Komisaruk family Updated by Chaim Freedman 18/02/2020, to replace the material in his book “Eliyahu’s Branches, the Descendants of the Vilna Gaon and His Family”, Avotaynu 1997. Dov Ber (Berel) Komisaruk, born 1776 in Girtegola, Lithuania,1 (son of David Komisaruk [1747 - ] and Khana ?), died 1843 in Rassein, Lithuania.2 Oral tradition held that Berel came from a prominent family of scholars and communal leaders in Kovno. Lithuanian records prove that the family came from the city Rassein which was located in Kovno Gubernia (province).When the Jews were compelled to adopt a surname in 1804 Berel and his brothers or their father registered their surname as "Komisaruk". Later generations used various forms of this name: Komisaruk, Komesaroff, Komisar, Comisaroff, Comisarow. A full explanation of the reason for these variations and the historic basis for the family's activities in Rassein can be found in "Our Fathers' Harvest" (Chaim Freedman, Israel 1982, supplement 1990.) Berel Komisaruk and his family appear to have held a license to farm taxes which the local Jewish community was obliged to pay to the Russian government. In their case the particular tax was that due to the supply corp of the army, the Komisariat. This was probably the origin of this surname. Tradition claims some relationship with the famous Soloveitchik family of Kovno. Other than their common Levitic descent, this has not been established. The Soloveitchik family was amongst the founders of the Kovno community in the early 18th century. The 1816 Revision List for Rassein city includes two family groups with heads of family Leib, son of David Komisaruk and Velvel, son of David Komisaruk. Under the family group of Leib, who was missing in 1816, appears his brother Berel, son of David Komisaruk. Since Berel's son Zalmen appears under his father's family group, and it is noted that he "came from over the border in 1812" this seems to indicate that the family moved around between Rassein, nearby Girtagola, as indicated by the 1784 census, and perhaps other places. Berel was not registered in his own right as a family head, probably due to his recent arrival in Rassein. The Komisaruks appear in two different sections of the 1816 census. Velvel appears under the main category of "Meshchani" - burghers or city citizens, whereas Leib and Berel appear under the small category "Rukidelniki" which is a currently obsolete term indicating "craftsmen". While tradition tells of the family's activities as tax farmers and rabbis, it appears that some of them engaged also in some type of craft. Although there was some indication in oral traditions that Rabbi Shlomo Zalmen Komisaruk's father's name was "Zev or Velvel", all official records list his name as "Berel". His full Hebrew and Yiddish names were most probably "Dov Ber." Rabbi Dov Ber and Ester Komisaruk were the common ancestors of three families: Komisaruk (Komesaroff), Zhmood and Grinblat, although the Grinblat family have yet to be identified in Lithuanian archival records. Records where the name of Berel Komisaruk appears: 1784. Census of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rassein district, Girtagola village: appears as the second son of "Dawid Mejorowicz". 1816. Revision List of the town of Rassein, Rassein district: Appears under the Head of Household, "Leib, David son Komisaruk", his elder brother. 1 1846. List of people who did not, or were not expected to pay their taxes. The reason given in Berel's case was that he "died in 1843". The recording of his name "Berel Davidovitch Komisaruk" in this list facillitated bridging between earlier documents bearing that name and later ones referring to his son Zalmen as "Zalmen Berelovitch". Appears on the 1949 tax list with the same comments. 1847/8.Lists of Rassein Jews who applied and were approved to become farmers in Novorussia (south- east Ukraine) where Berel appears as the patronymic of his son "Zalmen Berelovitch Komisaruk". 1848. List of tax payers in Rassein where Berel appears as the patronymic of his son "Zalmen Berelovitch Komisaruk". The memoirs of Norman Mendelson include information conveyed to him by his grandmother Beila Reeva Komesaroff: "We came from Lithuania. From our branch in Lithuania we could boast a few famous rabbis. Rabbi Ber was our noted man. He was such a great rabbi that people came from all over to hear his opinion and evaluation on questions". Further evidence of the Komisaruk family's involvement in religious and scholastic life in the Rassein community can be found in the records of the allocation of funds collected from the Jews in the Box Tax: In an article written by Anatoly Chayesh (Jewish historian living in St.Petersburg) on the subject of the collection and application of the "Box Tax" in the Russian Tsarist Empire, ("Box Tax Paperwork Records as a Source of Information About