Hello, Friends and Family,
We're so excited to be heading on our second adventure to Ukraine. Please join us as we navigate (with our expert guide, Alex Dunai) new towns, archives, cemeteries and unexpected delights.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Monday, August 3, 2015
THURSDAY, JULY 16TH-OUT OF ORDER BUT INTERESTING
If its Thursday, this must be Mogilev-Podolski, Ukraine. We arrived yesterday after a very bumpy drive on pretty horrible two lane roads from Lviv. The Lviv post will be later....The roads in Ukraine are noticeably worse than in Poland, the economy is a lot worse, and the cars are a lot more beat up. You can still see Mercedes and BMW and nice Japanese cars, but I believe that one out of three cars here are Ladas. Lada is a Russian made poor copy of a Fiat (model 128, I think). They're ugly and everywhere, and have a reputation of being easy to fix and break often. Just looking at these cars is a depressing experience.
Our hotel would have been really fancy if you were a Russian official staying there in 1960. It was clean and had wifi, but very spartan, no elevator and the TV had about 40 channels, none in English, the beds were less than comfortable, but the good news is that for three rooms (Phyllis' room was a suite with a living room) the cost was 1200 Grivines (I cant pronounce it but Alex said this was close enough) which converts to $50 US for all three rooms for one night. Breakfast at the hotel was so-so, some ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber, and two fried eggs. Everyone gets the same breakfast which cost $9 for all of us with tea and tip.
We got going early to meet with a 75 year old man, Mr. Brechmann who is the head of the Jewish Community in Mogilev-Podolski. Our Maternal Grandmother was born here and was here until she immigrated to the US in her late teens. We were shown the local synagogue which you can see is pretty small. The only one I've seen smaller was at King David's Tomb in Jerusalem. The Jewish community here is only 223 people. Most are elderly and the Synagogue feeds about 22 who are either very poor or homebound.
After showing us around the Synagogue he took us to a Museum of the Jewish community with a lot of information from the Second World War. The Jewish Ghetto held 19,000 Jews from here and some which the Nazis brought here. The survivors numbered only about 600 who are pictured in the individual small pictures shown in one of the photos.
Our next stop with Mr. Brechmann was the Jewish Cemetary which covers approximately 50 acres. We were looking for any headstones with our Grandmother's surname with a date of death around 1910. Fortunately, it was not the gigantic challenge it appeared. Volunteers and donors from all over had assisted in numbering and cataloging the names and numbers for the, relatively speaking, more recent deaths. By numbering, I mean they painted 3 inch high numbers on all four sides of each headstone, which was a huge help. We found two headstones which should give my Sister and her Genealogy group something to work with. The very old heads stones were not marked and some were worn away by the elements such that the writing in Hebrew or Russian could not be read. Worse still, the area of the oldest graves were very overgrown and not tended like the newer ones. It may sound like we spent a depressing afternoon in a Cemetary, but it didn't feel like that at all. It actually felt like we were doing something good that may lead to someone being recognized and remembered.
In late afternoon we walked through the street market. Lots of fruit and vegetables and everything else. The poster with Che Guevara was announcing a 50% off sale at a local store. I was pleased to see that this is part of Che's legacy.
This evening we walked aroung the town and saw some city parks and of note was a memorial on a bank wall to local men who died recently fighting against the Russian Army in the Eastern part of Ukraine. The last photo is the front of our very modest hotel.
Tomorrow we're leaving Ukraine for a day trip to Moldova just across the river where we'll be doing more of my Sister's genealogy research.
Our hotel would have been really fancy if you were a Russian official staying there in 1960. It was clean and had wifi, but very spartan, no elevator and the TV had about 40 channels, none in English, the beds were less than comfortable, but the good news is that for three rooms (Phyllis' room was a suite with a living room) the cost was 1200 Grivines (I cant pronounce it but Alex said this was close enough) which converts to $50 US for all three rooms for one night. Breakfast at the hotel was so-so, some ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber, and two fried eggs. Everyone gets the same breakfast which cost $9 for all of us with tea and tip.
