Wyszków, Poland
This website owes its origins to a meeting between Wojciech
Chodkowski, President of the City Council for Wyszków, Poland, and Howard
Orenstein, an American who visited
Wyszków in April, 2004.
 Left to Right: Chris Malczewski (Interpreter), Howard Orenstein, & Wojciech Chodkowski (President, Wyszków City Council) Howard's father, Jack (Yankiel), was born in Wyszków in 1913 and emigrated to the United States in 1930. Jack was the last person in his immediate family to reside in Wyszków, and talked with Howard about his life in the town, as well as in Warszawa, where he attended Yeshiva. Before Jack's death in 1996, he and Howard discussed the family's lore and origins, which included other families, such as Blum (Bloom), Holland, Ostrowiak, and Pieniek. Read about Orenstein-Bloom genealogy. |
| Howard then found a copy of the 1929 Business Directory of Poland, and, with some encouragement from Stanley Diamond, Executive Director of Jewish Records Indexing - Poland, began a project to translate the Wyszków entries in that publication. Further discussions blossomed into a full-blown interest in family genealogy, which led eventually to Howard's involvement with projects already underway at Jewish Records Indexing - Poland, including the Wyszków Town Page and the Marriage Banns of Wyszków, Poland. |
| During this time period, Howard received a set of black and white photographs from Claudio Cembal, an Israeli, whose grandfather, Aharon Cembal, had lived in Wyszków. Howard created a website which displayed these photos, mostly of people who were nameless. He then notified various JRI-Poland list subscribers, and requested that they try to identify the people depicted in the photos. That website, which eventually morphed into a website hosted by Ada Holtzman, is called, "We Remember Jewish Wyszków" .The website has links to translations of chapters from "Sefer Wyszków," the Yizkor Book of Wyszków, edited by David Shtokfish (1964). |
| At about the same time these developments were taking place, Wojciech Chodkowski seriously wondered about the decimation of Jewish life and its subsequent absence in Wyszków in the years following the Holocaust. Re-establishing a Jewish presence in Wyszków was not an easy task. Yet, in 1997, a large monument on the grounds of the former Wyszków Jewish cemetery was dedicated. Tombstones and pieces of Jewish tombstones that were discovered in and around the town, were incorporated into this beautiful and historic monument. The work on the monument was conducted under the supervision of The U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad but was funded by "Vishkovers" and their descendants all around the world. A few years later, in 2003, a monument was erected by the City Council to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the death of Wyszków native, Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Under the forward-looking guidance of Wojciech and the City Council, additional efforts, including this website, are underway in order to reinvigorate Jewish interest in Wyszków. |
| If you would like to contact Howard for more information, or would like to provide material for this website, please do so by email: Howard Orenstein |
Please check this page from time to time, as updates will appear.
Links
Read about Frida Grapa Cielak's grandmother, Khavele Markushamer, from Wyszkow
Helen's Story: Chapter 1
The Wyszków Cemetery
project
Short Film of The Wyszków Cemetery
Jewish Cemeteries in Poland (In English)
Jewish Cemetery in Wyszków (In Polish)
Jewish Historical
Institute, Warsaw; Marriage Banns of Wyszków
Orenstein-Bloom
Genealogy
Wyszków
Entries, 1929 Polish Business Directory (English)
We Remember Jewish
Wyszków, Poland
Wyszków Town Page
JRI-PL
Wyszków
Yizkor Book
1921
Polish Census Cover Page, Warsaw Voivodship
Jewish
Population of Wyszków and nearby towns, 1921
Photos
Wyszków, 1920s-30s, 1939-1945
Aerial Photo of Wyszków, 1944 (courtesy Stanley Diamond)
Photos,
Wyszków 2004
"Original" 1929
Wyszków Business Directory Page
Photos of Wyszków Prior to WW II
Museum of Family
History-Wyszków
