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Preparations for a movie night for the benefit of Keren Kayemet Le'Yisrael.

It is worth noting, that by contrast to other cities in Poland, the affection for Zionism was most pronounced among the more religious ranks, and there were many discoveries of this fact. Without a doubt, this is one of the reasons for the dominance of Zionism in the life of the Volkovysk community.

With the first steps of the national Zionist movement, many balebatim and distinguished people in the city organized themselves into a group that took the name B'nai Zion. Dr. M. Einhorn records the names of a number of these members in his book, from the year 1902: Aharon Shifmanovich, Jekuthiel Roiman, Jekuthiel Novick, Aryeh-Leib Arcade, Moshe-Mordechai Zelitsky, Shmuel-Jonah Novogrudsky, and Aharon Lifschitz. The following belonged the committee of this organization: Koppel-Asher Volkovysky, Chairman, Shmuel Shapiro – Treasurer, Nakhum Halpern (The Teacher) – Secretary, Israel Efrat, Moshe-Leib Khmelnitsky, Moshe Galai, Eliezer Yudzhik, and Shmuel David Yunovich. At the organizing meeting of this group, that took place in the summer of 1902, Aharon Lifschitz was selected as a representative of its membership to the Zionist Congress that was to be held in Minsk that same year. Dr. Einhorn does not reveal his source for his information for this, but we can expect that these facts have been investigated and are accurate. We have no verifiable facts regarding the concrete activities of the B'nai Zion, but we can assume that, like in many other cities (Grodno, Bialystock, and others), B'nai Zion undertook the preaching of Zionism, collection donations for various funds, the study of Hebrew, etc.

Before the First World War, general Zionist activities took on more substantive forms. Some of the Zionists from Volkovysk made aliyah to Israel in order to settle there, others began to acquire parcels of land,

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shares in the ‘Colonial Bank,’ and the most important step – sending their sons to be educated in the first Hebrew gymnasium in Israel, Hertzeliya, which is discussed elsewhere.

After the First World War, especially in the twenties, the work of the general Zionists intensified, and they acquired many members, especially from the ranks of the merchants, and small businessmen. They became the backbone of Zionism and brought to fruition the works of the national funds: Keren HaYesod, Keren Kayemet. The central activists of these groups were: Sholom Barash, Engineer Ephraim Barash, Israel Efrat, Moshe Shapiro, Moshe Rubinovich, Yehuda Novogrudsky, Ben-Zion Lifschitz, Eliyahu Shykevich, and others. After the general Zionists divided themselves into the initiatives of Al HaMishmar (founded by Yitzhak Greenbaum) and Eyt Livnot, (founded by Dr. Yehoshua Gottleib) the results of this division became recognized in Volkovysk as well, but the radical Zionists (Al HaMishmar) dominated in Volkovysk. It is worth noting that not few of the workers of the group joined other Zionist groups, in the course of time.

The core and central strength of this movement was Betar (acronym for ‘Brit Trumpeldor’), which is described in greater detail in this book by David Niv, but the revisionist movement had many members and adherents in the city, and in the final years before the World War, it was represented in the city in a significant way. The spirit behind the movement was Dr. Yaakov Shipiatsky. The local weekly newspaper frequently presents news about meetings of the workers for this group from all around Volkovysk. The fact that the work of this group was included in the agenda of the visits of Jabotinsky to the chapters in Poland, testifies to the special importance of this chapter. It is worth telling that Menachem Begin made a trip to Volkovysk that was unique in its kind, as a special emissary: he came especially to receive a certificate from the Dayan, [Rabbi Yaakov] Berestovitsky, because Abraham Schein, a member of Betar that had been sentenced to death by the British during the period of the Mandate, that he was accused as a minor, and should not receive such a severe sentence. Someone subsequently informed on the Dayan that he had forged the certificate, and spent a day in jail (Begin told this to David Niv).

Apart from Betar, there were other revisionist missions, such as: Veref – the Histadrut of Women Revisionists, Nordia, Masada (students), Brit HaKhayal, whose members were primarily from the Polish Army. It is interesting that most of the doctors in the city belonged specifically to this organization, which at the end, was headed by Engineer Shipiatsky and Mezheritzky.

The segmentation in the revisionist movement that occurred with the establishment of the group by Meir Grossman was practically unfelt in Volkovysk, and Chaim Milkov (now in Jerusalem) was one of the few workers who joined the Grossman camp.

The HaShomer HaDati Chapter

The workers in this group according to Dr. Einhorn, were: Zvi Inker, Joseph Yerusalimsky (the Shokhet), and Hona Kavushatsky. Out of concern for the draft into the movement, HaShomer HaDati was formed in 1935 headed by Zelig Kagan.

Tiferet Bakhurim In the center – Rabbi Kossowsky and his two sons[1]

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organizations mentioned by Dr. Einhorn.^[2] One of them, Herut U'Tekhiy, among whose members were: Joseph Galai, Chaim Khmelnitsky, Yitzhak Yudzhik, Raphael Ditkovsky and Raphael Klatshkin. It is worth noting that this group had a drama troupe that put on various plays, and whose proceeds went to the Keren Kayemet. The organization also staged many cultural events, and a large number of its membership made aliyah to Israel.

