Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms
A sweeping saga of a Jewish family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history.

Set between events depicted in Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler’s List, Lisa Brahin’s Tears over Russia brings to life a piece of Jewish history that has never before been told.

Between 1917 and 1921, twenty years before the Holocaust began, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered in anti-Jewish pogroms across Ukraine. Lisa grew up transfixed by her grandmother Channa’s stories about her family being forced to flee their hometown of Stavishche, as armies and bandit groups raided village after village, killing Jewish residents. Channa described a perilous three-year journey through Russia and Romania, led at first by a gallant American who had snuck into Ukraine to save his immediate family and ended up leading an exodus of nearly eighty to safety.

With almost no published sources to validate her grandmother’s tales, Lisa embarked on her incredible journey to tell Channa’s story, forging connections with archivists around the world to find elusive documents to fill in the gaps of what happened in Stavishche. She also tapped into connections closer to home, gathering testimonies from her grandmother’s relatives, childhood friends and neighbors.

The result is a moving historical family narrative that speaks to universal human themes—the resilience and hope of ordinary people surviving the ravages of history and human cruelty. With the growing passage of time, it is unlikely that we will see another family saga emerge so richly detailing this forgotten time period. Tears Over Russia eloquently proves that true life is sometimes more compelling than fiction.
1140432264
Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms
A sweeping saga of a Jewish family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history.

Set between events depicted in Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler’s List, Lisa Brahin’s Tears over Russia brings to life a piece of Jewish history that has never before been told.

Between 1917 and 1921, twenty years before the Holocaust began, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered in anti-Jewish pogroms across Ukraine. Lisa grew up transfixed by her grandmother Channa’s stories about her family being forced to flee their hometown of Stavishche, as armies and bandit groups raided village after village, killing Jewish residents. Channa described a perilous three-year journey through Russia and Romania, led at first by a gallant American who had snuck into Ukraine to save his immediate family and ended up leading an exodus of nearly eighty to safety.

With almost no published sources to validate her grandmother’s tales, Lisa embarked on her incredible journey to tell Channa’s story, forging connections with archivists around the world to find elusive documents to fill in the gaps of what happened in Stavishche. She also tapped into connections closer to home, gathering testimonies from her grandmother’s relatives, childhood friends and neighbors.

The result is a moving historical family narrative that speaks to universal human themes—the resilience and hope of ordinary people surviving the ravages of history and human cruelty. With the growing passage of time, it is unlikely that we will see another family saga emerge so richly detailing this forgotten time period. Tears Over Russia eloquently proves that true life is sometimes more compelling than fiction.
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Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms

Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms

by Lisa Brahin
Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms

Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms

by Lisa Brahin

Hardcover

$28.95 
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Overview

A sweeping saga of a Jewish family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history.

Set between events depicted in Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler’s List, Lisa Brahin’s Tears over Russia brings to life a piece of Jewish history that has never before been told.

Between 1917 and 1921, twenty years before the Holocaust began, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered in anti-Jewish pogroms across Ukraine. Lisa grew up transfixed by her grandmother Channa’s stories about her family being forced to flee their hometown of Stavishche, as armies and bandit groups raided village after village, killing Jewish residents. Channa described a perilous three-year journey through Russia and Romania, led at first by a gallant American who had snuck into Ukraine to save his immediate family and ended up leading an exodus of nearly eighty to safety.

With almost no published sources to validate her grandmother’s tales, Lisa embarked on her incredible journey to tell Channa’s story, forging connections with archivists around the world to find elusive documents to fill in the gaps of what happened in Stavishche. She also tapped into connections closer to home, gathering testimonies from her grandmother’s relatives, childhood friends and neighbors.

The result is a moving historical family narrative that speaks to universal human themes—the resilience and hope of ordinary people surviving the ravages of history and human cruelty. With the growing passage of time, it is unlikely that we will see another family saga emerge so richly detailing this forgotten time period. Tears Over Russia eloquently proves that true life is sometimes more compelling than fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781639361670
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publication date: 06/07/2022
Pages: 334
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lisa Brahin is an accomplished Jewish genealogist and researcher. In 2003, she helped rediscover the lost location of the original hand-written manuscript Megilat HaTevah (Scroll of the Slaughter), which she considers one of the most important documents ever recorded on the Russian pogroms. A graduate of George Washington University's Columbian College, she is a two-town project coordinator for Jewishgen.org's international Yizkor Book Project (Holocaust Memorial Book Project).

Table of Contents

Preface: A Granddaughter's Memories xi

Russian Jewish Timeline: A Brief Chronology of Historical Events, 1881-1921 xvii

Prologue: Stavishche, June 15-16, 1919 xxiii

Part I Calm Before the Storm: 1876-1918

Chapter 1 Family Folklore 3

Chapter 2 A Total Eclipse 12

Chapter 3 A Passover Tragedy 19

Chapter 4 Days of Innocence 22

Chapter 5 Avrum Cutler's Brief Betrothals 29

Chapter 6 Count Wladyslaw Branicki and the Noble Family of Stavishche 34

Part II The Pogroms: 1917-1920

Chapter 7 Stavishche Under Siege 43

Chapter 8 Grigoriev's Bandits 48

Chapter 9 From Village to Village 58

Chapter 10 Ataman Zeleny Meets Rabbi Pitsie Avram 66

Chapter 11 The Murder of Bessie Cutler's Husband 71

Chapter 12 General Denikin's Militia 76

Chapter 13 Refuge in Belaya Tserkov 85

Part III Exodus to the Goldene Medina, 1920-1925

Chapter 14 There Was a Place Nearby, Where They Made the Little Coffins 95

Chapter 15 The Unlikely Arrival of Barney Stumacher, an American Hero 98

Chapter 16 The Great Escape: The Wagon Trains 116

Chapter 17 The Perilous Crossing of the Dniester River 127

Chapter 18 Adventures in Romania 131

Chapter 19 Life in Kishinev 138

Chapter 20 Journey on the SS Braga 150

Chapter 21 America: The First Years 158

Part IV Rebecca and Isaac's Children: Select Stories in Philadelphia, 1926-1941

Chapter 22 Struggling in the Golden Land 169

Chapter 23 The Story of Anne and Ben 175

Chapter 24 When Sunny Met Harry 184

Chapter 25 Beryl 188

Part V Rabbis and Reunions 1941-1950 Rainbows 1925 and 2003

Chapter 26 Rabbi Pitsie Avram in the Bronx 195

Chapter 27 The Events That Defined Their Lives in the New World 204

Chapter 28 Rainbows 210

Appendices

A The Colorful History of Branicki Palace and the Secret Identity of Its First Countess 217

B Funeral Speech for Count Wladyslaw M. Branicki, Last Nobleman of Stavishche: Sucha, Poland, September 21, 1922 221

C The Stavishche Pogrom Tombstone List (Partial), 1918-1920 225

D Partial List of Stavishche Residents Murdered by Grigoriev's Band, Headed by Zhelezniak, June 1919 228

E A Partial Pogrom Memorial List, 1920 230

F Death List (Partial): Stavishche, (Translated from Yiddish into English) 235

G The Pogrom Survivors: Stavishche, 1923 237

H Fates of the Villagers, 1920s 240

I Famine, Fascists, and the Holocaust: Stavishche, 1931-1945 248

J Searching for a Historical Treasure: The Megilat Ha-tevah, Tel Aviv, 2003 254

K The Stunning Discovery of the Stavishche Torah Crown, 2005 257

Acknowledgments 265

Glossary 267

Notes 271

Bibliography 299

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