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About Rabbi Naftali HaKohen Horenstein
GEDCOM Note
Probably named for the famous Rav Naftali Katz, the Smichat Chachamim, believed to be his ancestor.
"He is known for his accomplishments in Torah and piety, for his honor and great wealth and generosity. He was a great chasid and a eminent community leader, one of the elders and leaders of the chasidim of Boyan, and his home was at times a gathering place for the chasidim. He hosted scholars in his home in order that they would be able to pursue their Torah and religious studies, and he financially supported them."
Excerpt from Rabbi Joseph Lieberman's "Shalshelet HaYuchasin" Jerusalem, 5738 [1977/8]
The 1858 Aleksandriya, Rovno uezd, census lists Shmul, Zelman, Avrum, Berko, Evel & Giraria as Breine's children by Naftali. Hanna's mother is unknown, so she is arbitrarily listed under Miriam Shipra, the second of his three wives.
1858: Aleksandriya (Rivne) Merchant of the 3rd Guild 1875-6: Radomysl Merchant of the 1st Guild 1880-1: Kiev Merchant of the 1st Guild 1897: Radomysl uezd (second part - only Horenstein head of family listed in that part) [1897 Kiev Russian Census]
Kiev Address (1881): 28 Malo-Vladimirskaya Street (now Olesya Gonchara St.)
Vital Facts: Died November 28, 1899 (Julian) [26th Kislev, 5660], age 81 [HaTzefirah; 10 Tevet, 5660 (12 Dec 1899 Julian] Died October 18, 1899 (Julian) [26th Cheshvan, 5660] [Mishkenot HaRoim Institute of Boyan, 4 Nov, 2000]
- Residence: Aleksandriya, Rivne, Ukraine - Between 1845 and 1858
- Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Aug 20 2020, 23:24:37 UTC
- Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Aug 20 2020, 23:24:37 UTC
Born in Berestechko sometime between 1820 and 1823, Naftali’s family had moved to Aleksandriya by 1834. As a young adult, he became an important force in Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin’s growing Chassidic movement, and his activities in this movement are one of the reasons for his fame among the Jews of the region.
In 1838, Rabbi Yisrael was accused of complicity in the death of two Jews who had been accused of being informers. Although he was never formally charged and no trial was held, Russian authorities imprisoned him for two years, probably because Czar Nicholas I had been told by his agents that the rebbe was trying to establish his own kingdom and was fomenting opposition to the government. On his release he moved to Kishinev, then to Iasi and other places before finally settling in 1842 in Sadigora in the Austrian Bukovina. With their rebbe living so far away, young Reb Naftali of Aleksandriya became the leader of the orphaned Ruzhiner Chassidim in Ukraine.
Despite the centrality of his religious life, Naftali then began to build his fortune, initially following in the footsteps of his older brother, Rabbi Yakov Yosef HaKohen Horenstein. Often the two brothers worked together as partners. As of 1858, Yakov Yosef was an Aleksandriya Merchant of the Second Guild, while younger brother Naftali was an Aleksandriya Merchant of the Third Guild, the less expensive, and less privileged, designation. With so much in common, it is not surprising that the relationship between the two brothers was initially quite good. By the time, however, differences in their personalities and lifestyles had caused their relationship to become strained.
It thus became clear that the brothers needed to separate from one another. Separation of their business interests was not enough; to avoid further discord, Naftali decided that he wanted to move far away from his brother. After considering the possibilities, he and his growing family relocated to an estate in the small village of Zavod (Piskivka) near the city of Radomysl which, in turn, was not far from Kiev.
Around the late 1850s, Naftali and his family arrived in Radomysl. Following the Reform of 1861 which gave Jews the right to buy land, he was the first Radomysl Jew to become a landowner. His first land purchase was a small one: he acquired one dessatina [1.09 hectares = 2.7 acres] of field land in Mykgorod/ Mychesk which is separated from the town by the Myka River. ,
In 1851, a tannery was started in the Radomysl suburb of Rudnya which was either founded by Naftali or, more likely, acquired by him after he moved to Radomysl. At the start of the 20th century, the tannery had 40 employees. It was producing 12,500 products and reported an annual revenue of 164,500 rubles.
