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Volkovysk was a vibrant town with much community activity, and had many people who were activists, important balebatim, and interesting personalities who put their stamp on the town and its development. In all the memoirs submitted for this book, there are portraits of a variety of Volkovysk personalities – dreamers and builders of our beloved home town. Nevertheless, there remain many of Volkovysk's doers, and unique personalities that have not been described for this book – simply because there was no one to be found who could do the writing. I will, therefore here briefly portray a number of Volkovysk personalities, a number of whom I personally knew, and a number for whom I received reliable information.

Nakhum Heller and his wife Hinde

The name of Reb Nakhum (Nakheh) Heller was especially held in esteem in Volkovysk. During the last years of his life, he was considered by Volkovysk Jews to be a sort of Angel of Redemption, a mystery man from afar. He lived in faraway Berlin, and yet his heart beat so warmly and loyally for the needy and helpless of his home town.

Thousands of strands tied and bound Volkovysk to this great philanthropist all year long. Many legends encircled his luminous personality, woven from a silken pedigree, aristocratic and genteel; the name Heller shone brilliantly far and wide, and elicited feelings of respect and honor.

The name, Nakheh Heller was a symbol of great Jewish wealth and unbounded philanthropy, to the Volkovysk Jewish community, that grew in parallel. Nakheh Heller was a unique sort, a legendary Jewish magnate with a generous hand, that was never closed to anyone.

Nakheh Heller passed away at an advanced old age. For all his years, he led a far-flung lumber business on a grand scale. Hundreds of Jewish families were in the employ of his branches in Poland and other countries.

It was characteristic, that a position with Nakheh Heller was considered as secure as a government job. He never dismissed an employee, and at the time of the outbreak of the First World War, when borders were closed and transit across them was stopped, Nakheh Heller ordered his branches to continue paying monthly salaries as usual.

He lived in Volkovysk until the year 1892, and then moved to Warsaw. In 1889, he constructed the Jewish hospital in Volkovysk which was of great importance to the city. At the time, the impressive hospital was one of its kind in the entire Grodno province. It was furnished with all required equipment and supplies – linens, furniture, medical devices, an operating theater with many expensive modern pieces of equipment. Construction of the hospital cost about thirty thousand rubles – a very sizeable sum of capital for those days.

Nakheh Heller especially hired the local farm people to plant the large bounded area around the hospital with

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trees and all sorts of plants – a project that ran into a lot of money because of the any soil. When the Germans retreated from Volkovysk at the time of the First World War, they took all the expensive contents of the hospital with them, and left only the bare walls.

Nakheh Heller also established a “Bet Lekhem” (Free Kitchen) on the Schulhof, where poor children who attended Talmud Torah, up to the time of the First World War, would always receive a free breakfast and lunch.

From the year 1905 on, he lived in Berlin, from where he would send a couple of thousand zlotys every holiday season – as support for the poorer families to buy wood, potatoes, etc.

Being very attached to Volkovysk – Nakheh Heller showed an interest in the periodical, Volkovysker Leben and helped it out from time to time.

Nakheh Heller's wife Hinde was no less committed to Volkovysk than her husband, and she helped out the poor and needy of the city a great deal.

Above all, the Heller family was greatly respected and treasured in Volkovysk. The warm feelings that the Jewish Volkovysk residents had for the Hellers would surface whenever a tragedy or misfortune befell the Heller family, when one of its members would pass away. For example, it was in this fashion, that the entire city went into mourning when the news came from Warsaw (in 1929) that Horaczy Heller, son of Feivel Heller and a nephew of Nakheh Heller, passed away at the age of 57.

Horaczy Heller was the greatest lumber industrialist inn Poland, and was considered one of the richest men in the country. He concentrated in dealing with British firms. His lumber exports were so large that he was a force to be reckoned with in Polish government circles.

Horaczy Heller never broke off contact with his former home city of Volkovysk and participated by making large contributions to support Volkovysk institutions.

As soon as the Volkovysk Rabbi received telegraphic notification from Warsaw about the death Horaczy Heller, a whole contingent of representatives from Volkovysk institutions immediately departed for the funeral in Warsaw, led by the Rabbi and the president of the community, Mr. Bykovsky.

