# Berek Balter (b.1807) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **4x great-grand-uncle** ![[I507645.jpg|220]] **Born** 1807–1809 **Died** 1887 — [[Łęczna]] **Parents** [[Icek Balter (b.1771)]] · [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]] **Spouse** [[Chana Marjem Ender (b.1808)]] **Children** [[Sura Balter (b.1824)]] · [[Abram Moszek Balter (b.1829)]] · [[Raca Balter (b.1830)]] · [[Zlota Dwojra Balter (b.1833)]] · [[Noma Balter (b.1834)]] · [[Rachmil Icek Balter (b.1836)]] · [[Jochwet Balter (b.1836)]] · [[Fajga Balter (b.1840)]] · [[Ides Ryfka Balter (b.1843)]] · [[Abram Josef Balter (b.1845)]] **Siblings** [[Szol Balter (b.1800)]] · [[Fajga Balter (d.1831)]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I507645_1.jpg|180]] ![[I507645_2.jpg|180]] ![[I507645_3.jpg|180]] ![[I507645_4.jpg|180]] *GEDCOM I507645 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative **Berek Balter** was the revenue-farmer of [[Łęczna]] — the man who, year upon year for a generation, held the lease of the little Lublin-province town's income and its liquor monopoly, and who moved through its notary's office often enough that his signature, "Berek Balter," recurs across four decades of the register in a firm, literate hand among counterparties who signed with a cross. He was born about 1807–1809 to [[Icek Balter (b.1771)]] and [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]], married [[Chana Marjem Ender (b.1808)]], raised at least ten children — among them [[Abram Moszek Balter (b.1829)]], [[Rachmil Icek Balter (b.1836)]] and [[Abram Josef Balter (b.1845)]] — and died in the town in 1887. What survives of his life is largely commercial, but it is unusually full: the Łęczna notarial registers, held at the Archiwum Państwowe w Lublinie and digitised on skanoteka, let one follow him deal by deal.[^rep] The record opens in **1843**. On **14 February** he put his name to a lease running from that January against 6,000 złotych.[^a17] Nine months later, on **17/29 November 1843**, he stepped up to the town itself: **Józef Kosiński, owner of the Łęczna estate, leased him the town's whole annual income for three years at 1,900 silver rubles.** Kosiński signed "F. Kosiński"; below him, in his own hand, "Berek Balter." It was the first of the contracts that would define him — the lord of the estate handing the running of the town's revenue to a Jewish lessee of Łęczna, who would gather the dues and answer for the rent. By the mid-1850s that arrangement had become the spine of his business, and he lodged the securities to match it. In **July 1854** he registered before the notary a **bond (*kaucja*) of 900 rubles** — the kind of surety a revenue-farmer had to post to guarantee his undertakings — a year before his largest lease yet.[^a54] That lease came on **14/26 July 1855**, when **Ludwik Grabowski, heir of the Łęczna estate, granted him the town's *propinacja* — the exclusive right to sell drink — for three years from 1 July at 6,000 rubles a year**, with a deposit of some 1,650 rubles set against it as manorial income. Grabowski, Berek and the notary Stanisław Florian all signed. To hold a town's propination was to hold the most reliable cash stream a small town produced; Berek now held Łęczna's. The same summer shows the other face of his affairs — money lent and money owed. Days before that propination lease, on **4/16 July 1855**, **Józef Niecielski, owner of the Przewica[?] estate, issued a formal obligation acknowledging that he owed Berek Balter of Łęczna 1,750 rubles.** Here the townsman was the creditor and the landed gentleman the debtor — a reversal of the usual social picture, and a measure of how much liquid capital Berek could put out at interest. In **January 1857** he was bound in another agreement, this time with the **heirs of Jan Majewski**, over a quantity of a commodity — the words read as five hundredweight of hay[?] for a sum around 1,200 rubles — signed by a whole cluster of Majewski, Błoński and Gregorowicz relatives alongside "B. Balter."