חֵקֶר מִשְׁפָּחָה שֶׁל מְלִיצָה - Meliza's Genealogy

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The genealogy information on this website is powered by webtrees, a free Open Source program. This page provides an introduction and overview to the site information.

The site contains data of


The information was compiled through the meticulous and time-consuming efforts of many relatives and friends as well as other participating family researchers, and includes contributions by several distant “cousins”.

This collective and cooperative repository of family data, as presented herein, is by no means complete and most certainly contains some errors. I hope you can offer corrections or wish to contribute additional information, pictures, or documentation. Please use the built-in email function to advise me so (see footer below) or if a relative, you may register (at right). Any and all of your comments are encouraged and are always welcome. NOTE: It is not necessary to register to view deceased ancestors on this site. You need only to register, if you wish to contribute information and materials. Please review the site FAQ, linked here, or above in the FAQ menu for more information on registration benefits and site policies.

To begin working with the data, choose one of the charts from the Charts menu, go to the Individual List, or Search for a name or a place using the Search function at the top right.

Thank you for visiting my site.
Meliza

NOTE: Data on living individuals is protected by strict privacy rules. Do NOT copy our data on living kin to other sites or locations, as they may be unable to protect its privacy and you may be held liable. I thank the many other researchers whose work is incorporated within the data presented herein.

Who was the model to the Woman in the red dress by Martta Wendelin?

The painting "Woman in the red dress" was painted in 1935 in Helsinki by the Finnish artist and illustrator Martta Wendelin (1893-1986). Martta and the picture model were at that time patients at the Helsinki Deaconess Institute (Diakonissalaitos).

It has been suggested that the model might have been Matilda (Matty), perhaps the aunt of Dinah Rubinstein nee Rosenthal.

Martta Wendelin painted Dinah in 1936 in the Valaam (Valamo) Monastery in Ladoga (Laatokka) Lake in Karelia, Finland.
https://www.amitys.com/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I931&ged=Gedcom.ged#

Woman in the red dress
https://www.amitys.com/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I22024&ged=Gedcom.ged#

News
The site
December 29, 2023 - 11:27:26 p.m.

The site was transferred to a new server.
You should be able to sign in using your old user ID and password.

I see two issues:

1. I do not see the site media.

2. Google Maps does not work.

Meliza

e-mails from the site
September 29, 2023 - 3:18:25 p.m.

There have again been some issues with the site e-mails.
The e-mails work again.

Meliza

Mails from the amitys.com site.
August 4, 2022 - 3:10:37 p.m.

The site has not sent emails since May 2, 2022.
The emails work again.

Meliza

National Library of Finland - Digital collections
November 3, 2021 - 11:12:09 a.m.

You can use the search form https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/search to detect source data for this site.

Meliza

Reports
October 28, 2021 - 10:32:46 a.m.

I have removed the report PDF option on this website till we can upgrade to the latest webtrees version.

Meliza

More news articles
Statistics — חֵקֶר מִשְׁפָּחָה שֶׁל מְלִיצָה - Meliza's Genealogy

This family tree was last updated on April 15, 2024.

Individuals
31,626
Males
16,654
52.7%
Females
14,778
46.7%
Total surnames
18,023
Families
12,451
Sources
1,042
Media objects
8,063
Repositories
29
Total events
69,347
Total users
936
Earliest birth year
1520
Rabbi Moses “the Rema” Isserles
Birth February 22, 1520 — Krakow, Poland
Death May 11, 1572 (Age 52 years) — Krakow, Poland
Latest birth year
2024
This information is private and cannot be shown.
Earliest death year
1552
Golda …
Birth 1532
Death 1552 Age: 20 years — Krakow, Poland
Latest death year
2024
Lia Katz
Birth April 9, 1926 — Helsinki, Finland
Death March 20, 2024 (Age 97 years)
Individual who lived the longest
110
Riva Rebecca Fishlin
Birth January 10, 1904 — Stavishche, Tarashcha, Ukraine
Death February 27, 2014 (Age 110 years) — Israel
Average age at death
65
Males: 63   Females: 67
Family with the most children
16
Schmuel Schaibel + Anna …
Average number of children per family
1.83

Most common surnames
Cohen, Katz, Rubinstein, Seligson, Skurnik, כהן, כץ, סליגסון, קולר, רובינשטיין

Research tasks
 
Who are the people in this wedding picture? Are they Rosenthals, Drisins and Buchensteins?

Who

This picture used to hang on the wall in Saara Koti

Juutalaiset Suomessa - Jews in Finland

Jews in Finland

https://www.geni.com/projects/Juutalaiset-Suomessa-Jews-in-Finland/1987472

Finland has a Jewish community of about 1200 individuals although the number is somewhat larger than that because not all secular Jews are registered in Jewish communities. A majority of the Jews in Finland live in the Helsinki metropolitan area and a substantial number of them are bilingual having Swedish as their first language.

There are two synagogues in Finland, one in Helsinki and one in Turku. There was a third synagogue in the occupied Viipuri, but it was destroyed by the Russian bombers on the very first day of the Winter War. Following the wars of 1939-1945, a Jewish community was established in Tampere in 1946 but it stopped functioning in 1981. Helsinki also has a Jewish day school, which serves about 110 students.

History

The Swedish Era ( - 1809)

During the time of Finland under Swedish rule, virtually no Jews at all did permanently live in Finland (being part of Sweden). However, during the 1670s, Isak Zebulon, a Jew who converted to Christianity, settled in Oulu where he was granted with bourgeoisie rights. His daughter, Maria, would become the great-grandmother of a renowned poet, Zacharias Topelius.

In 1685, the Jews were banned from residing in Sweden unless they convert to Christianity. In 1772 this was further specified so that the Jews cannot reside in Sweden unless they convert to Lutheranism. In 1782 Sweden granted the Jews to reside in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Norrköping, meaning, not in Finland.

However, back in the day, the Finns had more healthy suspicion towards the authorities and laws of a lesser sense than they have today, and in 1799 the extent of the Swedish laws was interpreted not to cover Old Finland. As a consequence, this lax interpretation of the Swedish laws allowed knowingly the first Jew to move to Finland. Jacob Weikaim and his family settled in the town of Hamina. A small Jewish community grew in Hamina. The Weikaims became the ancestors of a number of Jewish families in Finland, including Veikkanen, Jakobson, Jaaro, and Kaspi. The first known Jew to permanently settle in Helsinki was Abraham Cohn.

The Russian Era (1809-1917)

Following the Finnish War of 1808-1809, Finland becomes the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian empire. Despite this change in the regime, the Swedish laws remained in place, but so did the interpretation of those. Legally speaking, there could not have been Jews in Finland but, it so happened, there were.

The Russian laws were no more welcoming towards the Jews than were the Swedish laws. The Jews who were supposed to be in Finland, to begin with, legally speaking, but who were here, established their presence in Finland.

Legally speaking the Jews could not have served in the Tsar's army either. The practice was different. The Russians had a cantonist system in place. For the Jews residing in the area of the Russian empire, this meant that the Jewish children were, literally, kidnapped, to serve in the Imperial army for 25 years.

Cantonists
Cantonists

Cantonists of Jewish origin arrived in Finland with the army and during the 1830s, the first synagogue was established in Suomenlinna, an island in the front of Helsinki, serving as a Russian garrison. A law was passed in 1858 which allowed all the retiring soldiers of the imperial army to settle in Finland, regardless of religion. A great number of cantonists of Jewish origin settled in Finland. Perhaps the majority of the Jews in Finland descend from the cantonists.

In 1867 the Jewish community in Helsinki hired its first rabbi, Naftali Zwi Amsterdam. In 1869, Chevra Kadisha was established. The following year, Langén's villa become the first synagogue in Helsinki. The first Torah written in Finland was finished in 1872. In the same year, Leo Mechelin proposed the Diet of Finland removing restrictions regarding the Jews and other minorities. Alas, to no avail. (He then went on to establish the Nokia company with Fredrik Idestam). 

Instead, in 1889, tsar Nicholas II summoned an assembly of the Diet, a part of his Russification of Finland which, in addition to the Finns, also struck the Jews. The rights of the Jews were further restricted, to the extent that Jews were being deported or they chose to move, to up to 25% of the Jewish population of Finland. But the Finns didn't rejoice either. It only strengthened their increasing national identity. The newly appointed Governor-General Nikolay Bobrikov who opened the Diet would meet his maker in a few years' time due to lead poisoning, so to speak.

Despite the aspirations of the Russians, life went on. In 1893, the first Jewish school was established in Helsinki. In 1896 Jewish Cemetary was established in Helsinki, next to the major Hietaniemi Cemetary (corresponding to Arlington). In 1900, the town of Helsinki donated to the Jewish community a lot in Malminkatu 26. Helsinki Synagogue, completed in 1906.

<Field synagogue
Helsinki synagogue

In the fall of 1906, a Hebrew School started in the same building as the synagogue. A Jewish sports club, Stjärnan (the star), was established. So was the literary, theatre, and music society in Yiddish. Also in 1906, The Third All-Russian Conference of Zionists took place in Helsinki.

Viipuri synagogue was finished in 1910, totaled by the Russians 29 years later. Turku synagogue was finished in 1912.

<Field synagogue
Viipuri synagogue

Independence of 1917

Being fed up with the disobedient Finns, Russia claimed its independence from Finland on December 6th, 1917. Finland agreed. The Jews were granted full rights as Finnish citizens. The parliament passed the bill already on Dec. 22nd, and it took effect on Jan. 1st. 1918.

The first Jew to be granted Finnish citizenship was Moshe Kotschak. The Jewish Community in Helsinki was recognized as an official religious community with 930 individuals belonging to it.

Save for the red uprising of 1918, twenty years of peace followed.

Even if Paavo Nurmi is the greatest track & field athlete of all time, it does not make the gold and silver medals of Elias Katz in the summer Olympics of Paris in 1924 any less shiny.

Elias Katz
Elias Katz

World War II

Prior to the wars breaking, Finland had programs helping the Jews in continental Europe. Of politicians participating in these, a least the former prime minister Väinö Tanner deserves to be mentioned, as well as his trusted Unto Varjonen. In addition, the Jews were close to the future prime minister Karl-August Fagerholm. Fagerholm was also a long-time chair of the Finland-Israel Association.

The State of Israel has planted trees in the honor of Tanner, Fagergolm, and the commander of the Finnish Army, then President Carl Gustaf Mannerheim at Mount Hertzl near Jerusalem. Sort of Arlington as well.

Finnish embassies granted the Jews visas long after most countries had seized to do so. Or had tagged the Jews' passports with a "J". In Vienna, the last embassy to grant visas for the Jews was Finland. Particularly since 1938 mostly Austrian and German Jewish refugees started to arrive in Finland.

In excess of 500 refugees arrived in Finland, and while many continued to some other destination, the others stayed. In addition to the cantonists, a sizable amount of the Jewish community in Finland is the descendants of these refugees.

An Austrian refugee, a merchant Albert Amtman made an acquaintance with a legendary bootlegger Algoth Niska. Ever since the prohibition had ended, and turned the Finns from the least alcohol-consuming nation to, perhaps the opposite of it, Niska himself was running dry. Amtman gave him an idea, and he got back to his trade, only this time smuggling Jews.

On November 30th, 1939 the Soviet Union wanted to join back to Finland. Adolf Hitler had promised his ally, Joseph Stalin, he could do that. The Finns begged to differ, and 105 days of The Winter War followed. Goliath lost.

