ASIMOV, Judah^[1]

1896 - 1969  (72 years)

• Name	ASIMOV, Judah
  Birth	21 Dec 1896	Petrovichi, Russia, 53.58 deg N lat; 32.10 E long.   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Also Known As	Jack
  Education	Started school at age 5, Petrovichi, Russia  [1]
  Immigration	13 Feb 1923	NY, USA   [3]
  	Ship: Baltic
  Naturalization	6 Sep 1928	District Court, Brooklyn, NY   [4]
  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  [1]
  Death	4 Aug 1969	Miami Beach, Florida, USA
  Burial	Mt. Golda Cemetery, Huntington, Long Island   [5]
  	JPG, Genealogy/Reunion/headstones/Asimov Headstone.jpg, Anna Berman and Judah Asimov Headstone, HEADSTONE
  		Anna Berman and Judah Asimov Headstone
  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.
  Person ID	I4	Hugh Byrne and Nanette Asimov Lines
  Last Modified	7 Feb 2023

  
  

  Father	ASIMOV, Aaron Menachem,   b. Abt 1865, Petrovichi, Smolensk, Russia d. 1939, Russian hospital, St. Petersburg (Age 74 years)
  Mother	LEIKIN, Hanna,   b. Abt 1870, Hislavichi near Petrovichi, Russia d. Abt 1936, Petrovichi, Russia (Age 66 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1893	Petrovichi, Russia
  Photos		Aaron Asimov
  Family ID	F7	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	BERMAN, Anna (Hana) Rachel,   b. 5 Sep 1895, Petrovichi, Russia d. 6 Aug 1973, Ila Hotel, Long Beach, NY, USA (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	Jun 1918	Petrovichi, Russia   [1]
  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."
  Children	+ 1. ASIMOV, Isaac,   b. 2 Jan 1920, Petrovichi, Russian SFSR, 10 miles East of Belorussian SSR border (near Smolensk) d. 1992 (Age 71 years) + 2. ASIMOV, Marcia,   b. 17 Jun 1922, Petrovichi, Russia, Soviet Union d. 2 Apr 2011, Plainview, Long Island, NY (Age 88 years) + 3. ASIMOV, Stanley,   b. 25 Jul 1929, 501 New Lots Ave. Brooklyn, NY d. 16 Aug 1995, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Manhattan, NY (Age 66 years)
  Photos		Stanley Asimov, Anna Berman Asimov, Judah Asimov
  		Anna Berman Asimov & Jack Asimov Ann & Judah (Jack) Asimov @ 16 Maynard Dr., Farmingdale, Long Island
  		Anna & Judah Asimov (c) 1950s Anna & Judah Asimov (c) 1950s
  		At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
  		At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
  		Gravestone of Anna & Judah Asimov. Mt. Golda Cemetery, Long Island 8.08 KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
  		At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
  		Isaac, Marcia and Stanley Asimov abt. 1934 Isaac, Marcia & Stanley Asimov circa 1934
  Family ID	F9	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Nov 2024

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 21 Dec 1896 - Petrovichi, Russia, 53.58 deg N lat; 32.10 E long. Marriage - Jun 1918 - Petrovichi, Russia Immigration - 13 Feb 1923 - NY, USA Naturalization - 6 Sep 1928 - District Court, Brooklyn, NY Death - 4 Aug 1969 - Miami Beach, Florida, USA Burial - - Mt. Golda Cemetery, Huntington, Long Island  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos		Stanley Asimov, Anna Berman Asimov, Judah Asimov
  		Judah Asimov
  		Jack Asimov. Mollie Robinowitz Pollakoff. Bess Leon Scheiner. Nov. 26 1955 Jack Asimov. Mollie Robinowitz Pollakoff. Bess Leon Scheiner. Nov. 26 1955
  		Judah (Jack) Asimov around 1960
  		Grandpa Jack's passport photo 1922 Judah (Jack) Asimov, 1922 (Grandpa Jack's Soviet passport photo)
  		Monument to more than 300 Petrovichi and Khislavichi Jews burned to death on July 22 1942, inclu 43 Asimovs

  
  

  Documents

  Judah Asimov Memoir Here are recollections that Judah Asimov wrote in his final year. The grammar isn’t perfect. But it’s worth noting that Judah didn’t begin learning English until he was nearly 30. English was his fourth language and the only one to use the Roman alphabet. He was already fluent in Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian. Copied verbatim, these stories convey the cadence of his voice and the loving person that he was.

  
  

• Sources

  [S74] Judah Asimov's written recollections (1969). [S259] Isaac Asimov in "In Memory Yet Green" 1979. [S1095] Baltic passenger list. [S632] US Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794 - 1995 (Nat'l Archives and Records Administration, Wash DC). [S93] Newsday, Aug. 6, 1969.