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Siedlce's Poles in the Fight Against Anti–Semitism

There was in Siedlce a medical doctor–St. Wansawski, as we have already mentioned. he had been an anti–Semitic voice in the early years of the twentieth century. But in time he became quite liberal and changed his attitude toward Jews. He became the city doctor and the editor of an influential newspaper. When the wave of anti–Semitism hit Siedlce, Dr. Wansawski began to protest against the injustices done to Jews.

Dr. St. Wansawski, who was a freethinker, printed in his newspaper, “Szemia Siedlcka,” a series of articles in which attacked the racism and anti–Semitism in regard to the elections for the last Sejm and senate, which occurred in the summer of 1938. Wansawski published a characteristic article in which he wrote:

Poland is declining because of a number of circumstances. A great guilt lies on the Church with its contempt for other faiths and customs. Also guilty is the arbitrariness of the masses–which the new current of the Polish upper class has not abandoned. But Poland is also on the decline because it has not learned how to raise itself above egotistical nationalism. Except for a few individuals, no one thinks of the entire state. No one pays attention to the jumble of interests of the national minorities that exist here. While in Europe, with other neighbors, people have begun to think of the whole country, here the mass of people think only of their own rights, not of their responsibilities. We have not tried to live in peace with our minorities, with their religions, with their cultures. We have ruled over them with pain and strife and battle, perhaps without weapons but with the intention to exterminate them and with contempt. At times of upheaval, we have adopted altruistic slogans (“For our freedom and for yours”), and we have turned

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turned to the Jews with fervent calls for unity and aid. But this lasted only a short time, because always quickly return to our old ways–to the defense of our oppressive nationalism. In battle, we rise to the heights of heroism and of selflessness. Today, when we have obtained our independence, we have simply identified the nationalistic ideal with the state, and in the name of the nationalistic ideal we have begun an offensive against the national minorities, and most of all–against the Jews.

In this fashion, Dr. Wanasawski described the anti–Semitic character of Polish nationalism. He ended his article with the following declaration:

As we are today free people, in a prosperous time of the national identity, a swarm of parties and cohorts of a “nationalistic” character are arising, and they ask the question: Who stalks our language, our culture, our customs? And the answer is: the Jew, the Mason.

If they did not exist, they would have to be created so that they could be taken as an object of persecution–as that which is not Slavic. Perhaps people would persecute all brunettes as people who dishonor the Slavic race. Who knows? The spread of “nationalist” ideas with attributes of suffering, bombs, and invective comes so easily because of the lowering of ethical standards after the First World War. People, on the average respectable and not foolish, let themselves be led by young people who create the political climate without themselves knowing what they want but who label each of their successes with the name of “national”–a feudal doctrine of the worst sort that finds adherents not only among the crude young people but also among serious doctors and lawyers. Characteristics that were once regarded as chivalrous have been overthrown and are regarded as evil.

Dr. Wansawski, along with several Siedlce Poles from the free–thinking camp were among the few non–Jews who separated themselves from the anti–Semitic agitation that seized Seidlce, including the Catholic clergy.

When in August of 1938 the Pope issued his encyclical against racism, the Siedlce Catholic paper

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“Glos Podolski” quickly provided anti–Semitic commentary on the encyclical. “Glos Podolski” printed articles about Jewish swindlers, Jewish usurers, and reprinted anti–Semitic information from the French press, which explained why Jews were expelled from Middle Europe, especially from Poland, and headed to France. To such clerical anti–Semitism, no one in Poland reacted.

Countering racism, there arose in Siedlce a community of members of the organization “Fun Nev,” political detainees of the P.P.S–the revolutionary faction that had its headquarters in the city. In a declaration of this organization from February 12, 1939, we read:

Seeing the danger that accompanies the negation of democratic and humanistic rights of equality and freedom, that were established at the time of the battle for Poland's independence, we declare, we, the first soldiers of Marshall Jozef Pilsudski, the former political detainees, tested through years of battle, penal labor, and hangings for the love of our fatherland, of the ideals of independence and equal rights for people and citizens:

1. In all the battles for independence of our fatherland, we knew no divisions based on faith or race.
2. We all–under the banner of the P.P.S.–all to whom equality and independence are precious, without divisions between classes, races, origins, or religions, arm in arm, fought for certain victory, and in that battle we were all ready to sacrifice our lives.
3. We will remain true to the ideals and therefore we will proclaim our thoughts or die in order to realize them and extinguish the anti–democratic urges of race hatred.
   We hold that the youth are the future of our fatherland and that only in an atmosphere of brotherhood, equality, and freedom can the true love of our fatherland flourish, which is the basis of its greatness–we address all parents, that they should point their children in the direction of the ideals of equality, brotherhood, and freedom, for which their parents have suffered and died.

Chair: Stanislaw Ruzhanski
Secretary: Wawrzeniec Waltchuk

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The voice of these fighters against racism had little effect, because the anti–Semitic agitation had such a strong following. The actions of the picketers grew more intense, as did the prevention of Christian customers from entering Jewish businesses, and such actions were considered legal by the government. The pickets who observed the Jewish businesses more than once created turmoil, when, for instance, something fell from the window of a Jewish house, like a piece of plaster, or someone stuck out a tongue. When such a picketer would make an outcry, the police would make a show of force.

Also, physical attacks on Jews became a chronic problem.

In the summer of 1938, the German Jews of Polish extraction were expelled to Poland by Hitler's government. The Polish government would not allow them into the country, and they were ordered into a camp in the border town of Zbaszyn. Many of them came to Siedlce. Despite the harsh material conditions, the exiles were warmly received. An ad hoc committee looked after their housing needs and helped them settle. A number of orphan children found places in Siedlce's “Ezras–Y'somim.”

At the same time, as dark clouds gathered over the heads of the Jews in Siedlce, the community seemed unaware of the danger that threatened it.

The community elections, the last before the Second World War, occurred in 1936. They showed the splits and fractures in the Jewish community. This time victory went to the progressive elements, which, until 1936, had no representatives in the community organization. At the first meeting of the last newly elected community council, on November 29, 1936, the “Agudah's” representatives announced that they would remain faithful in their opposition to the council as an institution, because their responsibility was to worry exclusively about

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the religious needs of the Jewish population. Therefore the Agudah would primarily see to it that the community should have a rabbi, support the “Talmud–Torah” and the “Beis–Yakov School” and also look after the hospital; and thinking about the commandment of “You will support your brother and strengthen him,” the “Agudah” would support the charitable activities of the hospital. All the other factions stressed in their statements that they considered the community to be an autonomous national institution that should benefit all social and cultural aspects of the Jewish population.

The finances from that time show how the activities of the community had expanded. We can compare this document with the balance of community activities in 1923. We can see that the institution had progressed greatly in expanding its activities^[107].

