New Voices I was assigned an at-home family heritage project The project required that students work with their parents to put the flags associated with their heritage on a poster board in the shape of a shield to mimic a family crest The kids in my class had projects covered in flags of Ireland American flags for our present-day identities Their ethnic backgrounds had clear and defined links to countries with these flags my parents couldn’t reach a quick and clear answer “Zayda was born in Canada before moving to Philly at 4 years old I now know that my project greatly failed to represent my heritage As a 4th-6th generation Ashkenazi Jewish-American the oral history of my family has become foggier with each generation My parents and grandparents vaguely know their ancestors were Russian or Austrian Jews My grandparents can name some cities their own grandparents were from: Kiev But “Russian Jew” does not mean Russia itself and same with “Austrian.” The former empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary that existed around the time of my family’s immigration are now many different European countries I became consumed with the desire to  determine exactly where my ancestors immigrated from it certainly wasn’t Israel (I think my family hasn’t lived there for at least a millennium) and a 4-year-long stint in Canada certainly doesn’t count as an ancestral homeland I knew that the majority of my family likely lived in Eastern European shtetls I was not only motivated to learn definitive town names of where my ancestors were from but also to know the history of those towns I can only assume my ancestors were the victims of pogroms because of where and when they lived I feel the inherent epigenetic screaming of this intergenerational trauma (in the form of anxiety I wanted to have definitive events to ascribe that to not just imagine that every minute of shtetl life looked like Fiddler on the Roof’s Anatevka Was there a specific pogrom or event that prompted my family’s immigration I spent hours online doing research to trace each branch of my family tree to the exact location of their origin Even though my parents and grandparents could already tell me the names of my great and great-great-great grandparents who immigrated to the US I wanted to fully build my family tree on my own to be sure that no details were lost I’m glad I decided to start from scratch because there were surprise name changes and other information we wouldn’t have recovered without my research One disclaimer – these resources helped me someone of entirely Ashkenazi Jewish lineage whose family came straight to the US from Eastern Europe during the Great Migration I cannot guarantee that these resources are as useful for people whose families immigrated during other time periods or came from other parts of the world I hope that sharing my own research process and resources can serve as a model for those who don’t know where to start with their own Jewish family histories I used several online resources to build this family tree, the first being Ancestry. I had access to their wealth of documents through my academic institution’s subscription to Ancestry Library If you don’t have access to an academic Ancestry subscription and don’t want to personally pay the fee to access their databases make sure you’re prepared to do all of your research in the 14-day free-trial period I searched their names and slowly collected all documents pertaining to them before moving on to my great-grandparents making sure it (approximately) matched on all relevant documents to be sure I was researching my relative This is important if your relative has a common name in a densely populated area my great-grandfather Jacob Goldberg certainly wasn’t the only one with that name and I had to make sure I was reading documents about him Once I reached the “immigrant” of one of my lineages I scoured all documents pertaining to them I found this information for different relatives in different places; sometimes a death certificate and once on the charter for the boat they took to the US the names of the places were straightforward and one Google search showed me the city or town and even a Wikipedia page (I’m pretty sure no one is confused when they read “Kiev”) Some places did not yield comprehensible Google results, and that’s when I used another important resource: the Communities Database by JewishGen You can type in the name of the location as it’s written in your ancestry documents and the database will search through all shtetls with phonetically similar names in various languages because each shtetl had names in different languages with different pronunciations What my great-great-great grandfather’s draft card called “Gombin You can click on the town for more information about the Jewish population that existed there how the population grew and dwindled over time find neighboring shtetls and links to other resources to learn more Some shtetls have links to their respective Yizkor book which is a memorial book that documents and commemorates life in a Jewish community that was destroyed in the Holocaust But be aware—even if you find that your ancestral shtetls have Yizkor books many are written in Hebrew or Yiddish without English translations There were certain lineages where I hit a dead end. I couldn’t find any documents for that relative naming a specific place of birth or town from which they had immigrated. In those cases, I turned to MyHeritage I filled out my own family tree on my profile and the “smart” feature of MyHeritage was able to match similarities in my tree to those of other users my distant relatives with interests in genealogy Sometimes their family trees had information