The Warshavsky Family
With thanks to Susan Amsterdam for permitting this selection from the memoir she and her husband
Marvin z”l put together for their children.
My Mother’s Story
Harriett Sarah Wasserman “Sallie”
My mother’s family took root when your great great great-grandparents, Zlata Fialkov and Velvel
Warshavsky, were married in approximately 1830. Zlata’s family lived in the town of Yaneveh, about 25
miles west of Pinsk, in White Russia, the country now known as Belorus.
From this unimpressive corner of the world, came a brilliant woman, Zlata Fialkov. Zlata was so
remarkable that her daughter-in-law Chana was convinced that had she only been granted an education,
she could have been a judge. In those days, of course, education was reserved for boys; however, her
wisdom and common sense were acknowledged by everyone, and her counsel was sought out by people
in Yaneveh and from as far away as Pinsk. People in a quandary came to her for secular advice the way
they consulted the rabbi for religious opinions. Even her brother-in-law, Michel Bercinsky, himself an
extraordinary man who became a prosperous lawyer in Russia, (no small feat for a Jew) paid her the
highest compliment that a woman could receive when he said that one might speak of her as “Reb
Zlata.” (“Reb” being an honorific term reserved for men.)[Editor: taken from the book Yesterday, A
Memoir of a Russian Jewish Family by Miriam Shomer Zunser, edited by her granddaughter Emily Wortis
Leider and based on the lives of Zlata’s younger sister and her family.]
Her point of view was invariably positive and life-affirming. For example, one day a wedding was about
to take place in her bustling, multi-generational household, while an old man lay on his deathbed in
another room. Zlata made sure that the wedding guests were never aware that their relative was dying.
The joy of the living, she felt, had to take precedence over death.
It is interesting to note that she might have been related to Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann,
whose last name was originally Fialkov and who lived nearby. (Weizmann was born in 1874, about 44
years after Zlata’s marriage to Velvel Warshavsky.)
Velvel and Zlata had eight children in all. Two of them, their daughter Miriam and their son Shmerril are
essential to our story.
Shmerril married Chana Valinsky, a young woman from Pinsk. She moved into the Warshavsky
household with her in-laws. Chana, as I have said, had great respect for her mother-in-law, and she and
her sister-in-law, Shmerril’s sister Miriam, became close friends and remained so for their entire lives.
Chana and Shmerril had a family of seven children, four daughters and three sons. Shmerril died when
Sam, their oldest son, was only twelve years old.
Sam was born in Yaneveh on July 15, 1882, and by the time of his death at the age of 50, he had become
a prominent resident of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Even as a child, Sam exhibited some exceptional
talents. He was not only an excellent student but he also possessed a beautiful singing voice, so his
parents thought that he would make a fine rabbi or cantor. To this end, he received as much schooling
as was available in the town of Yaneveh, and then he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in
Pinsk, a large city with much greater educational opportunities. In addition to his other studies, he
learned to read, write, and speak English. These abilities proved to be invaluable when, at the age of 15,
he set off alone for America. Very few immigrants arrived with a working knowledge of English.
If a passenger couldn’t pay for the entire voyage to the United States, he or she commonly disembarked
at a European port, earned enough money to continue the trip, and then boarded another ship to
continue the journey. This may be the reason that Sam Warshavsky spent some time in Liverpool en
route to the United States. He completed his trip on another vessel [Editor: SS Yongariro] which docked
there on its way to the United States. Coincidentally, his thirteen year old cousin Esther [Editor: the
daughter of his sister Miriam and her husband Shmuel Ratnovsky] was on that same ship, under very
different circumstances. While Esther was in a cabin with a married couple whom her parents had
arranged to escort her on her trip, Sam was traveling in steerage, suffering horribly from seasickness.
Each day Esther came down to steerage with some dry bread for him, the only food he was able to
choke down. Although this appears to be an unlikely beginning for a romance, that is actually how it
happened.
Editor: More information about the descendants of Velvel and Zlata Warshavsky:
Most of Velvel and Zlata Warshavsky’s children did not leave Ivanava, but many of their descendants
emigrated to the United States before WWII. In addition to their son Shmerril and daughter Miriam,
there were at least 6 other children. One of Velvel and Zlata’s older sons, Leib, took the surname of
Horowitz/Horwitz and married Judith. In the next generation, his descendants settled in Massachusetts,
Connecticut and New York. A daughter, Dina, married Moshe Ephraim Gottlieb. Their next generation
descendants settled in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York although descendants of one branch,
the children of Avram Berl and his wife Hodes, are known to have survived WWII and settled in Poland
and Israel. A son named Mordechai apparently died in Europe before 1882. A daughter named Feigel
also died in Europe. She had married Avraham Begun and lived in Lahishin where they had one
daughter, Zlata, probably named for her grandmother. Zlata was brought to the United States by her
Aunt Miriam in 1907. She changed her name to Stella and married married a Horowitz cousin in
Massachusetts. Nothing much is known about the descendants of Beryl Warshavsky who apparently
settled in the Lawrence, Massachusetts area according to one source. Lastly, it is believed another
daughter, Leah is likely to be Bashe Leah who married Abraham Altman. The first generation of their
descendants also primarily settled in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Most of the descendants that
emigrated with the name Warshavsky changed their surname to Wasserman in the United States.
Miriam Warshavsky Ratnovsky and her husband were able to join their children in the United States.
Shmuel Ratnovsky changed his surname to Radner as his sons had done. Miriam and Shmuel Radner
settled near most of their children in Springfield, Massachusetts.