■ A DISTANT cousin, Elie Lederman of Ra’anana, signed me up with a couple of genealogical research outfits, which, every once in a while, send names of cousins twice to four times removed but no details that would inspire any search on my part.
But there are such organizations that do extremely inspiring work and that have helped family members who were either presumed dead or who never knew of each other’s existence to get together and explore and discover their mutual roots.
One such organization is JRI Poland, which stands for the Jewish Records Indexing and specializes in collecting the names of all the Jewish residents of villages, towns, and cities throughout Poland. It recently completed a book on the permanent Jewish residents of the town of Nowy Korczyn in the Kielce research area, which was written by Judy Golan, an Israel-based specialist in the histories of Eastern European Jewish families.
One of JRI Poland’s most inspiring, dedicated, and long-serving researchers was Stanley Diamond, who unfortunately died last year but who had come up with some amazing discoveries and achievements. But he’s not the only one.
Michael Tobias, one of the founders of JRI Poland, helped the reconstruction of an extended family, most of whose members were previously unaware of each other.
The complicated story involves research in Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Israel, and, in a sense, Scotland, where Michael Tobias is an honorary research fellow at the University of Strathclyde.
The main characters of the story are two women, Suzannah and Lucy, whose original names were Helena and Cyrla. They were born in Poland in 1942 and were separated from their parents.
Suzannah’s biological parents, Leon and Sara Roman née Moszenberg, survived the Holocaust, but each thought the other had died. Each eventually remarried and raised a new family, her mother in Brazil and her father in Australia.
Suzannah was adopted by a Polish Catholic family, and when her mother made inquiries about her, she was told that Suzannah had died during the war. Decades passed, and Suzannah, unaware of her heritage but knowing of her adoption, became curious about her true identity.
Through DNA testing and the efforts of researchers John Durkan, Paddy Waldron, and Michael Tobias, Suzannah uncovered the truth. Her DNA showed that her parents had been Jewish.
She contacted the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw and discovered that in 1947, a Sara Moszenberg (Roman) from Buenos Aires had written searching for her daughter Helena, born January 12, 1942, in Checiny and left in the Father Baudouin Orphanage in Warsaw via a woman called Mrs. Paciorek. Suzannah began to piece together her real identity, learning not only about her parents’ survival but also about possible half-siblings she never knew she had.
Suzannah’s biological father, Leon Roman, survived the war and eventually met and married Danuta Szwarcbaum, herself a Holocaust survivor from Bedzin, Poland. Szwarcbaum had been married before to Josef Buchmayer, with whom she had a daughter, Lucyna (Lucy), Yiddish name Cyrla, born in 1942. When the family was forced into the Sosnowiec Ghetto, Lucy became one of the last Jewish babies officially recorded there.
Lucy was smuggled out of the ghetto by her aunt and was also adopted by a Catholic family. After the war, her mother returned to Sosnowiec and waged a legal battle to reclaim her. Lucy grew up in Australia believing that Leon Roman, who treated her as if she were his flesh and blood, was her biological father. It was only at age 20 that she learned that he was not.
Suzannah’s mother had married a fellow Holocaust survivor, Moshe Bruh, whose first wife and children had been murdered. While still in Europe, her mother had a son with Bruh, named Enrico. However, shortly after Enrico’s birth, the couple parted, and Sara took Enrico to Brazil.
After a few months, she took him to Argentina to be reunited with his father, who took him away from Sara’s custody and prevented her from having anything to do with him. Moshe died when Enrico was still a boy, and Enrico was then brought up by his uncles.
At age 17, he moved to Israel and changed his name to Zvi. Contact was made with him, and he agreed to a DNA test. He also learned via JRI Poland that, contrary to what he had been led to believe, his mother had not abandoned him. The DNA test results in June of this year proved that he and Suzannah are half-siblings. He is due to meet her in Poland on August 22, when together they will walk the streets that their mother once walked.
