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6.
The city of Kolomea grew strongly at the close of the 1870's. There was growth both in the economic sense and in numbers. With development, the Jewish population also grew. From 8,234 Jewish residents in 1880 to 12,002 souls, or 51.9 percent of the general population, which numbered 23,109 souls.)[25*] The number of Jews in all of Kolomea County reached 19,777 souls, which represented 17.40 percent of the general population (the non-Jewish population reached 89,704 souls). Of the 19,777 Jews, 15,949 (83.2 percent) were found in the cities and shtetlekh; 2,262 Jewish souls lived in 69 villages (11.8 percent); and in estates – 966 Jews (5 percent).
In 1890, the number of Jews in the Kolomea district reached 24,116 souls who made up 18.4 percent of the general population, of them – 19,727 (84.3 percent) in the cities and shtetlekh and 4,889 in the villages. In 1900 the number of Jews reached 26,020 (19.7 percent of the general population), of these 21,893 (83.4 percent) in the cities and shtetlekh and 4,177 in the villages.
In 1890 in Kolomea itself there were 30,235 residents, of them 14,927 Jews (49.4 percent) and in 1900 there were 16,568 Jews (48.5 percent) from a population of 34,188 people. In 1910, 18,930 from a population of 42,676 people were found in Kolomea, that is, 44.3 percent of the general city population.
It should be mentioned that in comparison to the general number of residents in Kolomea, during the years 1880-1910, the percentage of
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the Jews was smaller than 51.9 percent in 1880 until it went down to 44.3 percent in 1910. In 1880 the general population of the number of residents in Kolomea was – 23,109, and of them – 12,002 Jews. In contrast, the general population in 1910 increased to 42,676 souls and of them only 18,930 Jews. In the years 1881-1901, the general population grew by 84.7 percent and the Jewish population by 57.7 percent.
The Jewish possession of land in the county reached 3,053 hectares in 1889 (6.2 percent) and in 1902 – 4,416 hectares.[48]
Changes in the economic conditions should be mentioned. In this era, the economic situation of the Kolomea Jews was sustained by the agricultural hinterland of the area. Besides the large land owners among the Polish magnates and the prosperity of the Ukrainian peasants, the effects of the constitutional freedom created also a visible status for the Jewish landowners and pachters [lessees] on estates, as well as in Jewish agriculture. The main trade concentrated in Jewish hands was in products: wheat, beans, oats and cows that was taken note of in the provinces of Austria and exported abroad, particularly to Germany – to the port cities of Bremen and Hamburg. This trade employed a number of Jews as agents.
The Jews were also employed in crafts in a visible mass, particularly in tailoring. The Kolomea tailors were known as tradesmen for sewing the long robes for the priests. They specialized in this, and the sewing of long coats was a separate branch of the clothing industry. Almost all branches of trade, such as shoemaking, locksmithing, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, weaving, carpetmaking, tanning and so on, were in Jewish hands.
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In Werbish a Jew founded a match factory and he employed 149 Jewish workers in it and only eight Christian workers. The majority of the girls in this factory worked 12 hours a day. A girl received 25-30 Kreuzers a day or for sorting a thousand matches – 4 Kreuzers. Men received a weekly wage of 4-5 gulden.
The paraffin candle factory employed 50 Jewish workers (20 men and 30 girls) who received 20-25 Kreuzers daily (a quarter gulden) for 12 hours of work.
Various industries developed in Kolomea itself and in the surrounding area that employed Jewish workers and employees such as the candle industry and sawmills that arose at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century. In 1883 the talis [prayer shawl] industry also arose. Reb Shimshon Heler, a Hasid of the Boyaner Rebbe, searching for an income, ordered looms from Germany and he brought a weaving specialist from there, who in the course of several months taught the Jews the trade of weaving and knitting talisim. After the Jews had learned the trade, Shimshon Heler began to manufacture talisim. In the course of a short time he succeeded in developing favorable markets for his goods in Austria and other nations. He ran his factory in a Jewish way. In the evening he would interrupt the work in order to say the minkhah [afternoon] and maariv [evening] prayers. The majority of workers were also Boyaner Hasidim.[49]
In time another factory of this kind was founded and a number of workers who had acquired looms also worked in their homes. The well known talisim factories were those of Reb Shimshon Heler, Yona Zager and Asher Winershawer. There were a number of smaller manufacturers. They mostly employed weavers who would work in their own houses. This industry employed a significant number of talisim weavers. The talisim weavers would also knit atorus [ornamental collars for the talisim]. After their strike (a serious situation for them), the talisim weavers were organized and joined the Austrian weavers union whose central office was in Vienna. The greater number of them still worked on hand looms. The situation for the weavers was difficult. They received a wage of three gulden a week for a 15 hour day. In addition the manufacturers demanded that they work at six to seven looms. The weavers' situation was desperate. In August 1892,
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the weaving workers declared a strike at the rabbi's house. Four hundred weaving workers joined in the strike.
A large meeting took place on the 24th of July, 1892, in the large synagogue at which the old weaver, Hirsh Leib “Duniak,” and Chaim Drisek spoke. They proposed a series of motions with demands for the manufacturers. Other workers also took part in this meeting. They were already organized in the Social-Democratic movement that had begun its activity in Kolomea in 1890. At its head stood the student, Maks Ceterboim, a founder of the P.P.S [Polish Socialist Party] in Eastern Galicia. This movement made use of this opportunity and placed the strikers under its support. Then at this meeting, when the Aron Kodesh [holy ark - cabinet holding the Torah scrolls] was opened, the weavers swore that there would be solidarity in the strike since the manufacturers would not want to agree to their three demands, namely: a) an increase in worker wages; b) an eight-hour work day; c) being paid during times of illness. The manufacturers did not want to accept these demands and, in addition, they dismissed the leaders. The weavers declared a strike.
This strike, which was organized by Mashulam Lubish, made an impression across the entire nation.
The Socialist-Democratic press in Vienna published accurate reports with pictures of the weavers in their Jewish clothing and established with great satisfaction that the socialist idea had penetrated the Jewish neighborhood in the most eastern corner of Austria. The Viennese Arbeiter Zeitung [Workers Newspaper] that strongly opposed the Zionist movement which had arisen then in Austria under the leadership of Dr. Nathan Birnboim, made use of this opportunity in order to attack the Zionists and to describe the Kolomea manufacturers, whose pictures were published with a Mogen Dovid [Star of David] on their Jewish noses, as Zionists who abuse and exploit the Jewish workers.
Dr. Birnboim did not, it should be understood, owe them any answer.[50]
The Hebrew bi-weekly, Hem, which was then published in Kolomea under the editorship of Dovid Yeshaya Zilberbush, said that the talisim weavers were very far from every [form of] socialism and it could not be determined if their strike was a
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class-political awakening. And that the weavers, Jews, Hasidim, who say three times a day, “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion,” demand only an improved material condition. Zilberbush suggested that the Viennese Zionists collect money and enable the weavers to create their own factory on a cooperative basis. Napszud, the organ of the P.P.S. in Krakow, published detailed reports in which the weavers were portrayed as fighters with proletarian class-consciousness. However, it did not forget to underline that this strike was carried to success thanks to the rabbi of the city who implored all those striking not to return to work as long as their demands were not being fulfilled. Pobudka, the socialist newspaper of the Polish emigrants in Paris, also published an article in which it was said that this strike shows the stubborn class-struggle among the Jews.
Meanwhile the strike continued for week after week and there were even outbursts to the extent that the police mixed in and arrested several workers. The Socialist Democratic Party in Vienna sent the strike committee several hundred gulden to help the strikers and their families, and the weavers in Upper Austria received decrees not to take any work from the Kolomea manufacturers who tried to send raw material so that they would weave talisim.
Shortly after the outbreak of the strike, one manufacturer, Yona Zager, brought Jewish weavers from Russia. But they were forced by the strikers, who attacked them, to flee from Kolomea. Then the manufacturers tried to send the raw material to the Austrian weaving plants; but they were unsuccessful with this because the talisim did not turn out as well as when they were produced by the Jewish weavers. A declaration from the strikers was even published in the Social-Democratic organ, Robotnik [Worker], in Lemberg,[51] signed by Yerakhmil Blechner, Dovid Glat, Borukh Shaler, Moshe Cypser, Shmuel Dager, Shimeon Eyferman, Shmuel Schechter, Khona Hecht, Kopl Shlose, Dovid Chohen, Lipe Haker, Yisroel, Yissakhar, Moshe Berger, Meir Reich, Kopl Haber, Zeidl Haber, Wolf Hilzenfot, Shlomo Dovid Schecter, Ayzyk Rozenkranc, Gecl Frydman, Meir Wechter, Shmuel Teicher, Avraham Moshe Wolpn, Nisen Teper,
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Nusan Bretler, Leib Shprechman, Moshe Krel, Avraham Cwi Zalc, Chaim Grazer, Avraham Zalcman, Shmuel Shneiberg, Meri Shauder, Leizer Adolf, Noakh Zalchauer, Alter Korman, Khona Ciglrauch, Meir Shimkha Shloser, Asher Adolf and Itse Shneiberger. In this declaration it was said that the talisim weavers in Kolomea, who were being exploited by the capitalists in a dreadful manner, were convinced that the exploitation of the human work force and the solitude would not disappear as long as socialism was not victorious, that is, until the factories and all capital were in the possession of the community. Therefore, the talisim weavers declared that they were devoted to international social-democracy.
It is difficult to accept that this declaration was not sent at the initiation of the P.P.S. who wanted such a demonstration that this was the strike of socialist class-conscious workers. The weavers also organized in an independent union with the name Einikeit [Unity].
The strike ended three months later – during the course of time several workers began to work in their own homes on hand-looms and many left the city and emigrated to America. From then on a visible decline began in this industry in Kolomea.
The cleaning of swine hair was another industry in the shtetl and a visible number of Jewish workers were employed as sorters of swine hair. This hair was sent to Leipzig and there it was prepared in various factories.
These workers were organized and paid a membership fee. They also brought a designated sum to a common treasury that would serve in the case of a need during a strike.
The water carriers were a special class of workers. They were organized in a group. Their number was 14. Each one of them had a wagon with a large, long barrel and four water cans – hitched to a horse. The city was divided by them into 14 regions, according to the number of the water carriers (14). Each water carrier had an established region for his “monopoly.” He sold the water there every day; two cans for one Kreuzer and for carrying the water into the home one paid
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from 40 to 70 Kreuzers monthly. Each water carrier employed one or two workers. They received 50 Kreuzers a day from him.
The passenger transportation in the city and outside of the city was in the hands of Jewish wagon drivers. There were 25 two-horse coaches, 38 coaches hitched with one horse and 20 cargo wagons in the city. The wagon drivers earned from 12 to 14 gulden a week. From this sum, seven gulden went to cover the expenses and to take care of the horses.
The majority of them received the money to buy the coaches and cargo wagons from Baron Hirsch's Fund.
After the weavers' strike, the P.P.S. [Polish Socialist Party] attempted to organize the bakers, the workers in the candle and match factories, only this was not successful.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Jewish merchants plunged into a new branch [of commerce], namely: selling carpets that were the hand work of the peasants in the surrounding area, particularly in Kosiv, Zablotov, Kitev, Snitin, Pechenizhyn, Horodenka. At that time, A. Hilman founded a carpet factory in Kosiv. The factory employed 60-70 trade workers, of them a number of Jews. The Kolomea Jewish agents sold these carpets in all of Galicia.
Attempts were made at the end of the 19th century to better the economic condition of the Jews. The JCA [Jewish Colonization Association], the Allianz society in Vienna and, later, also the Ezra society (aid organization for the Jews suffering from need in Galicia) worked in this area.
According to statistical figures, among the 14,000 Jews in Kolomea in the year 1898 only 100 were well-to-do.
In 1898 the JCA society created a loan office to disperse money to craftsmen, small merchants and shopkeepers. The first offices of the JCA were created in Tarnow, Stanislaw and Kolomea.
In the years 1899-1900 14,233 loans with a sum of 2,146,059 kronen were given through the loan office in Kolomea and 1,925,087 kronen were paid back.
In 1908, 2,974 people belonged to this loan fund. The sum that the members
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obtained reached almost 46,000 kronen. The reserve fund – over 31,000 kronen.
The sum saved reached almost 175,000 kronen. In that year 2,734 loans with a sum of over 421,000 kronen were given, and in the same year almost 396,000 kronen were paid back. Each transaction amounted to 10 kronen. The interest on the deposited savings was – three and a half percent and the members paid six percent yearly for loans. The management expenses in this year amounted to 5,580 kronen. In 1908, in order to expand and strengthen the activities of the loan office, it received a loan from the “Help Union” that reached 15,000 kronen.
In addition to the loan office of the JCA there was also the Kolomea County loan office according to Szulce's system. Actually, this was a private family bank. In 1908 there were 49 such banks with 27,693 members, of them 30 (56.3 percent) were Jewish credit funds with 16,734 members. The transactions of the members of these credit funds reached 883,493 kronen (compared with 453,907 kronen in non-Jewish funds with 10,959 members).
Because of the difficult economic situation in which the Jews found themselves during the beginning of the 20th century, a “Help Union for the Jews in Galicia” was founded in Kolomea. Its main purpose was to develop home industries and to increase the production of these industries; to found a school for artisans and to help build up agriculture. In order to draw the young, particularly the girls, to productive work, a school for housekeeping was founded in 1899 through the Baroness Klara Hirsch Fund that was led by a women's committee. In addition to work in housekeeping (cooking, cleaning, baking), the school also taught other trades and particularly tailoring. Of 108 students who studied in the years 1898-1908, 15 were employed in tailoring and 93 in housekeeping. In 1907 the “Help Union” began to found courses that taught the Jewish girls the trades of knitting and embroidery, as well as to make sheytlen [wigs worn by pious married women].
In 1908, such courses were also created in Kolomea. After a short time, the girls began to work for
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themselves. In all, 290 workers were educated, of them 25 were employed in making sheytlen and the rest with knitting and embroidery work. Thus a visible number of families found income and opportunities for subsistence.
In connection with the difficulties of making the Kolomea Jews productive the plan of Naftali Gelernter for erecting an agricultural school must also be remembered. He proposed this to the JCA society in 1897.
In addition, he turned to the management of JCA in Paris in the name of 278 Jewish families in whose name he brought a memorandum to Paris about purchasing an estate in the Kolomea area and settling the families there.[52] Dr. Hildesheimer of Berlin also made efforts at receiving loans for these families, according to the conditions under which JCA would give to institutions for agricultural education, as in Halem near Hanover. First of all, Gelernter was interested in having JCA found a Jewish agricultural school in Galicia. JCA answered him in September 1899 that it would be happy to help “our unfortunate brothers in religion in Galicia,” but it could not agree to his proposal because it did not intend to buy any land or holdings in Galicia.
Although JCA had reacted negatively to Gelernter's plan, later, in 1901, it did buy an estate in Slobodka near Kolomea and settled scores of Jewish families there. The society also established an agricultural school on a tract of a thousand acres at this location.
The execution of this colonization work occurred thanks to Naftali Gelernter's plan.
A separate chapter is illustrated by education. The majority of the Jewish educational institutions at this time were also the khederim [plural of kheder – religious primary schools]. In 1894 there were 23 khederim in Kolomea with 37 teachers and 349 students. In 1899 – 22 khederim with 26 teachers and 364 students. In 1903 the number of khederim grew. There were then 33 khederim, 43 teachers and 691 students.
