Rabbi Meir

This is a picture of my grandfather Simon Stein with his family in Latvia. That’s his sister Doba on the left, then his father, then my grandfather, then his mother, then the baby Bella, then the twins Nechama and Pesya. The little girl between her parents’ knees is his sister, Golda. His older brother, Avram is not in the picture and neither is his older sister, Rachel. I’m not sure why they’re not included. I only know that Rachel left home and moved to Russia where she got married. And Avram was married at 18 to a lovely woman called Tamar from a nearby Polish village. Here’s a picture of my grandfather with his father and his brother, a few years later. I don’t know when that picture was taken but it must have been before 1921, because his father died then. Three years later, my grandfather went to the army, and his mother moved with the rest of her family from Skrudalin to Dvinsk otherwise known as Daugavpils. She had a shop there and her young daughters went to school. When my grandfather came back from the Latvian army, he wanted to move to Africa with his young wife and his friends. Some of the sisters also wanted to leave Latvia. The twenties were hard years for Jews and it seemed like there were better opportunities in other countries. And this is where the story gets interesting… Not sure about what to do about her children’s wishes and her own fears about being left alone, she went to ask her Rabbi. She was fortunate that the Rabbi of Daugavpils was wise. I have a translated diary page from the youngest daughter, Bella, that describes the meeting between her mother, Gnesia Steinman and Rabbi Meir. ‘When everyone decided that they needed to look for a new happiness in their lives and leave, my mother went to a prominent rabbi. Rabbi Meir was the most respected among all the rabbis. She told him about all the desires of her children, and he told her “Dear daughter, let them go. It’s better to have children in a faraway country than nearby in the earth. I will bless them for happiness.” Mama came back from the rabbi pleased, and her children started getting ready. I want to say that the Rebbe had some knowledge of the future. He himself died from Hitler; he didn’t want to leave the city. He said: “the fate of others is mine too.” My mother died from Hitler, but we don’t know when or where. In Riga they brought many Jews from other countries, and they died there.” This is Rabbi Meir. He was the rabbi of Dvinsk/Daugavpils for 39 years. He was indeed very prominent and very wise. His thoughts formed the basis of a great book called Meshech Chochma. Apparently, he encouraged Jews to leave Europe, although he didn’t want to leave himself. He saw the writing on the wall for Jews and predicted the Holocaust. He said: "They think that Berlin is Jerusalem. From there will come the storm winds that will uproot them" But for the fact, that Bella writes that he died from Hitler, I wonder if this is the man that encouraged my Great Grandmother to encourage her children, including my grandfather to move to South Africa where my father was born, and where I was born along my brothers and sisters. All of my great grandmother’s children left one way and another and they all survived the Holocaust. Except for the one who stayed. Her oldest son, Avram was murdered along with his mother, my great grandmother, Gnesia Steinman, and his Avram’s wife and their son Eli, and their daughter’s Feigi, Bat Sheva, Bella and Pessie. His oldest son, Boris, survived. This is a picture of my great grandmother Gnesia, her son Abram and five of her daughters. This is a picture of my grandfather and grandmother and their friends, on the boat that brought them from Europe to South Africa in 1929. The boat was called the Gloucester Castle. He was 24 years old. Rabbi Meir died in 1926. If he is the Rabbi that advised my great-grandmother that it was better to have living children far away than dead in the ground nearby, I will consider myself blessed for happiness by Rabbi Meir Simchah of Dvinsk.