Who and Where
Biographies (cont.)

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[Page LXXXII]

   

Son of Dovid and Chana. Born in Czenstochow. He is a member of the Stephen Weiss Lodge No. 1. He is now about 84 years old.

Shimcha Kalka was born and spent his childhood years in Nowo-Radomsk. His father, Tuvya, was a Hasidic Jew, always deep in Ein Yakov [16^th century religious book] or in other Jewish religious books. His mother, Sarah, was known for her honesty and goodness. She shared the meager food with others and was beloved by her neighbors – Jews and Christians.

From his youngest years, Shimcha was a strong, independent and original character. He excelled in his surroundings with his bearing and clothing. While still very young, he became interested in modern literature and in communal problems, carrying out discussions with his father and with Hasidim who would come to his house.

Shimcha Kalka became a printer and settled in Czenstochow. The S.S. [Socialist Zionist] movement, into which he threw himself with his entire unrestrained temperament and youthful vigor, won in him one of the most active and devoted workers.

“Comrade Shimcha” did not fear any danger, and despite scores of problems was always ready to carry out any assignment both in the years of the revolutionary tide or, later, during the times of darkest reaction – almost all of the illegal literature printed in Czenstochow was his work that he carried on in Botszan's print shop or in secret print shops.

In May 1913, he married Leah Herszlikowicz, a good comrade in the S.S. and, in the same year, left for America. From the start, he worked hard to make a living in his trade. Later, he opened his own printing shop with Josef Kaufman on Delancey Street, New York, that was a gathering place for Czenstochower and Radomsker landsleit [people born in the same town or city]. He died in January 1919 at the age of 33 of influenza, leaving a wife and two sons – Yankl and Lou.

His name will always be remembered with deep love and respect.

Sarah Kalka (née Grynboim) was born in 1895 in Czenstochow. She married Yehoshua Kalka of Nowo-Radomsk. She was active in Czenstochow in the artisan's club. She emigrated to Eretz-Yisroel in 1921 and here mainly provided assistance to the Radomsker landsleit. She died in 1943 at the age of 48.

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When the Radomskers in Tel Aviv founded an aid fund for their city with a managing committee of the following people, Shlomoh Krakowski, Shlomoh Waksman, Moshe Szitenberg, Dovid Krojze, Yehoshua Kalka, Devora Karmoil, Leah Birnboim, Mordekhai Chasom, they decided to name the fund for Sarah Kalka. With this, the name of a rare soul taken away by death in the very bloom of life, and who left an inconsolable sorrow in the hearts of her husband and her many friends, was immortalized.

Honor her memory!

Born in Czenstochow in 1888. In 1902, he began his communal activities as a Poalei-Zionist. In 1903, he took part in the Poalei-Zion conference in Krakow, in which Josef Kruk also took part. A split developed at the conference between the S.S. group and Poalei-Zion. Josef Kalaszynski remained in Poalei-Zion and there carried out his activities until 1908. He left Czenstochow in 1908 because of persecutions by the Czarist government and emigrated to Eretz-Yisroel.

Here Josef Kalaszynski (Arueli) took an enthusiastic part in the building of the land. He belonged to the first founders of Schunat Borokow [Borokow's residences] and of Dfus Acduth [United Press] (Histadrut's cooperative printing house and bookbinding shop). He was the director of the printing shop for 10 years. Later, he opened his own printing shop, where the most beautiful works in the trade still are printed.

Josef Kalaszynski has not stopped his communal activities to this day. He gives a great deal of energy to the Free Masons movement. In 1943, his book abut the Free Masons movement was published. He published articles in the monthly Free Masons journal under the title “Brother to Brother.” In general, he is one of the people of whom the Czenstochower landsleit can be proud.

Son of Zaynwel and Zelda. Born in 1866 in Kaminsk, near Piotrkow. He died in Czenstochow on the 17^th of October 1903 (25 Tishrei).

Daughter of Haim and Mariam Frydman. Born in Czenstochow in 1868 (at the end of Yom-Kippur). She died on the 5^th of December 1936 (22 Kislev 5697).

Son of Kalman and Chaya Sara. Born on the 27^th of March 1895 in Czenstochow. Came to America from Germany in 1913. He is a member of the Jewish National Workers Union and Regional Czenstochower Union in Detroit.

Born on the 5^th of September 1897 in Czenstochow. He is a descendent of the Kaminski family that had a shop on Fabriczszna, opposite the Igliarnia [a needle factory]. To the older generation, he was known as Haim Laskowski's grandson. His grandfather, Haim Frydman, of blessed memory, of Senatorska Street, in Niedszele's house, was known in Czenstochow as Reb Haim Laskowski. He was a pious Jew, a scholar, a member of the khevra-kadishe [burial society] and one of the founders of the khevra h'tilim [group of men who recite psalms for those who are sick or who have died] in Shimon the baker's house on Motsova. Such eminent men as Avraham Meir Blater; Reb Yehoshua Dovid Davidowicz – Engineer Davidowicz's father; Reb Shimon Klabucker (“der gruber” [the fat] Shimon); Reb Feiwel Alter – father of Mikhal Alter; Yehezkeil Szmulewicz, father of the photographer and active Lira worker Heniek Szmulewicz, belonged to the khevra h'tilim.

