[Page 827]

In Yedinitz she was called Lubale Friedman. It was prior to her marriage in Transnistria during the war to Gamme Eilvirt. They survived the difficult years and returned to Yedinitz. In 1964, Gamme died from heart disease. He was only 44 years old. In August 1966, Luba and her two sons made Aliyah. Here, in 1967, she married Dov (Berel) Dory (Dondushansky) and moved to the settlement of Masada. A few months later, on March 29, 1968, Dov Dory was killed by an Arab mine (together with Eliyahu Naor-Bitshotsky and two others). See Luba's article in Hebrew “The Dream That Was Gone.”

I worked as a bookkeeper in the food cooperative. Gamme, z”l, and I worked as a mechanic of sewing machines, bicycles, radios, etc. We lived in the house of Motel Klugman before the war. The street is now called “Ulitza Mira” (Peace Street).

I think that a few hundred Jewish families have remained in Yedinitz. Most of them are originally from Yedinitz. There are about ten new Jewish families, mostly from other parts of Bessarabia. They are people who married others from Yedinitz. Most of the Jews work in business and department stores.

[Page 828]

Luba speaking about Yedinitz at a conference for people from Yedinitz in 1967

Among the clerks, there are very few Jews. The Moldavisation of Bessarabia does not allow Jews to work in the offices. There is not one Jew in the militia. There had been one, but he died. There are a few Jewish doctors. They are mainly young, newly minted. Not even one is from Yedinitz.

The gentiles from the past are organized in a kolkhoz. In Yedinitz there is a large and wealthy kolkhoz.

[Page 829]

It is quite Moldovan. Yedinitz is in Moldova (the area is part of Beltz and the Hotin District). There is a tendency to make the village part of Moldova. There are also Katzaps and gypsies in Yedinitz as well as foreign Christians from Russia. They are interested in the new authorities.

In the building of the old seminary, there is a governmental school with ten grades. Russian is the language of instruction. There are around 2,000 students. There is also a Russian language school in the building near the boulevard. Near the seminary, there is a Moldovan school (ten grades). There are some Jews among the teachers, even in the Moldovan school. However, Jewish children attend neither the Moldovan school nor the Russian one. The Katzaps and the Christians who speak Ukrainian (we used to call them Hoholatzke) go to the Russian school. Among the young teachers who earned their diplomas in the Kishinev and the Tiraspol Pedagogic Institutes (in Moldavian) are a few Jews.

The Eastern Orthodox church on Market Street is open, and they have a priest who conducts God's work. There is not even one Jewish synagogue. The Jews who wish to pray do it in private homes or on their own, at home. In addition, there are Minyans for the Holy Days and other holidays. I must say that most, but not all Jews, celebrate the Jewish holidays. They get together. The majority fast on Yom Kippur. They do work, but they still fast. They know when the holidays fall (we used to receive calendars from Eretz Israel). You must understand that we do not send greeting cards for the New Year, but we wish each other when we meet on the street.

The children grow up without knowing the Hebrew alphabet. Bar Mitzvahs are seldom celebrated. There was in the village an old Jew, not originally from Yedinitz, but from Bessarabia. He was retired and used to prepare children for the Bar Mitzvah.

[Page 830]

Yedinitz today, below the Post Office

There are Jews who keep kosher, separating dairy and meat. Fowl is killed ritually and is salted. Children are circumcised in secret. However, there are many uncircumcised children. It happened that a family had circumcised their child at the age of 13. Even Jewish wedding ceremonies are done in secret. Still, it must be said that there are very few mixed marriages (Jews and gentiles).

The Jewish children know they are “Jews” but they know nothing about Yiddishkeit. Even if they know something now, in the future they will not remember anything. The young people have forgotten how to speak Yiddish because in their circles of friends only Russian is spoken. It is only in the homes of the older Jews that Yiddish is spoken with the children.

In many Jewish homes, non-Jewish customs are followed, such as trees for the New Year.

The books that were newly published in Moscow, in Yiddish, could be purchased in the big city. Many people also bought the Hebrew-Russian dictionary.

[Page 831]

Yedinitz today. The house of Itzik Reuven Yossel's, the Dayan

There are, in Yedinitz, several libraries with reading rooms. One is located on Patchova Street (today called Lenin Street), above Garfinkel's Hall. There are no Yiddish books there. There are only Moldavian, Russian, and Ukrainian books. There are no novels, either.