During the twenties, a group existed in Volkovysk called Kadima, that set itself the goal of educating Jewish youth in the spirit of total Jewish nationalism. This organization was particularly active in the arenas of enlightenment and culture, and organized sessions among the remaining groups for purposes of teaching Jewish history, the origins of Zionism, Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Tanakh, and other subjects. Members of Kadima were: Yaakov Shipiatsky, Mordechai Lev, Pinchas Steinwax, Eliezer Bliakher, and Shlomo Shipiatsky.

The Women's Zionist Organization was founded in 1934, and until the outbreak of the World War, it initiated activities in culture and community work that was headed by Dr. Jocheved Barash, the wife of Engineer Ephraim Barash. A special activity of WIZO was to conduct bazaars for the benefit of Keren Kayemet, which were held annually. The activities of this group were centered about soliciting merchandise from various business locations in the city, and then selling them at the bazaar. Also, the celebrations sponsored by WIZO at Hanukkah and Purim, and held in the firehouse auditorium, generated a great deal of interest in the city. At a number of them, contests were held to select a ‘Jewish Miss Volkovysk.’ – that is to say, the most beautiful Jewish girl in Volkovysk. Apart from this, WIZO also arranged for courses to be given, and lectures in the public hall.

Among these were: the Jewish Communist Party (Nechama Schein gives a brief summary of their activities in the Jewish sector), Agudat Israel, whose activities were centered about the Yeshiva and the Batei Medrashim. Tiferet Bakhurim, the youth arm of the Agudah, also had its own synagogue, however, among the worshipers at this synagogue were those without any affiliation to this organization. Rabbi Kossowsky, was close to the Agudah movement, and during the days of his tenure, the Agudah benefitted from his visible support.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Presumably, one of these must be Rabbi Mikhl Kossowsky, the last Rabbi of Zelva. Return
2. Dr. Einhorn does mention them, however briefly. See pp. 129-131 in the original text, and pp, 61, 148 in the translation at the beginning of this Trilogy. Return

Tze'irei Tzion at the second anniversary of the Balfour Declaration

Central Committee of HeHalutz in Volkovysk, 26 Aug 1928 Seated (right to left): V. Novick, Isaac Paveh, Ephraim Barash, Y. Novogrudsky, M. Shakhnovich Standing (right to left): Y. Taran, Rasha Siegal, Joseph Gandz, Chaim Mordetsky

Poalei Tzion (Tz. S.), to which the Tze'irei Tzion group belonged, was the head organization of the left wing Zionist camp, and its central workers were: Lawyer Eliezer (Leizer) Bliakher, M.A. Kushnirovsky, Eisenstein, and others. The youth movement of this group was Freiheit. Prior to the unification of Hapoel HaTza'ir and Akhdut

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HaAvodah in Israel, under Mapai, there was also a Hitakhdut group in Volkovysk, but after the unification, they joined the ranks of the Poalei Tzion (Tz. S.), even though the youth group of Hitakhdut, (Gordonia) continued to function independently (special note). The group was represented in the community committee and the advisory council of the city.

The left wing Poalei Tzion was not among the outstanding groups of the left wing camp, and it appears that they had rather few members. In all, we could find no evidence of support for its activities, and apparently this group had no particular standing in the city.

The Labor League of Israel was the umbrella group for the Zionist Left Wing camp. There were two groups of Poalei Tzion that worked for the Kapai (Office of the Labor League of Israel). HeHalutz, and HaShomer HaTza'ir, Freiheit and Gordonia. The core workers in the league were: Yaakov Itzkowitz, Eliezer Bliakher, Shishatsky, Mordechai (Mottel) Sakhar, Yitzhak Shkarlat, and others.

The HeHalutz Chapter itself served as an umbrella for the joint activities of different groups in the left wing Zionist camp. The HeHalutz chapter in Volkovysk was established after the First World War, and its central goal was to prepare its members to make aliyah to the Holy Land. The Volkovysk chapter also served as an address for the chapters in the surrounding towns, because the district chapter operated out of its quarters. At the beginning of the twenties, members of HeHalutz were already working in planting tobacco on specific plots in the vicinity of the Jewish hospital. Bet HeHalutz was established in 1925, in a building on the Neuer Gasse. Members of HeHalutz were also trained in carpentry and flour milling in the city. Various farms in the area, both Jewish and Christian, served as training sites for the [future] pioneers, and one of them, Mikholovka was among the better known ones. Among the various workers in the ranks of HeHalutz, in several periods, it is worth noting: Abraham Novick, The Saroka Brothers, Moshe Shakhnovich, Ditkovsky, The Paveh Brothers, The Pick Brothers, Yerusalimsky, Mendel Solomiansky, Rasheh Siegal, Yitzhak Shkarlat, and others. Dr. Einhorn records the description given by Azriel Broshi about the aliyah of the first of the HeHalutz Members, of which he was one, that begins with these lines:

“On a bright, sunny summer day in 1920, a group of several tens of young men from Volkovysk and Lisokovo left their homes, accompanied by the blessings of their relatives and friends, with their faces set in the direction of the Land of Israel. We gathered at the Zamoscher and Brisker Gasse, and we went in wagons that took us to Bialystock. A festive reception had been arranged for us in the public hall of that city. When we arrived in Warsaw, we joined up with other groups, and we proceeded to the Austrian border. This is how the Third Aliyah actually began…”

From there, Azriel Broshi describes the harsh circumstances that awaited the halutzim in the Holy Land, their work on the Jeddah – Haifa highway, the victims of fever, etc.

