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Great celebrations were held at the Capitol Hotel 23rd August 1945 to celebrate the liberation of Brest from the Nazis. Representatives from all the different factions attended – speakers, writers, community leaders and officials. All spoke of the great Holocaust that the Nazis had committed against our people. J. Finkelstein was the chairman. The New York Brisker Relief decided to arouse the consciences of Briskers in the U.S. with a letter to the press. There was also a call to Chicago and Los Angeles where a new branch was being established. Committee members of the L.A. branch were:
S. Novick - Chairman. M. Goldfarb - Financial secretary. Savnik – secretary, Folget and Feldman were vice presidents, and Rosenblum was treasurer. They enlarged their committee and attracted many new members to the cause of helping the Brest Jews.
The first letters from Europe came from Stettin in Poland and were signed by secretary Shaina Lev, Y. Meyerovitch and M. Neumark. These letters arrived immediately after the end of the war and stated that Brest survivors were scattered in many small towns and villages and numbered over 200. The Relief sent support for these Brest survivors until 1949 – the amount came to over $6,000.
We received an appeal from Paris France – they had formed a Brest Committee to assist the Briskers who were now in Paris, these new immigrants needed assistance with their legal status, work, and accommodation. Over several years we sent the Paris committee over $6,000. According to their first letter to us, their leaders were: Shushkin, Gershon and Lerner, who were employed by the Paris committee.
Hundreds of letters arrived from various parts of the world asking for help. From the Displaced Persons camps in Germany, from Italy, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Shanghai and Africa. Assistance was sent – parcels of food and help was organized in the German camps under the supervision of A. Lutenberg. The Relief was in contact with him and sent him many parcels for the Brest survivors and $500 was transferred from Paris.
At the same time, we were in contact with the committee in Israel that was led by L.Y.Winnikoff and Avraham Shtrickman. There were not so many Briskers in Israel at that time. The Relief sent the Israeli committee over $13,000 - with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the entire work of the Relief was channeled to helping Israel.
Our compatriot and member Pesach Novick, the editor of “Morgen Freiheit”, visited the Soviet Union in 1946. On this trip he stopped in Brest, his birthplace, and wrote several articles about life in post war Brest. The Brisker Relief organized a large meeting at the Hotel Diplomat on the 9th March 1947, at which Pesach Novick gave a detailed account of his visit to Brest. This was the first eyewitness account the hundreds of Briskers at the meeting had heard, and his account evoked many tears. Speaking about Hitler's atrocities and slaughter, he read out the accounts he had recorded from the few dozen Brest survivors he met whilst in the city. He related how he was taken by hundreds of surviving Jews from the surrounding towns and villages to the mass graves where the Nazis had murdered entire families, some buried whilst still alive.
This was the burial place for thousands of Brest Jews.
The city of Brest is still there, said Novick. It lives – but the Brest Jews, our dearest and most beloved who were brutally murdered by the Nazis – exist no more.
In 1947 Dr. Yitzchak Kagan and his family – his wife, daughter Minnie, and son in law Dr. Ferber arrived in the U.S. Dr. Kagan was a renowned figure of the Jewish community in Brest. He contributed significantly to the work of the Relief, but all the troubles and suffering that he and his family had endured during the war had weakened his heart, and after four years in the U.S., he died. During those four years he would sit and converse with us and never ran out of stories about his experiences until the last days of his life. Towards the end he had been appointed director and doctor at the Workman's Circle hospital. The Brisker Relief lost one of it's most sincere and dedicated members.
The young people of Israel were involved in a fierce struggle with their Arab enemies for their survival and independence. The Haganah (Israeli Army) called on world Jewry and all progressive forces in the world to help them in the struggle. The Relief decided to buy an ambulance equipped with X-ray machines for the Haganah. The response from our members was not enthusiastic - but our steadfast activists persisted until we attained this goal, and the ambulance bearing the name Brisk D'Lita and a medical car were sent. The military authorities in Tel Aviv acknowledged this gift and thanked the Brisker Relief in the U.S.
There was a celebration service in the Brisker Shul when the ambulance and car were sent to Israel on the 21st August 1948. The idea arose to build a cultural center in Tel Aviv in memory of the city of Brest. A group of Briskers: Rosinsky, Tepper, Fredlis, and Gonsher met and worked out a plan – they called for a conference with the aim of raising $50,000 to perpetuate the memory of the sacred 30,000 Brest victims of the Nazis. At a meeting at the Hotel Woodstock the speakers explained their plan of building a cultural center in Tel Aviv – the importance of commemorating the Brest name in Israel, and in helping build a new Israeli State.
