The Older Brechers in Bukovina

The Older Brechers in Bukovina

Eisig Brecher of Rădăuți and the Kohanim of Siret

The Brechers were kohanim, and the records point back from the Maramureș mining towns to Bukovina: David and Asher were born in Siret (Sereth), Freide Frohner’s father owned a house there, and Abraham Brecher’s children were born in Rădăuți (Radautz). The civil registers of Siret and Rădăuți for those years are not available, but gravestones in both towns, an indexed Rădăuți birth entry and two printed books carry the line back four generations beyond Meir.

The generation above Eisig

Eisig Brecher of Rădăuți, very probably Meir’s father, is named on his own stone as the son of Reuven Mordechai HaKohen, and the 1869 birth entry of his son calls Eisig’s parents Ruben Mordko Brecher and Rifka née Salzberger of Siret. Because the register entry and his own stone agree, Eisig’s parentage is counted as Confirmed. In the Siret cemetery stands the stone of Reuven Mordechai, son of the late Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen, “son-in-law of the rabbi of this town”, who died on 28 Elul 5628 (15 September 1868); the stone also names the day as a Sabbath, which fits 28 Elul 5627 (28 September 1867), and both dates are shown. The surname is joined to him in print: the epitaph that his grandson, the author R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila, composed for his own father spells out in its verses “Zvi son of Reuven Mordechai Kohen Brecher”. Likely

Reuven Mordechai’s wife Rivka (Ruvtse) née Salzberger very probably died on 20 Elul 5650 (5 September 1890): a Siret stone (BC-17) of an aged “Rivka called Ruvtse, daughter of HaRav R’ Yaakov Zeev” is very probably hers (it gives no surname or husband). He was R’ Yaakov Zeev son of Aryeh, of Stryj, Av Beit Din of Sereth, who was born about 1764 and died on 15 Iyar 5604 (4 May 1844), “aged eighty”; his wife, the rebbetzin Leah daughter of Yehuda, died three weeks later, on 26 May 1844. Reuven Mordechai and Rivka’s son Yaakov Zeev (d. 1886) is called on his stone a “grandson of the rabbi of this town”, and the Banila author wrote in his introduction to the rabbi’s teachings, Chedvat Yaakov, that he descended from the rabbi through both his father and his mother. Another son, Avraham Yehuda, died in 1894. Likely

Reuven Mordechai’s father, R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen of Siret, is named on his son’s stone (Confirmed as his father). His own stone has not been found; he probably died before about 1832, when his grandson Eisig was born and given his name. Three more of his children very probably lie in the Siret cemetery: Zvi Hirsh HaKohen, praised on his stone as a learned man and carved with the priestly hands, who died on 5 Iyar 5601 (26 April 1841), Chaya Feige, who died on 7 Kislev 5603 (10 November 1842), and Zlate (Zlata), “daughter of Yitzchak Aizik Katz”, who died on 17 Kislev 5595 (19 December 1834). Likely

Reuven Mordechai’s son Zvi (Hersch) Brecher HaKohen, very probably Eisig’s younger brother, was born about 1841 and died in Jerusalem on 25 Tishrei 5669 (20 October 1908), aged sixty-seven; his wife was Chana Ruchama. Their son, R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila, is the author whose books appear at the end of this chapter. Confirmed

The title page of Chedvat Yaakov, printed in Marghita in 1938, describes R’ Yaakov Zeev, the rabbi of Sereth, as a foremost disciple of R’ Zvi Hirsh of Nadwórna, R’ Yechiel Michel, the Maggid of Złoczów, and R’ Yaakov Yitzchak, the Seer of Lublin.

The list of teachers on the title page and in the opening pages (p. 5) is family tradition, printed by his descendants when the book appeared in 1938. For one of them the Rav’s own words survive: on p. 27 of Chedvat Yaakov he cites “my teacher”, the Maggid R’ Yechiel Michel of Złoczów (Confirmed). The Maggid of Nadwórna and the Seer of Lublin rest on the printed family tradition alone.

A year before the book came out, an advertisement in the Czernowitz Yiddish paper Dos Yudishe Vort (8 October 1937) offered Chedvat Yaakov “by the Rav R’ Yaakov Zeev of blessed memory, Av Beit Din of Sereth”, bound together with novellae on the Talmud “by the author’s grandson, the Rav R’ Yaakov Zeev HaKohen” — the Banila rabbi Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen. It is a second printed witness, independent of the book’s introduction, that the Brecher kohanim descend from the rabbi of Sereth (Confirmed).

Four generations in Siret and Rădăuți

• R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen of Siret; d. before 1868, probably before c. 1832 Likely
• Zvi Hirsh HaKohen, d. 26 Apr 1841 · Chaya Feige, d. 10 Nov 1842 Likely
• Reuven Mordechai (Ruben Mordko) Brecher HaKohen, d. 28 Elul 5628 (15 Sep 1868) / 28 Sep 1867, Siret = Rivka (Ruvtse) née Salzberger, d. 20 Elul 5650 (5 Sep 1890), daughter of R’ Yaakov Zeev ben Aryeh of Stryj, Av Beit Din of Sereth (d. 4 May 1844), and Leah bat Yehuda (d. 26 May 1844) Likely
• Eisig (Yitzchak Aizik) Brecher HaKohen, b. Siret, c. 1832; mill tenant at Volovăț 1869; d. 19 Jan 1911, Rădăuți, aged 79 = Lea née Bernstein (bat Binyamin Tzvi), b. Czernowitz, c. 1831; daughter of Benjamin Hersch Bernstein and Chaje née Frenkel of Buczacz; d. 16 Jan 1916 Likely
• Meir (Majer) Brecher HaKohen of Kapnikbánya, b. c. 1851–52 = Freide Frohner Likely
• Riwen Mordche (Reuven Mordechai) Brecher, b. 1 Mar 1869, Volovăț, near Rădăuți Likely
• Abraham Brecher, b. 1864, Rădăuți; of New York = Miriam (Mirjam) Langsner Likely
• Zvi (Hersch) Brecher HaKohen, c. 1841 – 20 Oct 1908, Jerusalem = Chana Ruchama Confirmed
• R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila, b. 1866, d. 1941, Banila; author Confirmed
• Reuven Mordechai, d. 15 Sep 1917 · Mordechai · a daughter, wife of Aharon Confirmed
• Yaakov Zeev HaKohen, d. 1886 · Avraham Yehuda HaKohen, d. 1894 Likely

Further kin of the rabbi of Sereth on the Siret stones

Ester Michla	Daughter of the rabbi R’ Yaakov Zeev; probably Rivka’s sister (Likely); d. 2 Elul 5630 (29 Aug 1870), Siret; her stone praises her care for the poor and the sick; stone K-52 Confirmed
Yute bat Baruch	“Granddaughter of the Rav R’ Yaakov Zeev of Sereth”; d. 26 Tevet 5674 (24 Jan 1914), Siret; her father Baruch was a son or a son-in-law of the rabbi (Possible); stone K-51 Likely
Source	Jewish Galicia and Bukovina Organization, Siret Jewish cemetery documentation (2022), stones K-51 and K-52

Two more stones in Siret belong to the rabbi’s family: his daughter Ester Michla, probably Rivka’s sister, and Yute, daughter of Baruch, called on her stone his granddaughter.

Zvi Hirsh’s sons, and the Brechers of Safed

Two more stones in the same group as Zvi Hirsh, son of Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen (d. 26 April 1841), carry his line one step further. Beside his grave lies Reuven, son of the late R’ Zvi HaKohen, an adult who died on 17 January 1845 — very probably Zvi Hirsh’s son (Likely). Close by is the stone of the young man Aizik, son of Avraham HaKohen, grandson of R’ Zvi HaKohen, who died on 15 Tevet 5602 (28 December 1841). He carried the name of his great-grandfather Yitzchak Aizik, and his stone gives Zvi Hirsh a son named Avraham (Likely).

That Avraham is very probably R’ Avraham Brecher of Safed. The 1875 Montefiore census of Safed lists “R’ Avraham Brecher”, born in Sereth, aged 75, who had come to the Holy Land in 1868, with his wife Gela; a printed family history of the Safed Brechers calls him R’ Avraham son of R’ Zvi Brecher of Sereth and gives his death in Safed in 1880. Born about 1800, he was old enough to have had a grown son in Siret in 1841. The Safed family were kohanim from Sereth and Rădăuți, the same two towns as our own line. No single record yet joins the Safed Avraham to the Siret one, so he is shown here as very likely Zvi Hirsh’s son (Likely), and his Safed descendants are kept apart from the main tree. In particular, the Zvi Hirsch Brecher of Safed who was still living in 1912–14 is a different man from our Zvi (Hersch) Brecher HaKohen, who died in Jerusalem in 1908.

Zvi Hirsh’s line on the Siret stones and in Safed Likely

Zvi Hirsh HaKohen	Son of R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen; d. 5 Iyar 5601 (26 Apr 1841), Siret
Reuven HaKohen	“Son of the late R’ Zvi HaKohen”; d. 17 Jan 1845, Siret; buried beside Zvi Hirsh
Avraham HaKohen	Son of Zvi; b. Sereth c. 1800; very probably R’ Avraham Brecher, to Safed 1868, in the 1875 census there, d. Safed 1880; wife Gela
Aizik HaKohen	Son of Avraham, “grandson of R’ Zvi HaKohen”; d. young, 15 Tevet 5602 (28 Dec 1841), Siret
Sources	Jewish Galicia and Bukovina Organization, Siret Jewish cemetery survey; Montefiore Endowment, 1875 census of Safed (Kolel Austria, household 6877, line 8)

Eisig and Lea in Rădăuți

In the Jewish cemetery of Rădăuți stands the stone of Eisig (Yitzchak Aizik) Brecher HaKohen, son of Reuven Mordechai, who died on 19 January 1911 aged 79, and near it the stone of Lea Brecher, daughter of Binyamin Tzvi, wife of Eisig, who died on 16 January 1916 aged 85. Eisig is very probably Meir’s father; no single record yet names them together.

The civil registers of Rădăuți, indexed name by name, add the outline of Eisig’s family. A son, Riwen Mordche (Reuven Mordechai), was born on 1 March 1869 at Volovăț, beside Rădăuți, to Eisig Brecher and Lea Bernstein — six months after Reuven Mordechai HaKohen died in Siret, and bearing his name. The entry names both sets of grandparents (below); Eisig, born in Siret, was then a mill tenant at Volovăț, and Lea had been born in Czernowitz. Eisig Leib Brecher and Lea Bernstein re-registered their marriage before the civil authorities of Rădăuți on 15 March 1890. The same registers record both deaths, on the dates their stones give. Another son, Abraham, was born in Rădăuți in 1864; he married Mirjam Langsner of Mihăileni, and their children Regina (25 December 1891), Chaje (6 April 1893) and Mordke (11 June 1897) were born in Rădăuți, at house no. 1052. He is very probably the Abraham Brecher, husband of Miriam Langsner, who settled in New York (see the chapter on Markus and Abraham Brecher). Likely

The 1869 birth entry at Volovăț Likely

Child	Riwen Mordche (Reuven Mordechai) Brecher, born 1 March 1869, Volovăț
Father	Eisig (Eisig Leib) Brecher, born in Siret; mill tenant
Father’s parents	Ruben Mordko Brecher and Rifka née Salzberger, of Siret
Mother	Lea née Bernstein, born in Czernowitz
Mother’s parents	Benjamin Hersch Bernstein and Chaje née Frenkel, of Buczacz
Note	Birth legitimized by the parents’ civil marriage, Rădăuți, 15 March 1890
Source	Bukovina births index (JewishGen Romania Database), from the Rădăuți Jewish civil registers, births vol. 1, p. 38

Lea’s own parents were Binyamin Tzvi (Benjamin Hersch) Bernstein and Chaje née Frenkel, recorded as living in Buczacz, in Galicia, when their grandson was registered in 1869. Lea’s stone in Rădăuți names her father as Binyamin Tzvi, which agrees with the register (Likely). Lea’s son Abraham named his first son Hersch (Binyamin Tzvi), born in October 1888, and a daughter Chaje, born in April 1893; as children were named only for relatives who had died, Binyamin Tzvi had very probably died before October 1888 and Chaje before April 1893 (Likely). Their graves and parents are not known; no death record of the right age has been found for either of them in Czernowitz or Rădăuți.

Riwen Mordche Brecher of Gura Humorului

Eisig and Lea’s son Riwen Mordche (Reuven Mordechai), born at Volovăț in 1869, settled in the Humor valley. On 17 March 1895 at Gura Humorului he married Chana Itte (Hava-Jetty) Knobler, aged 24, born in Buczacz in Galicia, the daughter of Israel Feiwisch (Srul) Knobler, a merchant of Gura Humorului, and Sure Judith (Sara Judit) née Frenkel. Riwen kept a tavern and by 1900 is described as an appointed official. Their children were registered at Mănăstirea Humorului and Gura Humorului.

Riwen Mordche Brecher and Chana Itte Knobler Confirmed

Husband	Riwen Mordche (Reuven Mordechai) Brecher, b. 1 Mar 1869, Volovăț; son of Eisig (Isak) Brecher and Lea née Bernstein; d. 1942
Wife	Chana Itte (Hava-Jetty, Jutte) née Knobler, b. c. 1871 (1873 in the memorial book), Buczacz; d. 1941
Marriage	17 Mar 1895, Gura Humorului
Wife’s parents	Israel Feiwisch (Srul) Knobler, b. c. 1841, Buczacz, son of Moses and Chaje Knobler; and Sure Judith née Frenkel, b. c. 1845, Buczacz (her parents Leibisch and Lea Frenkel of Buczacz Likely)
Children	Rivka, b. c. Oct 1892, d. 9 Apr 1900, Gura Humorului · Jakob Leib, b. 15 Sep 1895 · Moische, b. c. Jul 1896, d. 27 Oct 1896 (Likely) · Rebeka, b. 26 Sep 1899 · Clara, b. 23 Dec 1900 — all at Mănăstirea Humorului or Gura Humorului
Later years	The memorial book of Gura Humorului lists “Reuven Mordechai Brecher son of Isak, 1870–1942” and “Hava-Jetty née Knobler, daughter of Israel, 1873–1941”
Sources	Bukovina civil registers of Gura Humorului, births, marriages and deaths, indexed in the JewishGen Romania Database; Gura Humorului memorial book, list of the dead

Rădăuți and Siret

Brechers of Siret and Rădăuți in the Czernowitz press

Hugo Gold’s history of the Jews of Bukovina names Brecher among the established families in the list of Siret’s citizens for 1840. The newspapers of Czernowitz, digitized by the Austrian National Library, show Brechers of Siret and Rădăuți through the following decades: Juda Brecher of Siret, a lessee of the state mills at Rădăuți in 1869; Chaim Joel Brecher, innkeeper at the Siret bridge in 1897 and later a merchant and liquor-licence lessee; Josef Brecher, a lawyer of Siret; Nora Brecher of Rădăuți, a translator; and Pepi Rudich née Brecher, who died in Rădăuți in 1906 aged 72. Their exact relationship to Eisig is not stated in any record found, and they are shown as possible kin.

One of these Brechers can be placed. A double stone in the Jewish cemetery of Rădăuți (plot 2, row 9) stands for Chaim Yoel Brecher HaKohen, son of Avraham Yehuda HaKohen, who died in Cheshvan 5702 (October–November 1941), and his wife Chana, daughter of Yitzchak, who died in Elul 5701 (August–September 1941). The rare name Avraham Yehuda HaKohen points to Reuven Mordechai’s son of that name, who died in Siret in 1894; this makes Chaim Yoel very probably a grandson of Reuven Mordechai and a first cousin of Meir. The Chaim Joel Brecher of the press notices above — the innkeeper at the Siret bridge in 1897, the Siret merchant of 1905 and the Kamenka firm of 1907 — is very probably the same man.

The Banila branch: Rabbi Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher

The Siret family of Reuven Mordechai HaKohen continued in print through his grandson Rabbi Yaakov Zeev Wolf (Jacob Wolf) Brecher HaKohen of Banila on the Siret, son of Zvi and Chana Ruchama, born in Banila in 1866. He was a student of Rabbi Pinchas Moshe Burstein, Av Beit Din of Sereth from 1881 until his death in November 1905, whose installation sermon he later printed. His books include Refuot HaTugah (Lemberg, 1902); Shiloh, two sermons in honour of Theodor Herzl and Nahum Sokolow (first printed in Lemberg in 1903, reprinted in Czernowitz in 1924); Sefer HaAdam, a book of moral verse that also prints the epitaph he wrote for his father; Katuv Yosher (Czernowitz, 1925); Parperaot LaMikraot (Marghita, about 1930); Chedvat Yaakov with Kav HaChen HaMeruach (Marghita, 1938), the teachings of his ancestor the rabbi of Sereth; and Kiyor Me’even Dar, issued after his death by one of his children. He died in Banila in 1941. Confirmed

One more book of his survives: Pshuto shel Mikra, printed in Marghita in 5703 (1942–43), a copy of which carries his own stamp, “Jacob W. Brecher, Banila”. In 1936 the Czernowitz Yiddish paper Dos Yidishe Vort twice names R’ Yaakov Brecher of Banila among the town’s supporters of the paper.

Katuv Yosher opens with his own account of the war years. On 17 Sivan 5676 (18 June 1916), as the front drew near, he left Banila with eleven wagons, one of them for his son-in-law Aharon and his household, and spent about fifteen months as a refugee in Transylvania, at Óradna (Rodna) and then Năsăud, coming home to Banila in September 1917 to an empty house (his own account in Katuv Yosher); by 1929 he was preaching in Banila again. In the same book he names his children: his son Reuven Mordechai, a gymnasium teacher and officer, who died on 28 Elul 5677 (15 September 1917) and carried the name of the Siret ancestor; a son, Mordechai; and a married daughter, the wife of Aharon, whose names beyond these are not given. Confirmed

8 people across 4 generations. Tap a name for the family card. Dashed lines: the person is graded Likely. People graded Possible are not drawn. Open this chart full size · interactive tree

