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We will all understand eventually, How good it will be, when our offspring read About the home of their forefathers in our town; There stood the cradle of our family, And a dynasty of 20 generations.

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It is with a feeling of great pleasure I write these few words of my own at the beginning of my friend, Josef Silberberg's story, to which, after dwelling in “the Land of our Fathers” for fifty years, he now gives inspiring and noble expression of the deep and close spiritual connection between himself and his origins, the community of Zakroczym, destroyed in its entirety during the Shoah.

A small town with no reputation, no famous people, no great institutions of learning or scholarship, just a small simple town with simple straightforward Jews, sedentary home-dwellers and workers whose main need was to be granted the strength and endurance to provide for their families; a small serene town but, with its many-branched components, resembling that of the humming capital – Warsaw. It bubbled with life - its organizations, its movements and industriousness, its public institutions and political parties; its organized pioneering youngsters struggling in the Diaspora for the rights of the Jewish people to return to their homeland, with its young men – “putting the world to rights” – carrying the flag of all humanity, many of them spending years in prisons. They were Jews - Jewish tradesmen and artisans, porters and horse-and-cart owners, spending their lives worshipping their Creator and reading the Psalms. They were strong men who on more than one occasion engaged in fist-fights putting an end to anti-Semitic provocations on the spot.

While still young Josef had a keen sense of observation, critically examining situations and events and remembering them. It was a deep introspectiveness, and all that his eyes beheld was absorbed and engraved lastingly on his brain right up until the present day. Determined to know more and more he engaged in conversations with older Jews with worldly experience and exchanged views with others who showed an interest in urgent matters of the day. At the same time he read copiously and discussed the books intellectually when meeting friends and acquaintances. All this acted as a spur to his spiritual development and serious world-view of the problems of his people and perhaps influenced his determination to immigrate to Palestine.

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Certainly his emigration made an impression on the town as a whole and set an example for many to follow in his footsteps. Although as the son of the community leader, Leib-Hirsch, he had abandoned his father's house and all the advantages of it and chosen the Zionist path of fulfillment, there can be no doubt that it became the example to, and chosen goal of, the youth. And indeed, he was the “pioneer of the pioneers” and after him began a wave of youngsters undertaking training and immigration.

Josef Silberberg struck roots in the homeland and became part of the scenery and everything that occurred there, raising generations of offspring involved in its life but, as we learn from his story, he never became disconnected from his past. On the contrary, with the perspective of time and a backward glance, he knew the difference between the bad attributes and the good things of the town, emphasizing the positive and counting as a miracle its outlook and the phenomena deserving praise, many of which we consider in our own circumstances today as relevant. That and more besides: his aim is to instill in his children and his children's children the romanticism of those days and inspire within their hearts a living love and support of surroundings and personalities that they never knew and that are no more.

Josef Silberberg's story carries within and of itself a lesson of the need to remember and a warning not to forget. Indeed it is not necessary to implant in the present generation the values of the previous one but in this case we are speaking of a generation that was extirpated in its entirety and with it its eternal humanism were lost also, national and spiritual values, many of which have not lost their relevance and should not be neglected. It is not easy to transfer values to one's fellow men especially the youth but if it is performed without transforming it into an ideological lecture or a sermon it becomes a natural ennobling spirit passing from generation to generation. Josef has chosen this educational setting and I am certain that his own flesh and blood will be infused with his ideas and deeds found here in his stories and memories.

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In closing I would like to add that everyone who peruses and reads this book will find much esthetic pleasure, not only from its content and rich variety but also its clear literary language, pleasant style and heartfelt descriptive attitude. The descriptions of nature and scenery, the masterful imagery of personalities and people's struggles and their yearnings – all these are excellently and faithfully depicted. And what is particularly worthy of emphasis is the author's deeply expressed love for everything he presents to us, a world entire unto itself that was – and is no more. This book of literary excellence is fitting and worthy indeed of publication.

I compliment Josef on the publication of his book and wish him much future success in the continuation of his literary endeavors. I think also that I am not mistaken in adding that the constant support at his right hand of his wife, Esther enabled him to undertake and complete his work. Therefore – to both of you: Congratulations.

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It is many, many years since the end of that terrible war and we are given over now to the humdrum routine of our daily work-a-day lives. Have we already forgotten our town, sitting on the edge of the cliffs surrounded by valleys, in its lofty setting of spreading gardens, fields and green pastures…?

Our hearts are still drawn to the quiet sonorous melodic lullaby sung to us by our mothers in Yiddish “Rozhinkes mit Mandlen”^[1] and echoing still in our ears; charming enchanted worlds of our youth, in every corner something new, something unique.

I left the town while still quite young but returned occasionally for refreshing visits with family and friends and to enjoy the scenery on the banks of the meandering river, to the heights of the Princes of Mazovia – the “Zamek”, to the streams with their luscious dense greenery set amid fields of ripened golden wheat with each ear caressed by the breeze.

I immigrated to Palestine in 1934. I was excited beyond measure by the scenery decorated with orchards, with citrus-groves and the fields of “The Emek”^[2], but disappointed by the desolation and aridity of the Negev and the exposed Judean Mountains. I am now defined as belonging to the “Golden Years” of my life and for the fifty years that I have been here many changes have taken place: the destruction caused by the Shoah, the loss of family there and the creation of our State. The Negev has ceased to frighten and is now, like the once bare slopes and hills of Judea and Jerusalem significantly bereft of wasteland. Towns, villages and re-afforested areas are now found everywhere.

I still cherish warm feelings for the Zakroczym of my youth; I visited there in 1984. The sight of the town without its Jewish population was painful and saddening but the charm of its scenery remembered from my childhood remained and I still love it, in spite of everything that has happened…

I have received a somewhat cursory historical survey of Zakroczym from the Government archives in Warsaw. I was amazed at the preponderance of lacunae in the document. I present it here in its original Polish together with my free translation into [Hebrew] and afterwards we will discuss the topic fully.

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Zakroczym: a town; Region: Nowy Dwór; District: Warsaw; On the banks of the River Vistula; Close to the mouth of the Narew; Population: 3,800 souls Produce: vegetables and fruit. A small cooperative facility manufacturing shoes; Churches: A Parish church from the second half of the 16th Century Late Renaissance-Gothic style From the second half of the 18th Century with the erection of a Capuchin Monastery in the Baroque style. A fortified memorial to the memory of soldiers and civilians murdered in Zakroczym between 1939/45. The Memorial was erected in 1965 The seat of Nobles, (Princes or ministers). The residency was first mentioned in 1065. In the 14th and 15th Centuries it was the Seat of the Princes of Mazovia. The center for land management, the Justice and Legislative municipal assembly – 1422 Participation in sailing and shipping activities (Vistula) directly influenced the town and industries in the 15th and 16th Centuries. In the 17th Century there was a market and fair and at the end of the 19th Century the establishment of some small factories. In Poland's war of defense in 1939 of Modlin from the 14th-29th September, Lieutenant-Colonel Antoni Staicha[3] was in command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade's battles against the enemy. After the surrender of the fortress of Zakroczym 500 soldiers and 100 civilians were killed.

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October 1944 – 100 civilians were killed. From 8th October 1944 it was a transit camp for citizens of Warsaw. Zakroczym liberated 18th January 1945 by units of 70th Brigade of Byelorussians. 70% of Zakroczym had been destroyed by the end of the war. Post-war – the town was rebuilt.

Thus, in a truncated fashion was Zakroczym described according to the brief, official document. I am not satisfied with the above description. With the help of material I have researched from the work of noted historians like Dr. Schaefer, Dr. Ringelblum and Magister Tronak(?), also literature that I found at the time by the Polish statistician, Washotynski(?), from Prof. Jerzy Danielewicz's book on the 1831 Powstanczy Sejm in Zakroczym and Poleczki and from a pamphlet entitled “Zakroczymska Grodetka Relatzia”. Known writers supplied me with much material. Many years ago I listened to stories from elderly local people who exposed the past to my eyes and finally personal memories and the scrutiny of relevant material of interest in order to bring us closer to events and scenery of a vibrant burgeoning town, evolving and progressive – scenes creating close spiritual connection for their heirs.

And now – to work…

Thanks to the geographic and topographic situation of the town, of the castle of the first Piast kingdoms, the name Zakroczym surfaced on a map as early as 1065, slightly north of the confluence of Poland's three major rivers: the Vistula, the Narew and the Bug. The rivers developed early as a means of transportation. The first Dukes of Mazovia built the castle – the Zamek – on the banks of the Vistula. In Zakroczym the rulers in the castle planted vegetable gardens and orchards and their farmers planted a variety of grains.

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They then tried to export the produce to distant towns like Płock, Toruń and Gdansk (Danzig).

In 1386 the Mazovian settlement was recognized as a town in its own right, a right bestowed only rarely on such settlements. The town of Zakroczym was in the northern group of Mazovia. Later the villages of Przasnysz (Proshnitz), Maków, Wyszogród (Vishegrod) and Nowe Miasto were also granted the status.

