On the occasion of the 250^th anniversary of the death of Yaakov Kopel Lukover*

Abstract

Keywords

Yaakov Kopel Likover (ca.1695-1769) a well-known kabbalist, scholar, tavern owner and progenitor of at least three Chassidic dynastic legacies is the progenitor of the Elbaum surname. Starting from a classical reconstruction of a family tree in the particular town of Krasnobrod, we have succeeded in tracking the entire family of Shlomo Tzvi Elbaum, in linking him to Yakov Kopel Likover, and in deducing the latter’s previously unknown descendants.  We have examined family tombstones and the subscription list of an important scholarly work, thereby learning more about the family. The peculiar geopolitical history, particularly of the Zamość District, of the main towns of residence in relationship to Austrian naming laws allowed us to determine the etymological origin of the surname, Elbaum.  The unusual naming of grandchildren of the progenitor of the family during his lifetime, along with peculiar aspects of hagiography, i.e. idealized biographies, allowed us to determine the possible Italian provenance of the family. DNA analysis indicates that the family was Ashkenazic with minimal (or no) evidence of Sephardic ancestry.

Rabbinic genealogy, Kopel Likover, origin of surnames, tombstone inscriptions, prenumeranten lists, family reconstruction, DNA studies

*Presented in part at the 38^th IAJGS, Warsaw, Aug. 2018

A. Introduction

The origin and development of Jewish surnames in Poland has been the subject of several modern treatises^[1].  The studies are based on religious, historical, philological and etymological principles. By and large the forced adoption of surnames took effect only over a 20-year period, regardless of regulations, during which time there was a transition from the age-old system of patronyms to one of invented surnames.  As Jews became used to the new order, identities sometimes vacillated between two or more invented surnames until the names became invariant by about 1830.  Not so ELBAUM^[2], which seems to have appeared sometime around 1788 and remained fixed thereafter. Furthermore, as we found out from the present study, no unrelated family seems to have adopted that surname. Aside from its uniqueness, ELBAUM is also a prime example of a Jewish family whose members lived almost entirely in the Lublin Guberniya, specifically in the Zamość and Tamoszow districts of Galicia in 1788.   Its near geographic isolation allows us the opportunity to study the history of the family without having to stretch our resources too widely. The progenitor of the family, known to historians, was Yakov Koppel Lukover (ca 1695-1769). He had a reputation as a scholar and kabbalist; and he was also famous for his kindness to his guests and to all travelers stopping at his tavern in the Polish village of Lukowa near Tarnograd.^[3]  Lukover was, therefore, a toponym.

The purpose of this study is to, not only flesh out the genealogical history of the ELBAUM family, but also to trace the origin of the surname.  The surname appears to have remained stubbornly unchanged for the most part, even as those of other contemporary families evolved or changed dramatically during the 19^th century.  Its establishment is partly a quirk of history and geography, subject to religious custom.  We are fortunate that the progenitor of the family, Yakov Kopel Lukover, is a well-known religious figure with even more well-known descendants who were religious leaders and who left behind oral and written records.  This helps us to track the family history throughout the ages.  Hagiography in these writings luckily provides us with clues to the family history prior to its arrival in Poland without those authors necessarily knowing such details.  The only other source of information which we have encountered regarding the origin of the family dates back to 1935 with the establishment of the Oelbaum Family Society^[4] which has a tradition of descent from Kopel Lukover. We believe that ours, however, is the first comprehensive and systematic study. 

B. Procedure

     a) Record extraction

Since the original aim of the project was restricted to reconstructing the family history of one particular Elbaum family living in Krasnobrod (Lublin guberniya), we started with the extraction of genealogical data available in the Polish State Archives for that town starting from 1826 when birth, marriage and death records were kept in separate books for Jews^[5].  A single monolithic family was revealed. This exercise was extended to the vital records kept in the mixed Catholic / non-Catholic parish records covering the years 1810 to 1825^[6]. This is sometimes referred to as the patronymic era because, at least for Jews, surnames were most often absent and, instead, Jews were denoted as X son/daughter of Y.  We were surprised, however, to see the Elbaum surname being in use as early as 1810.  The data had been extracted from the records which had been originally microfilmed in the past^[7] or from images available on the Polish State Archives website^[8], many of which are also available at the website of Jewish Records Indexing – Poland (JRI-Poland.org) ^[9].  The family reconstruction indicated that all Elbaums living in Krasnobrod were related.  The reconstruction was subsequently augmented by studying the records from neighboring towns.  Printed family histories placed this Krasnobrod clan into a larger framework.

An important headstone, still extant in the Jewish cemetery of Jozefow Ordinacki, helped us enormously with the reconstruction, as it spread further afield in Lublin province.

     b) Geographic provenance of the Elbaum surname

One of JRI-Polands’s tools is a time-and-space mapper^[10] indicating the density of the use of any given surname during any particular decade after 1810. The application to the surname, Elbaum, indicates that its use showed up in Zamość county and in very distant Kutno. (See Figure 1, below).  We shall argue that the Kutno branch transported its name when it migrated from the Zamość area to Kutno after about 1788.  In each case, the family spread outward concentrically from these locations as the generations progressed.  No registry data was available prior to 1808, leaving us with the uncertainty of whether or not there were two unrelated Elbaum clans originating simultaneously in two different regions.  Therefore, the next step was to examine the history of these two locations.  An important Prenumeranten (subscription) list helped us to answer this question. 

1811-1820

1831-1840

1851-1860

Fig. 1. Time- and space-distribution of ELBAUM family events during the early period of record-keeping in Poland.

Reproduced with the kind permission from JRI-Poland.

c) Austrian surname laws

Zamość county was, at one point in this critical time period, located within the Austrian Empire.  Therefore, we examined the legal use of surnames within the region, subject to the historical framework of rapidly changing borders.

    d) Origin of the Elbaum family itself

We then examined family lore recorded by the Rabbinic branches themselves in order to understand the broader picture including the geographical origin of the Elbaum family prior to its arrival in Poland. 

C. Results and Discussion

At first, the analysis of the civil registry records led us to most of the children of Josef ELBAUM  (1768-1818) of Krasnobrod. The patronymic era records revealed that the parents of Josef were Szlama and Gryna^[11].   With such an unusual combination of given names, it was not difficult to expand the scope to nearby towns, thus revealing several additional Elbaums whose parents were Szlama and Gryna.  A chart resulting from this earliest analysis is shown in Figure 2, below.

Fig. 2.  Children of Shlomo Tzvi Elbaum

Moszek, a teacher, was identified by virtue of his (second) marriage in 1828 in Zamość to Fayga BRAM^[12]. His father, Szlama, was identified as the erstwhile beadle in the synagogue of Kransobrod.  Abram, two of whose sons lived in Lublin, was identified by virtue of grandchildren with the telltale names, Szlama and Gryna, as well as from his 1832 death record in Jozefow Ordynacki^[13], henceforth referred to simply as Jozefow.  Because Szlama was born ca 1800, this provides an upper limit to the death year of Shlomo Tzvi.  Another son, Kopel, was identified by virtue of his death record in 1848 in Jozefow^[14].  The last son, Majer ELENBAUM, living in Zelechow, was the son of Szlama Jankelewicz^[15].  Jankel is, of course, the Yiddish endearment for Yakov [Kopel].  We also considered whether a certain Michla, nee ELBAUM, who died in 1825 in Jozefow^[16], could be a daughter of Szlama, given that she named grandchildren Szlama and Gryna; but ultimately we rejected this possibility (see below for a deeper analysis).

At this point, we realized that, even though Gryna had never before been identified prior to our study, nor any of her children, nevertheless Shlomo [Tzvi] Elbaum was known in the literature as a son of Yakov Kopel Lukover.  Meir Wunder’s study^[17] of Shimon Maryles, the Chassidic Rebbe of Jaroslaw, devotes a chapter to Yakov Kopel Lukover and his then known children.  An outline of Yakov Kopel’s family tree, based on Wunder’s work (2010) and showing two sons – Shlomo Tzvi (who lived in Krasnobrod, unbeknownst to historians) and Israel Leibs (who lived in Jozefow) – is given in Figure 3, below.

