Reb Zundel Levin & Chana
Reb Zundel Levin 1923. He is 93 here; he lived to 97!
Reb Zundel Levin married Chana. They were Sidney’s mother’s mother’s (Bubby Kramer’s) parents. They had Chaya Levin, Raiza Levin, Schoene Malke Levin, Minnie Levin, and Hirsch Zundel Levin. Janet thinks that two of the sisters–Schoene Malke and maybe Raiza–lived in South Africa.
- Chaya Levin Orkin. Children:
- Otto Orkin, exterminator (2 children);
- Harry Orkin (children: Dorothy, Ruth, Renee, David); and
- Jacob Orkin.
- Raiza Levin
- Schoene Malke Levin m. Avraham Brown. Children:
- Samuel Brown,
- Joseph Brown,
- Hyman Brown m. Leah. Children:
- Dennis Brown (m. Sandra; had Jarrett, Lawrence, Ian, and Harvey),
- Sibyl Brown (m. Isadore Freedland; had Clive, Louise, Alan, and Frank) ,
- Cecelia Brown m. Lieboff (painter) and had Rosalene Lieboff, who married Isadore Sherman and had Melanie Sherman–who m. Brian Udelovitch and had Linda and another, and
- Jack Brown married Inga and had
- Antony Brown. Jack remarried and had
- Cynthia, who married Ken Isaacs and had LeeAnn Isaacs and Bruce Isaacs, and
- Valerie Brown, who married Gerald Lurie and had Peter Lurie, Wendy Lurie, and Mark Lurie
- Minnie Levin m. Israel Kramer. Children: Anna Loucille, Louis, Arthur, David, Florence, and Samuel, as follows:
- Anna Loucille Kramer m. Louis Isaac Aiken. Children: Phyllis Ellen Aiken, Sidney Herbert Aiken.
- Lewis Kramer, manufacturer m.: Lorraine Goldstein. Children:
- Roberta Kramer; m. Lionel Klausman. Child: Dana Klausman, who married Elton Bell and had Jenna Ashly Bell.
- Joyce Kramer; teacher. m. Martin M. Krimsky. Children: Andrea Krimsky and Vicky Krimsky–teacher (m. Jonathan Dennis Crell). Joyce also married Julius Levin, dentist.
- Arthur (Artie) Kramer, sweater manufacturer, m. Kittye Levine. Children: Lynn Kramer and June Kramer (m.: Martin Field and had Laura Field and another)
- David Kramer, shoe merchant. m.: Charlotte and had Gary Kramer and Thomas Kramer m.: Patricia
- Florence Kramer, shoe merchant m. : Morris Jaffa, shoe merchant
- Samuel Kramer, shoe merchant m.: Mae Besbris and had Iris
Hirsch Zundel Levin m. Tamara Sachs. They had Hannah, Mollie, Chaya, Raphael, and Jacob, as follows:
- Hannah “Cousin Hannah” Levin, realtor, who married Mark Emmanuel Natanson and had Sophia “Edith” Natanson. Hannah later married Henry Philip Koperberg, clothes merchant
- Mollie Levin m.: Avraham Schlagman
- Chaya Levin m. Avraham Schlagman. Children:
- Lean (Lena) Schlagman married Robert Rashkiskes and they had Leonid Rashkiskes
- Jacob Schlagman m. Rebecca and they had ? Schlagman
- Joseph Schlagman, commercial realtor, m. Helen
- Raphael Levin m. Chana Yossel. Two children: Jacob Levin (he had a wife and two children) and Oscar Levin, who married Rosa Hindin. Oscar and Rosa’s son, Raphael Levin, married Lena and had Mariana Levin.
- Jacob Levin, commercial realtor, m.: Rebecca and had three children:
- Ann Levin
- Edith Levin m.: Sam Tankelovitch
- David Levin
Schoene Malke Levin
Schoene Malke Levin, one of Bubby (Minnie) Kramer’s sisters, lived in South Africa. One day, Schoene Malke sent her sister Minnie a photo of herself. “Oy,” exclaimed Bubby Kramer in Yiddish. “Zie coch si alt!–She looks so OLD!”
Schoene Malke, in that photo, was 104!
Schoene Malke had two sons who did very well and were very wealthy. When they would bring groceries to Schoene Malke, she would always caution them to buy cracked eggs, because they were half the price of unbroken eggs. Schoene Malke’s sons thought it was funny, since they were so rich. So they just bought whole eggs and cracked them!
Dennis Brown
Dennis Brown, a grandson of Schoene Malke, lived in London and owned a Rolls-Royce dealership. One day, Janet and Sidney came to visit. They had just come from the 50th wedding anniversary of Jacques and Re Aiken on the Riviera and had had a very difficult trip crossing the English Channel. They arrived at their London hotel in jeans, raggedy, and tired. The hotel staff wanted nothing to do with them.
A while later, Dennis sent for them in a Rolls-Royce! All of a sudden, the hotel and wait staff behaved much better toward Sidney and Janet and they didn’t have any more problems the rest of their stay!
Dennis was apparently very British. Once he brought his family (4 children) to visit Sidney and Janet in Baltimore. When Janet expressed surprise that they visited so soon after their previous-day arrival, he replied, “We don’t muck about, you know!”
Israel and Minnie (Bubby) Levin Kramer
Bubby Kramer and granddaughters Joyce (l) and Robert, daughters of Bubby’s son Lewis
Sidney’s maternal grandparents were Israel and Minnie Kramer. Israel was born 9/5/1874. Minnie was born 8?15/1884 in Riga and died 5/23/1976 in an old-age home in Philadelphia.