that mine was missing whether that be because they found a document I had overlooked or they simply had a stronger oral history of their lineages I was able to fill in a few missing pieces from the work of my distant relatives thanks to MyHeritage While I was not successful tracing all of my lineages She was from the Polish shtetl of Siemiatycze I learned that my “Austrian” lineage is actually my Galician-Jewish great-great grandparents from modern-day Kolomyia My Zayda (technically great-Zayda) who was born in Canada His parents came from the shtetl of Shpola which today is in Ukraine but at the time was under the rule of the Russian Empire I’ve since read more about Shpola and learned that it was the birthplace of Itzik Feffer a Yiddish poet who was murdered by Stalin on the Night of the Murdered Poets All but one of my great-grandparents were born in the Western Hemisphere My research revealed that this great-grandfather had been living in “Kishineff I have since read about the Kishinev pogrom/Kishineff Massacre one of the most horrific series of pogroms to occur before the Holocaust that took place in Kishinev in 1903 and 1905 Did my great-grandfather witness these horrors How did that impact his life in Kishineff and his decision to immigrate My dad and his siblings said that my great-grandfather never spoke about his life in the old world I still have a few loose ends to my research—if someone has a clue where “Noskovitz noted twice in my great-great grandfather’s documents please let me know—but I am overall immensely excited that I have documented some of the exact places my recent ancestors came from One downside to my work is that it stopped at my relatives’ birthplaces in Europe The majority of the documentation I used was generated in the US because there was very little documentation generated in these shtetls at the time the paper trail stops at the name of the city or shtetl the only way I know how to reach back at least one more generation is to visit the headstones at my families’ graves where I expect to read the Hebrew name of each individual I can at least add one more level to my family tree what would I tell my 5-year-old self to do for this heritage project While I now know my most recent ancestors came to the United States from modern-day Ukraine it doesn’t feel right to put those flags on my family-crest poster board The Jewish life where my family once lived was decimated And this is not only true for many Jews of Ashkenazi descent hurled from one part of the world to another over the past several millennia or borders changed around us while our cultures have persisted There is no existing flag of any nation-state where Jews have lived that can capture the dynamicity and resilience of the Jewish diaspora maybe a symbol would be more appropriate; perhaps Etz Chaim because the roots of our heritage are grounded in the culture we have carried with us across the globe Featured image “Russian Shtetl” by artist Mané-Katz Samantha Tener (she/her) is a biomedical graduate student in NYC she enjoys attending concerts and laughing with loved ones Please check your email for further instructions Descendants of the Shpoler Zayde gathered Motzei Shabbos for a yearly event held around the world in his honor. Full Story The 222nd annual gathering of the descendants of the Shpoler Zaydeh took place Motzei Shabbos at Lubavitch Yeshiva Hall in Crown Heights The event is held every Yud Tes Shvat to commemorate a great miracle that happened on that day in 5553 (February 1 The Shpoler Zaydeh was invited to take part in a bris and in order to arrive at the required place As the Shpoler Zaydeh was crossing the river the ice broke under him and he fell into the icy waters beneath the Shpoler Zaydeh was miraculously saved from drowning the Shpoler Zaydeh celebrated a Seudas Hoda’ah and specifically requested that all his descendants continue to do so This day is celebrated around the world by descendants of all backgrounds Approximately 125 people attended the Crown Heights Seudah organized this year by family members in conjunction with the Shpoler Zaydeh Society coordinator Reb Mordechai Leib Kalmanson in addition to acting as Master of Ceremony also told the Story of Yud Tes Shvat (a tradition passed on from generation to eneration as he heard it from his father Reb Moshe Aaron Geisinsky A”H) Guest Speaker Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky gave a very lively Dvar Torah in which he tied in the Parshas Hashovuah to the event being celebrated He also initiated an in-depth discussion about a Niggun attributed to the Shpoler Zaydeh (although many may not know it) known as “Kol BaYaar.” Sign up for the COLlive Daily News Roundup and never miss a story Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()) Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_2").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()) Your comment reminded me that the Alter Rebbe actually wrote a ksav hiskashrus to the Maggid’s talmid R’ Mendel Horodoker but I was unaware that the famous Reb Zushe of Anapoli had his own following of chassidim as well I beleive Reb zushe anipoli and Reb Mendel horodoker were also talmidim of the Maggid also mentioned in Hayom Yom the chein mishpocho (rivkin is a chein on his mothers side) are direct descendants of the Maharal Zaycher Tzadik Livrocho I recently took a Y-DNA test and I matched with the Chein Mishpocho (Seide is a Chein on his father’s I saw an article on Chabad.org that said that his father’s side was descended from the Maharal Zaycher Tzadik Livrocho…So I’m a little confused What is the story behind the Shpoler Rebbe’s Yichus on his father’s side Fasonating stories of the שפעלה זידה with the אלטע רבי Does anybody know where/how the nickname Shpoler Zaide began thank you for this erudite and articulate comment it also contained data of which i was unaware heretofore even though i am an ainelekl.. That is why the Shpoler Zaideh had the same name as the Maharal M’Prague – Yehudah Leib though many make the mistake of calling him Aryeh Leib Perhaps his middle name was Aryeh but the name he was known by was R’ Yehudah Leib (surname Gerundie.) this information was passed down in the family m’dor l’dor the city of Shpoleh is neither near Hungary nor Romania It is in the Ukraine where one can visit the Shpoler Zaideh’s tziyone to this day who was famous for his warmth and ahavas yisroel composed the lively niggun Hup Cossack he did it to help the poor Yidden who were being hounded by the pritzim of that area.