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During the rule of the Poles in Podolia in the 18th century, the town belonged to the Kamyanets Powiat of the Podolia Voivodeship. In 1765, there were 405 Jews there who paid the poll tax. After the division of Poland and the transfer of rule to Russia, the town was included in the Kamyanets district, Podolia region, and in 1847, there were 923 Jews living there. According to the census of 1897, there were 1,351 Jews in the town.

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This was a small town, surrounded by mountains and forests in the Kamyanets Podilskyy district. In its center, there was a large and spacious market and around it several streets and alleys, mostly inhabited, mainly those close to the market, by Jews and in the minority, further away from it, by gentiles. At the edge of the market stood the great synagogue with the Beit Midrash and the “Zionist enclave” next to it and, on either side of it, stood one-story residences with large and small shops in front of them selling groceries, haberdashery, manufacturing, building materials, and more. All of the weekdays the market was almost empty and desolate of people, and only on the days of the “fairs” was it filled with a lot of farmers who came from the surrounding area and brought the crops of their land for sale. Thanks to the proximity of the Austrian-Galician border (about 25 km), the local Jewish merchants used to export various commodities abroad, especially poultry and eggs.

Besides shopkeepers and merchants, the town also had various craftsmen and artisans, such as: tailors, furriers, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and more. Some of the town's residents served as clerks in the Jewish factory for the sugar industry, which was nearby.

The Jewish community there numbered about 2,000 people. Apart from synagogues, a Chevra Kadisha, a bathhouse, and a volunteer firemen's company, it had almost no other public institutions. The sanitary situation in the town was very neglected and, due to the lack of roads and sidewalks, its streets were literally drowning in mud and mire during rainy days. There was no doctor or hospital in the town and the residents made do with their local (Jewish) medical assistant or ordered a doctor from the nearby town of Gorodok (=Horodok). There was no post office there either and a special messenger would travel every day to Gorodok (=Horodok), put the letters and packages that were given to him in the post office there, and bring the mail from there to the town. With the exception of “sacred vessels,” such as: rabbi, ritual slaughterers, cantors, and shamashs, the Jewish community in Kupyn had no paid public servants and, when necessary, its affairs were conducted by synagogue gabbais or volunteer homeowners. The registration of births and deaths was also done by the “rabbi on behalf of” the aforementioned city of Gorodok (=Horodok).

Indeed, in its economic and social situation, Kupyn was no different from the rest of the small and remote towns

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in Podolia. However, in its activity in the field of national revival, and especially in the branch of Hebrew education, it surpassed many of them and was even considered among the most advanced in these areas. Thanks to some of the local Zionist intelligentsia, and in particular to the well-known Zionist businessman in the area, Aharon Vajnbaum, the Zionist idea penetrated almost every Jewish home in the town and Zionism was in control of all public business and directed it in the channels it desired. Under the initiative of the local Zionist association, a Hebrew school (“Talmud Torah”) was established, which accommodated almost all the town's children from all walks of life: poor and rich, ultra-Orthodox and free. The “Cheders” were completely closed and without any objection from the ultra-Orthodox “homeowners,” who also, as mentioned, sent their sons and daughters to the “Zionist” school. The number of students in this institution, which was run by the parents' committee headed by the aforementioned Aharon Vajnbaum, reached approximately 120-150 and its program of studies included, in addition to Hebrew studies (Tanach, Talmud, Hebrew, Israeli literature and history), also general studies. In the last ten-twelve years of the existence of this mixed school, the method of study was adapted to that of the all-national “culture” in Russia, and “Hebrew in Hebrew,” which was a kind of innovation unknown in the surrounding towns, took its place. Every year there were public exams for the students and this made a lot of publicity for Hebrew in the town.

The institution's budget came from the tuition fees collected mainly from the children of the wealthy. During the First World War, there were several interruptions of their regular studies due to the capture of our sons by the Russian army that passed through the town on its way to the Austrian border. Indeed, these disturbances did not undermine the institution, which continued its existence until the Soviets took over the area.

In collaboration with the school teachers, most of whom came from different cultural centers, rather diverse national cultural work was conducted by the local youth. For lack of a public library and reading room,

The teaching staff of the “Talmud Torah”

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a kind of Shabbat club was established, where teenagers of different ages would gather for conversations and readings. From time to time, debates on various literary topics were also held there. There was also an association of “Hebrew speakers” for a while, whose members would meet together in one of their homes every Friday night to talk in Hebrew about different things. Over time, several theatrical talents were also discovered there and a group of amateurs was formed that managed to put on an almost constant stage for performances in Yiddish and Hebrew. Plays by Sholem Asch Peretz Hirschbein, Yaakov Gordin and more were presented. One of the members of this group of amateurs, Shifra Ashman-Rifnitzer, who later immigrated to Israel, was one of the first actors in the Israeli theater, “Ohel.”

However, with the coming of the Nazi Holocaust on Ukrainian Jewry, the small Kupyn community was wiped off the face of the earth along with the rest and became as if it had never existed. But its memory will never end among her surviving sons, who were brought up in it in a distinct Zionist national spirit and came to Israel to work it and to fertilize it as the ancestral homeland of the entire nation.

