מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

 וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

 You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead.

That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for  giving life to all. 

I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead.

I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of  Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines.

I don't expect the young children buried here or

 the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic.

Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being.

Yesterday, I experienced a little bit of מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים.

I have known for my entire life that my grandfather Jacob was born in Frampol, Ukraine. Around the time he was born the town had a population of about 1,000.   Eighty percent of the population was Jewish.

My great grandmother, Hudya,

came to America along with her two daughters. her husband Zalman Pesach did not.We have a photo of Zalman Pesach but we don't know his last name. 

Hudya was born into the Freider family. My grandfather came to New York with his uncle Yossel Freider and his wife and children.My grandfather came on the visa of a Frieder cousin who had died and he borrowed the cousin's last name as well.

When My grandfather arrived he had various Frieder cousins who were a part of his life. My grandfather's cousin Pinchas officiated at my grandparent's wedding.

I have been doing genealogy research for a while. My Freider cousin Jeff has done an incredible job gathering up as many Freider descendants and ancestors as he can.He has traced our lineage back to the late 1700s which is pretty extraordinary for a simple family that lived in a teeny village in the countryside.

One of the Freiders is Mikhail who grew up in the Soviet Union. Mikhail's father Sanya was born in Frampol. After Sanya died in 1991 Mikhail started to research his family and went to visit Frampol.

This is one of Mikhail's haunting photos of a cemetery near Frampol where some of our cousins were buried.

Dozens of Freider cousins lived in the surrounding area in various small towns and villages. Sanya and another cousin from Frampol served in the Russian army during the Second World War. Sayna's cousin was killed. Nathaniel survived. He was the only Frieder survivor of the Holocaust in the region.

Earlier this week I discovered that Mikhail wasn't living in Russia any more, he was living in Rockland County just north of New York City. We arranged to meet yesterday with Mikhail's daughter and wife. Ironically, we met in the town library right across the street where my grandfather died.

Mikhail mentioned as he looked over the giant family tree put together by our cousin Jeff that he has no idea how he fits into that family tree. He doesn't know the names of his extended family. His father couldn't bear to talk of it after the war. 

We shared what we could. I brought my mother's photo album. My great grandfather was a shochet, a ritual slaughterer or butcher. So was Mikhail's grandfather. When it was time to say goodbye I said " Zai gezunt", go in good health just like I used to when I departed after a visit with my grandparents. Mikhail responded in the same Yiddish accent as mine.

This morning Mikhail's daughter wrote to me and said that now their family no longer feels alone.

My grandfather and his mother and sisters uprooted themselves and moved to a new country and never saw their Frampol homes again. But after they left their community still existed. 

Mikhail's father left home to fight the Nazis and came home to discover that he was the only Freider from his town and from the region.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

Blessed are You, God, Resurrector of the dead.

My cousin Mikhail put together a book about Frampol. You can read the PDF Here