Kushner family

alternate spellings: Kusner, Kusnir, Kushnir

The earliest known family member is Abram Khonel Kushner, who was born in Raguva (yiddish: Rogeve) before 1829. His wife's name was Paya. Abram Khonel died before 1868, and Paya died before 1875. The two known children of Abram Khonel and Paya Kushner:

I.  Berko (Dov) Kushner was born in Raguva in 1846. He married Pera, who was born in 1845. Berko died on 20 July 1893, and Pera died in 1892, both in Troskunai.

• The eight children of Berko and Pera Kushner:
• Abraham (Abram Itzke) Kushner (later Abe Butler) was born in Troskunai in ~1868. In 1891 he married Basia Dvera, who was born in Lithuania in 1868. Basia was the mother of Abram's four children. On 17 November 1907 in Chicago, Illinois, Abe married his second wife, Ida (Chaya) Freeman. Ida was born in "Russia" in ~1885. Abe died in Chicago, Illinois, on 11 November 1927. Ida died in Illinois on 6 May 1934.
  PHOTO Abe and Ida Butler
• The four children of Abram/Abe and his first wife, Basia Dvera:
• Mortkhel Kushner
• Alexander Kushner (later Butler) was born in ~1893 in "Russia."
• Benjamin David Butler was born in ~1897 in Washington, DC. He married Ida (Adeline) Korolewsky, who was born in ~1905 in "Russia." Benjamin died on 7 February 1968, and Ida died on 2 July 1986, both in Chicago, Illinois.
• Samuel Butler was born in ~1898 in Washington, DC.
• Chaya Beyla Kushner was born in Troskunai in ~1870. She married in Lithuania in ~1891.
• Zelik Kushner (later Zelick Butler) was born in Troskunai on 10 February 1875. He married Chaya Rasha (later Ida) Shtikhman, who was born in "Russia" in ~1878. Ida died on 30 December 1926, and Zelick died on 18 September 1944, both in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
  PHOTO Zelick Butler with his sister Polly Cash's family (1918)
• The four children of Zelik and Ida Kushner/Butler:
• Reyza Pera Kushner (later Rose Butler) was born in Troskunai in 1900. She died in 1975 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• Samuel (Shmuel) Butler was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 15 January 1904. He died in Chattanooga on 22 October 1958.
• Sarah Leah Butler was born in Tennessee in ~March 1909.
• Betty Butler was born on 6 March 1917. Her married name was Greer. Betty died on 11 September 1964.