On March 13th, 1940 Stalin was happy to get out of the war with his face on the cover of the newspapers every few days with the headline saying: "The Finns Annihilate Yet Another Division". So much for the Invincible Red Army. The Finns were happy to get out simply because they would have run out of ammo in just a few days.

The tables started to turn when Hitler's interest turned east. And even when there was mutual distrust between Finland and Germany, people debate this still, but Finland saw the peace terms of the Winter War as unjust, Stalin was still a threat, an opportunity for payback and, "Finland's war of choice", The Continuation War of 1941-1944 began on June 25th, 1941.

This created a unique, even peculiar setting in the scale of the entire World War II, even more so when Hitler's lunacy was little by little revealed to the fullest. From a Finnish perspective, a Finnish Jew, or anybody, is first a Finn, then something else. And as a Finn, untouchable. So the Finnish Jews were brothers-in-arms with the Germans, and there was nothing the Germans could do about it. They had no say-so over anything.

The Finnish Jews had field synagogues, sometimes close to where German troops were located. One could argue that there were times when this setting was played just to annoy the Germans, and rub it in their face. The Jewish soldiers were granted a sabbath leave on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

Field synagogue
A field synagogue

It is also of interest that three Finnish Jews were actually awarded by the Germans with the Cross of Iron. All three thanked no. The three recipients were Leo Skurnik, Salomon Klass, and Dina Poljakoff.

The Finns even looked after the Soviet POWs (prisoners of war) of Jewish origin. They were placed in separate camps, and the Jewish communities could provide them with food, and other necessities. They were better off than most other POWs. Some Finnic POWs may have had it better than others as well.

In Stalin's mind, however, to surrender as a POW, if not because of having been wounded, was something that constitutes treason. Punishable by gulag. Later on, some Soviet POWs of Jewish origin, who had been to the gulag, survived it, called the Finnish POW camps in a TV documentary "paradise".

The Germans did try, though. In August of 1942, Heinrich Himmler was about to visit Finland. With two empty cargo ships preceding his arrival. So the Finns were acutely aware of what Himmler had in his mind. And the Finns had no intention to comply. In retrospect, it was all painless. Himmler expressed what he had on his mind. Prime Minister Jukka Rangell responded to Himmler (Wikipedia differs about the wording on this) dryly "Finnland hat Keine Judenfrage" which was the end of the discussion. Himmler must have known by then that the Finns do not take orders or negotiate.

In the third war, The Lapland War of 1944-1945, between Finland and Germany, the Finnish Jews, in turn, fought against the Germans in Lapland,

More than 350 Jews fought in the Finnish army in the World War II
23 of them sacrificed their lives for Finland.

An Act of Disgrace

Disobeying all the orders and practices, standards, and in the absence of PM Rangell, the Secretary of Internal Affairs Toivo Horelli and the head of the Valpo (State Police) Arno Anthoni, both of whom had antisemitic tendencies, handed 27 refugees over to the Germans for deportation in November of 1942. Unfortunately, eight of the deported were Jews, and seven of them died in the German camps.

With the history being currently rewritten by the postmodernists, with the facts being optional, or the interpretation of facts being infinite, the English Wiki page of Horelli says all eight were killed died by the Gestapo. On Anthoni's page, the number of deported Jews has already risen to 12. The date of writing this is 2020-04-29. 

Wikipedia also states that Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen apologized for what had happened as late as 2000. According to the (Finnish Chapter of ?) Yad Vashem, 22 Finnish Jews died in the concentration camps. Only the number is 23, and they did not die in concentration camps, but on the battlefield, fighting for Finland, as has been stated above.

Chances are, however, that the increase in numbers reflects something else than facts, in the sense of what facts used to mean. The deportation of the Jews hit the headlines immediately, causing a national scandal. At least Ragnell, reacted, and so did Tanner (whom the Russians later prosecuted to be a war criminal, and sentenced him to do time), and so did Fagerholm, who said he will resign if a single individual is deported. The Archbishops Erkki Kaila (Lutheran) and Herman (Greek Orthodox) expressed their disdain.

