Sacred Seforim
Machzor
New York
Seth L\'s maternal great grandfather owned this machzor which was a present given to him from his two brothers. Seth\'s great grandfather’s brothers, Isadora and Max lived in America. They wanted to visit their brother, Seth\'s great grandfather, Israel, because he lived in Canada, and they hadn\'t seen each other for a long time. They lived in New York and bought him a machzor. Then they went to Canada to visit Israel and gave him the machzor. Seth’s great grandfather then used that Yom Kippur machzor every year. After Seth’s great grandfather, Israel, passed away, Seth’s grandfather, Alex, found it and wanted to keep it to remember his father.
Whenever Seth\'s grandfather, Alex looks at the machzor, he can remember his father and his uncles.
Tanach
Brooklyn, New York
Noa A\'s parental great-grandfather, Avraham, received this English Tanach when living in America. This Tanach was given to Avraham when he joined the Jewish Freemasons. Avraham came from Brisk to Brooklyn, New York to go to Yeshiva. Also, he wanted to be able to connect the Jewish world with the secular world. When Avraham joined the Jewish Freemasons, he connected to both worlds.
This Tanach is important to the family because it reminds them of their great-grandfather, and the time period in which he lived.
Tanach
Israel
Nathaniel B’s paternal grandfather, Chanania, received a Tanach from a Chief Rabbi in the army for good luck during the Six-Day War in Israel. When Nathaniel\'s grandfather received this lucky Tanach, he was fighting in Beit El, Israel. After Chanania used the Tanach, he gave it to his oldest son and then to all of his other sons. The Tanach was taken all the way to America when Nathaniel\'s father moved there. This Tanach is important to Nathaniel\'s family because Chanania passed away, and the Tanach reminds Nathaniel\'s family of Chanania every time his family uses it.
Hopefully, in the future, this magnificent Tanach will be given to Nathaniel so he can use it and learn from it as well.
Siddur
Cleveland, Ohio
Zak C\'s paternal grandfather Israel gave this siddur to Zak\'s paternal grandmother Naomi on their wedding day. Israel and Naomi got married on May 6, 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio. This showed that Israel loved Naomi, and she kept it and used it to daven from until her death.
Zak C\'s father, Jordan, still has it today.
Gemara
Zhitomer
Shlomo K\'s maternal great-great-grandfather Shimshon B purchased a set of shas in the second half of the 19th century, and then passed it down to Shlomo K’s maternal great-grandfather and then to his son. The shas was published in 1860 by one of the two printing presses that were allowed to print Hebrew texts in Russia, and this printing press was in Zhitomer. This printing press was established in 1847 by three brothers, Hannina Lepa, Aryeh Leib, and Joshua Heschel Shapira, who were the sons of Rabbi Samuel Abraham Abba Shapira, a famous printer in his own right. The quality of the paper is extraordinary and is in wonderful condition, but the binding had to be replaced a number of times.
The Brody family has kept the gemara both to learn from and to show the Brody\'s family tradition in learning.
Tehilim
Darabani, Romania
This black tehilim was all that Rachel K\'s family had from her paternal great- great-grandfather, Uren Avraham, after he died in a concentration camp. Uren Avraham always kept this tehilim on his hip under his belt, which he believed would protect him. In 1938, Uren heard that the anti-semites were going to burn down his shul in Darabani, Romania; he felt he should protect all the Jews in his town, so he took a steel pipe and went to fight against the anti-semites. Although the anti-semites did not succeed in burning down his shul, Uren was badly beaten. He felt he survived because he had the tehilim with him. Uren kept the tehilim with him even when he was sent to a concentration camp in the Ukraine in 1939.
He kept this tehilim with him until he was buried in the land of Israel in 1942.
Chumash
Liverpool, England
Danielle K\'s maternal great-grandfather used this Sefer Devorim and Haftorot while he was in a camp for foreigners after he had escaped Germany. Mr. Ernest F was sent to this camp because the English Government wanted to make sure that he wasn\'t a spy. Mr. Ernest F had only spent four months in this alien camp. One camp was in Liverpool, the other was in the Isle of Man. After this period of time, he was released and returned safely to his home in London in October 1940.
This chumash is an extremely treasured and precious object to the family because Mr. Ernest F inscribed it to mark the fact that he had used it often during his weeks in this internment camp.
Sefer Bais Dovid
Brakpan, South Africa
Sarah M\'s paternal great-grandfather wrote a sefer called Bais Dovid, in order to make people aware of learning Torah. While years of learning Torah in Lithuanian yeshivas of Telz and Slobodka, Sarah M\'s paternal great-grandfather had to leave Birzai, a small Lithuanian village, with his wife and two sons because they were too poor to manage. Eventually, he became the Rabbi of Brakpan, twenty three miles east of Johannesburg in South Africa. While working day and night, he found the time to learn, and wrote this sefer. Sarah M\'s paternal grandfather, Dr. Sam M, arranged for it to be sent all over the world to further Torah study.
This is very important to Sarah M\'s family because anytime they want to learn Torah, they can use this sefer.
Siddur
Poland
Melissa Y\'s paternal great-great-grandfather, Shlomo Yanowski, translated a siddur into two languages, Hebrew and Yiddish. The siddur was made out of leather. The siddur was brought over to America from Poland. Melissa\'s paternal great-great-grandfather was a rabbi who wrote the commentary for the siddur called Divrei Shlomo, and wrote down a paragraph that is from his heart. It says, “I collected from the orchard of our sages and I gathered together different excerpts from different parts of the Torah and I also added some of my own spices, to understand each word in prayer, in a short, straight, clear, sweet, wondrous, way. To draw the hearts of young and old, men and women, to pray with true devotion.” He wrote this commentary on December 27, 1922, and it has stayed in her family since then.
This siddur will always be with Melissa\'s family and will be protected.