• Moshe (David Moses) Kushner, also known as David Maishe, was born in Troskunai on 9 April 1876. In Panevezys (yiddish: Ponevezh) on 3 March 1898 he married Sora Rivka Viten (Sarah Rebecca Witten), who was born in Pumpenai (yiddish: Pumpyan) on 15 March 1873. They immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Danville, Virginia, where David served as a rabbi. David died on 30 August 1964, and Sarah died on 8 May 1966, both in Danville, Virginia.
  PHOTO Rabbi David Moshe Kushner
• The five children of David Moses Kushner and Sarah Rebecca Viten:
• Herman Barry Kushner was born on 27 June 1899. He married Louise Marie Dillard, who was born on 4 September 1914. Herman died on 21 June 1986, and Louise died on 28 September 1999, both in Danville, Virginia. The three children of Herman Barry Kushner and Louise Marie Dillard:
• Bonnie Lynn Kushner
• Pia (Patricia Ann) Kushner
• Terri Leigh Kushner
• Pauline Kushner, born in ~1902, married name Cohen.
• Benjamin Prince Kushner was born in Danville, Virginia, on 4 July 1905. He married Gertrude Sater, who was born 23 April 1915. Benjamin died on 26 December 1981, and Gertrude died 7 September 1983, both in Danville, Virginia. The known child of Benjamin Prince Kushner and Gertrude Sater:
• Carol L. Kushner
• Samuel Albert Kushner was born on 14 August 1908. He married Margaret Bane, who was born on 23 October 1912 in Rockingham County, North Carolina. Margaret died on 31 July 1979, and Samuel died on 19 October 1979, both in Danville, Virginia. The three children of Samuel Albert Kushner and Margaret Bane:
• Jerome Bane Kushner
• Samuel Albert Kushner, Jr.
• Bruce H. Kushner
• Robert Lee Kushner was born in Danville, Virginia, on 1 September 1911. On 5 October 1932 in Cherokee, Alabama, he married Virginia Lee Moret, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 12 January 1914 and died in Atlanta on 30 June 1937. Sometime before 1940 Robert married Jean Fuchs, who was born on 22 November 1917. Robert, a dentist and a lieutenant colonel in the US Army, died on 8 September 1979 in Danville, Virginia. Jean Fuchs died on 24 November 2002 in Port Orange, Florida.
• The son of Robert Lee Kushner and his first wife, Virginia Lee Moret:
• Stuart Warren Kushner
• The son of Robert Lee Kushner and his second wife, Jean Fuchs:
• Robert L. Kushner, Jr.
• Floyd Harold Kushner
• Ben Fox Kushner
• Paya or Pia (later Polly) Kushner was born in Troskunai in ~1878. She married Louis Harry Cash, who was born in Lithuania in 1876. They emigrated to the United States in 1906 with their first two children and Polly's brother Saul. Polly died on 28 December 1941, and Louis died on 16 October 1962, both in Chattannooga, Tennessee.
  PHOTO Polly and Louis Cash with children Pearl, Lena, Joe, also Polly's brother Zelick Butler (1918)
• The five children of Polly Kushner and Louis Harry Cash:
• Pearl Cash was born in "Russia" in ~1904. Her married name was Zapisotsky, later changed to Zapsen.
  PHOTO Pearl Cash with family in 1918
• Benjamin L. Cash was born in "Russia" on 10 December 1906. On 16 January 1946 he married Rose J. Rosenswieg. Ben Cash was an attorney who served in Tennessee state representative and senator, and later as a judge. He died on 23 July 1974.
• Lena Cash was born in Tennessee in ~1907. Her married name was Byer.
  PHOTO Lena Cash with family in 1918
• Joseph Cash was born on 24 May 1910. He married Miriam Bretschneider, who was born in Czernowitz (now in Ukraine) on 12 March 1914. Miriam died on 27 July 1985 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Joseph died on 24 April 1993.
  PHOTO Joe Cash with family in 1918
• Marvin Moses (Mickey) Cash was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 10 November 1921. In 1945 he married Selma Rosalie Greenberg, who was born in New York, New York, on 2 March 1927. Marvin and Selman had two daughters and an adopted son. In the late 1950s Marvin married Mary Elizabeth Perry, with whom he had two more children. Selma died on 1 May 2016 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Marvin died on 17 May 2002 in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
• The three children of Marvin Cash and Selma Greenberg:
• Pamela R. Cash, married name O'Dwyer
• Kim/Kem Cash, married name Alexander
• Charles (Charlie) Paty
• The two children of Marvin Cash and Mary Elizabeth Perry:
• Samuel Jacob Cash, born 25 April 1960
• Rachel Susan Cash, born 11 June 1963, married name Kezh
• [daughter], name and birth date unknown. Presumably born in Troskunai, died at age 13.

• Shevel (Saul) Kushner (later Saul Butler) was born in Troskunai in ~1885. He emigrated to the United States in 1906, using the spelling Kusner before changing his surname to Butler. On 30 June 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, he married Lillian Kaden, who was born in Chicago on 28 November 1894. Lillian died in Chicago on 21 June 1915. On 9 December 1917 in Cook County, Illinois, Saul married Kate (Gittel) Bertha Levin, who was born in Missouri in ~1894. Saul lived in Israel for several of his later years, but returned to the U.S. and died in Chicago in May 1972. Kate died in Niles, Illinois, in 1980.   PHOTO Saul Butler
• The child of Saul Butler and his first wife, Lillian Kaden:
• Leon Bernard Butler was born in Cook County, Illinois, on 11 May 1915. He married Gertrude Lappe, who was born in Chicago in 1906. Gertrude died on 23 July 1954, and Leon died on 10 August 1984, both in Chicago, Illinois. The child of Leon Butler and Gertrude Lappe:
• Corwin Jay Butler was born in Chicago on 3 August 1943. He married (wife's name unknown) and had three children. Corwin died in Naperville, Illinois, on 5 April 2002.
• The three children of Saul Butler and his second wife, Kate Bertha Levin:
• Harold Richard Butler was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 22 October 1918. He married Beatrice Natalie Scheffler, who was born in Chiago on 4 June 1919. Harold died on 25 June 2002 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Beatrice died on 2 October 2005 in Lake Worth, Florida. The child of Harold Butler and Beatrice Scheffler:
• Jeffrey Butler
• Ralph Butler was born in Chicago in 1925. He died in New York, New York in 1972.
• Alan Lester Butler was born in Chicago on 26 August 1926. He married Stephanie, maiden name unknown. Alan died in Niles, Illinois, on 9 March 2008.

