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During the Polish regime period, the town belonged to the district of Brest. The community was under the supervision of the Brest region (in the days of the Lithuanian State Council). In 1644, the community was accused of killing a laborer, but the court ruled that the accusation was only a conspiracy. In 1765, there were 209 tax-paying Jews in Malech (according to Bershadsky's records). At the time of the census in 1847, there were 521 Jews in Malech. At the time of the census in 1897 there were 2159 residents in Malech and among them 1201 Jews.

The town Malech was located approximately two kilometers from the Moscow Brest railway line, between the stations Pagadina or Bluden to the east and Lineve (Arantshice) to the west. During the tsar's time, the town belonged to the Pruzhany district. During the days of Polish rule, the Pawlawyche railway station was established, and the town belonged to the Brest district.

About hundreds of Jewish families lived in the town. Among them were tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, bakers and other professionals. There were also small traders, grocers, peddlers and some grain merchants. As it was customary, there were also people who were engaged in works related to religion: a rabbi, a shochet, shamashim, melamedim, etc.

It is difficult to determine since when a Jewish settlement existed in Malech. According to its three cemeteries, it was ruled that the community has existed for “hundreds of years”. The old cemetery is in the middle of the town. Two tombstones stood out in its territory, which testified to the cemetery. Only one Jew, Itche the bookbinder, would remember that in the month of Elul one must prostrate on the graves in this cemetery. There are no certificates left to testify to this. The second cemetery was on the way to Pinsk and was full of graves, among them those of great men of Israel. At its end stood out two tombstones of a man and his wife who were poisoned with oven soot on Passover Eve at the beginning of the century. They were educated and left behind a large library in the Russian and Hebrew language.

When the area of the second cemetery was filled, they began to look for land for the third cemetery. But the owner of the manor, in whose domain Malech was, was an old man, and his son-in-law did not agree to sell land to the Jews. And here a miracle happened. The old man died and his neighbor and friend, the owner of the estate Pele'i Stashevitch, insisted that the children of Malech say psalms at the deceased's house and at his funeral. The members of the Chevra Kadisha agreed and the Herschel the baker performed to the deceased the prayer “El male rachamim” (God full of mercy), in a way that have never been heard before in Malech... In exchange for this, the father-in-law of the deceased gave land to the Jews of Malech for free. This happened in the summer of 1911 or 1912. The Jews cut down the trees in the area and built a fence around the new cemetery. The place was inaugurated in 1914 with the burial of “names” of torn books

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and improper Torah books. The whole population participated in the funeral of the “names” and Rabbi Reb David Tavel Dainavsky said a eulogy with excitement and emotion.

As it was customary, both men and women were engaged in the Chevra Kadisha in Malech; there was a “Talmud Torah” in which studied the children of the poor. There was a company that took care of poor passers-by and sold its own “coins” to poor residents, which were made of cardboard and stamped with the company's seal. The “coins” were sold - three “coins” for one penny. The poor who accumulated “coins” would exchange them at the company's collectors.

There was a “Sleeping company” whose members would sleep with patients who had long-term illnesses.

And there were a bathhouse and a mikveh that served Jews and gentiles. The bathhouse was modern and was built at the beginning of the century, and cost five thousand ruble, a large sum in those days. The money was raised from the salt tax collected by Aharon Moshe the tailor.

There were three Batei Midrashot: the first - the yeshiva's Beit Midrash which was located in a large and spacious building, which surpassed those of Pruzhany and Bereze. The Beit Midrash burned down in 1915, with the retreat of the Russian army. The Torah books were saved. The building was rebuilt in the thirties. The second Beit Midrash was called the “small” or “new” one and was built in the last century. This Beit Midrash also burned down in 1915 and was not rebuilt. The third, the “Caucasian”, was established at another end of the town, on Caucasian Street. This Beit Midrash did not burn down during the war.

Before Reb Zalman Sander Kahana Shapira served as Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf, who died in his youth and left behind a widow and two sons. In those days Rabbi Zalman Sander was widowed from his wife and was left alone with five children. He married the widow of Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Wolf.

Rabbi Zalman Sander was great in the Torah. Thanks to him, Malech gained its reputation and glory. The yeshiva founded by him revived the town. Rabbi Zalman Sander would sometimes go on trips and the Dayan of Skidel filled his place. This caused controversy. In 1904 Rabbi Zalman Sander received the rabbinate in Krynki. With the departure of Reb Zalman Sander, he was replaced by Reb Shimon Shkap, who served as head of a yeshiva in the town of Telshe. The Telshe Yeshiva helped Malech. Rabbi Shimon was a Gaon and known for his method of studies in the world of learners. After a short time, Rabbi Shimon Shkap moved to Bryansk and from there to Grodno. He died during World War II.

As his replacement in Malech was appointed Reb David Tavel Dainavsky, who served as the head of the Yeshiva in the town of Pyaschatka. The yeshiva was resumed and they began to teach “Musar”. The rabbi was also educated and knew the holy language. The Yeshiva was held until the First World War. The members of the rabbi's family moved to Russia, but the rabbi and the rebbetzin remained in the town. After the war Rabbi Dainavsky returned

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to Pyaschatka and was killed there during the Holocaust.