The event was major news at the time when it happened. It was deemed a cowardly act. There was no set shift in the Finnish policies. Unless the fact-liberal researchers of the Åbo Akademi University invent them, the numbers should not rise from the eight, which it always was, and still is. And the consensus was, from the scratch, in 1942, that even the eight were too many, to begin with. And as unfortunate as that was, it is the personal opinion of the composer of his text (MPL) that, all things considered, the apology in 2000 may not have been necessary, as it indicates guilt, and the acts of two rogue individuals hardly define the character of a country or a nation.

On the independence day of Finland, Dec. 6th, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim, who had become the sixth President of Finland, visited the synagogue in Helsinki to pay his respects to the fallen Jewish soldiers. In the event, the eldest of the community, Leo Weinstein, said (translation by yours truly, the original in Finnish on the Finnish page):

The way in which Finland has treated her Jewish citizens during these fateful years, shall be, in letters of gold, written in the annals of the people of, not only Judea, but of all people of all nations, as a beam of light in these dark and bitter times, to remind us that law and justice will always prevail, and shall overcome the Powers of Darkness.

The Post-War Period

  • The Jewish community of the occupied Viipuri came to an end following the still ongoing Soviet occupation of the Karelian Isthmus in 1944. Along with about 400,000 refugees, the Jews of Viipuri had to leave their homes. Many found a new home in Helsinki. A new community was established in Tampere in 1946, but it stopped its activities in 1981.
  • In 1947, following his escape from the country, and upon his return, the chief of the State Police Anthoni faced criminal charges for deportations, faced only lenient consequences. The Secretary of Internal Affairs, Horelli faced no charges at all.
  • Some 30 Finland's Jews participated in the Israel War of Independence of 1948-1949, and some 25 in the Six-day War of 1967.
  • Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was the first Israeli Head of State to visit Finland in 1962.
  • In 1970, a Monument for the memory of the Holocaust, designed by Harry Kivijärvi and Sam Vanni was unveiled in Helsinki.
  • In 1979, Ben Zyskowicz was the first Finnish Jew to be elected as a member of parliament. A position he still holds.
  • In 1989 the Jewish community of Finland re-established its relationship with the Jewish community of Estonia. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, being an impossible fairy-tale imaginary concept to maintain, to begin with, there has been an influx of Jews from the former Soviet Republic States. Moreover, immigration from Israel has been rising.
  • In 2000 a monument in memory of the eight (and no more than that Åbo Akademi!) deported Jews, designed by Nils Hakelund and Rafael Wardi, was unveiled on Observatory Hill in Helsinki.
  • In 2012, Finland got her first Finnish (and Savonian) rabbi Simon Livson who, in 2013, also become the first Supreme Rabbi or the 17th. But the first Finnish (and Savonian) Having been born in 1982, he also is a millennial.

Antisemitism

Historically, antisemitic hate crimes in Finland have been rare, and the Jewish community is relatively safe. However, there have been some antisemitic crimes reported in the last decade; the most common types include defamation, verbal threats, and damage to property.

In 2015 the Fundamental Rights Agency published its annual overview of data on antisemitism available in the European Union. The recent documented data is from 2013 when most of the incidents (six out of eleven) concerned verbal threats/harassment.

Unfortunately, as a phenomenon, antisemitism has been on a rise worldwide, including in Finland. For instance, on Jan. 27th, 2020, the International Day for the Memory of the Victims of Terror or the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this year, which marks the 75h anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the synagogue in Turku was vandalized but not with Swastikas.

Indeed, already back in 2015, the Jewish community in Turku gave a statement according to which, 75% of the antisemitism they face is the result of left-wing terrorism. In five years, the antisemitism of the extreme left, in continental Europe, even in Sweden, also by Muslims against Jews, has been on an alarming rise. In Sweden, the number of members of the Malmö Jewish congregation has collapsed from three thousand to three hundred.

