Jevdokija Kashparova, born in 1932 in Sraryje Zuravichi, Belarus, describes fleeing the village Leshashi due to bombings at the beginning of the war; the Jewish population of her village; witnessing the murder of Jewish refugees by German soldiers; and her mother’s refusal to allow German soldiers to be billeted in her family’s home.
Hi, my name is Alan Gregg Cohen, and I am a great grandson of Baylia Melnick Kagan (aka Bayli Cohen), who was George Melnick's sister and married to my great grandfather Echeal Kagan (aka Echeal Cohen). Louis Cohen, my grandfather was George Melnick's nephew, and came to the US in 1907 and to Port Jervis (Greenville), NY in 1914 with his parents. My geat grandparents and five of their sons originally bought farms in Greenville, except that my great uncle Abe Kagan, eventually sold his farm and opened a meat store in Port Jervis. My father Edward Cohen was born in Greenville, outside Port Jervis in 1929. My aunt Fannie Cohen Reiss and three of her children and numerous grandchildren still live in Port Jervis to this day. I believe you have been in contact with my second cousin Pat Kagan Tobias. Recently, Pat , myself and another cousin (Susan Vermillion Mugge) have compiled a lot of ancestry information about our side of the family, following them from their hometown of what is today Zuravichi, Belarus to Port Jervis and to the present day. I have info. on their ship's manifests, year and of date of birth (and death where applicable), and census and other info. However we know very little information about George Melnick, other than him being me and my cousins' great great uncle, and the brother of Bayli and son of Mariska or Marsha Melnick. Although my great grandparents came from Zurawitz, Mogilev Province, Russia (on the Dnieper), we were aware that George had lived in Kiev, as the family had travelled to Kiev in early 1907 to visit him, enroute to obtain their Visa in Chernigov. I would love to share any and all information on the family with you so we can learn more about George and possibly his parents and if there were other siblings that you know of. Please feel free to e-mail me @ allcoh7@yahoo.com or call me at 760 836-9128. Looking forwarding to hearing from you. Alan
“My Memoirs”, a book by Sarrah Gurevich (Veseliy by maiden name) has recently seen light. The book describes the typical life in a Jewish “Mestechko” (small town) before the October revolution and the hardship of the common people under Soviet rule.
The book many pictures and documents relative to that period and also shows the six generations old genealogical tree of the Gurevich (from Cherikov and Zuravichi in Belarus) Blumkin (from Chausy) Veseliy, Gil , Basin, Dobujinsky, Zamsky, Zyslin, Smolitzky (from Cherikov and Krisheb) families. Many members of these families have left Russia in the beginning of the 20th century to the US
E mail: sarkasha@t2.technion.ac.il
My maiden name is Gurevich.
My grandfather, Izrail Gurevich, was born in Zhuravichi in 1914. His parents names were Nisson and Shifra Gurevich. They had two suns (my grandfather, Izrail and his younger brother, David, who died in WWII) and four daughters (Tsylya, Fira, Lubov and one more daughter, whose name I don't remember).
Could you, please, let me know are any of those names presented in the book?
You can contact me at stokareva@gmail.com
