Saturday October 29th
This will be brief as I'm exhausted. I was picked up this morning at 530 and caught a 7am flight from L'viv to Kiev (actually the opposite way to Israel), changed planes and landed in Israel just after 1PM. I got some money (Israeli Sheckels) from a friendly ATM and went in search of a taxi to my hotel for one night in Tel Aviv. Because Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, there are no trains or buses running to or from the airport. Only some mercenary taxi drivers who seek to take advantage of people. I encountered just such a taxi driver immediately upon leaving the terminal. He said the fare to Tel Aviv is 180 Sheckels or $45 (Volunteers for Israel handbook says you should never pay more than 170 for the 10 minute cab ride). I said that was too much and that I was looking for someone to share a taxi. He said if I found someone he would only charge is 150 Sheckels or $37.50 EACH. I resisted calling him a thief and told him I would find another taxi. I walked a bit and found a friendly taxi dispatcher who understood what I wanted and seemed to react positively when I mentioned that I was volunteering with Sar-El. He found a driver who would take two passengers to different destinations in Tel Aviv for 200 sheckels or $50 total. I thanked him and realized I had to find a fellow passenger. I turned around to look for a partner and there walking toward me was a tall beautiful woman and I thought this had got to be my fellow passenger. I said "excuse me" in my best Hebrew and she responded in perfect English with a German accent. She was going to Tel Aviv and mentioned that her company was paying her taxi fare. I commented that now she has saved the company some money. We chatted on the way....she's an architect with a project in Tel Aviv and I told her of my volunteer service. When we got to her hotel she paid the driver 200 sheckels and I reached over to hand her a 100 sheckel note and she refused to take it and said it was her pleasure to treat me to the ride. I think it was the "volunteer service" that caused her (or actually her company) to be so charitable. On the way to my hotel I chatted with the driver about my need to return to the airport at 9am Sunday. He said that another driver would take me for 100 Sheckels. He gave me the driver's phone number and if this works out I will have gotten a round trip to and from the airport for $25. Probably a new Israeli record.
I arrived at my Hotel/hostel and rested a bit and got cleaned up. My relatives (my Mom's second cousin and his wife) picked me up and we went out to dinner. It was nice hearing about their children and grandchildren.
I'm fading fast and I better get some sleep because I have no idea what tomorrow has in store for me. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT I WILL BE ON AN ARMY BASE THAT HAS NO WIFI FOR THE VOLUNTEERS AND LOWER RANKED SOLDIERS. IF THAT'S THE SITUATION, I'LL TRY TO WRITE EACH EVENING AND ON THURSDAY WHEN THE WEEKEND BEGINS AND I GO TO JERUSALEM, I'LL POST SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY BLOG.
Wish me luck.....
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Monday, October 31
After a much-delayed flight and no sleep, it was wonderful to see Charles and Polly at SFO and arrive in Sonoma at 6am, eat dinner and go to sleep -- finally.
I was very happy to see that we still had tomatoes ripening on the vines.
Sunday, October 30
I had planned my New York day around a visit to the Met Breuer (the former Whitney) for the Kerry James Marshall exhibit. What a wonderful way to spend that day ! His works are exquisite and unique. Here are a few:
My second goal was to pick up some excellent rice pudding to take home. That meant a trip to the New Wave Cafe on Broadway at 78th Street. The best rice pudding on either coast !!!
Saturday, October 29
After breakfast, Alex drove me to the airport. It was a sad good-bye. I've said this many times since our trip with him last year, but I'll say it again: There aren't many people you could spend 10 straight days with and not get tired of that person. Alex was so easy and reasonable to travel with.
Waiting at the airport was a pleasure -- there was a wonderful exhibit of posters entitled Prominent Ukrainians:
The flights to Munich and New York were fairly uneventful and I was excited about having one day in New York before my return to San Francisco.
Friday, October 28
Today is our last full day in Ukraine. After breakfast we started the long drive back to Lviv. The sun shone as if we were being rewarded for the many chilly gray days during our Ukraine trip.
A not unusual sight on the road:
I wanted to get another road atlas, so we stopped at a number of gas stations until I found one even larger than my first one.
We approached Lviv and Alex left us at the wonderful Swiss Hotel, where we packed for our flights the next day.
