Dr. Moritz Meir Beck

From: "Anna Taylor" <ktscicon@ix.netcom.com> Subject: FW: Catching up Date: January 6, 2013 12:11:34 PM PST To: "E. Randol Schoenberg" <randols@bslaw.net>

Dear Randy,

You asked for e-mail addresses. Well, below is a recent letter from my cousin (Monica Tibon in Haifa) with details of the max Beck family. These are the 9 children of Max Beck’s brother, the chief rabbi of Bucharest. I still don’t know the name of the third brother of Max Beck. But, Monica had written the following about her grand-father, the Chief Rabbi:

My grand-father's names were Moritz, Meir. After your question, I looked him up in Google, and found most information by clicking: Rabbi Dr. Moritz (Meir) Beck.

Among others, I was excited to find out in an article called: "Romania, Women and Jewish Education" that the wife of Rabbi dr. Moritz Beck (her name. Amelia is not mentioned) was the principal of a girls' grade school, where I myself studied years later.. I am sorry, but both my maternal grand-parents died before I was born. They had 9 children and my mother was the one before last.  I have a photo of my grand-mother with all her grand-children, and Lucien is already there as a baby (he was born in 1926, I in 1928, so that she probably died in 1927). My grand-father died in 1924.

Sorry to bother you, but I would appreciate very much if you could add all this info/names to my family tree. As you can appreciate, I don’t know how to do that. You’re the expert!

With many thanks and best regards,

Anna

From: מוניקה תיבון [mailto:tibon22@012.net.il] Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2012 3:03 AM To: Anna Taylor Subject: Re: Catching up

Dear Anna,

I didn't start my answer sooner, because I knew that when I started on that subject, my answer might be quite long, maybe a book... First about Pappa, the birth town of my grand-father - It was in Hungary and this caused some complications, for instance that their Hungarian citizenship sent two of my uncles, Hungarian born, to the Austro-Hungarian army in the 1-st world war. This while Romania belonged to the other side, the allied armies of France, etc. Now their names. I can't help, but feel I have to give some information about each name, or at least those that I feel are interesting. I'm not sure about the exact order of their birth, but still I'll try to keep more or less what seems to me the probable order.

1. Izidor Beck - Served in the Austro-Hungarian army as an officer. During his time of sevice, there was a socialist revolution in Hungary, led by Bela Kun, who was a Jew. This started a wave of anti-Semitism in the whole country. One day, my uncle, in his officer's uniform, saw an Anti-Semitic poster on a wall and tore it. He was immediately attacked, murdered, and his body was thrown into the lake Balaton. One day, my grand-father in Romania recieved a letter from an Hungarian Jew, telling him the story.

2. Julie Kanner ( Tante Yoolie) As she was much older than my mother, she served Lucien and me more or less as a grand-mother in our childhood. She had 4 children: Adalbert (Bertie), Walter-Ferry ( He later got rid of the "Kanner" and adopted "Ferry" as his last name), Elsa and Edgar (Eddy) (the father of Daisy whom I think you met once). Bertie, Eddy and Elsa came to Israel during the fifties/sixties.

3.Frederick (Fritz) Beck - The second uncle who served in the A-H army. He was taken prisoner by the Russians, sent to Siberia, from where after the end of the war he went to China. There he got ill, and returned to Romania to die. I have some photos and letters from him and Izidor. They should be in a museum or something, but I don't know what to do with them.

4. Charlotte ( Tante Lotty) Markus. She also had 4 children. One of her daughters, Felicia (Fely) married her cousin Bertie, Julie's son. and later came to Israel with him and their 2 children. Her sister, Doris with her husband and 2 children came too. Doris' husband, Ignatz is the only one still alive among all my many cousins and their spouses. He lives in Petach-Tikva with his son, Meir, and we keep in touch.

5 Abraham ( Onkel Abby) He was the one who followed his father and became a rabbi. He had 2 sons who came to Israel in the fifties.He was the rabbi of a smaller synagogue, not the "Templul Coral", the central synagogue in Bucarest like his father. I guess this was because he married a "gioret" a woman who converted to Judaism, but I'm not sure.

6. Sulamit ("Tante Sula" Spodheim. Maybe you met her?. She was considered the great beauty among her sisters, married a wealthy pharmacist from Cernowitz and after 12 miscarriages finally had a daughter - Heddy. Sula was not only beautiful, she was smart and had a warm personality. She and my mother were best friends and corresponded all their lives.. I loved her too, more than all my aunts, except maybe Martha ("Tante Martel"), uncle Willy's wife. Sula and her husband emigrated to Paris in the thirties and were followed later by Walter, Heddy and Lya.

7. Wilhelm (Willy) was an architect. Maybe he studied in Germany, anyway he met his wife there, in what became later East Germany. They came to Bucarest , had 3 children and during the thirties emigrated to Palestine. I don't know details, but Willy died relatively young. Aunt Martel had a difficult life. Soon after the loss of her husband, one of her sons died of typhus. She worked as a dressmaker and lived to see her two children, Shlomo (Peter) and Esther (Erika) married and having families.

8. Maria (Mizzi), my mother, whom you knew. She died at the age of 93, and so lived the longest life among all her brothers and sisters and also of her nieces and nephews.

