People & facts

The Goldberger line — Ben's paternal

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Markus (Yaakov) Goldberger (b. ~1807 Nagy-Kosztolány – d. 5 May 1879 Zsámbokrét) · direct ancestor	Emanuel's father, the shochet and cantor of Nagy-Zsámbokrét (Žabokreky nad Nitrou). From the first wedding in the community's register (May 1840) to 1870 he witnessed about three of every four Jewish marriages there; the 1869 census calls him Schächter, born at Nagy-Kosztolány (Veľké Kostoľany), and the 1879 death register Kantor. The family remembers his Hebrew name as Yaakov; Emanuel's 1919 death record calls him Adolf. Goldberg or Goldberger: the register writes him “Marcus Goldberg” in 1840–41, and the short form follows the family, so look under both names. His birthplace held a Goldberger clan of probable kin, including Jakab, shochet and mohel of Kosztolány in the 1870s. Family write-up (PDF) · more →
3 wives	The wives of Markus	Laura née Weisz · direct ancestor, Emanuel's mother, named in his 1919 death record; she evidently died young, as Emanuel named a daughter Laura about 1871. Debure (Devorah), b. ~1814, d. 11 Dec 1864 at Zsámbokrét, the only Goldberger woman in its death register 1840–69 and probably Lipót's mother. Antonia, b. ~1830, of Trencsén county, his wife in the 1869 census. Maiden names of Debure and Antonia not yet found.
probable kin	The Goldbergers of Nagy-Kosztolány, Markus's birthplace	Three Goldberger households in the 1869 census, of Markus's generation and very likely his brothers or cousins (not proven): Simon (b. 1794); Ignaz and his widow Juli, whose son Jakab was shochet and mohel of Kosztolány; and a second Markus, merchant (d. 2 Jul 1869), with his widow Katalin. Simon named a son Menashe in 1857 with a Jacob Goldberger as sandek, perhaps Markus himself, which fits the family memory of alternating names, Menashe ben Yaakov ben Menashe.
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 father was Markus (Yaakov) Goldberger, shochet and cantor of Zsámbokrét, and Emanuel later held the same post there; the family remembers the Hebrew name Yaakov from Milan's account of the alternating cantorial names: “Menashe ben Yaakov ben Menashe ben Yaakov — it went back and forth.”
photo needed	Lipót (Leopold) Goldberger (b. ~1840 Zsámbokrét)	Very probably Markus's son and Emanuel's brother (no record yet names his parents). Like his father and brother a religious functionary: a prayer leader (előimádkozó) at Dvorecz near Bán, Trencsén county. Married Netti (Betti) née Reif of Szelepcsény; daughters Deborah (~1870), Jeanette (1872) and Róza (1874). Written ‘Leopold Goldberg’ in 1876, the same short form the Zsámbokrét register used for Markus.
photo needed	Herman Jakab (Yaakov) Berkovics & Rachel (Ruchel) née Weisz · direct ancestor	Parents of Bernát (Dov) Berkovits, from his late-registered birth entry: a Bernát Berkovics born in 1878 at Rakasz (Rokosovo, Ugocsa county), registered in 1902 with father Herman Jakub Berkovics of Rakasz and mother Rachel Veisz of Szászfalu (Sasovo), and again in 1921 with parents Jakob and Ruchel. Bernát's 1930 census entry gives his birth as 16 January 1878 at ‘Rokos’, so the identification is strong though not proven by a dated entry; Bernát named a son Hermann in 1907. A Natan Berkovics of Rokosovo (d. there 1924), son of Herman Berkovics and Róza Weisz, may be Bernát's older brother, and Róza probably the same woman as Rachel. more →
photo needed	Hanni (Anna) Goldberger née Klein (b. ~1861) · direct ancestor	Eugene's mother and Emanuel's second wife. Her maiden name KLEIN and birthplace come from Eugene's 1903 Hlohovec birth record (age 42, b. probably Dežerice). 'Hanni' = Johanna/Anna. more →
photo needed	Rudolf (Rezső) Goldberger (b. 4 Aug 1899 – d. 1942)	Son of Emanuel and Hanni Klein, a full brother of Eugene; born at Nyitra-Zsámbokrét (Nitrianske Žabokreky), per his state birth entry (father Emanuel, cantor). On 1 Aug 1926 he married his first cousin Leonora (Leonka) Klein, daughter of his mother's brother Márk; they lived in Bratislava, where sons Pali (1931) and Bandi (1935) were born, then in Trenčín, and in 1919 he reported his father's death there. The Slovak deportation lists send him from Sereď to Lublin on 30 March 1942 (list no. 144), and the Majdanek prisoner register lists a Rudolf Goldberger, 1899, Trenčín; with no later record, he most likely died at Majdanek or elsewhere in the Lublin district in 1942. Leonora and both sons were deported separately and murdered at Auschwitz; Trenčín's memorial list names him beside his wife (‘Goldberger Rudolf, Goldbergerová Leonka’). more →
	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.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Eugene (Jenő) Goldberger — children of Manó (Emanuel) Goldberger & Hanni (Anna) Goldberger née Klein	Sándor Goldberger (b. ~Aug 1896 – d. 9 Oct 1896). Click a name for their full card.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Eugene (Jenő) Goldberger — children of Manó (Emanuel) Goldberger & Julie Goldberger née Fischer	Josef Goldberger (b. 28 Sep 1875). Click a name for their full card.
	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).
5 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Regina Berkovits née Klein — children of Simon Meir (Shimshon) Klein & Julia (Yulia) Klein née Stein	Yosef Klein (b. 1900 – d. 1942) ✡; Hugo Klein (b. 1908 – d. 1942) ✡; Erno (Ernest) Klein (b. 1910 – d. 1942) ✡; Moshe Klein; Roza Klein (m. Slovak). Click a name for their full card.
	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. A cantor too: cantor of Congregation Cnesses Israel in Arverne, on the Rockaway peninsula, in 1966 and 1967 (The Wave), and High Holy Days cantor at the Providence Synagogue in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and 1972 (The Scranton Tribune).
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 a second wife, 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.