INCOME

Taxes from 1936	23,541,27 zlotys
Surplus from 1935	6,945.690
Administrative payments	1,722.75
Slaughtering	27,443.50
Cemetery	4,985.00
Rent from apartments and the mikveh	5,578,18
Passover actions	1,828.55
Interest on late taxes	525.86
Deficit	1,563,61
TOTAL	74,134,61

EXPENSES

Rabbinate	5,200.00
Administration	5,850.
Bureau	1,050.
Shul, cantor, sexton, heat, light	4,234.
Slaughterers and related expenses	14,580.
Cemetery	1,944.21
Retirements	2, 735.00
Administration of community buildings, employees, insurance, labor	2,767.89

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Sick fund	813.89
Social action: winter activities and others	4,794.69
Subvention: Talmud–Torah	6,441.70
Yeshiva “Beis Yosef”	327.00
“Beis–Yakov” School	1,035.00
“Tarbus” School	2,110.50
“Yavneh” School	234.00
“Ezras–Y'somim”	2,076.23
Old Age Home	1,917.15
Jewish Hospital	750.00
“Toz” and summer colonies	718.83
“Linas Ha–Tzedek”	947.77
Va'ad Ha–Kashrus	348.38

Miscellaneous:

Covering the deficit until Jan. 1	2,887,87
The same subvention	632.80
Redemption of promissory notes	2,400.00
Sick fund	5,118.94
Various debts	947.77
Unexpected debts	1,965.82
TOTAL	74,134.41

In 1932 a quarrel broke out among the Jews in Siedlce that was only settled shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The quarrel concerned the election of a rabbi to replace R. Chaim Yehuda Ginsburg, who had died.

After his death, there was a contest over choosing a rabbi. The dead man's son, R. Alter–Eliezer Ginsburg, was not considered a candidate. Several rabbinical authorities put forward their candidates. There were parties on every side of the decision, you understand. Each candidate had supporters and detractors, and all had to be evaluated based on their learning and other qualities, as well as on their party affiliations. One rabbi, who was strongly opposed by the Zionist and Mizrachi movements, was

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Rabbi Eichenshteyn from Chodorov, who belonged to the ruling government party and served the interests of the Polish regime. This meant that he opposed the everyday interests of the Jewish commune. In national Jewish circles, Rabbi Eichenshteyn was not considered a representative of the mass of Jews. A variety of rumors circulated about him. For example: that he would receive the rabbinical chair in Siedlce because that was in the interests of the Polish regime. It was also known that a Pole named Czekhowicz, a brother of the Polish finance minister, had broadcast near and far that Eichenshteyn and no other would be the rabbi of Siedlce. Since Eichenshteyn belonged to “Agudas–Yisroel,” and since it appeared unlikely that he would be legally elected, his supporters devised a variety of machinations in order to guarantee a majority in the community council elections. The votes of the “Agudah” were assured, as were the votes of several bigwigs.

The forthcoming election prompted heated opposition from the Zionist and Mizrachi parties. Electioneering became very pointed. The national camp accused Rabbi Eichenshteyn of serving the anti–Semitic Polish regime. There were also reports that Rabbi Eichenshteyn would gain the rabbinical chair in Siedlce through bribes that he had distributed. Campaign advertising appeared with citations from the Talmudic writings opposing this action of the rabbi. They also used citations from the Rambam [Rabbi Moses Maimonides], that said:

Any rabbinical judge who is named to his place on the basis of money should not be honored by having people stand in his presence. And it is also required to degrade him and hold him in scorn.

[trans. note–This passage appears in both Hebrew and Yiddish, and its source is cited in a footnote: Halachos Sanhedrin, 3: 9. He also provides a more correct Hebrew version than was used in the ad, thanks to Menashe and Moyshe Konstantinowski.]

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An excommunication that had been issued in 1909 by some of the great ones of Israel, led by R. Avraham Sochachewer, the Alexander rabbi, and the Ger rabbi, began with the words “In the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The excommunication had been subscribed to by 162 rabbis and teachers from various cities and shtetls in Congress Poland. The subjects of the excommunication were referred to as “gods of silver and gods of gold.” And the battle between the two sides did not take place only on paper. Blows were also exchanged between the two sides.

The outcome was the Rabbi Eichenshteyn was selected as the rabbi of Siedlce. The Polish official who had supervisory powers over the community confirmed the votes, as did the Woiwode of Lublin and later on the education minister, so that the Chodlover [Rabbi Eichenshteyn] would become the rabbi of Siedlce.

This decision was published in July of 1939, when the catastrophe of the war could be sensed in the air of Poland.

At the same time, there was also a controversy over the matter of a cantor. This occurred after the longtime Siedlce cantor Y.D. Pasowski left Siedlce for Eretz Yisroel. Those who prayed in the synagogue were divided into two camps: one camp supported Cantor Zhupowicz and urged that he should remain as the Siedlce cantor. The second camp–led by the synagogue committee–wanted to engage a different cantor. In this case, they created a competition, and every Shabbos a new cantor would lead the prayers. This controversy ended with the appointment of Cantor Zhupowicz as the Siedlce cantor.

The Zionist organization, as already mentioned, had since 1926 supported a “Tarbus” folk school. On September 3, 1938, a group of energetic workers opened in Siedlce a Hebrew “Tarbus” gymnasium. The first thousand zlotys for this purpose were given by the teachers of the “Tarbus” school themselves. It was proposed to rent a locale, to create a laboratory and to open a preparatory course for graduates of “Tarbus”

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and of other schools for the second class of the planned gymnasium.

The Jewish library, too, at that time had not declined.

Aside from the community library, there were in Siedlce also party book collections. On the eve of the Second World War, Siedlce had the following libraries:

The “Bund”	1,200 volumes
Leftist Poalei–Tzion	1,000
Rightist Poalei–Tzion	600
Tze'irey Mizrachi	500
Poalei Agudas Yisroel	400
“He–Chalutz” and Hel–Chalutz Ha–Tza'ir	500

4,200 Books owned in total by the party libraries

The community libraries included:

Jewish Art	12,000 volumes
School libraries	6,000
Hebrew–Yiddish collection in the city library	800
18,800 Books
23,000 Books in total

The 23,000 books constituted the premier intellectual and cultural possessions of Jewish Siedlce.

Despite the difficult and deplorable condition of the Jewish population in Siedlice in the last two or three years before the Second World War, Jewish cultural activities did not dissipate.

The Number of Jews in Siedlce Before the Outbreak of the Second World War

The last statistics show that on July 1, 1938, that is, 14 months before the outbreak of the Second World War, Siedlce contained

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a population of 40,962, and among them 16,180 Jews. In other words, Jews constituted 39.5 percent.

The last statistics concerning the number of Jews in Siedlce appeared in the “Siedlce Vochenblat” of July 1, 1938, as follows:

Men	19,789
Women	21,173
Total	40,962
Under 7	6,500
7–14	7,000
14–18	2,780
Over 18	24,682
Jews	16,180
Christians	24,782

Like so many Jewish settlements in Poland, Siedlce produced Jewish writers and journalists, a few of them quite noteworthy. We will provide biographical sketches of the writers and poets who grew up in Siedlce.

Born around 1900. Well–known poet and essayist. Crippled by illness, he lived in penury and even attempted suicide. Eisenberg worked on the “Siedlce Vochenblat” and on other projects. In the thirties published a drama “Khordos and Miriam.” He was among the editors of a bi–monthly journal “Vartzlen,” which appeared in only two issues from “Orient” publishers, 1927.

Son of Moyshe–Abba, born in 1898. At the time of the war's outbreak in 1914, Yakov Eisenshtat was 16 years old and studied in the Siedlce Russian gymnasium. He went along when the gymnasium was evacuated to Volodimir. After graduating from high school, he went to the medical school at Darmater University [trans. note–I can find no references to such a place.]

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In 1918 he returned to Poland and later entered Warsaw University. From there he went to Naples (Italy) and studied medicine in the university there.

In order to support himself, Eisenshtat had to seek employment in a number of jobs.

Yakov Eisenshtat showed great zeal in learning. The famous Italian scholar, professor of psychiatry at the university in Naples, Leonardo Bianchi, took an interest in him, helping him both materially and intellectually. Bianchi took him on as his assistant and gave him opportunities to carry out his scholarly activities, in which he showed great ability. A year after Prof. Bianchi's death, the medical faculty of the university unanimously elected Eisenshtat to the professorial chair of the famous Italian psychiatrist.

