The LANDAU Monologues in Six Parts (4 of 6)

Part 4 of 6 — R. Isaac (Jitzhak) LANDAU of Wlodawa

As I was reviewing the LANDAU family tree in “The Unbroken Chain” in January 2008, I finally found a possible candidate for my great great great grandfather Haskel LANDAU.  This idea was made possible by having eventually learned the connection between the different versions of his names — in English, Ezekiel; in German, Ezechiel; in Hebrew, Jecheskel; and in Jewish vernacular, Haskel.  I am sure that for at least a few years after learning of my ancestor Haskel LANDAU, I had no idea that his name was really Jecheskel (aka Ezekiel). 

From Neil ROSENSTEIN’s work, I first learned that there was an Ezekiel LANDAU who was a son of R. Isaac LANDAU of Wlodawa in Russian Poland.   R. Isaac LANDAU is supposed to have died in Eretz Israel.  He appears to be the same person as the Jitzhak LANDE who was listed in the 1849 Montefiore Census, living in Tiberius, age 70 (b.ca.1779, Lutsk, Poland), with a wife Miriam (b.ca.1789).   Based on Jitzhak’s birth in the 1770s (ages are notoriously inaccurate in old documents), his son Ezekiel could have been born about 1800, which would fit well with Haskel and Nesche having children starting in 1821.  (Presumably, Miriam in Tiberias was a later wife)

This Ezekiel (ben Jitzhak) LANDAU was said to have been married to a daughter of R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU of Kempen (see, R. Zwi Jehoshua MICHELSON’s “Sefer Ateret Zwi” and “Sefer Kos Jeshuot” (not sure of the author)).  The name of that daughter is not preserved in any known sources.

Interestingly, that unknown daughter was a first cousin of my great great great grandmother Nesche LANDAU geb. LANDAU (b.ca.1804).  Nesche’s father was R. Arjeh Jehuda Leib (Loebel) LANDAU (ca.1780-1838), and his much younger brother R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU (ca.1799-1836) was the father of this name-unknown Miss LANDAU.  This raised two possible scenarios to me:
    (a) that earlier authors were mistaken, and this Haskel LANDAU was actually married to Nesche, not her cousin; or
    (b) that Haskel was first married to Nesche LANDAU and then later married her first cousin.

I think the first option is the simplest and most likely, but it does contradict a conclusion of well-respected researchers of the past.  The error would only be in identifying Haskel’s father-in-law R. LANDAU of Kempen as Joseph Samuel, rather than his brother Arjeh Jehuda Leib (Loebel Jonas), brothers who were rabbis in the same town and who died only 2 years apart.

The second option could be the more appealing one, since it still maintains the published story that Haskel was a son-in-law of R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU, while also slipping in the marriage to Nesche.

That option can also fit well with the likely ages of the participants.  Nesche was born ca.1804.  Her husband Haskel was probably born ca.1800.  They had children from ca.1821 to 1842.  In contrast, R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU (b.ca.1799) was a contemporary of Haskel and Nesche, and he was having his children from ca.1816 to 1835.  Any daughter of his who could have married Haskel would have been born in the 1820s or 1830s, at marrying age, perhaps in the 1850s.

Based on the assumption that the granddaughters of Nesche and Haskel named “Nanny” were named in memory of Nesche, it seems likely that Nesche died in the late 1850s.   Three of their 4 children who had children after 1850 named daughters Nanny — in 1859, 1863, and after 1852 (perhaps ca.1858).  The daughter Hendla SCHEINWECHSLER geb. LANDAU had a string of daughters in the 1850s which allows the window to be narrowed.  Hendla named daughters Emma in 1854, Chana in 1856 and then Nani in 1859.  Nesche probably died between September 1856 and February 1859.

If Haskel outlived Nesche and re-married, that second marriage would seem to have occurred in the late 1850s or early 1860s.

Back to the daughters of R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU.  The identity of the daughter who is said to have married Haskel LANDAU is unknown.  But the selection is very limited.  In the Kempen Jewish community death records, the entry for R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU lists his surviving family members:
wife         Elke (38)
children    Isaak (20)  -  Rosalie (16)  -  Scheye (18)  -  Moritz (11)  -  Jonas (10)  -  Meyer (4)  -  Gittel (3)

Unless the widow Elke was pregnant with a daughter at the time that her husband died, R. Joseph Samuel LANDAU left only two daughters, only two candidates to have married Haskel LANDAU — and both have known husbands:
* Rosalie LANDAU (b.ca.1820) married Jochen (Chaim) COHN in 1835.  They had children from 1837 to 1862.
* Gittel (Henriette) LANDAU (b.1834) married her first cousin Josef Szyja PERETZ in 1865.  They had a daughter in 1867.

Relatively more is known about Rosalie COHN geb. LANDAU, and it seems unlikely that she had a second marriage.  If Henriette PERETZ geb. LANDAU had a second marriage, it could either have been a fairly short marriage before 1865 (assuming it ended with Haskel's death), or a very late (for Haskel) marriage beginning sometime after 1867.

Whether or not Haskel (Jecheskel ben Jitzhak) LANDAU had a second marriage to, let’s say, Henriette, it does seem that this Haskel was married to Nesche LANDAU.