We wanted to enjoy Lviv up to the last minute, so we took a walk to the market square, looking for a new restaurant and some last-minute souvenirs. I finally found a large Ukrainian flag; I had bought a small one on our trip last year, but now I have a large banner.
We returned to our favorite restaurant for our last Ukraine meal -- Veronika -- where the food is very good.
Thursday, October 27
In Kamenets, no rain, this is the day to drive to Briceni in Moldova.
The reason to go to Moldova (which our grandmother called Bessarabia) was that our grandmother's (Pauline Berenson Finkelstein's) mother was born there. We know that her mother's birth name was Lia Milman, but I have not been able to find her father's name or the town she came from. We know her father was a soifer [wrote the torah].
One night I was very frustrated with family research and I put into a Google search: "soifer Milman." The result was a youtube clip of a cantor Chaim Milman singing in Hebrew, along with a bio that said his father was a rabbi and cantor and his grandfather was a SOIFER ! and that he was from Briceni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOegoNcVLAw
Although I still am not sure of the connection with that family, I researched the family of cantor Chaim Milman, who brought his family to the U.S., and died here.
I recently spoke to his only surviving son (a retired lawyer who lives in Florida) and a niece (a CPA who lives in Long Island), but they didn't know enough about prior generations. They were very friendly and did welcome me into the family.
So ... we crossed the Dniester River, which separates Podolia in Ukraine and Moldova.
The trip to Briceni was for two purposes: First, to meet with a friend of Alex, a local Jewish doctor, in order to talk about the Jewish community in Briceni, if there is one. Alex contacted her in advance and we tried to accomodate her schedule, but were not able to meet with her. We tried last year also -- just not possible, for whatever reason.
The second purpose was to visit the Jewish cemetery. I had information about four Milman graves and one memorial to three others, but all from the 1940's or earlier.
As in the other Ukraine cemeteries I have visited, the more recent stones were upright, some in Russian, and apparently maintained. The older section of the Briceni cemetery was not maintained and we did not find the Milman stones, although I have photos of them from the organization that restored them enough to photograph them.
Before the trip, I was in touch with Michelle Frager, the town leader for Snitkiv. When I saw the stone pictured below, I had to take this photo for her, even though it is in Briceni. I believe she has said that Treiger is also her ancestral name.
We walked around the town of Briceni, where we bought small Moldovan flags.
Back in Kamenets, we dined again at Blomanzhe -- another excellent meal.
Wednesday, October 26
I'm inserting the last days of our Ukraine trip that I didn't finish earlier.
Now, through the fog of jetlag, I'll do my best.
On the road from Khmelnitsky to Kamenets-Podolsky, we drove through Shatava -- a lovely small town, where our Berenson cousins, Robin and Pat have roots.
Kamenets was familiar to us from last year, but we may have forgotten how many tourists could amass there -- huge numbers, even in the extreme cold and rain.
We visited the market in the pouring rain to buy some necessities (necessary is in the eye of the beholder): tomato, beet and carrot seeds [now successfully imported], Ukrainian chocolate, and souvenirs.
The best part of that day was a quest for the dwelling of the Mendel Berenzon family in Kamenets. I had the census information with a location mentioned. Alex did further research to pinpoint the location and we set out.
As a driver, Alex is intrepid -- the roads were hilly and muddy in the pouring rain. But we kept going, looking for the streets Ruska (if you look closely at the first photo below you can see the street name) at Dobna. It was definitely a multi-unit building; two branches of Berenzon families lived there -- in Apartment 1 and 3a:
This may be the best discovery of the whole trip !
At dinner time, Alex drove to a restaurant, where we climbed to the second floor. On the table were placemats with news of the restaurant called Бломанже [Blomange].I wondered if this was their version of Blanc Mange and indeed it is! You Monty Python and Brit fans will be amused.
Name and reference aside, the food was fantastic !
Tuesday, October 25 -- catching up
After a much-delayed flight and no sleep, it was wonderful to see Charles and Polly at SFO and arrive in Sonoma at 6am, eat dinner and go to sleep -- finally.
I was very happy to see that we still had tomatoes ripening on the vines.
Sunday, October 30
I had planned my New York day around a visit to the Met Breuer (the former Whitney) for the Kerry James Marshall exhibit. What a wonderful way to spend that day ! His works are exquisite and unique. Here are a few:
My second goal was to pick up some excellent rice pudding to take home. That meant a trip to the New Wave Cafe on Broadway at 78th Street. The best rice pudding on either coast !!!
Saturday, October 29
After breakfast, Alex drove me to the airport. It was a sad good-bye. I've said this many times since our trip with him last year, but I'll say it again: There aren't many people you could spend 10 straight days with and not get tired of that person. Alex was so easy and reasonable to travel with.
Waiting at the airport was a pleasure -- there was a wonderful exhibit of posters entitled Prominent Ukrainians:
The flights to Munich and New York were fairly uneventful and I was excited about having one day in New York before my return to San Francisco.
Friday, October 28
Today is our last full day in Ukraine. After breakfast we started the long drive back to Lviv. The sun shone as if we were being rewarded for the many chilly gray days during our Ukraine trip.
A not unusual sight on the road:
We approached Lviv and Alex left us at the wonderful Swiss Hotel, where we packed for our flights the next day.
We wanted to enjoy Lviv up to the last minute, so we took a walk to the market square, looking for a new restaurant and some last-minute souvenirs. I finally found a large Ukrainian flag; I had bought a small one on our trip last year, but now I have a large banner.
Thursday, October 27
In Kamenets, no rain, this is the day to drive to Briceni in Moldova.
The reason to go to Moldova (which our grandmother called Bessarabia) was that our grandmother's (Pauline Berenson Finkelstein's) mother was born there. We know that her mother's birth name was Lia Milman, but I have not been able to find her father's name or the town she came from. We know her father was a soifer [wrote the torah].
One night I was very frustrated with family research and I put into a Google search: "soifer Milman." The result was a youtube clip of a cantor Chaim Milman singing in Hebrew, along with a bio that said his father was a rabbi and cantor and his grandfather was a SOIFER ! and that he was from Briceni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOegoNcVLAw
Although I still am not sure of the connection with that family, I researched the family of cantor Chaim Milman, who brought his family to the U.S., and died here.
I recently spoke to his only surviving son (a retired lawyer who lives in Florida) and a niece (a CPA who lives in Long Island), but they didn't know enough about prior generations. They were very friendly and did welcome me into the family.
So ... we crossed the Dniester River, which separates Podolia in Ukraine and Moldova.
The trip to Briceni was for two purposes: First, to meet with a friend of Alex, a local Jewish doctor, in order to talk about the Jewish community in Briceni, if there is one. Alex contacted her in advance and we tried to accomodate her schedule, but were not able to meet with her. We tried last year also -- just not possible, for whatever reason.
The second purpose was to visit the Jewish cemetery. I had information about four Milman graves and one memorial to three others, but all from the 1940's or earlier.
As in the other Ukraine cemeteries I have visited, the more recent stones were upright, some in Russian, and apparently maintained. The older section of the Briceni cemetery was not maintained and we did not find the Milman stones, although I have photos of them from the organization that restored them enough to photograph them.
Before the trip, I was in touch with Michelle Frager, the town leader for Snitkiv. When I saw the stone pictured below, I had to take this photo for her, even though it is in Briceni. I believe she has said that Treiger is also her ancestral name.
 |
| Berko Moshkovich Treiger |
Back in Kamenets, we dined again at Blomanzhe -- another excellent meal.
Wednesday, October 26
I'm inserting the last days of our Ukraine trip that I didn't finish earlier.
Now, through the fog of jetlag, I'll do my best.
On the road from Khmelnitsky to Kamenets-Podolsky, we drove through Shatava -- a lovely small town, where our Berenson cousins, Robin and Pat have roots.
Kamenets was familiar to us from last year, but we may have forgotten how many tourists could amass there -- huge numbers, even in the extreme cold and rain.
We visited the market in the pouring rain to buy some necessities (necessary is in the eye of the beholder): tomato, beet and carrot seeds [now successfully imported], Ukrainian chocolate, and souvenirs.
The best part of that day was a quest for the dwelling of the Mendel Berenzon family in Kamenets. I had the census information with a location mentioned. Alex did further research to pinpoint the location and we set out.