At the university's expense, Dr. Eisenshtat traveled abroad and spent an entire year in Leningrad in the clinic of the famous Professor Bekhterev. Together with Professor Bekhterev, Dr. Eisenshtat conducted experiments on the properties of brain tissue, on the possibility of thought transmission [ESP?], on hypnotism, and he created his original theory on thought itself and on the sources of thought.

Y. Eisenshtat published a book in Italian entitled The Effect of Education on Hereditary Abnormality. The book had 576 pages, with 59 illustrations and many tables. This important work, which the professor dedicated to his teachers, Professors Bekhterev and Leonardo Bianchi, was the result of 3,000 experiments that the professor conducted on children of various criminals from sanatoriums around Naples. He also undertook a research oriented journey to Switzerland, Germany, Russia, and Austria, seeking out the children of criminal lawbreakers. The author investigated their characteristics on the basis of the research that he had done

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on the child's family as well as on his individual characteristics. He illuminated these characteristics that were hereditary from anthropological and psychological perspectives and often observed three generations: parents, children, and grandchildren. He was interested in the fate of those children after they left their

institutions.

This book garnered reviews in many medical journals from different countries. A longer consideration was written by Dr. Konigshteyn in issue 21 of Warszawskie Czasopismo Lekarskie. He closes the notice with the following lines: “Eisenshtat's extraordinary book has been recognized throughout the medical world in all countries. It has been totally embraced. In every chapter of this book we see not only a well–educated clinical doctor but also a bold societal reformer and medical teacher. It is fitting that this beautiful work should become an integral part of our literature.”

In one of his works, Dr. Y Eisenshtat proposed that the human mind creates electromagnetic waves (similar to the heart's electrical impulses), and these waves can be picked up by other people and even by animals. The experiments that Dr. Eisenshtat conducted in Naples confirmed his theory and attracted the attention of wider scholarly circles.

Dr. Eisenshtat's studies of the so–called hereditary criminals aroused interest in the Italian scholarly world. In these studies, Dr. Eisenshtat showed that even the children who inherited their parents' criminal tendencies could, through certain educational methods, obtain new perspectives and qualities that could change their whole character from shameful criminality. These new perspectives and qualities he could give to the children and thus create for society productive, excellent citizens. And truly Dr. Eisenshtat showed practical results: of the 3,000 criminals and morally abnormal people who were under his observation and treatment in the Naples madhouses and prisons, 92 percent

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were turned into normal, productive people.

The Italian press, in discussing Dr. Eisenshtat's methods, said that he brought honor to scholarship and to mankind: “Thanks to Dr. Eisenshtat's investigations–a famous Italian newspaper said–we see a ray of hope and belief in the future of our race. The future of our people is all the more threatened through the immense growth of nervous and spiritual illnesses.

Dr. Eisenshtat later assumed the seat of psychiatry in the University of Naples, and when it became possible, he received Italian citizenship. The royal decree that recognized his Italian citizenship said that he received it for his significant scholarly services.

During the Second World War, Dr. Eisenshtat left Italy and settled in the United States, where he continued his scholarly work.

Born in the winter of 1897. His home was a mixture of Chasidism and Enlightenment. He received a religious education. At the time of the First World War he was active in the Zionist movement; he was particularly active as a propagandist. By profession he was a teacher. When “Tze'irei Tzion” was established, he became a member and then became one of the leaders. At the founding conference of “Tze–irei Tzion” in Poland, at Succos of 1919, he became the founder of the people's socialist idea. After the second conference, when the party split–Barlev aligned himself with pioneer activities and became the secretary of the central committee. As the stream of the Third Aliyah became stronger in Poland, in 1921 he went up to Eretz Yisroel. He worked at building the road between Tiberias and Migdal. Together with Y. Ch Brenner he was active in the circle of “Tze'irei Tzion,” which influenced the founding conference of the Histadrus in Haifa and of the introduction of the party into “Achdus Ha–Avodah.”

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For several years he was active as a worker and teacher in Nes–Tzionah–later as a teacher in Petach Tikvah. At that time Barlev also began writing, and he collaborated on “Kuntres, “ on “Daber” and on “Ha–Po'el Ha–Tza'ir.” Starting in 1927 he was a regular collaborator on “Daber.” Beginning as a reporter–in 1941 he became an editor of the “Daber” publication “Hinei” and co–editor of the afternoon edition of “Daber.” He also published many feuilletons under a variety of pseudonyms. He also wrote poems and translations of English poetry.

Barlev died of a heart attack on October 26, 1942.

Born in 1894 and raised by his grandfather Yosef–Zav Heller, a shochet and inspector who was greatly loved in the city. He worried that his grandson would study Gemara day and night. Alter studied in the Siedlce yeshiva. His studies did not make him happy–Czarist persecutions of the Jews gave him no rest. He left Poland and went to America in 1913. There he quickly joined the “B'nei–Tzion” organization. He became active in Zionist causes and became one of the editorial group of the “Voice of B'nei'Tzion.”

In 1915 he organized and led the Siedlce “Relief.” He collected funds to help groups in Siedlce. He was mobilized in America during the First World War.

When he returned from the war in 1919, he took an active role in creating an organization to build a temple of music in Eretz Yisroel, as a monument to fallen Jewish soldiers. To this end, he edited and distributed a monthly journal, “The Jewish Soldier.” He also edited and collaborated on a variety of newspapers.

Born in 1883. His father, R. Moshe, a lover of Zion, came from Zamocs and was a relative of Y.L. Peretz. Yehoshua received a religious–nationalistic education. He excelled in his studies in cheder. He later studied secular subjects

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learned languages, read a great deal and showed talent in sculpture, drawing, and writing.

Already in his early years he published poems in a series of literary publications. During the course of five years he became the editor of the “Siedlce Vochenblat.”

Goldberg made pictures, wrote feuilletons and songs that described the life of the city. Under the title “Spring in the City” he published memoirs about the years of the revolutionary awakening (1905). His feuilletons “From Siedlce's Stories” and the series “Teachers” which appeared in scores of issues of the “Vochenblat”, are a source of Siedlce folklore.

Yehoshua Goldberg was murdered by the Germans.

Born in 1896. His father, R. Yisroel Gutgelt, was known by his familiar name–Yisroel–Yossel Enseles. He was a major, well–to–do merchant who dealt in lumber, kerosene, and colonial products, a businessman and a philanthropist, owner of a huge book collection, and a supporter of the Chasidic court at Ger. Although he was one of the leaders of the :Agudas Yisroel,” he secretly contributed to the “Keren Ha–Yesod.”

Levi received a strongly religious education. He studied in cheder and with the best private teachers. But when Levi grew up, he began to be interested in secular education and languages. He familiarized himself with Enlightenment literature, studied world literature, immersed himself in Jewish history and Jewish problems.

At the time of the First World War, under the influence of the “homeless,” among whom were Zionists–Gutgelt became a Zionist. He also became a teacher in the gymnasium of the Halbershtam sisters, where he attended lectures in his long kaftan and round cloth hat, but in school he wore his short clothing and gave his Hebrew lecture, learning with his students with a special fervor. He took no pay for his lectures.

The young Gutgelt did his Zionist work with diligence and devotion. One encountered him everywhere: in Hebrew evening courses, in meetings of the Zionist organization

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at gatherings for Keren Kayames, in propaganda and organizational activities.

