Ben Soffer (Goldberger) Family Archive

The family’s most famous ancestor · by Hasidic tradition

Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk — the “Noam Elimelech”

1717 – 21 Adar 5547 (1787), Leżajsk

A founding master of Hasidism and author of the No’am Elimelech; his ohel at Leżajsk (shown) is a place of pilgrimage. Family tradition holds that grandmother Sue Lebovics’s line descends from him, through his daughter Mirish (who married R’ Eliyahu Alowitz “of Sde Lavan”) — but on close research that link is unsupported.

Mirish herself is well attested as his daughter. What fails is the rung tying our family to her: “R’ Meir Elowitz” as her son was added to an online tree in a single unsourced edit in January 2021, questioned by a rabbinic genealogist, and removed in 2022; the scholarly genealogy gives Mirish only a son Pinchas. Details on Meir’s page. (No authentic portrait of him exists; the image is his ohel.)

Read his full page →

Timeline — ten families, one story

Click a family to isolate its thread in the timeline; click it again (or “All families”) to show everyone. Every entry is tagged with the line it belongs to, so you can place a name even if it’s new to you.

1700s (tradition)	Family tradition holds that Sue’s Lebovics line reaches Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk — the “Noam Elimelech.” Research (Oct 2026) does not support it. The documented patriline goes back to Yaakov’s parents Hersch & Rebecca Strobel (his 1940 NYC death certificate); above that it rests on family trees, and the rung joining us to the rebbe’s daughter Mirish (“R’ Meir Elowitz” as her son) was a 2021 online-tree edit with no source, later reversed by a curator (see Meir’s page). See the Noam Elimelech’s page. A second, independent strand of the same tradition runs on the Strober side: Rivka Strober’s grandmother Yitte Rochel Strober is noted on the Geni tree as “some say a granddaughter of R’ Elimelech of Lizhensk” — hedged lore, but now the more promising of the two strands (the name Avraham Elimelech recurs in the Strober family and passes into the Lebovics), and possibly the true origin of the family memory.
1717	Lebovics (Lizhensk tradition) — Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, the Noam Elimelech, is born — with his brother Reb Zusha of Anipol, a founding master of Hasidism; son of R’ Elazar Lipman
21 Adar 5547 · 1787	The Noam Elimelech dies at Leżajsk, where his ohel is still a place of pilgrimage. His daughter Mirish — by his first wife Shprintze née Rokeach (a daughter of R’ Aharon Rokeach) — marries R’ Eliyahu Alowitz “of Sde Lavan” and settles in Rymanov (under R’ Mendel of Rymanov); their children carry the surname Elowitz, a patronymic of Eliyahu. (Our tree once had the Lebovics descend from this Elowitz family; that link is unsupported, see above.)
1829	R’ Pinchas Elimelech Elowitz, Mirish’s son (the only son the scholarly genealogy records), dies — a rabbi raised by R’ Mendel of Rymanov
c.1600s (tradition)	A second notable-ancestor tradition — the Gottdiener Kohanim and the Maharal of Prague. On Maria’s (Gotlieb) side, the Gottdiener family were Kohanim bearing the Katz name, and by family tradition descend from Yitzchak HaCohen Katz of Prague (c.1608–c.1670) and, above him, the Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew, c.1525–1609). Like the Lizhensk descent, this is a long-standing Hasidic-genealogy tradition, not proven from civil records — flagged on the relevant pages.
~1800–40s	Deepest documented generation (born ~1800–1840s) — the oldest named couple on each line, with the year in the left column where it is documented:
~1800	Wachtel / Mensch — Samuel Dawid (Sol) & Rebecca (Rifka) Wachtel of Lemberg, from Nathan Wachtel’s 1827 Lemberg birth record; and the Mensch couple — Moshe Mordechai Mensch & Feiga née Blindsner, parents of Rosa (Reisel) née Mensch, named on her 1835 Lwów birth record (Mensch line newly documented 2026)
1823	Moskovic / Judkovic (Brooke’s paternal) — Iszak (Jezko) Moskovic (b. 1823) × Rifka née Judkovic (b. ~1827), the tavern-keeping Moskovics heading the single Jewish Moskovic household of Habura in the 1869 census — Moses Moskovic’s parents. Deeper still, Rifka’s Judkovic line: her father Nathan Judkovic (~1800) back to the founding Jewish families of Habura in the 1750s — the 1771 Zemplén census names three Judkovics households, and Mendel Judkovits is the village arendator by 1811 — the deepest-reaching roots yet on Brooke’s side (newly documented 2026)
1827	Lichtman / Knoll (Estelle’s line) — Wolf Lichtman (b. 1827, m. Chane), Estelle’s great-grandfather per the Lichtman descendant chart; his daughter Ester Lichtman (1871–1931) married Osias Knoll (newly documented 2026)
~1837	Goldberger — Emanuel (Manó) Goldberger (b. ~1837, Žabokreky nad Nitrou; a textile-goods merchant of Hlohovec no. 590, also remembered as a cantor) × Hanni (Anna) née Klein (b. ~1861, probably Dežerice, Trenčín county) — from Eugene’s 1903 Hlohovec birth record, ŠA Trnava. Emanuel was a fourth-generation cantor of the Nitra line (the three cantor generations before him not yet named); he married twice — Julie Fisher, then Anna Klein — with about eight children (eldest Sigmund 1863, youngest Eugene 1903); his own death is recorded 27 Dec 1919, age 82. Deeper on Eugene’s maternal side: Hanni’s parents Lipót Klein × Regina née Gronovet (b. ~1827 Dežerice, d. 1897) and Regina’s father Sámuel Gronovet, the deepest-rooted names on the Goldberger–Klein side (newly documented 2026)
~1850	Fried / Schönberger (Brooke’s paternal) — Eliezer Zvi Fried × Ceva „Batsheva“ Jager (she b. Tárkány, Zemplén, per their wedding certificate); Leopold Schönberger × Devorah „Dora“ (she b. 1850), of the Beňatina / Szürte area; and behind Batsheva, her parents Vilmos Jäger × Ema of the Tárkány / Butka area (newly documented 2026)
~1800s	Schechter — Chaim Schechter (Poland)
~1800s	Nadel / Jacobs — Mose Nadel & Molly (Austria); Meyer Jacobs & Minna Helfand (Germany)
~1800s	Freilich / Terkil — Falik Freilich & Sara Marjem née Terkil of Podhajce, Galicia; and the deeper Terkil generation now reached — Leiser Maier (Alter) Terkil, a Podhajce grain-trader and innkeeper, & Eidel, Sara Marjem's parents (newly documented 2026)
18th–19th c.	Lebovics / Gotlieb (newly documented 2026) — above Sue’s grandparents Jakab Lebovics × Töbe and Maria’s parents Herman Gottlieb × Amália Friedman (1921 Satu Mare register), the tree now reaches far deeper on four sub-lines: the Gottdiener Kohanim of Tiszalok — Shimshon Eliezer Gottdiener (b. 1805 Kis Toronya) back to Aron Yakov Gottdiener × Julie née Eisen (~1780); the Deutsch of Mád — David Hirsch Deutsch (b. ~1767); the Friedman of Szatmár — Asher Zelig Friedman (d. 1921) up to apex Yitzchok Friedman; and the Strober — Yoel (Yulik) Strober × Yitte Rochel — the deepest-reaching roots on Sue’s side
~1800s	Engel / Grün (stepfather’s side, 2026) — Wolf Engel × Elka Morgenstern; Israel Grün (Green) × Ester — from the 1923 Brooklyn marriage affidavit
~1862	Berkovits / Klein (Helena’s maternal) — Simon Meir (Shimshon) Klein (b. 17 Jan 1862, Uzhorod) × Johanna née Mehr, the parents of Regina (Klein) Berkovits and the deepest documented couple on Helena’s side — from a Yad Vashem Page of Testimony and the 1862 Uzhhorod birth index (newly documented 2026)
