[Pages 422-423]

My town, situated between Brody and Radekhov [Radziechów] near Łopatyn, despite being small in population, loomed large in its praiseworthy name. This was an old community with several generations of great and famous rabbis, as well as householders, scholars and those who feared Heaven, merchants and tradesmen who benefited from the labor of their hands and set times to study Torah. In this manner, Jewish life had been conducted quietly and calmly for centuries. However, for economic reasons in the latter years, a dearth of livelihood, and the daily deterioration of the situation, they began to leave the town and move to larger cities. Thus the community became smaller and by the end of the First World War in 1918, there were already fewer than 100 Jewish families there.

I indeed recall that it had three splendid synagogues: the kloiz where the Husiatyn Chassidim worshipped, the beit midrash where the Belz Chassidim worshiped, and the Great Synagogue (the shil), the center for the regular householders. This shil was famous throughout the entire region. It was very old. It was built of wood, and was several hundred years old. Its foundations were strengthened and reinforced several times from the outside only and not from the inside, so as not to ruin the artistic drawings that were around on all the walls. The ceiling was arched in a wonderful manner. The holy ark, forged and etched in wood, was a wonderful work of craftsmanship. It attracted many people from other towns who came from afar to see and stand in wonder at this artistic masterpiece.

Even gentile artisans, including senior officers, would come, especially during the First World War and often in the middle of the day, asking permission for the synagogue to be opened for them so that they could see with their own eyes what had been told to them. I recall how these gentiles stood for hours in the synagogue discussing this ancient art, and how impressed they were, saying that – even in large cities they did not see artistry like this.

Also etched in my memory is how in 1914, when the Russians entered our city and wanted to burn the shil, all the gentile neighbors, who were Ukrainians and spoke Russian, began to protest and shout that this holy sanctuary had protected them for hundreds of years and saved them from fires. They did not allow them to damage the shil.

Interestingly, this Great Synagogue was outside the city center in a neighborhood inhabited solely by gentiles. This was because the city was once larger and the Jewish quarter extended to the neighborhood where the synagogue is located. It is understood that the synagogue was not originally built on gentile streets, but rather that Jews had left the city and the gentiles had taken their place. The Jews continued their traditional lives in this manner in the midst of a large majority of gentiles quietly and peacefully until Hitler may his name be blotted out, came and destroyed everything.

What remains? And who remains? Only a very small number of survivors, individuals who were literally saved miraculously from the conflagration. As is known to me, the Shpilka and Mandel families managed to escape the Holocaust, and are today in Israel. Mr. Elazar the son of Menashe Lercher also survived the hell, and, as is told lives today in America. There may be a few other individuals who managed to survive and are scattered across the earth – not knowing of one another. However, the town in general, and the lives of the Jews in particular, were destroyed completely and have passed from the world – along with the rest of the holy communities which were annihilated in sanctification of the Divine Name.

It is especially worthwhile noting that the origin of the famous family of great rabbis, the Laszczower family stems from the small town of Stanisławczyk. I had seen recently in a piece by Dr. N. M. Gelber in the book “Large Cities in Israel”^[1] edited by Rabbi Y. L. HaKohen Maimon, Volume VI (Brody, page 101) that, among others, the name of Rabbi Yehoshua Klausner is mentioned as having studied in Brody and having come from Łaszczów. He also tells how he was suddenly revealed to be a genius and a tzaddik, and how they later accepted him as the rabbi of Brody. The aforementioned Rabbi Yehoshua was the first Rabbi Laszczower. Not only was he great in Torah and fear of Heaven, but when the anti–Semitic bishop [Franciszek Kobielski] from the Catholic church forced the communities to gather in the Great Synagogue of Brody to hear, against their will, the sermons of the priests regarding Jesus, Rabbi Yehoshua Laszczower was one of two rabbis chosen to participate in the ensuing debate with them.^[2] The Jews would either have to prove that the Christian belief was false or convert to Christianity. The bishop left the synagogue in grief and distraught after the clear and logical responses given by this rabbi on every matter, with clear evidence from the Torah that could not be retorted.

Torah remained in the family with the elderly rabbi of Stanisławczyk. The rabbi and Tzadik Rabbi Mordechai Leib Laszczower had five children, four of whom became great rabbis: the eldest, Rabbi Mendel, the head of the rabbinical court of Łopatyn; the second, Rabbi Shalom Shachna, the head of the rabbinical court of Maciejów and the author of the book Mishmeret Shalom on Yoreh Deah and other books; the third, Rabbi Moshe, who took the place of his father in that city; the fourth, the scholar Rabbi Yitzchak; and the fifth, Rabbi Baruch, the head of the rabbinical court of Stanisławczyk.

The aforementioned Rabbi Moshe had three sons: the eldest Matityahu Chaim, who survived and is now in Uruguay; the second, Rabbi Yosef, the son–in–law of the Mishmeret Shalom who perished in sanctification of the Divine Name with his wife and children during the Holocaust; the third, may he live, is the writer of these lines – Aharon Laszczower, who was the final rabbi of that town and was saved from the Holocaust through the help of G–d. He went to Uruguay, where he became the chief rabbi of that community, and has now made aliya, as is written: there will be refuge on Mount Zion, and it will be holy.

Translator's footnotes:

1. In this instance, Israel means the Jewish world and not the country or area of Israel. Return
2. The disputation took place in Brody in 1743. Return

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