Eliyahu Shykevich

Mr. Shykevich was born in 1872 in a small shtetl in the Poltava province^[1], and received a traditional education in the Heders and also graduated with distinction from a Russian school in 1886.

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Because of the poor state of his father's health, Eliyahu was unable to continue his education, and already in his early youth, as the oldest child of the house, was required to run his parents' small business, in order to support his ailing father, his mother, and younger siblings. The father then passed away and the situation in the household worsened. The young Eliyahu was compelled to take a job in the commercial city of Romny, in a large manufacturing facility, in order to generate income for the orphaned family.

Eliyahu's youth, which was spent in a strenuous struggle to earn a living, influenced his entire life, and implanted in him a deeply rooted sympathy for the suffering of all needy people, and especially for solitary orphans. He never forgot that difficult period when he too was an orphan – and therefore later, when he became an independent man of means, he dedicated much of his time and energy to lightening the sad plight of poor orphans.

In the year 1893, when Eliyahu became 21 years old he began military service as a soldier, and he was sent to his post in Volkovysk – where, indeed, he later settled, married and became a permanent resident.

In time, Eliyahu Shykevich became friends with the lawyer, Chaim Ozer Einhorn, who apart from his law practice, also ran an agency of the St. Petersburg Fire Insurance Company. Because of his poor health, Chaim Ozer Einhorn was compelled to travel for several months to a sanatorium in the Caucasus, and he invited Shykevich to run the agency during the time he would not be in town. When Chaim Ozer Einhorn returned to Volkovysk, he found the business to be in top shape, and in addition the amount of insurance in force had increased. In the year 1907, after deciding to pull back from running the agency, he therefore proposed to the St. Petersburg company to turn the agency over to Eliyahu Shykevich. Shykevich then took over the agency, and ran it with great enthusiasm. In the year 1908, Shykevich received a second mandate from the Russian Transport and Fire Insurance Company, which he also organized well. He was also the founder of a sewing machine business.

Having set himself up well in material means, Mr. Shykevich immediately undertook a multi-faceted set of community activities. His first initiative in community affairs was the establishment of the Volkovysk Loan & Savings Society, which helped out those parts of the Jewish community who lacked means with loans.

At the time of the First World War, in the year 1915, on the eve of the German occupation of Volkovysk, Shykevich left for the Ukraine, the land of his birthplace. It was his good fortune to establish himself well in Dmitrikova, in the Chernigov province. However, these good times did not last long. The Russian revolution precipitated a bitter civil war, and there was a great deal of bloodshed and pogroms instigated against the Jews. Political power changed hands frequently – each one worse than the one before. The 126 Jewish families from Shykevich's new home lost their livelihoods. Commerce was forbidden; merchandise, that had not been hidden away, was ‘requisitioned.' The only way to survive was – collectivization. Here, Shykevich again demonstrated his brilliant organizational skills. He placed himself at the head of the cooperatives, and organized sections for each branch, and put those merchants in charge of those sections that matched their skills. In this manner, life gradually returned to normal.

Meanwhile, elections were held in Dmitrikova, and Shykevich was elected as a member of the community council, which afterwards elected Shykevich as the chairman of the community. Such a respected position, in those days was also accompanied by danger to one's life, because each government authority came with its own barbaric demands to the chairman of the community, and if these demands could not immediately be satisfied, the chairman would be identified as disloyal to the regime in power, and was sentenced to death.

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Shykevich also learned that a danger was lurking for him, and he decided to flee Dmitrikova, along with his wife and five children, and return to Volkovysk. In December 1920, after much difficulty, he was able to arrive safely with his family in Volkovysk.

A new period commenced in his life – both in the field of commerce and on the community front. With his innate energy and skills, Shykevich – who before the war owned a sewing machine business – at the direction of the international firm Singer, in 1924 organized a Volkovysk branch of this world famous company in a superb fashion.

Shykevich was one of the founders of the Volkovysk Cooperative Merchant's Bank, who also helped the storekeepers, that didn't have means, with interest-free loans in order to enable them to obtain their annual selling permits (“patents”).