~1860s	Soffer / James (Ben’s stepfather’s line) — Samuel Soffer × Rebecca née Rubinfeld of Galicia (Max’s parents, from his 1917 marriage certificate); and Louis & Rose James (b. ~1863, Austria), Anna’s parents
~1880	Lazerowitz / Olshevski (Brooke’s maternal) — Aharon Shmuel Lazerowitz (1880–1937) × Sarah née Potok (1885–1919) of Sosnowiec; Sarah’s Potok line is now documented two generations deeper in Wodzisław — her father Kalman Potok (b. 14 Apr 1845, a petty trader) × Jentla née Zuchter (married 1865), and Kalman’s parents Fajwel (Fayb) Potok × Basia née Rzepek (b. ~1807/1817), documented on Kalman’s 1845 Wodzisław birth act (akt 22, Fond 21/1731/0, State Archive in Kielce); and Yankel (Yaakov) & Khaia Feigel Olshevski, Regina’s parents (newly documented 2026)
~1860	Meyer Jacobs & Minna Helfand, German Jews, are in America — daughter Ophelia born U.S.A. ~1862, raised in Baltimore
15 Apr 1861	Joseph Nadel born, Austria — future knitting-mill foreman
1864	Charles Freilich born in Podhajce, Galicia (11 Mar 1864, Podhajce Jewish birth register), son of Falik (Isaac) & Sara Marjem née Terkil
14 Feb 1872	Rabbi David Schechter born, Poland; Malka Halpern born ~1872, Poland — the future poultry patriarchs
22 Jul 1874	Emanuel („Izrael/Mendel“) Fried born, Budkovce (b. 22 Jul 1874, d. 6 Jan 1969) — later the village innkeeper, house #212; in Dec 1898 he marries Malka Schönberger (b. 2 Dec 1881, d. 1953), daughter of Leopold & Devorah „Dora“ Schönberger
2 Dec 1881	Malka Schönberger born — daughter of Leopold & Devorah „Dora” Schönberger of the Beňatina / Szürte area (Ung county); she will marry Mendel Fried of Budkovce and mother the twelve Fried children (d. 1953)
~1885–90	Joseph Nadel emigrates (~1885); marries Ophelia Jacobs in Baltimore ~1880s; Charles Freilich immigrates 1890; Minnie Nadel born Baltimore 1891
18 Jan 1893	Hirs (Chaim Tzvi) Lebovics born, probably at Orlyava (Irlyava), Ung county — called Orlova under Czechoslovakia, today Zakarpattia, Ukraine; long recorded here as Orlov in Slovakia, a reading the 2026 records overturn (his mother was born in Irlyava, his parents married there, a brother was born there c.1895) (Hebrew name per Sue's matzevah; Tzvi = Hersh)
20 Apr 1893	Charles Freilich weds Anna Wachtel on the Lower East Side (18 Cannon St × 11 Pitt St; cert #5196) — Rev. Baruch Schohr officiating
12 Jan 1896	Harry Heinrich Engel born in Toporoutz, Bukovina (Elsie's father — the Engel line)
~1896–97	Joseph Schechter born in Budapest (Estelle's father — the Schechter line)
1897	Harry Freilich born 1897 (the Freilich line) — the family's printed bris invitation (80 Essex St, bris 9 Aug 1897) survives in the gallery, though Harry's own documents claim Jan 3 / Feb 2 — a puzzle his SS-5 will settle
27 Aug 1903	Eugene Jacob Goldberger born 27 Aug 1903 in HLOHOVEC (Galgóc) — registry entry #288, confirmed by ŠA Trnava (his Vienna Meldezettel said the 28th); family Heimat: Žabokreky nad Nitrou
17 Apr 1903	Gladys Nadel born 17 Apr 1903 at 115 E 108 St, Harlem
~1905–06	Helena Berkovits born (Senica family; IKG says 1906, poss. Debrecen — Vienna records pending)
10 Jul 1908	Moses (Mozes) Lazerowitz born, Poland (Sosnowiec) — tailor
15 Aug 1910	Max Soffer lands in New York from Hamburg aboard the SS Cleveland — a 21-year-old glazier from Galicia (declaration #24435 + draft card confirm, b. 25 Jan 1889). The Soffer step-line and the Freilich line both begin in Galicia
12 Jan 1912	Regina Olshewski born 12 Jan in Sosnowiec, Poland (confirmed by her SS & death records)
16 Mar 1912	Elaine (Ilona) Friedová born 16 Mar in Budkovce
5 Jun 1912	Baruch (Bernard) Moskovic born 5 Jun in Habura — he and Elaine will marry in Brooklyn
24 Feb 1915	Charles Freilich dies at Harlem Hospital, age 50 — buried Mount Zion, Lemberger society plot; widow Anna left with seven children
17 Mar 1918	Martin Fried born in Budkovce
1917	Max Hertz Soffer registers for the WWI draft in June (Rockaway Beach, 'heart trouble'); on 30 Sep 1917 he weds Anna James at her family's Bronx home (the Soffer line)
1917	Harry Engel registers for the WWI draft in June — a Bukovina-born farmhand upstate, who serves (the Engel line)
1920–22	The Schechter migration: Rabbi David to Brooklyn ~1920; Malka + EIGHT children on the SS Chicago, Oct 1921; Joseph (from Vienna) on La Lorraine, Oct 1922 — „going to father, David Schachter“
28 Feb 1921	Hirs Lebovics weds Maria Gotlieb in SATU MARE; daughter Abigail born there Jan 1922
1923–1937	The Fried staircase out of Budkovce — Rozalia 1923, Terezia 1930, Ester 1935, Elaine & Cecília together Nov 1935 (Aquitania, $20), Martin 1936, Irena & Regina Apr 1937, parents Izrael & Malvine last, Oct 1937 (council minutes 63/37)
Dec 1927	Eugene Goldberger weds Helena Berkovits in Senica — the cantor marries the daughter of OMAMA & OPAPA (Bernát & Regina Berkowitz); four sons will follow
29 May 1923	Harry Engel takes out a Brooklyn license to wed Jennie Green — by decade's end they are farming Foxon Hill Road, East Haven
24 Jun 1924	The Lebovics family lands in New York (Cherbourg) — Hirs files citizenship papers nine days later; 385 E 3rd St
26 Jun 1926	Harry Freilich weds Gladys Nadel at the Manhattan Municipal Building (cert #21023)
2 May 1927	Sue Sulamith Lebovics born, Brooklyn (cert #19362); brother Ezra born Manhattan, Nov 1928
1926–27	Eugene, 23, is a student in Vienna — Große Sperlgasse 37a, Leopoldstadt (Meldezettel in gallery); he leaves for Czechoslovakia 4 Jul 1927 and marries Helena Berkovits in December — per the family clipping they MET in Vienna while he studied at the Royal Conservatory and cantorial school; the wedding itself was in Senica (register found)
15 May 1928	Morris J. Soffer born, New York — son of Max & Anna; by 1930 the family is at 64-18 Rockaway Beach Blvd, and three generations of Soffers never leave the peninsula
5 Oct 1928	Milan Emanuel (Menashe) Goldberger born in Vukovar — Hoshana Rabbah 5689; Eugene's first cantorial post
1929–35	Charles Freilich (b. 1929) & Robert Herbert Freilich (b. 1935, cert #15576) born in the Bronx
1930–38	The four Goldberger sons, by Eugene's postings: Leo (Lavoslav 'Slavko', Heb. Aryeh Leib) born in Vukovar 1930; 1932 — Eugene becomes chief cantor of TROPPAU (Opava), where Gustav (Heb. Shlomo) is born 1934; then the Copenhagen chief-cantorship — succeeded at Troppau by Gabor Berkovic = Gavriel/Gabriel Berkovits, Helena's brother and Eugene's assistant cantor (survived in hiding; reached the 1950 Montreal seder; a Montreal cantor and Cantors Assembly member — he and Eugene both appear on the album 40 Years of Hazzanut in Montreal, 1997); Erik (Chaim) born Copenhagen 1938
26 Feb 1931	Ophelia Nadel dies at 281 St. Ann's Ave, Bronx — Joseph follows from the same tenement in 1940; side by side at Montefiore
Oct 1934 – 27 May 1935	U.S. v. Schechter Poultry: death threats bared at trial; Joseph sentenced to 3 months + $1,300 (never served); then the 9-0 Supreme Court win — „THEIR SQUAWK KILLED THE BLUE EAGLE“. It cost Joseph „every nickel I had“
11 Sep 1934	Tzvi Hersh (Herman) Gottlieb dies in Satu Mare — Maria’s father, proprietor of the Hotel Royal
1935	Moses & Mariam Moskovic die in Habura — Mariam on 29 Jun and Moses on 12 Nov (Habura civil death register); Bernard's parents, three years before he escaped. Most of the children who stayed behind were later murdered in the Shoah
1936	Estelle Schechter born in Brooklyn — daughter of Joseph Schechter & Lea Lillian Knoll; Nancy's mother (Ben's maternal grandmother)