King Casimir the Great worked energetically for the rapid development of the towns. He threw open the gates of his lands to the masses of Jewish people. The newcomers were absorbed by all the towns in Mazovia. In truth Jews already existed in Poland and there was already a “Jewish problem”. The “status” from the Statute of Kalisz in 1264 defined for the first time the legal status of the Jews of Poland. That Constitution applied also to the Mazovian Jews. In contrast to that Statute, the Jews of Mazovia were permitted to loan money against pledges of immoveable assets, such land and property. Similarly it appears that the judicial norms of Warsaw and Wyszogród stood in contradiction to the Constitution. It seems Mazovia legislated specifically concerning the Jewish population but there is no documented evidence of such; it is only evident from the judicial processes themselves. In the event that Jews were accused of attacking Christians the defendants in their defense claimed they were not subject or bound by the normal courts but are covered by Jewish jurisprudence (Jus Judical) and their own courts. In other instances the Jew claimed that the Judge had no authority to penalize them with fines because they enjoy the same rights as those of the nobility. As mentioned, until half-way through the 14^th Century, the Jews of Mazovia could negotiate loans to Christians against immoveable assets but they were responsible for any loss of or damage to the pledge even if they were in no way responsible. In those days the Prince of Mazovia had the authority and it was he who sat in judgment on his Jewish population. Casimir the Great wrote in one of his edicts: “It is necessary that our Jews shall have money in order to fulfill our requests, for they are our subjects.”

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In 1495 the Principality was absorbed by the Polish Crown.

In 1564 there were 160 dwelling places in Zakroczym providing a potential home for 1,300 souls. Participation in trade on the Vistula was a blessing to the town and brought rapid development and expansion to many enterprises.

In 1422 a meeting of the Council of the Nobles took place in Zakroczym in the castle on the “Zamek”. The participating judges debated claims that had accumulated and remained unattended to. Matters of land, forests and natural resources occupied the special attention of the Sejmik's^[4] debates and municipal laws were enacted. The imposition of a poll tax and property tax concerning the Jews was also considered.

Christian traders awakened public opinion against their Jewish competitors for trading as brokers, realtors and bankers. Customs taxes, State and municipal taxes, like burials. Jews from the surrounding towns of Serock, Pomiechówek and later on also £ątczyni were buried in the Zakroczym Jewish cemetery. The Jews accumulated money from inn-keeping or loans to land-owners. On occasion an estate passed to the ownership of a Jew. Possibly an estate close to the Vistula was transferred to the Bromberger family by this, or a similar procedure.

The town of Zakroczym had always been an important center of trade on the banks of the river. The Jews had good business sense and enriched themselves. They purchased produce that was sent by barges to Danzig, fruit to Warsaw and they would bring textiles, pelts and other essential supplies in return. The noblemen acted as protectors of the Jewish entrepreneurs while the priesthood worked hand-in-hand with the Christian traders in town against the Jewish people. The incitement in the Sejm achieved its aim: in 1539 King Sigismund decreed in the Polish Sejm a restriction on trade in clothing, textiles and pelts. He also shrugged off responsibility for the Jewish people and transferred the onus to the nobility.

During the second half of the 16^th Century the Parish church was erected in the central square area in a late-Gothic and Renaissance style. The steeple reared up overlooking the Vistula and its bell was certainly heard on the battlements of the castle on the “Zamek”.

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In the wake of the blood-libel in Sochaczew (Sochatshev), a neighboring town of Wyszogród beyond the Vistula and Bzura rivers, a wave of attacks spread and intensified against the Jewish population throughout northern Mazovia. Hooligans were active during that period in every Jewish neighborhood in the area. There were victims in Zakroczym as well. Several ancient gravestones in the Jewish cemetery were vandalized and strewn among the trees. I personally was involved there at one time assisting in deciphering some of the gravestones and found one from the 15^th Century. Certainly there were Jews in town who never understood the significance of those sandy mounds of graves in the grove and yet, the network of anti-Semitism that obliterates everything with the passage of time was always there before their eyes. Yes, we, the Jews of Zakroczym, with the succession of generations, have sent deep roots into the ground and the integration that time brought in the place brought with it a continuation of a history going back five hundred years.

The 17^th Century is considered the worst period for the Jews of Poland, except for the present century. It is true that at the beginning of the century, when King Stephan Báthory set out to conquer the north of Poland in the Gdansk area, he was still in need of help from the Jews for supplies from the Children of Israel and the situation was more or less tolerable. But with the passage of the years dark and heavy clouds began gathering in the skies of the kingdom of Poland and that of her Jews.

Zakroczym was conquered by the Swedish army in 1656. For 300 years the people were taught that the invading Swedish army flooded Poland and reached the town of Częstochowa (Chenstochov) and here the Swedish “avalanche”^[5] stalled. The Poles were under siege and the hero of the times – the Augustinian Abbot Klemens Kordecki – is credited with the occurrence of a “miracle” and the Swedes began to withdraw. The Polish State at that time was in a poor condition. The 17^th Century is also remembered for the cruel Chmielnicki revolution. He organized Ukrainian farmers, Cossacks and Tatars and incited them to attack the center and south of Poland. The Cossacks fell upon the Jewish towns and villages, raping pillaging and murdering. Great writers, Polish and Jewish authors as one, repeatedly referred to the period as “before the flood” and the “period of the flood”.

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They investigated it in depth and produced and published an excellent literary output; I will mention just three of them; two of them were accorded the Nobel Prize for literature. The first of them was Polish, a private teacher to estate-holders between Zakroczym and Płońsk who later became famous as the greatest of Polish writers, the author of “Quo Vadis?”, “The Deluge”, “With Fire and Sword” and many other books. His name is known to everyone - Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz. The Trilogy depicts a faithful picture of the terrible period between the years 1648-1660. Clearly mentioned and referred to are the heroes Skrzetuski and Zagloba who, despite everything, brings a smile to one's face.

The well-known Jewish writer Sholem Asch described those black years in his book “Kiddush ha-Shem”^[6] that has been adapted for the stage, as if they were alive before our eyes, the inn-keeper Mendel, Yocheved, his wife and their son Shlomo. The family took part in the creation of the feudal town. The Jews and Mendel with them built Złoczew on land belonging to Count Konitzpolski. A synagogue was counted among the first buildings erected in the town. They were orthodox in their traditions. Their children studied in Yeshivot^[7] in far-away Lublin. A full Jewish life arose and here occurred the great tragedy. The Cossacks and Tatars arrived in Złoczew and Nemyrov and began a cycle of murders going from house to house, raping the women and their daughters, pillaging property. There were thousands of victims. The Polish Nobles betrayed the Jews and surrendered them to the hooligans. It was a very hard time for the Jews of Poland.

The third author was the Nobel Laureate Isaac Bas-Sheva Singer. In his story “The Slave” he brings horrifying descriptive passages, as did Sholem Asch before him. He presents a Jewish captive from Zamość sold as a slave to a Polish farmer on the borders of the kingdom. The man is educated and keeps the traditions. He lives and works among Christians. Prisoners are ransomed and again stories of murders, rape and pillaging. The slave sees in his own condition pre-Messianic sufferings awaiting the coming of the Redeemer. He and especially his son are, to all intents and purposes, links in the dynastic chain from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel and on, into the future. After three hundred years came a Holocaust far worse and in the Land of our Fathers historic achievements that accelerated the recreation of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel.

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After the Swedes left Zakroczym many of the local Poles claimed that the Jews had collaborated with the conquering Swedish army and as a result of the accusations there were a number of victims. The accusations were false because at the time the Jews were not in favor with the Swedes. At that same time all the Jews in Scandinavia were exiled.

The Polish writer, Ch. Pask wrote in his memoirs of Zakroczym in those years. The man had a vivid imagination and occasionally his descriptions were funny - like the incident when a Polish marksman shot a rival's horse. The bullet entered the horse's mouth, traversed the whole length of the animal's body and exited… from the tail.

Another Polish hero passed through Zakroczym at the time. A patriot who shed much of his blood on the field of battle. Of him they sang: “He is not made of salt, nor of earth, but only of painful things”. Stefan Czarniecki was on his way to north-east Poland to the town on the banks of the Narew.

As a result of the hardships of war a plague broke out in Zakroczym and a few surrounding townships, lasting from 1709 until 1711. Babies and many adult residents among the citizens died, both Jewish and Polish.

Throughout a long period lasting decades the process of disintegration of the Polish kingdom continued. Except for the thriftless Royalty and the privileged Sejm like the irresponsible liberum veto (where a single member of the legislature could defeat any Bill by his sole opposing vote^[8]). All that contributed to the disastrous condition of the State. The influence of Russia slowly penetrated the awareness of the people that their fate was in their own hands. The resistance to foreign interference led to the revolution known as the Konfederacja barska.^[9] Attacks on King Poniatowski were conspicuous and life-threatening. Several initiators of violent activities were caught and tried in Zakroczym and punished by never being allowed entry into Zakroczym again. In the meantime delegates of the Powers at the time: Russia, Prussia and Austria decided among themselves on the division of Poland in 1772.

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The number of Jewish residents rose slightly above 400 in 1765. Throughout that entire period a real sense of insecurity pervaded the Jewish community. Of the disturbances that took place during those years, Ezra, the son of Rabbi Shmuel ben Ezriel, the author of “Hagurat Shmuel” reported in depth in a pamphlet that appeared in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in 1772. He writes on what occurred there four years earlier. They were the last irresponsible acts of a State in extremis.

After the second division of Poland and as a result of it, Zakroczym fell under the domination of Prussia. With that began a new chapter, relatively better, that lasted 15 years until the establishment of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 in accordance with the Treaties of Tilsit signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Tsar Alexander the First.

At the end of the 18^th Century an extra steeple in town was added to the church in the Baroque style at the same time as a large Monastery of the Capuchin Order. A hundred and twenty years later the building was used by us as a school until it was moved to the hill for younger students.

In 1807 after Napoleon's victory over the Prussians a meeting took place in the summer resort town of Tilžas, near the Baltic, of French and Russian leaders. A miniature State was created for the Poles – the Duchy of Warsaw - which also included Modlin and Zakroczym. Napoleon's army was stationed in Modlin and was supplied by Jewish entrepreneurs such as Koppelman, who built factories in the area. French officers sat in Zakroczym restaurants and the local gossips whispered to anyone who would listen about the secret romances between the few local “beauties” of those days and the French officers.

