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[Pages 95-96]

Zionism and its Realisation

Reb Yerachmiel Steinberg, the old man in Motza

As far back as 1862, a family from Suchowola found its way to the Land of Israel. Pardel Sara, the daughter of Rabbi Reb Avraham Gershon Charlap of Suchowola (the son of the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Reb Ze'ev Charlap of Tiktin), together with her husband, Moshe Fishel of the Lapin family from Grodno, left for Odessa and headed for the Holy Land. In Odessa they boarded a ship that sailed to Jaffa, and after long and difficult journey, they reached the shore of the homeland. They made their way to Jerusalem, the holy city, on camels and donkeys, and settled there. After them, few more of Suchowola Jews made Aliyah (immigrated) to Israel.

Being in Motza one day, I had the chance to talk with one of the first Olim (immigrants) from our town, Rabbi Yerachmiel Steinberg, who also made Aliyah to Israel during this initial period, the period of the first Aliyah. Nowadays, he is very old. He was one of the builders of the new Hebrew settlement, one of the founders of the Moshava Motza, which is near Jerusalem and he is among its esteemed residents to this day.

Reb Yerachmiel and Sheina Steinberg

Every day he would visit his grandfather's house and listen to his words. All these stories came to the mind of the old Rabbi Yerachmiel during my visit to him at his place of residence, in Motza.

Reb Yerachmiel greeted me in the room used for praying, and tried to bring up forgotten memories of those days, as he described scenes that remained in his memory.

The house - That was on “Arap” Street, near the house of his uncle, Reb Nathan Bori the Shochet (butcher), who was known to have deliver a wonderful Musaf service at the Great Synagogue.

The family - His brothers, Reb Michael and Reb Shlomo, who were of the first Chalutzim (pioneers) in the Land of Israel.

The cheder - The melamed, Reb Zalman, my classmates, the Great Synagogue that was only prayed in during the Sabbath.

The townspeople - Aryeh the carpenter (whose brother, Michael Steinberg, learned this craft from him), Lazer Chanas, (the grandfather of the late Reb Zalman Yaffe), the family of Mordechai Moshe Aharons and his brother Wolfky, the Yasil Wein family who lived next to his father's house, and he, Reb Yerachmiel, married one of their daughters, Sheina, that all of the years of her suffering are evident in the look of her face, as I saw her in her days of illness. Every word, every sentence, expressed the strong desire to remember and remind the past, our place of birth and growth, in this Suchowola that was and no longer exists, the town that is dear to its sons.

[Pages 97-98]

Rabbi Yerachmiel began and said:

“The days were the days of war between the Poles and the Russians. Enslaved Poland aspired to loosen the burden of the tsarist empire. However, at the head of the Polish army were “noblemen”, that their entire interest was dedicated to their benefit from the rebellion rather than to the freedom of the people. The signs of the war were clearly visible in most of the towns of Poland. The armies and militias destroyed everything that they came across; The land of Poland became a wasteland.

In our town, Suchowola, there was a Polish guard corps, part from a battalion that was stationed nearby. The battalion headquarters was located in the village Karpovitz, at a well-known nobleman's house, where they held their discussions and hatched their plots.

It happened that the military doctor went blind and could no longer examine his patients and heal them. Luckily, my grandfather Reb Avraham Yitzchak happened to be in the same place, and when he was asked if he wanted to act as an interpreter and guide for the blind doctor, he agreed. And so, he began treating patients according to the instructions of the blind doctor, until he acquired a lot of knowledge in the field of medicine, and finally he even substituted for the blind doctor.

Months passed and Reb Avraham Yitzchak became a close friend with the nobleman of Karpovitz. All the secrets of the headquarters were known to him, every plan was open to him, and in every hour of trouble he would warn the Jews of the town and bring them great help.

Once, when my grandfather Reb Avraham Yitzchak was staying at the home of the nobleman, he heard a loud conversation between the noblemen. He made it seem he was busy with his medicine, but in fact he was listening to their conversation. From the conversation it was made clear to him that these noblemen were plotting new decrees on the Jews after their victory over the Russians. Fear seized the Jews of Suchowola upon hearing the news from Reb Avraham Yitzchak. Fortunately for them, the plan was not carried out, because the Russians occupied the town and massacred many Poles.

Under the rule of the Russians, the situation of the Jews of Suchowola was quite good. The constant fear that prevailed in the town during the days of Polish rule disappeared and days of peace came, and the livelihood was abundant.

But nothing lasts forever. Only a short period passed before a decree was issued by the governor of Grodno, according to which every Jewish boy of military age was called to enlist in the tsar's army. Upon hearing this order, great anxiety struck the Jews of Suchowola. They all knew that the one taken into the army would not return, God forbid, or that he would return a complete non-Jew.