Apart from HeHalutz, there was also a chapter of Central HeHalutz in Volkovysk, supported by the general Zionists, whose honorary Chairman was [Engineer] Ephraim Barash. The working Chairman was Ze'ev (Velvel) Novick. Before the Second World War, a special training location for the members of Central HeHalutz was set up in the Volkovysk vicinity.

HaOved, was also a mission of the Labor camp of Israel, aimed specifically at people between the ages of 30-45, who were interested in making aliyah to Israel. The members of HaOved, were largely workers, of the lower middle-class, who were interested in getting certificates, but did not choose the direction of the kibbutz in their future life in the Holy Land.

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The HaShomer HaTza'ir Chapter

My first memory from my distant childhood – is literally a shattering and traumatic memory. It appears to me that this recollection left its imprint on me for the rest of my life, and in many ways set the direction that I followed during my life.

It was in the year 1920, during the time of the war between the Poles and the Soviet Union, even before the establishment of the Polish republic and its government. I was a boy of four years age, when the soldiers of a Polish brigade burst into our city, drunk from the partial successes that they had achieved in battle at the front. The Polish chauvinism that convulsed deep in the hearts of some of the army, led the soldiers first – to launch a pogrom against the Jews. Manifestations of anti-Semitism connected with the Polish war had not been among the rarities in Volkovysk. Cutting off of side locks and beards of Jews, beatings of the old and feeble Jews on conveyances, and in the outskirts of the city – all of this was withing the bounds of a vision that burst upon us. We knew this from acquaintances and neighbors, we read about it in newspapers, but up till now, we had not had the opportunity to see it up close, to taste it on our own hides.

I recall awakening on one of the nights to the sound of a noise that grew in volume. There was an unusual arrangement in the house: the furniture was moved, boards were hammered over the doors and windows, and an attempt was made to seal up all the entries to prevent people from the outside breaking in, etc. My ears caught the rising shouts of our neighbors, and quickly we heard loud pounding on the doors to our house, and the eyes of the household members radiated terrible fear. All the barriers put up by our parents were of no avail, and they had no means to deny entry to the soldiers. They burst in like a storm, with murder in their eyes. They began to pick on the members of the household, in order to compel them to abandon all means of self-protection, they stepped on and ground everything they found under their heel, with one purpose in mind – to uncover caches of gold and silver. When they did not succeed in finding what they were looking for – they grabbed my mother, and hit her with their rifle butts on all parts of her body. Much blood flowed from her open wounds. My father who was strong and healthy, together with my oldest brother, who was 12, tried to protect my mother, but their strength was insufficient to withstand these beasts of prey. One of the soldiers approached me and began to search my shirt pockets, on the assumption that these pockets could be a place to hide gold… after a number of destructive searches, they managed to uncover the various hiding places. All that the family had managed to accumulate and save over many years – was despoiled and turned into plunder.

This was the night of terror that was etched into my memory. Shivers would pass over my body, even many days afterwards, when I would walk in the street and see a Polish soldier. These were wounds to the soul, but the wounds to my mother's body were that much more severe. For the rest of her life, she suffered from headaches that resulted from the blows she took to the head. When I walked through the street at the time of the victory parades of the brigade of soldiers stationed in the city – in my mind's eye, I would see the soldiers that hit my mother.

When I reached the age of five, my parents sent me to kindergarten. I remember the kindergarten teacher and her assistant very well, who opened a portal to a different world for me. Spellbinding stories, moving and dancing games, children's songs, etc, softened up the scarring that had remained on the heart of a five-year-old. In the garden, adjacent to the kindergarten, there were several sliding ponds and seesaws. The kindergarten was conducted in Hebrew, and in those days, that was a major innovation in Volkovysk. The Hebrew children's songs that we would bring home to our family homes were of the nature of ‘big news.’ After kindergarten, I was registered in Sukenik's Heder – and even this was an advanced step, since there were also the Heders of Linevsky and Farber, who left pleasant memories in the hearts of their graduates. The fear of an elderly teacher who stood over us and wandered back and forth was not on us,

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and when we continued our education in grade school, or gymnasium, we had been liberated from courses of study that were out of date, which was no way to endear a student to his studies.

In the Hertzeliya gymnasium, the Hebrew language was dominant. The teachers of humanities subjects were largely from the area, but most of the teachers of practical subjects came from Galicia, and there were accomplished academics among them. Our classroom teacher, who also was the mathematics teacher, stood out from the others in sports, and looked after assuring that the development of the body would get a significant measure of time. He told us, that in his youth, he belonged to HaShomer HaTza'ir, and as can be seen, with his recommendation and introduction, I joined this movement when I was eleven. Many other students did the same.