There were young melamedim, Chomesh melamedim, who also taught writing in Yiddish and Hebrew, and there was Rabbi Yitzhak Gersh who taught Gemara and Jewish history. My father, Mordechai Simcha's, came from Vilna and taught his students the Pentateuch, the Bible, Gemara, Hebrew and Russian. There were also teachers, who taught Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish. There were two shochets and one of them also served as a chazan.

The “doctors” in Malech were Reb Nachman Alexandrovsky and my grandfather Reb Simcha Appelbaum, and the medics were Seletzki, Tapalinski (Polish) and another medic. The “doctors” learned their profession from their fathers and specialized in it. In difficult cases they would turn to Dr. Patsevich in Pruzhany or they would bring Dr. Davidson, or the Georgian doctor, Dr. Rondashi, from the city hospital in Pruzhany.

Shortly before the First World War, Dr. Lifshitz was brought to Malech, he stayed in Malech for a short time; also, was brought to the town the pharmacist Goldstein. Dr. Lifshitz was replaced by Dr. Kunin, who left the town with the outbreak of the war. The midwife was “Grandma Riva” who gave birth to many generations. In her old age had come A midwife from Nyasvizh, who stayed in the town until the war.

Fruit gardens were grown in the estates of the Polish nobleman, which produced many fruits, and the owners would lease them to the Jews. In 1904, a representative of the “ICA” company came to Malech, who inspected the land of the town and determined that it was suitable for orchards. He offered the help of the company in the form of a loan, and many Jews agreed with his opinion. The agronomist Epstein came from Minsk and in the month of Cheshvan 1905 they started digging the pits and towards Passover the seedlings arrived and the planting work began.

The waves of the revolution reached Malech as well, and we had our own “cizilists” (socialists). A local committee of activists was even organized, who would speak in the Batei Midrashot and raise money for the purchase of weapons. After the failure of the revolution, the activists immigrated to America.

The “Brothers and Sisters” would gather in the summer days in the forest and discuss the problems in the movement. The road to the forest passed by the district offices and once the people going to the forest at night woke the clerk of the office from his sleep. He fired his shotgun to drive away the travelers and hit the young man, who was guarding the fruits in the priest's garden at night, which his grandmother leased. The young man suffered for a long time from the hit by the bullets until he died. The clerk was transferred to another location, and it is not known if he was prosecuted.

Along with the waves of the revolution, there were riots among the Jews in Russia. There were pogroms in Chisinau, Zhitomir, Hamel and Bialystok. In Malech, they were preparing for the “Gramnice” fare and were afraid of the riots. But the riots skipped Malech.

The Russian-Japan War took place far away in Asia, but its echoes reached Malech. Jewish youth were drafted into the army. One of them fell near Port Arthur.

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Boycott in the Town

In 1909 there was a case of boycott. There was a Jew in the town named Yankel Tannenbaum who was involved in smuggling immigrants illegally to America., There was a special office for this purpose, the office of Herschel Matlavsky. The two of them quarreled and the matter was brought to Rabbi Daynavski in order to receive his verdict. Yankel Tannenbaum not only did not accept the rabbi's verdict; he insulted the rabbi and desecrated the “Shulchan Aruch”. The rabbi had no choice but to declare a boycott on him.

The Jews boycotted Yankel and his family members. The banishment and boycott took their toll and Yankel Tannenbaum humbly asked for forgiveness from the rabbi, and the boycott was lifted. A short time later he emigrated to America.

The members of the “Hibat Zion” movement arrived in Malech. And after the establishment of the “Colonial Bank”, shares were distributed in Malech at a price of 10 rubles per share. They would also collect donations for the Jewish National Fund. Shekels were also delivered at the price of 50 kopecks. The children were busy distributing the stamps of the Jewish National Fund. The Zionist activity was carried out secretly by yeshiva boys.

This activity did not interfere with the traditional collections for the Reb Meir Baal Hanes fund. the boxes of this fund were found in many houses, and from time-to-time couriers would come and empty them. There were also a few Jews who immigrated to the Land of Israel.

During the First World War, all Zionist activity ceased. After the war, the activity was renewed even more strongly, which also included the establishment of pioneering and partisan organizations.

The recruitment, which was announced on the ninth of Av, found the town in the midst of a severe dysentery epidemic, which caused deaths. Despite the epidemic, the recruitment “for the tsar, the faith and the motherland” cast terror in the town.

The front approached Malech. Refugees from Brest came to Malech. The authorities wanted to protect the fortress in Brest and expelled the civilian population. It was difficult to crowd the refugees from Brest into the Jewish homes. However, there was enough food was for everyone. The Brest fortress was quickly conquered by the Germans, and the Russians sank the heavy guns in the Bug River. Near Malech, the Russians began to dig trenches. Fear fell on the Jews. And in particular due to the fact that the villagers in the area began to uproot to the interior of Russia.

Malech was full of army battalions that occupied many houses, Batei Midrashot, the market square and the old cemetery. There was a shortage of water. The summer was very hot and the soldiers pumped non-stop from the wells until they ran dry. Among the soldiers were some local Jews and from the surrounding area. These stayed in the town.