Through his sensitive handling of all the people with whom he came in contact – his many customers and employees – Shykevich attained a good name in the commercial world, and the Volkovysk Jewish community related to him with great respect and consideration.

Shykevich received a great deal of recognition for his many-faceted and committed public service. Shykevich was involved with many national and charitable institutions, and he did good work on behalf of the Zionist funds. He energetically implemented, during the winter of 1936-7 “Project Trees,” whose purpose was to supply the poor Jewish families with wood for the winter. But, the crown jewel of his community activity was his long years of work on behalf of the Volkovysk Orphanage, of which, in the end, he was the president. He put his entire soul in to this sacred work on behalf of these unfortunate orphans, his great loving heart, and he did not rest until he had put the orphanage on a higher level.

Shykevich himself – in a highly informative memoir, which he prepared for this Yizkor Book – portrayed the development of this important Volkovysk institution, in which he played a meaningful role. [Therefore] we will not dwell here on Shykevich's totally dedicated work for the Volkovysk Orphanage, and will satisfy ourselves with conveying the specific details (according to an article by David Novick in the Volkovysker Leben, Number 521) about the highly emotional evening of farewell that the administration of the orphanage arranged – along with personnel, friends and children from the institution – in August 1937, in honor of Mr. Shykevich, prior to his departure for the Land of Israel:

The hall of the orphanage was full of all manner of specially invited people, men, women, old and young, and among them the children of the orphanage, and many of them who at one time grew up there and had been independent for a long time.

The evening was opened by the chairman of the event, Mordechai Giller, who read a written greeting from the Volkovysk rabbi, Rabbi Yitzhak Rubinovich, and a greeting from the Senior Committee in Bialystok. Farewell remarks were given by: the previously mentioned Mordechai Giller, the community leader Salistovsky, who offered his farewells to E. Shaikevitz on behalf of the entire Jewish Volkovysk populace, and also as president of the Merchant's Bank, A. Smazanovich, A. Bliakher, the teacher, A. Lev. All of the speakers portrayed the great expenditures made by Eliyahu Shaikevitz on behalf of the institution.

In the midst of these greetings, a gold medal was given to Shykevich by M. Zelitsky, on behalf of the Orphanage organization.

He was also given a handsomely printed certificate that was read for everyone by Giller.

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A highly touching moment came when one of the oldest children, Mereh^[2] Ehrlach said farewell, in the name of the children, to their friend who had committed himself to their welfare for so many years, and in this fashion expressed their gratitude, longing, and hope to meet up with him in the Land of Israel.

The moment was impressive when the House Mother of the Orphanage, Gittl Ein, presented Shykevich with a beautiful album containing photographs of the children who had grown up in the institution and also of the children who were still there. Of greatest interest in the album, were pictures of orphans who had themselves married and now had children of their own.

A deeply-moved Mr. Shykevich replied to all of the greetings he received, and thanked everyone for their recognition and regard for his effort and for their good wishes. Shykevich also promised, that he will not terminate his relationship with his dearest life's-work, the institution, and that he will also0 continue his work in the Land of Israel for the children of the orphanage, and would exert himself to bring them there.

The farewell evening, so full of praise, came to a conclusion with applause, and singing by the children

In the Land of Israel as well, Mr. Shykevich demonstrated his very much needed community activity, and he most likely would have been able to make good on his word to bring the children of the orphanage to the Land of Israel, if the Second World War had not broken out, which brought death and extermination to all Volkovysk Jews and along with them the poor orphans, Eliyahu Shykevich's beloved children.

To this day Shykevich, at the age of 77 years, is very active on many fronts in the burgeoning life in Israel, and he occupies the position of President of the Volkovysk Society in Israel (Irgun Olei Volkovysk).

Translator's footnotes:

1. In the Ukraine. Return
2. A variant of Mireh, a nickname for Miriam. Return

Rabbi Abraham Zalman Kurtz

During the time of the First World War, Rabbi Abraham Zalman Kurtz did a great deal on behalf of the impoverished Volkovysk Jewish populace. Immediately at the outbreak of the war in 1914, there remained

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in Volkovysk many needy families, the wives and children of soldiers who went away to the front, and Rabbi Abraham Zalman Kurtz – along with Joseph Rudy and other balebatim – organized a low cost commissary store, in the home of Yoss'l der Birrer (Berestovitsky), on the Church street. The funds for this undertaking came from donations made by the balebatim of the city.

