New database: Chelsea, MA: Marriages by Rabbi Icik Benkovitz, 1922-1956

Chelsea, MA: Marriages by Rabbi Icik Benkovitz, 1922-1956 is our newest database, presented thanks to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Rabbi Icik Benkovitz lived in Chelsea, MA from 1822-1963. He was born in Lithuania in 1853.  He served two synagogues, Zemach Zedeck on Everett Avenue and Shaare Zion on Orange Street.  He was 110 when he died, serving actively as a spiritual leader until only a few weeks before his death.  The Benkovitz family donated these records to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center.

This database contains 306 marriages and 4,076 searchable names.  David Rosen of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston provided the scanned images and the index upon which this collection is based; Susan Posner also contributed work to the index.

This database offers the following indexed fields (where the information was provided):

• Last name
• First name
• Parents’ names
• Spouse’s name
• Date
• Location
• Age
• Street address
• Occupation
• Marital status
• Place of birth
• Parents’ places of birth

While Rabbi Benkovitz was based in Chelsea, some of the marriages took place in nearby towns such as Boston, Brookline, Everett, and Revere.  The “Street address” and “Place of birth” fields bring even further geographic diversity, encompassing brides and grooms from Maine, New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan, Russia, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and more.

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.