FAMILY STORIES - 100 Years

FAMILY STORIES

Anecdotes from Family


Family is from:

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kamyanets-Podilskyy/

~

ETHEL MOSSMAN

Russian Train and Ax stories

by

Ethel's only son, Israel Mossman (a Kohen)

 As a teaser, Mama's life was saved by a witch.  She was hauled into court as a witness, at less than 11 years of age, and went into shock. 

 #1. When our mother (Mama-Ethel Balmazie/Bell Mossman.) was a small child in Russia, an old man was walking the RR track.  A train was coming.  He did not respond. Mama tried to shout at him, but either he did not hear (deaf) or her voice did not come out due to fright.  The train knocked him in the air.  Mama did not see him come down.  She thought he was called into heaven.  The Russians called her  as a witness several times.  Each time she could not respond. The last time, her kidneys stopped working.  She went into uremic poisoning.  A witch was advised of the circumstances, and she rolled a raw egg all over Mama's body, broke it into a saucer, and then told her of the trauma she had suffered.  The trauma was removed from her body (mind?) and she recovered.

#2. One anecdote that you can add is that Mama was chopping wood, and that the younger brother (Joe) was close behind her, watching her.  She swung back the ax, and hit her young brother in his head, knocking a piece out of his skull. She and her mother sat on the RR track until a train came to take them to the city, where they plugged the hole with a silver coin, and pulled skin and hair over it.

[ Ziona note:  #2. Yes, I have heard that story before, from my Dad.  However, one missing piece of the story is that Grandma took moldy bread and inserted it into the wound.  Dad said she must have known that the moldy bread had antibiotic properties (penicillin).]


[ Joy note:  Grandma also told me story #1.]

 ~

GRANDMA Ethel's FATHER ISRAEL BALMAZIE

by

granddaughter, Faye Melton (daughter of Libby and Joseph Melton.)

I got directly from Grandma Ethel Mossman, the fear of the Czar's men when train coming, though I don't remember the hiding in a smothering fashion.  

Great Grandfather Israel Bell (Ethel's father) was given a buggy and wares to go into the Atlanta countryside (outskirts of town) to peddle where there'd be no one to speak Yiddish or Russian, in order to make him learn English. I got that directly from Grandma.

Grandma got a job at the candy factory.  Brief period of English or schooling in 8th grade class at night. Did Grandma get sacked for eating a chocolate/a candy on the job, or did she search for something better and get the job in a milliner's shop?  Fast favor at the shop as she showed her talent for window displays. 

Grandma's family being among those who invited Jewish soldiers for Shabbat, and that being how she met Abe.   

Love, Faye

In early spring perhaps, Grandma Ethel's family would dig deep holes in the ground to hold and keep meat (chicken?) cooler than room temperature.  They also used ice from winter snow, somehow, to keep meat/food.  I suppose that all must have been in a wooden box.  There would be neither plastics nor, probably, concrete.

Grandma and at least one brother walked 2-3 miles to a school for some education.  No Jews were allowed in the higher level schools.

~

BALMAZIE’S IN RUSSIA

 by

Ethel Mossman’s son, Israel Mossman

(named for his maternal grandfather, z'l)

I think that Daddy (Abe Mossman) came from Orsha, and that Mama (Ethel) was from near Odessa.  

Orsha (SP?), from 60 year old memory, is (was?) about 1,000 miles due north of Odessa.   

I can only remember that Balmazie was 1,000 or 2,000 miles due north of Odessa.  Our mother's family lived illegally on the Czar's property.  They had a small grocery store, to sell to railroad passengers, as they had to be self sufficient for food, and fuel for stove on each rail car.  

~

Czar's Land

by 

Granddaughter Joy M. Krauthammer

(daughter of Libby and Joseph M.)

I heard that because the Belmazies were living illegally in the winter on the Czar's or nobleman's property in order to stay warm from the stove's heat, they had to run and hide when officials came.

From working there, that is probably how the reputation came to be, as my Grandma Ethel told me, that her mom's challah was loved by the Czar and considered the best. )

My grandmother Ethel's mother saw to it that the family moved to the U.S., as she thought that they would not survive the Russian revolution, living on the Czar's property.  They had a small gold coin for each family member. Grandma Ethel told me that the parents got the locals to give them the coins for having been such good people.

