The Bolsheviks were attacking the town. We heard artillery shots. They could reach us at any moment. The offices of the military commissariat were on the first floor of our house. Several Polish officers and two Jewish brothers named Narwa worked there. The tenants – […]
The first historical mention of the presence of Jews in Płock comes from 1237. It has been preserved in the town location charter issued by Bishop Piotr I, in which it was established that the town borders are from the tombs along the road leading […]
Nachman Celner (Selner) was born in 1874 in Raciąż, as the son of Szmul (1824-1893) and Chana Ruchla née Tajfel. By profession he was a tailor’s apprentice who worked in London, with breaks. The city was also associated with his relative Wolf Majer Celner (born 1839), who, together with his wife Łaja nee Pociecha (born 1841) and his sons Sender Fabis (Simon) and Chilel Fiszel (Philip), were the first from his family to emigrate to England.
Nachman’s wife was Cylka Sarna, who, according to the birth certificate, was born in Drobin in 1873, to the family of Abram Icek and Liba Sarna. On November 16, 1930, Nachman and Cylka got married in Płock, although their relationship had lasted for almost 30 years.
Nachman and Cylka were the parents of seven children. Their son Abram Izak (Abe) Celner, born on July 29, 1901 in London (in the district of St. George in the East), on April 29 . In 1927, he married Estera Żwirek (born 1906) from Płock, the daughter of Jakub Chaim and Ejdla nee Cypel and in 1928 their daughter Ejdla was born. The spouses lived in Płock at 6 New Market Square.
Abram Izak was a tailor by profession. His brother Szmuel (Sam), born in 1903 in London, married Jetka Krasiewicz (born 1898), daughter of Lewek and Rechma née Kutmacher. In 1926 their son Pajsech was born, and two years later Juda Urin. Szmuel lived with his wife and children at 3 Niecała Street in Płock. He was a laborer and he worked in an orchard. Jetka Krasiewicz had six siblings – four sisters: Chana, Sura, Pessa and Fajga Rachela, and two brothers, one of whom was named Moszek Hersz (in 1939 in Płock Moszek, a shoe maker married Ejdla Iska Pasek, daughter of Chaim Boruch and Ryfka née Kazryel). In turn, Chana Krasiewicz married Mejer (Max) Celner – brother of Szmuel and Abram Izak. Lewek Krasiewicz their father was professionally involved in the production of canes.
The brothers Abram Izak, Szmuel and Mejer emigrated with their families to London before the outbreak of World War II. Here, Szmuel worked as a tailor ‘s presser, Mejer was a shoemaker and Abram Izak sold children’s clothes. Nachman Celner’s brother, Moszek, and his wife Polly also lived in London. Nachman had an older sister named Sura Ryfka, who in 1888 married Jonas Grynfeld, a resident of Raciąż. She died in 1894.
Nachman and Cylka were also the parents of Jejkiew, who was born in 1912 in Raciąż, and Liba. The names of the other two siblings are unknown. Nachman Celner died in 1937. He was probably buried at the Jewish cemetery in Raciąż (no information about his death can be found in Płock’s documents).
The last trace of the Celner family in Płock is a record about Cylka Celner and her son Jejkiew – residents of the house at 41 Kwiatka Street, created in connection with the census of all the town’s inhabitants made in the fall of 1939 by the Nazis.
The Makabi Jewish Gymnastic and Sports Society, which was the most famous and most numerous sports club in Płock, was established in 1915. Its founders were Leon Goldberg, Kurt Kazen, Wilhelm Marienstrass, Juda Pszenica, Maurycy Płońskier, Berek Zeligman and Izrael Penzel. The organization played an […]
A fragment of the panorama of Wyszogród with the synagogue building majestically towering over the town – this is just a preview of a new project carried out by the Nobiscum Foundation. We are officially starting work on a new, bilingual guidebook: “In the footsteps […]
Mendel Jakub Perelgryc (born in 1873) was the son of Icek Szlama (born in 1828) and Ruchla Chana née Gracz (born in 1841), who came from Lipno. His brother was Chaskiel Perelgryc (1864-1937) – the owner of the property at 21 Warszawska and 6 Bielska St., a well-known social activist in Płock, co-founder of the Bieker Chajlim Jewish Funeral Association. Hinda Małka Radzik (born in 1880) came from a large Jewish family. Her father was the merchant Hersz Wolf Radzik (born in 1854), mother Chaja nee Koza (born in 1853). Hinda Małka had four siblings: sisters Kajla (born in 1881), Pessa (born in 1883) and Ides (born in 1886) and brother Szlama (born in 1889). In 1908, Pessa Radzik married Mendel Strzyg – their son Lewi (born 1911) was a grain merchant.
