Before I began researching my family history, I had never heard of Lomza. But it turns out that I have connections to this city, connections of the past that stretch into the present, and future. Lomza is located in northeastern Poland. It played an important role in the history of Jews of Poland. Jews first …
Author: Chanan Kessler
Escape from Poland: 1920
Sometime in 1920, my Zaide (grandfather) made a fateful decision. Having been drafted into the Polish army, he absconded from his unit and made his way to Germany, never to return to Poland. This post attempts to reconstruct the historical circumstances of that decision, one to which I owe my very existence. He was born …
Polish citizenship?
I’m looking into applying for Polish citizenship. No, I haven’t lost my mind, though my grandparents, if they could know my mind, would think so. Not only would consider me meshuga (crazy), but they would also recoil at the notion of identifying myself as part of an anti-Semitic nation. For to them, as for many other …
Polish Mezuzahs and their traces
Nothing marks the presence of Jews as much as a mezuzah. A mezuzah is a scroll that contains verses from the Torah encased in a rectangular box and affixed to the entryway of a home. Here is what a typical one looks like: The mezuzah …
Shma Israel: Praying in Poland
I was back in Poland a few weeks ago. It’s my second there, and it looks like it won’t be the last. I seem to have “business” in Poland, finding out more of my family’s past and connecting with those on similar journeys. Three years ago I took my first trip to Poland, a roots …
Chone the Flax Oil Maker: In memory of Joe Guttman
This post is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Guttman, a dear friend and esteemed member of the Riverdale Jewish Community who recently passed away at the age of 93. It could not have been written without his kind assistance, rendered just about two months before his passing. My topic is flax. Yes, flax. It’s …
David: A family mystery
When I began my family history research, I know of six children born to my great grandparents in Zambrow: the eldest, my grandfather (Zaidy), his brother, Shmulke, and four sisters: Chanche (Chana), Paicha (Puah), Chaya Sara (Adele) and Hinde. I grew up near my grandfather and aunt Adele and knew of Shmulke, of all whom …
Searching for Chanche (Chana)
How can I memorialize the lives of my Polish ancestors who died in the Holocaust? The generation of my Zaidy (grandfather) is gone. So too are their children, my mother and her two sisters. But I am trying to recover as much of their lives as possible. In this post, I record the search for …
Introduction to Genealogy
If you want to explore your roots, there’s no escaping entering the world of genealogy. When I began this project, I knew only the names of my great grandparents, my grandfather Elchanan, who was called Choni, and after whom I am named, and my great grandmother Sheindl, who was murdered in Treblinka or Auschwitz. One …
The past: buried and revealed
Can the past be buried and erased completely? Or does the past continue to live on and course through the present like an unsuppressable force? Consider the following: In the Winter 2017 edition of the Jewish Review of Books, there was a fascinating–and deeply disturbing–article by Devin E. Naar. His piece explores the author’s connection …