Relatively Speaking 1992

Relatively Speaking 1992 בס"ד
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December 1992 / Kislev 5753 Volume 5

Dear Cousins,
The past year has flown by so rapidly that I didn't have time to publish two newsletters. In fact, with four grandchildren, I decided that one per year will be all that I can handle at this time and hope you will understand. Please keep your letters coming so that "Relatively Speaking" can continue to be published. The following calendar will bring you up-to-date on the happenings in our families and my research.

CARRIE WALDORF BLUMBERG celebrated her 90th birthday with her family and friends at the Townsend Hotel, Birmingham, Michigan, in September.

SUSAN SILBERSTEIN BENEMAN retired from her many years as Executive Director of the Hospital Trustee Association of PA.

MARK WEINMAN was married to SHERRY in April in San Francisco.

MANNY BURGER celebrated his 75th birthday in San Francisco.

ELI & ANATI SIEGLER CHEN celebrated the birth of son, RAZ in Raanana, Israel.

GABRIEL RIMMON, age six weeks, accompanied by his father RON, attended his first baseball game between the LA DODGERS and the EXPOS. It was a perfect game.

Admiral DOUGLAS & SHARON KATZ'S son ROBERT has been promoted to Lt. Junior Grade in the US Navy, and became engaged. Their daughter ERIKA was married to NAT PERKINS in Charleston, SC.

JIM & CINDY KANTOR ANDERSON and family moved into a new home in Springfield, VA.

JOE & BETH KANTOR ZACHWIEGA and family moved to Wappinger Falls, NY. Joe was working on his PHD in chemistry.

RICHARD ROTHSCHILD attended his 30th high school class reunion in St. Louis, MO. Son JOE turned 18 and is a high school senior.

ROBERT M. LANGSDORF lost the battle with cancer. Condolences to his dear family.

ALEXANDRA ROSE TAYLOR, a preemie who had a real touch-and-go start, was born to TODD & ANGELA TAYLOR.

CRAIG LAZARUS won an Emmy Award for his work as associate producer on the NFL Gameday Show on ESPN. Craig is BARBARA GREENEBAUM KLEIN's son.

LAINIE GODCHAUX joined the ranks of ninety-year-olds and is still going strong.

At our grandson GABRIEL RIMMON's circumcision celebration, cousin RICH BROWNSTEIN met a friend of our daughter ADINA, PATRICIA CHAMAK, who was visiting from her home in Paris. They became engaged in December.

I received an answer from MICHAEL KEINAN regarding the LANGSDORF/KAISER-BLUETH family. He sent me a lot of copies of documents regarding the family.

In October I sent several letters to Jewish newspapers stating that I was seeking some "lost" members of my family named BERKMAN. The one written to the "Palm Beach Jewish World" brought results. MORTON had a former neighbor who saw my letter, called him and his wife RUTH in Lake Worth. MORT called me and told me he had a first cousin, LARRY living in Miami. And the Berkman part of the Katz family was completed December 14, Sam and I were in Florida on a cruise and spent a day with MORT, RUTH, LARRY and his wife ANN.

The very same day another couple joined the cruise--BOB & DORIS ROSENAU--descendants of the "missing" Chicago branch of the Katz family. Thanks to a friend in Chicago I was able to find HELEN METZ, EDDIE MANN JR,and NANCY MANN ROSEN, CAROL WEINFELD FALCON in Allentown, PA, and MARGA BROWN SKINNER in Wichita KS and they led me to Bob. When I spoke to Bob on the phone we found that we were going to be on the same cruise Bob recently closed a family business that manufactured little girls' dresses. It was started by his father, the label was Annetta.

MARY HERMANN KING wrote me that through her work as the Maine State Public Affairs Chair of the National Council of Jewish Women she was going to meet her counterpart and cousin in Georgia TERRI DAVIDOW EPSTEIN at the convention in D.C. in March. Small world!!

