The Surrounding Towns

[Pages 765-770 - Hebrew]

A straight road in good condition led from Wloclawek south to the town of Kowal, which was about 15 kilometers away. The road ran between fertile fields and forests that testified to the natural richness of the environment and its beauty. Even from a distance, as you approached the town, you could see the small houses surrounded by flower gardens, the cultivated fields stretching behind them, and the church tower. The town was small, with a market square surrounded by houses. Legend had it that the town was ancient and had been the birthplace of King Casimir the Great, who built there a castle that he used for occasional stays. According to the stories, the Jewish settlement in Kowal preceded the settlement of Jews in Wloclawek. By the beginning of the 19th century, the town had a lively Jewish life. It had a synagogue that had been renovated in 1910-1912 thanks to the contributions of the town's benefactor at the time, my uncle Reb Jacob Yakov Piechotka. The synagogue continued to stand in its magnificence until it burned down in the great fire that swept Kowal in 1921. There was an old beit-hamidrash, and a new beit-hamidrash that was called the Great Beit-Hamidrash, where Torah study did not stop from the earliest hours of the morning until long past midnight. There was a shtiebel of Hasidim, a guesthouse with several dozen beds, and a large and a small slaughterhouse. Jewish life gravitated around these institutions. The rabbi and the gabbai used to be the main authorities in the community but, over the years, their influence diminished and life in town took on a different tone.

The transformation experienced by the Jews of Poland at large took place in Kowal as well, so that in its later years it was a predominantly Zionist town. There were local branches of the General Zionists (factions A and B), Tzeirei Zion, Poalei Zion, Hashomer Hatzair, Hechalutz, Mizrachi… Agudat Israel and the Bund also had branches in town but, despite their lively activities, did not have much political influence.

In the days of my childhood, about a thousand Jews lived in Koval (the number is not exact) – some were rich and learned, others poor and ignorant, and of course there was no shortage of town fools. The affairs of the community were haughtily managed by a handful of rich Jews, as was customary at the time. To the credit of those notables (such as Reb Chaim Malinowski, Reb Yankel Ofenbach and others), it must be said that they dealt with public needs knowing that they were not going to receive any special rewards. They founded societies that helped the poor Jews of the town, such as Bikur Cholim, Knesset Kalah, Chevrat Tehilim, and Gemilat Hessed. The pride of the town were its rabbis, who were known as great Torah scholars.

Here I would like to mention the last rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Leib Weingott (whose son, Rabbi Issachar Weingott, was chief rabbi of Safed). A pious, strictly devoted Jew, he was a modest person who was kind to others and respected even by the gentiles of the town. He disapproved of the Zionist movement, but over the years, as Zionism captured the hearts of most Jews in the town, his opposition softened. Until his last day, he zealously guarded the religious character of his holy congregation, and that last day was not long in coming. It was after the invasion of the Nazis, when he learned that the Germans were about to turn the Great Beit-Hamidrash into a carpentry workshop. After dawn prayer in his room next door, wrapped in his tallit and tefillin, he went into the Great Beit-Hamidrash and, seeing that his favorite holy place was being destroyed, he fell on his knees and died on the spot. The life of that holy man ended in a holy place…^[1]

Reb Shlomo Zalman Piechotka

The ritual slaughterer, Reb Mendel, was a typical shtetl Jewish butcher, an innocent and honest man, who accepted everything with love, very learned and pious. He did not interfere in the life of the town, and his livelihood was very modest.

With the rise of parties and factions, the fights began. First the Mitnagdim against the Hasidim of all kinds, and then both of them against Mizrahi and the other Zionist parties. Ultimately, the Zionists won the upper hand and began to manage the affairs of the community. These are the names of some of the activists as I remember them: Yitzhak Yaacov Biezynski, Yitzhak Menachem Szymsza (whose daughter Chana married Rabbi Katriel Fishel Tchorsh), Yitzhak Kowalski, Moshe Avraham Sliwitski, Anshel David Tchorsh (brother of Katriel Fishel Tchorsh), Yaakov Itzkowicz, Sender Zryl and Hersz Mans.

These were respectable, wise people who managed the community in a more modern way than their predecessors. Other honorable, learned and charitable people were: Yitzhak Pozner, Chaim Leib Pozner, Joel Alter, Leib Aleksander (Leib Pelcher), Kopel Rajchwal, Benjamin Naftali Kirszenbaum, Issachar Weingott, Yaakov Leczycki, Avraham Dobzinski, Tzadok Radziejewski, Reuven Wyszegrodzki, Anshel David Tchorsh, Avraham Shapira, Ber Leib Piechotka, David Radomski, Menachem Szwarcman, Henoch Steinke, Shimon Szymsza, Mordechai and Vahnich Czarny, Hanoch Czwik, Asher Kuczynski, Rafael Kryszek, Yaakov Glogowski, Flushak, Yaakov Chodecki, Israel Jakubowicz, Haim Malinowski and his son Hirsch Yitzhak Malinowski, Yitzhak Kowalski, Yankel Ofenbach, Avraham Yitzhak Poznanski, Kopel Chajmowicz, Eliezer Ajbeszyc, and my uncles Yaakov and Zalman Piechotka and the younger one of the family is my revered father Mordechai Piechotka. My uncles Avraham and Sender Zryl, the dayan of the town Avraham Moszkowicz, son of Yosef Moszkowicz, a Jew who was pious and God-fearing whose two sons immigrated to South Africa, and others whose names I do not remember and hope to be forgiven for that. These people were the elite of the town. They gave charity openly and secretly. Some of them built the synagogue (my uncle and father Yaakov and Mordechai Piechotka) and donated the plot for the cemetery (my uncle Yaakov Piechotka and his son Leib and his sons-in-law David Radomski and Menachem Szwarcman). Others donated for the fence around the cemetery and to establish the Great Beit-Hamidrash, and all of them together contributed to support the social institutions (the guesthouse, Gemilat Hessed, Bikur Cholim, and the rest) so that things could go on quietly, without noticeable shocks, and allowing people to live a full Jewish life in the town.

In the years after the First World War, modern winds began to blow. The youth organized themselves into political movements and parties like Tzeirei Zion, Poalei Zion, the Bund, and also as Communists whose activity was underground. The last two parties were small in the town and their main influence was among the craftsmen, such as tailors and cobblers. Over the years, they ran all kinds of meetings and cultural evenings. They were especially active around the time of electoral campaigns.

But the bulk of the youth was tied heart and soul to the Zionist currents that dominated the Jewish street at the time. A library was founded with the support of all the Zionist organizations. Related to the library was a drama circle that attracted the best of the youth and whose performances were very successful, not only in Kowal but in other towns as well.

At that time, there were branches of Tzeirei Zion and Poalei Zion in the town. At the initiative of Betta Waldman Molotslavek, who came to visit us several times, I was involved in the establishment of a branch of Hashomer Hatzair that grew to glory and sent many members to Eretz Israel after training, including Yosef Yitzhak Bendzel, who was very active in the organization, David Biezynski and others.

A little later, with some friends and with the active help of Stolzman, Gayer and Grobman who came to Kowal especially for this purpose, we founded the sports association, Maccabi. Very soon, Maccabi had many participants and was vey influential. There were about two hundred members and their living spirit was Maccabi's committee, which included Lajzer Leczycki, Michael Szperka, Leib Shalibotski, Jakubowicz, Avraham Chaimowicz, Sontalewski, Pieprzynski, Radomski, Aryeh Szwarcman, Meir Piechotka, myself the little one, and many others whose names I no longer remember. Maccabi blossomed to glory, it was the pride of the Jews and a good answer to the Polish sports organizations in town, such as the Sokol. The Poles cheered when Maccabi marched through the streets in exemplary order, wearing uniforms and hats. Then we purchased musical instruments and formed an orchestra led by the talented musician Moshe Gasiorowski. The band marched at the head of every parade, to the great delight and excitement of the local Jews.

Maccabi's committee, 1934 Sitting from right: Sochaczewski, Avraham Jakubowicz, Michael Szperka, Meir Piechotka Standing from right: Yitzhak Radomski, Moshe Gasiorowski, Aryeh Leib Piechotka, Fajwesz Pieprzynski, Yosef Bendzel, Shmuel Radomski

The first days after the Nazi occupation were relatively quiet. Nobody knew what was in store for them. The Germans arrived on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. They shelled the area for a couple of days, but their targets were around the town and few houses were hit. When the Germans entered the town, the Jews closed their shops and were afraid to leave their homes. Then a proclamation was issued by the military governor, stating that the war was over and that the Jews should open their shops as usual. The first Judenrat was established, including Issachar Wingott, Yaakov Itzkowicz, Leibush Hertz and others. Their job was to organize groups of forced workers that were sent a long distance from the town to do all kinds of unproductive work. Some time later, the Germans replaced the Judenrat with Mordechai Bendzel, Avraham Yaakov Malinowski, Hirsch Czarny and others. They did everything the Germans demanded. Two months after that, the deportations began. The first to be deported were those who lived around the market square, who were sent to Szymanow, a town near Warsaw. From there, many ended up in Warsaw, where they died, either before or during the ghetto uprising. Those who remained in the town continued to work as forced laborers until the second deportation in 1941, when all the other Jews (except for the elderly, women and children) were sent to Poznan where they were interned in labor camps around the city. Those remaining in Kowal, women and children, were taken to the local church, where they spent a few days before being deported to the Lodz ghetto. Three old women, among them my dear mother Esther Sara Piechotka, were left behind. The Germans put them in a room in Avraham Chaimowicz's house, locked the doors with a bolt and nails, and let them starve.