The Jews stood by the houses and waited by the full carts. Soldiers went from house to house and ordered to leave immediately. It was not known who gave the order. But when the Jews started to move, an order was given

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by the headquarters, which was in the mansion, that it was forbidden to move... the Jews were embarrassed and did not know what to do. The next morning the shooting started. Fires broke out and we started running in the direction of Bereze. On the way we passed empty villages and made hardly any progress. The road was full of army companies. German planes bombed the train station in Ludnia. Tired and exhausted, we arrived at Bereze, to our relatives. Malech was already in the hands of the Germans.

There was no panic in Bereze. Two days later, the artillery shots came close to the city and German airplanes were seen in the air. The Germans entered the city and found many Russian prisoners of war.

The fighting lasted for several days. Seltz was transferred from side to side several times. In the end, the Russians retreated in the direction of Baranavichy and Pinsk. About thirty Jews were killed in Bereze. Many houses were burned.

Many houses were burned but some of the streets and alleys were not damaged. The bathhouse, the row of shops in the market square, the flour mills remained. A few buildings in the estate remained as well. Not all the Jews of Malech returned to their homes. Some of them kept wandering in Russia.

After the Germans cleared some apartments in the gentile streets, Jews moved there. They began to collect the grain from the granaries and the potatoes from the fields. The men threshed the grain and barley and the women gathered the potatoes. There were a lot of grain and vegetables in the warehouses of the farmers in the abandoned villages.

In all this destruction, one whole city remained - Pruzhany (Malech, Bereze and Seltz were destroyed). The “Miracle of Pruzhany” was a blessing to the whole area, because the local Jews gathered all the supplies and the materials under the supervision of a public committee.

The first Malech Jews who visited Pruzhany brought the news that there was a grain in Pruzhany. Many walked because they were afraid to travel in a wagon, lest the Germans confiscate the horse on the way, and brought salt and other ingredients.

I will remember all my life the fair and kind attitude of the members of the committee in Pruzhany, when my mother and I arrived there and asked to buy salt. There they sold 25 grams of salt per person. Mother and I received 50 grams of salt at a similar price that was acceptable before the war. I remember with reverence and respect the Jews of Pruzhany, who excelled in the years of the Holocaust in their human qualities and earned the respect of all the people, who saw them in those days in their difficult situation.

We started to reconcile with the situation. We were helped by Austrian officers who were Jews from Galicia, they spoke Yiddish and treated with respect the Torah scholars. The Hungarian commander was also a decent man. When my father would enter the headquarters, he would be greeted with “Sit, Reb Mordechai”. The authorities did not burden us at all. We would buy animals in Bereze and bring wood from the forests for fire secretly, because the authorities would not allow it. Later they would gather birch trees (in Bereze) and produce from them

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coal and send to Germany and Austria. This was done by Italian prisoners of war.

In the spring of 1916, the Jews began to cultivate the fields. Austrian policemen took all the able-bodied people out into the fields. They warned us that if we don't cultivate the fields, we will die of hunger.

After several weeks, the authorities conducted a census of men between 15 - 50 years of age and recruited them for various jobs. Work groups were engaged in repairing the road near the village of Halych. We worked also on Saturdays and we received two kroners per day. Most of the men were sent to Kabaki, to the estate.

Clothes could not be obtained. We used to dye villagers' cloths in black color. We would buy shoes and raincoats from the army, paint them black. In this way we also obtained boots. This was done by young people who worked at the train station in Ludnia. There was a large army movement there and soldiers would sell them some of their personal equipment. The fields yielded their crops, and we harvested barley and oats. We collected potatoes and were satiated and happy with our lot.

Not many changes took place. The winter of 1916 - 1917 was hard and the cold was great. As a result of the cold, the insufficient food (without fats) and lack of medical help, many died. In those cold days, the Germans ordered to recruit workers for forced labor behind the front. The Jewish policemen announced that the Germans would visit the houses to recruit the workers. Suddenly all the young men who hid in the barns disappeared.

Nevertheless, the Germans recruited workers from Bereze, Kosava and other cities. They gathered those going to work at the Beit Midrash in Bereze and from there they would send them in the direction of the front. The Beit Midrash was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and Germans wrapped in furs guarded it. Later we learned that graves were erected in the vicinity of Nawaychnia for fallen Jewish youths.

In the spring of 1917, we worked in the fields again. The Germans treated us fairly. There was discipline but there was no cruelty. The roads were safe and order prevailed in the whole environment.

The revolutions in Russia and Germany did not change the situation. Our soldiers, who were captured by the Germans and Austrians, returned to the town. Some stayed in Russia. Five of the soldiers were killed in the fighting. The houses of the villages and Polish landowners were inhabited and the fields were worked by Jews. In those days, the influenza disease spread, which was called “Spanka” and killed many people.

After the revolution in Germany, rumors spread that the Germans had established an independent government in Ukraine, and expanded the areas of its rule to the areas of Polesia. One day a Ukrainian representative appeared, convened an assembly and declared our belonging to Ukraine. He appointed police officers from among the freed prisoners of war, and distributed guns which were supplied to them from the Ukrainian office in Pruzhany.

