Page 21 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 5783 USA

Though my great-grandfather Layzer marriage, and would later bring our own
worked for his father-in-law distributing family on annual Sukkot trips to visit our
margarine, he chose to pursue a livelihood family in Tel Aviv.
in the United States, making his way to I grew up with my Savta’s Hebrew melodies
Los Angeles where he worked as a shochet and lullabies, and merited to host her in
and opened a kosher meat business. In
1924, he left his pregnant wife Breindel Alon Shvut after our Aliyah. I recall driving
my grandparents from Gush Etzion to
and three-year old son Yehoshua Shmuel
in Batei Varsha, intending to bring them as their hotel in Yerushalayim and seeing my
soon as he was settled. My grandmother, grandmother cry as we drove by the Israeli
Adina z”l was born a few months after her soldiers in Beit Lechem. Remembering her
father left and only met him five years childhood and the foreign British soldiers
later, when Layzer sent boat tickets for who ruled Israel at that time, she was
his family to join him. overcome with emotion and appreciation
for the miracle of a Jewish state protected
In 1929, Breindel left with her two children by a Jewish army.
to the Jaffa Port, accompanied by armed
British soldiers to protect them against In 1994, while expecting our second
Arab rioters. It was a tearful parting, as child, I was invited to attend a Fenigstein
Breindel didn’t know if she would ever Chanukah family reunion in Tel Aviv. The
see her family or her home in Jaffa again. first descendant of Breindel Fenigstein-
After a thirty-day boat trip to New York Deutsch to make Aliyah, I was introduced
followed by a four-and-a-half-day train to my “long-lost” second and third cousins.
ride to the west coast, Breindel and her I learned about our Batei Varsha legacy Shaul Yitzchak and Riva on roof top of Batei Varsha.
two children were reunited with Layzer and the role my mother’s family played
in Los Angeles. in establishing Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Inspired
by Shaul Yitzchak’s pioneering spirit, we
Meanwhile, the Arab riots of 1929 forced
the Fenigstein family to once again named our son, born a few days after the
abandon their home and move in with reunion, Yehuda Shaul, to perpetuate the
Rabbi Nechemia Berman on Kalisher legacy of his commitment to Am Yisrael,
Street in Tel Aviv. Though they later Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael. Today, my son
returned home, they were forced to flee lives around the block from Sderot Nordau
once again during riots of April 1936, when and a few minutes walk away from his
Arabs looted and burned down the Batei great-great-great grandfather’s estate of
Varsha complex. Though some residents Batei Varsha. An active participant in Yakar
returned to rebuild the three courtyards, Tel Aviv and Torah learning for students
Shaul Yitzchak’s family remained in Tel and young professionals in Tel Aviv,
Aviv. Longing for his home, Shaul Yitzchak Yehuda Shaul, together with many other
continued to visit his beloved home every descendants of his namesake, is Baruch
Friday, until it was completely destroyed Hashem continuing the legacy and message
once again on August 15, 1947, on the of Chanukah – the chinuch of the home,
eve of the War of Independence. In 1956, and the reestablishment of sovereignty
under the State of Israel’s Development in our Land.
Authority, Batei Varsha became the grounds
for the Tel Aviv police offices, and it One of the original Batei Varsha buildings.
remains so today.
Yosef Moshe Russak, my “Saba Joe”, grew
up in Seattle, and met my grandmother
Adina at the family’s “kosher eatery” in
Los Angeles. They married and moved
to Seattle, where they helped build the
Jewish community and raised my mother
Rabbanit Shani Taragin
and her siblings. In 1946, Layzer and is Educational Director of Mizrachi
Breindel returned to Israel to live near and the Director of the Mizrachi-TVA
their Fenigstein family relatives in Tel Lapidot Educators’ Program.
Aviv, across the street from the shul of
the Gerrer Chassidim. My mother recalls Join me at the
visiting her grandparents when she World Orthodox Israel Congress Est. 1902
orthodoxisraelcongress.org
came to Israel for the year soon after her 120 YEARS OF RELIGIOUS ZIONISM A plaque commemorating Batei Varsha.

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