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 (b. 15 Mar 1850, Halmi; d. 1 Jan 1921, Tarpa) × Betti née Klein, Amália’s mother; up to Asher’s father, Yitzchok (Ignácz) Friedman (b. ~1825). Strober: Yoel (Yulik) Strober × Yitte Rochel. These are among the deepest-reaching documented ancestors anywhere on Ben's tree.
photo needed	Binyamin Zev Lipman · direct ancestor	The furthest-back name the tree gives on this line — roughly the 1560s; father of Avraham Lipman and Jacob Eliezer Lipman (b.1590). (Gitelman tree, read as lore.) more →
photo needed	Eliya Lipman · direct ancestor	Binyamin Zev Lipman's wife; mother of Avraham Lipman (Gitelman tree). more →
photo needed	Eliahu Lipszyc (Lipschutz) · direct ancestor	Father of the Lipszyc daughter who married Avraham Lipman — the Lipschutz (Lipszyc) strand feeding into this line (Gitelman tree, read as lore). more →
photo needed	Lipman née Lipszyc (given name unrecorded) · direct ancestor	Moshe Lipman (Lifshitz)'s mother; née Lipszyc (Lifshitz), daughter of Eliahu Lipszyc. Given name not recorded. (Gitelman tree) more →
photo needed	Avraham Lipman — author of Zera Avraham · direct ancestor	The tree identifies him with the author of the sefer Zera Avraham (Sulzbach, 1685), whose title page names 'Avraham son of R' Binyamin, son-in-law of the late R' Eliyahu Lifshitz' — matching this family's structure (father Binyamin Zev; wife a daughter of Eliahu Lipszyc). But that identification breaks the chain. more →
photo needed	Edel Katz née Margaliot-Shtengen · direct ancestor	Yitzchak HaCohen Katz's wife; née Margaliot (Margolioth / Margolis-Stengen), a name borne by a distinguished rabbinic line. more →
photo needed	Yitzchak HaCohen Katz (b. c.1608 Prague – d. c.1670 Lublin) · direct ancestor	The furthest-back named ancestor on Maria’s Gottdiener Kohen line, husband of Edel née Margaliot-Shtengen and father of Yeshaya HaCohen Katz. The rabbinic-genealogy trees make him a son of R’ Naftali Hirsch Katz of Lublin and a grandson of R’ Yitzchok Katz (d. 1624), the Maharal of Prague’s son-in-law; he is not himself that son-in-law. The upper Katz chain is internally inconsistent tree scaffolding, reached only through unsourced rungs and an unproven hinge to the Gottdieners, so this descent is family tradition, not record proof. (MyHeritage rabbinic trees) more →
photo needed	Moshe Lipman (Lifshitz) (b. ~1630) · direct ancestor	Born about 1630 in Koden, died in Tarnów — the Lifshitz (Lipszyc) link in this line. Father of Avraham Weisblum and Yaakov Kopel Weisblum. (Gitelman tree) more →
photo needed	Yeshaya HaCohen Katz · direct ancestor	Moshe Katz's father — but really the first of three bare-name rungs (Yeshaya → Moshe → Arie Leib) the online trees use to bridge down from the Prague Katz line, and a red flag in its own right: the chain routes around Yitzchak of Stepan's famous, well-documented son, the Gaon R' Naftali HaKohen Katz (Semichat Chachamim, d.1719),… more →
photo needed	Weisblum née Halpern (given name unrecorded) (b. ~1655 – d. 1688) · direct ancestor	Avraham Weisblum's wife, née Halpern (Heilprin); the Noam Elimelech's grandmother. Given name not recorded. (Gitelman tree) more →
photo needed	Moshe Katz · direct ancestor	Arie Leib Katz's father; of the HaCohen Katz (Kohen) line. (Geni) more →
photo needed	Avraham Weisblum (b. ~1660 – d. 1688) · direct ancestor	The Noam Elimelech's grandfather; of Tarnów, 1660–1688. Son of Moshe Lipman (Lifshitz); his brother was Yaakov Kopel Weisblum. (Gitelman tree) more →
photo needed	Arie Leib Katz · direct ancestor	The first rung of the unverified upper Katz chain, on Maria's Gottdiener (Kohen) side. Our family above Aron Gottdiener is given here as Arie Leib Katz → Moshe Katz → Yeshaya → Yitzchak of Prague → (by tradition) the Maharal, but this is a Geni/rabbinic-tree graft, not documented: no record ties Aron Yakov Gottdiener of Kis Toro… more →
photo needed	R' Elazar (Eliezer Lipa) Lipman · direct ancestor	Father of the Noam Elimelech and of Reb Zusha. His name is fixed by his son's own matzevah, which calls Elimelech 'son of R' Elazar Lipman' (Hebrew Wikipedia likewise gives Elazar/Eliezer Lipman). more →
photo needed	Mirel (Mirish) Lipman · direct ancestor	Mother of the Noam Elimelech and Reb Zusha; English and Hebrew Wikipedia both name her Mirel (also Mirish). The earlier readings here — a maiden name 'Auerbach,' dates 1697–1760, and a note that she was really 'Gitel' — were mistaken: 'Gitel' is Elimelech's second wife (bat R' Yaakov Margolios), not his mother, and no reliable s… more →
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk — the Noam Elimelech — children of R' Elazar (Eliezer Lipa) Lipman & Mirel (Mirish) Lipman	Rebbe Meshullam Zusha of Anipol (Reb Zusha) (b. 1718 – d. 1800). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Lorenz Deutsch · direct ancestor	David Hirsch Hermann Deutsch's father — the furthest-back Deutsch ancestor the archive carries. From the Balázs Déri Geni tree. Above him that tree keeps going, and this is where we stop. It chains the Deutsch patriline back through a medieval 'Aschkenasi' (Asshakanaze) line to an unnamed 'N. more →
photo needed	Breindel Deutsch · direct ancestor	Lorenz Deutsch's wife; David Hirsch Hermann Deutsch's mother. From the Balázs Déri Geni tree; no dates recorded. (Geni, 2026) more →
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Mirish (Mirel) Alowitz (Elowitz) née Weisblum — children of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk — the Noam Elimelech & Shprintze Weissblum née Rokeach	Rabbi Elazar of Lizhensk (d. 1806); R' Eliezer Lipa of Chmielnik; Esther Etil. Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	R' Yaakov, of Łańcut · direct ancestor	Father of R' Eliyahu Alowitz of Sde Lavan, per Hebrew Wikipedia's Noam Elimelech article ('son of Rabbi Yaakov'), of Łańcut (Lanzut). No published source extends this line above him — it rests on Hebrew Wikipedia and the Hasidic family accounts (checked 2026). more →
photo needed	R' Eliyahu Alowitz (Elowitz), of Sde Lavan · direct ancestor	Mirish's husband, named in Hebrew Wikipedia's Noam Elimelech article as R' Eliyahu Alowitz of Sde Lavan (שדה לבן), son of R' Yaakov (of Łańcut). His surname Alowitz / Elowitz — a patronymic, 'son of Eliyahu' — passed to his children and later became Lebovics. more →
photo needed	Julie Gottdiener née Eisen · direct ancestor	Aron Yakov Gottdiener's wife; née Eisen. (Geni) more →
photo needed	Yakov Shamshon Deutsch (b. 1783) · direct ancestor	Yehuda's father, b. 1783 (one tree gives c.1790) — Maria's 4th-great-grandfather on the Deutsch side. His siblings were Salamon, Moses, Israel, Hirsch and Julia Ewa (Roth) Deutsch. more →
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Yakov Shamshon Deutsch — children of David Hirsch Hermann Deutsch	Samuel Deutsch. Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Nachman Chaim, rabbi of Mukachevo · direct ancestor	Hendel's father, given on Geni (Usher Anshil Lebovits, 2020, unsourced) as 'a rabbi of Mukachevo (Munkács)'. Checked Oct 2026: no Nachman Chaim appears among the rabbis of Munkács in Hendel's era — the town's rabbis were Zvi Avigdor Ashkenazi (from 1815) and Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Dynów, the Bnei Yissaschar (from 1825), and l… more →
photo needed	Leah Deutsch née Landau · direct ancestor	Yehuda's mother; née Landau (Gitelman tree). more →
photo needed	Ábrahám Smulyovics · direct ancestor	Father of Chana (Hani) Deutsch née Smulyovics, and so Ben’s 6th-great-grandfather through the Gottlieb line; husband of Eszter née Grünfeld. A shopkeeper (szatócs) of Sátoraljaújhely, already dead by 1905. Known only from his daughter’s civil death record (Sátoraljaújhely 1905, no. 241), which names him and his wife. more →
photo needed	Rabbi Meir Elowitz · direct ancestor	Father of Rabbi Arye Leib David Lebovics; masked in the Gitelman tree and named Rabbi Meir Elowitz on Geni. The Gitelman tree places him as a son of Mirish née Lipman and of the Elowitz family, brother of Elias Elovits and Pinchas Elimelech Elowitz, but the curated Noam Elimelech profiles (sourced to Rosenstein’s The Unbroken Chain) list Pinchos as Mirish’s only child. Geni’s revision log shows the link from Mirish to Meir and the ‘Elowitz’ identity were added in a single unsourced 2021 edit, questioned in a public discussion (‘Did R’ Meir exist?’) and disconnected by a curator in 2022. Our descent from the Noam Elimelech is unverified, and actively doubted, at this rung. more →
photo needed	Jokebed Gottdiener née Black · direct ancestor	Shimshon Eliezer Gottdiener's wife; née Black — confirmed by the 1848 Hungarian Jewish census of Tiszalök ('Eva née Black, 45,' wife of Samson Gotdiner). (Geni; JewishGen 2026) more →
photo needed	Yehuda (Gyula/Josef) Deutsch (b. ~1814 – d. 1854) · direct ancestor	Devorah's father; born about 1814 in Sárospatak, lived and died (1854) in Sátoraljaújhely, in the Zemplén borderland (Slovenské Nové Mesto lies just across the river). Son of Yakov Shamshon Deutsch and Leah née Landau. more →
photo needed	Chana (Hani) Deutsch née Smulyovics (b. 1815 – d. 27 Apr 1905) · direct ancestor	Devorah's mother; née Smulyovics; a fruit seller of Sátoraljaújhely who lived to about ninety (1815 – 27 April 1905). (Gitelman tree) more →
photo needed	Avraham Elimelech Strober (שטרויבער) (d. 11 Jun 1880) · direct ancestor	Rivka's father, of the Strober / Shtroiber line; died 11 June 1880 at Pryborzhavske in Transcarpathia (Subcarpathian Rus). His grandson Avraham Elimelech Lebovics carried his name. Son of Yoel Strober and Yitte Rochel; his siblings were Elka Sarah (Neumann) and Eliezer (Leizer). more →