Fig. 3. The first three generations after Yakov Kopel Lukover, as per reference 17.  

The boxes shaded in blue are for three early Chassidic leaders

We see that both sons of Yakov Kopel carried the surname Elbaum (written in one of its variant forms).  Only one of Israel’s own sons, Shimon (and his descendants), deviated from this practice because of the desire to commemorate the latter’s father by using the acronym, MARYL’S or MARYLES, i.e. Mi-Avinu-R’Yisroel Leibs. 

Wunder recounts the family tradition that Yakov Kopel was a learned Kabbalist but lived in the tiny agricultural village of Lukowa close to Tarnograd.  Although a scholar, he did not have a Rabbinic position but rather operated a wayside inn where he generously offered hospitality to Jewish travelers.  His fame as a scholar spread to the point where he was offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam – which he rejected.  Although he was an opponent of Chassidism, Yakov was approached by the Ba’al Shem Tov (d. 1772) the founder of the Chassidic movement, who asked him to intercede with Yakov’s friend, the Pope in Rome, in a quest to act farably towards the Jews of Poland.^[18] 

Yakov Kopel died in 1769 and was buried in nearby Tarnograd.  Although his headstone is no longer extant, the inscription was recorded prior to World War 2^[19].  Ours, the first English translation, is given below:

“And Jacob went out from Be’er Sheva,
He would provide for every wayfarer,
and now he has gone on his way in holiness.  He was a saint.
In the year [5]529 [i.e. 1769] on Wednesday on the minor Shushan Purim,
the luminaries were removed, and the Holy Ark was captured.
And the scholar, superb in Torah learning and in acts of kindness,
was summoned to heaven.  Famed in praise, our teacher, Yakov Kopel,
son of the recently deceased Kalonymus”.

It is not surprising that the surviving children, immersed in Torah scholarship, too, compared Yakov Kopel to the Biblical forefather and namesake, Jacob, who also left the family well of Torah nourishment, towards his encounter with destiny.

We shall not repeat details of the family history described in Wunder’s study, which essentially concentrated on the life and works of Shimon and his descendants.  We wish to underline only two key points relevant to our study of Shimon’s siblings and of the father Jakob:  1) Yisroel Leibs family migrated deeper into Galicia, while his siblings remained in Poland proper; and 2) The headstone, shown below in Fig. 4, is miraculously still extant in the Jewish cemetery of Jozefow; and it has been transcribed by Trczinski^[20]. Wunder^[21], too, reproduced the inscription in Hebrew of the headstone of Yisroel Leibs as first published in Dvar Chein (p. 178).  It reads:

Fig. 4. The headstone of Yisroel Leibs [ELBAUM], in front of one of the present authors (DE) in Jozefow

Inscriptions for illustrious scholars are usually very poetic with Biblical references; and this headstone is no exception.  This one is a partial quote from the Biblical episode of the gathering of the 12 sons of the patriarch, Jacob (i.e. Israel), around his deathbed to listen to the final words of the father.  Ours, the first English translation is very instructive:

Gather around your father Israel
And cry over him with embittered souls
And let your tears roll down ceaselessly [for]
Him who led you in the [path of the] fear of God all his life
The honest learned scholar who walked in the footsteps of his forefathers
…..  our teacher and Rabbi, Israel,
son of the famous Kabbalist,
referred to as a holy man of God,
our Rabbi and teacher Yakov Kopel LUKOVER.
May the memory of this Tzaddik be a blessing forever.
He passed away on the second day of Pesach [5]572 [1812]
May his soul be bound up in the bonds of everlasting life.

From this, we note, the deceased’s real name was merely Israel / Yisroel; and so the descriptive additive, Leibs, must refer to the name of his father-in-law, a common grammatical construct for such cases when ambiguity might otherwise arise from multiple marriages.  Furthermore, in order to complete the parallel Biblical allusion, we naturally conclude that Yisroel Leibs must have also had 12 sons (and an unknown number of daughters), whereas at the outset of this study we knew of only four. This directs us to further research on that part of Yisroel’s family which might have remained in Poland proper, as opposed to those sons who were known to have moved to Eastern Galicia.  By studying all available Polish civil registration data that do not connect to Shlomo Tzvi, we believe, we have uncovered 11 of the twelve sons of Yisroel and at least two daughters and their families, thereby fleshing out most of the history of the descendants of Yakov Kopel Likover who, by the end of the 19^th century, spread out over most of Poland and Galicia and even into Hungary and Moldavia.   As mentioned above, four were already known and were described by Wunder.   As part of this exercise, we have come across extra personalities who could only have been additional children of Yakov Koppel himself (discussed further, below.)

The remainder, discovered by us and shown in Figure 5, were discovered raising families in various Polish towns. According to Wunder (ref. 16), Yisroel was married to a Hinda, daughter of Leyb^[22].  However, we have found records where his (second) wife was Ruchl; and this is consistent with giving birth to children as late as 1785.  Many of these children were living in Jozefow or nearby. In approximate chronological order we have found:

1. Szmul ELBAUM (born ca 1755) was married to Ruchl.  He was identified by the death of his son, Majer (1775-1850), recorded in Tarnow and Zwolen^[23].  Since a religious Jew would not marry a woman with the same name as his mother, we tend to believe that Szmul was the son of Yisroel Leibs’ first wife, Hinda.  However, the issue is complicated by the existence of a least three contemporary men named Szmul / Samuel ELBAUM, one of whom was a likely an early son of Yakov Kopel himself. For now, we attach the Szmul in question to Yisroel Leibs.  See further, below.

2. Leyzor ALBAUM (b ca 1760) and his wife, Sura, were the parents of Zelman ALBAUM(1784-1839)^[24], Rabbi of Kazanow. We have connected Leyzor to Yisroel Leibs by virtue of a grandson, named Izrael in 1838.

3. Fayga ELBAUM, born ca 1760, was married to Chaim WOLBEDACHT. Their son, Szmul, married Zora / Sora, the daughter of Berek ELBAUM, born ca 1775, and Frayda FYNKEL^[25],in 1818 in Jozefow.  Fayga and the WOLBEDACHTs were from Jozefow, which was YisroelLeibs’ homestead.  Since a granddaughter was named Ruchl, we suspect that Fayga was the daughter of Yisroel Leibs second wife.  Berek’s provenance is a bit murky.  His children were being married in Jozefow, Sokolow Podlaski and Szczebrzeszyn.

4. Boruch EJLBOJM (born ca 1765) appeared in the 1850 census of Krements as the father of Szymon of Radziwill, in the region of Galicia^[26] where Yisroel Leibs’ known children lived.

5. Oszer Anczel (born ca 1765) a tailor from Jozefow, and married to Malka Chana Herszkowicz, had two sons – Leyzor ELBUM and Majer ALBUM – living in Kosow Lacki^[27].  Another son, Eliye OELBAUM, was married off in Szczebrzeszyn.  Their marriage and death records mention Oszer as their father. Again, the association with Jozefow or nearby, links Oszer to Yisroel Leibs.

6. Another possible son, is Salomon ÖHLBAUM from Jozefow and born ca 1775.  His daughter, Feige SCHLEFRIG, died in 1886^[28], in the nearby Galician town of Jaroslaw.  Salomon’s son Berek, born in 1800, married a second time to Katzl / Katja IZAAK (45 years his junior) of Bargszas in Hungary. Berek must have been from a very prestigious family for such a match.

7. Etl ELBAUM (1777-1853) was married to Nuchym SZECHTER of Jozefow.  Etl’s death record^[29] explicitly states that her parents were Izrael and Ruch

8. Icyk Eyzyk ELBAUM (ca 1785 – > 1832) of Zelechow and his wife, Ester, married off a son, Izrael, in Konskie in 1832^[30].  Since Izrael was born in 1813 – one year after the death of Yisroel Leibs – it seems clear that Icyk Eyzyk was a late-born son of Yisroel Leibs.

