Just got off the phone with new found fourth cousin Michael who’s researching my Mom’s family. Michael lives in Brooklyn, not far from max.. he has two kids that live in Manhattan. He’s  retired and he’s using  some of his time to try and reconstruct a history of our family. He visited Israel sometime in the past and took this picture of my great-great grandfather Avraham Baruch’s grave stone on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. Avraham had traveled to the middle east at a pretty advanced age as part of the Bilu (ביל”ו‎) movement , a late 19th century Zionest back to nature movement. Michael and I tried to make out the inscription ..  As best as we can make out it says

פ”נ (P.N ) and abbreviation for פה נטמן (po nikbar)  or ‘here lies”

Avraham Baruch (his name)

הכהן Ha Cohen (the priest caste  (and my last name))

מפןדול  Mi Ponodel (from Pondel the town in Lithuania where he was from now called Pandelys.)

then a line about dates..   which I can’t read.. Michael says he died Jan 18 1882

Then an acronym תנצב”ה

which I found is an acronym of

תהיה נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים

which means “May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life”

 

 

 I lokked up Ponodel.. now Pandelys and found it’s just north of Kaunas ad Vilnous.. the main cities I knew which was near my ancestors. Michael says the family claimed to be from near Kupiskis. I remember my folks tlaking about  ‘Kova Gabonya’.. not sure how to spell it.. but I believe it means the province of Kaunas.

Ponodel, like many Jewish shetles has a tragic past. it was a martyred city . There are some pretty graphic accounts of the end of the town here.   Be warned.. they are pretty graphic.

It’s strange and comforting to be sitting here in my warm, comfortable house on the other side of the planet, from the comfortable distance of time  thinking about Avarahm Baruch. What strength .. or fear.. or both would it have taken for him to leave his town.. and his family as an older man and make the very difficult trek to the  middle east. What would it have been like for a frail scholar from  norther Europe to arrive in the inhospitable dessert that was Jerusalem in the late 19th century.  He must have know that he was buying a one way ticket on that boat. What was he after ?  I wonder  what he’ think of me trying to piece his story back together  130 years later..  ?

I guess it’s like  the stone says “May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life”

Nite all, nite am

-me