ETL — Sharon Mark Cohen

Look at my grandmother’s sister Etl. I have her eyes. She was born in 1885 in Starokonstantinov, Ukraine, and Cousin Masha said that her mother, my Grandaunt Etl, moved from Staro-Konstantine to Chudnov, my father’s place of birth, where she met her husband (Masha's father), Yoil Portnoy.

My grandmother’s sister Etl Temnogorod Portnaya Note the baby’s picture on the broach

Etl’s husband Yoil (Ioil or Yellik) Portnoy (1883-10 Jan 1940) For more on his birth family, see my blog post, *All In The Family - Etl’s In-Laws* dated July 19, 2022

Read on to learn about the family connection with the famous Yechiel “Alter” Goyzman (1849-1913), fiddler musician, composer and orchestra conductor known as “Alter from Chudnov.” Check back for my July 19, 2022 blog post, All In The Family - Etl’s In-Laws, for more about the Portnoy/Portnaya family and our assorted relations.

Alexey Portnoy, Etl’s great-grandson, told me that the name of his great-grandfather should possibly be Evel (Abel), not Yoil (Yellik) Portnoy, but suggested I leave what I have for his name.

The reason for mentioning all this about names is threefold. One, to help researchers in the future consider various monikers, and two, to demonstrate how involved genealogy research can be. A third purpose is to illustrate the great lengths cousins from around the world, and I, have gone while narrowing in on tracking our complete ancestry.

According to my notes, Grandaunt Etl’s husband, Yellik Portnoy (not to be confused with my biological Granduncle Yellik Temnogorod - see last week’s blog post, 100 Years - A Wrap), a tool sharpener from Berditchev, lived near a synagogue. They had four children.

Granduncle Yellik Portnoy, Etl’s husband, died in 1940, in Berditchev, of a commonly known Russian sickness, chakhotka, the old country name for tuberculosis. According to his grandchildren, the illness developed from hunger.

Etl, 56, and their youngest son, Hersh, 16, followed in death not long after. Their demise was not due to illness. They were killed mercilessly in 1941 in Berditchev. Why? Because they were Jews.

Letter abt 1946 from my grandmother’s niece Masha, the daughter of Etl - the reference to Ida should be Udel Temnogorod Pasternak

Miraculously, Masha, the second child of Etl and Yellik, lived for almost a century. While we never had the opportunity to meet, we shared a family history and the desire to keep the memories alive.

In age order, Etl and Yellik’s children were Feiga, Masha, Moishe, and Gershon. From one to four, they are listed with a snippet or more of information on each.

1) Feiga Portnaya Chapko, the firstborn daughter of Etl and Yellik, was born in 1909. Well-educated, married, and the mother of one, she died in 1944.

Feiga Portnaya 1931 From the files of Goldie Leon

Feiga Portnaya and Yasha Chapko Abt. 1934

Masha said that her sister, Feiga, died in Smirnovo (North Kazachstan). Cousin Feiga’s daughter Alla told me that her mother died of chakhotka, on April 30, 1944, in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan. That was the same illness that took Feiga’s father.

To hash out all the details, I called Alla, who has lived in Brooklyn since immigrating in 1990. She said her mother was Feiga (aka Faina/Fanya) Yevelevna Portnoya. Since Feiga used the patronymic Yevelevna in her name, that tidbit of information indicated Alexey was correct, and her father was most likely Evel (Abel) Portnoy.

But, wait, as it turned out when rereading the letters from our ancestors, I found a 1969 page written in English, where Etl’s son Moishe (more on Moishe below), Alexey’s grandfather, clearly wrote that his father’s name was Ioil. Alexey was happy to have his grandfather’s handwritten report with his great-grandfather’s name written clearly as Ioil.

The variations in the spellings of many names are noteworthy. In two examples, there is Portnoi instead of Portnoy and Maroveneh rather than Muravina. That information gives us a starting point for seeking more records.