The Relief decided to send a special delegation to visit the seven Brisker Relief branches in the States, but they were generally indifferent to the project and it was never achieved. The Relief turned to the secretary of the Brest committee in Tel Aviv, Shtrickman, and made it clear that American Briskers had not responded to this proposal. The raising of $50,000 was unattainable. We asked them what they intended to do, but never got a clear response. We continued to look for a way to commemorate the former community of Brisk D' Lita.
H. Leibner and Bader of Hashomer Hatzair proposed to commemorate the Brest community at Kibbutz Gal-On. The Relief sent the kibbutz $12,000 in machinery, and the kibbutz added the name Brisk Gal-On (in memory of the community of Brest). The kibbutz also explained that if any Briskers or orphans from Brest families wanted to apply for membership - they would have precedence in being accepted by the kibbutz. In honor of the first anniversary of the State of Israel the Relief sponsored a celebration for the Haganah that had fought for the new nation.
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In 1947 the idea was formed by the Brest committee in Israel to perpetuate the memory of the murdered 30,000 Jews of Brest by the publication of a Yizkor (memorial) book. P. Chinich wrote us that he was collecting material for a Brest Yizkor Book, and that the Brest committee in Israel would prepare it for publication.
J. Finkelstein replied that the decision of the Brest Relief was to publish a book by themselves. However, the problem arose of publishing the book with the cooperation of several countries: the U.S., Israel, France and Argentina. This plan was discussed at great length and with much correspondence between the various countries. In 1952, Chaim Barlas came to the U.S. as representative for the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora, which wanted to commemorate Jewish cities and communities, amongst them Brisk D'lita.
The Brest committee in Israel proposed to publish the book within this format, but at the same time established a book committee to prepare the book for publication. The members of this committee were: Gashner, Rosinsky, Tepper, Ravin, Hari and Wolski. The issue was much discussed and debated at great length at Relief meetings until a compromise was reached and it was decided to form a United Brest Yizkor Book committee that would collect and supply it's material for this book.
On the 12th March 1950 there was a meeting of over 400 Briskers from New York and surroundings. All the various factions were represented: Orthodox, Zionist, Socialist, Bundist, and non- affiliated. This was to demonstrate their unity for the great work that the Brisker Relief had carried out over the past 35 years, and to express their appreciation for the work of the executive secretary, J. Finkelstein. All of the 7 Brest societies in New York as well as the Brisker Synagogue were represented in large numbers. Greetings were sent from the L.A., Cleveland, Chicago and Newark chapters as well as from Israel, France, Poland and Argentina. Speakers from the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) expressed their appreciation and evaluation of the work carried out by the Brisker Relief during the last 35 years. All the speakers were unanimous in their opinions that the Brisker Relief was the only organization in the U.S. that had upheld and maintained the honor of the city of Brest. They had protected and helped their needy Brest brethren in both World Wars, wherever they were to be found.
There was a meeting farewelling the representatives of various Brest Relief organizations on the eve of their departure to Israel, especially member Tenenbaum. At this meeting it was suggested that the Brest Committee in Israel (Tel Aviv) find a suitable project for the Brest Relief to work towards that would perpetuate the memory of the community of Brest. In May 1952 the Relief heard Tenenbaum's report of his visit when he returned home. He reported about his visit to Kibbutz Gal On, and his meetings with the Tel Aviv Committee – he had chaired one of their meetings with A. Shtrickman acting as secretary. They had voted to improve and increase their work, passed a motion to establish a loans fund for their members, and emphasized the importance of the food parcels. The material assistance that this loans society gave became a significant factor in assisting Brest compatriots in Israel. The Relief also heard reports from members L.Fein, Dr. H. Freiluk, M. Harris and Malin who had also visited Israel.
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In 1955 our member Rosinky visited Israel for a lengthy period and consolidated the work of the Brest committee in Israel. He chaired meetings of the Association of Briskers in Israel and visited Kibbutz Gal On.
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Seated Left to Right: H. Aharonov, N. Tenenbaum, |
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Brest Lit(owsk), Belarus
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