The First Savraner Society of New York
Savran immigrants in New York organized a landsmanshaft—a hometown mutual-aid society—to support one another and preserve ties to the community they had left behind. Founded in 1923, the society left an unusually tangible record of Savran’s immigrant afterlife: a constitution, a cemetery plot, and the names of members and families associated with it.
The society and its purpose
Landsmanshaftn were immigrant mutual-aid societies organized by people from the same hometown or region. The Savran organization was founded in New York on April 15, 1923 as the First Savranier Unterstitzung Verein of New York and was incorporated as the First Savraner Society of New York City. Its constitution describes a mutual-aid organization providing sick benefits, assistance to members, cemetery plots and funeral necessities, and a death benefit. Society meetings and minutes were conducted in Yiddish. [G24–G26]
The society maintained a burial section at Montefiore Cemetery (Old Montefiore) in Springfield Gardens, Queens: Block 97, Gate 33/S (opposite 91). Burial in the society plot is evidence of an association with the landsmanshaft, but does not by itself prove that an individual was born in Savran. [G24,G27]
Search Montefiore Cemetery interments → Isaac Dov Bromberg burial record →
Possible surname continuities. Several surnames in the 1913 Savran business directory also occur in the First Savraner Society burial records: Fishman, Golden, Lerner, and likely transliteration equivalents Bronshtein/Bronstein, Goikhman/Goichman, and Gutnik/Gootnick. The overlap is a research lead only; a shared surname does not establish that the people were related or that a particular New York burial corresponds to the 1913 merchant family. Open the 1913 directory translation (PDF). [G15,G25]
Surnames represented in the society plot
The following normalized alphabetical list is based on the available burial records. Obvious spelling variants have been combined (for example, Chabarovsky/Chaborovsky; Schechtman/Scectman/Schectman/Schehtman; Tesman/Tessman; and Fondiler/Foudiler).
- Berdick
- Bern
- Breitman
- Bromberg
- Bronstein
- Bruger
- Chabarovsky
- Cohen
- Cooper
- Desnick
- Dichter
- Dickstein
- Dorfman
- Drachner
- Fink
- Finkel
- Finkler
- Fishman
- Flom
- Fondiler
- Gaisman
- Gershman
- Gierer
- Goichman
- Golden
- Goldstein
- Golob
- Golocoff
- Golocovsky
- Gootnick
- Greisman
- Gutterman
- Hellman
- Herman
- Kasan
- Koch
- Koenigsberger
- Koven
- Kramer
- Lefsky
- Lerner
- Linn
- Lord
- Magid
- Malamud
- Malter
- Milrood
- Montifiore
- Moskowitz
- Nudelman
- Olshansky
- Pearlman
- Reingold
- Rice
- Roochvarg
- Rosenblum
- Rossman
- Rothbaum
- Saffer
- Sawransky
- Schechtman
- Sedelkow
- Slutzkin
- Strom
- Tesman
- Tofsky
- Wax
- Weiss
- Wenderoff
- Weshnepolsky
- Wexler
- Yusem
- Zeile
- Zimmerman
- Zuckerman
One documented burial is Rabbi Isaac Dov Bromberg, Row 009R, Grave 14. The Montefiore interment search can be used to investigate the other surnames in the plot. [G25,G27]
Sources for this page
This page draws on the society constitution and burial materials, the Montefiore Cemetery interment search, the JGSNY Burial Society Database, and the Isaac Dov Bromberg burial record. Full citations and related migration sources are listed on Sources & Further Research.