the Life of Jewish Communities and Their Personal Structure" - translated from Russian and published in the Litvak Special Interest Group Online Journal) appear details of a number of community projects in Rassein which were allocated funds by the governmental tax authorities. The first of these was for a "praying school", that is a "Beit Midrash": "On the 25th of August in the year 1850, item 12580, on the yard of the property of the Jew Komisaruk, called Khayei Adam" From this information we can learn that the Komisaruk family operated a "Beit Midrash" (a place of learning and prayer) on it own property. This may explain why in the records of the 1848 Box Tax there are two entries for the payment by Berel Komisaruk's son Zalmen, one larger payment probably for his house and another smaller payment probably for the property of the Beit Midrash. The name given to the Beit Midrash "Khayei Adam" was the name of a book written by Rabbi Avraham Danzig, the father of Berel Komisaruk's brother-in-law Yitskhak Danzig of Vilna. The use of this name was very common in many European communities as it indicated that that book in particular was studied by the scholars in those Batei Midrash. Although the above grant from the Box Tax is dated from 1850, when Berel Komisaruk was already dead and when his son Zalmen had already moved to the Ukraine, the Beit Midrash may have been in operation for some years previously, and continued to be managed in 1850 by those Komisaruks who remained in Rassein, namely Zalmen's son Yankel, and his cousin Sender Komisaruk. He married Ester Vilner, born 1777 in Serhei, Lithuania,3 (daughter of Yehudah Leib Vilner [1764 - 1816] and Liba Jaffe), died c.1860. Ester: The personal names of the parents of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Komisaruk were not recorded clearly in family tradition. However, given the prevalence of the name Ester amongst her descendants, together with the fact that her mother was the daughter of Ester Jaffe, it seemed likely that this was the name of Shlomo Zalmen's mother.This was confirmed by the 1816 Revision List for Rassein city which recorded her name as "Estera, aged 39". Women were recorded in the 1816 list without their patronymic. Ester's identity as the daughter of Rabbi Yehuda Leib of Serhei was established as follows. Oral tradition conveyed by several of the branches of the descendants of Berel Komisaruk claimed descent from the Gaon of Vilna. An independent source is the memoirs of Marcus Joseph Weinkle who was personally acquainted with Rabbi Pinkhas Komisaruk (lived 1830-1897). Weinkle records in his 2 memoirs that Rabbi Pinkhas claimed descent from the Gaon: "Feigel married Wolf Komisaruk, a Rabbi's brother, descended, as it is said, from the great Jewish scholar, the Gaon of Vilna." The exact nature of the link between the two families was established by an inscription in an old book passed down through the generations of the Komisaruk family. This was a copy of "Khokhmat Adam". Next to the name of the author, Rabbi Avraham Danzig, was a faded handwritten inscription in Hebrew "Av Dodi" meaning "the father of my uncle". Other family inscriptions establish that the book belonged to Rabbi Pinkhas Komisaruk. The father of one's uncle could either be one's grandfather, in which case he would have been referred to as such, or the father of one's aunt's husband. Since Avraham Danzig's son Yitskhak was married to Gittel, a daughter of Yehuda Leib of Serhei, the second son of the Gaon of Vilna, it can be established that this was the link between the family of the Gaon and the Komisaruk family. Given that the Danzigs were not Leviim and that the Komisaruks were, and following research of the other children of Avraham Danzig, Pinkkas Komisaruk's grandmother Ester had to be a sister of Gittel Danzig, and thereby, a grand-daughter of the Gaon of Vilna. Some material about the relationship was sought in the archive of Benyamin Rivlin (Jerusalem) which includes a file of material on the family of the Gaon of Vilna. This material includes copies of lists prepared by Rabbi Eliyahu Landau (a great-great grandson of the Gaon) who was the major source for that section pertaining to the Gaon in Eliezer Rivlin's genealogy "Sefer Hayakhas". The names and number of the daughters of Yehuda Leib of Serhei is ambiguous. Landau wrote several versions of his lists, which state that Yehuda Leib had four daughters and not two as recorded in "Sefer Hayakhas". One version indicated a son-in-law Velvel, which might have supported an early tradition in the Komisaruk family for that name. No one list included all the daughters of Yehudah Leib and at least six were identified in "Eliyahu's Branches." Discovery in Ukrainian and Lithuanian archives of documentation firmly establishes the names of Shlomo Zalmen Komisaruk's parents as Berel and Ester.