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Jewish Personalities

He was known in Ben–Shemen as “Khayim–from–heaven,” for his amazingly modest and frugal life and his altruism and utter devotion to his students.^[1] His great gifts as an educator, who developed an original educational method and saved dozens of neglected and oppressed children from a life of ethical decline; the radiance that shone from his warm personality towards all his friends and acquaintances – all these made Khayim Bar–Nakhum a noble, pure–hearted person, who was much admired.

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Berl Katznelson, who recognized his worth, said: “I knew two wondrous personalities, who resembled each other, during my life in the Land of Israel: Y. Kh. Brenner, and Khayim Bar–Nakhum.”^[2]

He was born about 74 years ago in Jedwabne, near Łomża. During World War One, he lived and taught in Wysokie. When the war ended, he moved to Lithuania and joined the educators of the Kaunas Orphanage, headed by leadership of Dr. Lehmann.^[3] The desperate children, all war refugees, quickly became attached to their teacher, and were ready to follow him anywhere. When it came time for all the Orphanage residents –students and teachers – to emigrate to the Land of Israel, Khayim went ahead, to scout out a proper site. He welcomed the first group of students; at first, they settled on the property of Moshe Smilansky, where they worked by day and studied by night.^[4] When Ben–Shemen was established, they moved to their permanent location.

Khayim worked as a teacher and educator in Ben–Shemen for many years. He strove to have the institution function as a kibbutz of educators and youth. When his idea was rejected, he left Ben–Shemen, gathered abandoned children from all over the country, and returned to the vicinity of Ben–Shemen with them. They lived in tents, as a “family kibbutz,” in which educators and children worked and studied together, while acquiring modest and ethical life habits.

The experiment succeeded: his great pedagogic gifts and personal example of simplicity and ethics influenced these children, who found their way to lead productive lives.

Khayim never created a family of his own, but his students form a family that lives throughout Israel, constantly remembering the teacher who was a beloved father to them.

After Khayim's death, the author Dvora Omer wrote Khavura u–shema alumim (A Group Named Youth), whose content is the “Pedagogical Poem” of Israel.^[5] Indeed, Khayim's life itself was a successful “pedagogical poem,” rich in content and with a rhythm of its own.

His death marked the departure of one of the stalwarts of the labor movement in general and the kibbutz movement in particular. He was born in Wysokie–Mazowieckie to religiously observant parents who were shopkeepers. They did not approve of their son's choices, when he decided to reject commerce and chose Zionist pioneering and farming, which led to a life of austerity and hard work. He emigrated to the Land of Israel in 1919, went to Hadera, and was overjoyed when he was hired as a shepherd. He later joined the communal settlement of Karkur, where he showed remarkable devotion and selflessness. He was also outstanding as a community guard, and risked his own life in times of emergency. His humanism led him to appreciate and like

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the Arab neighbors, who reciprocated his attitude. Thanks to this approach, he was able to reconcile bitter enemies and overcome obstacles.

In fact, he loved directness and moral integrity in all areas of life; he suffered from the hypocrisy and corruption that were spreading in public life. He was as loyal to his views and tenets as he was to the simple life of a farmer.

Unfortunately, the last year of his life was marred by a struggle to retain his elementary right to work nationally owned land, after having done so for years and having improved his soil and production.^[7] He was deeply offended by the very need for such a struggle, though high–ranking officials in the national corporations who knew him personally came to his defense. A letter of condolence sent by Avraham Hartzfeld to Yeshayahu's his brother, Dov (may he live long), stated, “He was a man of truth, and that is why I always supported him.”^[8] He really was a man of truth, for which he ceaselessly fought, and a man of the soil, which he worked and loved with all his heart. Symbolically, he collapsed and died at work in the field. May his memory be treasured among the towering, exemplary figures of the pioneers.

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Aryeh Viekha (may his memory be for a blessing), 1906–1974

We always called him “Leybele” affectionately, as he really was loved by everyone in our town. His home (with his wife Yaffa, may she live long) was open to friends and acquaintances. Many of us fondly remember his gracious hospitality and friendhsip during the first period of our lives in the Land of Israel; it was a difficult time of acclimation.

