[Page 7]

This book was written and edited with overwhelmed emotions and great reverence - it serves as a monument to the vibrant Jewish life in our town of Stepan, which was cut short with diabolical cruelty by the German blood beast and its infamous Ukrainian accomplices.

We collected testimonies, fragments of memories and impressions. We have collected detail by detail from old scripts - and line by line, image after image, a picture of the Stepan community, a large and important city to its survivors and remnants, that no longer exists, is emerging before us.

Decades have passed since the community of Stepan was eliminated, and thousands of its sons and daughters, our parents and sisters, were sentenced to extermination amid torture and suffering, that the human mind cannot describe and bear. The pain is too great to be forgotten over time.

We considered our work both as a sacred work and as a duty. We spared no effort and trouble in order to restore what was and no longer exists and to erect a memorial monument for our town.

We were diligent and careful, to the best of our ability and in consultation with the people of the town, not to omit or distort any detail about the people of our town and especially with regards to those of whom there is no remnant left behind.

It is worth mentioning the esteemed contribution of the late Yitzchak Weissman, who, in the way of reconstructing and describing figures of the town's inhabitants, served as our guide for the completion of the entire project. To our great regret, the late Yitzchak Weissman was not privileged to see the completion of the commemorative project and passed away prematurely, in pain and sorrow for the loss of his son, Shai-Yeshayahu of blessed memory, who fell in defense of the homeland.

We would like to mention the great assistance of Israel Koifman with advice and guidance that contributed greatly to the content and form of the book.

We must also mention the extensive activity and perseverance in the enterprise of the book of Yeshayahu Peri (of the Prishkolnik family). Even while he was in the displaced persons camps in Germany, in 1946, and during his time in the Ma'apilim camps in Cyprus, he began recording memories of his father's house and the town in general as he remembered it since his childhood and until the German-Ukrainian infernal and madness period. Upon his immigration in Israel and the meeting of the town's survivors, during one of the first annual commemorations, - he began to initiate and act in the collection of material, recording memories from members, collecting photos of public importance, and also encouraged the townspeople to write their own articles.

[Page 8]

Yeshayahu Peri managed to convince and harness the committee's activists to this sacred mission. The financial means have been achieved, and the enterprise started.

Most of us, the townspeople of Stepan, are not professional writers, and we must thank the great responsiveness of members, who sent articles and also attached photos and certificates. The reconstruction of the families who lived in Stepan was also carried out by the members, who are: Leah Hashavia (from the Rudnik family), Batya Sheinboim (from the Beker family), Shlomo Sheinboim, Ze'ev Gorinstein, Mordechai Rassis and Yeshayahu Peri (Prishkolnik). A number of other members of the town assisted in this enterprise and we thank them for their work.

With all the great effort invested, we would like to point out that here and there, the reader will find linguistically and stylistically unpolished lists. We have brought similar facts from different sources and there are those who will see this as duplicity. But despite being aware of this, we have decided to allow anyone who wants and wishes to express what they know and remember from their personal point of view and from his past, and by doing so get a comprehensive and exhaustive picture, which will serve as an internal memorial candle and a monument of memory for generations and on which are engraved in letters of blood and fire the history of the life and the destruction of the town of Stepan.

The editorial staff: Leah Hashavia (from the Rudnik family) Batya Sheinboim (from the Beker family) Shlomo Sheinboim Yeshayahu Peri (Prishkolnik)

[Page 9]

Stepan - one of the oldest urban settlements in Volyn. The region where the town of Stepan is located is called Western Ukraine, and it is a part of a huge region called Great Ukraine - the grain barn of the then Kingdom of Poland and Russia together. The region of Greater Ukraine stretches along the banks of the Dnieper and Dniester rivers - with the capital of the country in the center being the city of Kyiv and the Volyn region in the west.

Southeast of the border between Poland and Russia, which existed between the two world wars in the area of ??Volyn, Lutsk County, near the city of Rivne, the town of Stepan is located.

The town is located on a plain along the banks of the Horyn River. According to the legend, the name Stepan was given after the name of the king of Poland Stephen Bathory, who fortified in this town and conducted fierce battles against the Russians and the Tatars. There are indeed remains of a castle - a fortress on the river bank. This castle was surrounded by massive artificial sand hills, man-made, and a deep-water canal around it. The access to the castle was via a rocking bridge.

This place is nowadays called the “Wall” and has become a kind of park for recreation and hikes.

A vestige of another protective castle on the riverside remained below the synagogue, which was probably built in a later period, and whose walls reached three meters thick. Under the synagogue there was also a tunnel that continued through the center of the town and connected two fortresses for protection against attackers coming from the east and across the Horyn River.

The town was small and was situated nineteen km away from the Malynsk train station, on the Rivne-Vilna railway line. There were no particularly developed public institutions in the town; apparently there was also no community register; and if there were any records, they were destroyed together with the destruction of the entire community.

According to historical documents, there was already a settlement in Volyn in the 12th century. Among the communities of Israel, which in 1388/89 received letters of existence from the Lithuanian Duke Witold, is also included the community of Lutsk, near which the town of Stepan is located.

In the first half of the 15th century, one of the richest Jews leased properties in the city of Ladmir, and even received an estate from the duke. Also, in the second half of this century, Jews with estates in the Lutsk district are mentioned.