The Jewish Folks-Shule [public school], which was founded in 1886 by the Viennese Alianz, under the direction of the teacher, Wilhelm
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Grines, transferred to the Baron Hirsch schools in 1893. The management of the Baron Hirsch Fund built a special building for the school that cost 75,000 kronen. A local committee was created in Kolomea which administered it with the Baron Hirsch Fund. Dr. Milgrom, the lawyer, stood at the head of the committee. In 1908, 273 students studied in the Baron Hirsch School. Of the teachers, we must particularly remember Moshe Shulbaum, a well-known Hebraic philologist.
In the cultural sense, the Haskalah movement [the Enlightenment] did not penetrate Kolomea as widely as in Brod, Tarnopol or even Tysmenitsa [Tysmeytsya] and Bolechow. There was a very thin layer of followers of Haskalah here.
In the spiritual area the Kolomea Jews were governed by Hasidism and under the influence of the rebbes from the surrounding area. In addition to this Hasidic-Orthodox picture of Kolomea, the city also had hidden maskilim [followers of the Enlightenment]. There were Jews whose very religious conduct was only for appearance sake. At home, they read secular books in secret. There was even a melamed [religious primary school teacher] who was an apikoyres [heretic]. He was proficient in worldly knowledge, actually a walking encyclopedia,[53] a great expert in philosophy, literature and other knowledge.
In general, the number of maskilim who were involved with the Enlightenment was very small. In truth, the young began to study in the secular schools during the second half of the 19th century, but they were then already distant from the Hebrew cultural movement. These young people began to assimilate with the Polish culture. By the end of the century, the Zionist national movement began to return the young to Jewish culture.
Yehiel Mikhal Zaydman, the judge, who came from Jezierna [Ozërnaya, Ukraine] and was a resident of Kolomea was one of the maskilim in Kolomea.[54] He was born on the 29 Av, 5586 (1st September 1826) and he died on the 21 Elul, 5622 (14th September 1892). His father's side came from Kamenec-Podolsk. His grandfather settled in Jezierna. His grandfather's brother was the rabbi in Kamenec. However, he, himself, was an important merchant, a rich man and a scholar. His children married into aristocratic families. Yehiel Mikhal, who was simultaneously a scholar and maskil, married the daughter of one of the rich men in Kolomea. He then settled in Kolomea and was involved
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in financial matters. From her first marriage, his mother was the mother of the well known maskil, Shlomo Frenkel (1816-1894), who was the central personality of the Stanislaw maskilim. He founded the Union for spreading the Enlightenment among the Jews. He was one of the most important literary critics in the periodical, Kokhevei Yitzhak [The Stars of Yitzhak] and he published articles in Kohen Zedek's HaNesher [The Eagle] and in the Jewish-German press. He carried on an exchange of letters with the historian, Mordekhai Jost, and his research was accepted by Jost who used it in his history. He also influenced the education of his step-brother, Yehiel Mikhal Zaydman.
When Yehiel Mikhal lived in Kolomea, they both, he and his step-brother, Shlomo Frenkel, struggled for Enlightenment among Jews. Zaydman published original religious songs of praise and he also translated Jung's poetry.[55] He printed the letter from Jost, the historian, to his step-brother, Shlomo Frenkel, as well as an article against Kohen Zedek in the form of a letter to his relative.[56] He also wrote poems in German that were not published. One of them was translated into Hebrew by the maskil, Aleksander Chaim Shor, a resident of Drohobicz. Shor published the poem in Kokhevei Yitzhak with the name: “The Storm in the Carpatian Mountains” (Volume 31, 1865, pages 87-89). He was in conflict with Josef Kohen Zedek and he argued that his lines are laughable. Kohen Zedek also assaulted Frenkel about his historical research. Because of his attack on Frenkel, Zaydman came out against him with a strong counter-attack.
In accord with his beliefs, Zaydman belonged to the enlightened circles, whose slogans were universal and whose aspiration was: freedom for people and liberation from everything that could fall as a burden on an individual. He left the narrow frame and bound the past and the future with the present.
Coming out of this point of view, he saw the entire good fortune of Polish freedom, of the Jews coming out of the ghetto both physically and spiritually. In his poem The Blindness of Israel, he stresses with particular clarity the strength of the Jewish people and their weapons – bine [understanding] and das [consciousness]; and although it is an ancient people with an old history, it still possesses strength in its loins. As a sworn maskil he saw – in contradiction to the majority of the Galicianer maskilim
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of his time – in the Jewish people a carrier of a great mission in the world for all peoples; but the mission is not a religious one, as the German maskilim have seen, only a political-social one, according to which “Israel will not rest until freedom for the world and all people will be called.” He was convinced that through knowing languages and secular knowledge according to the demands of the time and through the perfection in the public schools – the economic situation and the social standing of the Jews will be bettered. In contrast with the masklim of his generation, who were followers of Viennese centralism – he was a friend of the Poles and of the liberation of all of Poland and her return to her sovereign independence. In 1868 he greeted the political “period of glory” for Jews, that now, now “they will bloom and yet flourish.”
Other winds began to blow on the Jewish streets at the end of the 1880's. The best minds of the Jewish intelligentsia moved closer to the Zionist movement because of the disappointment in emancipation, but he [Zaydman] was not influenced by these “winds.” Despite this he remained devoted to the Hebrew language.[57] Under his influence Kolomea was transformed into a center of the Enlightenment right at the end of the 19th century. The writers Dovid Yeshayahu Zilberbush and Moshe Shulbaum concentrated around him.
Dovid Yeshayahu Zilberbush (1854-1936), born in Zaliszczik into a Hasidic family, taught secular subjects and devoted himself to Seforim Hitsonim [External Books such as the Apocrypha] after his marriage in 1898. He sympathized in secret with the Enlightenment. His wife, a rich daughter from the village of Lashkevic, died a half year after their marriage. Zilberbush returned to Zaliszczik. He often traveled to Czernovitz, where was befriended by Avraham Goldfaden, Welwel Erenkrantz (Zbarzher) and Moshe Arenshtein, the well known Hebrew writer who took over HaShahar [The Dawn – Hebrew daily in the Pale of Settlement] from Perec Smolenski. After he married for the second time, he settled in Kolomea.[58]
In 1877 Avraham Gincler (1840-1910) came to Kolomea in order to establish the publication of his newspaper, Hator that began to be published that year in Sziget. Zilberbush was one of his coworkers. In 1878 he began to publish
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articles and short stories in Hamabit and in HaShahar. He was in Vienna in 1880-1882 and worked there as an editor of HaShahar. After, he published the literary journal, HaOr [The Light] in Botoshan [Botoºani, Romania] with Tzvi Eliezer Teller. After the second edition of HaOr, he left Romania and published HaOr in Lemberg. In 1883, he returned to Kolomea and became a teacher of religion in the secular schools. In 1892 he published a biweekly of Hebrew writings under the name Hem and with Leibl Toybush – a weekly in Yiddish named Dos Folk [The People]. At that time until he left for Vienna in 1893 – he concentrated around him along with Zaydman, the Jewish intelligentsia which grew into a visible group.
Moshe Schulbaum, who was on his own, also belonged this circle.
Moshe Schulbaum (1828-1918), one of the first activists for the Hebrew language in Galicia, was descended from Khokhem Tzvi on his mother's side. He received a traditional education in kheder [religious primary school] and in yeshiva [secondary school stressing Torah study], then he acquired great knowledge of many languages as an autodidact: Biblical Aramaic, Syrian, Sumerian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German and French. He was particularly interested in the study of the Hebrew language. Starting in 1862, he took part in Kokhevei Yitzhak where he published a translation of Friedrich Schiller's poetry.[59]
In 1870 he came to Lemberg and he was the co-director of the Hebrew publishing shop there of the publisher and teacher, Mikhal Wolf. He lived in Lemberg until 1887. During the years 1871-1872, he published periodicals named Hem and Kol Het that had a national direction and whose task was to provide news of the world and to elevate the prestige of the holy language. In 1870, he founded a union in Lemberg under the name Agudat Shomrei Sfat Avar [Society to Preserve the Old Language (Hebrew)] and he called for devotion to the Hebrew language, in which he saw the absolute cultural dawn of the Jewish people. He called for the erection of Jewish schools in Galicia in his newspaper (in the year 5631 [1870]) because those who care for their faith and for the national spirituality can not send their children to a government school; and therefore, “It is our duty to prepare a
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school for Jewish children where they would learn Hebrew (Tanakh and Talmud) and they would know their task as people and their duty as Jews.” He wrote articles in his newspaper and incomplete stories such as Nistarot Roma [The Mysteries of Rome], Der Rebbe [The Rebbe], Geheim-Rat fun Kenig [The King's Secret Council]. A literary supplement, Ruakh haEt [The Spirit of the Time] was enclosed with each edition in which there were songs, short stories, letters and commentaries on Tanakh.
