ASIMOV, Judah

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Jack
• Education: Started school at age 5, Petrovichi, Russia
• Occupation: Owned, operated candy stores at or near each home address.
• Occupation: Candy store owner, Brooklyn, NY
• Occupation: Dealer in rye, oats, barley, buckwheat in Petrovichi, Russia. The family mill was 2,450 square feet. Made kasha from buckwheat
• Immigration: 13 Feb 1923, NY, USA
• Naturalization: 6 Sep 1928, District Court, Brooklyn, NY

Notes:

The Asimovs were leading citizens in Petrovichi, socially & economically. There, Judah set up a co-operative organization for buying and distributing food, which he ran for 5 years.

He helped organize a library in the town, and he and his wife, Anna Berman Asimov, took up amateur theatre. She was apparently a good actress.

He also brought the first real doctor to Petrovichi in 1915, named Dr. Gugel. There had been no doctor in Petrovichi at the time -- only a registered nurse called a "feldsher."

Judah's Grandfather Mendel loved him very much. Judah was his first-born grandchild. (There had been a girl born earlier, who died in infancy.) Mendel used to hold Judah in shul, and Judah felt that Mendel would have given his life for him.

Judah was one of eight children, though two died in infancy: a girl in 1894, and a boy in who died at 6 months in 1904.

Judah was born about a block away from Anna Rachel Berman. (See notes in their wedding section.)

Judah and Anna left Petrovitchi for Moscow on Dec. 24, 1922, by a hired horse and buggy. They traveled to the Pochinok Station with their 2-year-old son, Isaac, and their nearly 6-month-old daughter, Marcia, who had a bad cough. The family went to Liverpool and boarded the USS Baltic, which landed at Ellis Island in Feb. 1923.

Judah's recollections, written in 1969, say they arrived on Feb 3 1923 and were allowed to leave the ship on Feb 7. The electronic record of the ship's manifest (ellisisland.org) (https://tinyurl.com/35tsy2sn) erroneously says they arrived on Feb. 13, 1923. But the record itself has a Feb. 3 date. Judah said it took them four days to leave the ship, so they set foot in NY for the first time on Feb. 7, 1923.

The Baltic's manifest lists the family from "Petrowitschi" as follows: Juda, Hana Rochel, Aisik & Manis Asimy. https://tinyurl.com/35tsy2sn

As for the ship:
BALTIC 1903
The BALTIC was a 23,876 gross ton ship built in 1903 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast for the White Star Line. Her details were - length 709.2ft x beam 75.6ft, two funnels, four masts, twin screw and a speed of 17 knots. There was accommodation for 425-1st, 450-2nd and 2,000-3rd class passengers. Launched on 21st Nov.1903, she sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York on 29th Jun.1904. In 1909 she rescued survivors of the collision between the REPUBLIC and the FLORIDA off the US coast, in which the REPUBLIC sank. On 12th Dec.1918 she commenced her first voyage after the Armistice, from Liverpool to New York and in 1927 her accommodation was altered to carry 393-cabin class, 339-tourist class and 1,150-3rd class passengers. On 17th Sep.1932 she commenced her last voyage from Liverpool to New York and Liverpool and on 17th Feb.1933 sailed for Osaka, Japan where she was scrapped. [North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P.Bonsor, vol.2,p.763]

In "In Memory Yet Green," Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) writes of Judah: "When I was young, my father, who loved to tell me stories and parables designed to improve my mind and spirit, would occasionally expound on a biblical verse. (He knew the Bible by heart -- for he was a very very great scholar, too, in the shtetl sense--but in Hebrew, of course.) He would recite the verse in Hebrew, then translate it into English--or Yiddish, if he couldn't think of an English word..."


1st apt: 425 Van Siclen Ave., Brooklyn betw Sutter & Black
1925: 434 Miller Ave., corner Sutter
1926, 1st candy store: 751 Sutter Ave. between Miller and Bradford
Dec. 1928, Apt: 651 Essex Street, above the second candy store, corner New Lots Ave.
1933: Church Ave candy store for about 1 month
1933: Apt: 1312 Decatur St, with candy store
Dec. 1936: 4th candy store: 174 Windsor Pl, between Fuller Place and 10th Avenue
Apt: 192 Windsor Pl.

