Introduction
It is remarkable how a family lineage, starting in Cleveland, Ohio, with non-Jewish names, can wind its way back through some of the most well known Jewish communities and Rabbinic families of Europe. The source documents, which attest to these ancestors, have miraculously survived, despite countless wars, fires, pogroms, and the Holocaust. Of course, many things have been lost through the ages, but enough has been saved by people who valued the knowledge to be able to reconstruct the links. Nevertheless, the records themselves are not enough; we need to be able to connect the dots in order to confidently make the connections. This is my attempt to methodically make the case and tell the treasured story that has been passed down to me. It is an amazing story of a family and of Jewish history that needs to be told and preserved for future generations.
Table of Contents
Cleveland census records
Our
starting point is in the city of Cleveland, where this Benedict family
was well established. U.S. Census records can help us understand
the
basic structure of the family. In the 1860
census, we have Leopold (30 years old = born c. 1830, in Bohemia),
Henry (22 = 1838, Bohemia), and Fred (14 = 1846, Bohemia) as presumed
sons of Abraham (58 = 1802, Bohemia) and Fanny (52 = 1808, Bohemia).
Continuing with Leopold, we have him with own family starting in 1870
(42 = 1828, Bavaria; Traveling agent). In 1880,
Leopold (52 = 1828, Bohemia; Optician at 47 Linden Street). And in 1900,
we have Leopold (72 = Dec 1827, Bohemia; Optician at 151 Arlington
Street) as well as the information that he had immigrated to the United
States in 1852 and is naturalized. Putting this together, it appears that Leopold Benedict was a son of Abraham and Fanny, born in Bohemia about 1827/8 (possibly in the month of December), immigrated to the U.S. in about 1852, and was primarily an Optician by trade. He also appears to have had brothers, Henry and Fred born about 1838 and 1846, respectively.
Naturalization and immigration records
Since we know from the 1900 census that Leopold was naturalized, we can check the naturalization records of Cleveland and try to find him. Sure enough, a record is preserved for Leopold Benedict from Austria, who arrived in the U.S. in April 1852 and filed his declaration on September 3, 1855. This matches the arrival year from the 1900 census and his origin in Bohemia (then part of Austria), and is the only reasonable candidate, so we can be confident that this is the correct record. From here we can search U.S. immigration manifests, where we find a record of Falkmann Benedict from Bohemia, 22 years old (born about 1830), who arrived in New York on April 24, 1852. Now, this record seems to fit, except for the first name being Falkmann instead of Leopold. Is this the same person? Hold that thought. As we continue to search through American records of Leopold, we come across his obituary in the Cleveland Jewish Independent newspaper in 1906. Standing out is the crucial new fact that he was born in “Lichtenstadt, Germany”. If we look up the town of Lichtenstadt (modern day Hroznetin) on a map, we find that it is just outside of Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), in the region of Bohemia that bordered Germany (later known as the Sudetenland), which was culturally German. Therefore, although inaccurate, the "Germany" likely refers to the fact that Lichtenstadt was in that region. So,
as far as linking Leopold with Falkman, we have that both immigrated in
1852 - can we also show that both came from Lichtenstadt? It turns out
that we can. A citation from the
newspaper “Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung”
(1854) of Bohemians who recently emigrated illegally, lists
Falkmann Benedikt from Lichtenstadt, who has been, since 1852, in New
York (the authorities in Bohemia only would have known that he
emmigrated to New York and not that he continued on to Cleveland). This
record provides the second data point linking the two names and
corroborates that Leopold was
formerly known as Falkman!
(highlights
in the chart will indicate new information)
Biographical sketch
A very helpful additional source is a detailed biographical
sketch of Leopold in “Memorial
Record of the County of Cuyahoga and the City of Cleveland”
(1894). This can be confidently linked to our Leopold based on the
information we obtained in the census records, including the
information about his children. Although the whole account is
fascinating, for the purposes of linking back to Europe, there are a
couple of critical pieces of information that we learn: (1) Leopold was
born in Carlsbad (the nearest city and district that includes
Lichtenstadt) on December 27,
1828, (2) he was a son of Abraham and Fannie Benedict nee Loewenstein,
(3) his brothers were (as we expected) Henry and Frederick. Most
significantly, though, we now have Leopold’s mother’s maiden name:
Loewenstein.