After the revolution, began the disintegration of the German army, which was retreating from Ukraine and was disarmed by Pilsudski's legionnaires. Anarchy, which cast its fear upon the population, began. It was said that there were killings and robberies. We began to organize and buy weapons from the Germans.

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After negotiations with the governments of Poland and the Baltic states, the German troops left the area.

With the establishment of the Polish government, relations with the outside world were opened. Aid to individuals and the public arrived from America and the prospects of emigration there opened up.

In the spring of 1920, the Russians began to attack Poland. Around the month of Av, the Bolsheviks arrived in Malech. Before the Poles retreated, they searched the Jewish homes and found nothing. Shots were heard all day long. The Poles retreated and there were no fires and no casualties. The Bolsheviks did not last long. After the “Miracle on the Vistula” the Red Army retreated after Yom Kippur in 1920. We remained under Polish rule. There was one night of terror and fear, but there were no fires and no victims. After the peace agreement in Riga, the area of Malech was recognized as part of the Polish state. The entire “Eastern Hooks” region, which was populated by Belarusians and Ukrainians, was annexed to Poland. Jewish life began to return to its course. The war wounds began to heal. A new era has begun. I did not stay in Malech, in 1922 I emigrated to Argentina. (II)

The Gaon Rabbi Zalman Sander Kahana Shapira was born in the year 5611 in the town of Nyasvizh, Minsk region, to his father Rabbi Yaakov Moshe HaCohen. Rabbi Zalman Sander was known even in his childhood as a miraculous prodigy, he received the beginning of his Torah education from his father, and when his father's teachings were not enough for him when he was nine years old, he asked his father a very difficult question. His father found no explanation for his son's question and began to cry with excitement. (And indeed, Rabbi Sander did not find an explanation for this question all his life – by the Maran Maharai Unterman, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv). He was sent to Volozhin to benefit from the teachings of his relative, the Gaon Rabbi Yosha Bar Soloveichik, who was then the deputy of the Rosh Yeshiva in this famous yeshiva next to the Gaon HaNatziv and the director of the yeshiva. He studied there together with the son of Rabbi Yosha Bar, Rabbi Chaim, who later became famous as the rabbi of Israel, and stayed with his rabbi and friend even later, when Rabbi Yosha was already the Rabbi of Slutsk, after he left the Volozhin Yeshiva. Rabbi Zalman Sander, who excelled even in his early age as a distinct Talmudist, becomes the son-in-law of the wise scholar and Nagid Rabbi Yosha Minks of the Sheinbaum family, one of the most important members of the Kobrin community, who gave him a dowry of three thousand rubles - an excessive sum in those days, eighty years ago – and was supported by him continuously. Being supported by his father-in-law, he continued his Torah studies and also set Torah lessons with the Av Beit Din, the well-known Gaon Rabbi Meir Meirim, who also became famous in his book “Nir” on the Jerusalem Talmud.

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After a certain time, Kobrin was too small for Rabbi Zalman Sander both spiritually and materially. After the death of his father-in-law, his financial situation worsened and he considered himself to be somewhat “poor”, and from a spiritual point of view he needed to be in a central yeshiva where he would be adorned and surrounded by young Torah scholars and he would influence them with a great deal of acute learning. He always found his full mental satisfaction in the company of his teacher and rabbi Yosha Bar, who was already at that time the Av Beit Din of Brest near Kobrin. He also amused himself with biblical law with the well-known rabbi Yeruham Yehuda Leib Perelman who was then the rabbi of the nearby towns of Seltz and Pruzhany. Their closeness did not stop even later, when this Gaon was appointed as the Rabbi of Minsk and became known as “the greatest of Minsk”. And this “greatest” used to say that from Minsk to Brest, there is no comparison to Rabbi Zalman Sander of Kobrin in the greatness in the Torah.

In the year 5645, Rabbi Zalman Sander was appointed as the Av Beit Din in the town of Malech. In the year 5648, with the establishment of the “Knesset Beit Yitzchak” Yeshiva in Slobodka, he was invited to serve as Rosh Yeshiva, but it did not turn out and he returned to Malech. Apparently, he was influenced by the plea of the members of the Malech community not to leave them and he agreed to stay among them - provided they agreed to establish a yeshiva there. Malech people agreed to this. In order to carry out his new enterprise, he received the consent of his childhood friend, Rabbi Chaim Halevi Soloveitchik and the Gaon Elazar Gordon, Av Beit Din, a teacher and a rabbi in Telshe, who greatly encouraged him to establish his new Torah center.

Although there were already at that time magnificent yeshivas in Lithuania and Zamut with famous yeshiva leaders, the new Malech Yeshiva began to occupy an important position among these Torah institutions and became a central yeshiva in the Torah world. With ten students, Rabbi Zalman Sander opened the yeshiva in the summer of 5658 and within a few years their number reached one hundred and twenty.

These were excellent young people with talent and opinion who wanted to develop their power to come up with new interpretations according to the guidance of Rabbi Zalman Sander, and there were older people who had already studied in other large yeshivas and preferred to be here in the company of this sharp Gaon. There were people from different places, from Brest and Kobrin, from Minsk and even from Zamut on northern Lithuania.