To tell the truth, my connection to HaShomer HaTza'ir actually began several years earlier. When I was only seven, I was attracted to this movement as if by magic. This happened unintentionally on one morning, when I was playing with a group of children on the Neuer Gasse, where we lived. To our surprise, sounds of singing, horns, and trumpets reached us from the Neuer Gasse. I ran together with my older brother to the place where the procession was passing by. This was an exalted parade of HaShomer HaTza'ir, and that day was Lag B'Omer. This was my first encounter with HaShomer HaTza'ir – a very pleasant encounter. A large crowd, standing on the sidewalks, received the marchers with joyful exclamations – who were all dressed in the same uniform, blue shirts, short pants, and broad creased, greenish hats, with colored ribbons waving in the wind, and walking sticks held in their hands. They all marched in the direction of the woods, where they had erected their tent camp. My older brother told me, that even he was ready to join the HaShomer HaTza'ir movement, and I envied him greatly – until I qualified to join this group – and my connections to it continue to this day, for more than sixty years.

The HaShomer HaTza'ir movement was well perceived by the community from its inception. It is necessary to say, that it earned this reputation because of the good leaders, who demonstrated leadership skills, dedication to the mission and also familiar with the techniques of education. People, like Yaakov Einstein, Moses Mandelbaum, Mirsky, and others, who, at various times, led the local chapter, were accepted not only by the recruits, but also by the entire community. Their powers of persuasion, when it came to the parents of the recruits, was great, and it would appear that thanks to that alone, it became possible for many youngsters, myself included, to leave home for the summer months, and go to the settlement, which did not have parental supervision.

I remember the day of my first trip to the summer camp like it was yesterday and the day before. My friend Simcha Gandz and I went to camp a day late because of illness. We traveled by train, and we reached to designated station as the day was already growing dark. The distance from the train station to the place where the camp was set up was not small. We were forced to stop between the villages, when the heavy bags, containing all the necessities each of us was required to bring, simply became too heavy for us. The village residents showed a great amount of curiosity towards the strange visitors passing through, and it was neither easy nor simple to explain to these curious onlookers, why we were there. We breathed easier, once we finally arrived at the camp.

Today, these things seem much simpler and more straightforward, but in those days, they had the attribute of being extremely new. By our own hands, we set up camp, pitched tents, and did everything that was necessary. The HaShomer HaTza'ir movement strongly emphasized scout training after the style of Boded Paul: Organized assemblies, marches, parades, scout sports, agriculture, etc.,etc. In my mind's eye, I can see before me now, the leader of the chapter, reading off the events of the first day in camp, praising those groups whose performance was outstanding, who pitched their tents properly, and then carried out their other requirements. Life and all activities in camp, were carried out using purely the Hebrew language. We would rise at dawn top see the sunrise, we were literally in the bosom of nature,

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song and dance were our accompaniment for all hours of the day, and most importantly – we established an intimate familiarity with life in the Land of Israel, with the Shomer kibbutz, with the way of life on a kibbutz, wit the fundamentals of a cooperative, etc., etc. We came back from camp different from the individuals we were when we arrived there. Everything that our directors instilled in us – brought forth fruits of praise. As for me, to all intents and purposes, I changed from being a little boy into a ‘creature’ of the summer camp, and without any need to wrap myself in modesty, I can say that because of me, doubtlessly, that thanks to my conversations with other members and their parents, many others went to camp the following year.

After camp I felt all the changes roiling within me intensely. I felt a need to deepen my knowledge in the foundation of the ideals of the movement, and began to read serious literature that had been completely foreign to me up to that point, following the journalism of the movement with alertness, and I still can recall the influence of one essay by Meir Yaari, ‘Defunct Symbols,’ that resonated greatly within the movement, and was the subject of many discussions within its ranks.

In the passage of time, the youth movement changed from one that was based on nationalism and scouting, to a socialist movement. Scouting, which had been the core in the initial years of the movement, became a stagnant pool, something peripheral. The establishment of the first kibbutzim in the Holy Land, and the many difficulties that they encountered, was a disillusionment to the leaders of the movement outside of the Holy Land. Personal preparation became the central theme. In this connection, and in what was said during the early thirties, there was much trial and error, and mistakes made in the direction of the movement, that were seized upon as reasons for flaws in our socialist approach, or that they didn't want to assume the responsibility for personal preparation – to take training as a pre-condition to making aliyah. All of the quarrels, difficulties, disputes on the essentials of the movement and its direction, naturally had an influence and effect on the Volkovysk chapter, which had developed a reputation as one of the good chapters.

I myself was raised in a home where there was a sympathetic atmosphere towards the Zionist ideal. Added to this, we had established a strong bond through correspondence with Mordechai Lavi, over a period of many years, who was a relative of ours that had made aliyah as a pioneer in 1905. Every letter of his, especially the colored postcards with scenes of the Holy Land, were received in our home with great feeling, and were passed around from hand-to-hand, and from eye-to-eye. I recall that for the holiday greetings, Lavi would express himself with humor in a beautiful, flowing Hebrew. When my oldest brother Abraham reached the age of 18, Lavi told my parents, that he is prepared to make every effort in order to make it possible for Abraham to make aliyah to Israel. This proposal of his was received enthusiastically, and in the house, a conversation began, saying that after Abraham will succeed in settling himself – the entire family would follow in his wake. Lavi fulfilled his promise, Abraham received a certificate on the basis of a ‘request’ by Lavi, and he made aliyah in 1927, together with many groups of halutzim, who had prepared themselves in the various points of training prior to aliyah.