9. Berek ELBAUM, born ca 1775, was likely a brother of Fayga (#3 above).  Their children who married each other were thus likely first cousins to each other. If more distantly related that, they could not be children of Yisroel Leibs, but rather of Yakov Kopel himself. This is not possible since Yakov Kopel had already died by 1769.  When Berek married off his daughter, Zora, in 1818, he was a resident of Jozefow^[31].  But when Zora remarried in 1822 (in Szczebrzeszyn), Berek was described as already a resident of Jerusalem!!^[32]

Fig. 5. Likely children of Yisroel Leibs ELBAUM.  Names in colored boxes were deduced in the present study.

We now address the question of origins, both of the name Elbaum as well as of the family itself.

The first mention of the surname Elbaum does not occur in Polish civil registration or parish records, but rather in a Hebrew Prenumeranten (subscription) list printed in Zolkiew in 1804.  Virtually all of the notable scholars in Poland and Galicia subscribed to this book, Sefer Yere’im.^[33]  The ones from Jozefow are shown below in Figure 6. These are the town scholars.

Fig. 6. List of subscribers for Sefer Yere’im (1804) living in Jozefow

We recognize our Yisroel ELBAUM and note that his given name does not contain the added Leibs, thus confirming our interpretation above.  Both he and his relative, Dov Ber^[34], used the Yiddishized version of the name Elbaum, namely “Eilboim”.  In addition, Yisroel described himself as being from Lukowa, a village which he had left 46 years earlier, in 1758, in order to marry and settle in the town of Jozefow.  Clearly, sometime between the death of Yakov Kopel in 1769 and 1804 the name Elbaum suddenly appeared.  One must ask why, then, if there was still an emotional attachment to the descriptive Lukover, was there a fairly universal switch to a new surname, Elbaum. We believe that the name change was compelled by the 1787 Austrian Familianten laws and surname edicts.

We can also recognize three other personalities on the list:

1. Yisroel Volbedachter who shows up in the civil registration records as Zrul WOLBEDACHT (d 1834)^[35].  This is the same family as the one that Fayga ELBAUM (child # 3, above) married into. It appears that Zrul (son of Josef) was the nephew of Fayga.

2. Furthermore, Zrul was married to Toba LERNER, the daughter of Josef LERNER, who was probably related to Leibish Lerner who also appears on the list.

3. Betzalel Wax is also a fascinating person.  He was a member of the family which founded a publishing house in Jozefow^[36].  He was also the progenitor of a famous Rabbinic family^[37]. And most likely, he was a grandson of Yakov Kopel Lukover.^[38] So far, the subscription list appears to contain members of an extended family; and this tends to confirm that Berek was indeed the brother of Fayga (#9 above) i.e. a son Yisroel Leibs.   We would not be surprised if the others on the list were also relatives of Yisroel Leibs.^[39]

In 1772, the towns in which most of Kopel’s children were living, became part of Galicia.   All descendants living at that time were Austrian subjects.  In 1787 Austria decreed that all its Jews had to adopt German surnames^[40].  Place names like Likover (lit. from Lukowa) were forbidden. Kopel’s living children suddenly had to replace LIKOVER with a Germanic name.  But in 1809 Napoleon shrunk the size of Galicia. The towns, in which Elbaums were living, were suddenly no longer subject to Austrian laws.  By then it was too late:  Yisroel Leibs and Ber ELBAUM seem to have obediently chosen their surname, certainly by the 1804 publication of Sefer Yere’im.  Nevertheless, since the Austrians would be interested in legal documents alone, Yisroel felt able to revert, in such a non-public setting, to the old toponym, Likover, which appears also on his headstone.  

The question which remains is why the name Elbaum, in particular, was chosen.  We hypothesize that in 1787 the family cleverly transformed the toponym into a surname via a 2-stage process:  1) applying an anagram (ie. re-arrangement of letters or words in phrases –   especially common in Kabbalah; and 2) applying a calque (i.e. a literal translation, a copy, from one language to another).  Any family, like Kopel’s, which was mystically inclined, felt comfortable doing so. Thus Likowa (cf Likover) was transformed into Oliwka which, in Polish can mean olive or olive tree. The latter version translates directly into the German ÖLBAUM / OELBAUM. This double trick allowed Yakov Kopel’s sons to preserve their original “surname” without offending the Austrian laws. By 1809, when the more liberal Polish regulations were in force, the surname was already established, and there was no natural desire to deviate from a surname which actually served its purpose, namely to honor the family’s famous ancestor

Having successfully traced the family from 1769 to modern times^[41], we now turn our attention to additional children of Yakov Kopel Lukover beyond Shlomo Tzvi and Yisroel Leibs.  Some  clarification is needed for two of the known important children or grandchildren.  Part of the fallout from this investigation allows us to penetrate to earlier times and locations.  We also end up discovering 4 or 5 previously unknown children of Yakov Kopel.

a) Matel

One of the known daughters of Yakov Kopel, named Matel (b ca 1725), married Avraham Elazar Horowitz who became the Rabbi of the town of Jozefow.  Their son, Yakov Yitzchak Horowitz, known as the “Chozeh” of Lublin, literally meaning “seer” or “visionary” in Hebrew, was a charismatic miracle-worker. He was popularized by his great intuitive powers and his penetrating gaze, and was thereby responsible for the early spread of Chassidism via his many disciples who took leadership roles in various towns throughout Poland.  Indeed, he mentored his first-cousin, Shimon, Rebbe of Jaroslaw.  And he was also responsible for the marriage of his much younger aunt (see below) to Alexander Sender Safran, the Rebbe of Komarno / Chmielnik, and indirectly of their son, Eyzyk, progenitor of a branch of the Zidichover Rebbes to his distant cousin^[42].  We focus on the Seer because of the peculiarity of his given name, Yakov, so-named in 1745 during the lifetime of his grandfather, Yakov Kopel. The family lore, presumably initiated by Kopel himself, is described by Alfasi^[43].  He was spared by the Angel of Death in the year 1744, and given an extra 25 years of life with the opportunity to marry off his eldest daughter, Matel, to see the birth of his grandson the future Seer, and to attend the latter’s marriage in 1765.^[44] In fact, Kopel insisted on raising the young Yakov Yitzchak in his own home in Lukowa and then Tarnograd, away from the youth’s own parents.  How could a Polish Jew tolerate the naming of a grandson in his own lifetime^[45] and, indeed in his own presence?  The answer must be the same as that for why there was in fact, another grandson of Kopel who was given the name Yakov. That was Jakob Elbaum of Kutno, born approximately in 1744^[46].   

But this mystery is only part of a larger puzzle: Why would the Amsterdam community choose a relatively unknown innkeeper from the agricultural village of Lukowa to be their Rabbi?  How could a Polish village innkeeper develop his skills as an accomplished kabbalist in isolation without any masters?  How could a simple Polish village innkeeper learn Italian well enough to intercede with his acquaintance, the Pope, on behalf of his fellow Jews? 

Generally, the only Jews who name boys after their living grandfathers are Sefardi or Italian Jews.  Consequently, we believe that Kopel or his father was an Italian or Sephardic Jew, possibly from Padua, Amsterdam or Venice where Kopel would have been close to centers of Kabbalah and where he could have developed a friendship with the future Pope; and then moved to Lukowa 54 km from Zamość (“Padua of the North”) because of ties to Italian relatives. This certainly explains the naming anomaly. Why Zamość, though?  It turns out that this was the home to Italian artisans and Sephardic Jews,^[47] who had exclusively been invited by its owner, the nobleman Jan Zamoyski, to settle and develop his town Zamość in an Italian style in 1588.  After his death in 1605, the “Sephardic” and/or Italian Jews are thought to have scattered or to have assimilated among Ashkenazi Jews. However, it seems just as plausible that they moved to other family holdings within the estate (Zamość, Goraj, Janów Lubelski, Kraśnik, Krzeszów, Szczebrzeszyn, Tarnogród, Tomaszów Lubelski, and Turobin, as well as 157 villages which presumably included Lukowa.)^[48]  The holdings of the family expanded considerably.  Until 1775 distant Kutno, too, was owned by Andrzej Zamoyski.  We presume that after the original Zamość estates fell under Austrian rule in 1773, many Jews from that area may have moved to privately owned Kutno, which was under Prussian control from 1793 to1807, in order to avoid increasingly oppressive Austrian laws, for family ties, or for economic reasons.  In Kutno there is mention of, not only Elbaums, but also of other exclusive Zamość area families living in Kutno, (e.g. KIBEL, SPERLING, ELBAUM, ROK / RAK, SZLAJFER, GAJST). This could explain the sudden blooming of the Elbaum records in Kutno, including the death of Yakov, a grandson of Kopel born ca 1744, a member of a family which was apparently still observing Mediterranean customs. 

