Submitted by Moshe-Yudel Arkin's Descendants

Moshe-Yudel, son of Shmuel Arkin, was born around 1860 (presumably in Lunna). He married Chana, daughter of Shmuel Osher Marshak. They had three sons and three daughters: Arye-Leib (Leon, b. ca. 1889), Mattus (Mathew, b. ca. 1890), and Aaron (b. ca. 1892); Ester-Etl (b. ca. 1886), Zina (b. ca. 1887), and Asna (b.1894). All the children were born in Lunna. The family of Moshe-Yudel Arkin was the richest family in Lunna in the 19th century. They controlled the wood trade, and sent rafts of wood down the Niemen River to Prussia. They resided in a two-story house at the marketplace. One of their relative was Aaron Liberman (b. 1845 in Lunna) who later founded the Jewish Socialist Movement and was the most famous person to come from Lunna. Moshe-Yudel Arkin died in Lunna on June 20, 1929 and was buried in the Lunna cemetery. After his death his wife Chana moved to Grodno. She used to visit Lunna during holidays. Chana perished in the Holocaust.

The Children of Moshe-Yudel and Chana Arkin

1. Arye-Leib (b. ca. 1889 in Lunna) left Lunna for the US,arriving at Ellis Island in 1905. He was known in the US as Leon Arkin. He married Adele (b. ca. 1889). Leon was associated with the Jewish Daily Forward, first in Boston and then in New York. He was also elected and served as National President of the Workmen's Circle, a Jewish fraternal organization. One of his essays entitled "I saw again my shtetl Lunna" was published in the Forward on June 17, 1949 and is posted on the memoirs page . Leon and Adele Arkin had two daughters, Ethel (b. ca.1909) and Mildred (b. ca. 1913), who grew up in Boston. Ethel Dena married Jacob Charles Bergen; Mildred married Basil Feinberg. Leon Arkin died in 1953 and Adele died in 1978. Ethel and Jacob Bergen died in 1992. Mildred Feinberg died in 2002. Their families live in the United States.

2. Mattus (Mathew), along with his brother Leon, moved to the United States in 1905. They both belonged to the Bund Party, and emigrated after the Russian Revolution was defeated in 1905. In the US, Mathew lived in Wheeling, West Virginia. He married May Levin and they had a son Samuel (b. 1918) and a daughter Rosalind. Samuel was in the auto parts business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mathew died in 1956. Samuel died in 2003. His sister, Rosalind, died in 1982. Their families live in the United States.
Below are three photos from the collection of Andrea Arkin (Samuel Arkin's granddaughter). The photos were taken in America around 1948.

3. Aaron Arkin married Luba Abramski. They had two sons. The name of the older son is currently unknown; the younger son was named Shmuel (b. 1923). In 1930, after Moshe-Yudel passed away, they moved to Grodno together with Chana Arkin (Aaron's mother). Luba died in Grodno before the war. During the war Aaron Arkin, his younger son and his mother Chana Arkin, were in the Grodno Ghetto. They perished in the Holocaust. The list of Auschwitz victims includes the name of Shmuel Arkin, born on June 3, 1923 to Aaron and Luba Arkin, and who died in Auschwitz on March 24, 1941. The older son of Aaron (Saul?) served in the Red Army and was killed during the first battle between the Russians and the Germans in June 1941.

4. Ester-Etl (Arkin) married Meir Belous and moved to Bialystok. Meir was a leather merchant. He died in 1940. Etl was a potato merchant in Bialystok. Meir and Etl Belous had four children, born in Bialystok: Mina (b. 1905), Miriam (b. 1907), Eliyahu (b. 1910), and Rachel (b. 1914). Eliyahu Belous left Poland in 1929 and settled in Haifa. A few years later, Rachel Belous left Poland for Eretz Israel, married Dromi, and lived in Tel Aviv. Their families live in Israel. Mina married Israel Liberman; they had a son Yitzchak (in Polish: "Yazhi"). Miriam was a physician in Bialystok. She was married but the name of her husband is currently unknown. Etl Belous, Mina Liberman, and Miriam perished in the Holocaust.

5. Zina (Arkin) left Lunna and moved to Kiev, Ukraine, sometime after 1916. She was married to Adolf. They both died sometime between the 1950s and 1960s.