The brothers Leib and Avraham David Jakubczak were the first to come back to the town in 1945. Within a short time, others showed up: Mordechai Poznanski, Benjamin Neuman, Meir Kowalski, Wolf Zakrzewski, Shlomo Lewkowicz, Avraham Piechotka, and Itke Piechotka - all of them live today in Israel. When they returned to Kowal, there was no trace of Jewish life and institutions, even the cemetery was destroyed. The grave and matzevah of Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Leib Weingott was the only one that was miraculously preserved.

After many efforts, the returnees were allowed to fence off the area of the cemetery. Some time later those Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel. They turned to agricultural work and settled in the village Herev La'et near Hadera.

The town of Kowal remained orphaned of its Jews.

Translator's note:

1. On page 760 of this book, Zalman Gostynski gives a different description of Rabbi Weingott's passing. Return

[Pages 771-772 - Hebrew]

Yosef Dobrzynski was born in Kowal, near Wloclawek, around the middle of the 19^th century. Member of an important family (son of the brother of the late Avraham Dobrzynski, who wrote many articles in the Hebrew newspaper Hasfirah), he studied Torah in his hometown and later in Konin and Plock. He settled in Warsaw and, to support his family, he got a job as an accountant with a small salary in a trading house of foreign goods. He would spend most of his time in that job and little in his studies. Yosef Dobrzynski was a self-taught scholar who, apart from his knowledge of the Talmud, was so talented that he could have occupied a chair at the university teaching the theory of the Roman and Greek languages and the history of their literature. His special subject was philology.

He was a thin and shy man, not a success, a great tzaddik. Sounds ridiculous? No! He was just a man who, in the depths of his nature, reckoned that his value was low, and that his intelligence, talents and role in life were at the bottom of the ladder.

His fate brought him an obscure life, and there was not even a hint of rebellion in him. He took it for granted that Yosef Dobrzynski could only be Yosef Dobrzynski, an “accountant” in a trading house of foreign goods, with a salary of sixty rubles a month. He would forgive everyone, and accept everything with love, as a matter of course. They would take advantage of him from right and left, and he would think that this is how it should be: man is good, in order to be exploited - by virtue of the law of least resistance, and with the same natural necessity with which the current of a river cuts its course - not on hard stone, but on soft material. He enjoyed this world almost no more than Rabbi Hanina.^[1] Sixty rubles a month but he is patient, buys books, and when his body gets weak from his ailments, he gets busy with medicines.

And this man, who was talented enough to write great books -- he had a wonderful style in Hebrew and in the other languages -- was deficient in a special way: excessive criticism of his own work. He would write a lot, but write and erase and correct -- and finally burn. I once saved two real gems: a translation of a chapter by Tacitus and a review of an Italian collection. I published them in the literary almanac Ha-Asif^[2] and, while he was not particularly close to me like a brother, if he had known what I did, he would have surely repudiated me for the transgression.

Yosef Dobrzynski died as secretly as he had lived.

Source: Nahum Sokolow, Yishim [Personalities], Tel Aviv, 1958 (from the essay on Haim Yechiel Bornstein).

Translator's notes:

1. Hanina ben Dosa was a first-century Jewish scholar and pupil of Johanan ben Zakai. In several legends the poverty of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa is mentioned, and he is described as an example of people who will receive a reward for their deeds only in the next world. Return
2. Ha-Asif was a literary almanac published by Nahum Sokolow in Warsaw, in the last decade of the 19^th century. Return

[Pages 771-772 - Hebrew]

The arrival of Rabbi Levi Lipman to Kowal enriched the town with a special, uncommon personality. This dear Jew was great in the Torah, a steadfast scholar who studied the scriptures for their own sake. His bearing made a strong impression from the first moment. When you saw him, you felt obliged to pay him respect, which, by the way, he did not care for, because he was also a humble man. With his red beard and hollow face, he looked like a martyred kabbalist whose place was in the heavenly kingdom, and it was obvious that he devoted his days and nights to the Torah.