~

American Note

by

 Uncle Israel Mossman

Uncle Joe Bell had a push cart in New Haven.

Uncle Joe worked his way through Yale with an engineering degree, and became a civilian engineer with the U.S. Navy.  

[ Joy note: I vividly recall Uncle Joe always wearing his Yale graduation ring, 1927. Jews were not allowed to attend Yale, and somehow Uncle Joe did.]

~

Hi Joy,

Our thanks beyond words for all the work you did for this (site).

Needless to say, I had it all printed, and it will be our most precious heirloom.

- Israel

(PS. SAD that my Uncle Israel died in 2018. He was a treasure.)

~

Note from Joy: 

Thanks Uncle Israel.  I NEVER heard this #2 horrific Russian story, neither from Grandma Ethel nor from Uncle Joe Bell. Joe Bell did graduate Yale in 1927 during the era of anti-Semitism when Jews weren’t allowed to attend Yale. He proudly wore his school ring on his finger. I loved my Uncle Joe, z’l, and I’m glad we lived near each other in LA in the South Bay. I would hear about his inventions, like the folding table.  We also used to visit each other when he, Mildred and son Paul lived in Staten Island and we lived in Queens. Was a fun ferry ride to his home.

~


Family Note 

by

cousin Paul Kleinwald 

(Tuby Russ's grandson, Ethel Kleinwald's son.)


ISRAEL BALMASZIA, as storekeeper, restocked railroad supplies, coal, on Czar's land when trains passed. In America he was given a horse and wagon with which to peddle because he did not know English. His eldest son had come ahead. Motel? who had come in March same year?  or earlier?


I do know that by 1907 Morris Russ had written home that he was safely established in America, and had met Tilly/Tube. He had met a "green girl" which meant Tillie had a Green Card. 

I don't know the year of their marriage but I'm sure it was by 1909.

Tillie (Tuba) Bell Russ and Morris worked hard in the delicatessen business in New Haven and Atlanta earning enough to bring all of the brothers and sisters here as well as Pearl and Israel Balmazie. Tillie was the first trial run in the new world. 

[ Note from Joy: Sonia and Minnie Lander introduced niece (Perel's daughter) Tuby to Morris in Atlanta.]


Max and Anna lived on the street called "Boulevard" which crossed Goffe Terrace where I lived.


 I hate to say how not only the Russ house, but the neighborhood has deteriorated since I left at age 11. There is a private narrow alley way behind several  houses that fronted Goffe Terrace. I drove down the alley a few years ago when I happened to be in New Haven. I don't think it had ever been
repaired since I moved and it needed it then. It is on a steep hill. I think every family relation
I had when I lived there visited the Russ/Bell/Adams family home. That includes the clan from Georgia.

I remember as a small child visiting Sylvia and Ben Sivin in Providence, Rhode Island. The (to me) huge trolly trains were still running on rails with the electric lines for their power overhead. Ben had a cigar stuck in his mouth most of the time and the house stunk from them. Children, Irving and Tybe, were still living there at the time.

 I also remember Max who was the first of Pearl and Israel Bell's children to die. He sold small party novelties. I don't think he was a very sociable person. He and his wife only lived a couple of blocks away from us. Most of the relatives of the Bells lived in or near New Haven at one time. 

Oscar Bell had told me the family was from a very small town by the railroad line called Brielev? near the Polish border. 

Oscar's store name is on a photo on a big sign at the top Biltmore Food Center, Rye, NY.


My mother [Ethel Kleinwald] remarried after my father Edward Adams died of a stroke [in 1955].
We left New Haven around 1956. The house was set up for three families, each on their own floor.

 My mother was an avid photographer. She had a Kodak camera that folded open with a small bellows. It had a few different shutter speeds which was more than the average picture taker used. 

The family has had quite a run since the late 19th century. The streets may not have been paved with gold but they were paved with opportunity.

[Joy note: Ethel remarried Arthur Kleinwald three years after Ed died.
  

Uncle Max would visit my Queens, NY home, and bring the cutest tiny toys with him, which I truly loved playing with until the toys rotted away, they were so old. One was a tiny Donald Duck like toy, maybe no more than 2" tall and sitting on a little plastic base. Under and within the base was a tiny metal turner and when I turned it, the Duck's mouth opened and closed. quack! I was easy to please.] - Joy

~

Family Note 

by

cousin Paul Kleinwald  2.2014

I only know about Morris Russ and the Bells.  Morris was conscripted into the Army, and on his first leave home deserted telling his family they might never see him again. He could not persuade any of his brothers or his sister to leave after he had arrived in America. It seems they could not believe his description of how much better it was here.

