Preparations for Abram Broitman's Arrival

A Coordinated Effort

Abram Broitman boarded the S.S. Asia in Constanța, Romania on July 7, 1924, part of a group of 380 refugees. Previous blog posts lay out his departure from Romania and journey at sea; but in the meantime, on land, the ship’s departure touched off a flurry of activity among Jewish aid groups and communities in Romania, France, Canada, and the United States.

• The Central Relief Committee (CR). The CR, an organization with a mandate to support Jewish victims of war, was on the ground in Bucharest providing aid to Russian Jewish refugees. Abram’s passenger record to Halifax listed a Central Relief Committee office as his closest contact in Romania. 
• The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA or ICA). This was the key aid group facilitating the refugee program. Founded in 1914, their mandate was to establish self-sustaining Jewish agricultural colonies in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Mandatory Palestine. Their offices in Paris, Montreal, and Winnipeg were instrumental in ensuring that Abram and his fellow refugees would find safety. 
• The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (JIAS). The Canadian incarnation of HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, this organization was involved in supporting Abram and the other refugees both when they departed Romania and when they arrived in Canada. JIAS representatives would be some of the first officials they would encounter in Halifax.
• The Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The JDC was primarily responsible for raising the necessary funds, in the United States, to ensure that the new Canadian arrivals had sufficient resources not to become a burden on the state.  
• Canadian Jewish communities in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and as far west as Saskatoon were instrumental in integrating Abram and his refugee shipmates into Canadian Jewish life. 

All these groups needed to work in concert in order to make the refugees’ resettlement in North America possible. They had to (a) meet the conditions for departure and arrival laid out by each government; (b) ensure that sufficient funds were available to pay for the food and transportation by sea and rail; and (c) manage the anxiety and uncertainty that the refugees were facing. 

Notification

Today, this kind of project would be coordinated via instant global communications; but in 1924, there weren’t even reliable phone lines between the relevant European offices. The primary modes of communication were telegram and postal mail, with the result that each aid group had to operate somewhat independently. Only once an organization was notified that the next batch of refugees was en route they could begin to plan for their arrival. 

• 1924, early June: JCA representatives in Bucharest, Romania notify Abram that he has been given the green light to immigrate to Canada. 
• Tuesday, June 24: Abram obtains a passport and departure visa from the Russian Consulate in Bucharest. 
• Friday, July 4: Abram leaves Bucharest for Constanța, Romania. 
• Wednesday, July 9: The S.S. Asia sets sail from Constanța.
• Monday, July 14: JCA representatives in Montreal receive notification, via telegram, of the S.S. Asia’s departure and its estimated arrival date in Halifax. It is unclear if the JCA is given details about the composition of this group of refugees – how many are single? married? families with children? – but regardless, at this point the JCA has to make initial decisions about assigning the refugees to various Canadian cities. Telegrams are sent to JCA and JIAS representatives in Montreal and Winnipeg informing them that this newest group of refugees will be arriving in about two weeks.

Letter from JCA Montreal to Rabbi Barnet Brickner of Toronto informing him of the impending arrival of the S.S. Asia. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. ICA-S-CB-17

The S.S. Asia had already been at sea for five days by the time news of its departure reached JCA and JIAS representatives across Canada. Now the negotiations began.

Trouble in the Colonies

The process of assigning the new arrivals to communities across Canada was tricky. One the one hand, the mission of the JCA was to establish agricultural colonies, and the Canadian federal government had explicitly mandated that a certain proportion of the refugees work as farmhands. On the other hand, the practicality of settling the refugees in the Western provinces was significantly limited by the cost of supporting them, the poor crop yield of 1924, and the refugees’ agricultural capabilities -- or distinct lack thereof. 

These new arrivals had been merchants and tradespeople back in Russia. The idea of working as farmhands probably seemed preposterous to them, not least of all because back “home,” Jews had been barred from agricultural work by the Czar. The prospect of being assigned to agricultural destinations in Canada was so unappealing that earlier groups of refugees had actually refused to travel past Montreal. Accordingly, Abram and his fellow passengers had to sign pledges to go where they were told -- and to do so without complaint.

Oath required of refugee passengers on the S.S. Asia. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. ICA-S-CB-17

The JCA representatives in Montreal expected to send a large number of the S.S. Asia refugees to the agricultural colonies out West: their help was presumably needed with the upcoming harvest, and the Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto couldn’t absorb any more indigent newcomers anyway. When news of this plan reached the western colonies, however, JCA and JIAS representatives in Winnipeg sounded the alarm. According to correspondence dated between June 17 and June 25, the agricultural colonies could not accept additional refugees, and the small Jewish communities could only take them if they were provided with sufficient funds to house and support them. An emergency meeting of local Jewish leaders was called for June 25 in Winnipeg. While the minutes of that meeting are not available, we can assume it was made clear by telegraph to those JCA leaders in Montreal assigning refugees to the various communities that only a handful of those arriving on the S.S. Asia could be sent to the West.

Excerpt of letter dated 25 July 1924 from a JCA representative in Winnipeg to the JCA office in Montreal. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. ICA-CB-21.1-39

This probably suited Abram and his fellow refugees just fine. Most of them would ultimately be settled in the cities of Montreal and Toronto. But this failure to turn refugees into farmers would mean the JCA would fall short of its mission and be out of compliance with the stipulations laid out by the Canadian government. Adding to their difficulties was a lack of funds: JDC representatives from New York would arrive in August with only a fraction of the money needed to support the struggling new arrivals -- money they had expected to raise from the American Jewish community. The burden of supporting the refugees would fall to the comparatively small Canadian Jewish community instead.