And so it really was. He spent his time studying with fellows proficient in the Gemara, and notables who knew Ein Yaakov,^[1] Midrash, Maimonides and the Sefer Daf Yomi.^[2] At night, he secluded himself and persevered in Torah study until dawn. He never knew any worldly pleasures and considered eating a matter of necessity, in order to hold the soul. He was the son-in-law of the town's rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Leib Weingott, who left the rabbinical seat in his last years and gave the place to Rabbi Levi Lipman, who served as the town's rabbi after him.

This rare man, like whom there were few in his time, perished together with the members of his holy congregation. A great loss among all the great ones who were lost. May his soul be bound in the bundle of life.

There wasn't a town in Poland that did not have a self-righteous, pious, kind-hearted, mitzvah-observing woman, but in Kowal, Frume-Miriam was more than that, she was an “institution”.

As I remember her, she was a short, small woman, already old and frail. However, her years had no control over her and did not prevent her from living her life, which was dedicated to others. When someone got sick and there was no doctor at hand, “Momme Miriam” would come and take charge. A poor patient needed some warm soup? It immediately appeared out of nowhere. Was there a woman having difficulty giving birth, or someone was dying and needed the recitation of a psalm or funeral arrangements? The address was “Momme Miriam”. Helping with all these needs, giving poor people chala bread for Shabbat, or discretely assisting someone with a problem that no one should know about -- “Momme Miriam” took care of everything. If there was an “old maiden” in town and a man showed up, “Momme Miriam” did not rest until she made the match and collected the dowry and the other things necessary for the wedding.

If a special Jewish visitor came to the town, “Momme Miriam” made the arrangements for lodging, and if he was among the privileged, she would not give the “mitzvah” to anyone, but hosted him in her home and all his needs were on her. And when the guest left the town, there was a beautiful gift in his pocket.

She was the mother of all the unfortunate people who suffered in the town, going from house to house, from shop to shop. No one dared to refuse her and they gave as much as they could, knowing that their contributions would reach the right place and help those who needed it most. That was how she was, diligent in her ways, bringing help to those in need and healing to those in pain, and everyone saw her as one of the righteous people thanks to whom the world exists. When she died, the whole town came to her funeral, the poor as well as the rich, big and small. There was not a house in Kowal that did not sincerely mourn her death. A woman of many endeavors and good deeds had passed away, and the downtrodden and stricken by fate were the ones who felt her absence the most. May her memory be a blessing.

Translator's notes:

1. Ein Yaakov is a collection and interpretation of most of the legends found in the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud . The book was mostly compiled by Rabbi Yaakov ben Habib and completed by his son, Rabbi Levy ben Habib. It was first printed in Thessaloniki in 1516. Return
2. Sefer Daf Yomi is a daily regimen of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud is covered in sequence. Under this regimen, the entire Talmud is completed, one day at a time, in a cycle of approximately seven and a half years. Return

[Pages 773-776 - Hebrew]

Reb Yitzhak Pozner		Esther Pozner

After his bar-mitzvah, he immersed himself in the sea of the Talmud and the wisdom of Israel. He soon gained a reputation for being extremely knowledgeable in Jewish studies. His classmates at the beit hamidrash and the shtiebel of the Hasidim in Kowal would say that he knew by heart a considerable part of the Talmud and that, as a Torah scholar, he was gifted with the eloquence of exaltation. However, he remained humble and kind-hearted all his days.

The shaping of these qualities, which raised Reb Yitzhak to the rank of a distinguished scholar and a man of measure, had much to do with the fact that he was among those who were inspired by one of the greatest spiritual figures of Polish Jewry, Rabbi Yechiel Meir Lifschitz, the tzaddik of Gostynin. The Rebbe noticed his virtues and nurtured and kept him close as a student. There is no doubt that the exalted image of the tzaddik of Gostynin had a great influence on Reb Yitzhak's personality and left an indelible mark on him.

He persisted in deepening his knowledge of the Torah and the wisdom of Israel after his marriage in Kowal with Esther nee Rachbel-Chaimowicz, whose respected and affluent parents considered it a great privilege to marry their only daughter to this scholar. Even after he took Esther as his wife, Reb Yitzhak would go to Gostynin from time to time in order to bask himself in the warm light of the tzaddik. That period, however, only lasted until Rabbi Yechiel Meir Lifschitz passed away in 1888.

A few years after his marriage, Reb Yitzhak started a business to support his family. This business, in which his wife Esther worked tirelessly alongside him, took a considerable part of his time, but every evening -- in addition to other hours when he was able to free himself from work -- he would delve into his studies until late at night, his voice rising from his room and spreading across the house. He did not take much rest. For years, religious boys used to come every day, at five o'clock in the morning, to hear from him a Talmud lesson that lasted until morning prayer. He accepted it with affection and willingness, since he studied in order to teach, which was for him a mission and a vocation.

