MENDELEVA, Rochlya

Rochlya married ASIMOV, Judah about 1820 in Russia. Judah (son of ASIMOV, Wolf and UNKNOWN, Chaya) was born in 1802 in Petrovichi, Russia; died in Russia; was buried in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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 UNKNOWN, Wife about 1860 in Russia. Wife was born about 1830 in Russia; died in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: SHEPSHELEVA, Sosya. Sosya was born in 1827 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Moishe was a scholar and a cantor during the High Holy days in Petrovichi.
Judah (Jack) Asimov, 1896-1969, remembers his great-great uncle as very old and half blind, yet still wanting to sing--and not believing that anyone could sing better than he in the old shul. He was retired on a 10-ruble a year pension.
From "In Memory Yet Green," the first autobiography of Isaac Asimov: "As for Abraham Ber's younger brother, Moses Jacob Asimov, he, too, lived into my father's lifetime. In fact, he outlived his older brother, and my father remembers him when 'he was very old and half blind.' He, too, was a scholar, of course, and for many years he was a cantor at the town synagogue.
"'When I remember him," said my father, "he was already on a pension of 10 rubles a year, but if they allowed him, he would still perform as a cantor. He couldn't believe that anyone could perform better than he could.'"
"In fact [writes Isaac] it must be that my father told me about this great-granduncle of his, for I distinctly remember him telling me, when I was young, of a very old blind man who had once been a cantor and who continued to insist on singinn appropriate occasions even though his voice had altogether decayed. He would sing in his quavering, cracked voice, and out of respect for his age, no one would stop him, even though the sound was horrible enough to scrape the wallpaper off the walls.
"One time, though, Gentiles were present, and the embarrassment then became too keen. Someone approached the old man and said, 'Moses Jacob, please stop. There are Gentiles present, and it is not fitting.'
"Whereupon Moses Jacob turned his old blind eyes this way and that and said, 'Gentiles? Gentiles? I see no Gentiles,' and kept on singing."

Writes Isaac: "What really gives me pause about this story...is that I fully intend to continue writing as long as I live, and I wonder if I, like my great-great-granduncle, Moses Jacob, will continue to do so long after senility has deprived me of any writing ability, under the delusion that I can still do it. I have visions of my editors drawing straws to see who gets to tell me that I'm embarrassing the Gentiles.
"Well, what the heck! Great-great-granduncle didn't listen, and I won't, either."

Moses married MICHELEVA, Ita about 1850 in Russia. Ita was born in 1830 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"He was not only not a scholar, but he was a very average man," according to his half great-nephew, Judah Asimov (1896 - 1969), quoted in "In Memory Yet Green," the first autobiography of Isaac Asimov.
Isaac explains: "This one, you see, my father saw with his own eyes. It is easier to be a scholar if there is an insulating period of decades between the man who is the subject of the description and the man who is doing the describing."
Judah Asimov (1896 - 1969) goes on to say of his half great-uncle: "In my time, he married and had a daughter. While I was in the United States I heard that she became a physician, but I do not know anything more."

Family/Spouse: UNKNOWN, Wife. Wife was born about 1860 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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.

Family/Spouse: UNKNOWN, Wife. Wife was born about 1850 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Physician

Notes:

Judah (Jack) Asimov (1896-1969), her half first cousin once removed, mentions her in "In Memory Yet Green," Isaac Asimov's autobiography:
"In my time, he [her father, Judah Asimov] married and had a daughter. While I was in the United States I heard that she became a physician, but I do not know anything more."

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:

Buried alive with his wife and 9-year-old granddaughter, by fascists

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: UNKNOWN, Wife. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: KOROBOVSKY, Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]