My father, Wolf Jablanovich (Zeev Tapoohi in Hebrew) was born in 1915 in Narewka. He was the youngest of 9 brothers and sisters.  They lived on Szkolna Street, which became Ogrodowa Street. They had a small shoemaking business. In the 1897 census* my great-grandfather Leizar Abramov Yablanovich, 62 years of age, and my grandfather Srol (Israel), who was then 22, were described as shoemakers, living on Shkolnaya. The census confirmed that Leizar Abram's wife Sora-Leya, my great-grandmother, 58 years old, and another son Rakhmiel, 14 years of age, lived at this address. A grandson called Meer Rakovich, also lived with them.

Srol (Israel) Jablanovich was married to my grandmother Masha and they had 9 children. My father Wolf/Zeev was the youngest. I know the name of two other brothers, Leib and Meir. Unfortunately, I know no other names of the other siblings.

In 1934, my father (Wolf Jablanovich/Zeev Tapoohi), at the age of 19,  went to Palestine.  He never saw any of his family again, because of the Shoah. No one in Narewka survived, although it is believed that his oldest brother became a Communist and ran away to Russia. My father later married my mother Nechama Hirshberg in Jerusalem. They had three children, my two brothers Chaim and Israel and me, Rivka.

* 1897 Russian Census for the Grodno Gubernia is available on JewishGen. Very few families from the town of Narewka appear there. Sz. Jablonowicz also appears as a cobbler in the 1929 Polish Business Directory, also accessible on JewishGen. - JK

Aunt nee Jablanovich/Jablonwicz with man Narewka, April 1937 Courtesy Rivka Witenberg	Uncle Jablanovich/Jablonwicz with woman Narewka, April 1937 Courtesy Rivka Witenberg
Zeev Tapoohi (Wolf Jablanovich/Jablonowicz) seated Wolf Edelman (probably also from Narewka) standing Courtesy Rivka Witenberg	Zeev (Wolf Jablanovich/Jablonowicz) and Nechama (Hirshberg) Tapoohi Courtesy Rivka Witenberg