The Family at the Centre

Alex Brecher was born Shimshon, a son of David Brecher and Esther née Klein, in the mining town of Felsőbánya (today Baia Sprie, Romania) on 4 September 1910. His birth was entered in the town’s civil register four days later. He was the second of four children; his brothers Jenő (Eugene) and Miklós (Nicholas) and his sister Ilona (Lucy) were born in the same town.

In December 1928 he sailed from Trieste with his parents, brothers and sister on the SS Vulcania, and reached New York on 31 December 1928, the date on the ship’s list (2 January 1929 in his naturalization papers). His American papers give a different birth date, 11 July 1912, which is the date his sister Ilona was born, and which his Social Security record also carries; both dates are shown in the table of dates the records disagree on. In 1930 he was living with his family at 972 Fox Street in the Bronx.

Anne (Chana Pessel) Wahrsager was the youngest child of Elias (Elisha) Wahrsager and Malka née Unger. Her father’s 1926 naturalization petition lists her as born on 1 November 1913 in Germany; her Social Security record, which names her Ann Paula and gives her parents as Elias Wahrsager and Malka Unger, gives 1 November 1914, Berlin. She came to New York with her mother, her sister Sabina (listed as Sarah) and her brother Kallmann on the SS Majestic in September 1927, aged 13, and became an American citizen through her father’s naturalization, admitted on 14 March 1927 (Likely). Her family’s story is told in Part V.

Alex filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen in the Bronx on 4 May 1937, under his registered given name, giving his address as 986 Fox Street, a few doors from his parents. Alex and Anne took out their marriage licence in the Bronx on 16 March 1938 (no. 1991). In April 1940 the census found them at 1640 Topping Avenue, Alex a textile salesman on his own account; their son Meir (Myron) was born on 20 October 1940. Meir died on 9 Tevet 5780 (5/6 January 2020); he rests at Beth Moses Cemetery, West Babylon, in Section 2, Block 21, Row 12, Grave 10 (Brotherhood of America plot), per the cemetery’s interment records. In 1950 they lived at 1775 Clay Avenue, two blocks from Anne’s parents, with Meir and Yehuda Aryeh (Leiby); Alex was then the proprietor of a wholesale business. Their children were Yosef Osher Gavriel, Meir, Yehuda Aryeh and Freidy.

In the 1970s, in a reprint of the responsa Leḥem Shelomo, he dedicated a memorial to his father, David son of Meir, and to Anne’s parents, Elisha son of Gavriel HaKohen and Malka daughter of Yehuda Aryeh; in a reprint of the Chatan Sofer he dedicated another share to his father, David HaKohen, beside his brother-in-law Pinchas Shalom (Paul) Friedman, who remembered his own father, Yosef Ephraim son of Yeshayahu. Alex died on 12 Tishrei 5744 (19 September 1983) and is buried in Beth Moses Cemetery, New York, in the section of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, beside his father and his brother Eugene. Anne died on 15 Shevat 5757 (23 January 1997), a resident of Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Their resting places

Family recollections

The following is family memory, as recalled in a family speech in 2021; it has not been checked against records. Alex was born in Felsőbánya, and during the First World War the family moved to Budapest. Alex and his brother Eugene learned with the Velpalei Rav, and later in Satmar with the Schopron Rav, R’ Posen. They came to New York in 1929. In the Bronx the family was close to R’ Teitelbaum and to the Chenchkevitz Rav and his shul. Alex turned down jobs that would have meant working on Shabbos, as his father — “Zeidi Dudya”, David — advised him. With his brothers he ran Brecher Brothers, first a necktie factory and then a leather-goods and luggage business. In Monsey he helped to build the Bais Yisroel shul, the Yeshiva of Spring Valley and Bais Medrash Elyon. He was a Satmar chassid.

The four children

Alex and Anne Brecher’s four children, at the root of every tree in this book: Yosef Osher Gavriel Brecher, Meir (Myron) Brecher, Yehuda Aryeh (Leiby) Brecher, Freidy (Frida Dvora) Brecher. Living members of the family appear by name and relation only.

The line in one chart

Records found since the book

Pictures and records found since the book

People of this line