My brother's progress in Israel was not a path strewn with roses. The general depression, in the wake of unemployment, caused a major outflow of people from the Holy Land, and among them was Abraham. He had managed to stay in the Holy Land for only one year, as if it were a catalyst to his bitter fate (In Volkovysk, he was drafted into the Polish Army, and after he completed his service, he married and had a son, but with the outbreak of the Second World War, he was drafted again, sent to the front, was captured by the Germans, and we have never heard anything about him since).

The period of the economic depression in the Holy Land caused a crisis within the Halutz movement, and in all youth movements in the diaspora. Jewish youth saw no future for themselves in Poland, and in

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the face of growing anti-Semitism, began to seek political solutions. A communist movement started ion several chapters, and also in ours. Only thanks to the special effort on the part of the central supervision, who sent its representatives to Volkovysk, and on the part of the central leadership, were these dangers overcome, and those that were persuaded by cosmopolitan concepts and blind faith in communism, that it would solve the Jewish question – found themselves outside the bounds of the movement.

The years 1928-1932 were years of pride in the chapter. Activities in all branches grew stronger, many young people joined up, and Yaakov Einstein and his partner, Moshe Mandelbaum, who were the chapter leaders at this time, demonstrated a great deal of capability in organizing the groups and units, and breathed life into the chapter that had within it, the majority of the local young people. They succeeded in putting good leaders in charge of each group, and gave them the means to carry out their missions. Perhaps as a result of Einstein's influence, whose artistic spark sought an outlet, a dramatic club and brass band were formed, who frequently demonstrated their abilities at celebrations held in the local cinema house. These presentation aroused considerable interest among the local young people, and they came to the chapter as a result of these artistic endeavors that also received much praise and recognition.

When admission to the Holy Land was opened during the thirties, among the early ones who went were members of the leadership of the chapter, including, Yaakov and Moshe. However, they did not leave chaos and disorganization behind them. Isser Pikarsky and Shoshana Panter (Etrogi) – a member of kibbutz Mesilot, loyally took their places, with commitment, Davidovsky, Natan Kaminetsky (Tzur), Hannah Gafner (kibbutz Ein HaShofet), Hillel Epstein (today in kibbutz Negbah), Sonka (Ramat HaShofet), Paula Malkin (kibbutz Evron), Gedalyahu Pick-Peleg (kibbutz Amir), Gedalyahu Kaplan and Zvi Dworetsky (both killed in the Holocaust), Mula Tzemakh (He ended up in Russia during the Second World War, reached Israel with the Andres army, and joined kibbutz Gal-On), Aharon Zlotnitsky (came to Israel via Cyprus, and joined kibbutz Nir-David).

During the first days of the Second World War, activities of the chapter were led as best as could be done under the conditions of those days, by Meir Marotchnik ז”ל (killed on the way to the forests of Volkovysk on his way to join the partisans who operated there), and Zaydl Yunovich (fled Volkovysk in 1942 from Volkovysk to Bialystock, and was active in the ghetto there, but there is no trace of him after that).

To the extent that I can give an accounting of myself as the chapter head, I can say only this: ‘I obtained my wisdom from my teachers,’ and especially from those who preceded me as chapter leaders, and these were none other than Hillel Epstein and Natan Kaminetsky (Tzur). They passed me the ‘scepter,’ in the most appropriate and meaningful way, and I owe them both a vote of thanks if I succeeded in my position. It was explained to me that the organization of the youth – was a skill, requiring training. It is doubtful that I would have been prepared to overcome all the difficulties that I encountered were it not for the direction and attention that I received from them in connection with this position.

The requirement to prepare oneself personally that each chapter leader assumed in that era, demanded that I also go for training, first in Ludomir and then Rovno. I was in Ludomir for two years, and this period was especially difficult. I worked in a saw mill, cutting up trees, and all manner of hard labor. In this respect, conditions improved when we transferred to Rovno. Here, most of us had specific assignments that were even professional, and these offered the possibility of a better economic, community and cultural standard of living, We knew that the government of the Mandate was continuing, that had placed a limit on immigration – and we had no choice, but to institute community life in the place where we were being trained, and that's what we did. It was only in July 1938, after four years of training, that I left from Warsaw with a number of my friends to make an ‘illegal’ aliyah. We passed through

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different European countries, until we succeeded in reaching Greece. After many trials and tribulations, which this is not the place to describe, we were taken to a small vessel called the ‘Osarta Panama.’ We were 160 people from various youth movements, forced and crowded into sub-human conditions, but our joy was boundless when we succeeded in getting to the coast off of Netanya, after terrible conditions on the ship, despite the fact that the British police and soldiers detected us. Members of the Haganah were in the area, ready and waiting, and they ‘Carried their people on their backs,’ as the poet Alterman has written, with commitment and enthusiasm. We spent our first day in Israel at kibbutz Ma'abarot, which welcomed us with open arms. We were like dreamers in the Homeland on our first day, and for days afterwards.

I will not pause here over the many stops I passed through – and there were many of them – until I reached kibbutz Amir, where I live to this day, but I would like to tell about a ‘meeting with a Jew from Volkovysk,’ very briefly.