Later, in 1915, when the Germans began to occupy the environs and many Jews fled their homes and traveled through Volkovysk on the way deep into Russia, Rabbi Kurtz organized a committee, who would receive these displaced persons at the train station, and bring them food and other necessities. One of the leading activists on this committee was Gedaliah Pereshetsky, the Tailor. The following also joined the committee: Joseph Rudy, Herschel Sufris, a grandson, a Son of Kalman Galiatsky, Lisa Einhorn-Kharakh, and others.

After the Germans occupied Volkovysk in the time of the First World War, there was a shortage of bread in Volkovysk, and the peasants used this opportunity to raise their prices for grain – and this had a deleterious effect on the condition of the impoverished Jewish Volkovysk population. At that point, Rabbi Kurtz – together with Joseph Yunovich (Yoss'l Tamara's) – went to the magistrate and negotiated that the magistrate should allocate fifty pood^[1] of corn for the baking of bread which would then be sold at low prices. This undertaking was so well received, that the magistrate allocated several hundred additional pood of grain to these energetic activists, and they distributed bread to the populace, Jews and Christians [alike]. At the price of three kopecks a pound, 468 families received rations of bread. As the peasants saw the bread shortage ease a bit, and that the demand on them was not so intense, they lowered their high prices – and circumstances improved a great deal.

Rabbi Kurtz was one of the leading activists in the Linat Kholim and the hospital, and active in the orphanage, the project to provide wood in the winter, and in the Khevra Shas (A formal Talmud study group). He was also active in the Volkovysk organization Malbish Arumim, whose purpose was to provide clothing to the poor Jewish populace. In prior years, before the First World War, this organization – in which Zalman Leib Slutsky was very active – limited its work only to providing clothing for Talmud Torah children; however later, during the period of the German occupation at the time of the First World War, the organization greatly expanded its activity and looked after a wider segment of the poor Jewish populace. Thus, at that time, the group received nineteen hundred requests for shoes. Shmuel David Yunovich and Avreml Zakheim played a significant part in the work of the organization at that time. They collected donations in the city, and they personally bought leather from Avigdor Bloch and turned it over to Joseph Shipiatsky the Seamer, and then divided up the work among a number of shoemakers. All these workmen did this work at no cost or at very low prices. And it was in this fashion that the members of this organization were able to create the means by which to provide shoes to those who needed them.

A number of years after the First World War, in 1923, Rabbi Abraham Zalman Kurtz emigrated to America, where he occupies the pulpit in Rochester, New York – and he is also very active on the American scene in a variety of community and charity initiatives, and is well regarded by the Rochester community.

Translator's footnote:

1. A local unit of weight. Return

Sarah Perliss

Sarah the Fishmonger had a lady partner, Esther the Road Paver, and a male partner, Leibl the Fisherman, and she was very involved in her business; nevertheless she showed herself capable of raising a fine family. She also committed herself greatly to charitable work. She was intensely involved with “provisioning brides;” she would receive contributions and organize everything necessary for the weddings of poor young girls. She would help people in need, and she would provide daily meals in her home to poor children. Sarah would give fish free of charge to the regimental kitchen and for reception of guests, and for the old-age home.

In 1917, Sarah came to America with her husband and three children – to her other children, who were already living in Chicago. Sarah's husband later passed away in America.

In Chicago, Sarah the Fishmonger showed her community activism for the benefit of her home town, and founded the Chicago Volkovysk Ladies Society, that would remit between $1000-1200 to Volkovysk for a variety of charitable causes. In the founding of the Volkovysk Ladies Society in Chicago, she was already being assisted by her daughters: Frieda Berlinger, Lilian Rosenstone, Ziss'l (Sylvia) Louis and Hilda Liss. Among the other women who helped with the work of the Chicago Volkovysk Ladies Society were: Sarah Rivka Bart (A daughter-in-law of Ronya the Baker), Mrs. Michalsky, with her daughters, Masha Levin and Kayla Meizer, Lila Bart, Tzipa Geller, Becky Zeidel (Zerakh's daughter), Gussie Bain (A daughter of Isaiah the Beer Brewer), Mrs. Gandz, Lina Rimzon, Esther Popper, Martha Penn, Ida Solomon, Ida Getner, Tanya Rubinstein (One of Tzipa's daughters), Hinde Heitovsky, Esther Siegal, Sam Siegal, Sarah Leah Moskowitz, Tzil'yeh Levin and Henya Root.

