1. Notes for the Presentation:
Yurberik: Home of Our Ancestors by Joel Alpert (Naividel/Ellis/Krelitz)
Notes for the Presentation:
Yurberik: Home of Our Ancestors
Introduction (Slide 1- Title)
I Why did I come to the reunion?
There are probably a variety of thoughts going through everyone's minds right now:
Will I learn new things this weekend that will be meaningful to me?
Will I be glad that I drove this distance?
We have each probably come to Detroit this weekend for a personal reason. some perhaps have come out of curiosity- there are names and stories that you have heard for a long time, and maybe just maybe, the story will take on added meaning with greater context than before others are here because they knew that some of their close relatives would be here still other are here because someone shlepted them and they had to be here
Regardless, over the course of the next few days the reasons will become clearer to each of you.
Point to a teenager, point to a middle aged person and then to a more senior person to see if there will be perspective that's age or experience related.

2. Europe (Slide 2- Europe)
Well, like most good stories, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. Our beginning is Yurbrick. Yurbrick is the Yiddish name, Georgenburg is the German name and Jubarkas is the Lithuanian name of the town where our history began. No matter where we live now, no matter if our connection to the family is by a Rosin, Feinberg, Naivadel, Craine or Ellis route, a member of our family was connected to this small town in western Lithuania.
Europe

3. Lithuania Yurberik Memel Kovno Vilna Yurberik X (Slide 3- Lithuania)
If asked where their parent, grandparent, great-grandparents came from in Europe, many Jews can only say "Russia" or some can say "Lithuania", fewer still can say more spicifically, "Kovno Guberna in Lithuania, which was ruled by Russia"(Point to Kovno and Vilna). But we can now all say," Yurberig, which was in Kovno Guberna in Lithuania, which was ruled by Russia."
II Now we know Where Yurbrick is located
So, let's first get oriented to where Yurbrick is-
See just where the town lies and its proximity to Poland and Germany and Russia.
I want to help make Yurbrick familiar to you so that you too can understand our roots. Right now this town may be just a name. But this place is not just a place. It was a place filled with our ancestors, their memories, their hopes and their dreams.
In the early 1900's when most of our ancestors left Yurbrick, it was on the western border of Russia. (Point to the Neiman River)The Neiman river ran through Kovno, past Yurbrick, past Memel, to the Baltic Sea. Yurberik was surrounded forests.
Yurberik
Kovno
Vilna
Lithuania

4. Western Lithuania Neiman River Sudarg Yurberik
(Slide 4- Western Lithuania)
Look at the borders now and the borders in about 1900,(Slide5- Neiman River) when Yurberik was on the Russian side of the border and Prussia was across the river.
(Point to the Neiman River, Prussia and Russia)
Look at its size, it was a town of people, mostly Jews. The surrounding area was farmland, with the farmers being former peasants, of ethnic Lithuanian descent. Most of the Jews were merchants.
Look at its proximity to other nations
Sudarg
Yurberik
Western Lithuania

5. Yurberik
Lithuania
(Russia)
Neiman River
Prussia
Sudarg *
Neiman River

6. Jewish Musicians in Yurburg
III What was Yurbrick?
(Slide 6- Jewish Musicians in Yurberik)
If you have the image from Fiddler on the Roof of Anatevka, its the wrong image. I was to give you the correct image of this town from the 1920s and 1930s. These musicians look like they could have been in New York or Detroit....
Jewish Musicians in Yurburg

7. The Yurburg Yizkor Book
(1991, Hebrew, 524 pages)
(Slide 7 -Yizkor Book on Yurburg)
We can get that image because the Yizkor Book on Yurburg was published in 1991, and although it is written in Hebrew, and you’ll hear more about the book, we do have pictures from the book.
Thanks to donations from the family there are only about 25 pages of Yiddish remaining to be translated. The translation can be found on the Internet under JewishGen.org

8. Kovno Street-Main Street in Yurburg
(Slide 8 - Kovno Street in Yurburg)
It was a place where its economic, cultural and moral sphere stood out. It was a town that was an important commercial and communications center between East (Russia and Lithuania) and West (Germany and England) due to the ethnic variety of its inhabitants and mainly due to its location on the bnks of the Neiman (Nemunas) River and its proximity to East Prussia.
Kovno Street-Main Street in Yurburg
(from right to left:
the Komerce Hotel to Floven’s Store)

