Comments from the Guestbook, page 1

28th August, 2004

tjdavis72@hotmail.com

Came across your website while doing genealogical research. My great-grandfather, Zelig Norman was born in Mazeikiai on April 5th 1887. I'm trying to learn more about the Normans in the area. Zelig's fathers name was Baer. Have you ever come across this surname? Also, was the Synagogue in Mazeikiai destroyed? Would you know of someone I can contact to research birth records?

2. Tom Davis (reply to co-webmaster Ilan Ganot)

3rd September, 2004

tjdavis72@hotmail.com

Thank you for the responses. I visited Kaunas last March and spoke to a woman at the Archives. She did mention a few names it may have been, one of them was NIEMANN. Another was NEURMANN. Unfortunately I couldnt locate any records for Zelig in Kaunas and I havent tried Vilnius yet. She said I should search in Mazeikiai. With the Synagogue destroyed this may be difficult. Was there any other place that birth records from the late 1800's were stored? Does Mazaikiai have an archives center?

The story in my family is that Norman came from a French army officer who settled in the Mazekiai area after retreating from the Russian army? Not sure if this is true. Im guessing the name was Westernized from possibly NIEMANN.

Aviva, i couldnt help but notice the similarity of Neeman and Norman? Was your family name changed from NIEMANN?

Thanks again for your help!

Tom

3. Aviva Neeman

(reply via the Guestbook to the message above from Tom Davis)

3rd September, 2004

aneeman@netvision.net.il

reply to comment nr. 2, above: Yes, you are right: my ancestors in Pikeliai were of Gibor, Leibowitz and Neiman families. In a latter generation, when they were in Austro Hungary they adopted the German spelling of Neumann. So all spellings are correct, and were used at different times, different places.

I wouldn't dismiss a family story. It might be correct, or at least there will be a grain of truth at it's origin. I discovered many years ago that one should respect family story, as improbable as they sound, because if teh family chose to pass them on it is because they were true.

As for information, how about going to the Jewish sources? I mean YIVO in the NYC central library. The Jewish records were done for internal purposes and are therefore the true ones.

Aviva

4. Shalom (Kaplan) Eilati

2nd October, 2004

Compliments for the Mazeikiai site. it is full with important info. My mother's families come from the region of Mazheik, mainly Siad.

However, please let me add a certain comment:

Three years ago I made a quite frustrated visit in Lithuania, (first after my survival there). I was not able to locate, nor the Jewish gesselech (streets), nor the mass graves, in several of the places that interested me.

That led me to call for an initiative to publish a certain guide, a "Michelin"-like, especially directed to guide the Jewish visitor in Lithuania to the many mass graves near the various shtetlach. (It was published in a previous "Gachelet" of the Litvaks association).

A partial response could be counted by the British Jewry, led by Lord Janner, that go on erecting granite pillars on crossroads near those graves. I hope that they will also publish a booklet with guiding instructions, how to reach the specific sites. Because in fact, the mass graves are almost the only substantial site that we possess nowadays in bloody Lithuania.

As for the Mazeikiai www site - mentioning the mass grave there (where many of my relatives rest) - it is not enough to note "in the outskirts of M." Please be more specific: direction, distance from M. near which road.

Another subject - I was informed that a certain Mr. Trigor is publishing by Yad Vashem a memorial book on Mazheikiai. For your knowledge.

Mr. Kahana, I shall be pleased to get in touch with you in relation with the meeting of the Aharoni/Gordon/Kovarsky families.

Be well and Yishar Koach!

Dr. Shalom (Kaplan) Eilati

Jerusalem

02-6413920

5. Shalom (Kaplan) Eilati (reply to co- webmaster Ilan Ganot)

2nd October, 2004

How exciting suddenly to meet people of common knowledge and interest in such remote corner of Lithuania, that in the same time is so close to my heart!

Thank you for the document. Some years ago I also came across that treasury of Yivo 1920, and found various documents about the communal activities in Siad. I wonder whether you have a hold on other documents from Siad and where can it been seen.

