Menachem Mendel Richman 

My Mom's Dad's Mom's​ Dad

 

Menachem Mendel Richman came to America from a place in White Russia, now Belarus, called Slonim. He did not attend school, yet he learned how to read and write. While there, he was a part of the Czar's army, where he met his wife. Menachem arrived to Eliis Island on December 2, 1902. From there he moved to Savannah, Georgia to join the few people in America he knew. He earned his living as a merchant at a grocery store. In 1903, he sent for his wife, Sarah, and his first daughter. Sarah was from Grodno, which is now Belarus. She lived on the Russian side of the border with Poland. When Sarah and Sophie arrived at Ellis Island, they asked one of the Yiddish speaking people there to put them on a ship to Savannah. 

 

Slonim History

 

Slonim was a shtetl that dates back to the eleventh century. When under Lithuanian rule, the Lithuanian government encouraged Jewish immigration to go there becuase they saw how Poland prospered with so many Jews. In 1388, the Jews were given the same rights in Slonim as they did in Poland, and the Jews migrated that same time frame.

 

In the seventeenth century the citizens of Slonim began to have fights between Chasidim and Mitnagdim. As this died down, the Jews then faced Czar Nicolai the First's decree for Jewish boys to be prepped for the army. In the 1880s, with 80% of White Russia's population being Jewish, there came pogroms. Since the Rabbis were not fluent in Russian, a position called the Rabiner (Government Rabbi) was created to represent the Jews to the czarist government. 

 

In the early 1900s, antisemitism grew astronomically with the Russo-Japanese War. The Mitnagdim supported the Zionist movement, as socialism soared. At this scary time of conflict, my great-great-grandfather immigrated.