Stories about your ancestors

Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 9:43 pm

This is on my mind as my grandmother passed away last week and we were discussing some beautiful stories about her and her family.

When I was talking to some friends, they shared beautiful stories about their ancestors that I really enjoyed hearing. Some were inspirational about strength of character and commitment to Judaism, some were funny, but all were very interesting.

I would love to hear more if you have any family stories to share and may any inspiration that comes from it be an Aliyah for their neshama.

I gotta run for a bit but I hope to come back and share some stories soon.

amother

DarkViolet

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:02 pm

My ancestor was the oldest child of a large family. One of his younger brothers went to America and made money. He then sent boat tickets for his parents and all of his siblings to move to America.

My ancestor was already married and went to ask his rebbe if he should join the family to go to America. The rebbe said he can go.
But- according to how I heard the story- as he boarded the ship, he suddenly said, "How can I raise a Jewish family in treifene America? " and he and his wife got off the boat.

He ended up having 13 kids. All but 3 perished in the war.

Of the original family who went to America, none had stayed frum. The children had all either married out, or didn’t have children. All except one of the brothers who married a Jewish woman and had 4 kids, but they were not frum. Eventually 3 of them did become frum.

After the war, the cousins who were in America brought over the three surviving relatives. They first settled in the same town as their cousins but then moved to NY to be part of a frum chassidish community.

Of the relatives who stayed in Europe and survived the war, there are today hundreds of frum descendants.
But the large family who came to America, there are only a few frum descendants.

↑ Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:09 pm

amother DarkViolet wrote:

Wow. What a strong commitment to Yiddishkeit he had and how it paid off! Thank you for sharing 🙏

amother

Wandflower

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:17 pm

My ancestor was a dream teller in Yemen and worked for the government there telling dreams. She had a dream that the situation would become very bad for the Jews there, so she packed up the whole family and traveled to Israel via the sueze canal in the early 1900s. They then walked to Israel from there, one of her children was bit by a snake on the way and passed away. They arrived to Israel and set up a shop selling pickles in what is now Tel Aviv.

↑ Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:24 pm

My father heard a shiur that non-shemura matzah meal (at least that year) should not be used.

He was recently married and flew with his new wife to visit his family for Pesach. They decided not to say anything in advance as it was already close to Pesach and they didn't want to make a big deal about it. They figured they would just not eat the items that had it.

When they got to his family, they mentioned it to my grandmother and my grandmother responded that she had already finished cooking for Pesach and everything had non-shemura matzah meal in it.

She paused for a few seconds and then said (without changing expression or looking upset at all), "I'll be the first to host after Pesach!" And she cooked all over again. She didn't utter a kvetch or complaint or an I-wish-you-would-have or a next-time-please...

By my grandmother's 80th birthday, my mother asked how she did that, what did she tell herself, etc. and my grandmother responded that she didn't remember it at all but it's a nice story 😲
(I mean, that's not something I would forget!)

↑ Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:27 pm

amother Wandflower wrote:

Omigosh what a cool job! Does that mean she interpreted other people's dreams?

I'm sorry to hear about the snake 😔
It's so sad what she went through

↑ Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:41 pm

My great grandfather was sentenced to death for working for the revolutionaries to overthrow the Czar. While in jail, he bribed a guard for paper and a pen and wrote a short note explaining his situation and asking the finder of the note to locate his sister so she could hire a lawyer for him.

As he was being taken from one place to another, he saw a Jewish girl and coughed to get her attention. He flapped his hands and dropped the crumpled note and was taken away.

The girl went to get the note and located his sister, who was able to hire a lawyer that got his sentence changed to labor in Siberia instead of death. He later escaped from Siberia and returned home.

When matchmakers tried to set him up, he insisted on first meeting the girl who saved his life. They met, liked each other and got married.

Last edited by Boca00 on Sat, Dec 07 2024, 11:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

miami85

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 10:54 pm

I wanted to share an unbelievable story passed down in my family in hopes of being mechazek the women of this group. My father's family grew up in a tiny town in the "middle-of-nowhere" Ohio during the first half of the 20th century. There were many years towards the end of their living there that there was not even a minyan, forget a Jewish school, I don't know what the arrangement was for mikvah. However, taharas hamishpacha was something that was clearly important to my family. The story goes that my grandfather went to meet with (I believe it was) the Satmar Rav and when he heard that my grandfather raised 4 children in such a small community who grew up to all be Mitzvah Observant Jews and practiced taharas hamishpacha, he whom never stood for others, stood up for my grandfather. My grandfather passed away in the early 1980s. His impressive legacy is that all 15 of his grandchildren are in successful marriages and all 15 grandchildren have been blessed with children--currently over 90 great-grandchildren and the next generation is already well underway, just my father(a"h)'s branch alone has provided almost 30 great-great-grandchildren--so far.
Thus, I remind myself that though taharas mishpacha has its challenges, most of the challenges we have in modern times pale in comparison to what our foremothers endured to keep this precious mitzvah, but the payoff has the potential to resonate with our future generations.

↑ Boca00 ↓

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 11:00 pm

miami85 wrote:

This is beautiful. Thank you ❤️

amother

Garnet

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 11:03 pm

During the war my ancestor was in switzerland. He would take kids across the border and they would act all wild so the guards werent able to count them. On the way back he smuggled jews into switzerland. There are a lot of stories about him but this is the only one I remember. Im probably missing a bunch of details.

↑ Boca00

Sat, Dec 07 2024, 11:12 pm

amother Garnet wrote:

Wow. I love this. So resourceful!