Tag #140760 - Interview #77966 (Deborah Averbukh)

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My mother had a younger sister by the name of Iokhevid, born in 1905. She was a highly educated woman. She lived with my grandmother. In the early 1930s she married a Polish Jew, a very rich widower, who owned a house and several stores in Warsaw. They lived on the main street of Warsaw in their own five-storied house, in which one of his stores was situated. His family name was Eidelman. I read publications on the Warsaw ghetto [11] later, and there was a lot of information about Eidelman in there. Iokhevid, her husband and son died in the Warsaw ghetto.

My mother also had a younger brother, who was just known as Leibele. He was born in Yekaterinoslav in 1909 and lived with my grandparents during World War I. Then they returned to Zamos. In 1935 he moved to Palestine, he escaped from Pilsudsky's persecution. Uncle Leibele worked as an unskilled worker and fought for the independence of Israel. He assisted Begin [12] a lot. When Israel became independent, my uncle returned and took on the name of Yehuda, so officially he is called Yehuda Gorovits, even though at home we always refered to him as Uncle Leibele.

My grandfather Gorovits changed his last name to Vaisbrot around 1867. In order for their sons to avoid the tsarist army, some Jewish families gave their sons the family names of their childless relatives because there was a law saying that if a family only had one son, he didn't have to serve in the army. Later, my grandfather had a double surname - Gorovits-Vaisbrot.

The name Gorovits is very ancient. This line comes from Yehuda Geronti, who was a medieval poet and philosopher serving at the court of a Mauritanian sovereign of Spain in the 11th century. His works are well known all over the world; he wrote in Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish. During the Spanish inquisition, his family moved to Holland, then to Czechia, and in the Czech town of Gorovits they were given this name. People say the line of Karl Marx is also related to our line.
Location

Ukraine

Interview
Deborah Averbukh