In his lessons, Rabbi Zalman Sander was revealed in his full spiritual stature and the power of his wonderful scholarliness. These lessons of his were a motive and a main factor to open up the power to come up with new interpretations in his students, and guided them in a true diagnosis, in perceiving each and every matter according to its inner point and according to the areas of their special roots. Rabbi Zalman Sander was not content with just giving his lessons. When he would come up with some unique new Talmudic interpretation while he was concentrating on some issue he was studying at home - he would immediately burst into the yeshiva house, grab the gifted young men and speak to them about his new interpretation. Rabbi Zalman Sander not only delivered his lessons, but also cared about the general and mental state of his students. His house was open to them and he preserved their dignity and self-knowledge. The houseowners were strongly warned not to disrespect even the dignity of young scholars and to avoid calling them in the name “yeshiva led”, which was a kind of insulting expression and instead to call them “yeshiva man”. He did not behave with them firmly but rather gently. As a quick-witted person, he immediately understood the other party's opinion. And because of that, all the feelings of his students were visible to him. Malech yeshiva trainees,

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as the members of the Volozhin Yeshiva in their time, were careful about their appearance, knew how to maintain their dignity and even on Shabbats and holidays they would not dine at the houses of the houseowners in the town. In the Malech Yeshiva, like in other central yeshivas, there were mutual aid institutions: Bikur Cholim, Gmiluth Chassadim, Torah supporters, and a dormitory committee, which greatly helped to ease the material situation and also to develop the social and organizational forces of the students of the yeshiva. A relief to their material situation came from the provision of lessons to individual students of the yeshiva, who needed the help of a rabbi and a teacher. These were affluent children who paid their elderly young teachers a monthly salary for their studying with them. Rabbi Zalman Sander was a great player, and was a great innovator at playing. And on holidays and festive days, when the joy was at its fullest in the yeshiva and in the rabbi's house, he would recite poetry of others and of his own. For example, one composition by Rabbi Zalman Sander about the well-known heartfelt poem that was recited in the towns of Lithuania on the Shabbats between Pesach and Shavuot “graceful woman, why do you weep, your Messiah will come to you, arise and go, for I am your savior and your redeemer for whom you've been waiting for”. This composition was composed by Rabbi Zalman Sander in his youth and when he played it to Rabbi Yosha Bar, this Gaon wept with excitement. He would also play during the break days the poem by Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gabirol “Bereaved woman, why will you cry, is your heart desperate from waiting?”. These tunes of his were well known in all the yeshivas and they would repeat them on holidays, and especially at Simchat Beit HaShoeivah and Simchat Torah. The writer of these lines still remembers that in some yeshivas on such days, a special tune written by Rabbi Zalman Sander was played for the well-known prayer “Your name has never been pass a crime” and according to the prayer of the spiritual overseer, they would repeat this tune several times as well as suggesting moral ideas for this prayer.

Among the students of the Malech Yeshiva who learned the Torah from Rabbi Zalman Sander, we should mention the great scholar Rabbi Menachem Meltsher, who died a few years ago in Tel Aviv and was not properly eulogized; Rabbi Yerachmiel Burgman of Brest, who was later Av Beit Din in Nyasvizh; Rabbi Moshe Eliyahu Rogoznitzky of Naliboki, who was later rabbi and dayan in Leipzig in the congregation of Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Karlibach (died during the war years in Cardiff, England, where he served as rabbi and dayan); Rabbi Alter Mishkovsky, the son of the tzaddik rabbi Rabbi Haim Leib of Stavisk - acting as the substitute of Rabbi Zalman Sander in the Krynki rabbinate and at the end of his days in the Land of Israel, Rabbi Mordechai Halperin of Peruzhin, one of the founders of the settlement “Herzliya” and several other famous people who are no longer alive.

Among the students of Malech at that time, who lives with us and works a blessed work among the Jewish community in the Land of Israel - we must mention in a special way Maran Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and the district, who, as a young man, joined the group of people from Brest, who went to Malech to study the teachings of the Gaon Rabbi Zalman Sander Kahana Shapira. The chief rabbi Unterman, who continued his studies there even later during the time of the Gaon Rabbi Shimon Shkap - published in “Sefer HaYovel”. In addition to his new interpretations of the Torah (chidushim), Rabbi Shimon Shkap also published a special article, which contains an interesting chapter of memories of the Malech yeshiva in these two periods. Some details from the life of Rabbi Zalman Sander in this article are based on the memoirs of Rabbi Unterman, who, despite his early age, had the privilege of being among the close associates of Rabbi Zalman Sander of blessed memory.

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Rabbi Zalman Sander's lessons were not published and only a few of his Torah collections were memorized in some yeshiva circles. We find something of his new interpretations of the Torah in the two books of his two famous sons, Rabbi Yaakov and Rabbi Avraham Dover. Rabbi Yaakov became famous in the Torah in his well-known essay “Neot Yaakov” - which contains new interpretations of Halacha and explanations of issues with profound depth and sharpness as one of the greats of his generation. More famous in his lifetime was the second son of the Gaon Rabbi Zalman Sander - Rabbi Avraham Dover, Av Beit Din in Smilavichy and Kovno and author of the book “Dvar Avraham”. In these books are also brought new interpretations of the Torah from the “Greatest of Minsk”, the father-in-law of Rabbi Avraham Dover, the Rabbi of Kovno. The two young sons of Rabbi Zalman Sander, Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Chaim, stood by their father at the foundation of the yeshiva in Malech and assisted him greatly with its foundation and establishment.