It was during the first week when we arrived at the territory of Amir. Eliyahu Golomb, a scion of Volkovysk, whose name was a legend in our home city and in Israel, as the first leader of the Haganah, arrived as part of his agenda of visiting new settlements in the Galilee. When he found out that there were people from Volkovysk and Zelva in our kibbutz – he asked to see us. I was working the fields with a plow at the time, but I was called in to meet with Eliyahu.

The meeting was very moving. Eliyahu took an interest in the welfare of my family outside of Israel, shared his memories of Volkovysk, told about his days as a student at the Hertzeliya gymnasium in Tel-Aviv, together with other young people from Volkovysk, and about the extensive community work he had begun once he had completed his studies. I recall, that before we parted, Eliyahu told me about a cousin of his, Naphtali Golomb, also a member of HaShomer Ha Tza'ir, and he emphasized that he saw a great deal of symbolism in this, because Naphtali was one of the founders of the first kibbutz in the area of Khoma Umigdal, and this, in fact, was kibbutz Nir-David, and here I was, also from Volkovysk, a member of kibbutz Amir, last of the kibbutzim in the Khoma Umigdal area.

And if we are involved in recording meetings with people from Volkovysk – I can be permitted to recollect several other such meetings. I had a number of opportunities to meet with Yaakov Einstein, a past head of our chapter. He was at that time an actor with the Ohel troupe, but in the conversations between us, more than once, he emphasized, because of his acting career, how sad he was that he did not bring to fruition that which he preached in Volkovysk – the establishment of a kibbutz in the Holy Land, but he was very proud that so many of his former disciples are found in a variety of the kibbutzim of HaShomer HaTza'ir, continuing along the path in which they had been educated.

I had many meetings also with Azriel Broshi, one of the first leaders in the history of the Holy Land. Every time he visited the Galilee, he would stop off at my kibbutz to see the olim from Volkovysk. At every meeting with Broshi, it was possible to sense the warmth and the heartiness that flowed from his personality. He and his wife became connected to the Galilee at the time that their son, Magen Broshi, was one of the founders of kibbutz Ma'ayan Boruch.

And one other meeting: When the War of Independence broke out, when the Syrian Army stood ready to invade our land, A couple of friends and I dug ourselves in on a hilltop Giveat Ha'Em near Kfar Sulad, literally on the Syrian border, in order to be prepared to repel the ranks of the Syrian soldiers. The nearby hill, Tel-Azizat, fell into Syrian hands after heavy fighting. They rained heavy fire down on us, but we held our ground, and the hill remained in our hands. During the first lull in battle, the following day, I stood up and looked around. Suddenly, I saw two people coming towards us. I thought I was having a summer dream. One of them was my brother Hanokh, who after all of the tribulations of the War years, had managed to get to Israel by way of Cyprus, and went right from the ship into the IDF. It is beyond my capabilities to describe the emotions

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we both experienced when we met at that place, especially after so many years of separation. I received a comprehensive report from my brother concerning everything that happened to the survivors of our family during the war years – literally in the enemy's camp.

And a couple of words on meetings with scions of Volkovysk in the United States. It was in 1965, when my wife and I traveled to the United States to visit the members of my family that had survived the Holocaust. It was Daniel Lemkin , whose family and mine were especially friendly and close in Volkovysk, who saw to it, that every one of our needs for this visit was taken care of. He and Moshe Shereshevsky, organized a party of the U.S. Volkovysk émigrés in our honor, among whom, Dr. Resnick and Simcha Goldrei participated, who were relatives to us. We continued this party until four in the morning, with stories from the hosts and guests, that were replete with nostalgic memories of the city we came from, that the Abrogator fell upon.

David Niv

Jabotinsky on a visit to Volkovysk. beside him – Ephraim Barash

We, the young people, didn't know much about Jabotinsky. I remember a speech that he gave in Tel-Aviv reached us, called ‘Greetings to you Tel-Aviv of Blue and White,’ and he made an impression on us, but in those days, we were impressed with any Hebrew nationalist piece that reached us from the Holy Land. In this regard, an essay by Abraham Shevdran-Sharon made a great impression on us, that was published in Mozna'im (‘Not Like the Other Nations?’). This was a response to an essay by J. L. Magnes. We read the essay with compulsion, a great thirst, and with all senses attuned. I am of the opinion that of all the things that were published, this essay was singly responsible for setting the ideological cast of out thinking. An additional factor in setting this outlook was out Hebrew teacher, Yitzhak Shkarlat, who was also our classroom teacher. He was admired by us as both a teacher and an educator. Even though he was an employee of the Al HaMishmar group, led by Yitzhak Greenbaum, and would go off on pleasure trips during the summer on behalf of his group, nevertheless, he would imbue us with an ardent sense of nationalism. In the sixth grade of the gymnasium, he taught us the work of Uri Zvi Greenberg, ‘Girded with a Shield, and the Oration of a Son of the Blood,’ and required us to memorize passages from this work, and even to write compositions about its themes. He also would select for us to learn the zealous poems of Yaakov Cohen, and I remember memorizing ‘Lutsha, Lutsha, my Fortress.’ When we later joined Betar (perhaps as a result of the influence of these poems), it was not with his consent. At the end of the school year, the entire class went out into the forest for a walk led by him, and he was shaken when he heard us singing, among other things,

