Solomon "Sol" Smith

Notes:

In 1930, Sol Smith was a Stenographer for a Candy Wholesaler. In 1940 he was still single, and living with his widowed father and younger sisters. He was shown as completing 5 years of college, and working as a Physician.

Notes:

According to Geni, Son of Shlomo Savilevics and Etta Devorah Romm
Husband of Anna Savilevics
Father of Mary Smith; Rebecca Smith; Sol Smith; Jack J Smith and Bertha Smith
Brother of Celia Shapiro; Hyman Smith; Simon Smith and Ruchel Minna Levine

One of Rella's children with Yehuda Laib Romm was Etta Devayra Romm, who married Shlomo Zavilevitz (Savilevics) and lived in Kupisik (Kupi?kis '96 "koo-PISH-kis"). Their son Zanvil Zavilevitz (Savilevics) was born in Kupisik and was sent at a young age, probably around 12, to Riga (today, the capital of Latvia) to learn be a capmaker. When Zanvil's apprenticeship ended, he went to live with his grandmother Rella and her second husband in Rakisik. Zanvil's sister, Zlata Zavilevitz (Savilevics), who was also born in Kupisik, also went to live with Rella and Abraham Abramovitz.

Zanvil moved to Baltimore, probably around 1899, and changed his name to Myer Smith. Shortly afterward, he founded the BAYL family society.

http://bayl.org/family-story/where-did-our-ancestors-live/

In 1910, Myer, his wife Annie, and children Mary, Rebecca, Saul and Bertha were residing on Rogers Ave in Baltimore, wehre Meyer was a grocery store keeper on his own account. Both parents were shown as born in Russia, to Russian parents. They had been married once, for nine years.

When he registered for the draft during World War I, he and his wife Anna were residing at 133 Jackson Place in Baltimore, and he was secretary and treasurer of the Batto Candy & Tobacco Co of Baltimore. He was of medium height and build, with dark brown eyes and partly bald.

In 1920, they still lived on Jackson Streeet, and both were shown as born in Russia, with Yiddish as their native toungue. He was listed as secretary of a candy company. His date of immigration was shown as 1900, and hers as 1889. Both were naturalized citizens.

In 1930, the family was on Brookfield Avenue in Baltimore, and Myer was a Candy Wholesaler.

In 1940, the family was still living on Brookfield Avenue, and 80 year old Rose Rubin, a widow and Myer's mother-in-law was living with them. She was shown as born in Russia. Myer, now widowed, was shown as a salesman. His highest grade completed was Elementary, third grade. All his children still in the home had graduated from High School, with so Sol a college graduate and physician.

He was said to be the founder of the B'nai Abraham and Yehuda Laib Family Society in Baltirmore.

In those days, everybody was a "koptson" but each did what he could to help those still in Europe. Soon, Myer Smith's affinity for leadership began to assert itself. Deeply concerned in the welfare of all his kin, he arranged passage and visas for those who had no means of their own and met the costs with Bank Loans underwritten by himself and a few other interested persons. He was married to Anna RUBIN, and their flat at 117 Front Street, became the Sunday evening rendezvous of the family while he collected five cents a week from as many relatives as could contribute and, in that way, he paid off the loans. His confidante and great friend was Uncle Max Romm, whom he consulted on every matter and whose sound opinion and liberal viewpoint he valued very highly.

By 1904, it was decided that these impromptu, weekly meetings ought to have formal status, and in May of that year, our family held its first called meeting in the home of Yankel and Rocha Nessa Abramson Rubin at 1013? Low Street in Baltimore. From that day on, Baltimore has been the focal point of this Society. There is some variance of opinion as to date, for there are a few who say that the Sunday of Chol-hamoed Pesach, April 1905, was when the Farein was formally organized. Be that as it may, the minutes of January 14, 1934 include the following sentence: "es is dightlich bashtimdt givoren dos unzer Farein is organizert givoren in May 1904." We are told that those who gathered together on that memorable evening were Rocha Nessa and Yankel Rubin, Becky and Max Romm, Celia Smith, Anna and Myer Smith, Albert Schwartzberg, Zacharia Rosen and Rubin Levine. Since no records have been found of those early days, we can only relate what we have learned from those who "remember" and appreciate how satisfying for them was the process of organizing.