photo needed	Freida Strober née Fixler (פיקסלער) · direct ancestor	Rivka's mother; née Fixler (Pikseler). (Geni) more →
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Avraham Elimelech Strober (שטרויבער) — children of Yoel (Yulik) Strober & Yitte Rochel Strober	Elka Sarah Neumann née Strober (b. c.1824 – d. 11 Oct 1895). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Yitzchok (Ignácz, Izsák) Friedman & Rebeka (Regi) née Markovits (b. 1825 & b. 1830) · direct ancestors	Of Halmi (Halmeu), Ugocsa county; the deepest documented Friedmans, parents of Asher Zelig Friedman, so Maria Gottlieb’s great-grandparents. The Halmi Jewish family lists give her as Rebeka Markovits, born 1830, with her sons Adolf (1848) and Zelig (1850); Adolf’s 1900 marriage names her as Rebeka Markovics, and Zelig’s 1876 marriage at Tarpa as ‘Regi’. (JewishGen Hungary Database) more →
photo needed	Sara Klein	Mother of Eszter (Eszti) Friedman née Klein, the second wife of Asher Zelig Friedman, and so grandparent to his ten younger children. Not a direct ancestor of Ben: Amália, Maria’s mother, was the daughter of Asher’s first wife, Betti née Klein. From Geni; her own maiden name and dates are not yet recorded. (Geni, 2026) more →
photo needed	Yosef Tzvi Klein (HaLevi)	Father of Eszter (Eszti) Friedman née Klein, the second wife of Asher Zelig Friedman, and so grandparent to his ten younger children. Not a direct ancestor of Ben: Amália, Maria’s mother, was the daughter of Asher’s first wife, Betti née Klein. A Levi — the Geni profile names him 'HaLevi.' From the Lebovits-managed Geni tree; his dates are not yet recorded. (Geni, 2026) more →
	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.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Mordechai Yehuda Gottlieb — children of Jozsef Yohanan Gottlieb & Marjem (Miriam) Gottlieb née Gottdiener	Reb Abraham Avraham Gottlieb (b. ~1850 – d. Apr 1928). Click a name for their full card.
	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.
photo needed	Betti Friedman née Klein (d. between 1874 and 1876) · direct ancestor	First wife of Asher Zelig Friedman and mother of Amália (Mari), born at Tarpa on 23 Jun 1874; both Amália’s birth entry and her 1893 marriage record name her mother as ‘Klein Betti’. She died between June 1874 and June 1876, when Zelig, a widower, married the 18-year-old Eszti Klein; whether the two Klein wives were related is not known. (JewishGen Hungary Database) more →
photo needed	Asher Zelig (Zelik) Friedman (b. 15 Mar 1850 Halmi – d. 1 Jan 1921 Tarpa) · direct ancestor	Father of Miriam (Amália) Gottlieb, so Maria Gottlieb’s grandfather. Born at Halmi (Ugocsa county) to Yitzchok (Ignácz) and Rebeka Friedman, he settled at Mező-Tarpa in Bereg. He married twice: first Betti née Klein, Amália’s mother, who died by 1876, and then, as a widower of 27, Eszti Klein (Tarpa, 13 Jun 1876), mother of his ten younger children, several of them murdered in the Shoah. He is buried at Tarpa. (Halmi family lists and Tarpa civil registers, JewishGen; Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony) more →
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Rabbi Yaakov (Jakab) Lebovics — children of Tzvi Hirsch Lebovics & Rivka Lebovics née Strober (Shtroibel)	Avraham Elimelech Lebovics (b. 28 Jun 1881). Click a name for their full card.
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Tzvi Hersh (Herman) Gottlieb — children of Mordechai Yehuda Gottlieb & Devorah Gottlieb née Deutch	Shlomo Hillel Gottlieb (b. 2 Oct 1872 – d. 22 May 1945) ✡; Shimshon Eliezer Gottlieb (d. 1938); Chaim Gottlieb. Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Mihály (Michael) Gottlieb (b. 10 Jul 1868 Sátoraljaújhely – d. 12 Apr 1932 Sátoraljaújhely)	Son of Mordechai Yehuda (Marton) Gottlieb and Debora née Deutsch, brother of Herman (Tzvi Hersh). A merchant and tinware seller, he married Hani Friedman of Kemecse on 30 Jul 1893, and by 1901 Helén Ausländer, mother of Gyula, Miklós and others. He registered the deaths of his grandmother Hani Deutsch (1905, as her grandson) and his mother (1919), records that tie the family together. He died at Sátoraljaújhely aged 64, his death registered by his son Gyula. (Hungarian civil registers) more →
photo needed	Töbe (Toba) Lebovics née Welber (b. 18 Jun 1874 – d. 5 Av 5698 (2 Aug 1938)) · direct ancestor	Hirs's mother, née Welber, 1874–1938; daughter of Moshe Welber and Freida née Itzkowitz. Her matzevah — beside Yakov's — calls her 'our dear mother, the righteous Rebbetzin Toibe daughter of Moshe' and dates her death to 5 Av (year now read 5698 = 1938; see below); more →
10 sib.	Half-brothers & half-sisters of Miriam (Amália) Gottlieb née Friedman — children of Asher Zelig (Zelik) Friedman & his second wife Eszter (Eszti) Friedman née Klein	Malka (Nina) Gelbman née Friedman (b. 2 Feb 1879, d. 6 Nov 1931); Zsenyi Friedman (b. 6 Sep 1880); Ignácz (Yitzchok) Friedman (b. 23 Jan 1883); Henrik Friedman (b. 6 May 1885); Miksa Friedman (b. 19 Jul 1887, d. 15 Jun 1944) ✡; Ábrahám (Abris, Adolf) Friedman (b. c. 1896, d. 1944) ✡; Daniel Friedman (b. 28 May 1901, d. 1945) ✡; Gizella Weisz née Friedman (d. 15 Jun 1944) ✡; Moshe Friedman; Sarolta (Sarlota) Rosner née Friedman (d. 1944) ✡. Amália’s own mother was Asher’s first wife, Betti Friedman née Klein, who died by 1876. Click a name for their full card.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Töbe (Toba) Lebovics née Welber — children of Moshe Welber & Freida Welber née Itzkowitz	Hani Keszler née Welber. Click a name for their full card.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Miriam (Amália) Gottlieb née Friedman — children of Asher Zelig (Zelik) Friedman & Eszter Friedman	Miksa Friedman (b. 1892 – d. 15 Jun 1944) ✡. Click a name for their full card.
	Jacob Gelbman (b. 18 Sep 1880 Fancsika – d. 24 Mar 1943 Detroit)	Husband of Malka (Nina) née Friedman, whom he married in 1900; son of Moses Gelbman, born at Fancsika (Ung). He sailed from Bremen in 1901, was a grocer in McKeesport, Pa., naturalized at Pittsburgh on 5 Mar 1907, and moved in 1920 to Detroit, where he kept a grocery at 526 Melbourne Ave. His 1923 passport application, vouched for by his son-in-law Joseph Grossfeld, carries the couple’s joint photograph. Widowed in 1931 and remarried in 1933, he died in Detroit after being struck by a car and is buried beside Nina at Oakview Cemetery, Royal Oak (‘Yaakov bar Shmuel Moshe’). more →
	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)
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Hirs (Chaim Tzvi) Lebovics — children of Rabbi Yaakov (Jakab) Lebovics & Töbe (Toba) Lebovics née Welber	Mózes Lebovits (b. c.1895 – d. 12 Jul 1899); Sara Balaban née Lebovics (b. 12 Dec 1897); Eliezer Lebovics (d. 15 Oct 1901); Salamon Lebovits (b. 23 Jan 1903 – d. 1904). Click a name for their full card.
	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
photo needed	Daniel Friedman (b. 28 May 1901 Tarpa – d. 1945)	Youngest documented son of Asher Zelig Friedman and Eszter née Klein, Amália’s half-brother; his Tarpa birth entry proves the branch. A farmer, he married Heléna Fisch at Tarpa on 27 Apr 1924, his brother Miksa a witness. Deported in May 1944 from the Beregszász ghetto to Auschwitz, he survived the selection; his Mauthausen prisoner card (no. 136659) traces him to Gross-Rosen and to Mauthausen on 3 Mar 1945, after which his fate is unknown. Helena and Anna were murdered at Auschwitz, Erna died in Sweden soon after liberation, and Zoltán died in labour service in 1945. more →
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Maria “Mamela” Gotlieb — children of Tzvi Hersh (Herman) Gottlieb & Miriam (Amália) Gottlieb née Friedman	Jenő (Yitzchak) Gottlieb (b. 12 Mar 1894). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Meir (Mayer) Lebovics (b. 7 Dec 1904 Záhony – d. 18 Mar 1989 Rochester, N.Y.)	Hirs’s brother, son of Rabbi Yaakov (Jakab) Lebovics and Töbe née Welber; a rabbi who arrived in New York on the Ile de France on 29 Jul 1930 from Paris and settled in Rochester, N.Y. His 1933 marriage there to Ruth Kolko names his parents Jacob Lebovics and Antonia Webber, and in 1940 he was the informant on his father’s death certificate. His stone at Britton Road Cemetery reads ‘Meir son of HaRav Yaakov’, and his 1989 death notice names his sister Honey (Mrs. Max) Einhorn and his brother Mark Lebovics of Netanya. more →
photo needed	Mark (Meyer, Meir) Lebovic (b. 21 Dec 1914 Handelbustyaháza – d. 4 Mar 2006 Jerusalem)	Son of Avraham Elimelech Lebovics and Hani (Helen) née Motyovits, born at Handelbustyaháza (Bushtyno); his Har HaMenuchot grave names his parents Avraham Elimelech and Hanna and his grandfathers Tzvi and Zeev, with his wife Sima Mindel (Sylvia Minnie) née Woolf beside him. Naturalised a British subject in London on 12 Oct 1946, he settled in Toronto as a builder; his 1951 U.S. admission card has him visiting his cousin Balaban in Brooklyn, husband of Sara Balaban née Lebovics, a primary record tying his branch to Yaakov’s. Near-certainly the Meyer Lebovic who was chairman (1960-62) and then president of Ner Israel Yeshiva College of Toronto (Canadian Jewish News). more →
	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)
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Sulamith “Sue” Lebovics — children of Hirs (Chaim Tzvi) Lebovics & Maria “Mamela” Gotlieb	Abigail Lebovics (b. 25 Jan 1922 – d. 2020); Yehoshafat (Ichasaft) Lebovics (b. c. Mar 1924 – d. 24 Mar 1925); Ezra Lebovics (b. 17 Nov 1928 – d. 2002). Click a name for their full card.

• 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.

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

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
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	Meyer Jacobs & Minna (Mina) née Helfand (Meyer b. ~1821 – d. 19 Feb 1885; Minna b. ~1823 – d. 23 Mar 1889) · direct ancestor	Ophelia's parents, both born in Prussia; Meyer was a 38-year Baltimore resident in the clothing business (Baltimore Sun obituary, 1885), a tailor in the 1860 census and by 1880 keeper of a clothing store at 11 Second Street. The 1860, 1870 and 1880 censuses show the family in Baltimore's 9th Ward, with Minna written ‘Amelia’ and ‘Mena’; their eight children, born 1847 to 1861, include Hannah (m. Kerngood), Helena, Jacob (a Philadelphia clothier), Henrietta (m. Kaufman) and Ophelia. Minna's 1889 funeral was held at the home of her son-in-law Joseph Nadel, 1423 West Baltimore St, independently confirming the Jacobs and Nadel marriage. Both lie under one family stone at Hebrew Friendship Cemetery (‘Meyer 1822-1885, his wife Mina 1823-1889’); the maiden name Helfand rests only on Ophelia's 1931 death certificate. more →
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	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
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Nathan Wachtel — children of Samuel Dawid (Sol) Wachtel & Rebecca (Rifka) Wachtel	Eisig (Eisek) Wachtel (b. 1816 – d. 26 Feb 1891); Leib (Leibusch) Wachtel (b. 30 Mar 1821); Taube Wachtel (b. ~1826 – d. 27 Apr 1831). Click a name for their full card.
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Rosa (Reisel) Wachtel née Mensch — children of Moshe Mordechai Mensch & Feiga Mensch née Blindsner	Berl Leiser Mensch (b. 5 Oct 1832); Henne Mensch (b. ~1837 – d. 1838); Abraham Hersch Mensch (b. 1839); Salomon Isaac Mensch (b. 1843). Click a name for their full card.
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)
	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)
photo needed	Morris P. Wachtel (b. 10 Jun 1862 – d. 7 Jul 1942)	Anna's brother, a tailor born at Lemberg; his 1942 Bronx death certificate names his parents as Nathan Wachtel and Rose Mensch, with his nephew Dr. Charles Brendler as informant. He married Rosie Tush; the family lived in Hamburg on the way over (son Charles born there in 1889), and the Hamburg list of 26 Jun 1891 shows ‘Moritz Wachtel’, tailor, with his wife and two small children sailing on the Columbia, landing at New York on 3 July. Rosie very probably died in 1903, and in 1905 his sons Louis and Jacob were living in the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society orphanage; in 1920 he was a widower in the Bronx with Charles, Louis and Ethel. Buried in the Lemberger plot at Mount Zion, Maspeth, as ‘brother of Leon and Louis’. more →
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)
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Charles Freilich — children of Falik (Isaac) Freilich & Sara Marjem Freilich née Terkil	Eidil Rifka Freilich (b. 24 Feb 1876); Ettie Freilich (b. 21 Oct 1877); Joseph Freilich (b. 11 Jun 1880 – d. 4 Dec 1880); Debora Freilich (b. 6 Dec 1881). Click a name for their full card.
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)
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Anna Freilich née Wachtel — children of Nathan Wachtel & Rosa (Reisel) Wachtel née Mensch	Samuel Wachtel (b. ~9 Dec 1859 – d. 21 Jan 1860); Dawid Wachtel (b. 9 Dec 1859); Rebecca Rifka Wachtel (b. May 1862); Rose Wachtel (b. 1865). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Louis Wachtel (b. 10 May 1874 – d. 21 Feb 1924)	Anna's brother, born at Lemberg (date confirmed by his 1899 passport application and burial record); his death certificate names his parents Nathan Wachtel and Rose Mensch. A merchant tailor, naturalized in Brooklyn's federal court on 22 June 1899 (landed New York 5 Mar 1889), for more than ten years in the firm of Wachtel and Reich; he probably also bought and sold Manhattan tenements in 1904 to 1906, several through his brother-in-law Charles Freilich, the broker (probable, not proven). He married Dora Aaron; children Anna, Rose, Nathan (Ned) and Ella. A Freemason of Dirigo Lodge No. 30, he died suddenly at his tailor store, 50 Beaver Street, and lies in the Lemberger plot at Mount Zion. more →
	Harry Freilich × Gladys Nadel	Harry was born 2 Aug 1897 at 80 Essex St (Manhattan birth certificate no. 33652, 'Harrie Frailish'), matching the family's printed bris invitation; the 2 Feb 1897 on his 1918 draft card was an error. Died 2 Aug 1957 of a heart attack, then living at 700 W 176th St, Washington Heights; buried Riverside Cemetery, Saddle Brook, NJ, beside Gladys. Robert remembers him driving a yellow taxi in New York. 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
6 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Harry Freilich — children of Charles Freilich & Anna Freilich née Wachtel	Sadie Freilich (b. 24 Oct 1894 – d. 1959); Dorothy (Dora) Freilich (b. 2 Apr 1896 – d. 1958); Fannie (Frances) Freilich (b. 12 May 1899 – d. 7 May 1992); Sena (Lena) Freilich (b. 18 May 1901 – d. 1981); Morris Freilich (b. 3 Jul 1903 – d. 27 Aug 1977); Sylvia (Rose) Freilich (b. 23 Jun 1905 – d. 1982). Click a name for their full card.
RH	Robert Herbert Freilich (grandfather)	b. 1935, Bronx (cert #15576); raised Miami Beach; Lawrence NY (Auerbach Lane) late 1950s; Miami 2002-. Studied at CCNY's Baruch School; Army Signal Corps, Augusta GA; textile salesman and partner in Manes Fabrics. Brother Charles Freilich (b. 1929, cert #7351; m. Myrna Kash, Bronx 1953 #165; Lake Mombasha, Monroe NY from ~1961; d. Feb 2014, Houston area)
—	Robert & Estelle's children	Private 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 Private 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.