Lichtenstadt
We are now in a position to
consult Bohemian records and attempt to find a Falkmann Benedict in
Lichtenstadt, born about 1828, to parents Abraham and Fanny nee
Loewenstein/Löwenstein (German ö = oe). Sure enough, in the well
preserved vital records of
Lichtenstadt, we find a birth record
from December 17, 1828, of Falkman Benedikt, son of Abraham Benedikt
and Franziska (also known as Klara) nee Löwenstein! Fanny must have
been an Americanized nickname for Franziska. Now, even if that was all
the information that the record listed, we would be happy, but, in
fact, it lists a good deal more. This incredible record lists that
Falkman was born in House No. 8 and that his mother’s parents were the
deceased Falkman Löwenstein, former master butcher of Lichtenstadt
House No.
30, and Margaretha, daughter of Herzel Benedict of Lichtenstadt House
No. 15. Four generations in a single record! This additional
information is what enables us to connect to even earlier generations
in Lichtenstadt. We also get further corroboration that we have the
right family because we can find birth records of Leopold's siblings,
who showed up in the records of Cleveland: Herz in 1835
and Siegfrid
in
1844. The latter appears to correspond to Frederick who, interestingly,
shows up in later U.S. records with the mysterious middle initial "S."!
Also, note that in the Siegfrid birth record, his mother appears with
an alternate spelling of the name we know her by in the United States:
"Fani."
Benedict bifurcation
At this point, if you're paying close attention, you should have noticed something strange. Abraham Benedict was married to Franziska, whose grandfather was Herzel Benedict! Now, the natural conclusion here would be that Abraham and Franziska were cousins, especially since both Benedict families resided in the town of Lichtenstadt. However, as of this writing, surprisingly, I have yet to find a connection between these two Benedict families. And, actually, I'm inclined to believe that they were unrelated.
Familianten and marriages
With our new starting point of Herzel Benedict of Lichtenstadt, let's first attempt to trace back his paternal line. The first record that we are able to find is the Familianten record of "Herz Benedict sonst Herz Lieb" (Herz Benedict, also known as Herz Lieb) registered as No. 17 in Lichtenstadt, No. 4206 in all of Bohemia. Listed are his male children, Salomon (1773) and Lazar (1787), his second wife "Rosalia geborne Rachel" (Rosalia born Rachel) with whom he received marriage permission in 1779, a first marriage with the year of 1760, and, most importantly, his parents names: Simon and Adelheit.
Given his marriage information, the logical place to look next would be the index to Gubernium Marriage Permissions for Lichtenstadt, which includes the years 1735-1781. His second marriage is easily found: Hertzl Benedikt married to Rachel from Lichtenstadt, 3 May 1779. It is interesting that he had the Benedikt surname at that point, since it is prior to the mandatory surname edict of 1787. For his first marriage, about 20 years earlier, we definitely don't expect to find him with a surname, but rather his patronymic name. As hoped, there is a record for: Hertzl Simon Lobositz married to Rößel from Königswart, 27 October 1758. Although the year is off slightly from that listed in the Familiant record, there is little doubt that this is the correct individual, given the matching first name, patronymic, approximate year, location, and there being no other reasonable candidates. If correct, the record not only corroborates Hertzl's father as Simon, but seems to indicate that Simon's place of origin was the town of Lobositz. This is a very lucky find, since most of the marriage permission entries only list the patronym, not any place of origin. 1724 census of Lichtenstadt
Now that we have built up some knowledge of Hertzl's parents, we can try to find them in the earlier records of Lichtenstadt. Before doing that, though, let's get a sense of when Herz was born. According to the Familianten record, Herz died on May 4, 1812. This leads us directly to his death record, which shows that he was 88 years old (born about 1724). Now, the most informative early record is probably the 1724 census. Unfortunately, this is right around the time Herz was born, so it's doubtful that we would find him listed. So we are, instead, focused on his parents: Simon (who we now know was from Lobositz) and Adelheit. It turns out that the 1724 census of Lichtenstadt is a goldmine for this family. First, we find an entry for Edel, daughter of Salomon Ponti (a variant spelling of Bondi), married to Simon Pinckes from Lowositz (a variant spelling for Lobositz), settled in 1722. This matches almost exactly what we were hoping to find. Simon from Lobositz married to Edel (a likely variant Adelheit) and "settled" in 1722, which suggests that they were a young couple around the time of Herz's birth in 1724. Having established this as the family of interest, we can look at the other information of the record to gather additional leads. Edel's father, Salomon Bondi, described as a Rabbi, was married to Sara and settled in Lichtenstadt in 1701. Just above Salomon is Vradel (Fradel) Bondi, a widow, who settled in 1682. And the whole family is described as having protection status in Lichtenstadt, derived from Lößer in 1618. We may presume that Fradel was the mother of Salomon, subject to further confirmation, and the connection to Lößer is too dificult to discern at this point, but something to keep in mind for later.
