Mansbach-Levyim Family

Welcome to the Mansbach Family Genealogy Project

My name is Robert (Yerachmeal ben Avram Zalman HaLevy) MANSBACH. I began my journey into MANSBACH family history in 1979 by searching for the name MANSBACH in every telephone book at the library. With the advantage of a free long-distance plan and plenty of time, I reached out to every MANSBACH with a phone to explore possible connections within my MANSBACH genealogy research. Looking back, this might seem unusual, but it was a vital step in uncovering details about Polish Mansbach families and their connections to my family tree.

Explore Our Origins

Ancestral Roots of Today’s MANSBACH Families

Today, there are seven families that descend from notable figures in Mansbach family history, which has deep roots in Poland. These families include: Solomon Peretz Ha Levy Mansbach, Jacob the Scribe Ha Levy Mansbach Family, Joseph David Ha Levy Mansbach Family, Naphtali Ha Levy Mansbach Family, Joel Ha Levy Manzbach/Mancbach Family, Samuel Mansbach Family, and Shlomo Mansbach. For those engaging in Mansbach genealogy research, these descendants play a significant role in the legacy of Polish Mansbach families.

Remembering MANSBACH Lives Lost

The Mansbach family history from Poland includes stories of individuals who tragically perished in the Holocaust, such as:

Leser Mansbach Family

Rafael Mandsbach Family

Isaac Manbah Family

Jakob Mansbach

These extraordinary narratives of Shoah survivors play a crucial role in advancing Mansbach genealogy research, particularly in relation to Polish Mansbach families.

A Distinct Polish and German Split

Jacob the Scribe and His Descendants

News story about the Mansbach-Posner menorah.

Early Levite Mansbachs in Poland

The Mansbach family history from Poland includes stories of individuals who tragically perished in the Holocaust, such as:

Leser Mansbach Family

Rafael Mandsbach Family

Isaac Manbah Family

Jakob Mansbach

These extraordinary narratives of Shoah survivors play a crucial role in advancing Mansbach genealogy research, particularly in relation to Polish Mansbach families.

Where Did the Mansbachs From Poland Originate?

A possible ancestral candidate is someone from a group of men with the surname MANSBACH who were also Levites living and buried in Hamburg, Germany, between 1600 and 1800. (Having the surname MANSBACH in itself is extraordinary, as very few Jews had surnames until 1770). In theory, one of these Hamburg MANSBACHs then emigrated to Poland and was the forerunner of the Polish MANSBACHs. Alternatively, and more likely, a woman named MANSBACH from Germany married a Levite man without a surname—and the children of this marriage in Poland took the mother's MANSBACH surname—a very common practice in those days. DNA evidence indicates that going back to circa 1000 A.D., our MANSBACH direct male ancestor was also the direct male ancestor of the Horowitz rabbinical family, a famous, if not the most famous, rabbinical family. The Horowitz family were virtually all Levites; thus, the Levite tradition, confirmed by DNA results, extends in the MANSBACH family for at least 1000 years, if not longer.

What is the Derivation of the Name Mansbach Itself?

There is evidence to suggest that the name MANSBACH comes from the village named MANSBACH in Germany. There is another possibility: the derivation of the five final letters of the Hebrew alphabet—mem, nun, zadde, pe, and kaf (מ נ צ פ כ)—pronounced MANTZBACH, is discussed in the 7th-century Babylonian Talmud. The letters MANTZPACH stood for a group known as “The Watchmen,” who were guardians of the Temple in Jerusalem. So where does the name MANSBACH come from? The Talmud, the village of MANSBACH in Germany? The guardians of the temple? Or, somewhere else?

Special Thanks to Everyone Who Made This Possible

With the extraordinary assistance of my cousins Joel MANSBACH, Paul MANSBACH, Jack MANSBACH, Barbara MANCBACH, Jane MANCBACH Fletcher, Hanna MANSBACH Weininger, Itamar Kazachinsky, Linda C. MANSBACH, my son, Eric J. MANSBACH, Lars Menk, Jeff Wexler, Russ Maurer, and many others, this website contains the information we shared and collected on the people who call themselves MANSBACH!

If you don't have much time, be sure to check out the pictures on the About page; we MANSBACHs are very photogenic.

The Mansbach-Posner Menorah

After 90 Years, a Menorah That Symbolized Defiance Is Rekindled in Germany

A 1931 photograph of a menorah on a windowsill also showed a Nazi flag in the street outside. This Hanukkah, the menorah returned to Germany.