His father – Meir Kalman – was born in Kaminsk (near Radomsk); his grandfather and great grandfather lived there during the time of his father. The name Kaminski comes from there.

At three years of age, M. Kaminski began to study with Little Idesl who was known in Czenstochow. Later, Kaminski met her in Paris selling nuts from Eretz-Yisroel.

The school years were spent with Yeheil the malamed (Yeheil Klobucker or Yeheil Landsman) on Warsawer Street. He was a tall Jew with a large dark reddish beard, taught us Yiddishkeit with the good and bad. That is – with a whip. Later he taught in Leder's School.

His first job was in the bank house of Henrik Zorski.

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He won many friends and acquaintances among the people there, who would come about communal matters.

He belonged to the S.S. Party in the freedom movement.

During the time of the First World War, Kaminski, together with Rafal Federman and other comrades from the trade employees union, helped organize the strike of the trade employees in Czenstochow. From 1916 to the end of the First World War, he was a railroad employee. During the last year, he was actually the chief of the ticket window on the railway car ramp. When, in the end, the Germans were repelled and Poland took over the management of the railroads, he was fired on the morning of the liberation with the words “Idsz do Berlina” (“Go to Berlin”), along with scores of other Jewish train workers. He, like other Jews, was prohibited from appearing at the railroad. It should be understood that Polish train workers and clerks, who had previously worked on the trains, remained in their positions.

M. Kaminski was one of the two delegates who traveled to Warsaw to demand that the approximately 200 fired train workers should be paid at least 300 zlotes compensation for the time of their work as all of the Christians workers had been (the second was Bialek – a Christian worker who came from Lithuania and was one of the leaders of the “independents”). In Warsaw, Kaminski and Bialek conferred with the railroad minister, Eberhardt, who accepted the demand. This was achieved in large part with the help of the S.S. Party representative in Warsaw, who steered them through all of the offices and ministries.

A little later, he left for Dusseldorf. He met many comrades there who were taken to work in the coal mines and factories during the wartime. There they created a union of Polish Jews, where he worked for 20 years, for the entire time he lived in Germany. He also joined the Zionist movement, was active in the local Zionist managing committee and went to national conferences and congresses. He also took part in kehile life in Germany and later was elected as a representative to the managing committee. He spent many years until Polish Jews – payers of kehile taxes, like the German Jews – achieved the passive voting rights, that is, the right to be elected to the gemeinde managing committee. In 1924, he and others helped to found the sports union, Makabee, in Dusseldorf.

In 1936 he visited Eretz-Yisroel where in Tel Aviv he met his brother, Daniel, and his wife who had emigrated from Germany a year earlier. Daniel had worked with him on the railroad in Czenstochow.

On the night of the 28^th of October 1938, the Nazis pulled 30,000 Polish Jews out of their homes all over Germany, old and young, women and children, also those who were born in Germany, but remained Polish citizens. They packed them in railway trains and trucks and sent them away to the Polish border. Nearly 600 Jews were sent out of Germany with Kaminski and brought to Zbaszyn under police guard. There they met thousands of Jews from all corners of Germany – many naked and barefoot – all became beggars overnight. The Jews were “quartered” in horse stalls in Zbaszyn. It was cold at night and there was nothing to use as a cover. This is how the new “home” looked. In Zbaszyn itself, there were only five Jewish families. One of them was Dovid Yelin from Czenstochow (Kaminski's cousin). He and his wife and her sister did everything that was in their power to do to help the refugees. The first help was bread and tea that warmed and nourished the refugees. Kaminski traveled to Lodz the same day (Shabbos at night), where his brother, Dr. Yehuda Kaminski lived.

Mordekhai Kaminski went from Lodz to Warsaw. There he contacted Senator Professor Szor and helped with the rescue activities for the Jewish refugees from Germany. He held negotiations with the Polish Foreign Ministry with the help of Dr. Emil Zomersztajn, the Jewish Sejm Deputy, about the return to Germany to liquidate the homes and enterprises. Meanwhile, in Germany, the pogroms of the 9^th of November 1938 [Kristlnacht] took place when all of the Jewish houses and synagogues were destroyed. He traveled from Warsaw to Czenstochow to see his sister, Miriam (Manja) Mojer, the only remaining member of his family. Here he met many refugees who were supported by the Jewish kehile [community].

He traveled to America through Germany and Holland and arrived in New York on the 10^th of November 1939.