 

The Bells lived in a town that was subject to being raided and pillaged by the Cossacks or Tsar's elite soldiers. Tillie, the eldest, was the experiment for the family to try out. She was sent to America where either friends or relatives had already moved. After Tillie and Morris were married, they worked hard to save and send money for each of Tillie's mother, father and siblings to travel here. I don't know the order of who came in the series. Pearl Bell was a Lander and perhaps there was some help from the Landers if they were early arrivals here.

I don't know who Tillie [Tube] was sent to stay with on her arrival, but both Tillie and Morris lived in Atlanta in their early years before moving to New Haven. I know there were Landers in New Haven when I was young. Lois said she remembered Pearl Lander's Brother Abraham (Avram?)

~ ~ ~

Note from cousin  Paul Kleinwald, Jan. 15, 2019

I'm only aware of Morris and Tillie Russ leaving Atlanta because of Tillie's fright at the Frank incident and a few Jewish merchants, some of whom

they may have known, being murdered. I don't know how Max Bell ended up in New Haven, nor how Oscar ended up in Purchase. I think Morris and Tillie went to New Haven because they knew people there, possibly the Landers as Tillie's mother was a Lander, from Ukraine. 

I don't have any memories of Sonny Bell and only vague memories of Max and the house he lived in about two blocks from where I lived. Lois

remembers Sonny's wife was a snazzy dresser. 

I do believe that Milton and Rose Cohen and Herman and Rhoda Russ lived in New Haven when I was very young. Maybe it was only Herman's family.

~


FAMILY NOTES 

by

 Joy Krauthammer

Cousin, Louis Bell (nephew of Grandma), said his father, Oscar's father, Israel, made harnesses (for horses) or was that riding seats, and that is why Uncle Oscar Bell had such a liking for horses, and had his own in NY, when I, Joy, grew up.

Louis also said that Israel Bell was not to happy when given in America, a horse and wagon to sell wares, as he was used to a store, but of course he knew no English, so a buggy it was.
(PS 2013  Louis is at Jewish Home, and I visit him. Wife, Soni, moved close to him.)

~ ~ ~

Cousin Paul Kleinwald (son of Ethel Russ Adams Kleinwald and Edward Adams who died when Paul was young) also shared a story, from his grandma Tube/Tillie Russ in New Haven (Grandma Ethel’s sister), that the family had to hide when the Czar's people came to the RR, and that Tuby was hidden in a box with blankets covered over her. (She did not smother?) 

Paul, a banjo player, and antiques store owner) lives in the Berkshires where he has lived ever since he went to boarding school in MA. Paul's son, Gabe, travels the globe with his ice-cream making machine and his installaton art. Paul's sister, Lois Adams (never married) moved from Manhattan, and also now lives in the Berkshires near her brother.

~


FAMILY NOTES 

by

Ethel Mossman's daughter Perle Mossman

(dictated to Joy)

and e-mail from relative,

 Bruce Mossman,

Arizona (son of Fred and Sylvia Mossman, z'l, NY)

Abe = Abram Mossman

(Grandma Ethel's husband)

relative to Bruce Mossman, Arizona

Abe left with Sylvia Mossmans' parents, Channan and their 2 year old son, now 47. 

Mrs. Channan, then pregnant was my (Bruce) mom's sister, Fainer.

Abe was due to be constricted? at age 21 and instead left for US with Sylvia's parents (Channan).

Abe died at age 65 in Dec. 1947.
(Joy in NY, was 6 months at the time of Abe's death, and never met her maternal grandfather in Atlanta. Sadly the only grandparent Joy knew, was her beloved Ethel Bell Mossman.)

Mossman siblings

Isaac, Ben, Noah, Tanya (male), Sonya (Nafftarollych), Abe, Esther (Abraham Gottschalk), Louis.

~

Family Notes 

Landau's

by

Uncle Israel Mossman

Uncle Joe Landau was husband of Aunt Rebecca Bell Landau, my mother, Ethel's sister.  They were THE Social Lions of Arbeiter Ring (Workmen's Circle).  Related to Uncle Joe was Ida Landau Sherman, mother of my best friend Hank, who died of genetic heart failure at age 16.  He was always pitifully weak.

Sarah Landau Gissen, or Pearl Landau Gissen, one or the other, sisters of Ida Landau Sherman, was married to Max Gissen, book reviewer/editor of Time Magazine.

Perle Landau (Married to Max Gissen) was an advertising executive.  They had enough money to send a child to Switzerland.  One daughter* received a European sport car for high school graduation. 

~

 Note from Joy:   *Growing up as a child, I did know Amy Gissen (my age), daughter of Sara Gissen of Long Island, who went to boarding school in Switzerland.  Although we both lived in Long Island, it was rare to see here. Amy had cute pigtails.

~


Family Travel NOTES 

by

Joy Krauthammer

History I took years ago:

Little golden nuggets about Russian to New Haven family (in the 'Goldena Medina' =Golden Country: the United States).

Ethel Lander lived near Barensky, Bretzia  (Ship Immig. records spell it "Brajilaw".

lived in Breillo, near about Kaminsk Podalsk (north of Odessa).

From Ukriane to Liverpool to Phily.  (See ship Manifest in other Post.)

then Baltimore to home of Joe Potok and Tuby. 1912, Dec.

"Potoks were from town of Potok", said Grandma Ethel Mossman.

Tillie aka Tuby/Tube, Tuby aka 'the Queen', married cousin to Joe Potok (father of author Rabbi Chaim Potok) who was a little older than Grandma Ethel.

Morris Noodleman Russ brought Balmazies to Atlanta.

Sonia Lander introduced Tuby to Morris in Atlanta.

(Could Sonia be 'Sophie Lander' of the siblings photo?)

Morris Russ wanted to be in New Haven, so in 1919 Balmazies went to New Haven (unless it was earlier due to the lynching).

(Libby Mossman Melton, z'l, Ethel's daughter and first born, was born in Atlanta, GA in 1919.)

Grandma Ethel told me that because of the Leo Frank* lynching, Atlanta Jews were scared. Grandma and daughter, Libby, left Atlanta for New Haven, but Abe could not run the stores. He was not personable as was Ethel.

* (Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob, planned and led by prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia, drew attention to anti-semitism in the United States.[3]⁾

1922 Ethel went back to Atlanta, and sister Rebecca was there.

------------

Pearl Lander Balmazie/Bell had cousins Podalov and Linsky in New Haven.

Pearl Balmazie/Bell died 1935 from a stroke in Grace Hospital, New Haven, Conn.

In Russia:

Selling kerosene oil for grease for wagon wheels for Czar.

Deli store near R/R in Russia.

Cozaks came and would whip people.

Special stove for matzah in Odessa.

Balmazies were Kosher.

~

FAMILY NOTES - New Haven

by

Dorie (Doris) Pearl Cohen Brody  (Rose Russ Cohen's daughter)

(transcribed on phone by Joy K.)

Little golden nuggets about New Haven family, I transcribed from Dorie Cohen over the phone:

Doris Pearl Cohen Brody was named for her great grandmother, Pearl Lander. 

In Russia, Pearl Lander Balmazie bribed locals with baby chicks so family could live by the Railroad where Israel worked in Ukraine. Jews weren't allowed to live in that area.

The Balmazie's 3 oldest children died young.

In New Haven, Great Grandma Pearl Bell was called Baba (Russian name for Grandma), and her husband, Israel Bell was called Zaide (Yiddish for grandfather).

Israel and Pearl had a store in New Haven. 


Uncle Oscar Bell later had a store partner, Mr. Winnick, in Rye, NY.

Uncle Oscar worked with first cousin, Herman Lander, and they sold honey in Brooklyn. 

Herman Lander is son of Abram Lander, Pearl Bell's brother. 

Tube Bell and Morris Russ met in Atlanta through Pearl Bell's sisters, Sonia Kalish and Tanta Minnie. Soni and Minnie were the first of family in Atlanta.

Sonia Kalish was mother of Ethel Kalish Cutler and grandmother to Anita Cutler Roth. 