Most of the shtetlach in "your" document consist a part of my family's stories... I even possess some sidurs and similar old books of the 19th century with handwritten inscriptions on the inner cover by my great grandfather David Greenstein (that is my family in Siad and Mazeik as well) from Zemelan... As well I know about Itzhak Tiger and his sister - all youth friends of my mother and aunts. They used to live in Netanya and as far as I know passed away childless.

If we shall one day meet, I can add various episodes about the Siad-Mazeik relationship, as reflected by stories of my aunt Ethel, that had a remarkable memory.

- As for the sad end of the people of M. and S. as well - does that website (mazeikiaishtetl.com) provide anything more detailed than Pinkas Yehudei Lita , edited by Dov Levin (YVS publication), or the fourth volume of Yahadut Lita (published by the Litvaks assoc. here)?

I myself am a child survivor of ghetto Kovno, and I owe my life to my mother, Leah Greenstein-Kaplan , born in Siad, studied in Mazeik, where her brother and sister and their families perished on 1941.. I can't provide you any additional info about the holocaust there. I wish I knew more.

Three years ago I have published my literary memoir: "Lachazot et Ha-Nahar" (Crossing the River), by Carmel and Yad Vashem. It describes my personal experience as a child (age 8-11) in the ghetto and later on.By now already the third edition is near its exhaustion(*).

There I also tell about Zipporah Gross, a relative of Barbara Aharoni, and that is the coincidental way that brought me to contact you, the three blessed webmasters...

Do you know any Mazeikers still alive?

- Dov Levin is a close friend of me and that is he who told me about Mr. Trigor (Where does he live?).

I plan to go there again, hope on the coming summer, and am very interested in any details that could guide me around those places.

Are you all the 3 in Israel? Could you provide me your telephone numbers and we may communicate in the future by our local "Mame-Loshn" - Hebrew...

Thank you very much , and "Chagim Uzemanim Le-Sason" (Halevay)...

Shalom

6. Shalom (Kaplan) Eilati

2nd October, 2004

P.S. to my last letter, 5 minutes later...

I entered the Mazeikshtetl.com, clicked on "Buildings and Streets", and "almost fainted" - Gewald! - the butcher Zorach Peckel is my uncle, by marrying Feigeh Greenstein, my mother's sister!!!

I have heard quite a lot about that family and more (even in my above book...). Even - unbelievable - I discovered in my house here in Jerusalem a neighbor woman, his a niece , and we could compare pictures that we both possess.

Who provided you that info? Certainly it is invaluable for me....

Shalom

7. Larry Stahl

4th October, 2004

larry949@cox.com

Read the memorial website to Shtetl Mozek and your 'Return to Lithuania'...beautiful work, great research; I came across it in my own Jewish genealogy work.

Larry Stahl

Irvine

8. Sofia Grondman

4th October, 2004

sfgr@hotmail.com

My compliments to Raymond Ravinsky, Ilan Ganot and Benzi Kahana for creating this website!

A special note for the creators of the "Return to Lithuania ~ Return to
Mazeikiai"
Nice writing and nice pictures! :)

9. Barbara Aharoni Shamir

4th October, 2004

ahaba@juno.com

Hello Benzi, Ilan, and Raymond,

Yasher Koach! I just decided to go to the site to see what Shalom Eilati was referring to about his relative the butcher, and was SO IMPRESSED with all the information you have added! THe format is now so great. I feel so proud to be a part of this effort. You guys are doing a terrific job of organizing everything. Now you even have a place for someone to send a comment! So here is mine!
Harry and I look forward to joining you soon in Israel. Am Yisrael Chai! Barbara

10. Amit Shuali

Amit_Shulai@icomverse.com

10th October, 2004

(Gan Yeladim in Mazeikiai). Actually, I have a copy of this picture, and my grandmother is sitting in the first row, second from left. I have my grandmother's photo-album, that includes pictures of her class until 1936. I can scan some photographs and send them to you. Maybe you will find them interesting.

My grandmother , born in 1920 to Olshvang family, lived in Mazeikiai until 1936, then she, her parents and her sister (she is photographed in the kindergarten picture as well), left to Palestine.

My grandmother lives now in Raanana, and often she tells me about Mazeikiai and her friends. I hope you can find something in the pictures I will send you.

11. Ella Barkan

22nd November 2004 elbarkan@netvision.net.il

I have entered your Mazekiai website, you all have done great work. Tavo Aleichem Habrach! The information is rich and the documents and pictures you have added leave me with no words to express my praise.

Meanwhile I discovered that there are marriage connections between the AVRECH family and TIGER, ZILBERT and RABINOVICH. Bat-Sheva the youngest daughter of Rabbi Ze'ev Wolf AVRECH married RABINOVICH who was the last Rabbi of Kibarti.

Thanks to your website I discovered that TIGER and ZILBERT lived in Mazeik.

Thank you for all your good and hard work.

12. Allan Freedman

23rd November 2004 afreedman@sympatico.ca

Yasher Koach to you (and your colleagues) in undertaking - but certainly not completing - this wonderful project!

I'm sure there was lots of hard work involved and your persistence in hunting down all sorts of leads - some productive, others not - is admirable.

13.. Hazel Kahan

26th November, 2004 hazel@leafages.com

What a labor of love! You have created a wonderful thing--may your witnessing voices reverberate for generations.

14. Marlene Stern

7th December, 2004 marlenestern@comcast.net

What a great accomplishment!!

My mother's family is from Mazeikiai. The family name is Kagan. My mother was known as Feige Kagan. Her mother's name was Malka Kagan (perished in the Shoah), her father's name was Benzion Kagan (died in the 1920's). Children in the family; Israel (came to USA, Chicago in the early 1900's) Sheva (survived the Shoah in USSR and immigrated to Israe); Avrom (survived the Shoah in USSR and died in Vilna in the 1950's); Leah Wald(died in the Shoah); David (died in the either the USSR army or the Lithuanian army in the 1940's). The Wald family perished in the shelt; Lozer Wald, Benzion Wald, Feige Wald, Sarah Wald, and Bune Wald.
My mother, Flora (Feige Kagan) Stern was in the Kovno Ghetto and was liberated in Stutthof. My Father, Bernard Stern, was a pharmacist. They had a son, my brother, Benzion Stern, who perished in the Kovno Ghetto. My mother's family had relatives in NYC, Henrietta Liebovitsh Shapiro. my cousin, Chaja (Kagan) Rusanski, living now in Herzlija Israel, was raised in Mazeikei. Her father David Kagan was the watchmaker in Mazeikei. ~
In the picture of the Mazeikiai gymnasium, the first on the left in the middle row is I believe, Feige Kagan, my Mother

15. Harold B. Arkoff

8th December, 2004 HBArkoff@aol.com

Thank you for this trove of information. My mother's parents were Rabbi Avrum Lurie and his wife Nechama. Nechama Lurie is listed on your Mazeikiai list. Avrum died in February, 1921 and is buried in Lecava. Nechama came to the US in September 1921. My uncle,(my mother's brother) Yitsak Lurie and his wife Chaya are on your Mazeikiai resident list,also. He was a butcher by trade and they lived at 10 Saules Street in Mazeikiai with their five children. They were all killed in the holocaust. This might be the Lurie family listed on the Victims list prepared by Nechama Frid. Is it possible to contact her? My mother, Gitel Lurie, came to the US in 1912.
     We might be related to Friedman family in Mazeikiai. My mother and most of her six brothers were born in Laizuva,but moved to Vainode, Latvia across the border in 1897 where my Grandfather, Rabbi Avrum Lurie was a shochet and Yitzak worked with him.
     I would like to contact Nechama Frid about the Lurie family on her list and anyone else with ties to Laizuva or Vainode or are familiar as to where 10 Saules Street is in Maizekiai,
    My e-mail is HBArkoff@aol.com.
    Thank you for posting this message and for providing us with this information.
         Harold Arkoff   California, USA

16. Robin Feuchtwang

16th December, 2004 robingf@sbcglobal.net

I finally took the time to look over the work on the websites that you did. It is phenomenal. I couldn't get enough of it. It is very well organized and I was absorbed in the stories of your grandparents, dad, and uncles and aunt.