Today, he lives in Detroit and again takes part in Jewish communal life. He is a member of the Zionist organization and the Jewish Congress, of the Jewish National Worker's Union and supports aid work to the Polish Jews in general and of those in Czenstochow in particular in every way possible.

Daughter of Harold and Frieda. Born on the 10 of April 1885 in Zawiercie. Came to America in March 1906. Died on the 4^th of January 1928 in New York.

[Page LXXXV]

Son of Mordekhai and Faygl. Born in Czenstochow on the 25^th of June 1877. He is a tailor. He married Liba Ratner of Zawiercie in Czenstochow. Came to America in 1904. He is a member of the Czenstochower Young Men and of United Czenstochower Relief in New York.

Dovid Koniecpoler
Czenstochow
(Photo)

Born on the 27^th of February 1897 in Czenstochow. Representative of the Zionist organization, Ichud [Union], and the Jewish Committee. In 1915 he carried on political-communal work in Radomsk and was active until and during the Second World War. Today, he is active again in the support of worthy Jewish communal work in Czenstochow.

Born in either 1881 or 1882. Studied in kheder [religious school], in the yeshiva, then studied in Germany. In his youngest years, he was a member of the S.D.K.F.L. (Social Democrats), later he went over to the Zionists and was one of the strongest fighters for Hebraism [the movement to make Hebrew the language of the Jewish people].

In 1908 he took part in the founding of Lira [a singing society] and was one of its most active workers during its entire existence. He often held meetings and led discussions with the Yiddishists [proponents of Yiddish and Yiddish culture], representing the ideas of “Khoveve Ofas Eiver”[Lovers of the Hebrew Language].

(Photo, caption: Kapinski family members at the grave of Leon and Mauritz Kapinski)

(Photo, caption: The headstone of the Kapinskis' mother)

(Photo, caption: The mother of the Kapinskis and her children)

Although he, himself, spoke Yiddish and took part in the Yiddish press in Czenstochow – his slogan was: Polnis v ervit (Polish or Hebrew).

His Zionism was more spiritual than territorial. In words and in writing, he preached the Ahad Haamist [Ahah Haam, pen name of Asher Ginzburg, a Hebrew writer and thinker] ideas. He was one of the few who studied in depth the Talmud-

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ist and modern Hebrew literature.

He was active in a whole series of communal institutions until the Second World War. He was appointed as the chief of the Judenrat under the Nazi regime, and later, was murdered by the Nazis in the Czenstochower cemetery together with all of the members of the Judenrat and the Jewish intelligentsia.

Son of Shlomoh Hersh and Bluma. Born in Czenstochow on the 27^th of November 1902.

Son of Mendl and Chana. Born in New York on the 14^th of July 1895. He is a professor at New York University and a member of the American Economic Association.

Son of Haim Josef and Mariam. Born in Kromolow (Poland). He is 74 years old.

Son of Shlomoh and Ester. Born in Myszkow (Poland) 1895. Came to America on the 13^th of May 1913. He is a member of the Pinsker Society, executive member of the Czenstochower Regional Union in Detroit. He was also one of the most active members of the Czenstochower Union. His two sons – Norman and Arthur – served in the American Army.

Died March 1881 in Czenstochow at the age of 42.

Died on the 6^th of February 1920 in Czenstochow at the age of 75.

Son of Izrael and Fradl. Born on the 23^rd of November 1876 in Czenstochow. He married Martha Kory in November 1904. Came to America on the 25^th of December 1887.

Sam Korpiel has been an active member for many years and former vice president of the Czenstochower Young Men in New York. He is active in the Czenstochower Relief Committee and in the Czenstochower Yidn book committee. His sons, Julian and Seymour, served in the American army.

Born on the 4^th of January 1881. Member of the Young Man's, United Czenstochower Relief and of the Czenstochower Yidn book committee.

Son of Shmuel and Hinda Leah. Born in Czenstochow on the 15^th of July 1895. He married Chava Wajnrib. Came from England to America on the 21^st of May 1921. He is a member of the Lubliner Educational Society and of the Czenstochower Educational Society.

Born in 1894. His father, Berish, and his mother, Chana, headed a religious home and lived in Czenstochow. From age 14 on, he studied tailoring with his father. He belonged to the tailor's union and to the Polish Socialist Party. He married Esther Rozenblat.

Max Kuszminski came to America in 1919. He is a member

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of the Cloakmakers Union and also was a member of the Czenstochower branch 26, A.R. [Arbeter Ring] and of the Relief Committee. When the Czenstochower Patronat existed, he was active in it and was also a member of its executive.

Esther Kuszminski is a member of the Czenstochower Ladies Auxiliary.

Their son, Haimy, volunteered to join the American army.