Lobositz to Poland
There are a few different paths we could take, at this point, to further explore the roots of the family. For now, let's go back to Simon Pinckes from Lobositz and see if we can find his family of origin. Just as with Lichtenstadt, a helpful place to start is the 1724 census, since it offers such a comprehensive view of the Jewish community. When we take a look the 1724 census of Lobositz, though, we are met with a record that's nothing short of extraordinary, with so much information that it's hard to describe. First of all, incredibly, it again lists our Simon, providing a cross reference for the Lichtenstadt record: Simon, 21 years old, married in Lichtenstadt. But here, in his place of origin, it lists the earlier generations of his family. His parents are Pinckas Joachim, 43, and Esterl from Laun, 42, who were married in 1701. Pinckas' father Joachim Salomon is also listed. He is described as a brother of Eißig Salomon, having come to Lobositz at a young age, and married a daughter of Emanuel Katzenstein.
And, when we look at the entry for Eißig, we are met with one of the most meaningful records in all of the family genealogy, in my opinion. It says "Eißig Salomon ohngefehr 1648 bei vorgewesten Kosacken Krieg aus Pohlen hieher gekommen" (Eißig Salomon came here from Poland around 1648 during the previous Cossack war)! Not only does this trace the family back to Poland, it links that emigration with a famous (infamous) historical event. This is the only family record we have that documents the family coming to Central/Western Europe from Poland, during this tumultuous time period. Just remarkable. Joachim, having arrived in Lobositz at a young age, presumably also came from Poland around the same time as his brother. Benedict = Pinchas
One more Lobositz record that needs to be mentioned here: the Theresian Cadaster, which provides a snapshot of the community around the year 1717. There are only 16 individuals listed, which correspond neatly to those of the 1724 census, only a handful of years later. When we line up the matches though, we notice one discrepancy: Pinckas Joachim from 1724 (43 years old, wife Esterl from Laun, with children: Simon 21, Kaile 17, Abraham 15, Resel 5, Edl 3) matches with Benedict Salomon from 1717 (36 years old, wife Esterl from Laun, 34, with children: Simon 14, Chayle 10, Abraham 9). These are undeniably the same families based on the ages and names of the wives and children, but how do we account for the difference in names between Pinckas Joachim and Benedict Salomon? For the second part of the name, Salomon, recall that Pinckas' father's name was Joachim Salomon. So, Salomon was his father's patronymic and the name seems to be being used as a kind of pseudo-surname. What about the first part? Well, if you look up the name Pinckas, you'll find something interesting. The biblical character Pinchas was known for receiving two important blessings ("benedictus" in Latin) and, as a result, the name Benedict can be found as a secular equivalent for the Hebrew name Pinchas. And just like that, we have a solid explanation for where the surname Benedict, for this branch of the family, came from! Further confirmation can be found in the directory of the Leipzig Fair 1675-1764. In the list of those from Lichtenstadt, there are two Simon's recorded. The first, under the single name "Simon," is explicitly listed as a son of Salomon Levi and included for the years 1675 and 1679 (prior to the birth of Simon from Lobositz and having a different father's name). So it can't be him. The second Simon, under the name "Simon Bendix" (a variant of Benedict), is listed for the years 1731-32 and 1734-39. This must be our Simon, who was listed just a short time earlier, in the 1724 census, under the name Simon Pinckas. So, again, Pinckas = Benedict!
