APPENDIX K
For more than fifty years, a quaint synagogue that sits on the top of a hill in a northern New Jersey town has housed a treasure within the walls of its sacred ark. An exquisite antique silver Torah crown (keter) has enjoyed anonymity among the sacred scrolls, breastplates, and rimonim.
It has been a safe refuge for the keter that once belonged to the Jewish community of Stavishche, Ukraine. Its original home, where it adorned the top of a sacred Torah in the Old Country, was burned to the ground by hateful bandits more than a century ago. Rabbi Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky (Rabbi Pitsie Avram) was responsible for its miraculous rescue from the flames. He understood how beloved and special the crown was to the Jews of his shtetl. Fleeing first to England and later to America from his native country, the rabbi carried with him what we would later learn was in all likelihood the last Jewish artifact to survive from Stavishche.I
In 1954, twelve years after the rabbi’s tragic death, his newly married granddaughter, Sylvia, donated the precious crown, which sat in her younger brother Max’s bedroom for more than a decade, to a growing young congregation.II
Another fifty-one years would pass before Rabbi Pitsie Avram’s youngest grandson, Max, and the author, who is Channa Caprove’s oldest granddaughter and Isaac the shoemaker’s great-granddaughter, would together bring the priceless crown back to center stage. In 2005, they met with the rabbi of the temple: inside the ark they spotted the precious relic. Jews around the world with roots in Stavishche would now be in awe of this precious item, which is rich in history and almost vanished into obscurity.
Their eyes lit up as they held a piece of their families’ history in their hands. The Hebrew inscription, which was on a plate affixed to the front of the Torah crown, read as follows: “This keter was a gift to Agudat Achim Anshei Stavishche given by the hand of Rabbi Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky, son of Rabbi Israel Gaisinsky.”
The plaque is believed to have been affixed to the crown after the rabbi came to America and donated the item in 1929 to his new synagogue in the Bronx.
The following transliterations and translations from the Stavishche Torah crown are credited to Dr. Ida Selavan Schwarcz, the daughter of Esther Malka Spector of Stavishche. Also in attendance was her husband, Dr. Joseph M. Schwarcz. The couple met with the author at the synagogue in 2006, a year after the rabbi’s grandson led her to this historical find.
On the plate affixed to the back of the crown, in Yiddish:
Z”N [unknown meaning]
Leydis akzileri Benot Sarah Agudat Ahim Anshe Stavishche
Tsherni bat Yisrael Hofman prezidentin
Dov ben R’ Aahron Valis, sekretar
Zeh haketer Torah natnnu bematanah le-Vet Keneset
Agudat Ahim Anshe Stavishche
Asher nityasda al yede Harav R’ Titshak Avraham ben
Harav R’ Yisrael Gaisinsky
Ladies Auxiliary Daughters of Sarah, Agudat Ahim (organization of brothers)
Anshe Stavishche (Men or People of Stavishche)
Cherni daughter of Israel Hofman, President
Dov son of Aharon Valis, Secretary
Which was founded by Rabbi Isaac Abraham, son of Rabbi Israel Gaisinsky
Names of the Ladies on the Bells
Below is a translation of the women’s names that are engraved in Yiddish on the many tiny bells that hang from the Torah crown.
Top row:
Meni bat Mordekhai Grinshpan
Lea bat Avraham Grisin
Meni, daughter of Mordekhai Greenspan
Leah, daughter of Abraham Grisin
Second row:
Feyge bat Yisrael Faynberg
Menuha Maykelson bat R’Eliyahu
Brakha bat Harav David Ludmiri
Freyde bat Eliyahu Hofman
Feyge, daughter of Israel Feinberg
Menuha Michaelson, daughter of Eliyahu
Brakha, daughter of Rabbi David Ludmiri
Freyde, daughter of Eliyahu Hofman
Third row:
Brakha bat Yeshayahu Rabinovits
Rivka bat Yeshoshua Hastrov
Rivka bat Eliyahu Kesavitsh
Sara Rahel bat Simha Klaiman
Rahel bat Avraham Gaisinsky
Haya Rahel bat Eliyahu Spektor
Brakha, daughter of Isaiah Rabinowitz
Rivka, daughter of Joshua Hastrov (Gastrow?)