Yes. I recall that over the years the village hosted Sidi Tal with her troupe for concerts.

You very seldom hear it. Prayer books seem to have been lost. Here and there, the Communist publication, “Voice of the People,” would arrive from Israel. Those who knew Hebrew were able to read it. As to the future of Yiddish, I will tell you a fact: in 1965, in Beltz, there was a literary conference with the participation of Aaron Vergelis, the editor of “Soviet Homeland.” After his report, there were questions asked. I asked: “Why do we not teach Yiddish in schools?” His reply was: “There are no people eager to do it.” My second question was: “What will happen to Yiddish in fifty years?” Vergelis replied, with cynicism: “If we live so long, we will see.” This cynical answer left a strong impression.

[Page 832]

* What happened to the buildings of the synagogues?

Let us begin with the Great Synagogue. In this important Jewish building in old-time Yedinitz, there is now a mechanical factory. It is the largest of its kind in northern Bessarabia. The Hosathyn Synagogue no longer exists. The Sextons Synagogue now serves as an electric bakery.

As I said before, the seminary is now a ten-grade school. The former high school (the Old People's Age Home was there in the thirties), is the Home for the Komsomol. The Gurayevsky school is a hospital. The post office is now in the two buildings of Helfgot-Bronstein. Shpeyer's Mill was enlarged. Near the Seminary, there is a new electrical station. There is a new cinema theater behind Gurayevsky's school.

There are new residential buildings. Most of them are on Patchova street and among the old houses. On the other streets, there are houses with two or three stories. The apartments have two or three rooms. Some streets have been paved. They are kept clean. Some streets have water connections, but not in all houses. Water is brought by pipes. Along Patchova (Lenin) flowers have been planted. The horse market now has a sports arena. Above the one-time high school, there is a new hotel. Most of the visitors are people who come on official business.

There is almost no new manufacturing. In addition to the mechanical factory in the synagogue, there is a tractor station (M.T.S) near the seminary river. The old factories, soap, candles, oil, etc. have been enlarged and modernized. The bazaar, the marketplace, is now near the church.

The intent of the authorities (according to the agreement) is that only Moldavians may be negotiating. This is part of the Moldavisation.

Commuting between the town and the villages is done by bus. There are, in Yedinitz, several bus lines.

[Page 833]

One line connects the upper Patchova (near the boulevard) with Kuptche's sugar plant (a bus came every half hour).

The Jews are concentrated on one street. Most of the residents on Patchova Street are Christians. There are also some institutions there. The Moldavians, the one-time Tsarists and small bourgeois, as well as the Katzaps and the gypsies, live mainly in their former streets.

The former working Jewish Communists and the new party members have little importance and no one listens to them. In the Soviet era, the “rulers” are, in the main, strangers brought from afar.

When I left Yedinitz, the president of the Soviet group was Velia Shteips (a devoted Communist even before the war) and her husband Petya Voinov (of gypsy origins). They were married after the war.

Those Jewish Communists who played an important role in 1940 are no longer in Yedinitz. Israel Kolker, his wife Mina Baron, and the younger brother Yoske are in Lvov. Yankel Libman married a non-Jewish woman. Haimale Shuster (brother of Moshe Shuster, now in Paris) lives in Stanislav, etc.

Local antisemitism is a function of the state. During the problems with the Jewish doctors, “Murder in white robes,” the gentiles behaved badly towards the Jews. They had all kinds of sinister insinuations. The rule is that anything that happens here or in Eretz Israel influences what happens here. During the War of Independence, it was, for us, the Jews a little “easier.” The Soviets defended the State of Israel. Later, anything connected to Israel became “treif.” The Jewish wins brought the permissible hatred towards the Jews and anything Jewish. Documents carried by Jews have the word “Jew” in them. At times when a Jew goes to an official office, he is told, even if it is not necessary, to come back on the next day. This is just to “mock them.”

[Page 834]

* What newspapers are read? Is there a local press?