[^a57] The high-water mark of the town leases fell in **1861 and 1862**. On **6/18 June 1861** Grabowski again let out **the Łęczna propination, now for one year at 9,000 rubles — and this time Berek took it jointly with Nathan Szafir**, the two lessees signing side by side beneath the estate-owner. On the same day the pair also took **a sub-lease of the town's consumption-tax revenue (*dochód konsumpcyjny*) for one year at 4,107 rubles** — so that between them Szafir and Balter now farmed both the drink monopoly and the excise. That June was a busy one at the notary's: only a day earlier, on **5/17 June 1861, Berek had issued his own debt obligation — 3,750 rubles in favour of Benedykt Bekłowski** — Berek this time the borrower, signing "Berek Balter" as Bekłowski countersigned. A man leasing at nine thousand a year borrowed and lent in thousands as a matter of course. By **25 November / 7 December 1862** he no longer needed a partner. Grabowski leased him, alone, **the propination and other municipal revenues of Łęczna for a full six years at 8,300 rubles a year**, and in the same sitting **sub-leased him the town's consumption tax for one year at 3,272 rubles.** Both contracts carry just two names and the notary's: "Ludwik Grabowski," "Berek Balter." For most of two decades, from Kosiński in 1843 through Grabowski in 1862, the revenues of Łęczna had passed through his hands. In his later years the deals shift from farming revenue to owning and working property outright. On **24 October / 5 November 1872 he sold a plot together with its slaughterhouse (*szlachtuz*) in Łęczna to Lejba Goldenberg** for 100 rubles plus an 8-ruble supplement, 108 in all; Berek signed, Goldenberg took his receipt. The next summer, on **13/25 July 1873, he was the buyer: Katarzyna Dobrzyńska née Banaszyńska, wife of Jan Kazimierz Dobrzyński of Łęczna, sold him real estate for 675 rubles plus 10, 685 in all** — a transaction in which, tellingly, everyone could write, Katarzyna, her husband and Berek all signing their names. The last cluster, in **1874**, brings him full circle to leasing, now beyond the town walls. On **10/22 January 1874, Władysław Węgliński of the Kietrzów[?] estate granted Berek a power of attorney to act for him before the administrative authorities in a distillery-and-brewery (*gorzelniano-piwowarska*) matter** — trusting the old propination-farmer to handle a liquor-production affair with the government. Then, on **8/20 March 1874, Józef Dobiecki leased him a mill and tavern (*młyn i karczma*) at Kietrzów for a full three years at 3,250 rubles**, and six weeks later, on **18/30 April, Dobiecki — styled hereditary owner of the Kietrzów estate — receipted 400 rubles Berek had paid against it.** In his late sixties he was still taking on a three-year lease of a working mill and inn; the mill-and-tavern of Kietrzów is the last venture the registers record for him. That volume of business made him one of the more substantial householders of the town's Jewish community, and the land settlement of the 1860s shows it plainly. The **1866 Russian liquidation tables** — the reckoning of holdings that followed the 1864 peasant-enfranchisement reform — enter him at the very head of Łęczna's section for the town-residents' plots, holding **seven separate house-plots** (households №213, 219, 238, 330, 378, 410 and 459), his the last individual holding recorded before the communal properties. A man carrying seven plots, and farming the town's monopolies year on year, stood among the leading householders of Łęczna — a private town that had belonged to the Sapieha family and passed by his day to the estate-owners whose revenues he leased. His standing was religious as well as material, and it is the rabbinic print of the age — not the notary's register — that supplies his Hebrew name and his place in a family. He subscribed as a *prenumerant* to *Tiferet Zvi* (Even ha-Ezer, 5626/1866), and the subscriber roll enters him under the Łęczna heading, immediately after the town's chief rabbi Chaim Baruch, as **"R' Beryl ha-Levi Balter"** — the Hebrew form of Berek, carrying the priestly-tribe marker *ha-Levi* that identifies the Balters as Levites.[^tz] The entries around his are a marriage-map of his household: his son-in-law Jankiel (Yaakov) Wechtenstein is listed next, then a cluster of *g'iso* ("his brother-in-law") — Szmul Hersz (Shmuel Zvi) Marszalkowicz, [[Chaim Szyia Biderman (b.1835)|Chaim Yehoshua Biderman]] ("son of R' [Jankiel] Dawid"), and his own son [[Abram Josef Balter (b.1845)|Abraham Yosef ha-Levi Balter]] — the co-sons-in-law and kin who had married into the Balter family gathered on the page as they were gathered in the town.