[Page 231]

Golde Lakh was the Seratske Rebi's daughter. She operated a dry-goods store and earned a living through great effort. Yet she found time and energy to help people in need. She created her own kind of lodging for the poor and helped poor sick people. When the doctor went to a poor patient, she would go with him and also buy the medicines for the patient until the person was able to pay. She also carried medical equipment, in case the doctor went to a patient and did not bring along an instrument and it could heaven forbid result in a misfortune.

Her activity and her personality were famous in the whole area and even as far as Warsaw. It happened more than once that when a patient had to travel to

[Page 232]

a Warsaw hospital, the patient was taken because of her recommendation. Non-Jews in the area spoke of her as of a mystical person. And not for nothing. She also did favors for the goyim.

Golde was an institution in herself. Her whole life she was dedicated to helping people in need and took from it the highest spiritual pleasure and personal satisfaction. She did this in no one's name. Everything stemmed from her inner self. One of the greatest and rarest women, whom Jews called a saint.

Khaye-Etel offered another aid service: She cooked the necessary food for the needy sick whom she and the patient, and even the doctor, believed the life of the patient hinged on. Khaye-Etel knew each patient and knew what kind of cooking he must have in order to get well, or to believe that such would make him healthy. She had various pots in which she cooked each individual his food according to the directive from the doctor.

Thus she went on for years with her service and was an address for all the needy. The doctors knew that they had to give Khaye-Etel a report after their visit to a poor patient, and she would know what to cook up for them.

The last year before the Nazi decimation, a society was formed in Rozhan, involving a large number of people and that

An invitation to a wedding

[Page 233]

was dedicated to helping the poor sick. To that end they created a “sick fund”. The youth took a large part in collecting money for it. We also had an agreement with Dr. Reynier that for each visit to a sick person he would be compensated by our fund for two zlotych. Then we would often remember Khaye-Etel and ask ourselves, how did one woman do so much.

A huge soul, it turns out, was Khaye-Etel.

Ite was proprietor of a general store in Rozhan. She made a very good living but always looked out for those whose luck had not played out. She created a small-loan fund with her own money and would help small, needy merchants with loans.

She gave the loans for a week or two weeks, and people obeyed the terms and paid back the money to the fund on time. The help from her loans was so important and so convenient that no one wanted to disrupt the credit that Ite gave.

Ite also protected the honor of her “clients” so they would not heaven forbid feel humiliation and not need to beg her. So her name was treasured by everyone who came to her.

No few people had their livelihoods sustained thanks to Ite's aid institution, and many mentioned her name as that of a concealed saint.

Rozhan did not produce any great personalities, but dear, folk-Jews with great souls, full of humaneness and Jewishness – those we had. I don't remember all of their names. I have been through so much that I must have forgotten. But when I mention some of these soul-Jews I must describe them in our book.

[Page 236]

I went out into the wider world, traveling around in various regions, and it seems to me that in no other folk and in no other land do such types stand out. We called them, with love and honor, lamed-vov saints. The were poor and unassuming in things of this world and brilliant in matters of the world to come. Pointedly, they were laboring people, craftsmen, who lived from their own toil, they should not heaven forbid exploit anyone and not swindle anyone.

Yitskhak-Leyzer the shoemaker, when he went to buy a hide from a seller would say to him, “Maybe you have a customer you can swindle, but do not do that to me. I will not be the emissary for your temptation. Don't do it, for your sake and for my sake.” Everyone knew that Yitskhak-Leyzer would never tell a lie.

Leyzer Laske would go among the villages buying up pelts. When he came back home to the town, the rich merchants were already waiting for him at the entrance and tried to buy out all his hard-earned merchandise on the spot. They almost always got a big bargain from him. Aunt Devore, his wife, would shout at him, “Leyzer, they have fooled you again and taken your merchandise at half its value!”

And he would calmly, philosophically naive, answer, “It's not problem in in my sphere. Let Him worry. There's someone who will worry.”

Dovid the blacksmith chose his trade because he was physically very strong. Yet he never misused his physical prowess. And he was so modest that he did not allow people to call him a blacksmith, and people called him Dovid the smithy.

Avrom-Neyekh the porter was always ready to carry, and no matter how little he was given for, it was enough for him. He never griped, not before carrying things or after. More than once he was a symbol for us, the Party youth, of passivism: a person who carried on himself the yoke of life without complaint and without ambition: [Perets's] Bontshe Shvayg, Rozhan edition.

Zelig Stelmakh was an example of the love for people. He got pleasure from people and was happy with anyone's success. But he did not express it with open compliments, so as not the draw the evil-eye to them and also not to flatter them. He would put it in another way or combine it and pretend to curse, like “A demon in your bones, how you sing!” or “May a cholera take you, how nice you are!” and the like.

He was a special lover of theater, and he was pleased with our plays and interpretations of the dramatic roles. After the first act he loved to come “backstage” and slap the backs of the actors and pinch them, and “curse” them to the high heavens.

There were also such folk-mentshn among our Party members. They

[Page 237]

saw the Poaley-tsien Party as a friends-of-humanity order and they held the devotedness to people, to members, as a first Commandment from God.

Yosef Mayer Shmietshikhovski neglected his home duties because of the Party, and despite his wife's constant coming to him with complaints he did not change his ways.

Yitskhak Bender was concerned with money to support the Party and every groshen of it was dearer to him than his own money. Because with that commonly-owned groshen the Party united people for a single goal and brought in warmth and hope.

Borekh Zshapko, our representative in the town council, did not consider his being voted in as a privilege, was not unduly proud of himself for it and it did not go to his head. He always stood in the service of the Party and his members and accepted their discipline however hard it was for him.

Especially dedicated to the group were Hershl Zshapko, Khayim Burshtin, Yekhiel Fien, Velvel Feldmark, Berl Kersh, Shmiel Naymark and Rafal Fridman. They were ready to neglect even their own interests when it came down to Party matters. Especially excelling was Rafal the carpenter, when we built the venue with member funding. He put in many workdays of building and was an example to others. If the venue was an accomplished fact, it was thanks to such members.

And in general, when one writes about Rozhan and one mentions the good, happy years that one spent there, we now know how to better appreciate all those good Jews, the luminous human figures who were there. May their memories be blessed!

  Różan, Poland     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2026 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 7 Nov 2026 by LAe