In principle, we can go further and try to find Kopel’s family in Western Europe.  The major centers for Kaballah in the late 17^th early 18^th century were Venice and Amsterdam. A major hotbed of Kabbalah at the time was Padua^[49]. Prominent Kabbalists of the time were Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto of Amsterdam; and Moshe Chaim Luzzatto of Venice and Amsterdam – a younger contemporary of Kopel Lukover.  Mantua is also a strong possibility since many prominent Italian Kabbalists were buried at Mantua.^[50]

Tracing Kopel’s father, Kalonymus, (Calimani in Italian) within these circles is a work in progress.

b) The Safrin Dynasty

The identity of the mother of Yitzchak Yehuda Yechiel SAFRIN, the Chassidic Rebbe of Komarno, has been somewhat controversial until the present study. Family lore merely asserts a descent from Yakov Kopel Lukover.  Wunder^[51] claims that she was Chana, the granddaughter of Kopel. Others claim, again without justification, that she was Chawa^[52], an actual daughter of Kopel. One would think that civil registry records ought to clarify the issue; however, it appears that researchers were scouring, in vain, the archives of Safrin, Hungary from where his family came, or else the original family surname, EICHENSTEIN, of Zydaczow where he was brought up.  We have, however, uncovered the 1822 Pinczow marriage record of the 20-year old Yitzchak Yehuda Yechiel, the future Admor of Komarno^[53] (signing as Eyzyk Sender, i.e. son of Sender, and living in Chmielnik, as expected), to 19-year old Gitl (the daughter of the Admor of Pinczow, Avraham Mordechai HOROWICZ, again as expected).  An image of this record (Figure 7, below) shows that the groom’s mother is named Rochl z Koplow. 

Fig. 7. Image of a portion of the 1822 marriage record of Yitzchak [SAFRIN], son of Rochl, daughter of Kopel

In the style of the Polish clerks of the time – this means that Rochl was the daughter of Kopel, presumably Kopel LUKOWER.  However, the name is Rochl rather than Chana or Chawa.  One possible explanation is that it is the groom’s maternal grandmother who is cited rather than his mother herself – a rather odd procedure or clerical error.  Alternatively, in principle, it could be that both mother and grandmother were each a daughter of different Kopels.  However, in Chassidic circles, it is taboo for a girl to marry a man with the same name as that of her father. On the face of it, therefore, it appears that it was Kopel’s daughter, Rochl, born not much later than ca 1765, who married Sender SAFRIN, born supposedly ca 1765.  If so, that means that Rochl was born to an elderly Kopel from a second wife.  She was orphaned in 1769. By the time that Rochl was ready for marriage around 1785 to the Chozeh’s disciple, Sender, she was probably under the guardianship of her nephew, the Chozeh, who was 20 years older than she was.  It would only be natural to find a groom from the Chozeh’s circle.  The Chozeh’s strong interest in Rochl’s well-being continued for many years. According to the family lore of the Komarno dynasty, the Chozeh certainly advocated for the engagement of Sender’s and Rochl’s son, Eyzyk, to Gitl HOROWITZ in 1815 when Eyzyk was only 13, i.e. very shortly before the Chozeh died^[54].  The marriage took place seven years later in 1822 in Pinczow.  But why choose a bride from Pinczow of all places?  Aside from the fact that Gitl’s father, Avraham Mordechai HOROWITZ, the Admor of Pinczow, was also a disciple of the Chozeh, someone on the spot in Pinczow must have proposed the match to the Chozeh.  It turns out that the Chozeh had prior ties to Pinczow:  One of the Chozeh’s own grandsons, Szmul Szaja SZTERNFELD, married Ita Riwa GOLDKORN of Pinczow during his own lifetime.  There is also the likelihood that Mindl (1752-1812), a previously unknown sister of the Chozeh living in Pinczow, was in a position of influence.  Mindl had married a certain Icyk (d 1818) son of Fiszel LUBELSKI (indicating an origin in Lublin Guberniya.) The LUBELSKIs had settled in Pinczow prior to 1775.  The Pinczow records indicate explicitly that Mindl was a daughter of Abram Leyzor [HOROWITZ] and [Matel ELBAUM]^[55].  It is not surprising, therefore, that Mindl named one of her daughters Matel (presumably after her own mother). Descendants of this branch of the LUBELSKIs are, therefore, previously unknown descendants of Kopel LUKOVER.  Figure 8 shows the time scales for Kopel’s daughters, Matel and Rochl.

Fig. 8 Kopel Lukover’s daughters linked by the Chozeh of Lublin

c) Michla

Michla was the wife of Zrul (i.e. Izrael) ZYSBRENNER of Josefow.  (The surname indicates that he was a brandy producer, a trade which complemented that of Yakov Kopel Lukower). Figure 9, below, shows that when Michla died in 1825 at the age of 76 her maiden name was given as ELBAUM^[56]. (Thus she was born in 1749.) Moreover, she named a son Kopel in 1777 who married Szajndl Jenta WAKS (brother of the Cala WAKS described earlier, who signed the subscription list.)  These two facts indicate that Michla was a daughter of Yakov Kopel himself.  In truth, some of her children moved to Krasnobrod, and named two grandchildren Gryna; and so one might think that Michla was a daughter of Shlomo Tzvi (son of Kopel) and Gryna of Krasnobord, rather than of Kopel directly.  However, we think this is a coincidence, since Gryna seems to have been an ancestral name of the WAKS family too.^[57]  Furthermore, Shlomo Tzvi was born in 1736, and his wife, Gryna, was born in 1738, dates which make it impossible for them to be the parents of a Michla born in 1749. 

Fig. 9. 1825 death record of Michla ELBAUM, daughter of Yakov Kopel Lukover, the only official record that associates Kopel with ELBAUM

d) Chaja Sora

In our discussion of the WAKS family, above, we noted the cousin marriage between Ryfka Matl (daughter of Szajndl Jenta nee WAKS) and Szmul WAKS (son of Ankel WAKS). Szajndl Jenta and Szmul were siblings, both being children of Lejb WAX and Chaja Sora.  We also suggested that, where there was one cousin marriage, there was probably an earlier cousin marriage – namely the one between Szjandl Jenta herself and Kopel ZYSBRENNER.  As described above, since Kopel ZYSBRENNER was a grandson of Yakov Kopel, then so too was Szajndl Jenta a grand-daughter, thus making Chaja Sora a daughter of Kopel Lukover. She could not have been the daughter of Yisroel Leibs or of Szlama, since these sons were roughly the same age as Chaja Sora.  However, we cannot rule out that she was a daughter of Szmul, below.

e) Szmul

As mentioned above, we believe that the distant town of Kutno was a secondary homestead of the early ELBAUMs.  They seem to have moved there (along with other longstanding residents of the district of Zamość, tied together by family), out of a desire to find new economic advantages under the protection of the Zamoyski family, which had recently acquired this private town.  The time-mapping of Figure 1 indicates that this happened very early, namely before the end of the 18^th century. Therefore, we believe that the ELBAUM family which was living in Kutno were part of the first generation after Yakov Kopel.  The earliest members of that branch who are mentioned explicitly in the Kutno records are Jakob ELBAUM (1744-1814)^[58] and his son, Samuel ELBAUM (1763-1825)^[59] married (second time) to Ester SZLAYFER^[60].