The newspaper was mainly distinguished in bringing into use many words that Schulbaum had brought into the Hebrew language. After the newspaper stopped publishing, he occupied himself with teaching and with research work.
He also published his first books in Lemberg: a translation of Schiller's Die Räuber [The Robbers] (1881), Aristotle's Ethics from the German translation of Dr. Ruker (Lemberg 1877). In 1880, his General Vocabulary was published and in 1883, the first German-Hebrew dictionary German-Hebrew Words, and Treasury of Names.
As schools were founded with the help of the Baron Hirsch Fund, he settled in Kolomea and was a teacher in the school there until 1897. He belonged to the circle of Zaydman and Zilberbush in Kolomea and he had an effect on the reasoning of the Jewish intelligentsia. He called for the elevation of the prestige of the Hebrew language in the Baron Hirsch Schools; at his initiative this question was dealt with by the teaching conference that came together on the 17th-18th of July, 1894, in Stanislaw.[60] A proposal by Dr. Meir Wajsberg and Schulbaum was dealt with at a separate meeting of the Hebrew teachers. A commission was elected that would work out a plan for Hebrew education of eight hours a week, five hours for Tanakh and three hours dedicated only to the language. Schulbaum, A. Teler (Borilsaw) Toyver (Buczasz), Yakov Robinson (Stanislaw), Shpilman (Snityn), and W. Griner, the director of the Baron Hirsch School in Kolomea, belonged to the commission. Schulbaum's contribution to the Hebrew school program for the Baron Hirsch Schools was enormous. But there was not always success in carrying out the plans against the opposition of the assimilationists who stood at the head of these schools. At the beginning of 1897 he
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moved to the school in Mikulince [Mikulintsy, Ukraine] and in 1914 – to Tarnopol.
In 1917 he turned up Vienna as a refugee from the war.[61]
In 1887 the well known badkhin [comic poet who creates rhymes about those at a wedding], Reb Hirsh Leib Gotlib of Marmures-Sighet, who was also well known by the pseudonym, Hirsh Leib Sigheter (1829-1930), founded a twice weekly Hebrew publication named Hashemesh – in order to struggle against the extreme khederim [religious schools]. Gotlib was of the type of fighting member of the Enlightenment. He translated Schiller's poems into Hebrew (Di Gloke [Das Lied von der Glocke – The Song of the Bell], as well as Goethe's poems and several dramas by [August von] Kotzebue. He began to publish his periodical in his city of residence; but because of the ban on the part of the local Rabbi, Reb Chanayah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum on the reading of a heretical newspaper, he had to move the publication to Galicia and he published it in Kolomea. He printed his organ in Bilou's printing shop in the manner of the weeklies that wanted to evade the duty to pay the newspaper tax. One week he published his newspaper under the name Hashemesh and the next week under the name HaCharsah (Sun) under the editorship of the Hebrew writer, Ruwin Asher Broydes who was driven out of Romania and settled temporally in Kolomea. Because Broydes declined to edit the periodical because of a conflict with Gotlib, he hired Gershom Bader, as editor. Zilberbush, Zaydman, Schulbaum, Shimeon Menakhem Lazar, Feiwish Melcer and others also took part in this periodical. The newspaper gave much space to literary and scientific matters and it was published until the year 1889.
7.
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At the end of the 1880's, individual maskilim began to become interested in the Jewish national question. Meetings and conversations about the Jewish problem from a national standpoint were influenced by Leibl Toybsh who settled in Kolomea. However, a national-Zionist organization had not yet been founded.
It is interesting to record that in 1887 a bold Pole expressed his opinion concerning a solution for the Jewish
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question in the manner of a national-territorial concentration. At that time in Kolomea a small brochure was published with the name Nowa Judea czyli Praktyczne załatwienie kwestyi żydowskiej i otwarty list do P.T. patryotów Irlandyi [New Judea, a Practical Solution to the Jewish Question and an Open Letter to the Irish Patriots]. This brochure was published in Kolomea, printed in Biliou's printing shop in 1887.
The name of the author is Y. Omega [Translator's note: the author was Celestyna Zyblikiewicza], an invented name. He saw the solution to the Jewish question, which troubled the people of the world, only in a national-territorial concentration of the Jewish people, that is, the founding of a Jewish state in one of the regions of America. He also proposed an elaborate plan. It is unknown how well this brochure was known by the Kolomea Jews.
In 1890, Leibl Toybsh began to publish a weekly in Yiddish under the name Yiddishes Wokhnblat [Yiddish Weekly] and he had a set purpose for it. The population in all of Austria then was about to undergo a census. At that time, Toybsh published an article in HaZamen that was printed in Krakow under the editorship of Asher Broydes whom he knew in Kolomea. In this article he proposed making the orthography of foreign words uniform in Hebrew. He had another proposal, that the Jews should give Yiddish as their national language in the census that was supposed to take place that year.
Wanting to wake the Jews to guard their nationality and to give Yiddish as their language, from the propagandistic stand-point, he began to simultaneously preach for the idea of settlement in Eretz-Yisroel. In his propaganda for the parliamentary elections in 1891, Toybsh supported the candidacy of Dr. Bloch against Dr. Bik. However one of the maskilim, Ephraim Laufer, who took part in the editorship, created difficulties for him and took money from the assimilated without his knowledge and against his wishes. This forced Toybsh to cease the publication of the Wokhnblat. In that year, 1891, an attempt was made to found a union for the settlement of Eretz-Yisroel, as a branch of the Vienna Union for the Society for Eretz-Yisroel, with the name, Zion. The writer, Ruwin Asher Broydes, spoke at the founding meeting [62] that took place on the 2nd of August, 1891. He demanded that the union work not only for the settlement of Eretz-Yisroel, but also on behalf of the idea of Jewish
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nationalism, in general. This union did not last long, despite the efforts of Leibl Toybsh and Yehoshua Fadenhecht.
In 1892, a weekly in Yiddish under the name Folk [people, nation] was published under the editorship of Zilberbush and Toybsh, as well as a weekly with the name Hem. Both organs were dedicated to national matters. Although there was a nationalist atmosphere, they did not succeed in supporting a national union. The founding of such a union again became real when Dr. Natan Birnbaum visited Kolomea in 1892. Dr. Birnbaum then stood at the head of the Zionist movement in Austria and he edited the weekly, Zelbstemancipacion [Self Emancipation]. At a meeting in which 60 people took part, a constitutional committee was elected to create a branch of Zion. But there was also no positive result then. Hem began a stronger propaganda effort for the founding of a Zionist society and it was successful in creating the atmosphere for it in 1894.
During that year, a National-Jewish Union, named Beis-Yisroel [House of Israel], was founded by Leibl Toybsh, Yehoshua Fadenhecht and Dr. Cypser, and its purpose was: 1) to support and to develop the national consciousness; 2) to spread the knowledge of history and Yiddish literature; 3) to look after the Hebrew language and to support Jewish colonization in Eretz-Yisroel.
