# Nachman Horodenker (b.1772) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **7x great-grandfather · also 9x great-grand-uncle *(2 ancestral lines)*** ![[I500279.jpg|220]] **Born** 04/04/1772 — [[Medzhybizh]] **Died** 10/16/1810 — [[Uman']] **Parents** [[Simcha Weinberg (b.1750)]] · [[Feiga Ashkenazi (b.1755)]] **Spouses** [[Soshia Ossatin (b.1772)]] · [[Dvora Trachtenberg]] **Children** [[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]] · [[Sarah Horodenker (b.1788)]] · [[Miriam Feiga Horodenker (b.1792)]] · [[Della Horodenker (b.1797)]] · [[Unknown Horodenker (b.1798)]] · [[Sashia Horodenker (b.1798)]] · [[Chaya Horodenker (b.1801)]] · [[Feige Horodenker (b.1803)]] · [[Shlomo Efraim Horodenker (b.1805)]] · [[Yaakov Horodenker (b.1806)]] · [[Shifra Feiga Auerbach (d.1882)]] **Siblings** [[Yechiel Tzvi Horodenker of Krementchik and Tcherin (b.1771)]] · [[Perel Weinberg (b.1775)]] · [[Yisroel Horodenka (b.1776)]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I500279_1.jpg|180]] ### How you're related — 2 distinct paths *These are genuinely separate bloodlines (the family intermarried), not the same line counted twice.* - **7x great-grandfather** — [[Nachman Horodenker (b.1772)]] → [[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]] → [[Rukhlya Chmelnicky Auerbach (b.1818)]] → [[Yosef Iserov (b.1841)]] → [[Shimshon Aryeh Iserov (b.1864)]] → [[Yehuda Leib Isseroff (b.1898)]] → [[Hadassah Isseroff (b.1928)]] → [[Chaya Goldfischer (b.1950)]] → [[Avi Bernstein (b.1977)]] → [[Azriel Yosef Bernstein (b.2000)]] - **9x great-grand-uncle** — [[Nachman Horodenker (b.1772)]] → [[Feiga Ashkenazi (b.1755)]] → [[Yechiel Tzvi Horodenker of Krementchik and Tcherin (b.1771)]] → [[Baila (b.1787)]] → [[Rivka Miriam (b.1790)]] → [[Rochel Rosenberg (b.1825)]] → [[Maryim Rivka Perlman (b.1845)]] → [[Sura Yuta Reiter (b.1855)]] → [[Shalom Goldfischer (b.1878)]] → [[Miriam Goldfischer (b.1902)]] → [[William Bill Goldfischer (b.1923)]] → [[Chaya Goldfischer (b.1950)]] → [[Avi Bernstein (b.1977)]] → [[Azriel Yosef Bernstein (b.2000)]] *GEDCOM I500279 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative The man the vault files as "Nachman Horodenker" is one of the towering figures of Hasidic history: **Rebbe Nachman of Breslov** (Breslev), founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.[^ident] He was born on **Rosh Chodesh Nisan — 4 April 1772 — in [[Medzhybizh]]**, the Podolian town of his great-grandfather, and he carried that founder's blood: his mother **[[Feiga Ashkenazi (b.1755)]]** was a granddaughter of the **Baal Shem Tov** (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer), while his father, **[[Simcha Weinberg (b.1750)]]**, was a son of Rabbi Nachman of Horodenka, a close disciple of the Besht — the elder Nachman for whom he was named.[^ident][^history] He married young — his first wife, **[[Soshia Ossatin (b.1772)]]**, was a daughter of Rabbi Ephraim of Ossatin — and settled first in the villages of the region, at Medvedivka and then Zlatopol, before moving to the town of **Bratslav (Breslov)** in 1802, from which his movement and his own title take their name.[^history] From there, as a young man, he had already undertaken in 1798–99 a perilous journey to the **Land of Israel**, an event his followers regarded as a spiritual turning point.[^history] His teaching reshaped a corner of the Jewish world. Rebbe Nachman preached **simple faith and irrepressible joy**, the practice of *hitbodedut* — solitary, spontaneous conversation with God — and the refusal of despair ("*there is no despair in the world at all*"). His discourses were gathered by his foremost disciple, Nathan of Breslov, into **Likutei Moharan**, and his haunting **tales** (*Sippurei Ma'asiyot*) became classics of Jewish literature.[^history] In 1810, dying of **tuberculosis**, he moved to **[[Uman']]**, choosing to be near the mass grave of the Jews massacred there in 1768.[^history] He died on **18 Tishrei 5571 — 16 October 1810** — during the intermediate days of Sukkot, and was buried in Uman; his grave became the site of the great **Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage** that draws tens of thousands of his followers to this day.[^history] Uniquely among Hasidic masters, he named no successor — the Breslover Hasidim have had no living rebbe since, and are sometimes called "the dead Hasidim" for their fidelity to a departed master.