Rabinowitz/Zadikowitz Family

This photo, taken in Newark, N.J., c. 1953, is of Shlomo Aharon Bedil (known as Sam Rabinowitz), born in Kupiskis in 1873, son of Avraham Ze'ev (Wolf) Bedil and Etta Sora Baron (1840-1930).  

The family left Kupiskis in 1881 after Wolf Bedil was killed.  Samuel's sister, Chaia-Pese Bedil, married Mordechai-Yehuda Choritz, who brought them to South Africa, where he started an ostrich feather business, first in Oudtshoorn, SA, then a general dealers shop called Choritz and Jaffe in the tiny dorp (village) of Bot River, SA which he owned until his death in 1937.  



Mordechai-Yehuda and Chaia-Pese Choritz



Mordechai-Yehuda Choritz and 
Samuel Jaffe and family

 Partners with him was Samuel Jaffe, son of Nahum Jaffe, who was a relation to both the Bedil and Choritz families.  They were surrounded by a cohesive Jewish community of approximately seven or eight families, many of whom were from Kupiskis.



Choritz and Jaffe, General Dealers, Bot River, SA, (as it looked in 1997)


Sam and his brother, whose name is not known, came to New York in 1893 and lived on the Lower East Side where many other Kupishokers lived, including his future wife.  He met Hienna Musha (known as Anna) Zadikowitz, born 1880, daughter of Shloime Dovid Zadikowitz and Fanny Meyerowitz, when he was a tenant in her parent's home.  They married in 1905.  They then went to Plainfield, New Jersey, where other Kupiskis relatives such as the Bedell, Meyerowitz, Mintz, Sachar and Toll families lived.  The couple had three children, two sons, Shmuel Velvel (known as William Samuel) (1908-1988) and Mottel (known as Milton) Rabinowitz (1910-1990), and a daughter who died at birth, with her mother, in 1913.

Following the death of Anna Zadikowitz Rabinowitz, her husband was introduced by his Sachar landsleit, Kaspar Sachar, to his sister-in-law, the widow, Ida Morril (or Morrel) Levine, whom he subsequently married in 1915.  She was the daughter of Israel Morril (or Morrel) and Helen Sachar and also a Kupishoker.  They had no children.

The photo of William Samuel (Shmuel Velvel) Rabinowitz, age 5, and his brother Milton (Motel) Rabinowitz, age 3, was taken in Plainfield, NJ, in 1913, shortly after the death of their mother Anna Zadikowitz Rabinowitz. William Samuel Rabinowitz is the father of Ann Rabinowitz.





Photo of William Samuel Rabinowitz, taken in 1925-6, for his graduation from Plainfield, N.J. High School.

Wedding photo of William Samuel Rabinowitz and Fay Fink  March 28, 1945 (parents of Ann Rabinowitz) 

From Ann:  They had 24 hours to get ready as my father got a compassionate leave (from the US Army) to get married.  It was Pesach and they had to get a dispensation from the Chief Rabbi in London.  So, my mother didn't have a wedding dress, just a suit.

My grandmother had died in 1917 and my grandfather had died in 1935, which left my mother with only her siblings (sisters) as her brothers were in the military and could not attend.

My father's first cousin, Harold Simon, was his best man as he was stationed in England too at the time.  Since it was wartime and they only had 24 hours leeway, they did not have a professional photographer, so their wedding photo is all that I have.  


This photo was taken in the 1940's in Miami Beach, Florida, of Rose Zadikowitz and her husband Samuel Simon, son of Abraham Simon and Jane Katz. Rose was born in Kupiskis in 1888 and was the daughter of Shloime Dovid Zadikowitz and Fanny Meyerowitz.  She was one of five sisters:  Anna, Sheine (Jenny), Asna Leah (Lena), and Mary, who came with their mother to meet their father in New York in 1903.

Afterwards, the family moved to Paterson, NJ, where there was a substantial Kupiskis population including Shloime Dovid's sister Rose Zadikowitz Pear and relatives such as the Hillman family.  

Rose had two sons:  Sidney and Harold.

 

This photo was taken in Bridgeport, CT, in the 1950's and depicts the Zadikowitz / Hillman family.

Lena and Rose are the daughters of Shloime Dovid Zadikowitz and Fanny Meyerowitz and were born in Kupishok.

Max Hillman was born in Bauska, Latvia, and was the inspiration for the genealogy studies of Ann Rabinowitz.

 

Left to Right:  Sam Jaffe, Adele Hillman Jaffe, Marie Simon, Max  (Menachem-Mendel) Hillman, Lena Zadikowitz Hillman, and Rose Zadikowitz Simon.

(Photos are contributed by Ann Rabinowitz in memory of her father, grandparents and great grandparents.)

The following are paintings of Abba-Leib ben Moshe Zadikowitz and his wife Rachel, the great grandparents of Arnold Rosenberg and his sister Lorraine Rosenberg Shimberg (their branch of the Zadikowitz family used the name Rosenberg in America and the children of this family were born in Kupiskis and Gelesiai) and the grandparents of David, Julius, Joseph, Nathan, and Helen Segel (their branch went to South Africa and the children of the family were born in Vabalninkas, Kupiskis and Geleziai, and were related to the Jaffe and Melamed families).
 
One of the family, Sari R. Dunn, has written a book about the extended Zadikowitz and Salny families entitled  Delving Into The Past, A Family Tree and Memories .

On the left, Abba-Leib Zadikowitz, a wealthy tanner whose father, Moshe Zadikowitz, was the Rabbi of Vabalninkas.  Abba-Leib's tombstone still exists in Vabalninkas, where he died in 1905 (this information thanks to member Ellen Stepak's research in the Vabalninkas cemetery).

On the right, Rachel Zadikowitz, wife of Abba-Leib.  She had eight plus children, many of whom went to South Africa, while a few went to America.

(Photos donated by David Segel, in memory of his mother and her family, and Arnold Rosenberg and Lorraine Rosenberg Shimberg, in memory of their father and his family.)

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