חֵקֶר מִשְׁפָּחָה שֶׁל מְלִיצָה - Meliza's Genealogy

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1893-94 - Helsinki Jewish Talmud Tora School - students born 1879-1888
1893-94 - Helsinki Jewish Talmud Tora School - students born 1879-1888
View this individual — Abraham Abramovitsch
View this individual — Moses “Scharke” Aron Bensky
View this individual — Samuel Bensky
View this individual — Rabbi Nathan Bukantz
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View this individual — Rachel Leah “Leno” Engel
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View this individual — Rosa Fucks
View this individual — Jacob “Janka” Hirsch ger Hirschovits
View this individual — Dr. Leopold Ginzsburg
View this individual — Helena Lena Gottstein
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View this individual — Moses Guthwert
View this individual — Herman Hirschowitz
View this individual — Sara Kleiman
View this individual — Isak Knaster
View this individual — Leopold Knaster
View this individual — Alter Kotschack
View this individual — Ester Kotschack
View this individual — Kalmar “Sukku” Mattsoff
View this individual — Isak “Ippe” Pergament
View this individual — Judel Pergament
View this individual — Israel Perlman
View this individual — Aina Polarsky
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View this individual — Jack Pollard
View this individual — Elias “Ellu” Rosenthal
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View this individual — Moses Rosenthal
View this individual — Riko “Kiku” Rosenthal
View this individual — Simon Rosenthal
View this individual — Jakob Rubinstein
View this individual — Matti Rubinstein
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View this individual — Hirsch Rung
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View this individual — Israel Selig Schapiro
View this individual — Sara Schapiro
View this individual — Isak Mejer Seligson
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View this individual — Dr. Salomon Seligson
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View this individual — Abraham Stiller
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View this individual — Jakob “Jac” Weinstein
View this source — Helsinki Jewish School 1899-1900

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Top 10 surnames
SurnameIndividuals
קולר
299
Katz
230
כץ
228
כהן
209
רובינשטיין
206
Cohen
196
Seligson
183
סליגסון
179
Rubinstein
177
Skurnik
157
Top 10 given names
Female
NameCountCOUNT
שרה727727
רחל438438
רבקה431431
Sara424424
אסתר376376
אנה362362
חנה362362
Rachel344344
לאה339339
Anna329329
Male
NameCountCOUNT
David672672
דוד660660
אברהם642642
יעקב560560
יוסף502502
Abraham482482
מיכאל438438
חיים358358
Michael349349
Samuel324324
‎Ray Stephen's song I'm my own Grandpa ...‎

Me & baby Daughter and Father family tree

Family tree showing how the narrator is his own grandfather.

Click on one of the pictures to see the clip.

Changes in the last 14 days
RecordLast changeby
Lia Katz
לאה כץ
April 15, 2024 - 5:55:19 p.m.admin
Kai Finckenberg
קאי פינקנברג
April 15, 2024 - 6:04:15 p.m.admin
FINNISH Coffee Corner

https://www.geni.com/projects/FINNISH-Coffee-Corner/7432

FINNISH Coffee Corner

  • In this project, you can add links to important sources of Finnish genealogy, documents, and other relevant information.

Sources in Finland

Other sources and links to Finnish genealogy

Digitized books

Digitized newspapers

Useful links

Genealogy in Karelia, Finland (and nowadays Russia)

Grave sites

Misc information

Regarding putting pictures of gravestones on profiles, it is now legally ok to do it:

Helsingin hallinto-oikeuden lainvoiman saanut päätös 8.12.2009 No 09/1083/2, jossa todetaan, ettei hautamuistomerkeissä olevien tietojen osalta ole kysymys sellaista yksityisyyden suojasta, jota henkilötietolaki tarkoittaa. Päätöksellä on kumottu Tietosuojalautakunnan 18.3.2009 antama päinvastainen kanta. Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto