Minsk, Jewish Mother-City,
a Memorial Anthology
(Belarus)

53°54' / 27°34'

Translation of: Minsk, ir va-em

Edited by: Shlomo Even-Shushan

Published in: Jerusalem, 1975-85

In memory of Meir Minkin

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Our sincere appreciation to Nechemiya Maccabi, of the Minsk Former Residents Society in Israel,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

Our sincere appreciation to Jonina Duker for her previous coordination of this project.

This is a translation from: Minsk, ir va-em; (Minsk, Jewish Mother-City, a memorial anthology, 2 volumes),
ed. by Shlomo Even-Shushan. Assoc. of Olim from Minsk and its Surroundings in Israel, Jerusalem 1975-85.

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Minsk

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Minsk Yizkor Book Index Database

Minsk, Jewish Mother-City

Memorial Anthology
Volume I

With the Book	Shlomo Even-Shoshan	5
History of the Jewish Community in Minsk	Siani Leichter	7
Community of Minsk from end of 19^th Century Until Revolution of 1917	David Cohen	74
District of Minsk	Shlomo Even-Shoshan	82
Religious Jewry, Its Institutions and Persons	Ben-Zion Gershoni	86
Rabbis of the Maskil-Leitan Dynasty	Sinai Leichter	102
Hebrew Publishing in Minsk	Avraham Yaari	105
Cantors and Cantorship in Minsk	Prof. Moshe Levinson	112
The Thief	Shaul Ginzburg	116
A Page from the Annals of Jewish Education in Russia	L. Lavenda	120
HaKochavim — “The Stars”	Gedalia Alkoshi	127
Jewish Souls	A. Litvin	135
Memories of a Yeshiva Boy	Alexander Ziskind Horvitz	140
On the Yeshivot	Ch. D. Rozenshtein	146
From My Childhood	Avraham Liessin	151
Chibat-Zion Movement in Minsk and Surrounding Area	Sinai Leichter	169
Secrets from Behind the Curtain	Sh. L. Tsitron	180
Rabbi Yaakov Meir	Yitzchak Nisenboim	187
Youth Rebelling	Shmaryahu Levin	190
Memories of a Minsk Grandmother	Paulina Vangrof	200
Jewish Workers Movement in Minsk in the 80's	Yevgenia Horvitz	202
The First Jewish Workers Circles	Yitzhak Hurwitz	213
Yitzhak Aizik Horowitz	A. Lissin	217
Minsk – Host of the Founding Committee of the RSDP	Mordechai Berger	220
My Jewish Minsk	Dr. Alexander Goldshtein	221
A Visit to Minsk	Zvi Hirsh Maslianski	240
A Passing Shadow	Efraim A. Lisitski	242
Trial of “the Jewish Gangs” in Minsk	Shneor Tsuri	246
My Secret Library	A. Lisin	250
Conference of Minsk	M. Dushkan	252
“The Opposition” in Minsk during the Founding of the the “Bund”	A. Lisin	255
A. Lisin and the “Opposition” in Minsk	B. Katzenelson	263
Vladimir Medem	Sinai Leichter	268
The Beginning of My Involvement with the Bund	Vladimir Medem	270
From the Memories of a Jewish Socialist	B. Michaelevitz	277
The Center of the “Bund” Puts Me in Misnks	Avraham der Tate	287
Conversation with H. Livik	Yaakov Pat	292
In the “Bund” Circles	Nachum Chanin	295
Minsk and the Minskians	A. Litvak	298
Gregory Gershoni and His Circle	Vladimir Medem	304
Meetings with Gershoni	M. M. Rozenboim	309
Speech Before the Court	Gregory Gershoni	313
Fruma Frumkin	A. Privilev	314
The Zobatovashchina and the Jewish Workers Movement	Boris Frumkin	316
Mania Vilboshvitz and Chaika Cohen	Mendel Zinger	326
Minsk at the Turn of the Century	David Zakai	330
Zion is in the Heart of Our Townspeople	Ch. D. Rozenshtein	338
The First Zionist in Minsk	Zalman Shazar	341
Shimshon Rozenboim	Daniel Persky	345
The Hebrew Language Finds Matches	Ester Filbinski	349
Yehuda Zev Zofech	Sh. L. Tsitron	350
In a Zionist Home	Dr. Dvora Kaplan	363
Chaim Chorgin	Itzchak Berger	368
Yehuda Leib Berger	A. A.	371
The All-Russian Zionist Conference in Minsk	A. Refaeli (Tsantsipar)	373
Light on the Paths of Jewish Economics	Zalman Shazar	383
With Poalei-Zion (Workers of Zion) at Minsk Conference	Yaakov Pereman	384
My Father, Nachman Sirkin	Mary Sirkin	385