 [Joy note:  Anita Roth lives in Simi Valley, CA. Anita was widowed in 2011 from Bill Roth. She lives near her daughter, Shelley Gibson, in Thousand Oaks. Anita has been close to Soni-- married to Louis Bell, and also to Carol (Mendelsohn Russ, who was widowed from Herman Russ.]
[Joy Note 2.2014.  Anita Roth, following surgery and rehab, plans to move to a Senior residence in Agoura, near daughter Shelley. Anita's son, Doug, not well, lives in San Diego.]

Minnie Lander Sherman (Davis) had a daughter Sara Sherman (died as a teen) and a son, Nate Sherman. Minnie was divorced from Sherman.

Minnie and _ Davis had a son, Henry Davis. 

Henry married Dottie and they had two sons, and lived in New Haven.

Nate Sherman married three times. 

There were two Ida Landau's, 'Big Ida' is Ida Sherman and 'Little' is Ida Katz.

(Big) Ida Landau Sherman was married and divorced from Nate Sherman.  (They had a son who died.)

After some children married, Uncle Joe Bell and Aunt Sylvia Bell lived with their parents.

When patriarch, Israel Balmazie was ill, they moved into home of Tube and Morris Russ.

In the big 3 story house lived: Tuby and Morris, daughters Celia and Ethel and son Herman.

Israel, the patriarch, died of stomach cancer in 1928. 

Pearl, the matriarch, died in 1935.

The big house initially had tenants living in 1st and 3rd floors. Tenants were moved out and Russ children moved in. 

Ethel Russ Adams was widowed from Ed Adams in 1955, when Paul and Lois were young, and remarried in 1958 three years later. 
Adams moved into 3rd, then 1st floor. 

Uncle Max died 1958 in his sixties, in New Haven.

Rose Russ Cohen and Milton Cohen lived in Brooklyn with their children, Allen and Doris. Allen and Dorie would spend summers in New Haven. They loved going to the beach (Double Beach and Lighthouse and Woodmount) with their retired grandparents, Tube and Morris, and first cousins.  (The parents went to Draper's beach.)  

Herman and Rhoda Russ, moved from New Haven to Brooklyn, and lived in former apartment of the Cohens. 


The families loved to sing.
 Pearl Bell Russ sang with an upbeat personality, even when she was blind and had a stroke.
 Rose Russ, trained professionally and sang with beautiful voice and range and volume. She also played piano. 
Rose's daughter Doris loves to sing.

Herman and Rhoda Russ, moved from New Haven to Brooklyn, and lived in former apartment of the Cohens.  Herman, the youngest (3rd generation), became a cantor, as did his son, Michael Russ (4th generation).  Michael and Merle's daughter Adina also sings in synagogue. Michael and Barry lived in New Haven and being first born, also lived in Brooklyn. They then lived in Dayton, Ohio, San Jose, CA, and Shreveport, Louisiana. Russ sons, Mark and also Ian live in So CA, and daughter Pam lives with family in Colorado. (Russ son Steve was at Aviva's Bat Mitzvah. - Joy)


Pearl Bell's brother Abram Lander was grandfather to Judy Sochot Winkelstein and Arthur Sochot. Arthur died in 1987 or 1988 from leukemia before their grandfather, Abram.
[from Joy: Judy lives in N. CA with her family.]

Uncle Abram's wife is Tanta Brushka. They moved to NH also. They all moved up north around 1916.

Uncle Joe Bell and Aunt Sylvia Sivin died in 1987.

Ethel Bell Mossman died 1988.


Israel and Pearl moved from Atlanta to New Haven but their married children (Rebecca and Ethel) stayed in Atlanta.


Born in Atlanta: Rose, Celia, Ethel, Hannah Lander.

Hannah moved to New Haven/NH.

Uncle Oscar store partner in Rye, NY was Winnick.


Dorie told a story quoting Grandma Ethel Mossman:

Grandma spoke about values and ethics to one of her store customers. Grandma caught a child trying to steal in her grocery store. She told the mother "If you don't make him cry now (by acknowledging the problem and reprimand him), he will make you cry later."


PS

Morris Russ moved north with Abram Lander to New Haven in 1916 due to economy.

The Leo Frank lynching in 1915 led Jews to leave Atlanta.

~ 

FAMILY NOTES - Atlanta, Before New Haven

by

Allen Cohen

Tube wanted to go to school in America but her relatives had other ideas.

