The farthest back we can go in the Challov family is to Yitzchak Chalewskij, whose three children immigrated to the US in the early 1900’s.
We know next to nothing about Yitzchak Chalewskij except that he had two wives: Sure (Sarah), with whom he had Hershel (Harry) and Chaije/Chaike (Ida). Yitzchak and Sure were divorced, according to Ida (as related to me by Lorri Klotz Greif).
Yitzchak’s second wife was Anna Goldberg/Goldenberg; the story in the Goldstein family is that she suffered from depression and committed suicide after having had two children. The only child we know of was Malke (Mollie); perhaps there was another child who died young, perhaps the story is inaccurate.
The Ashkenazi naming pattern is to name a child after a deceased close relative. Given that all three of his children named a child either ‘Isadore’ (with the Hebrew name ‘Yitzchak’ at least in the case of Isadore Goldstein) and/or “Isabella,” it is likely that Yitzchak was deceased by the time these grandchildren were born. We know that Sure was alive at the time of Ida’s immigration as she is listed on the ship manifest as being Ida’s closest living relative, living in Krivoye Ozero, Russia. That Yitzchak was not listed as Ida’s closest living relative is another clue that he had died by the time Ida immigrated.
Yitzchak Chalewskij and Sure Chalowska had the following children:
- Harry Challov was born on 24 December 1884 in Krivoye Ozero, Ukraine (Odessa district).
- Chaike (Ida) Chalowski was born on 29 April 1888 in Krivizer (Krivoye Ozera), Kamenitz Podolia, Odessa.
(These are the same locations, noted like this on at least one of their documents. “Krivizer” is the Yiddish pronunciation of Krivizer Ozero).
Yitzchak Chalewskij and Anna Goldberg had the following children:
- Mollie Challov was born about 1896, probably in Krivizer (Krivoye Ozera)? Russia (from Affidavit & License for Marriage).
HARRY (HERSHEL) CHALLOV
Harry Challov was born on 24 December 1884 in Krivoye Ozero, Ukraine (Odessa district) as the first child of Yitzchak and Sure. According to later divorce documents, he married Gussie Beckerman on 10 September 1919 in New York; however, their daughter Esther was born in 1911 and I suspect the real year is 1909. He died on 18 September, 1966 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA at the age of 81 and is buried in Machpelah Cemetery (56M C 03 78), Ferndale, Oakland County, Michigan, USA.
Harry immigrated first to Argentina as “George Jelovsky/Cheilovsky,” the first of Yitzchak’s children to emigrate from Russia. Family legend is that he was a gaucho there. Later he changed his name to Harry Challov on his Petition for Naturalization.
He departed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 08 February 1907 on the SS Byron. He arrived in New York, New York on 27 February 1907 at age 23. From his World War I Draft Registration we know that he lived in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA by1917.
Like his brother-in-law Morris Zlotnick, Harry worked in and then owned a hand laundry.
Harry Challov and Gussie Beckerman had the following children:
- Esther Molly Challov was born on 24 July 1911 in New York. She died on 27 December 1999 in West Bloomfield, Oakland, Michigan, USA. She married Edward Politzer on 20 January 1935 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA.
- Isabelle Muriel Challov was born on 11 January 1917 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA. She died on 09 June 2000 in Solana Beach, San Diego, California, USA. She married Aaron Lebow on 14 October 1940 in East Detroit, Macomb, Michigan, USA.
From Harry’s ship manifest: “George Cheilovsky” is the last name on the list. He’s 23 years old and single, a laborer and his last residence is Buenos Aires. He is literate, has light brown hair and blue eyes, fair complexion, denies being a polygamist or an anarchist, is mentally and physically healthy, was born in Krivoye Ozero and has $10 to his name. He is going to his “brother-in-law” Lazar Saitz at 8 Winslow Street, Roxbury, MA. Neither of his sisters was married in 1907, so clearly Lazar Saitz wasn’t a brother-in-law the way we think of that. There are some locations in the past where it has meant “step-brother,” but it could mean something else. Further, people often made up relationships when giving information to the ship’s purser who compiled the ship manifest, so without further information, one cannot make anything of this term. I’ve researched Lazar Saitz in Roxbury and it turns out there was a large extended family of Saitz’ there, many involved in the scrap metal business and one named Lewis, but no one I could identify positively as “Lazar.” Interestingly, Ben Klotz and Celia Zlotnick (Harry’s niece) were married by a Rabbi (“Rev.”) Moses Saitz who lived in Newark, NJ who, according to my research, had brothers William and Lewis Saitz in Roxbury. I suspect there is a family or close relationship of some kind with the Challov’s, but haven’t yet found confirmation.