[^tz] The fullest genealogy comes from a descendant's book. The printed family history (*Toldot ha-Mechaber*) prefixed to *Kos Yeshuot* — the responsa of R' Zvi Hirsch Halberstadt, who counted Berek among his forebears — names him, in tracing the author's own line, as **"the renowned *parnas*, God-fearing, Mr. Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter, called R' Beryl [Reitzes] of Łęczna."**[^ky] Two things follow from that single clause. First, that Berek held communal office: he was a *parnas*, an elected warden of the Łęczna *kahał* — the civic standing the seven house-plots and the years of revenue-farming had already implied, now stated outright.[^ky] Second, that his family reached back into the rabbinate: the same passage calls him a "branch of the tree of the fathers," grandson of the gaon **R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi** (this is [[Issakhar Berisz Segal (b.1690)]]), a town rabbi (*av"d*) of an earlier generation — placing a learned, Levitical line behind the man of business.[^ky] He died in Łęczna in 1887, his death recorded in the town's civil register — the end of a life spent, as far as the documents can show, as the town's man of business and one of its communal wardens. [^rep]: The 1843–1874 entries survive as one-line summaries in the notaries' *repertoria* (chronological register-indexes of acts) rather than as the full act texts; each records the date, parties, type of act, sum, and signatures. The notaries across these years are Franciszkowski (1843), Stanisław Florian (1854–1857), Krasnodębski-Gałczyński (1861–1862) and Gracjan Wereżyński (1872–1874), all at Łęczna. [^a17]: 1843 act #17, [skanoteka 3971, sy.13, p.057](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=13&kt=&plik=057.jpg&zoom=2.75). The object of this earliest lease is not fully legible. [^a54]: 1854 act #97, [skanoteka 3971, sy.14, p.157](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=14&kt=&plik=157.jpg&zoom=2.5). Read as a *kaucja* of Rs 900; the specific undertaking secured is only partly legible. [^a57]: 1857 act #3, [skanoteka 4354, sy.3, p.056](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4354&se=&sy=3&kt=&plik=056.jpg&zoom=2.75). The commodity and sum ("five *cetnary* of hay"[?], c. Rs 1200[?]) are read tentatively from a crowded register line. [^tz]: *Tiferet Zvi* (responsa of R. Zvi Hirsch [Halberstadt]), Even ha-Ezer, 5626/1866, *Shemot ha-Prenumeranten* (subscriber list), Łęczna section — [HebrewBooks 22623, p. 8](https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/reader/reader.aspx?sfid=22623#p=8) (read from the page image 2026-07-06). The Łęczna entries, in order: the chief rabbi "R' Chaim Baruch, av"d"; "**הר' בעריל הלוי באלטער** — R' Beryl ha-Levi Balter"; "*חתנו* (his son-in-law) R' Yaakov Wechtenstein"; "*גיסו* (his brother-in-law) R' Shmuel Zvi Marshelkowitz"; "*גיסו* R' Chaim Yehoshua, son of the rabbi R' [Jankiel] Dawid [= [[Chaim Szyia Biderman (b.1835)]]]"; "*גיסו* R' Abraham Yosef ha-Levi Balter"; "R' Yosef, shochet". The *ha-Levi* on both Balter names marks the family as Levites; the *חתן*/*גיס* terms map a cluster of men married into the Balter household. [^ky]: *Kos Yeshuot* (responsa of R. Zvi Hirsch Halberstadt of Halberstam/Halberstadt), *Toldot ha-Mechaber* (author's printed family genealogy), — [HebrewBooks 22594, p. 221](https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_22594_221.pdf) / [reader](https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/reader/reader.aspx?sfid=22594#p=221) (read from the page image 2026-07-06). The opening paragraph, tracing the author's descent, names "…חתן זקני אבי אמי, הפרנס המפורסם דדחיל רבנן מו' **דוב בער הלוי באלטער** הנקרא ר' בעריל [רייליס?] מק"ק **לענטשנא**, שהי' ענף עץ אבות לבית אבותיו, נכד הג"מ **ישכר בעריש הלוי** אבד"ק [סטעכנאוולי?] הנ"ל" — "…son-in-law of my ancestor, my father's mother's father, the renowned *parnas*, God-fearing, Mr. Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter, called R' Beryl [Reylis?] of Łęczna, who was a branch of the tree of the fathers of his house, grandson of the great gaon R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi, av"d [of Stechnowla?]