Laun
As we learned from the 1724 census and Theresian Cadaster of Lobositz, Esterl, the wife of Pinckas "Benedict", came from the town of Laun. It seems unlikely that we'd be able to trace back her pedigree with such little information, until we learn that there was only one Jewish family that had protection status in Laun during the second half of the 17th century: the family of Lebl Simon Mirotic. Since Esterl was born about 1683 (34 years old in 1717) and Lebl had the sole protected family there from about 1655 until his death in 1694, we can be reasonably confident that he was her father. This also provides a nice explanation for where Simon Pinckas probably got his name from: his mother's grandfather Simon.
Bondi to
Oettingen
Now
that we've
traced back
Herz's father
Simon's family, let's go back to his mother, Edel "Adelheit," and see
what we can find. Here we turn to a manuscript that, while apparently
not itself preserved, has been passed down in transcription. It is a genealogy written by
Saul Wahl,
copied by Issachar
Bär ben Jehuda Carmoly (1731-1781), and then transcribed by Baron David
Günzburg (1857-1910) in תולדות משפחות גינצבורג (History of the Günzburg
Family) by David Maggid. According to the lineage, Saul was the same
generation as Edel's father, Rabbi Salomon Bondi of Lichtenstadt, and
his third cousin. The document explicitly mentions Rabbi Shloma of the
community Lichtenstadt as the second son of Fradel in Lichtenstadt,
third daughter of Abraham Lichtenstadt (Primator of the Land of
Bohemia), oldest son of Herz (master physician of Przemysl), second son
of Abraham Oettingen (advisor to the Kaiser), first born son of Model
the Elder, son/grandson (we will revisit this later) of Simon Gunzburg
(remembered in the book "Tzemach David"). There is defintely
a lot to unpack here. Let's go step by step and work our way back.
First, this corroborates our previous assumption that Fradel was Rabbi
Salomon's mother, based on the 1724 census of Lichtenstadt, and
provides a signifcant addition to the pedigree in Abraham Lichtenstadt.
As Primator, Abraham was the
head of the Landesjudenschaft, the organization of all Bohemian Jewry
outside of Prague, and a well known historical figure.
Are there any other sources to corroborate the connection between Fradel and Abraham? We know of at least two. First, we have the incredibly well-preserved gravestone of Fradel from 1742 in the Lichtenstadt Jewish cemetery, which provides: Fradel, daughter of the leader here, Abraham Oettingen sg"l, wife of Eliezer Yomtov. Yomtov is the Hebrew equivalent of the Italian name Bondi (both meaning "good day"), so we also now have an explantion for Fradel's last name in the 1724 census. There is also Rabbi Salomon's gravestone, which further corroborates that his father (and Fradel's wife) was Eliezer Bondi. Second, we have the 1674 census of Lichtenstadt, which lists Abraham Aaron, with wife Dina, sons Löser (14) and Schlamele (6), and daughters Fradele (12), Edela (9), Bela (4), and Rösl (1). This seemingly provides corrorboration for the Fradel lineage in the Saul Wahl genealogy (and additionally gives us Fradel's mother's name), but how do we reconcile the family name Aaron with Oettingen?
From his signature
on Judenspecifications
from 1674 (List of leaders of the Bohemian Landesjudenschaft in
Prague), we can link Abraham Aaron (as he was known in an official
capacity and signed in German) with his Levite birth family Oettingen
(how he signed in Hebrew). So now we know that they are the same
person, but why? This mystery is solved by an unlikely source: the
Memoirs of Glückel Hameln, published in 1743. In an excerpt,
she describes that her brother Wolf married a daughter of Jacob
Lichtenstadt,
Parnas of the whole land and step-father of Abrahm Lichtenstadt.