Araber maygen shissen
Fiel blut mayg zikh gissen^[2]

from the song, Betar, Betar, Urah! ^[3] He chastised us, saying that it was later than he thought…

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After the events of 5689 (1927), almost the entire class left Gordonia and joined Betar, that began organizing itself in Volkovysk at that time, under the leadership of Shlomo Zohn-Mazya, a student of the Polish gymnasium, actually. I was among the last to join, because I was very wrapped up in socialist ideology, despite the fact that the socialism of Gordonia, as manifested in the ‘13 Tenets’ of the movement written by A. D. Gordon, was rather lukewarm. I remember length conversations on this subject, with my friend Benjamin Berg, who was already a member of Betar. He assured me that Betar does not detract from a global perspective, and therefore has no fundamental differences with socialism, but all this needs to be postponed, seeing as there was no Jewish state in the Holy Land. Incidentally, I maintained my position for all the years I belonged to Betar, and when the Chairman of Betar, after the Danzig Conference, in expressing his thoughts on ‘Betar's world view,’ based on the socialist philosophy of the Tanakh, I rose against this, to the point that I sent in an essay of rebuttal to the Betar leadership in Warsaw, and the Editor of the ‘Betar Leader,’ Isaac Rembah, who published this essay along with another essay on the same subject, which was also published by Rembah in Masada.

As previously noted, I joined Betar in Volkovysk after it had been in existence for nearly a year. In this regard, the following of my classmates joined before me: Chaim Milkov, who in this time had contributed from his writing to the Betar newspapers of Poland, and was one of the workers in the chapter, and afterwards became a member of the Vilna chapter; Yitzhak Yazhernitsky (later changed to Shamir). He was a member of the chapters in Volkovysk, Ruzhany, Bialystock, Warsaw, and in the Holy Land – a member of the Irgun, and afterwards as an officer of Lehi. From the younger grades of the local Hebrew gymnasium, the following were already members: Michael Ben-Joseph (Damashevitsky), who later became a member of Lehi, and who was arrested for carrying weapons and sentenced to five years in prison, which he served in the central prison in Jerusalem; Abraham Schein (Emikam), a colleague of Shlomo Ben-Joseph, who was sentenced to death and was spared because of his tender age, and served eight years in the prison at Acre; Yitzhak Barash, a member of the Irgun, and the first graduate of the Irgun's flight school in 1939 (he was an outstanding student, and received a pilot's license, first class, in the Israel of the British Mandate). He died in 1944 from cancer at the age of 25, while he was still serving in the ranks of the British Army.

At the same time, we engaged in close-order drilling, first according to the methods of the Polish Army, but afterwards – when an instructor arrived who was a graduate sergeant of Yirmiyahu Halpern's organization – we switched to the Betar system used in Israel, that is, the British Army system. This was a means by which innovation was introduced into the midst of the youth movements of the city. A second innovation was the introduction of combat with poles, a skill that only we acquired, and because of it, we attracted accusations of ‘militarism.’ I also recall that ‘militarism’ also came from the way we issued the orders ‘dom’ and ‘noakh’ as opposed to the HaShomer HaTza'ir, which used the terminology ‘hakshev.’^[4] The expression ‘dom,’ in particular, was used to command silence from individuals, and all manner of comments were heaped on it. When I subsequently came to the Holy Land, it became clear to me, expressions like ‘dom’ had become standard means of address in the Haganah and Maccabi, and all youth movements that engaged in drilling exercises, but that their counterparts outside of the Holy Land were not aware of this. As a sign of the ‘dictatorial’ nature of Betar, leaders were not selected by his comrades or disciples, but was appointed from the top down. After a number of years, it also became clear to me that pole fencing was one of the skills especially developed by members of the Palmach, but they referred to it as KPA”A.^[5]

Because we did not have trained instructors in the

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arts of self-defense, we sent our people to the local Maccabi [chapter] for specific skill training, and there we would develop skills in self-defense: boxing, and fencing. Much later, the chapter organized, as was the case in other chapters throughout Poland, a military defense unit, and the unit received training in the style of the Polish Army, rifles, grenades, and theoretical lessons in defense against gas, camping, and the like.

I do not recollect the summer camping of the chapter, or the central office, but I do recall the participation of a number of our members in a national Betar meeting of Poland, that took place in Warsaw, and entailed putting up a large tent camp (its leaders were: Moshe Gold, David Stern, Yehuda Zhulkovitz/Alra'i, and perhaps also Nachman Soloveitchik).

Units, large and small, would participate in central meetings, and in this respect, I do remember our specific participation in a central meeting in Bialystock (summer of 1933), with the participation of the head of Betar. This was at the height of the atmosphere of great sadness that existed after the murder of Arlozorov, and to protect us, the Brit HaHayal of Bialystock was recruited to watch over us, under the leadership of Markus.

From the Volkovysk chapter, we would send nominees to the Halpern Foundation's course for sergeant training (the central course in Zhilunka, and the central course in Bialystock). To accomplish this, we used indirect methods, not sending our members directly to the training camps, because of the bad aura surrounding Betar training. By contrast to HaShomer HaTza'ir, Betar did not run its training camps for education and leadership purposes, but solely for acquiring possession of emigration certificates for entry into the Holy Land. Because of this approach, most of the olim from our chapter were students, who received permission to make aliyah outside of the certificate process – but rather through permission to study at the Hebrew University.