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It was from Modlin that the French army began its march to conquer Moscow in 1812. Many of us certainly still remember the wonderful description by Mickiewicz “O, that year…” in “Pan Tadeusz”. I once went to hear the description by a genuine eye witness of the historic event. After much persuasion the old “grandfather”, a cleaning worker for the Zakroczym Magistrate, told me. I waited for him on a lawn with a lone tree and a street-lamp its column stuck in the ground and swaying in the wind, one Thursday after the weekly market day. He finished his work late in the afternoon and slowly began to walk round me, picking up his broom, pitchfork and bucket. “Grand-dad”, I said to him, “I heard that you saw the French soldiers of Napoleon when they started on their way to Moscow from Modlin.” At first he stopped and without a word made a brushing away motion with his hand, as if to dismiss me. I began trying to persuade him and after about five minutes the old man with his long beard and patriarchal face, leaned against a low fence, opened his mouth and said: “That's right; I was about ten years old and my friends told me that today the French army had left town and gone in the direction of the Russian border. Everyone was of the opinion that it was a good thing for the Poles because the Russians were likely to get a good beating from Napoleon. Hordes of people began running towards the Galachi gate to the Modlin fortress eager to see the soldiers marching away and to cheer them on ensuring them they were in our hearts. At about 10 or 11 o'clock we saw units of cavalrymen, their superb-looking horses, all decked out with the sun gleaming on their groomed bodies, their riders, pikes and colored flags in one hand and the other holding the reins. Following along behind were the artillery units. Young Polish women threw flowers over the riders in their saddles. Here the army separated. The first units turned in the direction of Pomiechówek and the infantry marched in the direction of our town and from Zakroczym to Płońsk. The residents of town welcomed the marchers ecstatically, with demonstrative affection and cheering. At the tail-end we saw many carriages that we nicknamed “Napoleanki”. “Grandpa” finished his narrative and I shook the shaking hand in thanks wishing him many years of good health. They say that the carriages we called “Napoleanki's” were sold by the French to the people of Nowy Dwór and Zakroczym. It is possible that our own Itzik, Moshe, Pesakhye and Shloimeleh drove us to the Modlin station in one of those same historic conveyances and we weren't even aware of it…

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The unexpected defeat of Napoleon at Moscow became a fact. There were many historical ramifications to that downfall. Among other things, it was the end of the Duchy of Warsaw and its territory became Russian. It is worth pointing out that for many years, between 1815 and 1864 the Russian authorities behaved very favorably towards the Jews in regard to building and development. There was a lot of work done in our town. There were relatively short events like the November Revolution from 1830-1831, that was instigated by the forces of the Polish Right during which the assistance of the Polish Jewry was not asked for. But important things occurred in Zakroczym. The Polish Sejm moved to Zakroczym before the end of the Revolution. On 11^th November 1831 a parliamentary meeting took place in the Capuchin Monastery with the active participation of Joachim Lelewel, the noted historian. At that time the “Polish National Patriotic Society” published a newspaper in Zakroczym under the name “Gazzetta Gradova” in which passionate articles were published by Maurycy Mochnacki. In one of them he wrote that wherever the members of the Sejm slept, there, the capital of Poland was found and so it was that the town Zakroczym became the capital of Poland for one night – one night of an independent Poland…13^th September 1931 the historian Joachim Lelewel organized a National Council to extend assistance to known Polish entrepreneurs who had been forced into exile, now beyond the borders. The following day the Warsaw Sejm convened for its last sitting in the municipal building of Płock.

In spite of its relatively great age, the town that grew on the banks of the Vistula never achieved any dynamic development up to this point in time. It was situated in an agricultural area in the center of Poland called Mazovia-Mazowsze. An impression of the spirit of the local people can be derived from the Mazurkas of Chopin and his variations of dances of Mazurkas and Krakowiak.^[10] (The famous composer was born at the beginning of the 19^th Century in Żelazowa Wola on the opposite side of the Vistula on the Plain of Kampinoska about 20 km from Zakroczym).

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I would say that it is the spirit of “Old Poland” mixed in with their local characteristic nature.

The post-primitive, but pre-neo-technological agriculture provided a sufficiency of cereal, milk, fowls and meat. The gardens supplied fruits of excellent quality. The rivers in the area provided fish for the simple folk. The slow trickle of people from an agricultural existence to an urban setting was slow; in essence the Jews slowly built the town.

	Jews	Christians	Total
Bakers	6	1	7
Butchers	5	6	11
Carpenters	1	2	3
Cobblers	2	2	4
Ferrymen		18	18
Fishmongers	2	12	14
Glazier	1		1
Hatters	1		1
Millers	1	3	4
Notary		1	1
Nurse	1	1	2
Pharmacist		1	1
Seamstress	3		3
Shop-owner	17	3	20
Smithy	1	2	3
Tailors	8	1	9
Tinsmith	1		1
Welders	1		1
Total	51	53	104

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We learn from this that towards the end of the third decade of the 19^th Century, the financial activity in town was divided almost equally between the Jewish and Christian sectors while the Jewish population of Zakroczym continued to march steadily towards 33% of the total.

In spite of the somewhat cool relationship of the leaders of the Listopad^[11] revolution towards the Jews, some of the Jews insisted on being counted among the fighters. Conspicuous among them was a young married man, father of a child who called himself Barak Yoselewicz, who organized a brigade of fighters for the liberation of Poland. The brigade conducted daring actions north of Lublin. He stationed himself in the vicinity of Kock (Kotzk), where he organized the disciples of Rabbi Mendel of Kock. There fell General Barak Yoselewicz, commander of the brigade. Many heated arguments raged in Zakroczym and many towns of Jewish Poland as a result of the activities of Yoselewicz.

At the edge of the ridge overlooking the valley surrounding the town, and opposite a narrow lane leading to the market, stood an old solid one-storey building. This was the Study House of the town. Inside, against the wall facing Jerusalem, stood the Holy Ark and in the center of hall was the “Bemah”^[12] resting on four, oil-painted columns. A large number of tables, benches and chairs were aligned along the eastern wall. The place represented one of the important spiritual centers. Apart from the daily public prayer sessions of the Sabbath the community Jews of all levels would gather here, sitting at the tables listening and absorbing every word proceeding out of the mouth of the Rabbi, expounding, reading excerpts from the weekly Torah portion or from the Prophets or simply a portion from the Old Testament not connected specifically with the week just ending. In later years the Rabbi Herschel Blum, A. Zlotowitz and Neuberger sat at the head tables. When a known preacher happened to be in town in the middle of the week he was invited to give a sermon after evening prayers. I once heard such a one who was on a visit from the Holy Land. His topic was based on verses taken from the Prophets with descriptions of the reality of life in the Land of our Fathers; he spoke of Jerusalem, Hebron, on Safed in the days of Ha-Ari^[13], of Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem or simply described the “young” settlements, Petah Tikvah and Rishon Le-Zion.

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At the foot of the hill in the gully on which stood the Beit-Ha-Midrash (Study-House), is a small building – the Mikveh – the ritual bath-house. That important installation was under the complete jurisdiction of the synagogue sexton, the diminutive and thin, Moshe Sucheris and his stout wife. We were always in conflict with sexton Moshe ben-Isachar of the Great Synagogue where there was also a Mikveh. He always tried to chase the “street urchins” from the courtyard where we played. Here we could hide under the not too pure water…

We already had religious institutions while neighboring Nowy Dwór had not yet completed their structure. They were still looking for donors and they organized a liturgical concert featuring the Cantor Gershon Sirota. Wealthy Jews in the town paid high prices for tickets for the concert and thus added to the eventual completion of the building which was destroyed at the hands of the Nazis – May their names be wiped out.

At the beginning of the 19^th Century there was an active wealthy Jew in Zakroczym named Koppelman. He supplied services to the army stationed in Modlin fortress and is credited with others of saving Jewish industry in the area. Koppelman and a number of other wealthy Jews from town, like David Bromberger, Mendel Silberberg, Gershon Feld, Eisenberg and others harnessed themselves to the noble project and built the Great Synagogue in the center of town. In spite of the fact that the building was not plastered it was a successful enterprise and proof of the maturity of the Jewish community. Perhaps the survivors of the town will stone me to death but for all that I will express my opinion that I have higher regard for the Jewish community leaders of the 19^th Century and less for those of the 20^th Century. Apart from the construction of the synagogue they invited a distinguished teacher and author who resided in Zakroczym 1868-1870. I will return to that topic concerning the name Abraham Jacob Paperna (Z”L) later.

The Great Synagogue was erected on a broad expanse of land covering about one hectare, close to Nowomiejka and Tylna Streets. I estimate its dimensions at about 35 meters wide and 50 meters in length. (The area near Tylna Street was wider).

