More than 250 members of the Bacher family met for a reunion at Grossinger’s, the Catskills resort, reported the Canadian Jewish News on July 21, 1983. The following is a summary of the original story.
Ethel Bacher and Yossel Yussiper of Bukovina, Romania, who died in an 1860s cholera epidemic, were the ancestors to which all of the family members at the reunion were descended.
The first Bacher in North America settled in Montreal in 1895. The known family tree today encompasses 523 descendants, including at least one in the Soviet Union. Most live in the United States.
Many Bachers from both Toronto and Montreal were present at the reunion. Others came from Ottawa, Halifax, Puerto Rico and Israel, with four generations in attendance.
The 1983 reunion, which came two years after a smaller gathering in Toronto, was organized by Seymour Bellman of Montreal, Aaron Bacher of Toronto, and Mickey Weisenberg of New York.
Bacher relatives wore blue family reunion T-shirts at Grossinger’s as they exchanged photos, watched old home movies, and debated the proper pronunciation of their last name.
“I met people who live four blocks away from me who I never knew I was related to,” said Montrealer Rona Goldenberg; she attended the gathering with her mother, Ruth Star, whose paternal grandmother had been a Bacher.
The eldest relative at the reunion was 81-year-old Ethel Liebovitch, the youngest 6-month-old Jordan Satov, son of Joyce and Norris. A detailed family tree was published and plans were underway for an even bigger reunion in 1985, the CJN reported. ♦
