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My great-great grandfather Isroel's son Moshe, my great-grandfather, was a well-educated Hasid. He read many books and could interpret the Torah and the Talmud, but he was no good in everyday life issues. He didn't learn a craft or profession. They lived in the town of Brusilov near Radomyshl [100 km from Kiev]. Moshe was married three times. He divorced his first wife; I don't know for what reason or how he managed to get a divorce when a divorce was strictly forbidden. His second wife died and the third one was my great-grandmother Manita. By that time they had spent what they received from Moshe's mother and Moshe had to earn his living and provide for the family. Moshe became a melamed, a Jewish teacher. He taught Jewish children in various towns. He was paid little for his work and his family was poor. Moshe and his third wife had two children: my grandfather Isroel and his sister Beshyva. My grandfather Isroel studied at cheder like all Jewish boys. He was a smart boy, but his family couldn't pay for his education. I didn't know my great-grandparents. Moshe died about 1910 and Manita ran away from home trying to escape from a pogrom 7 in 1919, vanished and never returned home. She was probably killed.
My grandfather's older sister Beshyva, born in 1875, married Aron Geller, one of the ancestors to the 6th generation of famous Israel Besht [Baal Shem Tov] 8, the founder of Hasidism, a just man and a miracle worker. Aron Gellers' father was a senior man at the synagogue in Khotin, chairman of the Jewish community and a well-respected man. They were very poor and decided to arrange for their sons to marry girls with a profession. Beshyva, who grew up in a poor family learned to sew at the age of ten and when she grew up she became a skilled dressmaker for poor Jews. Aron was neither smart - although he descended from a wise man - nor could he earn his living. They lived in Beshyva parents' house in Brusilov. They had two children: a son named Israel, born in 1910, and a girl, whose name I don't remember, born in 1913. In 1919 Beshyva's husband Aron died of typhoid. His six- year-old daughter passed away shortly afterwards. Beshyva was raising her son. Her son, Israel, studied in cheder. I don't know where he studied in Brusilov. In the middle of the 1920s Israel and Beshyva moved to Kiev. Israel went to the 7th grade then. After he finished school he worked as a laborer and loader, then he finished a rabfak 9 and an agricultural college. In due time he became an outstanding scientist, agronomist, soil specialist, and an expert in growing sugar beets. Beshyva lived with her son's family in Kiev. She died at the age of 102.
My grandfather's older sister Beshyva, born in 1875, married Aron Geller, one of the ancestors to the 6th generation of famous Israel Besht [Baal Shem Tov] 8, the founder of Hasidism, a just man and a miracle worker. Aron Gellers' father was a senior man at the synagogue in Khotin, chairman of the Jewish community and a well-respected man. They were very poor and decided to arrange for their sons to marry girls with a profession. Beshyva, who grew up in a poor family learned to sew at the age of ten and when she grew up she became a skilled dressmaker for poor Jews. Aron was neither smart - although he descended from a wise man - nor could he earn his living. They lived in Beshyva parents' house in Brusilov. They had two children: a son named Israel, born in 1910, and a girl, whose name I don't remember, born in 1913. In 1919 Beshyva's husband Aron died of typhoid. His six- year-old daughter passed away shortly afterwards. Beshyva was raising her son. Her son, Israel, studied in cheder. I don't know where he studied in Brusilov. In the middle of the 1920s Israel and Beshyva moved to Kiev. Israel went to the 7th grade then. After he finished school he worked as a laborer and loader, then he finished a rabfak 9 and an agricultural college. In due time he became an outstanding scientist, agronomist, soil specialist, and an expert in growing sugar beets. Beshyva lived with her son's family in Kiev. She died at the age of 102.
Location
Ukraine
Interview
maya kaganskaya