9. Hanna (Nini) is the saddest story of all. She married a man disliked by the whole family, gave birth to a daughter, Amelitta and commited suicide about 2 months later. I think it must have been post-childbirth depression, but the family blamed her husband and cut all relationship with him and his family, including the little girl. Her paternal grand-mother raised her in a poor home.. A few years later, my mother decided to stop this boycott, went to their house and brought Amelitta to us for a visit. She was 2 years younger than me, lived near to us and since then we became good friends, spent a lot of time together, and when I got a new dress, she got one too. In 1941 her father, joined a large group of Romanian Jews on a ship called "Struma" hoping to go to Palestine. The ship sunk and only one man survived. It was believed that the Germans torpedoed it, but documents found after the war dicovered that a Russian submarine did it, thinking that it was a German ship. Amelita grew up to be a scientist, taught physics at the University in Bucarest. When the rest of the family in Romania came to Israel during the 50-60 years, she didn't, but she came to visit twice and I did once. She died 2 years ago, mostly due to medical negligence. With her I lost my last cousin and also my last connection with Romania. Well this is the list of the 9 children of Rabbi's Meyer -Moritz Beck, that you asked for, bu with a lot of details that you probably didn't expect.

Love, Monica

Original Message ----- From: Anna Taylor Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 5:18 AM Subject: RE: Catching up

Dear Monica and Haim,

I’m sorry to hear of Haim’s weight loss problem. Surely, the doctors (even those in your family) can find the cause/remedy.

Thanks for pointing me to Google. It’s interesting to read that Rabbi Beck was born in Papa (I assume that’s Rumania, or is it Hungary?). Do you know the name of his Hungarian brother? That brother’s son is Fulop O. Beck (1873-1945), a famous Hungarian medalist and sculptor (also in Google). My mother and grandmother corresponded with him from America until his death. So, I know that Julia Beck’s father (my great grandfather) had two brothers: the Chief Rabbi of Bucharest and another in Budapest, and since he was the Viennese brother, I assumed they were all originally from Vienna. Hopefully you can fill in the missing details.

Do you have the names of your 9 uncles/aunts? I could add all that information to my family tree on www.geni.com.

Always enjoy hearing from you. Best wishes to you and Haim and the family.

Anna

From: מוניקה תיבון [mailto:tibon22@012.net.il] Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 12:31 PM To: Anna Taylor Subject: Re: Catching up

Dear Anna,

Quite a letter! So short and so rich with Information.We are glad you had such a nice trip and enjoyed both culture and nature all the way. About "Shana Tovah" we were no better this year and absolutely neglected writing or phoning our wishes to many. It is probably mostly because the worries about Haim's health. Although he is mostly o.k. he still has some problems and has to spend a lot of time seeing doctors and undergoing tests. You saw him after he had his stroke and he is much better now, much of his energy returned, he talks more, and even tells stories, not so much as before, but quite good. He still has no apetite and lost quite a bit of weight and this is now the cause of the tests.

My grand-father's names were Moritz, Meir. After your question, I looked him up in Google, and found most information by clicking: Rabbi Dr. Moritz (Meir) Beck.

Among others, I was excited to find out in an article called: "Romania, Women and Jewish Education" that the wife of Rabbi dr. Moritz Beck (her name. Amelia is not mentioned) was the principal of a girls' grade school, where I myself studied years later.. I am sorry, but both my maternal grand-parents died before I was born. They had 9 children and my mother was the one before last.  I have a photo of my grand-mother with all her grand-children, and Lucien is already there as a baby (he was born in 1926, I in 1928, so that she probably died in 1927). My grand-father died in 1924.

Now to get back to our New-Years wishes, we wish you a very good year, good health and keeping on with your trips.

Love, Monica and Haim

Original Message ----- From: Anna Taylor Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 8:21 PM Subject: Catching up

Dear Monica and Haim,

First, belated best wishes to you and your family for a Shonah Tovah!

While in Paris last month, my friends and I visited Helene at her shop. We had a nice visit, meeting Henriette as well and learning about their Documentation Center. Unfortunately we only had 3 days in Paris, not enough time to do much except to visit the Louvre and the Pompedou, and bus tour a bit. Preceding Paris, I was in London, also for 3 days with Ken’s niece from Manchester. We saw the musical “Billy Elliott” and went to the Shakespeare Globe for “As You Like It”, both very good. Paris was followed by a bike and barge trip along the Mosel with my friends. The weather and scenery were very good, and fortunately there was a van along which made the trip easier for me.

Back in August, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust dedicated its Tree of Testimony, which is a wall of television screens that continuously show the 55,000 interviews collected by the Shoah Foundation. I was hoping to access my Viennese cousin’s interview, but individual access is not yet ready. However, at that event I met Randol Schoenberg (Arnold’s grandson) who is President of the Museum and is the lawyer who retrieved Klimt’s Lady in Gold (Adele Bloch-Bauer) portrait from Vienna and brought it to Los Angeles and finally to Ronald Lauder’s Neue Gallerie in New York. In speaking with Schoenberg, he told me about the genealogical website (www.Geni.com) where he’s tracing his family (I am very very remotely related, it turns out). He asked for my names, and was able to construct my family tree on the site (Maybe you can access it). I got as far as Julia Beck Gelbhaus and her parents. What is the name of her father’s brothers (your grandfather)? Please let me know so I can add you to my family tree.

Trusting that this finds you both well.

With best wishes to all,

Anna

To: 'מוניקה תיבון'

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