Around the same time that Jakob’s family was establishing itself in Kutno, a second related family began raising a family there:  When Juda [Lejb] Hersz OELBAUM^[61] (b 1794) named a son Szmul [ben] Leyb in 1820, the birth was witnessed by the father’s uncle, also similarly named Szmul Lejbuszowicz ELBAUM (born in 1770)^[62].  Consequently, it makes sense that the head of this branch of the family was a Leybusz ELBAUM, born around 1745 to 1750. He was a contemporary of Jakob ELBAUM, described above — possibly his brother.  We do not know for sure where Leybusz himself was living. All we know is that one of his sons was from Kutno.  However, there is proof that Szmul Leybuszowicz ELBAUM’s son, namely Hersz Leyb ELBAUM was born in Ciepielow^[63], but was raising a family in Granica, Tarlow and Gniewoszow.  Consequently, it seems that Szmul Leybuszowicz was living at one point in Ciepielow. 

We can summarize to this point by saying that there were two first-cousins with similar names – Hersz Lejb of Ciepielow and Juda Leyb Hersz of Kutno, both grandsons of Leybusz ELBAUM of Kutno, a likely brother of Jakob of Kutno.  Now, we note that both of these brothers (Leybusz and Jakob) named a son Samuel / Szmul around the same time.  Consequently, it makes sense to say that the two brothers were sons of an early Szmul ELBAUM, born around 1720. 

Who was this early Szmul?  We can only speculate.  There were two contemporary Szmuls named after him in Kutno: a) one born in 1770, who was the son of Leybusz; and b) one born in 1763, who was the son of Jakob.  And there was actually a third contemporary Szmul (1777 – 1836), son of Berek ELBAUM of Warsaw (see below).^[64]  Since the earliest Szmul was born ca 1720, this means that the very early Szmul died rather young, prior to 1763.  Given the year of birth, the most obvious conclusion is that Szmul could only have been a previously unknown son of Yakov Kopel Lukover.

f) Berek

We have come across records of three early Berek ELBAUMs. 

1. Berek (1781-?), a hatmaker who was raising a family in Kutno.^[65] We have no record which enables us to identify him conclusively.  However, he is most likely a son of Jakob of Kutno whose family also occupied itself with hatmaking.
2. Berek (ca 1775-?) of Jozefow and Jerusalem, whom we have identified as a son of Yisroel Leibs of Jozefow.  He was married to Frayda FYNKIEL.
3. A very early Berek (ca 1740 – >1812) of Warsaw, who was married to Brandl. They had sons, Szmul ELBAUM (1777-1836) and Szlama ELBAUM (b ca 1770).  This early Berek could not have been a son of Shlomo Tzvi or of Yisroel Leibs (sons of Yakov Kopel) because these two were born around the same time as Berek.  Berek could only have been a son of Szmul of Kutno, born ca 1720 or earlier, or a son of Yakov Kopel Lukover himself.  Both are equally possible from the point of view of birth years.  We believe, though, since the name Szmul was transmitted through the generations in Berek’s family, then it is more logical to conclude that this early Berek was a son of the early Szmul of Kutno.  However, we cannot definitively rule out that Berek was a previously unknown son of Yakov Kopel. 

Leaving out the details for the four previously known children of Yakov Kopel, we can now reconstruct a speculative family history in Figure 10 below, focusing mostly on the early generations of the various Szmuls and the various Bereks involved.

Fig. 10. Reconstructed family history of some descendants of Yakov Kopel Lukover, emphasizing the first generation, the various Bereks and the branch from Kutno.

There are many more additional ELBAUM families throughout our regions of Poland, born in the 18^th century, who must be connected to Yakov Kopel. However, for lack of data we are unable to definitively make the links. Therefore we have not included them in Figure 10.

Notable among such early personalities are, in chronological order of birth year: Izrael Icyk ELBAUM (ca 1740- ) of Sierpc; Mosiek ELBAUM (ca 1750- ) of Zareba Koscielne; Lejb ELBAUM (1757-1817) of Bilgoraj; Icyk ALBOIM (1759-1829) of Przytyk; Eyzyk ELBAUM (ca 1760- ) of Konskawola; Abram EHLBAUM (ca 1765- ) of Krasnik; Szymel ELBOIM (ca 1765- <1830) of Parczew; Salomon ELBAUM (ca 1775- ) of Jaroslaw and Jozefow, probably a son of Yisroel Leibs; Szymon ELBOIM (ca 1775 -) of Parczew; Icek ELBAUM (ca 1780- ) of Wladowa); Leyb ELBAUM (1780 -) of  Szczebrzeszyn; Moszek Josek ELBAUM (ca 1780 -) of Wlodawa; Kopel ELBAUM (1781-1839) of Zarnowiec; Abram ELBOIM (1786- ) of Komarow; Jankiel ELBAUM (ca 1790-<1861) of Glowno; Ayzyk ELBAUM (ca 1790 – >1832) of Konskie; and Leyzor ELBAUM (1793- ) of Zolkiewka. The only ones who could qualify as additional sons of Yakov Kopel are those born prior to 1769. There are three Icyks / Eyzyks among them. At most one of them would qualify. It is important to emphasize that all of the personalities born prior to 1788 would mostly have been born in Zamość county; and they have been assigned the name Elbaum retroactively.

Summarizing, we see that Yakov Kopel was having children as early as 1720 (Szmul ca 1720, Matel ca 1725) and as late as ca 1765 (Rochla). In between those limits he had 4 previously known children, and 3 newly discovered children (Michla, Chaja Sora and Szmul) and as many as 4 more from the list, above.  Clearly, Yakov Kopel was married at least twice.  However, there are no records revealing the name of either of his wives.

D. DNA Study

The following glossary might be useful for readers without prior background in genetics:

Y-DNA – The portion of DNA passed uniquely down the male-to-male path.

Nucleotide – a building block of DNA consisting of arrangements of 4 chemicals symbolized by A, G, C, and T

STR – Short Tandem Repeat—pattern of repeating nucleotides, such e.g. “AGAT”

SNP – Single Nucleotide Polymorphism—difference in one nucleotide (letter) from the reference

Haplogroup – A group of individuals who share a common SNP that defines a branching point of the human genetic tree.

Subclade – a downstream haplogroup, i.e. a smaller (newer) haplogroup that a particular SNP defines as a more recent branch (“descendant”) of a larger, older haplogroup.

Haplotype – An individual’s genetic markers

MRCA – Most Recent Common Ancestor

tMRCA – Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor.  This is usually a statistical estimate +/- 5%

ybp – years before present.

BAM file – a binary format for storing genetic sequence data

Autosomal DNA – DNA which is inherited from the numbered chromosomes, in distinction from the sex chromosomes

Histocompatibility complex (HMC) – a large region of DNA responsible for the formation of proteins needed for the immune system

Allele – one of the possible forms of a gene (e.g. dominant or recessive)

The possible Sefardi / Italki connection, discovered above, suggests the need to participate in Y-DNA testing. The test group included two Elbaums, one Ohlbaum, one Albom and one Olivenbaum.  The names Ohlbaum and Albom can be considered dialectic versions of Elbaum.  Olivenbaum is a little more questionable.  According to Beider^[66] the name Olivenbaum was adopted in Jaroslaw; however, we could not find family records there.  Instead, we found Copel Leib Olivenbaum, born in 1840, living in the city of Iasi^[67]. The Y-DNA tests verify that the Olivenbaums must have been originally Elbaums who had changed their surname to Olivenbaum by the time they reached Moldavia.  These tests, conducted by FamilyTree DNA are based on an analysis of up to 111 STRs.  The tests, taken so far, do indeed confirm the validity of our surname paper trail, as they all match that of a pedigreed descendant of Yakov Koppel.

In order to delve further into the genetic and geographic origins of the ELBAUM family, we undertook whole-genome sequence (WGS) analysis of a saliva sample provided by a 101-year old Holocaust survivor, Boruch Elbaum (A”H), born in 1917.  It was carried out by Open Genomes Foundation^[68].  The entire set of results and methodology, as applied to Boruch Elbaum, can be seen on its website^[69].  In short, the procedure used was an Illumina 150 base-pair paired-end read Build 38 (hg38) 40x read depth whole genome sequence (WGS) analysis, which produced an excellent (99.85%) Y-coverage.  Open Genomes Foundation uploaded a Y-DNA BAM file to YFull^[70], a company that analyzed the Elbaum Y-subclade.  Figure 11 shows the basic results of the Y-DNA analysis alone.

