In Part 3 of this series, I will focus on the aftermath of Salomon’s rebellion, and on his granddaughter Olga. I have been fascinated by her life history ever since I learned about her. That was in 2016, as I shared in I Want This in Writing (2026).

Picture 1 – The Spinoza butterfly effect: The Flap of the wings and the Tornado. On the left image: Uriel (on the left) and Spinoza.

A quick reminder of the main characters: Salomon and Matityahu are the two Rubin brothers estranged following the herem placed on Salomon. Isidor is Salomon and wife Malka’s only child to reach adulthood. Isidor married Alma Lowenstein. Nathan Lowenstein, Baron of Opoka, is Alma’s brother. Olga is Alma and Isidor daughter, and as well Salomon’s granddaughter. She is married to Stefan Horoszkiewicz. Maria and Andrzej are their children. Moshe Rubin (a.k.a. The Old Man)is Matityahu’s great-grandson. He is my grandfather. They were all born in Galicia, under the Austro-Hungarian empire. They also lived there most of their lives. Galicia is now divided between Poland and Ukraine.

At the conclusion of Part 2, we looked at Salomon’s life following the herem imposed by the religious establishment, following the family’s herem. There’s no information about his wife’s life over that period. It is speculated that Salomon and Malka lived separately. Three of their children died in infancy. The fourth, Isidor, died in 1901, fourteen years after his suicide attempt. Salomon died in in 1910.

At this point, the legacy of the rupture and herem between the Rubin brothers, Salomon and Matityahu, is in full bloom. Matityahu (Mates) Rubin’s descendants adhere to Jewish orthodoxy and traditions, while Salomon Rubin’s gradually drift away to and assimilate into Polish society.

Salomon’s only son surviving into adulthood, Isidor, and his wife Alma have two daughters together: Irma-Ottilya (b. 1882) and Olga (b. 1886). Irma-Ottilya dies in 1900, and Isidor dies a year later. From 1901 onward, Olga is Salomon’s only living descendant. In 1907, she graduates from Krakow’s Jagiellonian University (JU), becoming one of the first Jewish women to earn a medical degree in Poland. Olga began her studies in philosophy but eventually shifted her focus to medicine. She receives an MD degree.

After Isidor’s death in 1901, Olga’s Uncle Nathan became Olga’s legal custodian. And I guess that under his influence Olga changed her academic direction.

At the conclusion of her medical training, Olga spends two years as a post-doctoral scholar at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin under the supervision of famed scientist Prof. Carl Neuberg. They publish research papers together. Olga is a rising academic star.

At the onset of World War I, Olga volunteers to help in military hospitals. She is honored with a medal.

Near the end of World War I, in 1918, after serving in Military hospitals, Olga marries Prof.Med. Stefan Horoskiewicz, a professor of forensic medicine at JU. On the morning of the wedding, she is baptized and converts to Christianity.

None of Matityahu’s descendants attend the wedding.

Soon after their wedding, Olga and Stefan move to Poznan in western Poland, where Stefan is appointed professor and head of the Dept. of Forensic Medicine at the local university. Olga works as a pediatrician for elementary schools run by the Ursuline Sisters, a Catholic Order.

Picture 2 – Olga, standing on the right, a pediatrician at the maternity ward in Poznan, circa 1923.

Olga gives birth to Maria (b. 1917) and Andrzej (b. 1919). The children attend catholic schools.

At this stage, Salomon’s branch of the Rubin family appears to be drifting away from their Jewish heritage. Still, Olga maintains close relationship with her Jewish relatives (Alma and Nathan’s side of the family).

History, however, has its own plans.

By 1939, Salomon has only three surviving descendants: Olga and her two children, Maria and Andrzej.

Olga’s contemporaries among Matityahu’s descendants include, among others, my grandfather, Old Man Moshe Rubin, and his three children. They all reside in Lwów (today Lviv, in Ukraine).

Once Nazi Germany occupies Poland in 1939, the paths of the two Rubin branches diverge further. For a brief period, they seemd to converge.

Moshe and his children live in the Russian-occupied part of Poland, in the east. They feel safe. The Jewish community thrives under the Russians.

Olga, living close to the Polish German border, is terrified. She has no illusions about the German intentions. She is fluent in German and has many contacts in Germany, from her days there as a post-doctoral researcher in Berlin. Her post-doctoral advisor, Prof. Neuberg, was forced out of his position and had to escape Germany.

Olga rushes her family out of Poznan as soon as the Nazis cross the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)