Sefer Lipno - The Lipno Book, Pages 289-292

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[Page 289]

The Lipno Landsmanshaft in Israel

S. A.

The Lipno fellow-townsmen, as many other fellow-townsmen are dispersed everywhere. The first immigrants to Israel, and those to follow them, never thought that a Landsmanshaft was required. Their viewpoint was that Zionism striving to put an end to the Diaspora and Ghetto mentality, objects any communal separatism, and requires full integration of all classes, a Landsmanshaft is thus undesired.

It was only after the horrible news on the magnitude of the holocaust had shocked the Israeli public, that the need for a Landsmanshaft was realized, and extending help to the survivors was set as primary goal.

The first board counted J. Rhoda, H. L. Leizerovitch, A. Shalek, S. Spiegel, Y. Bornshtein, S. Shibak, S. Zeirah, A. Holzman – blessed is their memory, and Dina Kleinman, and A. Shimoni. Later on, Y. Buki, A. Fodder, Y. Ben-Yaakov (Yurek), N. Buki, and Z. Florman – blessed is their memory, were elected. H. Biderke and Y. Klodovsky joined them.

The primary contact person, for a long time, was Tova Rhoda.
The last board that was elected included A. klodovski, G. Avigdori, M. Prizant, S. Meiri, and A. Levin. A. Shalek, Z. Florman and now A. Klodovski served as chairmen of the board.

The boards was active in several areas, immediately after the war, the board was sending packages to poor in Russia. In Israel, the board established a charity fund, which was providing loans to poor Lipno fellow-townsman and other new immigrants.

The other activity of the board was to organize the annual memorial ceremonies. The date set for the ceremony was 17 of Tamuz.

The first ceremonies were held in public halls and in the Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef HaShoah) on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Rabbi S. Brot Z”L, and Rabbi Cathriel Fisher Tachorez Z”L, used to participate in the ceremonies.

The other important activities of the board were: building a memorial monument on Mount Zion and bringing the ashes of the victims for burial in Holon-Israel. The funeral took place in July 15, 1976, and since then, the annual memorial ceremonies were held at this place.

The board had also collected the names of all victims, and deposited the list at the Archive of Holocaust (“Archiyon Hashoah”).

The board meeting held in 1987, decided to publish a memorial book, and selected an editorial board. Although we have faced many obstacles and difficulties in collecting the historic data and raising the required funds, we have eventually succeeded to publish the book. This book serves as a memorial candle to the Lipno Jewish community and holy souls of our victims.

[Page 292]

The Lipno Landsmanshaft in the US

S. A.

We received very little data from the living survivors in the U.S. and we can thus describe only a few of the Landsmanshaft activity there.

The Lipno Landsmanshaft was established before the Holocaust. When the war broke out, the Landsmanshaft established the "United Lipner Relief Inc." to provide support to the war victims. Money was raised at annual dinners and a special journal was published to announce the dinner. The journal publicized solidarity ads and money raising appeals. The local leaders of the Landsmanshaft, including, Walter Covaldo, chairman of the journal committee, Alfred Florman, chairman of the "United Lipner Relief Inc." and Jacob Dobzienski, vice chairman of the journal committee and chief editor, wrote several articles. Jacob's article was included in the Lipno Memorial Book, together with two articles from W. Covaldo and Moshe Shenenberg.

The "United Relief" was intensively involved in sending packages to the many families that were expelled from the town.

The final shipment to 237 families that found refuge in Warsaw was interrupted when the U.S. joined the war.

The organization continued to hand support to Lipno refugees in Russia and Teheran, by sending them money and food.

On Sunday, September 16, 1962 a memorial gravestone was erected at the Lipner Young Men's plot in the old Montefiore cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens, NY.

The organization ceased existing and very few of its members are still alive (M. L.: as of 1987).

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