In his efforts to spread Torah widely, it was visible the influence of his great teacher, the tzaddik of Gostynin, who considered that bringing the common people to the Torah and the Mitzvot was a supreme task. Reb Yitzhak worked hard to instill the words and morality of the Torah in those simple Jews who, at that time, did not receive the attention they deserved from their spiritual leaders, especially in the small towns. On Shabbats and during the holidays, Reb Yitzhak spent his time with the artisans and common people who would gather in groups or chavurot to hear his interpretations of the weekly Torah portions and passages of the Prophets and other scriptures. These sermons and lessons were a profound spiritual experience for everyone because they conveyed the depth of solemn subjects in a popular language that was understandable to every listener.

Reb Yitzhak Posner also had a special interest in the Mishna Torah books of Maimonides. He would sometimes read from these books and hold comprehensive lessons on the Mishna Torah for a small and select circle of young men, including his sons.

When the winds of the Jewish Enlightenment began to blow among the young people of the town, Reb Yitzhak included Maimonides' book The Guide for the Perplexed in his teaching. He would read chapters of the book and offer his own interpretations and explanations. With that, he was probably trying to counteract the effects of the plague [translator's note: the Haskalah movement was anathema to Orthodox Jews].

Reb Yitzhak Pozner's greatness was not only manifested in the study and dissemination of the Torah, but also in his actions as a man who had a sharp mind and was a straight talker. He was known as an arbiter of disputes, and his reputation as a peacemaker reached far and wide. Many would come to his house, ask his advice, and bring controversial matters for his arbitration.

Among the members of the shtiebel of the Gur Hasidim, Reb Yitzhak occupied a special place. He was distinguished, among other things, by his great knowledge of the Tanach, which was very close to his heart. Imbued with the spirit of the Tanach, he joined the supporters of the Hibbat Zion movement and identified himself with the main aspiration of Zionism. Reb Yitzhak was one of the first among the great disciples of the ultra-Orthodox sages in the region who vigorously supported the Zionist ideal, and he corresponded on the matter with rabbis and other Torah scholars. He educated his sons in this spirit and indeed got to see how all of them became active in the struggle for the establishment of Israel in its homeland.

For over fifty years Reb Yitzhak's wife Esther stood by his side, helping him as a faithful partner in all his labors for the family's subsistence and future. She was a brave and righteous woman, noble in all her ways and blessed with exemplary charity. After a life of achievement, of boundless devotion to her husband and children and of good deeds from a pure heart, her bitter destiny was to see how all her children - except for two - and their families were uprooted from their homes, scattered to all directions and murdered by the Nazis, beasts of prey who also ended her life in the fall of 1943.

And these are the names of the children of Reb Yitzhak and Esther Pozner who perished with their families in the Holocaust of the Polish Jews: Sarah (married to Yosef Tugendrajch), Froma (married to Hirsch Zvi Biezynski), Raphael Yohanan (married to Lieba Miriam née Otterman), Bracha (married to Leibish Zykrat), and Moshe.^[1]

May their blood not be covered by Earth.

Reb Yitzhak Pozner returned his soul to his creator on the 26th day of Nisan of the year 1934, twenty years after the death of Ozer, the eldest of his sons, and was spared from seeing the loss of his family in the Nazi hell. His life was a model of devotion to the Torah, fear of God, love of humanity, pursuit of peace, and aspiration for the people's return of Zion. He was a teacher and a shepherd above everything else. And his memory will live in his son, forever proud and blessed by it.

Translator's note:

1. On Moshe Pozner, see page 955 in this book. Return

[Pages 775-776 - Hebrew]

Reb Yitzhak Menachem Szymsza

His wife, the late Hinda Chaia, daughter of the respected teacher and learned man of the Torah Reb Yitzhak Yechezkel, was appreciated by everybody and was a faithful helper to her husband. The family had three sons and one daughter: Chaim Shlomo, Shimon Lajb, and Yaakov who perished in the Holocaust. Daughter Chana married Rabbi Katriel Fishel Tchorsh.

Rabbi Yitzchak Menachem and his wife immigrated to Israel in 1934 and settled in the Shapira neighborhood in Tel Aviv close to the family of Rabbi Tchorsh.

During his life in Israel, he was involved in overseeing kosher in several large bakeries and fulfilled his role with loyalty and dedication. He died on the 4th day of Adar in the year 1940, at the age of seventy-one. His wife died on the 19^th day of Kislev 1953 in the eightieth year of her life. They were buried in the Nachalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv.

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