The Perlow–Wiesner Family
A family history of the seven siblings and their ancestors
Chomsk · Hungary · Shanghai · Brooklyn · Jerusalem
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A family history
The Perlow–Wiesner Family
The ancestors of the seven Perlow siblings, Feigel (Cipi), R’ Aharon (R’ Ari) z”l, Hindy, Yanky, Chayie, Asher (Osher) and Shmaya — from Chomsk and the Mir yeshiva, and from the towns of Szabolcs, Hajdú and Borsod in Hungary, back to Pápa, Kalló and the eighteenth century.
- 324
- ancestors & relatives
- 421
- photos & records
- 9
- generations back from the seven siblings
Behind: 1902 Sajószentpéter wedding group, Moshe Glück × Czili Grosz (Juli Grosz's granddaughter), tagged with Farkas Wiesner, Gizella and Rabbi Sámuel Braunfeld · Probable (tags only) · Credit: Geni · see the photograph
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The story in brief
Two families meet in this record. On the Perlow side, R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow was born in Chomsk, in today’s Belarus, in 1914. He learned in the Mir yeshiva and travelled with it through Vilna, Kobe and Shanghai, and landed in San Francisco on 14 September 1946. Behind him stand the Perlows and Zditowskis of Chomsk and Telekhany.
On the Wiesner side, Miriam Wiesner was born in Sajószentpéter, Hungary, in 1922, the daughter of Rav Shmaya Wiesner, who was in Munich before he came to America in 1939. Behind her stand the Wiesner, Reich, Braunfeld and Grosz, Szender and Glück families of northern Hungary, back to the Pri Tzadik of Csaba.
They married in Brooklyn on 17 November 1948, and had seven children. Every person and every claim on this site carries the grade the research gave it.
Brooklyn, 17 November 1948
R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow & Miriam Wiesner
Married at Gold Manor, 665 Willoughby Avenue; the bride’s father, Rav Shmaya Wiesner, officiated. They had seven children: Feigel (Cipi), R’ Aharon (R’ Ari) z”l, Hindy, Yanky, Chayie, Osher and Shmaya.
Watch the family film (16½ min)
A narrated history, told from the seven siblings back one generation at a time: Perlow and Zditowski of Chomsk and Telekhany, back to Stolin and the family of Reb Aharon HaGadol of Karlin, then Wiesner, Reich, Braunfeld/Grosz, Szender and Glück of Hungary, back to the Pri Tzadik. The original records and photos appear on screen with their credits; subtitles are burned in.
The family lines
Chomsk, in today’s Belarus
Perlow & Zditowski
Chomsk · Telekhany · Mir · Vilna · Kobe · Shanghai · Brooklyn Read the family → Gáva, Sajószentpéter and KovácsvágásWiesner & Reich
Sátoraljaújhely · Gáva · Kovácsvágás · Ajnácskő · Sajószentpéter · Munich · New York Read the family → Sajószentpéter and MonostorpályiBraunfeld & Grosz
Monostorpályi · Szendrő · Sajószentpéter · Miskolc · Kecskemét · Erdőtelek · Baja · New Orleans · Milwaukee Read the family → Hajdúdorog and HajdúnánásSzender, Engel & Fried
Mád · Újfehértó · Makó · Nagykároly · Hajdúdorog · Hajdúnánás Read the family → Nyírbátor, Kemecse, Bököny, Pápa and KallóGlück, Rózmann, Ornstein & Fisch
Pápa · Bököny · Kemecse · Nyírbátor · Pátroha · Nagykálló · Ungvár Read the family →New this week
Recent discoveries
- Golda Lipsitz’s own gravestone at Gáva found: “Mrs. Golda daughter of R’ Shemaya”, wife of R’ Yisrael Yonah Lipschitz — strong evidence that she was Shmaya Wiesner’s daughter (stays Probable: the year is broken off). Photo now in the gallery. Probable
- R’ Aharon (II) of Karlin’s descendants, the Stolin rebbes: the 1992 Stasino memorial and portraits of R’ Asher and R’ Moshe of Stolin (died 1942 (5702), Stasino) are now in the gallery as side-branch context. Probable
- A new generation at Csaba: R’ Náthán Blich, rabbi there, father of R’ Yitzchak Yosef Blich of Gáva — named on two original 1876 register pages, now in the gallery. Proven