Fascinating. As we learn in other records, Jacob Lichtenstadt (also
known as Jacob Aaron) was the son of Löser Aaron, who resided in
Lichtenstadt in the early 1600s ("Lazarus Aron of Bohemian Lichtenstadt
who in 1619 had saved two Jesuit fathers from a hositle populace and
safely conducted them to the bishiporic of Bamberg," see
Baron, S. W. "A
Social and Religious History of the Jews: Late Middle Ages and Era of
European Expansion (1200-1650): Catholic Restoration and Wars of
Religion" (1970), p.
252). Notice that both Jakob and Abraham appear in the list of Leipzig
Fair attendees
from Lichtenstadt: Jakob Aron in 1668 and Abraham Aron in 1683-84. So,
not only does this explain why Abraham used the surname Aaron
(the surname of his stepfather, through whom he presumably derived his
authority), it also explains a different question we had earlier - why
the 1724 Lichtenstadt census lists Fradel as having derived her
protection status from a Löser in 1618. This Löser was Löser/Lazarus
Aron,
whose protection status passed to his son, Jacob, to his stepson
Abraham, and, finally, to his daughter Fradel! We get additional information from another unusual place: a tapestry donated by Abraham and his wife in 1676/7 to the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague. Not only a beautiful work of art, it it's also a valuable genealogy source, as it has the embroidered Hebew names of the donor couple: Abraham, son of Naftali sg"l, doctor, and his wife Dina, daughter of Shloma Epstein sg"l (סג״ל = Levite). Abraham's father's name Naftali (the Hebrew equivalent of the Yiddish Herz) and the specification that he was a doctor provides additional confirmation of the Wahl genealogy. This is further confirmed via the inscription on Abraham's gravestone in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague: Abraham Lichtenstadt sg"l, Primator, son of Naftali Herz Oettingen sg"l, master physician.
Oettingen cousins
Before we go further with Salomon's mother
Fradel's family, let's take a look at his wife Sara.
In the 1724 Lichtenstadt census, we only learned that Salomon's wife
was named Sara, nothing else. However, if we look at the gravestones in
the Lichtenstadt cemetery, we find an intriguing gravestone
from 1760: Rivka Sara, wife of Rabbi Shlomo of Lichtenstadt, daughter
of Rabbi Eliezer haLevi, Av Bet Din of Holleschau. This certainly seems
like the right person, since she was the wife of Rabbi Salomon of
Lichtenstadt and the timeframe fits. Now, what about her father, Rabbi
Eliezer haLevi, Av Beit Din of Holleschau - are there any records of
him? Fortunately, we have a Torah commentary Edut B'Yosef by
his son, Josef, published in Sulzbach in 1741, which contains a
lot of genealogical information.
In the colophon, it describes the author as: Rabbi Josef haLevi, son of
Rabbi Eliezer, Av Beit Din of Holleschau. Then, in the
introduction, it continues the lineage: "my father's father was the
honorable, famous, leader of the Bohemia Jewry, our teacher, Avraham
Lichtenstadt z"l, who saved many souls." Amazing! Abraham Lichtenstadt,
leader of the Bohemian Jewry, must be none other than Abraham
Oettingen, son of Herz and husband of Dina. Notice that if you look
back at the 1674
Lichtenstadt census,
Fradel did have an older brother Löser (Eliezer), so that fits. But, if
that's the case, we have a strange development. Salomon's maternal
grandparents were Abraham and Dina and, based on our new finding,
Sara's paternal grandparents were also Abraham and Dina. So that would
make Salomon and Sara first cousins. Is there any additional evidence
for this relationship? Surprisingly, there is. Included within Edut B'Yosef are not only commentaries of Josef, but also relatives. And, lucky for us, there are a couple of excerpts that are attributed to Rabbi Shloma Yomtov of Lichtenstadt (Salomon Bondi). But, what's most important for our purposes here is the single word that proceeds his name: גיסי (my brother-in-law). This fits exactly with the relationship we had derived. Josef and Sara were sisters, children of Eliezer Oettingen of Holleschau, and Salomon was Sara's husband. So, Josef and Salomon were brothers-in-law (and first cousins!).