The Jewish wall erected in the face of the danger of assimilation was in danger of collapsing. My older brother, Michael, was also called for military service, but when the order came, he fled to Odessa and through Turkey he arrived to Israel. He earned the travel expenses from Turkey to Jaffa by working in various jobs in Turkey, until he saved enough money to sail on a ship to Jaffa. This is where he met Yechezkel Suchowolski Danin, who also arrived from Suchowola (his father, Reb Avraham Ze'ev, the son of Moshe Dan and Feiga, was born in Suchowola in 1843). This man, Yechezkel, was later one of the builders of the settlement. Michael made Aliyah together with him, and immediately upon his arrival, he sent a letter to his family in Suchowola.

I remember that Friday when we received his letter. Festivity surrounded the house: my father would run from house to house and family to family, to tell everyone the good news, and he would proudly show the letter. He was the only one who received a letter from Israel, the Holy Land! The excitement affected him to such an extent that in the morning of the next day, on Sabbath, he passed away.

After several years, the whole family made Aliyah. We promised to settle down at Motza, and indeed we kept this promise. This has been my place of residence for seventy years, and I have not left it since then. We suffered many riots and pogroms that the Arabs carried out on us, and especially our neighbours from the nearby village of Colonia, but we fought back fiercely. In 1929, my hand was paralyzed during an attack by Arab rioters. This was when I came to the aid of the well-known Maklef family, whose most of its sons had been killed in this attack. One of the rioters' bullets hit my hand in try efforts to hold back the rioters.

Today we live in peace and rest, our children guarantee us the peace of the land. We were fortunate and I would like to dedicate a plot of land to a public purpose, which will be related to the memorial of the Suchowola martyrs.

And so, as you can see, I am sitting in this holy room, in front of the Holy Ark, and reading the book that was donated by the dear old woman Hana Nisalis from Suchowola. They were dear and nice people. May them rest in peace.

My children are also involved in the life of the country and are among its first builders.

These are the things, in fact, that I wanted to tell you, and I thank you for your visit and I am happy that you came”.

Y. Tsaban

Michael Steinberg

The late Michael Steinberg, Yerachmiel's older brother, was born in Suchowola. In about 1889, at the age of 17, he made Aliyah. His dream was to live the life of a farmer in the Holy Land. After two years of many difficult upheavals, he arrived from Odessa to Jaffa. When his father in Suchowola heard about his son's arrival to the Holy Land, he was so excited that he died of a heart attack from too much excitement and joy. A year later, Michael's wife, Gitel, the daughter of Eliyahu Bennett, born in Suchowola, made Aliyah. The marriage was held in Jaffa and they settled in Hadera.

Michael was one of the first settlers in Hadera and among its founders. He bought a piece of land and thought in his heart that this was his permanent residence. But illness damaged his health and he came down from yellow fever, as a result of which he had to leave Hadera and together with his family he went to Jerusalem, where he learned the trade of carpentry and earned his living by hard work. The fever that never left him destroyed his health, and his doctor, Dr. Yaffe, advised him to leave the country, for a change of climate.

Michael migrated to South Africa, opened a furniture factory in Johannesburg and dozens of workers from the Land of Israel worked for him. After he established himself financially, he asked his wife and children to join him, but the late Gitel refused to fulfill his request and insisted that “nobody comes to the Holy Land in order to leave it”.

Therefore, Michael sold his business in South Africa and returned to Israel. He worked as a building contractor in Jaffa and was known as a talented and responsible contractor there. He erected large buildings for the “Pardes” company and even built the house of “Shaarei Zion”.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he was forced to leave the country together with his family (being an English citizen). At the end of the war, he returned and settled in Motza, where he established the first factory in Israel for burnt bricks and tiles, and lived there until his death.

He died on 3^rd of Tevet 5709. He left behind sons and daughters, grandsons and great-grandsons, all of whom live in Israel.

Rivka Gilad

Moti the blacksmith

Moti the blacksmith was not a modern Zionist, he did not read Herzl's book, “The Jewish State”, he did not know Pinsker, he did not even know Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever. He drew his Zionism from the prayers he said in his life: “And let our eyes look upon your return to Zion with mercy”, “and you will build Jerusalem, the holy city” and also from the prayers and lamentations of Tisha B'Av, when he would pass in front of the ark, and in a sad melody he would sing “to Zion and its cities” - this was the source of his love for Zion.

There was a custom in our town: a Jew who traveled abroad, would pass from house to house, to say goodbye to friends, to relatives, he would enter the house, sit down and tell how he arranged the trip and when he was leaving; With more distant friends he would delay by the house, shaking hands and saying “goodbye” to all that came. When I made Aliyah, the evening before the trip was full of visits and saying goodbye. When I returned home, I saw Reb Moti sitting in the doorway of his house on the small balcony. I approached him.

“Reb Moti”, - I told him – “I came to say goodbye. I leave tomorrow. The next day I leave the town. I'm making Aliyah to Israel”.

-“What is wrong, Moti, why are you crying?” - I asked him.

-“I would like to pray in the Land of Israel one Minchah prayer, and die” - he answered me in a choked voice.