In the area of spiritual and cultural activity, we engaged especially in the following subjects: The Origins of Zionism (first according to Yitzhak Greenbaum's book – and afterwards according to the book of Dr. Yaakov Tzinman, in Yiddish). We would translation sections into Hebrew ourselves, more for the younger echelons. We did this because all the work was conducted in Hebrew, and those who joined us who did not come from Hebrew schools, were required to study Hebrew and be tested during their initiation period. We also took great care, that in the regular course of business, that Hebrew was always spoken, and in this connection, I remember a contribution box for the benefit of Keren Tel-Chai was set near the ping-pong table, and everyone who uttered a word in Yiddish was required to drop a ‘fine,’ into the box. In order not to compromise the players, we devised Hebrew expressions for ping-pong. The second most important subject was Jewish Demography, and I seem to remember we learned this out of special pamphlets provided by the Betar command in Poland. In our ‘class,’ we learned the basics from two books by Yitzhak Ben Zvi: “Our People in the Holy Land” – about the different elements in the Jewish settlement there, and “Peoples Of the Holy Land,” – About the Arabs, the Druze, Circassians, etc. All of us prepared ourselves at home, and then presented an entire chapter.

After the period of 1930-1933, there came a period of great contraction in the permissions to make aliyah to the Holy Land. Seeing as our chapter did not sent its members for ‘training,’ only two basic ways were left for us to enter the Holy Land: Illegal immigration,whose initial organizers came from the ranks of the revisionist movement, and aliyah via the Hebrew University, which was outside of the certificate process from the perspective of the [Mandate] regime in Israel. And a number of us went via illegal immigration, after various adventures. Gymnasium graduates among us, naturally, prepared themselves to get in by way of the university. But for members of Betar, this path was also filled with obstacles. This was the period when the Jewish Sokhnut stripped Betar of its certificates, and even though the student certificates did not come under the

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aegis of the Sokhnut, it found the means to extend its oversight to this means of entry. It did this through the mechanism of the ‘Israeli Offices,’ that every arrival had to go through. Its staff would receive every applicant, and through secret correspondence with the members of the Zionist Histadrut in the applicant's home town, they would ask for ‘clarifications,’ and also details with regard to affiliations. In the last year before I went – in 1935 – I worked in the local Volkovysk chapter, and worked in the central office, before making aliyah in November of that same year. That same year, Dr. Israel Scheib came to the city as a Hebrew teacher in the gymnasium. I made his acquaintance immediately upon his arrival, because my home was a meeting place for the Hebrew teachers (my late father taught Hebrew) of the city. In my first conversation with him, I saw that he was sympathetic to our movement, and was even willing to be active. He immediately stood out as a much beloved teacher, who enthralled his students both in and out of the classroom. I would carry on many ideological conversations with him, and I was greatly impressed by the depth of his thought processes, and the ardor of his feelings. I decided to direct his interests specifically towards Betar and not Tzahar, and I spoke to him about it at great length. And, with my departure for the Holy Land, Scheib received the position to lead the chapter, ion which he served until 1937, and if I am not mistaken, that was the time he went to Vilna to take a position as an instructor at the Hebrew Teacher's Seminary. We corresponded with one another until the outbreak of the Second World War. From his Betar correspondence, I learned of his successes in leading the chapter. He would appear in Betar regalia, lead discussions, and would round out his educational contribution to the chapter - by giving lessons in the gymnasium (most of whose students were members of Betar at the time).

Along with Betar, the following organizations were active in Volkovysk at that time: Brit HaTzahar, which had a very nicely organized branch, and even had two of its officers in the municipal governing committee; Brit HaHayal, who on one side, organized all the ‘strong-arms’ of the town: porters, train workers, wagon drivers, and the like, and on the other side – a well-defined part of the intelligentsia of the city: teachers, doctors, lawyers, and the like; Gordonia – a sports organization affiliated with the athletic branch of the national revisionists of the same name. In the last year before I made aliyah, a branch of Veref was organized, the organization of revisionist women. Relationships among the Jabotinsky-affiliated organizations were proper, and there were only a few points of contention between Gordonia and Betar. In Volkovysk, it was not a chore to organize the revisionist students into Masada, as was the case in the rest of Poland, and this was because of the majority of the students in the local chapter as recruits, and teachers – as leaders and directors. The chapter members received direction also from the principal of the Tarbut School in the city, Shimon Gottesfeld, a scholar and educator from Galicia, and a venerable member of the revisionist movement (he published a volume with vowels for young people called, ‘The Power of Youth, sponsored by Keren Tel-Chai’). He was killed in the Holocaust.

The Betar Chapter (1938)

1. Reference to the Hebron Massacre perpetrated by the Arabs. Return
2. Arabs are allowed to shoot
   Much blood may be spilled Return
3. Betar, Betar, arise! Return
4. Various alternatives for expressing military commands, such as ‘quiet,’ ‘at ease,’ and ‘attention.’ Return
5. The Hebrew acronym for krav panim el panim, which is literally, ‘face to face combat.’ Return

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