6 May 1937	Rabbi David Schechter dies, Brooklyn — „Rabbi + Shechet, Poultry, 45 years“; son Joe signs the certificate
2 Aug 1938 · 5 Av 5698	The Rebbetzin Töbe (Toba) Lebovics née Welber dies — Hirs’s mother and wife of Rabbi Yaakov; in Brooklyn (NYC death cert. #15431), age 64; buried in New Jersey beside him. Her stone’s year, long read as 5695, is 5698 (ה/ח misread) — the certificate settles it
26 Sep 1938	Baruch Moskovic escapes aboard the SS NORMANDIE, landing four days before Munich; brother Khaim's family in Slovakia will not survive
19 Av 5700 · 1940	Rabbi Yaakov Lebovics dies — Hirs’s father, a rabbi who had reached America; his matzevah (“the righteous Rabbi Yaakov… who spread Torah”) survives
11 Feb 1941	Bernard Moskowitz weds Elaine Fried, Brooklyn Municipal Building — witness: her sister Cecilia; Budkovce and Habura joined
Oct 1943	Weeks earlier a sympathetic Danish neighbor had blocked Eugene's arrest with the seized notables; then the Gestapo knock — Milan, 15, scouts the street; the Goldbergers cross on 2 October 1943, among the first boats — under canvas in a fish hold, transferred mid-sea to a Swedish vessel. In Göteborg Eugene finds 'a small synagogue that needed a cantor'; Leo is taught geometry by Harald Bohr; the family returns 6 June 1945 — and at the Great Synagogue's rededication (the Nazis had stabled horses in it) Eugene's 'emotion-infused voice' sings the prayer of thanks, his four sons in the family row. Helena's parents and two siblings survive in hiding on a farm near Bratislava; more siblings had already gone abroad. By name, Helena's siblings were Gabor (survived, to Montreal), Etl (to the US), Arthur and Aharon (Herman) (to Israel) — while her sister Herminka and brother Alexander were murdered in the Shoah
1940s	Harry, Gladys, Charles & Robert Freilich move from Deegan Ave, Bronx to 1330 Pennsylvania Ave, Miami Beach
1 Jun 1944	Miriam Gottlieb née Friedman is murdered at Auschwitz, with her daughter Golda, in the deportation of the Satu Mare region’s Jews — Maria’s mother (two of her other daughters had already died in childhood)
1946	21 Jan: Milan, 17 and stateless, lands alone at Philadelphia aboard the SS Formosa — bound for Ner Israel, Baltimore. In August Helena brings the three younger boys — Leo, Gustav and Erik — from Gothenburg to New York aboard the SS Drottningholm (arriving 19 Aug 1946, listed stateless), reuniting with Eugene in MONTREAL — cantor of Adath Israel, Outremont (856 Dollard Ave); in Copenhagen he had been soloist with the Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra and sung on state radio in four capitals. Milan studies at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Baltimore; the whole clan gathers for Passover 1950 in Montreal (photo), with OMAMA and OPAPA — Bernát & Regina Berkowitz, Helena's parents — at the center; a few years later they settle in Israel and live out their days in Bnei Brak
18 Nov 1947	Morris Soffer weds Elsie Engel, Queens — both nineteen; sons Eleazer (~1949) and Eliahu follow before they turn 22
10 Jul 1948	Jack Lazerowitz born in the Bayreuth DP camp — on his father's 40th birthday
1949	Milan meets Sue on the beach in Rockaway
1949	Leonard Moskowitz born Brooklyn
19 Oct 1949	The Lazerowitzes fly Bremen → Idlewild (IRO airlift, 19 Oct) bound for Cincinnati
22 Feb 1950	Eliahu Soffer born — the April census finds him at two months old at 682 Swan Place, Far Rockaway. A year earlier and a few blocks away, Milan met Sue on the Rockaway beach
14 Aug 1950	Milan & Sue wed at Bronx Borough Hall — Milan Emanuel Goldberger × Sulamith Lebovics (license BX 6377, issued 28 Jul); 13 children follow
1953	Charles Freilich weds Myrna Kash (Bronx #165)
1953	Helen Faege Lazerowitz born Cincinnati — named for Chaia Feigel
22 May 1956	Moses & Regina Lazerowitz become US citizens in Cincinnati — naturalized the same day in the Southern District of Ohio on consecutive petitions (21121 & 21122, vol. 89)
~1957	Robert Freilich weds Estelle Schechter (date approx.) — Ben's maternal grandparents; their children Steven (1958) and Nancy (1959) follow. Estelle later marries Allan Cohen
1958	David Goldberger born 1958 (Bronx)
1958–59	Steven (Harrison) Freilich born 1958 (Manhattan); Nancy Freilich born 1959 (Nassau County — raised on Auerbach Lane, Lawrence)
29 Jan 1960	Maria “Mamela” Lebovics née Gottlieb dies — her matzevah (29 Tevet 5720, aged 59) corrected a long-misdated death; she and Hirs rest at Beth Israel Cemetery, Woodbridge, NJ
9 Sep 1962	Hirs Lebovics dies, New York — buried beside Maria at Beth Israel, Woodbridge NJ
1964	Eugene Goldberger honored and retires to Israel — in June he receives an honorary fellowship from the Cantors Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary (New York); that autumn, after a community tribute dinner, he and Helena settle in Israel to teach cantorial art
Jun–Aug 1968	Max (30 Jun) and Anna (29 Aug) Soffer die sixty days apart in Far Rockaway, married 51 years — buried at Wellwood, the cemetery that later receives Moses & Regina Lazerowitz
1970	Eliahu Soffer weds Brucha Kitay, Queens — sons Matis & Menachem follow
1970–72	Bernát & Regina Berkovits die — OPAPA & OMAMA, Helena's parents, at Petach Tikva, Israel (Bernát 12 Jul 1970, Regina 5 Jan 1972; near Bnei Brak, where they had settled)
1974–79	Helen Lazerowitz weds Leonard Moskowitz (Manhattan #23422, 1974); Jack weds Giselle Horn (1979) — sons Raphael & Richard
1981	Benjamin (Goldberger) Soffer born 1981
1984	Bracha (Brooke) Moskowitz born 1984
1985	Bernard Moskovic dies
1989	Gladys Nadel dies
1998	Martin Fried dies
2000	Moses Lazerowitz dies
2000	Elaine (Fried) Moskowitz dies
2003	Sarah Fried Lebow dies at 101; her sister Cecilia also dies
2005	Regina Lazerowitz dies — the elders at rest in Wellwood, Montefiore and Borough Park
2008–2017	The last of the Soffer–Engel generation: Eliahu Soffer (erev Shabbat, 9 May 2008, Israel), Morris J. Soffer (17 Jul 2011) and Elsie Soffer (24 Mar 2017) — Morris & Elsie together at Beth Moses Cemetery, Agudist society plot
10 Dec 2023	Milan Goldberger dies in Jerusalem (10 Dec 2023, 3rd light of Chanukah) — buried on the Mount of Olives
1990s	Leo, Gustav and Erik (Chaim) each record USC Shoah Foundation video testimonies — three brothers on camera telling the Vukovar-Troppau-Copenhagen-rescue story; their family indexes name Eugene's siblings (Ludvig [= Lajos], Rudolph, Berta… — the 'Leonka' in that index was in fact Rudolf's wife Leonora Klein, murdered at Auschwitz, not a sibling) and confirm Helena's parents as Bernát & Regina Berkowitz. From the interview profiles: Leo (VHA 28160, b. 1930 Vukovar, Heb. Aryeh Leib 'Slavko'; hidden at Dragør, Rungsted & Vedbæk, escape arranged by Fanny Arnskov; later a knighted NYU psychology professor who wrote the standard book on the Danish rescue) and Gustav (VHA 25299, b. 1934 Opava, Heb. Shlomo)
24 Oct 2014	Estelle Freilich née Schechter dies (24 Oct 2014, New Montefiore)
12 Mar 2019	Sue dies in Jerusalem 12 Mar 2019 (5 Adar II 5779, Mount of Olives); Milan is later buried beside her (2023)
22 Oct 2025	Jack dies (22 Oct 2025, South Florida Jewish Cem.)
Sep 2026	The archive project (Goldberger): Vukovar confirms Milan's birth entry; Vienna research paid
Sep 2026	The archive project (Fried & Moskovic): Michalovce FINDS Ilona Friedová's record; Prešov queued (Izrael Fried + Baruch Moskovic)

