WELCOME TO THE JEWISHGEN KEHILALINK SITE FOR

ROHATYN, UKRAINE

Alternate Spellings: Yiddish - רוהאטין; Ukrainian - Рогатин (Rohatyn); Russian - Рогатин (Rogatin); Polish - Rohatyn

Location: 49º25´N 24º37´E

A Memorial to Howard Steinmetz by Phyllis Kramer

In November of 2010 we lost a wonderful friend. Howard Steinmetz. We are a small band of Rohatyn researchers...and Howard was, in many ways, our leader, our mentor, our friend. Our group began through JewishGen….and then grew into a Google Group. Today it is worldwide..Paris, Rio, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Chicago, Berkeley, New York. We’re drawn together genealogically, our families are interrelated but not close.

Howard shared his Rohatyn memories, conversations, photographs and documents, and helped us to make the connections and respect the past. Each of us understood the value of Howard’s memories and papers. And we’re pledged to preserve them.

He will be sorely missed.

Rabbi Eliezer Horowicz by Eliezer Makovsky, Jerusalem, April 2012

Eliezer Makovsky, from Jerusalem, sent us this brief record of the Rabbi's family: Eliezer (Elazar ben Issachar Halevi) served as the town rabbi of Rohatyn in the 1850s and 1860s.
He had 5 children:

His daughter Sara married Avraham Schnee from Sokal.
His daughter Beila married Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel Teomim-Frenkel, Rabbi of Naraiov and Lubachow.
His son Rabbi Efraim Fishel was the rabbi of Mariampol
His son Rabbi David was the Rabbi of Stanislau
There was one more son

In 1863, Rabbi Eliezer Horowicz published a book call Devar Halacha.

The Eichel Family of Rohatyn by Phyllis Kramer

My great grandmother Dora EICHEL was born in Rohatyn in 1862. Dora married Reuven LINDNER (photo circa 1893). Dora's father, Anschel EICHEL was a tailor who specialized in making uniforms for the Pravoslav priests and monks. We can trace the Eichels back to Yitzhak Eichel, who lived in Hamburg at the end of the 18th century; he was a scholar who published a textbook of the Yiddish language and was a pupil of the German philosopher Kant.

Here is the family tree: Anschel EICHEL married Beile BERLIN in Rohatyn around 1850. Their children were:

Charlotte "Scheindel" EICHEL who married Eisig GARTNER and settled in BOLEKOV. Some of their children came to the U.S. but those who remained were killed in the Shoa.
Yaakov EICHEL whose son Abraham EICHEL married Sarah BARBER and emigrated to the U.S.
Esther EICHEL who married Hersh Berlin, and some of their children emigrated to the U.S.
Dora EICHEL who married REUVEN LINDNER (my great grandparents), whose children are pictured at the left in 1944: Mark, Pauline, Jack, Sadie, Izzie, Annie (my gm) & Charlie. The photograph on the right is the next generation, the American children of these immigrants.
Abraham Leib EICHEL, about whom we are not certain...but through JRIP we found a birth certificate, and through fellow researchers we found this man marrying Perl GITTMAN in STRZYZOW, another city of Galicia.
Daniel EICHEL who married Rachel HAUSMAN from Bolekov; he studied baking in Rohatyn, was raised by his elder sister Scheindel after Beile died; his children emigrated to Israel, produced the Bolechov Yizkor book in Israel; and the family prospers there today.
Hersch/Harry EICHEL, the youngest, and the son of Anschels second wife Riwe RUBINFELD from Bursztyn, emigrated to the United States, married Esther STAMLER from ZUPNIK, and raised a family in Brooklyn. I am grateful that Harry's youngest son, Morty Eichel, is still with us and is the constant source of stories of the family.

The Faust Family Kappella of Rohatyn by Alexander Feller, August 2005

Above left is the famous photo of the Faust family musicians c1912 who played for celebrations and weddings in Rohatyn and the surrounding communities prior to the Holocaust for generations. From top right to left: David Faust (violin), Itsik Hersch Faust (flute), Tobias Brandwein (the badken), Yankel Faust (trumpet), Mendel Dauber (AKA Mendel Bass) (bass), and Mautra Schmiel Faust (clarinet). Sitting from right is Wolf Schwarz (AKA Wolf Zimbler) (viola), and Moses Faust (violin). This photo is a scan from the original photo and handed down through my Faust relatives. Do you have any pictures of these musicians in your photograph personal collections? If you have any photos of these musicians playing other than this one, I would be interested in viewing them. I have pictures from Rohatyn of relatives that also contain persons that I can not identify and may be just friends. They may be photos of your family from Rohatyn.

The attached playbill is for a play called "The Big Lottery" written by Sholom Alechem and performed in 1924 in Rohatyn. The play was directed by Jack Faust and actors included other
members of the Faust family such as Max, Kalman, and Bertha. Listed on the play are other actors and contributors from Rohatyn. This photo is courtesy of the Faust Family Collection by Alexander Feller, August 2007

One last note: the nearby town of Bukachevtsy also has a Kehilalinks site, and there are quite a number of wonderful photos of the Blitz family recently added by the author of that page (Cipora Blitz's mother was Bertha Faust, daughter of David Faust, from Rohatyn and her father was Joseph Blitz from Bukachevtsy).

The Snow (Schnee) Family by William Eleazor-Wolf Snow via Phillip Snow, 2/2018.

My grandfather, Isaac Snow, on arrival in the US was asked by his brother whether he wanted to keep the Schnee name or go the way his brothers have gone with Snow. Most of their cousins stayed with Schnee". The earliest record of the SNOW family reaches back to Eleazer-Wolf SCHNEE born and raised in the town of Rohatyn, not far from the big city of Lemberg, Austria. After the second World War, when the Soviets took possession of the area the name was changed to Lvov.

Eleazor-Wolf lived to be 102 and died in 1898. That implies that he was born in 1796. He served in the Austrian army for seven years and was rewarded for excellence the right to sell salt, which was a government run monopoly. With this advantage he established a successful general store. He obtained a water powered mill where the farms had their grains ground. This led to a thriving cattle and lumber trade which extended into Russia. He had three sons, Gudle, Hersch and Chaskle. My father remembers him as a giant of a man who was very vigorous and very alert. When advanced in years he gave the general store to Gudle, the mill to Chaskle and the cattle and lumber business to Hersch, and went to live with his married grandson Fahvish.

My record is incomplete.

Gudle had several children. Yoineh who went into the grocery business in NYC. Abe Schnee's father came to Philadelphia. My mother spoke of him as a brilliant fine man. Mrs ? Mandle who brought her ailing husband to me for medical advice; she impressed me as a gentle caring wife. A son whose idealism led him to Palestine from where he shortly returned coming to NYC. He came to live with is nephew, my father, Isaac, until he got established. He told us that the Jews in Palestine where not trained to be pioneers then. A daughter, Freda-Hannah married Mr. nathan and went to live in Dayton Ohio. She and my father would like to get married, but dismissed this idea because of the danger of first cousin marriages.

Chaskle married Sara. Their children:
Moses lived in Toronto, operated a furniture business. A son became business manager for the hatter's union. A grandson was in the USA war as a sky diver.
Schmeel (Sam) farmed in Connecticut, near Bridgeport, dairy and summer guests. Eight children, not known to me.
Shulam (Solomon) leading Socialist. Eight children. One, Eleazer (William) inventor of airplane equipment. Sheriff of Bridgeport, reelected several times Declined after refusing to favor Socialists for positions in government.
Fahvish married Mahtle. Farmed in Connecticut near Bridgeport. Eight children, all educated in one room school. Eleazer (Bill) self educated himself, with unskilled help built a modern dairy barn to house 150 milking cows. The children Israel, Charlie, Moses, Rahtza, Fannie, Annie, Esther all settled in the Bridgeport area, where there are a large number of their offsprings.
Fannie married Louis (Leibish) Baumrind. Baking operation. Two daughters, Sadie and Bessie.
Sadie married her second cousin Abe Schnee. During World War I Abe became very successful in real estate deals, Bridgeport was becoming an important munitions center. When he was 39 he went to Carlyle in Pennsylvania where in one year he got his law degree. He became economics advisor to Woolworths. He showed them that after they built a store they should sell it and take a long lease. Instead of saving 5% on interest, the frequent turn-over in product sale even on a low markup would earn several times the 5%. He helped to select new store locations all over the country. Sadie and Abe had three children. Charles became a moving picture director for MGM. Won an Oscar. Was beloved by all of the workers. Thelma became an actress. In the play The Corn is Green she outskilled Ethyl Barrymore in my opinion. She married -- Moss. Together they produced and directed a movie The Dectective which gave Alec Guiness his start. Shortly her husband died and she dedicated her life to psychology. Betty got a medical degree but shortly died of cancer.
Molly was the other of the eight children. She was married to a Mr. Schwartz but had no children. When he died she went to live on the farm with her brother Fahvish.
Louis (Leibish) was the youngest child for Chaskle. He was a very gentle person. His first wife disppeared. he travelled about, landing in Buffalo, where he took on his common law wife; eventually they were married. They had two daughters, Louise and Bettie. Both were nurses. Bettie married her first cousin Bill, Fahvish's son. They had two children. The son is an albino. he is almost blind, still with his mother's help he went through college and began to teach. The daughter also has albinism with partial loss of vision. She is able to write and corresponds with me. Louis was deeply interested in philosophy as were his brothers. He soap box lectured in a park in Buffalo. He was roughed up by rowdies who accused him of being a Socialist. He wrote two books of poetry, all very sad.