CHAIKE (IDA) CHALOWSKI
Chaike (Ida) Chalowski was born on 29 April 1888 in Krivizer (Krivoye Ozera), Kamenitz Podolia, Odessa as the second child of Yitzchak and Sure. When she was 25, she married Morris Zlotnick, son of Frima and ? (name hard to read) Zlotnick, on 15 June 1913 in New York, NY. She was naturalized on 27 March 1941 (Naturalization Petition: 17 July 1940, US Eastern District Court, Brooklyn, NY; #4987159/US District Court, Brooklyn, NY). She died 1 April 1973 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, USA (United States Social Security Death Index). She was buried in April 1973 in Montefiore Cemetery, Springfield Gardens, Queens, NY UNITED WINITZER Y.M.B.A. (Gate 252N/Block 81/Row 006R/Grave 8).
Chaike (Ida) Chalowski arrived as Chaje Chalowski in New York City, New York, USA on 09 June 1909 at age 22, on the SS Blucher from Hamburg, Manifest line 17 and listing her last residence as “Koywoza,” Russia.
1915 New York State Census: 318 E 33rd Street, New York, NY (New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 14; Assembly District: 14; City: New York; County: New York; Page: 21).
1925 New York State Census: 306 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY.
1930 US Census: 307 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Roll: 1507; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 1085; Image: 153.0; FHL microfilm: 2341242).
Morris Zlotnick and Chaike (Ida) Chalowski had the following children:
- Izidore (Izzy) Zlotnick was born on 29 April 1914 in New York. He married Jane Stutman on 29 December 1965 in Brooklyn, NY. He died on 23 December 1970 in a car accident, according to Lewis Klotz.
- Bella Zlotnick was born on 24 February 1916 in New York. She died on 10 November 2000.
- Sadie Zlotnick was born on 24 February 1916 in New York (she died as a very young child, yet is listed in the 1940 US Census as being 19 years old; perhaps the census enumerator misunderstood what the informant said about having had another child who would have been 19).
- Celia Zlotnick was born on 24 October1918 in New York. She married Benjamin Klotz on 14 December 1941 in Brooklyn, NY. She died on 08 January 2000 in Morganville, Monmouth, New Jersey.
Mollie (Malke) Challov
Mollie Challov was born about 1896, probably in Krivizer (Krivoye Ozero), Russia, based on where her siblings were born, as the first child of Yitzchak Chalewskij and Anna Goldberg. Mollie Challov immigrated to New York in about 1913 (the 1915 NY State Census states she had been there two years and was age 17). She lived with her sister Ida Zlotnick’s family until her marriage and worked as a “lady’s tailor.” When she was 21 (a discrepancy with the 1915 NY Census), she married Sol “Szojel” Goldstein, son of Berl Fayvel Goldsztern and Yocheved Rozensumen, on 17 November 1917 in Manhattan, New York, New York, USA. In her marriage license she is listed as having been born in Kamenetz Podolya, the area where Krivizer is located; this is the only document I currently have that says anything more specific than “Russia.” She died on 03 April 1926 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, USA and was buried on 04 April 1926 in Mt. Lebanon (Workmen’s Circle section) in Glendale, Queens, New York.
1915 New York State Census (01 June: 318 E 33rd Street, New York, NY (New York Block 1, Election District 14, Ward 21, Assembly District 14).
1920 US Census (14 January): 247 S Third Street, Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn Assembly District 14, Kings, New York, USA).
1925 New York State Census (01 June): 971 47th Street, Brooklyn, NY (Block 7, Election District 49, Assembly District 9), where she was living when she suicided.
Sol “Szojel” Goldstein and Mollie Challov had the following children:
- Isadore J Goldstein was born at home on 28 February 1919 in S. 4th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. He married Ethel Battalen on 24 April 1942 in Brooklyn, New York; they were later divorced. He died on 01 November 2007 in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, USA.
- Jeannette Goldstein was born on 06 April 1923 in New York. She married Bernard Eisner on 05 July 1944 in New York City, New York, USA; they were later divorced. She died on 27 May 1991 in St Charles Hospital (Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY).
YITZCHAK CHALEWSKIJ DESCENDANT CHART
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