• Confirmed Mollie Brecher’s brothers and sisters, named in her father Selig Rudich’s 1920 naturalization petition: Bertha (b. 1896), Minnie (1898), Yetta (1900), Louis (1902), Samuel (1904) and Isidore (1907); Selig a cutter born in Bukovina 15 Feb 1866, wife Bertha.Selig Rudich’s naturalization petition no. 115086, New York County, 1920 (FamilySearch)
• Confirmed Harry Brecher, of 36 St Marks Place, signed as a witness when Mollie’s sister Yetta Rudich married Louis Steff in Manhattan on 17 Apr 1921.NYC marriage certificate, Manhattan 1921, no. 10682 (NYC Municipal Archives)
• Confirmed Bertha Rudich married Chaim Szimon Lobel, butcher, at Bronx Borough Hall, 31 Aug 1921 (witness her sister Minnie Feldman); Louis Rudich, butcher, married Lillian Shapiro in Brooklyn, 26 Feb 1928; Isidor Rudich died in Manhattan on 24 Jun 1920, aged 13.NYC marriage certificates Bronx 1921 no. 3829 and Brooklyn 1928 no. 3115; NYC death certificate, Manhattan 1920, no. 19779 (NYC Municipal Archives)
• Confirmed Selig Rudich, 48, butcher of Storozynetz, arrived at New York on the Niagara from Havre on 23 Mar 1913 with his daughter Ella, 24, going to his son-in-law on 2nd Street.New York passenger lists, NARA T715 roll 2035 p. 131 (FamilySearch)
• Likely Ethel (Ella) Shapiro née Rudich, Mollie’s elder sister, died in Manhattan on 18 Apr 1919, aged 30; Minnie Rudich very probably married Benjamin Feldman in the Bronx in 1921.NYC deaths index 1919, certificate 14242; NYC marriage list, Bronx 1921 (index)
• Likely Feige Rudich née Lobel is written Babza, Babtze, Babics, Balza or Bertha in eight records — very probably a Yiddish pet name for the same woman; the 1920 petition gives her birth as 1 Jun 1866 (a variant of 12 Sep 1866).1913 manifest; 1920 petition; NYC death and marriage certificates 1920, 1921, 1928
• Confirmed Yute bat Baruch’s stone, K-51 in the Siret New Jewish Cemetery, is now in the gallery: “granddaughter of the Rav R’ Yaakov Zeev of Sereth”, died 26 Tevet 5674 (24 Jan 1914).Jewish Galicia and Bukovina Organization, Siret cemetery documentation, stone K-51
• Confirmed Harry Brecher’s first papers, New York County, 21 Nov 1910: tailor, of 106 Ludlow Street, last residence Radautz, born at Mihăileni 10 Oct 1888; and the family in the 1920 (Manhattan) and 1930 (the Bronx) censuses.NY County declaration no. 22368; 1920 and 1930 U.S. censuses (FamilySearch)
• Confirmed Arthur S. Brecher died on 11 Feb 2021 and lies beside his wife Laura Alma née Lyman (26 Oct 1932 – 31 May 2013) under one Brecher stone at Toledo Hebrew Cemetery, Rossford, Ohio, Section 10. (That Laura is Arthur’s wife stays Likely.)Find a Grave memorials 223028823 and 111894255, with stone photo
• Confirmed Leon Brecher’s 1942 draft card (born 15 Sep 1895, a liquor store of his own at 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore) and the family in the 1930 and 1940 Baltimore censuses.1942 draft registration; 1930 and 1940 U.S. censuses (FamilySearch)
• Likely 1940 census, Brooklyn: Charles Schwartz, 62, lamp salesman, and Ida, 46, with their daughter Lucille (Likely); the household index adds a son, Marvin (Possible).1940 U.S. Census, Brooklyn, E.D. 24-763, sheet 9A
• Likely Isak (Yitzchak) Brecher of Banila and Dora née Haber had a daughter, Ciarne, and a son, Israel, both born in Banila: the August 1941 register of the Storojineț ghetto lists the four of them together at Malcinschi 13B (sheet picture 490). Israel is also named, as Isak’s son, in the public catalog entry of Isak’s restitution file at the National Library of Israel (URO Tel Aviv, URO-TA-Pers-2247; the file itself is closed and was not read). Both are on the tree, name and relation only.Storojineț ghetto register, August 1941 (Chernivtsi State Archive), sheet picture 490, transcribed by Naftali Zloczower, pp. 5–6: https://www.eylonconsulting.com/bukovina/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Document-Inhabitants-of-the-Storojinets-Ghetto-in-August-1941-3.pdf; National Library of Israel, Archives of the Jewish People, URO-TA-Pers-2247, public catalog entry only
• Confirmed What survived of R’ Yaakov Zeev’s own writing. His great-grandson, R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila, writes that he came upon “the hidden writings of my great-grandfather … R’ Yaakov Zeev ben Aryeh, Av Beit Din of Sereth”: a commentary on the Torah by way of allusion (remez) that reached only as far as parashat Va’era — “the rest was lost, a pity” — with a few novellae on the Talmud and responsa. The Rav had not written them as a book, only as notes for his own memory, so his words were few and brief, without source references, and the ink had faded “for he passed away already in 5604, on 15 Iyar, aged eighty”. The great-grandson “did not rest” until he had copied some of them; they were printed as Chedvat Yaakov (Marghita, 1938), about ninety years after the Rav’s death.Chedvat Yaakov / Kav HaChen HaMeruach (Marghita, 1938), general introduction, pp. 5–6 (HebrewBooks.org no. 32333), read on the page
• Confirmed The Volovăț flour mill in 1866. The imperial stud-farm estate at Rădăuți offered its 14 overshot flour mills for a three-year lease, 1 January 1867 to the end of December 1869, by sealed offers in November 1866. The row for Wołowetz (Volovăț) reads: newly built of soft material, one milling run and one bolting run, 2 Joch 649 square fathoms of land, starting rent 715 florins a year. This is the mill where Eisig Brecher was “mill tenant at Volovăț” in March 1869 (his son Riwen Mordche’s birth entry), so it was new around 1866. Who won the 1867 lease is not printed. Page in the gallery.Bukowina (Czernowitz), 24 Oct 1866, p. 4, notice no. 1532 of the Rădăuți stud-farm economic directorate (ANNO, Austrian National Library: https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=buk&datum=18661024&seite=4)
• Confirmed The same Volovăț mill in August 1869: the stud-farm directorate at Rădăuți (16 August 1869) offered the overshot flour mill at Wołowetz, “built of soft material”, for a new lease from 1 October 1869 to the end of 1872, after taking it back from “the present lessee Juda Brecher of Sereth”. So the mill Eisig was working in 1869 was leased from the state stud by a Juda Brecher of Siret. The notice does not say how Juda was related to Eisig. Kinship: Possible. (This notice calls him “of Sereth”; the Juda Brecher who died in Czernowitz in 1907 appears to be a different man.)Czernowitzer Zeitung, 31 Aug 1869, p. 4, notice no. 1434 of the Rădăuți state stud-farm directorate, dated 16 Aug 1869; reprinted 8 Sep 1869, p. 4 (ANNO, Austrian National Library), read on the page
• Confirmed Chaim Joel Brecher’s liquor-licence firm at Kamenka (entered in the commercial register on 14 August 1907) was struck from the register on 18 September 1909, “because the business was wound up”.Czernowitzer Zeitung, 8 Oct 1909, p. 4, commercial register Firm. 1356/9; entry: Czernowitzer Zeitung, 20 Aug 1907, p. 5, Firm. 620/7 (ANNO, Austrian National Library)
• Confirmed Eisig’s civil marriage, Rădăuți, 15 March 1890: Eisig Leib Brecher, born in Siret, businessman in Rădăuți, son of Mordko Brecher and Rifka Salzberger of Siret, married Lea Bernstein, born in Czernowitz, daughter of Benjamin Hersch Bernstein and Chaje née Frenkel of Buczacz; both were 58. Three days later Eisig signed a declaration in the register naming five children born to him and Lea before the civil marriage: Mania (?) 34, Jankel 31, Abraham 26, Ruchel 23 and Riwen Mordche 21. Jankel, Ruchel and the eldest daughter are new on the tree; Abraham and Riwen Mordche are proven again.Rădăuți Jewish civil marriage register, 15 March 1890, entry 4, with the father’s declaration of 18 March 1890 in the remarks column (Suceava county branch of the Romanian National Archives; photograph from the Radautz Vital Records Index project, Bruce Reisch and Edgar Hauster)
• Confirmed Eisig and Lea’s deaths, read on the register pages themselves: Eisig Brecher, grain dealer, of Fratautzergasse 45, died 19 January 1911 aged 79 and was buried on 21 January; Lea Brecher, house owner, “widow of Eisig Brecher”, of the same house, died 16 January 1916 aged 85 and was buried on 18 January.Rădăuți Jewish civil death registers 1911 (entry 8) and 1916 (entry 4), Suceava county branch of the Romanian National Archives; photographs from the Radautz Vital Records Index project
• Likely Conflict noted: Meir (born about 1851–52) is not among the five children Eisig declared in 1890. The register does not say why. He may have been left out because he was born in Siret and had long been settled in Hungary, or because Eisig was not his father. Meir’s descent from Eisig stays Likely, resting on the other records: his Siret origin and kohen line, and the 1909 passenger list on which Meir’s son-in-law Samuel Eilender travelled to his “uncle Abraham Brecher”, Eisig’s son. This record neither proves nor disproves it.Rădăuți Jewish civil marriage register, 15 March 1890, entry 4, with the father’s declaration of 18 March 1890 in the remarks column (Suceava county branch of the Romanian National Archives; photograph from the Radautz Vital Records Index project, Bruce Reisch and Edgar Hauster)
• Confirmed Pepi Brecher, who died in Rădăuți on 16 April 1906 aged 72, is called in the civil death register the daughter of Feige Brecher of Siret. Eisig’s mother was Rifka, so Pepi was not his full sister; the gallery caption has been corrected.Rădăuți Jewish civil death register 1906, entry 49 (same archive and project)
• Likely Charles B. Schwartz, Ida Brecher’s husband: born 16 Dec 1876, buried 6 Feb 1976 (his memorial notes that this is the interment date). One outside source, so Likely.Find a Grave memorial 97459913
