Category: Soviet Union
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The Ronen Family Turns up in Florida
Today on Zoom I met the granddaughter of Franya Ronen, my grandmother Fannie Ronen Battalen’s sister. Her name, “Aleksandra Medvinsky,” kept appearing as my top DNA match on both MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA. A few years ago, I contacted the owner of the family tree on which she appears, Eric Reznik, but didn’t hear back; it […]
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Our Politically Suspicious Forbear
Our great-grandfather, Meier Yankelevich Ronen, was labeled “politically suspicious” by the fledgling Soviet government in 1922. What does that mean and how do I know this? In March 2022 I received an email through the JewishGen.org Family Finder from a man named Stas Tarasov: “I’m interested in your info on “Ronen” from Loyew and Kyiv […]
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Surviving the Holocaust: Before, During and After
The gates of memory opened for Pnina Goldsztern Shaufer (Perla) when I first spoke with her in October 2019, flooding her with memories and details of her young life in Poland. Based on conversations with her and her brother Shraga (Fayvel), I have pieced together this story of their family’s life in Poland before World […]