Presenter: Steve Stein
Format: Download MP3 Audio

Being a Farfel from Nyasvizh, Belarus (or from anywhere) is unique. Having such a unique surname has both advantages and challenges. In the case of my wife?s grandfather, Benjamin Fine ne Farfel, it has made research about him and other relatives simultaneously easier and maddening, but its uniqueness has also led me to two singular resources: the collected papers of noted philosopher, professor and scholar Morris Raphael Cohen, and the Holocaust memoir of ghetto fighter and Jewish partisan David Farfel, recently translated by his children into English. Both resources mention people well-known, such as Albert Einstein and Tuvia Bielski, as well as people not-so-well-known, such as David?s cheder teacher Rabbi Shmuel Damesek and various previously-unknown relatives of Professor Cohen. This talk discusses those advantages and challenges, and the broader impact of those resources beyond Farfel family research.