While many of my Moskovits relatives remained in Europe, my grandmother Hermine and her brother Moricz were, in fact, not the only family members who settled in the United States. Census, immigration, and vital records, as well as family stories, suggest that my great-great-grandfather Avraham Moskovits had a brother Samuel born about 1825 whose son Markusz may have been the first Moskovits to immigrate to these shores. 

Markusz (Mark) Moskovits was born in Ungvar in December 1846.   His  passport application states that he came to New York in May 1882, more than a decade before other family members. Shortly before (or soon after) arriving on the Lower East Side, he married Hannah, who was born in Hungary in 1860.  Samuel Juda, Mark’s oldest son, was born in Ungvar in April 1881.  A daughter Sarah was also born in Hungary, probably in 1882.  Mark’s other children were born in New York City including Lillie (June 1889), Esther (about 1890), Bella (February 1892), Milton (May 1894) and Herbert (April 1896).

Samuel Juda’s mother may have died in Hungary because, according to the 1900 Census, Hannah reported having six living children, not seven including Samuel.   According to Bud Moskowitz, grandson of Herbert, the youngest of Mark and Hannah’s children, after Hannah’s death in about 1915, Sarah, the eldest daughter became a surrogate mother for Herbert, who was 15 years younger.   Daughter Lillian married Max Lesser and died in New York City in February 1957. Esther married William Mittleman and died in August 1949.  Milton, who changed his name to Michael Martens, married Dottie and had three children.  He died in Florida in 1969.

Herbert’s son Bud recalled hearing that his grandfather was a judge in Ungvar but Mark’s death certificate gives his occupation as “merchant”.  His April 1907 passport application does not list his occupation or the purpose of a trip that he took to Europe later that year.  Mark identified himself as a widower on the SS Blucher passenger manifest n August 1907 when he returned from Europe but Hannah is listed in the 1910 Census so the reference may have been to his first wife.  After Hannah did die in about 1916, Mark lived in the Bronx until his death in about 1925.

Mark’s former sister-in-law, Rosza Kron arrived at Ellis Island in August 1906 with her sons  Erwin b.1895 and Arpad b.1899, both natives of Ungvar.  Rosza reportedly divorced their father Moricz  because of a suspected dalliance with a maid. Rosza reported that she was going to her brother-in-law Markusz (Mark) Moskovits at 272 East 7th Street on the Lower East Side.

Erwin's sons Sheldon and Marvin Moskowitz, recalled the names of their grandfather and great-grandfather, but don't know their relationship to my great-grandfather Markusz. They did remember that Rosza had a bakery shop in the Highbridge area of the Bronx. The 1920 Census reports that she was living with her sons at 657 Cauldwell Avenue. Rosza died in 1952.

Moskovits was a very common name in northeastern Hungary.  Nevertheless, when the same names occur among residents of a community or are found on matzevot (headstones) on graves that are close together in a cemetery, the possibility of a familial relationship increases.  Another clue is when names appear together on a passenger manifest. 

The passenger manifest for the Saxonia, the ship on which my 17-year old father Elemer arrived in January, 1921, lists his name next to 18-year old Nathan Moskowitz.  The two young men were likely either cousins or friends.  Both reported that they spoke German--the only two passengers on a list of 19 Czech nationals who are so identified--and neither is identified as Jewish.  Nathan's gave his last residence as Kosice and said that he was born in Poruba. He identified his closest relative in Czechoslovakia as Mor Moskovits from Pombos (probably a misspelling of Poruba) and said he was going to Cleveland to his brother Samuel.

Nathan’s brother Samuel, who had arrived at Ellis Island in 1910 at the age of 17, was employed as a motorman for Cleveland's City Railway Company in 1920. Sam (the name he originally gave, which is crossed out on the manifest) reported that his last residence was Orosz Vagas and names his father Moricz Moskovits of Orosz Vagas as his relative.  Orosz Vagas is another name for Oroszporuba, a place in the Sztropko district of Zemplen county that is now Ruska Poruba, Slovakia.  Samuel's birthplace is difficult to decipher from the passenger manifest but appears to be Izvik Hornsuma Olyka. In 1917, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, he reported that he was born in Homonna Olyka, Hungary, a shtetl in the Mezolaborczi district of Zemplen not far from Orosz Vagas.

Death records and obituaries for Norman Moskowitz, who died in Cleveland in 1933, suggest that Nathan Americanized his name.  Sam provided the information for his brother’s death certificate listing his parents as Moricz Moskovits and Fani Blaugrund.   Between Galicia and Hungary: The Jews of Stropkov, Melody Amsel’s beautifully crafted history of the Stropkov Jewish community, lists Fani, who was born in Orosz Vagas in 1868, among those who perished.  On May 23, 1942 she was deported with her daughter Anna, her son-in-law, Salomon Grosberger, and her grandchildren Anton, Barbara (Boriska), Dezider, and Marta. 

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                Copyright ©  Vivian Kahn, 2008.  All rights reserved.

                                        Updated 3 January 2009