WECHSLERS AND REIBACHS

Leib "Leon" Wechsler and his wife Ruckel "Rachel" Raibach left Jaroslaw between 1835 and 1845. The last "sign of life" is a confirmation of the birth of  their son Isreal in Jarosław. No further traces, documenting their whereabouts exist before 1845, the birth year of  their daughter Esther "Stella", who was born in Trieste .

We know that the couple came to Trieste with at least two children, Samuel and Israel. Samuel, like his sister Esther, remained in Trieste. Both siblings are buried there with their families in the Jewish Cemetery of Trieste.  Israel married the Italian Jewess Rosa Camerini from Senigallia in the Marche.  The couple migrated to Alexandria, Egypt after the birth of her third child. It is highly probable, that  Leib and his wife Ruckel joined them in Egypt, but returned to Trieste, where they found their last rest.

Ruckel was 26 when her son Samuel was born in 1832 in Jarosław. Israel followed two years later. His birth and the birth of Esther lie 11 years apart. Given the day and age, it is highly unlikely, that no further children were born during this 11-year gap. To find the missing siblings - if they exist - we would have to know, when the couple left Jarosław and where they went to. In Israel's birth confirmation it is mentioned, that Leib and Ruckel were citizens of Jarosław. This is proven through the Heimatschein which was passed on to my grandfather Otto Wechsler through his father Hermann, Israel's son, who in turn inherited it from his father. An interesting side note, is that the Jewish congregation of Jarosław could not find a birth entry for Israel in their registries, they only were able to confirm the birth according to the existence of a family sheet. So either the folios were missing or Israel was born elsewhere, but recorded on the family sheet, as all family events, had to be reported to the place of origin.

It looks like Leib and Rukhel and their two sons were the only members of the Wechsler family to emigrate to Trieste from Jarosław. No further family members seem to have followed them.  Therefore, it can be assumed that the couple left back family members in Jarosław, depending on the date of departure, maybe even older children. The first Wechslers recorded in Trieste after Leib and Rukhel is a certain Bernhard Wechsler from Jassy in the 1870's and his wife Irene Wechsler, born Wintergrün.

While the Wechsler name appears sparingly in the still existing documents and registries of Jarosław, no link can be made between the few Wechslers who appear in the records of Jewish congregation of Jarosław in the 19th Century. With these exceptions, the Wechslers from Jarosław seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth. No emigration, no ship lists, no births, weddings or deaths.  There the only reference found to a Wechsler family in the early 19th Century, is an entry in the memorial pages of the Yizhov Bood for Jarosław for of the "complete Wechsler family" murdered in the Holocaust. Whoever remembered the family, could not mentioned their names.  As "Pages of Testimony" was created for them to date,  there were probably weren't surviving family members or friends elsewhere.

Some members of the Reibach family on the other hand are documented  in Jarosław at the beginning of the 20th century. The last birth found to date is that of Bronislaw Raibach, born in 1906 in Jarosław to Chaiem Isac Reibach and Gitla Heller, descendents of Meschel and Machla Reibach.

It is highly likely that Ruckel was also related to Meschel and Machla Raibach. It is highly likely that they were her parents, as we find no further references to Raibachs in Jarosław in the generation of Rukhel's parents. If Meschel and Machla were Ruckel's parents, then Ruckel had at least two brothers, Selig and Izak. Selig, the older one of both, was married to Jutta Morenberg. The only known child of theirs was Baruch Raibach. Baruch married Sime Stark, daughter of Benjamin Stark and Chana Wentus around 1864.  They had at least  eight children, of which two died in infancy, twins probably at birth as no names are given in the entry in the registries. Two sons, Samuel and Leib Raibach emigrated to the US in the late 1890's during the second Galician Emigration Wave. One, Samuel stayed in New York, the other, Leib (or Leon), moved to Oregan. Apparently they have descendents.

Benjamin Wolf Raibach, another son and the only daughter Chana Neshe, moved to Vienna. Benjamin married Bertha Beck in 1912, their first son Kurt was born in 1913. Both Benjamin and Bertha were deported to Minsk in 1941, where they were murdered. The fate of Kurt is unknown. It is also not known if further children existed. Chana Neshe married the widower Samuel Klepner from Przemysl, Poland in 1911. The couple had two children, Sidonia (1912) and Walter (1915). Chana Neshe was deported in 1942 to Izbica, Poland where she was murdered. The fate of her hasband and children is not known. Chaiem Isac, mentioned before, was also a son of Baruch and Sime. Their fate also remains unknown to date.

Izak was married to ... Metzger. The couple had a daughter, Sara, who married Abraham ... in ...  and a son, Meyer Hersche Raibach. Feige Sunne Raibach was his daughter and the daughter of ... She emigrated to the US in 1915. She was was 19 at the time of her emigration . On the ships list, her passage was paid by her aunt and she was planning on living with her cousin M. Slossberg.