Descendants of Mordko Szeynersznayder

[Page 126]

The Szeynersznayder Family

BELLA SZEYNERSZNAYDER FISHMAN

1891-1982

Bella was born on March 25, 1891, in Koden, the firstborn of Gedalia and Rebecca (Gruman) Szeynersznayder. Her brother, Murray, was born later on. She was ten years old when she, her father, and brother went to live with her paternal grandparents, Chaskiel and Bryna Szeynersznayder.

Chaskiel and Bryna, originally, had a dairy farm outside of Koden. Every Friday Chaskiel went to town for mitzvah. One time as he was coming home he saw a large fire in the direction of his farm. He arrived home to find his barn and home had burned. He had nothing. He moved to town and started a business. In the meanwhile he studied medicine from books loaned to him by a Christian Polish scholar. He was asked to come and practice in the big cities but he wanted to stay and help his town. Jews were not allowed to become doctors at that time. Many became Christians in order to practice medicine. Bella would go with Chaskiel to the big cities to buy medicine from the doctors. Although they had Christian names, Chaskiel would eat at their homes because they kept Kosher. Sometimes inspectors would come to check the Jewish homes. The Christian neighbors would hide Chaskiel's medicines in their homes until the inspectors left. Bella remembered helping her grandfather mix the medicines for his patients. His patients, both Polish and Jewish, were poor and could not afford to pay in cash, so they paid with their best meats and fruits. If there was a little money left at the end of the month, Bella was given money for candy. Chaskiel was always generous with the little he had. His brother, Meyer, had died many years before and Chaskiel would always send Bella to bring Shabbos food to his widow, Lea, who still lived in Koden.

Chaskiel died about 1902. Bella remembers her grandfather dying in the living room. All the neighbors and their children came to say goodbye. Chaskiel told Bella to go to the store and buy candles. She didn't want to leave but he said, "Go, my kinderel, go." She went and bought the candles and he said , "Light the candles". She did and he died at that moment. When Chaskiel died, Bella was twelve years old. Bryna worried about Bella's future and decided to send Bella to America with a relative, Avrumel Szeynersznayder from Brest (he had a candy shop in Newark) . Bella would have to dress as a boy since Avrumel had bought tickets for his children (but his wife and children refused to go to America) so Arvumel took Bella and two others in their place. Bryna got the best velvets and gabardines and had the tailors make clothes for Bella so everyone in America would know she was "somebody. "When Bella arrived in New York in 1903, she never wore her new clothes. She looked like a 'greenhorn'. She saw the clothes were so much different here that she cut up one dress and made a skirt and blouse. The other clothes hung unused.

Bella started working in the garment industry and after she had saved a week's salary ,she bought a beautiful warm sweater to send to her grandmother, Bryna. Later when Murray, Bella's brother, came to America he told Bella that Bryna sent the sweater to her daughter in Wisnice, who was now a widow and expecting her 10th child.

(EXCERPT FROM AN PERSONAL INTERVIEW-CIRCA 1978)

LOUIS A. SCHNEIDER, M.D.

1901-1980

I was born on October 6, 1901 in a small town called Koden in Russia. My father, Ber Szeynersznayder,who was one of seven sons, had two sisters. My mother was Elka (Barlas).

My father's brothers were Itcha, Gedalia, Motel, Louis, Aaron (Harris Taylor) and Sqarya.The two sisters names were Bayla Sura and Simma. (The original name was Szeynersznayder, it was changed to Schneider in the United States.) All the brothers died in Russia, except my father, Aaron and Louis.

What happened to their families I do not know. I assume if any lived to maturity they were killed in the Holocaust. One sister married a Rosenblum. Her three sons came to this country and believing their mother's family was extinct assumed their mother's family name of Snider (believing that was how the name was spelled.) I met two of the brothers in Chicago but they are all dead now. I believe one had a son in California who was an engineer but don't know what happened to him.

My Uncle Lou had one son who stayed in Koden with his mother. I sent him money to come to America but World War II broke out and we never heard from him and and assume he is dead. Gedalia's children, Bella and Murray came to this country. Uncle Aaron first went to England and changed his name to Harris Taylor there. He came to America and lived in New York with his two sons and four daughters.

My father and his brothers were known throughout the entire area of Koden for the physical strength so in spite of the prevailing anti-semitism , no one locally ever attempted to disturb our family. My father because of his height and strength when drafted into the Russian Army served in the Czar's Battalion in Moscow, an honor that very few Jews attained. Upon his discharge, after four years, he received a silver medal and a certificate permitting him to travel throughout Russia without a passport- this was when most Jews were restricted to their immediate communities.

I must be frank to state that I absolutely do not recall my brother, William, or my sister ,Gussie, before coming to America in 1908. We were living in my grandparents' home (Chaskiel and Bryna) while my father was in Service, and after he left for America in 1903. I do remember the house we lived in which was on a square that was used for bazaars. Across from us was a church in front of which was a tremendous tank on wheels that was used for fires. I remember the village well where everyone had to go for water. I remember my grandmother and my grandfather (although Bella said he died when I was too young to remember him).But in any event,I was very sick for a long period of time with whooping cough complicated by pneumonia and empyema. My grandfather was the village felsher , doctor although he had no degree but he could read Latin and dispensed medicine. He could not help me and I was sick for nearly two years with high temperatures. The nearest large city was too far away to go for diagnosis. Eventually I overcame the illness. X-rays taken at Columbia-Presbyterian now show that I had tuberculosis empyema. Tuberculosis was prevalent in my father's family. I recall that my grandfather, Chaskiel, had a continuous cough and probably died of TB. Gedalia died at a very young age of TB, Motel died of TB, Sqarya who was a captain in the Russian Army and fought in the Japanese-Russian War died of TB, Murray, Gedalia's son, who lived in the grandfather's house, died of TB.

But now I go on with my life. My father sent for us to join him in America and I sort of remember the trip across the ocean. My father met us and took us to Bayonne where we moved into an apartment house on the corner of 20th Street and Hudson Avenue. Shortly after I was registered in school. There is no sense in going into the trials of attending school with no knowledge of the language-the names I was called, the fights I had. Conditions were bad, my father was a carpenter earning seventeen dollars a week and working a forty-eight hour week.

(EXCERPT FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHY WRITTEN 1973)

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