Bertha Roth and Itzhak "Irving" Rabinowitz

Itzhak Rabinowitz was born in 1903-1904 in Chopovichi, in what was then the Kiev gubernia in the Russian Empire. His parents were Herschel and Hinda Rabinowitz.

Chana and Itzhak Rabinowitz, date unknown

The family story is that Itzhak and his sister Chana set out to work their way to a port in Poland from which they could sail to the States. As things turned out, Itzhak arrived in NYC a month earlier than Chana on July 1, 1923, aboard the SS Polonia out of Danzig. The passenger manifest lists him as a single worker who's leaving behind his father "Herz" and going to join his brother Hyman Rabinowicz at 240 East "4th Street" in NYC. (Hyman actually lived at 240 East 24th Street.) One of his brothers, either Hyman or Abraham, paid for his passage.

On June 29, 1929, Itzhak - now Irving - married Bertha Roth in Manhattan. Bertha was born in 1908-1911 in Baligród, which at the time was in Galicia in the Austrian Empire. After WWI, it was reassigned to Poland. Judging by her passenger manifest, Bertha's name may originally have been Estera. Her parents were Samuel Roth and Hinda (later Helen) Tuck or Duch or Fuch. By 1920, the entire family - Bertha was the third of six children - had left their birthplace in Baligród and were living in Key, Czechoslovakia. They arrived in NYC on November 23, 1920, aboard the SS La Savoie out of Le Havre. They left no family behind and were going to join Samuel's brother-in-law Isidor Jungwitt at 92 "Cherf" Street in NYC. (Presumably Isidor was Samuel's sister's husband.)

Irving Rabinowitz, 1935

By 1930, Irving and Bertha were living at 4821 49th Street in Brooklyn. Irving was working as clerk in a grocery store.

Irving and Bertha had apparently moved back to Manhattan by 1935. Irving filed his Declaration of Intention on June 6, 1935. He gave his address as 238 East 7th Street in Manhattan. He also stated that he had been born on May 15, 1904, in Kiev and that Bertha had been born on August 25, 1908, in "Galicia, Poland."

Irving filed his Petition for Naturalization on February 10, 1938. He and Bertha were still living on East 7th Street, and Irving was working as a "cutter on curtains." This time he was more specific about Bertha's place of birth: "Beligrod, Poland." His identity was vouched for by his mother-in-law, Helen Roth, and his brother-in-law - Chana/Anna's husband - Harry Gittelman. Irving took the oath of allegiance on May 23, 1938.

Irving and Bertha had one son, Harold, who's told his own story with so much humour that I'd be foolish to attempt my own version.

Bertha passed away on May 24, 1988, and is buried in the United Mazirer Friends section of Mount Zion Cemetery. Irving passed away less than eight months later, on January 2, 1989, and is buried next to her. "Mazirer" refers to Mozyr in the Minsk gubernia, so this choice of resting place doesn't appear to have anything to do with either Irving's or Bertha's birth places.