Original footnote:

1. With the kind permission of “Yad va-Shem,” the memorial authority of the Holocaust and heroism. Return

Kupyn in the Kamyanets district, Podolia region, in the vicinity of Grayding (=Horodok), on the fertile land of Ukraine, was located among the gentiles - people who worked the land, who made their living from agriculture. In the center of the rural settlement, in an area of forests and streams, the Jews of the town crowded together, surrounded by settlements of Ukrainians who hated Jews. The surrounding nature was all green, forest fields and a waterfall, which in the summer attracted the townspeople to bathe. The town was small and poor and its inhabitants were few - only about 300 families who mostly made a meager living, but excelled in good spirit and aspiration for a more interesting life. The town was far from the railroad and there was desolation and a lack of economic development. Suffering and sorrow were the lot of its inhabitants, especially in winter, a time based in mud and rain.

Despite these difficulties - cultural life stirred in it.

Although there was in the immediate vicinity a sugar factory owned by the Zaytsev family - Jews from Kyiv - only the gentiles benefited from it, by supplying it with sugar beets. The Jews of the town had no enjoyment.

The Jewish residents of the town were mostly engaged in petty trade, shopkeeping, and crafts: tailoring, shoemaking, furriery, etc. In these crafts, they served the people of the area and also provided for the needs of the Jewish community.

The residents of the town were mostly observant and were faithful to the tradition and customs of their ancestors. As Torah scholars and Hasidim, they were connected to one rabbi or another. The children were educated in “Cheders” in poor sanitary conditions.

Kupyn was one of the main towns in Ukraine that founded a Hebrew school - an “Improved Cheder,”

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which, in the course of time, became a “culture” school where they studied according to the method of Hebrew in Hebrew and general studies, too, were taught in Hebrew.

I must mention here commendably the teacher, Zalman Malamud, a dynamic personality with initiative and activism in the field of Hebrew teaching. He arrived in our town from Khotyn in Bessarabia. He was invited to run the local Hebrew school and to be a teacher in it and he served as an example to many in his dedication and love for the Hebrew language.

Among the Jews of the town there were also differences of opinion and differences of views - between Hasidim and Mitnagdim, Zionists and Bundists, and the like. I remember, when the Zionists wanted to hold a memorial for Herzl in the first anniversary of his death, a fight broke out in the Beit Midrash, which caused a great commotion, and the opponents of Zionism did not allow the memorial to be held, to the displeasure of the Zionists. However, if the majority of the town's residents were inclined to Zionism, then the margins of the tailors and cobblers belonged to the “Bund.”

The poor economic situation and the lack of an outlet for the local young energies increased the desire to leave the town for the rest of the world and to immigrate - to America and Argentina. There were also attempts to immigrate to Israel, there were cases where old people immigrated to Israel to live out the rest of their days there. After the revolution - when Jewish life was undermined and the hopes planted in the revolution were disappointed - many of the townspeople went abroad and to the Land of Israel.

In the town there was a sort of Jewish self-rule - subordinate to the local authority. The Starosta (Mukhtar) was elected by the residents of the town as a qualified representative vis-a-vis the authorities and responsible for the regime, in his hands were the collection of taxes (savchenoi savur), issuing certificates of non-criminal record, and border crossing. I remember that Shmuel Schreiberman (my grandfather) continued in this position in the town as Mukhtar (as Starosta) for about 25 years and was occasionally elected in secret ballot with white and black balls. The elections were organized in the Beit Midrash.

The “Talmud Torah” in 1909

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The “Talmud Torah” in 1913

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Many of the townspeople were Hovevei Zion and later also political Zionists. Their souls were also given to the Hebrew language, and any Hebrew newspaper or monthly that appeared in Russia or in the Land of Israel - would also reach the town. Over time, an association of Hebrew speakers was also founded.

During the 1905 revolution, when the peasants revolted against their oppressors and enslavers who owned estates, they expelled the representatives of the government from the villages, refused to pay taxes, and burned the barns and the estate buildings and the grain silos - the Cossack regiments arrived on the scene in a punitive expedition to suppress the rebellion. The Jewish residents of the town were the most affected by this, even though they did not take part in all the uprisings. The Cossacks, who dispersed the demonstrations of the farmers, ran amok in the town, rioted, and looted the property of the Jews. Then one of the town's members was killed - without any reason or cause on his part and the townspeople went through a period of terror and fear until the Cossack regiment left the town. Faced with these acts of the Cossacks, the government stood by completely passively and did not intervene, as if it did not see what was happening. The town's politicos tried to appeal and protest to the district government and the bailiff, but to no avail.

During the World War in 1914 - when our town, which was close to the border, served as a transit station for the Russian army that crossed the border into Galicia and the Carpathians, life was in danger and tension, although economically the Jews benefited from the trade with the soldiers - until the military defeat and the withdrawal of the army. The security of life was undermined and everyone was depressed.

