Sachar Family |
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The Sachar family evolved from several related branches who settled in Kupiskis and nearby Vabalninkas, Lithuania. Many of the family left Lithuania prior to World War II and went to South Africa and the United States. The branches that went to the United States settled first in New York, then New Jersey and St. Louis. The family had four generations of distinguished rabbis and scholars and the best-known are Dr. Abram Sachar, founding President of Brandeis University, and his son Howard Sachar, the historian. What follows are photos from the South African branch of the family who distinguished themselves in business and philanthropic pursuits. The older generation were all born in Kupiskis and the photos of their home and backyard well as well as their friends can be found below. The next three photos below were
donated by the late Hilda Sachar Geffin and her sister Ida Sachar Schaverin, of
Cape Town, SA. whose parents were David Sachar and Chaya Zieper. The first
two photos represent a group of friends that the Sachar sisters either were
related to, grew up with or went to school with. Where the married names
of the girls are known, they have been put in parentheses. A number of
these girls did not survive the Holocaust. |
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Back row, left to right - 1, Hindke Goldin (Shatt); 2, Nechamke Friedman (Finkel);
3, Lucy Musikant; 5, Ester Kiepffe; 6, Dina Bedil (Givon) |
| Back row, left to right -
1, Lucy Musikant; 2, Nechamke Friedman (Finkel); 3, Henke Milner; 4, Frume Bedil
(Herring) Middle row, left to right - 5, Miriam Sachar (Fendel); 6, Shotske Sachar (Hilda Geffin); 7, Ester Keipffe; 8, unknown Front row, left to right - 9, Dina Bedil (Givon); 10, Hindke Goldin (Shatt); 11, Shimichke Smidt |
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This is the Sachar home, which was located on Kupergas gatve (or street) in 1926. It was a wooden frame structure, like most in Kupishok, with roofs made of tin or, in some cases, the older ones were made of thatch, a great fire hazard. The home had an outdoor well and garden. According to Velve Sachar, he bought the house, which was located near Dvora Gurevic's brick house in a small lane next to Karesh the Fisherman, from Leib Brozin. Another Sachar property was at 45 Gediminas gatve, which was a main thoroughfare in Kupiskis. |
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The well behind the Sachar house, 1926 |
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| The wedding photo that follows is that of Manual ben Eliyahu Sachar and Fanny bat Jacob Kolnik taken in 1943 in Cape Province, South Africa. |
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(photo donated by Elliot Sachar) Left to right are: David Sachar, Barney Baron (behind David), Chaia Zieper Sachar, Issy Sachar, Vittle Sachar Berman, Hershel Berman (behind Vittle), Freda Kolnik Sholk (Fanny's sister), Sheindel Schulman Kolnik (Fanny's mother), Manual ("Big Manual") Sachar (behind Sheindel), Manual ("Small Manual", groom) Sachar, Fanny Kolnik Sachar (bride), Moss Kolnik (Fanny's brother) (behind Fanny), Jacob Kolnik (Fanny's father), Tauba Kolnik Woolf (Fanny's sister), Max ben David Sachar, Julius ben David Sachar, Tefka Kolnik (Fanny's brother). Elliott Sachar, son of the bride and groom, recalls the close family ties the Sachar family had and the wonderful Sunday afternoon teas that the family attended in the apartment of Hershel and Vittle Berman in Woodstock. He also remembered that the Sachars and their relatives were an enterprising bunch as can be seen by their commercial ventures: Barney Sachar ran a retail clothing store in downtown Cape Town; Manual (Small Manual) Sachar ran a chain of clothing stores in Cape Town; Vittle Sachar married Hershel Berman (orginally Pergament) and ran a dry goods store in Woodstock; Issy Sachar ran a clothing store in Claremont; Julius Sachar became a doctor, then framer and lives in Australia; and Max and Manual (Big Manual) Sachar were in business together and founded the well-known Grand Bazaars Stores. The Kolniks were also active in the commercial sphere as Freda Kolnik married Bill Sholk and lived in Pretoria; Moss Kolnik was an Engineer and lived in Durban and the Moss Kolnik Highway is named for him; Tauba Kolnik married Bernard Woolf and lived in Rhodesia, now Muizenberg; and Tefka Kolnik was an Optician and Pharmacist and now lives in Israel. |
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The photograph below was taken at the Sachar family picnic reunion, a large-scale affair that was attended by eighty-eight family members. A number of the people attending the picnic can be found in the previous Sachar wedding photograph. The picnic was held at Dr. Julius Sachar's farm "Tierhoogte" in Philadelphia, in the Western Cape of South Africa. The small milling town of Philadelphia is located about twenty miles from Cape Town. The son of David Sachar and Chaya Zieper, Julius Sachar was a doctor who loved farming. While serving as a physician in the town of Rondebosch, a Cape Town suburb approximately 5 km from the City center, he kept a milk cow in the backyard. Later, he became so entranced with farming that he used revolutionary methods to create a model dairy farm at "Tierhoogte" which also produced silage, wheat and other products. For these efforts, Julius Sachar was awarded the coveted title of "Master Farmer" by the South African Agricultural Union. |
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In order to ease the identification of the individuals, each of them has been numbered and these numbers correspond to the table that follows the picnic photograph. The table has specific information on the picnic attendees: the first and last name of the individual, their parents' names (where known), their spouses name or their maiden name if a woman, and a description of whether they appear to be male or female and whether a baby, child, teenager, or an adult. |
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(Photo and identifications: Elliot Sachar, the son of Manual (Small) Sachar and Fanny Kolnik, and Jackie Sachar, the son of Manual (Big) Sachar and Phyllis Bergman). |
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This is a photograph of the Zieper family who married into the Sachar family and later went to South Africa. Left to right: ? Zieper, Sara Zieper, Bobba Zieper, Chaia Zieper, Zeide Zieper, Hirsh Sachar, and Rachel-Beila Zieper Sachar. This was taken about 1900.
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Photograph of Hirsh Sachar, his wife and child Marek, taken in Kupiskis.
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The following are two photos of Iankel-Vulf Sachar, who was known as Velve Sachar to his contemporaries. He was the son of Itsek Sachar and was married to Rocha-Beila Zieper. (The photo on the left is dated 1956.) |
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| Much of what we know of the activities of the Kupishok Benevolent Society in Cape Town, South Africa, and the individuals who remained in Kupishok or left for South Africa, America, Israel and South America, is due to his extensive correspondence, society records and his autobiography which were mainly written in Yiddish. |
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| The wedding of Manual Sachar, son of Velve Sachar and Rocha-Beila Zieper, to Phyllis Bergman, the daughter of Samuel Bergman and Dora Gochin, of Port Elizabeth, SA, is shown in the following photograph. Attendees at the wedding are left to right: Issy Sachar, Joe Bergman (brother of the bride), Sheila Perl, Cynthia Sussman Shapiro, Velve Sachar (father of the groom), Dora Gochin Bergman and Sam Bergman (parents of the bride), Manual Sachar and Phyllis Bergman (groom and bride), Miriam Sachar Fendel and husband Louis Fendel, Cecille Bergman King (sister of the bride), Oppie Oppenheim, Sylvia Perl Sieff. |
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| Donated in memory of the Sachar and Zieper families by Phyllis Bergman Sachar, wife of Manual Sachar, and her children Jackie, Kenneth and Rachel Sachar |