Abraham Levy – Man of Mystery and History

Jews living in the Pale do try to live as full and normal a life as possible in spite of the oppression and like elsewhere in the world their interests are now starting to expand beyond their religion. Jewish literature and the arts flourish and Jewish periodicals appear which are helping to develop their readers increasing appetite for knowledge on a wide range of subjects including politics. Nevertheless, oppression is omnipresent and it is not surprising that some millions of the Jewish Russia Poles will decide to look abroad for a more stable country that will not treat them as second class or seek to convert them if they move there.  Some send their children abroad mainly to escape conscription. Many in Abraham’s family will seize control of their lives and emigrate to pastures new.

Anna Rypinska – the first wife of Abraham’s elder brother Baruch – was born on 4th September 1823 in Wloclawek. They divorce and she later emigrates to the Lower East Side of New York City USA with her second husband Ludwig Roth, maybe as early as 1850  and possibly accompanied by Lena her daughter from her marriage with Baruch. Baruch remains in Wloclawek still trying to make a life for himself there having set up a substantial plant for the manufacture of soap. It aims to be a major business operation being sited on a property larger enough to have previously been used as barracks by German, Russian and Polish troops dependent on who was in possession of the town. Unfortunately, chemicals leach from the plant into the Vistula and poison cattle. These and other problems mount and eventually Baruch will also feel impelled to leave the country.

Abraham, as far as I know, is the first of the siblings to leave Poland. He chooses Exeter in the county of Devon in England to be the first place where he can live as an absolutely free man. The freedom he is afforded there is in stark contrast to the oppression he had been experiencing for all of his life until then in his former homeland.

There is an existing Jewish community that welcomes him as a new member. Exeter has a history dating back at least to Roman times and which had a Jewish community with a Synagogue way back in the 12th century. Unfortunately, antisemitic rulings were made by its Synod in 1287 to be followed by the expulsion of all Jews from the entire country in 1290.  434 years pass before the next Jewish resident of Exeter, a Sephardi Jew and member of the Ottolenghi family – a family name also of a famous chef which gourmets will recognize.

His residence in the city is followed by that of Dutch Sephardi traders who use it as an English base. They build Exeter’s oldest Synagogue still in use. After the  Hanoverian accession to the English throne.  Ashkenazi Jews by 1757 feel comfortable to move from Germany to Devon and Cornwall. They arrive in such numbers that the Sephardi Synagogue in Exeter eventually becomes the Ashkenazi Synagogue. Recalling that Menachem and his family were residents of Sochachev during the years, 1793 – 1807, when it was part of Hanoverian  Prussia 1793- 1807 I wondered if this encouraged some members of the family to move into or close to the city of Exeter.

If so they would have been amongst the early immigrant  Ashkenazi Jews from Hanover easily recognizable to locals residents of Devon and Cornwall. With their strange garb, their hair with side locks and their beards they really stand out. To them, the immigrants lives appear to only revolve around the Synagogue and religious practice. The Immigrants speak Yiddish amongst themselves and as they learn English they only speak it with a heavy accent. Many travel around the counties peddling goods. However, there are no bans on where they can live and they are generally free to do what they want. A purist can point out that there were still schools they could not have their children educated and clubs they could not join. These and other impediments that could be listed are not of any significance to them.

Time passes and by the fourth decade of the 19th century their dress, appearance, and language are becoming more anglicized. Their occupations are covering a wider range of activities including inventing and the arts. They are starting to merge in with the local community…Their names still differentiate them from local’s whose families have been living in the locality for centuries. In Exeter, the community grows large enough for Moses Horowitz LEVY  to be appointed as the first Exeter based Rabbi in 1795. His family name is of particular interest to me.

Abraham’s wife Ann is the daughter of David Lazarus (quill manufacturer) and of  Elizabeth (Betsey)  LEVI  (died 12 July 1848 at 44). Variations in the spelling of names are prevalent in many families’  histories and only sometimes are relevant so it is possible that Betsey was related to the first Rabbi.  He was not her father since on her stone her father is named as being Naftali the LEVITE with her Hebrew name shown as ‘Bela’. If a Jew is a member of the tribe of Levi, he is claimed to have been descended via his paternal line to Levi the son of Jacob in the Bible. He certainly does not have to have “Levi” as his family name.

Betsey had a brother “Menachem” recorded as  son of Naftali the LEVITE.

Solomon Levy, a native of  Exeter (aka Phineas) who died on August 20th, 1841 aged 56 was the son of Menachem LEVY of Exeter. It would be no surprise if Menachem were Elizabeth’s grandfather and father of Naftali. Abraham Sochachevsky decided to adopt “Levy” as his family name and family records relate that Menachem Sochachevsky emigrated to England to spend his final days. I can only speculate that my ancestor Abraham Levy, son of Menachem/Manes is blood-related to Menachem Levi’s uncle of Ann and/or to Menachem Levy of Exeter.

Susser’s comprehensive marriage lists do not name of Abraham’s father – possibly indicating a vague possibility of the family wishing to hide an inappropriate close blood relationship between Abraham and Ann. However it is I suppose possible Abraham might have chosen to move to  Exeter by chance, not knowing anyone there, to marry a bride of a family unknown to his family with his choice of a future family name having nothing to do with the family name of any blood relatives.