Yitzchak the Melamed

Ancestors of Miles Hochstein (Great-Great-Grandfather)

Yitzchak the Melamed / Yitzchak Hochstein/Hockstein
of Radoshkovitz

Born in 1840s or earlier.

"You, You! You Who are All Powerful! You Up There! I challenge You to come down here to a Beth Din and defend Your toying with my life and the livelihood of my family!"

Yitzchak Hochstein's demand in a year of a disastrous harvest

Occupations: Cheder Teacher, Farmer

Husband of Chaya.

Father of Zelig (aka Joseph) Hockstein (the grandfather of Donald Hockstein), Yoshe Hochstein and Samuel Hochstein (ancestor of Janice Koicil), and probably of others who are unknown.

Presumed to have died and been buried in Radoshkovitch, Vilna Province, in Belarus, near Minsk.

I know little about my great-great-grandfather Yitzchak except his occupation, a "Melamed", which is Yiddish and Hebrew for a teacher.

I have been told that he struggled to make a living "teaching little children their letters", and made sure that his son Yoshe learned a trade, carpentry, so that he would not have to struggle so hard to make a living.

There is a family legend that was told to me by several sources about how Yitzchak the Melamed, a pious man, once shook his cane in anger at God for a poor harvest one year.

Radoshkovitz Jewish Cemetery

This picture is a surviving Radoshkovichi (external link) Jewish cemetery, taken in 1997. It is possible that this graveyard is my great-great-grandfather Yitzchak's burial ground. It is unfair to represent a life with a graveyard, but I doubt that any pictures were ever taken of the cheder teacher,Yitzhak Hochstein, HaMelamed. Picture by Vitaly Pruss of the Belarus Jewish community ( taken on 5/9/97), and available online at http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/Shtetls/Belarus.htm

Click to view a MAP OF THE RADOSHKOVITZ AREA IN 1834.

His grandson Phillip Hochstein wrote that Yitzchak raised his cane and shook it at God, saying...

"You, You! You Who are All Powerful. You Up There! I challenge You to come down here to a Beth Din and defend Your toying with my life and the livelihood of my family!"

Phillip explained that....

"There were of course some extenuating circumstances for this approach to the borders of sacrilege. Reb Yitzhak would not have had this quarrel had he been able to earn a decent likelihood in his chosen vocation of teaching little children God's Hebrew vocabulary and His commandments. Because he could collect no tuition from the children of the jobless who constituted about a third of the community and depended largely on the generosity of the poorly employed, he had resorted to running a truck farm to supplement his earnings. But the truck farm, for all the labor of all the members of the family, yielded very little. One year winter came too soon and froze the crop before harvest time; another year there was insufficient rainfall; still another year a great excess of rain. In a year of good weather, a drunken peasant wreaked havoc just before harvest time."

"The latest calamity was an invasion of anti-Semitic insects that devoured everything before them. The boy's (his son Yoshe's ) sense of shock was only partly allayed as his father (Yitzhak), his anger spent, took him to the synagogue and prayed as tearfully as if overcome by gratitude for the most lavish heavenly blessings."

Phillip Hochstein, grandson of Yitzhak the Melamed, in "A Displaced Person" 1985

The above story was told to me by Phillip Hochstein (now deceased).

Additional Radoshkovitz Notes and References

No mention of Rodoshkovitz/Radoshkovitchi would be complete without a link to the Radoshkovitz Yizkor book compiled by Holocaust survivors in the early 1950s. My impression is that it primarily records memories from the 1920s and 1930s, which is thus at least 20 years and a World War after my ancestors left the town around 1900 to 1904.

I have recently learned that "Petrishki" in the "Minsk uezd, Minsk gubernia" is another name for Radoshkovichi. (I don't understand this claim. It is my understanding that Radoshkovitz was in the Vilna Province.)

The Hochstein's of Radoshkovitz

Who were the various Hochstein's of Radoshkovitz? How closely were they related? Many Hochstein names appear in the Radoshkovitz Yizkor Book, all victims of the Nazis in 1942.

The following are all of the Hochstein names that I found in the Ellis Island data base and that listed their place of origin as Radoshkovitz. These are, one may say, the lucky ones, the ones who escaped and passed through Ellis Island.

Yitzchak Hochstein, the Melamed, no doubt knew many of these people, or their parents, and perhaps he lived long enough to watch them leave Radoshkovitz for America.

Ellis Island Records of Family Members

This is the grandfather of Miles Hochstein, who came three years before the other children, in 1904

Hochstein, Simon
Russia, Hebrew
Radiseowitz
July 25, 1904
17y
M
S
Rotterdam
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands

This is my Great Grandmother Rashe Gitte (Isaacson) Hochstein, who arrived by legend "just before Rosh HaShanna" with the remainder of the family.

Hochstein, Rocha
Russia, Hebrew
Rodickewicz, Russia
August 26, 1907
46y
F
M
Vaderland
Antwerp, Belgium

This is my Great Aunt Fanny, and if so it should have a date of 1907.

Hochstein, Feige
F
17y
Russia, Hebrew
Rodickewicz, Russia

This is my Great Aunt Sarah.

Hochstein, Sore
Russia, Hebrew
Rodickewicz, Russia
August 26, 1907
11y
F
Vaderland
Antwerp, Belgium

This is my great uncle Leo, and if so should have a date of 1907.

Hochstein, Leizer
M
9y
Russia, Hebrew
Rodickewicz, Russia

This is my great uncle Phillip

Hochstein, Pine
Russia, Hebrew
Rodickewicz, Russia
August 26, 1907
3y 6m
M
Vaderland
Antwerp, Belgium

I have found no record of Yoshe Hochstein, the husband of Rashe Gitte. Uncle Phillip gave Yoshe's immigration date as 1901, but that would seem to be a mistake. Phillip's age of 3 years and 6 months on 26 August 1907 would suggest that Yoshe left Radoshkovitz no earlier than four years and 3 months prior, or in about April 1903. Additional search for his immigration records could therefore focus on a very narrow window from about April 1903 to summer of 1904, with a high probability that he would have arrived closer to the beginning of this period.

Ellis Island Records of Hochstein surname individuals not known to me.

Unknown to me

Hochstein, Beile
Russia, Hebrew
Radischkewitz, Russia
December 13, 1907
18y
F
S
Samland
Antwerp, Belgium

Unknown to me

Hochstein, Schmul
Russia, Hebrew
Radiszkowicz, Russia
December 22, 1911
19y
M
S
President Grant
Hamburg, Germany

Unknown to me

Hochstein, Leib
Russian
Radoskowitz
June 05, 1906
20y
M
S
Ryndam
Rotterdam, South Holland, The Netherlands

Unknown to me

Hochstein, Jeruchem
Russia, Hebrew
Radiszkowicz, Russia
December 22, 1911
32y
M
M
President Grant
Hamburg, Germany

Back

May 2005