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PAGE 24 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 15, 1986
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Atlanta, Georgia 30328
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by Luna Levy
On July Fourth this year, as
most of the nation was celebrating
the centennial of the Statue of Lib
erty, over 260 members of one fam
ily gathered at Callaway Gardens
for its first reunion since their
ancestors arrived in the United
States between 1880 and 1930.
The family members are the des
cendants of Aaron and Hanna
Mednikopff, an affluent Russian
Jewish couple from Kiev, who,
unlike most Jews in 19th century
Russia, were permitted to own
property in Kiev for distinguished
service in the military. Mednikopff
owned a city block named Shulya-
fla containing two-story shops with
apartments on the second floor,
another apartment building, grain
and feed stores and a grocery.
The family prospered until 1881,
when Czar Alexander HI began his
authoritarian rule of Russia, send
ing Cossacks to persecute revolu
tionaries and Jews during the po
groms.
The first family member to im
migrate to the United States was
Bella, the oldest of the Medni-
kopffs’ seven children. She and her
husband, Herschel Bonfeld, came
to Birmingham, Ala., in the late
1880s, to escape his being drafted
into the Russian army. They soon
moved to Columbus and by 1898
owned a clothing store on 12th
Street.
In 1904, the Mednikopffs’grand
daughter, Rebecca Satlof, immi
grated with her husband Boris and
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Marriott
In the beginning: Hannah and Aaron Mednikoff.
their three children.
Two years later, more family
members, Moses and Minnie Hirsch,
left Russia with their four children
and a niece, and after spending
three weeks in Baltimore, moved
to Columbus where they opened a
grocery store.
The last group left Russia for the
United States in 1923. They were
detained for six weeks at Ellis
Island before being allowed to con
tinue to Columbus. Among that
group was Helen Radoms, the
mother of Columbus native Dr.
Marilyn Satlof, professor of Eng
lish at Columbus College, and or
ganizer of the reunion. Dr. Satlof
said of her 81-year-old mother,
“She is the last link to Europe in
my family who left after the 1917
revolution to seek freedom of op
portunity.”
Dr. Satlof reasoned that her
ancestors immigrated to this coun
try because “they were rejected by
Russia or they wouldn’t have left.
They came to find freedom here,
which they found and enjoyed.”
The story of the Mednikopff
family, whose descendants include
the Cohns, Hirsches, Satlofs, Aro-
novs and Varlows, came to light
through the efforts of Regina Satlof
Block who now lives in Houston.
Mrs. Block began researching
her family tree six years ago by
interviewing relatives and search
ing archives, letters, histories, etc.
With the help of her husband, Neil,
who spent many hours in the li
braries of New York, Washington,
Tel Aviv and Salt Lake City, she
published a genealogical account
tracing the family members, be
ginning with Aaron and Hannah.
The book, listing names, dates of
birth and death, marriages and
short biographies, also contains
photographs dating back to the
1880s. It was a highlight of the
reunion.
In the preface of the book, Mrs.
Block writes: “This six-year effort
of still inconclusive research is ded
icated to those brave souls—our
ancestors—who, with little more
than hope, left home, family and
familiar surroundings and found
their way here to America, where we
have collectively flourished and
grown as a much extended family.”
Descendants from all around
the United States and Canada were
at Callaway Gardens July 4 to
celebrate “The Great Family Re
union” of the Mednikopff family.
Of the occasion, Dr. Satlof said,
“This was the perfect time for our
first reunion—the rededication of
the Statue of Liberty—with all our
emotional ties to it.”
HOTELS
Rebecca, in front of the family store in Kiev.