Rabbi Shmuel haKohen Meisels

R' Shmuel haKohen Meisels was born in 1878, in Sudova Vyshnia to Avraham Tzvi hakohen and Mirl Merche Meisels. According to marriage record, birthday was 28-Apr-1878. He was a shochet and a baal tefillah, as was his father before him.

According to his oldest son Yaakov Leib (Jack) Meisels, Shmuel had 4 siblings (as told to Jack's daughter, Rhoda Poblet). Only the children of his older brother Moshe are known and documented.

R' Shmuel married Feige Netel from Mosty Wielkie in 1904. They lived in Mosty, had 7 children, 5 born in Mosty, Poland, 1 in Weisskirchen Czech and 1 in NY. R' Shmuel was recognized as one of the 'outstanding scholars' of Mosty (see yizkor book link).

He must have conscripted into the army before he was married, as it says he was a "reservist" on his 1904 marriage certiticate.

At the outbreak of WWI he hid in the subcellar for weeks, with 2 of his wife's uncles, to avoid being caught and being sent to the front. When the soldiers (German and Russian) came searching for him, his wife gave them tea and cake, and told them she doesn't know where he is. The children were instructed not to cry for their father, or say anything about the basement.

In 1915, he was conscripted into the Austria-Hungarian army and transferred to Marisch Weisskirchen (where there was a miltary cavalry academy) in Czech. His wife convinced the recruiting officers to allow her and the children to accompany her husband. He was given an office job, working as a bookkeeper for the army, which saved his life - he wasn't sent to the front. They lived there until they emigrated to America in 1920. We have several postcards that they received while living there, including 2 from his father written in Hebrew and 3 from his brother Moshe, written in German.

R' Shmuel did not want leave Europe, but his wife's parents had emigrated years earlier (1896 and 1906) and she was insistent on leaving, because she wanted to visit her mother's kever. Feige's father, Leisor Netel, sponsored them to come in 1920 (see application document).

When they left Poland, Shmuel wanted to bring along the family's shtar yichus, tracing their lineage back to Aharon HaKohen, father to son. His brothers (Moshe and Chaim) did not want him to bring it to the 'treife medina' and so it stayed in Europe, and lost in the Holocaust.

In New York, R' Shmuel received a shtar kabbalah for shechting chickens from Rabbi Jaffe, and was hired as a shochet. He was not happy with the standards of schechitah, and undertook only to eat what he had shechted himself. He opened his own slaughterhouse. Since he had not learned to shecht cows, his family ate only chicken. When his daughter Hinda got engaged to Harry Halberg, and was hosted by her future in laws (Schmarye and Bruche Halberg), she was served meat but didn't eat it because she didn't know what it was, having never seen it in her parents' home.

In 1940, Shmuel's niece Frieda Salzberg (daughter of brother Moshe) and her husband and son escaped Europe via Cuba and joined him in America (see their ship manifest - wrote Samuel Meisels, Ross St) Shmuel had sent them papers to emigrate. He also assisted his nephew Joseph and his wife and son (Manfred) to emigrate via Cuba.

In July 2021, a file was found in Monsey by his granddaughter Sydell Rennert, with many documents, notes and letters belonging to or written by R' Shmuel - including his kesuba, letters, postcards, telegrams, his shtar kabbalah for shechita, yartzeits, a will, lists of donations, etc. Most of the documents have been uploaded.

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https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Velyki_Mosty/vele033.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77847092/samuel-meisels

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New York Death Record - found on familysearch.org:

Name: Samuel O. Meisels
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 17 Apr 1945
Event Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States
Event Place (Original): Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States
Address: 220 Ross St.
Residence Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York
Sex: Male
Age: 66
Marital Status: Widowed
Race: White
Occupation: Poultry Dealer
Birth Date: 3 Apr 1879
Birthplace: Sondovaweish, Austria
Burial Date: 17 Apr 1945
Cemetery: Mt.Hebron
Father's Name: Abraham Hirsh
Father's Birthplace: Austria
Mother's Name: Mircha Helman (Helman might be a mistake, we don't know what Mirel's maiden name was)
Mother's Birthplace: Austria
Spouse's Name: Feigl or Fanny Meisels
Certificate Number: cn 8122

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Notes: On the Meisels family ship manifest, it says their closest relative remaining in Poland was brother in law Samuel Reches, from Sadowa Wisznia. He may have been married to one of Shmuel's 2 sisters, but no records were found to support that.

There are many records for a Shmelke Reches who lived in Sadowa Wisznia, and his wife and children. In a postcard received by Shmuel from his older brother Moshe after their father died, a Shmelke is mentioned more than once, as well as in a letter written by Shmuel's cousin Chana Langberg in Argentina, in 1943 (in which she says that Shmelke died without having married off his children). This may have been Samuel/Shmuel Reches. However his wife was Rochel - not a sister of Shmuel Meisels as far as we know. The Reches family was murdered in the Holocaust. (as per Yad Vashem records)

We found records of a Lezer Reches, son of Samuel Reches, who married Zurtel Wislicka, daughter of Ita Meisels. Ita was a daughter of R' Lipa Meisels, from Przemysl, born in 1847. It's possible that Ita was a cousin of Avraham Tzvi hakohen (ben Mordechai Meir) Meisels. (but not through their fathers, as it seems R' Lipa was not a kohen) If they were somehow cousins, Samuel Reches might have been "family" by marriage.

Alternatively, the term brother-in-law may have been a euphimism for friend, or a misunderstanding at Ellis Island. (unconfirmed)