~

FAMILY NOTE on "Sonny"

by

Soni Bell, married to Louis Bell, Oscar Bell's son.

Lots of the boys were call "Sonny" including Louis, as was also Joseph "Sonny" Bell, son of Max.

~

History links

from

Faye Melton

Pogroms in Kiev area: 1881, 1903-1906:   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntiJewish_pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire
http://www.berdichev.org/history_of_the_jews_in_ukraine.html
http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/ukraine/EncJud_juden-in-Kiew-ENGL.html
-- which is from pages in 1971 Encyclopedia Judaica Vol.10

~

More links from Joy

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Kamyanets-Podilskyy/, 
and town spellings:  Kaminetz Podalski, Kamyanets-Podilsky

~

FAMILY NOTE 

by

Paul Kleinwald  (Ethel Russ Kleinwald's son)

Herman and Rhoda moved to Dayton, Ohio from New Haven, then on to Shreveport. I visited them in both places. When I was in Shreveport, Barry Russ told me with great mirth that he had been invited to join the Jr. KKK! With a red headed younger brother and a name like Russ (for Russky) what's not to like by the KKK?

As I recall, Joe Bell was not enthusiastic about helping with the expenses to bring Morris's sister's sons Joseph and Epheim with their families to the US. 

During WW II Morris lost communication with his brothers and sister. As the German Army advanced into the Ukraine citizens were evacuated eastward and anything the Germans could possibly use was destroyed. All Morris' brothers were murdered by the Nazis, but his sister and family ended up in Samarkand, the Soviet Satellite of Uzbekistan. 

Joseph Vinnitsky (Morris' nephew--not from the LANDER tribe) told me the Uzbeks were very welcoming as the Soviets had raised the standard of living for the region. Finally in the early 1950's Morris received word from the Red Cross that his sister and family had been located and communication resumed. To this day I have two letters sent to Morris from his sister's family in the early 1960's. I showed them to Joseph Vinnitsky for translation and sharing. Not only was he surprised to see them but was astounded when he realized he was the one who had written them for his Mother. 

Joseph also related to me that Morris' father was a sort of carpenter/handyman. Money was scarce but there was always a need for someone with skills to build or repair things. Because of that, the family always had enough food and winter fuel to stay warm by bartering. When I lived in New Haven on one floor of the Russ property, I must have picked up the interest in learning what made things work and how to fix them from my Grandfather Morris who was always tinkering with whatever needed maintenance. My mother told me that by the age of 5, I was tightening the loose screws on the door knobs in the house. I still have my Grandfather's whet stone, a ball peen hammer and a well-used large kitchen knife.

Joy Note: Paul, I, too, have and treasure my father's tools. Thanks for your chilling WW II story.

Joy Note: (According to cousins Paul K, and Allen C) Joseph Vinnitsky celebrated with dancing, his 100th birthday in 2013? in New Haven.

~

 Extended FAMILY NOTE 
NOT from the LANDER tribe (but relative to many of the cousins)

by

Paul Kleinwald  2.2014

From what I understand all of Morris Russ' brothers were murdered at Babi Yar. 4 or 5 brothers.

Babi Yar (Бабий Яр; Бабин Яр, Babyn Yar) is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union.

Morris' Sister, Zepha, and her husband were evacuated to Samarkand in an effort to remove the population and destroy anything of value to the advancing German army. Joseph and younger brother, Ephim, were in the Army and were not evacuated with their parents.  Joseph told me the Uzbeks treated the "Russians" very kindly as the Soviets had improved the living conditions and sent food aid to Uzbekistan. It wasn't until the early 1950s that Morris located his sister through the Red Cross to learn the fate of his family. Morris was always sending packages of clothes etc. off to his sister. Now we are blessed to have Zipha's sons and their families here in the US.

Phew, that was emotional for me.

Paul

~

Extended FAMILY Note

by

Allen Cohen   2. 2014

This is my understanding of the history of Morris Russ NOT from the LANDER tribe.
Tillie/Tube Bell was introduced to Morris by Anita Roth's grandparents.

Joseph Vinnitsky (Morris Russ' nephew) and Chaim did not live in Uzbekistan. They were in the army when the Germans came to Kiev. They also had a brother who was in the army and was killed in the early days of the war.


The stories differ at this point. 

One story I heard was that Stalin offered transport to UZB for any Jews that wanted to go.