• Sarah (Sora) Kushner was born in Troskunai in ~1887 and emigrated to the United States, where for a time she used the surname Butler. In 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, she married Chaim (Henry) Dorfman, who was born in Kovno on 5 November 1878. They lived in Chicago, but during the Depression Sarah and her daughter lived for a few years in Chatanooga, Tennessee, with Sarah's older sister Paya and her family. Chaim died on 31 August 1945, and Sarah died in 1969, both in Chicago, Illinois.
  PHOTO Sarah Kushner Dorfman
• The daughter of Sarah Kushner/Butler and Chaim Dorfman:
• Pearl Dorfman was born in 1919. She married Nathan Goodman in 1947. Nathan died in 2004, and Pearl died in 2015. The three sons of Pearl Dorfman and Nathan Goodman:
• Allen Goodman, born in 1947
• Mark Goodman, born in 1950
• Robert Goodman, born in 1955

II.  Yakov (Yankel) Kushner was born in Troskunai in April 1846. He married Mariasha (Maria), who was born in ~1848, daughter of Eliezer. Yankel was a bookbinder. He is mentioned in an account of the 1915 pogrom in Troskunai. Yankel died in Troskunai on 12 January 1929. Mariasha died in 1930.
PHOTO Yankel and Mariasha Kushner, daughter Paya, and Paya's daughters in Troskunai, 1920s
PHOTO Gravestone of Yakov and Mariasha Kushner
DOCUMENT Yankel Kushner's German passport (1917)
DOCUMENT Yankel Kushner's application for Lithuanian ID (internal passport) (1920)

• The four known children of Yankel and Mariasha Kushner:
• Paya Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1875. She married Itzik Israel Rutenberg, who was born in ~1876 in Ukmerge (yiddish: Vilkomir), Lithuania. Paya and Israel Rutenberg are mentioned in an account of the 1915 pogrom in Troskunai. Israel died in 1919. According to Berl Glezer's memoir, he was shot in 1919 by Lithuanian partisans. Paya was killed in the Holocaust in August 1941 at Pajuoste.
  PHOTO Paya (Kushner) Rutenberg with her parents and daughters in Troskunai, 1920s
• The four children of Paya Kushner and Israel Rutenberg:

• Mikhel Rutenberg was born in ~1904.
• Leya Rutenberg was born in 1906. She married, but her husband's name is unknown.
  PHOTO Leya Rutenberg with her mother, sisters, and grandparents Yankel & Mariasha Kushner, 1920s
• Mera (Merka, Mari) Rutenberg was born in Troskunai in 1908. On 28 March 1933 in Troskunai she married Elye Nosen (Natan) Barkhin, who was born in 1909 in Sarkovscizna (now Sharkovshizna in Belarus). Both were killed in the Holocaust at Pajuoste in August 1941, along with their children.
  PHOTO Merka Rutenberg with her mother, sisters, and grandparents (Yankel & Mariasha Kushner)
  PHOTO Merka Rutenberg with chalutzim (~1930)
• The two children of Mera Rutenberg and Nosen Barkhin:
• Israel Itzik Barkhin was born in Troskunai on 18 February 1935. He was killed at Pajuoste in August 1941.
• Yakov (Yankel) Barkhin was born in Troskunai on 13 October 1938. He was killed at Pajuoste in August 1941.
• Rocha (Rochka, Rochel) Rutenberg was born in Troskunai in 1909. She emigrated to Palestine on 28 January 1934.
  PHOTO Rocha Rutenberg with her mother, sisters, and grandparents Yankel & Mariasha Kushner, 1920s
  PHOTO Rochka Rutenberg with Trashkuner friends (~1930)
  PHOTO Rochka Rutenberg with Trashkuner chalutzim (26 April 1930)
  PHOTO Rochel Rutenberg (~1933)
  DOCUMENT Rochel Rutenberg's application for internal passport (Lithuanian ID) (1930)
• Chava (Eva) Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1877, and immigrated to the United States. In Chicago on 10 November 1906 she married Israel Zalman Shimkin, who was born in Russia in 1878. They lived in Chicago, Illinois. Eva died on 28 January 1946, and Israel died on 23 January 1949, both in Chicago, Illinois.
  PHOTO Eva and Israel Shimkin
• The five children of Chava/Eva Kushner and Israel Shimkin:
• Nathan Shimkin (Simkin) was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 6 February 1909. He died on 21 August 1969.
• Lee Shimkin (Simkin) was born in Chicago on 18 November 1912. She married Jack Kahan, who was born on 16 October 1911 and died on 27 October 1968. They had two children. Lee died in died in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, on 18 March 1998.
• Alex Simkin was born in Illinois on 25 July 1914. In 1946 he married Corine/Corinne Berebitsky, who was born on 20 July 1919 and died on 20 September 2002. Alex died in Morton Grove, Illinois, on 20 February 2005.
• Mary Simkin, twin sister of Alex, was born on 25 July 1914. She married Albert H. Boehm, who was born on 30 June 1911. They had two children. Mary died on 1 October 1996, and Albert died on 27 December 2004, both in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
• Harry Shimkin was born in Chicago on 11 October 1919. Harry died in Chicago at age seven on 2 July 1927.

