Ropczyce, Poland

There Once was a Shtetl
Ropczyce
(Poland)

50°03' / 21°37'

Translation of Hayo hayta Ayara Ropczyce

Edited by Ita Rosenfeld

Published in Israel, 1985

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Aryeh Wanderman

Our sincere appreciation to Ita Rosenfeld
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

Translated and submitted to the Yizkor Book Project by Aryeh Wanderman
for the Kolbuszowa Region Research Group (KRRG)

This is a translation from: Hayo hayta Ayara Ropczyce (There Once was a Shtetl Ropczyce),
ed. Ita Rosenfeld, privately published, Israel, 1985 (144 pp, H)

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Introduction		1
From the publisher		5
From the Carta Encyclopedia of the Nations of the World		7
Ropshitz	Sarah Gold Avraham	8
My Shtetl	Miriam Kurtz (Bar Haim)	11
Relationship with the Christian Population	From the memoirs of Avraham Fessel	13
From the Memoirs of Shimon Hirsch		14
Jewish Life in the Shtetl	Yaakov Reiss	17
Educational Institutions in Ropshitz	Yehoshua Gold	20
More About Jewish Life in the Shtetl	Avraham Fessel	23
The Community Institutions	Yehoshua Gold	25
Ropshitz in the days of the Russian-Japanese War	Yaakov Reiss	27
Ropshitz at the Outbreak of the Fist World War	Mina Reich Shachar	28
The Lethargy of the Jews of Galicia	Aharon Hirsch	32
The Rise of Zionism Among the Youth in Ropshitz		34
Mina Shahar		34
Itta Shahar		37
Avraham Fessel		38
Shimon Hirsch		38
Mina Levy (Schechter)		39
Malka Birnbaum Weitz (wife of Shlomo Birnbaum)		40
A Letter fom the Golah	Yissahar Hesnekopf	45
Sarah Ganor (Bronheim)		47
Rabbi Naphtali of Ropshitz, based on “Sarei Hameah” by Rabbi Maimon	Miriam Bar-Haim (Kurz)	49
Excerpts from “Tzidkat Hechacham” by Aviezer Berstein, on the life and teachings of the saintly Rabbi Naphtali of Ropshitz		51
An Excerpt from the “Sefer Hachasidut” of David Alfasi		54
Other Articles Which Have Appeared in Recent Years in Israeli Newspapers About the Wisdom and Deeds of Rabbi Naphtali		58
Typical Figures from the Shtetl as I Remember Them	Yehoshua Gold	61
Wise Sayings, Tales and Jokes of the Jews of Ropshitz	Yaakov Reiss	64
Recollections	Sarah Avraham	68
The Second World War War: Men Who Fought in the War as Soldiers	Yehoshua Gold	70
Ropshitz During the Occupation (1939 -- 1945)	Yehoshua Gold	74
The Story of a Survivor of the Second World War	Yehoshua Gold	81
Data obtained from Poland		86
The Attempts of the Priest Dr. Jan Zewiz to Save Jews	Bogdan Novick	87
Description of the Last Days of Some of the Jews of Ropshitz	Sarah Avraham (Gold)	89
Impressions from a Trip to Poland in 1967	Yehoshua Gold	92
The Home of the Rabbi	Sarah Avraham (Gold)	98
Yehudah Leibush Kurz, of blessed memory	Sheindel Shvebel, Bluma Mostovsky, Miriam Bar-Haim	104
My Father's Home	Sarah Ganor	107
In Memory of Dr. David Eichenholz		108
In Memory of Avraham Yehudah Melamed	Dardeki Mordechai Reiss	110
My Father's Home	Minah Reich-Shachar	111
Memories	David Femstein	112
My Father's Home	Leah Karpas (Rosen)	113
Gedaliah Kol-Tov		114
My Father's Home	Itta Shachar	115
In Memory of my Mother and Sister	Nechama (Sinai) Mazah	117
About Eli Reivitz and his Family	Nechama (Sinai) Mazah	118
My Father's Home	Haim Klein	119
In Memory of My Father, Mother, Brothers and Sisters	Mordechai Reiss	120
The History of One Family	Yehoshua Gold	122
Shlomo Issler		128
A Monument	Miriam Bar-Haim (Kurz)	143
A Poem	Ita Rosenfeld	144
The Families from Ropczyce who were Exterminated in the Holocaust		132

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Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator