[Page 165]

Itzik Burstein

in which I grew up is one of a kind. It passed from the hands of Yussel Brill^[1] to a Jew by the name of Itzik Burstein, who hailed from the village of Drotia, a train station on the Bălţi-Iaşi line, a bully-boy Jew, extremely brave, who grew up among peasants, had command of the Moldovan language and possessed much energy and a developed commercial sense. Itzik was enterprising and exceptional in his business dealings, in terms of their nature, since they more fit gentiles than Jews. He exceled in two sectors: Raising pigs, and on account of that he was called by the nickname “Itzik chazirnik^[2]” by Bălţi's Jews, and saddle horses.

To that end, he converted the courtyard where three neighbors, among them our family, had dwellings. A courtyard in which there previously had been fruit trees, cherries and apples and pears, which in the spring would blossom and spread a perfume, and yield juicy fruit in the autumn for the pig-fattening pens. As for the pungent odors, the stench, which goes along with raising the pigs, a special breed designed for fattening for the purpose of export to Germany, it is unnecessary to say very much.

These odors plagued the entire vicinity and it was a curse that came one fine day upon the occupants of the house and upon the neighbors bordering on Itzik's house. The fattening would go on a number of months and at the end of the period they would reach such a great weight that they would only just manage to lift them onto the trucks or the wagons that transported them to the train stations. Some “shaygetz” [non-Jewish man], who would lodge in the shed, would do the work of tending to the pigs and the feeding and the cleaning of the pens.

And Itzik Burstein had another occupation. It, too, a trade foreign to Jews. He was an expert on horses. He would buy young horses, what was called “armăsar” in Romanian, a male horse, bring specialists who would geld the horse and then its value would go up and it was sold at great profit as saddle horses or horses for harnessing to a carriage and a buggy, and we children would crowd together in a circle in the courtyard and watch inquisitively when the operation was being conducted – the neutering, in broad daylight.

Itzik was involved with the villagers in connection with these two trades; he would travel in the vicinity and buy pigs or horses and was known and respected by all. The gentiles, moreover, held him in admiration due to his physical strength, too, because on several occasions, in a brawl with gentiles, he showed them a severe thrashing. People tell of one of the clashes he had with the antisemite Novitsky, a well-known figure in Bălţi and the district, when that antisemite plotted to incite the Moldovans to stage a pogrom against Bălţi's Jews. Itzik headed out in his direction with a number of other Jewish ruffians and they chased off the hooligans. Especially on fair days, when the antisemites tried to stir up riots, he, together with a small group of Jews, would forestall a great tragedy via preemptive action.

[Page 166]

Christianity Strikes Fear into the Children of Israel

The gentile's hatred for the Jew was manifested during Christian vacation days on Christmas and on Easter. And it is a hatred that passes from generation to generation; on those days, the priest preaches in the church and tells his believers the story of Jesus, how he was crucified on account of the Jews and how he sacrificed himself in order to save humanity.

And the Christian's concealed wrath toward the Jew, which burns in him hiddenly throughout the year, in his heart of hearts, finds its release on these days, especially on Easter days. That is the time of the pogroms in Russia, as in other places throughout the generations. And even though Bălţi, due to its dense Jewish population, was immune to this phenomenon, between the two world wars, until the coming of the Holocaust, whoever was dwelling at the very heart of the gentile population indeed could sense the gentiles' hatred on these vacation days, which became days of provocation.

The “colinde” [Romanian Christmas carols] was the custom of going from door-to-door begging with the “star”, telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Groups of youths, sometimes dressed up in bearskin as well, would sing religious songs in chorus, and bless the members of their community and thereby collect gifts and coins; it was a colorful custom. We were children and our house bordered on the yard of a well-to-do gentile peasant. Barbier was his name.

When Christmas Eves came, we would be shut at home in a bolted house, and we would listen, with hearts palpitating, to their footsteps squeaking in their boots in the snow or skidding on the ice, on Bessarabia's snowy days of December. The groups of “colinde” ensembles staged their singing and acting noisily and in chorus in front of our Christian neighbor's window and their window is just opposite our own window, in the dining room.

We would peek through the curtain and try not to be seen and, quivering, would listen to their tunes. And when the door to the non-Jewish neighbor's home would open and the lady of the house would come out and shower a plentitude of sweets, types of pastry and food and also silver coins on the members of the ensemble, and those had given thanks and gone away and walked on, to the next Christian's yard, we would feel relief. A weight seemingly had been lifted off our chests, and we were able to go to sleep, quiescently.

At the religious processions on the days of Easter, especially on Resurrection Night, we, the Jews, would try not to come across them, because one never knows what hooligan would violate restrictions^[3] and take revenge against the next Jew in his path.

Itzik Burstein, third from left. Novitsky second from right.

1. Or “Beryl”. Without Hebrew vowels, both spellings are possible. Return
2. “Chazir” means pig in Hebrew and Yiddish; hence “chazirnik” is one who is associated with pigs. Return
3. In Hebrew “yifrotz gader” – literally “will breach a gate”. Figuratively, in Jewish sources, it refers to misbehavior generally – transgressing a law or rule or flouting a prohibition. Return

[Page 167]

Our family, the Silberg family, mother Miriam, father Yosef, and eleven children. Our home was a religious home, in which a warm and cordial familial atmosphere prevailed. A cultured and Zionist home where we were educated to help others, toward mutual respect and a love of Zion and Jerusalem. Our father z”l^[1] was a good-hearted, decent man, a talmid chacham [Torah scholar – literally, “student of a sage”], enterprising, and possessed of manual skill. At his own initiative, he invented and assembled machines for the manufacture of noodles. The product won praise from the homemakers and badges of excellence at exhibitions in Odessa and Moscow. Our noodles, of various types, were also sent for sale to Iaşi and to Czernowitz by train, and they were transported to the towns by wagoners.

We, all the members of our household, were people of productive labor. Only Jewish men and women laborers worked at our factory. Our mother was punctilious and bought Jewish produce. In our home, we absorbed an education for respecting the working person, a fair treatment of him, and a concern for his advancement at work and in pay. Periodically the laborers received a wage increment (the “hoisofa”).

Our father, on top of his jobs at the factory and marketing the product, was also available to deal with public needs and charity. He was a sought-after arbitrator and consultant – at no charge. Dad prayed daily at the synagogue and he conjointly studied chapters of Mishnah and Gemara there on weekdays and particularly on Shabbat days.

He devoted himself greatly to the children's education. Shabbat days and holidays were dedicated to rest and to the Torah; Dad would test the boys in Torah studies, and he chatted with all the children about books they had read in Yiddish and Russian. Our dear father passed away from an illness, in [the Hebrew month] Sh'vat 5683 - 1923. Only 51 years old at his death.

Our good, wise, and vibrant mother kept on running the household and the factory. With her instructing us in the management of the plant and in the work, with the help of men and women laborers. Thus, our family lived with dignity. We all studied, of course. Our mother devoted herself to our education very understandingly. She also saw to it that the boys, on top of general studies at school, would do studies in Torah, Mishnah and Gemara, etc. alongside superb rabbis, taking private lessons in our home. On the night of Tisha B'Av [the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av], she gathered us on a rug in the room, and by candlelight we read the lamentations together with her, and we wept over having been exiled from our land, and over the destruction of the Temple.

When I went to the “Gordonia” movement, and later to hachshara [literally, “training” – the term used for a Zionist training farm], and particularly when I was going up to the Land [of Israel], with all the pain of farewell, my mother related understandingly and agreeably to this, my path. Mom was happy and proud about her daughter taking part in the redemption of the [Jewish] people and the building of the Land of Israel. She hoped that I would bring her, too, up to the Land and that she would be privileged to witness the establishment of the Temple.

[Page 168]

Our mother gave out charity anonymously, too. I recall, during a harsh winter of 35 degrees below zero, when the schools were closed due to the bitter cold, our mother sent a donation – two wagons loaded with firewood for heating the “Talmud Torah” school that we attended. She would also send foodstuffs and other consumer goods to the old age home, (Bogdalny) to widows and to poor families.

Our dear mother was killed in the Holocaust when they fled Bălţi and came to one of the villages on a Friday. Our mother did not want to continue travelling, so as not to desecrate the Shabbat. On Shabbat, the gentiles in the village murdered all the Jewish residents in the village, among them, to our great sorrow, our mother, too.

Our brother Aryeh and his family z”l, our sister Sima and her husband Shimon Ackerman and their children z”l were killed in the Holocaust as well. Likewise, our sister Sarah'ke, her husband Moshe Ackerman, and their daughter Iza z”l. Only their son Leone, who was serving in the army, survived. He is still with his family in Czernowitz. Also in Czernowitz are our brothers Moshe and Gershon and their families. They all yearn and look forward to going up to Israel.

