Abraham Stein and Beka Wolf, From Ukraine

A Love-Mystery Solved!

How in the world did Abraham Stein, a butcher, meet and fall in love with Beka Wolf, a girl born 863 km away?

Abe Stein said he was born in Sasov, Austria, 1870, while Beka's US passport says she was born in Podhajce "Pidhaitsi," Austria, 1875.

Google Maps says the distance from Sasov, Czechia to Pidhaitsi, Ukraine, is 863 km.  Hard to explain how a butcher met a girl from so far away.

The distance from Sasov, Czechia to Podhajce is 863 km.
[Google Maps]

Well, after a little bit of research on Wikipedia, I realized I was looking at the wrong Sasov!

"Sasov" (in English) would be "Sasow" in Polish.  And surprise: Sasow, Ukraine, is a town only 8 km from Pidhaitsi, Ukraine.  The town is now called "Sasiv" in Ukrainian.  It is about one hour by car east of Lviv.

Sasiv (Ukrainian: Сасів/Sasiv, Polish: Sasów also Sassów,^[1] Ruthenian/Ruś.: Sassíw,^[1] Russian: Сасов/Sasov) is a town in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, since 1945. [Wikipedia]

It's only 8 km from Sasiv to Pidhaitsi, Ukraine
[Google Maps]

So Beka Wolf might have been one of the customers in Abe's butcher shop!

Howard Stein sent me a photo of Abe Stein's butcher knife which he keeps at home as a memory.

Abraham Stein's Butcher knife

Howard writes:
"First is Grandpa Stein’s (Abraham’s) butcher knife.  Honed and honed again to a sharp point.  It would be called a “pig sticker” but he didn’t stick pigs.  Thanks for remembering this item J Zac."


"[Next is] Grandpa Stein’s hand sewn shoe shine brush.  Nice soft bristles.  Still in great condition.  A favorite of mine even though I rarely self shine my shoes and it’s just kept in the cupboard with the shoe polish and similar stuff."

Grandpa Stein’s hand sewn shoe shine brush

Grandpa Stein’s hand sewn shoe shine brush (top)

Abraham Stein's grand daughter Ann says:  "I remember my dad telling me he was from the Austria-Hungary Empire but I could not understand where that was more specifically. But, and I could be wrong, I think he told me his father [Abraham] was a “rancher “ there and became a butcher when he came to NY. 

Abe (34), Beka (29), Morris (8), Rose (1) and Jack (6)
NYC, circa 1904.  Rose was born in April, 1903 in NYC.

Abe's home town Sasov (Sasiv) has an interesting history.  In 1764 there were 223 Jews living in Sasów, by 1880 1,906. In 1912 there were 1,761 Jews, representing 52.1% of the town's total population.

In 1774 it was part of the kingdom of Poland, later it became part of Austria-Hungary (Habsburg Empire).  From 1919 until 1945 the town was once again part of Poland.  Now it's part of Ukraine.

On 17 September 1939, the Red Army entered the town, which was under Soviet administration until the German-Soviet war. Nazi Germans occupied the town on 2 July 1941.  It was terrible!

The full history with some photos is here.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasiv

Google Maps says it's about one hour from Lviv to Sasiv by car.