JRP-Poland Database and Rabbinic Data Merging

July 18, 2018 – Elizabeth, NJ  – World-renowned Jewish genealogist Neil Rosenstein recently announced the on-going release of articles which appeared in various newspapers, periodical, journals and magazines over the past three decades. Presented here is “JRP-Poland Database and Rabbinic Data Merging” which appeared Avotaynu - in the scholarly International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Summer, 2008.

Neil Rosenstein, a world-renowned genealogist and expert in medieval Jewish history, continues to release old, archival articles to the public over the internet. Rosenstein says, “It is of the utmost importance for Jewish historians, researchers and genealogists to gain access to the content of the many articles and book reviews which are hidden away in numerous periodical, magazines, and newspapers over the past twenty or thirty years.”

The writer discusses four examples of the integration of JRI-Poland civil records with published facts of rabbinic genealogy from other sources.
Example One: Deals with Horowitz family and Cracow records.
Example Two: Deals with the Frankel-Teomim family and Warsaw records.
Example Three: Deals with the Wallerstein family and Rzeszow records. 
Example Four: Deals with the Waks family and Kalisz records. 

A detailed conclusion follows.

About Rosenstein:
Neil Rosenstein was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1944. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and interned in Israel. He specialized in surgery at the Mt. Sinai hospitals in Cleveland and New York City, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, New Jersey. He maintained a private practice as a general surgeon in New Jersey for over 30 years.

As a result of over four decades of investigative study of rare books and manuscripts, trips to libraries and cemeteries, travel and correspondence, Rosenstein has accumulated a vast matrix of material on Jewish genealogy, especially in the field of rabbinical dynasties for which he has become world famous. His research has included travel in South Africa, Israel, USA, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, England, Italy, and France.

He founded the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. (New York) in 1977, and is also founder and director of the Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy.

Rosenstein is the author of many works on Jewish Genealogy, his magnum opus being The Unbroken Chain, first published as a single volume in 1976. An expanded two-volume second edition was published in 1990. Other noted works include Saul Wahl, The Grandees of New Jersey, The Lurie Legacy: The House of Davidic Royal Descent, Avnei Zikaron (Stones of Remembrance), The Gaon of Vilna and his Cousinhood, and Latter Day Leaders, Sages and Scholars.

He has produced a CD-ROM with the indexed obituaries of the first-ever Hebrew weekly, HaMagid, which was in print from 1856 to 1903. In addition, he is contributor of articles to various Jewish genealogical publications and The Jewish Press.

He lectures frequently and has spoken many times to various Jewish genealogical societies, in the United States and abroad, as well as at the International Seminars for Jewish Genealogy and the annual National Summer Seminars. His biography is included in Who's Who in World Jewry (1987) and is listed in Marquis' Who's Who in America (from 1997 onwards).

Rosenstein and his wife, Mavis, live in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They have five sons and more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

From Judah Lowe To Lowe Senior – A Spurious Claim To The Davidic Dynasty

July 29, 2018 – Elizabeth, NJ  – World-renowned Jewish genealogist Neil Rosenstein recently announced the on-going release of articles which appeared in various newspapers, periodical, journals, and magazines over the past three decades.

Presented here is a discussion entitled:

“From Judah Lowe to Lowe Senior – a spurious claim to the Davidic Dynasty.”

Rabbi Judah Lowe, Chief Rabbi of Prague, died in 1619.

Many researchers claimed that he was the grandson of a Rabbi Lowe who died in 1439/40 (see his epitaph). The last lines read, in part, partially …Y-SH-I… which is part of the death date and not the claim that some researchers make that it represents the name of YiSHI = Yishai or Jesse, father of the biblical King David.

According to Megilat Yochasin by R. Moses Meir Perlis (died 1739) which was first published in Mateh Moshe in 1745:–

1. Judah Lowe (died in 1439/40) the Elder’s tombstone was erected the same year as R. Avigdor Karo’s in 1439 (when Karo died).

PROBLEM:

1. The epitaph as reported by Kopelman Lieben in Gal Ed (1856, #53) as does Otto Muneles in Epitaphs From the Ancient Jewish Cemetery of Prague (1988, #37) has a different date = 1539/40 and a different inscription, making no reference to David ben Yishai but only “from the seed of gaonim.”

2. When R. David Gans (author of the historical work Tzemach David, 1543) visited the cemetery, he noted that the grave of Abraham (died 1543) b. Avigdor Karo. The stone of Lowe was nearby so that it is very likely that Gans, a student of the MaHaRaL would have noted Lowe’s stone (only two away) as being an ancestor of his mentor.

