[Page 166]

The Municipal Gymnasium

The General Zionist HeHalutz Standing, from the right: Pinia Eilbaum, Feiga Rofman, Reizl Meldung (Mahlerman) Mott'l Singer, Pesach Klehrman, Zippora Stern, Rivka Eisenszpiz, Chay' Meldung. Sitting, from the right: Rachel Shtruzler, Mindl Kraut, Feiga Shpeikhler, a comrade from the Kibbutz, Reiz'keh Zucker, a comrade from the Kibbutz, Sima Nickelsburg, Henya Herbstman. Sitting on the bottom, right: Henya, the Sofer's [daughter], Leibusz Cohn, Chana Turess. Sent to us by Moshe Friedlander, Netanya, Israel

The HaPoel Sport Club

Division A of HaShomer HaTza'ir

The defining character traits, and profile of Tomaszow youth, born in the years 1916-17-18 – the Zionist youth movement, the progeny of defined processes, and of actual need – from which Tomaszow suckled its spiritual and intellectual nourishment – the Yavneh School – “Szkola Powszecna” – the municipal Polish Gymnasium – HeHalutz – HaPoel – “Betar and Menorah,” “HaShomer HaTza'ir”, and Shomria, “Maccabi” “HaPoel HaMizrahi” and “HaShomer HaDati,” “Pirkhei Agudat Yisrael,” “Bund and SKP” martyred youth – martyrdom and heroism.

The youth that was born in 1916,1917 and 1918, on the eve of the end of The First World War, in my hometown of Tomaszow Lubelski, is well-known to me. Therefore, I wish to underscore a number of character traits, the genuineness and loyalty of that youth, that it was given to me to act out the role of a comrade, principal and director in the Zionist youth and sport movements, and it is my deeper wish that, God forbid, I not err, and not overreact (out of sentiment) and not underrate, and I also offer a prayer that I be granted the proper skill in providing a correct assessment of this variegated cohort of young people, which concentrated itself into a variety of groups and circles, in a variety of pioneering and non-pioneering youth movements, and who have remained etched into my memory, and about whom I am permitted now to shed a tear and to lay a modest memorial on their unknown place of burial.

[Page 167]

In Jewish life, this was a epoch of youth movements. If we are speaking of the Zionist movement, into which the larger percentage of young people were organized, we must underscore that the Zionist youth movement in a set measure, was the child of specific processes and actual needs. The need of the people and its desire for redemption gave birth to the youth movement. The youth revolted against the Diaspora, it strived to achieve a new and independent way of life, and it brought forth the fateful transformation: We do not have to forget that the members of BILU^[1] were also young people and that the Second and Third Aliyah brought enthusiastic, effervescent, aggressive and stormy young people, with an unbounded commitment to their ideal. The tens of thousands of Halutzim that came after them in the years of the twenties and thirties , later put forth their handiwork with enthusiasm and zealousness, and thanks to their commitment of soul, the foundation for the renewed Jewish State was put down.

I am acquainted with tens of young people from Tomaszow, and I have met with many of them in my two visits to Israel in 1951 and 1961, who armed with the pioneering ideal, committed themselves to the work of building up [the country], and to the builders, of what afterwards became the Land of Israel. And today, they live among that fortunate part of the Israeli populace which has fused itself to the new Israeli reality, some in the city, others on a moshav, and yet others on a kibbutz.

– From whence did that youth draw its spiritual suckling, and pioneering inspirations, and in general, its entirely deeper awareness and higher intelligence than the [regular] youth of Tomaszow, whose larger percentage now lives in the Land of Israel, and others in the well-rooted Jewish yishuv in North America, and in the new Jewish suburbs of South America, especially Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay – from where did it come?

Here, we must start at the very beginning. Here, we come to the chapter called “The Yavneh School” (Formerly called the Torah VoDa'ath School). Despite the fact that yours truly, just like others of my friends, rebelled ideologically against the first essentials and principles of the ideological direction and course of the Mizrahi Yavneh School, I must recognize and with a feeling of gratitude, that the Yavneh School planted in us values, armed us with Jewish knowledge, and nurtured and developed a Jewish persona in us.

Despite the fact that we lived in an atmosphere of total Yiddishkeit, in full-blooded Jewish homes, with a Jewish way of life, with Jewish content, it was necessary to develop in us children and original sense of independence, and an awareness of Jewish lore, and this was achieved through the [study of] Tanakh, Talmud, Jewish faith, and the spiritual and moral values of Jewry, apart from the secular studies such as the natural sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, the Polish language, and other studies which were taught at the Yavneh School. I recall having mastered enough Hebrew to acquire the right key with which, a great portion of my friends today, could open the gates of the Hebrew literature. It seems to me that our very broad acquaintance with the Tanakh, made a deep impression on us children, and shined forth from our childlike souls. Knowledge of the Land of Israel occupied a very important place in the Yavneh School. To this day,

[Page 168]

I hide and strenuously keep safe the first picture album that was given to me. Already at that time, I saw the wonder of the construction of the treasures of the future of the Land of Israel. Who among us can forget the modest (but for us children a treasure) purses with the Tu B'Shevat fruits from the Land of Israel.

Hundreds of Jewish children, who imagined themselves as the future youth, were educated at the Yavneh School. The school worked its influence on us, such that the historical tie to the Land of Israel would become embodied in us, and so that later on, we would become the advocates, and leaders in the various youth movements enumerated above.

It is worth mentioning that there even was an attempt to found a Tarbut School in our city. I, personally, was involved with this organization, and if my memory does not mislead me, I developed an understanding with my former teacher, Joel Kaufman (he was a teacher in the Yavneh School, and also a bookkeeper, but I do not know his fate). We even already had a seal, and had interested a group of people, however, due to the fact that I was so intensely involved as the head of the HaShomer HaTza'ir Chapter, and my preparing myself to emigrate to Argentina in 1935, the process of organization stretched out for a long time. Before I emigrated to Argentina, I left the seal and the documented organization plans with the teacher Kaufman. It appears that the Tarbut School was never established.

