Altman: 100th Anniversary of the TRIANGLE FACTORY FIRE: 25 March 1911/25 March 2011: Thanks to Lauren Shulsky Orenstein, I learned that Anna ALTMAN, a victim of the Shirtwaist Triangle fire, and her family had immigrated to New York from Narewka, and that it was Lauren's great-grandfather Morris ALTMAN, who identified the body of his sixteen-year-old sister Anna. Click here for a separate page on Anna Altman. (For more, see a copy of her death certificate and Remembering the Triangle Factory Fire presented by The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library in collabortion with UNITE! - Cornell University ILR School; see also List of Victims and Death List Show Few Identified from New York Times, 26 March, 1911, p. 4; Memorial for Anna "Annie" Altman on Find-a-Grave website.) (Photo of Anna Altman banner being carried at the Centennial Procession of 146 Shirtwaists and Sashes to honor the victims and at the Workers United - Official Triangle Fire 100th Anniversary Commemoration; photo by Joy Kestenbaum, 25 March 2011)

Barelkowski:  The gravestone of Shlomo Moshe Barelkowski can be found in Narewka's Jewish Cemetery.  According to the translation contributed by David Feldman, the inscription reads, "Here lies the learned and humble rabbi; Shlomo Moshe Barilkovski the son of Shmaryahu. Died the first day of Sukkot - 15 of Tishrei 5694 - Oct. 5th, 1933.  He led our community for 36 years." This text informs us that Shlomo Barelkowski had served as a rabbi in Narewka for many years; additionally, it provides evidence that, although he is listed on Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, he died a few years before the beginning of World War II. According to the testimony there, Rabbi Barilkowski was born in Jasionowka, Poland, and was the son of Shmariahu and Khana. He also appears on the Grodno Gubernia 1912 Voters List (Narewka), the son of Shmerko. (photo by Joy Kestenbaum, August 2010)

Barton/Bartnowsky: Narewka: to Complete the Circle (available on the Museum of Family History website and here), 10 mins. film by Tomasz Wisniewski about Nashville, Tennessee resident David Barton's 2009 visit to Narewka, where his ancestors had lived and from where his grandparents had emigrated with their six children, including his father, in the early 20th century. In 1906 David Barton's grandfather,  Chaim Bartnowsky (Hyman Barton), a cobbler, went to Selma, Alabama, to work in the shoe store that he subsequently purchased; his family followed him there. Later, in 1923, David's father started Barton's Department Store.

Birenbaum: Ten years ago Israel Birenbaum visited Narewka with his father Moshe, who was born there in 1918 and left in June of 1941 to join the Red Army, just days before the German invasion of Russia. Israel just returned from a second trip made with his brother Zvika in May of 2011, about two months after his father's passing. They were accompanied by 45 Israeli students from the high school his brother runs; while in Narewka they had the opportunity to meet with local Polish students. You can read Israel's moving account of his two trips to Narewka here, Visits in Narewka - Birenbaum Family. The meeting between the Israeli and Polish students at the School Complex (Zespole Szkół) in Narewka and their joint tour of the town have also been reported on the websites of the GOK - Gminny Osrodek Kultury (Narewka Municipal Cultural Center) and the Zespół Szkół. (photo courtesy of Israel Birenbaum)

Caplan/Kaplański: David CAPLAN (Kaplański), son of Asher Bishka (Bischoff) HaCohen, was born in Narewka; he immigrated to New York c1889 and settled in Alexandria in Central Louisiana. After working as a peddler, he established his own dry goods store in Alexandria in 1891. Caplan's, specializing in men's clothing, is still a family-operated business, managed by one of David CAPLAN's grandsons.  David Caplan married Katie Fineman in New York City in 1899. I have been able to determine that Yosef Kaplański, who remained in Narewka, where he died in 1936, was David Caplan's brother, as they both were sons of Asher Bishka HaCohen. Yosef's wife Rachel, his son Beni and daughter Luba were killed in the Shoah. His other daughters immigrated to Israel, New York and Mexico before World War II. Yosef's gravestone survives in the Narewka Cemetery.