3. The MaHaRaL of Prague was born in 1512 and thus could not have been named for R. Lowe the Elder if he died in 1539/40.

4. R. Lowe the Elder’s stone stands in the part of the cemetery which is 1440 (according to Perlis) was not yet part of the cemetery, whereas a death date of 1539/40 fits perfectly.

Conclusion

Perlis, a descendant of the MaHaRaL of Prague attempted to connect the latter (R. Judah Lowe) to another earlier R. Lowe, claiming Davidic descent and making the date of death 100 years earlier!

Neil Rosenstein, a world-renowned genealogist, an expert in medieval Jewish history, continues to release old, archival articles to the public over the internet. Rosenstein says, “It is of the utmost importance for Jewish historians, researchers and genealogists to gain access to the content of the many articles and book reviews which are hidden away in numerous periodical, magazines, and newspapers over the past twenty or thirty years. The topic of the supposed Rabbi Judah Lowe’s descent from the Royal House of Biblical King David is of the utmost importance to rabbinic genealogists.”

About Neil Rosenstein:

Neil Rosenstein was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1944. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and interned in Israel. He specialized in surgery at the Mt. Sinai hospitals in Cleveland and New York City, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, New Jersey. He maintained a private practice as a general surgeon in New Jersey for over 30 years.

As a result of over four decades of investigative study of rare books and manuscripts, trips to libraries and cemeteries, travel and correspondence, Rosenstein has accumulated a vast matrix of material on Jewish genealogy, especially in the field of rabbinical dynasties for which he has become world famous. His research has included travel in South Africa, Israel, USA, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, England, Italy, and France.

He founded the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc. (New York) in 1977, and is also founder and director of the Computer Center for Jewish Genealogy.

Rosenstein is the author of many works on Jewish Genealogy, his magnum opus being The Unbroken Chain, first published as a single volume in 1976. An expanded two-volume second edition was published in 1990. Other noted works include Saul Wahl, The Grandees of New Jersey, The Lurie Legacy: The House of Davidic Royal Descent, Avnei Zikaron (Stones of Remembrance), The Gaon of Vilna and his Cousinhood, and Latter Day Leaders, Sages, and Scholars. He has produced a CD-ROM with the indexed obituaries of the first-ever Hebrew weekly, HaMagid, which was in print from 1856 to 1903. 

In addition, he is the contributor of articles to various Jewish genealogical publications and The Jewish Press. He lectures frequently and has spoken many times to various Jewish genealogical societies, in the United States and abroad, as well as at the International Seminars for Jewish Genealogy and the annual National Summer Seminars. His biography is included in Who's Who in World Jewry (1987) and is listed in Marquis' Who's Who in America (from 1997 onwards).

Neil Rosenstein and his wife, Mavis, live in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They have five sons and more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Renowned Neil Rosenstein Releases The Updated Text of Megillat Eivah

Neil Rosenstein, a world-renowned genealogist and expert in medieval Jewish history, releases updated book text of Megillat Eivah (The Scroll of Envy), the biography of the great rabbi and Talmudic scholar Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller who died in 1654.

June 14, 2018 – Elizabeth, NJ – World-renowned Jewish genealogist Neil Rosenstein recently announced the release of a newly revised and updated abridged text of Megillat Eivah. Megillat Eivah tells of the life and challenges of the great rabbi and Talmudic scholar Rabbi Yomtov Lipman Heller in 17th century Europe.

The story is reread by descendants at a special occasion known as the Sudat Tosfot YomTov which is celebrated by a festive meal on the second day of the Jewish Rosh Chodesh (new month) of Adar.

This abridged version of the story allow children to participate and understand the events which the Rabbi relates in his book. This work has been republished many times. Rosenstein, together with Rabbi Chaim Uri Lipschitz, originally published a full version in English New York in 1984.

Rosenstein spent an extended period of time carefully translating and editing Megillat Eivah with the intention of making this obscure document accessible to the masses. Over time, the language has been refreshed and updated to match the current times. This is the first abridged revision of the document. “Because many descendant know little about the biography of this great rabbi, I felt an English translation would help to shed light on his trials and tribulations. Further, the families who are not well-versed in Hebrew would be able to celebrate the festive meal with an English reading of the text, either in full or in an abridged format,” said Rosenstein.