In 1922, Gutgelt, together with other writers from Siedlce, proposed to put out a Yiddish weekly, which then existed for eighteen years until the outbreak Second World War. Levi Gutgelt later took on an array of leadership positions in the Zionist movement. He was a member of the Zionist party council “Al Ha–Mishmar” faction and helped lead the Tarbus school system, and he never stopped writing for the Vochenblat. For its first five years, he was the actual editor of the newspaper.

Aside from his journalistic work for the local paper, Gutgelt published articles in the central organ of the Zionist organization. In Zionist Siedlce itself, for twenty years nothing was done without his participation.

Levi Gutgelt, along with his wife and child, perished in the Warsaw Ghetto.

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Y.P. Greenberg published his first stories and poems in Weissenberg's anthology. Later he became one of the major collaborators on the local newspapers, such as the “Voice of Siedlce” and the “Siedlce Vochenblat,” as well as others. In 1927 he also took a part in the journal “Vortzlen,” which appeared in two issues. He published a book, “Blumen” [Flowers], Shtramen Publishers, Siedlce, 1925, and “From the Bloody Field” (Siedlce, 1927. He was killed at the time of the German liquidation of Siedlce's Jews.

Born in 1890. Received a religious education. Later he began reading secular literature. Greenfarb wrote and published poetry. He taught violin as a profession.

Killed by the Nazis in the Second World War.

From his earliest youth, he was active in the

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Zionist movement. He participated as a delegate to the Zionist Congresses–at Helsingfors in 1907 and at the Hague (1907), Carlsbad (1921, 1923) and in Zurich (1929). In Free Poland he was excluded from the legal profession because of his Zionist activities and as vengeance for being chosen as a Jewish delegate in the Polish Constituent Assembly. Hartglas appealed to the lawyer's council and won.

Together with Y. Greenboym and Dr. Y. Ton, led the Zionist faction in the Constituent Assembly and elected also to the second Sejm. In the Jewish circle, he belonged to the radical opposition that was led by Y. Greenboym. Particularly appeared in opposition to the well–known agreement on Jewish–Polish understanding.

He was known as a defender in the well–publicized rehabilitation trial of the Rabbi Shapiro of Plotzk, who had been shot in 1920 as a Bolshevik and a spy for the Russian army. His journalistic activities he began in 1906 in “Glos “Zydowski.” He took part in the Zionist press in Polish and Russian, as well as in Martin Buber's “Der Jude.” From 1917 to 1920 he edited the Zionist papers “Tygodnik Zydowski” and “Zycie Zydowskie” and published a number of Zionist pamphlets such “Territorium y Narod” (1906), a pamphlet in Polish about the foundations of Zionist land politics in Poland (1918). His first article translated into Yiddish was published in “Shedletzer Lebn” (1912). After 1920 he was a regular contributor to “Heynt.” He taught himself to write Yiddish and published articles focusing on questions of Jewish politics in Poland and on Zionist matters. He also participated in many other Zionist productions, including: in “Chodesh” (1921), “From Bygone Days”–about the Polish–Bolshevik War. His books include his speeches (1919–22) and “The Jewish National–Council in Poland” (Warsaw, 1923).

In 1940 Hartman and his wife fled from Nazi–occupied Poland and went to Eretz Yisroel, where he worked for the Jewish Agency as the leader of a division to investigate the crimes of the Nazis during the Second World War. Hartglas

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feels that his conscience is not clear, because he left his brothers in the German vise, and in despair he tried to commit suicide. He was saved from his despair. When the State of Israel was established, Harglas was nominated to be the leader of the Interior Ministry. Later he became active as the justice advisor in that ministry.

He died in Tel Aviv March 23, 1953.

Wasserzug, however, yearned for a secular education. He entered the government school for Jewish religious teachers in Warsaw and graduated in 1925. A year later he came to Siedlce and became involved in Jewish religious and government–folk schools for Jewish students. A. Wasserzug also became involved with literary work. In 1929 he wrote and published a Hebrew play for children about the times of King Saul called “The Musician from Bethlehem.” In 1935, for the eight hundredth anniversary of the Rambam, Wasserzug published in Polish a biography of the Rambam called “Maimonides.” Wasserzug had prepared an array of works about Jewish thinkers from the Middle Ages. His works were destroyed in the Second World War. The author and his family were killed at the time of the liquidation of Siedlce's Jews in 1942.

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Yischak–Nachum Wayntroyb

Wayntroyb, after he settled in Siedlce, began to record all the events in the city. Over time he collected a great deal of material of historical value. After 1922 he published memoirs in the “Siedlice Vochenblat.” In the thirties he also published a cycle of records about the pogrom, that gave a good picture of the history of the Jews in czarist Russia in general and in Siedlce in particular. In depicting pictures and images from Siedlce and events from the past hundred years, he would obtain eyewitness accounts from older people, who told him of their memories of life in Siedlce. Waynbroyt wrote for “Ha–Melitz,” “Ha–Tzefirah” and other newspapers; besides what he published, much remained in manuscript.

Since the beginning of political Zionism, Wayntroyb occupied a place of honor in the movement. Because of the attention he drew from both Jews and non–Jews, Wayntroyb was elected to positions in many community organizations.

During the Second World War, when Wayntroyb was older

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he experienced all the pains and sorrows of Hitler. With his own eyes he saw the destruction of Siedlce's Jewishness. Among them–his daughter, grandchildren, and great–grandchildren, he lived until December 1943 and was taken with the remnant of Siedlce's Jews to Treblinka, where he died in the gas chamber. His great archive disappeared, and no one knows where it could be found

Born in 1891. His father, R. Dov, was a wealthy merchant and a modest man.

Temkin's great–great–grandfather was the father–in–law of the famous national writer Peretz Smolenskin. In the archive of the writer Alter Droyanov can be found a poem that Mordechai Temkin, the grandfather of Mordechai Temkin's father, wrote for the wedding of his daughter Leonora, who married Smolenskin.

Mordechai Temkin's mother derived her pedigree from a rabbinical family. Her older sister married Rabbi Avraham Eiger, the rabbi of Lublin. Thus, members of the Temkin family were Lublin Chasidim.

Until his bar mitzvah, Mordechai Tempkin, like all Jewish boys in Poland, studied the Talmud and its commentaries in cheders, but secretly he would read secular books, particularly literature from the Haskalah. The young Temkin was influenced by his teacher Gurewitsch, who came to Siedlce with a great many Haskalah works.

In his fifteenth year, Mordechai Temkin began to write. Not wanting to trouble his parents, he left Siedlce and went to Watrsaw. There he began to visit the house of the writer Fishl Liakhover, and with the help of the young writer Yakov Warshawski he became a teacher in Mlava, near the Prussian border. Remaining for a year in the village, Temkin amassed a sum of money and in 1907 he went for the first time to Eretz Yisroel.

With a letter of recommendation from the already known F. Liakhover and from Hillel Zeitlin, Temkin joined the editorial board of “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza–ir,” which had been established in Jerusalem. Y.H. Brenner, who

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was then the editor of “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza'ir” became close to him and gave him work in the administration of the weekly paper. At the end of every week, one could encounter Temkin with the top administrator of “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza'ir” N. Twersky as they carried bundles of newspapers to the Austrian post office in Jaffa Tower in order to have them sent to subscribers both local and foreign.

Mordechai Temkin published his first poem in “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza'ir”: “When I Came to my Country.”

The young writer was drawn to education. He began to study in the teacher's seminar of “Ezrah,” but because of the yellow fever from which he suffered, he left the seminar and he was forced to leave Eretz Yisroel. In 1911 he returned to Eretz Yisroel, where he remained for the rest of his life.

