Goldstein, Ester Lea

  General Notes:

Her full name is ESTER LAJA in the book of residents of Belchatow (JRI). There her date and place of birth agrees with the birth of Ester in Olkusz (b. March 8, 1860 in Olkusz). Ester Lea was married to Abraham Mendel Warszawski of Lodz (d. 3 Te vet 5684 [Dec. 11, 1923], Lodz, 66 years old). His tombstone in the Lodz Cemetery describes him as a righteous and God-fearing man, who performed good and charitable deeds.

There is a possibility that Hena (Szayndl Hena) née Meisels and Rabbi Joseph Shmuel Gershon Goldstein also had a daughter named Rachel (Ruchla). The reasons are as follows:

A man named Baruch Chen Cijon (originally with the surname Chencinski) who surived the Holocaust and emigrated to Israel, filed some Pages of Testimony with Yad Vashem for members of his family. His mother was named Ruchla née Goldstein and her f ather was named Yosef Gershon Goldstein (but we don’t know what Ruchla’s mother’s name was).

Baruch had a brother named Yosef Gershon (b. 1918) who died in the Shoah (d. Dec. 1944, Flossenberg Camp, Germany). He lived and Lodz and worked in the factory of Abram Mendel Warszawski, which might indicate he was a relative of his.

We don’t know for certain when Baruch’s mother Ruchla was born, but in Olkusz in JRI there is a birth of a Ruchla Goldstein in 1883 (the parents’ names are not given). Perhaps she is a daughter of Rabbi Yosef Shmuel Gershon Goldstein and Hena Mei sels. This birth of Ruchla is 24 years after the marriage of Yosef Shmuel Gershon and Hena. It’s a long time but it is still possible that the Ruchla Goldstein born in Olkusz in 1883 is their daughter. Also it is possible that Rabbi Goldstein m arried a second time to another wife.

According to Baruch Chen Cijon, his father Michael was born in Pabianice (near Lodz) in 1898, but he doesn’t say old his wife was. If his wife Ruchla was born around that time it is rather late for her to be a daughter of Rabbi Yosef Shmuel Gersh on Goldstein, unless he did indeed marry again to a younger wife.

Michael Chencinski perished in the Holocaust in Pabianace in 1943. His mother Ruchla née Goldstein died before the Holocaust since their son, Yosef Gershon Chencinski (brother of Baruch) had a daughter named Ruchla (presumably named after the wif e of Michael) who died as a child in the Holocaust, age 4 in 1944.]

In the Pabianice cemetery there is the grave of Rachel Chencinska (sector pab, row 14, number 63), who must be Michael’s mother. Also there is a grave of Hinda Chencinska, wife of Chenoch, presumably the mother of Rachel Chencinska.

Ester married Abraham Mendel Warszawski. (Abraham Mendel Warszawski died on Dec 11, 1923 in Lódz, Lodzkie, Poland.)