Perlow & Zditowski

New research · 23 October 2026

Newly found records

• The 1811 Stolin revision list, read on the original page, lists R’ Moshe Dov Ber in R’ Osher Perlov’s household as “Osher’s nephew Movsha Ber”, 32 (the clerks call him stepson, nephew and relative in turn; R’ Asher’s letter says “my wife’s son”). A second printed source names “Moshe-Dov, son of R’ Aharon of Stolin” among the signatures of the Tiberias hasidim in Elul 5606 (1846). Proven
• R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow's escape, from the original papers: Sugihara's visa register at Kaunas, line 1231, “Perlow Lejzor”, Polish, transit visa, 6 August 1940; the Kobe register of Polish refugees has him arriving from Vilna on 13 February 1941 (no. 524: 27, of Chomsk, yeshiva student). Proven
• In Shanghai the Mir yeshiva's register (no. 164) records his Polish passport, issued there on 4 December 1941; the Jewish Agency's 1946 list of Shanghai refugees gives “Perlow Lejzer, 1914, Chomsk, Yeshivat-Mir, came 1941 from Lithuania via Siberia”. Proven
• He sailed from Shanghai on 2 September 1946 on the SS General M. C. Meigs as “Perlow, Leizer, 32, rabbi, born Chomsk”, on a non-quota visa as a minister of religion; the Young Israel of Cincinnati sponsored him. His 1955 naturalization petition (no. 534186) gives his home as 1424 49th Street, Brooklyn. Proven
• A memorial record (item 6577714), from a card file of Jewish refugees from Poland 1939–1941, lists Eliezer Perlow, born 1913, of Chomsk, in Wilno during the war, a refugee. Proven as recorded
• Esther (Annie) Dollinger née Perloff, the probable sister of R’ Aharon, died in Brooklyn on 25 August 1945 (New York City death certificate 16705) and was buried the next day at King Solomon Cemetery, New Jersey, as the certificate records. Proven
• Her husband Max (Mendel) Dollinger: in the 1940 census he lived in Brooklyn with his children Clare, Herman and Sidney. Proven
• Max Dollinger died in July 1974 in Nassau County, New York (Social Security Death Index; the birth date, 13 June 1892, matches his naturalization). Probable
• In the winter of 1983 R’ Menashe Klein, the Ungvarer Rav, answered R’ Eliezer Zev Perlow in writing on the Shehecheyanu blessing on the second night of Sukkos, calling him “author of Imrei Eliezer in two volumes” (Mishne Halachos vol. 19, siman 79). Proven
• Burials found: R’ Eliezer Zev and HaRav Chaim Chaikel side by side on the Mount of Olives; Jacob Perlow at Montefiore, Queens; Ike, Victor, Rebecca and Morris Zitowsky in the Chomsker Young Men’s plot at Mount Zion, Queens (with Adolph Smith and Kate Barr, Probable); Herman Dollinger’s dates, 1918–1990 (Probable). Proven
• Possible (family tradition) — Reb Aharon HaGadol of Karlin: if our R’ Chaim Chaikel descends from R’ Chaim Chaikel of Haradnaja, the family are his blood relatives through Haradnaja’s mother Beyla, daughter of R’ Moshe of Kobrin, Reb Aharon HaGadol’s brother (that Kobrin link itself Probable as printed). The journal also raises the possibility that R’ Aharon of Stolin (b. 1826) was Bluma’s son by her first marriage and not R’ Chaim Chaikel’s; then there would be no such descent (Kovetz 214, p. קנט, note 89). Direct descent through R’ Chaim Chaikel’s first wife Devorah, Reb Aharon HaGadol’s granddaughter, is possible. This rests on the family-tradition link of R’ Chaim Chaikel Perlow to R’ Aharon Perlov of Stolin (not documented). Possible
• R’ Moshe Dov Ber (d. Tiberias 1847) was the stepson of the Stolin Rebbe R’ Asher, not his son: R’ Asher’s own letter calls him “my wife’s son”. His father was R’ Aharon “HaShotek” of Zelichov. Proven as printed
• HaRav Chaim Chaikel Perlow’s years in Soviet camps: a Soviet repression record reads “Perlovsky, Khaim Aronovich, born 1911, Warsaw”, a watchman, arrested 30 September 1944, sentenced in October 1945 to eight years in the camps, rehabilitated in May 1989 (Book of Memory of Samara oblast). Name, father’s name, birth year and birthplace all match his own US record, and his gravestone speaks of ten years in Siberia. Probable — Soviet index record
• Novominsk: a Stolin–Karlin journal shows the Novominsk Perlows descending from the Stolin Rebbe R’ Asher through two women — his daughter Perel, mother of R’ Shlomo Chaim Perlov of Koidanov, and the Koidanover’s daughter Sarah Devorah, mother of R’ Yaakov of Novominsk (1847–1902). How our own line meets them is still possible only (see Leads). Probable (as printed)
• Jennie (Zlate) Smith’s arrival, read on the original ship list: SS Statendam, New York, 2 July 1907 — “Sitowka, Zlote”, 15, of Chomsk; nearest relative at home “W. Sitowski, Chomsk – Grodno”; going to her “brother Idel Sitowsky, 390 Grand Street, New York”. Proven
• A Chomsk Zditowski household, from the 1907, 1910 and 1912 ship lists and two New York marriage records: Yehoshua (Shiye) Zditowsky and his wife Beile (Velje) née Shershevsky, born c.1858 at Pružany, with their children Chane (b. c.1881), Idel, Katie, Adolf, Zlate (Jennie, b. 1893), Note (b. c.1894), Israel (b. c.1896), Iser and Leiser. Note’s 1910 line reads “mother Velje Zditowski, Homsk”; in 1911 Chane named her “mother Beile Zitowski, Chomsk”, and in 1912 Beile sailed to her “husband Schie” in New York. They are cousins of Feigel, not her own parents or sisters. Probable — ship lists and marriage records
• David Smith (Zditowski) of Baltimore, who called Feigel his cousin: his gravestone reads “David son of R’ Shalom” (died 4 Adar 5716, 16 February 1956), and his wife’s “Teme daughter of R’ Aryeh Shmuel” (died 6 Tevet 5701, 5 January 1941). In 1912 Shiye’s wife named Teme as her sister-in-law, so David and Shiye were probably brothers, both sons of Shalom. Proven (gravestones) · brothers Probable
• A Soviet-era list of the Jewish families of the Telekhany district who perished in 1941–1943 names the Perlovs of Telekhany: Leiba b. 1886, Mordukh b. 1913, Khaim and Gavril b. 1921, and Aharon b. 1911 with his two children (b. 1931 and 1933). Their relation to Jacob Perlow and R’ Aharon is not known. Proven as a record — link to our family not known
• Warsaw: the indexed Warsaw Jewish registers hold no marriage of Aharon Perlow and Feigel Zditowska and no 1911 birth of Chaim Perlow. Many Warsaw books for 1909–1911 are not online, so Warsaw is not ruled out. Searched — nothing found
• R’ Eliezer Zev’s own introduction to Imrei Eliezer (New York, 1982), p. 12: his father R’ Aharon son of R’ Chaim Chaikel Perlow was “of the family of the Stolin Rebbe”, and his mother Feigel daughter of R’ Eliezer traced her line “to the family of the Vilna Gaon’s sister, from Kosov”. Both are the family’s printed claims; the exact links are unproven. Proven (as printed)
• The 1989 memorial page in Imrei Eliezer vol. 3: R’ Aharon son of R’ Chaim Chaikel, died 11 Tammuz; Feigel daughter of R’ Eliezer with her daughters Hinda, Freida and Fruma — Khomsk, 9 Av 5701 (2 August 1941). Proven (as printed)
• HaPardes (Chicago), September 1941: no. 9 on the Mir yeshiva’s list of students who escaped to Japan is “Eliezer Perlov — Chomsk”. Proven (as printed)
• Jacob Perlow of Telekhany (1884–1958) was R’ Eliezer Zev’s uncle: the 1941 Mir yeshiva aid list (row 26) names “uncle Jakob Perlow, 108 4th Str., New York” — the address on Jacob’s 1942 draft card. So Jacob was R’ Aharon’s brother and a son of R’ Chaim Chaikel. Proven
• The 1932 Polesie provincial gazette lists “Perlow Chaim-Lejb, parents Oszer and Judesa, born 1910, Pohost-Zahorodzki” — the son of R’ Asher and Yehudit Perlow of Chomsk, brother of the siblings’ grandfather R’ Aharon. The same entry is repeated in the gazette of January 1933. Probable — official gazette
• HaRav Chaim Chaikel Perlow’s US Social Security record names his parents “Aaron Perlow and Faiga Zditovska” (birthplace given as Warsaw). Probable — index record
• Kaunas, 25 February 1893, read on the original register: “Khomsk townsman Itsko son of Shmerko Zditovskii, bachelor, 25” married Nekhama-Beila Upiter, 18 — “uncle Ike” Zitowsky of Brooklyn, of Feigel’s Zditowski clan. Proven
• The Zditowski clan of Khomsk goes back two more generations: the 1806 and 1811 revision lists show Leyzor (Eliezer) son of Itsko “Zditovets”, whose grandsons Itsko (b. c.1796) and Leyba (b. c.1803) head the only two Zditowski lines of 1850. The whole clan very probably descends from him; Feigel’s exact line to him is not yet proven. Probable — index records
• More Zditowski cousins in America: Esther Zitowsky Davidoff (b. Chomsk 1898, d. 1981), daughter of uncle Ike; Boris (Dov) Zditowski (1914–1993, El Paso) of the Motol branch; and the Baltimore Smiths, children of David Zditowski, “cousin” of Feigel. Their exact relation to Feigel is not known. Probable — index records
• The Stolin revision list of 1816, read on the original page (NHAB Minsk 333/9/71, ff. 212v–213; FHL film 1925416, image 755; scan on the Stolin KehilaLinks records page), shows the Perlov household of the Stolin Rebbe R’ Asher (“Osher Aronov Perlov”, 55), with his relative Movsha Ber Aronov and his son Khaikel Simkha, 9 (b. c.1807). This is the Stolin Chaim Chaikel line; no record yet ties our family to it. Proven as a record — link to our family Possible
• No Perlov is listed at Pohost-Zahorodzki in the revision lists of 1811 and 1816, so the Perlovs of Pohost came there later. Proven

