[Page 416]

Shlomo Shederovsky
[photo:] Shlomo Shederovsky

        Shlomo Shederovsky, a son of Yaakov-Eliezer and Tsippa, was born in Drohitchin. Shlomo was self-educated and a follower of the Enlightenment. He taught himself Russian, read the Russian classics, and was proficient in Hebrew literature and the Talmud.

        Shederovsky had progressive inclinations and modernized ideas. He was one of the founders of a Russian elementary school in Drohitchin, and brought a pharmacist to Drohitchin. He was therefore called a heretic in Drohitchin. Subsequently, when Shederovsky lived in Lodz for a time because of his business activities, he was also involved in social and cultural affairs.

        Due to the fact that he was a Zionist from his early youth, Shederovsky realized his life-long dream in 1913 by emigrating with his family to Palestine, where he settled in Petach Tikvah. He purchased land and worked in agriculture. As a courageous and fearless speaker, Shederovsky eventually became well-known by those around him; his home was open as a guest house to new immigrants and travelers. A hot samovar was always standing on the table, and Mrs. Shederovsky spent her entire days providing for the guests. People came to Shederovsky for advice about living in Palestine, and others asked him to serve as an arbitrator in disputes.

        Shederovsky was a strong supporter of unlimited mass immigration into Palestine, and investment of private capital in Palestine. He also participated in many Zionist congresses, and briefly served as a representative of the Palestine Citrus Society in Egypt. Shederovsky was also the senior school inspector of Petach Tikvah, and was involved with educational issues there. Shlomo occasionally wrote for the publication Doar Hayom [Daily Post] and Voskhod [Russian = Sunrise]. He started to write a book called The Conception of the Talmud, and a second book about Jewish Ideas and Knowledge, but neither book was ever published. Shederovsky died on 29 Tammuz [29 July], 1927 in Petach Tikvah.

Information is from his son Yaakov (Petach Tikvah) and Dr. Shudron (Johannesburg, South Africa).
[Photo:] Velvel and Esther Kreines died in Palestine.

Hershel Dvinsky
[photo:] Hershel Dvinsky in his final days

        Hershel Dvinsky was known for his simplicity and honesty, and was one of the first immigratsto Palestine. Right after World War I he moved to Palestine with his family. Hershel Dvinsky, Hershel Goldwirth, Mordechai Ratner and others were the pioneers and builders of the Mekor-Chaim neighborhood, five kilometers from Jerusalem. (Ratner's son, Yosef, is a member of the Drohitchin Chapter). Their houses were built from large hard stones that they dug out of the mountains. Each one of the people living in the community had one or two cows, would sell the milk in Jerusalem, thereby managing to eek out a living. In his last years Hershel Dvinsky lived in a home for the aged, and died at an advanced age. See p. 269.

[Page 417]

Shmuel Lev
[photo:] R. Shmuel Lev, founder of the Visitors' Hostel in Jerusalem

        R. Shmuel Lev, a talmudic scholar and community leader, was born in 1856 in Drohitchin. In his youth he studied under the great scholar, R. Pinchas Michel of Antapolia, and after his wedding, R. Shmuel settled in Antapolia and went into business. Later he returned to Drohitchin, where he taught Torah classes to the community.

        When his children grew up, he decided to travel to Palestine. It is told that the great rabbis Eliezer Moshe (Pinsk), Pinchas Michael (Antapolia) and R. Mordechaileh of Buten told him to visit the United States before traveling to Palestine. R. Shmuel Lev therefore traveled on to Chicago, where he established a Talmud study group and the Agudath Achim-Anshei Drohitchin in memory of Rabbi Lesser. From Chicago, R. Shmuel went on to Paris, where he established a Talmud study group and a Chayei Adam study group in memory of Rabbi Labetsky. He then traveled on to Jerusalem, and with the assistance of Max Neiten, a philanthropist in Chicago, he purchased a large estate of houses, where he set up a visitor's hostel for rabbinic scholars, an orphanage called Tiferet Zion Ve-Yerushalayim, as well as a synagogue called Zoharei Chama for old-timers who always prayed at sunrise. R. Shmuel devoted his whole life to this huge project, and dozens of scholars and lonely children were supported with everything they needed in these houses. Together with Rabbi Chaim David Spitzer, R. Shmuel was able to obtain support from the United States government for his charitable undertakings through the offices of the American consulate in Jerusalem.

        Years later, when he came to New York on a visit, he established a Tiferet Zion Ve-Yerushalayim society, as well as the Yeshiva Torah Mi-Zion in Brownsville, Brooklyn. R. Shmuel died in Jerusalem on 21 Tevet 5683 [January 9, 1923]. (See p. 153. W.)

Yehuda Leib Eisenstein
        
        R. Yehuda Leib, son of Asher Eisenstein, was born in 1865 in Drohitchin. At the age of 18 (in 1883) he moved to Palestine, where he studied in the Agrarian School of Baron Rothschild in Zichron Yaakov. R. Yehuda-Leib was one of the pioneers and founders of the Bat Shlomo settlement (7 kilometers from Zichron Yaakov), where he worked in agriculture. He was a talented agriculturalist, and his fields provided enough food for his own needs as well as for others.

        R. Yehuda Leib was a religious Jew, and studied extensively in his free time. R. Lieb was also the rabbi of the famous agronomist Aharon Aronson (who had earlier been part of the Nili movement in Palestine during World War I. – D. W.). R. Yehuda Leib died on 23 Elul [September 13], 1938 in Bat Shlomo. All his male grandchildren born in Bat Shlomo in the year he died were named Leib.

        R. Leib was survived by five sons and two daughters. Freidel Volansky, a granddaughter of R. Chaim Ber Altwarg, was one of his daughters-in-law there.

[Photo:] R. Yehuda Leib Eisenstein (second from right, with the hat) with members of the Bat Shlomo community.


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