Showing posts with label Goldfus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goldfus. Show all posts

Saturday, October 14, 2023

An American Jew's Israeli Connections: Our Few Goldfus-Goldfoot Members in Israel's October 8, 2023 Attack

 Nadene Goldfoot

    Stanley Goldfoot, two daughters and wife Rebecca "Rollo" Finger."  I bet they had a hearty laugh over the union of the surnames.  They're probably on the beach at Tel Aviv.  Stanley kept his figure.  I met him for the 1st time in 1981 at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.  I asked him on the phone how I'd know him, and he said, "Don't worry, I'll know you."  Yikes!  He was the Chief of Intelligence of the once vital Stern Group, and had been in prison for being a member.  It was the strongest group before 1948's creation of Israel.  He probably has descendants living in Israel.  

Dan Goldfus is a commander in the IDF, born 1976.  He's the son of Chaim Goldfus, another Lithuanian who came from South Africa. I don't want to expose his position, but I'm so proud of him but we have never met.  I can see he's right-handed.  I'm left handed and so was my brother  and cousin Nate Goldfoot.  

Our surname was originally Goldfus in Lithuania and some kept this original last name. In England it was anglicized to Goldfoot.    

Stanley Goldfoot lived in Jerusalem and was my 2nd-3rd cousin of South Africa. A lot of Lithuanian Jews had gone there instead of the USA.  He was the same age as my mother.   He had also changed his name when in England or Dublin, Ireland like my grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfoot. He had married Rebecca "Rollo" Finger and had two daughters, Zahava (Gold) and Yaira. They and their families may be there.  Stanley was the writer of the very well known "Letter To The World."  

Yehudit Goldfus had 2 girls and a boy, was the daughter of Aryeh Goldfus b: 1913 who had moved to Israel and Aryeh had been the son of Chaim Goldfus b: 1885.  We had a lot of Goldfus people in South Africa and many went to Israel.  

We have a Chaim Goldfus who is a PhD of Archaeology living in Israel born 1951 with 3 children.  Two are listed as living in Israel.

Another Chaim Goldfus was in the insurance business.  I was with Stanley and saw Chaim's office, and asked Stanley about him.  They hadn't met yet.  Families had been pulled apart because of emigrations, immigrations, wars, etc, and had lost family members that way.  I'm into genealogy and make a point of collecting family members.  It's something many of us women have been interested in. DNA is the glue binding us, and is so revealing.  Many Jews use it to find out about lost family members, for after the Holocaust they knew nothing about their heritage. 

Kibbutzim became easy targets for the Hamas terrorists.  Most are orthodox kibbutzim in Judea and Samaria,  but there are some inside the perameters of Israel proper as well.  My husband and I visited Kibbutz Degania Alef when we first arrived sometime between 1980 and 1981 as one of us had a family member there.   It's in northern Israel, in danger from Hezbolla terrorism, founded in 1910. This is not orthodox, and is the  earliest socialist Zionist farming commune in the Land of Israel.  Danny's cousin once removed had started Boy's Town in Jerusalem. We had the distinction to be able to stay overnight there before that wing opened.  I remember that we arrived at Degania Alef by bus, but the bus drove past the stop so everyone on the bus yelled to the driver to stop and back up.  I loved that, coming from the Pacific NW, to see a whole busload know what you needed and helped.  No one was shy on that bus.   

   

Friday, March 7, 2014

What Caused Russian Jews to Immigrate Out of Russia By 1920's ?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                            

    Catherine II of Russia-took over her husband's position in 1762 at age 33

1495-advent of 1492 Spanish Inquisition brought on Jews' expulsion from Lithuania.  

1648-56  100,000 Jews were murdered in the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland.  

1727 and 1747 saw Jews expelled from Russia.  

Catherine II of Russia, actually of Prussian descent, started ruling in 1762, and decreed in 1791  to confine Jews in THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT;  states of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Crimea and Belarus.  They were not allowed to live in Russia proper.

1804 Alexander I ruled with statute concerning Organization of the Jews.

1871-1921 were years that Jews were facing anti-Jewish pogroms in the towns of Russia.  Nathan Abraham Goldfus was born in Telsiai, Lithuania on January 1, 1871.  Left for England at age 21 in 1893. Went through Dublin, Ireland and finally  arrived in Council, Idaho in 1905.  Other Goldfus families went to South Africa from Ireland.  

1880-1920's Big immigration of Jews out of Russia-125,000 to 200,000 to USA.  

1881:  Alexander II more lenient towards Jews, was murdered and Jews were blamed.  

By May 3, 1882, MAY LAWS WERE ENACTED.   The Russian government legislated that Jews were barred from living or acquiring property except in towns in the Pale of Settlement. This was a continuation of the past 91 years of Catherine's decree of discrimination of Jews and where they could live.  All 750,000 Jews living in Russia were now forced to re-settle in the Pale.

1882, 1st Aliyah to Palestine from Russian JewsOptions

The resettling took until 1890 for so many people.
1891 and the last Jews were expelled from Moscow and St. Petersburg.  Nicholas II was ruler.

They continued with  local expulsions and showed up in intolerable overcrowded conditions and the blocking of economic opportunities were largely responsible for an almost wholesale Jewish emigration from Russia during the period they were in force.

They were not revoked in effect until 1915 due to WWI.  They were not make legal until March 1917, after the Russian Revolution.

1917 to present day:  Jews in the Soviet Union were denied the right of national identity and the right to worship their religion.  Sharansky was one of the Jews who studied Hebrew secretly with the help of my teacher in Haifa, Israel, Sarah, who wrote to him and taught him that way while he was in prison.  Of course it was all in secret.

Officials carrying out these laws were semi-literate and had no understanding of "law".  Errors have been found in their carrying out such laws.  Gdaliya Zeigermacher was expelled from the village of Puzheikovo, although it was proved that he had lived there for sixteen years. One Bondarchick was improperly registered as residing in the village of Baksha, and was therefore expelled from the village of Kapustyanka, where he had lived for twenty years. The misspelling of names, a very frequent occurrence, led to annoyance and expulsion; e.g., "Gruzman" was entered as "Ruzman"; "Garvich" as "Gurovich"; and "Shmerka Dorfman" as "Shlyoma." A slight error made by a petty official, not to speak of various evil motives, sufficed to bring about the expulsion of the unfortunate Jew from his home and to bring terror and despair upon him. Incompetency messed up the lives of the Jews as much as the discriminating order.  

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-catherine-the-great
http://www.fitchburgstate.edu/uploads/files/TeachingAmericanHistory/RussianJews.pdf
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10508-may-laws
http://www.aish.com/jl/h/cc/48956361.html  Pale of Settlement list of countries involved