Goldberg

My grandfather’s oldest sister, Rebecca, and her husband, Moshul Goldberg, raised their children in Plunge in the late 1890s/early 1900s.

Their oldest child, Louis Goldberg, married Sarah Karabelnik in 1916 and in 1925 they moved to South Africa with their two children, Rachel and Abraham. They later had a 3rd child, Rebecca, in 1929. As I recall hearing from older family, Louis was a rabbi in Randfontein. He died in 1967.

Rebecca’s and Moshul’s youngest son, Aaron Goldberg, left Plunge in 1926, going first to Israel and then in 1929 to South Africa. He married Esther Shapiro in South Africa in 1939. Aaron Goldberg, also was a rabbi in South Africa. Their children are Rolene and Franklin. Franklin eventually moved to Israel and changed his name to Perry Gonen.

Two other children of Rebecca and Moshul came to the United States as teenagers around 1914. They eventually lived and raised families in New York but over the years we have lost touch with their descendants.

Many years ago Perry sent me a copy of his father’s passport issued in Kovno, but he has no other physical memorabilia from his family’s life in Plunge.

Perry, my 2nd cousin in Israel, wrote:

“Both my father and Louis never really spoke of the life in Plunge. Louis left for South Africa as a young married man, and my father left for Palestine at the age of 20 and studied in the Hebron Yeshiva until 1929. All I know was that they were a religious family as my grandfather was also a Rabbi and Cantor. So how they both never liked to talk about Lithuania. One anecdote from those days, was when the whole family went to America. My grandmother Rivka, was the eldest daughter and the first married. When her parents decided to go to America, my grandfather refused as he said that it was not a place for Jewish people. At the time Lithuania was a hub of Jewish culture and religion with many Yeshivot and he saw America as a place that Jewish culture as he knew it would not survive.”

Rivka (also known as Reva or Rebecca), Louis’ and Aaron’s mother (and the grandmother Perry mentions) was my grandfather’s oldest sibling. Of the 13 children of her parents, she was the only one to remain in Lithuania. I have attached a picture of her that was certainly taken when she lived in Plunge; a picture of her husband, Moshul Goldberg, and son, Louis Goldberg; a picture of her daughter, Pearl, who eventually lived in Brooklyn; and a picture of her daughter, Miriam, who remained in Lithuania (and probably died when she was a child or young adult) – all pictures taken when they were living in Plunge.

I wrote to Louis’ youngest and last living child. She is 85, lives in Toronto; when I last communicated with her about 2 years ago she was very alert and healthy, so I hope to hear back from her.

Best wishes,

Barry Spinak

P.S. – I manage the KehilaLinks page for Uzventis, Lithuania, the town where my grandfather was born.

http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/uzventis/Uzventis.html

Moshul & Louis

Pearl Goldberg

Reva

Miriam

Aaron Goldberg’s Passport