Lucy died two years ago, before she was made aware of the missing pieces in the story of her life, but her daughter is making contact with newly discovered relatives.
For Tobias, this has been another emotional journey. It seems to him that fate played a part in his involvement. One of the branches of his own family lived in both Checiny and Malogoszcz, and he has visited both towns several times. He has now discovered that he is remotely connected through marriage to both Sara Moszenberg and Leon Roman, and hence to Suzannah, whose family had contacted him for help.
Documentation in the search for roots is enormously important because people change their names, and there are different spellings for the names of people and places, so there can be a lot of confusion and dead ends on the way. But the real clincher is the DNA test. Everyone should have one, and it should be included in a chip on their ID card.
Uruguay's 200th anniversary of independence
■ THIS YEAR is a milestone year for Uruguay, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary of independence. The present decade is one of bicentennial celebrations of independence by a number of South American countries.
In fact, several Latin American countries have their Independence Days in September. They include Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, which were previously dominated by Spain or Portugal. Nonetheless, Spanish and Portuguese have remained the official languages of those countries.
Uruguay celebrates in August, and Uruguayan Ambassador to Israel Manuel Etchevarren intends to do it in style.
Uruguay, Nicaragua, and Guatemala officially recognized Israel in May 1948, with most other Latin American countries following over the ensuing nine months.
■ CONTINUING BELLIGERENCE from across the border has caused various events in the country’s North to be canceled, postponed, or relocated. A prime example is the annual Metula Poetry Festival, which has moved to Jerusalem because it is too dangerous for any public gathering in Metula, which is literally on the Lebanese border.
The Poetry Festival, which has been integrated into the Israel Festival, will be held at the Confederation House from September 3 to 5 inclusive. The opening on September 3 will be dedicated to controversial poet David Avidan on the 30th anniversary of his passing, which was actually in May.
A man of many talents, Avidan was also a painter, playwright, filmmaker, and publicist.
Avidan was fond of Hebrew-language word plays and more or less challenged other poets and playwrights to follow his example.
He has left an enduring legacy in the treasure trove of Israeli culture. The tribute to him – which will feature Nitza Ben-Dov, Nili Cohen, Erez Biton, Ariel Hirschfeld, Gilad Meiri, Agi Mishol, Roni Somek, Hedva Harkavy, and Oded Carmeli – is under the heading, The Simple Fact is That We Have Nowhere to Go.
At a time when prices for goods and services are constantly rising, while wages are not, it is refreshing when culture is handed to the public on a silver platter.
Entry to all the Poetry Festival events is free of charge.
This gives financially strapped families and individuals an opportunity to both enjoy and learn while happily socializing with like-minded people.
■ A NUMBER OF MKs and prominent media personalities were aghast that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to back Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky for the role of chairman of the Knesset’s Finance Committee despite the allegations of sexual assault that have been filed against him.
How could Netanyahu, who is on trial, do otherwise? To withdraw his support would be tantamount to saying that anyone under investigation cannot hold office in the Knesset or the government. That would mean that Netanyahu would have to suspend himself, something he would be most unwilling to do. Aside from anything else, Milwidsky has not been charged and is, therefore, innocent until proven guilty.
Meanwhile, he and the prime minister are not the only ones with legal problems. Other MKs who will face their days in court include Social Equality Minister May Golan, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Tourism Minister Haim Katz – who is also interim housing minister, temporary welfare minister, and temporary health minister – plus MKs Amichai Eliyahu, Haim Biton, Zvi Sukkot, Tally Gotliv, and others. There must be something to that old Yiddish saying that a herring reeks from its head.
Some of the offenses involving these people were committed before they were elected to the Knesset. Surely that was a reason to disqualify them.
■ WHEN PRESIDENT Isaac Herzog visits the Baltic states next week, at least one will have special meaning for him. His grandmother, Rabbanit Sarah Herzog, whom he knew well, was born in Riga, Latvia. He will also visit Estonia and Lithuania, the home of the Gaon of Vilna.
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