In the year 5663, Rabbi Zalman Sander was appointed as the Av Beit Din of Krynki as a substitute for Rabbi Baruch Lawski, author of “Minchat Baruch”. Here, too, Rabbi Zalman Sander led a large yeshiva and many people flocked to it from all the districts of Hrodna (Grodno), Bialystok, Lomza and others. Among his students during the Krynki period, Rabbi Avraham Yazofin (the son-in-law of the tzaddik Rabbi Yosef Yuzel Horvitz, founder and director of the Novardok Yeshiva), director and rabbi of the Novardok Yeshiva “Beit Yosef” in Bialystok, should be noted. During his stay in Krynki, the Gaon Rabbi Zalman Sander became widely known as a tzaddik with magical powers and he became widely famous due to it.

In the year 5675, with the approach of the front of the war to the vicinity of Krynki, Rabbi Zalman Sander with his students moved to inner Russia and lived for several years in the city of Tula. After the end of the war, he did not return to his city which already belonged to Poland, but immigrated to the Land of Israel and lived there the last years of his life in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem.

We bring from the Hebrew Encyclopedia, volume thirty-two, Jerusalem - Tel-Aviv 5741, pages 936 – 937, the entry dedicated to Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Tamarat, who was born in Malech:

Tamaret (Tamares), Aharon Shmuel (1869), Malech, Lithuania - 1931, Warsaw), ultra-orthodox rabbi and a pacifist philosopher. Since his childhood, Tamaret showed an affinity for nature and a tendency to solitude. He studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva (see relevant entry), where he became friends with Bialik and was active in the national association “Netzach Israel”. In 1893, he was appointed as a rabbi in the town of Milichic (near Bialystok), where he served until his death. Tamaret joined the Zionist movement with its founding, and soon after he published his series of articles “Shlomim Leriv Zion” (“Hamelitz” 1899, newsletters 56/70), in which he accused Orthodoxy of Jewish fossilization. In his opinion, the inability of the rabbis to follow the spirit of the times caused the Jewish masses to distance themselves from the nation: in Zionism, Tamaret saw a chance for the spiritual and moral rehabilitation of the nation. He used to end his articles with “One of the most sensitive”, and later – “One of the most sensitive rabbis”. In 1900, Tamaret participated in the Fourth Zionist Congress, but was deeply disappointed with Herzl and the path of political Zionism; he wrote articles about it, but most of them were not accepted for print. After the

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Chisinau riots (1905) and following the Russian-Japan War, Tamaret developed a pacifist, anti-nationalist worldview, as he considered nationalism as a lever for racism, militarism and bloodshed. His articles were published in “Judaism and Freedom” (5665). In his later articles (in Yiddish and Hebrew) he formulated a view that sees Judaism as a moral system without a physical national background; in his opinion, the exile is a legitimate Jewish metahistorical reality that frees the Jewish people from the need to use force (and anyway - in bloodshed), thereby bringing to its moral superiority. Based on this perception, he attacked political Zionism and its ambition for political and military frameworks. He presented the main points of his ideas on this subject in his book “The Knesset of Israel and the Wars of the Gentiles” (5680). In his books “The Pure Faith and the Mass Religion” (5672) and “The Morals of the Torah and Judaism” (5672) he criticized ultra-orthodox Judaism and its rabbis, who follow the crowd to superstitions, idleness, vain talk and baseless halachic strictures. In his book “Three Indecent Pairings” he pointed out the lack of connection between pacifism and economy, between the studying of the Torah and orthodoxy and between the revival of the Hebrew language and political Zionism. He published his new interpretation in Halacha in his book “Yad Aharon” (5683).

His original positions towards the Halacha (formulated in the introduction to “Yad Aharon”) and the ultra-orthodox public, and especially his pacifist ideology, tuned Tamaret to an extraordinary original figure in the rabbinical world of his time.

After World War I, life in Malech began to return to normal, although not according to its pattern before 1914. In 1926, the large Beit Midrash was rebuilt. The largest contribution to the building of the synagogue was made by the Polish nobleman Falia Stasevich with a large amount of building materials. In the courtyard of the synagogue, a residence was built for the rabbi. For the first time in Malech's history a special house was built for the rabbi of the community.

The “cheders” were re-opened: the cheder of Reb Yitzhak Leib Leizerovski, who was a young melamed; a Jew from Byten organized a cheder in the “Shtiebel” of the Beit Midrash; Reb Moshe Leib taught the Pentateuch with the commentary of Rashi and the first prophets; Reb Mordechai Appelbaum taught the Bible, Hebrew and Gemara. After his death, he was succeeded by Yehoshua Niselbaum, who attended pedagogical courses in Vilna. Hi “cheder” too was in the “Shtiebel” of the Beit Midrash. Reb Hersh Cherniak, a distinguished student of Reb Shimon Shkap, taught Gemara to teenage boys “according to Rabbi Shimon's method”. Kalman Gersh taught Yiddish to girls; Reb Reuven Leib taught “Ein Yaakov” and “Kitzur Shulchan Aruch” in the great Beit Midrash; and the rabbi used to teach a “lesson” at the “Shas Society”.

