Meirowitz Family
The Meirowitz family are the descendants of Reb Abraham Meirowitz and Asne Rivke Katz, daughter of Reb Bezalel HaCohen Katz.  They had four daughters and two sons, all of whom grew up in Reb Bezalel's house on the Kamayergasse, near the church in Rokiskis.  Reb Abraham and Asne were killed in the synagogue in Obeliai in August, 1941.

The eldest daughter was Taebe-Mirkis, who died with her husband and the two children. (See their photo below)  Next was Joseph, who was appointed a member of the Jewish Police in the Kovno ghetto. His number was 43 on the list at the Ninth Fort.  Afterwards he emigrated to Sao Paulo, where he never married. 

Third was Nechama, who after graduating with a BA from Kaunas University, left Lithuania in 1934 for Jerusalem. There she married Nathan Stein, and with their daughter Thelma, left for South Africa in 1939, where Nathan's family had emigrated from Plunge. In Cape Town, they had another daughter Sorrel.

 
Next was Liube, who graduated with a  BA, married Zvi Barak, and had a son, Aharon. All three survived World War II. Aharon was hidden with a farmer and  Liube and Zvi survived the Kovno ghetto in a bunka built by her sister Rachel's husband, Mendel Kalwaria.  The bunka was outside the official ghetto, near the river, so it wasn't affected by the fires that suffocated the other ghetto residents. Liube and Aharon traveled from Bari, on an  illegal ship to Palestine, where they met up with Zvi in 1948. He had remained in Europe, helping refugees.
 
The youngest son, Israel, a medical doctor and talented violinist was shot in the ghetto in 1944. And Rachel, the youngest, who was a pharmacist and  married to Mendel Kalwaria, also escaped with her husband via Bari to Palestine, where they had two children, Avi and Riki. 

See "Tracing my roots in Rakishok" by Sorrel Kerbel for more information about the family.

Rabbi Abraham Meirowitz, last rabbi of Abel (Obeliai),   son-in-law of Rabbi Shlomo Bezalel HaCohen Katz of Rokiskis.

Asne Rifke Meirowitz  (wife of Rabbi Abraham Meirowitz, daughter of (Shlomo) Bezalel HaCohen Katz) with her grandchildren, Esther and Josef , children of Taebe Mirkis Michelson.

Reb (Shlomo) Bezalel HaCohen Katz center; his son-in-law Reb Abraham Meirowitz on left;  Reb Shmuel Yalow (wearing his new immigrant look, with straw hat, prior to leaving for Syracuse, N.Y.) Reb Yalow was the nephew of Chaya Sora Yalowetsky, wife of Reb Bezalel; he received smicha from Reb Bezalel.  Reb Yalow’s son Aaron married Roslyn, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1977.

Boating on the river at Abel (Obeliai); Julia Segal (who survived the Kovno Ghetto) and lived in Israel and London as the wife of Dr Emil Holzer) third from left; next to her in a dark suit, Dr Israel Meirowitz, son of Asne Rivke and Abraham Meirowitz. He was shot when he volunteered his medical skills, Kovno Ghetto, 1941

During teacher training Plungian High School, 1934.  Nechama Meirowitz of Rokiskis, back row, right

Class at Rokiskis Gymnasium (High School) 
1, Head master and teacher of Jewish literature, Josef Caspi (later collaborator in the Kovno ghetto), he was married to Feige, the daughter of  Reb Aharon Katz (gravestone) and Rosa nee Wasserman of Riga.  Caspi, Feige and their two children were shot dead by the Nazis, Kovno, 1943).  2, Nechama Meirowitz  (mother of Sorrel Kerbel and Thelma Windisch); 3, her younger sister, Liube Meirowitz, mother of Chief Justice of Israel, Aharon Barak; and 4, Julia Segal, mother of Lida Davidson, Jerusalem .

Rokiskis Gymnasium school group: 1, Liube Meirowitz; 
3,  Nechama Meirowitz  

Class Rokiskis Gymnasium, 1925

1, Nechama Meirowitz
2, Liube Meirowitz

Rachel (youngest daughter of Reb Abraham Meirowitz) and her husband, Mendel Kalwaria, survivors of the Kovno Ghetto, safe in Bari, Italy waiting for ship to Palestine, December 1945.  Rachel still lives in Kiryat Ono, Israel.  They are the parents of Avi Keidar and Riki Hirschowitz.

Nathan Stein, on right, with younger brother Abraham , pupils in Plunge, 1920. Sons of Rabbi Ephraim Menasseh Stein and Ettie, daughter of Reb Mordecai Jaffe of Plunge, immigrated to South Africa where Rabbi Stein ministered to the community in Worcester, Cape Province. Nathan Stein was married to Nechama Meyerowitz.

 This picture is  shared to honor the memory of Nathan Stein , born Plunge 1905; died Cape Town 1990, father of Sorrel Kerbel and Thelma Windisch.

These photos were donated by Sorrel Korbel, daughter of Nechama Meyerowitz and Nathan Stein and  granddaughter of Asne Rivke and Abraham Meirowitz.

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