At the general meeting that was held on the 16th June, 1894, the lawyer, Dr. Eliezar Cypser was elected chairman, vice chairman – Leibl Toybsh, secretary – Yehoshua Fadenhecht, treasurer – Yeshayahu Khius and as members of the committee – Yehuda Krebs, Ephraim Laufer, M. Shulbaum, Avraham Moshe Borten, Yitzhak Rozen, Mikhal Fiderer, Feywel Khonan, Euzer Engel and Markus Shafer.
A library and reading room was founded and the number of members reached 90.
On the 20th of December, 1894, the first Makabi celebration took place.[63]
Kolomea, just as other communities in Galicia was strongly influenced by a national sense in 1896. When a small brochure, Der Judenshtat [The Jewish State] by Dr. Theodor Herzl, arrived, it made a great impression among the young Zionist camp in
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Galicia. The exact expression of the aspirations that had a place in their hearts for so long was given for the first time. Among the first who registered for this brochure were the Kolomea Zionists who recognized that thanks to the program, “we now know what we have to do.” “You have shown in a clear manner the high and true purpose and we need to do everything that is possible for its implementation,” Leibl Toybsh wrote to Herzl on the 3rd of March, 1896. In Herzl they saw the leader who would raise “the flag of our people who are found in an inferior position.[64]
On the 7th of March, 1896, Toybsh wrote in the name of the editorship of Hem to Dr. Herzl about the terrific impression his brochure made on the Jews. The editorship placed its newspaper at his service and asked him to send material about how things stand with the matter and, particularly, about the development of the negotiations about the founding of the two societies that were proposed in the book. Secondly, Toybsh asked that he be given the right to publish the book in Yiddish. He obligated himself to selling it for 25-30 kreutzer a copy. Toybsh wanted to print 3,000 copies the first year. Herzl agreed to his proposal[65], but Toybsh asked that the right not be given to anyone else until the entire printing had been sold. The brochure was published in Yiddish during the month of September 1896, and after that, Toybsh requested that he be given the right to publish a translation in the Polish language. But nothing came of this.
Leibl Toybsh and the Galician Zionists wanted Der Judenshtat to be published in Hebrew, too.
The Kolomea Zionists concurred with Dr. Herzl and sent their representatives to the first Congress – Dr. Shlomo Rozenhek and Shlomo Zinger.
Kolomea occupied a visible place in the Zionist movement after the Congress, particularly during the rise of the matter of the union, Ahoves Zion [Lovers of Zion] in Torne which demanded that the Galician Jews should begin with practical work for Eretz-Yisroel. At the national conference that was held in Lemberg on the days of the 26th and 27th of December, 1897, Dr. Rozenhek, the representative from Kolomea, proposed the election of two national committees –
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one for practical work in Torne and one for organization and propaganda in Lemberg. His proposal was rejected. Leibl Toybsh and Dr. Rozenhek were elected from Kolomea to the Land Committee whose seat was in Lemberg. The business of Ahoves Zion in Torne which began with an activity to found a Galitzianer colony named Machanaim in Eretz Yisroel led to difficult conflicts among the Zionists in Galicia. A great war blazed on the canvas of this conflict that was actually a war between Hovevei Zion and the political Zionists. Kolomea and Stanislaw were fortresses of the political Zionists in this war and they blamed the Lemberg Zionists for their opposition to political Zionism. The Herzlistic movement found great resonance here. Dr. Rozenhek and Leibl Toybsh stood in strong opposition to the National Committee in Lemberg and they demanded of the limited Shareholders Committee in Vienna that it hand over all of the Zionist activity to the National Committee that would be elected at the new Congress.
At their initiative, a conference of the Zionists in Galicia and Bukowina took place on the 26th of June, 1898. The organizers of this conference did not connect with the higher authority that was elected by the Zionist movement in Galicia. The second half of this conference took place in Kolomea on the 29th of June. The conference was greeted by the head of the community and the vice mayor, Funkenshtein, in the name of the Jewish population. It was decided at this conference to support the existing organization with the Lemberg National Committee at the head.
Because of the conflicts among the 28 delegates to the Second Zionist Congress, conflicts that had a connection to the Practical Committee work in Eretz Yisroel, the representatives from the political direction were elected to the large Shareholders Committee as representatives from Galicia; among them were Dr. Rozenhek from Kolomea.
The peace and the compromise that was reached after difficult efforts at the conferences in Stanislaw and in Kolomea in the summer of 1898 quickly evaporated. The quarrels again broke out – between the predominant part of the Galitzianer Zionist organizations and at their head –
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the Lemberger National Committee on one side and the directors of the narrow Shareholders Committee in Vienna and its followers in Galicia on the other side. The Zionists from Stanislaw and Kolomea joined them.
Dr. Rozenhek received the support of the Zionist Shareholders Committee in Vienna to create a central office in Kolomea. The best people of the Galitzianer Zionists were brought to the Kolomea group and this excitement deepened the abyss between Lemberg and Vienna. There was no blessing brought to Zionism in Galicia as a result of Dr. Rozenhek, Sheinwaser, and Dr. Shor, the Galitzianer group from the Shareholders Committee, founding a central bureau for Galicia in Kolomea and choosing Leibl Toybsh as secretary of the bureau and, in this way, surrendering the National Committee.
Through the efforts of Dr. Broyde[26*], an agreement was finally reached to call together a conference of the Galitzianer Zionists in June 1899. Dr. Rozenhek agreed to this. But in a short time, he turned to the Shareholders Committee in Vienna with an inquiry as to whether it was necessary to call together the conference. The Shareholders Committee demanded the start of work for the conference in Galicia. But the disputes did not stop.
With the approval of Vienna, Dr. Rozenhek began to develop the organizational work. He worked out a plan to organize the Jewish workers in special Zionist unions that would also fulfill the assignment of the work bureaus and thus distance the workers from the social-democratic movement that had begun to strengthen itself in the ranks of the Jewish proletariat. His main activity was to arbitrate in workers' disputes between the bosses and the workers. Dr. Rozenhek dedicated much space in his organizational plan to the question of conquering the organized Jewish communities by the Zionists in order to eliminate the cliques that usurped the organized communities. He immediately proposed for this purpose to found a network of loan funds that would give loans for promissory notes.
A loan fund (Jewish National Bank Fund in Kolomea) was founded in Kolomea in the winter, 1898.
But in June, 1899, Dr. Rozenhek reported that the fund found itself in great difficulty because of the credit shortage. A pamphlet spread in Galicia against the fund.
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It was declared in the Welt [World] that the stories in the pamphlet had no substance.
Meanwhile, the Kolomea office began to propagandize that all Zionistic societies in Galicia should join the Viennese Association of Societies of Settlements in Eretz Yisroel as branches with the name Zion, which represented the organizational framework of the Zionist movement at that time in Austria. Leibl Toybsh, the secretary, traveled through the cities and shtetlekh and propagandized that they should join Zion. But his work was futile because it was impossible to achieve Dr. Rozenhek's plan to create Zionist groups as chapters of Zion in Vienna because the statutes of Zion did not permit the founding of any branches in Galicia. There was no great sympathy for Kolomea. The unions did not want to send Dr. Rozenhek the shekel-gelt.[27*]
An opposition, which turned with complaints to the Shareholders Committee in Vienna, also was created in Kolomea itself that was organized by Yehoshua Fadenhecht.
In March 1899 solicitations began for the Colonial Bank. And although extensive publicity was carried out in Kolomea, the results were very meager.
A compromise was reached because of the difficult situation in which the Kolomea office found itself. It was decided to call together a national conference at which Dr. Rozenhek's proposal would be made to leave the Zionist leadership in Galicia in the hands of the Kolomea office until after the Third Congress. It was decided to place at the head of the organization the organizing commission composed of representatives from every city that was elected by the conference. Dr. Shlomo Rozenhek and Moshe Haber were elected from Kolomea. From March, 1900, the bureau of the national committee was located not in Kolomea, but in Lemberg. Dr. Rozenhek still tried to renew the propaganda office for Galicia and Bukovina in Kolomea, but without success. Thus ended the chapter of Kolomea as a center of the Zionist movement in Galicia.