• Confirmed Harry and Mollie Brecher’s exact graves: Montefiore Cemetery, Gate 189/NE, Block 76, Row 8L, Graves 1 (Harry) and 2 (Mollie), in the Independent Bukovinaer Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ society plot.Find a Grave memorials 158155543 and 158155549 (stone photos and cemetery plot index)
• Likely Selig (Asher Zelig) and Feige (Fagie) Rudich, Mollie Brecher’s parents, rest in United Hebrew Cemetery, Staten Island, in the plot of the First Independent Strozynetzer society (Storojineț, Bukovina), Section 4, Row 3, Graves 3 and 4. Find a Grave gives Selig’s death as 24 Jul 1927 (this site: 23 Jul); Fagie’s, 24 Apr 1944, matches. No stone photo is online.Find a Grave memorials 279681403 and 279681399 (from the cemetery’s burial index)
• Confirmed Hannah Brecher Rudman’s gravestone at Shaarei Tfiloh, Baltimore, names her “bat R’ Yaakov Aryeh HaKohen” — exactly her father Leon’s Hebrew name on his stone. Albert Rudman’s Hebrew name was Avraham ben R’ Dov Ber. Graves K-478 (Hannah), K-477 (Albert), near Leon at K-449; their joint BRECHER / RUDMAN family stone is in Section K. Photos in the gallery.Find a Grave memorials 126944465, 126944464, 113946164 (stone photos by “Gypsy Joyce”)
• Confirmed Chedvat Yaakov, introduction p. 6, in the editor’s words: “כי נפטר עוד בשנת תר״ד ט״ו אייר והי׳ בן שמונים שנה” — “for he died in 5604, on 15 Iyar, aged eighty”; and “ואני נכדו (בן בתו של בנו ובן בנו של בתו) חשוב כבנו” — “and I, his grandson (the son of his son’s daughter, and the son of his daughter’s son), count as his son”. He signs the names “יעקב זאב (הוא שמי), צבי (שם אבי ז״ל), חנה רחמה (שם אמי ז״ל)” — Yaakov Zeev (my name), Zvi (my late father), Chana Ruchama (my late mother). Introduction p. 5 calls the author “R’ Yaakov Zeev ben Aryeh, Av Beit Din of Sereth”, a disciple of R’ Michel of Złoczów, R’ Zvi of Nadwórna and the Seer of Lublin; the place Stryj is not in the introduction (it comes from his stone). This fits the tree: Zvi Brecher HaKohen is the son of the rabbi’s daughter Rivka, and Chana Ruchama a daughter of one of his sons (re-read on the page 24 Oct 2026: “the son of his son’s daughter” — that link is now Confirmed by these words; which son is not named).Chedvat Yaakov (Marghita, 1938), introduction pp. 5–6, HebrewBooks.org no. 32333
• Possible The 1962 history of the Jews of the Bukovina also names “Candidate-Lawyer Joseph Brecher” among the Jewish lawyers of Siret before the Second World War — a second source for Josef Brecher, a lawyer of Siret. Whether he is the same Josef is Possible.Hugo Gold, ed., Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina, vol. II, p. 105, chapter “Sereth”; English translation at https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk2_105.html
• Confirmed Mordke died at Rădăuți on 22 February 1898, aged eight months (Rădăuți burial register).JewishGen burial registry (JOWBR), Bukovina, record J_BUCOVINA_0020210
• Confirmed Miriam’s parents were Marcus (Mortko, Mordechai) Langsner and Beile, of Mihăileni (her children’s Rădăuți birth entries, 1891–1900). Miriam, born 1 January 1874 (death certificate; Likely), died a widow in Manhattan on 6 February 1944; her son Harry gave her parents as Mordcha Langsner and Bela.Rădăuți civil birth register, JewishGen “Bukovina – Births” index (entries of Regina 1891, Chaje 1893, Mordke 1897, Jakob Wolf 1900); New York City death certificate, Manhattan, 1944, no. 3398 (NYC Municipal Archives)
• Confirmed Abraham, born in Rădăuți in 1864, was a son of Eisig Brecher and Lea née Bernstein; his children’s Rădăuți birth entries (1891–1900) say so, and describe him as a businessman, later a barkeeper — raised from Likely. He died before February 1944 (his wife’s death certificate calls her his widow).Rădăuți civil birth register, JewishGen “Bukovina – Births” index (entries of Regina 1891, Chaje 1893, Mordke 1897, Jakob Wolf 1900); New York City death certificate, Manhattan, 1944, no. 3398
• Likely Fanny Gensler’s birthplace, written “Cebasti” (1927) and “Kobesty” (1921), is very likely Kabestie (Căbeşti, today Kabivtsi, Chernivtsi oblast), a village in the same small Bukovina court district (Stanestie) as Draczinetz.JewishGen Communities Database (Kabeshti / Kabestie, Storojineţ district, 48°16′N 25°39′E); Gerichtsbezirk Stanestie, 1869 communes
• Confirmed Siret New Cemetery, stone AE-66: Ester Base bat Baruch, died 26 Cheshvan 5643 (8 November 1882). Whether she was a sister of Yute bat Baruch (K-51) is only Possible, since Baruch is a common name.Jewish Galicia & Bukovina cemetery database, Siret, AE-66 (text; link only): https://jgaliciabukovina.net/printpdf/231159
• Confirmed Leon (Jakob Leib) Brecher’s household in Baltimore, April 1950: Leon and Fannie running a retail liquor store, with their son Max (28), daughter Hanna (23) and her husband Albert Rudman. Census page in the gallery.1950 U.S. census, Baltimore City, Maryland, ED 4-777, sheet 25, lines 13–17 (National Archives)
• Confirmed Leon and Fanny’s children: Max Isaac Brecher (1921–2012), who married Beatrice “Bessie” Canter (1926–2001, Likely); Hannah Brecher Rudman (1927–1986), wife of Albert Rudman (1920–2003); and Herman Brecher, MD. Grandchildren: Philip, Allan and Mark E. Brecher (Max’s sons); Barbara Goldfarb and Caryn Tapper (Hannah’s daughters).Max Isaac Brecher obituary, Baltimore Sun, 15 Feb 2012; Albert Rudman obituary, Baltimore Sun, 28 Dec 2003; 1950 U.S. census, Baltimore City, Maryland, ED 4-777, sheet 25, lines 13–17 (National Archives)
• Likely Leon’s wife Fanny was born Gensler, 13 Nov 1895; she died 31 May 1984 and is buried beside Leon at Shaarei Tfiloh, Baltimore County.Find a Grave memorial 113946163 (volunteer site, link only): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113946163/fanny-brecher; Baltimore Sun, 2 June 1984 (index)
• Likely Harry (Hersch) Brecher’s household in the Bronx, April 1950: Harry, Mollie, their daughter Sarah (30) and son Arthur (22). Census page in the gallery.1950 U.S. census, Bronx, New York, ED 3-2020, sheet 9, lines 15–18 (National Archives)
• Likely Arthur S. Brecher (28 Mar 1928 – 2021), son of Harry and Mollie, grew up in the Bronx and became a professor of chemistry at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He married Laura Lyman (d. 2013); their children are Sharon Spencer and Benjamin Brecher.Arthur Brecher obituary, Toledo Blade, 19 Feb 2021
• Likely Harry and Mollie lie side by side in the Independent Bukovinaer Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ society plot at Montefiore Cemetery, Queens.Find a Grave memorial 158155543 (volunteer site, link only): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158155543/harry-brecher; Find a Grave memorial 158155549 (volunteer site, link only): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158155549/mollie-brecher
• Likely Harry’s mother Miriam (Langsner) Brecher was buried in February 1944 in the Bukaczowce society plot at Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens.Mount Zion Cemetery interment record 7894902
• Likely Charles B. Schwartz, Ida (Chaje) Brecher’s husband: born 16 Dec 1876; buried 6 Feb 1976 (the interment date on his memorial; his date of death is not verified).Find a Grave memorial 97459913 (volunteer site, link only): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97459913/charles-b-schwartz
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen’s book Ohalim (a Hebrew word and grammar book, with Agudot Ezov) was printed in Czernowitz in 1925 by Hornik & Birnbaum.wikisforim.org catalogue item 000114680; Moreshet sale listing, 23 Sep 2019
• Confirmed R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila’s first wife was Liba: “my wife Mrs. Liba, may she live” (1902) and “the yahrzeit of my first wife Mrs. Liba”, 28 Menachem Av (1925). Pictures in the gallery.Refuot HaTugah (Lemberg 1902) p. 5, HebrewBooks.org no. 35017; Katuv Yosher (Czernowitz 1925) intro, PDF p. 41, HebrewBooks.org no. 7511
• Likely Yitzchak (Isak) Brecher of Banila (b. 14 Jan 1895, Sinăuții de Jos; d. 9 Dec 1978, Holon), whose parents were Yaakov HaKohen and Liba, is very likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf’s son, and is now on the family tree. His wife was Devorah (Dora), daughter of Israel Haber (d. 22 Apr 1993). His stone says “in his 84th year” (Likely reading); a plaque remembers “my sister Madi and my brother Reuven”. Stone record: https://billiongraves.com/grave/%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%97%D7%A7-%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%A8/14333290Holon Cemetery, BillionGraves records 14333290 and 14333291; Israel immigration lists (index); R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf’s books
• Confirmed Zvi son of Reuven Mordechai Brecher (d. Jerusalem 1908) left “four sons and one daughter”, says the epitaph his son wrote. Only R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf is known by name.Sefer HaAdam p. 59, HebrewBooks.org no. 26795
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf wrote a wedding poem for “my kinsman Shmerl Salzberg, son of Zalman Yehuda”, and his bride Malka, daughter of Yosef Rudich (the word “kinsman” Confirmed). That this Salzberg family is Rivka Salzberger’s: Likely.Sefer HaAdam p. 60, HebrewBooks.org no. 26795
• Confirmed Coverage note: the whole 1797–99 Bukovina Jewish tax file (55 pages, Czernowitz and Suczawa districts, poverty lists and the list of foreign Jews) was read; there is no Brecher anywhere in it. The surname seems to have come or been taken later.State Archives of Chernivtsi Oblast, fond 1, op. 1, file 925, via Wikimedia Commons
• Confirmed A signature “Eisig Brecher” stands as witness in the Rădăuți Jewish marriage register on 19 November 1902 (Jurgrau–Hass). That it is our Eisig, then about 70 and living in Rădăuți, is Possible, leaning Likely: no age or address is written beside it.Yossi Yagur, “Genealogical Data in the Archives of South Bukovina”, Israel Genealogical Society journal, PDF p. 4, fig. 3
