Isaac DAVID Savetman

Rochelle Savetman found notes she'd written down from Jeanette (Savetman) Friedel's recounting of the Savetmans of Bialystok. The notes give the names of our great-grandparents "David or Isaac Savetman (or Sawetman)" and Sarah nee Cantor, plus the names of their 5 children, including the youngest, Jankiel. It's been gratifying confirming all of this on Savetman family records, first in the US and then from birth, marriage, and death records obtained from Polish archives.

The Hebrew inscriptions on the gravestones in Baltimore of Harry (1930) and his sisters Ida (Savetman) Cohen (1946) and Esther Malke (Savetman) Rones, (1960) all indicate that they were the children of YITZCHAK DAVID.

A 1955 Social Security application by Sam Savetman indicated his birth date as April 12, 1873, his birthplace Bialystok, and his parents' names: ISAAC DAVID SAVETMAN and SARAH CANTOR. Bialystok, Poland was then part of the Russian Empire.

ICKO-DAWID Faibusiowicz (son of Faibus) Sawetman was married to Sura-Cywia Szoelowna (daughter of Szoel) Hazda at 9pm on November 27, 1865 in Zaremby Koscielne (today Zareby Koscielne), Poland. The bride and groom were both 18 years old. The groom was born in Czyzewo and the bride in Zaremby Koscielne, about 9 miles away and living there with her parents at this time. The marriage was preceded by three banns (announcements) in the synagogues of both towns.

The marriage was registered three days later with the declaration of the assistant rabbi who performed the ceremony. The groom, both fathers, and both witnesses were described as “starozakonny” or Orthodox Jews. An image of this registration, with translation from the Polish, is posted here, obtained from the Polish National Archives, Warsaw (Pultusk branch).

A few years later, the 1868 death record of Faibus Savetman indicated that he died in Czyzew (Chizhevo) and that his surviving wife Sheyna Reiza Aronovna and their son ITSKO DAVID were both resident there.

Icko-Dawid was probably known as Dawid/Dovid to distinguish him from his grandfather, who was also Idzko/Icko. The three Savetman family marriage records for Sam (Schloimo) and his sisters Ida (Chaya) and Esther (Ester Malke) in Russian from Bialystok indicate that they were "son of " or "daughter of" DAVID or DAVID-ISAAC. The 1893 record of the death of 13-year-old Jankiel (Yankel) Savetman indicates his patronymic as "Davidovich," that is, he was apparently also the "son of David" Savetman. (This also confirmed that he was their brother, and the youngest of the five siblings.) Copies of all of these original handwritten ledger records from 1891-1900 were obtained from the National Archives in Bialystok and are posted here. His son Harry Savetman's 1930 Death Certificate indicated his parents' names as David and Sarah.

Other Polish records in Russian ( found online via the JRI Poland database, translated and posted here) indicate that In July, 1895, DAVID ITSKO Savetman, age 48, took his two surviving sons Shlomo (later Sam) and Meier Henoch (later Harry) to the civil authorities in the village of Czyzew (Chizhevo/Chizheva), Poland and had their births/birth dates officially registered--very belatedly. Shlomo would have been around 21 and Meier Henoch supposedly 15. They were probably registered for military conscription purposes. I think two years got lopped off Harry's real age, probably deliberately; it was his brother Jankiel who had been born in 1880, but he had (unfortunately, but conveniently) died by this point.

David Itsko was described as a "worker", "residing" in Czyzew--but this may have been the family's legal residence, their "permanent place of residence," not their physical location at that time. Marriage and death records indicate that in the 1890's, they were living in the city of Bialystok, about 42 miles away. But those 1895 birth registrations show that David Itsko was still alive at that point, and his age, together with his age at marriage, gives an approximate birth year of 1847.

Yitzchak David died on March 9, 1911 and Sara Tzvia "Svitman" on May 16, 1932. They are buried together on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem: Block: New 1, Subdivision D, Row 17, numbers 21 and 22. His inscription reads: "Here lies the rabbi YiITZCHAK DAVID, son of the esteemed Shraga Faivel, from Bialystok, died 9 Adar 5671. פ"נ הר"ר יצחק דוד ב"ר שרגא פייוויל מביאלסטאק נ' ט אדר תרעא תנצבה The 3-letter Hebrew abbreviation used here for "rabbi" has different interpretations, but indicates that he had completed all the required education and been ordained as a rabbi, but may not have had a congregation. Many thanks to Orna Themans and Eitan Vittelson for helping us locate both graves after years of searching.

A link to his grave on the website of the Mount of Olives: https://mountofolives.co.il/he/%d7%90%d7%99%d7%aa%d7%95%d7%a8-%d7%a...

Ed Friedel, great-grandson July 2021