[^history] Among his daughters — the children through whom his line survived, his sons having died young — was **[[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]]** (Adil), and it is through her that this family's tree traces its descent from Rebbe Nachman, and so from the Baal Shem Tov.[^descent] That descent is the family's claim rather than a proven documentary chain, and — like many asserted descents from so illustrious an ancestor — it deserves careful, independent verification (see Open questions).[^descent] [^ident]: Identification: the profile's data — born **Medzhybizh, 1 Nisan / 4 April 1772**; died **Uman, 18 Tishrei 5571 / 16 October 1810** of tuberculosis; styled "**of Breslov**"; father Simcha (son of Nachman of Horodenka), mother Feiga (granddaughter of the Baal Shem Tov); first wife Soshia daughter of R. Ephraim of Ossatin; daughters Udel, Sarah, Miriam, Chaya, Feiga — corresponds exactly to the historical **Rebbe Nachman of Breslov**. (The portrait on this profile is a later devotional rendering; no contemporary likeness of Rebbe Nachman exists.) [^history]: Established historical record of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), as preserved in the standard Breslov literature — above all **Chayei Moharan** and the biographical writings of his disciple **Nathan (Reb Noson) of Breslov** — and in the received history of the movement: his descent from the Baal Shem Tov and from Nachman of Horodenka; his life at Medvedivka, Zlatopol and Bratslav; his 1798–99 journey to the Land of Israel; his works **Likutei Moharan** and **Sippurei Ma'asiyot**; his teachings of faith, joy and *hitbodedut*; his move to Uman and death there of tuberculosis; and the Uman Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage. (These are encyclopedic facts about a famous figure, not derived from a document held on this profile.) [^descent]: The family tree traces Ozzy's descent from Rebbe Nachman through his daughter **[[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]]** → [[Rukhlya Chmelnicky Auerbach (b.1818)]] → [[Yosef Iserov (b.1841)]] → the Isseroff/Goldfischer line. Presented here as the family's asserted descent; the intervening links have not been verified against primary records in this pass, and claimed descents from Rebbe Nachman are common and often unproven — flagged for scrutiny. ## Research - **Identity: Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810).** The profile's vitals (born Medzhybizh 1 Nisan/4 April 1772; died Uman 18 Tishrei/16 Oct 1810 of TB; "of Breslov"; parents Simcha b. Nachman of Horodenka + Feiga, granddaughter of the Baal Shem Tov; wife Soshia of Ossatin; daughters Udel/Sarah/Miriam/Chaya/Feiga) match the historical founder of Breslov Hasidism exactly. - **Established biography** (per Breslov literature — Chayei Moharan, Reb Noson): great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov; journey to Eretz Yisrael 1798–99; Medvedivka → Zlatopol → Bratslav (1802) → Uman (1810); author of Likutei Moharan and Sippurei Ma'asiyot; taught faith, joy, *hitbodedut*; no successor named; buried Uman (Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage site). - **Descent claim (needs verification):** Ozzy's line via daughter [[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]] → [[Rukhlya Chmelnicky Auerbach (b.1818)]] → [[Yosef Iserov (b.1841)]] → Isseroff/Goldfischer. Asserted by the family tree; intervening links not primary-verified here. - **No primary document** specific to Nachman is held on this profile (the image is a modern devotional portrait); the biography rests on published historical sources. ## Evidence - *No contemporary primary document / likeness.* The profile image (I500279_1) is a later artistic rendering of Rebbe Nachman with the Uman setting behind him — devotional, not documentary. His life is documented in the published Breslov corpus (Chayei Moharan, etc.) rather than in a family record. ## Open questions - **The descent chain — verify link by link.** The asserted descent from Rebbe Nachman (via daughter Udel → Rukhlya Chmelnicky Auerbach → Yosef Iserov) should be tested against primary records at each generation; descents from Rebbe Nachman are frequently claimed and rarely documented. This is the single most important open question on the profile. - **Which daughter, and Udel's own records.** [[Udel Horodenker (b.1787)]]'s identity as Rebbe Nachman's daughter Adil, and her marriage/children, need primary sourcing to anchor the line. - **Second wife.** The profile lists a second wife, [[Dvora Trachtenberg]] (Rebbe Nachman remarried after Soshia's death); the identification should be checked against the Breslov sources.