What I like about this job is you never know what’s going to surface.\u00a0 A woman wrote to me recently (Lara Diamond by name) telling of a an interesting old document she saw at a friend’s house and offered to photograph it.\u00a0 She thought the group would be interested, since it had a list of names attached and was from Novoselice\/Novoselitsa.\u00a0 I agreed to have a look at it.<\/p>\n
And this is what I present for you today:\u00a0 A 1904 document written in cursive Yiddish, written by the Rabbi of Novoselice: \u00a0 Yisrael Pesach son of Shalom Shachna Wetstein.\u00a0 This was the great great grandfather of Lara’s friend.\u00a0 The document apparently is the authorization for the sale of the town’s Chometz prior to Passover in 1904.\u00a0 There is a list of names at the end of the document, that most likely are the assigned buyers.<\/p>\n
Lara says:
\n“These are signatures so some are difficult to read. I did my best. I suggest you put the last page on Viewmate to get an independent eye on these.<\/p>\n
The bottom of the first page is signed by the town’s rabbi (and my friend’s gg grandfather) Yisrael Pesach son of Shalom Shachna Wetstein.<\/p>\n
Witness at the top of the second page (first page of the two-sided document) is Avraham Chaim son of Baruch Shvartzer.<\/p>\n
There are names in the paragraph up at the top of the last page:<\/p>\n
Yisrael Pesach son of Shalom Shachna
\nMalka daughter of Rei Renish
\nMoshe son of Meir Veinberg
\nZaan Shaya Dibes
\nSara Frankfeld
\nShabsei Shvartzberg<\/p>\n
Then the rest of the page are signatures. (First word of each line is “Signed.”)
\nEliyahu (illegible)
\nYitzchok Reitman and (illegible) Beleson
\nNachum Gruldinberg and also his brother? Pesach and (illegible) Reb Anshel
\nLeib son of Zev Plumilman (illegible) Yona Yilarstein
\nPinchas Babia
\nHenech Shvartzberg
\nChaim Feitia Kapilivike
\nAvraham Chaim Sheishesh? And Matisya Varman?
\n(Illegible) Sara Mecharkle
\n(illegible) Yaakov Yosef Yazlivt
\nShlomo Vanblakis??
\nYosef Kantirzshna
\nMechael Veinberg
\nHersh Leib Shich? and his brother Yisrael Shich
\nYisrael Nicherberg
\nTzvi Gezner”<\/p>\n
And for those who can… here is the document, hand written in Yiddish, [Correction –The document is written in cursive Hebrew not Yiddish as originally posted –see commnets below] in pdf format:<\/p>\n