UNKNOWN, Chaya

Chaya married ASIMOV, Wolf about 1787 in Russia. Wolf (son of ASIMOV, Abram) was born in 1771 in Petrovichi, Russia; died in 1847 in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Benka married UNKNOWN, Doycia about 1815 in Petrovichi, Russia. Doycia was born in 1787. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: SIMONOVA, Nichama. Nichama was born in 1798. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Traveling Jewish preacher

Notes:

According to Judah's great-great grandson, Judah (Jack) Asimov (1896-1969):

Judah was a great scholar. The name Asimov came to his predecessors whenever last names were given to the Jewish people because he, like everyone in the family, were dealers in rye planted in the fall and kept warm under the snow all winter. The rye is known as "asimy chleb." So the the first dealer was given the name Asimy, and his sons, Asimov.

Judah lived in Petrovichi and, like all the town's people, paid taxes to the land owner. Each person had the right to sell it or transfer it, subject to a tax by the land owner.

Judah exchanged his great piece of land in the middle of town for a "third of land" at the west end of town.

With the money he received, he became a traveling Jewish preacher, walking everywhere. He had written a book advising piety and moral behavior. He gave out this book wherever he went.

Judah married MENDELEVA, Rochlya about 1820 in Russia. Rochlya was born in 1802 in Russia; died in Russia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Israel married YELEVA, Fruema about 1845 in Petrovich, Russia. Fruema was born in 1825. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: YEVELEVA, Steira. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Moshe married AFROIMOVA, Sora about 1846. Sora was born in 1827. [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]