This said, the Yavneh School was the important force that revealed the great light that resides in the Jewish heritage, and that planted a respect for the substance of a Jewish way of life into our young children's hearts, that deepens our understanding of the Hebrew language and literature, (it was not necessary to study Yiddish – everyone spoke Yiddish), and for us revealed (even if by means of older pedagogic methods), the eternal value and vision of the Jewish prophets and indirectly drew us closer to the work of rejuvenation and the Land of The Patriarchs.

Not all of the children were educated at the Yavneh School. A rather large percentage of children, I think because of poverty, because of not being able to afford tuition, attended the Tomaszow Polish Volksschule (Szkola Powszecna). It also happened that before the time of my religious education, I attended the 7^th grade of the Powszecna School. The Tomaszow Polish Volksschule was located in a very suitable building. It made an impression on us, the classrooms, the laboratories, the work halls where one studied carpentry, the modern furniture, the painted walls, and the extraordinary cleanliness, exactly the opposite of the Yavneh School, which always found itself in rented homes, not appropriate for a school. The Powszecna School was literally in the woods, outside of the city, far from the tumult and hubbub of the shtetl. The teachers in the school were certainly certified. The teachers in the Yavneh School were in large part autodidactic. By contrast, I recall that the teachers in the Powszecna School, the school whose striving was yet to “Polonize” the Jewish minority, and the impact of the teachers in consonance with their objective, was a negative on us children. It was not because we were Jewish children, and because of some predisposition did not want to accept their instruction and education, but rather because their orientation was not a clear one. They did not understand, and did not find the way to awaken in us student the drive and understanding for education. Like generations before us, we learned under compulsion, and out of fear of physical punishment. It was rare that a teacher was beloved by us, the same with Jews and Christians. We recall teachers who slept and snored through lectures. We dragged yet another Christian teacher, out of the mud one night, totally drunk. The shop teacher (carpentry) and the teacher of our class, would, every now and then say: chorob na moich zydkow (to hell with my little Jews).

Those teachers were weak in the force and commitment to education. The various pedagogical methods of education were alien to them in general. They had the teaching program before them, not taking into

[Page 169]

account the kind of children, with a student's mentality, with their skill in absorption, their physical frailty, their lack of focus, and did not adapt themselves to the character of the children, to their age. The teacher had only one objective: to get through his lesson plan by all means....

We recall a sympathetic teacher only rarely. To this, we have to add the pestilential anti-Semitic ambience that reigned in the school, which almost had a Jewish majority. I cannot erase those anti-Semitic representations, and mocking of Jews [that took place] from my thoughts, in front of a majority of Jewish students, before the Christmas holiday, when a teacher, in the shop chased after one of us Jewish boys with a saw, and injured the student with the saw nearly cutting off his hand.

And so, we, the Jewish youth of Tomaszow in the country of Poland grew up in the same way as Jewish generations did for hundreds of years, with a justifiable enmity towards our own country, which conducted a policy of discrimination towards Jewry, and against Jewish youth. Accordingly, we young people had to manifest extraordinary stubbornness and nationalistic self-worth, and this, perhaps, was a stronger reason for the organization of a Jewish school movement of our own, which started out in Poland as a small brook, and grew into a wide river.

The municipal Polish Gymnasium was a great attractive force. Classes, graduation, university, a sort of enchanting net. And I can recall the envy that was elicited among us towards the couple of Jewish Gymnasium students, [envy towards] their uniforms, and in general to their opportunity to study at the Gymnasium, in the modern, literally luxurious building. Only those children with means could aspire to stud at the Gymnasium. This, Gymnasium youth, already spoke only in Polish, they also attended class on the Sabbath (in the Powszecna School the Jewish children did not attend on the Sabbath).

This “Gymnasium Group”; held itself apart from the rest of the young people, and did not come to the youth organizations, simply waiting for the good fortune of graduation.

It was not a little that the small number of students at the Gymnasium had to withstand from their Christian comrades. However, they swallowed their tears, and studied on. A number of the students made quite meaningful careers. A portion of those who survived Hitler's hell, “smoking embers rescued from the fire,” met up with one another in the Land of Israel. From others, news was received that they became prominent personalities in North America, and many of them shared in the bitter fate of the entirety of Jewish youth in Poland...

As previously mentioned, the largest portion of Tomaszow [Jewish] youth was in the Halutz youth movement, and with all, without exception regarding political persuasion, from Betar, which sang “From Dan to Beersheba, and from Gilead to the Sea,” to the HeHalutz and HaShomer HaTza'ir movements, whose solution was in Brenner's [poem] “Af Al Pi Kheyn,” swimming against the tide, yet, all sang “The Chain Has Not Yet Been Broken,” that stretches from generation to generation. This was a song of the highest spiritual accord, from these young people, which even among the minimally aware, was instinctively rooted in Jewish history. And those that were more aware, who understood the concept of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and had a deep-seated belief that only the dark earth and Jewish territory can save the Jewish world. The Jerusalem on Earth must be a foreboding of the Heavenly Jerusalem. It is necessary to recall the HeHalutz [organization] here, which united the ardor and joy of the religious, and almost Hasidic Tomaszow, with the creative impetus and faith of the pioneering youth.

As I remember it, HeHalutz was the first, largest, and most visible youth movement in the city, which attracted the best of the youth into its ranks. This was a cohort of the young that was several years older than

[Page 170]

my generation. I recall that we looking up to them as if they were an higher intellect.

HeHalutz had [within it] the sport club, HaPoel, where I happened to have the opportunity, for a while to be the secretary. This sport club had visibility in the city, because of its serious standing with the non-Jewish sport clubs. As another plus, it is worth recollecting: the young people of the “lower classes” were drawn into HaPoel, from the side streets of Tomaszow. For the sake of the truth, this was a segment of the youth with no awareness, and whose capacity wee as draggers. A bit at a time, it was possible to mature these young people, by organizing them into programmed discussions, in which I did not participate in a minor degree.