Sarah Perliss is also active in various other Chicago charitable organizations, but first and foremost, but in the end, she gives her time and energy on behalf of her needy landsleit, the unfortunate victims of her beloved hometown of Volkovysk, which is now destroyed.

Bob'cheh Kilikovsky-Cohen

She raised an orphan in her own home until he married. In her later years, she emigrated to live with her children in America, and even in the new country, remained active in charitable causes. She helped establish an old-age home in Bayonne, NJ, where she lived with her daughter, Dob'eh Fink. She passed away in 1934 at the age of 81 years. The entire community of the city of Bayonne participated in her large funeral, where she was eulogized by Rabbi Chaim Siegel and two other Rabbis.

Bob'cheh's son, Hyman Cohen, who lives in New York, is the founder and President of the New York “Volkovysk Center,” and is very active in the aid work done for Volkovysk landsleit.

Moshe Shapiro

He passed away in the year 1929 in Warsaw. When this tragic news reached Volkovysk, the Volkovysk Zionist Organization held a special gathering to mourn, at which it was decided to bring the body of the deceased back to Volkovysk for burial in the Volkovysk cemetery. A funeral committee was appointed, which distributed notices of mourning throughout the city, and requested of all members and friends to pay their last respects to the deceased.

The deceased was brought to Volkovysk, and his funeral was attended by an extraordinarily large group of

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attendees. The casket was carried by pallbearers from the Zionist Organization for the entire distance from the train station to the cemetery. The procession was led by the students of the Hebrew School and of the Hertzeliya Gymnasium, of which the deceased was one of the founders. In the new Bet HaMedrash, he was eulogized by the Yerusalimskys, Zvi Inker and Ben Zion Lifschitz, who portrayed the loss that Volkovysk had sustained, with the passing of Moshe Shapiro, in touching words.

In Issue No. 100 of the Volkovysker Leben of that year, an article was printed by the Engineer, Ephraim Barash in memory of the deceased. Among other things, it says there: “This week, we escorted to his final resting place, the best, most dedicated and most loyal friend, Moshe Shapiro, ז”ל.

“We have lost not only a Zionist, an idealist, but a practical person who with his body and spirit was a committed activist on behalf of Zionist causes, especially the Zionist funds. His commitment to Zionism was self-understood: Zionism was integral to him, and was a part of him, and motivated him to work for his people and his Land.”

Reb Joseph Yerusalimsky

During his youth, he studied at the Yeshivas in Eishyshok, and Novogrudok, and was known as the Novogrudker Baki.^[1] He received his rabbinic ordination at the hands of some of the greatest of Gaonim, among them from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor, Rabbi Yekhiel Mikhal Epstein (author of Oraykh HaShulkhan), Rabbi Abraham Burstein (the Tavriker Rav), etc. He was a prodigious scholar, being a Baki in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, Poskim^[2], and Medieval Jewish Philosophy. He had a remarkable memory, and remembered everything that he had learned at one time. He knew the Tanakh by heart.

He was also a progressive thinker. He was well-acquainted with the new Hebrew and Yiddish literature, and also read the Russian and German literature in their original languages.

Apart from his education, he was a man of good deeds, self-effacing, and someone who satisfied himself with less rather than more. He never sought public acclaim, and never held himself aloof from the general populace. For this reason, common people held him in great regard. He was a man of progressive inclination, and for this reason, members of the radical parties related to him with great respect.