The union, Beis-Yisroel, was active in Kolomea itself and 119 members were organized in it. At the general meeting of the 15th January 1901, Dr. Shlomo Rozenhek was elected
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as chairman, Leibl Toybsh – vice chairman, Markus Berger – secretary, Nakhman Wider – treasurer, and as committee members: Yitzhak Meir, Zingl Ivanier, Alter Toybsh, Yakov Orenshtein, Josef Brecher and Moshe Frish.
In that year a union of Zionist women was also founded. Zionism particularly had an effect on the young students who in 1898 were organized in a secret Zionist Union of students in gymnazies [secondary schools] under the name Beitar [Translator's note: alternatively spelled Betar – the Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky]. The aspiration of this union was to educate the Jewish young in the national-Zionist spirit. Courses were arranged on the history of the Jewish people, courses on Hebrew, on the history of Zionism, geography of Eretz-Yisroel. The union also published a hectographic [printed on a gelatin-based duplicator] weekly named Nasze Myœli (Our Thoughts). Among the gymnazie youth activists were: Fishl Rotenshtreich, Dovid Toybsh, Yisroel Toybsh, Avraham Yitzhak Brawer, Ayzyk Sacher and, later, A. Sh. Yuris.
The activity of the Social-Democratic movement began in Kolomea at the same time. The student, Maks Ceterbaum, born in Kolomea, and Suzana Samuela, born in Kolomea in 1856, spread the socialist idea among the circle of the intelligentsia here [in Kolomea]. Meetings and the discussion of social problems took place in the home of Mrs. Samuela. She and Ceterbaum also took part in the national conference of the P.P.S. [Polish Socialist Party]. In 1893-1894 Maks Ceterbaum also took part in the publication of the P.P.S. that was published in Yiddish in Lemberg under the editorship of Karl Nached, Dr. Yaakov Frenkel and Dovid Salamander. (The newspaper was actually in German, but with Yiddish letters.) Ceterbaum would mainly sign his name with the initials M.C. He also wrote under his full name in the publication, Neue Zeit [New Times] of Karl Kautsky in Vienna. It is particularly necessary to mention his article: Di Klasen Bei Den Yuden [The Classes of the Jews] in which he dwelled upon the strike of the talisim workers in Kolomea.
The goal of the Jewish members was to create their
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own organization. They left the Polish Social-Democratic Union, P.P.S., in 1891 and founded their own union named Warheit [Truth], but within the framework of the P.P.S. The leaders of the union published their reports in the party organ, Der Arbeiter [The Worker], which was published in Lemberg “in the German language with Yiddish letters.”
In the course of time the Jewish workers joined the Warheit. After 1905, the founding of a Jewish Social-Democratic Party was declared and they did not succeed in winning the majority of the Jewish workers and they remained a small minority.
With the crystallization of Zionism and the despair of their members based on their world view, the Zionists also struck deep roots in Kolomea, but with a religious hue. The already mentioned Yehoshua Fadenhecht (1846-1910) widened his activity for religious Zionism immediately after the first Zionist Congress in Basel. He published leaflets under the name Izrael in order to spread the idea of religious Zionism, “The mission of Izrael was, first of all, to speak to our brothers who were devoted to God's word and held his covenant, who, in Kolomea, had never thought of turning aside, God forbid, from their people and believed that this is the Torah that Moses gave to the House of Israel, and to awaken them so that they would know that they were Zionists, true Zionists, in the full sense of the word. Recognize your great love of your people and your strong desire for our land, to the land of Israel from generation to generation and you will know that you were Zionists even before the renewal of the name Zionism. You were Jews when your young, your sons, who have returned to our boundaries have said to themselves that they are French, German or British; and if our young have now returned to us with their whole heart and soul, to be Jews like us, we need to welcome them as sons who return to the homes of their parents and show them the road they should take.”
Yehoshua Fadenhecht, who saw in the return of the Jewish intelligentsia a magnificent phenomenon, wanted the pious to understand this and also join the Zionist movement, which actually arose only with the help of
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the young who a short time ago were in the assimilated camp.
He believed that the religious circles were obliged to appear in the ranks of the Zionists and the rabbis also needed to help Zionism.[66] Fadenhecht endeavored to persuade the leaders of the pious Jews to take a positive position toward Zionism. Their publication, Mahazike ha-Dat [The Pillars of the Faith], stressed in an article published for the Congress that Zionism had no hope as long as the eminent righteous men were not the chief workers in this matter and “everything was done under their auspices and mission.” Fadenhecht therefore made efforts to attract the righteous men for the Zionist movement. Yehoshua Fadenhecht was one of the first who paved a way in Galicia for Mizrakhi [religious Zionist movement] The Rabbi, Reb Gedalia Shmelkish, who occupied the rabbinical seat in Kolomea after the death of Rabbi, Reb Yakov ben Ephraim Taumim (1908-1914) helped him in his endeavors.
After the organization Mizrakhi was founded, in 1904, the leadership of Mizrakhi in Galicia was in the hands of Yehoshua Fadenhecht. He was the secretary in Galicia of the office of the Mizrakhi Central in Frankfurt am Main. After the death of Yehoshua Fadenhecht[67], the Mizrakhi Central in Galicia moved to Stanislaw.
One must also remember the preacher, Yitzhak Weber, one of the active Kolomea workers in the Zionist movement. He came to Kolomea from Poland with his brother, Moshe, and became a preacher. He received a very small salary from the kehile, but his friends supported him. He was a scholar and a radiant preacher. And he was persecuted by the Hasidim in Kolomea because of his Zionism, particularly by the Boyaner Hasidim, who were his deadly enemies because of his Zionist tendencies. However, he remained devoted to the Zionist idea and he campaigned for the Zionist idea in the surrounding cities and shtetlekh.
At the time of the election in 1907, he was among the best propagandists and the voting masses were very influenced by his speeches and sermons. But, once, after he returned from the Congress, he was transformed into a strong Zionist fighter because “None of the leaders of the Congress interested themselves in him.”[68]
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Kolomea, the Jewish city, was also a Zionist city in the full sense of the word. The assimilated were not organized as a stable, organized administrative body. Individuals among them supported – in addition to political elections – the Union of Polish Students of Moses' Belief, Zjednoczenie [union] in Lemberg (founded in 1907) and Towarzystwo Szkoły Ludowej, the Society for the Folk School that was in Kolomea. Among the Kolomea Jews who were known as supporters of these institutions: Mikhal Bretler, Josef Funkenshtein, Wilhelm Grines, Gustav Libhart, Markus Shiler, Zigmund Weintraub, Mikhal Berlas and the medical doctor, Oswald Fleker.
8.
Several days after the outbreak of the First World War, the Russians conquered the city; then the Austrians came back for a short time. Later, the Russians again occupied the city and ruled there with a heavy hand. The Jews suffered greatly from the Russian occupation. In January, 1915, the Cossacks murdered the melamed [religious teacher], Shlomo Shechter. They entered his residence and wanted to rape his 16-year old daughter. When Shechter tried to protect her, a Cossack stabbed him. His body was thrown out in front of the threshold of his house. The Governor of Kolomea County, the Count Labonov Rostovski, savagely persecuted the Jewish population. He imposed heavy fines and war taxes on them and gave the soldiers a free hand to loot and to plunder.
Their rule in Kolomea lasted until the summer of 1915. The return to the city of the Austrian military and the second Russian invasion – this all placed its stamp on the kehile and on the Jewish population that for the most part escaped to Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary and, mainly, to Vienna.
With the end of the World War, in the autumn of 1918, a new storm arose over the Kolomea Jews, a storm accompanied by edicts and heavy persecution. The Kolomea Jews also suffered during the days of the Ukrainian Republic.
At the head of the national council, which was established
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in place of the kehile, stood the lawyer, Dr. Meir Laks. The district chief, Dr. Streiski, had a friendly relationship with the national council and endeavored to lead impartially, but he was helpless against the outbursts of the Ukrainian soldiers.