• Likely Meir’s brother Reuven Mordechai (Riwen Mordche) Brecher died in 1942 in Moghilev, Transnistria, and his wife Chana Itte née Knobler in 1941 in Moghilev, Transnistria (memorial necrology naming both fathers and her maiden name).Gura Humorului memorial book, necrology (JewishGen Yizkor translation, gur203)
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila had a second wife, Etil, daughter of R’ Yechiel (d. 1928). A 1932 index of eulogies places a eulogy for her (Av 5688, summer 1928) in his book Ohalim — but the copy of Ohalim found is dated Czernowitz 1925, three years before her death, so that eulogy is unverified.Mafteach HaHespedim part 4 (Vienna 1932) p. 25, HebrewBooks.org no. 36842; Ohalim (Czernowitz 1925), HebrewBooks.org
• Confirmed Harry (Hersch) and Mollie Brecher had four children: Rachel (b. c. 1917), Sarah (b. c. 1919), Ruth (b. c. 1923) and Arthur (b. 1928), all born in New York. The 1930 census lists Rachael 13, Sarah 11, Ruth 6 and Seymour 2; the 1940 census at 1310 Morris Avenue lists Rachel 23, Sarah 21, Ruth 17 and “Otto” 12 — the son Arthur S. Brecher. Rachel and Ruth were Possible before; Arthur’s link to Harry and Mollie is now Confirmed.1930 U.S. census, Bronx, sheet 121A (FamilySearch 1:1:X7DN-BM5); 1940 U.S. census, Bronx, ED 3-201, sheet 1A (FamilySearch 1:1:K3TV-QNS, page image read)
• Confirmed Harry Brecher (27, born Mihăileni; parents Abraham and Miriam Langsner) married Mollie Rudich (23, born Bukovina; parents Selig Rudich and Feige Lobel) in Manhattan on 27 August 1915, certificate 19380. Harry’s Social Security record also names his parents Abraham Brecher and Miriam Langsner.New York City Marriage Records, Manhattan, 1915, cert. 19380 (FamilySearch 1:1:24QC-M3C); U.S. Social Security NUMIDENT (FamilySearch 1:1:6K9M-79WY)
• Confirmed Fanny Gensler, 24, of Draczinetz, Bukovina, arrived at Ellis Island on 19 January 1921 on the S.S. Rotterdam (sailed from Rotterdam 8 January) with Chaim Gensler, 56, and Heine Gensler, 53, bound for a brother-in-law, J. Dulberg, in Brooklyn. Her maiden name Gensler is Confirmed by her daughter Hannah’s Social Security record (parents Fanny Gensler and Leon Brecher).New York passenger lists, Ellis Island, 19 Jan 1921, S.S. Rotterdam, list 12, lines 6–8, NARA T715 roll 2912 (FamilySearch 1:1:J6VN-LW5, page image read); NUMIDENT (FamilySearch 1:1:6K3D-P4CV)
• Confirmed Chaim (Hyman) Gensler and Heine (Hannah) Gensler née Herzig (Herzog) were Fanny’s parents. On the ship lists of 19 January 1921 Chaim goes to his son-in-law J. Dulberg and Fanny to her brother-in-law; Dulberg’s wife Dora Gensler, Fanny’s sister, named her parents as Hyman Gensler and Hanna Herzog at her Brooklyn marriage of 12 November 1911. Fanny’s daughter Hannah (b. 1927) was named for her grandmother Hannah (Heine) (family tradition, Likely). Ship pages in the gallery.S.S. Rotterdam, 19 Jan 1921, List 12, lines 6–8, both pages, NARA T715 roll 2912 (FamilySearch 3:1:3Q9M-C955-RQ6S-3 and 3:1:3Q9M-C955-RQHM-5); New York City marriage records, Kings, 12 Nov 1911, certificate 11743 (FamilySearch 1:1:Q2CK-8531, index); family knowledge
• Confirmed The “Jacob Brecher”, 26, married, of Siret, on the same S.S. Rotterdam arrival of 19 January 1921 (List 21, line 10) is Leon (Jakob Leib) Brecher: the certificate of arrival in his naturalization file names “Brecher, Jacob, arrived January 19, 1921, on the Rotterdam”. The right-hand page gives his birthplace as Gura Humora (Gura Humorului) and his destination as his brother-in-law Josef Dulberg, 1614 East 5th Street, Brooklyn.Certificate of arrival no. 249990, filed with Maryland petition no. 9144 (FamilySearch 3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-RSTS); S.S. Rotterdam List 21, line 10, NARA T715 roll 2912 (FamilySearch 1:1:J6KM-GPL; right-hand page 3:1:3Q9M-C955-RQHX-P)
• Confirmed Leon and Fanny in Baltimore in 1930 (Max 9, Hanna 3) and 1940 (Max 18, Hannah 13, and Herman); Max’s World War II draft card gives his birth as 29 June 1921 in Brooklyn; Leon’s Social Security record gives 15 Sep 1895 – 10 Oct 1988.1930 U.S. census, Baltimore (FamilySearch 1:1:X3WH-JC1); 1940 U.S. census, Baltimore, ED 4-103, sheet 13B (1:1:K76B-Y7Q); Maryland WWII draft cards (1:1:Q29H-F1LS); NUMIDENT (1:1:6K3V-FYDV)
• Likely Rivka (Ruvtse) née Salzberger was the daughter of HaRav R’ Yaakov Zeev, Rav of Sereth — Likely: a Siret stone (BC-17) of an aged Rivka called Ruvtse, “daughter of HaRav R’ Yaakov Zeev”, d. 20 Elul 5650, is very probably hers (it gives no surname or husband), and her husband R’ Reuven Mordechai’s stone calls him “son-in-law of the Rav of this place”, but neither her husband’s nor her son’s stone names which Rav, and no register names her father.Jewish Galicia and Bukovina, Siret Jewish cemetery documentation (2022), stones BC-17 and G-35
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher HaKohen of Banila (1866–1941) was very probably among the Holocaust victims: Banila, 1941.H. Gold (ed.), Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina, vol. II (1962), “Sereth”, p. 105 (JewishGen translation)
• Confirmed R’ Zvi (Hersch) Brecher HaKohen left for the Land of Israel on Sunday, 12 Menachem Av 5668 = 9 August 1908, as his son records; he died in Jerusalem about ten weeks later (25 Tishrei 5669).Shiloh (Czernowitz 1924 reprint) p. 43, HebrewBooks.org no. 35162
• Confirmed In 1916, as a refugee, R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf paid for “half-boots for my little daughter, bat sheva’”: a young daughter (her name, Bat-Sheva, or “aged seven” — the name is Possible).Katuv Yosher (Czernowitz 1925) scan p. 19, HebrewBooks.org no. 7511
• Confirmed Holon gravestones of Yitzchak (Isak) Brecher HaKohen (d. 9 Kislev 5739 = 9 Dec 1978, “in his 84th year”) and Devorah (Dora) née Haber (d. 1 Iyar 5753 = 1993): Block 17, Area 1, Row 27, plots 1 and 2. Isak’s link to R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf stays Likely.Chevra Kadisha Tel Aviv-Yafo burial register (gravez.me)
• Confirmed Leon’s naturalization: declaration of intention in Brooklyn, 13 June 1922, as Leo Brecher, 27, clerk, of 665 Sackman Street, with his wife Fanny; petition in Baltimore, filed 2 March 1927 as Jacob Brecher of 2004 East Pratt Street, newspaper carrier, born 15 September 1895 in Bukovina, wife Fanny, son Max (born 21 June 1921 by the petition; 29 June by his own draft card). He asked to be named Leo Brecher and was admitted on 13 June 1927. Both papers in the gallery.Maryland naturalization petition no. 9144 (NARA M1640, roll 32; FamilySearch 3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-RS1K, 3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-RC7S); Declaration of Intention no. 141057, Supreme Court, Kings County (3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-RSTS)
• Confirmed Leon and Fanny were already married when they sailed in January 1921: Jacob is listed married, and both call Josef Dulberg their brother-in-law. No marriage record was found in New York or Baltimore; the wedding was most likely in Bukovina or Romania.S.S. Rotterdam lists 12 and 21, 19 Jan 1921; Declaration of Intention no. 141057 (1922)
• Confirmed Fanny’s sister Dora (Dara) Gensler, 21, married Joseph Dulberg, 24, son of Jacob Dulberg and Sprinze Katcher, in Brooklyn on 12 November 1911. Their daughter Rosaline Anna Dulberg married in Brooklyn in 1937.New York City marriage records, Kings, 12 Nov 1911, certificate 11743 (FamilySearch 1:1:Q2CK-8531, index); FamilySearch 1:1:Q2CF-KGG7 (1937)
• Likely Fanny’s birthplace: “Cebasti” in Leon’s 1927 petition and “Kobesty” on her father’s line of the 1921 ship list are the same village, written by two clerks; it is not yet identified. Draczinetz was the family’s last home.Maryland petition no. 9144 (3:1:3Q9M-CS9Z-RS1K); S.S. Rotterdam List 12, right-hand page (3:1:3Q9M-C955-RQHM-5)
• Confirmed Harry and Mollie Brecher in Manhattan in January 1920 (indexed “Braesher”): Harry, 31, and Mollie, 27, both born in Romania, with Rachel (3½) and Sarah (10 months), both born in New York. In the 1925 New York State census Rachel (9), Sarah (6) and Ruth (2) appear in a Bronx household (Likely).1920 U.S. census, Manhattan, AD 8, ED 640, sheet 8B, lines 98–101 (FamilySearch 1:1:MJYY-42M, 1:1:MJYY-429); 1925 New York State census, Bronx, p. 50, family 991 (1:1:KSMP-XXN, -XXV, -XX2)
• Likely Harry and Mollie’s daughter Sarah is likely the “Sarah N Brecher” born 17 February 1919 who died 24 July 1992, last residence Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (the file names no parents).Social Security NUMIDENT (FamilySearch 1:1:6K99-KBM7); Social Security Death Index (1:1:VSNF-ZZN)
• Confirmed Froim Brecher and Fischel Brecher, Jewish donors of Suczawa (Suceava), gave 20 kreuzer each to flood relief, printed in the Lemberger Zeitung of 31 October 1845 — the earliest Brechers seen so far in the Suczawa district. Kinship to our line: Possible. Page in the gallery.Lemberger Zeitung, 31 Oct 1845, p. 668 (ANNO: https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=lez&datum=18451031&seite=2)
• Unrelated Not our family: the firm “Rifka Brecher”, a mixed-goods business in Czernowitz entered in the commercial register in April 1869 with Juda Brecher as its authorised manager, belonged to Rifka, wife of the Czernowitz merchant Juda Brecher and mother of the Vienna advocate Dr Ignatz Brecher. Juda died in Czernowitz in April 1907 as Dr Ignatz Brecher’s father, and Rifka died there in June 1909, aged 88, as a merchant’s widow. Our Rivka died at Siret in 1890. Page in the gallery.Czernowitzer Zeitung, 27 Apr 1869, p. 3, notice no. 7620; Wiener Zeitung, 1 May 1869, p. 18 and 27 Feb 1874, p. 24; Czernowitzer Tagblatt, 21 Apr 1907, p. 5 and 29 Jun 1909, p. 4; Bukowinaer Post, 29 Jun 1909, p. 3 (ANNO, Austrian National Library)
