Shendishev Movies

Sidney Herbst visited Sedziszow in 1935 and took a 16mm movie, which his son Noel donated to Yad VaShem. Here is a short version.
A longer edited version (with a soundtrack from Fiddler on the Roof, is here.

In 2015, The Los Angeles County Administrator asked Ruth Kreinik to help find the heirs of Munro Kreinik, who died intestate earlier that year. Ruth turned to me and the genealogical records I have been working on.

Munro was the son of Isadore (Izzy) Kreinik and Ruth Goldman (or Gorman in some records). Munro was kind of an oddball. He lived inexpensively. He travelled in Europe on a scooter.

In trying to find his family, I got in touch with Rob Rout and his brother Chris. Rob sent me a link to the video Family World Travels, which is a digitized version of a movie that Jon Avner Probstein's mother Lila Zelda Levin Probstein had copied after she found it: Jon writes. "This VHS was made by my mother after she found the 16mm film after the death of Ruth Bergin (Ruth s. Kreinik). The man in the glasses is Joseph and the large woman is Sarah. He was very wealthy and you can see him giving money to the people in the village."  

Chris Rout digitized it, added music, and posted it on YouTube as Family World Travels YouTube,

There is a manifest of the SS Columbus sailing from Bremen at the end of 1932, which has Joseph, Sarah, Ruth and Pearlie (now Marrow). They may be the well-dressed young women at 3:01.

Andrew Kreinik identified the people at 3:20 in the video as his great-grandparents Tuyve Tobias Kreinik and Frimet Neppel Feiler. So they are Joseph's brother and sister-in-law.

You can also see their pictures in Sidney Herbst's 1935 movie, discussed here.  (Can someone identify the woman on the far right?)

I think these are Tuyve and Frimet (DWJ).

Jon Avner, 29 Sept. 2017: "That 16mm film my mother and I found when Ruth died and we had to clean out her house in Rye, NY. We made a copy and sent it to all but Ruth was the last of the Kreinick children from Joseph and Sarah so we never figured out who was who.  The original I had to discard a few years ago..."

Here is a copy of the video on YouTube.  

Tuyve and Frimet are at 3:30.

The movie was made as part of a visit by Joseph Kreinik and his wife Sarah Levy Kreinik. Joseph and Sarah were the parents of Izzy Kreinik and so Munro's grandparents.

Joseph Kreinik; the bearded man is not his brother Tuyve, who did not have pais.

The video shows Sarah Levy, in furs, distributing money at the train station. Joseph and Sarah were quite wealthy. Ruth Kreinik remembers visiting "Uncle Harlem" in their stately uptown home. This film must have been made in the 1930s. 

Andrew Kreinik: " Later Joseph (Yussel Flum) went back to Poland for a visit and when he came back my grandfather (Isidore) accompanied him (1907 - although my grandfather paid his own passage). He met Sarah at Joseph's house where she was being badly treated by a Joseph's jealous wife and daughters...."

Vermont Senior Games -- Cycling

Lou Bresee and I showed up at the cycling event for the Vermont Senior Games.   We rode hard and brought home some medals. Lou rode a little faster than I did, but since he is over 75, we were in different classes.

(Photo credits - Sidney Eley)

This is another step in my recovery. I figured that if I wanted to race bicycles again, this was the perfect venue. It was a lovely sunny day and the temperature made it delightful.

Gary Eley sent this photo of me riding one of the time trials.

The Orange Prize

John Bertelsen, youngster.

Gary Eley presents to Lou Bresee.

Gary and I were in the 20k race.

Recovery Milestone -- P2P Century 2015

I have been aiming to ride the Harpoon Point to Point Century as a touchstone in my recovery from my heart attack back before Christmas, 2014.

On August 8, 2015, I rode with Los Saguaros Rápidos, Bob Schermer's fundraising team for the Vermont Foodbank. Bob has done this ride eight times. His son-in-law Jason, has done every ride save the first. And Christian Nielsen has ridden every year that I have, and he is a top fundraiser, with the highest number of donors.

Thanks to all my generous supporters. You can feel good about supporting the Vermont Foodbank and the thousands of people it feeds each year.

Here is the map of the 2015 100-mile route.

Bob Schermer, Jason Reed, David Jacobowitz, Christian Nielsen.

Los Seguaros Rápidos plus Andy and Jen.

Thanks to all you generous ride supporters and the Foodbank thanks you as well.

If you feel moved to donate to support the Vermont Foodbank, click HERE.

Discharged

Cardiac Rehab has discharged me. I am back on the bike (with a modified biking shoe) and am happily getting out in the lovely weather.

Eli and Natalie's baby Bruno has arrived. Let Eli tell you the details.

We are going to Arlington, MA, for Hazel's first birthday.

I am happy to be here to be part of these joyous events after a winter of problems.

Goals

When I began rehab, my case manager decided to set me a goal of losing 5 pounds. I cut out chocolate and practiced putting down my fork between bites, and soon I had lost a few pounds and then 8.

I set myself the goal of riding my bike to my 4-month follow-up with the cardiologist. I did that yesterday. I was afraid I might run into my case manager, who had been quite adamant about enforcing the podiatrist's order to stay off the left foot. When I saw Joan in the parking lot, she didn't make any fuss at all. Just said 'Hi.'

The cardiologist has nice eyes and a good bedside manner. I had told him ahead of time that I was interested in reducing my meds as much as possible. I argued that my cholesterol and blood pressure had been OK within the guidelines before the event, so there must be something else, such as genetics, that accounts for my heart attack. Well, actually, once you have had a heart attack, you are in a different statistical group, and the odds change. Besides, the medications have specific effects on the stents and on the likelihood of plaque attaching to them or to the vessel walls; so he want me to be on the highest dose I can tolerate, not the lowest.

Bootless

Today I got the official pronouncement that the wound on my foot had healed. I can walk using a special insert and I can bike cautiously.

Here are my questions.

- Is there a structural anomaly in my foot that could only be fixed by surgery? No.
- Do I need special-made orthotics? Let's try the home-made solution first.
- Can I make my own inserts like the ones the podiatrist made for the boot? Yes.
  Check my feet after an hour of biking to be sure the wound has not recurred.
- Should I use a pumice stone to clear away dead skin? Sure. Be careful.
- Do I need the crutches or the boot? No. I returned the crutches to Ann Naumann at Physical Therapy. She had replied to my post on GMBC-L in about 5 minutes with the offer of her crutches.

No barefoot walking.

Modify the Spenco insoles with a relief hole located by inking around the wound and stepping on the insole directly in the proposed shoe so it is properly located. That worked well. But when I hauled out some old New Balance 998s that had been in the closet, the outer sole separated from the body in a way that left granulated foam so that it was impossible to glue the sole back on. I looked on the New Balance site and found a lifetime replacement policy. I emailed this photo. We shall see.

Linda and I took our traditional walk around the neighborhood for the first time since the heart attack in December. That felt good.

Since then I have taken a couple of bike rides. One effect of the meds is that my hands stay cold after an half-hour riding, even if the air temp is in the 50s. But it feels right to be on the bike in time for Bike Month in May.

Following Advice

I just saw again a funny video about advice. The woman has a nail in her forehead and the guy gently suggests that she take it out, but she just wants him to listen to her and not make suggestions.

Many of you have given me advice. Some of it is good. The podiatrist gave me very strong advice -- to stay off that foot. I should take it, but you know how it is. It is hard not to try to rush back to normal.

Muffet's advice: Write about it. Just start writing and see where the thoughts flow. They may wind up in a very different place from where you started. So, here goes.

Muffet's advice 2: Imagine a very visual block to your perfect happiness. It should be an image -- maybe a creature, or a black blot. Ask it to please move out of the way. I have tried this kind of mental imaging and it is helpful. The cognitive-behavioral approach is one of the only effective psychological interventions for getting through emotional problems. The VA uses such techniques in stress management of PTSD, and we can use them too.

After going through the mental exercize of picturing each part of your body from feet to top of head and relaxing each -- while conscious of your breath -- until you are quite relaxed. Imagine then that you are on a beach and you came there on a beautiful path through a woods and underbrush. Imagine looking up and down the beach and feeling the warm sun on your heart. "You can come here to your own private beach whenever you choose."

This is a brief description of the exercize we went through in Stress Management #5.

Podiatrist's Advice:

"Stay Off It." That's good advice, of course, but as I am finding through Stress Management, I have a lot of Type A behaviors. We aren't calling it 'Type A Personality' anymore, because that implies some rigid, fixed trait of character. Behavior is amenable to psychological intervention, such as relaxation and Mindfulness practice. In any case, my last visit to the podiatrist showed that the wound has almost healed. We can imagine an orthotic for bike riding which has a cut-out below the wound which will protect the newly-repaired skin and make sure that leg pressure goes to the ball of the foot, right over the pedal axis.

My challange is to deal with "time urgency." I need to be on time. This morning I made sure to get to Panera's to meet Duncan Admanson near 7:00. But I neglected to check the email correspondence which would have shown that we postponed the get-together until next Tuesday because I had an ophthalmologist appointment today. Executive function malfunction. Still, I was on time. "Time Urgent" is a description of another Type A behavior.

As is Shpilkes.

By the end of the Mindfulness session, I had modified my behavior so now I was sitting calmly and relaxing rather than stretching and bouncing around. Maybe I can follow advice once I see that it is addressing a pattern. I always thought I was pretty laid-back, but I do approach stuff in a compulsive sort of way.

Jonna's Advice: Exercizes from the back -- Air Bike and Ab Crunch. (Of course I will complain at the phrase "Lay back...") You really do get a workout with these.

Now I am in the long slog part of recovery and have been for a while; so much so that I haven't felt like writing about it, despite Muffet's advice. But this morning I had a cup of dark coffee, so I feel a bit energized, and here you have the followed advice.