Zanvil married Anna Rubin about 1901. Anna was born about 1878 in Russian Empire; died on 10 Sep 1938; was buried in Anshe Emunah Aitz Chaim Cemetery, Baltimore County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Social Security Application for her son, Jack Jerome Smith, listed his parents as Meyer Smith and Anna RUBIN. The application for daughter Rebecca showed the same parents.

In 1930, she was listed as stenographer for the US Army Porto Rico.

Phil Shapiro writes that the 1897 Rokiskis All-Russian Census list shows, on page 4, a six-person household residing on Komaiskaya Street consisting of "Yankel and Rocha-Nessa Rubin" and their four teenage children. According to the BAYL family history, Rabbi Abraham Abramson and his first wife Chana Brina had a daughter Rucha Nessa who married a man known in English as Jacob Rubin and had five children. The names of the four children appearing in the census correspond with the names of the first four children found in the BAYL family tree for Rucha Nessa and Jacob Rubin. According to the census, the four children were born in Kamai/Kamajai, where the BAYL family tradition states many ancestors of the BAYL once lived. By the way, the oldest daughter of Rucha Nessa and Jacob Rubin, Anna Rubin, married Myer Savilevics, a son of Etta Devara Romm Savilevics. Myer was the founder of BAYL, which continues to operate the Anna and Myer Smith charitable fund in their memory.

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Rokiskis/census.htm

Notes:

AKA Shlomo Zavilevitz (Savilevics) http://bayl.org/family-story/where-did-our-ancestors-live/

Shlomo married Etta "Yetta" Devorah Romm. Etta (daughter of Yehuda Laib Romm and Rella Krok) was born about 1849 in Kovno Gubernia, Russian Empire; died after 1930 in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1930, Etta/Yetta was living with her son-in-law and daughter Rueben and Rachel LEVINE of Baltimore. She was shown as age 80, born in Russia.

Shown on Geni as Etta Devorah ROMM, born 1848 died May 7, 1930 at the age of 82, a daughter of Yehuda Laib ROMM and Rella KROK, wife of Shlomo SAVILEVICS, mother of Myer SAVILEVICS, Celia SHAPIRO, Hyman SMITH, Simon SMITH, and Ruchel Minna LEVINE, sister of Rucha Nessa SHAPIRO, Chiva Rivka (Ida) (Chiva Reva) ROMM, Rochel ROMM, Pessa Leba ROMM, Max ROMM, Joh Romm and Toba Gittel Romm half sister of Mari-Leah Romm NACHAMSON

Notes:

Married:
Daugher Rachel was a member of the B'nai Abraham and Yehuda Laib Family Society membership and its associated family tree revolves around a woman named Rella Krok, who was born about 1833. Her father, Laibe Krok, was born in 1800. Laibe and his wife Rachel Krok lived in the tiny hamlet of Tselkay / Celkiai, just south of Rokisik / Roki?kis, a town in an area which today is in the northeastern part of the Republic of Lithuania. In the 1800s, the area was first in the Vilna Gubernya (province) and then in the Kovno Gubernya of the Russian Empire As U.S. census records and vital records related to this family shown places of birth as both Russia, Latvia, or Lithuania, it is assumed Savilevics/Smith family also originated in the Kovno Gubernia area of the Russian empire before their emigration to the United States, likely in Kupiskis, known in Yiddish as Kupishok, was home to 1,444 Jews before World War II. Today no Jews live in Kupiskis.

Phil Shapiro wrote, in reference to the 1897 Rokiskis All-Russian Census that the census list, on page 4, shows a three-person household of Abram and Rella Abramovicz and Zavel Zavelevicz residing on Komaiskaya Street (Kamai Street). The Bnai Abraham and Yehuda Laib Family Society (BAYL), which was founded in Baltimore in 1901, consists of the descendants of the first and second husbands of Rella Krok, the daughter of Laibe Krok. The 1897 census identifies Rella as the daughter of "Leiba," age 64 and married to Abram Abramovicz, whose age is given as 63. According to the BAYL family tradition, Rella's second husband, who was known in the United States as Abraham Abramson, was said to have been a rabbi in Rokiskis for 25 years before coming to America. This appears to be consistent with the translation of the occupation given for Abram in the census of one who "makes Jewish symbolics." The third member of the household, "Zavel Zavelevicz," age 22, appears to be a grandson of Rella. The census states that Zavel was a capmaker who was born in Kupiskis and was the son of "Shloma." Rella's oldest daughter from her first marriage (to Yehuda Laib Romm) was Etta-Devara Romm. Etta-Devara married Shlomo Savilevics and lived in Kupiskis. At least one of Etta's children -- my grandmother Zlata Savilevics (Celia Smith Shapiro) -- often told the family that as a child she frequently stayed with her grandmother Rella.