He came to Volkovysk as a ritual slaughterer in 1912, and won the respect of people from all walks of life in the Volkovysk Jewish populace. He studied Torah with the Jews in the Ein-Yaakov Schul, and he was also an

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active Zionist and spoke often at Zionist gatherings. He was quite a good orator, and he excelled in delivering eulogies which he gave at funerals of important Volkovysk personalities. He was also the Torah Reader of the Ein-Yaakov Schul.^[3] He was, for a time, a member of the Bialystoker Central Zionist Committee and he was sent to surrounding cities and towns to speak in front of Zionist audiences.

Reb Joseph Yerusalimsky passed away at the age of 63 – on March 16, 1936. At the time of his funeral, all the stores in the city were locked and shuttered. The Nazis murdered his wife, along with a daughter.

Of the remainder of his family – his two sons, and one daughter [are] in Israel. Another son, William Uris is in Philadelphia, where he, together with Noah Pines were co-founders of the Volkovysk relief organization in Philadelphia, which provided a great deal of support to surviving Volkovysk landsleit after the Second World War. His son, Dr. Eliezer Yerushalmi, was a teacher in Volkovysk, Volp and Sukhovolya. He later taught in Lithuania, ands was the Headmaster of the ORT school in Shavel. He survived difficult years in ghettoes and concentration camps during the years of the Nazi occupation, where incidentally, he gave himself over to the collection of archival documents, and himself kept a daily diary. Since the liberation, he lives in Italy, where he is the director of the Culture Department of the Central Committee of Jewish Refugees. There, he is also the Chairman of the writers organization, and a co-director of the literary journal, Der Gang as well as the correspondent for the Tel-Aviv daily newspaper, Davar.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The Hebrew word used to describe someone who was thoroughly versed in a subject, usually the Talmud. Another appellation was Harif, the Hebrew word for ‘sharp’ indicating superior analytical talent. Someone who was both a Harif and a Baki was considered exceedingly rare. Return
2. The Lawgivers of record, whose opinions formed the Jewish canon, or Halakha. Return
3. No small mental feat either, since it was the practice of the Reader to have committed the entire repertoire of musical notes, or trop, to memory. Return

Moshe Leib Khmelnitsky and his wife, Chana

Occupying himself with the Law, he came to everyone's assistance with his advice – both in word and in writing. Wherever there was a heavy heart, a quandary, a dispute – one went to Khmelnitsky. Because where else could one go and unburden one's self and be so well heard out, patiently for hours at a time, for no charge (and quite often just for a ‘thank you’) and leave with a stone removed from one's heart, if not at the good-natured Khmelnitsky's?

His urbanity and education did not stand in the way of him rising daily at 5 AM and go to the neighboring Lev's Bet HaMedrash, where he had for a time served as the Gabbai, and sit down and study a page of the Gemara out loud.

His death – in August 1928 – elicited great sorrow in Volkovysk, and several eulogies were delivered in his memory by Rav Yerakhmiel, the Yeshiva Head, Yerusalimsky (the Shokhet), L. Shaliota, and Y. Levin. Out of respect for the deceased, all the stores were closed during the large funeral.

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His wife, Chana, was also very popular and beloved in the city. She was active in many charitable organizations, especially being active for the benefit of the orphanage. After her husband died, she emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where her children live. She passed away there several years ago.

Zerakh Moshkovsky

He lived in his own house that he inherited from his wife's parents. Later on, he sold the house, and used the money to build a Schul on the New Street, Tiferet Bakhurim, and he became the Shammes.

His wife was named Sarah, and he was called Zerakh. He emigrated to America with his wife in 1910. In Chicago, where they lived for a longer period, they were known by the name, Moskowitz.

Tuvia Fenster

Tuvia Fenster, who lives today in Antwerp, wandered a great deal in his life, learned a great deal, and saw a great deal – and all this helped to enrich his talented, full personality. He belonged to a class of Jewish people that practically do not exist any longer in this generation: a progressive thinker of the old school, a scholarly sage, knowledgeable in European literature, and a man of good works.

