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The very first Jews to come as immigrants to North America were of Spanish and Portuguese origin. They arrived in New Amsterdam, now the city of New York, in 1655, many years before the founding of the United States republic. They had set sail from Recife in North Brazil. The occupation of that part of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1654 caused the Jewish population there to flee in fearful anticipation of a second expulsion and the resumption of the Inquisition. Most returned to Holland. However, a group of twenty-three daring individual Jews resolved to begin, once again, on the new continent. After prolonged hardship, they succeeded in reaching what is now the United States. This group of young people laid the foundation for what was to become the extensive American Jewish community.

Following the revolutions in central Europe during the forties of the 19^th century, there was a large immigrant wave of Jews from German-speaking countries.

Yet, it was neither the Sephardic “Hidalgos” nor the German “Yahudim”, but the ordinary people from the cities and towns of East Europe who were to shape and give stature to the Jewish settlement in the United States. It was they who built the nationwide organizations, the fraternal orders (landsmanshaft) professional societies, people from universities, Talmud torahs, yeshivas, secular Jewish schools and medical and financial assistance institutions. These institutions established by the Jews from East Europe were to serve as models for the social legislation, now incorporated into the law of the land.

It is actually impossible to find accurate statistics concerning Jewish immigration to the United States, for the Jews are dispersed in many countries and the Jewish immigrant was and is to this day, counted in with other nationals arriving from his country of origin. Any Jewish families or individuals who might have come to North America from Javorov before the end of the 18^th century, would have been recorded as being “Poles”, while those coming after the division of Poland were considered to be “Austrians”.

According to some Jewish historians and demographers, there are indications that a large group of Galician Jewish immigrants came during the first half of the 19^th century from about 1810 to 1850.

The impetus to this immigration was two-fold:

The first was the publication in Yiddish of a work entitled “Tsafnat Paneakh” (Revealer of Secrets) by Chaim Chaikl Horovots, a well-to-do lumber merchant. Because of the fact that he conducted a great deal of business with the Prussians, he became acquainted with the Berlin Haskalah (“Enlightenment” movement) and with German literature. Although the principal slogans of the Galician maskilim (“enlightened”) under the leadership of Krochmal, Rappaport and Mieses urged opposition to the “obscurantism” and the “ignorant superstition” of the Hasidim, Horovits adopted a very different approach to the sufferings of the Jews of East Europe. This is what Horovits wrote in the introduction to his book, Tsafnat Paneakh:

“Inasmuch as the Lord has granted me the gift of being able to read books in German, I have chosen the account entitled “Entdeckung von Amerika” (Discovery of America), by the learned Professor Kampes, extracted the essence of it and have re-written it in clear

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Yiddish language such as people generally use in conversation with each other, so that everyone might readily understand it, and have entitled it Tsafnat Paneakh. Anyone who reads this book will understand the graciousness of the Lord in revealing the New World to us”.

Horovits then lists a number of benefits America brought to the World, singling out the potato, which became the principal food of “our countries”. In the discovery of America, Horovits see the hand of Divine Providence. His work, Tsafnat Paneakh, was the first extended description of America to reach the Jews of East Europe.

The second cause of expanded emigration from Galicia was the crop failure there in 1847. Hunger was rampant in the cities as well as on land.

These two factors – the Tsafnat Paneakh and starvation, were largely responsible for the “Galician exodus”. The people who decided to leave were those among the very poorest who yet were not prepared to accept their fate as hopeless. They travelled by stages, stopping in Germany, France or England and proceeding when they had earned a little money or had received from one or another charitable organization enough assistance to enable them to embark for the “golden land”. Each one, after he arrived, nurtured a single intention: to save money so that they might send for other family members. These people thus helped to bring about the mass Jewish emigration.

It would be difficult to establish the exact number of Javorover Jews who became part of this pioneering group. I recall hat in 1929 when I matriculated for a degree from the College of the city of New York, I made the acquaintance in one of my classes of a young man of my own age. We became friends. He invited me to his home and introduced me to his family which included his grandmother. She was about 80 yrs. of age at the time. During one of my subsequent visits, she told me that she was born in New York in 1849. Her parents had come to New York from Javorov. In 1870, she married a young man of Bohemian descent. Seven or eight Javorover families were present at her wedding, she said. She also recalled that there had been an economic crisis in New York in 1877, bringing with it widespread unemployment. As a result, many Javorover had return to Javorov.