Leads still being checked

These are possibilities only. They are not on the tree until a record proves them.

• Our R’ Chaim Chaikel as R’ Chaim, born 1852 in Stolin, son of R’ Aharon Perlov of Stolin: the family confirms it; on the records it is still possible: no document yet places this R’ Chaim in Telekhany or Chomsk after 1874. Possible
• Whether R’ Aharon of Stolin (b. 1826) was the son of Devorah, granddaughter of Reb Aharon HaGadol (possible), or of R’ Chaim Chaikel’s second wife Bluma — and, as the journal also raises, whether he was Bluma’s son by her first marriage and not R’ Chaim Chaikel’s son at all (Kovetz 214, p. קנט, note 89). Possible
• Novominsk: whether our line meets the Novominsk Perlows (who descend from the Stolin family, probable as printed) is not known. Possible
• Feigel’s father R’ Eliezer as the Leizer b. c.1829 in the household of Shliomo son of Leib Zdzitovskii (Khomsk, 1850). Possible
• The “Kosov” of the family tradition as Kosów Poleski, the county town of the Zditowski village Horbów between the wars. Possible
• A rabbinic Perlow family of Pohost-Zahorodzki, the town where R’ Asher’s son was born in 1910: a 1928 copy of the 1899 birth record proves Yaakov Perlow, born 29 December 1898, son of Chaikel son of Moshe Ber Perlow and Yenta-Rochel daughter of Efraim-Moshe. Their kinship to our family is possible only; this Chaikel was still alive in 1913, so he is not our R’ Chaim Chaikel. Possible
• Feigel’s father R’ Eliezer as a brother of Shalom Zditowski, David Smith’s father: David and his probable brother Shiye each named a son Leizer in 1907, and David called Feigel his cousin in 1920. Possible
• How the Telekhany Perlovs of the 1941–43 list are related to Jacob Perlow and R’ Aharon. Possible
• PENDING — Sidney Zitowsky (8 May 1914 – March 1981; Social Security Death Master File, number issued in New York) as a son of Victor Zitowsky and Sarah née Davidoff: a public online tree lists a Sidney among Sarah’s children, but no record yet names his parents. Possible
• PENDING — Fannie Zitowsky, wife of Isidore Siegel, mother of Flora Siegel (b. 30 May 1916, Brooklyn; Social Security claims index): which Zitowsky family she came from is not known. Possible

Still being searched

Records that may answer the open questions, not yet reached.

• The Samara archive’s case file on the 1944–45 sentence of “Khaim Aronovich Perlovsky”.
• The 1934 constitution booklet of the Telechaner society in New York (YIVO), which may name Jacob Perlow’s family.
• The Stolin family lists of 1874–1900, which could join R’ Chaim, born 1852, to Chomsk or Telekhany.
• The Pohost-Zahorodzki memorial book (1979), for the Perlovs of Pohost.