The soldiers who returned from the front in a panicked retreat, without order and discipline, passed through the town and harmed everyone they met on their way. Then began the revolution of Kerensky and a desire for freedom, for a new life, and everything was done at that time at the will and outbursts of the soldiers; in the face of these dangers, the self-defense of the local youth was organized together with Jewish soldiers who returned from the campaign and got delayed in the town. They joined the defense and also served as instructors and suppliers of small arms and the necessary ammunition. The defense group numbered about 40-50 people.

In the first clash with the soldiers who poured in from the front and wanted to enter the town for plunder and the defense tried to prevent them from doing so, several of the defenders were killed. Considering the large number of the attackers' forces, the defense decided to retreat and leave the town at night.

The next day, the soldiers penetrated the place with probing and caution, with the help of the local gentiles who served them as guides, and when they saw that the Jews had left their homes, they began to rob the property in cooperation with the surrounding gentile neighbors, but they did not harm anyone. Some of the Jews reached nearby Grayding (=Horodok) and some hid with their neighbors - their gentile friends. I think it was the first pogrom in Russia after the revolution. After three days - the Jews returned to their homes and renewed life both on their own and with the help of the Joint, which had begun then its aid operation in Ukraine.

Alongside the economic institutions in the town, a discount supermarket was founded for self-help, for the needs of the economy and basic consumption, which sold the goods to its members at cheaper prices; in particular, the craftsmen and workers organized themselves in a consumer association.

A mutual aid fund was founded. Everyone put in a membership fee and the Joint also contributed money for this purpose.

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The craftsmen in the town organized themselves in times of hardship and scarcity for mutual help. An association for Hebrew (culture) existed there, which had conversations and lectures in Hebrew, evening classes and shows by amateurs in Hebrew (such as “He Went Out and Returned”). The member, A. Rosen (Rosenzweig), who worked as a teacher at the Hebrew school and devoted a lot of his time to the strengthening of the activity and the spreading of Hebrew, helped a lot in this action. There was a Zionist association there which mainly dealt with the recovery of the Zionist shekel in an operation for the Keren Kayemet, etc. The living spirit and the main worker in this operation was Aharon Vajnbaum, who saw it as a pleasant duty to devote himself to Zionist action with all his heart, managed publicity among the members of the association, spread the Zionist idea, and solicited donations for its funds. He was also sent to the Zionist Congress as the association representative.

Until the revolution, Zionist activity was illegal. During the revolution, the “Tse'irei Tsiyon” federation was founded in the town, which was connected to the national federation of “Tse'irei Tsiyon,” whose center was in Moscow, later in Kyiv. From there, circulars and instructions for organizing and immigrating to Israel were received.

Under the initiative of the “Tse'irei Tsiyon,” the pioneer group was also founded and the first pioneers immigrated to Israel (the Grossman brothers). During the war, with the invasion of Hitler (may his name be obliterated), the town was wiped out and no trace of it remains.

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The Vajnbaum Family

In every town in the Pale of Settlement in Russia, there was some one, and only one, family whose members were above and higher than the rest of the people. They dealt with public needs in faith and alone carried the spiritual struggle and burden of the community. In Zhvanets, it was Shalom Altman, in Khotyn - Hana Rayz, in Dunayivtsi, which was a little bigger and more developed, there was actually more than one family. In my memory, the personality of Motel Rosen stands out the most. In Kupyn, it was the Vajnbaum family.

Aharon Vajnbaum

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shekels, stamps, and books of all kinds and on all his favorite subjects, he would also entertain his listeners with his stories and popular jokes and with his great knowledge of Jewish folklore, it was like an gushing well.

One episode by way of these two brothers: when the proposal for the territory of Uganda was raised at the Sixth Zionist Congress and the differences of opinion and the dispute between “Tsiyonei Tsiyon” and “Tsiyonei Uganda” reached its height, a quarrel was discovered between Nachum and Aharon, against the background of the difference of opinion that existed between them regarding their Zionism. The former was inclined towards Herzl and Nordau in accepting the territory from Britain and the second one was among “those saying no.” The quarrel intensified to the point that they could not continue with their joint business and they separated.

During the days of the Bolshevik revolution, Aharon went through all seven layers of hell, both as a representative of Zionism and Hebraism and as a “capitalist,” so to speak.

In one of his last letters to me in 1926, he poured out his bitterness about the cup of sorrow that had happened to him and expressed his dismay at his fate that his brother, Nachum, the “Ugandist,” was granted the privilege of being among the happy ones who lived out the rest of their days in Israel and reaped in joy what others had sown in tears and he, the Zionist, was forced to die in the “Land of Desolation.”

At the age of six he was orphaned from his mother and went to live at his aunt's house of the Brodsky family in Kamyanets Podilskyy. Here he grew up in a Zionist atmosphere and received a general education at a technical high school. At the end of his studies he entered the college, “Psycho-Neurological Institute,” in Petrograd, but due to the political upheavals of the years of the revolution, he did not continue his studies and devoted himself with all his fervor and energy to public-Zionist work.

He visited the European diaspora a lot and garnered supporters to the Zionist idea and to the Keren Kayemet for Israel. When the position of the director of the organization department in the main office of the Keren Kayemet became vacant, Meir Ha-Ezrahi managed the department until his last day.

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