Aryeh was public–spirited; as a youth, he was already one of the organizers and activists among the young people of our town. He was instrumental in starting a branch of HeHalutz in Wysokie.^[9]

His brother Eliyahu (a member of kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov) recounts this interesting detail: “Te first local meeting of HeHalutz was in our home; the delegate from the central organization in Warsaw was Pinkhas Kozlovsky (Pinkhas Sapir).”^[10]

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Aryeh was the first in his large family to emigrate to the Land of Israel. His parents and sisters joined him there several years later. We remember his pleasure when they arrived; it was a pre–Holocaust rescue.

He emigrated in January, 1926, and settled in Hadera. Soon after he arrived he married Yaffa Trastenovitsh, who was from his home town. They created a warm, hospitable family.

Leybl joined the pioneering project whole–heartedly; in Hadera, at that time, the main goal was draining the swamps around the town. He became seriously ill with malaria, and the doctors advised him to leave the country in order to save his life. The very thought of leaving the country shocked him, and he did not follow their advice. He recovered, worked in orange orchards, and helped to establish Jewish laborers as the main work force. He later worked in carpentry, first with our Wysokie friend Shamay Kolodny, and then in a carpentry cooperative.

He soon joined the Haganah and was a member for as long as that organization existed.^[12] When the bloody clashes of 1936–1939 broke out, he answered the call, left his regular work and relatively comfortable life, and became a Jewish guard in the British police force. Throughout his life, he was active in the Labor movement, and aided those in need.

He loved conversation, and had a fine sense of humor. His cheery laughter was often heard; he was never gloomy, even during difficult periods. Rather, he was always optimistic.

The last chapter of his life was bitter. He became ill with cancer, and struggled for his life in terrible pain for a long time. He died on March 31, 1974.

May he rest at peace in the soil of Hadera, the place he loved so much.

Translator's Footnotes:

1. Ben–Shemen is a youth village in central Israel, established in 1927. Its aim was to endow children with a Zionist ethic, teach them to work the land, and instill an appreciation of responsibility. The nickname “Khayim–from–heaven” rhymes in Hebrew: Khayim min ha–shamayim. Return
2. Berl Katznelson (1887–1944) was one of the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism and played a significant role in establishing the State of Israel. Yosef Khayim Brenner (1881–1921) was a Russian–born Hebrew–language author and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature. Return
3. Siegfried Lehmann (1892–1958) was a Jewish educator who founded a Jewish orphanage in Berlin (1916) and opened an orphanage for Jewish war orphans in Kaunas in 1919. He founded Ben–Shemen Youth Village in Mandate Palestine (1927) and directed it until 1957. Return
4. Moshe Smilansky (1874–1953) was a Zionist pioneer and farmer, as well as a prolific author of fiction and non–fiction literary works. Return
5. The Pedagogical Poem is the title of a book by Anton Makarenko, an influential educational theorist in the U.S.S.R., who developed the theory and methodology of upbringing in self–governing child collectives. One of these establishments was the Gorky Colony, the subject of the book, which was very popular in Israel in the 1950s. Return
6. A moshav is a cooperative agricultural community of individual farms. Return
7. Most of the land in Israel is owned by large national corporations such as the Jewish National Fund, with long–term leasing to individuals. Return
8. Avraham Hartzfeld (1888–1973) was an icon of the Labor Zionist movement, and a leading force in planning agricultural settlement in Palestine. Return
9. HeHalutz was a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel. Return
10. Pinkhas Sapir was an Israeli politician during the first three decades following the country's founding. He held two important ministerial posts, Minister of Finance and Minister of Trade and Industry. Return
11. The British Mandate authorities strictly limited Jewish immigration to Palestine. Return
12. The Haganah was the main paramilitary organization of the Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and 1948. Return

“Seeking my two friends, Eliyahu Grinshteyn and Yekhezkel Fridman.” This brief message appeared in the Hebrew press in 1947. It was by Natan (Note) Krupinski, who was then in one of the postwar Displaced Persons camps in Europe.

Natan Krupinski (may his memory be for a blessing) immigrated to the Land of Israel in December, 1947, and was able to meet the good friends whom he had known since boyhood. Unfortunately, fate intervened, and the friendship between them did not last much longer; death in the near future awaited them all…

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The struggle against the Mandate authorities reached a peak in the months before the establishment of Israel.

