This article appeared in the October 18, 2013 Jewish Advocate.

A first-birthday trip and a remarkable family coincidence:

Entertainer's Holocaust-era relative brings the past to the present

By Susie Davidson

Last July 27, Jonathan and Joanna Momot-Shulman of Maynard were delighted to welcome their first child, a boy they named Gabriel, at Emerson Hospital in Concord.

Shulman, a Framingham native, is the founder of Rhythm Connection, which promotes interactive musical programs for all ages, at nursing homes and senior centers, synagogues and secular venues. He raps, sings, and plays a wide range of keyboard and percussion instruments from around the world. As “Dr. Dreidle,” he performs his original Rap/Hip Hop material, which presents novel takes on everything from traditional to contemporary, and Broadway Jewish songs. You might also catch him as “Hillel Cool J.”

His wife Joanna, who often goes by her Polish name, Asia, is the Assistant Director at The John Paul II Polish Language School in South Boston, where she also teaches.

In anticipation of their son's first birthday, the Shulmans decided to bring him to meet his grandparents in Ketrzyn, Poland, which is the childhood home of Joanna. “This was my third trip there with my wife to visit her parents, and her sister and her family,” said Shulman. It was Gabriel's first trip to Poland to meet both his Babcia and Dziadek (grandparents) and an aged paternal relative who, as things turned out, harbored an astonishing family coincidence.

“Caci Revesz, my late grandmother’s first cousin and an Auschwitz survivor originally from Transylvania, lives in Frankfurt, Germany,” explained Shulman. “At 98, she has outlived all her generation of relatives, and while in Poland, I felt it was important to bring Gabriel to meet her.”

What he didn’t know is that Caci's son, who perished prior to his own first birthday in the Holocaust, was also named Gabriel.

Shulman learned this because Caci's daughter Annemarie Fox, a writer and linguist who was born after the war, was also visiting from London at the same time, with her husband John Fox, along with their daughter Simone and her own three-month old daughter, Zadie. “We had four generations represented!” said Shulman. During our visit, Fox mentioned that Caci's deceased son was also named Gabriel.

“We were aware that she had a baby that was killed in the Holocaust, but that's all we knew,” said Shulman. “We knew neither the baby's sex, nor name.”

“My maternal grandmother Rose Jay, along with her sisters Lillian, Irene, brother Larry and their parents, emigrated from Budapest to the US before the war,” Shulman said. Unfortunately, their cousin Caci (whose name is pronounced Cutsie) and her husband, Laci, pronounced Lutsie (yes, the pair were nicknamed Cutsie and Lutsie) remained behind. Caci was born in 1914 in Transylvania, which is now in Romania, but at the time of the war, it was part of Hungary. They married in August, 1936, before war broke out, and their son, Gabor (the Hungarian form of Gabriel), was born in January of 1944. Hungarian and Transylvanian Jews were being rounded up and transported to labor camps, and a scant four months later, Caci, her baby and her mother were deported to Auschwitz. Laci had been on an earlier list, but gained delays due to his wife's pregnancy. But in late autumn, he was put on a train for Russia. He managed to jump off the train, and then to obtain false papers. He hid for eighteen months in Budapest before rejoining with Caci after liberation in 1945.

Annemarie shared an essay she has written about her parents with Shulman. “His [Gabor's] life was fated to be short, as the deportation of Jews increased dramatically,” she wrote, noting that the three-day journey to Auschwitz was a nightmare. They were crowded into a goods wagon with 70 other people, without food or drink, ad when they arrived, Caci was separated from her mother, Leah, and baby. “Leah and Gabi were less fortunate - they were immediately undressed and sent to the gas chambers,” writes Fox. Her mother, despite starvation, illness and this tragic loss, fought for survival.

Shulman said that the name he chose for his son came to him for several reasons. “I liked it and wanted a name that wasn’t too common,but not too unusual either,” he said. “Also throughout the 90s, I worked for a now-defunct magazine called Rhythm, that focused on world music and global culture.” Shulman conducted promotions for the publication, and operated a booth during two North American tours of the musician Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD Festival. (Gabriel co-founded WOMAD [World of Music, Arts and Dance], an international arts festival, in 1980, with the first gathering occurring in1982 in Shepton Mallet, UK.) Shulman, who also manned a booth at WOMADS in England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, worked with Gabriel’s Real World record label as well. “I admire Peter Gabriel’s work and what he stands for, and always thought his last name would be a good name for a boy,” he said. His wife, however, liked it both because it is a Hebrew name that is now multi-faith, and because it translates well to Polish as Gabrys, which is what his wife's Polish family calls the baby. “After mulling over many names, we finally decided on my first suggestion, and both families love it,” said Shulman.

Shulman said that although his grand-cousin does not speak about her deceased child, but would have likely called him Gabi. “She speaks English, so during our meeting, she called our son Gabriel,” said Shulman.

Shulman's wife grew up in an area called Mazury (in Polish, Masuria), which translates to “Land of Lakes,” in the town of Ketrzyn, which lies about 150 miles north of Warsaw. Ketrzyn's place in history is also tragically ironic within the context of this story. Before World War II, it was the town of Rastenburg in East Prussia, and its eastern forest was the site of Adolf Hitler's wartime military headquarters, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair). Hitler's Wolfsschanze bunker was also the setting for the failed “20 July” plot against him. In 1944 on that date, an assassination attempt by high-ranking Wehrmacht officers was carried out as part of Operation Valkyrie (a term from Norse mythology referring to maidens who would choose the heroes from among those slain in battle). The failure of the assassination attempt led to the arrest of over 7000 by the Gestapo, with nearly 5000 executed. The story of the German resistance officers was made into the 2008 film Valkyrie which starred Tom Cruise.

