Harbin,
Heilongjiang PROVINCE,
China

Clurman and Keilis Family Photos

From the Collections of Irene Clurman, Rose Clurman and Nurit Eshtein

For photos of the Nathan Clurman Family, click here.

Click on any photo for a larger version.

Isak Grigori (Isko Chaim Gershowitz) Clurman sat for this studio portrait in Harbin in 1908. At the bottom of the picture is a dedication he wrote to his father in Russian.	Newlyweds Ethel (Roza) Clurman and Isak Grigori Clurman posed shortly after their marriage in early 1918.	Isak Grigori Clurman had a sheepskin coat specially made for his eldest son Ruvim (Charles) in the early 1920s. People would stop the boy and his mother on the street to comment on the unusual garment.	A Harbin street photographer posed Miriam Grant Clurman (nee Grodsky) as a laundress in the early 1920s.


Ethel (Roza) Clurman's identity card photo is probably from the 1920s.	Isak Grigori Clurman posed for a hand-tinted studio portrait in the 1920s.	Harry Clurman, far right, is shown inthe early 1920s with his first cousins Ruvim (Charles) Clurmann and Sylvia Clurman (later Epstein), shortly before Harry left Harbin for California.	Isak Grigori Clurman, center, posed with his son Ruvim (Charles) Clurman and daughter Sylvia (Tziva) Clurman (later Epstein) at the gate of their apartment building on Second Street in the late 1920s. The Clurmans owned the building, which had six flats with a staircase in the middle, plus a stable, a greenhouse and a garden with fruit trees and a gazebo. The wide gate was designed to accommodate the family's horse and carriage. The building was sold about 1931.

Ethel (Roza) and Isak Grigori Clurman posed with their children Ruvim (Charles), in front, and Tziva (Sylvia) in 1928.	Brother and sister Ruvim (Charles) and Tziva (Sylvia) Clurman posed in 1928.	Even as a toddler in the early 1930s, Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman was fashionably attired.	Tziva (Sylvia) Clurman and younger brother Israel (Izra, Johnny) posed in the early 1930s in Harbin.

Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman posed in Cossack costume, probably for Purim, 1930s.	Isak Grigori Clurman, warmly dressed for the Harbin winter, enjoyed a cigar in the 1930s.	The Clurman/Keilis family gathered in the early 1930s at the Harbin train station. From left is the unnamed family cook, Yelena Keilis, Yelena’s daughters Ethel Keilis Clurman and Shura Keilis Archer and Sylvia (Tziva) Clurman, Ethel’s daughter. In the front are Shura’s daughter Anne Archer (later Bawden) and a neighbor, Emanuel Ingerman.	Ethel (Roza) Clurman examined a book with son Israel and daughter Tziva (Sylvia)in the 1930s.

Students of the First Harbin Public Commercial High School gathered in front of their building in the 1930s.	Many Jewish young people joined the Zionist Betar scouts. This Gideon Betar troop in the 1930s included Ruvim (Charles) Clurman, front row second from right.	Students from the First Harbin Commercial High School posed in the 1930s with their teacher Nikolai Nikolaevich Mamaev, center, second row. Harbin's Jewish High School had limited space, so many Jewish students attended the Russian school. Charles (Ruvim) Clurman is in the third row from bottom, third from left. Top row includes Izia Zeitlin and Walter Rivkin, second and third from left; Vladimir Volodin, third from right, and Rudy Fomil, far right. Ziama Ogranovsky is second from right, seated. Beba Boorkoon is seated second from left in the second row.	Long Harbin winters and the frozen Sungari (Songhua) River made skating a popular sport among young people in the 1930s, including Betar scouts. Ruvim (Charles) Clurman is at the far right.

Israel (Izra, Johnny) posed on one of the family horses in Harbin, 1930s. He got the nickname “Johnny” during U. S. Army service.	Betar scouts and other volunteers brought supplies and aid to stranded residents when the Sungari (Songhua) River flooded in 1932.	Ethel (Roza) Clurman posed with her children Ruvim (Charles), Tziva (Sylvia) and Israel (Izra, Johnny), in front, in 1935.	Isak Grigori Clurman showed off one of his race horses in 1935.

Tziva (Sylvia) Clurman posed on a Harbin street in 1935.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman celebrated Purim as Mozart, circa 1935.	Harbin theater group posed in Harbin, possibly at Purim, in the late 1930s. Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman is on lower right, front row.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman in the late 1930s modeled the heavy garments required by Harbin's winters.

Isak Grigori Clurman posed with his racehorse Plavnii (Smoothy) in front of his newly constructed apartment building at 83 Yamskaya (now Daan) Street in 1936. The building was still standing in the 1980s but has since been torn down.	Isak Grigori (Isko Chaim Gershowitz), far left, posed with his wife Ethel (Roza) and youngest son Israel (Izra, Johnny) in front of their Harbin apartment building circa 1936.	Isak Grigori (Isko Chaim Gershowitz) Clurman posed with son Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman, age 9. Inscription on back says “City Gardens, Harbin, April 20, 1937.” A year later Isak Grigori was taken away by the Japanese secret police and never seen again.	A rowing crew seen, probably at the Harbin yacht club on the Sungari (now Songhua) River, September 5, 1937. The Russian inscription on the back says “Standard 1500 meters, Time: 5 minutes, 3.6 (?) seconds. Crew members were Shishov, Orlov, Clurman (Israel Clurman in white cap), Michailov, Kukushkin at helm.”

Ruvim (Charles) Clurman left for the United States shortly after this picture was taken in Harbin in 1937.	Ruvim (Charles) Clurman posed with girlfriend shortly before leaving Harbin for the United States in 1937.	Sylvia Clurman (later Epstein) stopped in Tientsin on her way to San Francisco in January 1939.	Sylvia Clurman, second row, third from left, traveled to San Francisco from China on the ship Asama Maru in 1939. She was not able to get a permanent visa and had to return to China. She spent World War II in Shanghai with her mother Ethel and younger brother Israel (Izra, Johnny).

Yelena Keilis, mother of Ethel (Roza) Clurman, stood outside her Harbin apartment in 1939.	Israel (Johnny) Clurman is on the right at a Harbin ping pong match, probably at the Jewish Betar Club, Harbin, in late 1930s or early 1940s.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman is second from the bottom in the photo of the Harbin Jewish ping pong team in the early 1940s.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman is on upper right with the ping pong team in the early 1940s.

Harbin gymnastics team, possibly the Betar scouts, is shown in the early 1940s.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman posed, possibly his Bar Mitzvah photo, in Harbin, 1941.	Israel (Izra, Johnny) posed for an official ID card, dated July 14, 1942, probably taken in Harbin.	Official ID photo of Israel (Izra, Johnny) Clurman was dated November 8, 1943, probably made in Shanghai.

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