Shava Rubenstein Aaronson

Shava Rubenstein Aaronson (1882-1945)

Mordecai and Shava Rubenstein Aronzon Family Pictures

"Mordecai married Shava because he fell in love with her, it was not an arranged marriage, as was the custom at the time. However, Shava's family could not afford her dowry, so my father secretly gave her family the money with which to buy her dowry. They were VERY much in love and lived in a Russian village called 'Verbovitz'. My father owned a seedstore where he sold grain to the peasant farmers who lived outside the village. When they could not pay, my father, who was always very kind, gave them grain and let them pay with whatever they could afford; a chicken or some eggs or even not at all. When he died in 1920, at age 43, of the worldwide influenza epidemic that swept around the world, the farmers helped my mother, my sister and brothers and me escape to Roumania by putting all six of us in a horse drawn wagon, covered us with hay and in the darkness of night drove us to the Dniester River, where we could cross over into Roumania." As told to daughter Judith by her mother Gissie Aaronson (Marcus).

Shava Rubenstein (1882-1945)

Back Row Left to Right: Josef (1907-1985), Mordecai (1877-1920) , Roza (1905-1968), Shava (1882-1945), Front Row Left to Right: Abram (1909-1994), Meir (1911-1991), Gisia Aronzon (1913-1981)

Front Row Left to Right: Roza, Josef, Shava, Gisia; Back Row: Meir, Abram Aronzon

Back Left to Right: Rose, Abe, Joe, Front Left to Right: Gertrude, Shava and Meyer Aaronson

Abe (1909-1994) and Miriam Aaronson

Joe Aaronson (1907-1985)

Meyer Aaronson (1911-1991) & General Eisenhower

Rose (1905-1968)

Rose (1905-1968) and Marilyn Goldberg

Abe, Gertrude, Norma, Meyer, Rose, Joe Aaronson in 1946

This may have been their Home in Verbovets; in 2010 cousin, Jere Friedman, took this picture…it was across the market square.

Dmitry Pruss, a Gonikberg cousin, found these documents…

“The sale happened in September 1888, the seller was Yenta Mordkovna Gonikberg (future Yetta Feldman of Baltimore) who bought the house in May 1885 from her husband Itsko Alterovich Gonikberg (who in turn got it from his mother in law in 1877, also at a foreclosure auction), it was appraised as 300 rb value. The house measures 43.5 x 16.25 arshines (3840 sq ft), between houses of Vendman, Brentman, and Khaspekh, on the East side of the market square. Since Yenta was illiterate, the contract was signed by Monis Mortkovch Royzelman. Witnessed, Mortko Royzelman & Moshko Munshpor. (Yenta and her husband moved to Ataki, across the river from Mogilev, after losing their home, and soon ended up in Balto).

In September 1888, the house has been sold to (GGF) Shaya-Meyer s/o (GGGF)Itsko Aronzon for 1200 rb. They were selling it because they fell behind on a 5 year equity loan. The buyer Shaya-Meyer Aronzon was registered as a Berdichev townsman, residing in Verbovets. In 1890, Duvid Honigberg, Ester and Alter's grandson, is listed as renting from Aronzons, perhaps in the same ancestral house. (Duvid's story is described in a court case on eviction of Duvid from a garden plot outside of town, as precipitated by the Imperial "temporary" statute on the rural Jews of 1883)

“I looked in the "obvious" places but couldn't spot the scans of either the 1888 foreclosure or the 1890 eviction cases.”

A more detailed description of the house we are looking for is,

"The house was characterized in 1877 as old but sturdy, in Ester Honikbarg's possession since 1829, in Itsko and Malka Honikbarg's earlier on. A stone house with tile roof, partitioned in two halves separated by a loading dock, one (facing the market square) with a storeroom and a storage, the other had 3 rooms, then kitchen with cellar, then two more rooms. It was only 9 ft tall on the market square side, taller in the back. The house measures 43.5 x 16.25 arshin (3840 sq ft) E-W and N-S, resp., between houses of Eli Veydman, Abraham Breytman, and David Khasyuk, on the East side of the market square, and Fishel Lerner across the square. Yenta Mordkovna Gonikberg (future Yetta Feldman of Baltimore) bought the house in May 1885 from her husband Itsko Alterovich Gonikberg, then sold to Aronzon. "

Joe & Abe Aaronson talking in 1983 about their memories of life in Verbovets and their trip to America (audio only-it may take time to load)

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