But the situation changed several days later. The newspaper, Sichow Holos[28*] [Voice of Sich] under the editorship of the radical leader, Dr. Trylovsky, published an article entitled: “The First Commandments of the Ukraine,” in which the Jews are labeled as enemies of the Ukrainians and it is a good deed to hate them and to drive them out of the country. This article incited the Ukrainians against the Jews. The county commandant confiscated jewelry and money from the Jews of the city and of the locality with cruelty. Jews were arrested on the accusation that they were spies and contrabandists. Military divisions that went to the front looted Jewish businesses and beat Jews. Men – old and young – were dragged to forced labor.
On the 13th of January 1919, a policeman called out in the middle of the market at the time of a fair that people should not buy any horses and cattle from the Jews. Soon after, all Jews were driven from the market.
No intervention helped because the central regime was virtually helpless.
There were great difficulties in the educational-cultural realms, too. The Ukrainians assured autonomy but the central regime was the first not to make available the possibility of supporting Jewish folk-schools [public schools]. This negative attitude also hindered the founding of a folk-school in Kolomea. The Ukrainian policies severely undermined the economy of Jews in Kolomea. The Commissar, Professor Tsheikowsky, who was responsible for this, did everything to liquidate Jewish trade. He did permit any means of living to the Jewish population and in order to ruin the Jewish merchants, he organized the Ukrainian merchants with the purpose of removing trade, industry and crafts from the hands of the Jews. The Jews received an order to exchange their Austrian banknotes into Ukrainian [banknotes]. On the 3rd of May, 1919, military patrols entered apartments
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and Jewish businesses and forced them to turn in their Austrian banknotes for Ukrainian grivnas [or hryvni]. As a rule, the Jewish population was then forced to exchange 600,000 Austrian krones for grivnas.
Despite the difficult conditions, the organized Jewish society carried out its national-cultural activities. The elections to the local national council and to the national country council that were held in May 1919 were conducted very cautiously. The vigilant participation was accompanied by stormy party conflict.
At the end of 1919, the offensive by the Polish military began. The military of General Haler (the Halertshinkes had “acquired a reputation” for cutting beards and throwing Jews off trains) occupied all of Eastern Galicia and they began their march and ambushes of Jews, thievery; snatching from the Jews and arresting [them], were daily stories.
And the signs began of the era of an independent Poland.
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On the 25th of March, 1883, the Krakower Rabbi, Reb Shimeon Sofer (a son of Chasam Sofer), who represented the election district of the three cities, Kolomea, Buczacz and Snyatyn, died.
As Dr. Joseph Samuel Bloch, the young 33 year-old rabbi from Florisdorf, near Vienna, was then famous as a result of his courageous struggle in the press against the anti-Semitic expert, Prof. August Rohling, the Kolomea kehile [organized Jewish community] asked him to become Rabbi Schreiber's successor in the Viennese Parliament and, several months later, Dr. Joseph Bloch was chosen with a majority of over two-thirds of the votes.
In the winter of 1885, Dr. Bloch was elected for the second time to the Viennese Parliament as the representative of the three cities. This time the opposing candidate was the Lemberg lawyer, Dr. Emil Bik, and the electoral battle was a stormy one. Jewish voters were literally ready to sacrifice their lives for Dr. Bloch because, “If Dr. Bik were elected, we would not dare circumcise the children.”
In 1891 Dr. Joseph Samuel Bloch was elected for the third time in the Kolomea election battle for Parliament. This time Dr. Emil Bik withdrew and the candidate opposing Dr. Bloch was Leon Meisels, a grandson of the famous Warsaw Rabbi, Reb Berish Meisels. Leon Meisels was a wealthy Jew, an aristocrat, but a sensitive candidate.
The proclamation of the Kolomea community leaders that was written in a terrible Deitchmerish [Yiddish containing German vocabulary] interceded for the Rabbi, Dr. Bloch, and came out against Leon Meisels.
God be praised.
* Supplement to page 54
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Footnotes and Biblography
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*[Translator's note: Footnote 30 is cited twice, once on page 33 and again on page 36.] Return
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Dr. Stanislaw Grumski: Materjały do kwestji Żydowskie w Galicji [Material on the Question of Jewish Galicia], Lwów, 1910. Return
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[Page 90]
Translator's Footnotes
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Jewish Factories, Businesses and Shops and their Owners
Kindling lights and various smearing oils – Fogel and sons.Roof-shingles-cupolas – Yona Brettler and sons, and Hersh Ramler and Moshe Landau.
Beer breweries – Stefan Weiss, Jakov Brettler and sons.
Talisim [prayer shawls] factories – Shimshon Heller and son, Yona Zager and son, Pesakh Ringelblum, Asher Windshauer, Yisroel Grunberg and son.
Rugs and Embroidery [made on a frame] – Chaim Teitelbaum. Teitelbaum had factories and businesses across the country and employed over 250 people.
Artistic Embroidery [made on a frame] – Gussie and Motek Horowitz. This firm employed many workers who would take work to their homes. Many agents would also travel around outside the country for this same firm.
Silk cloth and rug weaving – Shlomo Grunberg. Grunberg employed only Hasidic, pious Jews with shtreimlekh [fur hats worn by Hasidim].
Large Mills – Jakov Brettler and sons. Water Mills – Nartenberg and Schiller.
Wet Mills for Grains – Lipshuts, Advokat, Dr. Goldberg and Waser.
Furniture Factories – Hersh Scheiner, Josef Pistyner, Moshe Kimel.
Soap and Soda Factories – Leibush Osterzecer and Leibush Horowitz, Shimkha Freilech and son.
Tanneries – Yehuda Grebler, Mendl Akselrad, the Avner Brothers and Yisroel Horowitz.
Riding Tools, Rope, Whips – The Menentsop Brothers
Paper Factory – Moshe Hammer.
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Carton and Copy Book Factory – Leib Chius and Leibish Herman.Sweater Factory – The Reidts Brothers. Employed a large number of workers.
Bridge and Construction-Metal Works – Schiller and son.
Smaller Metal Works – Kornblit, Maks Nelber and son.
Bristle Brush Factory – Kalman Ber Hener. Smaller ones of the sort: Cyper and Dovid Leib Shechter.
Wax, Mead and Honey Factory – Yehuda Schmal, Noakh Schmal, Fishl Hener.
Liqueur Factory – Chaim Feldman, Gershon Thau.
Banks: Austrian-Hungarian Bank employed a large number of Jewish officials. The chief specialist in the sphere of the credit system was the trustworthy man, Yona Kizler.
City Savings Bank: Manager – H. Hules, Director – Josel Funkenstein, Syndicate – Dr. Shlomo Singer, Bookkeeper – Nusie Horowitz, Directors: Elihu Kriss, Yona Kizler, Inspectorate – Wilhelm Grines, Benyamin Hammer, Treasurer: Leib Tswecher, Yehuda-Borukh Feyerstein, Hesiu Bortn, Hershl Taycher, M. Rebhon.
Jiro-Bank (Brettler's): Director – Moshe Seidman, Mendl Brettler, Yona Brettler.
Galicia Trade Bank: Director – Aleksander Schorr, Aytsk Chius, Zelik Herman.
Export Bank: Directors – Yakov Beidof and son.
Credit, Trade and Industry Bank: Hercl Spindel, Note Welzer, Meir Welzer, Ayzik Wolf, Leibish Horowitz.
Credit and Savings Union (Factory Bank); Welwl Faktor, Yona Kisler, Note Welzer.
Baron Hirsch Bank: Directors – The Rabbi, Gedalihu Smelkes, Dovid Wieselberg, Yosye Marmorash, Maks Sharf, Yekutial Sensensich, Peysye Singer.