Mostly, Russian-language newspapers from Moscow are read. Less so, newspapers from Kishinev in the official language of the Republic - Moldavian. Once in a while, a weekly paper appears in Yedinitz. Its editorial board is located in the house of Hirsh Dachas. He lives in Yedinitz. The editor is a newcomer, a Moldavian. This leaflet gives the commonplace news about “conquests” in local production.

Everything. We lived with Israel. Most of the Jews strive to come to Israel, and many have applied for visas. They are waiting to make Aliyah.

As always, in the cemetery. It has been a little disturbed by the Romanians and the Germans. There is a small hut with a guard, a Christian, who is paid by the Jews. There is no administrative body that takes care of burying Jews. However, there is always a Jew who can say Kaddish and “El Maaleh Rachamim” for a deceased person. The burial follows religious Jewish practices. The engraving on the gravestones is the responsibility of the bereaved family. I, for example, put two slabs of black marble on the stone of my first husband, Gamme Elbert, z”l (he pretended to be a Moldavian from the village of Gordinesht).

I ordered the slabs from Czernowitz. One slab was in Hebrew letters and the other in Russian. I, myself, did the etching. When I made Aliyah, an elderly Jew, not from Yedinitz, scratched the names in Yiddish, on the back of the stone. There were no issues with gravestones.

It happened sometimes. The porcelain photographs were broken. Then pictures were put on metal plaques. We had a place in Leningrad where metal photos were made.

[Page 835]

I ordered such a photo for Gamme's grave.

Shiva was observed in the home. There was even a Minyan, but fear prevailed.

I will tell you about two characteristic stories. It is well known that the fiddler Ivanitze (Vanya Bolgar) was one of the bloodiest pogrom leaders during the war. When the Soviets returned, he disappeared (it is rumored that he died during the transport to Siberia). However, at the beginning of the 1960s, the resident of Yedinitz, Velvel Kalibalsky, saw Ivaniush, his son, also a pogrom leader and hooligan. He was also wanted by the authorities. Now, he was a barber in Czernowitz. The authorities were alerted and Ivaniush was arrested. There was a trial. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death and executed.

A second bloody pogrom leader, Iliusha the electrician, was liberated thanks to a new trial that took place in Kishinev. I do not know any more details. He lives somewhere, but not in Yedinitz.

[Page 836]

A new building in Soviet Yedinitz

Rabbi Yeshaya Elkis

In 1944, he returned to Yedinitz and undertook the task of maintaining Yiddishkeit. He performed marriages, circumcisions, etc. In short, he was a spiritual leader, not only for Yedinitz, but for the entire surrounding area and much of Moldavia, Southern Ukraine, and even Galicia.

[Page 836]

His devotion to Yiddishkeit is to be commended. He was one of the steadfast pillars of the Jewish world in the Soviet exile.

After many years of waiting, he made Aliyah with his wife Elke, their two daughters, son-in-law (a true son of Odessa), and grandchild. Rabbi Yeshaya is truly capable of relating details about the Jews and Jewish life under the Soviet regime. Rabbi Yeshaya became the rabbi of Tivon.

[Page 837]

* Rabbi Yeshaya, please tell us about the liberation and your return to Yedinitz.

On March 14, 1944, my family and I were liberated by the Red Army from the camp Verchivoke in Transnistria. The front moved further away, and those deported were freed. At the beginning of April, we came back to Yedinitz. We were among the first Jews to return. The civilian authorities moved in only after Pessach. Many Jewish homes, even the Rabbi's house, remained, more or less, whole. However, there were no doors and windows and not one piece of furniture. I went from house to house. In the synagogues, I found torn holy books. I found a Hebrew Dictionary by Dr. P. Baltzan. When, sometime later, I told Baltzan's son about it; he fainted.

I did not have the courage to settle in our house on Kzishnerisher Street. I lived with a neighbor, Israel Malkes. Some Moldavian neighbors appeared. One brought a loaf of bread, another a pillow, a bit of cornmeal, potatoes, etc.

