Welcome to
A Family Album
On the following pages you will meet the children ,
grandchildren, great,
great great, and great great great grandchildren of
two Russian immigrants from Bershad*, who arrived on these shores in August
of 1912. In the ensuing years, their family has grown and spread from the
east coast of the U.S. to places far removed from their point of entry,
Ellis Island. This album is intended for those of us who have lost touch
with that extended family, as well as for those for whom the faces of the
people on many pages are indelibly etched in our minds and hearts.
*Bershad: A small town in Vinnitza Oblast, Ukraine. The Jews
there were butchered by one of the Cossack bands during the Chmielnicki
massacres. The community numbered 438 in 1765, 650 in 1787, 3,370 in 1847,
6,600 (out of a total of 8,885) according to the 1897 census, and 7,400
(61%) in 1910. They still formed the majority of the population in 1926
(6,110; 59%) although steadily diminishing. At the beginning of the 19th
century, when the tzaddik Raphael of Bershad lived there, Bershad became
a center of Hasidism. It became celebrated for its tallit weaving industry
which came to an end after many of the weavers emigrated to the United States.
Most of the plants for sugar refining and distilling, flour mills, and tanneries
established in Bershad toward the end of the century were owned by Jews.
During the Civil War of 1919--20, 150 Jews in Bershad were massacred by
Ukrainian gangs and soldiers of Denikin's army. After the German invasion
of Russia in 1941, Bershad was included in Transnitstria. A ghetto was established
in the town and Jews deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina were sent there.
Many died of hunger and disease. In 1970, the Jewish population was estimated
at 8,000. There was one synagogue and a rabbi, and kosher poultry was available.
A family tree can wither if nobody
tends it's roots