Eliyahu Grinshteyn (may God avenge his blood) was murdered on February 25, 1948, by Arabs who ambushed him on his way to work, in the low–lying part of Haifa. He was 45.

Yekhezkel Fridman, on the other hand, was tragically killed by a Jew… He was a police guard in the British army camp at Sarafand, when a group of Lehi underground fighters attacked the camp in order to obtain weapons.^[1] He was detained and ordered, along with two other guards, to face a wall. When he refused, turned and looked at the man who was detaining him with a cocked weapon, the latter shot him. He expired shortly afterwards…

He was 38 years old.

Our hearts ache to this day when we remember the terrible dramas that ended the lives of these three friends.

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He struggled to emigrate to the Land of Israel and finally reached it on April 5, 1935. He adjusted easily, married and started a family; but his happiness did not last. His life was cut too short.

He survived the difficult sufferings of illegal immigration, including incarceration in the Cyprus detention camps.^[2] He was finally able to realize his dream, and immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1938.^[3]

The smiling man, who clung to his strong Zionist faith in spite of obstacles and bitter disapppointments in the country – was killed by a Jew, of all things…

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He, who survived the Nazi hell, was killed a short time after he had reached the longed–for land.

The triple strand had now been severed forever…

Translator's Footnotes:

1. “Lehi” is the acronym for a Zionist paramilitary group 1920 and 1948, which often used terrorist methods in its actions. Return
2. The British government ran detention camps in Cyprus in 1946–1948 for the internment of Jews who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to Mandate Palestine, in violation of British policy. Return
3. The text seems to be mistaken here. Return

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Seven kilometers from the railway line between Warsaw and Bialystok, not far from the murder field of Treblinka, the Jewish community of Wysokie–Mazowieckie existed for hundreds of years. It was founded by several families of Jewish farmers.

The Jews of Wysokie carried on their lives for centuries, and established a spiritual center within a small area; it included synagogue, house of study, Talmud–Torah, hostel, and poorhouse. These adjoined each other, and were surrounded by the Jewish cemetery. Only a few feet separated the eastern wall of the synagogue and the cemetery gravestones; the proximity of those praying with the world to come symbolized the terrible ending…

The small Jewish community did its best to separate itself from the Gentiles. An abyss lay between the Jewish community and the dozens of Polish villages in the vicinity, and a distrust stemming from the instinctive fear of the Gentile whose ingrained murderous tendencies might be revealed at any moment.

The incident of the melamed Rabbi Hershke is typical. One day he was traveling among fields and forests in a Gentile's cart. They had nothing in common, and sat silent almost the entire time, lost in their own thoughts. At the end of the journey, the Gentile addressed the Jew, “I could have murdered you the entire time we were alone on the road…”

This type of statement often turned into a shocking reality. The roads between Wysokie and Bialystok are soaked in Jewish blood, shed by their Polish neighbors.

The Brok stream, a tributary of the Bug river, separated the Jewish part of Wysokie from the Gentiles. The bridge over the stream, near the old cemetery, symbolized the geographic and ethnic boundary between both parts of the population.

There, at the bridge, stood the tall poplars whose twigs supplied the Jewish children with material for whistles, which they made after the Omer.^[1] Jewish housewives dipped and purified dishes for Passover in the stream's water.

Near the bridge, leaning against the home of Berl–Khatzkel the baker, a narrow box full of metal wires stood upright. This marked the eruv, within which Jews could carry objects on Shabbes. The term was symbolic, as Jews mixed only with themselves in the Jewish courtyards, neighborhoods, and institutions that constituted the Jewish landscape of Wysokie.^[2]

The eruv also symbolized the complete separation of the Jews from the Gentiles, who lived on the other side of the bridge.

Translator's Footnotes:

1. The 49 days between Passover and Shavu'ot are termed “the counting of the Omer,” and are a time of semi–mourning, during which custom forbids haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, conducting weddings and parties, and playing games. Return
2. The eruv (literally, mixing) is an urban area enclosed by a wire boundary that symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas, permitting activities within it that are normally forbidden in public on the Sabbath. Return

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