." The by-name "Reylis" and the rabbinic ancestor's town are read tentatively (court-print, best effort). ## Research *(your reasoning — preserved across every rebuild)* **Rabbinic print (HebrewBooks, read from page images 2026-07-06):** - **Kos Yeshuot — *Toldot ha-Mechaber* (author's family genealogy), [HebrewBooks 22594 p.221](https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_22594_221.pdf).** *Kos Yeshuot* is the responsa of R. Zvi Hirsch Halberstadt, who traces his own descent through Berek. The opening paragraph names Berek as **"the renowned *parnas*, God-fearing, Mr. Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter, called R' Beryl [Reylis?], of Łęczna,"** and calls him a **"branch of the tree of the fathers," grandson of the gaon R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi, av"d (rabbi) of [Stechnowla?].** New facts established: (1) Hebrew name **Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter** — the family are **Levites**; (2) Berek held communal office as a **parnas** (elected *kahał* warden); (3) a **rabbinic ancestor two generations up**, R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi. The vernacular by-name ("Reylis") and the ancestor's town are read tentatively. This is the "genealogy given by his grandson [descendant]" flagged on the profile — now read. - **Tiferet Zvi — subscriber list (*Shemot ha-Prenumeranten*), Łęczna section, [HebrewBooks 22623 p.8](https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/reader/reader.aspx?sfid=22623#p=8).** Enters him as **"R' Beryl ha-Levi Balter,"** directly after the town rabbi Chaim Baruch. The surrounding entries state the family relations explicitly: **son-in-law (*חתן*) Jankiel (Yaakov) Wechtenstein**; then a run of **brothers-in-law (*גיס*)** — **Szmul Hersz (Shmuel Zvi) Marszalkowicz**, **[[Chaim Szyia Biderman (b.1835)|Chaim Yehoshua Biderman]]** ("son of R' [Jankiel] Dawid"), and his own son **[[Abram Josef Balter (b.1845)|Abraham Yosef ha-Levi Balter]]** — i.e. the co-sons-in-law / kin married into the Balter household. Confirms the *ha-Levi* (Levite) marker independently of Kos Yeshuot. **Notarial records (skanoteka, read 2026-07-04):** - **1843, act #17** (2/14 February 1843, notary Franciszkiewski/"Franciszkiewski Regent," Łęczna) — a **lease contract (*Kontrakt Dzierżawny*)** to which Berek Balter was a party, signing in his own hand "**Berek Balter**." Term running from 1 January 1843; sum of **6000 złp (Rs 2400)**. The object of the lease (a mill/land/propination on a local *dziedziczka*'s estate[?]) is not yet fully legible — reread wanted. Scan: [skanoteka 3971, sy.13, p.057, act #17](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=13&kt=&plik=057.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1843, act #97** (17/29 November 1843, notary Franciszkowski, Łęczna) — **lease contract (*kontrakt dzierżawny*)**. Józef Kosiński, owner/administrator of the Łęczna estate ("dobra Łęczyńskie"), leases the town's annual income to **Berek Balter of Łęczna** for a term of three years at a total sum of **Rs 1900 (silver rubles)**. Berek signed in his own hand "**Berek Balter**"; the estate side signed "F. Kosiński." Scan: [skanoteka 3971, sy.13, p.075, act #97](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=13&kt=&plik=075.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1854, act #97** (27 July 1854, notary Stanisław Florian, Łęczna) — a **security/bond (*kaucja*)**. **Berek Balter of Łęczna registers a *kaucja* of Rs 900** (the type column reads "Kaucya"); the phrasing ("na lat trzy"[?] — three years) suggests a guarantee posted to secure a lease or office obligation, though the specific undertaking and any counterparty are only partly legible. Signed in his own hand "**Berek Balter**," notary "Stanisław Florian." One year before he first took the Grabowski propination lease, this is Berek posting the kind of surety a revenue-farmer had to lodge. Scan: [skanoteka 3971, sy.14, p.157, act #97](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=14&kt=&plik=157.jpg&zoom=2.5). - **1855, act #83** (4/16 July 1855, notary Stanisław Florian, Łęczna) — **debt acknowledgement (*obligacja*)**. Józef Niecielski, heir/owner of an estate ("Przewica"[?]), acknowledges owing **Berek Balter of Łęczna** the sum of **Rs 1750**. Here