Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779) - The Bernstein-Dahne Genealogy Wiki

# Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779)  > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **5x great-grand-uncle** **Born** ~1779 — [[Łęczna]] **Died** 02/13/1846 — [[Łęczna]] **Parents** [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] · [[Ita (b.1741)]] **Spouses** [[Hinda (b.1785)]] · [[Malka Blusztajn (b.1828)]] **Children** [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1846)]] **Siblings** [[Pejsach Edelsztajn (b.1764)]] · [[Chaja Edelsztajn (b.1769)]] · [[Frajda Edelsztajn (b.1785)]] · [[Sanel Edelsztajn (b.1788)]] *GEDCOM I518991 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01*  ## Narrative Chaim Edelsztajn was born in [[Łęczna]] about 1779, a son of the town's substantial Jewish burgher [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] — municipal citizen, moneylender, holder of the slaughterhouse-and-meat-stall concession, miller and distiller — and lived his whole life in that private Sapieha-then-Kalckreuth town in the Lublin department. In the town books of his younger years he appears not yet under the fixed surname but as **Chaim Rubinowicz** ("Chaim son of Rubin"), and interchangeably as **Chaim Edelsztein / Edelstein** — the two names for one man.[^naming] What the records preserve of him falls into two chapters a generation apart: a stretch of hard commercial venturing in his late twenties and thirties, run in partnership with his brother-in-law, and — long after — a place among the elders of the Jewish community. **The family backing (1808).** Chaim's ventures began with his father's whole estate behind them. On 22 June 1808 Rubin came before the Łęczna town office and stood surety "*za Dziećmi memi*" — "for my children" — pledging his entire property, his Łęczna land and homestead included, to guarantee Chaim together with [[Zelik Mendelsberg (b.1783)]] on a contract the two young men had signed with the Łęczna domain on 14 May to deliver **timber and lime to Elbląg**, far down the Vistula toward the Baltic. The act names Chaim outright as Rubin's son; Zelik, married to Chaim's sister [[Frajda Edelsztajn (b.1785)]], was the son-in-law folded into the same paternal phrase.[^akta108] It is the first of the joint enterprises the two brothers-in-law would run together, and it set the pattern: Chaim and Zelik as partners, with old Rubin's credit standing behind them. **The propination monopoly (1809).** On 8 September 1809 the two men registered (*podali do Oblaty*) with the Łęczna town office a German-language lease taken from the estate of **Count Friedrich von Kalckreuth**, by then the lord of Łęczna. It handed Chaim and Zelik the town's **propination** — the beer-and-brandy (*Bier- und Branntwein*) monopoly, the exclusive right to make and sell drink in the town, together with the drink trade at its fairs — running until St. John's Day (*Johanni*) 1810, for a sum reckoned in Gulden.[^akta158] Holding a magnate town's propination was one of the most lucrative leaseholds a Jewish townsman could take, and the most exposed: the income depended entirely on traffic and custom, and the lessee was liable for the fixed rent whether the trade came or not. **The bridge, ferry and fair tolls (1810).** The next spring Chaim's partner extended their reach to the town's traffic. On 1 June 1810 Zelik won at auction, and on 4 June registered, a one-year lease from Michał Rydziatowicz, sequestrator of the Łęczna key (*klucz*), of the **bridge and ferry tolls (*Mostowe, Przewozowe*), the Osierdowska tavern, and the fair-dues (*danina od Jarmarków*)** — for 4,365 Polish złoty in silver, payable in three quarterly installments of 1,455 złoty. The contract's fourteen clauses reached into every corner of the concession, from firewood and fire-safety in the taverns to toll exemptions for treasury officials and the seven pots owed from each cart of pottery that crossed the ferry.[^akta194] Chaim's name stands with Zelik's as the ferry lessees when the venture came to grief. **The cattle plague and the plea for a rebate (1810).