The Grünwald family, Moravian Descendants of the "Panim Meirot". Part 1 of 2.

This post continues my family research tracing the descendants of Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt, the “Panim Meirot.” Using archival records and classic rabbinic sources, I uncover the Grünwald family, a Moravian branch of his lineage, clarify names, dates, and family links, and reconnect forgotten lives to documented history.

In one of my first blog posts, I described the way in which genealogical research in archival material and databases from Poland and Belarus revealed the exact and direct connection between my family and Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt [1670-1744], the author of the rabbinical book “Responsa Panim Meirot”, who was discovered as my ancestor 8 generations back through his daughter Ruchla who lived in Biala (Nowadays Brest-Litovsk, Belarus).

Today I would like to reveal more accurate information about another branch of his descendants, the Grünwald family who lived in Moravia, an area that now belongs to the Czech Republic, and from there got scattered all around the world.

First - I want to clarify to non Hebrew speakers where the name "Panim Meirot" comes from: In traditional Hebrew rabbinic scholarship, it was common for a distinguished rabbi to become known not by his personal name, but by the title of his most influential book - especially if that work gained recognition during his lifetime. Thus, Rabbi Moshe Sofer became famously known as the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau as the Noda BiYehuda, Shabtai HaCohen as the Shach (from Siftei Kohen), Rabbi David Charif of Lemberg as the Turei Zahav (Taz), Moses Grünwald as the Arugot HaBosem, and David Deutsch after his Ohel David. Following this convention, Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt likewise came to be referred to by the title of his major work, Panim Meirot, the name by which he is commonly known in rabbinic literature.

As befits an important and famous rabbi, the lineage of the “Panim Meirot” has always aroused scholarly interest. One of the fathers of the field of Jewish genealogy research of Central Europe, Dr. Bernhard (Dov Ber) Wachstein, noted in his 1922 book "Die Grabschriften des alten Judenfriedhofes in Eisenstadt" (Tombstones in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Eisenstadt), which is available online in both German and Hebrew, in a section in which he lists the descendants of the Panim Meirot:

“His son Eliezer, who continued his father's professional legacy as the leader of the Jewish community in the city of Siedlce in Poland, lived there. One of Eliezer's sons, Yaakov, lived in London and in 1770 published there the book “Toldot Yaakov” [not to be confused with the book of the same title, which was published in London in 1918 by Rabbi Dr. Charles/Yaakov Koppel Duschinsky, which was a biography of his great-grandfather, Rabbi Yaakov Koppel Altenkunstadt-Reich,  as known as Koppel Charif – M.S.F.]. He continues: “Among the descendants of Yaakov is Rabbi Moritz Grünwald (who at the time of his death served as Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria, died on June 10, 1895 in London), who published a genealogical chart of his pedigree on page 26 of his book “Jungbunzlauer Rabbiner” on the rabbis of the Jungbunzlau community.

The section on the descendants of the Panim Meirot from Wachstein's book was translated into English by the late Bernard Israelite Kouchel (with the omission of the many texts in Hebrew, unfortunately) and is available online through the JewishGen website. But to begin with, Wachstein didn’t specify the genealogy, only referred to the source.

In the new edition of the book “Responsa Panim Meirot - A Magnificent and Illuminating New Edition”, published in 2012, there is an appendix by Rabbi Yechiel Goldhaber entitled “The History of the Panim Meirot”, which details the lineage of his descendants. Since I know that he had no success with my branch beyond what appears in rabbinic literature, I decided to try to cross-reference his information with archival materials. When he dealt with this branch of the family,  Goldhaber notes in footnote No. 218:

“The name of Rabbi Yaakov's wife – 'Rachel'. Their daughter was Chava, wife of Rabbi Israel Grünwald of Bzenec, Moravia. They had a son named Rabbi Yosef Tzvi, a dayan and ‘Maggid Mishraim’ [a position in Jewish communities, held by a person with a talent for speaking and extensive knowledge of the Torah and the writings of the Sages, whose role was to awaken the hearts of the Jews to the study of the Torah and the worship of God – M.S.F]. in the city of Bzenec for forty years [born in the Jewish year 5545 (1845), and died on the 7th of Sivan 5619], author of the book “Kab Yosef” and its contents was a collection of articles to bring into the memory of the sons of Israel, so they could find something in each parasha and verious legends, and for the elders a moral rebuke,  written by me, the little and youngest Yosef Zvi, son of the late Israel Grünwald (may his righteous memory be of blessng), from the holy community of Bzenec, a fourth generation descendant of the MAHARAM Ash. The book was never printed. The above information, as well as Rabbi Yaakov's descendants chart, were written by his great-grandson, Dr. Maurice Greenwald, in his book “Jungbunzlauer Rabbiner”, Prague, 5648 (1888), p. 26. [Print from 'Jüdishe Zentralblatt, Prague, 1888].”

