MY GRANDMOTHER'S STEPSIBLINGS IN PHOTOS

There are so many treasured pieces of memorabilia in my house. Now that I have completed a series of stories on the siblings of my paternal grandparents, other groups of relatives from my father’s side will be memorialized, starting with my grandmother’s stepsiblings.

Stepchildren of my Great-grandfather, Yehuda Hersh Temnogorod

In previous blog posts in this series, there were references to all four stepsiblings of my grandmother, which included excerpts of correspondence from them. Stored with the other fading letters were the tell-tale posts, which my Aunt Fannie kept in a dented cookie tin at the bottom of her food pantry. Pictures that Etya (“Nyusya”), a daughter of one of the stepsiblings of my grandmother, brought to share when she first came to our home in the late 1990s help to bring these family members to life.

At that time, I only scanned the photos that Esther Chana’s daughter, Nyusya, brought, then printed the batch and put them into a file. So many years later, with the ease of iPhone cameras and computer updates, it was a cinch to insert the pictures into my family tree program and make copies to post here.

At our daughter’s bat mitzvah celebration in 2003, lovely Nyusya, a former head pianist at the Odessa Opera House, played a selection on the synagogue piano.

Nyusya 2003 - Entertaining as band took a break at Rina’s bar mitzvah celebration South Orange, New Jersey

Nyusya impressed the band by playing the keyboard at our younger son’s bar mitzvah celebration in 2007.

Nyusya 2007 playing with the band - Moss’s bar mitzvah celebration South Orange, New Jersey

Even as a nonagenarian, Nyusya has entertained our guests by performing on our daughter’s piano at multiple gatherings at our home, as recently as at our son’s engagement party on January 1, 2017.

We were in the company of Nyusya’s cousin Dunya at Nyusya’s 90th birthday celebration in Brooklyn in 2016. At that time, Dunya was 91. While Nyusya is the daughter of my grandmother’s stepsister Esther Chana, Dunya is the daughter of Esther Chana’s brother, Meyer, my grandmother’s stepbrother.

At that memorable event, we celebrated with our mutual cousins and met several close family members of Nyusya and Dunya. While seated there next to Valery Bazarov, a friend of Nyusya’s son from Odessa, we were engaged in conversation when he noticed my family newsletter. Purposely, Nyusya sat us with Valery, HIAS* Director Family History and Location Services, in New York because he spoke English and could translate for us in the mainly Russian-speaking crowd. I brought my newsletter along to share with the relatives and as an entrée to garner more family tree information.

Valery suggested that he might like to start a newsletter for his organization, following my outline. While glancing through the pages, he stopped at the name Ed Worobey, a fellow Chudnov Child, with a nexus to my father’s shtetl. After the great success with the help from HIAS in finding my cousin Slava Shapiro, I suggested to Ed, living in Sharon, Massachusetts, that he contact the agency to help find his relatives who emigrated from Chudnov.

My initial contact with Ed happened over 20 years prior. That started with a call from him after he came upon writings about Chudnov by my cousin Harry Langsam in Los Angeles. Harry’s wife Anna and my father were first cousins born in Chudnov. When Harry recommended Ed contact me, he didn’t hesitate to call, and we began our long-term contact, although we’ve yet to meet.

The HIAS organization succeeded in making what turned out to be a lifelong bond for Ed with his relatives in Australia, and Valery, who worked on that project, unexpectedly noticed Ed’s heartwarming story in my newsletter. The connections never seem to cease.

Meyer and Esther Chana’s sister Livsha and brother Abraham were stepsiblings of my grandmother. Then, Livsha married my grandmother’s brother Yoil (“Yellik”), and Abraham married my grandmother’s sister Rachel Leah. That made Livsha her sister-in-law, and Abraham became her brother-in-law. See my Tuesday blog posts, 100 Years - A Wrap, dated May 31, 2022, and Envisioning and Memorializing My Grandaunt, dated June 14, 2022.

The Yiddish word keinhore used in Granduncle Yellik’s letter to my grandmother in America, dated May 5, 1922, as seen in 100 Years - A Wrap, dated May 31, 2022, was used here again. This time, trying to ward off the evil eye, the Jewish equivalent of knock on wood, appears in a letter written by their sister Rachel Leah, dated abt. 1923.

Letter written about 1923 from my grandmother’s sister Rachel Leah. She was the widow of their stepbrother Abraham Shapiro and writes in a post script that their stepbrother and stepsister, her husband’s brother Meyer Shapiro and sister Esther Chana, each married and the brother has two children.

Bottom letter from Yoil (“Yellik”) Temnogorod dated November 14, 1935. He tells that his stepbrother, his wife’s brother Meyer lives in Vinnitza and has two girls and a boy. His stepsister, his wives sister Esther Chana lives in Odessa and has a boy and a girl.

A recurring theme runs through the letters, written with salutations and greetings. They almost always begin by thanking God and end with happy thoughts, offering life’s blessings. The content is sullenly replete with suffering and trials and tribulations, with the most fervent prayers or, more so, a reverence, requesting that the evil eye spare their family.

Our lives were enriched exponentially by the relatives who came into our sphere because of fading letters once stored in a dented cookie tin. I am honored and grateful to be able to share the legacy of my ancestry.

1954 Meyer Shapiro and his wife Malya on left, Yoil (aka Yellik) Temnogorod and his wife Livsha Shapiro Temnogorod center and Esther Chana Shapiro Mikhelson

1954 Meyer Shapiro and his brother-in-law, my granduncle Yoil (aka Yellik) Temnogorod standing behind their wives, Malya Shapiro and Livsha Shapiro Temnogorod seated next to her sister Esther Chana Shapiro Mikhelson holding her grandson, Nyusya’s son, Grigoriy (Girsh) Barats. Meyer and Mayla’s daughter Fannie Shapiro Foygel and her son Misha standing on right

Meyer Shapiro’s wife Malya with his sisters Livsha and Esther Chana 1954

Meyer Shapiro and his sister Livsha Shapiro Temnogorod seen in front with their niece Nyusya’s son Grigoriy (“Girsh”) Barats stepping out of the building

Esther Chana Shapiro and her husband Shulim Mikhelson with their granddaughter Mary, Nyusya’s niece

Nyusya’s niece Mary with her mother, Nyusya’s sister-in-law Valentina Altman Mikhelson (wife of Yacov)

Esther Chana Shapiro and her husband Shulim Mikhelson with their grandson, Nyusya’s son Grigoriy (“Girsh”) Barats

Nyusya’s son Grigoriy (aka Girsh) Barats with his wife Zoya, his cousin Mary with her parents Valentina and Jacov Mikhelson

Etya (“Nyusya”)’s 90th birthday celebration Nyusya, the daughter of my grandmother’s stepsister Esther Chana, holding flowers, Dunya front left, the daughter of my grandmother’s stepbrother Meyer, me-behind Nyusya and my husband standing in back on left. Valery Bazarov from HIAS is standing behind Nyusya on the right, next to me Brooklyn 2016

*https://www.hias.org/who/history