Daddy knew of a Bistritzky relative by the name of Jacob Jan (J.J.) Bistritzky that lived in Tel Aviv and had tracked him down and had spoken to him many years ago but was never able to meet him.
In 2008 when I went to to visit Mommy & Daddy HK”M, and while working with Daddy on some of the genealogy, I asked Daddy to call and him and J.J. agreed to meet with us.
We drove to Tel Aviv and found his apartment and Daddy commented while waiting at his front door, that there was no Mezuzah. We sat with him for about an hour and while Daddy questioned him about his parents and grandparents and his relationship to Opi, I took some pictures of his pictures and you will notice one picture of Omi & Opi with aunt Becky. When we left daddy again commented that he didn’t have a Mezuzah so when we got back to Yerushalayim he got him a Mezuzah and had it put on his door.
Two weeks ago, while trying to figure out what I can do in his zchus, the idea of a Mezuzah campaign came up (Thank you Mendel Kugel) and I remembered how daddy was so bothered by him not having a Mezuzah that I felt that this would be a fitting way to honor him so we developed www.mezuzahme.com which will IY”H be up and running by this Sunday. We plan on kicking this off with a booth by the upcoming street fair on Broadway and than to start a West Side campaign in all the apartment buildings and hopefully the rest of Manhattan in the next few months.
Genealogy – Opi’s Father Yehuda Leib (daddy’s grandfather) who daddy is named after, had a brother by the name of Meir who was JJ’s father. JJ was born in Poland in 1920 and died in 2008.
Click his name to see a genealogy report for JJ Bistritzky
To read more about JJ Bistritzky click here
It is a picture of Opi, Omi, and MY mother (Aunt Becky).
Updated. Thanks
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