The Days Before the Arrival of the S.S. Asia

In the five days that elapsed between the JIAS-JCA leadership meeting in Winnipeg and the arrival of the S.S. Asia in Halifax, the JCA offices in Montreal finalized how Abram and his 379 fellow refugees would be spread across the country.

Next time: Abram arrives in Halifax

Reconnecting with Pears and Bears in London

The small Ukrainian shtetl of Medzhybizh is largely known today for being the birthplace of the Chasidism movement and the final resting place of its founder, the Baal Shem Tov. It is also one of my ancestral towns - the place where my great-grandmother, Sarah Birnberg Telles - was born. Their surname was Birnberg [Бирнберг] or Berenberg [Беренберг] or Birenberg [Биренберг] or possibly Bernberg [Бернберг].The name appears in English records in so many varieties that some folks have questioned if I'm making it up. Birnberg means "Pear Mountain" (in German) while Berenberg means "Bear Mountain" (in Dutch). I think pears are more likely than bears in this case!

Meyer Birnberg had at least six children between 1860 and 1893 when my great-grandmother Sarah was born. In 1910, Sarah came to the US following in the footsteps of her brothers/half-brothers Nathan (who came in 1901), Edel Leib (who came in 1905), and Louis (who came in 1906).^1,2 But while much of the family came to the US, her older brother Joseph immigrated to and settled in London. He and his wife Rachel had five girls, each of whom had families of their own.

My New York-based family remained in contact with this branch of the family into the 1960s and even hosted one cousin, Brenda, when she first moved to the US in the 1960s. Thanks to my mother's impeccable records, I found Brenda's married name in the invitation list to my parents' wedding in 1965. Sadly, when Sarah's generation passed on, the remaining family members did not maintain those connections. In fact, beyond Brenda we really didn’t know anything at all about the family – not even the names of Joseph’s daughters.

When I became interested in genealogy in the late 1990s, I contacted Brenda. She was so wonderful to speak with, regaling me with stories of her exciting life in the most wonderful lilting accent. Unfortunately, her promises to provide me with the names and dates needed to flesh out the family tree and connect with others never materialized. She did mention her nephew’s name to me (let’s call him "Ronald" for the sake of anonymity), but never even told me what his surname was! Eventually I lost track of Brenda as she moved from one assisted living facility to another.

Several years ago, I decided to track down the family. First, I spent time with the 1911 England Census, finding a few promising candidates for my Joseph Birnberg. Bingo! I found a record with six daughters³. Then I traced the families of each of the daughters, hoping to find records of Brenda to verify conclusively that it was the right family. 

1911 census record of Joseph Birnberg and his family
Class: RG14; Piece: 1509; Title: 1911 England Census. Downloaded from Ancestry.com Aug 2024

It took some time, but with online birth, marriage, death, and burial records I was able to flesh out the whole family tree. I took the following steps: 

• Noted the names of each of the daughters and their approximate dates of birth, keeping in mind variations in given names (e.g., Leah, Lily, and Lilian could all be the same person)
• Confirmed the years of birth using the online "England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index"
• Identified marriage records for each of the daughters to determine dates of marriages and married names in the "England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index."
• Identified the children of each of the daughters by searching the birth index, filtering by "Mother's Maiden Name."
• Located likely death records in the "England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index."
• Verified information with any additional records I could find, including online probate records and photos of headstones that indicate the father's name (via "Find a Grave", for instance). Joseph Birnberg's headstone indicates his father was Meyer, as expected.

Eventually, this allowed me to find records for the extended family, including Brenda, her sister, and her sister’s son "Ronald." It was confirmed; I had successfully identified the English branch of my great-grandmother’s family! Now to track down “Ronald” to get back in touch. Facebook? No go. But LinkedIn had several people with the right name, right places, and approximately the right ages. I reached out to each of them privately with a message I hoped would convince them I wasn’t trying to scam them. You could imagine how excited I was when one of them wrote back to say he was the right one!

Brenda sadly passed away recently, but I was able to speak to her 97-year-old sister last year, my mother's second-cousin. This week, following a work trip to England, I was thrilled to meet “Ronald,” my third-cousin, as well as his son. They showed me and my wife parts of the city we might never have gone to! We did not find a "Bear and Pear" pub, but maybe we will next time. I’d like to think that Sarah and Joseph Birnberg are smiling that the family has been reunited after a century. 

"The Bear and the Pear Pub"
Courtesy of DALL-E 3

1 Another brother, Jacob Birnberg, allegedly went to Argentina and worked with horses. However, I’ve found no records of that. I’ve contacted every Birnberg in Argentina, and we are not related as far as I’ve been able to determine. Many Jews immigrated to South America, supported in part by the JCA/ICA. Perhaps Jacob went to Brazil instead!

2. It is likely that all of the siblings shared a father but may have had different mothers. It isn't clear what the half-sibling relationships were, though. Many genealogical records from Medzhybizh were destroyed in a fire in 2003, so we may never know. 

3. The 1911 census record indicates that Joseph and Rachel had another child who died before 1911. I've been unable to determine their name, although the England & Wales Civil Registration Birth and Death Indexes has a few candidates. Sadly, one of the daughters listed on this census, Golda, died soon after the census was taken according to the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index. Another daughter, Rifka, was born and died in 1912 at five months old.