( Any child who has seen the video The Dancing Bear can fill you in on the background of that popular niggun.) The Shpoler Zaideh was a personal friend of the Alter Rebbe who,… Read more » correcting comment #1 who wrote that the shpoler zeide was an “ungarisheh rebbe” that is just as awkward as saying that the lubavitcher rebbe was an “ungarisheh rebbe” the shpoler zeide was born in the ukraine near the city of uman in the kiev province at the age of 45(after many years of travel to different cities in ukraine spreading yidishkeit by order of the baal shem tov and reb pinchos koritzer) he assumed the rabbinate position in the city of shpole in ukraine and and became the most famous chassidic rebbe in the ukraine called the shpoler zeide He was only born because of the Baal Shem Tov The Shpoler Zeide was born from a Brocho of the Baal Shemtov He was one of the talmudic of the Mazritcher Magid The Rebbe writes about it in the Hayom Yom He was also a very close friend of the Alter Rebbe He was an Ungarisheh Rebbe from the border of Hungary Romania Unidentified individuals hurled firebombs at the gravesite of a Hasidic luminary in the central Ukrainian city of Shpola A local Jewish community leader told Haaretz that the perpetrators intentionally tried to set on fire a structure built near the gravesite of Aryeh Leib, who died in 1811 and was an important disciple of Dov Ber of Mezeritch. Rabbi Aryeh Leib of Shpola was popularly referred to as the ‘Shpoler Zaide,’ and was known for the acts of kindness he would perpetrate for poor Jewish people in the region. I am glad we are kept apprised of events around the world. But now that we know this , we need to take action and make sure these holy keverim are protected! The descendants of the Shpola Zeide should be contacted to do something. Shpoler Zeide is too Holy to be effected by such violence. I hope no damage was done. These graves are very precious. Any idiotic trash who intends to harm these grave sites will be severely punished. Lubavitcher descendants of the Shpoler Zeide gathered in Crown Heights for the annual seudas hoda’ah commemorating his miraculous rescue on the 19th of Shevat 231 years ago. Lubavitcher descendants of the Shpoler Zeide gathered Sunday night in Crown Heights at Lubavitcher Yeshiva for the annual Seudas Hoda’ah commemorating his miraculous rescue on the 19th of Shevat in 1793, 231 years ago. The evening began with a kids’ program and meal in their own banquet hall, led by master storyteller Shmuli Zalmanov. All children had the opportunity to have their picture taken with the famous dancing bear. Rabbi Velvl Butman served as MC and introduced Rabbi Sholom Dovid Geisinsky who continued his late father’s tradition of sharing the story of 19 Shevat. Guest speaker Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld gave an inspiring address about the importance of children continuing their parents’ and ancestors’ legacy, as Chazal teach that parents and ancestors are the crown of the children and children are the crown of the parents. The evening was interspersed with Chabad niggunim and music led by musician Yossi Cohen. The event celebrated a miracle that occurred in the year 1793, when the Shpoler Zeide was on his way back from participating in a bris in Bohuslav (in what is now Ukraine). When while crossing over the frozen Ros River the ice suddenly broke beneath him. Miraculously he was saved. The following year, the Zeide instructed that all his children, grandchildren and future descendants should make an annual Seuda on the nineteenth day of Shevat, thanking Hashem for the miracle that saved his life. The evening concluded with a special tribute to Rabbi Moshe Avtzon who helped sponsor the event. Rabbi Avtzon expressed his special appreciation to Rabbi Yossi Butman for arranging much of the evening. The Shpoler Zeide was a student of the Baal Shem Tov and Mezritcher Maggid and known as a miracle worker and for helping Jews. He was a close associate and friend of the Alter Rebbe. “The Shpoler Zeide was a man of ardent feeling, more intensely so than his colleagues, the other disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch. When he visited the Alter Rebbe in Liadi, in the year 5569 (1809) or 5570 (1810), he related that when he was three years old and saw the Baal Shem Tov, ‘he placed his holy hand on my heart, and from that time onward, I have felt warm.'” Hayom Yom – 14 Teves. I didn’t get the connection at first, thought it was a random character to entertain the kids. But then it hit me, the famous story of the Shpola Zaide and how he saved a yid from the poretz by taking his place in the punishment of dancing in a bearskin for the drunken squire’s entertainment. This costume looks a lot more comfortable and kid friendly than the original! Well done. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); a once-thriving industrial city with a population of 1 million while the city of Luhansk remains besieged with tens of thousands living in basements Lawlessness abounds in both eastern regions any Jew in the world is entitled to Israeli citizenship “has the potential to destabilize the whole region.” A boy gathers his notes at the end of a Ukrainian literature class at the Jewish school in Cherkassy (Courtesy of Joël van Houdt)Such history partly explains why the recent upheaval is so harrowing for Ukraine’s Jewish community much of which was painstakingly revived in the 1990s after the fall of Communism “After the Soviet Union broke up [in 1991] all that had been underground suddenly sprung upwards,” says Dmitry Spivakovsky director of the Jewish humanitarian agency Chesed Dorot in Cherkassy The central Ukrainian city sits on the right bank of the Dnieper River separated from Kiev by a long stretch of black earth that has been plowed with acrid-smelling compost who were suddenly going to Jewish schools and learning about Jewish holidays and traditions,” says Spivakovsky whose eyes light up when he boasts that he can trace his Jewish roots in Cherkassy back to the 1850s the cultural rebirth of the early 1990s coexisted with the mass exodus to Israel and the United States of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who were fleeing the poverty and chaos that followed the superpower’s breakup “That’s why this war is a personal tragedy for everyone.” Hundreds of displaced Jews from eastern Ukraine have come through the Cherkassy region in recent months The city’s Jewish school is setting up a boarding program for IDPs from the Luhansk region a jovial Israeli who presides over a community of 11,000 “It is total anarchy,” Pinchas Vishedsky tells me in central Kiev’s Gulliver shopping mall He managed to flee Donetsk only six days before our conversation “You can’t think straight when your alarm clock is a bomb and when you hear another one before going to bed at night who was dispatched to Donetsk 20 years ago and tasked with reviving the local Jewish community says that it’s mostly the elderly and disabled who remain in the city “Usually during this time of year we’d be discussing plans for our children’s camps we were talking about refugee camps!” Vishedsky’s wife and children left for the United States two months ago When asked what it was like to be one of the last members of his community to leave his anxious expression eases into a grin: “My wife wanted to get me checked out at a psychologist.” in Kiev (Courtesy of Joël van Houdt)For 27-year-old Galina Kaplanskaya who worked as an X-ray technician at Donetsk’s main hospital it is just a matter of time before her family leaves for Israel “We’re waiting on my grandma to get the right documents Kaplanskaya has not seen her parents for a month; they left for the northeastern city of Kharkiv in early August after a bomb struck her mother’s office Kaplanskaya herself left Donetsk a few weeks later she stays in a room at the Kiev guesthouse near the synagogue which is funded by the United Jewish Communities of Eastern Europe and Asia the organization hopes to send IDPs to apartments around Ukraine or help them move to Israel Kaplanskaya describes the moment she realized she had to leave Donetsk “Eleven armed men burst into my room at work and demanded I give an X-ray for one of them with TB have found temporary refuge at an IFCJ-funded settlement in Shpola a townlet steeped in Jewish history and 50 miles southwest of Cherkassy was born there in 1900; five decades later Josef Stalin had him killed in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka Prison.) Their residence is a former Soviet camp for young pioneers that consists of a collection of pastel-colored brick huts nestled between narrow lakes and flat cornfields The bucolic setting seems out of sync with the lives of the camp-dwellers some Luhansk natives while away their time on the camp’s dilapidated benches “I haven’t spoken to my husband since August 3,” notes Ostrovskaya the former head of finance at a Luhansk clothing factory so I left without him.” She says she’s grateful for being able to use the camp washing machine implying that she’s managed to preserve some dignity and her stud earrings sparkle beneath a head of cropped brown curls a camp volunteer arrives with a message scrawled on a square of paper; someone has tried to contact her Ostrovskaya’s eyes soften as she looks up hopefully She scans the note before folding it in half Lida Rabbieva and her family in the Shpola camp in central Ukraine (Courtesy of Joël van Houdt)The families in Shpola are all too aware of their relative good fortune in getting out of Luhansk “We’re happy we’re Jews,” says Lida Rabbieva who came to the camp with three of her six children on the first of August leaving their home in the Luhansk town of Brianka “We’re in a better situation than the Ukrainians than those we left behind.” She tells me this as her family sits down to eat in the camp’s cobalt blue-painted canteen and the pungent smell of boiled cabbage wafts from the kitchen families mingle silently as they prepare chicken soup and stewed mincemeat A large photograph of the coast of Crimea—the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in March—stretches across the back wall Rabbieva says making aliyah is the only option for the four of them who range in age from 17 to nine months old sleep crammed into one of the camp’s cabins with their two cats and her daughter’s non-Jewish husband “Our apartment in Brianka is on the eighth floor Who knows if it’s still standing,” she says Reporting for this article was supported by a grant from the International Reporting Project The document has moved here.