JEWISH TIDEWATER
Children’s story gets passed from generation to generation
T
he Tsigala Story told to Abbot Granoff, MD, by his paternal grandfather Morris Granoff (Pa) ignited a curiosity about his family’s history. In addition to spending time in Ukraine, the Granoff family story is a tale of travel, perseverance, and creativity. Here is what he learned: Zalman and Esther were Granoff’s great-grandparents. Morris Granoff said that Zeda, his great-grandfather, told the Tsigala Story to him. They lived in a small, rural town in Ukraine named Tzimyornifka, north of Kyiv. He asked his Zeda where the story came from and Zeda told Morris that his grandfather told it to him when he was a boy. Granoff was told Zeda lived to be 119!
Zeda told him he asked his grandfather that same question at about the same age and his grandfather told him the family originally came from Spain and during the Inquisition, moved to Turkey. Later, the family moved to Poland and had to take a family name. In 1808, Napoleon required all Jews to take family names. The family took the name Agradnov, which meant they were from the town of Grad, Poland. “When we moved to Kyiv, we Russianized it, adding a ‘ski’ at the end to Agradnovski. Jews took the name of the city, town, or area they were from, the profession they were in, or the Jewish sect they were in, ie: Goldsmith, Stein, or Levine,” says Granoff. In 1903 when Morris was 17, the oldest of nine children, the Czar’s men came to the shtetl, a small Jewish farming
village. They took all of the able-bodied boys and men who could fight for the Czar and put them in the army. The Great Russian War of 1903–4 was being fought at the time. Morris was taken to a training camp and given a rifle. He knew that if he deserted and was found, he would be shot. He was not going to fight for the Czar since his village had been on more than one occasion attacked by the Cossacks who raped and pillaged with the Czar’s approval. He threw down
his rifle, ran back home and told his family that he had to leave Russia. They gave him what little money they had. They continued on page 12
He was not going to fight for the Czar since his village had been on more than one occasion
bring the bold hues of summer home
attacked by the Cossacks who raped and pillaged with the Czar’s approval.
Granoff asked Morris where they had come from when he was five years old. Morris said he asked Zeda the same question when he was about the same age.
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