Tuvia Fenster was born in the year 1864 in the village of Szumowo, near Lomza. He comes from a well connected, scholarly and business family. His uncle, Rabbi Chaim Leib, is the author of the book, Shaar Bet- Rabim, well-known in the scholarly world. Tuvia's father, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe was a forest products merchant – a well educated Jew, who was seasoned in worldly knowledge. Reb Yaakov Moshe would take Tuvia along on his business trips, and along the way, the father would study the Gemara with his son, and relate tales of Jewish life to him. On these trips, the young Tuvia had the opportunity to listen to and observe a wide variety of people – and this was of great value to him in his emotional development.

A pleasant impression – that had a great influence on him – remained with Tuvia from his youth: in 1876,

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his father, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe took a pleasure trip to the Land of Israel, and returning home in peace, he brought back presents for the family. In those days, [such a trip] was a rare occurrence – and the Hebrew periodical, Hatzefira, published in Warsaw, wrote about this trip. Many people from the surrounding area came to Reb Yaakov Moshe's in order to hear his wondrous descriptions about this risky trip that he made over the sea. Reb Yaakov Moshe subsequently wrote about his trip to the Land of Israel in a highly descriptive Hebrew.

Tuvia Fenster served as a soldier in Tambov in 1885, and in 1887 he arrived in Volkovysk as the son-in-law of the well-known merchant, Reb Yitzhak Aizik Edelbaum. Afterwards, he lived in Warsaw, and under the sponsorship of his father-in-law, near Suwalk. In the year 1895, he returned to Volkovysk, where he engaged in the forest products business, and banking. He traveled frequently to Russia and Finland on behalf of the fabric company which has developed considerably in the Volkovysk area, because the local management had appointed him as a representative of their fabric factories.

At the time of the First World War, there was a great crisis, and Tuvia Fenster lost his entire net worth. At that time, he left Volkovysk and lived in a variety of cities – Odessa, Archangelsk, and Moscow. In the year 1924, he arrived in Germany, where he lived for two years, and from there he went on to Belgium where he settled in Antwerp. There, he begins to write about the old Jewish way of life. He describes the silent Jewish souls in the local Yiddisher Presse: simple craftsmen, hewers of wood, and drawers of water – their joys and suffering, gentleness and goodness. He publishes several larger historical novels about Jewish life, works through the novel, David Alroee and gives lectures about different periods in Jewish history.

Tuvia Fenster enriches Jewish Antwerp not only with his words and writing, but also with his fine personality, with his proud aristocratic mein. Experts marvel at his “hobby” of painting. The renown Antwerp publisher, Plantain wants to purchase his “Flag of Israel” painting for the museum, – underscored in a mosaic of colors following the Medrash Rabbah.

An interesting portrait of Tuvia Fenster appeared before the last [sic: Second] war in the London periodical, The Times: {Here is] Y. Bialsky, who visited Antwerp and had a meeting with Mr. Fenster:

“ – Imagine an elderly man, tall, thin, very much like a thin Englishman, practically a quintessential “old man,” dressed in an enchantingly esthetic manner, with a European bearing, and reserved. – and he speaks only as if he has selected each word from a lexicon – that is Mr. T. Fenster, the popular Hebrew-Yiddish author, historian and lecturer of Antwerp. –

The gentlemen is a veritable cornucopia of literature. He is a walking encyclopedia, with historical names, dates and facts brimming all about him – having seen much, met many, and everything stored away in his memory…

I have already met with him a number of times. I have periodically read his rich and highly interesting articles. I also know that he has written several works in Russian, in Hebrew. One thing I had not yet discovered as of my last visit, and that is – his gift for painting. I saw the three works that he had created in the last few years. These are writings accompanies by his own illustrations and coloring. I am not an expert on art, but the rhythm, the symmetry that strikes the eye, the wondrously esthetic penmanship of the Hebrew – all of this together left a very strong impression on me.

The first work is about the Jewish sculptor Antokolsky. With rigorously circumscribed critique and in artfully- styled language, the author shows the extent to which Antokolsky's

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Jewish soul shined through in such subjects as his ‘Ivan the Terrible,’ Yermak, and others. As a contrasting example, he presents Antokolsky's colleague, the great Russian artist Riepin.

The second work is: The ensigns of the Twelve Tribes, drawn and colored in accordance with Midrashic sources, with Hebrew commentaries. The third work is – his own personal recollections, accompanied by illustrations, landscapes, etc., all in color.”