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

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Majer Rund & Itte Rund · direct ancestor	Parents of Judes (Ides) Knoll née Rund, so Ben’s 4th-great-grandparents on the Knoll line, of Uście Zielone, Galicia. Both are named on Judes’s 1924 Nadwórna death record and on the 1878 Nadwórna birth record of their grandson Mordko (rec. 211), which calls Meier Rund a merchant (Handelsmann) of Uście Zielona and his wife Itte (Jutte). Other Rund households of Uście Zielone, headed by Moses, Judel and Wolf Rund, were probably Majer’s brothers or cousins, but no record names Majer as their father, so this is as far back as the Rund line goes. more →
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	Ire Fiksel (b. ~1830 – probably d. 8 Sep 1896) · direct ancestor	Of Podhajce; father, with his wife Risie, of Sara (Sure) Schächter née Fiksel, so very probably Ben’s 5th-great-grandfather on the Schechter line, named on his granddaughter Chinke Jütte’s 1887 birth entry. Probably the Iry Fichsel, butcher, whose death the Podhajce Jewish register records on 8 Sep 1896, aged 66 (deaths 1896, no. 107): the only Ire in the town’s large Fiksel clan and of the right age, though the entry names no relatives, so the match is not proven. A butcher’s daughter marrying a ritual slaughterer fits the trade. more →
photo needed	Kopel Knoll & Judes (Ides, Hidas) Knoll née Rund (Judes b. ~1841 – d. 16 Jan 1924) · direct ancestor	Osias Knoll’s parents, merchants of Nadwórna: Kopel’s Hebrew name, Yaakov Kopel, is carved on Osias’s Vienna headstone (‘Yehoshua son of Yaakov Kopel Knoll, of Nadwórna’), and Judes, daughter of Majer and Itte Rund, came from Uście Zielone. Married at first by religious rite only, they had sons registered under Rund (Kopel signed the 1878 birth entry of Mordko, rec. 211, as father); their civil marriage is indexed in 1897. The Nadwórna registers and late civil marriage entries name their children Simon (1870), Osias, Hersch (1874), Itzig (1877), Mordko (1878) and Pesia (1883); Itzig and Pesia were murdered in the Shoah. Kopel, a Karlsbad spa guest in 1902 and 1904, was a wartime refugee at Baden bei Wien in 1915 and died before Judes, who died in Nadwórna on 16 Jan 1924, aged 83, a widow (deaths 1924, no. 5). more →
photo needed	Moses Isaac (Mózes Izsák) Halpern & Rivcse (Rivke) Halpern · direct ancestor	Parents of Malka Schechter née Halpern, wife of Rabbi David Schechter, so Ben’s 3rd-great-grandparents on the Schechter line. Both are named on Malka’s Budapest civil marriage of 4 Oct 1904 (districts V-VI, no. 394), the clerk writing them in Hungarian form as Halpern Mózes Izsák and Halpern Rivcse (Yiddish Rivke, Rebecca); neither is marked ‘néhai’ (late), so both were apparently still living. Malka was born at Zborów, Galicia, on 6 Jan 1871, so this was presumably a Zborów family; her brother Benjamin Halpern lived in Budapest in 1921. Rivcse’s maiden name is not recorded. more →
photo needed	Chaim Efroim Schächter & Sure (Sara) Schächter née Fiksel · direct ancestor	Parents of Rabbi David Schechter; Chaim Efroim was a ritual slaughterer (shochet) of Podhajce, Galicia, David’s own later trade. The Podhajce birth registers record their children Joseph (26 Oct 1867), Schloma Hersch (24 Nov 1869), David (29 Mar 1872, house 35) and Chinke Jütte (17 Jan 1887), whose entry names the mother as Sara Fiksel, daughter of Ire Fiksel and Risie, and notes the parents’ civil marriage at Podhajce on 5 Mar 1906; Sure and Sara Fiksel are almost certainly one woman. A further son, Rabbi Wolf Schechter of Brooklyn (1888-1946), is proven by a nephew’s 1938 Vienna emigration questionnaire, and his death certificate names his parents as ‘Ephraim and Sarah’. David’s Budapest civil marriage of 4 Oct 1904 names his parents as Efraim Chaim and Sára Schächter, neither marked as deceased. more →
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)
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	Marya (Malcha, Malcia, Amalie) Ungar née Knoll (b. 28 Jun 1891)	Probably the eldest child of Osias Knoll and Ester Lichtman: the Kołomyja birth register (1891, rec. 413) records Marya, born 28 June 1891 to Ester Lichtman, no father named. She is the family chart’s ‘Malcha’, wife of Hersch (Hirsch) Ungar, a merchant from Rohatyn; five Vienna registration cards of 1914-17, three signed by Osias as householder, show them and their children Josef and Chane (Anna) lodging with him at Darwingasse 16 and 12 as they came and went with the front, her name written Malcia, Amalie and Marie. Living at Taborstraße 33 and ‘completely without means’ after the Anschluss, she and Hersch left Vienna for Palestine on about 8 Nov 1938, the eve of Kristallnacht, on two tickets paid by the Jewish Community’s welfare office; their daughter Chana and her brother Emil Knoll were already in Tel Aviv. She survived the Shoah: the Austrian State Archives hold her 1955-62 Old Assistance Fund claim as Marya Mirjam Ungar, b. 28 June 1891. more →
photo needed	Funnie Tziporah Knoll (b. 23 Jan 1893)	Daughter of Osias Knoll and Ester Lichtman and sister of Lea Lillian; very probably the Feyga born at Kołomyja on 23 Jan 1893 to Ester Lichtman (birth register rec. 59, father not named). As Fanni Knoll she married Juda Beer (Julius) Katz, son of Meyer Katz and Chane Mandel, in Vienna on 19 Oct 1917; Lehmann’s directory places the family at Ybbsstraße 30, Vienna II, from 1927 to the 1938 edition, Juda a clerk and later a bank official. Their son Jacob Katz (b. 25 Sep 1918) escaped to New York on the Normandie in Oct 1938 and lived until 1994; his Social Security record names his parents as Julius Katz and Fanny Knoll. Her own fate after 1938 is not known. more →
	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)
—	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
7 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Joseph Schechter — children of Rabbi David Schechter & Malka Schechter née Halpern	Erno Schechter (b. 7 Apr 1901); Samu (Samuel) Schechter (b. ~1901); Sander (Alexander) Schechter (b. ~1903); Marton (Martin) Schechter (b. ~1908); Sari (Sarah) Schechter (b. ~1912); Arthur (Aaron) Schechter (b. ~1912); Klara (Clara) Schechter (b. ~1916). Click a name for their full card.
	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)
	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 a son; later married Private Cohen but kept the Freilich name. Died 24 Oct 2014; buried as 'Estelle Freilich' at New Montefiore Cem., West Babylon, NY

