Horenstein: Radomysl Family Information

 
The earliest known ancestor of the family is reputed to be R. Yohanan HaSandlar, the famous Talmudic scholar.  In the 16th century, Yehuda Lev [Judah Lowe] ben Betzalel, the Maharal of Prague, is also reputed to be an ancestor.  There is supposed to be a list somewhere that traces this ancestral line.
 
Historically, the family name was KATZ, an acronym for Kohan Tzadek [“righteous Kohan” -- often used as a surname instead of Cohen], until Czar Nicholas I decreed in 1804 that all Jews had to assume official surnames.  Horenstein probably means “rock of Aaron.”
 
The earliest printed record of the Horenstein family in Radomysl (Kiev gubernia, Ukraine) is 1851, when family members founded a tannery in the suburb of Rudnya.  It became the largest tannery in town (1).
 
Following the abolition of serfdom by the Reform of 1861, Naftuli Horenstein became the first Jewish landowner in the area.  He was listed in 1882 as the owner of 1 desyatina [1.09 hectare] of field land (3).
 
In 1903, the great Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem visited the Horenstein family estate during the Hanukah festival.  One year later, he published a short story based on his visit, entitled “Latkes for Hanukah.”  (All the names were changed.)
 
In 1904, I[osel/Iosif] [son of] E[vel] Horenstein opened a cloth factory.  By 1912, this factory had 56 employees, and the tannery factory in Rudnya had 63 employees and was listed as owned by “the heirs of Gur-Aryeh [son of] Naftuli Horenstein (2).”
 
Family members (Yakov, son of Gur-Aryeh; Berko, Evel, Gur-Aryeh and Rabbi Samuel HaKohen, sons of Naftuli; and Iosel, son of Evel) also owned a beet sugar refinery in Shklov3 and a paper factory in Malin (4).  As of 1909, Yakov was the executive director of these enterprises and received the highest annual salary (6,000 rubles).  All were members of the board of directors.  Except for Berko, they managed the sugar refinery, while Berko managed the paper factory (4).
 
Avraham, one of Naftuli’s sons, became a “Merchant of the First Guild” which meant, among other things, that he could travel anywhere in the Russian Empire – a rare privilege for Jews.   In 1910 he was listed as an “Honored Guardian” of the Jewish elementary school in Radomysl (5).
 
By 1913, four of Naftuli’s other sons (Berko, Evel, Gur-Aryeh and Rabbi Samuel HaKohen) owned a saw mill in the village of Otsytel and were selling the lumber produced by the mill in the village of Varkovichi (6).
 
When the Bolsheviks came to power, their fortune was confiscated, and the family members escaped mainly to Germany and Austria, only to have to emigrate again following the rise of the Nazis.  Those that survived dispersed to many different countries (7).
 
The Horenstein family has a long history of affiliation with the Ruzhiner hassidic courts (Boyaner and Sadigora), especially the Boyaner court.  (The Boyaner court has centers in Jerusalem, the lower East Side of Manhattan and London.  The Sadigora court also has a center in New York.)
 
The family was connected with the Volhyn Yeshiva, which was transferred to Jerusalem after either the first or second world war.  (The Boyaner court is the best source of information on this yeshiva.)  The Yeshiva may now be either the custodian, or part-owner, together with others, of the Botei Horenstein apartment complex in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem.
 
This complex was built by Reb Dov Ber Horenstein at the advice of Reb Yitzchok Friedman, the first Boyaner Rebbe (1850-1917).  The Rebbe suggested that, since Dov Ber was wealthy but childless, he should build the houses as a memorial to himself (8).
 
During a visit to Israel in 1953, Reb Mordchai Shlomo of New York (the second Boyaner Rebbe) expressed his wish to found a Yeshiva for all Ruzhiner chassidim; thus the Ruzhiner Yeshiva was built within Botei Horenstein (8).
 
 
SOURCES

1.  History of Radomysl written by an unknown researcher.
2.  All Russia in 1912; Plants and Factories of All Russia, 1913
3.  Pochilevich L.  Inventory of Land-ownership in the Radomysl District of Kiev Gubernia, 1882
3.  Lipa Horenstein
4. Tax Records of the Radomysl area, 1909
5.  Book of State Schools of Kiev Gubernia, 1910
6.  All South-Western Region.  Gazetteer and Address Book of Kiev, Podolia and Volhyn Gubernias, 1913
7.  Yakov Horenstein
8.  Friedman, Yisroel.  The Golden Dynasty, Chapter 5
 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES
 
The Jewish community of Radomysl was established in the 18th century.  In 1797 it numbered 1,424 (80% of the total population), in 1847 it numbered 2,734, and it increased to 7,502 (67%) in 1897.  In 1910 Radomysl had Talmud-Torah and five Jewish schools.
The district of Radomysl included the communities of Chernobyl (5,526), Korostyshev (4,160), Brusilov (3,575), Malin (2,547) and others.  The entire region was influenced by the teaching of the hasidic rabbis of Chernobyl.  In the early 19th century Radomysl had tanneries and flour-mills, and exported timber, corn and mushrooms.
In the spring of 1919 bands of peasants of the hetman Sokolovski organized pogroms in the Jewish communities of Radomysl and neighboring towns. Hundreds of Jews were massacred and many others fled to the big cities. Under the Soviet regime, Jewish community life stopped and the town declined. In 1926 there were 4,637 Jews (36% of the total population) in Radomysl.
When the Nazis invaded Russia (1941) all the Jews who remained in Radomysl were exterminated.
 
 
July 29, 2000

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