Pinchas Elimelehch
Ha Levy Mansbach
(c.1875-1932)
Frances Moskowitz
Paul, son of Ray, with Deborah his daughter c. 2015
Solomon Arthur Mansbach (Avram Zalman Ha Levy Mansbach)
(1917-2009)
Oyzer/Abe in the Army
Sol and Ray MANSBACH c. 1930.
Ray and Irving MANSBACH c. 1935
4. The eldest son of Jehudah MANSBACH was Pinchas Elimelech MANSBACH.
Aviva
Lev Rosenberg, Bertha and Breindel--Bertha's parents and Robert's great-grandparents, taken circa 1900 in Eastern Europe.
Irving and Ray MANSBACH in the park
Ray MANSBACH at Long Beach, NY, c. 1962
In 1904, Bertha Rosenberg above married Oyser (then Abraham) MANSBACH. They lived on the lower East Side of Manhattan.
Israel HIllel, Izzy and Henshie (Hersh or Harry?) MANSBACH
Solomon Peretz Ha Levy Mannsbach
(c. 1825-c. 1858)
Bertha MANSBACH 1936
Oyzer, Robert and Bertha facing 81 Arizona Avenue in Long Beach, c. 1953, home of the Moskowitz's. Note the TV antenna in the background.
Pinchas Elimelech MANSBACH is buried in Judlowa, Poland in close proximity to his father and mother, Jehudah and Cipporah MANSBACH
Sol MANSBACH WWII Wyoming
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Oyzer and Israel Hillel sailed on the SS Ethiopia. it had three masts rigged for sails in addition to engine power. The ship, made of iron, carried 200 first and second class passengers and 800 (!) in steerage.
IMPORTANT: Judlowa records show Isaac and Sima Schenker as the parents of Leib Schenker. Leib Schenker was the brother of Cipporah Schenker--Jehudah MANSBACH's wife and the father of Oyser. Thus, Isaac and Sima Schenker were Robert's great-great grandparents.
He worked as a conductor on a railway in New York, and as a dairy delivery man. He and Bertha raised two children, Sol and Raymond, and lived happily ever after in an apartment at 506 E. 176 Street in the Bronx. The apartment was a strange place to their grandchildren. My father said that for Passover they used to keep live carp in the bathtub—or maybe it was homemade hooch. There were tons of locks on the door, one a large, maybe four foot piece of steel pipe, fit between the door and a hole in the floor. We were frightened to death of going up to their apartment in the elevator. For Passover, my grandmother Bertha plucked a goose, the family always had a little box for charity and whenever we left the apartment, she would give the grandchildren some change. I don’t know if Bertha could read English or whether she even went to school in Russia. She had bright blue eyes and looked very Slavic to me.
In June 1944 the house sold for $7000. Now it's worth about a million dollars. Oy.
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Irving and Ray MANSBACH c. 1940
Sidney in front of 81 Arizona Ave. Long Beach w his car/Sidney & Frances w/Robert c.1951
Beyond the very odd picture of the man in the head-shaking get-up, we had no other knowledge whatsoever about Jehudah or his life. No one thought to ask. Extensive archival information found in the Jewish Records Indexing Project: htpps// JRI-Poland.org tell us quite a bit more about Jehudah and his family. See also that part of this website containing documents from the Polish Archives.
Jehudah's first wife was named Cipporah, after she died he remarried a woman named Malka Fenichel. He had four sons and one daughter with Cipporah and three daughters and one son with Malka.
Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH died in Judlowa in 1930, age 80—not too shabby for those days.
Bertha date uncertain
There are seven MANSBACH families today that descend from one of the following MANSBACHs:
Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH
Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH was born in Olpiny, Poland in 1850 and lived there at least until 1875, when his son Pinchas Elemelech was born. Jehudah died in Judlowa, Poland in 1930. The family of Joseph Dawid MANSBACH also lived in Olpiny in this timeframe. Jehudah raised chickens and sold their eggs. He maintained the mikveh in Judlowa and was was a carpenter or a glazier by trade. He also went by the names Jechiel and Joel. To your right is a picture of him in a long greyish beard, heavy black coat with a meerschaum pipe. It hung in my grandparents’ apartment in the Bronx. We were told that the beard was fake, pasted on in the studio to make him look older and wiser. I think my father inked in his right eye one day.