Fig. 11. Y-DNA map of the branches of G-Y15861* (a subclade of G-Y12975, a subclade of G-M377). G-Y12975, also denoted as AB-056 contains 4%-6% of Ashkenazi Jews and is one of the largest Ashkenazi Haplogroups^[71].

Yaakov Kopel Likover was in a basal branch of Y-DNA, G-Y15861^[72], which split off from the G-Y12975 branch of the G2b1-M377^[73] trunk.  Subsequently, its subclade, denoted by id:YF14448  (location listed as POL-LB = Polish-Lubelski) branched off, and it is unique to the Lukover-Elbaum family, i.e. no other Sephardi, Ashkenazi, or Gentile male DNA has been found to match this Y-DNA subclade.  No other matches at all exist to tell us where this Y-DNA came from.  Until such time as other families are tested in the same way and found to be members of this sub-clade, we can say only that the ELBAUMs’ ancestors of id:YF14448 migrated independently of other branches of G-Y15861.

The time to the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of G-Y12975 is 1050 ybp i.e. 970 CE , which would just predate the settlement of Ashkenazi Jews in the Rhineland in the year 987 CE. The tMRCA of G-Y15861* itself is 850 ybp, i.e. 1170 CE,  which predates the documented influx of Jews into Poland and Lithuania in 1350 CE, i.e. right after the Black Death massacres of 1348-1349 in the Holy Roman Empire.   We do not know where in Central Europe the ELBAUM ancestors were living, say, in 1250 CE, since there are multiple scenarios. Possibilities include France, Italy, or the Rhineland.

Additional Y-SNP testing could help to find other subjects from Y15861 and thus pinpoint a specific route to Poland. These living trees are continuously updated, as new SNPs are discovered; and we can also expect that, once more subjects are tested, we would be able to determine a genetic signature of Yakov Kopel LUKOVER from the SNP analysis.

The whole-genome SNP array data for autosomal DNA too was extracted by Open Genomes, and uploaded to Gedmatch and Family Finder.  This is a particularly interesting analysis because Boruch Elbaum’s ancestry along maternal lines, using archival records from the same region surrounding Zamosc county, is known.  We had found that Boruch Elbaum descends from Yakov Kopel Lukover in several additional directions – via the aforementioned Waks, Kagan, Rozner, and Kupferstein families, as discussed above, i.e. also along maternal lines. Therefore the results are relevant also for the spouses of the early male ELBAUM ancestors.

The following ancestral components, based on a Monte Carlo averaged analysis of Boruch Elbaum’s Eurogenes Global25 principal components (compared to those of all 500 Jewish samples tested) shows that there is no sign of native Iberian ancestry as would be common among Sephardim, even compared to some other Ashkenazi Jews.  Boruch Elbaum’s ancestry is somewhat analogous to that of a German Jew, without any detectable Slavic ancestry, much like most Polish and Russian Jews have.

Figure 12.  Admixture Analysis Showing No Native Iberian Ancestry

Finally, we also analyzed Boruch Elbaum’s Major Histocompatiblity Complex (MHC) Class I alleles (HLA-A*26 – HLA-B*38 – HLA-C*12).  As can be seen from Figure 13, they are the most common haplotype combination among a large set of Ashkenazim^[74]. 

Figure 13. Ashkenazi Jews in the Allele Frequencies in Worldwide Populations. The order of the haplotypes is from most frequent among Jews to less frequent.

In closing, all three tests (Y-DNA, autosomal DNA, and allele frequencies) showed that Boruch ELBAUM had Ashkenazi ancestry, with no overt signs of Sephardic lineage.

E. Conclusion

Starting from a classical reconstruction of a family tree in the particular town of Krasnobrod, we have succeeded in tracking the entire family of Shlomo Tzvi Elbaum, in linking him to the kabbalist, Yakov Kopel Likover, and in deducing the latter’s previously unknown descendants.  We have examined family tombstones and the subscription list of an important scholarly work, thereby learning more about the family. The peculiar geo-political history of the main towns of residence in relationship to Austrian naming laws allowed us to determine the etymological origin of the surname, Elbaum.  The naming of grandchildren of the progenitor of the family during his lifetime, along with peculiar aspects of the hagiography allowed us to determine the possible Italian provenance of the family.  DNA analysis indicates that the family was Ashkenazi with minimal (or no) evidence of Sephardic ancestry.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to JRI-Poland for making available its very extensive database of extracts of vital records, as well as to Petje Schroeder for her professional extracts of hard-to-find parish records, and to Tadeusz Przystojecki of Brama Grodzka Teatr NN for finding and translating lost records.  We also acknowledge Ted Kandell of the Open Genomes Foundation for his invaluable help in the DNA analysis, Sinai Putter, and Nardo Bonomi for their valuable input. 

---

^[1] a) Beider, Alexander (1996) A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. New Haven Ct: Avotaynu.

  b) Beider, Alexander (2008) A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire, revised. New Haven Ct.: Avotaynu.

  c) Beider, Alexander (2004) A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia, revised. New Haven, CT: Avotaynu.

  d) Hanks, Frederick & Hodges, Flavia and Gold, David L. (1988) A Dictionary of Surnames, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  e) Guggenheimer, Heinrich Walter and Guggenheimer, Eva H. (2007) Jewish Family Names and Their Origins: An Etymological Dictionary. Hoboken, NJ.: Ktav Pub. House.

^[2] The spelling of the surname is quite variable – ELBAUM, OELBAUM, OHLBAUM, ALBAUM, EILBAUM, OLBAUM, EJLBAUM, AJLBAUM, ALBOM versions exist, among others.  Consistent spelling was not of interest to Jews in the early19^th century, when civil records started to come into existence.  Nor did Polish clerks care too much about precision. Therefore, for the sake of standardization in this work we shall simply choose ELBAUM as the representative in our text, except when citing other sources.

^[3] By profession he was a leaseholder of a large farm in Lukowa and operated a tavern and inn there.

^[4] https://www.facebook.com/groups/52505850457/

^[5] Lublin archive 35 Fond 1745; Zamość archive 88, Fond 777

^[6] Lublin archive 35 Fond 1848, sygn. 0/1/(3 to 74)

^[7] https://www.familysearch.org now available in the digitized form athttp://broadcast.lds.org/fhd/FH_Find_Digital_Records_A4_WEB.pdf

^[8] https://szukajwarchiwach.pl/

^[9] https://jri-poland.org/jriplweb.htm 

^[10] https://jri-poland.org/maps/jrimap_s2.asp

^[11] 1848 death akta 162, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1790. The clerk recorded the name of his parents as Szmoland Gryna; but other records, found later by us, reveal the father’s real name to be Szlama, i.e. Shlomo

^[12] 1828 marriage akta 2, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1790

^[13] PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/7. 1832 death akta 14. Athough three granddaughters were named Ruchl Laja, we attribute this to their being named after a common grandmother, Abram’s mother-in-law.

^[14] 1848 death akta 18, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/23.

^[15] See the 1822 marriage record 1, Archive 35 Fond 1879.  Although Majer was from Zelechow, his daughter, Chaja Cyrl, married in Miedzyrzec Podlaski. The naming pattern is somewhat contorted.  Although Majer is named Jankelewicz, his wife is named in reference to her husband as Szlomowicz Meierow. Therefore it appears as if Majer was the son of Szlomo who was the son of Jankel.

^[16] 1825 death akta 23, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1834/0/1/48.  According to the clerk, Michla was 76 years old at her death, making her birth year too close to that of Szlama’s.  Considering that she was also identified by the patronym Kopelowicz, she was more likely a daughter of Jakob Kopel himself.

^[17] Wunder, Meir (2010), Ohel Shimon – Tol’dot HaTzaddik HaKadosh HaRabbi Rav Shimon MiYaroslav. Collated together with Sefer Torat Shimon HaShalem  Jerusalem: HaMachon leHantzachat Yahadut Galitzia.