• Confirmed Rifka (Rivka) née Salzberger was Eisig’s mother: the Rădăuți marriage register of 15 March 1890 calls him the son of “Mordko Brecher u. der Rifka Salzberger” of Siret, read again on the image.Rădăuți civil marriages, 15 Mar 1890, vol. II p. 92 no. 4 (Radautz Vital Records Index, register image P1120818)
• Likely Rivka as the daughter of HaRav R’ Yaakov Zeev ben Aryeh, Rav of Sereth, stays Likely (strong). A Siret stone (BC-17) of an aged “Rivka called Ruvtse, daughter of HaRav R’ Yaakov Zeev” is very probably hers (it gives no surname or husband), and Chedvat Yaakov p. 6 says the editor’s father Zvi, son of Reuven Mordechai Brecher, was the son of the Rav’s daughter. The Chedvat Yaakov introduction never prints her name, and no register names her father.Chedvat Yaakov (Marghita 1938), introduction p. 6, HebrewBooks.org no. 32333; Sefer HaAdam p. 59, HebrewBooks.org no. 26795; Siret stones BC-17, G-35, N-27
• Confirmed Chaim Joel Brecher gave to Siret’s Passover-bread collection for the town’s poor in April 1897: “Ch. Joel Brecher” is among the donors of 1 florin each. S. L. Frohner of Siret is on the same list. Page in the gallery.Bukowinaer Post (Czernowitz), 25 Apr 1897, p. 3 (ANNO, Austrian National Library)
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf’s “Banila” was Banila on the Siret: the German line of his Sefer HaAdam title page reads “Verfasser Jacob Wolf Brecher in Banila p. S.”, the postal form of Bănila pe Siret, not the Banila on the Cheremosh. Today it is Banyliv-Pidhirnyi, Chernivtsi oblast, Ukraine; now on the map.Sefer HaAdam, title page, HebrewBooks.org no. 26795; OpenStreetMap relation 5940703
• Confirmed Sinăuții de Jos, where Isak of Banila was born in 1895, is today part of Mihăileni (Botoșani County, Romania), on the Siret about 6 km east of Siret town. Sinăuții de Jos lay in Bukovina; Mihăileni proper was a market and customs town on the Romanian side of the old border, the town where R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf preached his Shiloh sermons. Both are now on the map.Romanian Wikipedia, “Comuna Mihăileni, Botoșani”; English Wikipedia, “Mihăileni, Botoșani”; OpenStreetMap relation 12594182
• Likely Map points for Chaim Joel Brecher: the Kamenka of his 1907 firm is Kam’yanka, Chernivtsi raion, Ukraine (about 14 km north-west of Siret), and the Tereblești side of the Siret bridge, where his inn stood in 1897, is Terebleche, about 8 km north of Siret.OpenStreetMap nodes 337662002 and 337662490
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf’s second wife, Etil bat R’ Yechiel, was Ottilie (Ettel) Brecher née Weissbach. The death itself is Confirmed: she died at Banila on Friday 20 July 1928 (3 Av 5688), aged 60; “her husband Jakob Brecher” gave the eulogy at her open grave; she was known for her charity and had 10 trees planted in the Herzl Forest. That she is his second wife Etil: Likely (strong), matching the eulogy index entry of Av 5688. Page in the gallery.Ostjüdische Zeitung (Czernowitz), no. 1089, 29 Jul 1928, p. 6 (difmoe.eu); Mafteach HaHespedim part 4 (Vienna 1932) p. 25, HebrewBooks.org no. 36842
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf was back in Banila by April 1925, earlier than the “by 1929” given before: at Banila’s celebration of the opening of the Hebrew University (16 April 1925), “Herr Jacob Brecher, a notable Talmudist” spoke with quotations from Talmud and Midrash. In July 1932 Jakob Brecher chaired a community meeting at Banila p. S., and in 1936 Jakob and Isak Brecher were named among “the oldest residents” of the community (records Confirmed; that this is the Rav and his son: Likely). Page in the gallery.Ostjüdische Zeitung, 28 Apr 1925, p. 3; 19 Jul 1932, p. 3; 1 Mar 1936, p. 3 (difmoe.eu)
• Likely R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf: Banila, July 1941 (date and place only). The account of Banila in Gold’s history, as told by Isaak Brecher of Givatayim, names Jakob Brecher, a Talmud scholar with a library of almost 5,000 volumes; the account itself Confirmed as printed, that he is the Rav: Likely (strong).Gold, Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina II (Tel Aviv 1962), “Mold. Banila” (JewishGen translation buk2_092a)
• Possible The Brechers of Sereth in Bistrița: the Bistrița Jewish registers (read on the scans, Confirmed) show a second Kohen family named Brecher from Sereth — Hoschia Brecher and Malke Adelstein of Buczacz, their children Roza and David (1838), David the distiller’s and Ruben’s families, and Hersch of Naszód. A link to Reuven Mordechai is only Possible; none of them is on the tree. The full note is on Reuven Mordechai’s card.Romanian National Archives, Bistrița-Năsăud County Service, collection BN-F-00055 (Jewish civil registers), inventory 166, units 118, 121 and 123 (descopera.arhivelenationale.ro, cota cid 9342297, 9342303, 9342305), read on the scans 27 Oct 2026; JewishGen Hungarian Births and Marriages index rows for Bistrița, Kolozsvár and Oradna (Romanian National Archives registers 122, 787, 789, 1024, 1477, 1478 and Cluj 71)
• Likely Josef Brecher (Yosef bar Yaakov HaKohen, b. 4 Aug 1874, Siret) finished the Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi gymnasium at Rădăuți in 1898/99: the graduates’ index entry is Confirmed; that it is this Josef is Likely.Graduates of the Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi gymnasium 1884–1997, record Eudoxiu0305, GeneaSearch Czernowitz index (czernowitz.geneasearch.net; index by Edgar Hauster, courtesy Dr. Marian Olaru)
• Confirmed Two more children of Jankel (Jakob) Brecher and Edel née Fischler of Rădăuți, from the civil birth index: Chaje (b. 1889), named as “daughter of Jakob Brecher, merchant, and Edel Brecher” in the births of her daughters Rebeka Adele (17 May 1919) and Rachel Lea Bernstein (22 Oct 1922) by Mechel (Mendel) Bernstein; and Rubin Marcus (b. 29 Sep 1884), who used his mother’s surname as Rubin Markus Fischler and married Amalia (Malke) Klotz civilly on 26 Aug 1920 (marriage vol. V no. 55). Edel’s parents were Chaim and Resi (Jeti) Gitel Fischler of Rădăuți. The records are Confirmed (index); Jankel himself stays a Possible son of Eisig, since no record names his parents.JewishGen, Bukovina Births (index of the Rădăuți civil birth register, Suceava branch of the Romanian National Archives, Hauster/Reisch transcription); Reisch “Seven Seals” Rădăuți indexes; https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/
• Possible The two candidate graves of R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen were read in full: Aizik son of Eliezer Katz (Siret Old Cemetery C-80, died 8 Nisan 5588 = 23 March 1828) and Aizik son of Dov Katz (Sanie no. 251, died 23 Tammuz 5591 = 4 July 1831). Both stones carry priestly hands, so both men were Kohanim; neither names a wife, child, surname, Brecher or Aryeh Leibush. Whichever is his would name his father, Eliezer or Dov. Both stay Possible; the titles give only a slight lean to the 1831 stone. Photos in the gallery. Re-checked on the photographs (27 October 2026): the priestly hands are carved on both stones, and also on the 1793 stone of Meir son of Eliezer Katz (Sanie no. 186).Jewish Galicia & Bukovina tombstone records 226396 (https://jgaliciabukovina.net/226396/tombstone/tombstone-aizik-son-eliezer-katz) and 226564 (https://jgaliciabukovina.net/226564/tombstone/tombstone-aizik-son-dov-katz); Silviu Sanie, Dăinuire prin piatră (Bucharest 2000), no. 251
• Likely Chaim Yoel Brecher HaKohen appears as “Chayim Yoel Brecher, son of Yehuda” on the list of Siret’s Holocaust victims (no dates given). That this is our Chaim Yoel, son of Avraham Yehuda, is Likely: one more source for his death in 1941. His link to Avraham Yehuda keeps its own grade.Jews of Siret (Sereth): Victims of the Holocaust, page 2, Radauti KehilaLinks, https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/radauti/siretlist2.html
• Likely Mendel and Beile Korber, the parents of Chewed Faust née Korber, died at Rădăuți in 1885 (aged 58) and 1887 (aged 56) — Likely the same couple. They were Reize Korber’s generation, so they were not her parents; Mendel was possibly her brother or cousin (Possible).JewishGen, Bukovina birth, marriage and death indexes (Romanian National Archives, Suceava branch; Edgar Hauster index): Rădăuți deaths M2 no. 76; Solka births 1889–1898; Rădăuți marriages 1888 no. 3
• Confirmed Chana Itte Knobler’s family, the in-laws of Riwen Mordche Brecher: her parents Israel Feiwisch Knobler and Sure Judith Frenkel, both of Buczacz, married civilly at Gura Humorului on 22 January 1888. Her brothers and sisters: Chaje Bruche (m. Dawid Zellermajer 1888, eight children 1890–1909), an infant son (1878), Schmiel Jacob (1880, m. Libe Balin 1907), Abraham (1883–1954), Berel (1885) and Feige (wife of Hersch Berenstein); and, Likely, Moshe (1875–1942, Moghilev). Riwen Mordche Brecher was the witness at his nephew Isak Zellermajer’s birth on 13 December 1897. The list is on Israel Feiwisch Knobler’s card.JewishGen Romania–Bukovina births, marriages and deaths indexes (Gura Humorului, Poiana Micului, Solca); Gura Humorului memorial book, necrology (JewishGen translation gur206)
• Possible Abraham Bercie (Bernhard) Fränkel of Zabłotów (c. 1855–1907), son of Leibisch and Lea Fränkel of Buczacz — the same parents’ names and town as Sure Judith Knobler née Frenkel — is a Possible brother of hers. His 1899 marriage and 1907 death were read on the original scans (records Confirmed), which are in the documents archive.AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 3062, act 9, and sygn. 4015, act 5; via JRI-Poland / AGAD metrykalia album