As a driver, Alex is intrepid -- the roads were hilly and muddy in the pouring rain. But we kept going, looking for the streets Ruska (if you look closely at the first photo below you can see the street name) at Dobna. It was definitely a multi-unit building; two branches of Berenzon families lived there -- in Apartment 1 and 3a:
This may be the best discovery of the whole trip !
At dinner time, Alex drove to a restaurant, where we climbed to the second floor. On the table were placemats with news of the restaurant called Бломанже [Blomange].I wondered if this was their version of Blanc Mange and indeed it is! You Monty Python and Brit fans will be amused.
Tuesday, October 25 -- catching up
After breakfast, we left Vinnitsa to head for Khmelnitsky and drove directly to the archive.
No photo of this archive building -- it's severe and modernish looking, very different from Vinnitsa archive. The person in charge was bureaucratic, scolding, and in turn helpful. Still we found nothing that day.
I was not terribly disappointed. Rather, I was amazed that we had found anything at all the day before. It was important to me to see in person just how the archives work. I have been involved in and organized several research groups, each time hiring a local research professional and have learned some about how the archives are organized, but the in-person experience was invaluable.
I kept being reminded especially that I am in awe and have ultimate respect for good genealogy record researchers. Working in the archives is a monstrous effort, due to old and confusing indeces that don't coordinate with other information. It takes a great deal of patience and organization to find anything. I have been thrilled with the information found by our researcher, Vladimir Kreschchynyn, and now I am even more impressed with his work.
More later.
More from Monday, October 24
Continuing at the Vinnitsa archives, we found other documents that name Berensons or Milmans (our mother's grandmother). Here are a few:
We haven't had time to completely translate these or connect them directly with our family, but it's exciting to find them. There are other people searching Berenson in our research group, and some of these may make connections for them.
Another wonderful dinner at Marani -- a good reward for a long day at the archives.
Continuing at the Vinnitsa archives, we found other documents that name Berensons or Milmans (our mother's grandmother). Here are a few:
We haven't had time to completely translate these or connect them directly with our family, but it's exciting to find them. There are other people searching Berenson in our research group, and some of these may make connections for them.
Another wonderful dinner at Marani -- a good reward for a long day at the archives.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Back to Monday, October 24
After breakfast (I have kasha and eggs every day here), we drove the short distance to the Vinnitsa archive.
After entering by the side door, Alex apparently convinced the guard that we were there for a legitimate purpose.
Up two flights of stairs, Alex told the clerks that he had requested documents. They gave him a short lecture about some of the document numbers not being correct. We were not unfamiliar with these bureaucratic scoldings, after which the clerks were very helpful.
We were given some documents, the first of which was voters' lists of Mogilev-Podolsky in 1906. I was looking to find a name starting with B to show Vic how it should look in Russian, when I found two Berensons!
Amazingly, the list was alphabetical, so we didn't need to look further.
More to follow.
After breakfast (I have kasha and eggs every day here), we drove the short distance to the Vinnitsa archive.
 |
| The archive by day |
Up two flights of stairs, Alex told the clerks that he had requested documents. They gave him a short lecture about some of the document numbers not being correct. We were not unfamiliar with these bureaucratic scoldings, after which the clerks were very helpful.
We were given some documents, the first of which was voters' lists of Mogilev-Podolsky in 1906. I was looking to find a name starting with B to show Vic how it should look in Russian, when I found two Berensons!
Amazingly, the list was alphabetical, so we didn't need to look further.
More to follow.
Wednesday, October 26th
We got an early start, after a breakfast in a dining room at the Arena Hotel you just have to see.
If you haven't gotten the full idea of how pretentious this hotel is, the following picture is of a rug in the elevator informing riders of the day of the week.
We had hoped to cross the border into Moldova today but continuous heavy rain slowed us down and we opted to continue to Kaminets-Podolski, a beautiful town with castles and bridges over deep valleys where people bungee jump in better weather and lovers engrave their names or initials on padlocks and lock them to the bridge railing. We stayed here last year and we are back at the same nice Hotel Reikartz.
Tomorrow we'll do a day trip to Moldova and return here in late afternoon. The hotel has a sauna and I've reserved it for Thursday evening. I figure after a full day in damp cold I'll be in need of some serious warming.
I want to make a comment on something I see in every gas station in Ukraine. See the following photograph and ask yourself if there isn't something unusual about liquor being pushed to people driving on the highway.