Mayr in Wien
[SECTION INCOMPLETE, FIND MORE SOURCES look at Wachstein Vol. 1, pdf p. 514-518] Also included in the lineage of Edut B'Yosef is Josef's (and, thus, also Rivka Sara's) maternal lineage. In the introduction it says: "the father of my mother, the rabbinit, may she live, had the same name as my name in his midst, the benevolent, pious, teacher and rabbi Yosef, son of the deceased, famous, teacher, and rabbi, Zacharia of Wien, who built a temple, in his pure heart, and still has a permanent seminary in Kremsier." So, Rivka Sara's mother was a rabbanit (wife of a rabbi, whom we know to be Eliezer of Holleschau) still living as of 1741, her father was Josef (who the author was named after), and his father was Zecharia of Wien, who built a temple and ran a congregation in Kremsier. Oettingen in Wien
Now, let's go back to the Oettingen family. We
had worked our way back from Abraham (Primator) to his father Herz. Now
we'll step back an additional generation to Abraham Oettingen of Wien,
advisor to the Kaiser, according to the Wahl genealogy. Although we
don't have any other sources that directly connect Herz to Abraham
Oettingen of Wien, we do have another source that corroborates the
older generations of the Wahl genealogy and, thus, adds credibility to
its other details. The source is small handwritten
notes, attributed to Ephraim Wallerstein, on the upper inside of a
manuscript of R.
Chanoch Henoch in Gunzenhausen dated 1724. The only discrepancy, which
we alluded to earlier, is the earliest connection - between Model (the
elder) and Simon Gunzburg (son, according to Wahl, and grandson,
according to Wallerstein). This point is discussed at length by Baron
David Gunzburg in "Toldot Mishpachat
Ginzburg" and scholar David Kaufmann in "Mordechai Model Oettingen und seine
Kinder,"with the conclusion that Model must have been Model's
grandson (son of one of his daughters), not son.
Regarding Herz, we also have an indication of his connection based on
Rösl, a daughter of Abraham, naming a son Naftali Herz, presumably
after her grandfather. So,
based primarily on the Wahl genealogy (with credibility enhanced by the
Wallerstein notes), we have that Abraham Oettingen's grandfather was
Abraham Oettingen who lived in Wien.
Interestingly, just as the younger Abraham was known by different names
in secular society (Abraham Lichtenstadt, Abraham Aaron), so was the
elder Abraham, who was known as Abraham Riß. This appears to be a
reference to the Ries, a
meteorite impact crater in western Bavaria about 15 miles in diameter,
which includes the ancestral town of Oettingen. In
a list of Jewish
taxpayers of Wien 1614 (the whole community comprises
only 45 heads of families), Abraham Riß is one of the three deputies
(heads of the community) that signed at the bottom. He is also included
in the main list, with the useful description "Abraham Riß[,] Veith
Munkh Aidten" (Abraham Riß, son-in-law of Veit Munk). There are several
others, presumably from this family, listed: Gertraudt Munk, David
Polack (son-law-of Veit Munk), Moises Munk, Michael Schlesinger
(son-in-law of Veit Munk), Veit Munk (together with his sister), Veit
Munk the yonger, Simon Munk, Aron doctor (son-in-law of Veit Munk),
Israel Munk, and Jacob Munk. There's also "Rabi Joseph Veith Munckhens
befreundten" (Rabbi Joseph, Veit Munk's friend) - why this relationship
is specified is unclear. As we can see, the Munk family was a
significant part of the Jewish community of early 1600s Wien. In 1619, Abraham Riß, court Jew, sent a supplication to the Kaiser requesting to take over the Wien mint. A valuable genealogical document is his Hofjudenprivileg (Court Jew privilege) from 1622, which records the names of his brothers: Simon, David, Elias, and Leml. This fits with the names from the Wahl genealogy and, therefore, further corroborates both that Abraham Riß = Abraham Oettingen as well as the connection to the family, in general. There is also a Samson Öttingen listed in the privilege document, but the relationship to Abraham is not listed. We get another snapshot of the leaders of the Wien Jewish community in 1626, as a result of the declaration of the granting of Leopolstadt. Among the five "Eltisten" (Elders) and Heads of the community that signed the document, two can be matched to the deputies included