Berek is the *creditor*. Signed "Józef Niecielski." Scan: [skanoteka 3971, sy.14, p.179, act #83](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=14&kt=&plik=179.jpg&zoom=2.5). - **1855, act #92** (14/26 July 1855, notary Stanisław Florian, Łęczna) — **lease contract (*kontrakt dzierżawny*)**. Ludwik Grabowski, heir of the Łęczna estate, leases the town's income/propination (liquor monopoly) to **Berek Balter of Łęczna** for a three-year term (1855–1858) at **Rs 6000 annually** (with a testacya/deposit figure of Rs 1650[?]). Signed "Ludwik Grabowski" and, in his own hand, "**Berek Balter**." Scan: [skanoteka 3971, sy.14, p.181, act #92](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=14&kt=&plik=181.jpg&zoom=2.5). - **1857, act #3** (24/5 January 1857, Łęczna) — a **contract (*kontrakt*) between the successors/heirs of Jan Majewski (*sukcesorowie Jana Majewskiego*) and Berek Balter**, over a quantity of a commodity — the words read "o pięciu cetnarów [?] siana [?]" (five *cetnary*/quintals of hay[?]), for a sum in the order of Rs 1200[?]; the object is only partly legible. The row was signed by a cluster of parties — Franciszka Błońska, Bronisław Błoński, the Gregorowicz family (Wawrzyniec/Elżbieta), a Majewski, and, in his own hand, "**B. Balter**." Note this and the following act appear as one-line summaries in the notary's *repertorium* (register index), not as full act texts. Scan: [skanoteka 4354, sy.3, p.056, act #3](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4354&se=&sy=3&kt=&plik=056.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1861, act #69** (5/17 June 1861, notary Krasnodębski-Gałczyński, Łęczna) — **debt obligation (*obligacja*) for Rs 3750 by Berek Balter** in favour of Benedykt Bekłowski[?]. Here Berek is the *debtor*. Signed in his own hand "**Berek Balter**" and by "Bekłowski Benedykt." Scan: [skanoteka 4354, sy.3, p.147, act #69](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4354&se=&sy=3&kt=&plik=147.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1861, act #70** (6/18 June 1861, notary Krasnodębski-Gałczyński, Łęczna) — **lease contract (*kontrakt dzierżawy propinacyi*)** of the propination (liquor monopoly) in the town of Łęczna, for one year at **Rs 9000 annually**, between Ludwik Grabowski and joint lessees **Nathan Szafir and Berek Balter**. All three signed in their own hands ("Ludwik Grabowski," "Nathan Szafir," "**Berek Balter**"). Scan: [skanoteka 4354, sy.3, p.148, act #70](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4354&se=&sy=3&kt=&plik=148.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1861, act #71** (6/18 June 1861, notary Krasnodębski-Gałczyński, Łęczna) — **sub-lease contract (*kontrakt poddzierżawy*)** of the consumption-tax ("dochód konsumpcyjny") revenue of the town of Łęczna, one year, total **Rs 4107**, between Ludwik Grabowski and **Nathan Szafir and Berek Balter**. Signed "Ludwik Grabowski," "Nathan Szafir," "**Berek Balter**." Scan: [skanoteka 4354, sy.3, p.148, act #71](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4354&se=&sy=3&kt=&plik=148.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1862, act #172** (25 November / 7 December 1862, notary Krasnodębski-Gałczyński, Łęczna) — **six-year lease contract** of the propination and other municipal revenues of Łęczna, at an annual rent of **Rs 8300**, between Ludwik Grabowski and **Berek Balter** (Berek now sole lessee). Signed "Ludwik Grabowski," "**Berek Balter**." Scan: [skanoteka 3974, sy.4, p.029, act #172](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3974&se=&sy=4&kt=&plik=029.jpg&zoom=2.5). - **1862, act #173** (25 November / 7 December 1862, notary Krasnodębski-Gałczyński, Łęczna) — **one-year sub-lease** of the town's consumption tax, annual sum **Rs 3272**, between Ludwik Grabowski and **Berek Balter**. Signed "Ludwik Grabowski," "**Berek Balter**." Scan: [skanoteka 3974, sy.4, p.029, act #173](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3974&se=&sy=4&kt=&plik=029.jpg&zoom=2.5). - **1872, act #239** (24 October / 5 November 1872, notary Gracjan Wereżyński, Łęczna) — **sale of real estate**. **Berek Balter of Łęczna sells to Lejba Goldenberg of Łęczna** a plot and a slaughterhouse (*szlachtuz*/rzeźnia) in Łęczna for **Rs 100 + Rs 8 supplement = Rs 108**, with declaration. Signed "**Berek Balter**," "Lejba Goldenberg." Scan: [skanoteka 2491, sy.26, p.010, act #239](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=2491&se=&sy=26&kt=&plik=010.