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Our Family |
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Niswitzski/Russotto/Abileah Branch |
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Connie Gilbert hails from Key
West, Florida.
Connie is an art-review writer, a poet and,
active in NOW
(National Organization for Women).
She devotes
time and effort for Peace in the world.
Constance* (Connie) Gilbert
provided the following details about her maternal grandmother
Florence Solzman-Russotto:
"I never knew Grandma's parents names, although I know a handful of facts about them that she told me:
He owned forest land in Russia and was therefore
unusually wealthy, and very unusual, for a Jew; they traveled by sleigh in winter; there were many children, all grown when
my grandmother surprised them by being born when her mother was 52 . . . a longterm fertility that is apparently hereditary.
Grandma was sent to New York to live with an elder sister at age 12. She never saw her parents again. Grandma spoke about
six languages, married a cousin [Baruch-Barnett Niswizski-Russotto] , and returned to Europe with my mother [Estherlee
Gladys Russotto] when she was an infant, staying at least two years."
* Connie says: "I was named after Constance Bennett on a movie marquee my father drove by on his way to the hospital after many days of fruitless, occasionally acrimonious debate, although Grandma always claimed it was for a distant cousin of hers named Kessel. "
Feiga Solzman-Niswizski:
Ilania [Mookie] Abileah-(Negev) writes about her paternal great grandmother:
Feiga Solzman
married a Yeshive Bocher, who wanted to study classical languages...so he was excommunicated....[according to her great
grand daughter Tecia Werbowski). They had a daughter named Ana. Feiga married a widower named Alexander Eliezer Niswizski, who already had children with his first wife
Chana. Alexander-Eliezer was a Cantor who became a Shochet when his voice began to give out.
His children Ephraim and Arieh became musicians. Ephraim Abileah was a composer and a music teacher.
He composed the music for "Ma Nishtana" that we all sing at the Seder today. Arie Abileah became
a well-known pianist, who later taught piano at the Conservatory in Jerusalem.*
Feiga moved to Israel and lived in Jerusalem. I still remember being taken
at a tender age, to visit great-grandmother Feiga Niswizski in the beautiful Ethiopian quarter of Jerusalem.
*The children in the household of Alexander-Eliezer
and Feiga Solzman-Niswizski that we know of are: Ana Niswizski-Crupnia, Baruch-Barnett
Niswizski-Russotto, Henry Niswizski-Russotto, Ephraim
Niswizski-Abileah, Arieh Niswizski-Abileah and Bertha Niswizski-Klein. Cecile Russotto-Arnold recollects that there was another brother called
Sam, who changed his name to Cantor upon arrival in the
United States.
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