When more Jews arrived, I told Alter Parkiver, z”l (later, he went to Venezuela, where he died - editor's note): “We must begin to do something.” All the synagogues were without doors or windows, tables, and benches. The High Holy Days were soon to be upon us. I brought a Machzor from the camp, a few pairs of Tefillin, a Megillah. I traveled to Mogilev to look for siddurim and a Torah scroll. I was helped by Cantor Levi Volevitch, z”l, Alter Parkiver, z”l, and others. In the beginning, we prayed at the home of Michel Pundak. On the High Holy Days, there were about 500 Jews, formerly from Bukovina, who were living in Yedinitz. We took over the building of the Kinski Synagogue and we renovated it. We installed doors and windows and brought in a prayer stand, a Holy Ark, tables, and benches. The Gabbai was Michel Pundak (today he is in Czernowitz). I was aided by Avraham Israel-Issers Meiberg (he died in Czernowitz), Cantor Feivel Fuchs (today in Yedinitz), and others.

In between, a few butchers returned: Motya Simis, Aryeh Leib Arbitman (both died in Czernowitz), and Moshe Vineberg (still in Yedinitz). They bought a license to slaughter animals. I became the ritual slaughterer. We slaughtered, daily, seven to eight cows. Fowl was slaughtered for free.

[Page 838]

I, together with the above-mentioned Jews, and Haim Barlantcher-Fichman, z”l, (he died in Czernowitz) and others, wished to establish an official community (Religious Society). The authorities told us to select twenty men, a revision committee of seven, and to appoint a Rabbi. We did everything. I was selected as the Rabbi. The authorities accepted it, but they did not issue anything in writing. We were tolerated.

In 1949, I was summoned to the NKVD where I had to sign a document acknowledging that I had to close the synagogue and give over the building to the authorities. We were no longer permitted to congregate.

We rescued the four Torah scrolls (I had personally brought them from Mogilev and Czernowitz). We distributed them in various houses. Every Shabbat we prayed in a different home. The authorities tolerated it. The building of the Kinski Synagogue stood empty for a few years until it collapsed. The authorities tore it down. Several buildings were erected on the lot.

Soon after our return to town, I, together with Israel Frimer (now in Kishinev), Alter Parkiver, and Shaya Lamatchinsky (who was in Israel; immigrated to and died in Brazil) went to the cemetery to search for the graves of the martyrs. We dug and hit a layer of bones and lime. I fainted. In this grave, there were 85 bodies of Jews who had been shot on that famous bloody day of 13 Tammuz 1941.

We decided to erect a gravestone on this common grave. We received permission from the authorities. I composed the epitaph. A Christian, Nikolai Chamarar, had learned the trade before the war, and he etched the Hebrew words. We brought the stone from a quarry in the village of Ordinesht. It was seven meters by three, with a roof, also made of stone. We had a list of 50 martyrs out of 85.

[Page 839]

Jewish wedding in Odessa Rabbi Yeshaya Elkis performs the wedding ceremony for his daughter in Odessa. The canopy was brought from Yedinitz.

For three days, the Romanians and local gentiles were murdered and looted. On the third day, the Romanians of pre-war power came: the mayor, the head of the post office, etc. They assembled the Jews in the courtyard of Tanhum Vareta (perished). They placed tables. At one table, there were 85 Jews (among them my father, Israel-Avraham, and my two brothers Mordechai and Meir). They were taken to the church, where the priest tried to convert them. Afterward, they were brought to the cemetery, where they were told to dig two graves. They were arranged in rows of four and shot. They immediately fell into the graves.

We put up the second gravestone on 13 Tammuz 1945, on the fourth yahrzeit of the big slaughter of 1941. The whole town came there. The authorities did not send any representatives.

[Page 840]

Two years later, in summer 1947, a government commission came to Yedinitz to evaluate the war holdings. They went to the cemetery. The representative of the Soviet regime, Skripnik, summoned me together with “Red Baruch” Weisman, z”l. The commission had dug up a mass grave with naked skeletons. They photographed the bones and covered the grave. A large picture of it hangs in the government museum in Kishinev (Museum of War).

This grave has no marker on it. This is where the Romanian and German murderers buried all the slain Jews: between 400 and 500 people. Their bodies were lying in houses and on the streets.

We erected a gravestone on the mass grave with an inscription on the marble stone in Hebrew and Russian.

In time, the gravestones fell down. We had to redo them three times.