Son of Hershl and Liba. Born in Czenstochow on the 15^th of April 1897. Came to America in 1913. He is a member of the Czenstochower branch 261 Arbeter Ring in New York.

Son of Shlomoh Dovid and Sara. Born in Bedzin. He married Regina Rozenfeld. Came to America on the 22^nd of June 1922. He was a member of the Czenstochower branch 261 Arbeter Ring in New York. Today he is a member of the Piotrkow and Bedzin Society.

Daughter of Dovid Rozenfeld, a craftsman. She did not know her father because when she was born he was a Russian soldier in the Russo-Japanese War in which he perished. She always thought of him with love in her heart.

At age 18, her mother, Nacha (née Gryn), was left alone with three children: her brother Itzik Leib, R. Rozenfeld and her sister, Ruszka (Reizl). Her mother did everything in order to give her children a good upbringing and spared herself no difficulty. The hard work resulted in her having a lung disease.

Her brother, Itzik Leib, became an upholsterer and belonged to the Bund. He married Bukhla Frydman. They had one daughter, Jadja (Itka).

Her younger sister, Ruszka, began working as a seamstress at age 12. She belonged to the youth organization, Shtral [sunbeam] in the worker's club, Fareinikte [United] and studied at the evening courses for the young workers. Later, she joined the communists, was one of the most active workers in the movement. And spent many years in the Polish jails.

Regina Rozenfeld studied at the elementary Russian school, led by Mrs. Wajzer on Teatralne Street. She learned Yiddish on Garncarska Street with the lame Ruchl. She began to work at age 12 as a hairdresser in the little house factory of Mrs. Wajzman at First Avenue 8, where the main employment was in the production of sheitlekh [wigs worn by pious women]. In 1916 the S.S. [Socialist Zionists] began to organize the hairdresser workers and R.R. was drawn into the movement. In addition to her, Max Khapot, S. Moszkowicz and a whole series of other people among the hairdresser workers, were active.

She was fired from her work because of her activity in organizing the hairdresser workers and began to work for herself. This led to the bettering of her and her mother's circumstance.

Although they were a poor working family, without a father, and suffered from need, life after work among many close friends and comrades was interesting and rich in content. R.R. belonged to Fareinikte [United] and took part in all of the activities of the organization and celebrated every holiday. Abraham Wenger, Hela Wenger, Manya Herszlikowicz (later the wife of Moshe Szjan), Feigl Szliwinska (later Mrs. Linkinska) Karala Szokher (married Max Khropat), Bejla Liberowicz (married Dovid Khropat), Helfgot, Regina Gors, Sara'le Opatszinski Gerszon Muntowicz, and a series of others, belong to the circle of her closest friends. When the Rozenfeld family lived in Ostrow during the summer because of their mother's weak physical condition, Mikhal Alter, Cesza Federman, Abraham Brat, Rusza Plawner, Rayzele Feirtag, Moshe Berkensztat, Regina Waszekha and other comrades would spend time in their house.

She left for America in 1922.

In 1926, she married Henry Kuperman. They have three children: a son, Danny, 19 years old – a university student (served in the American army), a 14-year old daughter, Audrey (Altera) and a six-year old boy, Joel (Gershon).

She visited Czenstochow in 1931. Life in Czenstochow was normal then. She saw her mother and cousins for the last time. They perished during the years 1939-1945. The only one who was saved, due to her good knowledge of the Polish prisons, was her younger sister, Ruszka. She is now in Warsaw and is again active in communal activities as she was earlier.

Son of Josef and Rayzel. Born in Olsztyn on the 18^th of July 1894. He married Roza Mylsztajn. Came to America in 1922. He is a member of the Czenstochower Educational Union in Chicago.

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Son of Abo (Abele the shoykhet [ritual slaughterer]) and Yenta. Born in Czenstochow 1873. He married Ita Lebenhof, daughter of Khasriel Shenker [Khasriel the tavern proprietor] and Brandl Lebenhof. Perished in Czenstochow during the years 1939-1945.

Son of Reb Berish (religious judge and rabbi) and Malka. Born in Czenstochow in 1882. During his childhood, he studied with the teachers, Harcka Gotlib, Leibl Landoy, Yeheil Landsman (Klobucker) and Yitzhak Rozenberg. At 13, he began to study in the city Beis-Midrash [house of study] with Josef Gliksman, the son of Berl Gliksman (known as “der groiser Berl [the large Berl],” with Yekl Kornberg (Podmorek), who later became the shoykhet [ritual slaughterer] in Rotterdam, Holland, with Hershl Gancwajkh, with Nota Gerszonowicz (son of Reb Yehezkeil the teacher) and with Henekh Granek. He also studied with his father, Reb Berish the religious judge and every morning [he studied] a lesson in the Talmud with the city rabbi, Rabbi Reb Nukhem Asz, may he rest in peace.