Itzik (Isaac) married Annie, six children. Bakery business in NYC.
Dora married William Intner. Mattress manufacture. Commercial real estate incentral Manhattan. Three children, Melvin, Matthew, Mildred. Melvin and Matthew -real estate. investments. Mildred - dealer in arts of nineteenth century.
William (Eleazer-Wolf) physician. Marry Amy 62 years. She was a xray technician. Married Maggie Duncan. She trained as a horticulturalist. Taught school. Now publisher and editor of nature column.
Charlie (chaskle) Baker. Chief steward transatlantic liners. Manager William intner mattress factory Married-Nettie. Three children-Diana, Howard, Diane. Diane-hair dresser; her son dean of college. Howard-computer operations in a bank in NYC.
Benjamin Baker; glass installation. Married to Elsie. Three daughters. Florence's son a stock broker with Solomon Brothers Wall Street. Mindie-schoolteacher, Thema housewife.
Fannie married Goerge Gang. Housewife. Son industrial engineer, changed to education. Philip lecturer for United Nations. Daniel- glass industries. His son lecturer for computer operations for United Nations. Ruth-secretarial work.
Esther married Max Pitch who was a certified public accountant.They were world travelers. Her daughter, Riva is a physician who is doing eye surgery One son Herbert operates a private school in NYC. One son Donald was in the glass business, is retired leaving the operations to his son.

William and Amy progeny
Barbara entered MIT at age 15. Honor student. Physician skilled in psychiatry, married to Dr Leon Sokoloff, world authority on arthritis, lectures worldwide by invitation. Their son Michael is a professor of physics at Cinncinnate University in Seattle. Their daughter Naomi is a professor of Hebrew at Washington University in Seattle. Published books in Hebrew, one on child care. Paul- pathologist. General practice, married to Faye, who operates a ballet and aerobics school. Soon taking a ballet troupe to Europe. Daughter Wendy designs clothes for theater.

The Family of Jack Glotzer by Beatrice Walzer Glotzer, February 2007

My children and grandchildren are very interested in reading about their roots. In the Yizkor Book there is an article by Jack's Uncle Zev Barban. Too bad that Jack is not alive to read it. In his immediate family, Jack was the only survivor after the Holocaust. He gave his testimony to the Shoah Spielberg foundation . The copy of his biography could be found in Yad Vashem and also in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jack’s entire family came from Rohatyn. He told us:

My maternal grandparents, Leah and Kalman Yankel Barban, lived and died in Rohatyn. My father, Meyer Glotzer, emigrated to the United States. My mother, Toba Barban Glotzer, perished in the holocaust along with my uncles/aunts, Morris Barban and Golda and Wolf Rappaport. Zissel and Joseph Loew immigrated to the US.

My brothers, Samuel and Moshe Glotzer, perished in the Shoa, along with my aunts and uncles, Iser and Esther Glotzer, Jack and Goldie Glotzer, Malka Glotzer Altman, and Malka Glotzer. Uncle Max Altman came to the United States, along with aunts Chane Kuperman, Rose Altman, Jeni Hecht and Charne Schwartz.

Thank you very much, Bea.

This photograph at left is of Kuba Glotzer Jack (Kuba) Glotzer, a native of Rohatyn, who returned to the town of his birth in June 1998 with his family. The photograph was taken at the monument for the mass grave in Rohatyn and sent to us for publication on this web page.

Kuba lost his entire family in Rohatyn during the Holocaust. He was ordered with few other young men from the ghetto, to bury the victims of the March 20th massacre. When it was suggested that he could look for his cousins, with tears in his eyes he said "I buried my cousins in the mass grave where the monument is erected, the one in the photo". During the liquidation of the Rohatyn Ghetto, Kuba escaped to the woods and survived.

Trip to Rohatyn to Remember My Mandel Family by Linda Cantor z"l

Plaque at cemetery

My maternal grandmother left her home shtetl, Bukaczowze, in what was Austria-Hungary and is now Ukraine, in 1910. This past May, 2001 I had the opportunity to visit it and explore my personal history, on a trip that included visits to Cracow, Lviv, Poninka, Polonnoye, (my grandfather's towns) and Kiev as well as the Galician towns of my grandmother, Pauline.

We stayed in Ivano-Frankivsk, Stanislau in my grandmother's time, as a base to explore Galicia. From there, we drove through Burstyn and Rohatyn on our way to my grandmother's town of Bukaczowze. In Rohatyn we visited the Holocaust memorial on the site of the mass grave, where most of my grandmother's siblings and their families were slaughtered in 1942. The Holocaust memorial is in the middle of a field, on the outskirts of Rohatyn.

There is one marker, in Cyrillic, which commemorates the Soviet citizens who died during World War II, with no mention of Jews. The more recent monument, put up by Israelis, commemorates the 3500 Jews from Rohatyn and surrounding communities who were killed by the German in March 1942.

My relatives who died at this spot were among those 3500. I grew up knowing their names and faces from family photos. I am named for one of my great-aunts and there I was standing at her grave. I don't have the words to tell you how I felt. As a history teacher I have taught the story of the Holocaust countless times. As a genealogist I have thought about it many times. But standing at that place where my Mandel family was actually killed brought it home in a way that nothing else ever has.

The Jewish cemetery stands on a hill a little nearer to town. There are only a few stones left and they are largely illegible. The monument on the cemetery site reads " In commemoration of the Jewish community of Rohatyn and its surrounding areas that had lived for 600 years and was brutally annihilated by the German Nazis during the years of 1941-1944." It also indicates that the tombstones were destroyed by the Nazis, during the war.

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