By Erika Solomon

Dec. 19, 2022

BERLIN—Rachel Posner, a rabbi’s wife in Kiel, Germany, took a photograph in 1931 that she had no idea would one day resonate with people across the world: it was of her family’s Hanukkah menorah, nine candles framed in a window through which a large Nazi banner could be seen hanging across the street.

“‘Death to Judah,’ so the flag says. ‘Judah lives forever,’ so the light answers,” she scribbled defiantly on the back of the photograph.

Now, 90 years since her family fled Germany with the menorah, it has returned, along with her descendants, to be lit for the first time in the country since the family escaped.

“It was a complicated decision to come here. I had mixed feelings about going to Germany,” said Nava Gilo, Ms. Posner’s granddaughter.

She and her brother brought the menorah with them from Israel, where the family has made a home since fleeing Germany in 1933, before the country was established. They had never been to Germany and said they never had a desire to go to the place where their relatives had been persecuted or had died in the Holocaust.

The history of the Posner family echoes with that of the Mansbach family history, highlighting the vital connections shared among Jewish families from Poland, including the Polish Mansbach families, and the importance of preserving their stories. Ms. Gilo noted that her perspective changed earlier this year after the mayor of the Posner family’s former hometown, Kiel, wrote to them. He invited them to visit an exhibition about their family’s history—and their iconic photograph.

The Posner descendants decided not just to come to Germany but to bring the menorah with them, reflecting a longstanding tradition among Polish Mansbach families to honor their heritage while also emphasizing the ongoing significance of Mansbach genealogy research.

For most of the year, the menorah is exhibited at the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. The family donated it on the condition that they could reclaim the heirloom every Hanukkah, preserving the Mansbach genealogy research that continues to inspire their steps today.

Hanukkah menorah on windowsill facing Nazi flag.

Its visit to Germany this year, organized by the German Friends of Yad Vashem, began with a trip to Kiel and concluded on Monday, the second night of Hanukkah, with the lighting of the menorah on a windowsill at Berlin’s grand Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the German president.

“We are experiencing the wonderful gift of reconciliation,” said President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the ceremony's onset. “And today, we see that 90 years after this menorah was last lit in Germany, there is once again a vibrant daily Jewish life here.”

He lit the candles alongside Ms. Gilo’s brother, Yehuda Mansbach, who sang the blessings over the candles.

Reflecting on her family's history, particularly the Mansbach family history, Ms. Gilo expressed her belief that their grandmother understood the power of the family menorah's photo but could never have envisioned its profound resonance. This picture was one of 17 photos that the rabbi’s wife sent to Germany in 1974 when the Kiel museum requested images of Jewish life, including those from Polish Mansbach families. However, it was not until two decades later that Ms. Gilo observed the image gaining popularity.

Ms. Gilo thought her grandmother, who passed away in 1982, would be astonished to learn that they would one day return to Germany with the menorah, thanks to her photograph. “I don’t think she ever would believe we would be doing this,” she said. “The photo of the menorah is so famous now, and I don’t think she could have ever imagined it would be like this.”

Before lighting the menorah in Berlin, the family proudly displayed its heirloom in Kiel, which is currently hosting an exhibition focused on Jewish life in the city through the lens of the Posner family's narrative and the broader Mansbach genealogy research.

Despite her hesitancy about visiting the place her grandparents fled, Ms. Gilo reflected on the heartening experience linked to her family's past, which forms part of a broader narrative surrounding the Mansbach family history.

“I especially liked our visits with some schoolchildren in Kiel—so many of them were immigrants from various countries,” she said. “And all of them had questions about the photograph. They were all eager to learn more about it.”

The menorah is featured in a campaign by the German Friends of Yad Vashem, entitled “Show Light.”

The grandchildren of the Posner family in Berlin posed alongside Mr. Steinmeier and Ms. Budenbender.

The promoters aim to raise awareness against hate, particularly antisemitism. In his speech, Mr. Steinmeier expressed deep concern about the resurgence of antisemitism and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories in Germany “in the middle of our society.”

While Germany grapples with its Nazi past and the complexities of the Holocaust, trends akin to those seen in countries like the United States reveal a worrying rise in antisemitic hate crimes in recent years. Notably, in 2019, a gunman attempted a failed attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle.

Ms. Gilo emphasized that the message of her family's visit to Germany was “to work against hate.” The insights gained through Mansbach genealogy research have significantly deepened her understanding and connection to her heritage, particularly regarding the stories of Polish Mansbach families.

“We all have to bring the light,” she said. “Everyone has to try to be brave—like my grandmother.” The ongoing dialogue surrounding Polish Mansbach families underscores the necessity of such conversations in preventing the repetition of history.