OPENING THE GATES FOR CHUDNOV CHILDREN

Facebook groups are all the rage. On the Chudnov Children Facebook group started by my friend and fellow Chudnov child, Marvin Kaleky, I saw a recent posting by a woman with the maiden name Moskowitz. Chudnov, an Eastern European shtetl in Ukraine, was the place of my father’s birth.

Moskowitz from Chudnov? I was intrigued. A quick question to the woman who posted that her father was Samuel Moskowitz, and I got my answer. Her cousin, Pearl, was the daughter of her father’s eldest brother.

My aunt used to wrap packages with my grandmother and friends/landsleit to send to relatives in Chudnov. Aunt Fannie’s lifetime friend Pearl Moskowitz was a member of the group. As the two young girls wrapped packages with their mothers, they became close friends.

Chudnov Children is just one of the several Facebook groups I belong to and check in with a few times a week. There are informative commentaries and some unexpected finds that occasionally come up. If your roots are from Chudnov, Ukraine, please join our forum. It’s fun!

Come to think of it, descendants of Chudnovers include my mechuton, Mitch. His father’s grandfather was born in my ancestral Chudnov, where my father was born. Mitch’s great-great-grandfather’s records show the spelling Chudnow, one of the many spellings of our most commonly spelled ancestral Chudnov. Mitch definitely is one of the Chudnov children.

The real question is, just how many Jewish Chudnov children are there in the world? In 1897, Chudnov had a population of 5,580, and 4,491 were Jews.

I’ve been researching and searching for my children’s ancestry for over thirty years. There have been some miraculous finds. They’re all addressed in my manuscript, Kitchen Talk: Sharing Family Tales. Within the information-packed pages, soon to be made available for purchase, there are stories about meeting my Chudnover cousins and a connection made through a cousin with her cousin on the other side of her family. My cousin’s cousin, Maryam Sandal, z”l, wrote a book listing the martyrs of Chudnov.

My book also shares excerpts from my cousin Shimon Goyzman’s memoir, “Memoirs of an Unfamous,” written about his life growing up in Ukraine. His work clearly shows that the two of us were living in a parallel universe.

The stories keep on coming. A recently published article of mine in the newspaper told about my family connection with another fellow Chudnover. After seeing the story, a reader contacted me. He opined that his father never told him anything about his roots in Chudnov. He can surely learn a lot from my years of research and connection with fellow Chudnovers and Chudnov children.

My new friend/fellow Chudnov child added to my collection by sending pictures he took in the cemetery where his parents are interred. Those Chudnover cemetery gates, and the memorial to the victims of Chudnov, visible from the formidable entryway, are at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York.

The gates to the Chudnover K.U.V., where my paternal grandparents are interred at the Grove Street Cemetery in Newark, are pictured above. My grandfather N. Mark, listed on one column, was a member of the board.

These two telling pictures gave me an idea to collect photographs of the Chudnover cemetery gates in the United States and abroad. Using the Chudnov Children Facebook group as a springboard is sure to be the necessary head start.

Gates of Beth David Cemetery Chudnover Section in Elmont, New York Photo credit: Irv Gerber, Fair Lawn, New Jersey

Close-up of memorial to the victims of Chudnov at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. Photo credit: Irv Gerber, Fair Lawn, New Jersey

Chudnov Child Pearl Moskowitz left with unknown friend = photo from my aunt’s album, undated — Chudnov Child Pearl Moskowitz left with an unknown friend - photo from my aunt’s album, undated