THE GESHER GALICIA FINDER Edition One Fall 1993 3128 Brooklawn Terrace Chevy Chase, MD 20815 USA 301/657-3389 __________________________________________________________________ Vol. 1, No. 1 Fall 1993 1. Coordinator's Corner 2. Index To Meorei Galicia 3. Pinkas Hakehillot & Horowitz 4. Translators 5. Researchers 6. Exhibit (Judaica Treasures From Galicia) 7. Book About Ukraine (“Ukraine: A History”) 8. Brzozow, Przemysl, Sanok, Strzyzow (Yizkor Books/Brzozow Surnames) 9. Buchach & Potok Zloty (Yad Vashem Articles, Etc.) 10. Dabrowa Tarnowska (Visit To) 11. Krakow (Help Offered) 12. Radomysl (Two Towns with Same Name) 13. Tarnobrzeg (Booklet About) 14. Historical Notes (Book: “Poland: A Historical Atlas”) 15. A Success Story 16. Facsimile Of Galician Birth Record 17. Demographic Records of Galicia, 1772-1919 18. Vital Statistics Records from Eastern Galicia Now in Warsaw Archives The Galician Gazeteer Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1993 Vol. 1, No. 1 Fall 1993 Coordinator's Corner Well, we have done it at last! With this issue of The Galitzianer, the Special Interest Group (SIG), is officially launched. George Bodner had the "winning" entry for the name of the SIG: Gesher Galicia, or Bridge to Galicia. As of the end of September, we have an international membership of over 100 people. I have long felt that a SIG might help to facilitate the process of obtaining vital records from Poland and Ukraine. Then, too, I noted that many people who wrote to me about Galicia were not submitting their surnames and towns to Gary Mokotoff for inclusion in the Jewish Family Finder. Why, I wondered. I still wonder, but now we will have our own SIG directory of names and places and perhaps this will facilitate connections in a way that has not been possible up to this point. Most people who have joined are interested in traveling to southeast Poland or western Ukraine or both. We need a travel coordinator and some members to serve on a travel committee. If you are willing to serve in either capacity, please write or call me at 301/657-3389. Although a number of members, including me, have been to Poland and/or Ukraine and our collective experience will be somewhat helpful, there is a great deal of work involved in mounting even a small group trip and many decisions that will have to be made. It is not to early to begin planning for a 1995 trip that comes before or after the Summer Seminar in Washington. The most complex aspects of the planning will be arranging for access to vital records and travel to particular towns with guides and pre-arranged transportation. I have acquired a number of travel guides that can be of some help, but we must begin the 2 The Galician Gazeteer Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1993 process of making initial contacts with people and institutions who can pave the way. In Toronto, Bea Cohen volunteered to compile and maintain a directory of the names and towns being researched by members and we enclose the first edition with this newsletter. We have decided to call this directory "The Gesher Galicia Finder". In the first year, we plan to issue periodic updates with each of our quarterly newsletters because this will likely be a major year for growth. In a year we will publish a compilation of the first year's directory and then re-evaluate how often we need to publish interim updates. Bea and I had to make some decisions about about how your towns should be spelled for purposes of this directory. Though not everyone is happy with our decision, we settled on using Where Once We Walked, based as it is on the spelling used by the Board of Geographic Names. While this will provide a standard, the spelling may not have been exactly as you submitted it. Bea has printed out a list of towns as you spelled them cross referenced with the current spelling. Almost all of these towns are in Ukraine. There will be no limit on the number of towns or surnames you submit. I apologize for any confusion which may have been caused by my failure to specify that the SIG will only serve as an information exchange for towns that were in Galicia before 1918. For other geographic regions, the Jewish Family Finder published by AVOTAYNU continues to be your best bet and I encourage you to submit all of your names and towns. I have material that I have been collecting for years in anticipation that someday this SIG would be a reality. Also, many people included interesting information along with their membership applications! Still, I am concerned that we will run out of material for a newsletter, so keep on sending material for future issues. In this issue, I have decided to reprint (with permission) my Summer 1992 article in AVOTAYNU for the benefit of those who did not see it. I have also included some information about records for particular towns that has been sent in to me over the