6. Asna (Arkin) was born in 1894 in Lunna and educated in a special women's gymnasium in Grodno. In 1916, during World War I, Asna volunteered as a nurse in the special medical division of the Russian army and retreated with the army to Kiev (Ukraine). In 1918 she married David Girsh Chaimowicz Nussinov. They had two children: Marc (b. 1925) and Judith (b. 1930). In 1941, when the German Army arrived in Kiev, the family was evacuated first to the Caucasus and then to Kazakhstan, where they lived until the end of World War II in 1945. They then lived in Moscow.
After the war, in December 1946, Asna and her brother Leon Arkin had a first telephone conversation from Moscow to Boston. In this conversation, Asna told her brother Leon what happened to their family during the Holocaust. Leon Arkin wrote a weekly column in the Forward describing this conversation (see below).
Asna and her husband died in Moscow between 1984 and 1985. Marc and his wife Anna left Moscow and immigrated to Israel in 1992. They have a daughter Elena, who lives with her husband in Belgium. Judith and her family live in Moscow.

Below is a weekly column in the Forward written by Leon Arkin describing his first conversation with his sister Asna (Arkin) Nussinov.

Dec. 22, 1946

In and Around Boston

Several days ago I spoke, by telephone, from Boston to Moscow (Soviet Russia). I want to say right from the beginning that I spoke not as a "Forward" correspondent by telephone to Joseph Stalin, or any other important official of the Kremlin, but I, as an individual, as a single person, spoke by telephone to a sister of mine, who lives now in Moscow [Asna Nussinov]. It was the conversation of a brother to a sister.
The readers of my weekly column will excuse me that instead of writing about city events, I shall today take up personal experiences, with the surprises, and with the regrets which a person can have, when a brother has a conversation with a sister, with whom he has not seen for the last 42 years and whose voice he has not heard in the course of many years.
This happened several days ago, and I want to share with the readers of my weekly column my personal experiences, my impressions.

My conversation by telephone from Boston to Moscow was a mixture of joy and sorrow. It was a joy that for the first time since I left my home and said goodbye to my little sister that I had the opportunity to speak to her and hear her voice. At the same time our conversation was transformed into one of great sadness when I found out from her what happened to our family in the course of the war years, from the "Nazi" occupation.

I feel that I have a strong character. Sentimentality does not move me. I know that I am not the only person in the world, who left his family in the last Jewish tragedy. I know that among the six million perished Jews, are found many relatives and friends of the "Forward" readers. Everyone hopes, however, that their relatives will still be found; one has the hopes, truthful or false hopes, yet one hopes - perhaps one will yet hear from them.

I also had these same false hopes. I had hoped the entire time that I would yet have greetings from my most beloved dearest ones. The telephone conversation from Moscow extinguished all my expectations forever. I am now completely convinced that I will never ever see my mother, my brother and sister and their children, nor even hear from them. They can no longer be found among the living. Thus my little sister had let me know by telephone from Moscow in the conversation which I had with her several days ago. I call her my little sister because when I left my home, she was not more that 6 or 7 years old.

That occurred in 1905. I was not more than 16 years old. Because of revolutionary activity I had to leave my rich home, leaving behind in the Grodno province [in Lunna] my father, who was a great wood merchant; my mother, who was considered in our region for beauty and wisdom, also two older sisters than me, two younger brothers and a small sister.
With the exception of my youngest brother who came to America and who lives now in Holiday's Cove, West Virginia, I had not seen nor spoken to the family since I abandoned my home 42 years ago.

My learned and intelligent father died in the beginning of 1929, before Hitler came into power. In Europe my mother, my brother and his family, and three married sisters and their families were living at that time.
Until the Second World War broke out, I used to correspond with them. After that, when Hitler seized the region where they lived, I heard from them no more. Two of my sisters, I knew, lived in Kiev. What happened to my whole family, I don't know. I made many attempts to find something about them, but all my attempts were without success.

On Friday, two weeks ago, the sixth of December, I received a telegram from Moscow from my youngest sister who let me know that her family was alive, and her husband had suddenly become sick and she asks me to help her. Just as I received the telegram (cable), I thought there was a ray of hope. I hoped that not only my little sister and her family were saved and remained alive, but also the remaining members of my family - my old mother, my brother - would be found among the living. I imagined in my fantasy that I would yet have the opportunity to meet with my mother, who did not want to come to America, because she had wanted to lie near father's grave. My father and mother had deeply loved each other during their life together; my mother had the desire that after her death she would be buried near my father. At my father's grave, I had put up marble monument, and it was her desire that also such a monument should be placed over her grave.
When I received the telegram from my sister, I decided that if my mother lives, I would try to convince her to come to America and spend her remaining years with me in my house where she would be treated with honor. My wife and I had already made plans how to arrange for her, that in her last years she should forget the horrible experiences from the war years.

