Ostrów Mazowiecka, Poland (Pages 5-8)

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With the help of God, Kislev 5726 [November-December 1965],

The Memorial to Polish Jewry, the World Organization of Emigrants from Poland, Galicia and Lithuania, was established last summer in Tel Aviv at a well attended assembly of emigrants from that glorious Diaspora for the purpose of setting up a permanent memorial to Polish, Galician and Lithuanian Jewries, to perpetuate the eternal values of that glorious Diaspora, and to preserve its heritage.

Within that framework of activity we have dedicated an honored place to the perpetuation of the memories of the Jewish communities of Poland, Galicia and Lithuania by means of publishing appropriate memorial books that will eventually include all the Jewish communities of that Diaspora that were destroyed and uprooted to their very foundations.

A significant number of the Jewish communities that were destroyed have already had the benefit of memorial books being published about them. Nevertheless, despite all the efforts invested in these works, there still remains room for--and an obligation to--augment them, especially in regard to memorializing the orthodox segments within these communities which, for whatever reason, have been somewhat neglected.

In the context of the Scroll of Poland project we are publishing the first books of the series dedicated to those communities whose names begin with the letter aleph.

In order to produce a complete series it is our intention not to skip over any community in that august Disapora, so that we may be faithful to the historical truth and the establishment of a memorial to that Jewry as it was when it was still extant, both in its all its glory and splendor and in the decline and destruction that befell it.

Polish-Galician-Lithuanian Jewry brought glory to God through its vibrant life. It wrote glorious chapters in bright flaming letters in the history of our eternal people. As survivors of that great Diaspora we see it as an obligation and a religious commandment to record the history of these communities for future generations.

We will make every effort to establish a memorial to each and every community, large and small, sparing no effort to assemble the necessary material to accomplish this task. We have begun with those communities whose names begin with aleph. So after the book about the community of Ostroh [Ostrog] we are now publishing the second book in the Scroll of Poland series on Ostrow Mazowiecka.

[signed]

The President and Administration in Israel of the Memorial to Polish Jewry

This book has appeared with the assistance of the

Yosef Glazer-Simcha Horowitz Fund

In memory of their parents

The late Rabbi Meir Glazer died on the fourth of Tevet, 5705

[December 20, 1944] in Bari (Italy) and was buried in Israel

Rabbi Yaakov David, son of the late Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Horowitz,

died in the Lodz Ghetto in 5702 [1941-1942]

With the assistance of IRSO

[Page 7]

Introduction

Ostrow Mazowiecka was not among the oldest of Jewish communities in central Poland, or one of its largest either. Nevertheless, by the time of the outbreak of the Holocaust, it had already managed to achieve a key and respected place in that Diaspora. In Ostroveh [as it was called by Jews] there was a lively Jewish life. This community stood out in a number of spheres, and its influence far exceeded its numerical size. Ostroveh did not achieve its fame as a result of any particular institutions that functioned therein, nor as a result of any historical events that took place there, but rather as a result of its unique characteristics that emanated from its inhabitants and founders.

The history of this community is rather brief, actually only beginning with the abolition of the prohibition on Jews residing in Mazovia. Because of its central location it developed rather quickly. Differing from other fairly new communities, however, it succeeded in establishing its unique ways of life and character. “Ostrovite” became a defined concept or type of Polish Jew, whether orthodox or not, whether Hassidic^[1] or Mitnagdic^[2].

It is difficult in a few short pages to portray a complete memorial to this great community. Its history was never fully or accurately recorded in such a way as to enable us to present it in a chronological and fully objective fashion. The limited raw material that we have barely permits us to provide a partial monument to represent this Jewish community.

Ostroveh no longer exists. Even far more complete memorial books cannot adequately represent the brilliant personages that functioned within this community. We can only portray the briefest of sketches of the giants who left their imprints on this community, whether it be Rabbi Ben-Zion Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Hassidim, or Rabbi Berish Shapira, rabbi of the scholars and Mitnagdim, or other famous rabbis of Ostroveh like Hassidic rebbe Rabbi Gershon Chanoch of Radzyn or the Gaon [literally, genius^[3]] Rabbi Yehuda Leib Gordin^[4] or the Gaon Rabbi David Shlomo Margaliot [whose acronym was the Maharshdal] or the Hassidic Rabbi Yosef of Ostroveh, the Gaon Rabbi Feivel Sokolower, or the Gaon Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzky [Plocki].