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1873, act #174** (13/25 July 1873, notary Gracjan Wereżyński, Łęczna) — **purchase of real estate**. Katarzyna Dobrzyńska née Banaszyńska, wife of Jan Kazimierz Dobrzyński, of Łęczna, **sells real estate to Berek Balter** for **Rs 675 + Rs 10 = Rs 685**. Berek is the *buyer*; he signed "**Berek Balter**" beside "Katarzyna Dobrzyńska" and "Jan Dobrzyński." Scan: [skanoteka 2491, sy.26, p.037, act #174](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=2491&se=&sy=26&kt=&plik=037.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1874, act #24** (10/22 January 1874, notary Gracjan Wereżyński, Łęczna) — **power of attorney (*plenipotencja*)**. **Władysław Węgliński of Kietrzów[?]** grants **Berek Balter** authority to act on his behalf before the administrative authorities in a **distillery-and-brewery propination matter** (the words read "gorzelniano-piwowarska"[?] — the estate's liquor/beer-production monopoly). As grantor, only Węgliński signs (Berek is the party empowered, not a signatory here); the notary Wereżyński countersigns. The Kietrzów estate ties this act to the Dobiecki mill-and-tavern lease of the same year (acts #73/#119). Scan: [skanoteka 2491, sy.26, p.056, act #24](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=2491&se=&sy=26&kt=&plik=056.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1874, act #73** (8/20 March 1874, notary Gracjan Wereżyński, Łęczna) — **lease contract (*kontrakt dzierżawy*)**. **Józef Dobiecki leases to Berek Balter a mill and tavern (*młyn i karczma*) at Kietrzów** for **Rs 3150 + Rs 100 supplement = Rs 3250, for a full three-year term** (*na lat trzy całe*). Both parties are literate here: signed "Józef Dobiecki," "**Berek Balter**," notary "Grażyan Wereżyński." Berek personally took the certified extract (*wyciąg odebrałem — Berek Balter*). Scan: [skanoteka 2491, sy.26, p.062, act #73](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=2491&se=&sy=26&kt=&plik=062.jpg&zoom=2.75). - **1874, act #119** (18/30 April 1874, notary Gracjan Wereżyński, Łęczna) — **receipt (*kwit z odbioru*)**. **Józef Dobiecki, hereditary owner of the Kietrzów estate (*dziedzic folwarku Kietrzów*), gives Berek Balter of Łęczna a receipt for Rs 400 received** — a payment under the mill-and-tavern lease of act #73 six weeks earlier. Signed "Józef Dobiecki"; Berek took the extract and signed "**Berek Balter**." Scan: [skanoteka 2491, sy.26, p.067, act #119](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=2491&se=&sy=26&kt=&plik=067.jpg&zoom=2.75). ## Evidence - **Łęczna liquidation table** (Archiwum Państwowe w Lublinie, *Zbiór tabel likwidacyjnych*, jednostka 2766805; read 2026-07-02). Listed as **"Берекъ Бальтеръ" (Berek Balter)** at the head of the Jewish town-residents section (Часть III, "Усадьбы и земли городскихъ жителей") — households **№213, №219, №238, №330, №378, №410 and №459** (multiple house-plots — the last individual household before the communal-property section). Scan: [household 213 (scan 16)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/2766805?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=16). ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh213.jpg]] *Łęczna liquidation table (scan 16), hh 213: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — Berek Balter (also hh 219, 238, 330).* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh330.jpg]] *Łęczna liquidation table (scan 22), hh 330: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — a further Berek Balter plot.* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh219.jpg]] *Scan 16, hh 219: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — Berek Balter.* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh238.jpg]] *Scan 17, hh 238: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — Berek Balter.* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh378.jpg]] *Scan 25, hh 378: **Бальтеръ Берекъ** — Berek Balter.* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh410.jpg]] *Scan 26, hh 410: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — Berek Balter.