[Page 10]

In 1507, the authorities reconfirmed the old letters of existence of the Jews, and since Volyn was annexed to the lands of the Polish territory, in 1569, the Jewish population in the area grew.

The main occupation of the Volyn Jews at that time was trade, and they also engaged in crafts such as tailoring and furriers. In the second half of the 16th century, the Jews began to lease bars and various branches related of the estate economy.

Stepan in the Historical Records

In “The World Chronicles” by Sh. Dubnov (vol. 2, page 260) it is written:

“During the reign of the king of Poland and Lithuania Jagiello Witold in the year 1386, there were significant Jewish settlements in all the big cities of the Principality of Lithuania and Volyn, which is connected to it”. It can therefore be concluded that Stepan's Jews were also among the first residents of the town, which is one of the oldest urban settlements in Volyn, on the banks of the Horyn River.

It is also stated by Sh. Dubnov in the same book:

“During the rule of the Turks in the Crimea in the middle of the 15th century and their subsequent takeover of the Volyn areas, the commercial connection between Crimean Jewry and the Jewish center in Volyn was allowed, and there were movements of Jews from Crimea to Volyn”.

The assumption is that at least some of the town's Jews came to Stepan and settled there at the time of the “movements of the Jews from Crimea to Volyn”, as stated above in “The World Chronicles” by Sh. Dubnov.

In the book “Geographical Dictionary for the Kingdom of Poland and Other Slavic Countries” that was published in Warsaw in 1890, pages 326-327, it is told about Stepan: -
“Stepan - a town near the Horyn River and near the Vilna-Rivne railway. It is 68 versts from Rivne and 240 versts from Zhytomyr. The town has 512 houses and 3,384 residents, of which 47% are Jewish. There are three churches, a Catholic church, a great synagogue built in Gothic style, two Jewish prayer houses, a primary school, a brewery, two flour mills, six markets and a wax candle factory. Along the banks of the river rises artificial hills containing the ruins of an ancient fortress. There is a train station in Stepan that connects Woltsch station and Sarni station. The place is 68 versts from Rivne, 111 versts from Vilna”.

[Page 11]

In an ancient document, the Stepan estate is mentioned as belonging to Prince Ivan Chalavovich already at the end of the 13th century, and afterwards to his son - Volodzimyzh. In the 15th century, the place belonged to the Dombrovitsky princes. According to a record of tax collection from 1577, the settlement counted twenty-eight cultivated agricultural units, and in the years 1583 and 1589 there were thirty-six cultivated agricultural units. In this last listing are already stated artisans and merchants in Stepan who contribute their share of the tax burden, and it can be assumed that a large part of them were Jews.

In 1648, Stephan Khmelnytsky subdued the Cossacks near Stepan. In the year 1775, the town had 521 residents and it was handed over to the ownership of Prince Josef Pototsky.

The town of Stepan is one of the oldest settlements in Volyn. The “Yevreyskaya Encyclopedia” indicates about it (page 567, library reference of Tel Aviv University, 114.56):

“Stepan in the time of the Zeshtypospolita was a town of Wibodstavo Volyn Fobiat Lutsk. It is one of the oldest urban settlements of Volyn. In 1765, there were 1138 Jews in Stepan and the surrounding villages. In Stepan an ancient synagogue in the Gothic style was preserved”.

This synagogue is described as an ancient historical site in registration no. 947 of Blinski-Lipinski: “Strozschitna Polska” (Old Poland).

According to the 1847 census, the Jewish community in Stepan numbered 1,717 people. According to the 1897 census, the population of Stephan was 5,137 residents, of which 1,854 Jews.

Volyn, together with the nearby Podolia, was also the place where Chassidism developed. Some of the people of Volyn were already included among the members of the Baal Shem Tov's group. In the generation that followed, Chassidism in Volyn spread at a rapid pace. In Yitzhak Alfasi's book “The Book of the Rebbes from the Baal Shem Tov to the Present Day” it is told about the rabbis of Stepan.

Rabbi David the son of Rabbi Shmuel of Stepan, of blessed memory, passed away the 11th of Tishrei 5571 (in the year 1811), he was the brother-in-law and a student of the Magid Kadosh Rabbi Yechiel of Zolochiv. Rabbi David the son of Rabbi Shmuel was also one of the students of the Baal Shem Tov, as well as one of the students of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezhyrich. One of his well-known works is the book called “Seder Hanahagot Adam”. In the old cemetery of the town, it was possible to see the tombstones of Tzaddikim. There was a stone structure with

[Page 12]

a tin roof above it where the descendants of Reb David of Stepan were buried. Before the Days of Awe and in times of trouble and distress, the townspeople would prostrate on the graves of the Kadoshim and bury “Kvitlach” between the tombstones.

In the book “Degel Machane Ephraim” by Rabbi David of Beit Halachmi, Torah words are quoted on behalf of Rabbi David. And these are his descendants: Rabbi Israel Dov of Stepan who was the father-in-law of the tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Stephan. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak from Stepan had many Chassidim in Stepan and the surrounding area. He passed away on the 14th of Tevet 5684.

Rabbi Yosef Yoel of Stepan was one of the first students of the Baal Shem Tov and his father's successor on the throne of the Rabbinate in Stepan. He passed away in 5530.

The tzaddik Rabbi David Shmuel Halevi of Stepan and his son-in-law Rabbi Shmaryahu Weingarten of Lubeshov.