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Rokiskis/census.htm

Yehuda married Rella Krok. Rella was born about 1833 in Tzelkay, Kovno Gubernia, Russian Empire; died about 1897 in Rakisik, Kovno Gubernia, Russian Empire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Laib Krok and his family lived in the hamlet of Tzelkay (Celkiai pronounced "tshel-KAY"). It is located about 2 miles southeast of Rakisik (Roki?kis pronounced "RAW-kish-kis"). Laib Krok's daughter, Rella Krok, lived in adulthood in Rakisik. Her first husband, Yehuda Laib Romm, was from Ponedel (Pandelys ronounced "pahn-dey-LEES"), which is about 16 miles west of Rakisik. After he died, Rella married Rabbi Abraham Abramovitz and continued to live in Rakisik. The name of the family society remembers the given names of the second and first husbands of Rella Krok, namely, Abraham and Yehuda Laib.

One of Rella's children with Yehuda Laib Romm was Etta Devayra Romm, who married Shlomo Zavilevitz (Savilevics) and lived in Kupisik (Kupi?kis '96 "koo-PISH-kis"). Their son Zanvil Zavilevitz (Savilevics) was born in Kupisik and was sent at a young age, probably around 12, to Riga (today, the capital of Latvia) to learn be a capmaker. When Zanvil's apprenticeship ended, he went to live with his grandmother Rella and her second husband in Rakisik. Zanvil's sister, Zlata Zavilevitz (Savilevics), who was also born in Kupisik, also went to live with Rella and Abraham Abramovitz.

http://bayl.org/family-story/where-did-our-ancestors-live/

Notes:

Married:
Baltimore Lithuanian Jewry Stays Connected.

Within Baltimore's flourishing Jewish community, there are organizations that are working to keep alive connections to ancestors. The B'nai Abraham and Yehuda Laib Family Society (BAYL) is one such organization that is committed to maintaining relationships among descendants of the society's progenitors. According to Phil Shapiro, a member of the society, nearly three-quarters of Baltimore's Jewish population have roots from Lithuania.

BAYL hosted its 115th anniversary picnic on Sept. 4 in Baltimore. The society normally hosts reunions every five years. It was attended by approximately 170 individuals from all over the nation and was recognized with letters from the president of Lithuania as well as both the Israeli and American ambassadors in the country.

Originally founded in Baltimore in 1901, BAYL is believed to be oldest Jewish family society in the world. The idea was that the first relatives who came to the United States from Europe would save their money to help other members of their families immigrate. While family societies were common in the 1930s, very few are left today.

The two families that formed BAYL are linked by Rella Krok, whose first husband was Yehuda Laib Romm, and she later remarried Abraham Abramson. The members of the families used to get together every Saturday night to pool pennies, bringing over another family member when they had accumulated $20. All of the members in attendance at the Baltimore reunion are descendants of the original family society.

Another organization dedicated to Lithuanian Jewry, Remembering Litvaks, Inc., "undertakes projects dedicated to remembering the Jewish communities that existed in Lithuania, including educational programs dedicated to researching and teaching the history of Jewish life in Lithuania and improving the physical condition of Jewish gravesites and other locations of historical significance to Lithuanian Jewry," according to its website. Shapiro is involved with that organization as well.

The organization recently introduced the Ruvin Bun Award, which "will be given for research and education regarding the original vision of the Lithuanian state as a tolerant, multicultural society with a Western-style constitution that established a democratic government." More information on the award can be found at bit.ly/2cJmUYh.

Baltimore Jewish Times
September 15, 2016 By Daniel Nozick