Gedaliahu Gilad Grimichenski

[Pages 101-102]

Grandpa, Reb Gershon Suchowolski, settled in Suchowola in 1816. He became known as a great philanthropist and for a period of fifty years, he was the Gabbai of the Beit Midrash on the “mountain”. In 1876 he made Aliyah, leaving behind nine married sons with many children. The old men used to say that on the day of Grandpa's journey, all the babies of the city were brought before him to receive his blessing. Grandpa wrote their names in his notebook, so he will be able to mention them when he will be in front of the Western Wall and the Cave of Machpela. The entire residents of the town accompanied him in his departure until the nearby village and the excitement among them was enormous.

In 1906, after the pogrom in Bialystok, Grandpa's youngest daughter, my late mother Shosha, together with her family - father and their nine children - made Aliyah with a lot of property and settled in Jerusalem. They built in Jerusalem two large houses and a textile factory. It was my father's privilege that we made Aliyah.

In 1916, during the German occupation, when “half famine” prevailed in Bialystok and there was a rationining of foodstuffs, I arrived in Suchowola, the town that I have become so fond of. I started teaching Hebrew lessons for individuals and groups and teaching Hebrew songs in the public school. At the same time, my friend, Yerucham Levin, who was one of the activists in “Tze'irei Zion” movement, arrived from Bialystok. Together we started giving literature classes and lectures on Zionist issues. We also read news from the Land of Israel, which we took from the Zionist newspaper in the German language, “Di Yudishe Rondshoi”, that we received from Berlin. Every meeting ended with the singing of “Hatikvah”. We did educational work for Zionism and for the Land of Israel, which influenced others a few years later, with the end of the First World War. Relative to the other towns, the number of Olim (immigrants) from Suchowola was quite large. The city was proud of its sons that left it and scattered all over the world: the sons of Rabbi Einhorn, the Rabbi of Suchowola (one of them, Professor Einhorn, acted during the last years of his life for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and bequeathed a great estate to the “United Jewish Appeal”). The philanthropist Saul Rosenblum, who donated half a million dollars to the University of Jerusalem in 1931, to found the Institute of Jewish Studies (named after him, the Rosenblum Institute) also came from Suchowola.

And lastly, Reb David Schwartz, who made Aliyah after living in America for forty years, and donated his money to a magnificent building for Talmud Torah “Yavneh” in the Geula neighborhood, in which there is also a kindergarten.

In the United States, the Land of the “Landsmenshaftim”, there is also an “association of Suchowola expatriates”, and next to it there is a Gmiluth Chasadim fund, which provides help to those in need.Among the Suchowola expatriates in America there are people who occupy respectable places in the world of commerce and industry.

In Israel there are pioneers from Suchowola who went through all the difficulties of absorption, built houses, and their sons serve in the IDF or live in the Negev and the Galilee. Sons that are loyal to their fathers, who guided and educated them in the spirit of love for the Land of Israel and its holiness.

Our town was not blessed with abundance. Major men of means were nowhere to be found, and those that were comfortable – a child could count them. All the townsfolk were hitched to the wagon of providing for themselves, bringing food for their families and the authorities would impoverish them and prevent them from gaining access to any position of economic wealth. The Jew would run around all week wondering what tomorrow would bring? And only on the Sabbath and Festivals would he throw off the yolk of worries or cares.

It happened just once that the entire town's soul was lifted and a sort of exaltation prevailed. This happened at the time of the great celebration after the Mandate over the land of Israel had been awarded to the British. The entire town adopted a festive and care–free air. The shops closed early, and the Jews, dressed in their Sabbath–best, thronged to the Synagogues. Inside the synagogues all was light and joy. The lights were lit and these merged with the internal lights of the hearts, the pillar of fire that was lit for the Jews in the darkness of their long exile, the anticipation and the hope for salvation. Who will arise to say his words at such an emotional and festive time? By the side of the holy ark stands reb Shlomo the Shochet. With a dignified appearance and with his long and wide black beard he appeared as one of our forefathers. In holy silence we await his words. “Yisrael our grandfather”, who has been long asleep, two thousand years, and during all the years of his long exile his sun did not rise. But now – go out and see – How great is the salvation and consolation, and how great are the miracles and wonders that G–d has done for us. After all, these are the words of the prophet [Isaiah ch 40 v9]: “Upon a lofty mountain ascend, O herald of Zion, raise your voice with strength, O herald of Jerusalem; raise [your voice], fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!””. And reb Shlomo told of the many obstacles that stood before our leaders as they ran from country to country until they had secured the declaration and the Mandate. The audience listens, and a great song of consolation bursts out from their mouths.

In the gathering a “Me sheBeirach” [prayer for wellbeing of nominated person(s) said on Sabbaths and Festivals] is said for all of the leaders: for Professor Weizmann, for Nakhum Sokolov and for others, and a “mi sheBeirach” almost fell also to Herbert Samuel, had not Reb Zalman Yaffe commented: But he's a British official! For hours the lofty raised voices of the gathered in the synagogue were heard, until we all went our separate ways full of hope and faith in the future.

The sons of Suchowola dreamt of Zion and loved her, but did not merit to witness her revival.

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