Rabbi Aharon Shmuel of Ostroh the son of Rabbi Naftali Hertz HaCohen of Sade Lavan served as the Rabbi of Stepan. He passed away in 5574. He served as the Rebbe in Ostroh and was the son-in-law of a rabbi Yosef Yoel of Stepan.

The tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Stepan and his father-in-law Rabbi Israel Ber (Dov) who was the son of Rabbi David Shmuel the Magid of Stepan.

Rabbi Yechiel Michal of Berezne, the son of Rabbi David, the son of Rabbi Shmuel the Magid of Stepan. He passed away in the 15th of Kislev 5609.

Rabbi Meir Chaim of Stepan. He was the son of Rabbi Levy Yitzchak of Stepan, who was an only child of and his father. Rabbi Meir Chaim's daughter, Raizela, married Rabbi Baruch Tversky, originating from the Maggid of Turisk dynasty.

Rabbi Baruch Tversky, his wife and all their family members perished in the Holocaust.

From the tenth century until 1918, Volyn was a political or administrative unit: a Russian principality, Lithuanian province, Polish “Vybodstavo”, Russian province. During the 14th century, Volyn was annexed to Lithuania, and with the union of the latter with Poland, in 1569, Volyn was annexed to Poland and became a Polish “Vybodsatvo” province. During the period of the Counter-Reformation, when Catholic Poland succeeded in imposing the authority of the Pope on hegemony of the Orthodox Church in its domain, an Orthodox reaction arose in Volyn.

In the second partition of Poland in 1793, the eastern part of Volyn was annexed to Russia and in the third partition, in 1795, the western part, including the town of Stepan, was annexed to Russia as well.

[Page 13]

In the summer of 1915, the western part of Volyn was occupied by the German and the Austrian armies. In accordance with the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty (March 1918), Volyn was annexed to Ukraine. During the Russian Civil War, battles broke out in Volyn between the Red Army and the Ukrainian and Polish armies. According to the Riga Peace treaty (1921), the western part of Volyn, with Lutsk and Rivne (including the town of Stepan) was annexed of Poland, while the eastern part remained in the hands of Soviet Russia. In September 1939, the Soviet army occupied Western Volyn. In July 1941, the area was occupied by the Germans, who held it until 1944.

From the thirteenth century until the twentieth century, in a period of eight hundred years or so, Jews lived in Stepan, took root in it and contributed a lot to its development and advancement. In the course of those generations, the Jews of Stepan suffered a lot during the constant and frequent times that were Volyn's lot. The rule of the princes - the Polish-Russian landowners from the 13th century to the 19th century. In the days of the Polish monarchy, Czarist Russia, Khmelnytsky riots, the Hedmak, Tatars and Cossacks gangs. The upheavals of government after the revolution in Russia - Petliura riots, Denikin, the Poles, the Bolsheviks, etc.

But it should also be noted that during the history of the Jewish settlement in Stepan there were also acts of protection and sympathy for the local Jewry on the part of the Ukrainian population, especially during the pogroms of the Petliura and other gangs that did not pass over the town with the change of governments. But this was not the case during the total destruction of the town's Jewry by the Nazis and their Ukrainians helpers.

[Page 14]

They were not nurtured in the same clear and smooth Talmudic mind of the Lithuanian Jews and the wise Torah scholars.

They did not have the same mental breakdown and Chassidic gaiety of Polish Jews, Shabbat and Yom Tov Jews.

There was not even a single greatest rabbi among the Jews of Ukraine, as well as throughout Volyn.

It was a special division in the Jewry of Greater Russia, a blend of these two together, they were, if it can be defined that way, the Jews of Chol HaMoed.

The mental realm of the sacred and the secular was close, and the spiritual border between them was narrow, in terms of back and forth, changing forms constantly. This is also how the Ukrainian Chassidism of the Baal Shem Tov explained the secret of the mikveh in simple terms as “to undress and dress”, or in its language: “kanan zikh aoystun aun antun”.

The Jews of Ukraine were like the waters of their rivers, flowing slowly and pleasantly between verdant shores, blessed in a transparent, deep blue, and they were anonymous person for many.

The names of the Horyn, the Pripyat, and the Sluch rivers come up and are remembered only in Gittin, the books of Kritot (divorce), “Mata Dibata (the place of the divorce) is on the Sluch River and on the waters of other rivers”, those are swallowed up and lost in the abysses of the Vistula and the Dnieper.

The Jews of Ukraine were like the cedar trees of their forests, which surrounded hundreds of cities and towns, like a green belt. In secret and hidden places is stored the essence of life, which nourishes and revives the branches in depth and the top above and outside, the bark is whitish and soft, and can be peeled with a fingernail.

There were many cities and towns for Volyn, there were Medzhybizh and Mezhirichi for the Chassidism, there was Berdychiv for the love of Israel, a city that only by mentioning its name explicitly awakens kindness and mercy in the world. There were Zhytomyr and Kremenets for education, there were Ostroh and Pinsk for learning, there were Sudylkiv and Slavuta for the for the printing of the holy Hebrew letters, shining letters on a blue paper, there were those whose reputation preceded them, and there were many, many more of those, that no one knew about their existence. Remote and far-flung places, tiny dots on the map of the world.