We got going early to meet with a 75 year old man, Mr. Brechmann who is the head of the Jewish Community in Mogilev-Podolski. Our Maternal Grandmother was born here and was here until she immigrated to the US in her late teens. We were shown the local synagogue which you can see is pretty small. The only one I've seen smaller was at King David's Tomb in Jerusalem. The Jewish community here is only 223 people. Most are elderly and the Synagogue feeds about 22 who are either very poor or homebound.
After showing us around the Synagogue he took us to a Museum of the Jewish community with a lot of information from the Second World War. The Jewish Ghetto held 19,000 Jews from here and some which the Nazis brought here. The survivors numbered only about 600 who are pictured in the individual small pictures shown in one of the photos.
Our next stop with Mr. Brechmann was the Jewish Cemetary which covers approximately 50 acres. We were looking for any headstones with our Grandmother's surname with a date of death around 1910. Fortunately, it was not the gigantic challenge it appeared. Volunteers and donors from all over had assisted in numbering and cataloging the names and numbers for the, relatively speaking, more recent deaths. By numbering, I mean they painted 3 inch high numbers on all four sides of each headstone, which was a huge help. We found two headstones which should give my Sister and her Genealogy group something to work with. The very old heads stones were not marked and some were worn away by the elements such that the writing in Hebrew or Russian could not be read. Worse still, the area of the oldest graves were very overgrown and not tended like the newer ones. It may sound like we spent a depressing afternoon in a Cemetary, but it didn't feel like that at all. It actually felt like we were doing something good that may lead to someone being recognized and remembered.
In late afternoon we walked through the street market. Lots of fruit and vegetables and everything else. The poster with Che Guevara was announcing a 50% off sale at a local store. I was pleased to see that this is part of Che's legacy.
This evening we walked aroung the town and saw some city parks and of note was a memorial on a bank wall to local men who died recently fighting against the Russian Army in the Eastern part of Ukraine. The last photo is the front of our very modest hotel.
Tomorrow we're leaving Ukraine for a day trip to Moldova just across the river where we'll be doing more of my Sister's genealogy research.
FRIDAY JULY 24TH-THE OFFICIAL END OF THE JOURNEY
Friday July 24th-We leave New York and return to our respective homes
We got up early and went to the Fairway Market close to our Upper West Side digs and bought some food to eat on our respective flights.
We were picked up at 945AM for our ride to JFK. Phyllis had a Noon flight to San Francisco and I had a 330PM flight to Fort Myers.
We hung out at the airport for a while said our goodbyes and agreed that the trip was a wonderful experience for both of us. Flights were full but otherwise uneventful and we are now adjusting to the regular and predictable parts of our lives.
We thank all of you who read, and hopefully enjoyed, this blog.
We still owe you a few days more of blog and pictures in Ukraine and we intend to deliver on that promise.
Additionally, having taken my first trip to Europe and Israel at 71 years of age, I can claim no expertise in the art of travel. In spite of this fact, I will do a blog post of some travel tips learned on this journey which I hope may be helpful to you.
Thank you all.
We got up early and went to the Fairway Market close to our Upper West Side digs and bought some food to eat on our respective flights.
We were picked up at 945AM for our ride to JFK. Phyllis had a Noon flight to San Francisco and I had a 330PM flight to Fort Myers.
We hung out at the airport for a while said our goodbyes and agreed that the trip was a wonderful experience for both of us. Flights were full but otherwise uneventful and we are now adjusting to the regular and predictable parts of our lives.
We thank all of you who read, and hopefully enjoyed, this blog.
We still owe you a few days more of blog and pictures in Ukraine and we intend to deliver on that promise.
Additionally, having taken my first trip to Europe and Israel at 71 years of age, I can claim no expertise in the art of travel. In spite of this fact, I will do a blog post of some travel tips learned on this journey which I hope may be helpful to you.
Thank you all.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
THURSDAY JULY 23RD, LAST DAY AS TOURISTS IN NEW YORK
Thursday, july 23rd-New York City
We left our deluxe accomodations at Phyllis' friends very large Upper West Side apartment and took the subway with two train changes to enjoy a tour of the Tenement Museum. The organization that operates the museum acquired an old brownstone house that had been occupied from the 1880's to 1935 by more than 7,000 people, primarily immigrant families. The building is original and they carefully reproduced some of the apartments down to the slightest detail. The tour we took was the story of two families who were the actual occupants of the two three-room apartments we visited. They don't allow photography but it's a very enjoyable and educational tour I'm sure all who read this would appreciate.
