L. Tziporah Rozovsky and Celia Ginsburg.  Louisville Courier Journal article 1970

Celia Fox Ginsburg. (1900-1980) Shule Frume, a.k.a. Celia.  Celia was the only one of Label's children to immigrate to the USA.  At age 14, she came to Louisville, KY in 1914 and was raised by her Aunt Sarah Fuchs Gradman as part of her family.

In Louisville, Celia married Harry Ginsburg, a tailor, and raised two children Irvin and Ruth. I remember Harry as quiet and reserved, but always nice. Both Irvin and Ruth inherited their mother's out going nature and sense of fun. 

I remember Celia as a happy, cheerful person.  She danced and sang at every family event. My mom (Dorothy Gradman Ludmer - Sarah's daughter) remembers that Celia loved to dance and party, much to Grandma Sarah's concern.

Celia Ginsburg 1970

Additional information Yudit Natkin/Gertie Lipman:. Gertie Lipman remembers:  Your grandmother Sarah Gradman, sent a ticket  to enable her brother Leibe Meier to join her in  Louisville and then to gradually send for the rest of his family.  He was very excited about it until someone told him about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and he then decided not to go.  Celia, who was then 13 years old offered to use the ticket and bravely did the voyage on her own with the plan of returning home to Lithuania,.  However, WWI broke out and she was unable to return.  By the war’s end, she had finished school in Louisville and did not want to return home.  She married Harry Ginsburg and never saw any of her family again with the exception of her sister Tziporah's visit in 1970. There is a nice article in the Louisville paper about their 1970 meeting. Her brother Sam was suppose to come to Louisville in 1925 but was denied a visa due to new US emigration laws. 

Although Celia never saw her family again, she maintained a regular correspondence.  Her son, Irv remembered his mother used to reel off the Yiddish names of her siblings as if it were a poem:  “Shulke, Freidka, Shmulke, Sainke, Feige Reichke, Bilke, Otke (Hadassah), Pessya.”  (Source Yudit Natkin)

Freda Fox Berman. (1903-1978) Emigrated to the RSA and was considered the matriarch of the RSA Fuchs family.  She married Abrem Berman and they owned a furniture store. They had 4 children. Ruben (Charmein) and Rochi (Louis) Goldin immigrated to Australia, Louis (Rae) to Atlanta GA USA, and Leah (Gabe) Leibowitz stayed in the RSA. 

Additional information Meyer Janet. - Sore Freide (a.k.a. Freda) was the matriarch of the family in South Africa. She was sent with her younger Brother Shmuel Ephraim (Sam) to South Africa. Her role was that of an accompanying older sister but rumor was that there was a pending conflict between two of her ardent suitors and so it was just as well to get her out of Seduva. She and her brother originally stayed with their uncle Mendel Berkow in Frankfort in the Orange Free State. She was married in the Roeland Street Shul in Cape Town to Avrom Kasriel Berman (whose mother was apparently a Berkow) (Ruby Berman to fill in the details). The family eventually settled in Brakpan in the Transvaal Province. Avrom Kasriel worked for his brother in law Shmuel Ephraim who had a clothing and general store next to a nearby gold mine in Brakpan. When he was furloughed, due to economic circumstances, Freda had no option but to sell her dinning room table. With those funds she caught a train for Johannesburg, attended an auction sale of furniture and thereby built a successful retail furniture business. 

Freda kept the family together. When her mother Ita Riva came to South Africa she came to stay with her. Even the most distant of relatives would not be left out of her social calendar of Sunday teas and Family Simchas. She had a pleasant voice and would go about the house singing songs in Yiddish and Russian. Her favorite song was “Raizale” She eventually developed a property at #114 Kitchener Avenue, across the road from the Fire Station and around the corner from the Town Hall and the Market. She employed a delivery man by the name of Jeremiah, who delivered the furniture on a hand cart. The house was looked after by a general factotum by the name of George. Both these men remained loyal employees for many years. The property was in the nature of a campus on which was situated a modern retail store named Market Furnishers and an adjacent garden and residence. I recall when, as a child accompanying my parents to one of her evening soirees, with her friends. I remember, that at 10 pm the curfew siren, at the fire station, would sound. During the Apartheid Area this was a signal to all urban Africans of color to remain in doors unless they had a special pass. Scary but true. (Source Meyer Janet). 

