The city of Brody – now in Ukraine but in Austrian Galicia in the 19th century and in Poland between the two world wars--boasted a Jewish presence for almost 400 years. A Jewish community was documented there as early as 1588 and endured until 1943, when the last Jews were deported from Brody for extermination in a Nazi death camp. A number of survivors who had miraculously escaped the Nazi death machine ended up in Israel. There, in 1955, Nathan-Michael Gelber's Toldot Yehudei Brody 1584-1943 (Brody: A History of the Jews of Brody 1584-1943)was published by Mosad HaRav Kook in Jerusalem as part of a series about towns in Europe which had been home to Jews. Meanwhile, other Brody survivors dreamed of a second book to commemorate and perpetuate their mother city. What they envisioned was a spirited collection containing historical essays, remembrances, testimonies, even poems, about what life had been like in Brody. Out of this dream was born the volume Ner Tamid: Yizkor LeBrody (An Eternal Light: Brody, in Memoriam), published by the Organization of Former Brody Residents in Israel in 1994.

Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld (Project Coordinator emerita)

Translator's Foreword My father, Aharon Kutten, ran away from his home in Brody when he was 16 years old, jumping, at the spur of a moment, on a train that took young members of a Zionist organization, for whom he was counselor, on their way to Palestine. While the young kids were sent by their parents to Palestine, he left without any documentation and with only his shirt on his back. He made it to Palestine, after stealing borders on the train and living on the streets of Trieste, Italy for two years. He went back to visit his parents in Brody in winter 1938, but they could not or would not leave with him. He left Europe just in time before WW II broke out and was able to build a home, a family, as well as a successful and extremely productive career in Israel. My grandparents, Khana and Moshe Kutten, perished in the Holocaust along with the six million Jewish martyrs. My parents, Aharon and Sonia Kuten, did not talk to us much about their childhood and about their family life in their hometowns. Being young and busy with our own lives and family we were not smart enough to interrogate them until it was too late. I found out that my father's story and the stories of his siblings, who also escaped Europe in time, were not unique when I started reading the “Ner Tamid–Brody Yizkor” book, in search for more information on the Jewish life in Brody. I learned so much about the culturally rich Jewish life in Brody before the war and the events during Holocaust from this book that it drove me to translate it to English, so that my children and my descendants would be able to read it when they start to ask questions. I am also thankful for the opportunity presented to me, to be able to do my small part in making sure that the Holocaust and the rich Jewish life in Europe would never be forgotten

Moshe Kutten Pennsylvania, USA

Front cover - painted by the artist Shmuel Lamm		Back cover - Memorial in “Yad Vashem”