From then on he was a teacher and published poems in a variety of periodicals in Eretz Yisroel. His first book, “Drops,” was published in 1927 by K'tuvim Publishers. His second book, “Poems and Prayers”–by D'var. His third book, “The Book of Poems and prayers,” appeared in 1942, also from D'var, with The help of the Bialik Institute. Shortly after, The Bialik Institute put out a new book of Temkin's poems, “The Voice of Balm.” Temkin's poems were translated into German, English, Polish, and Yiddish. He also translated a number of works of world literature.

Born in 1884. His childhood years consisted of contentment and joy. He was raised in the court of his grandfather, who lived like a lord and had his own stable of horses, along with orchard keepers and gardeners. The young Moshe grew up differently from other Jewish children. He learned to ride horses, catch birds and doves, and play in gardens and on roofs.

At age 5 he began to study in cheder and later in yeshiva. When he grew up, he studied European languages with a teacher who came from Paris and Versailles.

When Zionist ideas began to take hold in Siedlce, Temkin threw himself wholeheartedly into Zionist

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work. After the pogrom in 1906, at the time of the Second Aliyah, he went to Eretz Yisroel and worked in different settlements in the Galilee and Judea. There, too, he began his writing career. He served as secretary on the weekly “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza'ir.” Shortly thereafter he left his town and came to Hadera where he worked in an olive grove. From there he went to Kinneret in order to work on creating a national farm, on which he later worked as a watchman. His later destinations were Jaffa and Jerusalem, where he gave private lessons and prepared to go to university.

At that time Temkin published his first stories and feuilletons in the newspaper “Ha–Achdus,” which was edited by Ben Zvi, who later became president of Israel, and Y. Zerubavel.

In 1911 Temkin began to study medicine in the French University in Beirut. The First World War forced him to interrupt his studies and return to Eretz Yisroel.

During the bloody events of 1920, Temin was one of the founders of the self–defense and a committee member together with Z. Jabotinski, Y. Ben Zvi, Rokhel Yanis, and Von Priesland.

In 1922, Temkin returned to Beirut to study and he received his doctor's diploma. After finishing his studies, he returned to Eretz Yisroel, where he specialized in studying malaria, published articles in “Ha–Sh'loakh,” which was edited by Y. Klausner, wrote articles in French about malaria and typhus in the French “Revu Malaria Topicale” and in “Ha–Refuah” and in “Ha–Rofeh Ha–Ivri.”

In 1936 his first book, “The Infected Motherland”–a novel–appeared. In 1937 he published several works, such as “Those Who Go to Death Asking about your Welfare”–a novel about the Tel Khai events–“The Young Woman from the Valley,” two stories and treatises in pamphlets about Shaul Tchernichovski and Brenner. In “Echo of Jerusalem” almost every Friday he published articles under the pseudonym “Shemen.”

Temkin also left a number of works in manuscript.

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Yakov Tenenboym

Born in 1882. In his young years he was a Bundist, later an anarchist, and finally a folkist. He was arrested at the time of the Siedlce pogrom and held in prison for a long period, because the Siedlce police chief thought he was a dangerous revolutionary. Some years later he was an informal doctor and was popular in the whole town. He read and studied a great deal, and in his encounters at public gatherings he demonstrated his familiarity with philosophy. In Siedlce he received the nickname “Nietzsche.” He was among the first members of “Ha–Zamir” and the library and was for a long time the chair of “Jewish Art.”

His literary activities he began in the second issue of the “Siedlce Word.” Later he collaborated on the “Siedlce Echo” and “Siedlce Life.”

When the “Siedlce Vochenblat” began publication in 1922, Yakov Tenenboym was a constant collaborator. With the numerous feuilletons that he published, he brought life to the paper. He was one of the editors of the “Vortzlen,” which began to appear from “Orient” Publishers in 1927.

Tenenboym was also a lover of Yiddish theater. People enjoyed his performances, particularly in “Mazel Tov” by Sholem Aleichem. He also wrote the following pieces: “Shiva for a Horse,” a comedy in three acts that shows the life of a wagon driver in a good–humored way; “The Skeleton,” a drama in three acts. He directed the dramas “For our Beliefs” and “God of Vengeance” by Sholem Asch, Basha the Orphan” by Y Nordau, as well as scores of one–actors, among them: “To Go to Ha–Zamir or Not,” which were performed at various locations in Siedlce.”

His end was tragic. At the time of the liquidation of the Siedlce ghetto in 1942, he was shot along with the medical personnel and the ailing in the courtyard of the Jewish hospital. He was carrying out his duties for the ill.

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Shimon Czarnabrada

Born in Siedlce and traveled to the United States. Community activist and collector of historical material about the Jews in America and in various settlements in Poland. He published in the anthologies “Polish Jews “ edited by Z Tigel and issued by the “Federation of Polish Jews in America” and in scores of issues of the Siedlce Vochenblat.” He died in New York on November 27, 1945.

He was the son of the well–known Siedlce book dealer R. Moyshe and a grandson of R. Yitzchak Lifshitz, author of “Canopy of Peace,' “Tastes of our Traditions,” and other books. Little Sholem grew up in this bookish environment. As a boy he studied in the beis–hamedresh and in a variety of yeshivas. He impressed people with his sharp wit and was considered an elui [a genius], a scholar learned and proficient in “Orthodox polemical literature,” such as “The Generation of the Rishonim” by Eizik Halevi. He was also versed in Jewish history.

After 1915, Sholem Yellen became active in community and cultural life. He was among the founders of “T'vunah,” and at the time of the split in 1917, he founded in Siedlce the “Shlomei Emunei Yisroel” (later called “Agudas Yisroel”).

His literary activities arose when a bitter battle broke out in Siedlce between the Orthodox and the free thinkers..

A group of active businessmen from the “Agudas Yisroel” movement began in 1924 to issue an Orthodox weekly paper under the title “Our Way.” Sholem Yellen became the editor and administrator of the paper.

He wielded a sharp pen. He fought with the purest intentions to be persuasive.

In the Second World War he was killed by the Nazis.

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Asher Liverant

Asher Liverant taught himself Hebrew and founded in Siedlce a chapter of the community “Dovrei Sfas Ever.” He was active on behalf of the “Lovers of Zion” committee from Odessa. When the Keren–Kayames L'Yisroel was created, Liverant was the most active member; later he helped to establish the Hebrew evening courses. He was also one of the founders of the Siedlce Tarbus school.

In 1922 Liverant collaborated on the “Siedlce Vochenblat,” later becoming the editor–in–chief. In the paper he called on the Jewish community to fight for the existence of the Jewish minority in Poland and for the independence of Eretz Yisroel.

Liverant impressed with his fine virtues: a desire to learn, constancy, good–heartedness, and understanding for everyone he encountered.

He died on March 11, 1936 after a long, difficult illness.

Born in 1895 to Chasidic parents. He received a traditional education in cheders and yeshivas. When he was fourteen, he received a rabbinical certificate. Meanwhile, however, he began in secret to study Hebrew, Tanach, and forbidden books.

A group of writers and members of the dramatic sector Seated from right to left: Rozensumen, Goldberg, Mastboym, and Tenenboym Standing from right to left: Mandelman, Saposhnikov, Zigelvaks, and Slushna

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From 1912 on, Mandelman worked in the Jewish library in Siedlce, and during the German occupation he was very active in the development of “Jewish Art.”

In 1916, Mandelman joined the Folks Party, worked actively in Siedlce and the vicinity and was elected to the central committee. At the same time, he was one of the enthusiastic builders of the secular Jewish school system. In the fall of 1917, he helped to establish the first Jewish folk school and children's home in Siedlce.

In the summer of 1918 he tore himself away from Poland and went to Kiev (Ukraine), which sparkled with a lively Jewish life. It was a time of Jewish national cultural autonomy in Ukraine, led by a Jewish ministry.

The minister of Jewish affairs, Latzki–Bertholdi, grew close to him, and Mandelman became one of the managers of the of the famous “Jewish Folk Publishers,” which over the course of two years of tragic conditions caused by pogroms and political events issued cores of valuable volumes.

Mandelman was also active in the central committee in collecting materials about the pogroms in Ukraine. Several times, at great personal sacrifice, Mandelman rescued these materials from destruction. They were later, at the beginning of the twenties, taken to Berlin under the supervision of the prominent historian Y. Tcherikower.

In Kiev Mandelman studied in the local teachers seminar under the leadership of the famous pedagogue H.Ch. Fialkov and the historian Ben–Tzion Dinur (Education Minister in Israel). At the same time he was also active in the Kiev culture league and in the literary club.

In 1920 Mandelman returned to Poland. He took an active role in organizing in Warsaw the culture league and the “Tzisho” (the Central Jewish School Association), and he participated in the first school convention in June of 1921.

In 1921 he became a delegate of the Folks Party in Baranovicz, where he presided over the whole area of the then popular “Ukrainian Jewish Committee for Repatriation and Emigration.” He organized in several places a group of handworker parties, and at the time of the elections for the Polish Sejm in 1922, he represented the Folks Party for the whole region.

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At the party conference at the beginning of 1923, Mandelman was elected general secretary of the Folks Party. Simultaneously he assumed a prominent spot in the central organization of the handworkers' union.

In fall of 1925, at the request of the “Tzisho,” he took over leadership of the Jewish school in Siedlce. He also helped to organize the Jewish secular schools in Mezrich, Lukow, and Sololov, towns neighboring on Siedlce.

In the fall of 1929, “Tzisho” gave him the mission to act as travelling proponent for the school ideology and to arrange for the maintenance of the schools. During the next ten years, until the outbreak of the Second World War, Mandelman many times traveled to hundred of cities and towns in Poland and twice to the Baltic, Scandinavian, and southwest European countries. On these journeys, Mandelman delivered hundreds of talks and lectures.

In 1931, after resigning from all of his positions in the Folks Party, Mandelman joined the Bund. He worked also for the Bundist “Folks Newspaper,” where he wrote about school and cultural matters. In the years 1938–39, he published in that paper interesting travel impressions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. His articles also appeared from time to time in the “Tzisho” journal “School System.” Mandelman was also closely associated with YIVO since its earliest days. On his travels he collected a great deal of material for the philological–folklorist section of YIVO.

During a short stay in Vilna–Kovno at the time of the Second World War in 1939–40, Mandelman did intense work for YIVO and created significant resources, which became the only income for YIVO.

In spring of 1941 Mandelman arrived in America. He published in the New York “Tog” a series of articles, impressions of the Red Cross. For five years, Mandelman worked on the Jewish Encyclopedia under Dubnow.

In 1946–57, at the request of YIVO, he visited the largest cities in America and Canada.

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Starting in the fall of 1947 he was active in the “Jewish Cultural Congress,” organized the chapters in Chicago., Los Angeles, and Detroit, visited scores of other cities in the United States and Canada for publicity and fundraising.

On the tenth anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw he published the pamphlet “Holiness and Heroism, Faith and Trust” through the publisher M.N. Stein, Chicago.

Born the second of Adar, 1884 in Mezrich, which was then part of the Siedlce guvernia. Received a traditional cheder education. From childhood demonstrated a talent for art, writing, and music.

As a child, he left Mezrich for Siedlce, along with his parents.

Starting at 15, he learned house painting, which for a long time served as his source of income.

In later years Mastboym left Siedlce and settled in Warsaw. There he began to publish his stories. His first story, “Yerahmielke the Shochet,” was published in “Der Veg,” under the editorship of Zvi Prilutzki. Dovid Frishman recognized the new talent and published his creatios in “R'shafim,” which he edited. Mastboym was also active in Warsaw's “Ha–Zamir.”

In 1912 Mastboym's first book–“Sketches and Pictures”–appeared from Shumin Publishers in Warsaw. In 1917 he published a dramatic poem, “A Melody.”

In the years 1919–22 Mastboym lived in London and worked on “Di Tzeyt.” Returning to Poland, he published the works: “Three Generations,” “Abroad,” “On Foreign Paths,” and “Pioneers,” collaborated on “Moment,” “The Lodz Daily,” “The Lodz Folksblat,” “Nosz Przeglad,,” “Nowi Dziennik,” “Chwila.” He travelled around Poland and later put out his book “Galicia.”

In 1933 Mastboym settled in Tel Aviv. He works for “Ha–Aretz,” and issues his works in Hebrew translation: “Khalil Ha–Tzuanim,” “B'Mafteach,” both translated by Y Koyfman (Tel Aviv), “Dirah shel M'ritah” and “Ha–Khaim Ha'Adumim,” translated by A Mitus.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Mastboym was in Poland, which he had to flee before Poland was taken over by the Germans. He published his experiences in his book “Sixty Days in Hitler's Poland, published by “Dvar.”

Later Mastoym put out the first volume of his novel “Ha–Shloshah”–translated by Y Aliav. The Yiddish original came out in London under the title “Strength from the Earth.” The first part of his autobiography, “My Stormy Years,” published in Buenos Aires by “Polish Jewry,” was translated by Yitzchak Caspi into Hebrew and published by “Yavneh.” The second section of his autobiography is “On the Ladder,” published in installments in “The Latest News.”

Born in 1897. His father, Moyshe–Mordechai, was once a wealthy merchant, but later he became poor and had to turn to teaching.

Neumark learned from his father and in other cheders, Talmud–Torahs, and yeshivas.

At 16 he took to reading “outside books” and gave talks in Hebrew. At about the same time he began to write, sending articles to Yiddish and Hebrew papers. Around 1910, together with some friends, he put out a Hebrew newspaper called “The Young Jew.” The writer Meir Karana also participated.

In 1911 he was a co–creator of the first published Yiddish newspaper in Siedlce–“The Siedlce Vort,” “Siedlce Life,” and the “Siedlce Echo.”

Already in 1912 he associated ideologically with the Jewish workers' movement, but not confined to a single party. Only in 1015 did he join the “Bund,” in which he remains active even now.

At the beginning of the twenties he

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edited the Bundist daily “The Worker's Voice” in Lemberg while at the same time collaborating in the Bundist press of Warsaw. He became a member of several party factions. From 1925 until the outbreak of the Second World War he was the co–editor of the Bundist “Folks Newspaper.” Before the war he wrote a large book (320 pages), “60 Years of Zionism,” the result of several years of work.

Because of the war's outbreak, the book was not published.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Neumark escaped from Warsaw to Vilna, from there to Kovno, Japan, and in 1941 he came to Canada, where he carried on his journalistic work in the “Forward,” and in the Bundist “Our Time,” as well as in an array of journals in New York, Mexico, Paris, and Israel.

Born in Siedlce. Left the city at the time of the First World War. Published poems in the New York “Freiheit.” In her forties she published her book “Nitzachon.”

Sister of Chana Safrin. Published poems in the New York newspaper “Der Tog.”

Born the third of Sivan, 1909. Studied in cheders and on a pioneer agricultural farm in Czenstokhow, received a certificate and became active in “Ha–Shomer Ha–Tza'ir” and in the pioneer movement at the time of the Zionist demonstrations in Siedlce against the bloody event of August in Eretz Yisroel (August, 1929). Gottesdiener was injured by the police. Later he left Siedlce and lived in Vienna and London. There he met Ch. N. Bialik and became his private secretary. He came to Eretz Yisroel in 1931 and began to write for “D'var,” “Al Ha–Mishmar,” “Ha–Dor,” “Ha–Poeel Ha–Tsa'ir,” “Moznayim,” “Glionot,” “Gazit.” He signed his articles with a variety of pseudonyms, such as M. Eyin–Ro'I, Y. Ro'ani, M.D. Ahimin, Yakov Ish–Tam, “M.E.R.” “Mel–ayin.” Collaborated on “Dorot” and “Ha–Doar.”

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In the years 1936–47, on “Ha–Olam” as editor of the statistical section of the publication of the Histadrus, Kupas Cholim.

His books, “Adam Ba–Khutz” (Masada, 1940–41) and “Mipi Bialik” (Basada, 1949–50), were well–received by critics. Soon a book of his stories will appear: “Tachana Achas.”

Born June 2, 1891. He received his education in cheder, later in the Siedlce yeshiva, which was led by R. Dovid–Yitzchak Mendziszetzki.

Yakov–Hersh's father was a Chasid and his mother was an extraordinarily religious woman. His parents were certain that their son would be a great scholar. Already in the yeshiva Fishman began to wrote about community concerns. When the library opened in Siedlce, young Fishman became a “resident” there. Yiddish literature–Mendele Moycher Sforim, Feierberg, Asch, and others–greatly affected him. At the same time, he began to read Hebrew books and learned Russian and Polish.

Fishman in 1911 published his first story in the “Siedlice Vort.” Later he participated in the local publication “The Siedlce Echo,” edited by Y. Tenenboym. Around 1913, in Warsaw, he published two stories. They were published: one in Alexander Farbe's collection in honor of Chanukah, “Little Lights,” and the second in a collection in honor of Shavuos, “Spring.” The second story he signed with his real name.

During the First World War, Fishman remained in Siedlce and worked for “Ha–Zamir,” and he became active in the literary division. In 1911, he enrolled in the Bund and became active in the professional movement in Siedlce, Bialystok, and later also in Warsaw. In 1919 he left Siedlce and settled in Warsaw. After 1930 published numerous stories. In 1938 appeared a book of stores called “Summer Days.”

At the beginning of the Second World War, when the Germans occupied Siedlce

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Fishman fled to Vilna, which was still under Lithuanian control. There he issued a large collection called “On the Way.” Later he made his way to Japan, where he worked on the Russian monthly magazine “Yevreiskaya Szisn.” At the end of 1941 he came to Shanghai. In 1948 he issued a book of stories, “Wandering Jews.” In that same year, Fishman emigrated to Canada and there worked on the “Canadian Eagle.” Later he moved to the United States, where he is preparing a new book of stories.

Born in 1905. His father, R. Yosef–Dovid, was a fervently religious Jew, a fanatic and a learned man. Moyshe grew up in a Torah environment. From childhood on he impressed with his good memory. Before his bar mitzvah he had already learned the Talmud. The agadah [the narrative sections of the Talmud] greatly affected the young Fishman and awoke in him the creative spirit of the later novelist.

When he was 15 or 16, he began to be skeptical about religious matters and he started to read and to study everything that he could: Zohar and “Shomer” {penname of Nahum Meir Schaikewitz, a well–known Yiddish writer], Dinezon and Mickiewicz, Shenkewicz and “The Guide for the Perplexed”–everything was food for his spiritual hunger. Together with a pair of friends, Fairman secretly studied with a paid tutor to prepare for a test for the fifth class of the gymnasium. Two years later he passed the test and enrolled in the Poznan teachers' school in Warsaw. While he was still young, he attempted to write. He maintained that this was his inheritance–his grandfather had left behind a manuscript of a book about the laws of slaughtering, and his father had written insights into the Torah. His first work in Hebrew was an interpretation of the Chumash. Later he assembled all the cures presented in the Talmud, organized them according to the illnesses, and published them in a book called “The Cures of Moses.” At fifteen he began to write poems. In the Poznan school he wrote poems in Polish.

In 1921, Fairman left Poland for America. In New York he studied education with the intention of working

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in Jewish pedagogical settings. Under the influence of M. Algin, K. Mirmar, and Sh Niger, who were then teachers in the program, Fairman began to write short stories in Yiddish. His first story, “My First Revolutionary Deed,” was published in 1922 in “Cinderella” (the journal of the Workers' Circle School). Later he published stories in the “Morgen Freiheit” and in newspapers. To this period belong the stories “In the Shop,” “The Little Black Boy,” “The Fly,” “Getzl,” “We Need a Union,” “Wandering Souls.” “Wandering Souls” won the admiration of critics. Leib Malach, in a publication from Buenos Aires,” wrote that only because of the story “Wandering Souls,,” it was worth giving a literary prize.

In 1926, Fairman passed an examination at Columbia University and became a pharmacist.

Around 1928 he finished writing a novel in three sections, called “Abie Yedman.” He the first volume, he described Siedlce; although the name of the city is never given, one can easily recognize it.

The novel was never published.

After Fairman wrote the novel, he lost interest in it. In 1933 he began to write stories in English, and in 1947 he published a novel in English: “Man's Heart Is Evil.”

Born in 1895 to a distinguished scholarly family that derived its pedigree from generations of scholars, rabbis, and geonim. From childhood on he was distinguished by several attributes. By nine years of age he had already studied by himself Gemara with Tosafos. He was orphaned as a child and raised under the supervision of his grandfather, his mother's father–R. Yosl Mordechilis, a great scholar. At ten he was sent to study in the Minsk–Mazowitzk yeshiva, which was overseen by the local rabbi. At twelve his grandfather sent him to study in Slutzk, in Minsk Guvernia, in the yeshiva of the famous gaon R. Issur–Zalman Meltzer. There he was called a Polish genius. Under the influence of friends, he began to read Hebrew literature, and in secret

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he studied Russian and began to write satirical stories in Hebrew. But he did not let that interrupt his yeshiva studies.

After studying in Slutzk for six years, at eighteen he received rabbinical ordination from his rabbi, R. Issur–Zalman Meltzer.

At the time of the First World War he was in Siedlce. At the end of 1919 he left Siedlce for Israael. He worked as a builder in Haifa. When the “Work Battalion” of Y. Trumpeldor was created, he enlisted in the Jerusalem squad. In Eretz Yisroel he wrote for “Ha–Poel Ha–Tza'ir” and in the battalion journal “Me–Chayenu.”

In 1927, Corona left Eretz YHisroel for Mexico. For many years he ran a publishing house, until heart disease in his forties forced him to stop.

In Mexico, his three books of stories appeared: “Heimishe Mentschen,” “Tzeitn,” and “In the Stream of Life.” in manuscript–a completed novel, “Back Home.”

Meir's brother, born in 1900. Became active in the Siedlce Poalei–Tzion–Youth Organization. In December, 1918, was a delegate to the conference of the Poalei–Tzion Party, held in Warsaw.

At the beginning of 1920, Mordechai Corona made aliya to Eretz Yisroel. There he took part in the workers movement and was a member of the Haifa Workers Council and a judge in the local Histadrus Court.

In 1925 Corona left Eretz Yisroel and settled in Mexico, where he helped to organize the “League for Building Eretz Yisroel” and was a member of the local Jewish school and president of the pedagogical council.