Other story is that because all the brothers were in the Army, parents were offered the trip.

Only Morris's sister and husband went. Chaim went to UZB after the war to bring his parents back.

I have a picture of their residence in Samarkand.

I think I was in the house, now the Jewish community center, but didn't realize it at the time.

I am hoping to go back this fall.

Mark Vinnitsky is probably the best reference for this history.

~

FAMILY NOTE 

by

Paul Kleinwald

I have the same picture of Oscar (See photo of horse). Lewis is on the same horse. They were particularly attached to that wonderful beast whose name was Mince Meat, a thoroughbred race horse Oscar saved from being put down. Oscar slept with that horse, nursing it back to health from near death. I rode that horse too, several times. It threw me once when it was stung by bees that were kept on Oscars land for honey. 
Cousin Paul

~

FAMILY NAME

by

Joy Krauthammer

What was the family name of Bell before coming over to America from Brajilaw, Russia (taken from Passenger Record)?  - Joy

"Belmazel", writes Larry Hample

I wonder if it is this or Belmazie, as I had heard.  Does this mean we were master of mazel?

Cousin Louis Bell said this week that he thinks it is "Belmashkiach".

That makes us the "master of the kosher kitchen"...

Was Grandma Ethel from the area of the Bresovers since she came from Breilov?

Famous Rebbe Nachman was from Breslow. I'm sure we were in same town. A renowned grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, he died in Uman 1810. My daughter, Aviva Krauthammer, visited his grave in Uman, Ukraine in 1998 during Pesach bringing Pesach to the shtetles when she was a student at Hebrew University, Jerusalem.   - Joy

~


Israel & Pearle Bell

Cemetery of Israel & Pearle Bell, parents of Grandma Ethel located on Whalley Ave, W. New Haven, Conn.

Louis Bell has a photo of gravestones. Paul Kleinwald sent recent photos seen in another post.

~ 

Grandma Ethel Mossman 2nd marriage to Tobias Shlaffer

by

JOY

6/11/2003

A friend, Yehudah, writes from Kaminitz Podolsky as he travels, so I share it with you. 

Grandma Ethel and sibling's homeland.

One love, shalom and abundant blessings of health and joy to you, 

Joy Krauthammer

"Serve G*d With Joy"

Kaments-Podolsky sits on a hilltop almost surrounded by a river. In fact, when it was threatened they open gates that flooded a narrow channel and made it into an island. Guarding it was a castle that's been mostly restored. North of it on the mainland is the new city, but the old city is mostly intact. The synagogue is now a restaurant and is being remodeled so we couldn't get inside it. No Jews, but it does have a State Archive, which, unfortunately, recently had a fire and almost 1/3 of the records were lost.

~

Grandma Ethel Mossman (widowed since Dec. 1947) in 1975 married Mr. Tobias Schlaffer in Atlanta.  They met at the Atlanta Jewish Center. He told Ethel he was 90 but it turned out he was a year or so older. Ethel probably had never dated in all those years because she was too busy running the grocery store and bringing up the family as a single mom. Schlaffer was being sent to a nursing home by his children when his wife died, so Grandma Ethel decided to save him. Ethel and Schlaffer were very happy. (Of course there was a pre-nuptial contract arranged by his children, to make sure that Grandma did not inherit anything, and she did not.)  The newlyweds came out to CA for their honeymoon. I drove them to tourist pretty spots, i.e. Long Beach Aquarium-Marineland, and the Huntington Library gardens. Schlaffer didn't live too long, and my beloved grandma lived another decade. I loved her.

~

FAMILY NOTE

by

Leslie Fitterman Lucas (Rosie Fitterman's daughter) Dec. 2012

Ethel and Rebecca were always close and then they moved within 2 blocks of each other in their "golden year".  They could walk to each other's house and then the grocery store was across the street.  I did notice that they were holding hands in photo of Stan's Bar Mitzvah.

[Joy note:  Anytime I visited my Grandma Ethel, I also went to visit her sister Rebecca who lived a short walk away. I remember the beautiful magnolia tree near her house. I loved seeing that the sisters were holding hands in the photo.]

~

Dear family, 

Please share the family stories with me while I can still input them into computer for OUR pleasure and knowing family history. 

Thank you to all who have contributed our history.

Love and blesSings, 

Joy

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