9. Kovno Street-Main Street in Yurburg
This is the view of the comercial center of Yurburg, Kovno (Kauno)Street.. The corner store on the far right is book store of Pinchas Schnovitz, a cousin.
(Slide 9- Kovno Street in Yurburg)
The town had wide streets (Show slides of the town so people can develop their own visual imagery) with sidewalks and two public gardens. Here on the right edge of the picture is the book store of Pinchas Shachnovitz, a cousin of ours and considered one of the leading intellectuals in the town.
It contained small knitting, felting, wool combing and other mills- a steam mill with a power station and lumber yard, a furniture factory, several banks and cooperatives, and a few dozen stores at the time our ancestors lived and thrived there. Many of the Jews of the town made their living in transport, wholesale trade, export, and customs clearance. Many of the cargo boats and ships were owned by Jews.
Kovno Street-Main Street in Yurburg
(from right to left: Shachnovitz’s Bookstore to the Church)

10. (Intellectual and Bookstore owner)
Pinkas Shachnovitz
(Intellectual and Bookstore owner)
and daughter Olga
(Cousins)
(Slide 10- Pinchas Shachnovitz)

11. Boats on the Neiman River in Yurburg
(Slide 11- Boats on the Neiman River)
The brisk trade activity provided a source of income. They traded in lumber, chicken, fruit, fish, and eggs. We know that Pesha Naividel Zapolsky traded chickens and eggs, the Feinbergs were in the Lumber business, the Krelitzes were bakers for generations, the Eliashevitzs (Ellis) were the flour millers.
Boats on the Neiman River in Yurburg

12. Wooden Synagogue of Yurburg - 1927 Postcard
(Slide 12- Wooden Synagogue)
The Jewish community had two synagogues one of which was a wooden structure (Show slides) built in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a rare architectural monument.
Wooden Synagogue of Yurburg Postcard

13. Model of Wooden Synagogue of Yurburg
(Slide 13- Model of Wooden Synagogue)
Model of Wooden Synagogue of Yurburg

14. Bima in the Yurburg Wooden Synagogue
(Slide 14- Bima in the Wooden Synagogue)
This Bima was considered one of the finest in the whole country
Bima in the Yurburg Wooden Synagogue

15. Holy Ark in the Yurburg Wooden Synagogue
(Slide 15- Holy Ark in the Wooden Synagogue)
When the Germans occupied Lithuania in 1941, the Jews were forced to wreck it and soon annihilated themselves.
There were 2500 Jews registered in In 1897 they represented 31% of the population of the district and in 1923, there were 1900 Jews. In June-Sept 1941 when the Germans occupied the town, most of the Jews were murdered by the Lithuanians, with the encouragement and help of the Nazis. We now have documentation (1997) that names almost 700 of the Jewish victims by name, with many family names among them!
Holy Ark in the Yurburg Wooden Synagogue

16. Mordechai Naividel (Attorney)
IV Who were the Jews of Yurbrick?
(Slide Mordechai Naividel)
Here we have pictures of a cousin of ours who was an attorney, Mordechai Naividel, with his wife and a cousin.
Father of Beny Naividel
His first wife and child were murdered by the Nazis.
Mordechai Naividel (Attorney)
with wife and cousin
in Yurburg

17. Naividel Page from the Yizkor Book
(Slide 17- Naividel Page)
Here is the page he contributed to the Yizkor book telling about his family.
The Jews of Lithuania maintained their own way of life. They spoke a special dialect of Yiddish- Lithuanian. They were literate. Torah learning flourished among wide circles and the love of the Torah and esteem for its study was widespread among the masses of Jews. In the 1920s a Hebrew High School, called the Herzl Gymnasium was opened, that taught such modern subjects as Physics and Calculus.
The Lithuanian Jews were characterized as having a certain emotional dryness, the superiority of the intellect over the emotional, mental alertness, and sharp wittedness.
(Speaker: "Can't you tell that this is where you are from?!!") Doesn't that describe many of us?
There were Jews who were Orthodox, there were Jews who were Zionistic, and there were Jews who favored Socialism. So you can see even in such a small town as this one, our relatives were exposed to a variety of ideas and ways of doing things. In fact, there was a large secular movement, the Haskalah, perhaps greater here than in most nearby communities.
Modern Jewish community of Yurbrick was set up in the 1920's.
The majority of Jews dealt in the trades- fruit, eggs, hides, cement, iron, herring). Others were members of the free professions, clerks, craftsmen, business (fabrics, books, stationary). They were bankers, and doctors, and dentists.....
Naividel Page from the Yizkor Book

18. Macabee Soccer Team in Yurburg
(Slide 18- Macabee)
They played organized sports
Macabee Soccer Team in Yurburg

19. Stone Dedication for a Team Mate
Moshe Krelitz
(Slide 19 - Stone Dedication)
Stone Dedication for a Team Mate

20. Feinberg Family (Cousins)
(Slide Feinberg Family)
Some of the families described and pictured were our families.
Helen Feinberg Shrage is pictured here.
Feinberg Family (Cousins)

21. Berzaner Family (Part of the Feinberg Family)
(Slide 21 - Berzaner Family)
This is the family of and including Diana Tobin and Miriam Gold. Their mother brought them to Detroit and went back to Lithuania to get her husband and other daughter in She and the family in Yurbrick were caught and murdered.
Berzaner Family (Part of the Feinberg Family)

22. On the Neiman River in Yurburg
(Slide 22- on the Neiman River)
They went boating on the river for fun.
On the Neiman River in Yurburg

23. Betar Scouts in Yurburg
(Slide 23 Betar Scouts)
They participated in scouting just like us.
Betar Scouts in Yurburg

24. with Jack Cossid and Moshe Krelitz
Betar Scout Group
with Jack Cossid and Moshe Krelitz
(Slide 24 - Betar Scout Group)
Here is a Betar Scout group with our cousin Moshe Krelitz and his friend Yankel Chosid, or as he is known today, Jack Cossid, who was with us in Minneapolis in 1998.

25. Jack Cossid’s Family in Yurburg
(Slide 25 and 26 Jack Cossid’s Family in Yurburg)
Here are two photos of Jack Family.
THEN in June 1941, what was once a thriving Jewish community was suddenly turned upside down. It became a place where the Jews suffered horrible and cruel acts- some were drowned, many were beaten to death, some were made to kill their own children. Amazingly, just a few of them survived through these terrible atrocities through their own ingenuity and luck.
For although our more immediate relatives left Yurbrick before the 1920's not all of them left. Our relatives left many of their loved ones behind. Some were left behind because they did not want to leave their older mothers and fathers behind. Some remained behind because they could not afford to leave what they worked so hard to build. So they were murdered, and mostly forgotten (often because it was too painful ro their brothers and sisters - our grandparents - to talk about and until recently our generation did not even know their names. Isn't that sad! So, we are here to celebrate and honor our past and our learn about our family. We will remember those who were survivors and those who were slaughtered, tortured and perished. We will learn that although most were ordinary people they did extraordinary things. And together we will remember that it is because of them that we are all here this weekend to keep their memories alive for us and future generations.
Jack Cossid’s Family in Yurburg

26. Jack Cossid’s Family in Yurburg
Jack Cossi’s Family

27. Notes for the Presentation:
Yurberik: Home of Our Ancestors Not your “Fiddler on the Roof” kind of Shtetl
Notes for the Presentation:
Yurberik: Home of Our Ancestors
Introduction (Slide 1- Title)
I Why did I come to the reunion?
There are probably a variety of thoughts going through everyone's minds right now:
Will I learn new things this weekend that will be meaningful to me?
Will I be glad that I drove this distance?
We have each probably come to Detroit this weekend for a personal reason. some perhaps have come out of curiosity- there are names and stories that you have heard for a long time, and maybe just maybe, the story will take on added meaning with greater context than before others are here because they knew that some of their close relatives would be here still other are here because someone shlepted them and they had to be here
Regardless, over the course of the next few days the reasons will become clearer to each of you.
Point to a teenager, point to a middle aged person and then to a more senior person to see if there will be perspective that's age or experience related.

28. Your Family Reunion Agenda
Saturday Morning Program 9:30 AM
The Family Club's future plans
Family History and Genealogy:
Introduction of Ben Craine Joel Alpert
1927 Yurburg Film Ben Craine
Yurburg: Home of Our Families Joel Alpert
Home, Home on the Iron Range Aaron Laden
Family Histories
Feinberg & Craine Norman Finkelstein
Ellis Howard Ellis
Krelitz-Ellis Helen Ellis Koppel
Krelitz Gary Schuman, Lottye Brodsky & Glenna Ross
Rosin Dafna Kapshud & Fania Jivotosky
Krelitz Research in Lithuania David Rosenbloom
Zarnitsky (Krelitz) in Israel Itzhak Zarnitsky
Lunch: Your lunch is at a place of your own choice at the Hotel or area restaurants.

29. Saturday Afternoon: : 1:30 PM Optional Programs
Discussion of possible trip to Lithuania Fania Jivotovsky
Finding Our Roots and Ourselves Joel Alpert
Remastered 1927 Yurburg Film (Clearer and slower) Ben Craine
Genealogy Software (Family Tree Maker) Demonstration Ben Craine
Demonstration of Family Reunion Computer CD
Planning for next reunion and Family Club Newsletter
Saturday Evening
Dinner at Larcos: 7:00 PM
Another opportunity for family tales - All family storytellers welcome
After dinner: Continuation of festivities in the hotel's Hospitality Suite
Sunday Morning: 10:00 AM
Farewell Brunch
Closing Remarks and Completion of Unfinished Business Planning