Despite the broader details, Goldhaber only made available to the Hebrew-reader the information from Greenwald's book, to which Wachstein referred as early as 1922, and did not add details or further research to it.

However, combining and cross-checking the information from these three sources (all of which are now available online through various websites), with archival documents collected and made accessible through various genealogical databases, it is possible to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of this branch of the descendants of the Panim Meirot as well. This is an opportunity for me to add new information about this lineage, which has not been clearly published until now:

First, the book "Toldot Yaakov" by the grandson of the Panim Meirot - Yaakov ben Eliezer ben Meir Eisenstadt, in a way that is not typical of this genre of rabbinic literature, does not include much reference to his ancestors and does not detail genealogical information about them. Also, considering that it was published in 1770, almost a century before most Central European communities began to be keep registry (or “Pinkasim”), the earliest documents I have been able to locate are the death records of his daughter Chava (in her latin name Eva) and her husband Israel Grünwald.

Israel Grünwald was born around 1756 and died in Bzenec, Moravia on 1 May 1812. His wife Eva was born around 1755 and died there on 19 March 1840.

They had at least three children –

A. Herschel (Yossef Tzvi) was born around 1784.

B. A daughter named Bella was born on 14 April 1799

C. A daughter named Rivka was born on 28 February 1802, and died at the age of only 4 on 12 January 1806.

It is reasonable to assume that they had more children, especially in view of the 15-year gap between Herschel and his sister Bella, but their records have not survived and all that remains are names in the accompanying index, without context nor complete information.

On 29 August 1804, in Bzenec, Herschel (Yossef Tzvi) Grünwald married Judit née Strassler, born in 1784. They had 7 children:

1. Chaya Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 7 September 1805, and died there a month later, on October 9, 1805.
   

2. Jeremiah Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 13 January 1807 and died there on 9 March 1809.
   

3. Israel Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 18 August 1812 and died there on 16 September 1812.
   

4. Rachel Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 12 March 1814.
   

5. Salomon Löbel (Shalom Yehuda) Grünwald was born in Bzenec on 9 August 1816.On 26 August 1844 he married Juli (Yuttasch) née Reiss, born in 1824, and they had at least three children: Sigmund (born on their first wedding anniversary on 26 August 1845), Yossef Hirsch and Heinrich. Juli Grünwald née Reiss died in Bzenec on 21 December 1905 and was buried there.Salomon Löbel's death record has not survived, nor did his tombstone, but his name appears in the index of death records.
   

6. Israel Joachim Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 22 May 1819 and died there on 26 January 1820.
   

7. Jacob Grünwald, born in Bzenec on 16 October 1821.

   
   

Judit Grünwald née Strassler died in Bzenec on 23 December 1829. About nine months later, on 9 September 1830, Yossef Tzvi married his 2nd wife, Rivka née Strümplert. Rivka died and was buried in Bzenec on 27 November 1853, and Yossef Tzvi Grünwald died on 8 June 1859 and was also buried there.

Photo: The warn out grave of Yossef Tzvi Grünwald in Bzenec, Czech Republic, from  JewishGen’s JOWBR database.

Yossef Tzvi’s youngest son, Jacob Grünwald, married Antoinette “Toni” Bock [daughter of Markus Bock and Sarah née Jellinek] at an unknown time and place, and they had two sons:

1. Dr. Rabbi Moritz (Mordechai) Greenwald, born on 29 March 1853 in Uherský Ostroh. Details about this branch will be detailed below.
   

2. Adolf Albert Grünwald, born around 26 November 1854, appears in the 1857 census of Bzenec. Later, he is recorded as a witness to the birth of his niece Marianna Grossmann in Vienna in 1895.
   