At the time of the Second World War, he edited the newspaper “Freivelt.” Later he was regular collaborator on the Mexican newspaper “Der Veg.” He wrote for various periodicals and for the local Poalei–Tzion paper “Dos Vort.”

In 1951 he traveled through Europe and

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Israel. His travel impressions appeared in Mexico a year later in a large book called “From Mexico to Eilat and Back.”

Born in 1914. His father, R. Avraham Yehuda, was a well–known grain merchant in Siedlce and a very religious businessman. Dov received a strictly religious education. He studied in cheders and in the Skernievicz study house with the famous scholar R. Asher–Gedaliah Goldberg. At 17, he began to play an active role in “Poalei–Agudas–Yisroel.” He left Siedlce and instead of going to study in the Yeshiva of the Scholars of Lublin, as his scholarly father had requested, he went to Warsaw and worked in knitted goods. After a short time he joined training kibbutz for “Poalei Agudas Yisroel” and together with the first group of pioneers from this organization, in the month of Shevat, 1934, he came to Eretz Yisroel. After working for a time in orchards and as a carpenter in construction, he became private secretary to the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, R. M. A. Amiel, for whom Rozen worked until the rabbi's death. Rozen was also the chief secretary of the “Reshet Ha–Chinuch Ha–Talmudit” (the Talmudic education network composed of a number of yeshivas from Rabbi Amiel's foundation).

Rozen was also involved with publicity work and published articles in the Orthodox press: “Ha–Tzofah,” “Ha–Y'sod,” “N'tivah,” “Sha'arim,” and in other collections. Because of ideological differences he left the “LPoalei Agudas Yisroel” and around 1937 he joined “Ha–Poal Ha–Mizrachi.” In 1945, for the 200th anniversary of R. Shneur–Zalman of Liadi, Rozen (using the pseudonym D. Zeira) published a pamphlet called “The Master of the Tanya, and in 1950 a second pamphlet (using the same pseudonym) called “Progress Begets Progress.”

Since the establishment of the state of Israel, Rozen has worked in a responsible position in the Ministry of the Interior and has published in the journal “Ha–Shalton Ha–M'komi B'Yisrael” articles about work in the local self–managing committees. His short publication, “Oved Ha–M'dinah v'Ha–ezrach,” a kind of “Shulchan Aruch” for civil servants, appeared in 1950 and attracted great attention.

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Shlomo Rozen

After arriving in Eretz Yisroel, Rozen joined a kibbutz associated with Hao–Poal–Ha–Mizrachi in Kfar Pins. He worked in the saffron fields and the woods of Hadera. In the spring of 1943 he was among the first settlers in Kfar Etzion. He was the director of the greenhouse and was active in community and cultural life. In 1943, his book “Mitoch Ha–Mapolet,” where he describes Siedlce and its surroundings at the time of the First World War. Rozen also published article in “Ha–Hod” and in other papers. He fought in the defense of Kfar Etzion, and he fell in battle along with his comrades.

Born in 1895. Simcha received a strictly religious education. When he grew older, he began to take interest in Hebrew literature and adopted Zionist thought. In 1906, after the pogrom in Siedlce, he

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made aliyah to Eretz Yisroel, entered a teachers course from “Ezrah” in Jerusalem. After several years in Eretz Yisroel, he left, spending time in Turkey, and finally he came to America, where he worked as a Hebrew teacher. He published articles in a variety of periodicals in Hebrew and he assembled Hebrew chrestomathies. He edited a paper for young people called “Ha–Do'ar La–No'ar.”

Born the 22^nd of Shevat, 1901 in Zagreb. His father was also a rabbi. Rabbi Meir Schvartzman studied in cheders and yeshivas and received a prestigious rabbinical ordination. In 1924 he became a Siedlcer's son–in–law when he married Miss Chava, the daughter of Avraham–Yitzchak Yablan and settled in Siedlce.

For several years, Rabbi Schvartzman was the chief collaborator on the Orthodox weekly “Unzer Veg,” and he also collaborated on all of “Agudas–Yisroel's” papers and magazines, such as “Der Jud,” “Yidishe Tageblat,” “Degelnu,” and “Drachenu.” He was a gifted speaker and visited many Polish cities. In Siedlce he put together chrestomathies for the students in the “Beis–Yakov” school with the titles “Lilies” and “The Old Grandmothers.” There he also organized a group of religious young zealots known as “Fighters in the Wars of God.”

Rabbi Schvartzman took a position of leadership in “Agudas Yisroel.” He visited the greatest religious communities in Poland, Galicia, and Volhynia, where he organized “Beis–Yakov” schools. He participated in Orthodox congresses and visited many European cities: Vienna, Marienbad, Chernovitz, Iasi, Cracow, Amsterdam, Zurich, Basel, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Strasbourg, where he met with all the Orthodox leaders.

In his youth he wrote poems that were published in many Orthodox magazines. Every Shabbos, like a learned Jew, he would study with a crowd.

In 1938, Rabbi Schvartzman settled in Canada. He served as a rabbi in Cornwall and later as the director of the Talmud Torah “Etz Chaim” in Toronto, and in 1948 as a rabbi in Winnipeg.

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Rabbi Schvartzman collaborated on many newspapers in America and Canada, such as “Dos Yidishe Vort” (Winnipeg), “The Canadian Eagle” (Montreal), “Canadian News” (Toronto), “Der Tog,” “The Morning Journal” (New York), “Ha–Modiyah” (Jerusalem), and “She–arim” (Tel Aviv).

In 1942 he published a book “Meir Ayney Y'sharim,” a collection of interpretations on the Five Books of Moses. By 1950 there were five volumes. In 1945 his book of Hebrew poems, “Buds,” was published by Netzach in Jerusalem, and in 1946, his book “Our Holy Days” appeared.

Rabbi Schvartzman is a member of the Orthodox rabbinical association in America and a member of the rabbinical committee in Winnipeg.

Born in 1913 in a small shtetl called Selsz, near Kartuz Bereza. He received a secular education in the “Tarbus” school. After graduation, he entered the Hebrew teacher's academy in Vilna. He graduated in 1931 and soon was hired as a teacher in Siedlce, where he worked until 1933. In Siedlce, Hillel Sh'khori was busy with cultural work, and led a group in speaking Hebrew, for which he would consider problems and methods of Hebrew literature. He began to issue a monthly paper called “Ha–Bris.” At first it was hectographed and later printed. He paid the expenses of the paper out of his own pocket.

In 1933, Sh'khori decided to go to Eretz Yisroel. He left his teaching post and went to a pioneer training camp in Grokhov, near Warsaw. Every day Sh'khori did hard physical labor, and at night he edited the daily kibbutz bulletin, wrote propaganda pamphlets and wall posters.

In March of 1938 made an illegal journey to Eretz Yisroel. He soon joined the kibbutz in Ramas Ha–Kovesh, where he worked devotedly. At the time of the bloody unrest in Eretz Yisroel, on August 4, 1938, when Sh'khori and seven companions were returning from work in a nearby kibbutz in their truck, they were attacked by an armed Arab band

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that ambushed them. Their vehicle was destroyed and Sh'khori and his friends were killed on the spot.

Born in 1912. His rather, R. Avraham, gave him a secular and religious education. He studied in cheders and with private tutors. Later he studied in the government teachers school for teaching Jewish religion (in the Poznan area) and he graduated. In 1937 he emigrated to the United States. He published his prose and poetic creations in the “Tzukunft” and other papers. Most recently he has been active in New York as a teacher of Yiddish and Hebrew.

With this spiritual and social make–up, the great Hitler destruction began for Jewish Siedlce. With the arrival of September 1, 1939, the destruction began.

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