Immigration:
Ship: Baltic

Buried:
JPG, Genealogy/Reunion/headstones/Asimov Headstone.jpg, Anna Berman and Judah Asimov Headstone, HEADSTONE

Judah married BERMAN, Anna (Hana) Rachel in Jun 1918 in Petrovichi, Russia. Anna (daughter of BERMAN, Isaac and UNKNOWN, Tamara) was born on 5 Sep 1895 in Petrovichi, Russia; died on 6 Aug 1973 in Ila Hotel, Long Beach, NY, USA; was buried in Mt. Golda Cemetery, Huntington, Long Island. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Judah's recollections, written in 1969:

"I was very young when I started to like to talk to her (Anna), but she used to dress up and go away with or to girl friends, giving me the impression that she doesn't care for me, until a little over 50 years ago we got married.

"That was right after the Communist revolution. But regardless, we had a truly Jewish wedding, where the whole town's people Jew and Gentile came to the front of the shul where our wedding took place under the open sky."

Judah's niece, Serafima Asimova, later wrote an email to her cousins in the United States dispelling a rumor in Petrovichi that Judah and Anna left for the U.S. because the Bermans and Asimovs were not happy about the marriage. (Note: Serafima refers to Anna as Hanna, and to Judah's mother as Hanna, as well) The rumor was "...that Judah and Hanna Berman there have left far away from my grandmother Hanna which did not like the wife of the son. It is a lie."

She writes: "Judah - the first-born Hanna and Aaron Asimov. The grandmother of Hanna (Berman) very much liked Judah. When he began to meet about Hanna Berman, the grandmother asked the son to not hurry up. He was high and beautiful, and Hanna very small. But to a place there has come a typhus and Judah was ill the Typhus. For days and nights stayed about his bed of Hanna Berman and heart of the grandmother at a kind of such love and fidelity has trembled and she has recognized to Hanna and was glad to their marriage."

1. ASIMOV, Isaac was born on 2 Jan 1920 in Petrovichi, Russian SFSR, 10 miles East of Belorussian SSR border (near Smolensk); died in 1992.
2. ASIMOV, Marcia was born on 17 Jun 1922 in Petrovichi, Russia, Soviet Union; died on 2 Apr 2011 in Plainview, Long Island, NY.
3. ASIMOV, Stanley was born on 25 Jul 1929 in 501 New Lots Ave. Brooklyn, NY; died on 16 Aug 1995 in Mt. Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, NY; was cremated in 1995 in NYC.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Dealer in grain: rye, oats, barley, buckwheat. In the family mill they prepared it to be cooked and eaten.
• Occupation: Dealer in raw linen:“penka,” “len,” and “poskany.” Able to sort out the linen by grade and quality.
• Religion: Jewish
• Residence: Petrovich, Russia

Notes:

In 1979, Serafima Asimova wrote to her cousin, Isaac Asimov, from Leningrad, and said that her Grandfather Aaron Asimov and Grandmother Hana Leikin Asimov had six children: Judah, Rachel, Dvosja, Boris, Ephraim and her father, Samuel.

Judah (1896 -1969) wrote a recollection of years in Russia and said that Aaron Asimov had been a grain dealer who sold rye, oats, barley and buckwheat.

Judah wrote that his father was a great believer in G-d.

He wrote that Aaron did not hit his children--except once. Judah was about 18 when he and his father asked the local rabbi to rule in a business dispute between them and another man whom they believed had deceived them. When the Rabbi ruled against Aaron and Judah, Judah objected. Aaron slapped Jack, saying that the decision was the Rabbi's to make and that they would abide by it.

Aaron was smart. When a new tax collector came to town, it was Aaron who noticed that the townspeople weren't being given receipts for the money they paid. Instead, the tax collector had them sign a paper after they paid. So Aaron asked for a receipt. The tax collector refused, so Aaron said he would neither pay nor sign.

It turned out that the paper everyone was signing was a lease that turned over their property to the tax collector and permitted him to raise their rent at will. So Aaron and the other townspeople took the tax collector to court in a case that went up to the Russian Duma. No one knows how the judge would have decided, however, because the year was 1917, and the Russian Revolution turned everything upside down.

