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SCHNEIDER / CZARNOLEFSKI / LEW

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In 2012 we held a Schneider-Lev Reunion in Columbia, MD.  The photo at left shows many of the East Coast families that came and welcomed Eli and Batia (nee Piekarewicz) Horev from Israel. Eli is the tall fellow at the back left side with Batia just to the right). Batia's grandmother Batia is shown in the center photo at the top of the page).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​My maternal grandmother Chana Sora (Anna) Charnolefski Schneider (shown at left)was born in Grajewo. Remarkably she set out on her own at age 14 in July of 1900 to live in Syracuse NY with whom we believe were her mother's aunt Chana Mirmensztejn Levi and her husband Samuel Levi. She returned to Grajewo in 1905 following the death of her father. Back in Grajewo she achieved a bit of a celebrity as the "Girl from America" in the area around around Grajewo, and people from all over came to visit. One of those who came to visit her was Isidore, a young widower from Lomza.

 

Things proceeded rapidly between the couple and they married some time in 1906. Isidore was a Cantor and Jewish Scholar with ties to the Lomza Jewish Community. His parents were still living (shown in photograph at top left) and he did not wish to leave but did agree to emigrate to America since Anna already considered America her own and wanted to return immediately.  By the time they arrived at Ellis Island in August of that year, Anna was five months pregnant with our aunt Min.

 

Isidore's father Joseph died in 1910 and the rest, including his mother Itka eventually followed Isidore to New York. The last to come was the family of Isidore's brother Chaim in early 1921 with Itka who had become senile.

Anna's family was not so fortunate as her sister Liba Leja Charnolefski Lew (pronounced Lev) were mostly lost to the Holocaust, including Batia (nee Lew) and Pinchas Piekarewicz (middle photo at top of page), among many others.