Dov Bar's Volchin - Meir Shevach Stavsky

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Dov Bar's Volchin

Meir Shevach Stavsky
My maternal great-grandfather and his wife, née Hannah M. Goodman, lived in Wysokie Litewskie.

Meir Shevach and Hannah (Chana-Alte)

They had 5 sons and a daughter: Alex, Eibi, Velvel “William”, Israel, Rachmil-Yerachmiel (my grandfather), Chaim, and Menucha.

Shevach was a merchant of iron goods (in Yiddish: Eizen Gesheft) in Wysokie. (Later, his son Yerachmiel opened a shop for iron goods in Volchin.) He would sit in the shop with his wife. From time to time (even as an elderly man) he would take a horse and carriage to Brest to buy merchandise for the store.

Shevach Stavski was also a money lender. He did not give his son Chaim Stavsky money because he was a miser. Maybe he wanted Chaim to stay and help him in the shop? No. Ultimately Chaim took some money and used it to leave to America.

My mother (Tema Stavsky Birenboim) used to tell me about Shevach. On one occasion, while my mother was still living in Volchin, my great-grandfather came from Wysokie Litewskie to Volchin to stay over for Shabbat at the house of his son, Rachmil. (According to Shmuel Englander's map, Rachmil Stavsky lived not far from the Volchin market square.) After praying in the synagogue, Rachmil --being a liberal kind of religious person-- went to play cards with friends some distance away. Meir Shevach was in the house, went out to fetch water from the well and somehow fell in. Rachmil, the “lifeguard”, was too far away, so they called the rogue (thief) of the village to pull Shevach out.They took his clothes off, gave him dry clothes and wrapped him in a perene (quilt) to warm up.

My mother adored and worshipped him and she tried to impart these to us.

Shevach Stavsky was still alive the end of 1939, according to this postcard in Yiddish.

Editor's Notes: Presumably, the iron shops of father Shevach (in Wysokie Litewskie) and son Rachmil (in Volchin) were similiar in terms of stock and trade. The 1929 Polish Directory fails to list the Stavsky shop in Wysokie; as noted here, six other dealers of similar wares are listed.

Page Last Updated: 30-Apr-2013