Date Last Updated: 18-May-2012

This information was donated by AA.

My father was born in Surazh, about 70 Kms northeast of Vitebsk. His brother David was in the lumber trade in the area, and we are related to the Mendelows who were also Axelrods to start with, and who became very well-known in Johannesburg. I have not been able to find anything about my father's parents Shmuel and Chana (Katznelson). I know she had 12 children of whom I have about 10 names: Feige, Sonia, Judith, Harry, David, Joshua, Nachman, Zalman, The name Zalman Shneur Borochovitz and Ha-Tanya may be part of the ancestry. His children were Shmuel, Dov Ber, and others who are said to have changed their name to Katzenellenbogen, Eizenstadt and perhaps Katznelson. Shmuel married one of the Katznelson sisters -Chana. Others were Frieda and Henya and perhaps one more.

David was the timber merchant, and my father Nachman left school aged 12 and went to work for him, until he left for South Africa to avoid conscription. He started in Delmas as a fixer of bicycles, and visited his cousin Lippe Mendelow in Johannesburg where he saw a picture of Nina and Sonia Ashkenazi who were nieces of Musha Mendelow nee Rajak. In short Nachman sent for the two sisters and married Sonia, my mother. Their father Herschel had married Yentel Rochel Rajak. They were from Bilozi near Riga.

The Mendelows seem to have come from Ulla near the Dvina River, and Mogilev and then Shavel. Feige Axelrod had a daughter who was said to have lived in Herson. Ukraine. Sonia Axelrod may have married a Lippen. Judith had a daughter in Leningrad. Harry was killed in 1917. He had a son Misha. Joshua had no issue. Zalman had a son, Felix, who was a geologist in Moscow. Levick married out of the faith. Nachman went to Moscow in 1961 and met two unnamed sisters who had survived. He visited me in Israel on his way back to South Africa.

David Axelrod, bottom row second from left - 1933

David Axelrod, bottom row left

Nachman Axelrod, 1919

Nachman Axelrod, 1920

Nachman and Sonia at their wedding in 1922

Sonia, Nachman, and Nina 1921

Nachman Axelrod, 1960

Map of the Surazh area