Personalities, Figures, Types

[Page 157]

My Father Hillel Katz, of blessed memory
by Raizel Katz
Translated by Pamela Russ

Donated by Hyman Katz

( ) writer's comment
[ ] translator's inserts, remarks

As in all other small towns, it was also the case in Falenica that everyone had a nickname, most often corresponding to their occupation. That is why my father was called Hillel Naftshazh [an oil/naphtha pool, referring to someone who is dirty or sooty from oil]. This hurt me very much, as I considered this an insult. But my father smiled benevolently and comforted me:

“Rockefeller is also a 'naftshazh' and he is not embarrassed by his income…”

For me, this was small comfort because I felt that this person who was so kind must not be called such a nickname [as that]. I always compared my father to Hillel HaNasi [“Hillel the Elder,” renowned Jewish sage and scholar, around 110 BCE]. Just like Hillel in Pirkei Avos [Ethics of Our Fathers], so was this Hillel good, patient, and caring for each needy person.

My mother would always tell us about the miracle that happened to my father during the First World War when he was boarding at his mother-in-law in Miedzeszyn [a village that became part of Warsaw in 1951]. On one particular market day, some hooligans attacked Jewish merchants – and, with a steel club in hand, he chased away the pogrom instigators. This is also what he did later on in Falenica, then under Polish rule. The bleeding anti-Semites remained stone still, shocked, as they saw a Jew with a beard and sidelocks [payot], who was hitting back … More than once, he came home with a hole in his head [wounded], but the attackers also got what they deserved.

He also knew how to be a consequential shopkeeper – and as they kept smashing our windowpanes, my father put in a new pane, and behind it – “The Jewish Daily” [newspaper]. After a few times, things calmed down. The widow, the owner of the kiosk, also acquiesced.

With this same persistence, he fought against the Poles on the eve of the elections for city council. Here, all the Jewish powers were already, more or less, united: the Zionists, communists, Bundists, and Agudas Israel.

With great devotion, my father defended the Jewish honor in general, and certainly, certainly, in every detail. Love of Israel was the highest precept for him.

May his memory be honored!

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