There's more to be written about today, a rainy visit to a street market with lots of puddles. See photos of me and Phyllis posing with dead fish who tolerate the rain better than we do. I apologize for not smiling but I was cold and a bit wet and I think I was upstaged by the dead fish.
Phyllis is smiling because the bag she holds contains a pound of her favorite Russian chocolate candy. Her smile faded later when she discovered how stale the candy is.
For dinner, Alex came through again with a French restaurant as good and as reasonable as all the other restaurants he found for us on this journey. I try to remember what this food tastes like because it will all change for me on Sunday when l'll be dining in an Israeli Army mess hall on food that is known to be consistently bad.
That's all for tonight folks. Crossing the border to Moldova (the poorest country in Europe) tomorrow and who knows what awaits us.
We got an early start, after a breakfast in a dining room at the Arena Hotel you just have to see.
If you haven't gotten the full idea of how pretentious this hotel is, the following picture is of a rug in the elevator informing riders of the day of the week.
We had hoped to cross the border into Moldova today but continuous heavy rain slowed us down and we opted to continue to Kaminets-Podolski, a beautiful town with castles and bridges over deep valleys where people bungee jump in better weather and lovers engrave their names or initials on padlocks and lock them to the bridge railing. We stayed here last year and we are back at the same nice Hotel Reikartz.
Tomorrow we'll do a day trip to Moldova and return here in late afternoon. The hotel has a sauna and I've reserved it for Thursday evening. I figure after a full day in damp cold I'll be in need of some serious warming.
I want to make a comment on something I see in every gas station in Ukraine. See the following photograph and ask yourself if there isn't something unusual about liquor being pushed to people driving on the highway.
There's more to be written about today, a rainy visit to a street market with lots of puddles. See photos of me and Phyllis posing with dead fish who tolerate the rain better than we do. I apologize for not smiling but I was cold and a bit wet and I think I was upstaged by the dead fish.
For dinner, Alex came through again with a French restaurant as good and as reasonable as all the other restaurants he found for us on this journey. I try to remember what this food tastes like because it will all change for me on Sunday when l'll be dining in an Israeli Army mess hall on food that is known to be consistently bad.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Tuesday, October 25th
We checked out of the Hotel France in Vinnitsa and drove 80 miles (we'll actually Alex did the driving) to the State Archives in the town of Khelmnitsky where Alex had reserved some records for us to search. Phyllis spelled our Gradmother's name in Cyrillic so I could actually help. It was cold in the Archives such that no one took off their coats. The Archivist, out of an obvious abundance of caution copied the picture pages of our passports and handed the copies together with a scissors and some glue to Alex. He was to cut out the copies of our pictures and glue them to a form we filled out. I fully expect to be awakened in the middle of the night by the Ukranian Secret Police because someone broke a rule.
Thankfully, at 1PM they closed for lunch and we headed outside where it seemed warmer, to goto for next hotel, the Arena Hotel. In the States this would be such a high end Yuppie hotel, here it was $52 per room night. Behold!
We checked out of the Hotel France in Vinnitsa and drove 80 miles (we'll actually Alex did the driving) to the State Archives in the town of Khelmnitsky where Alex had reserved some records for us to search. Phyllis spelled our Gradmother's name in Cyrillic so I could actually help. It was cold in the Archives such that no one took off their coats. The Archivist, out of an obvious abundance of caution copied the picture pages of our passports and handed the copies together with a scissors and some glue to Alex. He was to cut out the copies of our pictures and glue them to a form we filled out. I fully expect to be awakened in the middle of the night by the Ukranian Secret Police because someone broke a rule.
Thankfully, at 1PM they closed for lunch and we headed outside where it seemed warmer, to goto for next hotel, the Arena Hotel. In the States this would be such a high end Yuppie hotel, here it was $52 per room night. Behold!
Alex and Phyllis returned to the Archives for the afternoon. I stayed in this nice warm hotel room. Alex found another good restaurant and tomorrow we're off to the next town. I checked the weather in Israel. It should be 75 degrees when I arrive Saturday. This photo was taken at 8pm outside the hotel. That's 4 degrees centigrade. About 38 degrees for Americans.
I'll be trying out this fancy bed now....until tomorrow...
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