During the Second World War, in the year 1940, Fenster fled Belgium along with other Jewish refugees. He ended up in a small town in France. On one occasion, standing abandoned and alone, under the bullets of Hitler's armies, a Jew approached him that he did not know, and said to him:

– Come with me!

The unfamiliar Jew, also from Antwerp, brought Fenster to a convent, where the nuns made him the gardener, and in this way rescued him.

Since 1946, Tuvia Fenster again resides in Antwerp.

At this opportunity, I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Fenster for his interesting memoir, “In Those Times,” which he contributed to the Yizkor Book.

Aaron Lifschitz

He was a formidable scholar, being a Baki in all the corners of our literature – the Shas and commentaries, the Zohar^[1], books on the analysis of modern Hebrew authors – and the same time, he possessed a broad awareness of secular education and in European languages.

He came from a prominent family and had an incisive mind and was truly a walking encyclopedia. Additionally, he had a good and sympathetic heart and was an ardent nationalistic Jew. He is one of the few surviving members of Bnei Moshe, founded by Ahad HaAm.^[2]

[Page 124]

For his entire life, Reb Aaron Lifschitz took a leadership role in all Zionist and community institutions. Before the First World War, he was the Gabbai of the Talmud Torah, to which he offered both is being and money, and the children saw in him – someone who was like their own father. He was also one of the founders of the Bet Lehem, which existed in Volkovysk before the First World War. With is support, the Oneg Shabbat was founded in Volkovysk, where for the entire time, he took a substantial part and demonstrated – by answering a variety of questions – great knowledge of Torah, wisdom, and secular education. Also, in his later years, not mindful of his own fragile condition, he was active in the work of the Volkovysk Orphanage.

In old age he felt alone, because his children had spread all over the world; he then decided to settle in the Land of Israel with his wife, where his daughter Rosa Lokhovsky already lived. To this end, he sold his house, and sending his baggage ahead, set out on his way. But death struck suddenly (at the age of 71) in 1929 in Otvotsk, where on the way to the Land of Israel, he had stopped for a short while to recuperate from his lung ailments. In this manner, merciless Death took him from this world on the threshold of realization of his dream.

The deceased was brought to Volkovysk in a special conveyance, and his funeral was accompanied by a large procession, among which were also the students of the Hebrew schools, of the Talmud Torah, and the children of the orphanage, etc.

The deceased was eulogized in the Great Synagogue by: The Shokhet and Meat Inspector Yerusalimsky, Schwiff ( a member of the central committee of the Zionist Organization) and Zvi Inker. The warm eulogies touched the audience greatly, and elicited tears and sorrow among everyone.

Reb Aaron Lifschitz's son, the engineer, Joseph Lifschitz, saved himself from the hands of the Nazis, and today lives in Belgium. A daughter of Reb Aaron Lifschitz, Rosa, as previously mentioned, is found in Israel today. A second daughter of his lives in Moscow.

Reb Aaron Lifschitz's wife, Leah, delayed her move to the Land of Israel for a while because of the loss of her husband, and she dedicated her free time to community work. Later, she did move to Israel, where she passed away.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The principal Kabbalistic work of Rabbi Simeon bar Yokhai. Return
2. Ahad HaAm (Pen name of Asher Ginsberg) (1856-1927). Born in Skvira, near Kiev in the Ukraine, Asher Ginsberg became the central figure in the movement for Cultural Zionism. Although raised in a Hassidic family, Ahad HaAm was soon exposed to secular studies. The impact of modern philosophy and the sciences led him to abandon his religious faith and observance. Nonetheless he remained deeply committed to the Jewish people. It was his attempt to find a synthesis between Judaism and European philosophy. Return

Israel Efrat

[Page 125]

way. He was a good and committed Jew, and he took part in all community affairs - not only on behalf of the Jewish community in Volkovysk, but also on behalf of all Russian Jewry. He was a totally committed and ardent Zionist, and because of this, he was very active in all the Zionist organizations in his city, as well as in the vicinity. He would often speak at Zionist meetings, and his wise and spiritually rich speeches were received with great affection and respect. He was very active in the Volkovysk Jewish community under the Polish regime.

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