“I am reminiscing today. It comes back to me as if it happened just yesterday, everything. In the beginning, I was just a cheder boy (a Jewish schoolboy]. I ran away from my parents because I was ruled by an unyielding, despotic melamed (Hebrew school teacher). I remember the places, and I regret it all. Hunger forced me to steal bread. I returned to my parents after being away for 6 weeks in the fields. I didn’t stay long at home because I wanted to be free.
I became an itinerant, working in a nearby village, and then in Tluste. I was in Warsaw, an operator for the lithographer Shimon Krumhorn. I was a clerk in the Lipiny forest, a sawyer in Muravanka, and after being released as a sawyer, I became a teacher in Rejowiec . I got engaged in Hordzieska, and then left for America. I became a machine operator and lived there for 5 years, and then I became a customer peddler, and now I have come to Paris, once again I was a machine operator. until I got sick. This is my fate. God gives me everything, because who else would help me like this? How many more times will I have to wander? Today he told me… I will endure until I die.
Here's one from 1933 (93 years ago)
Thanks to Timna and Danny for this (oh, and Sophie and Ziggie Noble as well)
Davnob wishes Judy a very happy birthday. Whilst exploring family archives on her birthday in Bet Shemesh, together with Martin, they came across the following documents from the He-atid ('the future') Zionist group in Brixton from the 1930s.
Incidentally, many years later, many of the younger Davnobs also joined a youth club (then not a Zionist group) at the Liberal Synagogue in Streatham - also called He-Atid.
Grandma Davidson’s brother, his wife and family - a chemist, a doctor, an actor and an agronomist. (also Daniel Aleksandrovitch, Emilia's husband)
Never again! Anywhere. Anyone.
.
In 2020 we posted a 'reprint' of the 1991 Day in the 'Life of Davnob'. 35 years on it's time for a second look!
Check it out here: twentytwentysite.blogspot.com
Our grandfather, Hyman (Avram Chaim) Davidovitch died one hundred years ago today, August 3rd 1925.
He was born and grew up in Poland in 1866 or 1868. There is no definitive information about his early years, but it seems likely(see below) that he was born in the village of Kraszewo near Ciechanow (about 50 miles north west of Warsaw) and his father was Leoric Davidovitch and his mother Estera Elka Katz (who came from Plonsk).
We do know from correspondence that when Avram Chaim left Poland the family was living in the village of Hordzieska, not far from Lublin. He arrived in New York in 1890 landing at Castle Garden (this was two years before Ellis Island was established as a place for processing immigrants). He found work in the rag trade where he was employed for several years, but he did not seem to be happy with the work and at the end of August 1896 he travelled to Paris. In 1898 he moved to England, arriving in London in April, then travelling to Leeds and on to Hull
In his diary he tells of his struggles with work, his social life, his concerns re health and several romantic encounters. However by 1898 he was living in Hull, and in 1899 he married Annie Salit (Grandma Davidson). They went on to have six sons and three daughters (unusually all of them surviving to adulthood) and thus established the Davidson family. When in the 1930s the three daughters married the three Noble brothers the Davnob family was created.
Davidovitch is a Polish name meaning son of David. It is variously spelled as Davidovitch, Dawidowicz, and Davidovitz. In the 1920s (probably after he died, as on his grave and death certificate he is named as Hyman Davidovitch) the family name was changed to Davidson, but one branch of the family to this day retains the historical Davidovitz name.
Information about Avram Chaim's birth comes from a possible birth certificate:
which says: Act 125 - the village of Krazh. It took place in the city of Ciechanow in the year 1868, on the first day of July at nine o'clock in the morning. Leorik Davidovich, a worker living in the village of Krazh, 23 years old, appeared in person, in the presence of skolniki, Abram Vontroba, 53 years old, and Gershon Totengreber, 31 years old, living in the city of Ciechanow, and presented us with a male child, born in the village of Krazeh on 22 June at 4 o'clock in the morning to his wife Estera Elka, née Katz, 26 years old. The baby was given the name Abram Chaim during the religious ceremony. This act was signed by us and witnesses after it had been read. The father cannot write.
signatures: Abram Vontroba, Gershon Totengreber, Person. in charge of the Civil State Acts.
Uncle Lionel believed this was not his father's birth certificate - but this was largely because he thought his father was born in 1866. However if it is our Avram Chaim, then we find his mother Estera-Elka Katz was born nearby in Plonsk in 1841, which he later (in the 1911 UK Census) he records as his place of origin. (Lionel also mistakenly objected to the birth certificate on the grounds that his father was well-educated and certainly could write. In fact the reference to not being able to read was about Leoric and not Avram Chaim.)
(Incidentally as a sidenote Estera Elka's father was called Eydel - which just happens to be the Yiddish for Noble!)
One year on - Steffi died on July 29th, the day that Jane would have been 80. Sad - but happy memories.
Whilst it would indiscrete to discuss a lady's age,
Davnob is delighted to wish (Safta) Margie
a very happy significant birthday.
!מזל טוב מארגי
The following are extracts from the eulogy at Philip's funeral on Tuesday 18th February.
PHILIP DAVIDSON was born in Southwark, London, 19.09.1952. He died aged 72. He was pre-deceased by his mother, Fay, his father, Lionel, and his younger brother Nick. He was the last remaining member of his immediate family. Philip was the son of Jewish parents, Lionel Davidson and Fay Jacobs, and one younger brother Nick Davidson. He was a second generation immigrant, with a very large family of uncles and aunts and cousins on his father’s side, as his Russian Jewish grandmother had 9 children, all born in Hull, of whom the three Davidson sisters married 3 Noble brothers from another Jewish family. Phil enjoyed enormously the many large and lively family gatherings and celebrations, weddings, anniversaries, festivals and picnics, and social events. He was always very happy feeling part of the animated interactions around family members, and as an adult, he enjoyed sharing in these gatherings. As a teenager and young adult he had very happy memories of his warm relationship and supportive interactions with his Scottish Jewish grandparents on his Mother’s side of the family, and enjoyed spending time with them in Glasgow. Philips father, Lionel Davidson, was famous as an English best-seller Author who wrote spy thrillers, adventure stories, and childrens’ books… Following the sad death of Philip Davidson, Cousin Liz has sent us the following details for the arrangements for his funeral.
Davnob has just received the sad news of the death of Philip Davidson, son of Lionel and Fay Davidson, and brother of Nick Davidson. In recent years Phil had developed a series of travel websites and tourist guide films, and had just started writing fiction. His first novel, The Birth of the Tiptons, was part of a planned trilogy ‘The Tipton Saga’ and is available on Amazon. You can read Phil’s thoughts on the book on www.tiptons.tv
London Fire Brigade 1943
Front row far right
Ziggie Noble - 36
Min's 70th birthday (1983) - from the top Lou Noble, Naomi Waldman, Edie Noble, Rina Vardy, Kate Davidson, Midlred Noble, then left to right Lionel Davidson, Fay Davidson, Cyril Davidson, Steffi Rose, Kathleen Davidson, Timna Rose (-Price), Noah Rose, Margie Foreman (Shafran), Lily Rose, Ziggie Noble, Sophie Noble, Charlie Noble, Bill Robins, Stanley Waldman, the front row from the left, Mary Noble, Roger Noble, Adam Noble, Min Robins, Danny Noble (photographer presumably Peter Vardy).