We, six brothers and sisters, went up to the Land of Israel. Our Silberg Tur-Kaspa families put down roots and branched out in Israel. The first of the chalutzim [pioneers] in our family was our brother Aharon Silberg, later Tur-Kaspa; outside the Land, he had been a teacher. He left teaching, went off to hachshara in Kishinev [Chişinău], where he was also a member of the central committee of HeChalutz^[2] [“The Pioneer” movement]. Subsequently, he came to Bălţi, founded a hachshara group and worked in factories with all the chalutzim in the winter, worked as a firewood logger. This hard work in frosty weather caused our mother great distress.

In 1931, Aharon made aliya [immigration to the Land of Israel]. In the Land, he was a laborer, came down with yellow fever, grew weak, and was forced to cease physical labor. He taught at the Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem. At the same time, he studied and graduated the Teachers' Seminary in Beit Hakerem [neighborhood in Jerusalem]. His illness intensified and he was forced to journey home to recuperate. In Bessarabia, he went back to teaching. He was a teacher at the school in Romanovka and afterwards he taught at the Gymnasium [secondary school] in Zguritsa. There he married Dora Proimachek, she too a teacher at the Gymnasium. Aharon was constantly aiming to return to the Land of Israel. But due to the Mandate government's restrictions on aliya, he was not able to. With the outbreak of the Second World War, they fled with their children, Na'omi and Yossi, to Russia. After many wanderings, they arrived at Czernowitz at the end of the war.

In 1947, they moved to Bucharest; from there they reached Salvina in Italy where both of them taught at a school for the children of refugees. In these wanderings, too, the language spoken in the family was Hebrew. In July 1948, they immigrated [lit. “went up”] to Israel. Both of them were absorbed as schoolteachers. Aharon continued to teach until his retirement; he was a “bar oryan”^[3]. He garnered appreciation and admiration from the teachers and his pupils alike. Their daughter Na'omi and Atty. Dan Avi-Yitzhak and their children reside in Jerusalem. Their son, engineer Yossi and Nava Tur-Kaspa and their children live in Haifa. Dora passed away in 1983. Aharon passed away in 1985.

I, Ruth, the second pioneer in our family, was a youth member and youth leader/counselor at the Gordonia branch in Bălţi. After “hachshara”, I went up to the Land in February 1935, with Emanuel Pri-Paz, to “Avuka” [“torch”, in Hebrew], a kvutza [small communal settlement] of Gordonia in Pardes Hanna. I was an agricultural laborer and the bookkeeper in the kvutza. Active in the kvutza's management and on its committees. Active in the moshava [lit., “colony” – a form of agricultural Jewish settlement], on the secretariat of the workers' council, on the secretariat of the Working Mothers' Organization – today “Na'amat”, youth leader/counselor in HaNoar HaOved [“The Working Youth” Labor Zionist youth movement], and active in the Haganah [the main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate for Palestine; lit. “defense”].

In 1940, we moved to Hadera and a number of years later to Netanya. I worked at the Netanya workers' council, in auditing. Active in the institutions of the Histadrut [General Federation of Labor] and on parents' committees at the schools. Emanuel was an agricultural laborer, a construction worker, and afterwards, for 26 years, a journalist on the editorial staff of “Davar” [the Histadrut's Hebrew-language daily] and at “Itim” [Israeli news agency] until his retirement.

I gave birth to and we raised four children. Our daughter, Nira, is a teacher, and Haggai^[4] Kolton and their children reside in Ramat HaSharon. Our son, Yossi, an engineer, and Haya Pri-Paz, and our son, Uzi, an electronics technician, and Malka Pri-Paz and their children live in Netanya.

Our son, Moshe Pri-Paz z”l, to our grief and our hearts' regret, passed away in 1974 at age 25. He had completed his service in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and in Keva [standing army service following mandatory service]. He was studying electronics engineering, in year three, at Tel Aviv University.

Haim Tur-Kaspa (Silberg), the third chalutz in the family. A youth member and youth leader/counselor in Gordonia. He was in hachshara and went up to the Land in 1938, to the Nir Haim kvutza (today Nir Am) in Kiryat Bialik. He worked in stevedoring at the Port of Haifa, later enlisting

[Page 169]

in the harbor police. He was active in the Haganah and in the Histadrut. A lecturer on behalf of the Hasbara Administration^[5]. Haim and his wife, Miriam, live in Haifa. Their daughter, Abbey Gedura, is a teacher. Her husband, Rami Reshef, and their children reside in Beersheva. The sons: Dr. Rani and Aviva Tur-Kaspa, he a physician at Hadassah [Hospital], live in Jerusalem with their children; engineer Yosi and Liora Tur-Kaspa and their children live in Haifa. Dr. Ilan Tur-Kaspa is a physician at Tel-Hashomer [Hospital].