** That lease turned into a loss, and the record of the loss is the fullest glimpse of Chaim at work. A **cattle plague (*zaraza bydła*)** broke out in Łęczna just before the St. Giles fair on 1 September 1810 and dragged on through the autumn. The Masovian merchants and cattle-drovers who normally crossed the river at Łęczna stayed away, a ban was laid on traffic into the stricken town, and Chaim and Zelik — holding the ferry that lived on that very traffic — took in next to nothing in bridge, ferry, or land tolls. On 21 September they registered a **certificate from the Łęczna magistrate**, dated 19 September, attesting truthfully under the town seal that the epidemic and the traffic ban had left them without revenue.[^akta219] On the strength of that certificate the two men submitted, the same day, a joint **petition to Count von Kalckreuth's plenipotentiary**, asking humbly for a *defalka* — a rebate of part of the lease sum their contract had fixed. They signed it together, "Chaim Rubinowicz Edelsztein, Zelik Mendlowicz Mendelsburg."[^akta220] Whether the count relented the record does not say; but the episode shows Chaim as his father's son — a leaseholder navigating a magnate town's economy, turning to the municipal authorities for a certified account of his misfortune and to the lord's man for relief. Chaim's partner did not live much longer: Zelik and Frajda both died at their Łęczna house, No. 230, on 4 August 1813, within a day of each other,[^zelik] and the run of joint ventures closed with them. The town books fall largely silent on Chaim for the years that follow. **Kahał leadership (1830).** He surfaces again, a generation on, as one of the elders of the Jewish community. A Łęczna municipal *protokół* of **16 March 1830** records five *Starozakonny* kahał representatives signing — in Polish and in Hebrew — to acknowledge the community's one-third share of the interest on a 1,000-złp *Bractwo Chrystusowe* (Christ's Brotherhood) legacy, the sum charged against the kahał's **kosher-meat lease** (*pacht mięsa koszernego*). The first name to sign is **"Chaim Edelsztajn."**[^kahal] The men beside him were of the same townsman elite — **Manes Zylber**, the town revenue-farmer, and members of the **Weinfeld**, **Bergierman** and **Blusztajn** (Berek Blu[sztajn]) families. That last name touched Chaim's own household: his second wife was [[Malka Blusztajn (b.1828)]], tying him to the Blusztajn line whose kinsman signed alongside him. To sign first among the community's representatives, aged about fifty-one, over the very question of the kosher-meat lease — the trade his father Rubin had once held the town concession for — placed Chaim at the head of the men who spoke for Łęczna's Jews. His standing among them held into the mid-1830s. Four years later, on 26–27 August 1834, "**Chaim Edelsztein**" signs again — in Polish and Hebrew — among the ten members of the Łęczna **Dozór Bożniczy**, the synagogue supervisory board, on a quittance settled with the town's former mayor Śmielski.[^dozor] The board around him was again the town's Jewish-leadership circle — Jankiel Bergman, Lipa Honigfeld, Moszek Zylber, Moszek Handelsman — and it seated beside Chaim two men from families that ran into his own: **Chemia Hochberger**, of the [[Ichiel Michel Hochberger (b.1739)|Hochberger]] line, and **Abraham Blusztein**, of the Blusztajn family into which Chaim's second marriage tied him. And to the last he stayed in the drink trade his father Rubin had once held the town concession for. In **1838/39 Chaim held the lease of Łęczna's beer duty** — the *opłata propinacyjna* on beer, one slice of the town's drink monopoly. This is set down precisely in a sworn inquiry of 1840–41 into how the town's drink fees were levied: called before the protocol, the **Elders of the Synagogue and the townsmen of Łęczna testified under oath, unanimously,** that the lord (*Dziedzic*) collected the propination fee himself only on vodka and mead, while the fee on **beer** was taken by the men who leased that income from him — "*in the years 1838/39 the Starozakonny **Chaim Edelstein**, and in the years 1839/40 the Starozakonny Chaim Weinberg.