Once the crisis was past, the immigrant stream apparently increased, so that by 1890, there was a sufficient number of Javorover families settled in New York city to make the establishment of a society of Javorover compatriots (landslayt) desirable, and the first Jaworower Sick Benefit Society was formed that year.

The Society was organized along the lines of similar associations. The various provisions of its constitution serve to indicate the aims of the group, for example:

To foster friendship among our Javorover brothers (members).
To provide moral and financial support in case of illness or death.
To find employment for newly arrived, “green”, immigrants.
To provide burial, visit the sick, assist the unemployed and encourage the members to send aid to their needy relatives in their native city.
To provide assistance to Javorover institutions should the Rabbi or the Kultus Gemeinde (Community Council) request it.

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Apparently, the founders and the other early members of the society were religious people. They were concerned not only with providing material aid but also filling the spiritual needs of they countrymen (landslayt): They also established a house of prayer. The constitution stipulated that only a Sabbath observer could be a warden (gabay) or other officer of this synagogue, which was situated on Attorney Street in the heart of the Galician district of the teeming “East-side”. The sign (in Hebrew) on the building announced:

“First Javorover Sick Benefit Society. Prayers are held daily, evening and morning on the Sabbath and on Holy Days”.

In New York, the way of life of the new immigrants followed the same pattern as that of their mothers and fathers in the old country. Upon their arrival in the United States, the lonely newcomers felt friendless and forlorn and the Society served as a surrogate shtetl.

Geographically, the masses from East Europe were concentrated in the uncomfortable, over-crowded “tenement” houses. Seemingly spontaneously there developed on the East-side, a number of separate homogenous neighbourhoods, in each of which were clustered Rumanian, Hungarian, Baltic or Turkish Jews. By reason of their faithfulness and devotion to each other, the Jewish inhabitants of the East-side manifestly furthered the expansion of the great American Jewish community which now numbers six million people. Second only to the establishment of the State of Israel, the establishment in the United States, of what is now the largest Jewish settlement in the world, is the most important event of Jewish history during the past 150 years.

Within the limited space of this article, it is impossible to describe the poverty-stricken, intensive and colourful life of the East-side. It was a very strenuous sort of existence but one full of hope on the parents that in the future life, it would at least be better for their children, if not for themselves.

The founders and first members of the First Javorover Sick Benefit Society have long since gone to their eternal rest. For our purposes, it is important to note that their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren did not become members of the organization.

I made inquiries among our older landslayt as well as some of those who settled here following World War II, and learned that none of them were familiar with the names of the founders and earliest members. Neither the old immigrants nor those more recently arrived, recognized names such as Morgenheim, Schneh, Zeligman, Feuermaurer, Bromberg, Schmer, Heltzer, Itzchak, Danerman, Ziner, Elster, Lofler and Koback. These names are from the map of the First Javorover burial grounds on Mount Zion Cemetery (Har Zion).

By this time (1977), the second immigrant generation which arrived some sixty-five to seventy years ago, is also in the House of Eternal Life. Nonetheless, mention should be made of those who had been most active: Serber, Leib Orange, Morris Adler, Isaac Dauerman, Moshe Hemerling, Shlomo Koenig, Joseph Zimmerman, Falk Schildhorn, Mosche Spitz, Chaim Scher, Lazar Mondschein, the Erlbaum brothers, Eisig Keiser, Israel Rettig, B. Cermak, Leib Fischler, Harry Grund, long may he live.

Very few of the children of this group, too, are members of the society. Such facts are regrettable, an indication of the outlook for the future . . .

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Socialist Immigrants

At the beginning of the 20^th century, a younger and different element emigrated from Javorov. These people were skilled artisans such as shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers, tinsmiths, brush-makers and the like. They had become “enlightened” in the old country and a number of them at been among the founders of the social-democratic league in our town. (In about 1900, the Socialist Party of Poland had granted permission to Jewish members to establish “Jewish” branches).