Monia Silberg, a Gordonia youth member, went up to the Land in 1939 on a ship of the ma'apilim [illegal Jewish immigrants to Mandatory Palestine], the “Tiger Hill”; resides in Netanya, active in the community. Back in the day, he established a noodle factory. His son Michael, an engineer, and Miriam Ziv and their children live in Netanya. Son Arieh Harpaz, a member of “Egged” [Israeli bus cooperative], and Shoshana live at the Wingate Institute [Israel's national institute for excellence in sport]. Daughter Miriam Yuval^[6], a guide and a social worker, resides in Netanya.

In 1960, our sister Leah and Ze'ev Gamerman, who had lived in Paris since 1929, went up to the Land. They left there a son and two daughters and their children: Drs. Joseph and Hélène Gamerman – physicians. Dr. Margaret and Doctor-engineer Ernest^[7] Bottner, and Mirai and Eli – an architect. Our sister Leah and her husband, Ze'ev, settled down in Israel and were happy here, but since their children did not make aliya, they went back to Paris, to their regret, in 1977 after 17 years in the Land.

Our sister Rivka and Meir Wiesman, their two daughters and their son, and their children, immigrated to Israel [lit. “went up to the Land”] in 1973, after the tribulations of Transdniestria and wanderings in Russia. Rivka was a smart and charitable woman. She helped people in difficult circumstances in the camps. She also saw to teaching their children, there, including Hebrew. Their daughter Polya and Misha Yechieli and their children, their son Avraham Wiesman live in Upper Nazareth. Their daughter Hanna and her husband Yakov Plotkin passed away in 1983, leaving a married daughter in Kiryat Haim and a son serving in the IDF. Sadly, our dear sister Rivka has passed away.

We and our children, the progeny of the Silberg-Tur-Kaspa families in Israel, are living as a united and tight-knit family.

We maintain close contact with our families outside the country. Our daughters, our sons, our grandsons and our granddaughters, study and work and, like their parents, serve in the IDF, are kids who are good to their parents, honest citizens, loyal to the [Jewish] people and the state, as befits our mother and father z”l, Miriam and Yosef Silberg, of Bălţi.

[Page 170]

The Silberg home in Bălţi”

Miriam and Yosef Silberg

[Page 171]

The Silberg sisters and brothers: Sarah, Leah, Haim, and Monia

Aharon, Ruth, Haim, and Monia Silberg (Tur Kaspa) – in Israel

1. z”l is an acronym meaning “of blessed memory”, traditionally used following the name of a deceased person. It stands for zichrono livracha (for a male), zichrona livracha (for a female), or zichronam livracha (in the plural). Return
2. This could also be translated as “a member of the HeChalutz center”. The Hebrew “mercaz” can mean either. Return
3. An Aramaic phrase, “bar oryan”, denotes a person who is well read in the Torah, but can also refer to someone who is learned and erudite generally. Return
4. Or “Haggi”. Without Hebrew vowels, both are possible. Return
5. “Hasbara”, from the Hebrew verb “l'hasbir”, meaning “to explain” or “to elucidate”, is variously rendered in English as “public diplomacy”, “public relations”, or “messaging”. The Hasbara Administration was established in 1954. Return
6. Or “Yovel”. Without Hebrew vowels, both are possible. Return
7. Or “Ernst”. Without Hebrew vowels, both are possible. Return

The Zelţer[1] family – 3 generations of Bălţians

The Vaserman, Zelţer, and Gora families

[Page 173]

The Vaserman-Zelţer fabrics and furs shop

Among the leading Jewish families in Bălţi were the Vaserman and Zelţer families, owners of the large fabrics and furs emporium in the city, “Vaserman-Zelţer”.

They were active in Bălţi's chamber of commerce and contributed greatly to the advancement of commerce in the city. The families took part in every Zionist activity in the city and their children studied at the Hebrew Gymnasium [secondary school] and were speaking Hebrew since their childhood.

They gave of their time and their money to all the Zionist activity, and they were involved in collecting funds for the benefit of the Yishuv^[2] in the Land of Israel.

Their wives, Genia Zelţer and Anetta Vaserman, did much for the sake of Jewish organizations and institutions, such as: Talmud Torah, WIZO [the Women's International Zionist Organization], and the Jewish hospital in the city.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The storefront image on p. 173 presents the spelling of the name as “Zelter”. The Hebrew caption, however, reads “Zeltser”. The use of the “T-comma” (Ț, a “ts” sound) in the name reconciles these two versions. Return
2. “Yishuv” refers to the Jewish community in the Land of Israel prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Return

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