- The 1816 Stolin page also lists R’ Asher’s grandson Shlioma Khaim and his wife Leya Reizya (Leah Reizel) — very probably the later first Koidanover Rebbe, raised in R’ Asher’s house. Probable
- A new name on the Stolin line: Beyla, daughter of R’ Chaim Chaikel and Dvora, born about 1823 — in the 1834 Stolin revision list beside her parents. Probable
- The original 1873 Bököny register: Vizner József of Gáva, “son of Vizner Antal”, married Grosz Beti of Téglás on 6 May 1873 — the page is now in the gallery. Proven
- Dr Adolf Ónodi (born Dávid Finkelstein, Miskolc 1857), the Budapest throat doctor and professor, was a son of Yeta Devora née Benet — a grandson of the Pri Tzadik. Three registers name the same parents, and he reported his mother’s death in 1908. Proven
- R’ Moshe Dov Ber, stepson of R’ Asher of Stolin, was one of the heads of the Karlin hasidim in Tiberias and signed himself “of Stolin” there in 1846 (Hillman 1953, as printed). R’ Asher’s letter naming “my wife’s son R’ Moshe Ber, his wife and his sons” is now in the gallery. Proven
- Rav Shmaya Wiesner before Munich: head of the “Jeschurun” youth society in Breslau during the First World War, then leader of its boys’ courses in Vienna from April 1918 — and in 1932 his teacher, the Da’at Sofer, called him “my beloved disciple”. Probable
- The “last boat”: Szerén Wiesner and her four children sailed from Le Havre on the SS President Harding and landed at New York on 26 August 1939, six days before the war began. Her portrait from 1940 is now on her page. Proven
- R’ Chaim Chaikel Perlov was rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Legnica, Poland, about 1958–63, and the 1962 American Jewish Year Book says “Rabbi Perlow served in Wroclaw” (snippet only). New map pins: Baranovich, Legnica, Wrocław. Probable
- Rav Shmaya Wiesner’s name lives on in Israel: the Shmaya Association, founded in 1981 “in memory of the late Rabbi Shmaya Wiesner” to teach hearing-impaired children, is today a national organization for people with disabilities. New on his card: his Breslau years (1917–28), his 1939 flight from Havana to Miami, and the weddings he performed for his daughters. Proven
- Miriam Perlow’s card is filled in: her 1939 arrival, her 1944 and 1947 citizenship papers (her father and brother were her witnesses), the 1948 wedding notice in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the 1950 family house at 1424 49th Street. Proven
- Farkas Wiesner’s sister Rózi: married Náthán Jozefovics at Gáva in 1889, lived at Szerencs with seven children, and died at Auschwitz in 1944. Also new: Antal’s sister Golda and her husband Jónás Lipsitz (Probable), and the Chomsk map pin moved to its true place. Proven
- The 1816 Stolin census, now read on the original page: R’ Moshe Ber is listed as a “relative” in R’ Asher of Stolin’s household, with his son Chaikel (R’ Chaim Chaikel of Haradnaja), 9. The scans are in the Gallery. The link from our R’ Chaim Chaikel Perlow up to this line is still family tradition. Proven
- The Perlow line now reaches about 1700: R’ Yaakov “HaNistar” of Kobrin, father of Reb Aharon HaGadol of Karlin and of R’ Moshe of Kobrin, Beyla’s father. Also new: R’ Moshe Ber’s parents, R’ Aharon HaShotek of Zelichov and Feiga. A traditional line one step further, to R’ Yehoshua, born in the 1600s, is on the Sources page (Possible). Probable
- A new daughter of Rabbi Menyhért (Emánuel) Glück of Kemecse: Hani, who married Hermán Elefánt at Kemecse in 1889, her father officiating — read on the original register. Proven
- Two of R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow’s own books, printed in New York in 1953, are now on the site: Kuntres Pi HaBe’er and Likutim me-Rabbenu Gerondi. Proven
- Three more children of Farkas Szender, Herman’s brother, found in the Hajdúdorog civil registers: József (1908), Miklós (1909–1945) and Magdolna (1918). Proven
- Dávid Braunfeld's gravestone at Kecskemét names his father R’ Yitzchak and calls him the community's religious judge — his grave there is now proven. Proven
- David Smith (Zditowski) of Baltimore, Feigel’s cousin, had six more children than we knew: Sam, Nathan, Irvin, Harry, Esther and Kate Platt. Proven
- R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow's escape on the original papers: Sugihara visa no. 1231 (Kaunas, 6 August 1940), arrival at Kobe from Vilna on 13 February 1941, a Polish passport issued in Shanghai, and the 1946 sailing on the General Meigs. Proven
- Esther (Annie) Dollinger née Perloff, R’ Aharon's probable sister, died in Brooklyn on 25 August 1945 (certificate 16705) and was buried the next day at King Solomon Cemetery, New Jersey. Proven
- Jetti had one more sister: Blanka (Berta) Glück, born at Nyírbátor on 24 May 1885, who married Sándor Ligesi in 1905. Proven
- Berta Reinitz née Wiesner's three children are now named from the records: Vilmos (Ze'ev), Magda and Ábrahám Adolf, all of Sajószentpéter. Proven
- The Engel line is proven from the civil death records: Jakab Engel and Klára Fried as parents of Kati Szender, Hani, Rezi and Ignácz — and Ignácz's seven children. Proven
- Farkas Szender, Herman's younger brother (b. Hajdúdorog 1878), and his wife Szerén died at Hofamt Priel in Lower Austria in the night of 2–3 May 1945; they lie at the New Jewish Cemetery of St. Pölten, named on the list of the 228 buried there. Proven
- Rav Shmaya spoke at the dedication of Munich's Reichenbachstraße synagogue on 5 September 1931 — dayan of the community from 1928 and one of its four rabbis in 1933. Proven
- Sámuel Glück's first family: his wife Gitel (m. Nyírbátor 1863, d. 1870) and their son R’ Dov Berel (Béla), b. 1864, Jetti's half-brother — plus Jetti's eight brothers and sisters. Proven
- Böske (Erzsébet) Winyik née Wiesner, Rav Shmaya’s sister, and her husband Dezső had five children — Vilmos (1929), Ágnes (1930), Éva (1931), Zoltán (1937) and Klára (1938) — all named on the family’s 1942 Salvadoran certificate. All five died at Auschwitz in June 1944 (Probable). Proven
- First portraits of Dávid (Dezső) Wiesner, Rav Shmaya’s brother, of his sister Berta (Blimi) Reinitz and of her husband Sándor Reinitz, from memorial records — now in the gallery and on their pages. Proven
- Jakab (Koppel) Engel’s family in the 1848 census of Hajdúdorog: innkeeper, born at Makó, with Klára Fried and their children — brought to Dorog as a child by his elder brother. Probable
- The Pri Tzadik’s other sons-in-law: in his 1839 book (p. 95) the publisher calls R’ Pinchas David of Kótaj — who settled in Jerusalem and died there 13 Dec 1878 — and R’ Shimon Lieberman, rav of Szenna, “my brother-in-law”. His yahrzeit, 26 Elul 5589 (24 Sep 1829), comes from the book’s printed biography. Probable
- Dávid (Dezső) Wiesner, Rav Shmaya’s brother, a bookkeeper in Miskolc, died at Auschwitz on 16 or 17 June 1944 — now sourced to a memorial record. Proven
- Side by side on the Mount of Olives: R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow (2006) and his brother HaRav Chaim Chaikel Perlov (1996) lie in the same row of the Chasidim plot, graves 4 and 3 — from the cemetery’s own grave cards. Proven
- The first graves of Feigel’s Zditowski clan in New York: the Chomsker Young Men’s society plot at Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens, holds Ike Zitowsky, his son Victor, his wife Rebecca and his brother Morris — and, very probably, Shiye Zditowsky’s children Adolph Smith and Kate Barr (Probable). Proven
- Antal (Naftali Tzvi) Wiesner (1916–2008), the siblings’ youngest great-uncle: an article in Alei Zikaron 67 (2025) tells of his studies at Szántó and Montreux, the South American visas he obtained for the family in the war, and the refugee home he ran at Engelberg. Proven
- Golda Wiesner’s brothers and sisters: the children of Ignácz Braunfeld, a shochet and cantor, are now on the tree — among them Rabbi Sámuel of Erdőtelek, Dávid, assistant rabbi of Kecskemét, and Zsigmond, who became George Braunfeld of Milwaukee (Probable). Proven