He read Hebrew and Yiddish books and newspapers, such as Hamalitz and Hatzfire, in addition to studying Tanakh [the bible consisting of the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets and the Writings], Talmud and post Talmudic commentaries. He was a member of the religious Zionist organization, Mizrakhi, of the organization, Khoveve Sfas Ayver [Lovers of the Hebrew Language] under the leadership of the famous follower of the enlightenment and pedagogue, Klinicki.

In 1904 he entered the military. He spent eight months there and, after coming to Czenstochow from the Caucasus, he became a member of the S.S. Party.

In May 1906, on a Shabbos afternoon, when a bomb was thrown from Szmulwicz's house on Warszawer Street where his parents lived, he left Czenstochow with Herszl Gotayner and Bem. He was a janitor for several months in Antwerp (Belgium) and on the 22^nd of January he came to New York.

He founded the Czenstochower Progressive Young Men's Society in 1908 with several landsleit [countrymen]. The main purpose of the society was to help newly arrived landsleit find employment and to help them in case of need.

In February 1909, he founded the Czenstochower branch 261 Arbeter Ring with comrade and friend, Haim Leib Szwarc and was secretary there for many years.

In July 1914, with the same comrade Szwarc, he founded the Czenstochower Relief Union that later became the Czenstochower Relief Committee.

In 1929, with other comrades, he founded the Czenstochower branch 11 International Workers Order, the only Jewish fraternal people's order.

In 1930, he was a member of the Communist Party. He was an executive member of ICOR (Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia) for many years during this time; several years secretary of the Czenstochower

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Patronet (to help the political arrestees in Poland).

Today he is an executive member and secretary of the Czenstochower branch 11 of the Jewish Fraternal Peoples Order and executive member and Protocol Secretary of the United Czenstochower Relief Committee.

Son of Reb Berish the religious judge, of blessed memory, and Malka (neé Brakhner). Born in Czentochow on the 24^th of December 1892. Like every Jewish child at that time, he received a national-religious upbringing in his parents' house and went along the road from kheder to private religious scholars. However, he did not study for a long time because of his preference for practical work and, while still a young man, he began to learn the printing trade.

The hope for greater satisfaction and the atmosphere that then held sway in Jewish middleclass circles in Poland woke in him the thought of leaving Czenstochow for the wider world. As a result of this, he came to America in 1909.

However, the threads that bound him to his old home were not torn by the distance that separated him from there. He began to seek an approach to his landsleit [townspeople] who had arrived here earlier with the aim of founding a Czenstochower landsmanschaftn in New York and thus again establish a connection with his birthplace. He began on the first step of his communal activity on American soil.

In 1910 he became a member of branch 261 of the Arbeter Ring and remains there today.

At a later time, he had the opportunity to show his connection to his birthplace and his dedication as a communal worker.

This was in 1914 when the Czenstochower Aid Society was founded in New York.

Our contemporaries say that Josef Kaufman took the most difficult work as secretary upon himself and put his private and communal business aside in order to come to a Czenstochower meeting in time. His printing shop at 154 Delancey Street in New York was the place to which Czenstochowers “made a pilgrimage.” This was the place of connection to the old home.

In 1917 he became a member of the Young Men and for a time in 1918 he occupied the office of Vice President. Today he is Chairman of the Cemetery Committee and one of the most active members.

However, at the same time as his the work in Young Men, he is also very active with the Czenstochowers in New York and from 1936 until today, he has occupied the office of Financial Secretary.

It is enough to remember that on the 18^th of September 1938 United Czenstochower Relief organized a banquet for him and his wife to acknowledge all of his work on behalf of Czenstochow and Czenstochowers in America, at which the thanks of other Czenstochower organizations in New York was expressed.

Today his printing shop, at 416 Fourth Avenue is a small Czenstochow in New York. All deliberations occur there and Josef Kaufman serves and welcomes everyone with comradely love and neighborly devotion.

He was particularly active as a member of the Czenstochower Yidn book committee. His professional advice and instruction were valuable and helpful.

He stands with other members in the front row of United Czenstochower Relief.

Born in Czenstochow in 1897. Came to America in 1906 and married Josef Kaufman in 1917. She is active in the Ladies Auxiliary,

Ray and Josef Kaufman have three daughters.

Son of Nusan Yakov and Feigl. Born in Czenstochow in 1882. Was known as a small industrialist and honest merchant in Czenstochow. Was a member of Mizrakhi. Shared the fate of the martyrs during the years 1939-1945.

Son of Nekhamia and Feigl. Born in Czenstochow on the 12^th of November 1902; came to America on the 1^st of July 1921. Lives in Chelsea, Mass., 18 Maverick Street.