[Page 15]

There were hundreds of towns in Volyn, most of them were built in the Polish-Ukrainian style. They were all similar to each other, as if they were the ruble coin, all of whose coins are similar to each other. The same ruble that they fought every day, from morning till night, to get it in order to bring home a living.

The shape of the towns was of one main street with wooden sidewalks and several other side streets that diverged from the main street. All the streets led to the market. In almost all of the towns was the same water pump in the middle of the market, which in the winter was covered with a thick layer of ice blocks all around and in the summer with yellow rust stains.

In all of them was the same Polish-Catholic “cloister” is one strait, and it dominated the whole environment. And on the other side of the town or near it was the “Preboslav” church - for the Ukrainians. Both of them had bells, which frightened and threatened on the eves of Easter and the day of Christmas: “Din - - din – we're sharpening the knives”.

And so, more or less, was the order of the day for a Jew, a simple Jew, in the towns of Volyn - Ukraine.

In the morning, they woke up at dawn and ran to synagogue. There was a Beit Midrash, a new synagogue, as well as the old synagogue, there were artisans in the city who had their own small and poor synagogues: “Po'alei Tzedek”, “Yegi'a Kapaim” and the like, where they prayed at sunrise. The great synagogue was closed all week, and in its space echoed the prayers of the dead, as the children used to call them.

In the morning, they woke up at dawn and took out the cows. This duty was the duty of the man, the duty of the man in the house, and it was usually done with the tallit and tefillin under the arm.

When they're done, they entered a synagogue and prayed quickly: they crouched, kneeled, danced in “Kadosh” and here - “Aleinu”. As well known, the prayer of “Shema kolenu” on the “Shmone esre” prayer is broad in heart and soul, and there one can add a personal wish such as daily livelihood. And so, they prayed every day, without worrying about tomorrow.

In the meantime, the hinges of the store doors creaked, iron rails were taken down and the barrels with salted fish were rolled in, floating in a musty and murky stock, next to the door.

The goods in the stores were mostly for the farmers, and they were hanging on hooks and ropes: kerosene lamps with blue, think glass containers, shiny rims,

[Page 16]

with and without awnings and their accessories around them. There were also hoes, shovels, rakes and the three-pronged pitchforks. Also, were there sacks of grits and mushrooms emitting the smell of damp forests and on the selves aside were placed textiles, toys, soap, perfume, knives, purses for money, and colorful handkerchiefs for the housewives of the peasants. A department store! And the grocer sat and waited for buyers from morning to evening.

There were only a few stores in the town and they were all owned by the dignitaries of the town. Among the goods sold were textiles for the Jews, types of velvet and satin fabrics for the clergy and for wedding clothes for the girls of Israel. The important Jewish buyers enjoyed the costumes for Passover and Rosh Hashanah and enjoyed even more when in the synagogue they explained the meaning of the acronym of satin in Hebrew: “Only good for the people of Israel forever”.

There were Jewish craftsmen for all trades in the towns of Volyn: tailors, shoemakers, welders, hatters, carpenters, lathe operators and blacksmiths. The blacksmiths' faces were black, sooty with flying jets of fire, their workshops were located at the end of the street of the gentiles. There were no signs for the tailors' workshops. In the distance, melodies that pinch the soul were heard, such as “HaBen Yakir li” and “Kevakarat rohe edro” and from somewhere was also heard the oath of the “Bund”, “Mir Shvaren zu Kempan”.

As a child, I knew how to distinguish by the smell of the garment the profession and the stock of the goods in the store. Their Shabbat and holiday clothes were also perfumed by the secular smell. This smell accompanies me to this day. The livelihoods were different, as mentioned, but the majority of the livelihoods were from stores.

The store owners had their own laws of justice and honesty, their own “professional ethics” - unwritten but binding laws. The area was rich in hundreds of villages and farmers and each one of them had its own Jewish store. They sold goods for credit and in each store, there was a thick and greasy notebook - - “I gave to Ivan on - -”, “I took from Ivan on - - It was customary that a farmer will not exchange his store for supplies, and a Jewish grocer will not accept a new gentile client without investigating and receiving an explanation for the cause of living the neighbor's store.

Generally good neighborly relations prevailed between the store owners (“shared destiny and brotherhood” as it is called nowadays). On summer days, when they weren't buyers, they would sit outside their stores on top of boxes, talking and exchanging opinions about events in the world and in the town: the riots, the dead,

[Page 17]

robberies, blood plots, Grossenberg's speech, and is regular days they would talk about the cantor and the poets of the last Shabbat (these were divided among the homeowners and sang sad hymns while gazing at the host's daughter).

On winter days, they would sit inside their stores. The husbands were dressed in sweaters and tattered furs, and the women would sit next to a boiling pot, while their hands are put in wool gloves with no room for fingers, a special patent of theirs.

They would eat lunch in a hurry and nap slightly while sitting and nodding their heads. At this time, the women would take care of the house. In the evening, the movement of buyers increased, and the mother, the housewife, would appear to help, and the husbands disappear to pray Minchah and Ma'ariv prayers.

The husbands would return home late at night, suffering from the frozen winter or the heat of the sun in the summer, look through the book of debts, which is written in tiny letters, a virtue for a good sleep after a dull and hard-working day.

There were also few Jews who made a living in the forests. They would cut the trees, tie them together and ship them of rafts to Danzig. These were mostly among the affluent people in the towns, but no one was jealous of them. They were cut off from any Jewish community all year round, living without prayer and religious life, without a home and a family, why anyone should be jealous of them?

The Jews of the towns would also go to fairs. They traveled mainly in the winter, wearing warm clothes that were prepared ahead of the travel. They would travel in their carts all night and in the morning, they parked next to the stand and unloaded all the cargo. If they were lucky enough, they earned a living from the trade.

They did have great aspirations; they were always satisfied with only a little.

The saying uttered by the Jews of Ukrainian towns when they were asked about the livelihood situation was – “With God's help, we don't eat fried meatballs, but we eat enough to be satiated”. The “cutlet” was a symbol of delightful food, delicacies of a king.

The food that a Jew in Ukraine liked the most was black rye bread, spread with homemade butter, with tea sweetened with plenty of sugar. Oh, the Ukrainian black bread! From these meager livelihoods, from a miserable life outside - they maintained a home, “did Shabbat”, took care of all the holiday needs, supported the Torah scholars and the rabbi and at the top of their concerns was the payment of salaries to the melamedim.

The study was in a known method and order. First, a child studies with a young melamed until he finished the Chumash, then he goes to another melamed, at a higher rank than the young melamed, for the study of Rashi and

[Page 18]

Gemara and afterwards, he goes to the great melamed for the study of Gemara and Tosafot and study of the Maharsha. In comparison with the ordinary education system - a primary school, a high school and a university. Out of these meager livelihoods they supported the marriage of their sons and daughters, the girls grew up in the faithful education of their mothers, until their time to get married.

The matches were mostly between the families in the town. Each one was matched with several families with the help of a local matchmaker and with a little “love”. And if the match was with someone from a distant or near town, then the local matchmaker in this town took care of it.

What was the worldview of these righteous Jews?

First, that the world is beyond understanding. Man of letters among the Jews of Ukraine - Volin, who were among the Chassidim of Chernobyl, knew by heart Rashi's interpretation of “Tamim ti'ye im elokecha”, which is: “Walk with him innocently and wait for him and do not inquire about the future, but rather accept innocently whatever happens to you, and then you will be with him and a part of him” - this is all the people of Israel. And secondly, they all knew that “Genesis” does not begin with them, and the reckoning does not end with them. All the generations walked in their understanding in one chain linked by hand and arm: Moses, the Holy Zohar, the Rambam, the Baal Shem Tov and his Rabbi is - of the Chernobyl race - the Magid of Trisk, the Rabbi of Talana, the Rabbi of Stulin, etc.

Their worldview was simplicity and innocence, without knowing that from the philosophical aspect, it was a supreme clothing for wisdom and nobility.

They knew that there was a need for this panicked running, always worrying about livelihood.

The Shabbats placated the six weekdays, and the holidays filled the gap. And with the end of the year arrived also its mission and purpose - the month of Elul, the Atonement, ten days of repentance, Yom Kippur and Hoshana Rabbah – a good ending.

From the first Atonement prayers on Shabbat night at midnight, until after Hoshana Rabbah – with a short break of the days of Sukkot - the appearance of the town and its people had changed.

There were Jews who had special customs for excessive piety: one had the custom of the staying “to sleep” the entire night of Yom Kippur in the synagogue. The second used to pray in the night of Kol Nidrei

[Page 19]

And on Yom Kippur all day standing. The third - the custom of his ancestors in the ten days of Atonement was to finish the psalms every day, and he begins the reading in the synagogue and ends the reading in his store, in the spare time between serving the buyers, and everyone alike is cleansed and purified on the Holy day of Yom Kippur, as the words of the poet “Tired of fasting, barefoot, wearing white clothes and feeling exalted.”
After they managed to get the “good note” - they returned as new creatures to the regular world and its nature, and the calculation began anew.

They knew that a Jew must negotiate with the faith, that even though he is the one responsible for providing for the family, he is obligated to do charity from time to time. And they knew, and their souls were gloomy and grieved secretly about it, if from time to time they did not stand up to the test and failed in measure or weight, in a price or in speech, and their prayer “and bring me livelihood to support my family in a decent way and not fraudulently” was not always answered. In all the towns there were societies of “Magidei Psalms” and on winter Saturdays they would get up at four o'clock in the morning, go to the mikveh, dip and go to finish reading the Psalms. On Shavuot, King David's day of celebration, they would hold the Kiddush, a Kiddush with man people.

No guest was left alone, God forbid, on Friday evening by the stove in the synagogue. Distinguished guests, “grandchildren”, emissaries from the Land of Israel, those who serve in religion, were invited to the dignitaries of the town, passers-by and beggars were invited to the common people, often to butchers.

The world of these Jews was not much different in the attitude and the perception of the essence from the world of the same Ukrainian people in which the Jews lived. The main difference derives mainly from the first reason. The Ukrainian people were farmers who worked to enjoy the pleasures of life, while the Jewish people were satisfied with their lot and trusted God. The strong belief was that the boys should be educated to continue in this way. “The continuation and continuity order” as we call it today.

The more common and accepted greeting was “May we be privileged with a lot of pleasure from our children and not be ashamed of their actions”. Pleasure meant that the chain would not break.

Ukrainian Jews loved and cherished life in simplicity and innocence, and the women, the mothers in the pleas of the good Sarah2, and in the Jewish prayer “God of Avraham”, which was composed by Reb Shmuel of Kamianka in Ukraine.

