Shpall Family of Kremenets

Contributed by Peggy Pearlstein

Aron Shimon Shpall (b. 1875, Kremenets; d. 1935, New Orleans) was a Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish writer; a high school principal; a devoted Zionist; and a Hebraist. He is mentioned in Pinkas Kremenits, one of the yizkor books memorializing the Kremenets Jewish community:

  • "They were deeply rooted in their belief in Zionism and steadfast in their ideas. Each of them had an influential personality and was well known in the community: Dr. B. Landsberg, Yakov Shafir, Meir Goldring, Aharon-Shimon Shpal, Moshe Eydelman, Getsi Klurfayn, Aharon Fridman, Munye Dobromil, Meshulam Katz, and some other personalities—community workers who paved the way for widespread cultural and Zionist activity in the period between the two wars and prepared for a large-scale pioneer immigration" (p. 59).

  • "Some other teachers of Hebrew taught individuals and small groups, mainly in well-to-do households. Among them was Aharon Shimon Shpal, whose home was the first Hebrew-speaking home ... . During World War I, many refugees from surrounding towns poured into Kremenets. For them and for the local poor, in 1916 the Joint established two primary schools, where the students also were served hot meals. One school had the teacher Mr. Shpal as principal ..." (p. 137).

Further mentions appear in Kremenits, Vyshgorodek, un Potshayuv yizkor bukh:

  • [In 1915, during World War I] "In lieu of a police force, a militia was formed under the Hebrew teacher A. Shpal’s leadership. (He later went to America.) His Jewish aides, with armbands on their sleeves, maintained order in town" (p. 49).

  • "Aharon Shimon Shpal was a Hebrew teacher and blazing activist for the Zionist movement and Hebrew. His son was the first child in Kremenets whose mother tongue was Hebrew. He was an idealistic teacher, and he saw in his trade, in teaching, a respected national mission. And indeed, hundreds of his students grew up to be Zionists and good Jews" (p. 94).

His great-granddaughter, Shuly Rubin Schwartz, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, wrote about him in “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Hebraist: The Life and Dreams of Aron Shimon Shpall,” in “From Rebbetzin to Rabbi: The Journal of Paula Ackerman,” American Jewish Archives 59 (2007): 99–206.

Leo Todros Shpall (Aryeh Leib)

His grandson, Aron Shimon Shpall; Aron's wife, Shulamith; and their children Leo (Aryeh Leib, 1903-1964) and Edith (mother-in-law of the contributor, 1908-1996). Two other children were later born to the couple. The photo was taken in Kremenets.

Leo Shpall, son of Aron Shimon Shpall

Aron Shimon in New Orleans, where the family lived from their arrival in the United States in 1922 until his death in 1935.