Above, Sol, Robert and Pearl Mansbach 1950
()yzer Ha Levy Mansbach
1890-1965
(known as Abe/Irving in the US)
Sol MANSBACH, Douglas, Wyoming 1943 guarding German and Italian POW's
Above from left to right, Jack (Yacov HaLevy) MANSBACH and Isaac HaLevy MANSBACH, two sons of Israel Hillel MANSBACH. They both had red hair and never married.
Sol MANSBACH Spring 1936
Sol MANSBACH AND Ray with Bertha
Bertha, c. 1930, presumably in their apartment
Cipporah Schenker MANSBACH, the first wife of Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH:
Jehudah MANSBACH’S first wife was Cipporah Schenker; her father and mother were Isaac and Sima Schenker. Cippporah Schenker was born c.1852 and passed away in 1897. Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH is buried next to Cipporah in the Jewish cemetery in Judlowa. For future visitors, the numbers may have changed, look for the inscription.
Above from left to right, Bertha Mansbach, Ray Mansbach, Elaine Mansbach and Elaine’s mom, Mrs. Lowen. c.1955.
Jehudah Mansbach
(1850-1930)
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Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH apparently lived with three daughters and one son of his second wife, Malka Fenichel by her first marriage:
Daughters: Cyrla MANSBUCH Szuman; 2) Hanna MANSBUCH Wallach; and Lea or Lena MANSBACH. These first two women and their families likely perished in the Holocaust; Pages of Testimony for them and their families are recorded at Yad Vashem.
There is some small chance that Hana "Wallach" may have emigrated to the U.S. and may have been known as Lena Rubinson.
A third daughter named Lea or Lena MANSBACH came to the U.S. and married Samuel Leibowitz.
Malka's son, Isaac [MANSBACH] remained in Poland until his death in 1934.
Jeffrey MANSBACH and Parental Units
Sidney/Robert july 1950
WE ACTUALLY HAVE A RECORDING OF OYSER'S VOICE !!: In 1967, the family made a tape recording of Oyzer. Some seventy years
after arriving in America, he still has a very difficult to understand Yiddish accent.
In the recording, Oyzer, then known as Irving, tells the story of his army life, his early years in lower Manhattan and some of the jobs he held.
He then talks about when he met Bertha (bat Lev or Louis) Rosenberg, who later became his wife.
While in High School, Sol was on the track team. Apparently, he didn’t do as well as he might have, as he smoked cigarettes just before the track meets began.
Above from left to right Jack, Jehudah (son of Israel Hillel), Izzy and Isaac HaLevy MANSBACH
After the war, the family of Jehudah Mansbach filed a claim for reparations for the property that was owned by family members that perished in the Holocaust. The claim was unsubstantiated and it was denied.
Sidney and wife Frances Einstein Landesman Moskowitz, Robert's maternal grandmother, the daughter of Henry Landesman and Henrietta Heller.
Bertha Rosenberg arrived in the U.S. with her sister Fannie apparently from Statestie (four and five liines from the bottom:
Oyzer (then Irving) & Bertha c. 1962
Above back row, left to right, Ray, Sol, Oyser Mansbach, in Oyzer and Bertha's apartment, c.1962. Paul MANSBACH next to Bertha in front row.
Ray and wife Elaine c. 1953
Back row left to right, Joel MANSBACH, Joel Preefer son of Dottie MANSBACH Preefer, middle seated Mel Preefer son of Dottie, far left seated Robert Matlin brother of Vickie Matlin daughter of Selma MANSBACH
Oyzer's youngest son was Raymond (Rachmeal HaLevy MANSBACH)
Raymond MANSBACH, was born January 20, 1927 on the kitchen table of Oyzer/Irving and Bertha MANSBACH, his parents, in the Bronx, NY. He grew up with his brother Sol at 506 E. 176 Street. He served in the Army, eventually becoming a private first class. In 1952, Raymond married Elaine Lowen, who was also from the Bronx. In 1958, Paul Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH) was born. Passover was always special. Irving and Bertha were quite religious, and Irving did not miss a word from the Seder Haggadah. Paul remembers opening the door for Elijah to come in and drink from the wine cup. He really thought he saw the wine disappear. Robert helped convince Paul that Elijah was in the room drinking from the cup.
Raymond retired and moved to Century Village in West Palm Beach in 1992. He unfortunately passed in 1997 at the age of 70.
Henrietta Heller, the daughter of Alex Heller who emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine, Robert's maternal great-grandmother
Sol MANSBACH (middle) Morris High track team
3. Jehudah's Third son was Isaac or Izzy (in the U.S) HaLevy MANSBACH:
Jehudah’s third son was named Issac, sometimes went by Isidore, but mostly was known as Izzy MANSBACH, He was born in 1886. Izzy had two sons, Samuel (1907-1991) and Harry, sometimes Hersh MANSBACH and three daughters: Matilda known as Dottie, Sylvia and Selma.