Strong was the faith in the hearts of these Jews that the Messiah would come. Not only the tzaddikim of the generation would prepare the “zesipitze” and the “pantofel” by their bed so they would be ready to go

[Page 20]

towards him because the masses of the people were eager for every hint and acronym from the Torah and the scriptures to reach “Tarsav”, because then “she took off her widow's clothes”, etc.

In this way many generations lived and died. The two world wars agitated this life, rioters and robbers plundered, bursts arose here and there, the roots were exposed but the tree remained on its trunk, the branches grew and part of them tended to the dark sides, but even these did not drop and fall until the evil of this world came upon the people of Israel among the people of the place.

These knew well the homes of the Jews, they were aware of every exit and entrance, every hiding place and hidden corner, they knew the place of the silver candlesticks for Shabbat and the cup for sanctification, they knew the names of many of the boys and girls and they executed them.

The tree was uprooted in anger and fury on all its branches and roots.

[Page 21]

The communities of Israel in European countries that were wiped out of the world by gentile executioners - although their framework was usually one, the framework of “people that shall dwell alone” among the gentiles - were not at all equal. Each community and its character, its life style, its features and virtues. This diversity has many origins, some of which are visible and some of which disappear and are hidden in past generations and in mysteries of landscapes and climates. What was lacking in the character of a certain community was given to an unknown other community, a community that was rich in one area was poor in another, and vice versa. And so, the communities complemented each other and together formed that great Knesset of Israel in Europe, which for a long time was not only the majority of the nation but also its main source, the source of life and revitalization of the nation.

Volyn Jewry, as a significant part of the greater Ukrainian Jewry, contributed a great part to this diverse tract of the assembly of Israel. Its precious qualities persistently fertilized the lives of the people of Israel in the diaspora generation after generation and the signs of its actions are clearly visible in the ways of the new returning to Zion and in its vision. Volyn Jewry was not glorified in its sharpness in the Torah and intellectual as the rest of the Lithuanian Jewry; it was not adorned with crowns and did not have certain manners like the rest of the Polish Jewry. Instead, it was blessed with good faith, with a common and rooted simplicity, which adhere in the foundation and essence of things and not in their ornamental decorations and embellishments. It was a Judaism by heart that was full of love and loyalty, that poured its virtues into the sea of ??the great Knesset of Israel quietly, with constant loyalty and without standing out, like those bustling streams in Volyn that make their modest way in the shade of forests. The element of the heart was the main element that is evident in all the spiritual works of the Volyn Jewry. This element is the recurring motif between the sad lines of “Yeven Metzelah” of Rabbi Nathan-Nata Hanover and is expressed in the ethics and proverbs of the Nagid of Dubno. It was the background to the way of life and teachings of the ancestors of the Chassidism; It also was not damaged with the Volyn education, which, in contrast to the sullen face and the rationalistic strictness of the education in other places, was revealed in Volyn in the honest, noble-hearted character of Ribal; and it was the thing that inspired greatly Bialik's work and was reflected in the sad and dreamy eyes of Fierberg.

Judaism of the heart. And how many beating hearts overflowing with life and creativity could this Judaism bring out of itself! And here came this gentile heartless monster and trampled with its claws this precious heart along with the great living heart of the assembly of Israel in Europe.

[Page 22]

Volyn region was divided at the end of the First World War between Russia and Poland, and under the political conditions of those days it was possible to develop and maintain Zionist Jewish institutions only in Western Volyn, which belonged to Poland.

Some of the educational institutions of “Tarbut” were founded back in the days of Ukrainian rule, and when the Poles occupied the western part of Volyn, they did not hinder the existence of these institutions so much, since they considered the Jewish institutions in general (both Hebrew and Yiddish) as a “dirosifictory” factor until the time of Polonization.

Also, the D.D.K. funds (The Aid Committee on behalf of the Jews of America) supported the educational institutions directly and indirectly during the times of distress that passed in those days on the Jews of Volyn, after the riots of the Petliura troops and other forces, and thus, with the resumption of the normal life of the Jews of Volyn, various Hebrew educational institutions were established almost in every Jewish settlement.

The driving force in all the educational institutions in Volyn was composed mainly by two movements - the Zionist and the socialist, in all their shades and ramifications, The war between them externally was on the question of the language of instruction, that is: Hebrew or Yiddish.

The Jewish institutions, where the language of instruction was Russian, continued to exist for some time until their complete elimination by the Polish government. Their place was taken by the high schools in the Polish language - whose Jewish teachers were brought mainly from Galicia and the heart of Poland.

At the end of the First World War, many of the teachers who fled from Bolshevik Russia because of the political pressure from the “Yevsektsiya” arrived in Volyn. They laid the cornerstone of the Hebrew Ulpan by bringing with them the little experience of the Hebrew and Yiddish schools, which were built in Ukraine and Russia for the children of the refugees. Within a short time, Hebrew children's schools and nurseries were established in many cities and towns that attracted the children of Israel; the teachers' seminars in Kyiv and Kharkov, which were founded by Kahanstam and Tasharna, indirectly influenced the goals of education and their fulfillment. There have also been attempts by pedagogical newspapers that were published there.