Cooperative Bank of Retailers and Artisans: Directors – Ruwin Osterzecer, Shlomo Scherr, Dr. Marek Laks, Dr. Moshe Faktor, Yona Aschenazy, Dovid Baumeil, Dovid Wieselberg, Mendl Grunwerg, Moshe Shneiberner.
Cooperative Bank Agudas Yisroel; Directors – Reb Leibish
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Kriss, Dovid Zaidman, Dr. Ben Tzion Felser, Dr. Isidor Bahr, Minye Kriss, Leibtsi Libman.Cooperative Bank for Retailers and Industry: Directors – Meshulem Frenkl, Yakov Biter, Chief Bookkeepers – Chaim Ringelblum.
Interest-Free Loan Fund: Directors – Shlomo Scherr, Chaim Ringelblum, Dr. Moshe Faktor, Dr. Marek Laks, Moshe Schneiberner, Mendel Grunwerg, Yakov Shatsberg, Treasurer – Moshe Laks, Bookkeeper – Leon Reich.
Grocers and Delicacies – Schneider and Sharf, Hecht and Lunefeld, Fersher and son, Feywl Nagler, Leib Enre, Shtreifeld and son.Grain and Beans – Jakov Brettler and son, Yakov Beiraf and son, Leibush Kriss and Zalman Czenirer, Meir Haker and son, Yisroel Eiferman, Leibtsie Eiferman, Shaul Breiter and son, Zisie Heilzenrot, Berish Heilzenrot, Ahron Leib Knopf and son, Jakov Haker, Avraham Haker, Kopl Marmorosh, Itsie Brettler, Avraham Aschenazy.
Flour (wholesale) – Jakov Brettler and son, Schiller and Gartenberg, Hersh Sechastower and Sheike Chius, Dovid Gliners and son, Itshe Dovid Nunik, Dovid Shprechman.
Retail Trade – Shmaye Ramler, Shaye Moshe Holker, Shaye Moshe and Motye Kelner, Moshe Wieselberg, Moshe Kreisberger, Itsik Sensensich, Moshe Smendig, Feywl Eizenrot and others.
Leather Trade (Wholesale) – Yisroel Horowitz, Yisroel and Mikhal Shmucher, Moshe Kanter, Shmay Kanter, Itsik Kanter, Alter Kanter and son, the Amzer brothers, Mikhal Sharf, Moshe Sak and others.
Haberdashery – Henrik Roznhek, Bortn and Helwig, Ramler and Nader, Shlomo Eltser, Liber Shaler, Moshe Wargan and son, Moshe Shaler, Borten and Elenberg, the Tseler brothers, Zysie Ziskind.
Wholesale Trade and Groceries and Delicacy Goods – Avraham Shmerts, Iser Herman, Berl Kupferman, Shaul Keish and Leizer Shtarer, Shuchner Mindl, Kamet and Baumgarten, Yehezkiel Shechter, the Salomon Brothers.
[Page 94]
Small Retail – Zelig Rish, Lipe Shuber, Rayzel Eiferman and Dovid Baumeil, Henech Shechter, Markus Nusbaum, Itsik Grunberg, Hersh Laks, Michal Zesler, Yisroel Lederfeind, Mendel Roizner, Yitzhak Shechter, Hersh Rechter, Chaya Ornstein, Chaim Brettler, Hersh Freier, Nisen Sternberg, Alter Finkl.Manufacturing (Wholesale and Retail) – Motl Frish, Yehuda Ber Zeidman and son, Zeide Landman and son, Ben-Tzion Zulauf, Berman and Preminger, Shimeon Glazer, Iser and Bayle Horn, Malter and Burtman, Hersh Chius, Ayzik Herman, Sura Grunberg, Firsh and Bernal, Hersh Rein, Itsik Kenig, Shmuel Laden and son, Berl Lantshenr, Dovid Goldhaber, Brecher and Eizner, Emzig and Fridler.
Tailoring Requisites (Wholesale and Retail) – Shaul and Alter Kneper, Moshe Kuperman, Moshe Grunberg, Leibele Esnfeld, Naftali Bikl. Glonower, Gershon Henish, Robinzon and Heller.
Tailoring Accessories – Sh. Bank and son, Motye Bank, Josef Waks, Note Preminger, Shmuel Hausknecht, Josl Bank.
Dress Trade – Leibele Markus and son, Shmuel Deutsch, Moshe Fisz, Karal Bland, Yehuda Kutner.
Cloth and Peasant Goods – Shamai Feder, Yisroel Frenkel, Mordekhai Frenkel, Itsik Rubin, Shaul Weisman, Chaim Frenkel, Shaul Wizel, Zindl Neiman.
Paint Trade – the Feldman brothers, Fishl Fernbach, Masholem Welwl Eiferman, Hersh Fajerman, Moshe Shtreit.
Glass and China Crockery – Ephraim Rosenblatt, Shmuel Hirsch, Dovid Lindenberg, Avrahamtsie Heller, Moshe Einhorn.
Retail – Leizer Kreisler and Baron, Hershl Lindenberg, Josef Glazer.
Fur Trade – Itsie Schechter, Yona Hibner, Berl Distenfeld, Benyamin Stein, Yehoshaya Sensensich and son, Hersh Schechter.
Retail – Dovid Dandel (shtreimlekh – fur hats worn by Hasidic men), Gabriel Ziegellaub, Dovid Zenenreich, Hersh Kosten
Musical Instruments – Maks Blecher, Zalman Hodisch.
Mechanical Articles – Mikhal Schulman, Gershon Melzer, Lancener.
[Page 95]
Bookkeeping – Yakov Ornstein, Shmuel Royzenberg, Chaya Ornstein-Thau.Paper and Writing Needs – Shimeon Sensensich, Gershon Gotlib, Zelig Schperber, A. Ginzburg, Moshe Lewkowitz, Leibish Chius, the brothers, M. and F. Scheierman, Berl Horner.
Dried Sea Fish (White) – Shmuel Hertsig, Yekutial Sensensich, Ruwin Oster, Feywl Herman.
Egg Export – Nusan and Dovid Bishel, Itsie Thau.
Wholesale Construction Materials – Aba Hammer, Avrahamtsie Kuswan and Meir Kuswan, Gershon Melzer and Lancener.
Retail – Yisroel Noakh Milstein and son, Fishl Kuswan and Meir Kuswan, Gershon Melzer and Lancener.
Wine Trade (Wholesale) – Lipe Schwager, Lipe Unger and Leibtsie Libman, Meshulam Shimkha Linder and Moshe Rauchwerger, A. Ditikschtein.
Weapons (Ammunition) Trade – Landsberg-Krasicki, Maks Blits.
Hotels _ “Grand” Hotel: Chana Bahr, Aleksander Blits, Hotel Sternberg, Hotel Speier, Hotel Friedman.
Restaurants – Chana Bahr, Ephraim Legjonow, Mendl Allweil, Mordekhai Leib Henzel, Moshe Weikselbaum, Ephraim Schnobl, Urtsie Scherl, the Rot brothers, Avraham Kremer, Dovid Schecberg, Menenbaum, Kopl Zlaczower (Meir Macele's son), Hersh Kalech, Shimeon Fuks, Mrs. Zenendish (Tutechia), Shlomo Krauthamer, Hersz Krauthamer.
Soda-Water Factories – Shimeon Munczek and son, Nisan Eizner and son, Shimeon Fuks, Moshe Dovid Fingerl.
Military Contractors – Albin, the Peczinik brothers, Meir Zacher and sons, Shimshon Grunberg, Sholem Grun.
Iron Trade (wholesale and individual sales) – Slopkowicer and Singer, Zelig Herman and Icyk Chius, Ruchel Bitman, Petrower and Fund, Zayde Zelber, Firma Wanenberg, Shmuel Hilzgrot, Leib Hirsh, Zisie Hochman.
Naphta, Candles and Soap (Wholesale) – Shlomo Scherr, Meir Steiner, Yosye Merner, Shmuel Rozenshtraus, Gershon Steiner, Berish Dankner and son.
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