Chana Besser

Aug 31, '97

Hello Everyone!

I'm Chana Besser and I'll introduce myself for those who are new. Last year's participants will note that my name has changed (from Chana Schulman back to Chana Besser). Also my e-mail id.

My students are girls in the Israeli Zionist Jewish Religious Public School System (we have a lot of educational choices here, just like we have a lot of political parties), grades 7-10. Last year, we had great success with the Kidlinks projects of I Have a Dream, and My Hero. I'm excited about the Family History project, and would like it a lot if Dennis would consider running the I Have A Dream project again, too. It produced the most lovely poetry!

Dennis, your "Dream" poems gave my girls confidence in their abilityto write more than anything else we did all year.

I moved to Safed, Israel, a lovely little mountain town high in the beautiful Galilee, 2 years ago from Denver. I grew up in Chicago (hi, Sandy). I was born in post-war (II) Germany in a German DP (Displaced Persons) camp, waiting for a visa. I don't remember it, as I was only 2 1/2 when my parents and I sailed on an immigrant boat for NY harbor.

For Jewish people, geneology takes on a new twist. That's because we all of us know exactly where we were and who our earliest grandparents were 3,000 years ago--Avraham and Sarah, and we know exactly where they are buried--in the Cave of Macpelah in Hebron, Israel. We know that most of us lived here in Israel until the First Temple Era, very roughly a little over 2,000 years ago. After that, it becomes difficult to trace our way back home because of the traumatic relocations about every 200 years or so for the last 2,000 years.

ABOUT MY FAMILY HISTORY

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My ancestry is Jewish-Polish. Both of my parents came from the same town of Radomsk, Poland (not to be confused with the large city of Radom), in Central Poland near Chenstauhover (forget trying to spell it). Before WWII, Radomsk had about 25,000 people, 10,000 of which were Jewish. Very few of the Jews survived. My parents survived and found one living cousin each, then met each other. Had my father's first wife survived, I would never have been born. Most of the birth records, death records, etc. were destroyed by Allied bombing and German coverups. My mother's parents died young from illness before WWII. Her father was a very learned Rabbi who taught and "ordained" other rabbis. He was a follower of a famous Chassidic Rabbi, The Radomsker Rebbe, whose ancestor, the First (of Three) Radomsker Rebbe (named after their home town), wrote a famous discourse on the Torah, _Teferet Shlomo_, which I am studying today in Safed, from the original Hebrew and Aramaic.

After the war, the Allied forces had sign-in lists at all the DP camps(pre-Internet), and the Jewish survivors used to travel from DP camp to DP camp to look for family members and track down stories in order to confirm rumors of their deaths or their survival. My parents were very certain of the deaths of their immediate families from this data gathering and talking to eye witnesses.

HOLOCAUST DATABASES--NEED INFO

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If anyone knows how I can add/search data from the archives of Yad Va Shem, the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum, or other such databases, I would be grateful. I've heard that several separate databases have lately been networked together.

GENERAL (OFF THE CUFF--DON'T QUOTE ME ON DATES) JEWISH HISTORY,

IF IT IS HELPFUL TO ANYONE:

I don't know how long my family lived in Poland. IF they were typical of most of the Polish Jews, it goes back about 200-400 years, and traces back to Spain before the Spanish Expulsion of the Jews in 1492 (yes--the same day that Columbus sailed the ocean blue); they probably left a hundred years prior when things got really tough there, usually via Germany, Portugal, Holland, and/or Italy, where Jewish communities flourished and enjoyed a hundred or two hundred good years at the most before being pushed on to the next temporarily tolerant country. Before Spain, it was England and before England it was France (circa 1100 - 1300, respectively--I might be off by a hundred years, plus or minus). Before France, we could well have detoured in North Africa for a few centuries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Algeria), or in Persia.

All throughout, a few lonely cousins stayed in Israel, keeping the home fires burning. We never lost touch with them, no matter how dangerous it was to get letters back and forth. Our Torah scholars always traveled and communicated in order to stay consistent in Jewish law, or at least for the pleasure of arguing about it.