And although at that time there was no direct connection with the Land of Israel, the schools in Israel floated before the eyes of all the teachers and founders. The curriculum of the Hebrew High School in Jaffa

[Page 23]

was copied, improved and adapted for the schools in Volyn, and the teachers from Russia also brought with them textbooks from the “Omanut” publishing house, founded by the Persitz family in Kyiv.

The study of Hebrew as the language of Jewish studies was common even before at the “reformed cheders”. Some of the teachers moved to the new schools out of an effort to adapt to ambitions that filled their hearts as early as the days of the Tsar's rule and which came to full fruition with the German occupation, especially after the Kerensky Revolution.

With the foundation of the Hebrew high schools, excellent pedagogical forces who were educated in Western Europe (mostly - in Austria) were added, and their influence on the education in general was evident both for better and for worse. Over the years, the ambitions and ways of the East and the West merged and the schools received their desired character with the help of the “Tarbut” center in Warsaw, which was established in 1922 at the conference of the proxies of all Polish districts.

In 1920, the Hebrew high school “Tarbut” was founded in Rivne by Leibel Garboz (now Aryeh Avatichi), Meir Kodish, David Baharel, the three of them live in Israel, and their friends. With the help of Moshe Kiefer from Kyiv, who was invited to serve as the first director of the high school, the district committee for the territory of Ukraine, “HaKivush”, was established which gathered around it the best working forces and expanded the educational network with the support of the D.D.K. The number of Hebrew educational institutions then reached approximately eighty, but with the cessation of American support, the institutions continued to exist, amid intermittent political disturbances, in those places where the activists, the parents and teachers bore the burden of the expenses.

The “Tarbut” high school in Rivne served as a center for the entire cultural movement in western Volyn and became a pillar and support for all the schools that were founded before and after it in the vicinity, such as: Zdolbonov (1917), Barstachka, Alexandria (1918) and more. The Jews of Volyn, like all the Jews of Russia, who aspired during the Tsar's rule to educate their sons and daughters in high schools despite all the restrictions, came to their satisfaction to some extent, and around the same time two more high schools of “Tarbut” were established in Kovel and Kremenets, which served as stimulating centers for the Hebrew primary schools and kindergartens within their districts.

With the formation of the Polish government in the borders of the districts, the difficulties and obstacles for the private schools in general and those of the Jews in particular multiplied.

Many of the Yiddish schools in Volyn were mostly closed, most of the schools of “Tarbut” did not receive their government approval, and even though the education legislation was supposedly liberal, it was still difficult for the Jews to meet

[Page 24]

the requirements, which were: a building that complies with the hygiene laws, teachers with general and pedagogical education, as well as Polish citizenship and political legitimacy. The buildings that remained from the days of the Tsar's reign were populated by the government's Polish schools and other buildings with large rooms connected by a corridor, were not at all available in the cities and towns, and even if a large building that could be adapted to the function of a school was found, it did not quickly receive the approval of the government doctor and architect and the affairs would roll from one office to the other. Nevertheless, the schools were not usually canceled, because the activists and the teachers knew how to get along with the local police. Over the years, with the help of the parents and the American support, many special buildings were built for the “Tarbut” schools.

Harder than the order of the buildings was the political legitimacy of the teachers in the primary schools. Most of the local teachers were registered in the civil registers in the towns of Greater Russia and it was enough if a teacher was registered in one of the places outside the occupied Polish territory that he would not receive a certificate of political legitimacy from the district government. A large part of the teachers in the primary schools did not have certificates that were accepted by the Polish education authorities, and it was necessary to bypass them indirectly and certify them as religion teachers only, for which the requirements of the authorities were more lenient. In fact, these teachers secretly taught general subjects, but when the government inspector came, all of a sudden, they became religion teachers, which included all the studies of Judaism: Bible, Israeli history, the geography of Israel and alike. Over the years were added to the schools' teachers who graduated the teachers' seminars of “Tarbut” and Tsharna in Vilna and Grodno, and even many teachers in Galicia with certificates from government seminars who also knew Hebrew. In the high schools, the certificates issue was easily resolved, since most of the teachers came from Galicia with official qualifications and in certain cases, and sometimes, certain subjects were taught for one or two years in the Polish language.

This whole affair proved even more the wonderful dedication of the parents of the pupils of the schools, who voluntarily gave up the government schools that were offered to their children free of charge in spacious buildings, equipped with laboratories and equipment, while in the “Tarbut” schools they were forced to support financially the teachers and bear all the expenses related to the institutions at their own expense, and on top of that, they even erected, as mentioned, over the years, their own buildings such as the buildings in Rivne, Kovel and even in small towns.

The financial condition of the teachers was poor. The financial support from abroad stopped and the tuition, although it was high and above the ability of petty traders and artisans, did not cover all the expenses. The “Tarbut” center tried to help pedagogically by supervising and publishing a pedagogical press, but its existence was also tied to the taxes it demanded from the schools. The government did not grant any aid to the schools, and only in the last years before the Second World War, small supports from the municipal institutions. During those years, the “Tarbut” center also managed to obtain from the D.D.K. (The American Committee)

[Page 25]

certain sums for the benefit of erecting school buildings in Volyn. From these funds was established also an agricultural school in Volodymyr, whose influence on the primary schools gave its signals in the trends of the pioneer education, which resulted the foundation of the “Association for Education and Culture” in Poland and throughout the Diaspora.

