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The true meaning of mishpocha

A Connecticut man joins in the centennial celebration of an American Jewish family

By Cindy Mindell

The oldest active registered non-profit organization in the U.S. is not a historical society or a social-service agency.

Rather, it is a Jewish family association, established last century by immigrants from Russia. This summer, the Zagoren Family Unity (ZFU) marked its centennial year as an official entity and an extended family of hundreds that has spread from Brooklyn to New England and as far as California and Mexico – and includes two branches that are spread throughout Connecticut.

Some 75 members of the ZFU celebrated the milestone at a weekend-long reunion in June at the Woodloch resort in the Poconos.

The ZFU held its first official meeting on Nov. 19, 1916 in a Brooklyn apartment. The domestic non-profit was officially incorporated on Sept. 20, 1920, seven years before the Rockefellers and decades before many Jewish families incorporated following World War II.

“The chairman addressed the members by giving the main purpose of this Organization,” read the first ZFU meeting minutes in 1916. “It is founded on human principles, mainly to keep the peace and purity of the Zagoren family in a harmonious feeling.” The ZFU logo, which has remained unchanged from its inception, is a single heart, meant to represent one family.

“We’re incredibly excited to celebrate this truly momentous milestone 100th anniversary,” says ZFU president Joe Domosh, a Pennsylvania resident. “Above all, we’re grateful that a full century later, we’re able to maintain the spirit of family togetherness and take care of one another in good times and in times of need.”

The name Zagoren dates back to 18th-century Russia, when authorities for the first time required residents to choose last names. Like many Jews who chose geographical features as inspiration, the predecessors of the ZFU named themselves Zagoren after a mountain in the region. The youngest son in the original Zagoren family of 14 children was Joseph, who later moved to the U.S. and settled in New York to become the charter member and founder of the ZFU. The group’s constitution tells the family story and lays out the rules and protocol for how the unity is to carry out its mission.

Since its founding, the family has met every month, moving from the original Brooklyn apartment to larger rented spaces, with annual reunions at restaurants and resorts in the Catskills and Poconos. Members receive formal congratulations upon rites of passage like b’nai mitzvah, marriages, and births, and condolences upon illness or death. ZFU membership also includes a burial plot at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, Long Island.

Two branches of the Zagoren family immigrated to the East Haddam-Middletown area. Jacob Zagoren ran a farm and the Pop’s Stand diner in East Haddam. Milton Zagoren’s family operated Mom’s Stand, also in East Haddam and later opened a grocery store and a delicatessen in Middletown. Milton created the “Country Cousins Club” in January 1965 for Zagoren family-members living in Middletown at the time. The group still exists and now includes family from all over Connecticut, as well as Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There are currently 17 direct Zagoren descendants living in Connecticut, most of whom are dues-paying ZFU members.

One longtime member is Joe Dubin, a Middletown native who has lived in Newington since 1976. Dubin serves as a ZFU trustee and attended the June reunion.

“The Zagoren genealogy can be traced back to Noah Zagorinski, who lived from 1770 to 1812; that is nine generations back for some of us,” he says. “Being able to see that genealogy and meeting cousins I have never met before – or see very rarely – is very comforting to me. Family is everything to me. There is nothing more important than being grounded because of these roots. I feel blessed to be part of a family that cares for each other and is strong enough to maintain an organization that has lasted 100 years.”

Growing up, Dubin would hear stories about his grandfather, Joseph Brenner, who served in the U.S. military during World War I. “He loved the ZFU,” Dubin says. “It was the ZFU who gave him information about the goings on back home. It was the ZFU he communicated with and family he visited when he was home. Although I never met my grandfather, it may be through him that I feel so strongly about family and the strength it gives me.”

CAP: Newington resident Joe Dubin (second from right) enjoys dinner with some of his family at the Zagorin Family Unity reunion.

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