^[18] This could possibly be referring to the blood libel of Jampola in 1758 when indeed a certain Yakov Zelig did appear in Rome for this purpose.  However, it might be referring to a second unrelated issue and a different Yakov.

^[19] a) Rabbi Yitzchak Harif (of Ulianow and Sambor) (1987) “Pnei Yitzchak”, Introduction, Jerusalem: Avraham Tzvi Lifshitz.

    b) Walden, Moshe (1911) “Nifla’ot HaRebbi”, p. 5, Jerusalimski: Bilgoraj

    c) Alfasi, Yitzchak (1969) HaChozeh MiLublin, Rabbi Yakov Yitzchak HaLevy Horowitz, p. 20. Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook Publishing.

^[20] Trzciński, Andrzej, and Sady, Malgorzata (1990) The Traces of Monuments of Jewish Culture in the LublinRegion, Lublin: Wojewódzki Ośrodek Informacji Turystycznej.

^[21] (note 11 on p. 12 of Ohel Shimon, footnote 17, above)

^[22] In his youth, Yisroel was a student of Leyb MARGULES, who later became the Rabbi of Jozefow.  Therefore there is a good likelihood that Yisroel married the daughter of his teacher, and moved to Jozefow at this time along with his teacher.  This is the likely source of the descriptive “Leibs”.

^[23] 1850 death akta 34, PSA Archive 58, Fond 194

^[24] 1839 death akta 12, PSA Archive 58, Fond 185

^[25] 1818 marriage akta 13, PSA Archive 58, Fond 194.  She subsequently remarried in 1822 in Szczebrzeszyn, akta 1, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1834/0/1/18.

^[26] District Revision Lists.  LDS microfilm #s 2313479-482, 486, 487, 2234586,  Retrieved from JRI-poland.org

^[27] 1859 death akta 8, PSA Archive 62, Fond 185; and 1890 death akta 1, PSA Archive 62, Fond 185; and 1830 marriage akta 1, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1773.

^[28] 1886 death akta 66, PSA Archive 56, Fond 2136

^[29] 1853 death akta 49, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/28

^[30] 1832 marriage akta 12, PSA Archive 21, Fond 555

^[31] 1818 death akta 13, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1834/0/1/18

^[32] 1822 marriage akta 1, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1930 We are actively searching for Berek’s headstone.

^[33] Rabbi Eliezer of Metz (1804 edition) p. 10. Zolkiew: Rabbi Gershon Literis Publ.  Retrieved 2019 fromhttps://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=32706&st=&pgnum=10&hilite=

^[34] Berek is the diminutive form for Ber, while Dov is its Hebrew kinnui. He is probably the same as the Berek Elbaum of Jozefow and Szczebrzysyn, i.e. Yisroel Leib’s son, who was described in 1822 as living in Jerusalem.

^[35] 1834 death akta 30, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/9

^[36] Corinne Appleton transl., from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland, Volume VII(2003).  Jozefow, pp 256-258. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. Retrieved from https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol7_00256.html. The chapter on the early Rabbis states that “at the beginning of the [19^th] century, probably 1824, Dawid Saadia and Szaja Waks founded a Hebrew printing press [in Jozefow].” Szaja WAKS (ca 1790 – ) does appear in the civil registration records of Jozefow, as a clergyman and as a son of Cala (Betzalel) WAX (1770-1828).  See 1828 death akta 6, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/3.  Cala is described as a dealer in paper, a convenient if not a necessary affiliation to a printing house.  He is also known to have been a wealthy owner of an agricultural estate in the village of Hamer outside of Tarnograd, although he was described in the records as living in nearby Hrubieszow, where indeed we have found records of the rest of the extended family.

^[37] The history of the WAKS family is described in the introduction to Chaim Elazar Waks (2006) Nefesh Chaya. Part 2 of Ginzei Avot, edited by his descendant R’Yehoshua Eibeshitz (1916-2019), Jerusalem: HaMachonle Limudei HaShoah. See especially p. 180.  Chaim Elazar Waks (1822-1889) was the Av Beit Din (Head of the Rabbinical Court) in Tarnograd (near Lukowa) from the age of 18 until 1859, succeeding his father, Abram Lejb (a son of Cala); and then he became the Av Beit Din of Kalisz, from where his fame as halachic arbiter spread throughout Poland. (Interestingly, in the civil registry records of Kalisz his surname is given as GERYMTER-WAKS a couple of times for no apparent reason, except that it literally means “the illustrious” in Yiddish, apparently to distinguish him from the many other (unrelated) WAKSes living in Kalisz.  But we note that Szaja WAKS, the clergyman from Jozefow and uncle of Chaim Elazar, married off a son into the GERYMTER family of Jozefow.  So the GERYMTER part of the surname was not the original family surname, but nevertheless not totally invented. See also Rosenstein, Neil (2008) Avotaynu, Vol 24 for a related interpretation. Chaim Elazar WAKS was the son-in-law of Yehoshua Trunk, the Rabbi of Kutno, an ELBAUM outpost. Chaim Elazar’s father, Abram Lejb (b ca 1795), was the son of the Betzalel (Cala) WAKS appearing in the subscription list. The editor of Nefesh Chaya was not personally aware of the parentage of Cala (private communication) prior to our research. 

^[38] Cala (Betzalel) was the son of Leib WAKS of Hrubieszow and of Chaja Sora.  Leib must have been born ca1745 or earlier.  Numerous descendants of Cala’s siblings were named Cala, suggesting that Leib’s father was probably named Cala (b. ca 1720 or earlier).  Now, Leib’s daughter, Jenta Szajndl, married a Kopel ZYSBRENNER (b.1777) who, it turns out (see below), was a grandson of Yakov Kopel Lukover himself, via a previously unknown daughter, Michla.  Jenta Szjandl’s daughter, Ryfka Matl (1827 marriage akta 4, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/2) married Cala WAKS’ nephew, Szmul in 1827, son of [J]Ankiel WAKS (born 1780).  This was most likely a cousin marriage, suggesting that Jankel (akaYakov) too was a grandson of Yakov Kopel Lukover. The only obvious explanation is that Chaja Sora was another previously unknown daughter, or else that the original Betzalel WAKS (b ca 1720) was a previously unkown son-in-law of Yakov Kopel.

^[39] We can give two examples:

   1) Frojm KUPFERSZTEJN (1784-1824) married Serl WAKS, a probable sister of Cala. Also Cala himself married Chana KUPFERSZTEJN, daughter of Chaim and Basia.  So it is recorded in her death record.  (In earlier records she was surnamed HAMER; but that was most likely because she must have come from or lived in Hamer, the estate that Cala owned.) Unfortunately, we do not know the relationship between Frojm and Chaim to Moshe KUPFERSZTEJN of the distribution list, as the latter is not mentioned in the parish records. The simplest conclusion is that Moshe must have died between the writing of the distribution list in1804 and the first records in 1810.  However, the available records are not complete.  So we reserve judgment.

   2) We have also deciphered a headstone inscription in the Jewish cemetery of Jozefow, the image of which was kindly provided by Prof. Trzciński. It describes the deceased, Yakov Yitzchak HaKohen (1847-1878) ben Mordechai, as a descendant of Yakov Kopel Lukover.  Although no real surname appears on the headstone, we found his marriage record (1869 marriage akta 1, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736)  in the civil registry records of Jozefow, which revealed that his parents were Mordka KAHN (1800-1854) and Chana ROZNER.  The latter’s marriage record (1823 marriage akta 23, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1736/0/2/9) showed Mordka’s parents to be [Szmul-] Zanwel KAHAN / KACHAN (ca 1775 – 1834) and Ryfka (d. 1817).  The death record (1834 death akta 28, PSA Archive 35, Fond 1834) revealed Szmul Zanwel’s parents to be Mortko KACHAN (ca 1750 – bef1800) and Ryfka.  It turns out that Szmul’s sister, Zeftel, married Tewel ELBAUM from Krasnobrod). Therefore, not only is there a marriage into Yakov Kopel’s family but also, according to the 1878 headstone, the KACHAN’s were also independently descended from Yakov Kopel. Since the original Mordko KACHAN was a Kohen, he could not be a son of Kopel. However, Mordko’s wife Ryfka born ca 1750 or earlier might well have been yet another unknown daughter (or granddaughter) of Kopel. In the context of the subscription list we note that one of the signators was Shmuel, son of the Rabbi Mi-Kachan.  We are tempted to identify him as our Szmul Zanwel KACHAN, were it not for the extra letter “Mi”.  It is also not beyond the realm of possibility that the first name on the list, Rabbi Eliezer HaKOHEN, might have had a connection to the KACHAN / HaKohen family – perhaps even the father of Mortko.

