Family Passover/Pesach Seder, 5779, 2019

Of course, being that we strictly follow Jewish Law, we have no pictures from our actual Passover/Pesach Seder. The memories will stay for generations, Gd willing.

My grandfather, who was otherwise a strictly shomer Shabbat, a Sabbath observer, apparently allowed my Uncle Donny to take the photo just below. I guess it was a combination of not fully comprehending the halachic aspects of photography and not being able to resist the cleverly worded requests of my Uncle Donny.

Shankman-Vishnevsky family Seder, Brooklyn, NY, most probably 5709, 1949

I'm not in this Seder picture, since if I've dated it correctly, it was just over a month before I was born. Yes, now you know how old I am.  I recognize everyone in the picture. Not only my maternal grandparents, but my parents, aunts, uncle and even two of my cousins here have already passed away. I'm pretty sure it's 1949, because Uncle Izzy is sitting there next to my grandfather holding Cousin Butchy. Passover 1948, just a couple of weeks before Israel's Declaration of Independence, he was most probably in the Holy Land, or staffing one of the boatloads of illegal immigrants as a high ranking volunteer in the Palyam.

The photo below was taken after Shabbat/first day Passover, when it's permitted to photograph. Outside of Israel where people celebrate two Passover Seders and have two days of "restrictions," instead of playing piano, they'd be doing Seder #2. One of my older granddaughters was practicing that complicated piano piece  and then was joined by a couple of younger ones. Let that group photo, which shows no faces or identifying features suffice as family Pesach photo.

Multi-hand piano "concert," Passover, 5779, 2019

This year our daughter hosted the Family Passover/Pesach Seder. All our descendants, except one, attended. It was a great thrill to see all of our grandchildren interacting, from the teens to the infants.

Food was  a combination of strictly Ashkenaz and Tunisian traditions. The customs and tunes were also a harmonized combination. Only the very last songs in the Haggadah were loudly sung by in very Ashkenaz tunes. Nobody else could outlast us.

We celebrated Passover and family togetherness. Just a month before the entire clan came to us in Shiloh for the Purim Seuda/Feast. Thank Gd we make efforts to get together whenever possible. I feel very blessed.

Chag Kasher VeSameach to All of You

Searching for Family Roots/Stories, The Spiegelman's of Nasielsk*, Poland

When I was young, I'd been curious about family stories, family roots, but nobody ever really talked to me about them. My father's father had passed away before I was born, and in the 1950's it seemed that everyone had their eyes on the future, rather than the past. On my mother's side she had no aunts, uncles or cousins. My father had been involved with many of his cousins, and the David Spiegelman Family Circle got together periodically. We even had picnics in Kissena Park, Queens throughout the 1950s, which I always enjoyed attending.

The other day I got an email from second, or whatever distance, cousin with photos of our mutual great-grandparents' gravestones.

A careful reading of the gravestones gave me a bit of "surprising" information.

Years ago I had been told, or given the impression, that my paternal Grandfather, Harry Tzvi Hersh Spiegelman had been named for his grandfather Tzvi Hersh, and that name had been given to male family members for a long time. So, as far as I knew, my late brother was:

Tzvi Hersh ben (son of) Alexander Ziskind ben Tzvi Hersh ben David Yosef ben Tzvi Hersh Spiegelman

To strengthen this story is an additional one about a cousin of my grandfather, who had been given the same name, but changed his last name to "Spears," possibly with different spelling. This Harry Tzvi Hersh Spears had been a movie producer in the early days of Hollywood, according to family legend.

My great-grandfather's grave David Yosef ben Alexander Ziskind

However the truth is engraved in stone, at the grave of my great-grandfather. It's written here that he had been:

David Yosef ben Alexander Ziskind

That means that the Tzvi Hersh ancestor was further back, maybe Alexander Ziskind's father. My father's Hebrew (Jewish) name was Alexander Ziskind, who had been his great-grandfather, and my brother's real name was probably:

Tzvi Hersh ben (son of) Alexander Ziskind ben Tzvi Hersh ben David Yosef ben Alexander Ziskind ben Tzvi Hersh Spiegelman

Not all of my Spiegelman cousins are involved in this effort to research our family, but enough of us to make it very exciting.

*My branch of the Spiegelman clan seems to have left Nasielsk, Poland in the very early 20th century, well before the Nazis invaded. My great-grandparents both died in New York. From what we know now, not even cousins remained in Nasielsk, and Glenn Kurtz who has taken on the project of researching, repairing and conserving the history of Jewish Life in Nasielsk has found no record of donations from my family after World War Two.