Shlomo [Sam] [Semyon] A. Kislin

Notes of my interview with Sam and his son, David, on June 4, 2013 indicate that Sam recognized Genesia Kislin Perlmutter as his Aunt Gneisia, i.e. the sister or sister-in-law of his father, Isaac. Since Sam mentioned in this interview his Aunts and Uncles Shloma, Moshe, Isaac, Yosse, Toiba and Genia, and Genesia was married to Yosse Kislin, it is not unlikely that his recollection was correct.

Sam said that the name Kislin comes from the Hebrew month of Kislev. It was adopted after an edict of the Czar was adopted in 1803 or 1805 wherein the Czar ordered all Jews to take family names. The police came to visit the family in the month of December to enforce this edict and the family chose the name of the Hebrew month, Kislev, which over time became Kislin. Same said this story was told to him by his great grandfather Kislin, who told him the story in Yiddish when Sam was 6 years old.

And in a 1999 phone call with David Kislin, Sam's son, reported that Yosse Kislin [Genesia Kislin's father] was the brother of his grandfather, Isaac/Yitchak, and that the two brothers had five other siblings.

Sam reported that most of the family was killed by the Germans in Shepetovka in October 1941 by Nazi firing squads, who executed the Jews of the community while the German Army watched. He said that 48 Kislins were killed in this manner.

He also said that he visited Shepetovka in 1993 and inquired of people he met what they remembered. And he confirmed that his grandfather had three sons and three daughters. He added that his grandfather had seven brothers.

He added other interesting information, as well. Before the revolutions and wars in 1900 to 1903, some of the Kislins went to Siberia and other places beyond the Ural mountains and became industrialists. By law, Jews could not hire Russians, so they became Russian Orthodox and spoke Russian at work. But at home they spoke Yiddish. Others left for the USA, already converts. Some went to Texas and others to places in Ukraine. He concluded by saying that "All Kislins are related, and that the family was large and all descended from a grand Rabbi. RLN 1/27/2020

From https://samkislin.weebly.com/

About Sam Kislin Picture Mr. Kislin was born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1935. He graduated from Moscow’s prestigious Institute of National Economy in 1965 with a degree in Economics. In the early 1970’s, he emigrated to the United States with his wife, Ludmila, his daughter, Regina, and his son, David. He first settled in Boston, Massachusetts and found work at various jobs to support his family, including a grocery clerk and taxi cab driver.

After moving to Brooklyn, New York in 1976, and with the assistance of fellow Russian émigrés, Mr. Kislin established a small electronics store, where he sold goods to local residents. He began trading goods with the former Soviet Union and, in time, became well respected in the international business community. In 1992, he established Trans Commodities, Inc., which he ultimately developed into one of the world’s premiere commodities trading firms. With branches located in Moscow, the Urals, Switzerland, Italy and New York, the company specialized in the international purchase and sale of metals products, while at the same time investing generously in the development of infrastructure and production processes of mills located in Ukraine and Russia. More recently, Mr. Kislin’s principal focus has been on real estate investment and development in the city in which he grew up, Odessa, Ukraine, as well as in Moscow, Russia. His companies currently own approximately 10,000 acres of real property in the two cities.

In 1994, Mr. Kislin was appointed by the Honorable Rudolph W. Guiliani, Mayor of the City of New York, to serve on the Mayor’s Council of Economic Advisors, and he remained an active member of that body until 2001. In 2003, he was paid tribute by the New York City Council with “honorary citizenship” in the City of New York, one of the first such honors given to an immigrant.

In addition, Mr. Kislin and his wife have long been supporters of many philanthropic projects that have assisted Jewish families to leave the former Soviet Union and relocate to other parts of the world, including Israel. In 1993, he was recognized as “Man of the Year” by the UJA Federation-Russian Division, and he has since served as an officer for the Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations, a central coordinating body for New York’s Russian-Jewish community. He has also been active in the Be’er Hagolah Institutes, which is the largest school in the United States dedicated solely to educating the children of Russian immigrants of Jewish decent. His contribution to education in Israel was recognized by the naming of “The Kislin Library,” a college library in the Sha’ar Hanegev Region in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Sam Kislin - About.me