Szmul Zbytkower
Born in 1756, died in 1801.
Merchant, banker, purveyor and agent of King Stanislaw August, who
granted him the lease of Targowek (a suburb of Warsaw - cm). He founded a
farm there called Bojmurek and a settlement which was popularly known
as Szmulowizna-still its name today. He founded a meat processing plant,
meat warehouses and a tannery in the Praga district of Warsaw. He
shipped grain and wood down the Vistula to Gdansk, and exported cattle
and hides. He leased an inn, distilleries and breweries. He owned saw
mills and brick factories. He donated the money for the construction of
the Praga synagogue, as well as for the Jewish cemetery in the Brodno
district of Warsaw. Zbytkower's descendants, scattered throughout the
world, include the well-known Pragier and Bergson families, whose
members included Henri Bergson (1859-1941)-the French philosopher and
Nobel Prize laureate.
(asw/cm)
|