In addition, gravestones were placed on the common graves of the murdered village Jews, whose bodies were brought to the Yedinitz cemetery. From Stalnitch (Stalinesti) -90, Briceni (Briceni): 40-50; Fitesht (Fetesti) and Viisoara: 12; Burlanesht (Burlanesti): 2; Ankivitz: 12; Radiul-Mare: 30-40, etc. It must be noted that the priest of Zobritchan did not allow the shooting of its Jews. They were sent to Transnistria.

After they returned to Yedinitz, several Jews searched for the graves of their relatives along the deportation route. They brought these bodies to the Yedinitz cemetery.

About six years ago we put up a new stone. This did not happen easily. Every 13 of Tammuz, there was a mass memorial in the cemetery. Jews from the entire area and other parts of Russia came to Yedinitz. In addition to reciting El Maaleh Rachamim, there were also prayers for one's relatives.

Prayers were done in private homes. Somehow, there was a Minyan for a Yahrzeit. We brought prayer shawls from Czernowitz, and we bought prayer books issued by the chief rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Shleifer, z”l. A prayer book costs a ruble.

[Page 841]

On the eve of Yom Kippur, we placed a bowl (to collect funds) and had enough to pay the cantor and the sexton. I, myself, put together the calendar for the year.

Children and young people did not attend the Minyans. According to Soviet regulations, it is not permissible to use religious propaganda on minors. We did prepare boys for their Bar Mitzvah at home. We taught them the blessings for the Torah, how to put on Tefillin, and how to read Hebrew.

After the Six-Day war, the children were in a different mood. They wanted to learn more about Yiddishkeit, to see a Jewish wedding ceremony, and to celebrate their becoming a Bar Mitzvah. They posed many questions: “Tell us, uncle, the ritual slaughterer.”

99% of the Jewish parents circumcised their sons. Only about three or four boys were never circumcised. Other Jewish children would say to them, “You are a gentile.” There was one boy who said to me, “Uncle Ritual slaughterer, make me into a Jew.”

We had problems when boys would brag in school that they had a Bar Mitzvah or were going to have one. The news reached the authorities.

We must remember that after the arrival of the Russians in 1940, some Jews did not circumcise their boys. In the camps, when boys were born, who could think of a circumcision?

Circumcision in Transnistria was truly connected to martyrdom.

In 1942, in Camp Verchivoke, I circumcised the son of Aharon Bronitzer. We used cotton from an undergarment and used liquor for sanitizing. The young man lives in Czernowitz (Aharon Bronitzer sits in prison for “economic sins”).

Also, in Verchivoke, a local Jew came to me one night. It was Elik Moldavsky. He took me with him to circumcise his child. There was a Minyan. Suddenly, the SS showed up. They were shooting. They then opened the door, spat at us, and left. It was a miracle. A third time, another miracle. In Verchivoke, one night, two Jews from Bukovina came to me. They were from Camp Tsibelivke, about 12 km away. They asked me to go to them to convert a child.

[Page 842]

Yedinitz today Formerly the house of Ben Zion Teiman

- “Let them shoot. We will make him Jewish!” responded the Jew.

- “I am coming,” I replied

We were almost shoe-less. We trudged, our feet covered in rags, through various fields. We found roads without patrols. Suddenly, a mounted patrol caught us. The soldiers dismounted and began to beat us. They saw me and asked:

- “Who is the bearded man?”

- “A Rabbi,” was the answer.

The leader ordered me to turn around. That is a bad sign. However, he took out a piece of paper from his bag, placed it on my shoulder, wrote something, and gave it to me. It was permission to travel.

A second patrol stopped us. When we showed them the paper, they told us that the person who signed it had bragged about killing 125 Jews with his own hands.

It was a joyous Bris, with a Minyan. The bread was baked and liquor was poured. There was even cake. They gave me potatoes, onions, and beans to take back to Verchivoke. I distributed them among the Jews.

By the way, in the camp (in the steam bath), I conducted a Cheder with about 50-60 children. I taught them Hebrew and Torah.