And these are the cities and towns in Volyn where in 1939 there were “Tarbut” institutions: Ostroh – high school and kindergarten; Olyka- primary school and kindergarten; Aleksandria- primary school and kindergarten; Berezne - primary school and kindergarten; Dubrovitsa - primary school and kindergarten; Derazhne - kindergarten; Vysotsk - primary school and kindergarten; Trochenbrod - kindergarten; Turiisk - primary school and kindergarten; Lutsk = two primary schools and kindergarten; Volodymyr - primary school and agricultural school; Mezhirichi - primary school and kindergarten; Murawica - primary school; Mizoch - primary school and kindergarten; Mlyniv - kindergarten; Maciejów - primary school and kindergarten; Stepan - primary school and kindergarten; Sarny - primary school and kindergarten (started organizing the building for the high school); Kovel - high school, two primary schools and two kindergartens; Kostopol - primary school and kindergarten; Kivertsi - kindergarten; Kremenets - primary school and kindergarten (the high school there was closed); Klewan - kindergarten; Radziwilow - primary school and kindergarten; Rozhyshche - primary school and kindergarten; Rivne – high school, two primary schools and three kindergartens.

These institutions formed the network of the Hebrew educational institutions of Volyn and most of the Jewish children of the listed settlements and their surroundings acquired their education in these institutions. The influence of the institutions among the Jewish population was significant, most of the opponents of the new Hebrew education at its beginning reconciled with it recently, and there were those who became its supporters.

[Page 26]

Part of the class of “Tarbut” school in Stepan in 5694. The school teachers with their students. These young children were indeed exterminated by the malicious hand of the Nazi oppressor and its murderous Ukrainian accomplices. Details of the names of the teachers and students who appear in the picture - on the next page:

[Page 27]

In the top row from left to right: Munya Zilberberg, the son of Karpel the painter - Sheftel Yokelzon, Tzudie Derech, Munya Eidelstein, Zvi Rosenfeld, Zalman Geller, Herschel Bebchuk, Henya Filkov, Fanya Tahor, Batya Becker, Sheva Bebchuk, Duchi Guberman, Sheindel Eidelstein, ? , Herschel Geller, Nehemiah Gerber, Michael Weinstein, Shimon Rosenfeld, ?, Shlomo Stern. In the second row from left to right: Yosel Bebchuk, Zeev Gorinstein, Nahum (Weidelguiz) Gordon, Monya Kolodny, Baruch Green, ? , Freidel Kanonitz, Hinda Dov, Mindel Wiznodel, Henya Berm, Mila (from the Axelrod family) Stov, Yaakov Kaufman, Shabtai Bass, a member of the Chodler family, Esther Becker, Runya Sorkin, ? . In the third row from left to right: ? , Hana-Ettel Walinsky – the daughter of the dayan, grandson of Zalman the shoemaker, Der Yeyt of Rovno, the son of Avraham the carpenter, Avigdor Kendal, the daughter of Yehiel Vitznodl - one of the twins: Pasal or Mindel, ? , Fialkov, the daughter of Spialkov, a member of the Sorkin family, Tanya, Genya Kogot, Mindel, the daughter of Avraham Hengo, a member of the Hamer family, ? , the son of Gershon Wiznodel, Shaul (Sheilyk) Priskolnik In the fourth row from left to right: Sonya Wiener, Haya-Pearl Walinsky, the daughter of the dayan, Malka Hochman, the daughter of the shochet, Henya Tsiyas, Deborah Goberman, Moshe Zilberman, Shayke Kagan, the son of Rabbi Avraham Machles the melamed, ? , Shmariahu Bebchuk, Beba Shfilsher, Pesya Witznodel, Mottel Hayat, Shefa Goz, ? , Tzudik Geler, the son of Moshe Yosef Dragoff, Shayke, Yitzchak Bebchuk. The teachers of the school from left to right: the prayer teacher, the melamed Rabbi Avraham Mechalei Feldman, Moshe Koifman, the school principal Yaakov Averbuch, Sheindel Shechterman, Shnerer Behind the teachers stands the dedicated janitor of the school Mottel der Bobes Kirzhner Fifth row from left to right: Yentel Becker, Baila Shimshak, ? , ? , Shlomo Goz, a member of the Morik family, Sonya Toyeb, Buziya Eidelstein, ? , ? , ? , Yaakov Gorinstein, ? , Freidel Bass, the daughter of Avraham the carpenter? , ? . Sixth row from left to right: ? , ? , Yona Rassis, Beba Kerzhner, ? . Seventh row from left to right: ? , a member of the Karpel family, Yitzhak Bronstein, Malka Grossman, Breindele Becker, Rosa Berm, the granddaughter of Zalman the shoemaker, Esther Hemo, ? , Sonya Hayat, Haya Rasis, Yehudit Babchuk, ? . Of all the young boys and girls and teachers appearing in the picture, survived only Herschel Geller, Zeev Gorinstein, Nahum (Weidelguiz) Gordon, Monya Kolodny, Minz Vitznodl, Mila (Axelrod) Stov, Zvi Rosenfeld, Sonya Wiener, the son of Reb Avraham Feldman the melamed, Shmariahu Bebchuk, Pesya Witznodel, Yona Rassis, Yitzhak Bronstein, Malka Grossman, Batya (Becker) Scheinboim, Tzudie Derech - may they all live long life.

  Stepan, Ukraine     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 15 May 2024 by LA