In 1950, the town became Ketrzyn, after the 19^thCentury historian and Polish activist Wojciech Ketrzyski.

Shulman had visited with his great-cousins during the 1990s while in Frankfurt for the Musik Messe, a musical instrument conference. “I arranged to do promotions for the magazine there with the idea of visiting them, and the magazine supported my plan,” he recalled. “Laci, who was in his 90s (he died at nearly 100 years of age, in 2005), was completely with it, and was waiting outside his building for me as I arrived,” he said.

In 2006, Shulman and Momon-Shulman, who is Catholic, stayed a few nights in the old city of Krakow at a monastery that is the home of Joanna's cousin Basia (Barbara), a nun. “I was uneasy about the idea, but in fact, it was the safest place in the city,” said Shulman. In fact, it was also in an ideal location, and its residents were hospitable and welcoming. “During our stay, Basia, not knowing I was Jewish, told the couple that during the war, she lived outside of Auschwitz in order to pray for the victims, even though she was able to obtain placement elsewhere. And all Shulman could think about was that this well-intentioned woman had no idea that his grandmother’s first cousin, Caci, was there, and that she had miraculously survived.

This time, during their travels in “Polska,” the Shulmans spent a few days in Warsaw and Lodz. While there, the Shulmans visited an old factory site called Manufaktura, now a mall/cultural center that was at the time, hosting a festival of Polish folk music. “Gabriel enjoyed the music, and it was great to get some pictures of him with some of the musicians in traditional garb,” said Shulman. The musicians thought it was great, too. “He puts a smile on everyone's face wherever he goes,” said the proud father, who later composed a song about his son's birthday and trip to Poland, and also created a Facebook event with the video. “I called it 'Gabriel, Blow Your Little Horn,'” said Shulman, who said the inspiration came from a biblical passage about the Archangel Gabriel, who would blow a sacred horn at the last Judgement. In a bibleinterp.com article entitled “Gabriel Blow Your Horn! - A Short History of Gabriel within Jewish Literature,” Xavier Classics professor David L. Everson states that the angel Gabriel (whose name, he cites, means “G-d is my warrior”), has “enjoyed a long and celebrated history among Jews and Christians alike.”

Shulman said that there were probably other places his wife would have preferred to visit during this trip, but she was in full support about traveling to Frankfurt. “Caci is now 98, and I didn’t know when we’d be in Poland again,” he said, adding that at his young son's current age, he felt that she might really enjoy him. “I also wanted to get a picture of them together so that when he grows older and sees it, it would help him remember his connection to our family and instill in him the importance of never forgetting the past.“ Shulman contacted Annemarie Fox, who told him that coincidentally, she was flying in from her London home with her husband Johnny, their daughter Simone, and Simone’s three-month old baby, Zadie.“What are the chances of that!” he marveled in retrospect. “Not only could Gabriel meet Caci, but most of my European relatives (the Foxes have two other children), with four generations represented,” he said.

“It was so emotional to discover the story of my deceased second cousin Gabriel,” he said. “It was as if his soul came back to see his mother.” The Shulmans stayed for a few days before returning to Poland. After a few weeks of the trip, Shulman has returned home; his wife is still with Gabriel in Ketrzyn for another month.

Shulman, who includes educational segments on Jewish holidays and tradition within his presentations, is working on a Dr. Dreidle CD entitled "Holiday Rhymes For Modern Times.” A "Judaica Hip Hop Extravaganza," the CD will also feature blues pianist David Maxwell, bassist Shimon Benshir of the acclaimed Israeli group Bustam Abraham, Grammy Award-winning Shadowfax keyboardist Armen Chakmakian, and other musicians. A sample cut is currently available at www.myspace.com/drdreidleandthajewtangclan.

“Gabriel Blow Your Little Horn” can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMTHwCRPAf8

For more information, contact Jonathan Shulman by emailing jgsrhythm@verizon.net.

SIDEBAR:

1) Shulman's lyrics for the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah:

Cast your sins away into the river. What's the matter, does the sight of chopped liver make you quiver?
May you be inscribed in the book of life. Go ahead, here's a cracker and a knife!
New Years Day, The earth was born, get ready for the cantor to blow the ram's horn.

Apples in honey for a year that is sweet, the service has started, get your tuchis in the seat.
It's a time to reflect deep into your thoughts. Sit here any longer, think I'm gonna plotz.

In Temple for hours, too much time on this bench, but must ask for forgiveness, I must be a mensch!

2) Shulman's song “Gabriel Blow Your Little Horn,” about Gabriel's first birthday, and trip to Poland to see his Babcia and Dziadek (grandparents)

We honor the day that a young G was born, so Gabriel blow your little horn.
So a toast to the boy who will use his sippy cup, on his own I might add - you think I'm fronting "what's up?”
Laying in his swaddle, drinking his bottle, almost walking now, well sort of a waddle.
Started out with nipple 1 now he's moving past 3, that's why I'm giving props to the G-A-B-E

Three to five months a visit from Babcia grandma in Polish) bought to cross the Atlantic

To also see Tata (father in Polish) with Mama Asia and cioca (Aunt in Polish)

Gosia, cioca Kasia too. put them all together and that's one fine looking crew.
All the way to Warsawa (Warsaw) way down to Mazury, where everyone will shout Nostrovia for the G-A-B-E

On the day you arrived at Concord Emerson, to be by your side was safta Joan and Zadie Len.
They knew this Polish Prince would be one cool cat, so they represented Beantown with a Sox ball and bat.
And just outside filled with nachas meaning pride. Who else but bubby Judy, the nurses had to hide.

Was scared didn't think I could take care of you. Now I'm chasing you around cleaning up what you do.
And it really doesn't matter whether Christian or Jew, we wanna wish you a Happy Birthday and shout we love you!