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It would be a huge injustice for me not to eternalize his name in our Yizkor book.

My father, Mr. Hirsh [Cwi] Natan Wyloga, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, was one of the few well–known wedding jesters [Yid. “Badchens”] in Poland and was loved in the Chasidic circles, who were amazed by his learnedness and his “interpretations” of various Chasidic [parts of the] Torah at rabbinic or Chasidic–rabbinic weddings.

I recall how he took me along, while still a child, to a rabbinic wedding. The majority of the in–laws were rabbinic scholars and communal leaders, each one in his long silk coat and with large fur hats on their heads.

While “singing” to the groom, as well as at the table during the wedding banquet, my father, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, presented his jester–ing. But in another mode, he really gushed with the sayings of the rabbis and demonstrated an amazing scholarly knowledge of the Torah, Prophets, and Later Writings, Talmud, Midrashim, and Gematriot without end, which demonstrated that this pair was a match from Heaven, and that this match would rise very nicely [or would go to Israel and be successful?]. He was so successful that after finishing up, a famous rabbi called him over, thanked him and blessed him that his entire life he be able to make Jews happy with his jester–ing.

It is understood that Jedrzejow was his regular place of residence, but practically the entire year (aside from the period of Sefira and the “Three Weeks”)^[1] he traveled across all of Poland. He would take two valises with him – in one of them he had his regular clothing and laundry, and in the second – clothing of various types, including the attire of a “Jewish Prince.”

How did my father come to Jedrzejow, if ultimately he was a native of Warsaw?

Well, come and here a story:

My father learned with the Lukow Rebbe, Rabbi Jerachmiel Moshe Mincberg, as a yeshiva student; and when the Lukow Rebbe, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, became the first Jedrzejow Rabbi, he took him [the author's father] along with him, and here he continued learning with him [the Rebbe].

A year later Mr. Akiva Beker, who was then already a wealthy Jew came to visit the Rabbi and asked him whether he perhaps had a “good young man” for him, whom he wanted to take as a groom for his daughter. The Rabbi recommended his taking my father as a son–in–law, and in this way, my father became a [settled] resident of Jedrzejow.

Our family, thank God, always grew; and when I was 18 years old, I understood that it was already worth my going out into the greater world. I left for Paris, and from there to America. When I needed to stand for military service, I returned to Jedrzejow, so that my father would not have to pay the penalty of 300 rubles (that was the penalty that the Russian

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government took from those who did not stand for military service).

My father went with me to the Bialobrzeg Rebbe, Rabbi Shraga Yair, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, so as to consult him regarding my conscription.

The Rabbi greeted me with “Shalom Aleichem” and said: “You did a big Mitzvah – fulfilled the Mitzvah of respecting your father by coming yet from America. In addition, you indeed wear glasses. You will certainly be absolved [from conscription]!”

The blessing was in fact fulfilled (I received a “blue note” that absolved one from military service), and after a short period I returned to America.

Later, my parents also came to America, where my father, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, died.

The family of Mr. Hirsh (Cwi) Natan Wyloga, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, in America Among them, also his deceased son, Chaim Jehoshua, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, the author of this article

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As was the usual, 60 years ago in the Polish shtetls, Chaim Jehoshua Wygola, who himself hailed from a bourgeoisie Chasidic home, also found himself in the religious study house learning Gemara.

In his memoirs, which are being published in the Jedrzejow Yizkor book, the deceased relates a great deal about Jewish life back then, and about the yeshiva students, who spent their time in the Torah, but from which there was no personal future [for him].

Like many others, he left the religious study house bench. Without a profession, without an iota of real–life [experience], he left Jedrzejow in 1906 and took off with the great immigration stream that was going at that time to America.

Like others, he also experienced the difficult path of life of a “greenhorn,” without a language, without a profession, in a world that was new to him.

But he did not for one minute tear himself apart from his former home, with the experiences in the religious study house. And through his memoirs came to expression the difficult, yet genuine youth on the religious study house bench in Jedrzejow. Hence, he was among the founders of the Jedrzejow Relief in America, so as to further draw the golden chain of yesterday.

The news regarding the Jedrzejow Jewish population [included] among the 3 million Jews in Poland, broke him. But he was one of the first to stand at the forefront among the Jedrzejow Jews in America who began to receive news from the few Jedrzejow Jews who survived by way of a miracle from the murderous hands of Hitler, in the camps, [among] the partisans, front fighters, and others. And he and the other members of the Relief began to call up the Jedrzejow Jews in America

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to carry a word of consolation and help in which those who had so greatly suffered so badly needed.

I recall how we Jedrzejow Jews in Poland, right after the catastrophe, were encouraged by the warm responses from beyond the sea. All of us returned financially, physically, and emotionally destroyed. The thought that they were thinking of us provided us with the impetus to begin a new life.

The Jedrzejow Relief in America collected clothing, food, and sent these over to the Jews of Jedrzejow who had survived and were still upon the damned ground of Germany, as well as in Poland, Austria, and Italy. Also, when we decided here, in Israel, to eternalize the memory of the Jedrzejow Jewish victims by preparing the means of publishing a Yizkor book, Chaim Jehoshua Wyloga, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, became active in this mission. In spite of his age, he devoted a lot of time to helping collect financial means. He himself wrote for the Yizkor book and insured that the memories of the formerly very hard, yet definitely full–blooded Jewish life in Jedrzejow would not be lost.

His Godly–souled father, Mr. Hirsh (Cwi) Natan Wyloga, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, was among the first Zionists in Jedrzejow. Continuing his father's tradition, he also loved Eretz–Yisrael very much, and his dream was to visit the Jewish country; and he merited being in the land last summer along with his wife. He was happy about the development of the Jewish country, went to a gathering of the Jedrzejow Jews here in the country, with a warm appeal for the Yizkor book. Sadly, he was not destined to see the Yizkor book, to which he gave away so much heart.

We, the surviving Jedrzejow Jews in Israel, lower our heads in memory of Chaim Jehoshua Wyloga, May His Memory Be for a Blessing, who did not forget Jewish Jedrzejow for a single minute during his path of wandering; and later retained a warm contact with the Jedrzejow Landsmanshaft in Israel; and convey consolation to his family and all of the Jedrzejow Jews the world over.

This Yizkor book will also be the headstone for those for whom the Jedrzejow of yesterday was always loved and dear, even from great distances away.

May his dear memory be sanctified.

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