After the tour we went to lunch at Russ and Daughters, a famous very old deli in lower Manhattan.
The food was great and we each got some halvah to go. I had never tasted the halvah from Russ and Daughters, but Phyllis said it's worth crossing the country for.
In the evening we ate a a really good but noisy French restaurant on Broadway within walking distance of our accomodations. We met with a couple from Brooklyn that contacted Phyllis when we were Jeruslalem. The man, recently started tracing his ancestry and it appears we are related. It was nice to meet them. They emigrated to the US from Ukraine in 1977. He was a PhD in Electrical Engineering. His masters degree and PhD were not recognized in the States and he repeated both in New York. She was a pediatrician in Europe and had to repeat all her specialized training in pediatric medicine. They have since realized the American dream with children and grandchildren.
We said our goodbyes to them and began the process of the final packing of this trip.
We left our deluxe accomodations at Phyllis' friends very large Upper West Side apartment and took the subway with two train changes to enjoy a tour of the Tenement Museum. The organization that operates the museum acquired an old brownstone house that had been occupied from the 1880's to 1935 by more than 7,000 people, primarily immigrant families. The building is original and they carefully reproduced some of the apartments down to the slightest detail. The tour we took was the story of two families who were the actual occupants of the two three-room apartments we visited. They don't allow photography but it's a very enjoyable and educational tour I'm sure all who read this would appreciate.
After the tour we went to lunch at Russ and Daughters, a famous very old deli in lower Manhattan.
The food was great and we each got some halvah to go. I had never tasted the halvah from Russ and Daughters, but Phyllis said it's worth crossing the country for.
In the evening we ate a a really good but noisy French restaurant on Broadway within walking distance of our accomodations. We met with a couple from Brooklyn that contacted Phyllis when we were Jeruslalem. The man, recently started tracing his ancestry and it appears we are related. It was nice to meet them. They emigrated to the US from Ukraine in 1977. He was a PhD in Electrical Engineering. His masters degree and PhD were not recognized in the States and he repeated both in New York. She was a pediatrician in Europe and had to repeat all her specialized training in pediatric medicine. They have since realized the American dream with children and grandchildren.
We said our goodbyes to them and began the process of the final packing of this trip.
Friday, July 24, 2015
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22ND, WE'RE NEW YORK TOURISTS AGAIN
Wednesday in New York, July 22nd
Even though the principal purpose of our trip is over, we still feel like we want to see all we can see. We recovered a bit of our sleep deprivation and set out from the Upper West Side to the Chelsea neighborhood near 14th street close to the Hudson River. We met a genealogy friend of Phyllis and had lunch and then he took us to the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway that has been artfully converted into a beautiful city park with trees, lots of flowers, benches, lounge chairs for sunbathers, some food places and souvenir stands (I've now lost count of how many refrigerator magnets I've purchased on this trip), and great views of the city and the river. I couldn't resist photographing the sign for the condos for sale....
Later we went to a screening in Greenwich Village of a new film called "Famous Nathan" about the founder of Nathan's Hot Dogs. The film was made by Nathan's grandson who was in the audience along with many other relatives of Nathan which made for a great Q and A session after the film.
One more day tomorrow of being Big Apple tourists and we leave for our respective homes on Friday....
Even though the principal purpose of our trip is over, we still feel like we want to see all we can see. We recovered a bit of our sleep deprivation and set out from the Upper West Side to the Chelsea neighborhood near 14th street close to the Hudson River. We met a genealogy friend of Phyllis and had lunch and then he took us to the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway that has been artfully converted into a beautiful city park with trees, lots of flowers, benches, lounge chairs for sunbathers, some food places and souvenir stands (I've now lost count of how many refrigerator magnets I've purchased on this trip), and great views of the city and the river. I couldn't resist photographing the sign for the condos for sale....
Later we went to a screening in Greenwich Village of a new film called "Famous Nathan" about the founder of Nathan's Hot Dogs. The film was made by Nathan's grandson who was in the audience along with many other relatives of Nathan which made for a great Q and A session after the film.
One more day tomorrow of being Big Apple tourists and we leave for our respective homes on Friday....
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