Sitz family of Bialystok

Sitz family of Bialystok . . .

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Pictured at right are the aged Hadassah Sitz (my great-great grandmother), her grown daughter Pesha Kirshner, blind son Nahum Sitz who was turned away from Ellis Island upon attempting to enter the U.S., and infant grandchildren Gershon Kirshner and Nehema Kirshner (later Russin). All in the photo lived the remainder of ther lives in Palestine, where they accompanied Nahum due to his rejection by America. I visited Gershon Kirshner in 1977 at his home in Tel Aviv. Tradition has it that Russian-born Hadassah was struck by a British bomb during World War I, in the town of Hadera, Palestine, which cut off her legs. Wounded, she was reportedly carried in a wagon to Damascus, Syria, where she died in 1917. She was the widow of Sander Gershon Sitz, textile mill owner of Bialystok (then Russia, now part of Poland). Sander, known as Reb Alter, is believed to have died in Bialystock about 1903 or '04.

See Woldin and Sitz families: Russia, America, Israel (Rue, 1996) for further details and citation of sources) and Woldin base page here.

Taken in Palestine, the above photo was mailed shortly after it was taken to Hadassah's daughter, Anne Sitz Woldin, who by this time had settled in Somerville, New Jersey, with her husband Barnett Woldin and children Jacob, Sadye, Samuel, and Gertrude. Gertrude Woldin, my great aunt, gave the photo to me about 70 years later, in 1976. It is not known if any other original copies remain.

Much of the data which I have concerning this family is based upon personal knowledge of older relatives, in America and Israel, who were interviewed by me in the early and late 1970s. Little documentary evidence confirming or elaborating on these details has been available up to this point in time.

Descendants or anyone having further information on this family are invited to exchange genealogical information.

THOMAS and CARMEN RUE
PO Box 706
Monticello NY 12701
U.S.A.