* ![[Leczna-liq-1866_Balter-Berek_hh459.jpg]] *Scan 29, hh 459: **Берекъ Бальтеръ** — Berek Balter (last individual householder, just before Part II communal props).* - **Kos Yeshuot — *Toldot ha-Mechaber* naming Berek (HebrewBooks 22594, p.221; read 2026-07-06).** The printed family genealogy of R. Zvi Hirsch Halberstadt names Berek as **"הפרנס המפורסם … מו' דוב בער הלוי באלטער הנקרא ר' בעריל [רייליס?] מק"ק לענטשנא … נכד הג"מ ישכר בעריש הלוי"** — the renowned *parnas* Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter of Łęczna, grandson of the gaon R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi. Source: [HebrewBooks 22594 p.221](https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_22594_221.pdf). ![[KosYeshuot_22594_p221_Balter-genealogy.jpg]] *Kos Yeshuot, Toldot ha-Mechaber (p.221): opening genealogy naming **דוב בער הלוי באלטער … ר' בעריל … מק"ק לענטשנא**, "grandson of … R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi."* - **Tiferet Zvi — Łęczna subscriber list naming Berek (HebrewBooks 22623, p.8; read 2026-07-06).** Listed as **"הר' בעריל הלוי באלטער"** (R' Beryl ha-Levi Balter) in the Łęczna *prenumeranten*, with his son-in-law Wechtenstein and brothers-in-law Marszalkowicz, Chaim Yehoshua Biderman, and son Abraham Yosef ha-Levi Balter named around him. Source: [HebrewBooks 22623 p.8](https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/reader/reader.aspx?sfid=22623#p=8). ![[TiferetZvi_22623_p8_Leczna-subscribers.jpg]] *Tiferet Zvi subscriber list (p.8), Łęczna block: **הר' בעריל הלוי באלטער** with חתנו (son-in-law) Wechtenstein and גיסו (brothers-in-law) Marszalkowicz, Chaim Yehoshua [Biderman], and Abraham Yosef ha-Levi Balter.* ## Open questions - **1848 act #74 — citation appears wrong.** The scan cited for "1848 #74" ([skanoteka 3971, sy.14, p.077](https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=3971&se=&sy=14&kt=&plik=077.jpg&zoom=2.5)) shows, at act #74, an **estate inventory of the remains of Abram Rojdgold of Łęczna** (begun 1/13 Oct 1846, completed 1848) — Berek Balter is **not** named in it. Either the act number or the register/year is mis-cited in the MyHeritage bio, or Berek's 1848 act sits on a nearby page. Needs a re-locate before it can be attributed to him. (All other 14 cited acts were read and transcribed 2026-07-04 — see Research.) - **Partly-legible readings still to confirm (re-swept 2026-07-06):** the specific undertaking secured by the **1854 #97** *kaucja* of Rs 900 is unclear; the commodity and sum in **1857 #3** (read as "five *cetnary* of hay"[?] for c. Rs 1200[?], contract with the *heirs* of Jan Majewski) are tentative; the estate name in **1855 #83** reads "Przewica"[?]. The Kietrzów place-name attached to the Dobiecki/Węgliński acts (**1874 #24, #73, #119**) is now read fairly confidently as *folwark Kietrzów* but wants a final check. **Resolved this pass:** 1857 #3 is with the *successors* of Jan Majewski (not Majewski himself); 1874 #24 is specifically a *gorzelniano-piwowarska* (distillery-brewery) propination plenipotencja from Węgliński of Kietrzów; the 1861 #69 counterparty is confirmed "Bekłowski Benedykt" by his own counter-signature. - **Still to read:** the szukajwarchiwach death scan. *(The grandson's/descendant's genealogy in HebrewBooks 22594 p.221 was read 2026-07-06 — see Research/Evidence.)* - **Kos Yeshuot genealogy — tentative readings to confirm (read 2026-07-06).** The vernacular by-name after "R' Beryl" reads **"רייליס" ([Reylis?])** — likely a metronymic ("Beryl [son/husband] of Reyla") but uncertain; and the town of the rabbinic ancestor **R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi (av"d)** reads **"[סטעכנאוולי / Stechnowla?]"** — both are best-effort from the print and want the user's eye. The **rabbinic ancestor R' Yisachar Berish ha-Levi** (Berek's grandfather per the passage) is **not yet in the tree** — a candidate lead to trace (would sit two generations above Berek, i.e. father of [[Icek Balter (b.1771)]] or of Icek's wife). The *ha-Levi* (Levite) status now attaches to the whole Balter line. - **Additional MyHeritage-bio scan leads (not yet read/incorporated; preserved 2026-07-06):** https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/720174078abeed0a4ad12786a69d54bbc12c7ff709c6b37169d64a082b3500fe