Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Rare Footage: Camp Mesivta Circa 1942

This footage is seeing the light of day after nearly 80 years.

From the uploader: The original 8mm film was shot primarily by my grandfather Harry Haber. He was born in Pomorzany, Galicia, Austria on May 7, 1895, and immigrated to U.S. arriving in New York on February 1, 1910 aboard the S.S. Amerika. The ship manifest lists his last place of residence as Kadworna, Austria. His arrival in the U.S. was two years after his father's immigration to the U.S., and proceeded by one year his mother's and 5 siblings' immigration. (His parents had four more children once in the U.S.)

The film was stored in a box with other slides and family photos. Originally stored in Washington D.C. and Maryland until approximately 2000, at which time the box was stored in a garage in Florida until it was discovered in late 2020.

Once digitized by DigMyPics.com, I was only able to identify my father, David Haber in the film. Only moments after posting a shorter version of the film to Facebook (to the group "Tracing the Tribe - Jewish Genealogy") I received a a message which led to a conversation with a gentleman who identified the location as Camp Mesivta in Upstate New York. This was the summer camp for boys of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, NY.

The rabbi walking towards the camera on the path with other people at 4:14 in the video has been identified as Rabbi Hisroel Chaim Kaplan. The rabbi with the red-ish beard at 4:30 is Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, at 6:22 is Reb Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz.

 



Camp Mesivta 1936 - part 1 - One of the earliest Camp Mesifta recordings.


Camp Mesivta 1936 part 2


Camp Mesifta 1948 (improved)


This from Rivky Kirzner: "saw my father ztz"l [Berel Greenbaum] holding Yehudis, [also] my mother and Tante Shavy and possibly Naomi, the little blondie with braids.

This from Mendel and Sura Balsam:
.04 - Meir Shapiro (next to boy with hand on face) (See attachtment)
1.45-1.48 - Henoch Cohen (Toronto- Director Chinuch Atzmai)
2.08-2.11 - Beryl Greenbaum (Head Counselor)
2.14 - Mr. Lax
2.19 - Shimon Mendlowitz, Uncle Beryl holding daughter, Judy (Shain)
2.29 - Shimon or Moshe Linchner
2.31- Zundel Berman(1st in line,tan cap)ZalmanPinchasQuinn? in front of him
2.35 - Shimon Mendlowitz (waving)
2.37 - Heshy Goodman (blue Yarmuke)
2.58 - Tante Shaivy, Tante Chainy, Naomi Linchner
10.20 - (Hatzadik) Moishe Rivlin
10.23- Naomi Linchner
10.32- Eli Schwartz

1 comment:

Unknown said...

On the 1942 Camp mesivta clip at 2.33 there is a very clear shot of my grandfather Reb Moshe Chaim Pollak. He had a seforim store on the lower East Side