^[40] Patent. “Die Führung bestimmter Geschlechtsnamen von 1-ten Jäner 1788 bei fer Judenschaft betrefend”[Austrian German version] or „Uniwersał. Aby każdy z Żydów od 1 stycznia roku 1788 stałe przezwisko przybrał sobie” [Polish version]. From „Continuacya wyroków y rozkazów powszechnych w Galicyi i Lodomeryi”, 1787 (General rulings and orders in Galicia and Lodomeria continued, 1787.)

^[41] In this article we have not bothered to provide family trees beyond the 3^rd or 4^th generation for lack of space.

^[42] Teitelbaum, Heshel (2020) The Circle of the Keter Kehuna in Pinczow, in preparation for publication.

^[43] Alfasi, Yitzchak (1969) HaChozeh MiLublin, Rabbi Yakov Yitzchak HaLevy Horowitz, p. 20. Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook Publishing.

^[44] The Seer’s first marriage, which failed, took place in or near Krasnobrod, according to family lore reported by  Alfassi, op cit.  This match was possibly arranged by the Chozeh’s uncle, Shlomo Tzvi of Krasnobrod.

^[45] No historian has actually ever addressed this obvious problem. One possible explanation is that Jakob Kopel encouraged the naming of grandsons after himself in order to fool the Angel of Death and to reinforce the latter’s not killing him prematurely in 1744. This stratagem would have been designed to convince the Angel of Death not to waste his time. After all, Kopel must already be already dead if grandsons are being named after him. Although this is a fanciful explanation, it is certainly in keeping with the worldview of mystics, of Kabbalists (for whom events on Earth are mirrored up in Heaven) and of those ensconced in a spiritual sphere of existence. Nevertheless, we give an additional, more plausible hypothesis below.

^[46] The Birth year of 1742 is estimated from his age of 72 reported by the clerk in Kutno in 1814.

^[47] The early study by Nathan Michael Gelber (1963) “Letoledot HaSefaradim bePolin” in Otzar Yehudei Sefarad Vol. 6 pp. 88-98.   The author used the term Sephardi loosely, not distinguishing between Iberian and Appenine Jews, since over a dozen, out of the 39 supposedly Sephardic Jews listed, clearly came from Italy.

Since that early study, there has been a sudden renewed interest in Sephardic Jews in Poland starting about 25 years ago. See, for example, Beider, Alexander (1996) Sephardim in Eastern Europe in A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland, New Haven Ct: Avotaynu (http://www.avotaynu.com/sephardim.htm);  Efron, Noah J. (2006) Judaism and Science: A Historical Introduction. Westport: Greenwood Press;  Davidi, Joel S. W. (2012) The Case of Zamość: a Sephardic Enclave in the Heart of Poland (Part I), The Jewish History Channel, ha-historion.blogspot.com/2012/12/series-sephard-in-ashkenaz-and-ashkenaz_30.html;  Beider, Alexander (2017) Many Sephardic Jews Aren’t Actually ‘Sephardic’, retrieved fromhttps://forward.com/opinion/world/387971/many-sephardic-jews-arent-actually-sephardic/; Beider, Alexander(2017) Pseudo-Sephardic Surnames from Italy, Avotaynu Vol 33 (3) pp 3-8;  Beider, Alexander (2017);Exceptional Ashkenazic Surnames of Sephardic Origin, Avotaynu Vol 33 (4) pp 3-7; Davidi, Joel S. W. (2019).  Actually, a Significant Number of Ashkenazim are Descended from Sephardim.  The Times of Israel; retrieved from https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/actually-a-significant-number-of-ashkenazim-are-descended-from- ; and Beider, Alexander (2019), Italian Jewish Surnames with Non-Trivial Etymology, Avotaynu Vol 35 (3) pp 24-28. Beider argues that Italian Jews of the times were mixtures of those whose ancestors had lived in Italy since Roman times, of Jews expelled from France in 1394, of Provencal and Spanish Jews who arrived at the turn of the15th and 16th centuries; and of North African Jewish immigrants during the mid-18^th century. Gradually they all merged with the segments who followed Sephardic traditions.  

^[48] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamoyski_Family_Fee_Tail

^[49] Nardo Bonomi (personal communication)

^[50] See https://www.thejc.com/news/world/plan-to-redevelop-site-where-eminent-italian-kabbalists-are-buried- 

^[51] Wunder, Meir (2010), Ohel Shimon – Tol’dot HaTzaddik HaKadosh HaRabbi Rav Shimon MiYaroslav. Collated together with Sefer Torat Shimon HaShalem  Jerusalem: HaMachon leHantzachat Yahadut Galitzia.

^[52] https://www.geni.com/people/Chava-Safrin/6000000006712214075

^[53] Marriage Akta 7 (1822) Archive 21 Fond 2341,  LDS film 0,716,158

^[54] Toldos Komarno in the book Chayim Yakov Safrin (2006-7) Shalsheles HaKodesh Jerusalem: Machon Otzar HaBrachah  

^[55] 1820 marriage akta 10, PSA Archive 21, Fond 2335

^[56] Jozefow death Akta 23 (1825) Archive 35, Fond 1834/0/1/48

^[57] It may very well be that Shlomo Tzvi’s wife, Gryna, and the early Gryna of the WAKS family were related.

^[58] 1814 death akta 25, PSA Archive 39, Fond 1539

^[59] 1825 death akta 10, PSA Archive 39, Fond 1539

^[60] The SZLAJFERs were also from Jozefow

^[61] The father was variously known as OELBAUM, ALBAUM and ELBAUM. Kutno was under Prussian control at this critical time and the Germanic version of the surname probably must have gained some traction then.

^[62] 1820 birth akta 166, PSA Archive 39, Fond 1539

^[63] 1834 marriage akta 6, PSA Archive 58, Fond 184

^[64] 1836 death akta 196, PSA Archive 72, Fond 180. To complete the picture, we recall that there was yet a fourth Szmul (born ca 1755) married to Ruchl whose son, Majer (1775-1850), was living in Tarnow and in Zwolen (see above).  We had already concluded tentatively that this fourth Szmul was a son of Yisroel Leibs.  Now we can confirm that this conclusion must be correct because there was nobody else who could be a candidate as a father: Yakov Kopel had already named a son Szmul ca 1720; the latter’s son Berek of Warsaw (b ca 1735) had also named a son Szmul, much later in 1777; and there is no evidence that Shlomo Tzvi had a son Szmul. 

^[65] e. g. 1811 birth akta 48, PSA Archive 39, Fond 1539. See also 1796 census Archive 39 Fond 51

^[66] Beider, Alexander (2004) A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia, revised. New Haven, CT: Avotaynu.

^[67] Moldavia Marriages & divorces  retrieved from https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/jgdetail_2.php

^[68] http://www.open-genomes.org/  

^[69] http://www.open-genomes.org/genomes/personal/Elbaum/Elbaum_Genetics.html, courtesy of Ted Kandell.

^[70] https://www.yfull.com/;  https://yfull.com/tree/G-Y12975. 

^[71] STRs collected for G-M377 can be seen at https://jewishdna.net/AB-056.html

^[73] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_G-M377

^[72] https://www.yfull.com/tree/G-M377/

^[74] Cox, S. T. et al, HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐C polymorphism in a UK Ashkenazi Jewish potential bone marrow donor population, HLA Immune Response Genetics, 53, 1, (41-50), (1999).