• Possible Jankel (Jakob, Jankel Wolf) Brecher and Edel née Fischler, a couple married only religiously, had at least four children at Rădăuți: Schloime (b. 7 Oct 1881), Rubin Marcus (b. 29 Sep 1884; later known as Rubin Markus Fischler, a merchant and later a carter in Rădăuți, who married Amalia (Malke) Klotz, daughter of Nute Klotz and Rifke née Fischler, on 26 Aug 1920), Chaje (b. 1889; later the wife of Mechel (Mendel) Bernstein, with daughters born at Rădăuți in 1919 and 1922) and Chaim Hersch (1889–1890). Edel was the daughter of Chaim and Resi (Jeti) Gitel Fischler of Rădăuți. Because the couple never married civilly, the children were registered under the mother, and no Rădăuți record names Jankel’s own parents. Jankel Wolf may be Eisig’s son Jankel (aged 31 in March 1890): his full name is that of the Rav of Sereth, Eisig’s mother’s father, and he named sons Rubin Marcus (Reuven Mordechai, Eisig’s father’s name) and Chaim Hersch. Possible only; not on the tree. Open question: whether he is the Jankel Brecher, aged 34, who died at Rădăuți on 25 Feb 1890 — the index gives that man no spouse or parents (Radautz Jewish birth register index, Hauster & Reisch: vol. 3 p. 182 no. 126; vol. 4 p. 24 no. 141; vol. 4 p. 198 no. 114; death register vol. III p. 84 no. 107).
• Possible Leo Brecher of Gura Humorului, 1906–1911: with Ulrich Frohner he founded a Jewish social club in the town and was elected its chairman, with Moses Knobler among the members elected; he also sat on the town’s new merchants’ committee with Moses Knobler (Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 Nov 1911, pp. 4–5); a Gura Humorului charity event of March 1911 thanked “teacher Brecher” and Leo Brecher (Czernowitzer Tagblatt, 29 Mar 1911, p. 4), and he arranged another event in 1906 (Czernowitzer Allgemeine, 10 Mar 1906, p. 4). Riwen Mordche and Chana Itte (née Knobler) lived there then, and Meir’s wife Freide was a Frohner of Siret. Who Leo was is not known; he is not their son Jakob Leib, who was 16 in 1911. Kinship Possible; no link proposed. Page in the gallery.
• Possible Salzberger in Siret, 1807–1833: Gold’s History of the Jews in Bukowina (vol. I, pp. 26–44) lists “Noah Salzberger” at Sereth as the community’s salaried religious adviser (dayan), at 160 florins a year; vol. II, p. 105 gives the same man as “Nathan” Salzberger, religion teacher of Sereth in 1807–1833. These are the years R’ Yaakov Zeev was Av Beit Din of Sereth, and Rivka was registered née Salzberger, so this official was possibly close kin. Possible; the German original (Gold, Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina, Tel Aviv 1958) would show the exact first name.
• Possible Chewed Faust née Korber, died at Solka on 15 Mar 1915 aged 58 (born about 1857 at Rădăuți), “daughter of Mendel and Beile Korber in Sereth”, was of Freide’s generation, not Reize’s. A Mendel Korber died at Rădăuți on 7 Aug 1885 aged 58 and a Beile Korber there on 29 Nov 1887 aged 56 — Likely Chewed’s parents — so they were Reize Korber’s own age and cannot have been her parents. Mendel was possibly Reize’s brother or cousin, which would make Chewed a cousin of Freide (Possible). Other Korbers of Sereth of Reize’s generation — Moses Hersch Korber × Taube Fischler, Chaje Jite Korber × Simche Beer, Fulie Korber × Mortko Bernthal, Jossel Korber (d. 1910 aged 80) — are possible siblings of Reize, none linked (Possible; JewishGen Bukovina birth, marriage and death indexes).
• Possible Benjamin Hersch Bernstein, born 1876 at Milișăuți, son of Chaim Jide (Juda) and Ruchel Ziwje Bernstein of Rădăuți, carries the exact name of Lea Bernstein’s father Benjamin Hersch, and his family lived in Rădăuți as Lea did. Chaim Jide is possibly Lea’s brother. Possible; collateral only (JewishGen Bukovina births 1901–1908). Newly checked in the Rădăuți indexes: Ruchel Ziwie Bernstein died at Rădăuți on 10 Feb 1900, aged 58 (Radautz death index, vol. 3, p. 332, no. 12; Confirmed, index); Benjamin Hersch Bernstein married Rifke Pikholz at Rădăuți in 1902 (Radautz marriage index; Confirmed, index); and Abraham Bernstein (Appelgasse 1653) and Jakob Bernstein (Woitinellergasse 2049), fruit dealers at Rădăuți in the 1909 census, were very probably Benjamin Hersch’s brothers, since each named a son Chaim Juda in 1897–1901 (census entries Confirmed, index; brotherhood Likely). That this family belongs to Lea Bernstein’s stays Possible.
• Possible Ruchel Brecher who died in Rădăuți on 23 May 1915 aged 48 (buried 25 May; death register vol. 6, no. 118) may be Eisig’s daughter Ruchel, who was 23 in March 1890. The indexed entry names no parents, so this is Possible until the register page is read.
• Possible Rădăuți cemetery, other Brecher graves checked against the cemetery index (JOWBR): Meite bat Yosef-Mordechai (d. 28 Jun 1931) lies in plot 23, row 4, the plot where Eisig (row 7) and Lea (row 9) are buried; Chana-Lea bat Pinchas HaKohen (about 1893–1978), plot 5, row 7; Leizer-Mordche (Moti, Markus) Brecher (1895–1948); Lea bat Yitshak (d. 1920, aged 80; the civil death index has “Brecher, Lea, died 5 Apr 1920, aged 80”, vol. 7, p. 497, no. 39 — Likely the same woman; she is not David Brecher of Siret’s wife, who was Chaje Breier); Moshe ben David (1869–1920). No record yet ties any of them to Eisig’s family. Possible.
• Possible Searched: Pinkas Brecher. The Czernowitz post office listed an undelivered registered letter for “Pinkas Brecher, Czernowitz” in January 1906 (Czernowitzer Tagblatt, 19 Jan 1906, p. 4). A Pinkas Brecher of Rădăuți, born about 1861 in Zaleszczyki, son of Hersch and Ester, married Matel Kaswan at Dorna Watra in 1900; their daughters were born in Sniatyn. That is a Galician Brecher family; nothing ties either Pinkas to Eisig’s.
• Possible Searched: Mordko Hersch Brecher, named in a Czernowitz court notice of July 1906, was of Sergie (Sergii) in the Putila district, not of Siret: in August 1916 a refugee from Vyzhnytsia, then in Upper Austria, searched for “Mordko Hersch Brecher aus Sergie Putilla” (Neue Freie Presse, 1 Aug 1916, p. 23). No tie to the tree.
• Possible Searched: Israel Brecher of the February 1868 Czernowitz court notices was a Czernowitz man; in October 1869 Israel Brecher and Juda Brecher gave to the Czernowitz collection for the famine-stricken Jews of western Russia (Czernowitzer Zeitung, 27 Oct 1869, p. 2). A different Israel Brecher died in Czernowitz on 13 June 1910 in his 52nd year. No tie to the tree.
• Possible Searched: Reine-Gitl (Gusta) Bartfeld née Gensler (1904–1975), daughter of Shimon HaLevi, buried in Rădăuți. No record found ties her to Chaim (Hyman) Gensler’s family.
• Possible Searched: the mothers of Reuven Mordechai and of Rivka Salzberger. No record found names either. The Siret stones of Yitzchak Aizik’s children name only their father, and Eisig’s 1890 marriage entry names his parents but not his grandparents. Rivka’s mother is shown as Leah bat Yehuda, the Rav’s wife, which rests on the stones of the Rav and his wife, not on a record naming Rivka (Likely).
• Possible A Juda Brecher died in Czernowitz on 20 Apr 1907, aged 83 (JOWBR J_BUCOVINA_0045808); his son was the Vienna advocate Dr Ignatz Brecher, and his wife Rifka owned the 1869 Czernowitz firm “Rifka Brecher”, which is therefore unrelated to our family (Czernowitzer Tagblatt, 21 Apr 1907 and 29 Jun 1909; Wiener Zeitung, 1 May 1869). Whether he is the “Juda Brecher of Sereth” who leased the Volovăț mill in 1869 is unproven; the Czernowitz shopkeeper and the Siret lessee are more likely two men. How any Juda Brecher was related to Eisig: Possible at most.
• Possible Two Riwen Mordche Brechers: a second Riwen Mordche Brecher, a grocer of Gura Humorului, married Beila Spasser of Bojan on 30 Jul 1896 and had a daughter Rifka (b. 13 Dec 1899). He is a different man from our Riwen Mordche (b. 1869 Volovăț), the tavern keeper at Mănăstirea Humorului who married Chana Itte Knobler on 17 Mar 1895; any undated “Riwen Mordche Brecher, Gura Humorului” record has to be checked against the wife’s name (JewishGen “Bukovina – Births” index).
• Possible A Toni Brecher, daughter of a Mordche Brecher, was born at Mănăstirea Humorului on 18 April 1906 and died there on 17 February 1907; she may be a daughter of Riwen Mordche and Chana Itte (Possible). The index names the father only as Mordche (JewishGen Bukovina Death Records, Gura Humorului district).
• Possible A Rifka Brecher, daughter of an Abraham Brecher, died at Rădăuți on 18 May 1892, aged 14 months; she may be a daughter of Abraham and Miriam (Possible). Her birth would fall only about nine months before Regina’s, and several Abraham Brechers may have lived in Rădăuți then (JewishGen burial registry, JOWBR record J_BUCOVINA_0020775).
• Possible Clara Brecher of Cernăuți appears in the Moghilev ghetto in a 1940s money-transfer index; she may be Clara b. 1900, daughter of Reuven Mordechai and Chana Itte (Possible).
• Possible Isaac Kahan of Sereth, on the c. 1799 list of Galician and foreign Jews found at the visitation (record Confirmed; a link to our Kohanim of Sereth is Possible, on the name alone).
• Possible Eva Fronerin of Sadagura, Bukovina Jewish tax list 1797, no. 227: the Frohner surname of Meir’s wife Freide (record Confirmed; kinship Possible).
• Possible A 1956 Bronx marriage licence of Conrad Ayers and Sarah Brecher may be Harry’s daughter Sarah (Possible; a common name).
• Possible A Max Brecher was photographic supervisor of a 1955 Monumental Films production in Baltimore (Possible that this is Max Isaac Brecher).
• Possible “Marcus Brecher, Siret”, named as nearest relative by the “Jacob Brecher” (Leon) on the S.S. Rotterdam list of 19 Jan 1921, may be Leon’s father Riwen Mordche (Mordche ~ Marcus) (Possible; the list does not state the relation).
• Possible Nathan Salzberger, religion teacher of Sereth 1807–1833 (record Confirmed: Gold, Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina II, p. 105) — the only early Salzberger found in Sereth; kinship to Rivka née Salzberger Possible.
• Possible Sosye bat Yaakov Zeev, a young woman, d. 9 Adar 5656 = 23 Feb 1896, buried beside Rivka in the Siret New Cemetery (stone BC-18) — possibly a daughter of Yaakov Zeev HaKohen ben Reuven Mordechai (d. 1886) (Possible).
• Possible Yehuda Zvi Hirsh Frenkel son of Aryeh Zeev, d. 4 Av 5676 = 3 Aug 1916, Buczacz (stone BH-28) — possibly a son of Leibisch Frenkel of Buczacz, father of Sure Judith Knobler née Frenkel (Possible).
• Possible A late civil registration of 1937 records Juda Hersch Frenkel, aged 85, who died at Buczacz in 1916 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery there (Confirmed; AGAD Warsaw, fond 300, sygn. 4192, entry 13, scan 6); very probably the man of stone BH-28 (Likely: same name, town and year); kinship to the family Possible.
• Possible Malka Frenkel daughter of R’ Aryeh, d. 20 Nisan 5666 (the 4th day of Chol HaMoed Pesach) = 15 April 1906, Buczacz (stone BB-29; the date is Confirmed: the epitaph reads “died on the 4th day of Chol HaMoed Pesach 5666”, and the earlier reading “4 Iyar = 29 Apr 1906” was a misreading of the 4th day as the 4th of Iyar, not an Old Style date) — possibly kin of Sure Judith Knobler née Frenkel, whose father was Leibisch (Aryeh Leib) Frenkel of Buczacz (Possible: Aryeh is a common name). Stone photo in the gallery (Jewish Galicia & Bukovina, stone 186775).
• Possible Rachel Leah Brecher, 4 July 1916 – 3 December 1983, per a family-tree profile only (no record seen yet) — perhaps Harry and Mollie’s Rachel (Possible).
• Possible Hana daughter of Yitzchak Aizik, d. 20 Tevet 5555 = 11 Jan 1795, Siret Old Cemetery, stone A3-18 (“daughter of R’ Yitzchak Aizik of blessed memory”) — the earliest stone with the family’s patriarch’s name; whether her father is R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen or an earlier namesake is not known (Possible; the stone carries no HaKohen).
