Summary of "split tree fragmented branches -The Kara/Karo family, by Chava Agmon

In memory of Herbert Caro (1906-1991), Porto Alegre, Brazil

The first thorough, comprehensive and secular genealogical (but as yet unpublished) 2-volume work of Dr. (jur.) P. Jacobi on the Kara/Caro family (1988) preceded my own attempts to continue this demanding task. It served me as a reliable backup and at the same time as a convenient spring-board for what was to come.

Sources and Uses of the name Kara and Caro

The Ashkenasi Kara/Caro/Karo family ranks high in the "Very Ancient" category. Already in Babylon of the 2nd and 3rd century A.D. a Kara was a professional or honorary title of someone able to read the books of the Bible and/or teacher. The Hebrew word is the same in Arabic and means Koran reader. The name also appears in our Yemenite Jewish community but they make no claim to Kara/Caro descent. In Israel the Kara/C/Karo-s and their descendants are often not aware that the name is very frequently found in the non-Jewish world, mainly in Catholic Spain, Italy and Latin America. The Academia de Historia of Bogota, Colombia states that "The name Caro or Karo is of Basque origin". As early as the 11th century A.D., the Caros were among the "Conquistadores" who "liberated" Valencia, Murcia and Mallorca from Moslem rule and also comprised the Spanish intelligentsia cosisting of writers, poets, scientists, politicians and statesmen.

Occupations in the Caro Family before the Inquisition

The earliest Jewish Caro family member I found recorded was an artist who illuminated the Copenhagen "Guide to the Perplexed" of Maimonides, commisssioned by the learned Jewish physician Menahem Bezalel of Barcelona. This is the only copy with the artist's signature and the date : Levi ben Yitshak Hijo (son) Caro - 1348. In Prof. Yitshak Baer's work "History of the Jews in Christian Spain" (1966) he writes : "Some of the tax-farmers were of the Caro, Ardutiel and Shoshan families of Toledo".

Riddles and the Split Tree

Maran (Sephardi title) Rabbi Joseph ben Ephraim Caro of Toledo, Spain (1488-1575) who died in Safad, Palestine was not only the author of the "Beth Joseph" but of the more influential "Shulhan Aruch", still the Codex of orthodox Jewish law. In the early days of my genealogical research I took advantage of his towering personality and made him my "lighthouse" to rally the Jewish Caro Family in its dispersions around him. At every opportunity and interview with Caro family members or descendants, one of my first questions was "Do you consider yourself a descendant of the Maran?"

Since Dr. Jacobi finished his work on the C/Karo Family I am more careful before I ask this question. He states : "R. Joseph Caro's great-grandfather who was the family's first known progenitor is identifiable dimly only. Was his first name Ephraim or was it Yitshak? Did he already live in Toledo, somewhere else in Spain, in Provence or Northern France? In fact, regarding his provenance there exist not only no historic data, but even no family tradition!".

"On the other hand, in the Ashkenazi C/Karo family there runs a deep seated tradition asserting some connection between the two families; though not in the sense of a 'common origin' but of a later 'confluence' - a virtual Split Tree".

Dr Jacobi concludes : "As most of this is conjecture only, the Sephardi Caro family should better be considered, as long as no evidence to the contrary is forthcoming, as unrelated to the principal Ashkenazi family".

Most of the Caro family members and descendants I was in contact with reacted to these findings with disappointed disbelief, but research and reality confirmed them.

Not (only) a la Gotha, please!

Golda Augusta Caro-Cohen was my great-grandmother. She was the younger daughter of R. Joseph Chaim Caro (1805-1895) of Wloclawek, Poznan, Poland under Prussian occupation. Between her and myself are 4 female generations. Except for Golda Augusta, all the rest of us were already born with different surnames, and after marriage lost that name as well. I therefore consider this the right place and opportunity to ask my fellow genealogists : please record your mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers by their full name, instead of 'daughter of', 'wife of' - men, even if they cannot always continue to carry their father's name after marriage. Such recording can simplify and help the genealogist's work, and ensure accuracy.

I inherited the manuscript (in German) of Cecilie Caro-Stueckgold (Golda's sister) of an essay entitled "A Jewess' memoirs of the Polish uprising - 1863" in which her father R. Joseph Chayim Caro played an important part as mediator between the Jewish community and the Russian authorities. This essay appeared in the Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science - Vol. XIII, 243-1965. Neither Cecilie nor Golda A. were recorded by name - only as sisters of men.

