Isaac Berliawsky

In search of Hyman Berliawsky Posted 09 Nov 2008 by sbrown803 Hyman is listed on the birth certificate of Bella Berliawsky in Rockland, Maine in 1909, with Rosa Glickman listed as mother. This is an "Amended" State of Maine Records, dated 25th of June 1958. I have a wedding photo of a young couple, dressed very nicely with Hyman - Rosie written on the back with no date or place. Belle's grandson remembers being told by his mother, he should meet Louise Nevelson when he was in New York, because she was a relative and a famous artist. Included with family papers is a magazine article from Architectural Digest, May 1990, entitled "Remembering Cousin Louise" by Brendan Gill. Following the information in the article I have found the following facts. Living under harsh treatment from the tsars, separated from non-Jews by physical and language barriers, and enduring oppressive laws and massacres, multitudes of Jews fled. Between the years of 1880 and 1924, nearly three million Eastern European Jews came to America. By 1920 more than one third of the Jewish population of the Russian Empire had immigrated.

Isaac Berliawsky was born in Kiev, Russia on March 15, 1878.  His family owned land and were timber merchants in Ukraine. They were considered upper-middle-class. Other members of Isaac's extended Berliawsky family emigrated to the United States as early as 1880 to escape Eastern European riots against Jews. As the youngest child, Isaac had to stay on to care for the family land and his parents.  Isaac had a marriage arranged for him with Minna Sadie Smolerank (Zeisel).  They had four children.  In 1902 Isaac's mother died.  At this time, Isaac, left his own family and made the journey to America alone, over twenty years after his siblings( it is not clear if the father had already died or had gone to America or went with Isaac in 1902). During Isaac's passage to America, Minna moved her family into her parents' home, outside of Kiev, to wait for word from Isaac.  Their son Nachmah was the oldest, born in 1898. Daughter Leah, was born in 1899. and daughter Chaya was born in 1902.  Leah felt so abandoned by her father, Isaac, she was mute for six months.  Finally, the money arrived for the trip to America.  Minna Berliawsky was hesitant to leave her home, yet she was of the Jewish Tradition that a wife must follow her husband.  Anti-Semitic violence was increasing, and Minna was fearful for the lives of her children. Most Jewish immigrants settled in large urban areas, Isaac Berliawsky settled in a small Maine town, he hoped to recreate his family's timber business. To begin he worked as a woodcutter and later opened a junkyard. After a long journey by cart, train, and ship, Minna, Nachmah, Leah and Chaya arrived in Boston in 1905.  They were met by a Russian-born-relative, Joseph Dondis, who helped them Anglicize their names: Minna to Annie; Nachmah to Nathan; Leah to Louise; and Chaya to Anita or Annie.  Arriving at their father's house, they were wearing Persian lamb hats and coats, which made this raw Jewish family terribly out of place in this small town of Rockland in Puritan New England. As Isaac's attempts to establish himself failed, he was struck with deep depression in Rockland(a condition that many immigrants suffered), and was bedridden for months at a time.  This must have compounded the harsh transition he faced as the head of  a large family in a new country.  Annie or Minna and Isaac had their fifth child born in Rockland in 1906.  Isaac eventually adjusted to life in America, but Minna never did.  Despite their limited finances, Minna whose life centered around her children, took great pains to dress them and herself in a manner that would have been regarded as sophisticated in the Old Country. Minna would always rouge her cheeks when leaving the house and clothed her children in lush apparel, a style that constracted with the sensible, durable wear of Rockland's other citizens.  Entering the first grade in the fall of 1905, Louise could speak limited English.  She was ostracized by the other children because of her dress and speech.  This had a lasting impact on Louise as she was shy, tongue-tied and self conscious through out all her school years.  Life was very difficult at times for this Orthodox Jewish family, they spoke Yiddish,and did not mingle with the nearly 30 other Jewish families in Rockland.  Being immigrants and Jews the Berliawskys were excluded from much of the community's social life, which increased their sense of isolation and alienation. Although the Berliawskys faced discrimination from peers, with the help of a friendly local Roman Catholic Priest and funds from the New York based Abraham and Straus Department store, they helped found Adas Yeshuron, Congregation of the People of Israel, in Rockland (no date). The Berliawskys experienced a different kind of notoriety than they had in Russia, yet they found they were still under scrutiny and uncomfortably isolated.  In Russia the Orthodox Jews did not have the opportunity to draw (representational art ran the risk of violating the second commandment).  Yet soon after arriving in America, Louise revealed an exceptional gift for drawing [as indeed, did other members of the family, implying that the gift had lain dormant among them over no telling how many generations].  The children attended public school.  Louise graduated from high school when she was eighteen. It took many years but with lots of very hard work (characteristic of many immigrant families) Isaac Berliawsky managed to provide his family with increasing financial stability.  First as a woodcutter, and the junk yard, later as owner and operator of a lumber yard, working in the construction trade, and investing in real estate. A collective combination of circumstances, her family's diminished economic standards, religious discrimination and her mother's inability to adapt to their new life, created the desire in Louise to get away from Rockland.  Two years after she graduated from high school, Louise married a wealthy young New Yorker named Charles Nevelson.  The Nevelsons set up housekeeping in New York City.  Louise was promised by her husband that she would be allowed to pursue any interest she wanted.  Louise tested her talents in the fields of singing, dancing, and acting as well as in painting and sculpture.  In 1922 their son, Myron (later changed to Mike) was born.  After the birth of Mike, her husband and his family, wanted Louise to be a socialite and a devoted mother, which were roles that Louise found were not for her.  Charles and Louise were divorced.  After an unhappy marriage, the birth of her son, a mental breakdown, and alcoholic problems, Louise took Mike to her family in Rockland, after which she went to Europe to study art with Hans Hoffman, but was thrown out of his class for lack of talent, as he saw it. She also, studied in Paris. She started drawing, then went to sculptures.  Minna Berliawsky died in the mid 1940's. Louise Nevelson made her sculptures out of wood and junk.  (She remembered finding treasures in her father's junk yard and playing with wood in the lumber yard.) She had her first one-woman art show in New York City in 1941.  In the 1950's several of her works were purchased by many art museums.  In Sept 1987 she was given The Butler Medal for Life Achievement in the Arts in Youngstown, Ohio. Louise's memories of living in Rockland, Maine were uncomfortable ones: "We were an immigrant family, foreigners in a Daughters of the Revolution town..." Leah Berliawsky or Louise Nevelson famed sculptor, celebrity, wayward soul, flamboyant personality and Jewish female died of lung cancer April 17, 1988.  She has many works of art around the city of New York and in many museums.  She has had magazine articles and books written about her, a play about her life was put on in New York, her image was placed on a postage stamp.  [NOTE:  I do not know at this time what happened to the rest of her family or to her son.  I do not know when Isaac died, or if I will find the connection I need to Hyman.  Hyman Berliawsky's World World II Draft Registration Card in 1942: " Name of Person who will always know your address ( hand written) Isaac Berliawsky - Rockland Maine"] New NOTE: Charles Nevelson married Louise Berliawsky.  Son Mike Nevelson married Susan McCrea.  Daughters:  Neith b 1946 and Elsbeth b ?.  A half sister, Maria?    Myron Irving (Mike) Nevelson born Feb 23, 1922.