• Possible Sachne Hinde, a young unmarried woman, daughter of Yaakov Zeev, d. 22 Iyar (year not legible), Siret New Cemetery, stone AE-19 — the stone does not call her father the rabbi, so she may or may not be a daughter of R’ Yaakov Zeev of Sereth (Possible).
• Possible Who was R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen’s father? Two Kohanim named Aizik lie in the Siret Old Cemetery in the right years to be R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen himself, father of Reuven Mordechai (he had died by about 1832, when his grandson Eisig was named for him): Aizik son of Eliezer Katz, d. 8 Nisan 5588 = 23 Mar 1828 (stone C-80), and Aizik son of Dov Katz, d. 23 Tammuz 5591 = 4 Jul 1831 (no. 251 in Silviu Sanie’s survey). Both stones carry the priestly hands. Neither names a child, and no known grandchild was named Eliezer or Dov, so neither can be chosen (Possible, two competing candidates; a Meir son of Eliezer Katz, d. about 1794 (stone dated 5554/1794), may be the first man’s brother). If either is right, the line reaches a Kohen born in the mid-1700s. (Jewish Galicia and Bukovina, Siret Old Jewish Cemetery documentation, 2021–22)
• Possible Searched for the 1600s, not reached (23 Oct 2026). The earliest documented ancestor on this tree is R’ Aryeh of Stryj, father of R’ Yaakov Zeev, Rav of Sereth (born about 1764, died 1844), so Aryeh was born before about 1745. Both sources that name him give no father: the rabbi’s stone I-33 reads “Yaakov Zeev bar Ari’ of blessed memory, of Stryj”, and the introduction to Chedvat Yaakov (Marghita 1938) says only “ben Aryeh”. The six books of R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf Brecher of Banila name him only as “Yaakov Zeev ben Zvi” (Shiloh, title page) and print no family lineage; no printed lineage for the Rav of Sereth was found. The Siret Old Cemetery has 288 documented stones from 1750 on, the generation born in the late 1600s, but no stone there can be tied to the family. The Rădăuți and Volovăț registers (JewishGen Bukovina vital records, Suceava County archives) take the line no further than Ruben Mordko Brecher and Rifka née Salzberger of Sereth.
• Possible Searched again for the 1600s (23 Oct 2026, evening): nothing found that names R’ Aryeh of Stryj’s father. Sefer Stryj (Tel Aviv, 1962), pp. 17–33 (JewishGen translation), names a Leib, silk merchant, in the 1743 Stryj fire-damage list, and a Rabbi Zeev Wolf, head of the Stryj court (“from 1632” as printed, in a list of 18th-century rabbis). Those names echo “Aryeh of Stryj” and his son “Yaakov Zeev”, but nothing ties either man to the family, so neither is a candidate (not even Possible). The fathers of the two Aizik Katz candidates, Eliezer Katz and Dov Katz, have no stones among the 1,475 documented Siret epitaphs, so neither line goes further back.
• Possible Josef Brecher of Siret as a guardian, 1910. A court notice of July 1910 names “the minor Safta Topala, through her guardian Josef Brecher, Advokaturskandidat (candidate lawyer) in Sereth”. It confirms that Josef Brecher of Siret was a candidate lawyer in 1910, between his law studies (1903–06) and “Dr. J. Brecher” (1911). Safta Topala is not a family member, and the notice says nothing about Josef’s own parents. (Czernowitzer Zeitung, 22 Jul 1910, p. 4; ANNO: https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=cez&datum=19100722&seite=4) Record Confirmed; kinship to our line still Possible.
• Possible Feiwel, Simche and Jossel Brecher, 1905–1914. Feiwel (Feibel) Brecher of Theodorestie (Todirești, near Suceava) appears in an engagement notice “Anna Malek – Feiwel Brecher, engaged” (Czernowitzer Tagblatt, 13 Oct 1905, p. 8) and in court notices of the Suczawa district court in 1912, 1913 and 1914. The June 1912 notice was brought by Feiwel against Simche Brecher and Jossel Brecher, “whose whereabouts are unknown”. No notice says how the three were related, and none names a parent. (Czernowitzer Zeitung, 11 Jun 1912, p. 7; 22 Feb 1913, p. 4; 14 Feb 1914, p. 5.) Possible kin only, not on the tree.
• Possible Isser Brecher, born 1890, of Wolczynetz (Volcineț), Sereth district, an infantryman, is listed as a prisoner of war in Russia in the Austrian casualty list of 28 Jan 1916, p. 9 (ANNO: https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=vll&datum=19160128&seite=9). Possible kin only; no parents named. The same man is very probably Isser Brecher, born 10 Jul 1890 at Volcineț, merchant of Siret, who married Rosa Surkes at Vicovu de Sus in 1921; he carried his mother Malke Brecher’s surname (father David Meth of Sereth). See “Brechers not yet connected” on the Latest page. Kinship to our family Possible.
• Possible Other Brechers in the Bukovina press, 1863–1911, none tied to our line: Adolf Brecher, “Privater aus Sereth”, a visitor at Franzensbad spa (2 Aug 1908); “Chalin” (probably Chaim) Brecher, in a list of donors to the 1911 flood relief (Czernowitzer Zeitung, 9 Nov 1911, p. 4); Mordko Hersch Brecher in a court notice of 11 Jul 1906 (his town is not legible); Israel Brecher in Czernowitz court notices of 1865 and 1868; and Berl Leib and Malka Brecher of Sadagura (court notice from Sadagura, Bukowina, 1 Sep 1865). Listed so they are not searched again. Possible kin at most.
• Possible Searched for the parents of Reuven Mordechai Brecher HaKohen and of Rivka Salzberger (23 Oct 2026, evening). The full text of the Czernowitz German-language papers 1862–1919 has no Salzberger of Siret at all and no Ruben, Riwen or Mordko Brecher of Siret. Nothing names Reuven Mordechai’s mother or Rivka’s mother. Their fathers stay as they are on the tree: R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen (stone G-35) and R’ Yaakov Zeev, Rav of Sereth (Likely).
• Possible The 1928 notices name five sons of Ettel Brecher née Weissbach: Josef, Moritz, Alter, Friedrich and Ludwig Brecher, living at Pojorâta (Câmpulung district). Isak of Banila, son of the first wife Liba, is not among them, so they may be her sons from an earlier marriage. Whose sons they are is open (Possible); they are not shown on the tree as R’ Yaakov Zeev Wolf’s sons (Ostjüdische Zeitung, 29 Jul 1928, p. 6 and 24 Aug 1928, p. 4).
• Possible A Jankel Brecher died at Rădăuți on 25 Feb 1890 aged 34 (Rădăuți deaths vol. 3 p. 68 no. 24). The index gives him no spouse, parents or house, so it is not known whether he was Jankel Wolf, Edel Fischler’s husband. If he was, Jankel Wolf cannot be Eisig’s son Jankel, who was alive on 18 Mar 1890; if not, the link to Eisig stays open. Possible only (Reisch “Seven Seals” Rădăuți indexes).
• Possible Mayer Brecher, born at Rădăuți on 14 Dec 1874, son of Hersch Brecher and Henzie née Kurman (Rădăuți births vol. 1 p. 81 no. 134). The record is Confirmed; a link to our line is Possible only.
• Possible Other Brecher families of Siret in the Rădăuți registers, probably not of our priestly line: David Brecher of Siret (b. c. 1825, d. 31 Mar 1920 aged 95) and Chaje Breier, married (civil) 26 Jan 1881; their son Moses Breier alias Brecher married Scheindel Halpern in 1902, and his stone reads “Moshe ben David” without HaKohen. Also Mendel Brecher × Beile Sommer (1901) and Leib Brecher × Czarne Löbel (1920). Records Confirmed; kinship Possible that they are unrelated (Reisch “Seven Seals” Rădăuți marriage and death indexes).
• Possible Mancie Brecher married Jakob Jossel Hörer at Rădăuți on 19 Jun 1890 (vol. II p. 94 no. 10), the entry right after Eisig’s 1890 marriage; the record is Confirmed, her parents are not in the index (an unchecked reading makes her a daughter of Fischel Brecher of Siret). Fischel Brecher was a co-owner of a Siret property with Eisig and Aron Leib Brecher (Czernowitzer Zeitung, 26 Apr 1912, p. 6). Fischel as Eisig’s brother, and Mancie as his niece: Possible.
• Possible Dr Josef Brecher, a Siret-born lawyer: a student of Siret in 1903, a trainee advocate in Siret by 1910, and by 1923–24 “our countryman Dr Josef Brecher in New York”, who sent money to the Jewish home for the aged in Siret and passed on gifts from the Young Sereth Society of New York (Ostjüdische Zeitung 17 Aug 1923 and 29 Nov 1924; Czernowitzer Tagblatt 3 Jul 1903; Czernowitzer Zeitung 22 Jul 1910). Records Confirmed; one man Likely; kinship to Eisig unknown.
• Possible Leiser Brecher of Siret: treasurer of the Siret “Erez Israel” society in 1922 and a member of Siret’s appointed town council from November 1928 (Ostjüdische Zeitung, 23 May 1922; Czernowitzer Morgenblatt, 30 Nov 1928). Records Confirmed; kinship unknown.
• Possible The name “Rifka Brecher” alone proves nothing: at least three women of that name lived in Bukovina in the same years (our Rivka of Siret, d. 1890; Rifka, mother of Dr Ignatz Brecher, d. Czernowitz 1909; and others in the indexes). Our Rivka rests on the 1890 register and the 1869 birth entry; the Siret stone BC-17 is very probably hers (it gives no surname or husband).
• Possible Dr I. (Isiu) Salzberger was Banila’s physician in the 1920s–30s and served on the same committees as Jakob and Isak Brecher; same surname as Rivka’s family; kinship Possible only (Ostjüdische Zeitung, 19 Jul 1932, p. 3).
• Possible Earliest records (possible links): Isaac Kohan (also written Kohen), a taxpayer of the Suczawa Jewish community, family 117, 3rd quarter 1789, and his son Samuel Kohen, born 4 June 1789 — the earliest dated record yet of a Kohen named Isaac in the community that then included the Jews of Sereth. The records are Confirmed. The 1789 pages give no place of residence and no father’s name, so whether he was of Sereth or Suczawa, and whether he is R’ Yitzchak Aizik HaKohen or either Aizik Katz of the Siret stones, cannot be shown: Possible only (DAChO f. 1, op. 1, spr. 183, pp. 13, 30, 38, 40; scans in the documents archive).
• Possible Earliest records (possible links): “Isaac Kahan” at Sereth, 26 February 1799, lodging with Joseph Achenwal, on a list of Jews found off the registers during the community inspections; the list notes that he and Michael Kentzinger had been sent away from the community some years before. The record is Confirmed; that he is Isaac Kohan of 1789 is Likely (same community, his host Joseph Achenwal was a community elder in 1789, and Kentzinger was family 62 on the 1789 list); any tie to our family is Possible (DAChO f. 1, op. 1, spr. 925, pp. 46–47).
• Possible Earliest records (possible links): Michael Korber, Jewish farmer at Muschenitza (Mușenița, about 12 km from Siret), on the Suczawa community’s 1797 tax list, family 68, first tax class. The record is Confirmed — the original, ten years earlier, behind the 1807 lead on Reize Korber’s card. Kinship to Reize Korber, Mendel Korber or the Siret Korbers is Possible only (DAChO f. 1, op. 1, spr. 925, p. 29).
• Possible Earliest records (possible links): Meir son of Eliezer Katz, Siret Old Cemetery, Sanie no. 186: “פ״נ איש הר״ר מאיר בהר״ר אליעזר כ״ץ”, died 8 Tevet 5554 — 11 December 1793 by the Hebrew date (the cemetery survey files the stone under 1794). Priestly hands are carved on the stone, so he was a Kohen. Same father’s name as Aizik son of Eliezer Katz (d. 1828): a Possible brother; nothing on paper links him to the Brechers (Jewish Galicia & Bukovina tombstone record 226544, https://jgaliciabukovina.net/226544/tombstone/tombstone-meir-son-eliezer-katz).
• Possible Searched (27 October 2026, the earliest lists): the 1792 Bukovina Jewish tax book covers only the Czernowitz district and does not reach Sereth or Suczawa; the 1797 and 1798 Sereth and Suczawa taxpayer lists name no Katz, Kohen, Brecher, Breher, Salzberger or Frohner, and no Korber except Michael at Muschenitza (the families then carried imposed German surnames); the 1774 Moldavian census gives head-counts only for Siret and Suceava, with no names. Hebrew books: no Kohen of Sereth or Suczawa appears in the approbation and subscriber indexes for 1750–1830; Sereth subscribers first appear in 1836 (Limudei HaTeva, Czernowitz), seven names, none ours.

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