The law issued July 10, 1864 forbade Jews from buying real property, but this did not stop Naftali from his plans to log some of the region’s vast forestland. He thus began to negotiate long-term logging contracts for forest land owned by non-Jews.
Thus Naftali became one of the largest Jewish timber merchants in Ukraine, with holdings covering as much as 54,000 acres of woods, land, fields and rivers. Yet this was only one aspect of his growing financial empire. By 1887 he was the owner of a sizable tree resins factory in the hamlet of Yahnovka, located on the coast of the Teterev River above Kuhari.
He also purchased or built distilleries and, later, several sugar and paper factories. One of his distilleries (valued at 10,000 rublesb) was in Lubovichi, most likely at the Lubovichkoye estate where he was leasing both the forest land and the facilities. It was operating by 1877.
By 1881, Naftali had become the owner of a sugar beet refinery in the village of Luka, Tarashcha uyezd. His largest sugar beet refinery, however, was the Yanushpol’ beet-sugar works in Volhynia Gubernia. By the early 20th century, the factory had a yearly income of 3 million rubles and had become one of the largest sugar factories in all of Volhynia.
By late in the 19th century, Naftali and his family, now widely known as the Radomysler Horensteins, had become one of the most famous Jewish families in the Ukraine. The other wealthy Jewish families – such as the Brodskys, Zeytsevs, Halperins, Libermans, Saxes and Gepners - lived in the large city of Kiev where they transacted their business and enjoyed an opulent urban lifestyle. According to one writer, while these other wealthy families made generous charitable donations to both Jewish and non-Jewish causes, their Jewishness was otherwise subsumed by their efforts to outdo each other in displaying their wealth and living a life of luxury.
By contrast, Naftali and his family were devout Chassidim, and their Jewishness was never subordinate to their business enterprises or lifestyles. Naftali lived a modest life for a man of his means, earning more money than he spent.
Like his older brother, he became widely known for his deeds of charity and generosity – such as donating large sums of money to help to build the “Tiferet Yisrael” synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem for the Chassidim from Sadigura and its environs, a project which underwent construction between 1870 and 1872. (This synagogue served as the center for the Chassidic community of Jerusalem until its destruction by the Jordanians in 1948. Today its gutted remains still stand on Tiferet Yisrael Street as a memorial.)
Similar to the heads of the other wealthy Jewish families, Naftali paid the large fees that entitled him to the special privileges of a Merchant of the First Guild. Among other things, this designation granted him and his family the right to settle in Kiev. While he maintained a Kiev address for business use, he chose, however, to reside primarily in the Radomysl area where the center of his family life was his large estate in Zavod (Piskivka), a tiny village northeast of the city, .
The Horenstein “court” in Radomysl included his six sons and three daughters, his sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren, as well as the teachers, wet-nurses, attendants and servants. In addition, there were carriages, horses and stables, wine cellars, large wedding tents in which to celebrate the almost constant weddings, and their own beit-midrash [house of religious study]. There were always guests: friends, rabbis and emissaries.
A center of the Chassidic movement in Ukraine, the Horenstein estate had its own little synagogue in the courtyard. Enough men attended so that services were held, not only on the Jewish Sabbath, but also on weekdays, and sometimes a service was even repeated when there was not enough room for all who wanted to attend. Moreover, music was an important part of the Horenstein lifestyle. Often excellent singers, the Horenstein men loved to perform as cantors in the synagogues they supported.
Death came to Naftali at the very end of the 19th century. By that time, it was estimated that he was worth as much as 10 million rubles. Following his demise, his son Gur aryeh took over the administration of the Radomysl estate, and four of his sons established an in-town office to manage the family businesses. They also established a special office just for the distribution of charity and to provide support for poor family members and institutions. Its yearly turnover amounted to 200,000 rubles.
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Rabbi Naftali HaKohen Horenstein's Timeline
| 1825 |
November 1, 1825
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Ukraine
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| 1845 |
1845
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| 1856 |
May 4, 1856
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Oleksandriya, Rivnens'kyi district, Rivnens'ka oblast, Ukraine
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| 1870 |
1870
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Ukraine
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| 1899 |
November 28, 1899
Age 74
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Radomsko, Łódzkie, Polska (Poland)
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| ???? |
Aleksandriya, Rovno Gubernia, Ukraine
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| ???? |
Ukraine
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Ukraine
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Ukraine
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