SAMUEL FREDERICK ABRAMS

January brought SAMUEL FREDERICK into the lives of CHRIS & LISA WEISMAN ABRAMS and big sister ALEXA.

ADELAIDE ROSENSTOCK SILBERSTEIN lost her dear husband of 61 years, SAMUEL SILBERSTEIN at age 93.

In February LISA STEIN was in Los Angeles thinking she was going to move. No sooner had she arrived when she got a call to return to New York to work for the Circus. In any case we invited her to join us at a first birthday party for DAHLIA RIMMON, daughter of ALISSA RIMMON & KENNY BENDIK.

Through the persistence of MILLIE KATZ WELSH, she was able to find her "lost" nephew RANDY KATZ and his family and her niece LAUREN KATZ PERELLA and her family in Pittsburgh. Data is being gathered from them. Millie also found her half-brother's children, and they are being added to the TREE.

Millie's son, Fire Dept. Captain ROB WELSH was part of a team responsible for saving the life of a 14-month old girl who almost drowned. A segment of "911" was going to be devoted to this rescue, perhaps you saw it. And this should remind us to be mindful of our little ones when they are on a premises that has a pool.

One evening in March about 10 o'clock the phone rang. Our daughter ADINA answered and came to tell me "some man is on the phone and wants to talk about genealogy". In my wildest dreams I never thought anyone would find ME. But there on the other end of the line was Dr. JOE KOHEN JR. trying to find out about his great-grandfather Blondheim's family. I told him it wasn't just Blondheims, because ADOLPH BLONDHEIM was married to SARAH WEINBERG, my great grandfather's sister, and I had almost all the data on them. Not only that, I had been trying to find Jo. He had the Jewish Historical Society in Baltimore, they told him to contact JOAN ENGEL STERN, who in turn told him to contact me. We exchanged a lot of things through the mail and one day in April Joe and his wife MARGOT flew down to meet me and see all the "stuff" I've collected on the family. His brother STEVE KING and wife BARBARA joined us for dinner and it was as if we'd known each other forever.

Just before Passover the Rimmon family hosted an engagement party for PATRICIA CHAMAK and RICH BROWNSTEIN in Los Angeles. They then traveled to Portland where Rich's family had a reception for them.

Also in April I wrote to ALAN NUSBAUM in Arizona, hoping that he was the person I was seeking. He called to say he was and since then has sent me wonderful photos, newspaper articles, etc. about his branch from Baltimore. His father was ALVIN, son of SAMUEL & LENA GREENEBAUM NUSBAUM.

May 23-25 was the family reunion in Las Vegas. Those of us who attended had a wonderful time. Probably the most heart-rending reunion was between WERNER NEUBURGER & MANNY MARX, who hadn't seen each other since the early 1950s. Their wives HENNY and FRIEDL enjoyed meeting each other. Another interesting reunion was between RUTH REINHEIMER ROTHSCHILD and the WORTH brothers, RON and RICK and their families: HYLA & AIMEE and STACEY & ADAM. They were descended from MICHAEL NUSBAUM, a brother of VIOLET and SARAH NUSBAUM ROTHSCHILD, MOLLIE NUSBAUM GRUNEBAUM, HANNAH NUSBAUM BIRKENWALD, JACOB and MEYER NUSBAUM, and RACHEL NUSBAUM FRANK. Ruth had stories to tell Ron and Rick about their parents' and grandparents' cousins that they had never heard before. WILLYE KATZ TAYLOR, her daughter DEBBIE DABIBI and Debbie's four children DEREK, DUNIA, NADIA and ASHLEY were among the younger set with Aimee, Adam and Gabriel. Other attenders included RICH BROWNSTEIN, RON, DINA & GABRIEL RIMMON, ADINA and DAN RIMMON and SAM & JOAN RIMMON. We are only sorry more of you didn't join us--it was a lot of fun. And thanks to everyone who helped bring it to fruition and cleared tables. Anyone who would like a copy of the family reunion souvenir booklet and photo can send $15.