17. President JFRA, Schelly Talalay Darsashti

18th December, 2004
schelly@allrelative.net
schelly@genealogy.org.il

Congratulations to those who contributed to this site.
JFRA encourages everyone to get involved with such a
project for their own shtetls.
Also, remember to get the links for such projects
noted on Litvak SIG or the other appropriate SIGs on
JewishGen, so other researchers of the same place will
find your website easily.
Again, Kol Hakavod.

Best wishes,
Schelly Talalay Dardashti
President, JFRA Israel

18. Pheya Yair

19th December, 2004 Pheya@actcom.co.il

Your beautiful site has encouraged me to write.
My grandfather Selig Blumberg was born in Tirksliya only 7 kilometers from Mazeikiai. I am sure his parents Joseph and Sarah (both born Blumberg) often visited the town for shopping and to join the synagogue on Shabat with their 2 sons Abraham, born 1879 and Selig born 1882. After Joseph died 1883 Sarah remarried, to his (and probably also her )cousin Gershon Lewin. The family moved? to Libau and got 4 children more. Jette, Israel, Ida and Benno Michel. Abraham moved to America 17 years old, married there to Celia Brown and got 2 daughters Selma and Njuma Towbin.
Selig moved at the age of 12 alone to Norway, he married Channe Blume Sack from Libau 1919, and they got 3 daughters. Sarah Heed, Jenny Dante and Rakel Bella Ranslet
(my mother)Selig died in Buchenwald 1942.
Jette married ? Gosshel, got 2 children and were all killed in Libau ? 1941.Gershon also was killed with his housekeeper and later 2.wife Sarahon the beach of Libau 1941.
Ida married Leib Stickan. They were killed with their 2 children Isi and Soreh in Stutthof between 1941-45. Israel went to Norway and married Retzien ? they got one daughter Synnove. Benno Michel moved first to Belgium and later to Norway,He married
Paula Ramson, they got one daughter Liv. Benno and Liv died under the war between 1942-45 in Norway.
If anyone from Mazeikiai knew my family please contact Pheya Yair,at e-mail Pheya@actcom.co.il

19. Prof. Dov Levin

19th December, 2004 dovlevin@cc.huji.ac.il

Shalom to everybody
Congratulations to those who contributed to the new site under the original Jewish name MAZHEIK.
Even YOU honored Ms. President and the leaders of "JFRA List" may go after the trail of Mr. Ganot and his colleagues.
Of course I would like be happy to have a similar reason to congratulate also the
others: Kol Ha-kavod.
Prof. Dov Levin Yeryshalayim
-------------------------------------------------------------

20. Ilan Ganot (co-webmaster)

20th December, 2004 o_ganot@inter.net.il

"Dear friends,
After the reproaches and reprimands that I have received from Prof. Dov Levin, and his preaching at a long telephone conversation between us, he had convinced me to use the Yiddish version of the Shtetl's name, rather than the Lithuanian one.

Now, after reading his reaction to the revised naming of the Website, I am pleased that we have decided to do this name change.
Not just to please Prof. Levin ("she'kvodo bimkomo munach", with no doubt), but since I am convinced that this is the right thing to do (would we call Al-Kuds or Yevus instead of Jerusalem; Nablus instead of Schem?).

21. Yosi Rosanki

11th June, 2005 yosir@ligad.com

I am planning to visit Mazheik this summer

My mothers family (Kagan) was living there before the war

I need to get more information about the place and what as been happened

22. Shalom (Kaplan) Eilati

26th June 2005