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In 1924, Rabbi Reb David Tavel Dainavsky returned to the town of Pyaschatka, from where he came to Malech. In his place came Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kagan from Slonim, who was active in spreading the Torah and in the local public activities. The Polish authorities opened a seven-class Polish primary school (“Pawseachna”). Once a week, the pastor would teach religious lessons, and the Jewish students would leave the classroom. In 1927, a large school building was erected which continued its existence until 1939.

Jewish masons in Malech during the construction of the Polish school “Pawseachna”

The fire department was reorganized and firefighting equipment was purchased.

The hygienic situation has been improved. The two wells that were damaged during the war were reopened; trees were planted in the streets. The bathhouse started operating. There was a doctor and a medic - in addition to Meir Rabinovitch, who did not study medicine, but gained experience in medicine. A pharmacy was opened, which was later owned by a Jew. The companies “Bikur Cholim” and “Sleeping company” were founded to help patients with medical aid and by keeping shifts at their bedsides.

Chevra Kadisha acted regularly. There was another Chevra Kadisha of women. The fifteenth of Kislev was an important day for both companies. All the members were fasting and saying Slichot during the prayer. The intention was

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to ask for forgiveness for any obstacle that occurred in their action in the burial of the deceased, in the evening they would have a feast.

There were some communities in which the Chevra Kadisha day was on the Tuesday of Parashat “Vayechi”, after Hanukkah. In some of the siddurs it was written “Slichot for the fifteenth of Kislev”, and in some of them “Slichot for Chevra Kadisha Gmilut Chesed shel Emet”). During the war, the shochet Reb Leizer Chaim Kaplan was unemployed. When life returned to its normal state, the man was old and struggled with fulfillment of his duties. Therefore, they received a young shochet, Reb Michael, who was also a mohel and chazan and served the community until the Holocaust.

Rabbi Itzel Pomerantz stood out among those who prayed. He studied at the yeshiva of Rabbi Zalman Sander and Rabbi Shimon Shkap and was well versed in the Shas and the Poskim. Although he was stuttering, his tunes in the Days of Awe were stunning. His wife was the daughter of the well-known scholar, head of the Talmud Torah in Pruzhany, Rabbi Aharon Yaakov. Until the Holocaust, Rabbi Itzel was among the spiritual figures of the Malech community.

The row of shops in Market Square has reopened. The craftsmen returned to their craft. The steam mill was reopened and a second mill was built. In 1924, a Jew arrived from Bialystok, who opened a factory for brushes and fabric weaving. A charity benefit fund was organized that gave loans up to 150 zlotys without interest. It was headed by the Rabbi.

In 1932, the city was shaken, when Rachel Riva Zlatagora was murdered by a gentile cobbler from Malech, who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

After the Balfour Declaration, Zionist youth organizations were established: Hashomer Hatzair, HeChalutz, and Beitar. Many young people went to the training Kibbutz in Grochau near Warsaw. Because of the restrictions on immigration, only two, Kinke Miskin and Aharon Dubinsky, immigrated from Malech as pioneers until 1939.

All public activity continued until September 1939.

The surroundings of Malech were bombed by the Germans at the beginning of September. With the general recruitment, blacksmiths were recruited, who were sent to Brest and returned from there after a few days. With the disintegration of the Polish government, a defense organization of Jews and Christians was established, and thanks to it, the town was saved from robberies and fires. However, the mansion next to the city was occupied by an isolated company of soldiers, the members of the organization decided to disarm the Poles and so they did. About a hundred Christians surrounded the mansion and demanded that the commander hand over his weapons. The Poles expected the arrival of the Red Army and handed over their weapons. In return they allowed the soldiers to wear civilian clothes and go out freely.

After several days the Red Army arrived in the town and was received enthusiastically. The Jews were happy that the Russians were coming instead of the Germans. In the battles, Anach Fridman and Shlomo Lev were killed, and from the reserve men, the son-in-law of Aharon Nahum the shochet were killed. Of the ten soldiers from Malech, who were captured by the Germans as prisoners of war, only one remained alive - Aaron Goldstein, who is in Canada.

The first order of the Soviet authorities was to hand over the weapons. Indeed, all residents

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obeyed the order. At a public meeting, which was held in the great Beit Midrash, with the participation of Jews and Christians, a local committee was elected, with the chairman and secretary being Poles. They appointed some gentiles as policemen.

In the first week, the stores were liquidated. The Russian soldiers and officers bought everything they saw in front of them and paid any price. There were no sources of supply and the stores were liquidated. Some merchants were accused of hiding goods. They were arrested and later released. Cooperatives and artels of

various professions were established: tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters. The lands of the estate were divided among gentiles and Jews. The Kabak and Baiki estates became a rural cooperative farm.