years. The SIG currently has no board of directors, advisory board or operating guidelines. Bea and I have focused on getting out this first directory and newsletter and SIG funds are being deposited in a savings account in my name because our organization 3 The Galician Gazeteer Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1993 is not a legal entity. Please feel free to suggest how you think we should proceed on a more formal basis and, if so, how that should work. I will publish results of the feedback that you submit. Oh, what to do about bulletin boards?!?! My heartfelt plea is to use the bulletin boards only to encourage others to join Gesher Galicia so that we don't kill the "golden goose" before it has had a chance to produce results. The more we grow, the better our collective chances for connecting with good information. Why are so many Jewish records missing for Galicia?! I have long pondered this. Some were destroyed when towns were razed during one of several wars in this century. I believe that in some towns in southern Poland, Jewish records had continued to be stored in synagogues and, when the synagogues were burned by the Nazis, the records were also destroyed. Recent finds by Western scholars investigating the contents of former East German and Soviet archives has offered some hope that missing Polish records will turn up, but, as yet, this has not happened. Perhaps together we can address this issue more systematically. Suzan Wynne, Coordinator 3128 Brooklawn Terrace, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 USA Phone: 301/657-3389 Fax: 202/966-8903 INDEX TO MEOREI GALICIA Rabbi Meir Wunder from Jerusalem has reported completed the fifth and final volume of the Encyclopedia of Galician Rabbis and Scholars through his Institute for Commemoration of Galician Jewry. Volume V has apparently not reached U.S. libraries yet. The series, which began with the 1978 publication of Volume I, offers detailed biographical information about rabbis and their families. Each volume includes indices to family names, towns, a list of yizkor books and bibliographic sources. The Hebrew alphabet is the organizing framework for the volumes. Rabbi Wunder, a true scholar in every sense of that word, compiled these books as a labor of love, with very little financial help. He hopes to publish the books in English so that the information will be more accessible to those of us who are not proficient in Hebrew. Gideon Rath from Philadelphia has translated and published the surname index from Volumes 1-4 in Chronicles, the newsletter of the JGS of Philadelphia. He has given his permission to 4 The Galician Gazeteer Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1993 reprint the names in The Galitzianer. This issue will cover Volumes I & II and the next issue will cover Volumes III & IV. Abend Barg Blum Ackerman Baron Blumfeld Adler Basseches Blumenkranz Adlersberg Baumgarten Blumenfeld Altberg Bauminger Bochner Altein Baumol Bodek Alter Baurer Bombach Altfest Begon Bornstein Altkern Berger Brachfeld Altkraut Berglass Brand Altman Bergman Brandler Altstadt Beri Brandes Amarant Bernfeld Brandris Antman Bernkopf Brandwein Apfelbaum Bernsohn Braude Apteiker Bernstein Brauer Apter Berstein Braunfeld Aptowitze Bertram Braunstein Arak Bibelman Braver Asatanowicz Bick Brecher Ashkenazi Biderman Breisch Auerbach Bieler Breit Aug Bienestock Breitman Avigdor Bienstock Brenner Babad Bierbrauer Bresitzer Backal Bigeleisen Bretshneider Bader Billig Brill Baeck Bindiger Brinner Baecker Birnbaum Brodman Baer Bisliches Bruckstein Bak Blandwein Brummer Balchover Blank Balmet Blaugrund Dachner Balsam Blech Dam Banis Bleich Damesek Banner Bleicher Danzig Barabash Bloch Darlich Barb Bloom Darshevitz 5 The Galician Gazeteer Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 1993 David Engel Glass Deutsch Engelmeier Glatt Deutscher Engelstein Glick Diamand Englander Gold Dichtwald Englard Goldbaum Dickman Episdorf Goldberg Dienstag Epstein Goldes Diener Erenberg Goldfeld Dixler Ermer Goldfischer Domb Ernsberg Goldman Dominitz Etkes Goldreich Dreifuss Ettinger Goldschneider Drilich Even Goldstern Drimmer Goldstoff Drucker Gaertner Goldzweig Duhl Galanti Goldwasser Galler Gotima Eberstark Gartenhaus Gottesdiener Ebner Gassenbauer Gottesman Eckhous Gebert Gottfried Eckner Gebl Gottlieb Eckstein Gefen Green (Gruen) Edel Geizler Greenbaum Edelstein Gelbard Greenberg Ehrlich Gelbwax Greenberg Eibeshitz Geldwort Greenfeld Eichenstein Gedlzaehler Greenstein Eichhorn Gelernter Greher Eiger Gellis Greisman Einhorn Geminer Greiver Einleger Gerstel Griss Eisen Gertler Grobin Eisenbach Gewirtz Gronik Eisenberg Gewirtzman Gross Eisenstadt Gintzlig Grossfeld Eisland Gintzler Grossman Eisner Ginzburg Grosswax Elberg Glantz Grumer Elfenbein Glantzberg Gutstein Ellenberg Glantzer Gutwein Elovitz Glaser Gutwillig 6 The Galician Gazeteer Vol.