The Gilai Family
The Gilai family stems from the Nagler and Michaelis families. Arieh and Ruth Gilai changed the name from Nagler to Gilai when they were married so that their family name would be in Hebrew.
NAGLER AND SILBERSZATZ FAMILIES
My Paternal grandparents are Moshe Nagler (z"l) and Lea Silberszatz Nagler.
We know nothing about the origin of the Nagler family, only that Eliahu Leib Nagler probably came from eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century. In Palestine (Eretz Yisrael) He married Elke Stern. Elke's grandparents had come to Palestine at the begining of the 19th century probably from Europe. Searching records from the Ottoman Empire period is nearly impossible, so finding information about this family will take time.
Thanks to Jewishgen and Leah Jordan Bisel we know quite a lot about the Silberszatz family. Leah found almost the entire family, in records on film in the Family History Centers that are run by the Mormons (Latter Day Saints Church). Birth dates, marriage dates, and death dates. She had put the puzzle together and had contacted me with her information.The family originated from Radomsko Poland (see map). The first Silberszatz we could find was Szmul (Shmuel) who was born around 1785. He and his wife Tauba (Tova) had 8 children two of them were Izrael and Haia. Izrael was my great great great grandfather and Haia was Leah Bisel's great great great grandmother. Leah and I are fifth cousins.
My grandmother Lea Silberszatz Nagler's father was called Dov Baer Silberszatz. He had 8 brothers and sisters. Some of the names we have from savta Lea others from Leah Bisel's search. It was a wonderful day when Leah Bisel wrote to say she had found the film entry which showed- "birth: Baer son of Yakob in 1880". Dov and his wife Rivka Herz Silberszatz brought their family to Palestine (Erez Yisrael) in the late 1920's.
In 1937 Lea Silberszatz married Moshe Nagler. They had two children: Arieh (my father) and Liora.
MICHAELIS AND DURLACHER FAMILIES
My maternal grandparents were Eugen Michaelis (z"l) and Eva Durlacher Michaelis (z"l).
I have not yet researched much about the Michaelis family. From what I know there is an exsiting family tree of the family here in Israel but I haven't seen it yet. My great grandfather Karl Samuel Michaelis was born in Halle Germany, and came to Palestine with his wife Flora Wohlgemuth Michaelis in 1930.
About the Duralcher family we have a lot of information. Mostly from two sources: A "roots" trip savta Chava took with her children to SW Germany to the town of Kippenheim (see map) from which the family came, and Mr. Werner Frank who has researched many of the families of Baden and had given us much information on the Weil branch of the family going back to the Mahara"m in the early 13th century(!).
Another great source of help is Daniel Raye (His grandfather was my grandmother's younger brother) who had also gone on his own to Kippenheim and had researched our family. He is also fluent in German and French, which helps us a lot in the research. From Kippenheim savta Chava had brought back a list of all the Durlachers who had lived in Kippenheim between 1765 and 1920's. The earliest recorded Durlacher was Moses. He was born around 1765 but we don't know where.
The story in the family says that originally the family was called Levi and came from Spain. After being expelled in 1492 the family fled to the Netherlands and from there to Germany. Because the family name became Durlacher we assume that at one point they had lived in the village of Durlach (today in the city of Karlsruhe).
With the help of the Kippenheim church Reverend we obtained a picture of Moses' tomb where it states that his father's name was Naphtali. So he is actually the earliest Durlacher we know of even though his family name might have been different.
In 1842 Samuel Durlacher married Sara Weil. The Weil family is very large and has a very well documented history. Sara and Samuel had had 14 children not all of which grew to be adults. But it seems as if all the Jewish families of SW Germany are somehow connected to these two.
One of their sons was Simon and his eldest was Samuel. Samuel was a wine merchant. Great grandfather Samuel Durlacher met his (second) wife Hedwig Levi in Hamburg. They had six children.The middle girl, Eva Durlacher - my grandmother, married Eugen Michaelis. In 1938 they made aliyah with their daughter, my mother, Ruth.
Ruth Michaelis met Arieh Nagler in the army. They married in 1964.
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