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	Sara Fried · direct ancestor	Eliezer's mother by family tradition, wife of Yeshayahu Fried. She may be the ‘Szura Fried née Geizer’, born about 1809, who headed a one-person Fried household at Butka in the 1869 census, the right age to be the widowed mother of Eliezer (b. ~1831); if so, her maiden name was Geizer. Unconfirmed, since the census gives no relationships between households. more →
photo needed	Vilmos Jäger · direct ancestor	Father of Ceva (Batsheva) Jäger, of the Nagytárkány and Butka Jäger family of Zemplén; husband of Ema. He is named as her father in her 1908 Slovak civil death record, where she appears as widow of Herman Fried. The 1828 property tax census lists one Jäger householder in the Bodrogköz, ‘Mart.’ Jeger of Battyán, the village beside Nagytárkány: a plausible father or kinsman, but unconfirmed. more →
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	Ceva “Batsheva” Jager (b. ~1835 – d. 31 May 1908) · direct ancestor	Mendel's mother; maiden name Jager, born in Tárkány (Nagytárkány / Veľké Trakany, Zemplén) — from her and Eliezer's wedding certificate (Samuel Weiss). more →
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).
photo needed	Devorah “Dora” Schönberger (b. 1850 – d. 1937) · direct ancestor	Malka's mother. more →
photo needed	Aharon Fried · direct ancestor	Deepest name on the oral Fried line. more →
	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
5 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Moses (Mojžiš) Moskovic — children of Iszak (Izsák / Jezko) Moskovic & Rifka Moskovic née Judkovic	Eszter Moskovic (b. 1853); Lanna (Leni?) Moskovic (b. 1862); Fajge (Feige) Moskovic (b. 1865); Feiga (Fani) Lebovic née Moskovic; Eszter Moskovic. Click a name for their full card.
1 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Mariam (Maria) Moskovic née Schlesinger — children of Antal (Anton) Schlesinger & Chana Gittel Schlesinger	Rivka (Regina) Rand née Schlesinger (b. 6 Dec 1890 Kosarócz – d. 9 Mar 1983, Jerusalem), wife of Zvi Hirsh Rand of Lutowiska (murdered 1940), grandson of the founder of Batei Rand. Click a name for their full card.
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Mendel (Israel Menachem) Fried — children of Eliezer Zvi Fried & Ceva “Batsheva” Jager	Hani Fried (b. 1858); Linka Fried (b. 1860); Haim Fried (b. 1869). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Hani Englander née Schlesinger (b. ~1878 – d. 1942–44)	Daughter of Anschel (Antal) Schlesinger and Chana Gittel of Kosarócz (Košarovce), and so a sister of Mariam Moskovic: her son Sidney named his uncle Sam B. Schlessinger, whose birth date is that of Schija-Burech, Anschel and Chana Gittel's son. She married Mózes (Mór) Englander, a grocer of Felső-Orlich (Vyšný Orlík), and bore children there from 1899, among them Bene (1900), Fani (1904), Rezi (1906) and, last, Sidney Englander (1920), who reached New York in 1938 and in 1946 married Renee Fried, sister of Elaine, so two Fried sisters married two first cousins. Hani stayed in Vyšný Orlík and was murdered in the Shoah (Yad Vashem Page of Testimony filed by Sidney, 1987). more →
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	two older children (~1943, ~1946), and Leonard — Brooke's father (own entry below)
10 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Baruch (Bernard) Moskovic — children of Moses (Mojžiš) Moskovic & Mariam (Maria) Moskovic née Schlesinger	Izak (Ignac) Moskovic (b. 2 Aug 1888 – d. 1 Mar 1945, Ebensee) ✡; Jack (Jacob) Moskowitz (b. 6 Dec 1890 – d. 5 Apr 1950); Eszter Bobker née Moskovic (b. 30 Oct 1893 – d. 1942) ✡, deported from Medzilaborce with her husband Mozes and children, May 1942; only her son Sam survived; Janka (Anna) Fränkel née Moskovic (b. 2 May 1897 – d. 1942) ✡, wife of Nathan Fränkel of Prešov, deported with him and their children to the Lublin district, 12 May 1942; Charles (Chaszkel / Jeno) Moskovic (b. 15 Oct 1899 – d. 10 Oct 1978, Miami Beach); Fani Moskovic (b. 24 Jan 1902); Betti Moskovic (b. 5 Apr 1904); Antal Moskovic (b. 19 Aug 1906); Natan Moskovic (b. ~1909 – d. 1 Feb 1913); Rozalia Moskovic (b. 1 Aug 1914). (Juda and Moises Moskovic of Medzilaborce, once listed here, were born within months of Janka and Bernard, so they belonged to another Moskovic family.) Click a name for their full card.
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Elaine (Ilona) Fried — children of Mendel (Israel Menachem) Fried & Malka Schönberger	Cecilia (Cili / Tzili) Fried (b. 31 Mar 1914 – d. 25 Aug 2003); Irene Fried Weiss (b. 10 Apr 1920); Renee (Rosa) Fried Englander (b. 12 Apr 1922). Click a name for their full card.
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.