*"[^prop1] So the aging Chaim had come round to farming, on the lord's behalf, the very kind of drink revenue his father had held under the old Sapieha privilege — and his successor at it was Chaim Weinberg, one of the men who would soon lead the tavern-keepers' long grievance against the manor over the yeast and beer duties (1840–1844). The other glimpse of these years is a smaller and more human one. In **1840** the Łęczna Treasury Office drew up a register of **vodka consumption-tax defraud cases** — untaxed spirits caught in the town — and among the fifteen entries, dated 24 March / 5 April 1841, "**Chaim Edelsztyn**" stands as №13, charged over **six garnce of vodka**.[^prop2] He is in familiar company on the list: two entries above him is **Lejzor Blusztin** (Blusztajn), and higher still "Tojna and Danhil Blusztajn" — the same Blusztajn family his second marriage had joined. A prominent old townsman, a former community elder, caught a little short with the excise on his liquor: it is the last, closest look the records give of him, three years before his death, still living by the drink trade at the edges of a magnate town's fiscal machinery. Chaim married first [[Hinda (b.1785)]] and, late in life, [[Malka Blusztajn (b.1828)]]; a son, [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1846)]], born the year of his death, carries his name. He died in **Łęczna on 13 February 1846**, about sixty-seven years old — a merchant's son who spent his young manhood at the risky edge of a magnate town's leaseholds and his later years among its Jewish elders. [^naming]: In the 1808–1810 town-book acts Chaim is written variously as "Chaim Rubinowicz" (patronymic, "son of Rubin" — his father [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]]), "Chaim Edelstein," and "Chaim Rubinowicz Edelsztein," all one man; the 1830 kahał protokół uses the fixed surname "Chaim Edelsztajn." His death record's naming of his mother as "Hinda" is very likely a slip for his first wife Hinda (per the family's MyHeritage biography). [^akta108]: Łęczna town book, [akta 108 (registered 22 June 1808; contract 14 May 1808)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=237), APL, Akta miasta Łęcznej, ref. 35/44/0/1/37; read from [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]]'s record. [^akta158]: Łęczna town book, [akta 158 (8 Sept 1809)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=371) (contract text continues at [scan 372](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=372)–[373](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=373)), APL, Akta miasta Łęcznej, ref. 35/44/0/1/37. The lease sum is in German court-hand and only partly legible (read tentatively as ~10,520 Gulden [?]). [^akta194]: Łęczna town book, [akta 194 (4 June 1810; lease won at auction 1 June 1810)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=423) (continues at [scan 424](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=424)), APL, Akta miasta Łęcznej, ref. 35/44/0/1/37. The lease is registered in Zelik's name; the joint pair appear together as the ferry lessees in the plague petition (akta 219–220). [^akta219]: Łęczna town book, [akta 219 (registered 21 Sept 1810; magistrate's certificate dated 19 Sept 1810)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=456), APL, Akta miasta Łęcznej, ref. 35/44/0/1/37. [^akta220]: Łęczna town book, [akta 220 (19 Sept 1810)](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=456), APL, Akta miasta Łęcznej, ref. 35/44/0/1/37; signed jointly "Chaim Rubinowicz Edelsztein, Zelik Mendlowicz Mendelsburg." [^zelik]: [[Zelik Mendelsberg (b.1783)]] and [[Frajda Edelsztajn (b.1785)]] died at Łęczna house No. 230 on 4 Aug 1813; Łęczna civil death register 1813, akta 51–52 ([skan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/246f361960c366ef8e25c5f337e6d2fb3714f27567b9e7daeae9fc88c01b2095)). Josef Mendelsberg's marriage record names Chaim his "maternal uncle" — Frajda's brother. [^kahal]: Łęczna municipal *protokół*, [16 March 1830](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742782?