Remembering the Jews of Lubaczow

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Lubaczów, Poland
50° 10' N/ 23° 08' E

Other names: Libatchov, Libechuyv, Liubachev, Lubachov, Lubatchov, Lubichuv

Lubaczów - America

ELLIS ISLAND WEBSITE

The new Ellis Island website https://www.ellisislandrecords.org/ shows the names of 22 million persons coming through Ellis Island to the US between 1892 and 1924.

Most visitors look for their own relatives on the Ellis Island website. In my case, I have tried to find those who came from Lubaczow.

Emigrants who came from Lubaczow BEFORE World War One (before 1914) are written down as coming from:

Lubaczow, Galicia
Lubaczow, Austria
or just Lubaczow

Those who came AFTER the First World War, when Poland was once more an independent state, are written down as coming from

Lubaczow, Poland

When I started checking family names connected to Lubaczow coming through Ellis Island, I quickly discovered that the name of our little town seems to have been written or transcribed in different ways. Here are some possible versions for what may be Lubaczow:

Logiesbow
Lesbaczow
Lubsczow
Lubacz
Lubagow
Labiszowo
Lubechaw
Lubacov
Subaezow
Inbaczow
Libaczow
Lubaeson
Lubaczord

For you to personally check these spellings in the original manifests, please sign up on the Ellis Island website and start going through the list of possible candidates from Lubaczow I will add at the end of this text.

The Ellis Island website itself is very exciting.
As you get involved in the original text, you slowly discover the details.
Giving their professions - shoemaker, butcher, laborer, dressmaker, maid.
Telling us the names of those they have mentioned already living in the States when they arrive (in our case, usually a father, a brother, a cousin or a brother-in-law living in New York or New Jersey).
Showing the names of those closest relatives they left behind, which sometimes turn out to be the names of those who later were killed in Holocaust.
Finding out whom they are going together with on the ship (sometimes somebody else from Lubaczow - a relative or a friend).
Imagining twelve days or so on the Atlantic Ocean on one of those ships you can click on and see on old photographs on the site. Incredible!

All this makes you feel so much closer to the whole experience of being an emigrant in those days.

The Cousins
by Joshua Heilman
Every member of the shtetel Lubaczow had something to contribute to the community. The cousins Reinfeld of the Kosher butcher store played also their part. They were strong and fearless. The anti-semitic town hooligans had always to plan their unholy activities looking over their shoulders with the cousins in mind.

The cattle in their butcher shops was supplied by farmers in the surrounding villages. The farmers would arrive in town for the Monday area market, they came in their horse-drawn carts loaded with fruits and vegetables, calves and sometimes with cows in tow, tied with a rope to the back of the cart and plodding all the way to town. Another source of supply of cattle for the shops were the cousins. They used to venture to outing villages, buy cattle and lead them to town walking behind the cows or calves and urging them to move. They paced behind the animals for miles, passing on their way unfriendly to Jews villages or hamlets. At night they had to be especially watchful for fear of attacks by hostile villagers. Most of the people on their routs heard of the Reinfeld cousins and kept safe distance from their path.

In the early twenties of the present century, the cousins decided to emigrate to America. They collected their savings, took some loans and bought train and ship tickets for passage to the New World. After a long passage in strange countries and unending oceans, they arrived in New York and were taken to Ellis Island, where new immigrants were processed, given American documents and checked out by physicians. One of the cousins, Joseph, was admitted and the other, Gershon, was rejected, the doctors found his eyes to be infected and therefore had to track back all the way to Lubaczow. Gershon disheartened and broken in spirit did not speak to anybody, he kept silent and kept pacing the town streets, wearing worn out clothing almost rags.

In meantime Joseph, immediately cast himself into the turbulent and roaring life of Hew York, soon learning the mysteries of success and failure. The times were the times of Prohibition and Vaudeville, and Joseph did not shun either. In the early thirties news started reaching the shtetel that Joseph was a millionaire and as prove everybody was talking about the parcels of clothing the mailman was dropping off at the Reinfeld butcher shop. The leaders of the community wrote to him asking for funds for the community projects. Our Grandfather Noah, who was the Rosh Hava'ad, president of the Jewish community wrote to him and received money to finish the building of the Main Synagogue and the building a brick fence for the cemetery. The elders of the Reinfeld family submitted to him a list of needy families in town, and cheques arrived at their doors before major holidays. The community council received sums of money for the purchase of Matza, wine for Pesach and necessities for other holidays and occasions, like arranging weddings for needy young couples and support for the sick. Before long one could sense that the general mood and level of life in Lubaczow improved.

Now you might ask. what happened with Gershon? Joseph did not forget him. He instructed his family in shtetel to rent for Gershon a room, to pay a family to look. after his daily needs and kept him dressed for all seasons. He had a roof over his head, he was well fed, but he continued to walk the streets of the town, disheveled and his appearance neglected.

In the middle thirties, Joseph came to Lubaczow to see his family, and to take a sentimental trip to all the places he knew so well and to observe the Mitzvah of visiting Kever Avoth, the graves of one's ancestors. This Mitzvah is observed by reciting the Kaddish and giving of charity. When the word spread in town that Joseph is heading for the cemetery, hundred of people ran to the cemetery and lined up along the path to the Reinfeld graves. Joseph arrived at the gate of the cemetery in his car, dozens of people still running after the car, opened the door and came out wearing a black leather jacket and leather trousers, put his hand in pocket took out a bundle of Dollar bills and threw it into the wind. The crowd pounced on the flying and falling bills and scooping them up pushing anyone in their path.

One can still see, to this day, a stone tablet on the brick fence of the cemetery bearing the name Joseph Reinfeld, the donor, whose donation enabled the building of the cemetery fence.

Joseph spent a few short days in town, driving his limousine and throwing green American bank notes from the window and people following him and catching the flying dollars. To protect the car from being grabbed by pursuers, the car handles were attached by wire to the battery, people soon learned that grabbing the car was accompanied with a mild electric shock. Zev and I were prevented, during Reinfeld's visit to town, from leaving the house to protect us from getting ourselves into the chaos and melee that ruled the town.

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