Having become “infected with Sozialismus”, they objected to becoming affiliated with the existing organization, which they regarded as “reactionary and clericalist”. Their economic interests called for their identifying themselves with the professional societies (unions), and their ideology drew them to the Jewish labour movement. All these differences notwithstanding, they remained loyal to their old home.

In 1910, they founded the Independent Javorover Association. The statutes of the new organization virtually coincided in content with those of the older organization except that there was no provision for a house of prayer. During that period, Jewish socialists considered religion “poison for the masses”. Despite the organizational division, however, hatred never developed between the two groups. A friendly atmosphere always prevailed. Among those who founded the new lodge were: Morris Schneider, Isidor and Sam Schwartz, Chaim Schrenk and David Klein.

Immediately following the Polish-Bolshevist war in the early 1920's, there was a third and final wave of mass migration to the United States from Javorov. This influx consisted in both organizations. Those “green” immigrants who had lived through World War I and its concomitant hardships, were more inclined than others to aid needy inhabitants of Javorov.

One may well assume that were it not for such support, many families would have been wiped out by starvation. Those who urged aid were successful in instituting “secret charity” (matn beseyser). The Rabbi of Javorov would send in a requisition for the poorest families without mentioning their names. At the same time, the practice of providing funds for Passover requirements (mo'es khitim) was inaugurated. Annually, before Passover, the Rabbi, Zatsal (Zeykher Tsadik Livrokho), would distribute the money to the needy.

From the group which came to the United States after the war, three persons came to the forefront as a result of their leadership and their dedication of considerable time to both organizations. First among them was the late Sam Streitfeld, who occupied a position of leadership as President of the older organization. The late Moe Nussdorf was financial secretary of both societies simultaneously, and the late Bernard Klein was the conscience of both groups.

Moe Zimmerman, the current president of our combined organization, also belongs to this group of dedicated communal workers.

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The outbreak of World War II brought about changes in the activities of the Javorover organizations. Upon the initiative and under the leadership of Harry Frenkel, the Javorover Relief Committee was established. Frenkel co-opted active leaders of both organizations as well as Javorovers who belonged to neither. At the time, it was the expectation of Jews in the United States that some of the Jews in the old home would survive the war.

The task of the newly-formed committee was, therefore, seen to be the raising of funds for the rehabilitation of survivors. (Note: at the time that Frenkel organized the Relief Committee, I was already in the United States army. What follows describes events during the years since 1946 when I returned from military duty in Europe).

The catastrophe did not spare Jaworow. The Relief Committee, therefore, continued to gather funds, using the money to meet some of the needs of the remnant Jews languishing in former German prison camps. It can be proudly affirmed that all who requested aid received it. Not all of those who had left the camps migrated to Israel. Those who came to America were met with friendliness, kindness and gladness. Anyone asked for help was readily assisted.

Nearly all of the rescued newcomers became active. It would be well to mention here those who gave of their money, their time and their energy to further the aims of the Relief Committee. They include: the late Sam Streitfeld, Moe Mussdorf, Sam Schwartz, Isidore Schwartz, Morris Fischler, Sam Fischler, Morris Manber, Bernard Klein, Max Carisky and the late donors of large sums: Sam Dornstein, Sol Dornstein and Harry Grund, Ben Nussdorf, Oscar Nussdorf, Harry Frankel, Moe Zimmerman and Max Manber. Nor were our martyred dead forgotten. As a substitute for a monument to their collective memory, the two organizations jointly published a very fine edition of Samuel Druck's monograph entitled: “Judenstadt Javorov”, which records and memorializes the annihilation of the Jews of Jaworow and its environs. (The title is the same as that used for the area in records kept by the Nazi occupation personnel).

The collaboration of the two societies in the relief campaign and in the efforts on behalf of the remnants of the Jewish population of Javorov, served to draw the memberships together. The house of prayer had been closed because many members had moved from the neighbourhood to various other parts of New York. There was, as a result, nothing left to stand in the way of unification.

In 1948, the two organizations merged, adopting a revised constitution. Shortly afterwards, Yaakov Frenkel arrived from London to settle in New York. He soon became active in the new alliance. The older active members recognized his ability and before long, he was head of the organization.