• Shlomo Chaim (Shleyme) Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1886. He married Dobra Stokol, who was born in Raguva in 1890. (Shleyme and Dobra are mentioned Part I of Berl Glezer's memoir. Part II tells how the family attempted to escape when World War II broke out but were forced to turn back.) Shleyme and Dobra were both killed at Pajuoste in August 1941.
  PHOTO Shlomo (Shleyme) Kushner, Troskunai
  PHOTO Dobra (Stokol) Kushner, Troskunai
  DOCUMENT Shlomo Kushner's application for Lithuanian ID (internal passport)
  DOCUMENT Dobra Kushner's application for Lithuanian ID (internal passport)
• The eight children of Shlomo Kushner and Dobra Stokol:
• Dvora (Dveira, Dverka) Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1910. In Kupiskis (Kupishok) in 1940 she married Leib Rubin Slavinsky, who was born in Kupiskis in 1908. (Berl Glezer's memoir tells of her family's unsuccessful attempt to escape at the outbreak of World War II.) Dveira, Leib, and their four-month-old son were killed at Pajuoste in August 1941.
  PHOTO Dveira Kushner
  DOCUMENT Dveira Kushner's application for Lithuanian ID (internal passport)
• The child of Dvora Kushner and Leib Rubin Slavinsky:
• [son], born in early 1941, killed at Pajuoste in August 1941.
• Eliahu (Elye, Elke) Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1911. He was killed on 24 June 1941, while trying to escape at the outbreak of World War II. (Berl Glezer mentioned Elke in Part I and Part II of his memoir, and included a brief account of his killing. Shmuel Kovnovich wrote a more detailed account.)
  PHOTO Elke Kushner
  DOCUMENT Elke Kushner's application for Lithuanian ID (internal passport)
• Chaya Kushner was born in Troskunai in ~1913. In Traupis (Treyp) on 28 August 1934, she married Khonel Ruvel Dimant, who was born in 1909 in Anyksciai (Aniksht). Chaya was killed in the Holocaust at Pajuoste in August 1941.
  PHOTO Chaya Kushner
• Chasya Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1916. She went to Palestine in the 1930s, and she married Zvi Vitlin.
  PHOTO Chasya Kushner, Troskunai (undated)
  PHOTO Chasya Kushner with the Trashkun branch of Hashomer Hatzair (1929-30)
  PHOTOS Chasya (Kushner) Vitlin at reunion of survivors from Trashkun (Tel-Aviv, 1987)
  DOCUMENT Chasya Kushner's application for Lithuanian internal passport (1930)
• The two children of Chasya Kushner and Zvi Vitlin:
• Nurit Vitlin
• Tamar Vitlin
• Musya (Muska) Kushner was born in 1923. At the outbreak of World War II, she and her sister Chana fled east as far as Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where they farmed apricots in the nearby mountains, and later painted tank parts in a military factory in the Ural region of Russia. After the war the two sisters returned to Lithuania (Vilnius) for a time, then moved to Rēzekne, Latvia. There Muska married Ruven Kofman. In 1971 the family moved to Rishon LeZion, Israel, where Ruven died in 1978 and Muska died in 2015. The child of Muska Kushner and Ruven Kofman:
• Shulamit (Shula) Kofman, born in 1949
• Chana (Chanka) Kushner was born on 10 May 1925. At the outbreak of World War II she fled east with her sister Musya, ending up in Uzbekistan and later moving to the Ural region of Russia (see Musya Kushner, above).  After the war, she and her sister spent a short time in Vilnius before moving to Rēzekne, Latvia, where Chanka married David Garber (born in Rēzekne). David died in 1979 and Chanka died in January 1990, both in Rēzekne, Latvia.