Meanwhile, our cousins who never left Babylon stayed for two thousand years or so, thru the Persian empire, and through the Muslims and Turks (I'm skimming so forgive me if I skipped a few conquerers). When things got bad, they found tolerance in Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, sometimes back into Egypt--pretty well throughout the Arab world.

My students mostly come from this "Sefardic" (Spanish moving Eastward to Arabic) culture, or the Babylonian (Persian) Jews who only left Iran/Iraq a few generations ago. I can't wait to get to know them and find out what countries they come from (most recently) and how many generations they have been in Israel. Two years ago, I had 8th generation Israelis (long before the most recent statehood) all the way to first generation students, plus everything in between. Our European --vs-- Arabic/Persian cultures seem so different, on the surface. But if the truth be known, there was a lot of cross-travel even back when travel was difficult, mixing up the Arabic/Persian Jews with the European Jews. Usually, they overlapped and intermarried in Italy, Israel, and Tunisia (many Russian Jews escaped to Tunisia when they had to run for their lives). My Tunisian landlords cook many recipes suspiciously similar to my Polish recipes, the difference being only a little Mideastern spicing.

Last year, I had two Ethiopian immigrants, and one Russian. Our school has a few American & British immigrants, too. I forgot to mention the Yemenites. I don't think I had any last year, but maybe this year.

I never mentioned the Russian Jews. They were simply Polish/German/Baltic Jews who ran for their lives. The European Jewish motto must have been, "Go East, young man,--but always return to Jerusalem." They had already been expelled from every country behind them (West), so East was the only way open to go.

The modern Zionist immigration to Israel (before the most recent statehood)pretty well paralleled (I know it is spelled wrong, but I'm too tired to look it up) the Jewish immigration to America--late 1700's and forward. Although here were a few Jews on the earliest boats of Columbus (a creative way to get out of Spain ahead of the Inquisition) and throughout the colonies.

Saudi Arabia, which boasts of not having a single Jew, had entire cities(Medina, for example, the home town of Mohammed) that were founded as Jewish towns, some 2500 years plus back. The rise of Islam led to mass massacres, accounting for it's present policy.

Some Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, I think just 14,000 at first, as soon as they could--they had only been gone for 70 years, since the destruction of our First Temple. When driven out again by the Greeks, then the Romans, and then the Crusaders, some only moved a little Northeast, as far as the Sea of Galilee (my town has a beautiful view of it), others to Yavneh (Roman Empire), and others came up the mountain road to my town of Safed.

ABOUT SAFED

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Safed really grew after the Spanish expulsion. That was it's heyday. It was bigger then, with a better economy, than today. Who knows, my very own ancestors could be buried in the famous Safed cemetary, just on the edge of my town. Something has to account for my unexplainable draw to come live here out of all the more bustling towns and cities in Israel.

FOR THE VOLUNTEERS

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Before I meet my students tomorrow, I'll get a headstart with my family names:

Mother's side: Besser

Father side: Borzykowski, shortened to Bozyk (1950's-Chicago), Borzyk, Bosik, Bosick, Basek, Bozik--spell it anyway that you like.

I have a copy of a rare manuscript, a Memorial book published about the

Jewish community of pre-war Radomsk, Poland, written in Yiddish.

REFERENCE SOURCE FOR GENERAL JEWISH HISTORY

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Berel Wein, _Echoes of Glory, 350 B.C.E (Before the Common Era) to 750 C.E.

" " _Herald of Destiny_ 750 CE to 1650

" " _Triumph of Survival_ 1650 to 1990

Shaar Press, 1995. Distributed by Mesorah Publications, Brooklyn, NY

He also has a Jewish History Tape Series (English), over 100 tapes that I have heard at least 3 times each. Facinating and available on loan from most Jewish Orthodox Tape Lending Libraries, in your major cities. Perhaps by mail if you work it out. If anyone can't find the nearest one, e-mail me and I'll try to help. Should he and I disagree, he is right.

Created on 9/5/97 3:52 PM