[Page 843]

When I returned to Yedinitz, I converted several six and seven-year-old children. In the past 28 years, I converted, thank God, 2885 children. It was not only in Yedinitz, of course. I was invited to come from near and far towns. People came from all of Moldavia, from Odessa, Mogilev, and Czernowitz. They even came from Kolomaya and Stanislaw (In the book about Briceni, there is a story about inviting the Mohel Yeshaya Elkis from Yedinitz- editor's note). I kept a record of the circumcisions. I hoped to reach Israel with a list of 3000. Too bad, I am missing a hundred and fifty…

From 1944 to 1949, we put a chuppa on the street near the synagogue. When the synagogue was closed, Jewish weddings were done in private homes. Until 1949 there were groups conducting weddings. Later, the number of Jewish ceremonies decreased. During Stalin's time, there was great fear. Under Khrushchev, there was less fear.

Until 1949, we baked matzos: we bought wheat, ground it into Pessach flour, paid taxes in the municipality. We even collected money for the poor (Maot Chitin) and distributed matzos and potatoes to the needy. All the Jews, without exception, bought matzos.

Later, we baked matzos at home. We received matzos from Israel, England, and other countries.

[Page 844]

* What about mixed marriages?

It was rare to have mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews. Mixed couples came back from the evacuation to Russia. The most famous of such couples was Velia Shteips (the well-known Communist) and her non-Jewish Husband, with gypsy roots, Petya Voinov. He was recognized as a drunkard. For some time, they were both fixtures in the local authorities. Lately, their influence has waned. There are interesting questions and answers within the Jewish community about mixed families. A Jewish woman asked for her gentile husband to be circumcised (without a Jewish conversion). Another one wanted to make her child Jewish.

The Russian (Katzaps) church burned down in 1945. Since then, the congregants conduct their religious ceremonies in private homes. They do not have a priest. Instead of a priest, a bearded elder member is in place. It can be said that when it comes to baptizing children, conducting marriage ceremonies, funerals and burials, the authorities do not look benignly on them.

The Orthodox church exists, legally and regularly, on Turohovitza (Market) Street. There is an officially recognized young priest who conducts mass on Sundays, baptisms, funerals, and burials.

Yedinitz today The Seminary, today a high school. The fence was taken down. (The Seminary of Old - page 43)

[Page 845]

Before the present priest came they used to be careful, because before, all priests were tied to the NKVD.

Until 1949, all were buried according to Jewish laws. The people who did the burials were Yitzhak Gafter (in Czernowitz) and Baruch the Red, z”l. We placed a canopy over the holy grave and hired a Christian guard. The proper prayers were done - El Maaleh and Kaddish- and there was a Minyan during the shiva. Party members were buried according to Communist customs - covered face, new clothes, and music. Jews were taken to the Jewish cemetery and Christians to theirs.

Recently, the authorities took over the cemetery and funeral matters. They paid the guard and those doing the burial, even though there were separate Jewish and Christian cemeteries. When we asked about the neglected state of the cemetery, we received the following response: “It is not your business.”

There are still certain Jewish phrases etched on the gravestones such as P.N. (Here lies), A simple and honest man. The designation of Kohen is mentioned.

One day, after 1949, I was summoned by the authorities. I was asked who was in charge of helping Jews go to Israel. There was an investigation of the situation, and I was accused of wearing the beard for religious reasons. I had no choice but to shave the beard.

After the Six-Day War, there was a new spirit among the Jews, especially the youth and the children. The youth began to wear a Star of David. More people were joining the Minyan and more Jewish weddings. Who knew that even the locals would be enthusiastic about Israel? Other non-Jews, from Moldova, Ukraine - Evangelists- were happy with the defeat of the Arabs. The Arabs had been tied to the Soviets. Ordinary gentiles praised the heroism of the Israelis.

[Page 846]

Yedinitz today Culture Club

I can give a proper answer. In Yedinitz and the surrounding area, there are 1150 Jewish people (about 300 families). Of these, 800 are originally from Yedinitz, while the others came from nearby villages, and a few are from elsewhere. Since liberation, about 200 Jews have died and about as many Jewish children were born.

The older people speak Yiddish. In some homes, Yiddish is spoken with the children. The children want to speak and read the language. I heard that some children complain that they do not learn Yiddish. About six or seven issues of “Soviet Homeland” reach Yedinitz.

In general, there are about 80 000 Jews in Bessarabia. However, there are only two recognized Jewish communities in all the provinces: in Kishinev and Teleneshty.

Let us hope so! I have fulfilled my debt. Thank you. My compliments to you on preparing the Yedinitz Yizkor Book in memory of your martyrs.

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