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=201), AGAD 1/191/0/-/3645, jednostka 17742782, sc.201; co-signatories Manes Zylber, Pinchas Weinfeld, Chaim Bergierman, Berek Blu[sztajn]. *Edelsztajn* being a rare surname, the only Łęczna Chaim Edelsztajn of the era is this man (b.~1779, d.1846, son of [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]]). Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1827-1830 - Miasto Łęczna vol V]]. [^dozor]: Łęczna *Dozór Bożniczy* roster on a quittance with ex-mayor Śmielski, [26–27 Aug 1834](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742784?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=11), AGAD 1/191/0/-/3647, jednostka 17742784, sc.11; ten members incl. Jankiel Bergman, Lipa Honigfeld, Moszek Zylber, Chemia Hochberger, Abraham Blusztein, Moszek Handelsman, Jankiel & Moszek Weintraub, Fram Goldzabel. Chaim also signs a Łęczna inhabitants' petition, [sc.312](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742784?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=312). Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1834-1843 - Miasto Łęczna vol VII]]. [^prop1]: Sworn inquiry into the levying of Łęczna's drink (*propinacja*) fees, 1840–41, in *Miasto Łęczna vol. VIII* (AGAD 1/191/0/-/3648, jednostka 17742785), [sc.114](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=114) (read 2026-07-06): the Synagogue Elders (*Starsi Synagogi*) and Łęczna townsmen testified that the *Dziedzic* collected the propination fee directly only on vodka and mead, the beer fee being taken by its lessees — "*w latach 1838/39 Starozakonny Chaim Edelstein a w latach 1839/40 Starozakonny Chaim Weinberg*" (the same statement recurs at sc.[38](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=38), where the court-hand "Edelstein" was earlier misread "Edelbaum"). Part of the 1840–44 tavern-keepers-vs-manor beer/yeast-duty dispute (sc.79–115). Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1841-1852 - Miasto Łęczna vol VIII]]. [^prop2]: "*Wykaz … defraudacyi podatku Konsumcyjnego od Wódki z 1840 przy Urzędzie Skarbowym Łęczna*" — Łęczna Treasury register of 1840 vodka consumption-tax defraud cases (dated 24 March / 5 April 1841), [sc.125](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=125) (read 2026-07-06): 15 entries, №13 "Chaim Edelsztyn" — 6 garnce; also №11 Lejzor Blusztin ([[Leyzor Blusztajn (b.1822)]]?) and №8 "Tojna i Danhil Blusztajny." Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1841-1852 - Miasto Łęczna vol VIII]]. ## Research *(your reasoning — preserved across every rebuild)* **1808 — his father Rubin's surety "for my children."** In a notarial act of 1808 ([akta 108](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=237)), **[[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] pledged his whole estate "za Dziećmi memi" (for my children)** to guarantee **Chaim** together with his brother-in-law [[Zelik Mendelsberg (b.1783)]] on their contract with the Łęczna domain to deliver timber and lime to Elbląg — Rubin naming Chaim here as his son. A second, independent documentary confirmation of the father–son link. (Read from the record 2026-07-04.) **1830 — Łęczna kahał representative.** A Łęczna municipal *protokół* of **16 March 1830** records five Starozakonny kahał representatives signing (Polish + Hebrew) to acknowledge the Jewish community's 1/3 share of the interest on a 1000-złp *Bractwo Chrystusowe* legacy, funded from the kosher-meat lease (*pacht mięsa koszernego*). The first signatory is **"Chaim Edelsztajn."** *Edelsztajn* is a rare surname; the only Łęczna Chaim Edelsztajn of the era is **this man** (b.~1779, d.1846 Łęczna, son of the Łęczna burgher/moneylender [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]]) — age ~51 in 1830 and exactly the standing to sit on the kahał. Co-signatories: Manes Zylber, Pinchas Weinfeld, Chaim Bergierman, Berek Blu[sztajn]. APL/AGAD 1/191/0/-/3645, jednostka 17742782, sc.[201](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742782?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=201). Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1827-1830 - Miasto Łęczna vol V]]. **1834 — Łęczna *Dozór Bożniczy* (synagogue supervisory board).** Four years on, "**Chaim Edelsztein**" signs again (Polish + Hebrew) among the **ten-man Łęczna Dozór Bożniczy** roster attached to a 26–27 Aug 1834 quittance with the ex-mayor Śmielski (personally verified). His fellow board-members are a roll-call of the town's Jewish-leadership families — Jankiel Bergman (Bergierman), Lipa Honigfeld, Moszek Zylber, **Chemia Hochberger**, **Abraham Blusztein** (Blusztajn), Moszek Handelsman, Jankiel & Moszek Weintraub, Fram Goldzabel. Together with the 1830 kahał act this confirms Chaim as a **standing elder of the Łęczna kehilla into the mid-1830s.** AGAD 1/191/0/-/3647, jednostka 17742784, sc.[11](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742784?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=11) (he also signs a Łęczna inhabitants' petition, sc.[312](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742784?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=312), with Bergerman, Goldman, Handelsman, Hochberger and Symcha Perelman). Extraction: [[Łęczna - 1834-1843 - Miasto Łęczna vol VII]]. **1838–1843 — Łęczna tavern-keeper & propination lessee.** "**Chaim Edelsztajn / Edelstein**" recurs repeatedly through the Łęczna propination and vodka/beer-tax disputes of 1838–1843 — as a former **propination-income lessee (1838/39)** and one of the Jewish tavern-keepers complaining of the manor's yeast/beer-duty abuses — alongside the same circle (Chaim Weinberg, Symcha Perelman, Moszek Handelsman, Herszek Blusztajn, and the tavern-keeper **Aron Szmul Edelsberg** — a *distinct* Edelsberg family, not an Edelsztajn: see [[Szmul Edelsztajn (b.1810)]] for the retraction of an earlier mis-match). *Miasto Łęczna vol. VIII* (jedn 17742785, e.g. sc.[51](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=51), [90](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=90), [125](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=125)); [[Łęczna - 1841-1852 - Miasto Łęczna vol VIII]]. This carries his documented life to within a few years of his 1846 death. **Note on sc.38 — "Chaim Edelstein," not "Edelbaum" (reader misreading corrected 2026-07-06).** The inquiry's finding that the beer-propination fee was taken by its lessees — *"w latach 1838/9 Starozakonny Chaim Edelstein, w latach 1839/40 Starozakonny Chaim Weinberg"* — appears in **two parallel places** in the file: sc.[114](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=114) and again at sc.[38](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742785?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=38) (art. "ad A"). Reading sc.38 by eye, the surname is the ordinary court-hand **"Edelstein"** (Edelstei[m/n]) — an earlier reader index mis-transcribed it as "Edelbaum." So **not a new person and not a genuine "Edelbaum" spelling** — the same 1838/39 lessee = this man; the two scans are the same record's statement. ## Evidence ![[Chaim Edelsztajn - 1830 Leczna kahal protokol (signatory) jedn17742782 sc201.jpg]] *1830 (16 March) — Łęczna municipal protokół on the Jewish community's 1/3 share of a church-legacy interest; signed by five kahał representatives, the first being "**Chaim Edelsztajn**" (Polish + Hebrew), with Manes Zylber, Pinchas Weinfeld, Chaim Bergierman and Berek Blu[sztajn]. AGAD 1/191/0/-/3645, jedn. 17742782, sc.[201](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742782?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=201).* ![[Chaim Edelsztajn - 1834 Leczna Dozor Boznicy synagogue board (signatory) jedn17742784 sc11.jpg]] *1834 (26–27 Aug) — the Łęczna **Dozór Bożniczy** (synagogue supervisory board) roster on a quittance with ex-mayor Śmielski; "**Chaim Edelsztein**" signs (Polish + Hebrew) among ten members, alongside Chemia Hochberger, Abraham Blusztein, Jankiel Bergman, Moszek Zylber and Moszek Handelsman. AGAD 1/191/0/-/3647, jedn. 17742784, sc.[11](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/17742784?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=11).* ## Open questions