Family Stories

What was it like to live in Lyakhovichi, Baranovich, Minsk? These stories will place you directly in the moment.

The story about the wily business woman Dinka Feiga (Rabinowitz) Baranek’s dealings with the wealthy Baron, told by her son Moshe, will make you smile.

Read how Lyakhovichi became a center for Talmudic study in the story about Rabbi Gavza in the early to mid-eighteenth century. There are stories of the many other pious people such as Reb Eliyahu the T'hilim Reciter Elijah Kirzner, the Master of Psalms and Rabbi Pinchas Malowicki the Lechowitzer Rebbe in America aka the Slonimer Rebbe in America. Born in 1870 to the Lechowitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Noahke, - Pinchas' brother Rabbi Jochanan became the leader of Lechovicher Hasidim.

Genealogical research is often thwarted by name spellings. In the case of the Kamm to Kaplan name change, the mystery was solved.

The Kantorovich memoir describes the great Etna flood in the Pittsburgh, PA area that destroyed the Kann family business.

There are two memoirs about the Kaplan family. The first one about Rabbi Pinchas Kaplan is in Hebrew and awaiting translation. The second is about Reuben Kaplan’s arduous journey from Lyakhovichi to Palestine and his life as a pioneer transcribed in vivid detail.

Life changed forever on the 21st of June, 1941 for seven year old Solomon Keston when his family home was occupied by Russian agents.

The scholar and contributor to this website, Dr. Neville Lamden documents how the small Jewish villages and the surrounding population intersected. Dr. Lamden scrubbed the archives to uncover how life was around Lechowitz and the very first time Joshua Meir Mandel, a tavern owner and Dr. Lamden’s great-grandfather is found in the records. He goes on to create the story of Joshua Mandel’s life as was written in the Belarus archives.

One of the most well known personalities to hail from the shtetl of Leckowitz, is Alexander Mukdoni. He was a yiddish writer, theater critic, intellectual, professor and cultural activist and much more.

The curious granddaughter of Harry Muzykant absorbed the stories about life in Lyakhovichi or Leckowitz as Harry called his town. His grandfather was Nisn der Klezmer and a lovely yizkor is written about him. The vignettes are memories from Harry. Berta Turbavich’s story about the river Wiedma that was important to the livelihood and recreation for all Lechowitchers. Other reminiscences from before WWI were translated into English from oral stories by Nisan Tukachinski. He spoke about people he knew who had extraordinary memories reciting Talmud and telling stories.

The Rachil Sztejn Palgon Collection is the story about Rachil’s life in Lyakhovichi and Slutsk during WWI and her journey to the US via Cuba. Her collection is the correspondence by way of cards that she had with her dear friends.

It is with great satisfaction that these stories will be available to read by Lyakhovichi descendents in perpetuity.