Leo (Meier Leib) Majer Lichtgarn

Born in a town called Rohatyn, which was then in the Galicia area of the Astro-Hungarian Empire, but which is now in Ukraine.

He came to the United States aboard the Grosser Kurfurst, which departed Bremen, Germany on April 11, 1903 and arrived in New York on April 22, 1903. At the time he was age 27, and unmarried. His destination in the US was 315 Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, where it says that his brother, Jacob, was living. I see no record of a brother by that name, however his father, named Jacob, was already living in the US at the time that Leo came over. Perhaps this is a clerical error, or perhaps he had a brother whose birth was not listed in the archives of Rohatyn.

According to the archives of Rohatyn, his birth name was Majer Lieb Lichtgarn.

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/rohatyn/RohatynNamesCD.htm#SURNAME

• *****************************************************************************************************

By Nanki:

Leo's parents were Jacob Lichtgarn (a/k/a Lichtengarn) and Beile Glanzberg of Rohatyn (now Rogatin, Ukraine). Beile died when Leo was in his teens. My mother, Bella (Belle) Lichtgarn Mullen, was named after her. Leo graduated from the Vienna Academy of Fine Art. Ted Lichtgarn remembered that his father had the diploma hanging on the wall in their house.

Jacob came to the US in 1896, a few years after his wife died. He later returned to Europe and lived with his son, Leo's older brother David Lichtgarn, in Boryslaw.

In Rohatyn, the family had a sign making/painting and furniture painting/refurbishing/decorating business. It must have been quite successful, for we know that Leo and his brother, David, went to University -- something that must have been quite expensive to support. David became a physician, married Rose Liebermann of Boryslaw, and settled there. For more info about David, see: http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/drohobycz/people/familyalbum.asp

When Leo first came to the US, in 1903, he worked with his father and uncle, Chaim (Herman, Hyman) Lichtgarn, in NY painting signs. But with his fine art training, Leo turned to painting murals and eventually received most of his commissions from Catholic Churches.

Leo was the artistic director of many church projects -- designing the murals and paintings and stain glass windows, hiring the artisans, and overseeing the projects. The family moved every few years as he got new comissions. My mother said that he often expressed guilt about doing this work as he had to become very familiar with the New Testament in order to decorate the churches and it conflicted with his feelings of being Jewish. (In Rohatyn, the family had been part of the Hasidic community -- but Leo joined a Conservative Synagogue in the US.)

I never got to meet Leo since he died before I was born. I understand from stories told by my mother and by Ted and Jim Lichtgarn that Leo was a complex and often difficult person. He was subject to great mood swings and was unpredictable. He was also a very talented artist who loved music and he instilled a love of music and art in his children.

--Nanki

• ***************************************************************************************