More Trees

From my late childless 3rd cousin Dr. Heinz Albert Caro (Berlin - Tel Aviv, 1909-1983) I inherited the Hebrew MS called "Etz Avot" - "Tree of Fathers" written compiled by Jacob Caro (elder brother of Cecilie and Golda) and written in Wloclawek in 1891. He was a professor of history, co-author with Historian Roeppel (1863-1888) of 4 out of the 8 volumes comprising the official "History of Poland". "Etz Avot" was translated into German by Prof. Ismar Ellenbogen of Frankfurt at Main University and entitled "Familien Chronik des Hauses Caro" in Gothic handwriting about 1920. Another elegantly printed "tree" compiled by Joseph H. Caro in Chicvago, USA called "Caro Lineage" appeared in July 1962 but regrettably with numerous mistakes. About 1845 R. Abraham Kara copied the oldest "tree" from his grandfather R. Yehuda Arye Leib levin Kara "Ha Charif" (the Sharp) (1747-1830) called "Sefer ha Yichuss M'Mishpachat Kara" - a list of rabbis, and incorporated it in his own work "eyl Hamilu'im". I 1861 the noted Hebrew scholar and literary expert R; Dr. Elyakim David Carmoly (1802-1875) published his "Ravens and Dovelings" dealing with the Heshel and Rapaport families. In it, he severely criticizes the first section of the above mentioned Rabbi Y.A.L. Kara's "Sefer HaYichuss" only 16 years after its publication. In spite of Dr. E.D. Carmoly's harsh criticism; his warning was knowingly or not, completely unheeded and the "Sefer HaYichuss" continued to be copied blindly by most researchers, for more than 150 years. The lack of additional "trees" made it - with all its errors - as unchallenged basic component for every family historian since then!

How I search - fragmented branches

I have never even attempted to connect the discredited rabbinical Caro "Yichuss" List, but try to search for the many (disregarded) missing, additional and new links in order to bridge the yawning genealogical gaps of R.Y.A.L. Kara - the Sharp's "Sefer HaYichuss".

I work simultaneously on 3 levels : a) A pre-coordinated personal interview with Caro/Karos and descended - 'candidates' in Israel, or mail a special questionnaire I compiled (in Hebrew) for this purpose. b) I write personal letters to C/Karo family and descendants worldwide - an unsubsidized correspondence of over 1000 letters from Argentina through Tasmania to Zimbabwe in Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Against one (recorded) Caro who altered his surname to Carr in USA, I also include those who have not done so for 3 generations. Even though they are not Jewish any more, they are well aware of their Jewish heritage. c) Bibliographical sources.

Apart from very few exceptions, I was not blessed with a cooperative family.

I also cannot say they are keen to be interviewed, definitely not to write a letter nor even fill in my questionnaire requiring dates of birth of their own children still living at home! The suspicion of what I am likely to do with this information and the hallowed privacy are the likelier cover for idleness and/or lack of interest. I have unrelentingly worked on some family members for more than 2 years. I write in Hebrew, English and German, and gradually wear down resistance by enclosing letters in greeting cards of our Jewish festival, Israel scenery and art - to which most of my 'victims' eventually yield. Each of the 55 pockets in my files contain the documented fragmented branches of my family, from one single name to a few dozen.

Winds of Change

The 18th and 19th century Emancipation in Europe brought equal civil rights to the Jews who lived huddled together in ghettos not only for safety but also to resist assimilation and unwanted outside influence. Alas, under these new enlightened conditions, the Rabbinate ceased to be the sole aspiration of the young generation of Caros. Nevertheless, it needed a lot of daring to turn their dreams into reality, instead of continuing the well-trodden and traditional path of a rabbinical career. They left their familiar surroundings, which estranged them from their angry families. Without a penny in their pockets they could now follow their natural inclinations, make their choice, and contribute their pent-up vigour, talents and ingenuity to medicine, the sciences, the arts and heavy industry. Some of these C/Karos can be found in the Jewish Encyclopedias, but if one can retrace their recorded background, we will find their origins with or without Spanish blood - in Poland and Ger ny until the beginning of the Second World War.

Family Images

Lastly, I chose to elaborate on 2 deserving and interesting personalities from the gallery of Caro/Karo-s overe the ages. The first is described by N. Lipmann in his "Leben & Wirken des David Caro" (1782-1839) and 1840 Eulogy for this persevering Pedagogue and great literary talent in prussian Poznan. His efforts to introduce enlightened ideas in Poznan's Jewish education system and his bitter struggle for their acceptance, affected his mental and physical health bringing him to an early death.

The second - a lady in New Zealand, whom I had never heard of. I described my two-year search to trace Dr. Jacob Seelig Caro, mentioned in the 1891 "Etz Avot", and was assisted by his 82 year old granddaughter Ruth Erica from whom I requested and received a colour photo of his tombstone in New Zealand. On it was engraved : "He was kind tothe por".

Chava Agmon was born in Germany, and when she was a child, left with her parents in Palestine. She is married with a South African pilot

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