Mansbach - Levyim Family
MANSBACH mansion, Long Beach, NY.
Pearl, Sol, Robert and Bertha c.1954
Oyzer MANSBACH, Robert's grandfather in school in Judlowa c. 1905, six lines from the bottom.
Sol and Ray in Long Beach c. 1960
Having been discharged from the Army, young Abe attempted to get a job as a conductor on a New York City train line. Apparently, while Abe was in the Army, he got himself into trouble on several occasions.
Solomon [Shlomo] Peretz Ha Levy MANNSBACH was born around 1825. He was a "trader" living in Olpiny, Poland with his wife "Malie" in, and likely prior to, 1850 when their son Jehudah was born (see below). We do not have a photo of him or her. Solomon Peretz likely was the brother of Joseph David MANSBACH who also lived in Olpiny in that timeframe or possibly the brother of Isaac Joseph MANSBACH, the son of Jacob the Scribe. Solomon Peretz MANNSBACH was Robert MANSBACH's great-great grandfather.
The only record of Solomon Peretz MANNSBACH comes from the Judlowa archives which contains the marriage certificate of his son Jehudah to Jehudah's second wife Malka. These documents identify Jehudah's father as "Salomon Perez." See below:
Ray in Long Beach
Israel Hillel MANSBACH with 1st wife Baila and sons Jack and Isaac. 1922
Raymond Mansbach (Rachmeale Ha Levy Mansbach)
(1927-1997)
Below is the handwritten second marriage documentation for Jehudah MANSBACH in the Polish Archives. It identifies Jehudah's father and mother as Solomon Peretz and Malie MANNSBACH. In the far right of the first column on the left, your can make out the word (Solomon) followed on the next line by Perez and Malie MANNSBUCH:.
Ray called up to the stage, celebrating his first anniversary.
Shlomo Reuben HaLevy MANSBACH
The first column identifies the groom: Juda MANNSBACH born in Olpiny, egg dealer in Jodlowa. Son of the both deceased married couple, SOLOMON PERETZ and MALIA MANNSBACH, trader in Olpiny. Jehudah was 56 years old, a widower, his wife Cipporah had died several years earlier. The next entry describes the bride (his second wife) Malka Fenichel, born in Ryglice, daughter of Israel Isak and itta Fenichel, leather traders in Ryglice. She was 30 and single. On the second page, it says the wedding took place in Jodlowa on February 27, 1906. Solomon Frankel, Rabbi of Jodlowa officiated. the witnesses were Leib Szenker, iron monger and Israel Wurzel, schochet in Judlowa.
Robert and his maternal grandfather Sidney Moskowitz
(the son of Samuel, the son of Morris, husband of Molly Katz) and his wife Frances the daughter of Henry Landesman and Henrietta Heller, who was the daughter of Alex Heller a cigar maker from Alsace Lorraine.
It is not known what Oyser did for a living after he arrived in New York, no doubt whatever work was available. Life was surely hard. He chose the Army as his best bet which could not have been an easy lifestyle in those days, especially for an observant Jew.
In July 1908, Oyser, described as five feet five and a half inches with brown eyes and hair and a dark complexion, enlisted in the U.S. Army’s 15th Infantry under the name Abe MANSBACH for a three-year period.
Frances Moskowitz wife of Sidney w/her mother, Henrietta in 1931in Long Beach
Oyzer and Bertha raised two children: Avram Zalman HaLevy MANSBACH (Solomon Arthur MANSBACH) (the father of Robert) and Rachmeale HaLevy MANSBACH (Raymond) (the father of Paul MANSBACH).
Solomon Arthur MANSBACH, Robert's father, was born on December 26, 1917. He attended Morris High School, graduating in June 1936. From his high school report card, I would say his grades were middling at best, he seemed to do better in science, which he was always interested in later in life.
Pinchas Elimelech HaLevy MANSBACH was born around 1875. This means the family of Solomon Peretz MANSBACH was living in Olpiny for at least twenty-five years (between 1850, the birth of Jehudah and 1875, the birth of Pinchas Elemelech) . As noted above, the family of Joseph Dawid MANSBACH were also living in Olpiny in this time frame.
