Lithuania: Saul Veshasky Family

My father's family was originally from Sereje, Lithuania:

http://www.jewishgen.org/Litvak/serei.htm

The following article describes Sereje and includes a reference to my great-grandfather, Isaac Veshasky, who founded a cheder (Jewish elementary school) that taught secular as well as religious subjects. In America, he was known as Isaac Saul.

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/serey/Serey1a.html

Photo and discussion of death record of Sarah Wiesjieski (Sory Veshasky), 1869

Photo and discussion of marriage record of Isaac and Miriam Wiesjieski , 1860

Photos of the graves of Isaac and Miriam Saul

Photos of the graves of Tamara Veshasky Neuherzig (daughter of Abraham Veshasky, sister of Isaac Veshasky), and her husband Nechemia Neuherzig, thought to be in Sereje. (Photos courtesy of Nelson Levitan.) Note that the inscription of Tamara's name confirms that Abraham Veshasky was a rabbi and dayan (judge). The touching epitaph says that "her children who mourn for her are far away across the ocean." According to Nelson Levitan, Nechemia Neuherzig earned his living sailing the rivers to buy boar bristles from farmers and taking them to market at Leipzig fair. To supplement their income, Tamara sold her own home baked bagels.

The Veshasky/Saul family emigrated to Wales before many in the family moved on to the United States.

Isaac and Miriam Saul (formerly Veshasky), in Pennsylvania with five of their six sons (prob. 1913-1914) (Click here for enlargement with key to names and dates)

Harry Saul and his store (Dunlo or Pittsburgh??)

Refer to Pittsburgh pages for continuation of the story...

Books of interest:

Eliach, Yaffa, There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok. (Boston, Little Brown, 1998). Detailed chronicle of a shetl not far from or unlike Sereje; the basis of a major exhibit at the Smithsonian Holocaust Museum.

Schoenburg, Nancy and Stuart, Lithuanian Jewish Communities (Northvale NJ, Jason Aronson, 1996). Essential. This is where I discovered that Sereje actually is on the map.

Schulzinger, Morris S. The Tale of a Litvak (NY, Philosophical Library, 1985). Very detailed autobiography of a man born in Sereje in 1900, with photographs and drawings. Especially rich in details of religious life and thought, especially the influence of the Vilna Gaon and the Haskalah movement..

03/06/2008