PETER LAZARUS, son of BARBARA GREENEBAUM KLEIN, graduated U of Delaware May 25.

JASON P.JACOBSOHN son of PETER & JEAN ABRAMSON JACOBSOHN graduated Homestead High School in Mequon, WI.

Kayla

In June, while we all celebrated GABRIEL RIMMON's first birthday, aunt ALISSA RIMMON & uncle KENNY BENDIK were at the hospital bringing KAYLA into the world at 8 pounds 8 ounces. The cousins are one year two days apart.

KURT & MARIE MARX came to California during an unbelievable storm and spent 24 hours traveling from Rochester to Los Angeles. Kurt brought along some interesting photos and papers, and we had a fascinating evening looking at. Through my research I found out that Kurt's parents were cousins and he didn't even know it.

EDNA CAHN ROSENSTOCK had leg surgery and is recuperating. She has moved from her three story home to an apartment which is much more convenient. I wonder what has happened to the large portraits of JOSEPH & ADELHIET ROSENSTOCK that were in the attic.

ANN WEISBURGER LEBHERZ, a Hood College alumnus and member of the Frederick County Maryland Historical Society, organized a committee in 1983 for the preservation and publication of the diaries of Margaret Hood, for whom the school was named. In July of this year both the school and the society celebrated the publication of the diaries which had been written from 1851-1861.

The Jewish Genealogy Summer Seminar was held in New York City in July. I was finally able to find out about Dr. EDWARD LEHMAN, son of BENJAMIN & SARAH NUSBAUM LEHMAN. He unfortunately died in 1988, but I found his step-daughter, GLORIA ROBLIN, who lives in Buffalo. She told me all about him and his illustrious career as a pediatrician and psychiatrist. I tracked down information from the 1920 Federal census which was just recently released to the public. As a courtesy to the over 600 attenders to the Seminar, members of the NYC and NJ genealogy societies volunteered to go to cemeteries and find headstones and transcribe the information from them. I was thus able to find birth and death dates for GUS & ETHEL KLEIN HIRSCH. It is my theory that they were cousins--as soon as I see Gus' death certificate I'll know for sure.

HENRY & FRANCES LANGSDORF GREENEBAUM invited us to join them at their vacation "cottage" at the lake in Stratford, CT the weekend before the Seminar began. The "cottage" is named Framarka after Frances and her sisters Margaret and Kathryn and was bought by Frances' father Jesse Langsdorf in 1934. Since then many generations of Jesse's descendants have spent a delightful time there. Henry took Sam on a traditional fishing trip and they caught five. Frances' niece ANN STEINBERG SILVERMAN and friend PAUL, nephew JAMES FRIEDLICH and wife MELISSA, were with us as well. And Henry & Frances' daughter BARBARA KLEIN, cousins PETER WILLOUGHBY BENOLIEL, and JOSEPH & GISELA ECKSTEIN ZAMORA joined us for various meals and outings. Henry and Frances treated us to a Broadway show, which was filled with great tap-dancing; Henry is a great aficionado of tap.

Ann's son NEAL SILVERMAN and JANE were married in Boston in November. Family joined them from all over the western world for the occasion.

GISELA told me she had shown the last "Relatively Speaking" to a friend of hers who came from Geisa, the home of ADELHEIT LEVISTEIN ROSENSTOCK. Her friend's father was in his 90s and remembered the name Levistein. So I got in touch with HANNELORE MILITZER NOE' and we talked about Geisa and Tann where she was actually born. She mentioned that her mother was born MARTHA MOSES and was from Tann as well, and that the family had gone from Spain at the time of the Expulsion in 1492 to Holland and then to Germany. They settled in Tann in the 1700s at the request of the local Baron. Lights flashed in my eyes: the MOSES and ROSENSTOCK families came from the SAME FATHER! In 1817 when Napoleon required Jews to take last names, those were the names chosen by MOSHE ISAAK and YEHUDA sons of SCHLOMO. That meant that Hannelore and I were cousins also.