Here is an excerpt from a 2006 email from Serafima Asimova, the daughter of Aaron's youngest son, Samuel, referring to the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in the 1920s:

"By then, it is the middle of 20 years [1920s], family of grandfather Aaron have deprived with all earned, mills, have forced to go to work ( hi there were 70 years) in collective farm."

Serafima also wrote that Aaron went to live in Leningrad with his son, Boris, in later years, and died in a hospital after an operation.

Died:
In an email much later, 2019, Serafima says Aron died in 1937

Aaron married LEIKIN, Hanna about 1893 in Petrovichi, Russia. Hanna (daughter of LEIKIN, Husband and UNKNOWN, Ziva) was born about 1870 in Hislavichi near Petrovichi, Russia; died about 1936 in Petrovichi, Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In his written recollections, Hana's son, Judah "Jack" Asimov (1896-1969) writes that his mother (whom he doesn't name) was the eldest of 8, with 2 sisters and 5 brothers.

Here is what Judah Asimov wrote:
"The eight children were all very smart people."
"The oldest brother was NOCHUM JACOB." (clever. grew a cucumber inside a bottle, then cut off the stem. Surprised the neighbors).
"Another brother was SCHMEREL." (ordained to be a rabbi, but preferred to be a businessman.)
"Another brother was ELIE." (great scholar. Had a Russian high school diploma -- a tough course of study. From 1912-14, he was a salesman for a coal mining co, and a newspaper correspondent in the city of Bachmut which has a new name now. )

Judah writes that his mother was well versed in Jewish ritual and prayed all the time with other women who didn't know how as much as she did. She was also very generous, and known for giving more food to beggars than the typical slice of bread or half kopek. She also gave yogurt, cheese and a piece of "shave" or herring. The family also had a couple of cows.

Judah also writes:
"I traveled to CHISLAVITCHI. That is the town where my mother’s mother and her brother lived..."

Irina Leikin, who is descended from Moshe Leikin (a brother of Hana?), also said the Leikins were from Hislavitchi.

Hana's granddaughter, Serafima Asimov, the daughter of Hana's son Samuel, writes in a 2006 email that "Anna Leikin [wife of Isaac Leikin] who came, too, either from Petrovitch or from Hislavitch.”

Serafima also wrote in that email: "My grandmother Hanna who…was very beautiful - was never photographed."

And in a 2016 email: “She was very beautiful, blue-eyed little woman. She had never been photographed. Children of (her were) loved and treasured. Hana Leikin explains when another's people kiss and father mother - scolds - is unequally. I this know on the memories of my dad Samuel Asimov. It is necessary to somehow write everything .... Time flies very quickly ….”

Here is what Judah wrote about his mother:

"My Father & Mother

To talk about my father (ZL), I must start with my mother.

She came from a family in which her mother counted more than her father, who was a very simple man but also very honest and pious. My grandmother, his wife, lived to a great old age. I believe she passed the hundred mark. She had 8 children. My mother was the oldest, and she had two sisters and five brothers.

They where all very smart people. For example, when the oldest of the brothers, Nochum Jacob, was about 11 years old, he made a little box and polished it and painted it. Inside, he fit a quart bottle and took it to their garden where they grew all kinds of vegetables for their use. He took a bud from a cucumber, placed it inside the bottle, and watched it grow. When he decided it was big enough, he cut the stem off, leaving that cucumber inside the bottle. He then filled it with preserves to make it last, and startled the neighborhood. How did he put such a cucumber inside such a small hole?

This was an example of how all of them were smart people. But my motherís brother Schmerel had (SMICHO OF HEIROO), which means he was ordained to be a rabbi but he preferred to be a businessman.

Her brother Elie, besides being a great scholar in Talmud, also had a Russian high school diploma. That was more education than at an American high school. From 1912 to 1914, he was a salesman for a coal mining company and a correspondent with a paper in the city of Bachmut, which now has a new name that I donít know.