The Russians built airports, cut down the trees in the forests. One of the most important projects was the “Dnieper Canal” between the Dnieper and Bug rivers. Workers who did not work in artels were recruited for these jobs.

Private schools were abolished. One school was established. The residents were forced to attend public meetings. Despite the Soviet regime, Jews continued to study in the Batei Midrashot, to eat kosher meat - as much as it was possible to get meat at all.

This is how life continued in Malech during the twenty-two months that preceded the Holocaust. (II)

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On the night of the German attack on the Russians in our area, I was, together with Hershal Eliezer Pomeranietz, in Zhabinka. We were sent to work there as carpenters. We woke up and saw that the Russians were leaving the city, and the Germans kill indiscriminately and destroy everything possible. We entered the train in the direction of Tevli to Linovo. But the Germans bombed the train. We continued on our way on foot and arrived in Malech on June 23 at noon. Silence prevailed in Malech. The next day, fighting started in the area and a woman was killed, Hanna Reisel Unterman, and her two children were injured. On that day, a group of German scouts passed through the city. They inquired and investigated if there were no Russians in the city, asked for eggs and butter and left.

That evening the Germans entered Malech. They immediately banned traffic on the streets after nine o'clock in the evening, and ordered every Jewish house to be marked with the Star of David, all Jews were required to wear a yellow Star of David patch and hand over their radios to the Germans. The Jews were afraid to go outside. They would hide in the orchards and pray in private. From time to time the Gestapo would come to the town.

On one of the Shabbats, they entered the Caucasian Beit Midrash and destroyed it. They were helped by the policemen recruited from among the local gentiles. The Germans would recruit Jews for various jobs such as: repairing the road and bridges and the like. The Jews organized their own committee composed of Yehoshua Niselbaum, Yaakov Appelbaum and Shmuel Mordechai Rubinstein. The intention was to organize the supply of food according to the demands of the Germans and to prevent their arbitrary actions. Night shifts were also organized, to watch out of fires and unexpected breakdowns.

In the meantime, news of what was happening in the nearby communities came to Malech. One survivor from Khomsk told about the massacre of the Jews there. From all the news we understood that a similar fate awaits us. Around Rosh Hashanah, a convoy of Jewish refugees from Bialystok and Shershev arrived from the road arriving from Khoiniki. They were concentrated near the steam mill. We received them and scattered them in the great synagogue and many houses and provided them with everything they needed. They were about two hundred people - a third of the entire local Jewish population in Malech. In the Days of Awe, they prayed in Minyans.

On Shabbat, Parashat Lech Lecha, the Gestapo men and the local policemen surrounded the town. The Jews were concentrated in the market square, and knowing the fate of the Jews of Khomsk, they tried to escape, but did not succeed. On the same day were killed Sama Pomeranietz, who was killed in the Samarawka grove by Shura Mandebey, a local policeman; Taybel Kaplan, Avraham Buchhalter, Babel Cherniak, one young man, the son of a baker in Pruzhany, who hid in Malech because of his affiliation with a political party. Meir Rabinovitch was taken out of the ranks of the Jews in the market and shot. The survivor from Khomsk was also hit and injured his finger. All the Jews were brought to the school building. Gestapo men came to Khoiniki and killed there Matityahu Miskin and his daughter Mariasha.

The Germans abused the old man before he died. In the same house was also Shmuel Maltcher, who arrived in 1939 from Lodz, and he managed to escape. The same killers from Khoiniki also arrived at the Kuty estate and killed Yaakov Winograd and Israel Sheinberg. Yosef, the son of Moshe the tailor, was hit by two bullets

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and lay until night in the swamp. He managed to get to Bereze and died there.

The Jews were released from the school building and ordered to prepare to leave their homes the next morning. On Saturday night the Jews buried their victims. The next day in the morning, the Germans handed out certificates to the Jews and ordered them to leave Malech and move to Bereze. We rented carts, loaded our belongings and food. The Germans were so certain that we were going to Bereze that they didn't escort us and didn't put any guard on us. They delayed the blacksmiths for a day in Malech, but the next day they also left to Bereze.

Through all the roads that led to Malech were hung severe warnings of the Germans, that anyone who touches Jewish property is sentenced to death. Despite this, the gentiles immediately entered the Jewish houses, and there were old houses that were dismantled by them for use as fuel.

In Bereze we were received by the local Jews with a beautiful welcome. A special committee was established, which took care of housing the refugees and providing for their needs. We were sent to different jobs. We passed six weeks in this manner.

There was fear in Bereze of final elimination like the Jews of Khomsk experienced. We heard that in Pruzhany the situation was calmer. And since Pruzhany entered the domain of the “Reich”, they hoped that the Jews of the city would be saved. Therefore, we started moving to Pruzhany. About sixty percent of the Jews of Malech moved into the Pruzhany ghetto.

The ghetto in Pruzhany was organized and headed by the Judenrat, that did everything in its power to alleviate the distress. The members of the Judenrat took care of housing us in apartments and providing us with food. In a similar way, they also took care of the Jews who came to Pruzhany from more distant places. And so, we tied our fate with the fate of the Jews of Pruzhany. (II)

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