At age 16, Kopl joined the Bund youth, where he remained until leaving for America. After arriving in America, he stood aside from political activity. However, after two years in America, learning about the workers' movement here in this country, he joined the Arbeter Ring. In the struggle between the “right” and “left” in the Arbeter Ring, Kopl was part of the “left,” leaving the Arbeter Ring. He became a member of the International Workers Order and recording secretary of branch 1702. Later, he was the cultural director for several years and a member of the district committee of the Order. At the same time, he was a member of Labor Lyceum Assn. (a workers institution), became a member of the board and director and later, recording secretary.

During 1925-1930, he was the librarian of the Labor Lyceum Library, which is a wide ranging cultural institution and served a

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great mass in the cultural area. In 1932 he became the chief manager of the library; during those years, he was also very active in ICOR, created a branch in Chelsea that does good work and he became a member of the city committee for ICOR.

For the last two years he has been very busy in Russian War Relief, taking part in a campaign to sell war bonds. In general, he is a person who has been occupied in communal work since his arrival in America and is active in many areas.

Son of Yekl and Ruchl. Born in Czenstohow in 1882. Lived in Danzig and, in the end, in Czenstochow. He marred Rywka Reizl Berkowicz. Shared the fate of the martyrs in 1939-1945.

Daughter of Mendl and Frimet Berkowicz. Born in Dzialoszyn (Poland) in 1881. Shared the fate of the martyrs in 1939-1945.

Son of Berl and Ryfka Reizl. Born in Czenstochow on the 9^th of September 1901. Came to America from Danzig on the 9^th of February 1929. He is a member of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, Zionist Organization, Czenstochower Young Men and United Czenstochower Relief in New York. He married Jenny Kaufman in July, 1923, in Berlin.

(Photo, top right, caption: Liza Kutner-Kielcziglowska, second wife of Chona Kielcziglowski)

(Photo, bottom right, caption: Rutka Kielcziglowski, daughter of Chona and Sara)

(Photo, top left, caption: Chona Kielcziglowski)

(Photo, bottom left, caption: Sara Kelciglowski, first wife of Chona Kielcziglowski)

(Photo, caption, the Kaufman family)

Daughter of Mendl and Ita Kaufman. Born in Czenstochow on the 26^th of August 1899. Came to America from Danzig on the 12^th of May 1939. She is a member of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, Zionist Organization, Czenstochower Young Men and of the United Czenstochower Relief in New York.

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Son of Alter and Gnendl.

He is treasurer of the Philadelphia Baker's Union, local 201.

Son of Yerakhmial and Ester. Born in Czenstochow. Came to America in 1922. Belongs to the Zaloshiner Chevra Anshei Bnei Achim.

Son of Kalman and Hinda. Born in Czenstochow on the 25^th of October 1891. Came to America on the 11^th of June 1911. He married Ester Fajersztajn.

Max Kepp is an executive member of Czenstochow branch 261 Arbeter Ring, member of the Czenstochower Aid Union, of United Czenstochower Relief and of the Czenstochower Yidn book committee.

His son-in-law – Albert Broiner and his two sons – Louis and Kalvin served in the American army.

Daughter of Shmuel Zanwel and Ruchl Fajersztajn. Born in Brody (Poland) on the 25^th of October 1913. Came to America on the 25^th of October 1913 (Translator's note: There is an obvious error in one of the two dates given.) She is a member of Czenstochower branch 261 of the Arbeter Ring and a trustee of the Czenstochower Ladies Auxiliary in New York.

Daughter of Shlomoh and Ester. Born on the 10^th of April 1895 in Krzepice. Came to America on the 23^rd of May 1914 from Czenstochow. She is a member of the Opeler Society in New York and of the Czenstochower Ladies Auxiliary.

Daughter of Leizer and Rosza Szimkowicz. Born in Czenstochow. Came to America in 1928.

She died on the 3^rd of May 1944 at the age of 83.

Son of Leibish and Toyba. Born in Wolbrom (Poland). Came to Canada from Czenstochow in 1913, from there to America in 1915. He is a member of the Polish Synagogue in Detroit.

Daughter of Josef and Nakha Beila Zajdman. Born in Czenstochow. She was a member of the Czenstochower Regional Union in Detroit, active in various Jewish communal institutions and gave a great deal of charity. She died at the age of 49 in Detroit, on the 2^nd of March 1928.

Son of Moshe and Dworya. Born in Czenstochow. Came to America in January 1922. Died here.

Born 1860 in Konin (Poland) as the only son of his parents. There he graduated from the gymnasium with distinction and then – from the teacher seminar in Leczyca. In 1900 he moved to Czenstochow, first worked as a teacher and later had his own private school, where a large number of children from the Czenstochower middle class were among his students.

Herman Krak was one of the most educated people in Czenstochow. Hebrew, Russian, Polish and German were taught in his school. He was also a teacher in the Craftworkers' School in Czenstochow for a number of years. He was the father of five sons and two daughters. In 1911 he died at age 52 in Czenstochow. His wife, Matilda, died at the age of 92 in 1938.