Mendel Jakub and Hinda Małka Perelgryc were the parents of Lejbusz Eliasz (born in 1901), Chana Rachela (born in 1903), Miriam Ryfka (born in 1904) and Motel (born in 1911). In 1910, Mendel Jakub and Hinda Małka bought a tenement house in Płock at 3 Józefa Kwiatka Street, which was the property of their family until the outbreak of World War II.
The youngest son of Mendel Jakub and Hinda Małka – Motel in the interwar period worked as a locksmith and mechanic. His wife was Chaja Sura née Moszkowicz (born in 1914). Lejbusz Eliasz and Miriam Ryfka immigrated to Israel (respectively in 1925 and 1936). Chana Rachela married Lejb Pszenica.
During the Nazi occupation, Motel Perelgryc was deported to Treblinka, where he participated in the armed uprising that broke out on August 2, 1943. He died a heroic death in the Treblinka II camp. During the Holocaust, Chana Rachela and Hinda Małka and Motel’s wife also died.
Lejbusz Eliasz changed his name to Arye Pnini. He died in 1979. Miriam Ryfka died in 1972 in Tel Aviv.
Feliks Tuszyński – a painter and miniaturist, he was the son of Icek and Sura née Bajbok. He was born on July 19, 1921 in Płock. During the Nazi occupation he was in the ghetto in Łódź, then in the camp in Auschwitz. In 1944 […]
The oldest mention of the Sadzawka family in Płock dates back to 1810 – on June 22, in the Płock Notarial Office, a purchase contract was concluded for the sale of part of the property located at Synagogalna Street (mortgage number 39) between Józef Markus […]
Jehuda Lejb Margolies (1787-1811) – son of Asher Zelig, was a rabbi who at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries managed the spiritual life of the Jewish community in Płock. Before 1793 he was a rabbi in Szczebrzeszyn, Włocławek and Bodzanów. He was associated with Płock in the period from 1798 to 1805. He was considered an enlightened opponent of the Hasidim, he was interested in the Enlightenment movement, which was promoted by Mojżesz Mendelsohn. He became famous as the author of two works: “Or Olam” and “Pri-Twuah”, which stood out from the rabbinical literature of the time with a bold approach to the issue of faith and knowledge. As I. Schipper writes in the book “Seven hundred years of the Jewish community in Płock”, in “Or Olam” Margolies aimed to encourage Jews to study natural sciences. A task that needed considerable courage at the time, given the hostile attitude of the rabbis to anything that entered the field of secular science. Margolies’s work included arguments about chemistry, anatomy and physiology, as well as his remarks and considerations in connection with the discovery of America, which he considered a breakthrough in the history of the development of natural sciences. His work made a huge impression, as evidenced by the fact that in 1777-1783 it had three editions. Margolies also stigmatized the rule of the kahal nobles, who favored the Polish magnates and at the same time oppressed the Jewish poor. He was concerned with the spread of Hasidism in Poland. He represented the Płock kehilla during the Jewish kehilla conventions – he presented various proposals concerning the rights of Jews regarding kosher tax or military service. In the years 1805-1811 he was the rabbi of Frankfurt (Oder). He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Słubice.
Bibliography:
Shipper I., Siedemset lat gminy żydowskiej w Płocku, Lviv 1938
Maurycy Markusfeld (1849-1900) – sworn lawyer in Płock in 1889-1900. He was the son of a respected doctor of medicine and the first doctor of the St. Valentine hospital in Kutno in the years 1844-1850, Samuel Stanisław Markusfeld (1810-1880) and Emilia née Lewensztajn. Maurycy Markusfeld […]