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

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Moszek Zuchter (b. ~1792 – d. 1852) · direct ancestor	Jenta's paternal grandfather — of Działoszyce, a petty trader and synagogue watchman (stróż bożnicy). A large family in the Działoszyce registers — children Froim (b.1824), Chaim (b.1827), Jentla (b.1837), Itla (b.1838) and Josek Jankiel (b.1846), plus two sons who died in infancy (Abraham Hersz 1835, Abraham Lewek 1840–42). more →
photo needed	Ruchla (Małka Ruchla) Lewkowicz · direct ancestor	Rojza's mother, Jenta Zuchter's maternal grandmother; living in 1837, when her daughter Róża married in Działoszyce (act 18), where she is ‘Ruchla’ (JRI indexes her as Małka Ruchla). (Fond 21/2251/0, State Archive in Kielce; JRI-Poland.) more →
photo needed	Lewek Szmerl Lewkowicz · direct ancestor	Rojza's father, Jenta Zuchter's maternal grandfather. Named in his daughter Róża's 1837 Działoszyce marriage (act 18) as Lewek Szmerl, already deceased; the patronymic surname Lewkowicz (‘Lewek's’) that the clerk gave Róża comes from him. (Fond 21/2251/0, State Archive in Kielce.) more →
photo needed	Gitla Zuchter (b. ~1801) · direct ancestor	Jenta's paternal grandmother, wife of Moszek Zuchter of Działoszyce; mother of Chaim Zuchter (b.1827) and a large Działoszyce family. Widowed when Moszek died in 1852, she herself is recorded as deceased by the mid-1850s (her daughters' 1856 and 1860 marriage acts). more →
photo needed	Rojza (Róża) Zuchter née Lewkowicz (b. ~1818) · direct ancestor	Jenta's mother, Sarah Potok's grandmother. Born Róża (Rozia) LEWKOWICZ, c.1818, daughter of Lewek Szmerl, who had died by 1837, and Ruchla (also ‘Małka Ruchla’). more →
photo needed	Chaim (Hajem) Zuchter (b. 17 Mar 1827) · direct ancestor	Jenta's father — a grain trader (handlarz zboża), born 17 March 1827 in Działoszyce (birth act 27, registered 25 March, read from the register: his father Mosiek Zuchter, petty trader, 33, signed it; mother Gitla, 26), son of Moszek Zuchter & Gitla. more →
3 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Chaim (Hajem) Zuchter — children of Moszek Zuchter & Gitla Zuchter	Froim (Efroim) Zuchter (b. ~1824); Jentla (Itla) Zuchter (b. 1837). Click a name for their full card.
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Kalman Potok — children of Fajwel (Feivel) Potok & Basia Potok née Rzepek	Hana Potok (b. 1831); Mendel Potok (b. 1835 – d. 1835); Izrael Potok (b. 1841 – d. 1842); Jakub (Jakob) Potok (b. 1843). Click a name for their full card.
2 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Jentla (Jenta) Potok née Zuchter — children of Herszel Pałesznicki (Osetka) & Rojza (Róża) Zuchter née Lewkowicz	Szymche Pałesznicki (b. 27 Nov 1838); Milka Pałesznicka (b. 14 Dec 1842). Click a name for their full card.
2 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Jentla (Jenta) Potok née Zuchter — children of Chaim (Hajem) Zuchter & Netla Zuchter née Zyskind	Mosiek Zuchter (b. 1854); Aleksander Zyskind Zuchter (b. 1857). Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Josek Olszewski (b. ~1847) · direct ancestor	Probably Yankel's father and Regina's grandfather: a trader (torgovets) of Miechów, aged 28 when he registered his son Jakow there on 7 Sept 1875 (birth act 26), the mother Czejwa née Liberman, 27. The couple also had daughters Frejgla (1870) and Sura (1877). Probable, not proven: the link rests on Yankel's name, his birth about 1875 and the family's Miechów roots. more →
photo needed	Rachel Lazerowitz · direct ancestor	Moses's paternal grandmother — mother of Aharon Shmuel and of his brothers Lemil and Moshe. Named in Zeidy's Book (Moses's granddaughter Rachel'a was named for her). more →
photo needed	Volf Potok (b. 30 Jan 1874 – d. 23 May 1943)	Son of Jakub and Rajzla Potok of Klemencice, the native village of Sarah Potok, though not her brother (his 1899 marriage act names his parents). On 27 Oct / 8 Nov 1899 at Aleksandrów Łódzki (akt 20) he married Enta-Frymeta (Jenta) Sierpińska; a butcher, by 1918 settled in Łódź, where his registration card lists six children, including Zelman and Gitel. The Łódź ghetto registers place him with Jenta and their daughter Hendla at Talweg 32 and Brzezińska 24, and the ghetto hospital death record shows ‘Wulf Potok’, butcher, dying there on 23 May 1943 of a brain haemorrhage. Moses's diary and a Yad Vashem Page of Testimony also record him murdered in Łódź; only Zelman survived. more →
2 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Aharon Shmuel Lazerowitz — children of Rachel Lazerowitz	Moshe Lazerowitz ✡; Lemil Lazerowitz ✡. Click a name for their full card.
12 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Sarah Lazerowitz née Potok — children of Kalman Potok & Jentla (Jenta) Potok née Zuchter	Moszek (Mosze) Potok (b. 3 May 1871) ✡; Gerszl (Gershel) Potok (b. 14 Jul 1872 – d. 8 May 1873); Izrail (Izrael) Potok (b. 29 Aug 1875); Estera Potok (b. 23 Feb 1877); Avraham (Abram) Potok (b. 1879) ✡; Roman (Rachmil) Potok (b. 17 Jun 1880); Idel Potok (b. ~1888 – d. 23 Sep 1890); Yentil Weisberg née Potok ✡; Zelig Potok ✡; Udel Midlik née Potok ✡; Yaakov Potok ✡; Gittel Leiderman née Potok ✡. Click a name for their full card.
photo needed	Mendel (Menachem) Olshevski (b. 12 Jun 1901 – d. 21 Oct 1982)	Regina's brother, born at Miechów to Jankiel (Yankel) Olszewski, merchant, and Chaja née Szajewicz (birth act 25/1901). Remembered in the Miechów drama club and as co-founder with Mordekhai Leib of the Kadima sports club; he lost his wife (probably Frumet née Feigenboim, unconfirmed) and children in the Shoah. A prisoner (no. 64592) registered with his brother Josef, he was at the Waldenburg camp with Alter in May 1945; as Maks Olszewski, dance teacher, he was at Wałbrzych in 1946 and then with Regina at Bayreuth. He settled in Rishon LeZion, wrote the 1973 Sosnowiec yizkor entries for his parents and siblings, and is buried there in the New (Gordon) Cemetery beside his wife Bluma. more →
	Zelman (Zelma) Potok (b. 27 Feb 1903)	Son of Volf and Jenta Potok of Łódź, proven by his St. Ottilien DP registration (1945), which names his father Wolf Potok and mother née Sierpińska. A master locksmith, he lived in the Łódź ghetto with his wife Małka (Manka); their daughter Denny (1941) died in the ghetto, and their son Frommel, born there in Feb 1944, and Manka were deported with him and did not survive. He survived Auschwitz and Stutthof (prisoner 84248) and passed through Theresienstadt; after DP years at St. Ottilien, Gauting and Munich (IRO card with photo, 1948), he emigrated alone to the United States in 1951 as a widower, bound for Philadelphia. more →
	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.)
6 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Moses Lazerowitz — children of Aharon Shmuel Lazerowitz & Leah Lazerowitz née Greenblatt	Lazer (Eliezer) Lazerowitz (b. 25 Oct 1925); Gitteleh Lazerowitz ✡; Rachel (Rushka, 'Rose') Lazerowitz; Rivkah Lazerowitz ✡; Hendil Lazerowitz ✡; Chana Lazerowitz ✡. Click a name for their full card.
4 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Moses Lazerowitz — children of Aharon Shmuel Lazerowitz & Sarah Lazerowitz née Potok	Abram Chaim Lazerowitz (b. 1903 – d. 1904); Esther Chaba née Lazerowitz (b. 1903) ✡; Kalman Shlomo Lazerowitz (b. 1906) ✡; Yerachmiel Lazerowitz ✡. Click a name for their full card.
	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. Her war (Arolsen DP file, 2026): seamstress for the Leizerowicz family 1936–39; first married name Silberstein; ghetto workshop 1939–43; Auschwitz-Birkenau no. 72216 (Aug 1943 – Jan 1945), Ravensbrück, Malchow, liberated near Leipzig April 1945; DP at Bayreuth with brothers Maks, Josef & Aleksander; married Moses (recorded 11 May 1948). 1948 photo · camps page
7 sib.	Brothers & sisters of Regina Lazerowitz née Olshewski — children of Yankel (Yaakov) Olshevski & Khaia Feigel Olshevski	Mordekhai Leib Olshevski (b. ~1900) ✡; Yosef Olshefski; Freida Olshevski ✡; Aba Olshevski ✡; Ester Malka Olshevski ✡; Alter Yechiel Olshefski; Chana Olshevski ✡. Click a name for their full card.
	Hinde Reisel (Hinda) Potok (b. 1920 – d. 16 May 2012)	Youngest daughter of Zelig and Kaila Potok of the Gluzy farm, first cousin of Moses Lazerowitz and the only survivor of nine siblings. From Katowice, she was a Flossenbürg prisoner (no. 63897, from Gross-Rosen to Helmbrechts, 1945), registered by the Central Committee of Polish Jews at Sosnowiec in 1946 (card no. 6486), where Moses found her in 1945, and she appears in the Bayreuth DP lists and photographs beside him. In Zeidy's Book she sued for the family farm at Miechów and Kraków, where the farmhands admitted she was ‘the youngest daughter of Zelig and Kaila Potak’; the farm was never returned. Married name Herskowicz (Arolsen tracing file and Geni); she settled in Israel, died 16 May 2012 and is buried in Hod HaSharon. more →
HL	Helen F. Moskowitz née Lazerowitz	b. 1953, Cincinnati — named for grandmother Chaia Feigel (family tradition); m. Leonard Moskowitz, Manhattan 1974 (#23422) → Brooke
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 Private Horn 1979 — two sons (1980, 1981); d. 22 Oct 2025, buried South Florida Jewish Cem., Lake Worth Beach (12-I-36)