That is the family my mother descended from. My mother was well versed in Jewish ritual. She used to pray all kind of prayers with other women who did not know how. In her charities, she was the most outstanding woman. In my time, there were poor Jews who used to go from town to town begging. The usual donation was half a kopek or a piece of bread. But my mother did not give the usual. All the beggars knew that. They used to come to her not when they were in the neighborhood but when they felt hungry. And my mother used to feed them with what you would call here yogurt, and cheese.

To make all of her preparations, we used to have our own two cows. Of course, sometimes she would give a plate of ìschave,î or a piece of herring. But she always fed everybody who came to here door. Besides, my father (ZL) used to bring an ìoirech,î a guest, for Saturday for three meals.

I remember once a preacher came to our town and my father (ZL) liked his preaching, so he invited him to come for Pesach [Passover]. But usually before Pesach the snow started melting, so he told the preacher to come two weeks before. And two weeks after Pesach, it was impossible to leave. So we had him for five weeks living with us in our house.

One more thing happened, while I am telling how my mother was charitable. A preacher came to our town, and for the first time in my 10 or 11 years, I saw a preacher, dressed in a white shirt with a tie and good clothes, who wouldnít sting unless somebody guaranteed 15 rubles, an unheard of sum of money at that time. But his name meant something to my father (ZL), and he guaranteed the sum of money. But when he went collecting, the townspeople did not want to give more for this preacher than for any other one. My mother thought over the situation and told my father (zl) to pay the full sum himself because she said the people would think now that if they gave, they would be giving for [my father]. The people had no obligation, and she said we would somehow get along if we paid out that much money ourselves and we would no longer ask for anything from anybody else. There were many times when she could have spent the charity money she divided for her own needs. But to her, a kopec was never better spent than for charity."

Notes:

Mendel was the youngest of 12 children of Abraham Ber and his first wife, and the only one of his siblings to survive infancy, according to the written recollections of his grandson, Judah (Jack) Asimov, 1896-1969.

In his recollections, Judah writes that although Mendel was "not a scholar," neither was he ignorant of Jewish reading and prayer -- only of the Talmud. Yet he was clever, and was elected several times to the "Society of Psalm of David Sayers." He also was in the Chevro-Kadisho, a volunteer group that took care of holy burials. Mendel's decision would prevail if there were disagreements in burial location, as there often were.

Mendel married UNKNOWN, Wife. Wife was born about 1850 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Husband married UNKNOWN, Ziva about 1875. Ziva (daughter of UNKNOWN, Unknown) was born about 1850 in Tatarinovo; died about 1950. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: CHISLAVITCHI

Notes:

Her marrying into the Leikin family comes from Irina Leikin, who has said she is related to Grandpa Jack's mother's family (Anna Chaya).
At the same time, Grandpa Jack (Judah, 1896-1969), wrote that his mother's mother (he didn't name her), "counted more" than his mother's father, "who was a very simple man but a very honest and pious" man.

Grandpa Jack wrote that his mother's mother "lived to a great old age, I believe she passed the hundred mark."

Grandpa Jack wrote that his mother was the eldest child. She had two sisters and five brothers "and they were all very smart people."

Notes:

In his written recollections, Judah (Jack) Asimov, 1896-1969, wrote that his great-grandfather, Abraham Ber, died when Jack was 3 years old, but that he remembers being brought over to the death bed to be blessed, and that Abraham Ber gave him some sort of red jelly. That's all he remembered and could not visualize the old man's face.

But Jack remembered hearing stories that A.B. was smart, a great scholar, a "great and charitable man in town" and, "like his predecessors, a dealer in rye and other products."

A.B. and his first wife had 12 children -- all but the youngest, Mendel, died. So Mendel was, of course, precious to Abraham Ber.

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) quotes his father, Jack, in "In Memory Yet Green" regarding Abraham Ber: "The stories I heard about him were that he was a natural-born smart man, and that he was a great scholar. ... Like his predecessors, he was a dealer in rye and other products, and he was well known in town as a great and charitable man."

Abraham married SHEPSHELEVA, Sosya. Sosya was born in 1827 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She and Abraham Ber Asimov had 12 children, according to "In Memory Yet Green," which relies on the recollections of Judah "Jack" Asimov (1896 -1969). But only Mendel, the 12th child, survived.