Brichany

There is also a controversy over which spelling of the shtetl should appear atop this page: Brichany or Briceni.  Some allege that Briceni represents the shtetl in Romanian and in Moldovan and that Brichany is only a transliteration from the Russian spelling.   The problem with that argument is that regardless of the country in control of the land, the people living there would still call the shtetl by its name.  Given also that "Brichany" is how immigrants at the turn of the century wrote the name of the town and that the author of this text has seen that spelling in their handwriting, the name atop this page shall remain Brichany until definitive information is received which demonstrates that our people called it something else.  The author of this text is not even convinced that our people spoke Romanian or Moldovan.  Brichany might even have been a transliteration of the Yiddish pronunciation as it was spoken then . . . although one reader of this site has argued that Britshan is the Yiddish equivalent.

Even the answer to "When was a "Moldavian" town in Moldavia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, or Bessarabia?" is elusive . . . for between 1711 and 1944,  "Russia invaded Romania about 12 times" [Dima monograph] and control changed several times.  For the full story, one reaching back to 100 CE, see  History of Region.

All of the above, of course, is in perfect harmony with the mysterious history of the Moldovan Jews,  who are believed to be a mixture of Hungarian, Ukrainian,  and Turkish Jews, the latter being descendants of the Jews from the Turkish state of Khazaria, who, it is speculated, comprised the majority of the Jews populating the area  in the late 1400s.  But whoever they are, Brichanians, love bryndza cheese and mamaliga -- mamaliga, a symbol in as many poems extolling the beauty of Romania as it is the subject of recipes worldwide.

For a fascinating learned site, go to http://www.khazaria.com.   And when you go to the map linked below, note that in yesteryear, Turkey's northern boundary was considerably different than it is today:  that part of Turkey in which Khazaria was located was north and east of the Black Sea as well as north and west of the Caspian Sea, making Khazaria almost the "next-door" neighbor of the land which later became the principality of Moldavia at a time when it nuzzled up to the Black Sea.

History of Region

• From Moldavia to Moldova the Soviet-Romanian Territorial Dispute by Nicholas Dima, East European  Monographs, Boulder Distributed by Columbia University Press (New York, 1991)

 
Note:  Dima's scholarly monograph is difficult to read because of the paucity of paragraph breaks,  the difficulty in locating the footnotes to which he refers, his occasional obtuseness, and his apparent dislike of commas: for example, "From 1711 when the tsarist troops reached the boundary of Moldavia for the first time until 1944, Russia invaded Romania 12 times.2"   But . . . it appears to be the only in-depth piece we have on the Net about Moldova or Moldavia.  News of other pieces would be welcome.
• A Few Facts about Moldova (encarta®) Introduction, land size, population, economy, government, brief history
• Amizur, Y.,  Brichany: Its Jewry in the first half of our century (Tel Aviv) See Table of Contents

Maps

• The Most Informative and Printable (not lots of memory needed) Map   (map by friends-partners) of Western and Eastern Europe, showing the migration of Jewish communities until the 17th century, and the location of Kishinev (Chisenau), Moldavian capital, and its relation to the Black Sea.
• Ethnic Origins of Moldova in 1993 (map by the Library of  the University of Texas)
• View Brichany at Coordinates 4822-2706 (by mapquest),  the northwesternmost part of Moldova, next to Lipkany, birthplace of Samuel Dorfman, wed to Brichaner Sluwa..

 
Note:  So that the locations match those in the ShtetlSeeker tables, the form 4822-2706, for example, is being used rather than the equivalent notations 48° 22´ north latitude and 27° 06´ east longitude.

• View Brichany at Coordinates 4822-2706 and 4822-2742  (by mapquest).
• View Briceni at Coordinates 4822-2706  (by mapquest), the northwesternmost part of Moldova.
• View Briceni at Coordinates 4822-2742  (by mapquest), the northeasternmost part of Moldova.
• Modern-day Detailed Map of Northern Moldova showing Briceni at Coordinates at 4822-2742  (by expediamaps),  the northeasternmost part of Moldova.

 
The existence of shtetls similarly named heightens the importance of collateral information such as the "naturalization-day party" with Cholfin, Rosenthal, Dorfman, Roseman, and the two friends who were witnesses for all four of them.  Only with that information was the author of this page able to determine which Brichany was the one being sought.
• Enlarged Printable Modern-day Detailed Map of Northern Moldova  (by expediamaps)
• Map of Bessarabia 1882  (copyright  by FEEFHS) showing Brichany as Brittchany and  a neighbor of Lipkany, but the remainder of the old settlement names are different from the modern-day names supplied by expediamaps.

Pictures

• To be found

Brichany Jews

Amizur, Y.,  Brichany: Its Jewry in the first half of our century (Tel Aviv)

Table of Contents

Amizur, Y.,  Brichany . . . Memorial book inscriptions

Brichaner Immigrants

• In Massachusetts, USA:  Cambridge and Somerville
• In Brazil:  Sao Paolo?

Genealogical Research Sources

• Translation of Briceni Yizkor Book from Hebrew to English

Note: Being set up through Yizkor Book SIG, so that it can be funded by contributions to JewishGen designated for this project.  Book has been obtained, but translation needed.
Yizkor book contains photographs of the town before the war.  Nothing of  the old town remains.

• 1859 Census of Briceni: 350 Families

The National Archive (Arhiva Nationala a Republicii Moldova), Str. Gheorge Asachi  67-b, 277028 Chisinau.  National Archives contains records up to1910; however, those do not include vital records from Briceni.  The only record for Briceni was a census of 1859, which  consists of records for approximately 350 families.  Examination of  records on-site allowed for a moderate fee.

• Transcription of Briceni 1854 and 1859 Revision List (census book)

Note:  The 350 families in the 1859 census of Briceni are the same as those in Revision List for 1859 referred to in the previous entry.
Note:  An organization must request these from the Moldovan National Archives.
Contributions will be needed to finance the effort to transfer the lists  onto electronic medium (floppy disk) or to copy them onto paper.

• Vital Records: Birth, Death, and Marriage
• The Civil Archive (Arhiva Actelor Starii Civile),  Ministry of Justice Building, Str. 31 August 82, Chisinau.  The Civil Archives contained marriage records from 1911 to 1945.  The records for Briceni may have been recently sent to Briceni City Hall Archives.  It is not known whether a copy of  those records was retained in the Chisinau Civil Archive.  The Chisinau Civil Archive had been responsive to on-site requests for a record search for a moderate fee.
• The City Hall (ZAGS) Archives in Briceni may now contain the Brichany/Briceni marriage records.  No confirmation has been reported.  There may also be birth and death records in the Briceni City Hall Archive.