The second youth organization to be established, in chronological order, was Betar (Brit Trumpeldor), by the revisionist movement “Brit HaTzaHa”R.”

Betar was established as a movement in the conventional mode. It is possible that the attractive insignia that teased the soul, induced people to join. Something here had the smell of a different discipline, with military marches an “glory.” The Land of Israel was ringed by Arabs, the greatest enemies of the Jews, and it is only with the sword that the land will be able to be liberated, so we will have a Land of Israel of our own. “In blood and Fire Judah fell, and in blood and fire Judah will rise.” And why fight for a little Land of Israel, why not for a large Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan? This ideology appealed to, and captured the hearts of, a large part of the youth.

The emotionally laden articles in the revisionist organ “Die Welt,” from the head of Betar, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, were discussed and interpreted: The Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan, almost three times the size of Belgium and it would encompass a population of over twelve million Jews. A large army must be created to protect and secure the life of this new, large country. The revisionist party was opposed to class warfare, and therefore it was for one class of Jews, all united. Therefore it needed to fight the left-wing Histadrut which divided the people, creating a working class, and carries out strikes. Strikes were a transgression, because they disrupt the building of the nation. We are all socialists. We are in agreement with the just socialist ideal, but this is a matter for later. When we will have a land of our own, we will later on fight to implement socialism in the new Land of Israel, – so argued the enthusiastic young people, who displayed their new ideology and belief with marches, and demonstrations with insignias, over the streets of Tomaszow,

A severe crisis, resulting from the murder of Chaim Arlozorov and the Stavsky Trial added to the ranks of Betar. That same Betar youth began to take an interest in reading interpretive material about the initiatives and ways of the Betar ideology, and after long and serious discussions, a mass exodus began from the Betar movement.

At that time, a group arrived from the HaShomer HaTza'ir movement and “Kibbutznik” boys and girls appeared in the streets with axes and saws. HaShomer HaTza'ir opened a training center in Tomaszow.

The disoriented and confused young people, that had received their first enthusiastic Zionist education in Betar, and left that movement disappointed, became the first seed, the core of the first HaShomer HaTza'ir chapter in Tomaszow.

The intelligent young men and women who provided the training, found HaShomer HaTza'ir on the principles of preparation [sic: training]. And just as it had bubbled, resounded and frothed with young people, before in the Betar chapter, it bubbled in the newly created chapter of HaShomer HaTza'ir. The young people are being educated in the spirit of Zionist pioneering activity. The training center serves as a living

[Page 171]

example, preparing its members to “Fulfilment” to implement the Zionist ideal not with solutions and demonstrations, but with deeds.

The young people become imbued through and through with exceptional fervor, and with personal pioneering preparedness. Also, a form of preparation for training begins, to which many are eager to travel.

The HaShomer HaTza'ir movement did not have full legality in the entirety of Poland, but only in specific parts of the country. There were cities where HaShomer HaTza'ir needed to operate under a sport club, “Shomria.” And such was the case also in Tomaszow. We had to find direct and indirect ways to exist legally, but the police already found a way to shut down the local.

I recall that we had organized a Trumpeldor Academy. The secret police came and drove off the large assembly of young and old that had gathered, and arrested the person who was leading the event, and shut down the local. I, the minor, was then the head of the local, and as a result, among those arrested.

At a second opportunity, I traveled as an emissary to Laszczow in order to organize a chapter for HaShomer HaTza'ir, and there the police arrested me as well, and sent me back to Tomaszow. At that time, I was still a minor. The ideological battle among the youth movement in Poland was great, and it was spoken on both sides that the other movement had informed on us.

Also, Betar had a sport club, called “Menorah.” The activity was a considerably reduced one, and with the reduction in the group of the young people, this sport group was nearly dissolved.

For a small amount of time, a sport club called “Maccabi” existed. In the interest of the truth, I cannot remember any special activity that is worth recalling. I do not remember which cohort of young people rallied around “Maccabi.”

A very limited number of young people realized their outlet through “HaShomer HaDati.” and in reality, they drew their reserve from the one big and important school, Yavneh. But, somehow, this reserve dissipated, and the chapter dried out. On one side, the young revolted, going off to other youth movements, and from the other side, the small coterie of loyalists who remained, grouped themselves around “HaPoel HaMizrahi” which had the Mizrahi spirit.

When we would encounter a reduced number of young people from “HaShomer HaDati,” their difference from other young people consisted of the fact that they wore Jewish caps. Only boys would show up on the central Lvov street, in contrast with the other movements, where boys and girls would stroll about together. These young people were very sympathetic, self-effacing in their gait, when they would stroll by on a Sabbath street with languorous tranquility and elicited respect for themselves. They were the proud sons of the stiff-necked, who were ready to live proudly and die for their Jewishness, and for the permanence of all Israel.

I recollect the young people of the Agudat Yisrael party that called themselves “Pirkhei Agudat Yisrael,” as if in a dream. It might be that their number, as a proportion of the entire Tomaszow youth was not small. But we did not see them any longer. We did not encounter them. They were concentrated in the shtiblakh that were very closely allied ideologically. Those that based their self-actualization on the Jewish religious ethic, that God is their source, the objective of every moral striving, that one need only fulfill the commandment, “and thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might,” and

[Page 172]

that our love for Him makes us spiritually happy. This love is a logical necessity for those young people, but in order that such love not be fruitless, they were instructed in their community shtibl way of life, alongside a page of the Gemara, and in their discussions, which were carried on according to their take on the world in relation to their Jewish religious integrity.

The Bund as well, the deeply rooted culture party in Tomaszow, also had a youth group with the acronym SKP.

The economic struggle of the small labor party in Tomaszow, thanks to the Bund, becomes a school for education for the political activity of the workers, and awakens a striving in them to educate themselves. Because of this, the Bund had the biggest library in the city.