Sometime after 1875, Pinchas and Jehudah MANSBACH moved to Judlowa from Olpiny. Apparently, Pinchas went into business as a glazier with his father, Jehudah. Pinchas was married to Liebe Spett and had daughters named Devorah and Cipporah, the latter after his deceased mother. He died on November 5, 1932. The Jewish Records Indexing records show that Jehudah and Pinchas contributed to charity in 1926. These men, who were of very humble means, were pious and charitable by nature, which says a lot about them. Imagine that 100 years after they gave to charity, their good deed came to light---courtesy of the internet!!
Pinchas Elimelech is buried in Judlowa in close proximity to Jehudah MANSBACH.
Sol MANSBACH NYU track team 1 year c. 1935
MORE PICTURES FROM THE FAMILY OFIRVING/OYZER MANSBACH
Joel and Joan Green MANSBACH
Israel Hillel Mansbach
(1886-1981)
Jack, the son of Izzy MANSBACH and Jeff MANSBACH (the son of Jehudah ben Israel Hillel MANSBACH)
Above from left to right Joel (Moshe Jehudah), Hersh and Izzy MANSBACH
Sol and Ray MANSBACH
Henry Landesman (Robert's maternal great-grandfather) the son of joseph Jacob, the son of Jacob Moses Landesman
Solomon Peretz MANNSBACH had at least one son, Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH, Robert's great-grandfather:
Above, Jehudah ben Israel Hillel MANSBACH a son of Israel Hillel with his second wife.
In 1910, Oyzer, Robert's grandfather, was serving with the Army in Salt Lake City, Utah--3 lines from the bottom:
Irving MANSBACH c. 1930
Sidney Moskowitz w/R.M., 1950
Ray MANSBACH WW2 Service Record
Around 1955, Sol and Pearl moved to Long Beach, NY, buying the above house at 611 E. Beech Street. The house was three blocks from the ocean and had red brick steps used daily by Robert Mansbach as the target for his spaldeen rubber ball which invariably smashed against the glass front door, which did not go down very well at all with his mother.
Ray MANSBACH Bar Mitxvah 1940
Jehudah's second son was Israel Hillel MANSBACH
Probable Branches of the Solomon Peretz MANNSBACH Joseph David MANNSBACH Family Tree:
Unknown MANSBACH c. 1800
I I I
Solomon Peretz -----?----Joseph David
I I
Jehudah Jacov-Jehuda/Shlomo Peretz
I I I
Oyzer, et al.
I
Avram Zalman, et al.
I
Robert
I
Eric/Jeffrey
When Cipporah MANSBACH passed away in 1897 she left six children: Oyser (later Abraham, later Isidore, later Irving) MANSBACH; Israel HILLEL MANSBACH; Izzy MANSBACH, Sima MANSBACH (later Sadie Orner, married to Sam Orner with one child), Feiga MANSBACH (later Feiga Siegfried), and Pinchas Elimelech MANSBACH. All of Jehudah's children with Cipporah, except for Pinchas and Feiga, emigrated to the United States around the turn of the century. Feiga perished in the Shoah.
Around 1900, Jehudah MANSBACH married a second time to Malka Fenichel. Jehudah had a number of children with Malka Fenichel: Cyrla MANSBUCH later Schuman, born in 1906; Lea MANSBACH, later emigrated to the U.S. and, after marriage to Sam, known as Lena Leibowitz; and Hana MANSBUCH (later Wallach), who may have come to the U.S. (calling herself Hana MANBASCH and later Lena Rubinson) or perished in the Holocaust; as well as a son by Malka named Isaac MANSBACH who passed away in Poland around 1920.
Judlowa’s school records show that Jehudah sometimes took the name Joel and “Jech[iel]. We also see that Pinkas [Elimelech] MANSBACH, the eldest son of Jehudah MANSBACH, had a school age child named Cyporah and was married to a woman named Lieba Spett. Schenker is confirmed as the maiden name of Cyporah, the first wife of Jehudah MANSBACH. Jehudah's children with his second wife, Malka, are listed as well.
Irving and Ray MANSBACH c. 1940
Above Dottie (daughter of Izzy) MANSBACH Preefer
Bertha Rosenberg MANSBACH wife of Oyzer MANSBACH and Robert
MANSBACH's grandmother.:
Sol MANSBACH 1936
In 1949, Pearl and Sol had a bouncing baby boy, your webmaster, Robert A. Mansbach
Finally, a question for posterity: Jehudah MANSBACH had five sons between roughly 1885 and 1906. He named none of them after his father, Shlomo Peretz MANSBACH (born circa 1820). Why? I have no real reason, unless perhaps his father died in 1858, when he was eight years old and he had no memory of him. But I note that Oyzer/Irving MANSBACH named his first born son Avram Zalman MANSBACH. It is possible that Oyzer named his son Avram Zalman after Oyser's grandfather, Shomo or Solomon [or Zalman] Peretz MANNSBACH.