In the course of Yaakov Frenkel's ten years of leadership, donations were made to the Free Loan society of Haifa, the Passover assistance was continued, annual pledges were made to the United Jewish Appeal campaigns and handsome sums were invested in the State of Israel bonds.

At the time these lines were being written (1977), the greatly depleted membership is headed by Moe Zimmerman, a member of the immigrant group that arrived after World War I. He is prominent in the International Ladies' Garment Workers union, the Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring) and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (Yidisher Visnhaftlekher Institut). Like Yaakov Frenkel, now a leading figure in the American Mizrachi movement, Moe gives his best efforts to the cause of his Jaworower landslayt.

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For the year 1977, the following are the officers of the First Independent Javorover Association, as the combined organization is now known:

President	Moe Zimmerman
Vice-President	Abe Druck
Financial Secretary	Samuel Drudk
Recording Secretary	Gershon Gottesman
Treasurer	Mendel Schild
Committee to visit the sick	Max Manber
Executive Officers	Harry Scher and Oscar Nussdorf

Many changes have occurred in American Jewish life during the years that elapsed since Javorovers first came to America. At present, we are confronted with a chilling fact: The times are not at all favourable to the continuation of a Javorover Association here. Actually, Landsmanshaft have been and will continue to be almost exclusively a haven for the rapidly diminishing immigrant generation.

Today, the American Jewish population is more than 80% native-born and the shtetl is now, by and large, only a source of nostalgia to the parents and grandparents of the American-born Jews. Anyone who ponders on the course of Jewish history will realize that in every period of migration, changes are inevitable. The American community of six million Jews moves in a free and open society. In general, a spiritual ideology such as was current in the towns of Eastern Europe, could hardly exist in the United States.

Although the Jews of Eastern Europe were mainly dependent for their livelihood on their non-Jewish neighbours, they, nevertheless, went their own may in matters of dress, education and their own language. Indeed, Jews made little adjustment of their entire lifestyle to that of the general, non-Jewish population. Social and civic interaction were virtually non-existent. In an open society in which Jews feel themselves to be on an equal footing with the rest of the population, as they do in the United States, they are able to contribute substantially to every facet of the life of the country.

The contribution of American Jews to science, art, literature, education, the health professions, law, legislation, politics, finance, industry and labour leadership is proportionally much greater than is the proportion of Jews to the general population of the country. Never before in Jewish history have Jews felt so closely tied to the future fate of a land as they do in the United States. Many who were born in Javorov or were descendants of Javorovers, served loyally in the American armed forces during World War II. A number volunteered their services in order to participate in the struggle against Nazism.

Of those born in Javorov, Abe Fischler, Samuel Unger, Nat Birn, Efraim Zindorf and numerous others, served honourably, whether on the various European fronts or in Japan. There is no doubt that most who came from Javorov, their children and their grand-children have struck roots in the life of America and are active in many important fields of endeavour.

The character of the American Jewish community of six million, has not yet been fully formed. The American Jew has not yet found his true identity or his natural individuality. But, despite the fact that he found himself in a cultural desert sixty or seventy years ago, the American Jew is now, in a spiritual sense, well on the way to attaining an estimable position in Jewish history.

We, the remaining Javorovers living in the United States and in Israel, must see to it that we continue in our efforts to further this progress.

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As I have already remarked in my English introduction to his monograph on the destruction of Javorov, Samuel Druck has earned the gratitude and appreciation of all of us. Similar recognition is due to Sholom Eichbaum of Haifa, initiator of the Sefer Javorov project. Let us hope that this Book of Javorov will be accorded its proper place in the home of every landsman and in every Jewish library. Thanks to Sholom Eichbaum, the destroyed Jewish community of Javorov will not be forgotten.

1 - Mendel Schild - Treasurer 2 - Shmuel Druk - Finance secretary 3 - Oskar Nusdorf - Executive 4 - Melech Tzimerman - President 5 - Gershon Gottesman - Protocol secretary (the one with the hat) 6 - (the tall one) - Mordechai Manber - Mevaker Cholim [visits, takes care of the sick] and chairman of the Jaworow cemetery (Translated from the Yiddish by Pamela Russ)

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