Y-DNA Research Studies of Rabbinical Lineages and Their Importance to Jewish Genealogy
Abstract For centuries, Jews have sought their yichus by connecting themselves to rabbinical families, either through marriage or by a paper trail. Thanks to recent advances in genetic genealogy and DNA technology, this is now possible to do for many more individuals...
Grandma Sarah and the Maharal of Prague
My grandmother, Sarah Shickman (Americanized from Schichman), was my role model growing up. She wasn’t like anyone else that I interacted with in my daily life at home or at school. Although I didn’t know what the word meant back then, when I reflect on it now, I...
Preface
When I was a young boy, during a much simpler time before the digital information age, I loved reading tales about the days of yore. Mystical kingdoms inhabited by noble kings, fair queens, and gallant lords and knights in armor captured my imagination. Their heraldic...
A Tribute to Those Who Came Before Us
We in the Polonsky family have a remarkable heritage. We are descended from a long line of illustrious rabbis, rabbinical scholars, and community leaders, dating back to the legendary biblical commentator Rashi in eleventh century France. We are indeed blessed to have...
Chapter 1 – A Millennial Heritage
Jewish religious and cultural history dates back more than four thousand years and includes hundreds of different populations. Our family’s Jewish lineage and ancestry, as far as this author has been able to trace it, dates back over one thousand years to the great...
Chapter 2 – And So, It is Written
The study of lineage has been of importance to the Jewish people since biblical days, and lengthy genealogical lists are recorded throughout the Bible. The Talmud in the Tractate Kiddushin stresses the importance of yichus or family background: Ten lineages...
Chapter 3 – Our Oral History
When I first embarked on my quest to discover our family’s lost heritage, I had no family tree and very few of what genealogists refer to as primary documents – vital records such as birth and death certificates, or marriage records. Along with the Ellis Island...
Chapter 4 – Two Tablets of Stone
The family story told in Bertha Paull Friedman’s memoir provided intriguing clues regarding how we in the Polonsky family are descended from two very important Chassidic rabbis.70 Further, it tells us that both of these rabbis were disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, one...
Chapter 5 – Our Illustrious Ancestors
In Great Britain, ancient genealogies are most often available to royal families. For the Jewish people, “...our royal families have been those of the illustrious rabbis.” There is much truth to this statement, and although the Polonsky surname is only two centuries...
Chapter 6 – The Origin of the Polonsky Surname
Our Polonsky surname dates back many generations, and we can be proud to be the descendants of such an illustrious lineage of distinguished rabbis. But how did these rabbis come to be known by the Polonsky surname, and who was the first rabbi in the lineage to bear...