in the 1614 taxpayer list: Moses Jeremias Gerson, son of Moses Kohn Refl of Furth, (matches Moyses Jeremiasß Gerstl. from 1614) and Abraham, son of the late Reb Markus Muril Lewyte of Eting (matches Abraham Riß). Thus, again, we get corroboration for him being the right individual from the family tree. A couple of intriguing records come to us from books published in Venice, which highlight Abraham's connection Italian Jewish communities: עובר לסוחר by Menachem Zion Rappaport Cohen and ספר הגלות והפדות by Abraham ben Itzhak Masran, published in 1627 and 1634, respectively. The first, in the introduction section, mentions a leader of great repute, Abraham son of Mordechai Oettingen haLevi. The second is a contemporary account of the expulsion of the Jewish community of Mantua, which includes Abraham Oettingen, leader in Wien, receiving reports of the persecution and helping plead their case before the emperor. In the Grundbuch (Land Register) of Wien, we have a few references in 1635 of Abraham Riß acquiring property and setting it aside for his heirs. In an entry from June 1639, we learn that a few years earlier, in December 1636, a house was sold to Abraham, but he has since died and it was left to his widowed wife, Vögellin Risen. Therefore, amazingly, we now know the (otherwise unknown) name of Abraham's wife! Also, this narrows down the window for when Abraham died to between December 1636 and June 1639. Finally, we arrive at the Wien Jewish cemetery gravestone of the great leader, Abraham Oettingen haLevi, son of Mordechai Model, from May 1637. Based on the upper and lower bounds of the death date as well as his father's name (which was confirmed by multiple sources), we can be confident that it is him.
Teomim in Wien
Based
on our previous sources, we have that Abraham's wife was Vögele and
that her father's name was Veit Munk.
We will now establish that Veit Munk, a well known leader in Wien, was
the same person as Samuel Phöbus Teomim. This is a genealogical problem
that has been addressed by some of the great Jewish scholars of the
past: (1) Wachstein "Wer Sind
die Prager Munk im 16. Jahrhundert?" [Who were the Prague Munks
of the 16th Century?] and (2) Lowenstein "Die Familie Teomim"
[The Teomim family] (1913). My focus will be on extracting the primary
sources they cite and drawing out the bases for their arguments. In 1612, we have confirmation of Veit Munk's permission to set up a synagogue in Wien according to a decree in 1603. In the same year, we also have Reponsa No. 122 of Meir Lublin, in which he recounts the famous "Divorce of Vienna" involiving Bat Sheva, daughter of Rabbi Shmuel Feibish. It also mentions Feibish's son Rabbi Veitel, who was involved in the initial request for the divorce. We have, just few years later, the 1616 gravestone of Rabbi Shmuel Feibish, son of Moshe Aharon, from the Lemlin (Lamb) family. The stone includes a prominent sculpture of a lamb, carved in relief (also found on the gravestones of relatives). The fact that the Teomim family is associated with the name Leml is also addressed in the articles cited above. From 1619, we have an extraordinary source: Jüdische Privatbriefe aus dem Jahre 1619 (Landau and Wachstein, 1911), which comprises about 50 private letters in Yiddish from November 1619, primarily from individuals in Wien to their relatives in Prague. This bundle of letters was apparently intercepted by the authorities en route and never delivered, only to be discovered in the Austrian archive about 300 years later. However, they are not just a historical curiosity, they also provide significant genealogical information, which is invaluable for sorting out the intricate web of names and relationships of the Teomim family. Here are a few of the key letters from the collection and what we learn from them, regarding the family genealogy:
and a chart summarizing the relationships
(second row are siblings (children of Moses Ahron), with their children
below):
This is especially useful when
we view it in conjunction with Teomim gravestone inscriptions from the
Old Jewish cemeteries of Wien and Prague. As we see below, there is a
clear correspondence between the surnames Teomim and Leml, which is
indicated not only by the name but also the image of a Lamb.
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