Origin of the name Brodsky

The family name Brodsky comes from the town Brody. Many people who once left this town received this name.

The history of this once Jewish town is so interesting that using this opportunity we will allow ourselves to give a short historical reference and tell you a bit about the town. As the Brokgauz and Efron Jewish encyclopedia informs, about 400 Jewish families resided in Brody already in 1648. By a special edict, a son of the king of Poland Yan the Second and the town owner Yakub Ludwig Sobeskii allowed in 1699 the Jews not only to settle in the town districts but also to occupy themselves with any work or trade. One should suppose he did this not because of love for Jews but out of practical considerations. Jews in that time helped a vigorous rise of the Poland economics. The Jewish comminity became more prosperous.

Having said that, during wars Jews had to support financially all the army units passing via the town. However, in 1772 the first division of Poland took place and Brody received the status of a free town. By the way, it is in Brody that the Jewish community once put under the herem (excommunicated) the famous adventurer claiming to be the Messiah Jacob Frank. It should be added however that the orthodox Brody community also put hasidism under the herem and hasidic manuscripts were burnt in the town. Along with all the wars, disasters and internal tensions of that time, Brody was getting richer and gradually becoming a Jewish town. In the first quarter of the 19-th century, already after the Napoleon invasion, ninety percent of the town population were Jews.

Practically all Brodskys, from the famous millionaire and sugar producer to the chief Soviet portraitist and the great poet, trace their roots from this town. Jews started to leave the town in big numbers in the second half of the 19-th century. During that time the town was near the border of two empires - the Austro-Hungarian and Russian. In the beginning of the 20-th cenntury Brody served as if a transit point for many Jews who fled the Russian pogroms and were going to America. After the World War I Brody started to belong to Poland. The Civil War did not pass by the town. The famous, lost by bolsheviks Polish campaign took place right in these place. Pogroms took place one after another. Everybody was robbing and killing: poles, reds, whites, greens, kazaks. Pokras brothers wrote the march of the First Cavalry Division "Budennyi lead us braver into the battle" using the melody of an old Jewish wedding song. And this was a tragic smile of the destiny. The First Cavalry Division went through the Jewish Brody smashing everything on its way. Here is how Isaac Babel describes Brody in his diary after the town was entered by the red cavalry. "The town is destroyed, robbed... A Jew with a beard tells about the town robbery by the kazaks, about humiliations caused by Poles... Beautiful synagogue, what happeness that we have at least these old stones. This is a Jewish town.. Entrenchments, destroyed factories, Bristol, waitresses, "western European" culture... These pitiful mirrors, pale Austrian Jews - owners. And stories - here there were American dollars, oranges, cloth... These terrible markets, dwarves in cowls, cowls and side curls, old men. Everything is half-destroyed... Nothing to eat, nothing to hope for, war, everyone is equally evil, equally alien, hostile, wild. Before there was a peaceful and most importantly full of traditions life... Unbearable longing, people and souls killed. It's impossible to forget this town and these pitiful figures, and barbers, and Jews, who came from dead and kazaks on streets. Terrible night in the tormented Brody... The writings of everyday evil deeds press me restlessly as a heart disease. Yesterday was the day of the first massacre under Brody..."

In 1939 Brody, it seemed, were belonging to the country of Soviets forever. At least this is what, apparently, Stalin thought signing the agreement with Hitler about the joint conquering and separation of Poland. But in 1941 Germans entered Brody. All Jews who did not have time to flee the town were murdered. As sources inform after the war all the Jewish population of the town consisted of at most 50 people who miraculously survived during the time of that frightening genocide.

The history of each Jewish town can be seen on the old cemetery. The epitaphs on the graves can tell more than any historical references. As B. Haimovich writes, on the old cemetery in Brody "we encounter graves of people who died on the way to America. One of the epitaphs laments the death of a woman who died of unanswered love, another laments the death of a man who died under the falling roof of the house he was building, yet another writing tells about a woman who made pilgrimage to Jerusalem and died on the way." Do you remember a legend or a true story about Yehuda Halevi who made his long way from Spain to Jerusalem and was trampled to death by an Arab horseman when entering the city? The known through ages Yehuda Halevi and unknown woman from the town Brody. It is the same united and unthinkable Jewish history. We try to enter it searching for traces of our ancestors.