- A new Szender cousin: R’ Shmuel Szender of Košice (d. 1932), very probably the son born in 1861 to Mendel Szender’s brother Dávid — his birth entry, the Košice burial index and his newly restored stone agree. Probable
- Szerén’s brother Béla Szender (1911–2002) joins the tree; a 1953 act of Congress on his stay in America also gives his Hebrew name, Gedalia (Probable). Proven
- How the family is related to Reb Aharon HaGadol of Karlin: R’ Chaim Chaikel of Haradnaja (1807–52), great-grandfather of our R’ Chaim Chaikel, was the son of Beyla, a daughter of Reb Aharon HaGadol’s brother R’ Moshe of Kobrin. The Perlov name itself came from the Stolin Rebbe R’ Asher, his father’s stepfather. Probable
- Cantor Julius Braunfeld of New Orleans, born at Sajószentpéter in 1863, joins the tree as Golda Wiesner’s brother — “Son of Ignacz Braunfeld” in the 1903 American Jewish Year Book — with his 1922 portrait. Proven
- Rav Shmaya’s son Willy Wiesner, the siblings’ uncle, led Yeshiva Torah Temimah and Project RISE (The Jewish Observer, 1982 and 1985). Proven
- A whole Chomsk Zditowski household from ship lists read on the originals: Yehoshua (Shiye) Zditowsky and Beile (Velje) née Shershevsky with nine children, among them Jennie (Zlate), who reached New York in 1907. Shiye was probably a brother of David Smith, Feigel’s cousin, whose stone reads “David son of R’ Shalom”. Probable
- Jacob Perlow of Telekhany (1884–1958) is proven to be R’ Eliezer Zev’s uncle — a son of R’ Chaim Chaikel — from the 1941 Mir yeshiva list and his 1942 draft card. Proven
- Feigel’s Zditowski clan goes back to Leyzor son of Itsko “Zditovets” of Khomsk, in the revision lists of 1806 and 1811. Probable
- In 1982 R’ Eliezer Zev wrote that his father R’ Aharon was “of the family of the Stolin Rebbe” (proven as printed; the exact link is not yet found). Proven
- A new generation on the Engel line: R’ Yoshe (Yehoshua) Engel and Gitel, parents of Jakab (Yaakov Koppel) Engel of Hajdúdorog — named in Alei Zikaron 64 (2023), p.62. It replaces the earlier guess Gábor × Borbála. Probable
- Blüme Reich’s parents with exact dates: R’ Wolf Reich, born at Nyíri 4 April 1794, died 11 February 1864; and Mushkat, born at Nagyida 7 September 1797, died at Pusztafalu 20 April 1864 (Probable, high). “Mushkat” replaces “Mikal”. Probable
- Sámuel Glück’s mother was Adel Golda (Leutscha) Edeles — read on the 1848 census of Szobránc, and he signed in 1880 as “Shmuel ben Adel Golda”. Her parents, very probably, were Mózes Edeles of Véke and Hani Grünwald (Probable). Proven
- The Pri Tzadik was buried at Hejőcsaba, near Miskolc: a 1971 letter in “A miskolci Avas” (1993) and a 1970 eyewitness account. Whether the stones now in Avas parcel VIII are his is possible only. Proven
- R’ Gedalya Glück in contemporary documents: the Chatam Sofer’s “diligent student R’ Gedalya”, and a judge of the Kalló court in 1864. A 1933 lexicon gives his son R’ Menachem Mendel’s birth and death exactly as our records. Probable
- R’ Yaakov Fisch’s own stone at Nagykálló reads “son of R’ Yitzchak”, confirming the generation above him. Proven
- R’ Aharon Perlow’s yahrzeit is 11 Tammuz, from the family memorial pages in Imrei Eliezer al HaTorah (Brooklyn 1995); the earlier “21 Tammuz” was a misreading. Proven
- Juli Grosz Braunfeld’s date of death, 7 March 1917, is proven from her gravestone; her civil death entry has been located in the archive. Proven
How to read this site
Every person and every claim carries the grade the research gave it. Proven means it was read on an original record. Probable means strong evidence short of proof. Possible marks a lead or a family tradition.
A living record
This round of research closed on 21 October 2026; new finds will be added as they are read. Living members of the family appear by name and relation only. Know a yahrzeit that is missing or wrong? Submit a family yahrzeit.