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Son of Eidl and Chava. Born on the 12^th of March 1893 in Czenstochow. Came to America in 1904. Member and trustee of Noakh Benevolent Society and of Jupiter Lodge I. A. O. P.

His son, Julian Kremsdorf was a sergeant in the American army.

Our family circle was founded by the children and in memory of Eidl and Chava Kremsdorf. The purpose of our circle is to hold all of the members of the family together in unity and love and jointly to support each other. The number of members, which consists of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren along with their husbands and wives, has now reached approximately 70 people. In the last war, 11 members of our circle served in the American army.

The experiences of the first 13 years have justified the existence of our circle. Under the leadership of Irving Kremsdorf, who was president for the first five years, our circle sank deep roots and fulfilled the hopes of the founders. Through these years, we had successful undertakings, supported each needy member with money and advice and were together in sorrow and joy. Our circle is now led by the younger members and we hope that they will do their work and make their parents proud.

The founders of the circle were:
        Louis and Mary Lefkowicz
        Louis and Sara Zinger
        Abraham and Helen Frydman
        Dovid and Roza Kremsdorf
        Louis and Hanna Kremsdorf
        Irving and Mary Kremsdorf

Son of Shmuel Yehezkeil and Hinda. Born in Czenstochow. Came to America in March 1903. Was a member of the Zaloshiner (Dzialoszyn) Erste Chevra Anshei Bnei Achim. He died in December 1912 in New York.

Daughter of Hershl and Ruchl Szif. Born in Czenstochow. Came to America in March 1903. Was a member of the Zaloshiner Ladies Auxiliary of the Zaloshiner (Dzialoszyn) Erste Chevra Anshei Bnei Achim. She died in November 1933 in New York.

He was a good friend of Poalei-Zion in Czenstochow, a brother-in-law of Leon Altman, who had a café on the Teatralna Street.

When the working masses, under the leadership of Bela Kun, took power in Hungary, Efraim Kremsdorf took part in the struggle with his comrades from the P.Z. Party. Later, he returned to Czenstochow and worked temporarily in the cooperative, “Workers Home.” In time, he returned to Vienna and came to Eretz-Yisroel during the 4^th aliyah. Here he started as an agricultural worker, which was his ideal. However, after a few years of a life of drudgery, he came to Tel Aviv and settled in Eir Gamim and his material situation began to get better. However, it did not last long and it is known that one night Efraim Kremsdorf was burned. How this happened is not known to this day.

“My Grandfather,” writes Dr. Josef Kruk in his article, The End, “fought in the fields of freedom for Poland.” He was set completely in the tradition of the struggle by the Jewish intelligentsia for freedom and justice – [that was] older than his grandfathers and great grandfathers. However, it is certain that his grandfather, the ancient Polish revolutionary, the rebel and fighter lived in Josef Kruk's soul.

However, most children of the former Jewish progressive intelligentsia and fighters for Polish freedom were brought up and grew in an assimilated environment. Yiddish, the language of the people, was loathsome to them. It was called Shvargatshen dem jargon [twisting the jargon; jargon was the word used in describing Yiddish by those who held it in contempt]. Still further separation from the Jewish people was called progressive by them. When the liberation movement, after the 1890's, led those with more feeling to join the masses, it was respectable to be cosmopolitan, social democratic, or – when more of a Polish patriot – Pepesowtses [members of the Polish Socialist Party].

Josef Kruk also grew up in an assimilated environment. His revolutionary activity began on the school bench in the Russian gymnazie, in the tradition of his grandfathers: against the Russification of the school. Beginning his activity among the Jewish workers – he still could not speak any Yiddish, and even in the later years, his Yiddish was a little fargoyisht [gentile sounding].

And yet he is – Josef Kruk – whether as a leader or guide of a

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large part of the Jewish intelligentsia in Czenstochow or as a founder of the first group of worker-Zionists, later one of the leaders of the S.S. [Socialist Zionist Party – Fareinikte [United] – Independent – became the fiery prophet of Jewish rebirth. The pillar of fire, who always led, inspired and summoned the Jewish masses to struggle for their ethnic and national right there where they live and to struggle for a healthy and secure Jewish life on a territorial bases.

Like many great personalities and leaders in human history, he was not afraid of being alone. Like a heroic captain, he did not lose his ship in the most difficult times, did not give up his ideals. The jails and prisons did not frighten him, as in the old Russian times, as in independent Poland. He belongs to the small camp of “twelve martyrs, twelve rulers.”

He details the beginning of his revolutionary Jewish-socialistic activity in a chapter of his memoirs, “How we printed and smuggled the first declaration,” with the following words:

“It was the 'romantic, heroic time' when each revolutionary felt like a hero, who creates miracles. A time of revolutionary dreaming, a time of love and belief; a time when each illegal brochure awoke new thoughts – and each proclamation – a soul; a time when each revolutionary word was the greatest action, the heroic action – It was the time when people were ready to sacrifice themselves for a cause.

