Koniuchowsky Cousin Emails
When I read of Koniuchowsky's claims of being Jewish and that his father was Leiba Koniuchowsky, in a south Florida nursing home, a holocaust survivor, I decided to look into the matter and see if this was actually true, or if it was a fabrication to appear more "Jewish" to his target market. I acquired a copy of Leiba Knoiuchowsky's death certificate. I also tried to locate information on family survivors and see if "Moshe" was one of them. The Star of David Memorial Gardens informed me that he had no son and no rabbi was there at the funeral. Koniuchowsky claimed to be the rabbi at his fathers funeral and Brian Samtur was the cantor. The only obituary in the newspaper was the free one run by The Star of David Memorial Gardens. Only the location of the funeral was mentioned, no survivors. This seemed odd that no family member ran an obit for a holocaust survivor. The nursing home was under renovations, so I could not speak with a staff rabbi to see if he knew of any family members. The looming question in my mind, was if Koniuchowsky was even Leiba's son.
I then contacted the informant listed on the death certificate. An informant for a death certificate is described as such: "Informant's Name, Generally, an informant's name and address are given. The informant is the person who provided the information for the death certificate. Often this is a son or daughter or other close relative who has had direct contact with the deceased person for many years and who, therefore, is familiar with the deceased." The informant here, was not Marshall/Moshe Koniuchowsky, but a Mickey Klevansky. When I spoke with him on the phone, I explained why I was calling, that I was trying to locate a son of Leiba, if he had one, to verify if it was Marshall/Moshe Koniuchowsky and that I was looking into whether or not his name really was Moshe. When I asked, I first used the name of Marshall and Mickey said that that sounded familiar, but also explained that he did not feel at liberty to give out any information, but would pass my contact information on to Mitch Konichowsky [his name is spelled without the U] , his nephew, the executor of the estate. I gave Mickey my name again, phone number and in case they preferred something less personal, my email address, which turned out to be providential. That evening I received an email from Mitch.
The following emails are in chronological order.
I found it interesting that Mitch referred to Koniuchowsky as, "my cousin Marshall Koniuchowsky, aka, Moshe Koniuchowsky." Now why would a cousin refer to his cousin by a name that an anti-Semitic employer imposed? Throughout the email, he refers to him as Marshall.
From the time that I sent my first email to Mitch Konichowsky, requesting clarification and giving my explanation on 6-9-04, to the time that Mitch replied on 6-13-04, I watched my site, specifically the Koniuchowsky page. Marshall/Moshe's server hit the Koniuchowsky page. I was curious what the reply would be, since Mitch had obviously spoken with Marshall/Moshe and that page was checked, possibly to see if the cousins email, referring to him as Marshall, had been put up.
In this email, Mitch refers to Koniuchowsky as Moshe. The email reads like a puff piece in comparison to the first email, information that Koniuchowsky fed to his cousin. There are some differences though, perhaps because Marshall/Moshe has to answer why his cousin up north, refers to him as Marshall. This is the reason given, "Moshe tried hard to be Americanized. So early on, while in junior high school and high school he began to also be known as Marshall. " Nothing to do with an employer/publisher and anti-Semitism. Mitch wrote, "While working and living in NY he had a son who's legal name is Moshe." But that is not what I asked. I asked if Moshe was his birth name. "If his birth name is Moshe and not Marshall, than I will put that to rest as well."
I emailed Mitch again on 6/20/04, thanking him for his reply. I pointed out his quote of Moshe being his legal name and asking again, if that was the name on the birth certificate issued from birth, not the 1995 one. I have received no reply to this inquiry.
Due to the fact that there is a difference between Mitch's first and second email, one referring to him as Marshall and then after contact, one referring to him as Moshe and since Mitch did not reply to my repeated question of what was on the original birth certificate, I am inclined to believe that my question still stands and has validity for asking.