Above from left to right Frances, Izzy and Joel MANSBACH
Eventually, Robert with the assistance of his beautiful wife Linda C. Mansbach nee Rudnick had two sons of his own. Eric J. Mansbach (r) (Shmuale) and Jeffrey Andrew (Oyzer Eliyahu) Mansbach (l):
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Sidney and Frances Moskowitz c. 1915
For unknown reasons, sometime thereafter Oyzer/Abe MANSBACH began to refer to himself as Isidore and then Irving.
Sima or Sadie MANSBACH: Jehudah and Cipporah MANSBACH had a daughter named Sima or Sadie who married Sam Orner in the U.S. and had one child. A second daughter, Feiga Siegfried MANSBACH remained in Poland and perished in the Holocaust._
In 1946, they were married.
Sol, Irving and Ray MANSBACH in white c. 1930
The youngest son of Jehudah HaLevy MANSBACH and Cipporah MANSBACH was Oyzer Ha Levy MANSBACH, Robert MANSBACH's grandfather:
1. Oyzer HaLevy MANSBACH was born on July 1, 1890; his mother (Cipporah) died when he was just seven years old. In 1904, when he was 14, Oyser, along with his brother Israel Hillel MANSBACH, made there way somehow from Judlowa to Glasgow, Scotland where they boarded the S.S. Ethiopia and sailed to the U.S. They arrived on Christmas Eve. Ellis Island Passenger Records identify Oyzer as “Uscher MANSBACK” occupation: “tailor.” According to the ship’s manifest, the brothers had five dollars between them. But Oyzer was also carrying something else: a silver Kiddush cup dated 1886. It’s been passed down in our family ever since. How could his father Jehudah, the keeper of chickens and sometime glazier, afford a silver Kiddush cup? A cup which he then gave to his youngest son to take to America.
Because of his earlier military service, Oyser/Abe did not have to fight in World War I.
Oddly enough the picture to the right is is a composite picture. Three different individual pictures of these three men were melded into one picture around 1920. The man on the far left may be Pinchas Elemelech MANSBACH. He has a "modern" tie which seems to place him in the twentieth century. Seated next to him is Oyzer, which may have been taken at the time of his Bar Mitzvah. Standing to the right is Jehudah MANSBACH, looking aged but actually with a false beard to make him seem older and wise.
This picture was one of two which hung in Oyzer's Bronx apartment. The man on the left must have been an important MANSBACH family member. I'm guessing he was Pinchas Elimelech who would have been the Oyzer's oldest brother. In the Bronx, the picture would have reminded Oyzer daily about his brother and father living in Poland (whom he knew he would never be seeing again)!
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Sol and Ray Mansbach c.1928
Israel Hillel had two sons Jacob (Jack) and Isaac (sometimes Isidore) with his first wife and one son, Judah, with his second wife.
After high school, Sol found a job with a company that made artillery shells. Apparently, he convinced his employer that he had some mechanical familiarity with the process that included measuring the shell or the fuse with calipers. This did not work out well. Sometime thereafter Sol enlisted in the U.S. army. He served in first in a unit that guarded prisoners of war in Laramie, Wyoming. Thereafter, he was attached to a unit that repaired trucks and other vehicles. He landed in Marseilles not too long before the end of the war in Europe. He saw no action except that one day, while sitting/sleeping on a pile of logs, he heard German aircraft overhead and sprained his knee while running away. He later received a small pension from the VA for his injury.
Sol met Pearl Moskowitz calling herself “Moss” which her family used from time to time to avoid anti-Semitism, at a U.S.O. dance.
Oyser, now Abe, re-enlisted in the Army in 1908 (third line from the bottom, above) and served in the Medical Corps in the Hawaiian Islands through July 1914. In the Hawaiian Islands, he served as a pharmacist, although I doubt very much if he could read or write English. He certainly had a very thick Yiddish accent which he carried all the rest of his days. Would you take medicine prepared by this man? Not if you could help it.
Fanny Moskowitz sister of Sidney and son Julius
Frances Moskowitz
Izzy Ha Levy Mansbach
(1885-1981)