I became impatient; I wanted to know as quickly as possible the fate of my dearest ones. But how does one do this? How can one quickly find out all the particulars? I remembered that a short time back I read in the papers that a telephone connection was instituted between America and Russia, that one would now be able to speak by telephone from Boston to Moscow, and I decided to call up my little sister by telephone and she would give me the information what I was so eager to know,
I had just connected to the "overseas" operator and asked that I should be connected by telephone with my sister in Moscow, giving my sister's address.

I waited for eight days until I had the opportunity to speak with her. Several times I was let known that the circuit to Moscow was out of order and wasn't working. I was also asked, of which language I would want to speak to her. Finally on the eighth day, eleven o'clock in the morning, I was informed that I could speak with my sister.

Our conversation was as follows:
- Sister.
- Brother, dearest one.
- How are you?
- I am well, but my husband is very sick.
- Do you still remember me? I left you behind when you were a small girl.
- Certainly I remember you, my brother!
- Where is mother?
I receive no answer, and I pose the question again.
- Where is mother?
With a cry in her voice I hear the following answer:
- Mother died in the Grodno Ghetto.
- What became of our brother?
- He with his family was killed in concentration camps.
- What about our oldest sister with her family?
- Her husband died in Bialystok, she with her children were killed in concentration camps.
- Which day do we have Yahrzeit for mother and our relatives?
- I don't know.
- How can I help you? Should I send you money or packages?
- Send me packages, send me clothes and shoes. We need winter clothes.
- I don't know your measurements for the clothes.
- Send me clothes which we'll sew here.
- What else can I do for you?
- I want you to bring me to America for a visit, my brother.
- That is impossible.
- How is Mathew? (my brother in America).
- He is well.
- Brother of mine, you and Mathew are the only ones with whom I am connected to in this world.
Here the telephone operator interrupted that the conversation is already too long, and I had to say to her:
- Be well, my little sister.
- Brother of mine!

With that ended the telephone conversation from Boston to Moscow.
Her last words, "brother of mine", which I heard, were pronounced with so much heart, that as long as I will live, in my ears will ring her voice with the words "brother of mine."

From the short telephone conversation I found out about the entire fate of my family. In spite of the fact it was a little hard to hear, yet I was able to hear exactly the sorrowful news.

That was the end of a conversation with a sister whom I had not seen in 42 years. Neither of us, I in Boston nor she in Moscow, wanted to put the receiver down. We both wanted to speak on and on, but the conversation had to come to an end. It ended my dream and fantasy to bring my mother to America. She is no longer among the living. Killed by the Nazi beasts are also my brother and sisters with their families. There remains for me now only one matter – to find out when I have Yahrzeit for them.

(Translated into English by Marshall Bergen, a grandson of Leon Arkin)

Other Arkin Families of Lunna

The Children of Simcha and Henie-Leah Arkin
1. Devorah (b. 1883) married in 1903 to Yaakov Abin (b. 1880 in Lunna), son of Sender. Yaakov Abin was a forester. He and his wife Devorah were also shop owners in Lunna. They had 4 children, born in Lunna: Frida Abin (b. 1905), married Yaakov Maizel (b. 1903 in Lunna); Simon Abin (b. 1906), married Nadya Arik; Tzipora Abin (b. 1910), married Gershon Feldlit; and Yael Abin (b. 1917), married Shabtai Fonorov.
Devorah and Yaakov Abin, Frida and Yaakov Maizel perished in the Holocaust.
Simon, Tzipora and Yael Abin left Lunna before the Second World War. They have families in Argentina and in Israel.

2. Zisel (b. 1884) married a person whose name is unknown and moved to the United States.
3. Eliezer (b. 1885) married Dora. They had two children: Simcha (b. 1905 in Lunna), married Chasya Ivanitsky and Avraham (b. 1908 in Bialystok), married Zina. Their families live in Israel.

4. Elka (b. 1886) married Yaakov Welbel (b. 1882 in Lunna). They were grain merchants. They had three daughters, born in Lunna: Rachel (b. 1906) who married Mordechai Kuperfenig, Miriam (b. 1910) who married Mordechai Rutenberg and Liza (b. 1914) who married Yehoshua Shewtz. More information is posted on the Family Albums/Welbel page on this site.

5. Necha (b. 1888) married in 1914 to Nisan Zlotoyabko (b. 1877 in Lunna). They moved to Bialystok and owned a stationary shop. They had three children, born in Bialystok: Aliza (b. 1915), married Elchanan-Dov (Arik) Ari; Shmuel (b. 1922), and Meir (b. 1926).

6. Avraham (b. 1891) married Helena (b. 1892). They lived in Bialystok before World War II and had one child. Avraham was a clerk and Helena was a German teacher.
Avraham died before the war and Helena perished in the Holocaust.

Note: More details on the family tree of Simcha and Henie-Leah Arkin are with the family.

Below are two paragraphs of an article (in Yiddish) which appeared in a book by Samuel Leib Zitron, called Dray Literarishe Doyres (Three Literary Generations), 2nd volume, published in Warsaw in 1924. Translation into English was done by Marshall Bergen, a great-grandson of Moshe-Yudel Arkin.

The Arkin Family
Close by the Niemen River surrounded by thick pine forests in Grodno Gubernia lies a small shtetl with the name of Lunna. In the 60's of the past century (1800's), this shtetl was renowned in all of Lithuania because of the "Arkins", who lived there. There were three brothers, pious G-d fearing Jews, forest merchants, who had a tremendous wood business with Prussia, and because of this they became very rich. Almost all Lunner Jews got their livelihood from the "Arkins". Some were wood brokers for the Arkins, some were hired to prepare the wood and logs, others watched over their wood at the shore of the Niemen, others traveled on the rafts to outside the country, and others simply hung around and, once in a while, earned a little something. It resulted, therefore, that the entire Lunner Jewish population felt dependent on the Arkins who had the greatest influence on all community matters. Without the Arkins, no rabbi for the town was decided and no butcher and no cantor and no other person who held a religious post. Without the Arkins the shtetl did nothing.

It happened that in Lunna the rabbi died, and it was necessary to find a new one. The Arkins sought out from somewhere a relative, a weakling and a great scholar, brought him to Lunna and made him rabbi. He was a greasy fellow, very naïve and very impractical, completely unmaterialistic and totally absorbed in piousness and religious matters. Soon he was considered in the shtetl a sort of holy Jew whose praying was welcomed "above" in the heavenly kingdom. It did not last a long time, and Reb Itzele - that was his name- became renowned not only in Lunna, but also in the whole area. From the entire region, people used to come to him with requests to pray for dangerously ill relatives, for barrenness, and simply requests of mercy for this or that one who had serious problems.

This Reb Itzele had brought to Lunna a wife with three grown-up daughters, who were all of marriageable age, but up to now no volunteers had been found. However, in Lunna the oldest soon found her mate. "The Lord himself had him brought to me in my house!" Reb Itzele said, when on a certain day a young boy came, a student from the town yeshiva, to ask of the rabbi about a Talmudic question. The boy, an orphan, without father and mother, originally from Pilvishok, Suvalki Gubernia, traveled from town to town since the age of 15, came to Lunna, received bed and board, and entered the Yeshiva. Since the rabbi had spoken to the Pilvishoker yeshiva student about studying, he realized that here was a good student with a brilliant mind, and with this it suddenly flashed in his mind: Perhaps, this is Tzipore Feigele's destined one?... He consulted with the Rebetzin, and they decided that it would be best to consult with their relative, the wife of one of the Arkins, with whom the boy had bed and board. After discussing with the "rich lady" the same day, the youth came to her and announced that he was agreeable to such an arrangement. From this son-in-law of Reb Itzele, the Lunner rabbi, was born the later founder of the Jewish Socialist Movement and its first gifted agitator in Russia - Aaron Samuel Liberman (see below).

Aaron Samuel, Son of Eliezer Dov Liberman

Aaron Samuel son of Eliezer Dov Liberman became the founder of the Jewish Socialist Movement. An item about Aaron Samuel Liberman appears in the Hebrew Encyclopedia (Vo. 21, pp. 704-705). Aaron Liberman arrived in America in 1880 and shot himself in the head a few months later in Syracuse, New York. There he lay until 1934, when his body was reinterred in the Workmen's Circle Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens.

For more information about Aaron Liberman please see:
http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/BCooperman/NewCity/Roskies.html
David Roskies, "A Revolution Set in Stone: the Art of Burial" (chapter 7) in The Jewish Search for a Usable Past (Bloomington, 1998): 120-145

A photo of the gravestone of Aaron S. Liberman can be seen at
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Lieberman&GScty=405576&GRid=20537759&

This site is hosted at no cost by JewishGen, Inc., the Home of Jewish Genealogy. If you have been aided in your research by this site and wish to further our mission of preserving our history for future generations, your JewishGen-erosity is greatly appreciated.