Samuel Fox 

Samuel Fox (1903-1993).  Sam went to the RSA from Seduva in 1925 with his sister Freda. He married Dora and had 3 children, Gertie (Phillip) Lipman (moved to Israel 1977), Yudit (Jerry) Natkin (USA) and Yetta (Paul) Nick (RSA). 

Additional information Meyer Janet. - Shmuel Ephraim Fox (a.k.a. Sam). He arrived in South Africa with his sister Freda, through the beneficence of Uncle Saul Fuchs.  Family notes that the fear of forced Army conscription motivated Sam to emigrate.  

Uncle Sam had a good physique and was light of hair and complexion, unlike his siblings. He was fit and used to ride his bicycle to Shul in the mornings. He laughed easily.  He was close to his sister Freda, and every morning after Shul he would ride his bicycle to her house to have breakfast with her.

He married Dora (Deborah) Bloch and settled in Brakpan. Their house was at # 92 Gardener Avenue near to the municipal swimming pool. His shop was on Boundary Road as mentioned above. He ran that shop until he retired. He owned beige 1948 Chevrolet Style master in which he used to transport us to gatherings and in December to Victoria (Germiston Lake). This venue was nothing more than a lake created by the mining activity in this eastern Witwatersrand mining city. Not very scenic, but this is where Jewish families, amongst others from the whole of the East Rand used to congregate on Xmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day in order to picnic, relax, reconnect take a boat ride, or if you were really brave, swim in the questionable quality water. As my father usually worked on these occasions, the Janet Family had to rely on either our Uncle Sam or Uncle Charlie Itchikowitz to get us to this paradise of summer. 

Their house had a Concord grape vine in the garden from which Uncle Sam used to make Passover vine and jam every year. It was great stuff and much appreciated except for the one year when the fermenting process of the young wine caused them to explode in my mom’s pantry. There also was a chicken coop in the back garden and best of all there was a full size swing. I can recall spending many hours on that swing and even falling off once and have the swing hit my head, much to the consternation of my mother.  (Source Meyer Janet) 

Yudit Natkin Sam's daughter's additional information:  Samuel was supposed to join Celia in Louisville in 1925, but the immigration laws changed and he was not allowed in the USA.  His father’s brother, Saul Fox, sent him a ticket for South Africa.  Eta Riva, his mother, arranged for his sister Freda to accompany him.

They went to South Africa via England in a very uncomfortable journey which took 6 weeks.  He worked for a time in the Free State, but in 1929 he joined his sister, Freda in Brakpan and opened a shop there.   

Samuel was always very health conscious and did considerable body building.  I remember a picture of him when he was 18 years old, with his arms folded and his muscles bulging!  He used to make his muscle ripple and enjoyed the children watching him in amazement.  (Source Yudit Natkin)

Sonja Fox Itchikowitz.  (1906-1971) She move to the RSA in 1929 and worked as a seamstress. Married Charles Itchikowitz and had 2 children;  Shoshanna (Dave) Levy (RSA) and Louis (Bernice)  (RSA). 

Additional information Meyer Janet. - Sheine Aide (a.k.a. Sonia) Itchikowitz came to South Africa after her older siblings Freda and Sam. She was her mother Ita Riva’s favorite as she was named after her mother. In Seduva she helped her mother around the house after the eldest three had departed. She also worked for the local dressmaker as a seamstress and also had great skills as a cook. On arriving in South Africa she moved to Brakpan to be with her family and through her mother’s connection with the Denil family from Upina (a Lithuanian village were between 30 to 40 Jewish families lived) Sonia was introduced and married to Betzalel (a.k.a Charlie) Itchikowitz (more about the Itchikowitz Family later) and after initially settling in Brakpan

moved to Somerset Road, Geduld Extension Springs. (a mining town next to Brakpan) There they opened a general trading store to serve the itinerant miners who were resident in the compounds of the adjacent mines of East Geduld, Modder East, and Hospital and New States mines. Their shop like Sam Fox’s shop was located on a street named Boundary Road. At that time their suburb was populated by many Jewish families. 

Aunt Sonia loved children and used to sew clothes and make toys for the neighborhood children. I still have two teddy bears that are dressed in the clothes that she made for them. My sister and I spent many hours playing in their shop and in the open veld across the road from their shop. It was through this long grass that we would see the miners coming to do their shopping in Boundary Road. This grass would disappear when there was a veldt fire that would leave an acrid smell in the air. When in 1949 my parents moved into 23 Milner Avenue, just around the corner from the Itchikowitz family, we got to spend a lot of time in their company. I can recall many cricket games on the back lawn and the tea parties and evenings spent in their company. I also recall that as a family they decided one year to drive down to Cape Town on Holiday. A journey of over a thousand miles. Precarious at best in their 1949 black Ford four door custom, especially as there were no interstates and some of the trip was through the Karoo desert. We waved them off as if they were the “Louis and Clark” expedition out to explore the wild west of the USA. 

With the passing of the years and the closure of some of the mines, the Itchikowitz family, like most Jewish families relocated their businesses and dwellings to newer up market, fashionable and viable areas of town. Therefore, in the late 1950’s (open to correction) they established Town Hall Furnishers on 2^nd street across the road from the Springs Town Hall. This specialized in 2^nd hand furniture antiques and general brick a brack as well as beads and fabrics for the African clientele.

While we lived further apart and did not spend as much time in their home, we would normally before or after Cheder classes, at the town’s synagogue, visit at their shop. During the holidays we would be invited to come and help out in the shop, especially on days that uncle Charlie was in Johannesburg at auction sales. Auntie Sonia used to feed us liberally at lunch times with cold meat sandwiches and insisted on paying us even though we did not add much to the viability of the enterprise. She did this out kindness as she knew that at times our family was experiencing financial difficulties. They later expanded and moved their store to 4^TH street next to the Palladium Movie theatre and directly behind the major national departmental stores of GREATERMANS and OK BAZAARS.   

Uncle Charlie was a big man with a big personality. He was opinionated and as he identified himself as one of the “amcho”, the ordinary proletariat, he caused havoc at local synagogue meetings by fighting against those in “die heiche fensters” (the high windows or upper and entitled classes).. He believed that everybody was entitled to his opinion and was an acquired taste at committee meetings. He could always be heard davening in Shul and used to complain if the Bal Tefillah or Chazzan was davening “like an Arab” in his opinion. He had a good voice and sang in the synagogue choir. He was also a gourmand who enjoyed his food and encouraged his wife to be daring in her cooking. He was apparently younger than Sonia and on her passing we came to realize that she was the power behind the throne and that his bluff exterior hid the caring person inside.  Auntie Sonia and Uncle Charlie were like a second set of parents to my sister Luba and myself.  (Source Meyer Janet)

Bilha and Meshullan officially married when my mother, Michal (1933-2019) was born, (1933 - 2019). My mother married Avraham Feuerstein, born 1937. Together, they had me (1961) and my brother Yossi (1963). My parents divorced in 1964. In 1965, she married my step father Jerry Timna. (Source Yariv Timna) 

Additional information Meyer Janet: Like her sister Tziporah, Bilha was a member of Hashomer Ha Tsair. She immigrated to Palestine after her father’s passing (perhaps with a sibling).  She was also musical and creative and was more reserved than her sister Tziporah. She married Meshulam Tseilim. He was either born or grew up in the village of Afula in the Jezreel Valley. After marriage, they moved 11 miles away to Kibbutz Mishmar Ha Emek which had been established as a Hashomer Ha Tsair kibbutz in 1923. During the war of independence in 1948 the Kibbutz was attacked by Syrian troops. Meshulam was part of the kibbutz defenders who eventually repelled the attack and helped to change the direction of the war. 

In 1969 Bilha and Meshulam visited the South African family. I remember them to be a devoted couple who had maintained their pioneering spirit and found joy in the simple things in life. They eschewed the material trappings of rampant capitalism that tended not to recognize the dignity and rights of labor. When I visited them in 1975, Meshulam had great pride in baking me one of his signature “ugot”(cakes) in honor of my visit. In return I gave them one of my watercolor painting to hang in their “dirah”(apartment).  (Source Meyer Janet)

Tziporah Fox Rozovsky (1911-1996) Emigrated  to Palestine in 1932.  She married Boris Rozovsky, and lived on Moshav Kfar Nutter.  They had two children, Lea (Romie) Ozery, and Avraham (Ruty) Raz. Avraham changed the family name to Raz.   I meet Tziporah and her husband in 1970 at Kfar Nutter.  I also met her son Avraham and his wife Rutie. They had a crop spraying business.  I remember Tziporah as a cheery, friendly, farm woman.  She loved showing us her home and gardens.  Boris was a  respected agronomist in Israel.  He preformed agricultural aid services abroad for the Israeli government.  Although Boris did not speak English, we clearly saw his sense of humor, when he introduced us to his donkey Kasavubu, which was named for a former president of the Congo.  Tziporah visited the US in 1970 see her Aunt Sarah, two uncles, sister, and other Louisville family. There was a nice article about her visit in the Louisville newspaper. Their three children still live on Kfar Nutter. 

Additional information Meyer Janet:  Feige Rieche (Tziporah) Rozovsky. Like her younger sisters she was a member of Jewish youth movements back in Shadeva. She was a member of Hashomer Ha Tsair and the Habima theatrical society. We have a picture of her in a theater production with my father Avrom Leib Janet.  She was very pretty and had startling blue eyes. She was quite musical and sang in choirs. After the passing of her father she left for Palestine through the offices of Hashomer Ha Tsair around 1933 or 1934. 

In Palestine she met and married Boske (Boris) Rozovsky. They settled on a small holding in Kfar Netter (Moshav) where Boris started a citrus orchard. He was a very talented farmer and through the process of experimental grafting of species was able to develop a new breed of Clementine which he named “Michal”. He was duly recognized for this achievement by the Israeli government.  (Source Meyer Janet)

Pincus   Yariv Timna states that there was  a younger brother, born after Tziporah in the early years of the first world war.  He died as an infant from malnutrition while Label's family was exiled in the Ukraine.  Yudit Natkin confirms this story and states the child's name was Pincus and died at age 2.

Pesai Bar-on (1915-1998)  Emigrated from Shadeva to Palestine in 1935 via Keren Kayemet to join her sister who had emigrated earlier.   She lived on Kibbutz Mabarot and married Tuvia Bar-on.  They had 3 children, Nogah (Avraham) Koren, Sarah (Shimon) Keter, and David (Netta) Bar-on. 

Meyer Janet Additional information: Pesia (Peske) Braun. She was the last to leave Shadeva in 1935 via the Baltic port of Memel for Palestine. She married a Hungarian immigrant, Tuvia Braun and settled on Kibbutz Ma Abarot , a Socialist kibbutz established in 1933 in the Sharon Valley near Petah Tikvah. Of all the Israeli sisters she was the closest in age and relationship with my mother. She visited South Africa twice once in 1963 and once in 1992. She had a beautiful smile and a peaceful nature. I stayed with her on the Kibbutz in 1975.. She loved animals and fed all the stray cats around her “dirah” 

She separated (or was divorced) from Tuvia, although they both remained on the kibbutz and seemed to have remained friends. I can recall of an evening joining him in a glass of Spritz (wine mixed with soda). The kibbutz was like a second home as I was made to feel so welcome by my family there. The older residents even remembered my mother by her nickname ‘Gingie”. Later my daughter Abigail even went to work there in the “cheder ochel” (dining room) (Source Meyer Janet)