No, this dry pen can hardly portray a living memorial to Rabbi Yaakov Velvel the Porter, who taught a class every evening between the afternoon and evening prayers in the study hall, or to Rabbi Mordechai Mendel Markusfeld, the ritual slaughterer, the rabbi of the working men at the old study hall, who was always performing righteous acts.

We recall Ostroveh with sorrow and pain, much as we do every other community in the Diaspora of Poland, Lithuania and Galicia. Will there ever again be Jews such as these? Will there ever walk among us Jews like Reb Zelig the shames [beadle], whose services the rabbis of the city refused to exploit given his great knowledge and respect for the Torah, or will there ever live among us again a Jew like Mr. Salzberg from Ostroveh, who served for twenty-five years under horrific circumstances in the army of Tsar Nicholas but who remained unremittingly faithful to everything related to Judaism until his final day?

[Page 8]

Yes, Ostroveh was blessed with outstanding scholars, some of whom served her in various capacities. Take, for example, Reb Aharkeh the shames, who was well learned in the Torah, or the aged Reb Tanchum the shames, whose Torah knowledge was both broad and deep, who was friendly to all people, and whose said, when his wife was weeping as he lay dying, “Why are you crying? As long as I am alive they won't yet take me.”

Ostroveh is now sleeping its final sleep before the Great Day [of Judgment] comes. The voice of Reb Leizer Loew, who lacked even bread, is no longer heard at two in the morning disturbing one's sleep with a call to arise and serve God with morning prayers. There are no longer rich or poor [Jews] in Ostroveh. The house of Reb Mendel Feinzeig (Elke's)^[5] no longer serves as a gathering place for all those who are needy. No longer does he make his way on foot to the synagogue of the Gerer rebbe, stopping on his way back at every house where there is someone ill or otherwise suffering to provide aid and support.

Ostroveh is desolate. There is no longer a yeshiva [school of higher Jewish learning] or cheder [Jewish elementary school], no institutions of education or teaching. The old study house on the road to Komorowo is no longer filled with worshippers, much as were many other synagogues and Hassidic prayer houses. It is closed forever. The society for endowing poor brides, the society for providing shelter to the needy, and the society for supplying prayer shawls and phylacteries, whose members prayed and studied until noon wrapped in their prayer shawls and phylacteries, all no longer exist.

There is also no longer the prayer house of the Gerer Hassidim or that of the Amshinov Hassidim, or of the Alexander or Strikov Hassidim either. There are no longer Agudists^[6] or Zionists, nor is there heard the blessing of some great Hassidic rabbi. Fire had never before overtaken Ostroveh. Its houses had never been burned, until there descended a gigantic flame from on high that destroyed everything.

We will deal with the city and its history, its people and personalities, its institutions and its enterprises in the upcoming chapters.

Yehuda Leib Levin

Editor's notes:

Hassidism (literally pietism) was a mass religious and social movement that began in the mid-late 18^th century in southeast Poland and spread throughout most of Eastern Europe, stressing the mystical and emotional bases of orthodox Judaism. Opposed to the traditional religious establishment and its classic yeshivot, it later broke into numerous sub-groups revolving around particular rabbinic dynasties. Return

The Mitnagdim (or Misnagdim, literally opponents of the Hassidim) arose in the late 18^th century, notably in Lithuania, site of the leading yeshivot, who accused them of various forms of heresy and fought them for control of many Jewish communities. Return

Honorific title usually attributed to a distinguished rabbi recognized for his exceptional status as a leader, author and decisor in matters of Jewish law. Return

The author and others spell the name in Hebrew Gordon, while the obituaries at the time of his death in Chicago in 1925, as well as his mausoleum in the Tiferet Zion section of the Waldheim Jewish Cemetery there, use Gordin in English, a spelling which we will follow hereinafter. Return

The name Mendel, the Yiddish diminutive for Menachem, was widely used in the large Feinzeig clan, which was among the first 20 “legal” families to settle in Ostroveh ca. 1765, during a period of political and constitutional liberalization. See below, footnotes pp. 33 and 155, and Gary S. Schiff, In Search of Polin: Chasing Jewish Ghosts in Today's Poland (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2012), pp. 146-147. Holders of that name were therefore often given “nicknames” to distinguish them for other relatives with the same first name, in this case that of his mother-in-law, Elke. Return

Members of Agudat Yisrael [Agudas Yisroel, the Association of Israel], an orthodox religious, social and political movement established in 1912 to counter the Zionist movement and its orthodox wing, Mizrachi. See Gary S. Schiff, Tradition and Politics: The Religious Parties of Israel (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977) (to be made available online and re-printed in hard copy on demand by Wayne State under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation by the end of 2017), especially Chapter 3. Return

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