24:3-4 Spring-Summer 2003 - Jewish Genealogical Society

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Book Review - Family History Writ Large by Arthur S. Leonard From Suwalki to St. Ignace: A History of the Rosenthal, Reinhertz, Blumrosen, Winkelman and Related Families (2 vols., 1696 pages) by Alex E. Friedlander. Brooklyn, NY: Breakaway Productions, 2003. Ordering information follows the review. When these two enormous volumes landed on my doorstep, I was stunned, even though I had been forewarned. My interest in genealogy is personal and non-professional, and I had never before actually seen a commissioned family history executed by an expert genealogist with the urge and incentive to uncover anything that could be uncovered about the subject family, so I have no basis for comparison to what Alex Friedlander has achieved. I was asked to review this volume both because I am President of the Suwalker Association and because the editors thought my own roots in Suvalk (as the landsmen call it) would make this assignment interesting to me. It was not just interesting, it was overwhelming. Viewed in absolute terms, with no comparisons intended, I could not believe that anybody setting out to document a Jewish family from Eastern Europe could produce something as complete and compelling as Friedlander has produced here, even though he would be the first to admit that it is incomplete and that given more years and more luck, he could perhaps have uncovered even more in tracing the tangled roots and the ever-widening branches of these fascinating families, each of whom can trace their ancestry back to the northeastern Polish province of Suwalki, where my own paternal grandparents were born (and where Friedlander himself has family roots). Perhaps the only frustration I had in working my way through this book was in noting the numerous family lines that disappear without a trace, paralleling my own frustrations when I devoted several years to researching my family history during the 1980s and unhappily lost the thread of various relatives who emigrated from Suwalki and whose new surnames were unknown to me thereafter. While the work will be of primary interest to members of the named families, it should be of interest to all those with family roots in 19th century Poland, for the simple reason that through migration and intermarriage, these people seem to be related to just about everybody. A casual perusal of the index showed that somebody from my own family tree intermarried with a Winkelman offspring, one Nochman Perlsztein of Jeleniewo, who married Dobka Abramajtyz in Suwalki in 1849, Dobka being a native of Przersosl, a tiny shtetl in the area where my great-grandfather Abram Isaac Abramajtyz was born less than twenty years later. So there must be a tie there, and Dobka and I undoubtedly have some common ancestors. And here the frustration I mentioned above settles in, since my Dobka married into a branch of the family that Friedlander did not follow further. This book does not tell me whether Dobka had children, what their names were, and where their descendants, if any, might be. Given the thousands of Suwalki-area Jews whose names surface in this book, I imagine few from that part of the world will fail to find a relative in here somewhere. But finding one’s own relatives is lagniappe, not the main reason to read this. Friedlander has incorporated much that will be interesting and informative to the Jewish history fan and the Suwalki-area researcher even if they find no family members. Using the Yiddish-language Yizkor book written by Berl Kagan and published by my Association around 1960 [Yisker-bukh Suvalk un di arumike shtetlekh], a later Hebrew-language book published in Israel [Sefer kehilat Suvalk u-venotehah], and primary sources including the exuberant Yiddish press that flourished in Suwalki during the 19th century, and drawing from recent attempts to translate these sources into English, Friedlander has put together a detailed and eminently readable history of the region and its Jewish community, as well as engrossing narratives about the struggles and triumphs of the four families whose stories provide the motivation for producing this work. Those who have been frustrated in their general research by the unavailability of sources in English now have someplace to start. He has gone beyond work in Eastern European sources, however, tracing the migrations of the families to Canada and the U.S. and other parts of the globe, using census materials, old newspapers and family records to capture the four families in depth and breadth through the more recent generations. As a law professor, I was happily surprised to spot several prominent members of my profession among the current generations of the families (and have since written to them with friendly greetings from an Eastern European landsman). There are judges, lawyers, professors, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers (including the author of the book for the hit Broadway musical “Pippin”), Jewish communal leaders, educators, merchants (from peddlers to corporate magnates)– just about anything you would expect to find in a farflung Jewish family grouping. -22- Dorot • Spring-Summer 2003
Book Review – Family History Writ Large continued Friedlander has organized this mountain of material in a variety of ways to make it accessible and comprehensible, with charts, tables, biographical sketches, illustrations of documents and reproductions of fascinating old photographs, indexes, and a section with translations of letters between the old country and the new that gives vivid personalities to the writers. A list of all the living descendants with towns/cities of residence is fascinating all by itself (how many acquaintances can you spot?). I spent several days immersed in the material, never tiring, always making new and interesting discoveries. Perhaps, having obtained the book, members of the families living in the U.S. would like to rent a football stadium and have a family reunion. (Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit there, but my, what a big family!) The book is also likely to prove quite useful to those plotting their own family research strategies if only because of the extraordinary care in documentation that Friedlander has undertaken. These volumes have all the scholarly apparatus one could desire to document every factual assertion and help the new researcher imagine how she might be able to uncover information about her own family. No observant reader could come away from a perusal of these volumes without a significantly enhanced sense of what kind of information is available and where it is likely to be found. This is certainly a work that should be in every serious Jewish library collection, every serious genealogical library, and on the shelves of anybody with eastern European Jewish roots and an interest in knowing more about the world of our 19th and 20th century forebears. I imagine that Friedlander, a retired public servant who is now serving as president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York, will be much in demand as a speaker to describe “how he did it” and to tell what are sure to be fascinating stories about tracing down various branches of this family forest of trees. Center for Jewish History Acquires Jewish Biographical Archive Thanks to a generous donation from the Jewish Genealogical Society, the Center for Jewish History (CJH) has acquired the Jewish Biographical Archive. This important biographical reference resource was purchased on recommendation of the CJH Collection Development Committee. Additional funding was provided by the five partner organizations. The Jewish Biographical Archive is a compendium of hundreds of the most important biographical reference works covering ca. 300,000 Jewish individuals. The full text entries from these sources have been arranged alphabetically on microfiche. Due to the nature of Jewish history and the accomplishments of Jewish individuals throughout the world over time, the Jewish Biographical Archive has no national, geographical or chronological limits. It presents a comprehensive picture of the international role played by Jews in religion, culture, economics and politics throughout the ages. A four-volume printed Jewish Biographical Index offers quick access to the biographical and bibliographical information of the microfiche archive. The printed index is available in the Reading Room reference collection, call number DS 115 J84. The reference staff in the Reading Room provides access to the microfiche archive. CJH is grateful for this wonderful gift which enhances its Reading Room reference resources. CJH is also pleased that this significant and meaningful donation of the Jewish Genealogical Society made possible the first shared purchase of reference works among the five partner organizations. ✡ Arthur S. Leonard is professor at New York Law School and president of the Independent Suwalk & Vicinity Benevolent Association. The cost of this two-volume book is $80 plus $12 shipping (and 6% sales tax in Florida). Checks only, payable to Shirley Mersky. Mail to Ms. Mersky, Sarasota Bay Club, 1301 N. Tamiami Trail, Apt. 1110, Sarasota FL 34236. ✡ Dorot • Spring-Summer 2003 -23-
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24:3-4 Spring-Summer 2003 - Jewish Genealogical Society

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