Rebbe Mendele of Rimanov - Clarifying R' Mendele's Children

Started by Private User on Monday, August 26, 2019
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Private User
8/26/2019 at 4:28 PM

I am trying to determine the number of R' Mendele's documented children and clarify their names. According to Yekutiel Kamelhar's Beit Menachem there were four children (see http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=3835&st=&pgnum=64):

1. R' Nosson Yehuda, the firstborn son.
2. R' Yisroel Yaakov, the second son.
3. A daughter who married the Av Beis Din of Zelikov.
4. A daughter who married R' Klonimos.

Kamelhar's work was one of the first biographies on R' Mendele and was published in 1927, over a century after the passing of R' Mendele. Kamelhar writes that he was in touch with some of the grandchildren, including Rebbetzin Tova Sara Rabinowicz Rabbi Moshe Torem (Turim) and the latter's son Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Torem. Presumably they were the main sources for this information about R' Mendele's children.

According to a pre-war yichus document by Mordechai Reich R' Mendele had a daughter named Feige, who was the ancestor of the Riff line. Feige has been identified on Geni as the 4th daughter of R' Mendele, the one who married R' Klonimos. As far as I know there has been no hard evidence shown supporting this assertion. Could this have been another daughter?

According to an oral tradition from the Atik family in Jerusalem, R' Mendele had a daughter named Chana, who married R' Mordechai, the Av Beis Din of Rimanov [http://toladot.blogspot.com/2015/01/blog-post_29.html#more]. According to this same source R' Mordechai is identical with the son-in-law who was the Av Beis Din of Zelikov. Thus Chana would be the 3rd daughter.

Yet there are additional oral traditions suggesting that R' Mendele may have additional, undocumented children. The descendants of Esther Strahl maintain a tradition that R' Mendele had another daughter, Gittel, who lived in Fristik (R' Mendele's original court) and was something of a Rebbe who took pidyonos.

Moreover, new Jewish records found at the USC in Rymanow show the birth of a Chaim Torem in 1807 to a Pinkas Torem in Rymanov. [https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Krosno/KROSNORym.htm#ROUTES] Torem was the family surname of R' Mendele. Considering that R' Mendele's son R' Nosson Leib was already having children as early as 1811, it would seem that this Pinkas Torem was in the same age-group as R' Mendele's children. Could Pinkas have been another son of R' Mendele? And if he was, could there have been others?

My theory is that there's probably a lot of lost information on the children of R' Mendele. If anyone has any feedback or knows additional information regarding this please share it. I would love to hear it. Many thanks.

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