Rashba family from Kharkov, Ukraine

I am - Timur Rashba (1975), physicist, now I am a researcher in
Valencia University, Spain.  My brother - Georgiy (1970), physicist
too, he has graduated Kharkov State University, then he did there a
PhD and now he works there as a assistant professor.

Our father - Ilya Rashba (1942-1999), scientist, geologist -
geomorphologist, doctor of sciences, he was working in Siberia,
Central Asia and Caucasus. Lasy years he lived in Kharkov and worked
at the Belgorod University.

Our grandfather Noy Rashba (1916-1986), historian, doctor of sciences,
he was a lecturer in Kharkov's high schools.  

Our grand-grandfather - Samuil was born in 1886 in White Church
(Belaya Tserkov', in russian transcription) near Kiev. Then he lived
in Kiev, he had graduated a faculty of law in the Kiev University
before the revolution in 1917, later he became the Soviet poet and
writer under a pseudonym "Radugin", since he edited a magazine
"Raduga" ("Rainbow"). After revolution Samuil lived in Kharkov, he
died in Alma-Ata in 1942.

Our grand-grand-grandfather, his name was Noy too. Noy lived in White
Church and worked in a manor of Branitskie (Polish counts), whether as
a manor manager or as a horse factory manager. He died when he was 46
years old.

We know also, that our (my and my brother's) grand-grandfather Samuil
had two cousins with surname Rashba (may be there were more then two).
We don't know if they were native brothers or cousins between
themselves.  One of them was a professor of medicine. During Second
World War he also was in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan).  Another brother lived
in Kharkov after the Second World War.  Our father Ilya saw him - he
was a large and a tall man. His daughter Rada lives in Kharkov. The
professor of medicine was an uncle as we think now of the famous
physicist Emmanuel Rashba, who lives know in the US.

In some proceedings in 70th our father Ilya saw some papers written by
microbiologist E.Ya. Rashba, from Kiev too. We think that she is a
cousine of Emmanuel Rashba and a daughter of the professor of
medicine.
 
That's all information which we know about Rashba with confidence. One
of the intriguing points is that all of Rashba whom we have contacted
are from Kiev area. Their ancestors lived in Kiev region in the second
half of the XIX century. We expect that there was probably just one
Rashba in the beginning of XIX century, who is the ancestor of all
present Rashba whom we have contacted.

In addition, we know, that our great-grandfather Samuil spoke Spanish.
Since he had finished a grammar school, he learned in school, most
probably, only French and German. So we assume, that Spanish language
was a family language, and, probably, the family was originated from
sefards Jews.  Indirectly it could be supported by the fact that the
surname Rashba is not distributed among the Ukraine Jews.  Another
fact is was found by our grandfather Noy, historian, he was a
specialist in Russia - Turky relations. He saw in the Polish
documents, that in 17th century the Turkish embassy has arrived in
Poland and it was accompanied with an interpreter Jude Rashba (as it
was written in the Polish documents).

We know about a possible ancestor of all Rashba, Rabbi Shlomo ben
Abraham with patrimonial name Aderet, Rabbi and Talmudist, who lived
at the end of 13th - begining 14th cent. in Barcelona. But clear and
detailed connection between him and the present Rashba families is
unclear and it is very difficult to prove. We don't have any documents
about it and we are be very interested to know if something exists. We
have read that some descendants of Rashba from Barcelona had the
surname Aderet (not Rashba) and lived in Smirna (modern name is Izmir,
Turkey) at the end of 18th cent.  

It might be that one of Aderets in Smirna took by some reason the
surname Rashba instead of Aderet and then he or somebody of his
children moved to Poland as an interpreter. And then some ancestor had
moved to Ukraine in the first half of the XIXth century. This version
might explain why we have now only a "few" Rashba in contrast to what
we should expect if all descendants of Rashba from Barcelona would
keep Rashba as a surname since 13th century.

Note, that the similar way of abbreviations such as RSHBA were
commonly accepted in signing documents in the past centuries. E.g.,
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai one of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva (40 CE -
160 CE) used abbreviation Rashbi.

It is also necessary to mention, that the surname Rashba (with SH or
ZH) can be found also on Caucasus among Abkhazs. Some Dagestan people
(Dagestan is area in Caucasus) have surname Rashbadin ("din" means
son). One finds the surname Rashba in the Abkhazs literature.  In the
novel by Georgiy Gulia "Spring in Saken" ("Vesna v Sakene", in russian
transcription) one of the heros is Anton Rashba and we know the poem
by Kiyazim Agumaa which named "Tariel Rashba". 

The possible version which could not be excluded apriori is that we are
descendants of the Caucasus Abkhazs which had took Judaism religion
(proselyte) could not be excluded yet.

By the way, as we know, both in Abkhazian and in Hebrew, the surname
Rashba is written as Rshba and is pronunciated as Arshba, but in
Russian transcription is written as Rashba for harmonious, and
probably in this kind has moved into the European languages.

So we think, that the connection with Rashba from Barcelona is not so
convincing at present, though according to our grandfather Noy, his
father Samuil mentioned that on the last empty pages of the
patrimonial books Tora or Talmud (which were lost probably during the
revolution or the civil war in Russia in the beginning of XXth
century) there was an indication in the genealogy on the connection
with Rashba from Barcelona. Also likely that the genealogy was made
later and some of our ancestors also guessed the relation with Rashba
from Barcelona.

In any case, although the relationship between Rashba from Barcelona
and present Rashba is not known, the present Rashba families are
apparently relatives, since in Ukraine the surname Rashba is not
wide-spread surname and probably we descend from one ancestor.
Probably he was a father or grand-father of our (me and my brother)
grand-grand-grandfather Noy.  We don't know another branches of Rashba
who are originated from other place then Kiev area.

I found in the Internet some Rashba who live in USA now, their names
are Mark, Paul, Sheldon, Allan, Howard, Joseph, Louis, Nadia, Neil,
Norman, Steven, Stuart, probably they are all relatives, please write
us what you know about them. Also I have found in US few persons who
have surname Aderet. It might be useful to contact them.

We are interested in information about Rashba from Israel and other
countires. Have they or their ancestors arrived from Kiev area or from
another places, e.g. from European Mediterranean or from Caucasus?

Our father was and we are now very interested in history of our
family.  If you could you give us more detailed information about an
origin of your family, names and dates which you know it would be very
useful to track the relations between different Rashba. It may help to
find our common ancestor, who lived in Kiev in the beginning of XIX
century.

The information about Rashba from Barcelona (Aderet) we found in the
Jewish Encyclopedia (Judaica) of the beginning of XX century. There
are three articles: about his ancestors, about himself and about his
descendants, who lived in Smirna in 18th cent.  There is no more
information there about another Rashba then Rashba from Barcelona.

Timur Rashba 

Please contact me by e-mails:
rashba@izmiran.rssi.ru, timur@ific.uv.es, rashba@mail.ru