The economic strikes become a political school for the workers of the city, and the cultural ascent comes together with the growth that arises from the conflict between them.

As a legacy, the Bundist political organization took over the tradition of celebrating the First of May. This celebration was thought of as a measurement tool with which one measured the growth and increase in the working masses.

We recall, on one side, the festive air of the First of May [celebrations] in the street, and from the other side, the fear-laden atmosphere that reigned because of demonstrations, police intervention, arrests and beatings with the leadership of the authorities. I especially remember the youth leaders of the Bund, during the First of May demonstrations. Buttoning the red flowers, running with the red flag, their solutions: Freedom to strike, Freedom of speech and press, Higher wages, Eight hour workdays, etc.

Understand that it was the working class youth that was attracted to the Bundist youth organization, SKP. [These were] the children of various tradespeople. Thanks tot he large Bundist Yiddish library, the young people had a place where to get together, and the opportunity to educate themselves in the Yiddish language.

During the nice summer days, we, the young people of all walks of life, and from various ideologies, would gather together in the dense forests around the city. The vigorous singing of a poor, but happy and joyous youth would echo from all corners of the forest, which went, with hand locked on shoulder, went freely, without care, and filled the forest with the joy of young people, as only young people can do, who are happy and full of energy.

The May strolls (Mayovkas) can especially not be forgotten. We got up with the rising sun, and long rows of young people stretched into the forests. Almost every Sabbath, at the beginning, I had the satisfaction of giving talks about Zionist history, utopian socialism, and with another smaller group, reading chapters from Professor Klausner's Jesus Christ. Who could at that time conceive, that the thousand-year old Jewish fortress in Poland would be excised by its roots. Who will be able to document the martyrdom of the Jewish children in Poland for the coming generations? How can we forget in these pioneers, from all walks of life, who under the most severe conditions, went on with their training, their life as pioneers, and represented the most significant resistance force of Jewish Poland, and played the principal role in confronting the German beast?

How can we forget the observant young people who suffered so much, and who carried God's name with such merit. Under the staccato fo German gunfire, their “Shema Yisrael!” penetrated the heavens, and sent a shudder through their torturers. One is forbidden to utter even a halfway critical word against those who

[Page 173]

were forced [by circumstance], and put on a crucifix around their neck, and who quietly uttered a prayer on a Sunday, before their extermination by Hitler.

How can we forget the Jewish daughters of HeHalutz, HaShomer HaTza'ir, Betar, Bund, who went in the way of nameless martyrs of the crusades...

Has there ever been a sacrifice Higher or more holy? Has it happened that someone died Nobler, in a more terrifying way?

(A. Liesin “The Nameless”)

[Page 174]

The Teaching Panel at the Yavneh School

A group picture of the Yavneh School

Until the year 1915, our city was under the rule of the Russian Czar, who suppressed all freedom and advance with a brutal hand. And it was with the help of a number of “respectable” Jews who were informers that they controlled the Jewish street. They kept us under a surveillance of “seven eyes” so that God forbid, not a ray of enlightenment might penetrate. There was a instance, when there was a desire to establish a library, and they advised the Nachalnik,^[1] and explained to him what was needed, and he promptly forbade the establishment of the library. Especially, –these “respectable folk,” – fought against the Hebrew language. They argued that Zionism represented nothing short of apostasy, and the Hebrew language is the path that leads to Zionism. The young generation would educate itself in secret rooms, in which one room served as a residence, and a kitchen for the family of the Rabbi, and a location to educate children. The more venerable of the Zionists, who lived underground for this entire period, out of fear of the regime, constantly dreamt of a modern school, although they were without means to change the situation.

In the year 1915, when the Russian Army turned back and retreated, and our city went over under Austrian rule, matter decidedly changed. Austrian rule brought a bit of liberty and democracy, autocratic rule was broken. Organizations according to their particular persuasions began to take form. General Zionist institutions were established, the Mizrahi, Tze'irei Tzion, etc. Young people began to stream towards the various groups. A national initiative was started, with a Zionist emphasis, donations were collected for Keren Kayemet, etc.

The first undertaking that the members of Mizrahi set for themselves above all else was to establish a modern Hebrew School, that apart from general studies, would be able to inculcate the children with the principles of Judaism from its inception up to our own day. To bring back the Hebrew language to life in their mouths, and to prepare them so they could join the ranks of those wanting to bring the Zionist concept to reality.

In the year 1918, the friends, Ch. Lehrer, Z. Kawenczuk, Y. Lakhar, A. Hochman, D. Y. Szparer, to be separated for wishes of long life, along with A. Lederkremmer, ז”ל, M. Ratzimer ז”ל, W. Lederkremmer ז”ל, and others, gathered to establish a school named “Mizrahi,” They rented two rooms at the home of one of the balebatim, and invited Mr. Gottleib in the capacity of a teacher of Hebrew and began classes. Chaim Joseph Lehrer, a young bachelor of about 20 years of age, full of zest, youth and idealism, educated in Bet HaMedrash, which had filled his being with the new Hebrew literature, influenced by the literature that proposed the Zionist ideal and the realization of Zionism, saw the vista of his life, and took upon himself the direction of the school. He committed himself with his entire heart and soul to the development of the school, and his labors bore fruit.

[Page 175]

Before the school began to get organized in earnest, it was in the summer of 1918, and a fire broke out in the home of F. Baum, and it spread quickly and speedily and consumed about 80 percent of the Jewish homes, among them the home that housed the school. They rented two rooms from A. Eidelsberg, upstairs, and the condition of the residents of the citizenry was very bad, because everyone was worried about putting a roof over their own heads, and tuition was not paid on time. The school closed for lack of income.

In the meantime, the resident population bestirred itself, and began to rebuild their ruins, and it was at this time that Mr. Hirsch Winder arrived and proposed that if he would be paid a sum of ten thousand crowns, he will allocate three rooms from his home, and will dedicate them to the school.

At that same time, Rabbi Graubard was in our town, the Rabbi of the city of Stabrow, who had traveled here on request of the central office in Warsaw to organize the Mizrahi. He energized the members of the Mizrahi to confront this issue, and also proposed that his son would serve as a Hebrew teacher. Under his oversight, the required sum was collected: Yaakov Lederkremmer donated 1000 crowns, Mordechai Ratzimer donated 500 crowns, and the remaining members donated lesser amounts. The deal was sealed with Mr. Winder, and the school was opened. The following were invited to teach: R' Benjamin Tepler, Graubard, N. D. Glass, and Heinrich Edelstein. The students began to flow into the school because the parents for some time, clamored for such a modern Hebrew school.

However, Mr. Graubard, who was a young man well enlightened in secular and Hebrew studies, importantly deep, but was very weak in modern didactic methods, and the great hopes that had been pinned on him, that he will be the organizer and securer of the school, because of this, were disappointed.

At a meeting of the committee, it was decided to send D. Y. Szparer to Warsaw,. In order to invite a teacher more suited to this undertaking. After the passage of some time, Mr. Huberman was sent at the behest of the central office in Warsaw. This man was weak physically, but strong in spirit, a master of experience in his approach to the instruction of the child, and he understood the soul of a child, and understood the child's temperament, committed with heart and soul to his work. He was assisted by Yeshayahu Firger, who was just a beginner in teaching, but who by nature had a good instinct for pedagogy, and under his oversight the number of pupils reached close to one hundred.

The members of the Mizrahi hoped that the school will do famously, and will continue to go up and up, and just at that time, the rage of the Bolshevik-Polish War fell upon them.

When the Germans and Austrians were vanquished by the [European] Allies and America. President Wilson publicized the well-known terms, that the Polish nation headed by Marshall Pilsudski was established. At the same time, the Bolsheviks invaded Poland for purposes of reaching Western Europe. The Polish regime went to battle against them, in order to interdict their invasion. The government began to draft the young into military service for war. The burden of the draft fell on all of Poland, except for Eastern Galician that had previously been appended to Poland. With this, everyone who tried to avoid the draft, deserted to Eastern Galician. When Mr. Ch. Y. Lehrer was called up to serve, he called Mr. Huberman and advised him: It is undoubtedly known to you that I will be deserting to Galician out of fear of the army. In this, I take off all responsibility that I have to you, and if it is in your will to remain and keep the school going, may a blessing come to you, and if not, the permission is in your hand to leave our city. Mr. Huberman, who had sunk much energy into the development of the school, and saw the blessings of his effort, was pained to the heart to leave it during these days of duress, and decided to remain. What this Jewish man suffered through in those days is difficult to describe. All the people who worked for the school were spread out and away, the young

[Page 176]

parents who had been drafted into the army, or deserted to Galician did not pay tuition. He had no one to turn to pour out the aggravation in his heart. In the year 1930, I ran into him during my graduation studies in Warsaw, that we completed together, and he complained to me about those days, as being the most difficult days of his life. After a short while went by, Mr. Ch. Y. Lehrer returned home, and the first thing he did was collect a sum of money for Mr. Huberman. And so, he forgot those days of anxiety, and approached his sacred duty with renewed energy, and the school returned to its normal path and continued to make progress and develop.

Then the Poles succeeded in drive off the Russians, and signed a peace treaty with them, national life began to organize themselves. A legal government arose that was formed as a result of elections to the Sejm in Warsaw. In each and every city, legal governments arose, Polish schools were opened, and the education ministry looked after the dissemination of Polish culture, among the Jewish citizens as well. The independent Jewish school was like thorns in their eyes, and the educational ministry began to assault the Jewish school. They did not rest of keep still until they could find a fatal flaw: since the children are so thoroughly involved with their studies, and that is injurious to their health, it would be necessary to close it. The school was closed.

Ch. Y. Lehrer and his comrades did not say “We give up.” After many strenuous efforts, they received permission to open a new school, named “Torah VoDa'ath.” They organized an educational committee to maintain oversight regarding the conduct of instruction, consisting of the following: Ch. Y. Lehrer, Joseph Lakhar, D. Y. Szparer, separated for long life, and Sh. Zilberman ז”ל. Students began to flow to the school, and their numbers reached 150, approximately. Three rooms were too tight to hold them, so they rented additional rooms in the neighborhood, and the school reached six grades. More graduate teachers were invited from outside the local area, who were replaced over time.

I will cite those teachers in the school, who came from our town, during the time of its existence: R' Benjamin Tepler, Shmuel Blei, Meir Klarman, Nahum Dov Glass, Yeshayahu Firger, Joel Kaufman, Heinrich Edelstein, Ephraim Schuldiner, Lipa Goldman, and to be separated for long life, David Shapiro, and Aryeh Arbesfeld.

When the school began to develop, and from time to time, many issues would arise that required special effort, and Ch. Y. Lehrer could not commit himself except to the school, because national and public life expanded, and the work on behalf of Zionism demanded its own heroic amount of effort, to educate the youth to Zionism and pioneering, as well as the local institutions, Mr. Ch. Y. Lehrer took part in all of these, and his will could be felt in every place, his common sense, wisdom and force. Because of this, he looked for an individual that he could depend on to lead the school in the spirit of its founders. And this man was found. It was my brother Yaakov, ז”ל.

In the year 1925, they proposed to my brother ז”ל, that he assume the leadership of the school. In accepting the leadership of the school, my brother committed himself to the school with his entire soul. Additionally, every flame in his soul, the ardor of a Hasid and his organizational talent, were dedicated to the school. He attended to it day and night, to its welfare, and securing its basis. There was nothing of value unless it was of use to the school. He expended large amounts of money, and with this, he put the school committee into debts of thousands of guldens, in order to put the school in a condition that would be suitable to the formation of the soul of a Jewish child.

The classrooms, spread over different houses placed a burden on the conduct of instruction. And, in addition,

[Page 177]

the rooms involved were not suitable as school classrooms. With this, it was decided to find an appropriate structure for the school. And in this regard, Mr. Adler (Lettar) proposed that he will have a skeleton of two stories, with a large parcel surrounding it, on the Krasnobrod Gasse, which he will lease to the committee, on the condition that they will finish it, and make it suitable for use as a school. The school committee accepted his proposal. They borrowed 2000 gulden from the banks, and from private individuals, and finished the building. According to the conditions of our city, this was a vary suitable school building, spacious rooms, well lit, and attractive. Surrounding it, was a parcel that was large enough for play. In the passage of time, the committee borrowed additional funds, and with it, added structures, and opened a kindergarten under the direction of a graduate head of kindergarten.

This building sunk the committee into a level of debt from under which they were unable to get out. They managed like sharp merchants, They would borrow from the Gemilut Hasadim to pay the banks, and then borrow from the banks to retire their debt with the Gemilut Hasadim, heaven forbid, returning yet again. With the outbreak of The Second World War in 1939, the committee debts were close to three thousand gulden.

Approximately in 1926, a Mizrahi center for schools was established in Warsaw by the name “Yavneh.” At that time, the school became a branch of this central organization, and assumed the name, “Yavneh.”

The path of development of the school was not a bed of roses. Opponents arose on the left and the right. The Hasidim saw in it an abandonment of the traditional received lore, “to begin teaching reading to a child without previously teaching the aleph-bet, is plain madness.” To begin teaching the Torah from Genesis and not Leviticus, this is a rejection of explicit Midrash: “Let them come pure, and engage in that which is pure.” Matters reached the point, that once, when the Rebbe of Radzyn visited our town, he assembled the important people of the town, and demanded that they take their children out of the school. And the Hasidim that followed him feared going against the word of their “Tzaddikim,” and withdrew their children from the school. I do not wish to enumerate here the names of those people who contested and damaged the school, seeing that many of them are found here with us in The Land of Israel, and enjoy recognition for their work on behalf of the school. Also, members of the Bund, who fought against Zionism, and the Hebrew language, attempted to stand in the way of the steps of the school. When the municipal council ruled in favor of an assessment to support the school, the three Bund members of the council voted against the subsidy, arguing that a Hebrew school is opposed to the national interest of the Jews, in accordance with their views. And in connection with receiving a standing subsidy from the city and the Jewish community, the school was in a constant struggle for its existence. For, in order to maintain the school on the sort of high cultural plane desired, required large sums of money, that were simply impossible to cover from tuition alone. However, from time to time, some financial support was received, especially when Ch. Y. Lehrer was selected as the Chair of the committee and the community, however the kill didn't satisfy the lion, and as I described above, the committee was immersed in debt, and had to cover these with loans.

The school fulfilled the promise of those who founded it. The spirit of fundamental Judaism hovered over all conduct of study. The air between its walls was redolent with the light of the Land of Israel. The children suckled from the roots of heroism in the history of our people, that are soaked in blood and tears, and prepared themselves out of yearning to join the pioneers that were building The Land. I can recall how the Keren Kayemet would connect the children of the Diaspora with the children living in the Land of Israel, in exchange of correspondence, and occasionally, when a letter would be received from one of the children in Ein-Hador, Kfar Yekhezkiel, etc., and we would read it publicly, how their eyes would sparkle in longing for the Land of Israel, as was said by R' Yehuda HaLevi: I am in the West, but my heart is in the East.

[Page 178]

Its influence was also very great outside of the walls of the school. Those who were active in Zionism, and who worked through all ways to instill the Zionist concept among the masses, and here on a celebration day, or a national holiday, when the children of the school would appear with the national flag in their hands, and a Hebrew song on their lips, they worked especially hard to disseminate the Zionist ideal more than the several talented speakers who strove on behalf of the many. I can recall one occasion, when I was strolling with the children in the street, and they were chattering among themselves in Hebrew, and a lady said: “Aryeh, listen to what I will tell you, if the children of Israel speak the holy tongue among themselves, it is a sign that our redemption is near.”

It is worth underscoring, a matter that constantly puzzled me, how many young men, the disciples of the Bet HaMedrash, to whom modern didactic methods were unknown, and the miraculous books of pedagogues were not available to them, and despite this, they succeeded, relying on their own energies, to devise a curriculum of study, that lacks nothing in comparison to any curriculum here in our Land. Apparently, the natural instinct and the national impetus they had, was sufficient to show them the way.

In enveloping the terrible tragedy that befell us in the terrifying Shoah, with our souls, let us elevate the memory of this miniature Temple that was destroyed, and is no more.

The Founders of Mizrahi Sitting from the right: Sholom Zilberman, Eliezer Lederkremmer, Mordechai Blank, and Abraham Hochman Standing: Mordechai Ratzimer, Chaim Joseph Lehrer, and Yuda Goldman

The Departure of Bezalel Bizinsky to Israel Sitting from the right: Nahum Ratzimer, Nahum Glass, Bezalel Bizinsky, and Yaakov Arbesfeld Standing from the right: Simcha Hauled, Shmuel Hanarow, Shmuel Goldstein, and Joseph Singer

He was the scion of a well-branched family whose reputation extended beyond the limits of the city. The beginning of his community work was initiated many years before The First [World] War. Apart from his Jewish education, which he received in his childhood like all those of that generation, in Torah and Talmud, in the Heder, he also completed general studies, and knew the Polish and Russian languages, and on their

[Page 179]

strength and his general secular capabilities, it provided him with the capacity, that in the days of the Czar, he was one of the leaders of the community, and one of its most aggressive activists, who did everything within his power to improve he religious life of the community, and he was always at odds with those who felt that all things new were forbidden to them. In his capacity as the Chair of the community during The First War, he was taken by the forces of the Czarist general Radko Dmitrov at the time of their retreat in 1915 – as a hostage, and in this manner ended up at that time in the middle of Russia with his only daughter, and he remained there until after the Bolshevik Revolution which then provided him with the opportunity to return home. Immediately upon his return, he joined the Mizrahi movement, in which he found a broadened field for his endeavors, and he assumed the leadership, and up to The Second World War, served as its Honorary President. At the first Conference of Polish Jewry after Poland was liberated, that was called by Mr. Greenbaum, he was unanimously selected as our city's representative to the Conference. With the establishment of the first community in accordance with the prevailing law of the land of Poland in 1924, he was elected as the Chair of the community, and stood at its head for several years. However, with the change in the political situation in Poland, after Pilsudski's revolt, and especially because of the many disputes in the community itself that disrupted normal work, he left public life, but remained interested in the work of the Mizrahi to his last day.

It is proper to take note of his sons, all of which stood at the head of the national rebirth: His firstborn son, R' Yaakov הי”ד, like his father, received a broadly based education. With the establishment of Mizrahi and the school, he was among the founders, and thanks to his financial support, we were able to open the school. And in the first years, he was among the most aggressive of the activists. His house was the mount to which all turned, Rabbis, Hasidim, intelligentsia, simple folk, all entered his home. His wife, Esther הי”ד was his partner in all charitable matters, and their house was open to every encumbered soul. His second son, Ary' Leib'l was one of the activists in the Mizrahi, and all of his spare hours were dedicated to the movement. His son Yitzhak הי”ד was one of the general heads of the Zionists.

The grandson of the Rabbi of Bilgoraj, R' Yaakov Mordechai Zilberman זצ”ל who was called the Genius of Macew, this Rabbi was one of the great Rabbinic personalities of Poland before the First World War. His love for the people of Israel, for the Torah of Israel, and all the saints of Israel, exceeded all bounds. He was educated on the lap of his grandfather, and with the establishment of Mizrahi, R' Sholom placed himself at its head, and he, with is understanding and good common sense, helped a great deal in disseminating the Mizrahi ideal among the ranks of the Hasidim. At all meetings and gatherings, in which he participated in almost all, everyone paid attention to what he had to say, his advice, and his ideas were always the compelling ones. He strove for his entire life to make aliyah to The Land, and in this regard, he sent his four sons, separated for long life, to The Land, but to our sorrow he himself never did. With the entry of the Nazis ימ”ש he left the city and crossed to the Russian side of the border. However, with the outbreak of the German-Russian war, the Nazis got him in the territory of Wolhynia.

R' Benjamin was a remarkable individual. He was a Ger Hasid, who was a scholar and made a living from this, as a teacher of Talmud with commentaries. Apart from his knowledge of the Talmud which was extensive, he was outstandingly fluent in secular matters, such as history, geography, and astronomy. It is superfluous to say that he was thoroughly familiar with Tanakh and the Hebrew language. But who would

[Page 180]

have guessed that in the inner reached of this dear man could be found a boundless love for The Land of Israel, the rebirth of the people of Israel in its homeland. And I recall that during the time of The First World War, with the departure of the Czar's soldiers from Congress Poland – under whose rule the Zionist movement was illegal – at which time it was captured by the Germans and Austrians, the Zionist movement began to emerge from the underground. Those were the glory days of the movement. Each and every city established Zionist chapters of all persuasion. As can be understood, this did not skip over our city of Tomaszow. And when I approached a number of my comrades to establish a Mizrahi [chapter] in our city, most of whom were Hasidim, to whom the name ‘Mizrahi’ was not even known, I looked for an individual who was mature, who would be able to influence them, that is to say, the Hasidic men who themselves were of more advanced years. At that time – I do not remember anymore who it was – one of my friends approached me and whispered in my ear to approach R' Benjamin Tepler, as he was an ardent lover of Zion. I knew who R' Benjamin was, I had on a number of other occasions, an opportunity to meet him at the Yeshiva that had been established in Tomaszow before the war, in which he was one of the teachers, but except for this, had no relationship to him. Age was also a factor, since he was older than I by many years. I struggled with myself for several days, until I got up my courage, and then approached him to propose that he assume the responsibility of being one of the founders of Mizrahi. And how I was awed that he received me with such courtesy, and promised to do whatever was in his power. This, despite the fact that he himself did not believe that we would have much influence. He immediately went to work, and was one of the Jewish people who helped me to lay the foundation of the Mizrahi in our city. At the first committee meeting of the Mizrahi, he was elected as the Secretary, which position he discharge responsibly. With the establishment of the first Mizrahi school, he was appointed as a Talmud teacher. And he fulfilled this appointment with dedication for several years. At the second meeting of Mizrahi that took place immediately after Poland was liberated in the year 5679 [1919], he was elected, along with R' Yaakov Lederkremmer as officers. For a variety of reasons, he distanced himself from Mizrahi work after that, however, in his inner core, he continued to be an ardent lover of Zion, and every bit of good news gladdened his heart, and the opposite as well, and bad news, such as the Events [Hebron Riots] of 5689 [1929], the Fesfield decrees, caused him very great heartache. I wish to designate R' Benjamin as a raconteur. As a phenomenal expert on Jewish history, he loved to talk about some event or another, and it was a pleasure to listen to him, and how he communicated. It was not important what the subject was, whether it was the Dreyfus Affair, the dispute of R' Yaakov Emden and R' Jonathan [Eibeshutz] of Prague, and the like. It is worth recalling that he dedicated all his life to teaching simple folk in his spare time, whether Mishna, or Agadot, all free of charge.

From the day that Mizrahi was established, he dedicated his entire might and soul to it, and up to his last day, he was one of the most dedicated of the activists who worked for it. Of him, it can be said, that Mizrahi was his second home. He dedicated all of his free time to Mizrahi. Many times, when he returned from travel – his business was outside of the city – before he even went home, he stopped off at the Mizrahi to get a report. As I have already recalled, he dedicated himself to the movement, not only with his soul, but with the core of his energy to the extent that his working time permitted it. Every time that he returned from travel, and entered the school, the first question he had was whether or not their needed money, and when did they not have this need? His single desire was to make aliyah and build up The Land. In this regard, in 1924, he partnered in the acquisition of the land where Afula was built, together with other members of Mizrahi, but in the end, his situation worsened, and he could not realize his desire. Despite his difficult situation, he did not sell the parcel of land.

[Page 181]

R' Mordechai Blank הי”ד

He was one of the first of the founders of Mizrahi, going back to 1917 at the time of the Austrian occupation, and he placed himself at the head of the work, and took an active part in all the endeavors of the Zionist movement. He was the first proponent of Keren Kayemet L'Israel in Mizrahi, but because of his difficult circumstances, which worsened considerably in the last days, especially his family situation, he was compelled to become one of the passive members, which aggravated him a great deal.

One of the first of the founders of Mizrahi, and until his last day, he was a member of the committee, despite the fact that his time was scarce, because his livelihood came from being a baker, which occupied him both day and night, but despite this, he found a way to dedicate adequate time to the movement, and there practically was not a meeting of the committee in which he did not participate. He always had clear ideas, and in all questions, helped arrive at a conclusion.

R' Nahum Dov Glas , הי”ד

While he was yet young in days, he became attached to the Zionist concept, and because of this, he began to learn the Hebrew Language, on the strength that t that time, meaning before The First World War, this was a pipe dream. As can be understood, that with the founding of Mizrahi, he entered it at the top among its leaders. And with the founding of the school in 1918, at the time of the Austrian occupation, he was appointed to the position of Teacher of Hebrew [language] and Tanakh, and he dedicated himself to this work with his entire energy. But even with all this work, he did not neglect the remainder of the Zionist work of the Mizrahi. There was not a single undertaking of the Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael or the Keren HaYesod, and others, in which he did not take a leading part. And with his departure from the city to assume the position of teacher in Bilgoraj, Mizrahi lost a major force of aggressiveness and action. In the last of times, he was a teacher in Bichow, and it appears that there, he fell victim to the Nazis ימ”ש.

One of the icons of public life in the city of Tomaszow, in the two final decades before the Holocaust. [He was] the organizer of the Mizrahi movement, and the center of the ‘Yavneh’ School. He was born to his father, R' Yitzhak, set apart for long life, who resides with us in the Land [of Israel]. His father, at that time was one of the zealous Belz Hasidim, and one of the great opponents of the Zionist movement. He received his education just as did the other boys of his age, in a Heder, and in a Yeshiva, which took place before The First War, and his entry into the Mizrahi movement was a great surprise to us. I recall my transgressions today, by noting that it was on one of the evenings of the year 5681 [1921], when the students of the ‘Yavneh’ School, then called ‘Mizrahi’ organized a presentation at the school, which a that time was located in the home of R' Zvi Winder. And lo, in come those who were driven to see the presentation, and among them, the yong, skinny Yaakov. I knew him as the son of the zealot R' Yitzhak, since their home was across the way form the school, and at that time, I did not see in him as those who might be among those who would come to Mizrahi, despite the fact that the movement had been in existence for several years, and had already put down roots in the life of the city. I thought that he had come as an informer, in order that, on the morrow, he would be able to tell everything that he had seen in the shtibl of the Belz Hasidim, naturally with

[Page 182]

distortions. I wanted to say to a number of the organizers that he be thrown outside, but one – I don't remember which one it was – whispered in my ear, that this young fellow is one of us. As you can understand, from that time on, I began to relate to him in a different manner. Weeks did not go by, and Yaakov entered the Mizrahi institution in a very impressive manner, however immediately with his arrival to us, not only to see, but to be seen, he entered into the Eastern Wall of the movement. He came immediately with his clear and focused mind. It appears that his ideas had crystallized within him quite a while before this, at the time when he was still among the ‘hidden ones.’ With his entry, he put himself at the head of ‘ Tze'irei Mizrahi,’ that rounded up the religious young people that were attracted to Zionism, and there was not an undertaking having to do with the young people for which he was not the living spirit. With the expansion of the ‘Yavneh’ School, the School Committee placed him in the position of Secretary, and Administrative Principal which positions he held until the end of the school which was destroyed with the invasion of the Nazis ימ”ש. Thanks to his aggressiveness, and particularly because of his total commitment, the school was able to survive, despite all of the difficulties that stood in its way, and particularly the difficult financial situation, but rather it expanded, and improved in all ways, to make itself into a recognized educational institution, not only by the Jewish community, but also by the examining institutions, whose [peering] eyes were always at their backs.

In his capacity as Secretary of the Mizrahi institution, all the work that involved connection with the many branches that evolved, fell on him, and he conducted it with great skill. It is permitted to say that no Zionist undertaking went on without his participation, and in which his influence could not be recognized – the influence of Mizrahi. He participated in almost all the national conclaves of the Mizrahi, and Torah V'Avodah. In the book of correspondence of Rabbi Nissenbaum הי”ד, that has recently been published, his picture can be found showing that he participated in a national Mizrahi convention. At the last municipal council meeting, he was selected to be a member of the council along with Leib'l Lederkremmer. And it was with great skill and tact that he guarded the interests of the Jews, notwithstanding the aura of anti-Semitism that suffused Poland in the final years before the War. He had influence on the direction of the city [government] and the Head of the city took his views seriously into account. Because of his circumstances of health, he did not want to leave the city to wander off into Russia, but the essential thought that he communicated to me, at the time he took leave of me, is that he sees no possibility of making aliyah to The Land of Israel from Russia, something that he doted on all of his days, and because of this, he remained together with the remainder of my friends that I recalled above. – May The Lord Take Vengeance on Their Behalf.

 Yizkor Book Project    JewishGen Home Page  

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 09 Feb 2023 by JH