Bris kit owned by Dr Mark Eisenberg
Object numberM2024/010
TitleBris kit owned by Dr Mark Eisenberg
DescriptionBris kit owned by Dr Mark Eisenberg. Brit milah is a religious ceremony which welcomes infant Jewish boys into a covenant between God and the Children of Israel through ritual circumcision. The kit includes 2 guides (Mogen or shields), scissors, and two metal probes, one with eye.
Mark Eisenberg (born Moshe Rosenberg) was born 16 November 1937 in Charsznica, Poland, to Esther and Shmuel Rosenberg. There was a population of 1500, half of whom were Jews. His father ran a steam-operated flour mill. The first anti-Jewish action was in March 1942 when he was five. All the Jews were taken from Charsznica to a field outside Slomniki. He was rounded up but his Uncle Ezriel, who was then 15, took him to a nearby farm for safety. After the second action, Mark, together with his mother and cousin Fella, all blond, decided they could pass as Poles with false papers and go into hiding. They left Charsznica at night, saying goodbye to his father; it was the last time he saw him alive. (His father was murdered with his brother Shlomo in Mauthausen in 1945. His grandmother, Vita, and maternal uncle, Pinchas were shot in 1942).
Esther, Mark and Fella survived the war as Polish Catholics, in fear of their identity being revealed. To make ends meet they started to manufacture brown paper bags for shops. There were many days when the only food they had to eat was potato peels. When war was coming to an end, they left Jaroslaw and went back to Krakow.
Towards the end of 1945, his mother took a job in a Jewish orphanage, Kibbutz Galuyot. Mark was the second youngest of 70 children there. The orphanage moved to the American Zone in West Germany. His mother remarried, Isaac Eisenberg, a survivor of Mauthausen, who had lost his wife and two children. They moved to Zeilsheim DP camp. His brother Hanoch (Henry) was born in Germany, 10 years younger.
The family left Germany in 1949, travelled to Italy, then boarded the SS Surriento in Naples for Australia, arriving in Brisbane in 1950, the year of his Barmitzvah. Mark had a vocabulary of 20 English words learned from American comics. In 1954 the family moved to Sydney. Mark studied medicine at Sydney University, graduating in 1963. In 1965 he went to London where he met his future wife Rochelle Shapiro. He began a job as senior resident at St Stephen's Hospital Chelsea.
Mark was also trained as a mohel (person who performs circumcision) in England; he has a certificate from the 'Royal Mohel' who had done the circumcision on Prince Charles. Mark performed over 1000 brises in Sydney, even travelling to perform them in Fiji and other far-flung places.
In 1968, they migrated back to Sydney. When his son Ari was born with a rare skin condition, Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Mark began research, eventually becoming an expert in oesophageal dilation, with patients coming from India to be treated at Prince of Wales.
He continued working in his practice for 40 years. He passed away in 2020.
Mark Eisenberg (born Moshe Rosenberg) was born 16 November 1937 in Charsznica, Poland, to Esther and Shmuel Rosenberg. There was a population of 1500, half of whom were Jews. His father ran a steam-operated flour mill. The first anti-Jewish action was in March 1942 when he was five. All the Jews were taken from Charsznica to a field outside Slomniki. He was rounded up but his Uncle Ezriel, who was then 15, took him to a nearby farm for safety. After the second action, Mark, together with his mother and cousin Fella, all blond, decided they could pass as Poles with false papers and go into hiding. They left Charsznica at night, saying goodbye to his father; it was the last time he saw him alive. (His father was murdered with his brother Shlomo in Mauthausen in 1945. His grandmother, Vita, and maternal uncle, Pinchas were shot in 1942).
Esther, Mark and Fella survived the war as Polish Catholics, in fear of their identity being revealed. To make ends meet they started to manufacture brown paper bags for shops. There were many days when the only food they had to eat was potato peels. When war was coming to an end, they left Jaroslaw and went back to Krakow.
Towards the end of 1945, his mother took a job in a Jewish orphanage, Kibbutz Galuyot. Mark was the second youngest of 70 children there. The orphanage moved to the American Zone in West Germany. His mother remarried, Isaac Eisenberg, a survivor of Mauthausen, who had lost his wife and two children. They moved to Zeilsheim DP camp. His brother Hanoch (Henry) was born in Germany, 10 years younger.
The family left Germany in 1949, travelled to Italy, then boarded the SS Surriento in Naples for Australia, arriving in Brisbane in 1950, the year of his Barmitzvah. Mark had a vocabulary of 20 English words learned from American comics. In 1954 the family moved to Sydney. Mark studied medicine at Sydney University, graduating in 1963. In 1965 he went to London where he met his future wife Rochelle Shapiro. He began a job as senior resident at St Stephen's Hospital Chelsea.
Mark was also trained as a mohel (person who performs circumcision) in England; he has a certificate from the 'Royal Mohel' who had done the circumcision on Prince Charles. Mark performed over 1000 brises in Sydney, even travelling to perform them in Fiji and other far-flung places.
In 1968, they migrated back to Sydney. When his son Ari was born with a rare skin condition, Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. Mark began research, eventually becoming an expert in oesophageal dilation, with patients coming from India to be treated at Prince of Wales.
He continued working in his practice for 40 years. He passed away in 2020.
Production placeEngland
Production date 1965 - 1968
Production period20th century
SubjectBris, circumcision, survivors, hiding
Object nameBris
Materialmetal
Dimensions
- width: 156.00 mm
height: 37.00 mm
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, donated by Rabbi Danny Eisenberg. This object is donated in memory of his parents, Dr Mark and Rochelle Eisenberg.