Apparently, around the time of Adolf Albert's birth, Antoinette died, and soon Jacob married Rosalia (Sarah) née Bock [born on 26 January 1831 in Uherský Brod to Abraham and Julie Bock]. It is likely that his two wives, who share the same maiden name, were somehow related, but it is not known what their relation was.

Over a period of 40 years, Jacob Grünwald served as a teacher and Melamed (a Jewish religion teacher) in the Ungarish Ostro community. Rosalia Grünwald née Bock died on 8 March 1906 and was buried in Bzenec. Jacob died on 21 June 1907 and is also buried in Bzenec.

The grave of Jacob Grünwald in Bzenec, Czech Republic, from  JewishGen’s JOWBR database.

Jacob and Rosalia had seven more children, whom Moritz Greenwald mentions in his book by name, but without any further information. Here is the information I was able to complete:

3. Henrietta (Jetti) / Judit Donat née Grünwald, born in 1858 in Bzenec. She married Eduard / Asher Donat at an unknown time and place and they lived in Subotica, Serbia. They had nine children, three of whom were killed in World War I, and several of their children and grandchildren perished in the Holocaust. However, descendants from this branch have survived and are still living in both Serbia and Israel. Henrietta died in 1938 in Subotica and is buried there in a common grave with her daughter and granddaughter.
   

4. Dr. Josef Hirsch Grünwald, born on 25 December 1859, studied medicine and settled in Vienna. On 16 April 1893, in Vienna, he married Flora née Müller [born in Vienna on 5 September 1869 to Louis Müller and Manuela Silberknopf]. They had four children: Frida, who perished in the Holocaust, Hedwig [1898-1903] and Theodor [1900-1918], who died young and were buried together with their father, and a son named Robert [1896-1951] who emigrated to England and lived there with his wife Lillian. Dr. Josef Hirsch Grünwald died in Vienna on 10 May 1931, and was buried two days later in the older part of the central cemetery, Gate 1 of the Wiener Zentralfriedhof.
   

5. Hermina Grossmann née Grünwald, born on 24 March 1864 in Ungarish Hradist. She married Markus Grossmann [born 12 December 1866 in Police, Czech Republic]. They lived in Vienna, Austria until World War II. On 27 August 1942 they were deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt, and on 26 September 1942 they were transferred to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they were murdered. They had two children:

   1. Marianna Müller née Grossmann, born on 16 January 1895 in Vienna. She married Otto Müller on 20 September 1921, and their fate is unknown.

   2. Eric Grossmann, born on 1 October 1904 in Vienna. He married Sari and they had one daughter. Eric died in December 1983 in England. 

6. Jeanette Grünwald, born on 26 January 1866 in Ungarish Hradist. Her fate is still unknown.
   

7. Malvina Grünwald, born on 5 July 1868 in Ungarish Hradist. Her fate is still unknown.
   

8. Eduard Isidor Grünwald, born on 25 July 1874 in Ungarish Ostro. On 12 May 1895, he married Esther Schulman [born in 1867 to Jacob Schulman and Regina Kestler] and they had three children:

   1. Richard Grünwald, born on 25 June 1896 in Vienna. His fate is still unknown.

   2. Otto Grünwald, born on 2 November 1897 in Vienna. His fate is still unknown

   3. Irena Grünwald, born on 17 July 1899 in Vienna. She married Dr. Shlomo Asher Birnbaum, and their fate is still unknown.

      
      

9. Fanny Müller née Grünwald. It is not known when or where she was born, but she is mentioned by Moritz Greenwald as one of his father's children from his second wife. I haven't been able to locate her marriage registry so far either, but she married Michael Müller and they had four children:

   1. Sidonia Müller, born on 2 June 1885 in Hodonin, Czech Republic.

   2. Wilhelm Müller, born on 16 April 1887 in Hodonin, Czech Republic.

   3. Heinrich Müller, born on 17 January 1889 in Vienna, Austria.

   4. Otto Müller, born on 12 April 1896 in Freiberg (it is not clear if this refers to  Freiberg, Germany, or a different place that had changed its name since). On 20 September 1921, he married his first cousin, Marianna Grossmann, in Vienna.

I'm pausing this post at this point, so anyone who's interested will be able to draw out the branch as described so far, and my next post will be dedicated to rabbi Moritz (Mordechai) Grünwald and his descendants.

...To be continued