Eternal memorial to Brody's martyrs in Holon cemetery

Introduction
Map of Brody
Preface	Yehoshu'a-Shiko Mandel	1
At the Outset	Aryeh Tartakover	9
On the Character of the Brody Community	Aryeh Tartakover	11
Snail, Emerge from Your Shell!	Simon Sauber	17
Chapter One: Brody – its History and Jewish Community
On the Start of the Jewish Settlement in Brody from his History of the Jews of Brody: “Jewish Mother Cities”, Vol. 6, Mosad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem (1955) , pp 13-14 The Jewish Settlement of Brody from its Beginnings until its annihilation; from “Pinkas Ha'kehilot”, Jerusalem (1979-80), pp 121-134	Nathan Michael Gelber	23
Brody, “Jerusalem of Austria”	Nathan Michael Gelber	50
The Last Fire – May 23, 1867	Adele Landau-Mises	55
Brodyites in Leipzig	A. Yehuda (Osterzetzer)	59
The Synagogue in Brody from The Synagogues in Poland and Their Destruction, Mosad HaRav Kook and “Yad Va-Shem,” Jerusalem, 1943	David Davidowitz	61
Chapter Two: Culture and Society
The Sages of the Brody Kloiz	Rabbi I. I. Weissblum	67
The Rabbis of Brody of the Past 150 Years	Meir Wender	86
The Brody Singers	Yosef Parvari (Leiner)	96
The Brody Singers and their Inheritance from Bimah II (9-10), 1961-1962, pp. 27-33	Dov Sadan	100
Brody: City of Border and Immigrants from his With Joseph Hayyim Brenner to the Land of Israel Sixty Years Ago, Mo'etzet Po'alei Haifa, 1969, pp. 19-29	Mendel Zinger	108
On the Very Close Connection of the Jews of Brody and of Volhynia	Joseph Parvari (Leiner)	114
The Aliyah of the Halutzim, “Artificial Immigration” and Hakhshara Activities from his With Joseph Hayyim Brenner to the Land of Israel Sixty Years Ago, Mo'etzet Po'alei Haifa, 1969, pp. 29-47	Mendel Zinger	117
The Shomer Branch on Leshniovska Street	Sonya Katzman-Vinogradov	129
Jewish Brody in the Last Decade of its Existence, As I Remember It	Yitzhak Zohar (Izio Zorne)	135
The Sorrow of the Lonely Jewish Homes from his book “Realm of Childhood” , “Dvir,” Tel-Aviv, 1938, pp. 64-74	Dov Sadan (Stock)	143
Women's Organization in Brody	Bianca Lilian	150
Chapter Three: Testimonies to the Holocaust
Correspondence between Shlomo Bardach in the Brody Ghetto and his Sister-in-law Dora Bardach in Switzerland		155
“From a Letter to the Editor”	Shmuel Stoianover and Raphael Shalev	158
The Last Days of the Community This report was translated from Yiddish to Hebrew by Yaakov Netaneli-Rotman. It is citied from Nathan Michael Gelber's History of the Jews of Brody: “Mother Cities” in Israel, Vol. 6, Mosad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem [1955], pp. 397-406	Kalman Harnik	159
“I Alone Survived of My Family”	Gina Lantzeter	169
The Jewish Fighting Organization in Brody From the collection "Underground Movements in the Ghettoes and the Camps," The editor Betty Eisenstein, 1946, published by the War Archives, the Jewish Committee in Cracow (in Polish)		170
Brody in the Days of the Nazi Conquest	Amalia Olesker Friedmann	175
Revenge on the Murderer	Hersh Pollack	180
In the Days of Wrath	Vladislava Larissa Choms (Righteous Among the Nations)	185
Testimony	Genya Rosenfeld-Berger	189
The Hand of Fate	Pessya Loewy	191
In the Days of the Conquest (Excerpts from a Diary)	Fanya Zorne Laufer	192
Brody Happenings during the Years 1941-1943	Malvina (Mishka) Lillian-Dembinsky	197
Testimony (in third person)	Raphael Shalev (Fulu Shlinger)	202
Memories from Brody	Berta Landgeuertz Miasnik	208
My Mother—Pela Pepernik-Poliner	Rivka Flumin	210
My Father, My Mother, and My Sister	Bronia Roth	212
Testimony	Abraham (ben Hayyim Noah) Shapira	214
Two Testimonies	Clara–Khaya Zhorna	216
“What We Ourselves Experienced”	Khayim and Bina Gasthalter	220
Chapter Four: Remembrances
A String of Memories	Joseph Parvari (Leiner)	261
In Memory of the City of Brody – A “Mother City” in Israel	Miriam Lieberbaum (Dishel)	271
In Memoriam	Yitzhak Zorne-Zohar	273
Brody	David Altman	274
How My Family and Rabbi Steinberg's Family Were Saved	Ya'akov Braun	287
The Last “Oleh” from Brody	Issac (Yitzchak) Weltman	292
My Family in Brody before World War I	Shmuel Lamm	305
How Fortunate was I	Hinda Wahl (Hela Tuch-Tuviel)	307
From My Father's House	Naftali Harash	309
My Family of Blessed Memory	Joseph Kahana	311
Members of My Family and Images of Brody Preserved in My Heart	Joseph Ettinger	313
There Was a Pious Man	Ya'akov Lieberman	318
Friday at Home	Berta Kalenberg (Margulies)	320
My Family's Fate	Eliezer Tolmetz	322
My Family's Fate	Lea Shduel	323
My Family	Lola Rotenberg-Buchan	324
About My Family That Is No More	Pnina Hertzberg Lansky	326
Memories from My Father's House	Hadassah Esther Nathan (Weiss)	327
A Visit to Brody – 45 Years Later . . .	Ziporah Rom	331
Chapter Five: Images and Eulogies
Our Teacher Nachum Okser, Brody's Janusz Korczak	Joseph Parvari (Leiner)	341
A Letter from Brody	Heinrich Adler	343
Through the Window (a poem)	Hadassah Esther Nathan (Weiss)	346
Samuel Weiler	Joseph Parvari (Leiner)	347
Alas, German Mothers! (a poem)	Fanya Zorne	350
The Brody “Klezmers”	Samuel Lamm	352
In Memory of My Parents Simcha and Yasse Weiser	Shoshana Weiser	353
Two Episodes	Shraga Weintraub	354
In Memory of Our Father Ya'akov Unreich	Rivka Matushewicz	355
My Father's House (a poem)	Fanya Zorne	356
Profiles from Brody	Joseph Kahana	359
Our Father Joseph Parvari	Uri and Elazar Parvari	360
Our City Brody	Shaul Perlmutter	362
“Kaddish” for the Lost	Avshalom Sion-Szmuszkin	367
My Friend Nunek	Raphael (Fulu) Shalev-Shlinger	374
List of the “Righteous of the Nations of the World” Who Saved a Few of Brody's Jews		375
Chapter Six: Memorial Pages
Yizkor [prayer]		381
List of the Martyrs of Brody and its Environs		383
The Youth of Brody Who Fought the Nazis and Fell in the Years 1939-1945		420
Former Brody Residents Who Passed Away in Israel		421
Former Brody Residents and their Offsprings Who Fell in Israel's Campaigns		426
English Section
Preface	Yehoshu'a-Shiko Mandel	11*
The Jewish Settlement of Brody: From its Beginnings Until 1919 (From “Pinkas Hakehilot”)		19*
We Polish Jews (My, Zydzi Polscy) (Translation from Polish - Hebrew, Yiddish versions also appear in the book)	Julian Tuwim	53*
List of Pictures
Addendum
Map and aerial photographs of Brody
Name index

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