CLOSER TO SPIELBERG

My parents were just in LA to visit their granddaughter - not me, my sister or my wife:) Their stay was wonderful, and talking to my dad, he told me a few more things I didn't know about my grandfather. Moshe Tolpolar traveled back and forth between Bessarabia and Brazil before he settled forever in Porto Alegre, in 1931. However, in the 20's he already started to leave his mark in this Brazilian town. First, he subscribed to the legendary Yiddish-language daily newspaper The Forward, based in New York (http://www.forward.com/).

But before that, in 1915, he had been one of the founders of the first Yiddish-language newspaper in Brazil, Di Menscheit, in Porto Alegre.

My dad said that Moshe also subscribed to the Jewish Argentinian newspaper "El Diario Israelita" and the Brazilian magazine "Aonde Vamos?" (both in the 50's). The funny thing was that while The Forward was a left-oriented newspaper, "Aonde Vamos?" was written by right-wing Jews.

While in the Grove/Farmer's Market (if you've been in LA you've been there), we spoke more about philosophical matters. I asked my dad "So now that you're 72 years-old, what life lesson could you give me, is there anything special advice?" He looked and me and promptly replied "I'm still looking for it".

The same day we had dinner at the Kosher restaurant "The Milky Way" owned and hosted by Leah Adler, Steven Spielbeg's mom. The food was just OK. Actually Leah is the real star of the establishment, cheerful and very sharp. Walking around, you can see pictures of her with the famous son and other celebrities. We all had a great time.

THE QUEST FOR THE MOLDOVAN SALAMI

I had just moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2005 when my dad came to visit me. I was sleeping in a cheap futon, which he then slept on and I moved to the floor, had no job and was feeling horrible. You need at least one year (and a job!) to start getting used to Los Angeles. In any case, having him around for a few weeks cheered me up. I remember when we went to a grocery shop once and found a salami from Moldova. We were very surprised and bought it right away. This was before our trip to Moldova in 2008, and anything from Moldova would trigger our curiosity. We went home and ate it. It was not great, but it was from Moldova.

My parents returned to LA for a 20-day visit a few days ago and my dad and I thought of trying to find the salami again. I looked in a few grocery shops but could not find it. The one we bought it last time was closed. Then we went to Jon's, a traditional Armenian market where you can find the most interesting produce, beer from Estonia, cookies from Malasia, guarana from Brazil and maybe salami from Moldova.


We went first to the meat/delicatessen produce section, but the attendant had never heard of it. There was salami and sausages from Romania, Russia, Armenia, Germany and Hungary. But nothing from Moldova.




We walked around the place, got soda from Lithuania and cookies from Poland, saw marmalade from Israel and cheese from Greece. It was then that, all of a sudden, we saw the salami. It was actually the salamiS, as there were 3 distinct kinds.


We picked up one and went back home for dinner - very happy.


This one was different than the one from 2005. Soft and not spicy, an almost delicate taste to it. True that the salami is made in the US - but who cares? It's Moldovan style!


NEXT: More adventures in Los Angeles!

THE KARSHENBOYMS

A few weeks ago I got a message on this same blog from Gene Karshenboym. He said “Hi! My father was born in Yedentzi and I spent my childhood summers there… I have many pictures and would love to chat with you about your experience. I reached out to my dad right now over the phone to see if he knows any of the people you are looking for.”

We exchanged a few e-mails, Gene sent me some pics from his latest trip to Edinitz, and then we finally talked over the phone.

His dad Ruvin was the one who knew more about Edinitz. Now living in Atlanta, US, he told me many things, including well known "celebrities" from Beltsy and Edinitz (where he said people were known for being well educated) and wine making in Moldova. He said most Jews who left Edinitz went to New York, Toronto, Germany or Israel. Ruvin said his father was also in South America, in Argentina (he was a "gaucho", he joked). Actually his father, (still alive, in Israel) when questioned if he had heard about any Tolpolar, said “of course, Fima Tolpolar!” Fima, my dad’s first cousin, was a teacher for Ruvin’s mom, and was like part of the family. Ruvin and Gene also know many of the people we met in our 2008 trip, including Semion Furman and Ana Filipona (in the photo below).

We chatted for a while. At last, Ruvin said the old generation, his parents, never talked about their past. For some reason, they didn't want to or feel like it, he wasn't sure if they didn't want to remember the atrocities committed to Jews or just didn't think it was important. Ruvin regretted that, because now he doesn't know as much as he wanted about the past. I thought about my grandparents, who also never said much to my dad.

My in-laws happen to live close to Atlanta, so when I go there, in December, we will meet in person with the Karshenboyms. We'll eat mamaliga and drink wine. As Gene put it in a later e-mail, “Isn't it pretty crazy to think that after everything my dad told us about your family, that we found each other and that a Karshenboym and a Tolpolar are e-mailing each other? Crazy world.”

Crazy world indeed.

WE ARE ON TWITTER!

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http://twitter.com/#!/tolpolar

See you there!

GRANDMA MAKES MAMALIGA + SURPRISING E-MAILS!

