The dedication of an Aron Hakodesh and Paroches
at the Bais Yaakov Synagogue (commonly known as the
"shteiblach") in the Beis Israel neighborhood of Jerusalem on
Leib Dayan street was held Sunday 29 Nisan-May 8. The event
was not only a personal dream fulfilled for a family abroad,
but was also the special occasion of a reunion of cousins who
last saw each other 79 years ago!
The Gorodner family lived in Shiletz, a shtetl on the
outskirts of Mogilev in Belarus. The turbulence of the time
brought four of the five brothers — Shlomo, Lazar,
Chaim Itche, and Moshe — to move to Windsor, Ontario in
the 1920s. The 5th brother, Eliyahu, was not accepted by the
Canadian immigration service because of a health problem.
The four brothers assumed the names Gordner and Gardner and
their families spread out over Toronto, Windsor and Detroit.
They maintained contact with the fifth brother and his five
children until World War II, when all contact came to an end.
It was assumed the entire family was murdered by the Nazis in
the Mogilev ghetto. It was not.
The daughter of Moshe made aliya from Canada ten years ago to
Jerusalem. Two years ago she decided to see if Yad Vashem had
any record of the family that remained in Shiletz. As a young
girl growing up in Windsor, she used to accompany her parents
to the post office when they sent packages to the brother who
had remained behind. Although previous visits had turned up
nothing, this time she found astounding news: One of Uncle
Eliyahu's sons had survived and he now lived with his wife,
daughter and grandson in Mitzpeh Ramon in Israel!
A flurry of phone calls went out to all the relatives. The
Russian cousin, Gamsha Gorodner, now a pensioner of 81, was
contacted. He explained that he alone of his family had
survived the War because he was serving as a soldier on the
Norwegian front. The rest of his family had been murdered in
the Mogilev ghetto.
Gamsha spoke emotionally on the phone to his newfound cousin
of the many years he tried to locate relatives but didn't
know where they lived. Suddenly he discovered a whole tribe
of relatives numbering dozens of people spanning four
generations. He had no knowledge of most of his cousins, who
were born in Canada. The only cousins he remembered were
Uncle Shlomo's four sons. Three of them had passed away, but
he vividly remembered Chaim, who had left for Canada at the
age of 6 when Gamsha was only 4.
Now, 79 years later, the cousins met for the first time at a
momentous family occasion.
Mr. Herman Gardner, in Israel (from Detroit) for the
dedication of an Aron Hakodesh in the name of his
parents, Shlomo and Miriam Gordner, met his cousin Gamsha and
his grandson for the first time. Also present were two other
cousins who moved to Israel: Tsirel Abramson, the daughter of
Moshe, and Anne Pasikov, the daughter of Lazar.
Shlomo Gordner was for many years the chazan and
baal koreh in the Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue in
Windsor, Ontario. He was a quiet, pious man who was highly
regarded in his community. His eldest son was later the
president of the same synagogue.
After several short speeches and a lechayim at the
Shteiblach, the reunited family and their various members of
the family present in Israel celebrated a seudas mitzva
at the Shaarei Simcha hall in Beis Israel
neighborhood.
The four first cousins expressed their astonishment at the
wondrous ways of providence that led four cousins who are
descended from four different brothers to all meet in
Jerusalem after so many years, and especially to discover a
cousin who was thought to be long dead for 60 years.
The author is the daughter of Herman Gardner.
