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Dereczin Kinfolk in Israel

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From the original Aliyah of Halutzim from Dereczin L to R (seated): Dov Gorinovsky, Esther Gorinovsky ז”ל, Rachel Polchik ז”ל, Yidl Bernicker; Standing: David Rabinovich ז”ל, Malka Alper, Shimon Abramovich

A Dereczin Party in honor of Rabbi Chaim Zvi Sinai-Miller (Individuals not identified)

Frontispiece of the Bulletin, ‘Yediot’ (February 1947 issue), published by the Organization of the Dereczin Olim in Israel

In the [Holy] Land we operated through the extant dangers.

Thanks to the American relief, with Nahum Bliss ע”ה, at its head, and our colleague Abraham Kadish Feder, may he live to a ripe old age, we were able to provide assistance to those who were in the DP Camps in Italy, Germany and Austria, as well as offering the first financial assistance, a modest help but yet some help, to those coming to The Land.

It was as early as 1946 when we published the first bulletin about the organization, and in it were printed the correspondence, rules and regulations and an accounting of the activities of the committee (it is incumbent upon us to take note of two active members of the organization, who are no longer with us: Elkeh Lichtenstein, & Yerachmiel Edelstein, ז”ל), the bulletins being printed partly in Yiddish for those overseas, and partly in Hebrew for the locals.

It is important to take note of the fact that in the national library on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, where we would send every issue, there was a good reaction to our bulletin. Four bulletins were printed before the outbreak of hostilities in November 1947. The bulletin then ceased publication.

With the proclamation of the State of Israel, the organization became defunct, but we Derecziners remained strongly connected and united. It should be clear that we observe the Yahrzeit of our community, the Tenth of Ab, take part in the celebrations of our friends, receive all tourists of Dereczin origin who visit Israel, – we only wish they would come as permanent immigrants! – and with the publication of the Dereczin Yizkor Book, an obligation lies on us to raise the new generation of Dereczin children to assume the obligation to remember and not to forget!

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One of the Dereczin Meetings (Individuals not identified)

I married their son in 1933. We lived with his parents in Kolonia until 1935, when the poisonous winds of anti-Semitism began to blow up, and Hitler's name was being uttered with praise from the mouths of our gentile neighbors and the residents of the nearby villages. Simcha, and his wife Chaya-Basha, decided that this was no place for them, despite the fact that he was well known as a prosperous man.

He was a wise man, and understood the local farmers very well, and all respected him.

I will never forget the winter days, in which there are many empty days for farmers. Many would come to our house, some to ask for advice, others to simply unburden themselves.

Simcha, a tall broad-shouldered man, with a broad beard, would sit at the head of a table like a judge or magistrate, dispensing advice, because he was familiar with the issues that each and every person brought to him, and if someone was short of funds, they knew that at Simcha's they would be able to touch him for some. But when Hitler acceded to power in Germany, and the hatred of the Jews spread quickly through Poland, one couldn't recognize these selfsame farmers. They changed from top to bottom in their speech, in their attitude and in all their behavior, at which time Simcha arose with his wife, then in their seventies, and left the place, with their sights on Jerusalem, the Holy City. These were observant people for their entire lives, and that which they prayed for daily, regarding the Land of Israel and Jerusalem, they realized in their old age. In Jerusalem, in the Old Jewish Quarter, they established their residence. Days were dedicated to prayer, and the synagogue provided them with all they required for their spiritual lives.

Chaya-Basha passed away on 14 Heshvan 5704 (1943), and was interred on the Mount of Olives. The Arabs denied access to the holy places in Jerusalem for twenty years, and a part of the Mount of Olives [cemetery] was torn down. During the Six Day War, Jerusalem was liberated by the IDF, and we were privileged again to visit our mother's grave. Her fortune stood her in a good stead, and her grave had remained intact.

Simcha managed during the War of Independence to come from Jerusalem to us in Petakh-Tikvah. Even here, he passed his days with the recitation of Psalms, and deeds of charity. He passed away at an advanced age on 15 Adar I 5711 (1950) in Petakh-Tikvah.

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Untitled, but presumably of Yaakov Izaakovich

And as you can guess, this was the very same board used by people with sight, except that there were holes in each square, into which the player would insert the base of the pieces. The ‘colors’ of the pieces were distinguished by the fact that the white pieces had a molding on the top, while the black pieces were smooth.