The Goldberger line — Ben's paternal

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Lipót Klein & Regina née Gronovet, with Sámuel Gronovet (Eugene's maternal grandparents & great-grandfather)	Hanni (Anna) Klein's parents, of the Dežerice / Nyitra-Zsámbokrét area. Regina b. ~1827 Dežerice, d. 10 May 1897 — her death record, reported by son-in-law “Emánuel Goldberger, cantor,” is what ties the Klein line to the Goldbergers. Regina's own father Sámuel Gronovet was a tavern-keeper of Miticz — the deepest-rooted ancestor on the Goldberger–Klein side (newly documented 2026, Slovak civil death register).
	Emanuel (Manó) Goldberger (b. ~1837 – d. 27 Dec 1919)	Eugene's father; fourth-generation cantor of the Nitra line and a textile merchant, of Žabokreky nad Nitrou and Hlohovec. Married Julie Fisher, then Anna (Hanni) Klein — about eight children, the youngest being Eugene. His own father was the cantor Yaakov (Jacob) — Milan's account of the alternating cantorial names: “Menashe ben Yaakov ben Menashe ben Yaakov — it went back and forth.”
	Eugene (Jenő) Goldberger (27 Aug 1903 Hlohovec – 20 Aug 1989 Israel) × Helena Berkovits	“A descendant of five generations of cantors.” Studied at the Royal Conservatory and the cantorial school in Vienna; married Helena in Senica, Dec 1927. His postings trace the family's whole path: Vukovar (where Milan was born 1928 and Leo 1930) → chief cantor of Troppau / Opava from 1932 (where Gustav was born 1934; his assistant there was Helena's brother Gabor Berkovits) → Copenhagen (where Eric was born 1938, and from where the family escaped in the Oct 1943 rescue of Denmark's Jews) → Adath Israel, Outremont, Montreal, served 18 years from 1946. A soloist with the Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra; honorary fellow of the JTS Cantors Institute (1964). He moved the family to Denmark in 1934 as a deliberate flight from the Nazis — saving his wife and sons, while siblings who stayed (half-sister Laura among them) were murdered in the Shoah. His matzevah: “the Rabbi-Cantor Reb Yaakov son of Rabbi Menashe,” buried on Har HaMenuchot, Jerusalem.
	Helena Berkovits & her family (the Berkovits & Klein line)	Helena (b. ~1905–06) was the daughter of Bernát (Dov) Berkovits & Regina née Klein (“OPAPA & OMAMA”) of Senica, who died in Petach Tikva (Bernát 12 Jul 1970, Regina 5 Jan 1972). Regina's own parents — Helena's maternal grandparents and the deepest documented couple on the Berkovits side — were Simon Meir (Shimshon) Klein (b. 17 Jan 1862, Uzhorod; murdered 1942) & Johanna née Mehr, from a Yad Vashem Page of Testimony (filed by grandson Gabor Berkovits) and the 1862 Uzhhorod birth index (2026).
	Milan (Emanuel / Menashe) Goldberger (5 Oct 1928 Vukovar – 10 Dec 2023 Jerusalem) × Sue Lebovics	Ben's grandfather, born on Hoshana Rabbah 5689; named Menashe son of Reb Yaakov, carrying his great-grandfather Emanuel's name forward. He came through the war with the family (the Danish rescue and a year in Sweden), then arrived alone at Philadelphia, 21 Jan 1946, aboard the SS Formosa, stateless, age 17, bound for Ner Israel, Baltimore. He met Sue on the Rockaway beach in 1949 and married her at Bronx Borough Hall, 14 Aug 1950 (license #6377); thirteen children followed. A furrier; naturalized EDNY 1956 (Petition #554178; A-6220083; admitted at Burlington, VT, 23 Apr 1953). Made aliyah to Jerusalem in 1987; died the 3rd light of Chanukah 5784, buried on the Mount of Olives beside Sue.
DG	David Goldberger (b. 1958, the Bronx) × Nancy Freilich	Ben's father; the sixth of Milan & Sue's thirteen children. Married Nancy Freilich (Ben's mother), and later Sara (Xiomi Collado), with whom he emigrated to Israel in the late 1990s.
BS	Benjamin Soffer (b. 1981)	This archive's keeper; son of David & Nancy. Born a Goldberger, he took the Soffer name of his stepfather Eliahu Soffer. Married Brooke (Bracha) Moskowitz — see the Moskowitz line.

Documents

Pictures

All USHMM images courtesy of Leo Goldberger. Click any photo for full resolution; the ↗ link opens the museum's catalog record.

The Lebovics line — Sue's family (Satu Mare → Lower East Side → the Bronx)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
—	The deepest roots on Sue's side — Gottdiener · Deutsch · Friedman · Strober (2026)	Gottdiener (Kohanim of Tiszalok): Shimshon Eliezer Gottdiener (b. 1805 Kis Toronya, d. 1873 Tiszalok), named in the 1848 Hungarian Jewish census, back to Aron Yakov Gottdiener × Julie née Eisen (~1780). Deutsch of Mád: David Hirsch Deutsch (b. ~1767) — the deepest documented Deutsch. Friedman of Szatmár (opened 2026 from Yad Vashem testimony): Asher Zelig Friedman (d. 1 Jan 1921, Tarpa) × Regina née Klein, up to apex Yitzchok Friedman. Strober: Yoel (Yulik) Strober × Yitte Rochel. These are among the deepest-reaching documented ancestors anywhere on Ben's tree.
	Tzvi Hirsch Lebovics × Rivka née Strober, and R' Arye Leib David Lebovics × Hendel (Lebovics patriline, 2026)	The Lebovics line above Jakab, of Zádnya (Máramaros; today Pryborzhavske, Ukraine) — not Orlov: Jakab's parents Tzvi Hirsch × Rivka née Strober, and above them Arye Leib David (per family trees; the “born Elowitz” label turned out to be a 2021 online-tree edit, not a record). Jakab's parents are documented by his 1940 NYC death certificate (“Hersch” and “Rebecca Strobel”). (Töbe's own parents were Moshe Welber × Freida née Itzkowitz, from Töbe's matzevah and Moshe's NYC death index.) This is the patriline that family tradition linked to the Noam Elimelech of Lizhensk, a link research has not upheld — see the timeline.
	Mordechai Yehuda Gottlieb × Devorah née Deutsch, and Jozsef Yohanan Gottlieb × Marjem née Gottdiener (Gotlieb line, 2026)	Maria Gottlieb's line above her father Herman: Herman's parents Mordechai Yehuda Gottlieb (d. 1910, Sighet) × Devorah née Deutsch (of Slovenské Nové Mesto), and above them Jozsef Yohanan Gottlieb (d. ~1870, Budapest) × Marjem née Gottdiener — the marriage that joins the Gottliebs to the Gottdiener Kohanim, and through Devorah to the Deutsch of Mád.
	Hirs (Chaim Tzvi) Lebovics (Sue's father)	Hebrew name Chaim Tzvi per Sue's matzevah (Tzvi = Hersh); occupation 1940: RABBI (census — salaried, 48 hrs/wk, 4 yrs college; still 'first papers' in 1940 despite the 1924 declaration); b. 18 Jan 1893, Orlova/Orlov (Hungary → Czechoslovakia); married Maria Gotlieb in Satu Mare, 28 Feb 1921; last residence Satu Mare; family sailed Cherbourg → NY 24 Jun 1924; Declaration of Intention filed 9 days after landing; Petition #161135 (image in gallery); WWI Austro-Hungarian army service (two uniform portraits in gallery). 1930 census: 385 E 3rd St, Lower East Side — rabbi, a radio in the home, married at 28; by 1940 at 2030 E 177th St, Bronx; SSN 148-22-8903; d. 9 Sep 1962, NY. Parents (per the 1921 marriage register): Jakab (Jacob) Lebovics × Töbe (mother's maiden surname unclear, approx. Velber/Telber); the same record gives his birth as June 1893 (vs. 18 Jan 1893 on his US petition)
	Maria Lebovics née Gotlieb (Sue's mother)	b. 11 May 1901, Carei ("Care Mare"), Romania — 35 km from Satu Mare; remembered on Sue's matzevah by her family name, 'Mamela'. Parents (per the 1921 marriage register): Herman Gottlieb × Amália Friedman
	Sue (Sulamith) Lebovics (Ben's grandmother)	b. 2 May 1927, Brooklyn (cert #19362); daughter of Hirs & Maria. Monroe HS 1944 Co-Editor-in-Chief (portrait in gallery); met Milan on the Rockaway beach in 1949 and married him 14 Aug 1950 (license #6377); thirteen children; made aliyah; d. 12 Mar 2019, Jerusalem (5 Adar II 5779) — Mount of Olives, matzevah in gallery: 'she gave herself to Torah and Eretz Yisrael… accepted her sufferings with love'
—	Sue's siblings (Hirs & Maria's other children)	Abigail (b. 25 Jan 1922, Romania — m. Judah WEBERMAN, Bronx, 1 Nov 1943 → Weberman cousins) · Ezra (b. 17 Nov 1928, Manhattan; d. 2002 Williamsburg)

• Hirs Lebovics — naturalization petition #161135; Orlov birth record requested from ŠA Prešov (official form filed 12 Sep 2026 → will name his parents)

The family's American arc in three addresses: they landed in 1924 and by 1930 were at 385 East 3rd Street on the Lower East Side (a rented flat, $45/mo, with a radio — Hirs already a working rabbi); by 1940 they had moved up to 2030 East 177th Street in the Bronx. Sue's siblings: Abigail (b. Romania 1922, the only one born abroad — m. Judah Weberman, Bronx, 1943) and Ezra (b. Manhattan 1928, d. 2002, Williamsburg). Maria 'Mamela' Gotlieb's death is not yet traced — likely NY or Israel; the family would know.

Documents

Pictures

The Freilich & Nadel lines — Nancy's family (Lemberg + Baltimore → Harlem → Bronx → Miami Beach)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Leiser Maier (Alter) Terkil & Eidel (4th-great-grandparents)	Sara Marjem's parents, of Podhajce — the newly reached Terkil generation (2026). Named in their grandchildren's Podhajce birth registers (1877–1881): Leiser Maier Terkil, recorded 'Leiser Maier vel Alter' (so he also went by Alter), a grain trader in 1877 then an innkeeper; and Eidel (maiden surname not recorded). Their granddaughter Eidil Rifka Freilich (b. 1876) was named for grandmother Eidel. The Terkils were a small family of the Tarnopol region of eastern Galicia (All Galicia Database / Gesher Galicia)
photo needed	Samuel Dawid (Sol) Wachtel & Rebecca (Rifka) (4th-great-grandparents)	Nathan's parents, both b. Lemberg (Galicia), ~1800. Named on Nathan's 1901 death certificate (as 'Sol') and on his 1827 Lemberg birth record — which gives the father the fuller Samuel Dawid and the mother Rifka (= Rebecca), the better readings (All Galicia Database, 2026)
photo needed	Moshe Mordechai Mensch & Feiga née Blindsner (4th-great-grandparents)	Rosa (Reisel)'s parents, of Lemberg — the deepest ancestors documented on Ben's mother's (Mensch) side, alongside the Wachtels. Named 2026 via MyHeritage and FamilySearch member trees and confirmed by a primary source: Reisel's 1835 Lwów birth record names her father Moses and mother Feige née Blindsner (house 125). A son, Berl Leiser Mensch (b. 1832), is also named (All Galicia Database)
photo needed	Falik (Isaac) Freilich × Sara Marjem née Terkil (3rd-great-grandparents)	both b. Austria (Galicia); the household at house 212, Podhajce. Charles named them on his 1893 marriage record (signed 'Carl Freilich') as Falik Freilich & 'Sahra Klein'; his 1915 death certificate instead gave Isaac Frelich & 'Sadie Krissel.' The Podhajce Jewish birth registers settle it: across her children's records (1877–1881) the mother is consistently Sara Marjem née Terkil, so the American 'Klein / Krissel' was an approximation; and the father's two names (Falik / Isaac) reconcile on Charles's matzevah as 'Shlomo Tzvi ben Yitzchak' (All Galicia Database, 2026)
photo needed	Nathan (Nachem) Wachtel & Rosa (Reisel) née Mensch (3rd-great-grandparents)	Anna's parents. Nathan: a TAILOR, b. ~1827 Lemberg (Galicia); ~14 years in the US (arr. ~1887); d. 1 Nov 1901, age 74, at 1 N. Clinton St (of 127 Ludlow St); buried Mount Zion Cem. (death cert #32814, in gallery). Rosa born Reisel Mensch, Lemberg, 10 Aug 1835 (US records rounded to ~1840); d. 14 Jun 1907, NY; buried beside Nathan. Her maiden name reads Mensch on Anna's death certificate, her own 1835 Lwów birth record and two member trees, but was mis-recorded 'Mantel' on the 1893 marriage cert
photo needed	Charles Freilich	b. ~1864 Austria; real estate, 165 E 112 St; d. 24 Feb 1915 Harlem Hospital (cert #6008, in gallery); buried Mount Zion Cemetery, LEMBERGER society plot 11L-9-0015-548 → family from Lemberg (Lviv), Galicia; immigrated 1890, m. Anna Wachtel 20 Apr 1893 on the LES (18 Cannon St × 11 Pitt St, cert #5196 in gallery, Rev. Baruch Schohr). Family name originally FRÖHLICH — the 1897 bris invitation he printed reads 'Ch. Frohlich & Frau, 80 Essex Street' (relic in gallery)
photo needed	Anna Freilich née Wachtel	b. ~1870; widowed at ~45 with seven children (1910 census: Harry's 6 siblings); d. 21 Nov 1935 at 1005 Jerome Ave, Bronx — informant son Harry; 26 days before grandson Robert's birth; buried Riverside Cem., Hackensack (death cert in gallery)
	Joseph Nadel & Ophelia Jacobs	Joseph b. ~1861 Austria; Ophelia b. ~1862 Maryland (married ~1880s Baltimore); Harlem by 1903; both buried Montefiore Cem. Queens, Block 90 Row 007L, side by side (d. 1940 / 1931). Children: Joe, Minnie ROSENWALD (b. 1891 Baltimore), Blanche (likely m. ROWLAND — son William Rowland), Hortense m. O'CONNOR (sons William, Robert & Edward O'Connor — per the album captions), Gladys FREILICH. Album photos show Joseph at the cemetery fence, likely visiting Ophelia (1931-40)
	Harry Freilich × Gladys Nadel	Harry's birthdate is CONTESTED across three sources — SSDI: 3 Jan 1897; his own WWI draft card (Bronx, next-of-kin Anna): 2 Feb 1897; the family's printed bris invitation (80 Essex St): a son circumcised 9 Aug 1897, i.e. born 2 Aug — which cannot all be one baby. His SS-5 (FOIA queued) should settle it; d. May 1979, Brooklyn (SSDI). Married 26 Jun 1926, Municipal Building, Manhattan (cert #21023, PDF in gallery); Gladys b. 17 Apr 1903 at 115 E 108 St (birth cert #16719, PDF in gallery); Deegan Ave Bronx 1940 → 1330 Pennsylvania Ave, Miami Beach by 1950; Gladys d. 2 Jan 1989
RH	Robert Herbert Freilich (grandfather)	b. 1935, Bronx (cert #15576); raised Miami Beach; Lawrence NY (Auerbach Lane) late 1950s; Miami 2002-. Brother Charles (b. 1929, cert #7351; m. Myrna Kash, Bronx 1953 #165)
—	Robert & Estelle's children	Steven → Harrison Steven Freed (b. 1958 Manhattan, cert #19473; name change documented; LA 2012-20; m. 1992 — Osceola FL) · Nancy — Ben's mother (own entry below)
NF	Nancy Freilich (Ben's mother)	b. 1959, Nassau Co., NY; daughter of Robert Freilich & Estelle. Married David Goldberger (Ben's father); later Eliahu Soffer (Ben's stepfather) and Hillel Adler. Living