Rivka, daughter of Eliyahu Kesavich
Sara Rahel, daughter of Simha Kleiman
Rahel, daughter of Avraham Gaisinsky (translator’s note: may not be referring to the rabbi)
Haya Rahel, daughter of Eliyahu Spector
Fourth row:
Havah bat Yoar Dadyak
Rahel bat R’Ya’akov Shakerman
Havah bat R’ David Gaisinsky
Havah bat Harav Yitshak Avraham Zaslawsky
Havah, daughter of Yoar (Joel?) Dadyak
Rahel, daughter of Jacob Shakerman
Havah, daughter of David Gaisinsky
Havah, daughter of Rabbi Isaac Abraham Zaslawsky
Author’s Notes Regarding the Stavishche Torah Crown
· Interpreting the combination of the names appearing on the bells: When the father’s personal name follows their daughter’s personal name (ex: Havah, daughter of Rabbi Isaac Abraham), it is then followed by the woman’s married name rather than her maiden name. Therefore, it is important not to combine the first name of her father with the last name of her husband outside of this list’s context. Example: On the very last bell, Havah, who we know was the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Abraham Gaisinsky and the wife of David Zaslawsky, is listed as Havah, daughter of Rabbi Isaac Abraham Zaslawsky.
· Some of the engravings on the bells were not legible due to its advanced age; some were worn over time. A few of the bells were missing or replaced with newer bells that had no names engraved on them.
· While it is reasonable to assume that the plates were probably affixed to both the front and the back of the Torah crown after the crown was donated by Rabbi Gaisinsky to his congregation in the Bronx, it has not been definitively established in what year or in which country the names on the bells were engraved. It is possible that they were engraved by former Stavishchers who were members of the Bronx congregation as a fundraiser in honor of the rabbi, but it is also possible that they were engraved while the crown was still in Stavishche. The former is more probable.
· Three additional Torah items that Rabbi Gaisinsky brought to America from Stavishche have not been located. One of those items, a Torah scroll that was housed in New York at Agudat Achim Anshei Stavishche between the years 1928 and 1942, was donated after Pitsie’s Avram’s death to a Jewish group in the Bronx, where the esteemed rabbi once served as a scribe. A silver breastplate that once hung on that Torah, as well as a matching Torah crown, possibly slightly larger in size and most likely containing the names of men on the bells, could not be found. The grandchildren of Rabbi Pitsie Avram state that three items, two Torah crowns and a breastplate, were all donated together in 1954 to the same synagogue, but two of the items were not present when the Torah Crown was rediscovered in their ark in 2005.
The story of the rediscovery of the Stavishche Torah crown was depicted in a newspaper article that was written by Channa’s granddaughter, the author of this book. Below is a copy of the article that appeared many years ago in the New Jersey Jewish News. Channa’s tales spotlighted the rabbi who saved the Stavishche treasure from the Old Country.
It began with my grandmother Anne’s famous bedtime stories. Faced with the dilemma of entertaining an eight-year-old insomniac, she could only hold my attention by drawing on stories from her own youth.
Hers was a childhood in Stavishche, Ukraine, mixed with memories of picking flowers in Count Branicki’s botanical gardens and running from the pogroms that ravaged the town following the Russian Revolution.
Stavishche, a small shtetl located twenty-seven miles south of the larger Belaya Tserkov, was a community of 8,500 before the Revolution; half of the population was Jewish. What made Stavishche stand out from other shtetls was the mysterious but kindly Count Wladyslaw Branicki, a Polish magnate who owned the land and presided over an estate of astonishing beauty adorned with Arabian horses.
Many years after conducting interviews with the last generation of Jews who lived in the town, I have resumed writing my grandmother’s memoir with renewed vigor. With doors now opened by the popularity of the Internet, families with ties to Stavishche living in seven countries around the world have shared personal stories with me. They are the anecdotes not only of the shoemaker (my great-grandfather), but also of the blacksmith, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the rabbi, the cantor, and of course, the count.
What I did not expect during this journey was the colorful side story that would emerge of the brilliant Stavishche rabbi Yitzhak Avraham Gaisinsky, who was affectionately known as Rabbi Pitsie Avram.
Pitsie Avram felt that it was his duty to protect his people, which was quite a task during the pogroms of 1918–1920. When the murderous Russian bandit Zeleny raided Stavishche in the summer of 1919, Pitsie Avram put himself in harm’s way by demanding a face-to-face meeting with him. The rabbi’s brave spirit and negotiating skills (which no doubt included a payoff) impressed the pogrom leader, who restrained his soldiers from killing the town’s Jews.
