Joseph
Levy's Passport Application
 Joseph
Levy was born in Porozow in February 1863,
and he emigrated to the United States via
Canada in January, 1883. Between then and
the year 1923, when he applied for a passport,
he lived in both New York and San Francisco,
working as a merchant. He was naturalized as
an American citizen in 1888 before the
Superior Court of the City of New York. In 1923,
he applied for a passport in order to visit
Palestine, Switzerland and Germany.
  The Department of State issued
Joseph a
passport on 29 March 1923, but only after he
signed an affidavit affirming that he would
not "solicit or advertise for money to be
used in bringing immigrants or aid any
emigrant, other than members of my immediate
family, to come to the United States." His
original application can be seen at right.
Click the thumbnail
images to enlarge.
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Sam Navitzky's
Parents' Dream
 Sam
Navitzky had been living in the U.S. for 16
years before he returned to Poland. Born in
Porozow on 15 September 1887, he had
emigrated
to America via Bremen in 1905 and had
naturalized as an American citizen in 1912. He
worked in a laundry on 52nd Street in Manhattan,
and applied for travel documents to visit not
only Poland, but also France, the British Isles
and Switzerland.
One of the goals of Sam's trip was clearly to
bring his parents back to America. His
passport application included
a translation of a letter they wrote him from
Porozow in March, 1921. The letter read:
We received the two thousand marks you sent us and it came in the proper time. We envy parents that are able to get away from this
country and would like you to come see us
and take us both back with you as your being an
American citizen will make travel easier
for us.
The goal was accomplished, and Sam's parents, Gershon and Dobra
emigrated to the United States
in 1922. |
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Moshe Chaim Chmielnicki -
Later Morris Hyman
 Rabbi Geoffrey Hyman, currently the rabbi of
London's Ilford United Synagogue, is a son of
Porozow through his great-grandfather Moshe
Chaim Chmielnicki, who became Morris Hyman after
arriving in Belfast; his brother Kushel, who
also settled there, changed the surname to
Malinsky. Both were brothers of
Michel Chmielnitski
of Tishbi wine fame. Their
father, Simcha, later joined Michel in Zichron
Yaakov, Israel, and his matzeva is
pictured at right.
In 2015, descendants of Sara Chmielnicki of
Porozow in Liverpool, England, with help from
the late Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, discovered the
children of cousins their mother had assumed had
perished in the Holocaust. This
article tells
the inspiring story.
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The Shawzins of
South Africa
.jpg)  Mowszo
Szewin, son of Chono (Elchanan) - later Morris
Shawsin - was a Porozow native born about 1861.
On 18 Jan 1887, he married Bejla Finkelstein of
Rajgrod and relocated there. Some time
afterward, the family - which by then included
at least three children - emigrated to what was
then Southern Rhodesia. According to Victor
Stone, his great-nephew by marriage, the family
subsequently moved to South Africa, where Morris
was a successful businessman. Other family
members also made the voyage to Africa, some
using the spelling Shawzin and others Shawsin.
Morris himself died on a visit to England in
1914. The inscription on his tombstone
translates as follows: "One of the honored men
of Bialystok, amazingly learned, a lover of
Zion, generous and with a gentle soul, our
friend Moshe ben Reb Elhanan Shawzin, husband of
Mrs Beila, daughter of Reb Yehezkel, was
gathered to his forefathers at the age of 52 on
the 24th day of the month of Tammuz in
the year 5674. May his soul be bound up in
everlasting life." |
U.S. World
War II Draft Registrations - The "Old Man's
Draft"
 .jpg)  After
the U.S. entered World War II in December,
1941, a new selective service act required
that all men between ages 18 and 65 register
for the draft. Between November 1940 and
October 1946, more than 10 million American
men were registered. The draft records are
not publicly available due to privacy laws
except for the Fourth Registration, often
referred to as the "old man's draft," which
was conducted on 27 April 1942 and
registered men born on or between 28 April
1877 and 16 February 1897 - men who were
between 45 and 64 years old - and who were
not already in the military. Three such men
- Sam Berko Kam, Joseph Fine and Harry Lukas
- named Porozow as their place of birth;
their cards are pictured on this page.
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A Union of Two Porozow Families - in America
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  When Jacob
Leschinsky and Annie Feldman married in
New York in 1916, it was a joining of
two Porozow families more than 4,300
miles from their native town. Jakob was
the son of son of Shlomo (ben Azriel)
Leschinsky, whose family had been in
Porozow for several generations; Azriel's father, also named Shlomo, had
been born there in 1795. Annie's family
had gone by the surname Felman in
Porozow but had added a "d" after they
emigrated. The daughters of Khaim-Leizer
Felman and his wife, née
Solnitzky, Annie (Chana) and her three
sisters all emigrated to the U.S.
Left: Shlomo Leschinsky and daughter
Elke. The photo was taken in Porozow
some time in the 1920s. Right: Marriage
certificate of Jacob Leschinsky and
Annie (Chana) Feldman. They were wed at
442 E. 121st Street in Manhattan on 17
December 1916.
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Charlie Snyder's Declaration of
Intention
 Charlie
Snyder was born in Porozow on 26 April
1885, and emigrated to the United States
in 1906, probably with his wife Lena (Liebe).
His last residence in Europe was in
Bialystok, Poland, and he eventually
made his way to Akron, Ohio, but not
before the couple had two children in
New York. Five feet seven inches tall
and weighing 165 pounds, Charlie was a
laborer who filed a Declaration of
Intention to become a U.S. citizen,
pictured at right, in 1919.
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Rubin Amiel Registers for World Wars I, II
  Rubin
Amiel, born in Porozow on 15 January
1892, emigrated to the United States in
1912 and married a woman named Bertha
Eingold, also from Russia and four years
his junior. They settled in the Bronx
where he found work as a bookbinder, and
had at least two children. Because of
his age, Rubin was forced to register
for the draft twice. Once, in 1917, for
World War I, and the second time in the
1942 "old man's draft" for World War II.
There is no evidence he ever served in
the military, however. |
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