poland. Here is my thinking. The town on the 1909 manifest began with what sounded like Orr followed by a space and some other letters. It was part of Russia at that time. I searched the JewishGen town finder for "orr". Then I looked at only those locations that were part of Russia c.1900.

The closest match was:
Urzędów
Janów
Lublin
Russian Empire

When I compare the town spelling of Arzanowitz on the WWI draft record, it closely matches "Urzendow" below but is missing the letter "d".  I think this is the closest match to the various spelling of the town on your records.

Roberta Jaffer
Massachusetts

Alternate names: Urzędów [Pol], Orzendov [Yid], Uzhenduv [Rus], Urzendov, Urzendow, Uzhendov

Here is the link in Ancestry.com for the ship list. The spelling of the town may have been extracted above incorrectly, so look at the original and JewisGenners can help with what it might really be.

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7488/images/NYT715_1237-0309?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PSK461&_phstart=successSource&pId=4032959067 

Larry Bassist
USA

• First Name :   Elsi
• Last Name :   Akerman
• Nationality :   Russia, Hebrew
• Last Place of Residence :   Orzaworak, Russia
• Date of Arrival :   April 9th, 1909
• Age at Arrival :   20y
• Gender :   Female
• Marital Status :   Single
• Ship of Travel :   Alice
• Port of Departure :   Trieste
• Manifest Line Number :   0012

--
Marshall Lerner
West Chester, PA

Lerner or Beitel from Brecini; Sternberg or Steinberg from Khotin; Gherbel or Gabel from Darabani & Bucharest; Eisenberg & Markowitz from Roman or Tirgu Neamt
Smoler from Zhitomir; Hodes from Lodz; Pachter from Wolbrom or Kielce

You are looking for a person who was an alien in 1917, lived in NY, had a wife and 2 children and signed his name in Hebrew letters as Harry Ackerman הערי אקערמאן

If you limit your seach to H* Ackerman with a wife named Anna in immigration data on family search, you'll find:
New York, Southern District, U.S District Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1946; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9HD-59X8?cc=2060123&wc=M5PD-449%3A351611901

This even has his picture, and the date of his marriage in the US.  The ship he arrived on, the name he had then.



--
Odeda Zlotnick
Jerusalem, Israel.

Lianne  Shavua Tov,

I was trying to resolve your puzzle and I could not.  There was not such a town (ARJOVONITZ or ARZANOVITCH or similar) in Bessarabia, and likely in the whole Russian Empire.  I even looked into old names of towns and could not find anything.

I also looked into Bessarabia Geographical Dictionary, https://www.jewishgen.org/bessarabia/files/misc/GeographicalDictionary_JewishPopulationinBessarabia082013.pdf
where we have towns, shtetlakh and even villages where Jews used to live or/and work,  and the closest place was Arloneshty.

Here is a suggestion to you.   If you have any other information about that person, maybe written on a post card or  letter.  That may help.

All the best,
Yefim Kogan
Bessarabia Group Leader and Coordinator

Lianne,

Try searching at JewishGen's Communities Database, and also the Gazetteer.

https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/LocTown.asp

https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/Search.asp

You can manipulate the search in many ways, i.e. starts with, phonetic, and contains.  

Since the spelling of the town is so uncertain, you can even try searching for any town that contains certain letters, i.e. itz.