The blind in Israel began to play chess because of the ‘fault’ of one person, and that was the 67-year-old Haifa retiree, Yaakov Izaakovich, the grandfather of three.

Izaakovich had been involved with his pet project for three years – the dissemination of chess-playing skills among the blind – and as usual in his case, he came upon this by happenstance. On one occasion he was invited to a lecture about the blind, and there he heard that there is virtually no activity that a sightless person cannot do, with the condition that a more fortunate individual who can see, assists him. And since Izaakovich had been dedicating all his spare time to chess for many years, he decided to become an aid to the blind in the development of the skill for this noble game.

He quickly came to realize what great utility his involvement in this hobby brought to the blind. From his very nature, a blind person develops a strong sense of focus, and playing chess sharpens that sense. He learns patience, consistency, and ordered thought, and mastery sharpens this, and mental powers are exercised by it.

When he undertook his initiative three years ago, which seemed too insane to even talk about, he had to contend on two fronts: first to convince the blind [themselves] that they are capable of playing chess like any other person, and that play will lead to satisfaction, and second, to convince various organizations that the initiative was worth the effort demanded. Izaakovich succeeded on both counts. Five years ago there were only six blind chess players – today they number about fifty. Today, Izaakovich has support from the Youth Sports of Haifa, the Organization for the Blind in Haifa, and the Israel Chess Federation; from them he receives the support he needs to procure playing sets, and material in Braille, and so forth.

Most, if not all of the work, was done by Izaakovich himself. In order to be able to work with the blind, he learned Braille, published chess lessons in Lapid, the periodical of the blind in Israel that is published in Netanya. He published ten lessons for beginners, added a periodical for advancing players, in which he included puzzles and their solutions, riddles, examples and games of 25 moves and more. In 1964, Izaakovich published three volumes of puzzles for beginners, and in 1965 (according to the testimony of the Israeli problem solving organization) – additional volumes with simpler puzzles for beginners and their solutions.

To Izaakovich's credit goes the staging of several competitions for the blind, including championship matches and matches involving simultaneous play. In the simultaneous play, the Portuguese Grandmaster Y. Dorow and three Israeli champions – Moshe Charnik, Yitzhak Aloni, & Yosef Porat participated.

Thanks to the efforts of Izaakovich there are today chess clubs for the blind in addition to Haifa, in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Ashkelon, Beersheba, Qiryat Chaim, Petakh Tikvah, and Ramat-Gan.

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Izaakovich's ambition is to double the number of blind chess players in a short time. There are 700 blind people in Israel, and it does not strike him as unrealistic to expect that one out of seven should be a chess player.

From time to time, when friends of my parents come to my home, and the conversation rolls around from one subject to the next, it inevitably comes back to the subject of the Holocaust. My mother begins to reach into her memories for the unpleasant years of her youth, the sleepless nights, the unending wanderings in the thick of the forests, where it became necessary for her and her friends to hide themselves like hunted animals from the Nazis and their allies. Again and again, I hear the stories about helplessness, sickness and hunger, that was largely the lot of the Jews in the ghettoes and forests.

Mother tells: before dawn on a summer day in 1942, the murderers broke into every Jewish dwelling in town, forced everyone out of bed with blows, shouting and imprecations of: ‘quickly, quickly!’, put them onto transports that were waiting at the side of the houses, and when they were filled with men, children, and the old, the transport moved to the edge of the pits that had been dug before hand by the Jews. There, they took out all the Jews, and stood them at the edge of the pits, and then gunfire opened up on them from all sides, that cut through them mercilessly. The dead fell into the pits, and much blood was spilled that day.

My mother, along with three men, succeeded in jumping of the transport and reach the forests, and there, they joined the partisans.

In the wake of the stories that I heard, I began to take an interest in Holocaust literature, and the rebellion, and among others, I read the folio about the ‘Dr. Atlas Brigade,’ the Jewish partisan commander, whom my mother knew personally. Likewise, I read a great deal about the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.

I believe, that if I were there, I too would have joined the partisans or the ghetto fighters, in order to exact vengeance for the blood of our dear ones. I am suffused entirely with feelings of fury and revenge toward the Germans who butchered a third of our people. We must never forget what they did to our parents and to all the children of Israel in those times.

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