May 26, 1946 letter penned in English by Cousin Moisei Portnoi, which states his father’s name was Ioil Portnoi and his mother was my grandmother’s sister Etl Temnogorod. He notes his sister Masha as Malka and states that his wife is Rachel Maroveneh, the daughter of my grandfather’s sister Frima Maroveneh and their cousin Zelik Maroveneh (Note variation in spellings of names)

Returning to Feiga, not to be confused with her namesake, her sister Masha’s daughter, known to us as Faina, the elder sister of Masha, Feiga, met her husband at college. That is according to their only child, Alla. As intellectuals trying to assimilate, she remarked that her mother, Feiga, highly educated at Kyiv Politechnical Institute, and her father, Yakov Chapko, an engineer, did their best to drop the Yiddish language from their lexicon.

Faina’s only child, her daughter, Alla, married twice and bore one daughter from each union.

Alla Chapko Vlodova with daughters Galina and Ella Abt 1967

Alla’s elder daughter, Galina, had one son. Dmitry. Alla’s firstborn grandson, Dmitry was divorced with two children when he traveled to meet someone in Russia. Tragedy struck the family again, and while there, Dmitry mysteriously was killed.

The younger daughter of Alla’s second marriage also has one son. Marchel is a married father of a baby daughter.

Alla Chapko Vlodova center with her daughter Ella Zinger and grandson Marchel Zinger at Marchel’s 2019 wedding

2) Masha was Etl’s second child. Masha, whose life spanned 95 years, lived longer than anyone in the Temnogorod clan. Malka Golda Portnaya (August 2, 1911 - August 8, 2006), better known to us as Masha, was born the same year as my father.

Masha Portnaya 1930 From the files of Goldie Leon

Married September 17, 1933 Berditchev, Ukraine

Masha married Ruvim Yosl Heusman, and they had three children, Shimon, Faina, and Joseph. It is important to note that some family members go by “Goyzman" instead of Heusman.

Young Shimon Goyzman - firstborn of Masha and Ruven (1935-2013)

Faina Goyzman Irilevich, Rina and Sharon at Rina’s bat mitzvah 2003 South Orange, New Jersey

Masha and Ruvim’s eldest, Shimon, was married and had three children, several grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. For more on Shimon’s children, see my blog post, Who Knew?, dated February 1, 2022.

Before his passing, Shimon printed his memoir, which my cousin Harry Langsam, z”l, translated into English. On page 5 of Shimon’s memoir, he introduces his paternal great-grandfather Yechiel Goyzman, the son of “Leib Goyzman from Chudnov Volinski, Zhitomir District (At present a regional center of the Zhitomir district in the Ukraine).”

Yechiel “Alter” Leibovich Goyzman (1849- March 27, 1913) Known as “Alter from Chudnov”
Great-grandfather of Shimon, Faina, and Joseph Goyzman

Several articles about my ancestral Chudnov appear published in The Jewish Link, where I am a staff writer. They include, Am I Jewish, Miracle of Miracles, While I Never Knew My Grandparents, I’ve Got the Picture, Amen, and Next Year in Jerusalem.

While researching online about their native ancestry in Chudnov, several people contacted me about the stories in The Jewish Link or concerning my blog posts. Specifically, Uncovering the Hidden History of Chudnov, dated August 10, 2021, caught their eye. One reader wrote, “My grandfather's uncle was the klezmer musician known as Alter Chudnover, but whose real last name was Hausmann (Goizman?).”

In another message to me through my website, my new friend and fellow Chudnov Child, Jerold, commented, “Left a comment on your article about Chudnov. Have you done any ancestry work? I don't have any reason to think we're related, but you never know. We do have some stories my grandfather remembered and thought to write down. Also, of interest, we have his violin, which he purchased in the area around 1903. He and his family were all klezmer musicians, and we still have the hand written music they worked from!”

I wrote in reply, “No, we're not related but we have mutual cousins - The Goyzmans!! My father's cousin Masha Portnaya was married to Ruvin Heusman (now they use Goyzman). Their son Shimon wrote a memoir. Shimon passed away in 2016 but I am in very close contact with his family. He has a sister Faina Irilevich and brother Joseph in Haifa, Israel, and three children, plus grands. Chart that out and I'll tell you more when we speak.”

I also suggested that Jerold join the Facebook group Chudnov Children, started by fellow Chudnover Child and friend Marvin Kaleky. I’ve included more pictures of his relatives, who were not directly related to me, but are fellow Chudnovers who were related to my cousins.

For more on Alter Goyzman, go to https://klezmerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/sholokohova-chudnover-final.pdf. In that piece it tells that Alter Goyzman’s granddaughter wrote to my cousin Malka (Masha) Portnaya. In the letter, she described her grandfather, “The grandfather Olter […] was very handsome, with fine manners, looked like Tchaikovsky […].”15”

Shimon Goyzman’s Great-grandmother. He writes that she was endearingly called, “Dobtzy”

Simon Goyzman’s paternal grandfather 1926 My Grandaunt Etl’s father-in-law

Parts of Shimon’s memoir fill pages in two chapters of my family history book, Kitchen Talk, pending publication. Likewise, Shimon mentioned me in his self-published book. Shimon writes of the caution his father gave his wife Masha not to write to the family in America. He noted that he only learned from my copies of his mother’s correspondence with my grandmother, and aunt, that his mother secretly disobeyed his father’s adamant instructions.

February 1, 1948 Kyiv From Masha, my grandmother’s niece - daughter of my grandmother’s sister Etl

3) My maternal Grandaunt Etl’s third child, her first son, was Moishe. Moishe noted in his hand-penned letter dated May 26, 1946, that he married Raya Muravina, daughter of my grandfather's sister Fruma. Fully detailed in my April 5, 2022 blog post, How Could You? is both the tragic and triumphant story of Fruma's family.

Moishe Portnoy 1930 - From the files of Goldie Leon

Etl’s son Moishe Portnoy with his wife, Raya Muravina (Moishe was my grandmother’s nephew and Raya was my grandfather’s niece) Kyiv 1939

Fruma “Rimma” Portnaya with her brother Leonid Portnoy (Raya’s children) with their Aunt Anna and Uncle Harry Langsam in Charkov 1973?

4) We know so little about the youngest of Etl’s four, her son, Gershon. We have no pictures of Gershon, but we have Masha’s account of her younger brother’s tragic fate.

The complete letter from Masha written abt 1969 can be seen in my blog post entitled, *All In The Family-Etl’s In-Laws,* dated July 19, 2022

Shimon, Masha’s son, sent copies of many photos for our family archives. Most importantly, he documented the information for our family history.

In the next photo, Vyacheslav (“Slava”) Shapiro rides with Ruvim Goyzman. Look for my blog post, Envisioning and Memorializing My Grandaunt, coming on June 21, 2022, for more about Slava and his branch of our family tree.

At their dacha, which Masha mentioned in her letter to her Uncle Max Portnoy

Masha, Ruvim, and Joseph Goyzman 1967 (Ruvim constructed the tractor)

Wedding of Julia Goyzman and Igor Temnogorod 1985 Kursk, Russia

Joseph, Shimon, and Masha Goyzman and Faina Goyzman Irilevich in Kursk, Russia 1995 on Faina’s visit from Israel to her mother in Kursk

Posternaks with Temnogorods and descendants of Etl Temnogorod Portnaya and her daughter Masha Portnaya Goyzman Haifa Israel July 2006

Additional photos of the families of Etl Portnaya’s daughter Masha and son Moishe are in How Could You?, dated April 5, 2022.

In the mayhem of pogroms, revolution, world wars, and anti-semitism, our family story shines through because of the links maintained by Etl’s daughter, Masha, son Moishe, and daughter-in-law, Raya. They were the cornerstones of our family on both my grandmother’s and grandfather’s sides in Ukraine, while my Aunt Fannie, Etl’s niece, kept the torch burning in the United States. With the help of Raya’s sister, Anna, and Anna’s husband, Harry Langsam in America, the essence of our family history has been recorded for posterity.

As Masha’s son Shimon and I have done, I implore all my cousins to continue writing their memoirs, to add to our family history and share throughout future generations. Amen.