Bubby Kramer lived in Slatington, PA, and raised her 6 children there:
- Anna Loucille Kramer (Sidney’s mother) m Louis Isaac Aiken
- Florence m Morris Jaffe? Jaffa?,
- Arthur (Artie) m. Kittye Levine),
- Lewis (m. Lorraine),
- David (m. Charlotte), and
- Sam m Mae Besbris.
Besides Hannah Levin Koperberg (see below), Bubby Kramer had two other cousins–both men (also Levines), who went to South Africa, did very well, and moved to London.
Hannah Levin Koperberg
Hannah Levin married Henry Koperberg and had a daughter Edith. Hannah was cousins with Sidney’s maternal grandmother, Bubby Levin Kramer. See the section above on Reb Zundel for details.
Janet once asked Hannah how she knew when to escape Riga. Hannah replied that she saw the Germans coming from one direction and the Russians from another direction and decided it was time to leave. She had other cousins in Riga whom she tried to persuade to leave but they didn’t listen.
Hannah sold her furniture to a Rigashe policeman who was working outside the law. She bought diamonds with the money and hid them in a tube of toothpaste. She was very afraid that her daughter Edith, who was 13 or 14 at the time, would reveal what she had done.
On Henry’s Dutch passport, the family was able to escape Riga on the Trans-Siberian railway with the help of a Japanese diplomat in the area. Diane’s note: The Japanese diplomat was Chiune Sugihara, who issued illegal visas to escaping Jews for 10-day stays in Japan and who was later honored as a Righteous Gentile. Jews with a Dutch passport were allowed to go to Curacao, and so they went as far as Vladivistock on the Trans-Siberian railway and then took a boat to Japan. See http://remember.org/witness/righteous
Janet says Edith was psychic. When they first arrived in Shanghai, Edith said to her mother. “Come with me. I want to show you something.” She went looking for the Jewish cemetery. She was looking for the grave of a boy who had played the piano. Eventually she said, “Here’s the grave!” She had found a grave with a piano on it!
In Shanghai, Hannah and her family they found a lot of refugees there and a terrible life. Some people had only rice to eat the whole year. Hannah arranged to come to the US, moved in along with Henry and Edith) with Sidney’s parent’s family Louis and Anna in Baltimore, and began selling children’s clothes. She later became a real estate agent.
Isaac Moshe Eichen and Fannie (Rosenberg) Eichen
Louis Aiken, Albert Rosenberg (brothers)
Isaac Moshe Eichen was born in 1855 in (Kovno Gobierna? Joniskis?) Lithuania. Died in Baltimore July 4, 1933.
Fannie Rosenberg was born 1866 in (Kovno Gobierna? Joniskis?), Lithuania. Died in Baltimore 1/11/1913. Fannie was the daughter of Jacob the Levite Rosenberg (Russia?) and Sarah (Russia?). Isaac and Fannie had 4 children:
- Louis Isaac Aiken m. Anna Loucille Kramer: 2 children: Sidney and Phyllis
- Albert Frank Rosenberg (1891-1960), furniture merchant;
- Sarah Rose Berkoff (1885-1952);
- David Nissan Aiken (1899-1968), grocer. m. Eva Mirtenbaum (1901-1988). David and Eva had four children: Samuel Aiken (1928), Betty Aiken Johnson (1937), Dena Aiken Levenson, and Elaine Aiken Budka
Louis Isaac (Lazar) Aiken
Louis near window
Louis and Anna
b. 1/20/1894 in Kovno Gobierna, LIthuania
Louis (Lazar) Aiken was Sidney Aiken’s father. He was a clothes peddler in the “mountains” of Pennsylvania, which is how he met his wife Anna, who lived in Slatington, PA. He became a furrier in New York but lost everything during the Depression when he paid off his debts even though people who owed him did not pay him back. He later became a women’s clothing manufacturer and, after he retired, turned painter and sculptor–taking classes at the Baltimore JCC. He was to have had a show of his art work at the JCC but died shortly before its scheduled date.
Louis’ mother brought the family to the US from Kovno-Gobierna (or according to Steve Brown, Joniskis), Lithuania. Sidney said the story was that the mother took Louis to the doctor when he was 10 because his hair was falling out. The doctor said, “You have to feed him!” His mother answered, “But there is no food!”
Sidney says the mother was asked, “How did you feed your baby on the ship over here?” She said it was simple, she just opened her shirt and nursed!
Louis married Anna Loucille (Chana Leah) Kramer (b. 6/14/1902, Riga) and had two children: Sidney and Phyllis.
Sidney & Phyllis Aiken
Sidney, Phyllis colorized portrait
Sidney married Janet Segall and had five children: Diane, Richard, Lisa, Jeffrey, Eric.
Phyllis married Arnold Brown and had two children: Jay and Steve.
Jacques & Ray Aiken
Jacques & Ray Aiken 50 Anniversary, Cannes
In the early to mid 1980s, Sidney and Janet were visiting Nice, France, when Janet noticed a sign, “Jacques Aiken, Fourreur” (Furrier). Making inquiries (Jacques was not in that day as he was at his other fur store in Cannes, France), they kept in touch by mail (the Aiken’s mailing address was 100 Rue d’Autias, Cannes, FR 06400). Returning subsequently to France, Sidney and Janet attended Jacques and Ray Aiken’s Golden Wedding Anniversary party as invited guests, as pictured (middle, next to upper row). Jacques’ sons told Janet their last name had originally been Eichenbaum.