Reb Pinchas Isaacson of Radoshkovitch / Radishkovitz / Radoshkovitz

Ancestors of Miles Hochstein (Great Great Grandfather)

Reb Pinchas Isaacson
of Radoshkovitch
(Radoshkovitz/Radoshkovichi, Radoszkowice, Radozkowicze, Rodoszowice)

(b. before 1845(?), first child born around 1861(?), d. ?

"Reb Pinchas was known throughout the region as a man of great learning and communal commitment who, in an ancient tradition, refused to mix sacred learning with mere "parnosse" (livelihood, making a living) and supported his family by the skill of his hands, as a stone cutter. He specialized in inscribing and ornamenting gravestones." (Phillip Hochstein, 1985)

Occupation: Stone cutter, specializing in ornamental gravestones, and scholar.

Parents Unknown

Brother of Baroukh Isaacson and Itzhak Isaacson

Wife Unknown

Father of seven daughters, including his eldest daughter Rashe Gitte (Isaacson) Hochstein, and as told to me by Michel Izygon, a daughter named Judith (Isaacson) Lapidus, and a daughter named Devorah, who also married a man named Lapidus (Lapidoth).

Reb Pinchas Isaacson of Radoshkovitz

Phillip Hochstein wrote of the relationship between his father and his father's prospective father-in-law:

"Yoshe Hochstein warmed with pride when Reb Pinchas complemented him [his future son-in-law] one day in the synagogue on having also followed in the tradition of acquiring manual skill to free him for the higher vocation of uncommercialized study."

"Between Reb Pinchas and Yoshe there was also a thread of connection in the fact that Yoshe's craft embraced coffin making for the same beings that Reb Pinchas was later to engrave tombstones."

Graveyard in Radoshkovitz

Perhaps some of the gravestones pictured in the Radishkovitz cemetery above were carved by my great great grandfather, Reb Pincas Isaacson.

Graveyard in Radoshkovitz

Pictures of the Radoshkovitz cemetery above and below left by Vitaly Pruss of the Belarus Jewish community ( taken on 5/9/97), and originally made available online at http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/Shtetls/Belarus.htm

Above - Photograph of intersection of Vilna St. and Minsk St. in Radoshkovitz, in Belarus. Presumably this picture would have been taken in the 1920s or 1930s. No amount of Photoshop work makes this picture any clearer that it is above, but through the grain and blur, you can glimpse a lost and destroyed world. Photograph from the Radoshkovitch/Radoshkowitz/Radoshkovitz Rememberance Book, Used by Permission. [ Downtown RADOSHKOVICHE : Located at 5409 2714 in Minsk Oblast, 21.9 miles NW of Minsk in Minsk uezd, Minsk guberniya, now Minsk Oblast. Radoshkovichi was in the Zaslavskaya volost'. Alternate name: Radoshkovichi, Radoszkowice, Radozkowicze, Rodoszowice (Courtesy of Vcharny@aol.com ) Click here for external link to Jewish cemetery project.]

Although Yoshe Hochstein's father Reb Yitzhak (the Melamed) had tried to arrange a different marriage with a good dowry, Yoshe resisted, having already taken an interest in Rashe Gitte, the daughter of the poor but scholarly Reb Pinchas Isaacson. While his father Yitzhak was initially angered by his son's resistance, soon...

"Reb Yitzhak (the Melamed) was excited by the possibility of becoming related to Radoshkowitz's most eminent citizen (Reb Pinchas Isaacson), a man revered not only by the rabbi but also by the Czar's highest officer in the village, the captain of the garrison. The hunch-backed little Jew and the tall officer could often be seen strolling together on Vilna Gasse, the main street [See photo above! MH] The captain had to bend low to carry on the conversation, but he felt more than compensated for the discomfort by the humor and wisdom of his companion. This friendship was a source of comfort and security to all the Jews of Radishkowitz who knew that it would guard them against anti-Semitic trouble makers."

So wrote my great uncle Phillip Hochstein, in his memoir of his father, Yoshe Hochstein "A Displaced Person" (1985).

Keeping in mind that my great uncle Phillip, my grandfather's youngest sibling, left Radoshkovitz at the age of 5, it is probably safe to assume that the status of his grandfather Pincas Isaacson was magnified over the years by his mother Rashe Gitte's stories and in his memory.

The Radoshkovitch Yizkor book does in fact mention a Pinchas Isaacson and a daughter (not Rashe Gitte, but he had seven), but the Yizkor book's Pinchas Isaacson is now known to have been the grandson of our subject, Reb Pinchas Isaacson. Reb Pinchas Isaacson is not mentioned by the survivors of Radishkovitz in their 1951 publication memorializing their shtetle, presumably because that publication contains memories of the town from the 1920s and 1930s, when Reb Pinchas would have been a very old man, or deceased.

The Radoshkovitch Yizkor book reports the death of a Pinchas Isaacson with his daughter Shulamit at the hands of the Nazis in 1942. I have recently learned that this Pinchas Isaacson was the grandson of our subject, Reb Pinchas Isaacson, and not Reb Pinchas Isaacson himself as I had previously speculated on this page.

Interestingly the Yizkor book does mention a well loved officer of the Czar, who was noted for being friendly with the townspeople, in the same manner that Rashe Gitte described her father Reb Pinchas Isaacson as being a confidant of the local officer of the Czar. Could it have been the same gentleman who walked with Reb Pinchas Isaacson? It was probably not, given how old Reb Pinchas would have been by the 1920s.

I am now in posession of a genealogical descendant list for the father (name unknown) of Reb Pinchas Isaacson, encompassing the three branches (Pinchas, Barukh and Itzhak Isaacson) and possibly hundreds of individuals. If you have information about this family and would like to contribute it to the list, or have a question than I can answer, please contact me.

My great thanks to Michel Izygon and Robert Zorowitz, distant cousins of mine and, like me, descendants of the (still nameless) father of Reb Pinchas Isaacson of Radoshkovitz, for their contributions to this page.

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Revised October 2007
Revised March 2004