What’s in a (Jewish) name? Hartford family solves a mystery at Ellis Island…
The eight children who arrived at Ellis Island 100 years ago had grown up in Maslja’s home town, Ivye, near Vilna. Their grandfather, Jonathan Nessitzky, was a Talmud scholar and Hebrew teacher. Among his students was Chaim Weitzmann, who credits Nessitzky in his autobiography for inspiring his love of Zionism. Their father, Moshe, was also a Hebrew teacher, and left in 1907 to join his brother, Shmuel, in Hartford. Moshe worked for five years to save money to bring over of the rest of the family. Adopting the surname his brother, now Samuel Nassau, had taken, he became known as Morris Nassau. When his wife and children arrived, Maslja became Matilda and they all adopted the new surname.
Family lore has it that Moshe’s brother, Reuben, who had immigrated to New York a few years earlier, had seen the name “Nassau” in Southampton, England while waiting to set sail,
and was the first to use it in his new homeland. The eight children went on to exemplify the American dream, Art says. Samuel and Jonas started well-known furniture stores in Hartford and Paterson, N.J. Henrietta married a farmer and owned a dress shop in Springfield, Mass. Joseph practiced dentistry in Hartford for more than 40 years and taught at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. Benjamin won a four-year scholarship to Yale, and was joined there by Aaron and Louis. Isaac attended Wesleyan and went to Yale Law School, where brothers Aaron, Benjamin, and Louis followed him – the only four brothers to ever attend the school. Benjamin became a partner in the New York law firm, Fried Frank. Isaac, Aaron, and Louis practiced law in Hartford. Aaron was a partner in Elsner and Nassau; Louis was founding partner of Rogin and Nassau.
While some descendants remained in greater Hartford, the family has spread out across the country and even as far as Singapore. Still, seven of the eight siblings were represented at the Ellis Island reunion.
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