Memories from Minsk	Seadia Paz (Goldberg)	388
The First Buds of Poalei-Zion	Yitzchak Berger	398
Poalei-Zion “A la Minsk”	Nachum Kantorovich	407
Poali-Zion of Minsk	Mendel Zinger	414
Yitzchak Berger	Daniel Persky	429
Ester Berger	Israel	433
Viezman Under the Boards	Yitzchak Berger	434
Poalei-Zion's Sailboats in Minsk	Mendel Zinger	436
My First Conference	Zalman Shazar	438
With B. Barochov in Minsk	Michal Rabinovich	443
Michal Rabinovich	Zalman Shazar	447
Zionist Activity	Alexander Goldshtein	449
I Will Remember Days in Minsk	Yosef Morgenshtern	451
The Blood-Bath in Minsk in 1905	Leo Motskin	457
A Manifesto after the Massacre	The Minsk Committee of the Zionist-Socialist Workers Party	461
A Chapter of My Life in Minsk	Mordechai Lieb Katznelson	462
Elections Struggle for the Second “Duma”	Alexander Goldshtein	465
The Minian “Dorshei Zion”	Moshe Kalyoch	467
Memories	Yohoshua Mordechai Rozenblum	471
On A City Street	Madan	476
Five Years in Minsk	Shimon Yaakov Gliksberg	484
With My Brothers in Minsk	Daniel Charni	487
Chapters of My Life	Avraham Reizin	491
Avraham Reizin	David Zakai	500
The Maggid from Minsk	Zalman Shazar	501
My Father's House, the Maggid from Minsk	Rebbetzin Rachel Chadash	504
Among Rabbis	Prof. Shaul Liberman	516
My Father R'Eliezer	Mordechai Rabinowitz	520
In Memory of Personalities	Noah Shapira	521
The Cantor R'Shlomo Kufshtik	Moshe Bick	525
Musicians in Minsk	David Zakay, David Solomonov	527
Pure Tunes	Zvi Gordon	528
Fragments of Memories	Y. M. Mali	531
Wagon Owners	Yehoshua Fisher	533
From My Old House	H. Sarlin	539
Hebrew Minsk	Daniel Persky	541
My Father, Chaim David Rozenshtein	Avraham Even-Shoshan	545
Y.Ch.N.H.Z. – A Folk Storyteller	Chaim David Rosenstein	551
Jewish Minsk in the Eyes of Daniel Persky	Sinai Leichter	556
Idols of My Youth	Daniel Persky	559
Secular Education in Minsk	Moshe Kalyoch	566
The Jewish “Reali” School in Minsk	Zalman Ginzburg	569
The School of Dentistry in Minsk	Zalman Ginzburg	573
In the field of education for Girls	Ahuva Kosovski	574
Of Days Past	Eliezer Kaplan	575
Eliezer Kaplan	Zalman Shazar	577
The United Committee	Nachum Kantorovich	578
Father's House	Sar Kafri (Kaplan)	579
“Charoshet”	Yaakov Kasel	583
Three Generations	Leo Goldberg	584
From Childhood	Dr. Moshe Rakoveshchik	588
Moshe Cohen	M. T.	591
Menachem Itzkovich	Michael Minkov	593
Evening Hebrew Classes	Menachem Gurfinkel	594
Refugee Aid	Shmuel Avinoam (Zukerman)	595
The Minsk Jew and Refugee Aid	Mordechai Rodenski	596
Chaim Solovyechik, A Refugee in Minsk	Yitzchak Berger	598
The Work of “Uza” in the District of Minsk, 1916-1918	Dr. Miriam Halperin-Proginin	602
A Surprise Meeting with Shaul Chernichovski	Nachum Chinitz	607
With Shaul Chernichovski on the Night of Simchat-Tora	Michal Rabinovich	608
On Days of Emergency	Moshe Doltsin	611
The Beginning of “Kolel” Minsk in Jerusalem	A. R. Malachi	615
Thanks to Pesach Seder Prayer at the Wailing Wall	Menachem Barash	624
Ordinary Conversations of Minskers Rabbi Shlomo Pines, Nachum Chinitz, A. Litwin, Daniel Charny, Tzvi Gordon, Y. M. Rosenblum, M. Evenski, Sh. Even-Shoshan, Daniel Persky		626
Popular Adages in Yiddish from Minsk (Note from translator: this entry does not appear in the printed table of contents at the end of the book)	Sh. Einhorn	638
Memories of People - (List)		640
David Cohen, the Living Spirit in the Enterprise of the Book of Minsk	Gershon Man (Minkov) and Shlomo Even-Shoshan	668
The Story of the Book of Minsk	Shlomo Even-Shoshan	671
Index of Names		677

The Map of the Region of Minsk (page 83) is by Shoshana Ram (of Beit Shemesh) and Chaya Bernstein (of Sde-Nachum)
The Map of the center of the city of Minsk (on the inside cover) is by Chaya Bernstein (of Sde-Nachum)
The printing blocks (glyphs) are from photographs from the archives and other sources – Pikovski Zincography, Jerusalem