The wonders of internet and, I must say, Google. Because of the latter I got a surprising e-mail while in Brazil, from Elina Mendeleev. She said “My name is Elina and I live in Luxembourg. My mother lives in Germany. Today, in the morning, I was telling my mum about an Argentinean Jewish friend that recently moved to Luxembourg and suddenly she said: “It looks like I will never find my relatives from Argentina". And I, absolutely out of the blue, googled -”Tolpolar". Imagine our surprise when your story appeared on the screen! My grandmother's name is (Sosl) Sonja Tolpolar. She was born in Oliscani, but during the WWII they were evacuated to Beltsy, a Jewish town in Moldova. My grandmother's family was mostly from Oliscani and was harvesting tobacco. My mum still remembers my granny telling very often a tragic story of how her dear aunt and uncle were murdered by their employees. She says that their store was probably located in the house where they lived and the robbers came at night and knocked at their door, and subsequently killed and robbed them. “

It turned out that Elina is from a part of the Tolpolars we never heard before, from the brother of Meyer Tolpolar, my great-grandfather. Elina is a direct descendant from Avrum Tolpolar, brother of Meyer, both sons of Haim Topolar.

And then I get another e-mail a few days later: “Hi Cassio, I read your blog and I think we are related. My name is Ella Bernstein, I am the daughter of Leonid Bernstein. His mother Hova (Eva) Tolpolar is the daughter of Leib – the youngest brother of Meir Tolpolar from Olishkany – this makes my father a 2^nd level cousin of your father Mauro. Can you confirm my findings?"

It so happens that Ella is from the part of another unknown (at least to me) Meyer’s brother: Leib Tolpolar!

In one week, many answers have just risen in front of me. We absolutely never knew anything about Meyer’s siblings and then, all of a sudden, they appear!

Ella, Elina and I are still in touch and I’m sure there will be much more to come.

And to relax a little, after the many exciting news that made the adrenaline in my blood go to higher levels, my grandma, mother of my mom, came to our house in Porto Alegre to make mamaliga. Her recipe traveled many countries and years, as it is just like her mom and grandmother used to make. Good times! I made a video of it and will post sometime. But here are a few pictures in the meantime!

FROM BRAZIL: NEWS ABOUT MOLDOVA - part II

During my latest visit to Brazil I found out, by talking to relatives, that Yeshaya Tolpolar's wife was aunt of Cecilia's Nisemblat. Cecilia is cousin of my dad on his mother's side (Nisemblat). It actually never crossed my mind that besides my grandparents' wedding there was any other relation between a Tolpolar and a Nisemblat. But there was. And much more than this.

Visiting Cecilia at her daughter's apartment, she showed me a bunch of old pictures, letters and documents. These materials are simply amazing, beautiful in the aesthetic side, but also contains a lot of history. Everything is either written in Romanian, Hebrew or Russian, so I could not understand anything, but she would tell me that some letters were from my grandfather to her father, and vice-versa, and even from my grandfather to her grandfather (my grandma's father). There were also some identity documents, postcards and the invitation to my grandparents' wedding in Bessarabia. I selected about 50 of these documents and scanned everything. Hopefully someday I'll have them translated.


But my dad was also keeping a few surprises from me. He had found new documents of his parents, including their ketubah, my grandfather's Brazilian naturalization document and the original picture of the "lost" grave, that now we know it's in Vadul Raskov. I wish I knew Romanian and Russian and Hebrew and Yiddish...


Being in Porto Alegre you see that some old memories are still alive. For example, we were having lunch at a Israeli restaurant (maybe the only one in town), and a friend of my grandmother stopped by to say hi and stared at me: "are you by any chance Mauro Tolpolar's son?" Her name was Berta and said she was a very good friend of my dad when they were children. "We used to play in the street", she said. When I mentioned that to Mauro, he said "Yeah, and I caught pertussis from her". It's things like that that makes every trip back to Porto Alegre a journey into the past as well.

Next: surprising e-mails and grandma makes mamaliga in Brazil!

FROM BRAZIL: NEWS ABOUT MOLDOVA - part I

I recently came back from a 2-week trip to Brazil, went to visit family and friends. While I was there a few experiences reconnected me to my Moldovan/Bessarabian past.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and on Sunday evening I gave a lecture about my trip and documentary on Moldova, Mamaliga Blues. My mom and cousin Estelita Rovinski helped organize the event. Tolpolars, Nisemblats, Pogorelskys, Kretchmans and others met in a small theater room to listen to me. I was actually surprised to see the room full, about 50 people present. It was the first time I was officially talking about the subject in such a formal manner.

I detailed the highlights of the trip and then showed the 2 promos of the documentary. Afterwards there was some time for conversation. It was great. Besides meeting family members I've never met before (strangely Porto Alegre is not a big town...), the audience was curious enough to ask interesting questions and make important remarks: Jaco Zylberstejn, for example, made me realize the deep connection between the infamous Kishinev pogrom in 1903 and my own family history. Jaco pointed out that the incident was the main event that triggered the immigration of many Jews not only to Brazil, but to the SOUTH of Brazil, where I'm from. Currently there is a big Jewish community in Porto Alegre that originates from Bessarabia. I had actually never made the connection: Kishinev pogrom = Jews in Porto Alegre = my grandparents = my father and mother = me and my sister and many others.

Another member in the audience recalled the name of Klara Kielmanowicz, who immigrated from Edinitz to Sao Paulo when she was 10 years old. I spoke to her on the phone a few days later and she mentioned she remembered the surname Tolpolar. "There was a doctor in Edinitz", she said. That was Sioma Tolpolar, Fima's brother, executed in Cepeleutz.

The lecture ended in hugs and kisses, people chatting and greeting each other. I was dead tired. After 13 hours on a plane, your body and mind don’t coordinate much anymore. We headed for some meat sandwiches and then home to get some rest. I was trying to assimilate what happened. But there was more to come, as I would get phone calls of people giving additional information (see next posting). I thought “The past is still present and alive”. Well, at least for now.

Next: News about Moldova - part II: a polemic marriage, old letters and 2 surprising e-mails.