Moishe and Esther Malka Kandel

Moishe Kandel of Makhnovka, about 1904

     Some time ago I posted about Philip Lieberman and his wife Bella (Beile).  While I know little about Philip before he came to the US, Bella's family is a different story.  Bella's father was Moishe Kandel, and her mother was called Esther Malka.  They lived in the town of Makhnovka in the Berdichev Uzezd, Kiev Gubernia, in what is now Ukraine.  In the late 1890s, Makhnovka was a good sized town with about 5300 inhabitants, of which 2400 were Jews [1].  Moshe was said to be a cantor for the local congregation.
     Moishe and Esther Malka had at least four daughters Pesa, Alte Sara, Chana and Beile.  All four daughters married in Makhnovka, and had children there.  Pesa, the oldest, was born about 1851, and died about 1877 in Makhnovka.  She married Shalom Yosef Keyser in about 1870, and had twin boys, Aaron and Lieb in 1872.  Aaron, who became Harry, came to the US in about 1904.  Lieb, who became Louis, came to New York on June 19, 1904 aboard the SS Etruria from Rotterdam.[2]  They both came to Philadelphia and worked for their uncle, Philip Lieberman, Beile's husband, making men's pants.
     Alte Sarah was born about 1860 and married Yehuda Lieb Apple in about 1879.  They had four children, Samuel (Sholem, 1885), Harry Isaac (Aaron, 1890), Gertrude (Golde, 1899), and Dorothy (Dora, 1901).  Lieb came to the US in about 1901 where he worked as a self employed poulterer or butcher.  On October 2 1902, Samuel arrived in Quebec sailing from Liverpool aboard the SS Lake Champlain[3].  He joined his father in Philadelphia, probably travelling on the Grand Trunk railroad through St Albans NY, the usual route of passengers arriving from Canada.  On January 24, 1905, Sarah and the other three children arrived in Philadelphia aboard the SS Friesland from Liverpool to join their husband and father[4].

L-R: Golde Apple, Moishe Kandel, Harry Apple, Alte Sarah Apple, Dora Apple.  The photo was taken in Makhnovka in 1904 before Sarah and the children left for Philadelphia to join her husband and son.  This is the original from which the photo above of Moishe Kandel was restored.

      Chana Kandel, the next oldest sister was born about 1876.  She was married three (or four) times over the years and had five children.  Her first marriage was to Shlomo Friedman.  They had a daughter, Lillian in about 1892.  Chana's second husband, was Alter Diamond.  They had a son Jossel in about 1896.  Jossel and Lillian both later went by Chana's third husband's name, Aron Goldenberg.  Aron, Chana, and Jossel came to the US on the SS Pretoria which docked in New York from Hamburg on January 2, 1901[5].  Aron was a tailor and reported that he was going to his brother-in-law, Philip Lieberman in Philadelphia.  Lillian came later, according to family lore, after her grandfather had died.  Jossel became Joseph Goldenberg, and later, Joseph Bernard Gould.  Chana became Anna or Annie.  Anna and Aaron had three more children after they settled in the US, first in Philadelphia and then Wilmington, Del.  Leopold and Philip were born soon after the couple arrived in the US, and a daughter, Esther Malka, was born in 1902[6].  Aron died in 1937.  Family lore says that Anna married again, to a man named Eisen, but I haven't found a record of it.  She died March 25, 1945 and was buried under the name Anna Goldenberg.
     The youngest sister Beile, or Bella, who married Philip Lieberman, I have treated before.  Philip and Bella had a large family of six children which I will discuss in a later post.  All three Kandel sisters, their husbands, some children, and other family are buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Jenkintown PA, in a section purchased by the Moishe Maknovker Benevolent Association, founded by them and named for Moishe Kandel of Maknovka.