  PHOTO Chana Kushner with Itzik Konkurovich in Vilnius (1948)
• The two children of Chana Kushner and David Garber:
• Doba Garber
• Sioma Garber was born in 1956 in Rēzekne, Latvia. He and his family moved to Israel in December 1990.
• Paya Leah Kushner was born in Troskunai on 6 February 1928. She was killed in the Holocaust at Pajuoste in August 1941.
• Israel (Shrulik Yisrolke) Kushner was born in Troskunai in ~1930. He was killed in the Holocaust at Pajuoste in August 1941. (Berl Glezer's memoir tells of Yisrolke's attempted escape with his family at the outbreak of World War II.)
• Sora (Sarah) Kushner was born in Troskunai in 1888. She emigrated to the United States and married Yosef Itzikovich (later Joseph Echikovitz, eventually Joseph Kovitz), who was born in Troskunai on 15 August 1887. They lived in Duluth, Minnesota; in Superior, Wisconsin; and later in Chicago, Illinois. Sarah died in Chicago on 11 April 1956. Joe died in Green Lake, Wisconsin, on 23 April 1982.
  PHOTO Joe, Sarah, and their adult children Mitchell and Lillian at the wedding party of Victoria Kovitz (1951)
  PHOTO Sarah with her husband Joe, daughter Lillian, and Joe's sister Sarah Karp at a wedding dinner (undated)
  PHOTO Gravestones of Joseph Kovitz, Sara Kushner Kovitz, and their son Edward Kovitz
• The four children of Sarah Kushner and Joe Echikovitz:
• Mitchell Echikovitz was born on 3 April 1912 in Duluth, Minnesota. A graduate of the Wisconsin School for the Deaf, he married Sophie Mesojedec. Mitchell died on 12 January 2000 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
  PHOTO Mitchell and his sister Florence (~1919)
  PHOTO Mitchell with siblings Lillian and Edward (~1925)
  PHOTO Mitchell and Sophie among others at the wedding party of Victoria Kovitz (1951)
  DOCUMENT Newspaper article features Mitchell Echikovitz (1944)
  DOCUMENT Mitchell Echikovitz obituary (2000)
• Florence Echikovitz was born in 1915 in Duluth, Minnesota. She died of pneumonia in 1920, at the age of five.
  PHOTO Florence and her brother Mitchell (~1919)
  PHOTO Gravestone of Florence Echikovitz

• Lillian Echikovitz was born on 3 February 1920 in Superior, Wisconsin. She married Sam Gould, and they had three sons. Lillian died in Sun City, Arizona, in 2005.
  PHOTO Lillian with her brothers Mitchell and Edward (~1925)
  PHOTO Lillian, her husband Sam Gould, and others at the wedding party of Victoria Kovitz (1951)
  PHOTO Lillian Gould with father and extended family (~1960)
• Edward (Eddie) Kovitz was born on 3 June 1922 in Superior, Wisconsin. He married Frieda. Eddie enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on 20 July 1942. On 8 June 1943, he died as an aviation cadet in a plane crash near Eureka, Texas.
  PHOTO Edward with his siblings Mitchell and Lillian (~1925)
  DOCUMENTS • PHOTO Newspaper reports of Edward Kovitz' death and photo of his gravestone

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• Compiled by Johanna Kovitz with research by Jonathan Levine
• © 2020 Jonathan Levine & Johanna Kovitz
• Updated September 2025