SHUROVSKY in UKRAINE

Shurovsky (Shore)

Our known family tree on my mother’s maternal side begins with my great-grandparents, Israel Zhuyravskay and his wife Leah (nee) Romberg.  They lived in SHPOLO, a small town is a town in Cherkassy region of Ukraine, a geographical center of Ukraine. Shpolo was within the Pale of Settlement.

Both Shpolo and Zolotonosha experienced pogroms, the Shpola pogroms of May 9, 1905; and Zolotonosha from 1905 on.  Both parents, both Israel and Leah, were murdered in their home in a pogrom prior to 1908. During the pogrom which killed their parents, two sons, William and Morris, were home at the time and escaped through a window.

The children of Israel and Leah were:

• SAMUEL (Sam) (Dec. 25, 1887 – ?) Samuel, the oldest, immigrated to the United States at the age of 17, in 1904. Please click HERE to continue with Samuel’s life.
• GELDA (Goldie) (1892 – ) My grandmother, there named Gelda Zhurovski, had in 1906 earned a certificate of completion of two years of schooling from women’s secondary school at in Zolotonosha, which was also within the Pale, a 500,000 square miles area within the Russian Empire where Jews could legally reside, but not outside of the Pale. 115 km away, on the Dnieper River; possibly my grandmother boarded in Zolotonosha, or lived with relatives for the two years. Following the pogroms that murdered their parents, Golde, Rivke (Rose), Wolke (Bill) and Morris (Moses) Surawsky followed to Philadelphia to join their older brother Samuel after the deaths of their parents; the four siblings traveled on the S.S. Merion, from Libau, Latvia, to Liverpool, and on to New York. The ship manifest lists the nearest living relatives in Shpola as D. Gurewitz. (We believe this was Dovid Gurewitz, who owned a lumberyard in Shpola.) Continue below.

• RIVKE (Rose) (1894 – ) Now orphaned, Rivke (Rose) emigrated with her older sister Golde, and younger brothers Wolke (Bill) and Moses (Morris) Surawsky. Please click HERE to continue with Rose.
• WOLKE (William/Bill) (1897 – ?) Now orphaned, Wolke (Bill) and Moses (Morris) Surawsky emigrated together with their older sisters; they arrived on Nov. 25, 1908. Wolke (Bill) was 9 years old.  Please click HERE to continue Bill’s story in the United States.
• MOSHE (Morris) (1902 – ) Now orphaned, Moses (Morris) Surawsky immigrated together with his older siblings Wolke (William), Rivka (Rose), and Gelda (Golda), arriving on Nov. 25, 1908. They were headed to Philadelphia, where their brother Samuel was already residing.  Please click HERE to continue.
• MEYER Please click HERE to continue.
• SYLVIA Sylvia immigrated to the United States in 1906. Please click HERE to continue.
• FANIA (Fanny) (1874 – ?) Please click HERE to continue.
• JENNY (Eugenia) Jenny m. MISHA POLANSKI in Shpola in 1904. They had two children Boris (Bernard) and Lea (Libby) in Ukraine. The family immigrated directly to Philadelphia, arriving on May 9, 1921, with their children Boris (Bernard) and Lea (Libby). Please click HERE to continue.

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