“It was still more romantic, still a more romantic time for the group of Jewish workers and intellectuals who strove so passionately with their entire soul to find a harmonious synthesis between the general revolutionary-socialistic ideals and the Jewish national requirements, a synthesis between socialism and territorialism. This was a true period of sturm un drang [German: storm and stress, in other words, turmoil] for them; for them each printed party word had the power of a spell; for them each printed attempt to prove the new principles of the new creative socialism signified a new epoch.”

This was in 1905. Josef Kruk already had “seniority” from several years of revolutionary activity, the S.S. [Socialist Zionist] pioneer of the Czenstochow revolutionary movement and the recognized leader among the members of Ts.K. The Ts.K. entrusted to him the printing in Krakow of the first party declaration and he smuggled them across the border with Dovid Maljarski. It was not easy, but he achieved his goal through “miracles” and fearless iron will.

Josef Kruk left Czenstochow in 1906 and began his activity as leader of the party groups abroad. He entered the University of Bern and graduated with the title, doctor. In 1911 when he returned from an emigrant congress in Kiev – a group of Czenstochower comrades: Hela Bimran, Jakub Goldsztajn, A. Khrabalowski, met in Gutek Bornsztajn's house in Zawiercie. (Traveling through Czenstochow was still dangerous for him.)

He and his wife, Dr. Roza Kruk, were in London at the time of the First World War. He was one of the closest friends of Dr. Izrael Zangwil, and with his wide acquaintance with the problems of international workers, he was active in the development of the Labor Party. Later, now in Poland, he was invited to London by the leaders of the Labor Party to give lectures about international problems.

With the outbreak of the revolution, he returned to Russia. In 1918 he came to Poland, settled in Warsaw and again stood at the head of the Fareinikte [United] Party.

It has been just 15 years since he founded the first group of worker-Zionists in Czentochow with a bunch from the intelligentsia and issued the first hectographic [Translator's note: copies created through the use of a gelatin plate] appeal to the Czenstochower Jewish workers.

The Jewish masses and intelligentsia of Czenstochow welcomed him with solemn enthusiasm, joy and love. The light of a heroic personality radiated from him, carrying the great humane idea of liberation and the struggle for the right of the Jewish masses to live as a people equal with all of the people of the world.

This triple light never left him. His personality shone in articles and lectures with broad focus and deep analysis that were always important events in the cities of Poland, where they took place: in Warsaw, Czenstochow, Vilna, Bialystok, etc. With this light, he went through all seven divisions of hell of party struggle and persecution by the police.

He was not afraid to tell the truth to the Polish reactionaries and the militaristic cliques that had taken over the regime. And this was rare in Poland and very dangerous, particularly when he later appeared as an “independent” at the mass meetings of the Polish workers.

He savored his first taste of Polish “freedom,” for which he had struggled from his youth on, in 1919, when on the way to Czenstochow in a train station, he threw himself into saving a Jew from the hands of uniformed hooligans and himself had his head split.

He almost received a split head a second time when he called Pilsudski a traitor to the workers at a Pepesowtse [Polish Socialist Party] meeting in the firefighters' room in Czenstochow after the Pilsudski “revolution.”

And if trouble was still lacking, some sort of police functionary moved into his apartment in Warsaw and was a burden to him for many months.

He lay around in Czenstochow and Piotrkow jails for a long time after a trial at which he was sentenced to a year and a half in jail

The last – the “best.” After the independent party was liquidated by the colonels of the Polish government –

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he was exiled to the well known concentration camp, Kartuz Bereza, from which he was saved barely alive.

One of his accomplishments that should be described in more detail was the founding of the “Worker-Emigrant Union.” This was the first attempt to organize the Jewish emigrant on a wider communal basis after the creation of the “Emigrant Society” in Kiev by Dr. Makhelman. Dr. Sziper, of the right Poalei-Zion, characteristically helped him in this work. Party rivalry and denunciations by blackmailers caused the closure by the government of this important institution.

In 1938, Dr. Josef Kruk and a group of close friend joined the “Committee for Working Eretz-Yisroel.” At the same time, he secured the right to continue working with the “Freeland League,” which was organized a few years earlier by the old leaders of the S.S. [Socialist Zionists] such as Zalman (Birszoy) Majzel in Warsaw and D. Szerniszewski in Vilna.

After the occupation of Poland, Dr. Josef Kruk saved himself by going to Eretz- Yisroel. The Czenstochower landsleit there welcomed him with enthusiasm and elected him as honorary chairman of their land council. As in Poland, he occupied a respected place among the communal workers and journalists in Eretz-Yisroel and takes part in a wide range of communal committees and important institutions.

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