The name: Fröhlich → Freilich

The surname drifted as the family anglicized it out of German and Yiddish. Each form below is the spelling that actually appears on a record we hold:

• Fröhlich — the original German/Galician family name, carried from Lemberg (Lviv) with its umlaut.
• Frohlich — the 1897 bris invitation Charles printed himself, which reads 'Ch. Frohlich & Frau, 80 Essex Street' (the umlaut simply dropped for English type).
• Freilich — the 1893 marriage certificate (Charles × Anna Wachtel, Manhattan #5196), where his parents are given as Falik Freilich & Sahra Klein; this is the spelling the family ultimately kept, and the one on Charles's FindAGrave memorial.
• Frelich — the 1915 death certificate (NYC #6008): the clerk wrote 'Charles Frelich', and his father as 'Isaac Fr[e]lich' — the one record where the surname loses its middle vowel entirely.

Documents

Pictures

The Schechter & Knoll lines — Estelle's family (Poland + Budapest + Galicia → Vienna → Brooklyn)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Chaim Schechter (4th-great-grandfather)	b. Poland, ~1840s — named as father on Rabbi David's 1937 death certificate. Deepest documented Schechter
photo needed	Wolf Lichtman (1827-1900) × Chane	Ester's parents — the deepest name on Ben's maternal line. Four children: Feige Tzipora (m. Israel Rubin), Rifke b. 1865 (m. Mordechai Segal), Ester, and little Josef (1872-1874). Source: the Lichtman descendant chart (gallery) — record verification pending
photo needed	Rabbi David Schechter × Malka Halpern	David b. 14 Feb 1872, Poland; Malka b. ~1872, Poland. David reached Brooklyn ~1920; Malka crossed with EIGHT children aboard the SS Chicago, Oct 1921 („going to Rabbiner David Shachter — husband"). His death certificate (#10553, gallery): „RABBI + SHECHET / POULTRY / 45 years"; d. 6 May 1937, son Joe signing; buried Beth David Cem., Elmont. Malka d. post-1948 — Beth David office call queued
photo needed	Osias Knoll × Ester Lichtman (1871-1931)	Lillian's parents — Galician Knolls; the family were WWI refugees in Vienna (hence Leontine's 1917 police ID). Ester d. 1931 — place unknown (not in the NYC death index; Vienna IKG probe queued). Other children: Funnie Tziporah (m. Yehuda Katz), Malcha (m. Hirsch Unger), Emil Menachem Knoll (1895-1948, m. Meriam Tschepp) — whose descendants became the Israeli Milstein, Leibowitz and Kenan branches (incl. Menachem Kenan, b. 1959, probable compiler of the family chart)
—	The Schechter Poultry brothers — Joseph, Alex, Martin, Aaron	A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) — the unanimous „sick chicken case" that struck down the NRA: „THEIR SQUAWK KILLED THE BLUE EAGLE" (press photos in gallery). The 1934 trial bared death threats against them; Joseph was sentenced to 3 months + $1,300 (never served) and told reporters the fight cost him „every nickel I had" (~$60,000). Siblings also incl. Arthur/Aaron (~1911), Sari (Schegman), Klara, and Erno (b. 7 Apr 1901, Budapest; poultry business, Brooklyn) — confirmed 2026 via his 1928 EDNY Declaration of Intention: he reached New York on the SS Chicago in Oct 1921, the same voyage that brought Malka and eight of the children
	Joseph Schechter × Lea Lillian Knoll — Estelle's parents	Joseph b. ~1896-98, Budapest/Hungary (if the Poultry-case Joseph — probable per the 1940 census work — he came from Vienna on La Lorraine, Oct 1922, „to father David Schachter"); butcher-employer of 257 Brighton Beach Ave. Lillian = LEONTINE KNOLL — her 1917 Vienna police identity booklet with photo & signature survives (gallery). Their marriage is NOT in the NYC index → likely Vienna or Europe, ~1920-22 (IKG Wien probe queued). Children: Hyman (1923) and Estelle (1936)
	Estelle née Schechter (Ben's maternal grandmother)	b. 1936 Brooklyn; daughter of Joseph Schechter & Lea Lillian Knoll. Married Robert Freilich — Ben's maternal grandparents, whose children were Nancy and Steven; later married Allan Cohen but kept the Freilich name. Died 24 Oct 2014; buried as 'Estelle Freilich' at New Montefiore Cem., West Babylon, NY
	Hyman J.J. Schechter → STEWART (1923-2006)	Estelle's brother — anglicized to Stewart; m. Flora; children Ronni (1948), Beth (1954), Jan (1958), Toni (1961) — living-cousin leads. Photographed with Estelle in the 1980s (gallery)

Documents

Pictures

The Moskowitz line — Brooke's father's family (Habura + Budkovce → Brooklyn)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Nathan & Anna Judkovic and the Judkovic founders of Habura (3rd-great-grandparents & beyond)	Rifka's parents, named ('Nathan' + 'Judkovics Anna') in her 1912 Habura death record — Brooke's 3rd-great-grandparents. Behind them the Judkovics were one of Habura's founding Jewish families: the 1771 Zemplén census lists three Judkovics households — Lehman (in Hungary since 1752), the widow Mindla (settled ~1750) and Vita (since 1760) — and by the 1811 & 1821–22 arendator rolls the family's tavern-lessee of Habura was Mendel Judkovits, the right place and generation to be Nathan's own forebear. So the Judkovic roots in Habura reach back to the first Jewish settlers of the 1750s — the deepest-reaching ancestry yet on Brooke's side (the rung above Nathan is inferred from the single Judkovic family of this one small village, not yet documented). 1771 / 1811 Zemplén censuses; LDS film 1529697, 2026
photo needed	Iszak Moskovic + Rifka (née Judkovic) (newly documented 2026)	Moses's parents, of Habura — Brooke's great-great-grandparents. From the Habura civil death register (Rifka d. 11 Mar 1912, age 85, so b. ~1827; the 1869 census shows the one Moskovics household headed by 'Jezko' b. 1823 with wife 'Rifke' and the infant Mosko). The Moskovits were arendators (tavern-lessees) of Habura back to the 1811 and 1821–22 Zemplén tax rolls.
photo needed	Antal (Anton) Schlesinger + Chana Gittel (Mariam's parents)	Mariam's parents, of Kosárvágása (Košarovce) near Habura — Brooke's great-great-grandparents on the Schlesinger side. Antal is named in Mariam's 1935 Habura death record. Family memory (Brooke, 2026) gives his wife as Chana Gittel and holds the couple are buried in Israel — their daughter Rifka having married into the Batei Rand family of Jerusalem; a plausible but still-undocumented thread (the maiden name, graves and the Rand marriage are the open items — see the tree notes).
	Moses (Mojžiš) Moskovic + Mariam (née Schlesinger)	Bernard's parents, of Habura — named on his 1941 marriage license. They stayed behind but both died in 1935, before the Shoah: Mariam on 29 Jun 1935 (age ~65) and Moses on 12 Nov 1935 (age ~68), per their Habura civil death records — which correct the family's rough memory of ~1943/~1946. Most of their children and grandchildren were later murdered (see Khaim's household below). Their framed photograph survives (gallery) — identified by Ben, 2026
photo needed	Khaim Mordekhai Moskovic	Bernard's brother, b. 1897 Habura — murdered at Levoča with wife Etel née Willer and children incl. Miriam, age 6; seven Pages of Testimony filed by surviving daughter Khana Marva (living-relative lead; PoT in gallery). Two more brothers reached New York: Jack (Jacob) Moskowitz (b. ~1890-93, Hungary/Habura, mother tongue Magyar) — emigrated 1914, one of the last boats before the war; 1920: single garment operator boarding on W 129th St; by 1940 a naturalized ladies'-dress repairman at 2188 Creston Ave, Bronx (the draft card's 'Crescent' = Creston), own shop, 54 hrs/week — wife Rose, sons Carl (~1922) & Alvin (~1927); and Charles Moskowitz (b. ~1899), living in Jack's household in 1940. Four brothers in all: Jack ~1893, Khaim 1897, Charles ~1899, Baruch 1912
	Bernard Moskowitz (Baruch Moskovic)	b. 5 Jun 1912, HABURA, okr. Medzilaborce, Slovakia; escaped aboard the SS NORMANDIE, Le Havre → NY, arrived 26 Sep 1938 — four days before Munich (manifest in gallery); Declaration SDNY #428765 (Feb 1939); WWII draft card 1940 (in gallery): 1173 52nd St Borough Park, self-employed, brother Jack Moskowitz (2188 Crescent Ave, Bronx); garment-business proprietor; d. Jun 1985, Brooklyn
	Elaine Moskowitz née Fried (Ilona/Helena Friedová)	b. 16 Mar 1912, Budkovce (birth entry FOUND by Michalovce archive, 2026); arrived with sister Cecília aboard the RMS AQUITANIA, 5 Nov 1935 — age 22, $20 in her pocket (manifest in gallery); m. Bernard 5 Feb 1941, Brooklyn (license #2128); d. 14 Feb 2000, Borough Park
—	The 12 Fried children of Budkovce	Emanuel/Izrael Fried × Malvína Schönberger (parents confirmed in Cecilia's US SSA record). Their children left in stages 1923-1937, all via Cherbourg: Sarah/Sarolta Lebow (1901-2003, Woodmere), Rozalia (1923), Terezia (1930), Ester (1935), Elaine + Cecília (Nov 1935; Cecília b. 31 Mar 1914, m. Jack Wachtenheim Brooklyn 14 Oct 1940, d. 2003), Martin (1936; 1918-1998), Irena + Regina (Apr 1937), parents last (Oct 1937) — plus Armond, Renee & Fanchie (records being traced)
—	Bernard & Elaine's children	Miriam (~1943), Morris (~1946), and Leonard — Brooke's father (own entry below)
LM	Leonard Moskowitz (Brooke's father)	b. 1949, Brooklyn (cert #15714); son of Bernard & Elaine; married Helen Lazerowitz, Manhattan 1974 (#23422) → Brooke. His first cousin Samuel Weiss contributed much of the Budkovce fieldwork in this archive. Living
BB	Brooke (Bracha) Moskowitz (Ben's wife)	Daughter of Leonard Moskowitz & Helen Lazerowitz; married Benjamin Soffer (see the Goldberger line). Living

Supplementary research — from the family's FamilyEcho tree and Samuel Weiss's Budkovce fieldwork:

• Fried parents CONFIRMED in a US record — Cecilia Fried's SSA application names her parents as Emanuel Fried × Malvina Schönberger (matching the Michalovce archive) — the documentary tie validating the whole Fried identification
• NUMIDENT / SSDI extracts — Elaine Moskowitz aka Helen Fried (SSN 102-05-4557, b. 16 Mar 1912 BUDKOVCE, d. 14 Feb 2000); Cecilia Wachtenheim née Fried (102-05-4570, b. 31 Mar 1914, m. Jack Wachtenheim Brooklyn 14 Oct 1940, d. 25 Aug 2003 Brooklyn); Martin Fried (054-10-6845, d. 1998 Raleigh NC)
• Ilona Friedová birth record (16 Mar 1912, Budkovce) — FOUND by Archív Michalovce; certified extract pending
• 1930 Czechoslovak census, Budkovce #212 + 1937 Budkovce council minutes, Resolution 63/37 (scans now in the gallery) — Izrael Fried's inn-and-tap concession no. 216.423/13-1932 (granted by the Bratislava Provincial Office, 16 Jan 1933) and the council's record that Fried "emigrated with his family to America in September 1937"
• Baruch Moskovic — SS Normandie manifest 1938 + 1941 marriage license (parents Moses Moskowitz + Mariam Shlesinger); Habura birth record requested (Medzilaborce → Habura)
• Fried & Schönberger ancestry — from the family's private FamilyEcho tree (TP24G) + chat, Sep 2026:
  • Mendel / Emanuel / Izrael Fried — b. 22 Jul 1874, d. 6 Jan 1969 (the 22 Jul 1874 matches the birthdate in our Budkovce archive request). Married Malka Schönberger (mother of all the Budkovce children, incl. Elaine/Ilona and Cecília). Chaya Fried, shown beside him in the tree, is his sister (a child of Eliezer & Batsheva; born a Fried, no spouse or children recorded) — not a second wife.
  • Mendel's Hebrew name (from the Family Circle poster): Israel Menachem (ישראל מנחם) — hence "Izrael/Mendel."
  • Mendel's parents: Eliezer Zvi Fried × Ceva "Batsheva" Jager. RESOLVED from their wedding certificate (per Samuel Weiss's records): Mendel's mother was Ceva Jager / Jagerová (surname Yager/Jager, pronounced "Yager"), Hebrew name Batsheva, born in Tárkány, Zemplén district (today Veľké/Malé Trakany, SE Slovakia). This matches the FamilyEcho tree ("Batsheva") and the grandchildren's names — two of Mendel's children are Eliezer Zvi (Lazer Hersh/Lajos) and Bas Sheva (Elaine/Ilona), named for these grandparents. The earlier chat variant "Esther Helena" is superseded. The deeper paternal Fried line from the chat — Yeshayahu (m. Sara) → Mordechai → Yosef → Aharon above Eliezer — is not in the tree and stays oral, to be documented; Batsheva's own Jager line is now one generation deeper: her parents were Vilmos Jäger × Ema, named on Ceva (Batsheva) Jäger's 1908 Butka/Budkovce civil death record — the deepest documented couple on the Jager side (2026).
  • Malka Fried née Schönberger — b. 2 Dec 1881, d. 1 Feb 1953; married Mendel 18 Dec 1898, Czechoslovakia. Her parents: Leopold Schönberger (d. 1909) × Devorah "Dora" Schönberger (b. 1850, d. 1937) — so "Dora" = Devorah, Malka's mother (Leopold's wife), not a sister. Family memory places them at Beňatina, later Szürte (Surte, now Zakarpattia, Ukraine — historic Ung county). Neither Leopold nor Devorah has parents in the tree.
  Family FamilyEcho tree (private, TP24G) + family chat — the pre-Mendel Fried line and the Beňatina/Szürte places to be checked against Budkovce/Michalovce and Ung-county Jewish registers.
• Budkovce on-the-ground research — courtesy of Samuel Weiss (Israel), Leonard's first cousin and a grandson of Mendel & Malka Fried. The Fried photographs, the Family Circle poster, the house pictures and the 1937 council-minute scans in this archive all come from Samuel, who has travelled to Budkovce several times. His findings:
  • Mendel ("zeide") owned two houses in Budkovce — the one he lived in (the house still standing, today No. 329) and a second he sold to his nephew Elimelech, which was later split into two. He located the deeds to both at the Michalovce municipality, together with a map matching the original house numbers to today's — the key to reconciling the census No. 212, the 1937 concession's No. 32, and the present No. 329 (worth obtaining from him).
  • The lived-in house had (matching his mother's memory) three rooms, an outdoor well, a wine cellar and an outside kitchen, as was the custom; a large back yard. A late cousin who had visited years earlier recognized the house from an old photograph, confirming the identification.
  • At the Budkovce Jewish cemetery he searched for two of zeide's children who died young — but most matzevot are gone (stones taken during the Holocaust for building material). So Mendel & Malka had at least two children who died in childhood in Budkovce, beyond the sons and daughters who reached America.
  Samuel Weiss (Israel), family correspondence, 2026 — with thanks.

