Some people have asked me if I have any connection to the Lithuanian Jews that came to Cork City and, specifically, Jewtown. I probably have a number of leads but the most straightforward one that I know of is my great grandmother, Esther Cristol, who was a playwright. The above is a simplified sketch of my family tree connecting me to her through my mother’s side. Just to demonstrate where Jewish people ended up, here is where the other people in this map were born (as far as I am told):
- Lesley Morris and Moir Morris: Dublin (Moir often went by the surname Mofsovitz)
- Mina Levinson: Cavan Town
- Malcolm Lewis: Belfast (Lewis is an Anglicisation of Lazarus)
I’m not sure where Michael Mofsovitz was born but I am told it was somewhere in Russia.