The Slotfina Grossvatter – איצק נחמן קויפמאנן הי"ד

Yitzchok Nachman Kaufman
Ma's father's father

Yenta Charna Kaufman nee Brandstein
Ma's father's mother

"The Yidden in the Carpathian Mountains, were אמת'ע בַּחֵנְ'טֶע יידען, with a wonderful Yidishe צוּרָה, they were striking with their full beards and שיינע peyes. Many of them were תלמידי חכמים who had learned in famous Yeshivos. There were Vizhnitzer, Sigheter, Satmarer, Nadverner, Spinka, and Munkatcher Chasidim.

The women had such a Yidishe חֵן, they were proud of their Yidishkeit.  They had no interest in modern dress, large houses, or fancy furnishings.  That which a girl saw in her mother’s house she instituted in her own."

(Loosely translated from, Zichron Kdoshim by Shlomo Rozman) 

One look at the pictures of Ma’s grandparents, R’ Yitzchok Nachman Kaufman and his wife Yente Charna and we can see that they were that type of Yidden.

Yitzchok Nachman was born about 1856 in Slotfina (today Solotvyno, Ukraine), a Carpathian town right across the river from Sighet.  His wife Yenta Charna Brandstein was from a Chashuva family in Bishtina. They settled in Anka Slatfina where they had a large family.

R’ Yitzchok Nachman was a Spinka chosid.  It is said that in the winter he would chop the ice on the Tisa River in order to go to the Mikvah before davening.  Ma would fondly recall her visits to her grandparents, the fruit trees behind the house with the river flowing beyond them.  R’ Yitzchok Nachman had a room full with Seforim and was a תלמיד חכם.

Like most Yidden in that area, he supported himself by the toil of his hands. יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך.  As many Yidden in the Carphatin he was a lumber merchant and would cut trees, and the logs were floated down the Tisa River to be used for construction in the towns, cities and villages.

His son אליעזר, Ma’s father (Opi), inscribed a few lines in one of his seforim , for the memory of his father who was killed ר"ח סיון תש"ד in Auschwitz together with the entire ghetto of Slatfina  הי"ד.

חק לישראל Inscription in the front of Opi's 
על אלה אני בוכיה על פטירת
אבי הקדוש ר' יצחק נחמן בן יהודא שנהרג על קדושת שמו יתברך
בידי הנאציס הטמאים ימ"ש ביום ר"ח סיון שנת תש"ד
יזכר אלוקינו לטובה עם שאר קדושינו וינקום דם אחינו השפוך ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
בנו אליעזר קויפמאנן

For the children of R' Yitzchok Nachman and Yenta Charna Kaufmann see here.