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The interior was divided essentially into three aisles, left, right and center. Each aisle separated from the other by a row of columns that supported two flat ceilings at each side and the higher central arched ceiling. Here, when one raises one's head the eye sees the decorated ceiling with the signs of the zodiac and animals representing strength, understanding and speed, all overwhelming the eye. When I was a young man a local Jewish artist, Aaron Meltz(?), refreshed, and repaired the decorations adding quotations from the Torah. The Holy Ark against the eastern wall reached up high. It was decorated with lions supporting the Ten Commandments. Steps from either side led up to the Ark, the place of the Scrolls. Here the Rabbi stood and delivered his sermons listened to attentively by the congregation. Once, when I was still a young lad I was present at a very emotional event. Gala-Niche, a mother, entered the synagogue during the day opened the Ark and began a fierce, appealing debate with her Maker, crying and shouting. Why was the Lord of the universe preparing to take away her only son Pesakhye who was desperately ill? To my sorrow, the result of the “debate” was decided against Pesakhye and his mother Gala-Niche…

At the center of the prayer-hall stood the Bemah from which the Cantor (Rabbi Meyer…), conducted the prayers. Above were three sections for the women-folk: one immediately above the entrance and one on either side of the prayer-hall above the side aisles. The two side sections were used during weekdays as a kindergarten school for young children. This large building was not plastered and the red kiln-fired bricks stood out against the green lawns and trees surrounding it. Leaving the building was like walking out to the open country and the heart was cheered by the refreshing greenery.

The young boys would spend most of their time out of school in the open field, or stand and watch the local rope-making industry. At one end was a wooden wheel and a well-developed muscular man Gedaliah, would turn the handle of the machine. The handle and “Gedaliah's wheel” would turn at high speed, and the hooks fixed in the center would turn on their axles even faster. Then the rope-maker, wearing an apron in which he carried fibers of hemp or flax.

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He caught the head of the turning hooks and from a piece of oiled skin which he held in his right hand he slowly released the flax fibers with his left hand. The material began turning with the hooks, and as it turned faster and faster it became thinner, longer and stronger. The rope-maker walked backwards facing Gedaliah's giant head, laughing eyes and protruding teeth. All the boys smiled as well when they saw Gedaliah, muscular like Hercules, with his wild laugh, with the background of the wooden wheel turning happily. The rope-maker continued his backward steps releasing the hemp or flax from his apron as he retreated. The rope became longer and longer – until the back of the rope-maker touched the wall of the synagogue… this was how we witnessed and participated in the exciting experience of braiding a rope. On weekdays we used the field for games and activities. In the red-walls of the synagogue with the tall windows, there were alcoves and in the alcoves sparrows built their nests and way up high swallows incubated their eggs or were busy feeding their young chicks. The birds and their chicks gave us great pleasure and we were sad when we discovered that eggs occasionally fell out of the nest from the corners of the window – and the girls played hopscotch.

In every town in Poland and perhaps in other countries as well, one will always hear about fires. I remember the fire that broke out one night in the big windmill that generated electricity for the town. Many people were deeply concerned about the electricity flowing from there in case it caused fires to break out in the houses. We weren't so well-informed or knowledgeable eh? It turned all night long and they saw it at the entrance to the town (Judges)…..But what was it...Absolutely nothing but old wives' tales compared to the blaze at the Monopole at the Bromberger house a hundred years ago. A store-house full of alcoholic drinks went up in flames. Many houses were caught in the flames and the fires approached the Great Synagogue. Then the Jewish people – men and women – swear that they saw with their own eyes a horde of doves as white as snow appear on the four corners of the building and with spread wings beating halted the advance of the tongues of flames and drove them backwards and the building was saved. To the great sadness of all of us at the time of the Shoah the doves failed to appear or, if they did appear, apparently their fate was as the fate of the Jews and their synagogue…and the heart is saddened because of it. The truth is that fire has always created fear among the Jews.

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During the first half of the 19th Century many troubles fell upon the Jewish people. The Russians began to mobilize single young men for the Tsar's army. The service lasted for up to 25 years. The draftees were stationed far, far away from their homes, even as far as Asia and Vladivostok. Most of the men married young girls. Sometimes they chose to marry a divorcee or widow with a child. They would hide for long extended periods. Sometimes they chose a difficult and painful solution – a potential draftee would injure himself, in his limbs, vision or hearing. The men were scared of their fate. From fear they became crippled for their entire life. Russian soldiers would hunt down and search for them in their hiding places or burst into the Batei-Midrash^[14] and arrest all the young men. Many of these were sent directly to the army. This method was termed “Branka”(?). There were instances where a bachelor draftee found an aged spurious “mother” and the poor woman was the bachelors' way of avoiding conscription in the late 19^th early 20^th Centuries and finding themselves far away from potential brides…

In January 1863 the Styczniowe Revolt broke out in Poland. In contrast to the uprising of 1830/31 the upper-classes were not supportive of the new uprising but there was a widely-based popular movement that included the intelligentsia, working-classes, literary personalities and Jews. It was well-known that a member of the Warsaw Rabbinical Council, Rabbi Meisels was an officer among the revolutionists.^[15] In the three towns of Płock, Płońsk and Zakroczym there was a response to the revolution's slogans. With the years I met many veterans (participants in the revolution) in their blue uniforms and officers' badges, including two local veterans.

When I travel by bus and cross the Ha-Yarkon River I catch sight of the narrow strip of river with many sturdy oak trees on the horizon, my thoughts sometimes fly to that same town on the north bank of the River Vistula which looks so imposing when compared with our little stream that seems to wink at me as I cross the center of the bridge. There, in the 19^th Century, lived a Jew, a keeper of the Commandments, careful of the Jewish laws and traditions of Israel.

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He was counted among the local wealthy personalities and his name was Rabbi Mordecai Bromberger. One of his sons, David, out-performed the other sons by virtue of his abilities and education. The young man was a successful trader. He used to go to Warsaw frequently. There, in the capital he came into contact with writers whose articles were published in the Hebrew journal “Ha-Melitz”. Within that group David found a “Litvak” (Lithuanian), who wrote critical articles in “Ha-Melitz” and “Ha-Carmel. In 1868 they brought a Hebrew teacher to Zakroczym. The name of this distinguished teacher and critical observer was Abraham Jacob Paperna. He was 28. He rejected the Yiddish language. He had a son who was born in Zakroczym and studied medicine in St. Petersburg and actually was a shining supporter of Yiddish and a friend of Noach Pryłucki.

During Paperna's stay in Zakroczym he wrote and published his well-known and highly critical “Ḳanḳan Ḥadash Maleh Yashan”^[16] in which he harshly criticized the unbridled, flowery language as degrading the Hebrew language and the amateurism of the poetry of the period. Paperna was in close touch with Mendele the Bookseller (the nickname of Sholem Yankev Abramovich), who wrote a letter to him in Zakroczym in 1869 advising him that “I will shortly send you a book “Di Takse” (“The Tax”), which although written in simple Yiddish it certainly earned the right to be considered as literature. The teacher Paperna remained in Zakroczym until 1879.While still in Zakroczym he composed a journal in which he defended the principle of the foundation of National Jewish Schools separate for Jewish children and opposed the thesis of them studying in the general school system with Polish children because in his opinion the combined studies of Jewish and Polish pupils would prevent the Jewish children from becoming imbued with the spirit of Russian patriotism. He expressed his opinion at the reopening of the Rabbinical Seminar in Warsaw that had been closed at the time of the revolution in 1863 and suggested that tuition should be carried out in the Russian language. Paperna sent his pamphlet to General Popov who was head of the Department of Education in Płock and he, after reading the content passed it on to the chief inspector of the Warsaw District of Education Count Witte who approved of it. Following Witte's recommendation, Popov sent the pamphlet to the editor of the Russian newspaper “Dnevnik Warschawski” (“Warschawski Journal”), where a brief summary of

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it was published (volume 167 1868). Teiff(?) Shapira who, at the time was visiting Paperna in Zakroczym, relates that it was sent by hand in the care of his emissary General Woronov for publication in the influential paper “Moscow Statesman” Paperna's cultural and political outlook was that of a Russophile and he belonged to the “Maskilim” movement that saw the future of the Jews in Russia adopting that language, with loyalty to the great Russian State.

Abraham Jacob Paperna was born in 1840. He studied in Zhitomir in a seminar for the Rabbanut (1862). From Zakroczym he moved to Płock in 1870.

For 45 years he taught in the gymnasium, wrote many articles and books. He died in Odessa in 1919 and is buried next to his friend Mendele. All Paperna's writings appeared in Tel-Aviv in 1952,

I now return to David Bromberger. There were not many Jews in town who were regular readers of the Hebrew press “Ha-Magid”, “Ha-Carmel” and “Ha-Tzfira” of Slonimski, Sokolov and (eventually), Haftman. The “Israelite” in Polish also found a place on his table. He was among the first to read Paperna's article. He regretted that his son, Shloimeleh's teacher left the town and moved to Płock. The significance of the teaching: “Where there is no food, there is no Torah”^[17], was also clear to David. He widened the scope of his business, building an industrial factory with a tall chimney that could be seen for kilometers. On the site he erected a furnace for firing clay bricks from red earth. All the builders in the area began laying red tiles one upon the other. One could think of him as being a great Polish king because as a youth he found a tract of land covered in trees and turned it into a built-up area. Yes – built with bricks from Mochty-Smok, 3 kilometers south of Zakroczym on the banks of the River Vistula facing Leoncin, the Kampinoska plain and Żelazowa Wola (the birthplace of Chopin). David used to travel to his factory in his luxurious carriage and in the winter by sleigh with sleigh-bells ringing at the end of the shaft alongside the horse's mane.

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Shloimeleh grew up in wealthy home respected by all the residents. This is the family that built a new house on the ruins of the burnt-down Monopol. The legacy the father and grandfather willed to the grandson was of considerable value. The young man was pleasant but of rather a weak personality for the management of all the surrounding problems – problems that his father would have solved with no difficulty. It was difficult for him to make daring decisions at the appropriate time and while he hesitated the critical moment would pass and he would lose out on the deal. His life continued along a path combined of tragedy and drama. He had two sons, Dan and Mordecai. Both of them were excellent youths. One day Mordecai went swimming in the Vistula with a friend. The young man “sank like a stone into the depths” but the friend survived. The tragedy struck the family deeply. The beautiful house was sold for a low price because of the inflation at the time and, in spite of the family's deep roots in the town, moved away from Zakroczym. The second son, Dan, organized artisans in Warsaw, members of the Zionist Histadrut (the Zionist Labor Federation). Rasner [a candidate? Trans.] in the organization was opposed by the resident of another town, Ya'acov Yazvinsky who was a candidate for the Folkist Party^[18] (Folkspartei) for the Polish Senate (the daughter of Yankel Yazvinsky – who was a regular visitor to her aunt in Zakroczym – is now living in Israel).

Dan Bromberger also occupied himself with writing. In 1934 at Kibbutz Negba I found a newspaper – the Warsaw “Der Moment” – with articles written by him on his visits to his father in Haifa and memories of visits to his grandfather's house and his father's house. I will mention here a visit by Shlomo Bromberger in 1945 to my house. A good-looking tall man of about eighty walked in and identified himself as Shlomo Bromberger. I jumped up and stood in front of him. In my eyes he represented the “saga” of the family with the deepest of roots in Jewish Zakroczym. That is the reason that I have devoted so many words to the dynasty of the Brombergers.

Of course there were Rabbis in Zakroczym in the 19^th Century who deserved a mention regarding their activities for and on behalf of the Jewish community. Before my eyes I see the plate on the wall of the Great Synagogue memorializing the generosity of the benefactor Koppelman. For some reason they had not included the name of the spiritual shepherd of the community who was present at the consecration of their new temple.

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What is known, is that about 1890 a new Rabbi arrived from Szreńsk (Shrensk), born in Wyszogród. His name was Yona Mordecai Zlotnik, the senior brother of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Avida. The man, Rabbi Mordecai, dedicated his whole strength to protecting religious interests for the sake of traditional and general Jewish education. During his tenure another distinguished teacher was in town that left an awareness in the hearts of his students of their national identity and brought them a basic knowledge of the three languages prevalent in the town and country: Yiddish, Russian and Polish. The teacher taught them to exploit different methods to deepen their mastery by investigation. In spite of the existing restrictions he also succeeded in teaching literature and mathematics. After some years I had the opportunity to examine the achievements of some of the students of Yitzhak Bornstein; I was simply stunned as to how he made it possible for them to accumulate knowledge in Polish and Yiddish (I have no command of Russian). All credit to the son of Faybush!

Rabbi Zlotnik moved to Płock at the beginning of the 20^th Century to officiate as Community Rabbi. Yitzhak Burstein went to the United States. The seat of the Rabbanut was taken by Rabbi Horowitz the father of Malka'leh Horowitz of Kiriat Haim, and in the field of instruction the crown truly belongs to the father, Freiberger. A pleasant Jewish man, with a pair of spectacles perched on his nose the man raised a generation of Hebrew speakers, a generation of Zionists and Maccabees in the spiritual sense and not only as sportsmen. In the autumn of 1920 I enrolled as a student and for a few days I went to the classroom with high hopes of learning Hebrew but the teacher suddenly fell ill. His spirits fell at the same time and he barely managed to walk a few steps without collapsing. A serious heart condition hastened the end of his life and after a few weeks he died. His many students remembered his ennobling work as an educator and, wishing to pay their last respects they arranged a fitting and impressive funeral for him. We, the pupils of his last class, preceded his casket bearing the blue and white flag with black ribbons streaming in the wind, together with the Magen-David, tied around the top of the flag-staff. All the residents united with the memory of this veteran educator who was the last of our great educators before the outbreak of the First World War. It is worth remembering that the

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“Zlotnik-Freiberger” period brought with it a blessing in the process of the development of a national awareness among the youth and the general population of the town. With the backdrop of the Dreyfus affair and the appearance of Dr. Herzl, the Zionist Congress in Basle and the death of the leader, all were part of this burgeoning era as were the creative writings of H.N. Bialik, Tchernichovsky, Shalom Aleichem, Peretz and Shalom Asch, who organized the Federation of Zionist Writers. The youth read the modern poetry, the newspapers “Heint” and “Der Moment”. There was also an echo of the novel in Polish by Orzeszkowa (Meir Ezofowicz), Bolesław Prus (Lalka), Wyspiański (Wesele), Żeromski (“Homeless People”, “Springtime”), Reymont (“The Peasants”). There were young women who absolutely devoured these books. I remember that in a one-time conversation I had with Debora Smarlak(?)-Cohen, I was astounded by the depth of her evaluation of these books. Her husband Ya'acov was no less perceptive of Hebrew literature.

At the time of the First World War the Maccabi Sport Federation was created at whose head stood Pinchas Kalman Braun. Members of the management were M. Sheinman and A.B. Szapsiowicz.

In those days a branch of the party formed by Noach Pryłucki was set up. Many Jews were actively engaged in the fire department that was headed by the fat Mayor; there were quite a few jokes at the expense “our firemen”. The Community was headed by the local Rabbi, Rav Mendel Irlicht. Rabbi Mendel served as a member of the town management committee. P.K. Braun and Haim Rotsztejn were members of the Town Council.

On 1^st August 1914 the First World War broke out. The Russian Government refused to believe in the Jews' loyalty to the Tsar and they were forced to leave town within 24 hours leaving everything behind. The nearby fortress Modlin was swamped with Jewish victims who had left behind and buried all their valuables hoping to find them again on their eventual return. Our family, like almost all the others found nothing on our return. The reestablishment and rehabilitation of the home started from nothing. There was barely time to get reorganize when ---

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Hoopla! – The Jews of Zakroczym were exiled yet again. After the German victory on the battlefield, the government fell into their hands and the Russians fell back and German authority slowly established itself over our area; Jews returned to town and it must be said that there was less looting of Jewish property.

The behavior of the Germans in the conquered territories was fair and pleasant. There were no grounds for complaints from the Jewish population in spite of the fact that the First World War had now continued for some years. The Commander of the Militia in town indicated the tone of the relationship of the authorities towards us. The rotund Jochen Goetz smiled at children, women and others. The Militia was housed in the office of the Notary Ravitzky. Greenery in front of the house and a garden in the rear added dignity and honor to the Government representative. The guards made sure that no essential products were either brought in or taken out, like flour, farm produce such as potatoes, without a “schein” (an appropriate pass). Soldiers and policemen patrolled the borders of the town with rifles and fixed bayonets. Every sack and other goods were prodded with the bayonets and all incoming goods were checked. Next to the gate of the Capuchin monastery or next to the Police station local Jews were often stopped trying to smuggle in forbidden goods without a license. The penalty and fines levied were significantly harsh and included imprisonment as well as fines. Considerable attention was given to pest-control and public health in order to prevent the spread of diseases, especially typhus spread by lice. A team of sanitary workers would select a house or apartment and inspect heads and clothing. Occasionally women would hide with their children in order to avoid these examinations. During that same period a few families of German extraction settled in town such as Neglau-Neglaski, Bross, Eidel and others who, somewhat surprisingly, made friends with the Jewish residents.

In 1918 when signs of the German collapse began to approach, Polish patriots became conspicuous on the streets of the town. I remember clearly on 11^th November 1918. The local

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German authority broke camp and the Militia Commandant – the fat one – issued an order to the police to evacuate the station in an orderly fashion. I looked out of the window of my aunt's house and saw a parting ceremony taking place with the police marching in an orderly fashion up the slope in the direction of Modlin. At the same time a young Polish electrician climbed a telephone pole, smashed the German sign-post and hung several small red and white Polish flags while several youths clapped their hands in approval. I was about five years old when Zakroczym was liberated.

The Jewish population immediately felt the difference – and for the worse rather than the better. The first unit, soldiers of general Haler, a clearly anti-Semitic unit, appeared on the streets. The “Halerites”, in their blue uniforms, would walk among the Jews with scissors in their hands. When they met someone with a beard in their path with wild glee they would torment the old man. The encounter would invariably end up violently with a “cosmetic” treatment by cutting, or tearing off the man's beard together with the skin. Haler's soldiers also forced a “house-arrest” on their own initiative on men with beards and if by mischance one of them was in the street he would cover his face and beard with a scarf.

With the establishment of the Soviet regime in Russia and after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany most of the potential enemies of the new regime waited for the opportunity to strike at the Russians and collaborate clandestinely with her enemies. The proud Poles, who not long ago had become free after more than a hundred years of slavery to a foreign and hostile oppressor, already hastened to solidify and exploit their political status by supporting the western powers, France and Great Britain. Young and seasoned officers arrived from France like Weygand and de-Gaulle. The latter served in Modlin. In my grandfather's apartment a room was requisitioned for a tall, young officer; I suppose it could have been de-Gaulle. The political-strategic situation became very complicated and in the summer of 1920 we were witnesses to a Bolshevik invasion of our area. Perhaps the most important battle took place under our very noses. It was fought under the command of the Second World War renowned

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military leader, Wadislav Sikorsky. The battle-field was close to Zakroczym, Pomiechówek and Nowy Miesta, between the Narew, Wkra and Suma rivers. At the time of the deportation from town my family travelled to Warsaw by coach on Shabbat. Near the slope down to the Narew, opposite the Pomiechówek fortification thousands of soldiers advanced towards the battle and we heard the dull echo of the bombardment. In effect, at the same time, the Russian front was broken and their retreat became a rout of the Soviets homewards. There a miracle occurred above the Vistula. The confluence of the Narew and the Vistula is about two kilometers from the hill. The charming village of Jeruzalimska(?) at the mouth of the River Wkra and its waters turn the water-wheel of the picturesque flour-mill. And here, here were the fierce battles with the Bolsheviks.

For the third time within six years the Jewish residents were told: “Go!”

At noon Friday, there was a directive that we must leave by noon the following day – Saturday. Many left by crossing the river by the Plain of Kampinoska to Leoncin: there are deep sands in that area and the July heat, fatigue and dehydration struck at the wanderers in the desert from Zakroczym. Here the crippled scholar, Lieberman's wooden leg sank into the sand and exhausted he recited the “Shema Yisroel” incantation. Women fainted from thirst; hunger disturbed the exiled children of Zakroczym. With great difficulty the mothers and little children overcame the experience of the burning summer day in the desert without knowing whether they will find shelter the coming evening and days ahead.

No better was the fate of those whose destination was the capital, Warsaw. The elderly were forced to make the trek of 43 kilometers on foot. We, as it happens rode on a coach. We were the last in the convoy that passed by Nowy Dwór and onto the Fontanini Bridge that crossed the Vistula. We just managed to get to the west bank when the wooden bridge partially collapsed and we were hit by a sudden but heavy shower. We barely managed to find shelter in the adjoining copse of trees. We continued along the road to Słodowiec and in the evening we arrived at the railhead junction near the station. About 150 railcars with soldiers were crawling towards the front being hauled by two locomotives.

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Thus we left a Zakroczym depleted of her Jews. Actually there was one Jew left, Mordecai – a very small man with a black beard, an iron welder by trade and the city engineer in charge of pumps. When there was a breakdown they used to lower him on a steel cable tied round his body into a deep well, deep within the earth. We were now in a village just north of Warsaw and didn't know who to turn. Two pleasant-looking, young Jewish women realized we were helpless refugees and led us to a small hotel in the vicinity. When the door opened we found ourselves flooded in light. A good-looking tall Jewish man was standing in the center of the room saying the prayer of “Havdalah”^[19] in all its details, wine, candles and perfume. The sounds of the blessing over light, dividing the sacred day from the rest of the days of the week coming from his mouth, echo in my head to this day reminding us of the Sabbath. We had travelled throughout the day and had not noticed that the Holy Day had arrived and gone. The nice ladies separated from us with kisses like old friends. Thus it was for us refugees in 1920. Residents of Zakroczym found refuge with family members, in the many synagogues that existed in Warsaw the capital of Poland. There were also those who slept on barrows and wagons in the markets…or rented rooms. Our family rented a tiny room in which we, 16 people, slept on the floor packed like sardines in a tin.

In Warsaw they followed the historic events taking place to the north and the east, alertly and with great concern and tension. Generally speaking the capital was quiet. Now and then we heard a shell explode. Not far from our home a young woman was killed on the threshold of the shop where she worked from shrapnel scattered by such an explosion. It was mainly the refugees from the villages who suffered most from these events and often hunger stared from their eyes. On average the mortality rate among them was high. One of our family members died as well. They wanted to bury him in the sands on the other side of the Vistula but his son objected angrily and they dug a grave for him in the cemetery in Okopowa Street. As a child I strode alongside the wagon carrying the corpse along the paths of the famous cemetery. We passed by the graves of Zamenhof, of Peretz, Ansky and Dinezon and others whose lives had left their glowing mark on the history and deeds of our people on the soil of Poland and the great city of Poland.

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After the “Miracle above the Vistula” the Polish people celebrated in happiness and their friends from the west were happy. About two-weeks before Rosh Hashanah the refugees received permission to return to their homes. Our village had not been hit. During our exile, the soldiers had turned the Great Synagogue into a stable. The soldiers and their horses defiled the sanctity of the synagogue and the Scrolls of the Law were destroyed and torn. Following their behavior Yitzhak Grünbaum the Party spokesman in the Polish Sejm, delivered a protest at the plenary session on the 14^th October 1920. The speech was dedicated in its entirety to the sufferings of the Jews of Poland during the advance and retreat of the Soviet Russian army with a particular mention of the Jews of Nowy Dwór and Zakroczym in which he described the sufferings of the Jews of the towns “…after the 'Yelnya Offensive' or at the time of the operation, events occurred that reminded us of the Russian atrocities of 1914” (Cries and exclamations of “That's interesting!”). “From those same places around the Modlin Fortress only Jews were expelled and exiled; all the Jews without exception: Rabbis, Haredim, who after a time were given certificates of loyalty and patriotism. They expelled them together with their womenfolk and small children.” (Cries: “With Garlic and with Onions!”).

“As we are informed from official sources: 'Our generals cannot be victorious if the Jews remain in Zakroczym, Nowy Dwór or Palenicza.' (Noise). How are we to understand the expulsion of the simple people? The action proved - like the pamphlets identifying the Jews as Bolsheviks as anti-Semitic propaganda - an invitation to robbery. Nowy Dwór was plundered after the Jews left; theft from all the shops and apartments of the Jews. The same thing happened to the apartments and the synagogues in Zakroczym which were destroyed…one of the synagogues was used as a stable for horses.” (Shout from the House: “Of course! Trotsky put the cavalry in there for economic reasons.”).

That was an example of what occurred in the Polish Parliament in Zakroczym and the surroundings in 1920.

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The Haredim in our town gathered the torn and tattered Scrolls of the Law in clay pots and buried them with many participants, in a formal ceremony in a new section of the cemetery and a head-stone was erected. The prayer hall of the synagogue and the Stiebl of the Righteous of Gur were thoroughly cleaned and sanctified and made fit for prayer in time for Rosh Hashanah and the festivals following.

The economic status of most of the Jews of Zakroczym for the year commencing with the Bolshevik invasion was below the poverty line of Poland. Most of the population was without milk, sugar and meat with minimal bread. The stress level was high until some support and supplies from the Jewish population of America began to arrive. A cooperative store opened. A kitchen was also opened in the courtyard of Rabbi Herzl where free meals for children were provided and products for families living in poverty. Clothing was also distributed, shoes and cash. Expatriates from town living in America donated generously to their families in want. Hungry children received meals every day in the kitchen and their health was thus more-or-less preserved. At the same time there were developments like the transfer of cooperatives to private hands which, naturally, were less favored by public opinion. Generally the Jewish public in town stood the test of the fateful times in which they found themselves.

After the departure of Rabbi Horowitz (May the Righteous be Remembered for a Blessing), a Rabbi from Staszów (Stashev), Rabbi Yitzhak Srebrnik, the grandson of Rabbi Shimon Srebrnik who officiated in Nowy Dwór during the first half of the 19^th Century was installed. The personality of the new rabbi was much liked by the faithful congregation of Zakroczym. That same year we lost our talented Cantor Mr. Malkiel who took with him to Vishkov two talented choristers – Yehuda Astrazon and Nahman Dorembus. They came back to us at the end of the year. Malkiel's position remained vacant until early in 1925 when the Cantor and ritual slaughterer Mr. Shmuel Fater and his family arrived.

In 1921 a national census was conducted in Poland; I bring figures from the statistician B. Waschyotinski(?).

Jewish residents %	Number	Total population
38.0	1865	4896

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I would like to draw attention to the figures for 1921 showing there were no more than 1865 Jews living in town in 1921 representing only 38% of the general population by comparing them with a series of less certain figures.

1856	Total	1600	560 Jews
1887	“	2150	801 “
1910	“	3720	1386 “

There was much activity in town in the Jewish quarter. The Zionist library was open several times a week. The youth came to change their books and at the same opportunity exchanged compliments between boy and girl. On Saturday nights a large audience congregated to hear a lecture from local people (Ya'acov Cohen and A. Sotenberg) or those who came from Warsaw like Moshe Klajnbaum (Sznai), Mendel Krupnik or Lily Frischman. The activities of the Jewish National Fund were impressive.

There were frequent stage performances by local groups in the firemen's building, in the school hall or the Capuchin monastery. Among many others there were performances of King Lear, Hassia the Orphan, “Der Wilde Mentsch” (The Wild Man), and sometimes a comedy. Among the performers were Ashermil, Yuzik Ehrlich, M. Sheinman, Moyshe Goldfarb, and Laybl Bronstein. In Vaudeville there were Hinda Rosen, Esther Smarlik(?), Sztulman, Noach Gazs(?) and others. The shows started before midnight and end in the small hours. Menye was always in charge of the buffet.

Immigration to Palestine started among the youth. The brother of Rabbi Zlotnik, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Zlotnik-Avida, who was the brother-in-law of Rabbi Mordecai Hirsch Kalisher emigrated and attracted to himself Benjamin and Yehuda (Ita) Kalisher, followed by the youngest of the family Laybl. The first three left for the United States after some time, Laybl was taken from us in the springtime of his life. The Zlotniks and the Kalishers were tied to each other. Rabbi Avida died in Palestine and the bones of Yehuda Rifkind-Kalisher were brought to

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Palestine and buried in the cemetery of Nahlat Yitzhak. The first pioneers were Malka'leh Horowitz (the young daughter of the Rabbi), Yitzhak Rojtkop and Shlomo Zilberstein. Ashermil, the miller also emigrated together with Moshe Serbernik and another young man.

For the Jewish children there were 2-3 classes with three Jewish teachers. The most experienced among them was Haya'leh Krantz (the granddaughter of Mendel Zilberberg, one of the builders of the Great Synagogue). The teachers most-liked by the pupils were Mrs. Lev-Motil and a young woman from Lubicz (Lubitch), Schlachtaub(?), (the sister-in-law of the dentist, Eizenberg). From class 3 to 7 the children learned in the elementary school in the monastery. The first head-teacher was Mr. Zhemaytis (a Ukrainian). With the arrival of Captain Tadeusz Hanzlyk, the new head-teacher in 1922, there was also a new team of teachers: Wolf, Pruski, Mrs. Maximowitz and Wozniaková (nature studies), and thus began a welcome strengthening and completion of the present veterans like Domanski and the two Piaskowska's, (mother and daughter). I ask a pardon from my friends that I haven't mentioned all their teachers in the list but I have been asked not to mention one of them. I will recall here the Synagogue warden, Ordakowski(?). I was always surprised at how he managed during the day to manhandle the heavy brass bell, holding it in one hand while ringing it so many times. In the winter I was grateful to him for lighting the steam boiler in the bath-house stuck on to the wall of the monastery at the southern end of the courtyard. Oh, Ordakowski's sauna; what wars took place in the fog of the steam room between the Jewish and non-Jewish youths on the steps. What respect was awarded to those who managed to attain the top “heavenly” step of the Turkish bath-house? Real heroes.

In the winter when it was snowing or it rained we spent the recesses wandering round the corridors. On days when it was not snowing, even if it was teeming with rain, we ran into the broad courtyard or climbed a ladder to the top and slid down on a plank of wood, about twenty centimeters wide, for a distance of about twenty-five meters. To this day I cannot forget young

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Bilinski, to whose courage I was myself a witness. He walked with serene steps way up there, along the narrow beam. When he got to the end he about turned, bent down and on a plank of wood tilted at an angle of about 45 degrees slid to the ground. We were stunned into silence and stopped breathing from fear that he was certain to fall 10 meters to the ground. I could certainly not dare to do such a thing…

The Folkist political party has already been mentioned here and its meetings were held in the home of old Mrs. Bryl. I don't know if it was clear to the leadership that the brother and sister of the Rozenshein family organized an illegal communist cell on Polish soil right under their noses. Active in the cell at the time were Brayne Estruga, Meiernhutz, M. Sheinman, Kirsch Dzerzgowski. When they celebrated New Years Eve in 1921 they ran a lottery for a portrait of Sholem Asch and I was invited to make the draw from the bag. The audience was surprised when I pulled the ticket out of the bag that someone immediately claimed the portrait of Asch. Because I was a mere child of 7 I had no idea who they were or what they wanted to do with it neither did 95% of the local Jews.

One day the Polish Secret Police entered town; they had decided to liquidate the underground cell and arrested all its activists. The Jews received an unpleasant - and worrying surprise. They were distracted by the many unexpected house-searches made. They took the youngsters, girls and boys, to the police station. The red mustached, energetic police officer, Bannach, loosened the strap of his peaked cap from under his chin. A young Jewess described him as “a hard man” with his sparkling eyes and shining boots. In the meantime M. Sheinman managed to go underground and was not caught while his friends were taken in chains to the Pomiechówek prison in Warsaw and sentenced to many years' imprisonment. Earlier there were restrictions in education. Each family could send only one child to the elementary school. Later on the education was broadened and parents were obliged to send all their children of school-age to school at the State's expense. Every morning and afternoon the street filled with the pupils rushing to their respective classes. In the afternoon our children went to Heder to study Torah.

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The students were handicapped and their level below average. The girls studied a little with a quiet modest woman. Games were played in the street or the yard of the synagogue. Later on we played “hoop-and-stick”, played football or rode bicycles.

The seasons change, one after the other and each one of them has its special charm. Each one presents challenges and offers clues as to what games to play or how occupy our time. With the beginning of fall we would walk to all the vales and stream beds and the hills above them making acquaintance with the tree-population: the elm, the beech, the poplar, willow and acacia, collecting the leaves and placing them on the page of our nature-study books and afterwards go and play games with chestnuts in the synagogue yard. After a downfall of heavy rain we rush to make boats to float down the powerful streamlets forming canals on the slopes and gushing down into the gullies taking with them our makeshift boats and sinking them in the turbulence formed when the streams meet each other at the bottom of the slopes; we would go into the water trying to save whatever we could from the “fleet” we had made from tree barks with great effort and not a little artistry. When winter came and the snow painted everything in white and the frost etched patterns on the window-panes of the churches and our apartments, we would put on our warmest clothes and go out with a friend pulling a small sled with a rope attached behind us all the way to the top of the slope and a moment later come speeding all the way down lying flat on our stomach, sometimes colliding half-way down with another friend's sled. Mixed cries of the pleasure, happiness and the anger of youngsters, faces flushed with excitement, wonderful days of sharing among children, a pity that not everyone had such opportunities.

Spring, full of hope arrives. No snow, no mud; everything carpeted with the rich lush green of Nature; excursions to distant places; drinking fresh milk of the month of May; breathing air full of the intoxicating scent of lilac and its mixed colors of white, light and dark blue; waiting for the end of the school year. Hoorah! Summer is here. The school satchel is thrown to one side; fruit of every description; ice-cream; black-berry cake – all with the taste of summer,

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especially bathing in the river, swimming and sometimes boating; resting pleasantly on the lawns. Each and every weed and blade of grass is caressed by the slight breeze. When one gazes from afar at the carpet of greenery one's heart is drawn by the abundance of the refreshing color. And what do the adults in town do? Simply gossip:debate about the elections to the Polish Sejm. The Socialists won, the farmers with Witos won and the Democrat Narutowicz was President of Poland. Within a short time he was assassinated by a rabid anti-Semite named Niewiadomski at an art gallery exhibition of Polish artists. Incidentally, our colleague, Isachar Fater, tells us in his excellent Yiddish book that the murderer's brother, who was a musician, loved the Jews and Jewish music. After the death of Narutowicz you have the presidency of the right wing Professor Wojciechowski. The new president went to Lvóv and while there Ukrainians attempted to take his life. A Polish woman, Pastarnakowycz(?) swore in court that a Jewish student Steiger was the real culprit. Steiger's defense was conducted by a team of the best Jewish lawyers in Poland, Leib Landau and the assimilated Löwenstein (a relative of Rosa Luxemburg). After many months he was found not guilty.

A new town council was elected and a pleasant slim man, Mr. Gedbetz was selected as mayor. Several other new names and changes took place including Mendel Jarlicht and Pinchas Kalman Braun. In place of Yuzik Jarlicht who had died, came Haim Rothstein. The two Jewish men mentioned above engaged in an open struggle during public council meetings; the two opponents sometimes fought to the point of drawing blood. Rabbi Moshe Kalina was the secretary of the Community Council but quite suddenly he was replaced by a young man – Moshe Serbernik. Mr. Kalina's daughter Sarah also worked as assistant to the magistrate Mr. Piotrowski. Incidentally, he ran for Mayor but failed to be elected. [Blank space - unprinted word – trans.] worked for many years and took his father's position when the latter passed away. He was a moderate, quiet man! Eventually he had problems with his young son.

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It is worth mentioning that as the years went by the pharmacist Kowalski officiated as the local judge. He was a handsome man but tense and easily agitated. There were times in the pharmacy when the only clock available for the local populace was the wall-clock in the pharmacy. I remember when I was in my second year of school with Haya Krantz the teacher would send me to Kowalski's pharmacy at about 11 o'clock to see what the time was.

There were cases of consumption in Kowalski's family. The tall daughter who appeared in the market place riding a military horse was affected by the sickness. A worse fate was suffered by her unfortunate seven year-old daughter who in later years eventually buried four or five victims of the terrible illness. A similar threat continued and hung over not a few Jewish homes in town.

Light and shadowy “darkness” had been part of our world since the beginning of time. Mostly it was the “light” rather than the shadowy “darkness” that ruled. When the darkness ruled in any place it was then that we learned to value the “light”. There never was a man or an object that was not accompanied by a shadow. Indeed, in the movie “The Student of Prague” the actor Conrad Veidt sells his soul and thus loses the silhouette – the image of his shadow and his fate was bitter.

Thus far I have brought to these essays a plethora of “light” that cast its rays over our town and we in turn reciprocated. Everyone who approached and entered Zakroczym saw that within its shadow lived many exceptions, breathing the air in homes that were old, cracked, worn out, rotten and falling to pieces while the shoulders of the inhabitants were bowed down beneath the yoke of a life of want. For all that, they accepted their fate. They were used to their weaknesses as also…were we. It even seemed as though it added spice and flavor and enjoyment to our lives.

While we speak and unite with the memory of the simple folk, the modest people, the general multitude, we dare not do so while ignoring and turning a blind eye to the exceptions who accompanied the lives of the Jewish population for two generations until the Holocaust. I will try to memorialize them as they appear before us in the streets and alleyways.

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Let us take a look at the enchanting view of a beautiful town. In the flower-scented spring-time, the blazing summer and the golden autumn it presents views of breath-taking beauty while the white mantle of snow is bared to the light of the wintry sun. In all the seasons of the year striding tall along the streets is a Jewish man, his black beard tinged with gray, a sack slung over his shoulders. It is Yankel Moshe the paper-collector – the well-known collector of all sorts of papers. In Tel-Aviv I saw at least two men and one woman with a similar hobby. They do this as a wholesale occupation because their bags are bigger and more fully packed. Our “retailer” saved with special care the small colored wrappers from candies. The collector Yankel Moshe loved children. They would always throw the wrappers of the chocolates and wafers in the street wherever they happened to be in the gutters along the street and the elderly man smiled at the little urchins and sometimes chanted to them the tunes of prayers sung by the Cantor Malkiel who sang in the synagogue with the choir before the arrival of Cantor Shmuel Fater (Z”L)).

More than once as he stooped down over the gutter someone would toss something teasing him. Yankel Moshe stood bent over as if smiling to himself. They say that on a similar occasion, when he heard teasing comments he apparently became angered and suffered a stroke. He collapsed on the ground and the following day he passed away and went to his everlasting resting place. The French, Jewish author, Gary Ajar described one of his protagonists, someone about the age of Yankel, who flew kites. There are old people also addicted to that hobby.

P o l c z a would always pop up in the butchers' street. His clothes were disarranged and possibly infected. A rope was tied round his waist. His eyelids were half-closed. When he became angry he fluttered them rapidly. When the man sensed the aroma of cooking coming from a kitchen, his eyes opened wide and stared at the cook and if she failed to offer him a portion he fixed a stare on her that penetrated to the very bones. He was a repulsive smelly wretch to his very soul. Sometimes the street urchins chased after the man and whoever else they disliked.

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There were some girls in town full of compassion who sympathized with his suffering and related to him kindly. They warmed his heart. In the summertime they would send him to bathe in the river and supplied him with clean clothes. Thus they would behave on the eve of the Day of Atonement. Polcza would come to the synagogue on the eve of Kol Nidre, stand near the door listening to the prayers perhaps silently letting out a sibilant whistle because he didn't know how to pray.

Polcza passed away before reaching old age.

Life in town moved sedately along quiet waters. Once a week, on Thursdays, the local farmers came with their produce and the women-folk, shopping baskets in hand, rushed to the market-place. With only a few cents in their hands they would come home with lots of good things. At the end of the day the municipal street-cleaner – the oldest man in our locality – arrived with his barrow, shovel and other tools and works with great precision but so very slowly. From time-to-time I tried to get some kind of story out of him from long, long ago. I sometimes talk with Fishl Zucker the wise old man and with Sandor Czysch. The Jews were concerned for their welfare and businesses. They toiled assiduously to supply the hungry capital of Poland, Warsaw, with her needs – fruit, potatoes, onions flour and so on. All these they transported in baskets and wagon-masters – like “Arieh Baal Guf”^[20] (Bialik) and Noach Schneir who also liked “a drop of the “hard-stuff'” (alcohol) and on the way back were permitted to load up with manufactured goods and merchants and suppliers would travel with them in order to save travel expenses, especially women and widows who had no way to care for their children returned burdened down with their purchases.

There was once a great tragedy; it was felt in every Jewish home in town. A laden wagon was on a journey while carrying merchandise, two widows and Szme'leh the driver. They were attacked by robbers at the Reissbar forest – a place not normally considered dangerous for travelers but on the main road between the forest and the walls of the Modlin fortress. All three

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were killed and their money stolen. The shock throughout the community was great. Sadness, grief and mourning wrapped the entire Jewish area. The Community Council decided to arrange an official public funeral. The bodies were brought to the Szapsiowicz house in the Galachi neighborhood; there, three improvised hearses made their way to the cemetery two kilometers away, followed by a huge gathering. Everyone wept as the mourners recited the Kaddish prayer. The community Rabbi eulogized the victims of the murders and pillage on the highway to Zakroczym.

Time heals all wounds. It is true that Jews die – but they also get married and give birth so as not to break a dynastic chain. What did weddings look like in Zakroczym in those days? We will start with the matchmakers. Most of the local youngsters fell in love. Nevertheless, quite a few needed the involvement of the matchmaker. The mothers told stories of when they were young and the young man would woo his “heart's desire” secretly and until the wedding they would not be seen together on the street. By our time things had moved forward considerably and youngsters of both sexes were seen on the streets walking together quite freely but there is no comparison in regards our behavior then and the indelicate behavior of the youngsters today. Perhaps there were quite a few adults in town who acted as matchmaker on occasion. From the distant past I remember Selig P. did something, as did “Little” Resele who was very active and “quite crazy about doing it”. She boasted about it all over town until Mendel Bailis. Oh-ho! Dina Ganzes' tenant knew just how convince people with bathos – until he fell into her net out of sheer fatigue!

The preparations for the wedding began in the bride's home months before the ceremony. Purchases in Warsaw, seamstresses, bakers, bookings for the musicians, the orchestra, the synagogue, the ritual bath, and the night before the wedding no one slept a wink but were busy cooking. On the Saturday morning preceding the wedding the bridegroom in his new suit is limping slightly – apparently from the new shoes made for him by Shalom Schuster-Lazarovitch only the day before but he has to smile to his father and the future father-in-law who are accompanying him. Far ahead of them, the bride's mother and future mother-in-law with freshly curled hairstyles (perhaps with the curling iron still hot), leading the bride to the women's gallery in the synagogue.

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The Morning Prayer; the male participants being called to the Torah readings. Last of all the bridegroom who will hear the concluding passage and in a raised voice he recites the blessings before the reading commences. As the readings finish a shower of candies, almonds and raisins rain down on the group below, on the groom's hat and on his suit. He looks up towards the women's gallery and sees his smiling bride throwing down a handful of almonds. “Oh-ho! My generous bride” he thinks to himself. After the service a Kiddush is held in the house. The guests are served wines, cognac and salted fish. And on the day of the wedding itself – a great feast.

When the musicians arrive with their instruments at the wedding venue and before darkness falls, the decorations on the bridal carriage are completed, the bridle, the reins and the whip adorned with flowers and the horse goes on its way to the homes of the guests. The driver helps people climb up and alight from the carriage which passes rapidly through the main streets of the town. In the meantime, Aaron Melz takes his violin from its case and tuning it listens carefully to the notes entering his sensitive ear. He had already seated his elderly father on his chair with his cello between his legs. Yudeleh's trumpet shone and Yosseleh's clarinet is ready for the opening march. The orchestra plays and the guests appear in all their elegance attired in the latest fashions from Warsaw. The bride sits smiling on her raised chair, returning kisses but her eyes seeming to follow the musicians. Who are her eyes searching for? Perhaps Yankeleh Cymbalist. Who among us, the youngsters, hasn't listened to a concert by Yankeleh…excuse me now they are playing a dance and couples are dancing according to the instructions called out to them, forming couples, turning about and under the archway formed by one of the couples holding hands high in the air while the next couple passes underneath and they too form an arch in the same way. Then a lively Polka. The guests enjoy the music and the dancing. The elderly folk sit along the walls looking at the dancers. One of them is jealous – why doesn't he know how to dance? Another one boils with anger – why doesn't a young man come and invite her to dance?

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The comedian climbs on a chair; a few favorite songs; a stormy round of applause and he ends his performance. Now comes a short man, Bruchel, with the canopy, and announces that the Rabbi is on his way. He speaks without raising his eyes. Bruchel accompanies the Jews from their birth to the grave. To circumcisions he comes with the Rabbi who is the head of the community. He also brings the benches and stools from the Stiebl^[21] store and returns them. Bruchel will certainly come to the wedding – without him the ceremony cannot take place. The canopy is stored by him and, again, if seating is required he is the man to see. If, Heaven forbid, there is a divorce, Bruchel serves the Rabbi during the separation ceremony. Every day he carries the Rabbi's prayer-shawl to the Study House for morning prayers; if, God forbid, someone dies he is the one who digs the grave or assists in that essential task. In addition he brings the coffin. If Bruchel doesn't bring the coffin then the corpse will remain in his house for ever – imagine! Bruchel has another chore – he draws water. The furrows on his brow and neck developed after the death of his wife, a seamstress. She helped significantly in providing for the large family – cooking, preparing tasty food for Shabbat…until today he recalls the taste of her delicious prune concoction. In secret he added a little cold water – no matter there will be more fruit soup! Now only he alone had to maintain the home and care for the children and the yoke was heavy upon him – heavier than the buckets of water that he carried and distributed throughout the town.

Translator's Footnotes

1. “Raisins and Almonds”. Return
2. The word means simply “valley” but in this context, as a proper noun, it refers specifically to the Valley of Jezreel. Return
3. Several internet sources and lists of ranking military personnel from WWII Poland fail to confirm or even mention this officer at all – let alone at the defense of Modlin although the name, in its Polish configuration does occur in the Polish document translated above. Wiktor Thommée is reliably named as officer in command. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktor_Thomm%C3%A9e. Return
4. A diminutive form of the Sejm taking the role of a local council. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejmik. Return
5. Known historically as “The Deluge”. Return
6. Hebrew – Literarily translated as “Sanctification of the Name” but also used to define “Martyrdom”. Return
7. Religious seminaries. Return
8. See: https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberum-veto. Return
9. The Bar Confederation (1768-1772) See also: http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/18cen/confbar.html. Return
10. Traditional Polish dance forms. Return
11. The Polish or Croatian month of October – see:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_months. Return
12. The central raised platform from which the readings of the Torah take place and prayers are led by the Cantor. Return
13. Rabbi Isaac (ben Solomon) Luria Ashkenazi (1534 – July 25, 1572) considered the founder of the Kabbala and nicknamed Ha-Ari – “The Lion”. Return
14. (Pl) Religious study-houses or seminaries. Return
15. A noted activist of the times. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Ber_Meisels. Return
16. Very roughly translated: “A new can containing nothing new” see also (among many references): http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11890-paperna-abraham-jacob. Return
17. See: Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Azaria – Ethics of the fathers: Chap. III; v. 21. Return
18. See: http://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/folkspartei-poland. Return
19. The word means “separation” – as a ceremony it separates sanctity of a festival day from the normal days of the week. Return
20. Based on a character in a short story by Haim Nahman Bialik. Arieh is a man's name but also the word for “Lion” Return
21. The Rabbi's personal “court”, Study House and synagogue – usually that of a well-established scholar and leading rabbinical authority. Return

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