Hurricane Andrew struck Miami in the southern area of Kendall ripping up the backyard of JERRY & JOYCE WEINBERG WEISMAN, tearing off part of the roof of CHRIS & LISA WEISMAN ABRAMS, and doing some damage to the house of SANDY WEINBERG FIXLER and her family. It was a scary time.

ELLEN BETTY GREENEBAUM SCHWARTZ retired after 30 years of teaching swimming. She will finally get a summer vacation and be able to travel.

Patou & Rich Brownstein

Paris, August, RICH BROWNSTEIN and PATRICIA CHAMAK celebrated the Sephardic pre-wedding tradition of the Henna, which involves painting a red dye on the palms of the hand. The actual Chuppah was August 31 at the Synagogue Rue des Tournelles. It was a beautiful ceremony for a beautiful couple. The reception followed at the Chalet Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris. The dancing and merriment continued until the wee hours of the morning. On hand from the States were Rich's father RICHARD BROWNSTEIN & wife DONNA and her sons, brother JEB & wife SHERI and their children ARI and ELANA, sister JOIS & husband DAVID AMIR and their son NOAM, cousins ADINA, SAM & JOAN RIMMON, and a few of Rich's close friends from LA and Portland. A couple of days after the wedding RICH & PATRICIA returned Stateside and went to Portland where they were feted by the family there. They are now residing in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles.

Sam and I took the opportunity of being in Europe to travel to Germany and meet HANS MARX, HANS COHRSSEN and ERNST KAYSER and do some research. Hans Marx graciously invited us to stay with him while we were in Frankfurt. Even gave us his wife's car to use as she was in France fixing up their vacation home. He was a perfect host. We spent several delightful hours talking with Hans Cohrssen and his wife Marta, but Ernst Kayser was recuperating from an accident so we didn't get to visit with him. I will write about the research below.

October brought Sam and me back to London where we spent a wonderful weekend with ANDREW & JEAN STEINBERG BALCOMBE and daughter ANNA. We attended the Bar Mitzva of their friend's son, and welcomed several of their friends after lunch. Later, as we sat talking about HENRY & FRANCES GREENEBAUM, lo and behold the phone rings and it was them. Andrew had just gotten a new faxphone and we sent the first one to Henry and Frances.

Henry had an idea that we make a donation to Israel in our family name. He has suggested $100 per family (WE ARE 400 FAMILIES) and if we raise enough money I thought we could help to purchase an ambulance for the Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross). Or we can donate to the JNF and plant trees, or Project Renewal. In any case, for each donation I will send you a print out of the total family tree. Let me hear your suggestions.

SAM & ELLEN LANGSDORF JR. of St. Louis celebrated their 55th anniversary in October. KOL HAKAVOD and many more happy years together

WILLYE KATZ TAYLOR has relocated from Las Vegas to Scottsdale. She will now be in closer proximity to daughter DEBBIE and her family, son TODD and his family and sister MILLIE. LATE FLASH--Willye is moving back to Vegas in Feb. 1993.

And speaking of MILLIE KATZ WELSH, she is recuperating surgery. She wants to be "all better" when son JEFF and family LISA, SHEA and BRENDAN arrive in Scottsdale from Australia in December. Don't forget we have family "down under" when you make your travel plans.

ROB and KATHY WELSH will be pleased to introduce the visiting family to their new little AUSTIN ALEXANDER who was born in November.

PAM NETTER BRIGGS, half of the Pam & Maggie Country Western singing duo, now has two albums, CRAZY FOR YOU and ON THE EDGE. If you would like to buy one or both, or to arrange to book them for an event, contact Pam at 729 Chestnut St., Escondido Ca. 92025-5259. Their most recent concert was November 7 in Vista, CA.

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