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the community's vital statistics records, where the births and deaths of the residents were recorded. In addition, the records were handled by a specially appointed "administrative rabbi" [kozheniy rabbin].

        Under the Polish regime, the official rabbi of the town was also the "administrative rabbi" in relation to outside authorities. The community representative to the city authorities, both under the Russian and Polish regimes, was the Jewish Elder, who was appointed by the community for a specified term of office. The Elder was the liaison between the community and the local government officials.

        Under the Polish regime, the Elder was accredited to the city council, which included both Jewish and Christian representatives. Prior to the First World War, there was a korobka account (i.e. the city leased all the income from animal slaughter to one of the local businessmen for a specific amount of money). The money contained in the korobka account covered the costs of paying slaughterers, and whatever was left was used to pay for other local needs. Under the Polish regime this system was terminated. All income derived from animal slaughter went directly to the slaughterers, who earned a good living until the ban on kosher slaughter.

[Photo:] Seated, from right: Moshe Porush, unknown, L. Mishovsky, A. S. Goldman, Yaakov Rosenstein, Rabbi A. I. Kalenkovitch, Zechariah Schmid, Chaim Volevelsky, Chaikel Milner, Hershel Eisenstein. Standing: Eliyahu Goldman, Nachman Wisotsky, Itshe M. Shavsky, Lipman Feldman, Zemach Odelsky, et al.

[The handwritten text is as is legible:] On the occasion of the journey of our esteemed and honest member who is involved in the community needs of our city, [illegible] Chaikel Milner, to our holy land. As a token of thanks and a souvenir, we are giving him a set of the Talmud from Drohitchin [illegible] and the picture. We bless his and all his family that they merit to witness the arrival of the Messiah speedily in our days.
[Illegible] The Rabbi, [names illegible]

Rabbis and rabbinical court judges in Drohitchin

        Unfortunately, we know very little about the men who held the position of community rabbi in Drohitchin over a period of almost 500 years. For example, we know about the kabbalist, Rabbi Dovidel Yaffe, who was the community rabbi of Drohitchin 150 years ago. We also know a few details about rabbis Yisrael Valevelsky and Zvi Eliyahu Reichman who lived a century ago. The following rabbis served in Drohitchin in the last three generations: Rabbi Menachem Reichman and his son-in-law, R. Isaac Yaakov Kalenkovitch; the rabbinical court judge, Rabbi Yossel Goldman; the scholar, Rabbi David Mordechai Yudovsky, and his son-in-law, R. Noach Kahn, and finally, the rabbinical court judge, Rabbi Velvel Miller. The

[ Page 40 ]

last community rabbi of Drohitchin was Rabbi Isaac Yaakov Kalenkevitch, may G-d avenge his blood!

        The rabbis never received official salaries. Therefore, the town gave the rabbis the authority over the sale of candles and yeast, which provided them with a livelihood, some a greater livelihood and others a smaller one. There were times when a community rabbi and his family experienced hardship, and other times when a rabbi made a good living from the yeast business.

        It goes without saying that the rabbi of the town had to be well-learned and well-versed in Jewish law. Due to the important tasks of being a rabbi, answering Jewish legal questions and participating in rabbinical court cases was a daily event. The community rabbi didn't have to be a public speaker. In fact, many rabbis weren't adept at public speaking. The rabbi would speak publicly only twice a year - on the Sabbaths before Passover and Yom Kippur. His speech wasn't supposed to be humorous or to involve story-telling, since his audience was learned Jews themselves who wanted their rabbi to speak about profound relevant issues. In short, the rabbi of town had to be a great scholar and decisor of Jewish legal problems.

The reorganized community

        Later on, the Polish government passed a law in the Polish parliament regarding the re-organization of Jewish communities in Poland, including that of Drohitchin, of course, which became into an autonomously organized community, with elected Jewish council members and officials, who took over the administration of the town. The community council even had the right to impose a tax on the Jews, which was intended to pay for the budget of the community. The re-organized community system, however, wasn't well-received in Drohitchin, and didn't function the way it supposed to. The attitude of Jews in Drohitchin to the idea of a community organization was one of contempt and mistrust, because it meant new officials and positions to fill, which had to be financed. The community council members would hold meetings and vote, but didn't do much more than that. The administration of the community continued as it had earlier. The rabbi and his advisors exerted more influence than the new officials in town, even though the officials were the legal administrators.


[Photo:] From right: the old House of Study and the new one in 1938.

5.

RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LIFE

Everything centered around the House of Study

[ trans . It should be noted that the terms "synagogue" and "House of Study" are historically basically interchangeable. Strictly speaking, however, a synagogue is where only prayers are held, whereas a House of Study is where Jewish men also engage in religious study. Usually a "synagogue" would be furnished with rows of pews, whereas a "House of Study" would have tables and chairs/benches instead.]

         Before World War I (1914), there were four Houses of Study in Drohitchin: the old House of Study, the new one, the Scholars' House of Study, the Street House of Study and a chassidic shtibel [small one-room synagogue]. When the Russians evacuated Drohitchin, they burned down three-quarters of the town, the synagogue courtyard and all four Houses of Study. Only the chassidic remained untouched. After the war, the three Houses of Study were rebuilt, but the Scholars' House of Study was not rebuilt. The version of the prayers in the Houses of Study was Ashkenaz, while the chassidim prayed according to the Sephard version. This means that about 80% of the Jews in Drohitchin were not chassidim. The Drohitchin chassidim belonged to the Karlin-Kobrin dynasty of rebbes. Every winter, the Kobrin rebbe would come to Drohitchin to stay with his chassidim for a visit.

        The Jews of Drohitchin, as in the rest of Polesia, were very traditionally religious in the Lithuanian manner, and followed almost the same customs. The population was mostly made up of Jews who were scholarly and householders, while a small number were modernized followers of the Enlightenment. The people spoke Lithuanian Yiddish and wore short jackets. On the Sabbath and the holidays,

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