Documents

Pictures

The Lazerowitz line — Brooke's mother's family (Sosnowiec → Bayreuth → Cincinnati → Brooklyn)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
	Moses Lazerowitz (Mozes Lejzerowicz)	b. 10 Jul 1908, Poland (Sosnowiec) — son of Aharon Shmuel Lazerowitz and Sarah HaLevi née PATAK (per his matzevah); TAILOR; his stone: 'risked his life to help his fellow Jews during the destruction of Europe'; survived; DP camps Bayreuth → Wildflecken/Schweinfurt; flew Transocean Air Lines "Cony 286", Bremen → Idlewild, 19 Oct 1949 (flight list in gallery), destination Cincinnati; SSN 280-28-7384 (Ohio); d. 5 Apr 2000, Borough Park; buried Wellwood Cem., West Babylon, grave 13-L (Agudist Ben. Soc.)
	Regina Lazerowitz née Olshewski	Hebrew name Sarah Rivka bat Yaakov (matzevah); b. ~1912, Poland (Sosnowiec — died 'at 93'; parents Yankel & Chaia Feigel Olshevski per Sosnowiec yizkor); same DP flight; d. 11 Aug 2005 (6 Av 5765); buried beside Moses, grave 14-L. The footstones memorialize both murdered families by name — close-up photos wanted. Her 2005 NY death cert = decisive document for her parents
photo needed	Malka — Regina's first child (family memory)	Before the war Regina had a first marriage in Poland and a baby daughter, Malka (b. ~1940). Malka died as an infant in the ghetto during the Shoah; Regina's first husband perished too, and Regina alone survived, later rebuilding her life with Moses. Malka is remembered from family testimony — she has not yet been found in the Yad Vashem Central Database (searched 2026 by Regina's maiden name Olszewski, married name Lazerowicz, and given names, with no match — most likely no Page of Testimony was ever filed for a baby whose father also perished). The first husband's surname — which would carry Malka's own record — is still unknown.
	Jack Lazerowitz	b. 10 Jul 1948, Bayreuth DP camp — on his father's 40th birthday; Woodward HS Cincinnati 1966 (yearbook portrait in gallery); m1 Libby Ovit 1968 (div. 1973), m2 Jair Ann Miracle 1974 (TN), m3 Giselle Uta Horn 1979 — sons Raphael (1980) & Richard (1981); d. 22 Oct 2025, buried South Florida Jewish Cem., Lake Worth Beach (12-I-36)
HL	Helen F. Moskowitz née Lazerowitz	b. 1953, Cincinnati — named for grandmother Chaia Feigel (family tradition); m. Leonard Moskowitz, Manhattan 1974 (#23422) → Brooke

• Video testimonies — Moses Lazerowitz (Yiddish) & his brother Lazer, both Sosnowiec camp survivors — see the testimonies section

Documents

Pictures

The Soffer & Engel lines — Ben's stepfather's family (Galicia + Bukovina → the Rockaways + a Connecticut farm)

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Samuel Soffer + Rebecca Rubinfeld	Max's parents, Galicia — named on his 1917 marriage certificate. Deepest documented Soffer generation
photo needed	Louis + Rose James	Anna's parents — both b. ~1863, Austria; emigrated with the children ~1896; 1915 state census at 1516 Charlotte St, Bronx with six children at home: Samuel (~30), Anna (25), Max (22), Jennie (20), Pauline (17), Morris (14). Two years later Max Soffer married Anna in that house
photo needed	Max Hertz Soffer	b. 25 Jan 1889, Galicia, Austria (declaration + draft card agree); GLAZIER; Hamburg → New York on the SS Cleveland, 15 Aug 1910; 131 Pitt St, LES, 1914 (declaration #24435); 44 S. Hammels Ave, Rockaway Beach by 1917 (draft card — 'heart trouble' exemption); m. Anna James, 30 Sep 1917, at her family's Bronx home (cert #3816, Rabbi Fabian London); by 1930 at 64-18 Rockaway Beach Blvd — the family address for decades. d. 30 Jun 1968, Far Rockaway; buried Wellwood Cem., West Babylon — Sec. 2, Block 32, Row 10, Grave 13-R, Soc. Cong. Arugath HaBosem (the same cemetery as Moses & Regina Lazerowitz). SSDI carries b. 15 Feb 1890 — a year off his own papers. Hometown lead: 'Max Safer' of Sassow (Sasów, Galicia) in the Hamburg lists — unproven
photo needed	Anna Soffer née James	b. ~1890, Austria — in America since ~age 6; one of six siblings from the Charlotte St household; m. Max 30 Sep 1917 in her parents' home; 1930 & 1940 censuses at the Rockaway Beach Blvd house; children Sylvia (~1923) and Morris (1928); d. 29 Aug 1968, Far Rockaway — sixty days after Max; beside him at Wellwood (Sec. 2, Block 32, Row 14, Grave 14-L, same society)
photo needed	Harry Heinrich Engel	Elsie's father — b. 12 Jan 1896, TOPOROUTZ, Bukovina, Austria (Toporowty on his draft card; today Toporivtsi, Ukraine — hence the census flip-flop 'Austria'/'Romania'); arrived ~1913, age ~17 (1925 census: '12 years in US'); 1917: farmhand for William Marley on Freeville RD 16, Tompkins Co. NY; WWI U.S. veteran (VA claim card 'Harry Henry Engle' — a post-war stop in Waynesboro, PA); m. Jennie GREEN — license #7851, Brooklyn, 29 May 1923; 1925: Brooklyn AD 18 with newborn Esther; moved to Connecticut and farmed the Foxon district of northern East Haven — a semi-rural ridge — first on Thompson St (1930) then his own place on Foxon Hill Rd (1940–50s); New Haven city directories list him as farmer every year 1948–1954+, and the 1950 census has him managing his own farm 70 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (census page in the Soffer & Engel gallery). This is the East Haven farm where Elsie grew up. Naturalized (SSN issued CT); d. Jan 1983, Brooklyn 11210. Parents (per the 1923 affidavit #7851): Wolf Engel × Elka Morgenstern, both Austria/Bukovina
photo needed	Jennie P. Engel née GREEN	Elsie's mother — b. 18 May 1898, Poland (Green likely anglicized from Grün); SSN 040-32-0300 (issued CT 1956-57, the farm years); parents FOUND in the 1923 marriage affidavit (#7851): Israel Grün (Green) × Ester (her maiden surname hard to read, approx. Salketer/Salcheter), both Austria — the affidavit also gives Jennie's own birthplace as Austria (Galicia), not Poland; d. Nov 1969, Far Rockaway — her last years near Elsie. Daughters: Esther L. (b. ~1925, CT) and Elsie
	Morris J. Soffer (Moshe Yosef)	Hebrew name Moshe Yosef per Eliahu's matzevah; b. 15 May 1928, New York; raised at 64-18 Rockaway Beach Blvd (a Rockaway public-school kid — 5th grade in the 1940 census); lost both parents in the summer of 1968; m. Elsie R. Engel, Queens, 18 Nov 1947 — both nineteen; 1950 census head of household at 682 Swan Place, Far Rockaway, age 21 with two sons; d. 17 Jul 2011, Far Rockaway; buried Beth Moses Cem., West Babylon — Sec. 3, Block 30, Row 5, Grave 10, Agudist Benevolent Society
	Elsie Soffer née Engel	b. ~May 1929, East Haven, Connecticut — raised on the family farm (Thompson St, then Foxon Hill Rd); m. Morris 1947; d. 24 Mar 2017; buried beside him at Beth Moses — Sec. 3, Block 30, Row 8, Grave 23, same Agudist society (the same burial society as Moses Lazerowitz at Wellwood)
—	Eleazer Soffer	b. ~1949, Far Rockaway — Eliahu's older brother, age 1 in the 1950 census
	Eliahu Soffer — Ben's stepfather	b. 22 Feb 1950, Far Rockaway (public-records DOB; two months old in the April 1950 census at 682 Swan Place); m. Brucha Kitay, Queens, 1970 — sons Matis & Menachem; lived Far Rockaway (1984) and Long Beach NY (2001–02); d. erev Shabbat, 4 Iyar 5768 = 9 May 2008; buried in Israel (matzevah in gallery: 'honored his father and mother with love all his days')

Documents

Pictures

Video testimonies — the family's own voices

USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive interviews, obtained as family copies (order Sep 2026). Four interviews are archived here in full — Milan's brothers Leo and Gustav Goldberger, and Brooke's grandfather Moses Lazerowitz with his brother Lazer. These are the complete set that exists: of the four Goldberger brothers only Leo and Gustav recorded testimonies (Milan and Erik did not), and on the Lazerowitz side both brothers who reached America testified.