A search for Rabbi Gaisinsky’s descendants led me to Paris, New York, and finally California, where I found his youngest grandson, Max Zaslawsky. With the help of Max and my own mother, Marcy Brahin, we went on a quest to find the Torah items that Pitsie Avram had saved from the ark of the Stavishche synagogue in the spring of 1920 when it was torched by pogrom bandits; the old white-bearded rabbi emerged from the burning building cradling the Torah, its breastplate, and a pair of Torah “crowns” (keters). A second Torah had already been burned by local bandits, causing the cantor of Stavishche to collapse and die of a heart attack.
On a Shabbat morning in March 1942, Rabbi Pitsie Avram, who had sailed to America in 1928 with the Stavishche Torah items, was struck and killed by a taxi as he crossed the street near the Bronx synagogue that he led. After his death, the Torah was donated to a local Jewish group; the pair of crowns and the breastplate was retained by the rabbi’s family. The pieces remained in the custody of his young grandson, Max, until his sister donated them to a New Jersey synagogue in 1954.
It was now a must that we go see these Torah items that Pitsie Avram held so dear.
On a beautiful and memorable morning in 2005, the rabbi of the temple opened the ark, and before the eyes of the Stavishche rabbi’s grandson, my mother, and myself, sat one of Pitsie Avram’s precious Torah crowns. In Hebrew, I could not believe what I read; engraved on an identification plate was the name of the town—Stavishche!
It was a magnificent antique three-tiered crown made of filigreed silver on the top and bottom, with brass in its center. Its delicate craftsmanship boasted many tiny bells hanging in layers on the crown, once used to adorn the top of the Stavishche Torah; a closer look at the engravings on the bells revealed the names of the women who once lived in the shtetl.
It was a magical discovery—probably the only Jewish artifact to survive from my grandmother’s shtetl. It was here in New Jersey, and I was holding it. Never in my late grandmother Anne’s wildest dreams would she ever have imagined that her bedtime stories would yield such a prize.
1. I. The Stavishche Torah Scroll itself survived, but the rabbi’s grandchildren could not remember where it had been donated fifty years earlier, so it was not located.
2. II. For privacy reasons, the author has chosen not to name the synagogue or its location.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Where do I even begin in thanking all of those who have assisted me on a lifetime quest? Unfortunately, many of you, like my grandmother, did not live to see this day, but I hope that in your hearts you believed that this book would someday come to fruition.
To avoid being repetitive, I have already acknowledged a great many of you in my bibliography and notes, and next to various sources and footnotes that appear in Tears Over Russia.
To my husband, Michael, and to our family—mine, his, and ours—as well as my close friends: thank you for your endless support. A special shout-out to my mother, Marcy Brahin, Channa’s daughter, and to my sister, Mindi Beaver, who have always believed that I could achieve this dream. I think that my dad would have been proud, too.
Thank you to the many archivists, librarians, genealogical researchers, volunteers, and curators located in several countries around the world, and to the many important institutions who hold such prized historical documents. Special thanks to all the linguists who shared their amazing talents, especially Ida Selavan Schwarcz and Monika Hendry, who generously volunteered their time over the years.
To the many family historians and extended family members and friends with ties to Stavishche who shared their stories with me, and to those whom I interviewed in my youth who once lived in the town, I thank you.
To my fabulous agent, Kathryn Willms of the Rights Factory, thank you for your wisdom and your invaluable help; to Sam Hiyate, president of the Rights Factory, thank you for your assistance. To Jessica Case and Claiborne Hancock and the staff of Pegasus Books, thank you for recognizing the importance of this lost history and for giving me this precious opportunity to share it with the world.
I’d also like to thank three men, none of whom lived long enough to see this publication but who wanted their heroic family members to be remembered in my book. To my friend, Max Zaslawsky, the grandson of Rabbi Pitsie Avram, thank you for helping and encouraging me throughout the years. To Norman Stumacher and Phillip Silverman, the son and son-in-law of Barney Stumacher, thank you for your generosity in supporting me to tell Barney’s story. I promised that I would acknowledge you all, and I’m keeping true to my word!
Finally, to all of our ancestors who endured hardships and made daring voyages like my grandmother and her family, thank you for ensuring that your children and their children would enjoy the freedoms afforded to all of us in the Golden Land.