[1]  The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust vol 2.  Shmuel Spector editor in Chief.2001 New York University Press New York, NY. p. 653, entry for Komsomolskoye.
[2]  Ancestry.com New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957 (Provo UT, Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2010) Year: 1904; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0469; Line: 1; Page Number: 11. Record for Lerb Kunher.
[3]  Ancestry.com. Border Crossings from Canada to the U.S. 1895-1956. (Ancestry.com Provo UT, USA. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010)  National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: M1464; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Record for Scholem Appel.
[4]  Ancestry.com.  Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists 1800-1963 (Provo, UT, USA. Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2002) record for Alte Appel.
[5]  Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists 1820-1957 (Provo, UT, USA Ancestry.com Operations, Inc 2010) Year: 1901; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 0167; Line: 22; Page Number: 23. Record for Fron Goldenberg
[6]  Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census.  (Provo Ut, Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2006) Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 1, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1385; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0006; FHL microfilm: 1375398. Record for Aaron Goldenberg

Abe and Sarah Tepper

Sarah and Abe Tepper 1966

     Another of Meier David and Lena Tepper's children who came to the US was Awram, or, as he became, Abraham.  On November 8, 1906, his brother-in-law, Elcon Grosser opened an account at the Rosenbaum Bank for a ticket for him, listing c/o Dowid Tepper , Baranowka, Novograd Wolinsky as the passenger's address.  The ticket cost $31.50, and Elcon paid it in three installments.[1]  Awram was booked on the SS Haverford arriving in Philadelphia on January 28, 1907 from Liverpool England.  He is described as single, a barber, standing 5'7" with a fresh complexion and blue eyes.  The manifest says he was going to his brother-in-law, Kune Grosser (Kune is the nickname for Elkunah, Elcon's yiddish name) and he was met by his sister at the dock on arrival.[2]
     In April 1910, the census showed Abe living with his parents and five of his siblings at 312 Rear South Front Street.  He was employed as a blacksmith at a wagon works.[3]  By late 1912 he had moved to 2226 S. 7th Street and was employed as a plumber.  In October of that year he had married Sarah Stine (Sternman)[4]  They quickly had two children, Rubin and Bertha, and by the time he registered for the WWI draft, they lived at 938 Jackson Street, where they lived for about ten more years. [5]  He and Sarah applied for naturalization in 1914, and were naturalized in 1921.[6]  He was briefly unemployed during the depression, so they moved to a rented house at 4924 N. 17th Street[7], but by 1940 he was listed as the manager of a plumbing supply place.  They were still living in the same house, along with their daughter Bertha who was working as a bookkeeper for an apartment building, and his widowed mother Lena,[8] Rubin having married in 1937.
     Abe was remembered by his granddaughter Evie as someone who could build or fix anything.  He was quiet and liked to play checkers with his friends.  Sarah was remembered as a great cook who kept a kosher house and could make the most delicious food, gedempt, stuffed helzel, roast chicken, cookies (mun and orange), honey cake, blintzes, kugels, etc. They continued to live on 17th street until Abe had a stroke in 1963.  Then they moved to the York House, an assisted living facility, and later he moved to the Philadelphia Geriatric Center after Sarah died in 1970.  Abe died in 1978[9].

The photo above was taken in 1966 at the annual anniversary celebration for Elcon and Jennie Grosser.  Sarah and Abe always attended these gatherings as well as many other Grosser family get-togethers.

1.  Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage Records.  Rosenbaum Bank Book #18 1906-1907 accessed at Paley Library, Temple University.
2.  Ancestry. com.  Philadelphia Passenger Lists  Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1963 [database on-line] Roll: T840_55; Line: 30. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Record for Awram Tepper.
3.Database online. Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 11, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1390; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 159; Image: 13. Record for David Japper.  Accessed from Ancestry.com
4.  Affidavit of Applicant for Marriage License No. 286484 Abraham Tepper and Sarah Stine, filed Oct 10, 1912 with Duplicate certificate Filed Oct 16, 1912 citing Marriage of Abraham Tepper and Sarah Stine on 14th day of October, 1912.  Accessed at Philadelphia City Archives
5.  Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. record for Abraham Tepper.
6.  Pennsylvania, U.S. Naturalization Originals National Archives; Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Petitions for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1795-1930; Series: M1522; Roll: 197; Record Type: (Roll 197) Petition Nos. 43391-43750 Accessed through Ancestry.com Record for Abraham Tepper
7. U.S. Federal Census.Year: 1930; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2136; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 1077; Image: 182.0; FHL microfilm: 2341870. Accessed form Ancestry.com Record for Sarah Tepper. 
8.  U.S. Federal Census Year: 1940; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T627_3752; Page: 12B; Enumeration District: 51-2120 Accessed from Ancestry.com record for Abraham Tepper.
9.  Comments from Evie Wartell Brezo on records for Abraham and Sarah Tepper in Tepper and Grosser Family Tree on Ancestry.com on 28 Nov. 2010.