Effron-Linevsky: In 1920, when she was six years old, Sylvia (Scheine) Dashefsky, nee Effron, left Narewka for New York with her mother Frume Effron (nee Linevsky) to meet her father, who had immigrated several years earlier.  Her 1997 recorded interview, one of the Oral Histories of Ellis Island Immigrants, is accessible online for no charge on Ancestry.com. (Source Citation: Audio ID: EI-894, Ellis Island Oral History Program, Oral History Project, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, New York City, New York.)  For Batya Dashefsky's tribute to her parents, see "The Memories of Leo and Sylvia Dashefsky," (an exhibition on the Museum of Family History website). (Passport Photo of Fruma and Sylvia Effron, courtesy of Batya Dashefsky) 

Grajewski: Ajzyk (Isaac) Grajewski (c1895-1941) was the last rabbi of the Narewka Jewish community.  He may have been appointed after the death of Shlomo Moshe Barelkowski in 1933. (See Barelkowski, above.) Rabbi Grajewski and his family (his wife Rywka and young children, Pinchas, Feigele, Liebenke) were all killed in the Shoah. Grajewski was probably originally from Bialystok. According to the brief reference in one volume of the Hebrew multi-volume work, Atlas Etz-Hayim, Atlas of the Tree of Life (1987, Tel Aviv), by Raphael Halperin, Grajewski was a prominent Polish rabbi who led a Novaredoker Bes Jozef Yeshiva and became the head of the rabbinical court (beth din) of Narewka.  If anyone has additional information about Rabbi Grajewski or his family, please contact me. (photo of Grajewski's wife Rywka with two of her children, courtesy of Barbara Kotin; see Family Pictures; see also 1935 certificate signed by A. Grajewski, Rabin Gminy Wyzyznaniowej Żydowskiej, Rabbi of Jewish Religious Community, Narewka, courtesy of Phillip Schreibman.)

Jablanovich/Jablonowicz: The Jablanovich family is one of the few families from Narewka found in the 1897 Russian Census. Leizar Abramov Yablonvich and his son Srol (Israel) are described on the census as shoemakers. Wolf Jablanovich/Jablonowicz (Zeev Tapoohi in Hebrew), the son of Srol and Sora-Leya, was the youngest of nine children. He made aliyah in 1934 at the age of 19 and never saw his family in Narewka again, because of the Shoah. For photographs contributed by Rivka Witenberg, daughter of Wolf/Zeev, and more on the family, see Narewka and the Jablanovich/Jablonowicz Family.

Katz: Centropa Interview with Emilia (Endler) Ratz, Holocaust survivor, who was born in Warsaw and whose maternal grandparents (surname KATZ) lived in Narewka, where her mother, Marija nee Katz, was born in 1896. (Country: Austria; Interviewer: Tanja Eckstein; Date of Interview: July 2004)  (Centropa -  Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation)

Levitsky: Martin Jacobs contributed some family photographs and pages from his great-aunt Esther's self-published memoir, My Life Story. Born in Narewka, she left for Bialystok as a child with her family, before she emigrated to London in 1901. Her parents, Yossel and Sarah (Waran) Levitsky, made aliyah to Palestine before World War I. Esther later moved to Australia. In her memoir, printed in 1962, she wrote of their early years, "It was a hard life, as twelve of us children had to be fed, and our dear parents, also. And now some of us are in the far corners of the world - Great Russia, England, America, Israel and Australia - and their children, grandchildren, and great-grand children." As it turns out, Martin Jacob's grandfather Nathan (Nachman) was friendly with some of my English family members, as two of my grandfather's sisters settled in London. (photo courtesy of Martin Jacobs)
Leyson/Leizon: Members of the Leyson/Leizon family share their memories of Narewka and experiences during World War II:

• Narewka: Accounts, memories: Interviews: Aviva Nisenbaum (nee Leizon) (On the Virtual Shtetl website)
• Narewka: Accounts, memories: Interviews: David Leizon (On the Virtual Shtetl website)
• Little Leyson, The Schindler Story
• New: Leyon Leyson's 1995 Shoah Foundation testimony, about his early life in Narewka, his family, his experiences during the Holocaust and how he was saved by Oskar Schindler.
  Go to the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive Online. You need to register online and then
  search by the Leyson name or interview code 8916.
• We Remember and Pay Tribute: Fullerton's Leon Leyson - Youngest  Schindler Jew, interviewed by his daughter-in-law on Southern California Public Radio, 28 May 2011
  
• Leon Leyson Remembers: Holocaust Survivor Leon Leyson Tells His Story: Lecture at the Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, 4 March 2010; (On the Asper Media Centre website) Leon Leyson, a native of Narewka, moved to Krakow with his family when he was nine years old.