--- title: "Khana Reizel" url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/khana-reizel-komisaruk/ lang: en work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina" author: "Mateo Smud" licence: CC0-1.0 summary: "David Zmud's wife and Koppel's mother. The 1858 census calls her Khana, daughter of Zalka. Chaim Freedman identifies her as a Komisaruk descended from the Vilna Gaon, but no document yet confirms that identification, and the version this tree draws is contradicted by the census itself." --- # Khana Reizel **Evidence status: documented.** David Zmud's wife and Koppel's mother. The 1858 census calls her Khana, daughter of Zalka. Chaim Freedman identifies her as a Komisaruk descended from the Vilna Gaon, but no document yet confirms that identification, and the version this tree draws is contradicted by the census itself. c. 1820 – 1885 · David's wife · Koppel's mother ## Other spellings Khana, Chana Reizel, Хана Залкова, Chana Zalkova, Khana Reizel Komisaruk, Komesaroff ## Summary - Born: around 1820: aged 32 in 1852, 38 in 1858 - Died: 1885, Andreyevka, Taurida province - Patronymic in 1858: Zalkova: daughter of Zalka (Zalman) - Family of origin: Komisaruk, according to Freedman · no document confirms it - The Vilna Gaon, according to Freedman: great-grandfather (1997) or great-great-grandfather (October 2020) · no document ## Family - Married: David Zmud — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/david-zhmuydya/ - Children: Koppel Zhmood — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/people/koppel-zhmood/ ## What is known She was David's wife and Koppel's mother. The list of families who moved from Vitebsk to Novy Zlatopol, of 1850 and 1852, records her as Chana, aged 32, with no father's name. The 1858 census records her as “Хана Залкова”, Khana daughter of Zalka, aged 38. Both ages put her birth around 1820. She died in 1885 in Andreyevka, then in Taurida province. That patronymic is the only documented fact about her family of origin. Zalka is a common form of Zalman. What Freedman proposes, and how it changed. Chaim Freedman identifies her as Khana Reizel Komisaruk, of the Rassein family (now Raseiniai, Lithuania) whose descent from the Vilna Gaon he considers proven. In *Eliyahu's Branches* (1997) and in the February 2020 report he made her a daughter of Dov-Ber (Berel), whom he earlier called Velvel, and of Ester, a granddaughter of the Gaon: and therefore a sister of Rabbi Shlomo-Zalmen Komisaruk. That is the version this site's tree shows, and the one many published trees give, which also have her born in Rassein. In October 2020, with the full 1858 census in hand, Freedman himself ruled that version out: had she been Berel's daughter, she would appear as “Berelova” and not “Zalkova”. He then proposed that she was Shlomo-Zalmen's daughter, and presented it as a theory. No known document names her parents or links her to the Komisaruks. So the ancestry this tree draws, and with it the link to the Gaon, remains a hypothesis, and the version the tree shows is contradicted by the census. The whole question, with what supports it, what is missing and what could settle it, is in the open questions. The Vilna Gaon (1720–1797) was one of the most important rabbinic figures in Jewish history. Freedman considers it proven, including by genetic testing, that the Komisaruk branch descends from him. What remains open is whether David's wife belongs to that branch. ## Parentage, version by version - FamilySearch's collaborative tree (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/familysearch/) — father: Dov-Ber (Berel) Komisaruk; mother: Esther Leib — CONTRADICTED by a document. The 1858 census calls her “Хана Залкова”, daughter of Zalka: she cannot have been the daughter of a Berel or a Velvel. - The JewishGen trees (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/jewishgen/) — father: Dov-Ber (Berel) Komisaruk; mother: Esther Leib — CONTRADICTED by a document. Lior Gradstein's tree and others still give David as the husband of “Chanah Reizel Komisaruk”. The 1858 census calls her a daughter of Zalka. - Chaim Freedman, February 2020 (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-february-2020/) — father: Dov-Ber (Berel) Komisaruk; mother: Esther Leib — CONTRADICTED by a document. Daughter of Berel and Ester, sister of Shlomo-Zalmen. The 1858 census calls her a daughter of Zalka, and Freedman himself corrected it eight months later. - Chaim Freedman, October 2020 (https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/family-tree/freedman-october-2020/) — father: Shlomo-Zalmen Komisaruk — compatible with the documents. Shlomo-Zalmen's daughter, not his sister: the census calls her a daughter of Zalka. It fits, but the patronymic only gives the father's name. ## Places - Andreyevka — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/andreyevka/ ## Where this comes from - The 1858 census (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#censo-1858 - Chaim Freedman's work (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#freedman - The Komisaruk family, according to Freedman (February 2020) (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#freedman-2020-komisaruk - Relationships among the Komisaruk, Zmood and Yovel families, according to Freedman (2020) (documented) — https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/sources/#freedman-2020-parentescos ## In FamilySearch's collaborative tree (not a source) https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G4LQ-Y62 --- The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt