Pearl Chrabolowska, a sister of Eli Yankel, married Aryeh Leib Uzycki. Pearl was a jolly, outgoing person who used to dress in costume to celebrate Purim. Each Friday, she collected funds to provide challah for the poor. Unlike some other members of her religious family, Pearl decided to have a photograph taken which is shown on this tab. She died before 1898. Her husband, Aryeh Leib, was a pious Jew and may have sold flour for a living.

Pearl and Aryeh Leib had six children -- five boys and one girl. Some of the children had the occupation of dyer or farber; they often used the name Farber which was refined to Ferber in the United States.

Boruch

Boruch Ferber was the oldest son. He and his brother Nussan used the name Ferber in the U.S. Boruch was friendly with his first cousin Phineas Gordon. Boruch came to the U.S. in 1902-03 and lived until 1925. He is remembered for purchasing schnapps and vodka to distribute to relatives. He and his wife Elke had six children; son Harris (Hershel) lived to 101 or 102 years of age.

Nussan

Nussan (Nathan) Ferber came to the U.S. in 1909 and lived until 1937. He and his wife Sarah Raizel had eight children.

Beryl

Beryl, the youngest son, was in danger of being drafted into the Russian Army. His father, Aryeh Leib, sold a parcel of property to the town for a park and used the proceeds to finance Beryl's passage to Canada. After arriving in Canada, Beryl took the surname Hudson.

Hershel

Son Hershel remained in Bielsk and died there in 1923. He ran a grocery store at his residence at Mickiewicza #73.

Sarah Feige

The only daughter was Sarah Feige who married Schleme (Samuel) Halpern. She came to the U.S. in 1906. Libby Elson describes her as a "joy". Sarah Feige and Schleme had two sons and two daughters. In her later years, Sarah Feige lived in a "doll house" in the back of her son Meyer's house in Nanuet, New York. After initially working for cousin Phineas Gordon, Meyer developed a successful business in wire hangers, cutlery and cooking utensils. Sarah died in 1952.

Sender

Finally, son (Alexander) Sender was a farmer in Bielsk. He grew potatoes and all kinds of beans on land owned by others on the outskirts of Bielsk. He gave potatoes to the poor and beans to the rabbi's wife. After 1918, when Jews in Bielsk were permitted to own farmland, Sender purchased some of his own.

Chaya Mindel, Sender's wife, was the daughter of Rabbi Beryl and Zlotte Shpizkowski from Kamieniec, north of Brest. Unlike many other women at the time, Chaya Mindel attended cheder and learned Hebrew. She prayed aloud in the women's section and led the other women in worship. Chaya Mindel was a natural blonde with blue eyes. She and her husband lived at the rear of Mickiewicza #73.

Unfortunately, Sender was the only one of his brothers and sister to become a victim of the Holocaust. He was shot in Bielsk during the Nazi occupation as was his son-in-law Smzul Levin, a local expert in farming techniques. Smzul was one of the first Jews in Bielsk to perish when the Germans murdered 16 Jews to set an example for the rest of the population. Also murdered at this time was Ilke Chrabolowski's son, Menashe. (See Bielsk Podlaski Yizkor Book, page 410.) It is assumed that Chaya Mindel died at Treblinka, with the Bielsk ghetto transports of November 1942.

Three of the daughters of Sender and Chaya Mindel, Mina (Michli, Minnie), Lejczy (Lena) and Chana (Anita) had emigrated to the U.S. in 1913, 1917 and 1923 respectively. The latter two sisters migrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1930s.

"Angel of Life"

Libby, the youngest daughter of Sender and Chaya Mindel, had a strong desire to follow her sisters to America. However, when she was ready to go, it was quite difficult to obtain permission because of immigration quotas and the Depression. Libby attempted to persuade her cousin Meyer Halpern to sponsor her without success. According to his daughter Selma Sorkin, Meyer had been dissatisfied how other European relatives had adjusted to American business and culture and did not want to sponsor any additional people.

Finally in 1938, a cousin of Libby's, Charley Elson (not related to the Chrabolowskis) from Detroit, came to Bielsk to bring his father, Moishe Yosel Elson to America. (The Elson name came from son of Eliyahu Uzycki.) Charley was aware of the Nazi threat and came to bring his father to safety. However, Moishe Yosel did not want to go to the U.S. Charley was successful though in persuading his father to remarry which provided some companionship for him.

Libby urged her cousin Charley to substitute her name on the papers authorizing Moishe Yosel to emigrate. He agreed, and they took a train to the U.S. Consulate in Warsaw to make the substitution. However, the bureaucrats told them the new papers had to be originated from the U.S. Charley agreed to obtain these papers, but he did not pursue his promise with much vigor. Libby wrote him and asked him to hire a lawyer to prepare the papers; she agreed to repay the legal costs when she came to America.

Charley's papers finally arrived in April 1939. Libby applied for a passport and visa which she obtained in July. Libby was ready to go the U.S. immediately. A distant cousin of her mother's from Bransk was going to the U.S. several weeks later with four children; she wanted Libby to delay her trip and go together. Additionally, Libby's mother begged her to stay through the High Holy Days. But Libby's brother-in-law Szmul told her mother, "You'll cry when she leaves at any time; don't put obstacles in her way."

Early in August, Libby was on her way. The Executive Board of the Jewish Sports Club held a banquet in her honor on August 4 (see Appendix H). Finally, on August 11, Libby's ship left Gdansk for America with the papers sent by Charley, "the angel of life".

And it was fortunate that she left; the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, arriving in the Bialystok region two weeks later. Beginning in late September, the Russian Army occupied this area up until June 1941. However, no one was allowed to emigrate to America after September 1, 1939. Thus, Libby's cousin from Bransk and her four children perished.

Libby arrived in New York City on the Pilsudski on August 21. Her cousin George Ferber (son of Nussan) gave her a job for $4 a day. She immediately paid back cousin Charley for the $20 of legal fees necessary to generate her immigration papers.

After Libby was in the U.S. for one week, she visited another cousin Herman Elson (nephew of Moishe Yosel). Herman was pleased to see her again and offered to chauffeur her around the New York area in his car. He took her to visit aunt Sarah Feige in Nanuet.

In 1940, Libby took an 80 hour train trip to visit her two sisters in Los Angeles. The sisters wanted Libby to stay with them on the West Coast. But Herman Elson had other ideas. He asked his cousin Libby to return to New York to be his wife. They married in December 1940 and lived happily in their apartment in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx until 1993 when Herman's passed just a month short of his 91st birthday. Libby moved to Bethesda, MD to be near her son Norton and his family. Libby passed away in 2004 at the age of 92.