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

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

People & facts

	Person	Documented facts
photo needed	Mechel (Michal) Jam & Rifka (Rebecca) Jam née Balamuth · direct ancestor	Parents of Louis James, Anna Soffer’s father, and of Solomon Jam: Louis’s 1936 Bronx death certificate names ‘Mechel James’ and ‘Rifka née Balamuth’, Solomon’s 1948 Brooklyn certificate ‘Michal’ and ‘Rebecca Balmuth’. The shared Balamuth maiden name is how the two brothers were matched. Of Galicia, where the Balamut(h) name is found at Brody and at Ropczyce/Dębica, about 25 km from Kolbuszowa; they probably stayed there. more →
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	Samuel Soffer + Rebecca Rubinfeld	Max's parents, Galicia — named on his 1917 marriage certificate. Deepest documented Soffer generation
photo needed	Mollie (Molly) Drillich née Salpeter	Wife of Shayer (Meyer / Morris) Drillich and mother of Beckie Green, Dora Kops and, probably, Sam Drillich. Her maiden name is given on Dora’s 1917 Manhattan marriage certificate (#7060, ‘Mollie Sallpetter’) and Sam’s 1945 Brooklyn death certificate (‘Molly Salpeter’), the same name as Ester Grün, mother of Beckie’s husband Jacob, so the two women were perhaps sisters (not proven). Her daughters’ manifests of 1910 and November 1912 leave ‘mother Malia Drillich’ at Rzochów by Mielec; there is no sign she ever emigrated. more →
photo needed	Wolf Engel & Elka Engel née Morgenstern (b. ~1869; d. before Apr 1929) · direct ancestor	Parents of Harry Engel, named in his 1923 Brooklyn marriage affidavit. In March 1919 Harry’s congressman wrote to the Secretary of State seeking news of ‘his father, Wolf Engel, a man of about fifty years of age’, of Toporoutz, Bukovina (State Department file 363.63/1047, NARA RG 59). Harry’s letter in the Groton Journal and Courier (8 Jan 1920) reported both alive but their property practically all gone: once well-to-do farmers at Toporoutz, a front-line village in the Russian offensive of January 1916, they now kept a little store nearby. Elka, a Morgenstern of the Toporoutz area, had died before 24 Apr 1929, when her granddaughter Elsie was born and given the Hebrew name Elka Rachel. more →
photo needed	Israel Grün (Green) & Ester Grün née Sulpetter · direct ancestor	Parents of Jennie Engel née Green (Scheindel) and of Jakob Green, named on Jennie’s 1923 marriage affidavit (#7851) and the NYC marriage record of 3 June 1923, which gives Ester’s maiden name as Sulpetter (Salpeter), and on Jacob’s own 1914 marriage certificate (‘Israel Green’ and ‘Esther Salpeter’). Of the Radomyśl Wielki district of Galicia: Jacob’s 1908 manifest names his father Israel Grün of Radomyśl, and Scheindel’s 1920 manifest leaves ‘father Israel Grün’ at Wólka Dulęcka, so he did not emigrate. Ester’s brother was David Salpeter of Mielec, father of the Lower East Side cousins Joseph and Philip Salpeter (Joseph’s 1908 Manhattan marriage certificate #5518). more →
photo needed	Eisik (Isaac) Soffer & Zlata (Zlate) Soffer née Green (b. 1 Oct 1881 – d. 6 Sep 1951; b. 13 Mar 1877 – d. 30 Dec 1959)	Max’s eldest known brother and the first Soffer to emigrate: a joiner of Bircza, in New York 1906 to 1912, then back for good on the König Albert in February 1914, going to his brother Moses at Rockaway Beach; a carpenter on his 1918 draft card and his Queens declaration (#19643, 1923). Zlata was born Zlata Gruen at Brzozów, daughter of Jeremias (Yirmiyah) Gruen and Gitla née Fischel; she followed on the Rochambeau in October 1920 with their son Philip (Fischel Moses), born at Brzozów in 1906, and a son Rubin was born at Rockaway Beach on 16 Nov 1921. Both lie in the First Birczer Sick Aid Association plot at Mount Hebron, Queens: his stone reads ‘Chaim Yitzchak Eizik son of Shalom’, hers ‘Zlata daughter of Yirmiyah’. more →
photo needed	Jakob (Jacob) Grün / Green & Beckie Green née Drillich (b. 25 Dec 1887; b. 28 Nov 1892)	Jennie’s older brother and the family’s foothold in New York: a tailor of Radomyśl who landed from Rotterdam on the SS Saratov on 20 Mar 1908, leaving his father Israel Grün at home; in 1920 Jennie sailed to join him at 44 Avenue D. He married Beckie Drillich in Manhattan on 10 Jan 1914 (cert. #1382); she was born at Rzochów by Mielec, daughter of Shayer Drillich and Mollie née Salpeter, and had arrived on 13 Sep 1910 as ‘Regina Drilech’ on the Kronprinzessin Cecilie. Both mothers were Salpeters, so the couple were very probably cousins. Jacob was naturalized on 4 Dec 1922 and Beckie in 1940 (EDNY petition 283746); in 1925 they lived at 1608 Mermaid Avenue, Coney Island, with Milton and Ruth. more →
photo needed	Moses (Morris) Soffer & Bertha Soffer (b. 10 Jan 1888 – d. 24 Oct 1942; b. 21 Sep 1889 – d. Aug 1967)	Max’s brother, a house painter from Bircza who landed at Ellis Island on 21 May 1907 (Brandenburg) to join his brother Eisik, and in 1909 paid Max’s passage. He married Bertha Berglass, daughter of Abraham (Alter) Berglass and Gossie Gleicher, in Manhattan on 18 May 1911 (cert. #10982); as Brandel Berglas, 11, she had come from Rymanów on the S.S. Southwark in December 1900. A Rockaway landlord at 153 Beach 81st Street, childless, Morris died at Park West Hospital, Manhattan, on 24 Oct 1942 and lies at Wellwood in the Arugath Habosem plot with Max and Anna; Bertha administered his estate (Queens Surrogate file 762-43) and died in Queens in Aug 1967 (the Wellwood register has a Bertha Soffer buried 31 Aug 1967 in a different society plot). more →
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)
	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	Dora Kops née Drillich (b. 26 Jul 1896 – d. 10 Aug 1991)	Beckie Green’s sister. As Dwojre Drillich, 17, a dressmaker of Rzochów (by Mielec), she sailed from Hamburg on the SS President Grant and landed at Ellis Island on 28 Nov 1912, going to her sister at 263 Rivington Street; in 1915 she lived with Beckie and Jack Green at 344 East 4th Street. On 16 Aug 1917, at the Municipal Building, Manhattan (cert. #7060), she married Abraham Kops, a diamond cutter, giving her parents as Morris Drillich and Mollie Sallpetter. She outlived Abraham (d. 1954) by 37 years, dying on 10 Aug 1991, aged 95, last living in Long Beach, Nassau County (SSDI). more →
photo needed	Benny R. Soffer (b. 1 Oct 1897 – d. Oct 1982)	The youngest Soffer brother, a glazier like Max. His 1935 Record of Registry (cert. 54184) fixes his entry as 29 Sep 1920 at Rouses Point, N.Y., by train from Canada, as ‘Berish Soifer’, 21, born at Bircza. He married Rose Hanig at Arverne on 3 Nov 1924 (Queens cert. #2685), naming his parents as Shulem Soffer and Rachel Falk; in 1926 he and his brother Isaac sublet a Rockaway Beach bungalow colony, and by 1930 he owned a house on Far Rockaway Boulevard, Edgemere, with children Benson and Ruth. He died in October 1982, last residence Montgomery County, Maryland (SSDI). more →
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. Private Kitay, Queens, 1970 — two sons; 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')