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The children of the Jews of Ostrowiec were taught until the 1920s in a cheder and yeshiva only. But the new winds of change that began to blow in the Jewish world didn't skip over this city. They established secular schools, and even the religious schools adapted themselves to a type of more advanced education.

Pinyele

I feel a particular closeness to my teacher Reb Pinyele. For many years, he was my family teacher. All my cousins of the Mintzbergs and Levis learned in his cheder [elementary school] and he was very beloved by us.

In the later years, when the tide carried me away from traditional Judaism, I would meet Pinyele in town from time to time. I approached him with the greatest awe and respect, always greeted him with a “good morning” and “good Shabbath,” and he would always ask me, “So, Meir'she, how are you? Have you forgotten anything that you learned?” And I would answer him: “No, rebbe, I have not forgotten anything that I learned with you, because what you learn during your childhood you never forget.” He was very happy and shook my hand amicably. He was exceptionally tolerant. Even though I was already dressing in a non-Jewish manner, and did not have side-locks and was clean shaven, I don't remember that he ever offended me, or insulted me with any bad words.

He was short, thin, with a small, sparse, black beard. He was a chassid from Lublin, and from time to time, he would travel to see the Rebbe in Lublin, and when he would come home, he would tell over everything he had heard and seen there with great awe, all in the town of the “Chozeh” [the “seer” of Lublin, great figure in chassidus, Reb Yakov Yitzchak, 1754-1815].

During the study time, Reb Pinyele, when he was in a good mood, loved to tell all kinds of stories and ask riddles, to which we students had to give answers. Three such riddles have stayed in my memory and I would like to relate them here now.

At that time, in Ostrowiec, they would place the kugel into the cholent in an earthenware pot, which was then called “kugel sharben” [kugel earthenware pot]. This pot was narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. I remember how the rebbe asked us this question: “Tell me,

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why is the kugel sharben narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, and why not the opposite – wide at the top and narrow at the bottom?” He asked this question so quickly, that we students did not realize that both of these expressions were actually the same.

The second riddle was: Why, if a wagon driver wants to ride more quickly, he swishes the horses with the whip a few times and the horses begin to run faster. Here is the question: How do the horses know what the wagon driver's intentions are with the whip? Is the reason that when the horses feel the whip on their backs they try to run away faster to avoid any more beatings? And because they are tied to the harnesses – they pull along with them the wagon and the driver?

“Now tell me,” the rebbe said as he turned to us, “which of you has ever seen how a crow flies high up and a dog is sitting on its tail?” We all began shouting in one voice: “That cannot be true, because how is it possible that while the crow is flying the dog does not fall off its tail?” I remember how Reb Pinyele kept laughing at us, seeing that none of us was understanding what was going on here. Later, he explained the riddle, saying these are two separate things: A crow really did fly up high, and a dog sat on the ground, actually on its own tail…

I remember how on a certain winter's evening after school we could not go home from cheder, because it was stormy outside and in a distance you could hear resonances of shootings. We spent the night in the cheder. The rebbetzin [rebbe's wife] gave us food for supper and later prepared bedding on the floor and, as a dedicated mother, covered us with warm quilts. Outside, there was a bitter frost, but in cheder it was so warm, and we spent half the night punching and laughing with each other.

I remember how, before Shavuos, Reb Pinyele would learn Megilas Rus [Book of Ruth] with us, and until now, after many years, the heartfelt melody remains in my heart, the melody that accompanied the words of this beautiful ideal [of the Book of Ruth]. I connected strongly with the fate of Naomi, who remained a lonely widow after the death of her husband Elimelech, and her two sons Machlon and Chilyon. I was moved to tears when Naomi arrived with her daughter-in-law Ruth to Beit Lechem, and everyone was surprised: “Is this Naomi?” And she replied: “Do not call me Naomi, call me Marah [bitter; Hebrew], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” And I was satisfied that Ruth had reassured her mother-in-law that she would never leave her: “Only death will separate me and you.”

After Shavuos, in the hot summer days, during the times of breaks, we would leave the cheder and play in the pasture grounds, or go wading and catch fish in the nearby river. This was the greatest pleasure for us.

I remember how, for Shabbath Chazon [the Shabbath before Tisha b'Av], we learned the haftorah, and Pinyele translated the verse: “Bonim gidalti veromamti ve'heim pasha bi” [“I have raised and elevated the children, and they have rebelled against me]. After that, we moved to the Eichah [the Book of Lamentations read on Tisha b'Av], and how sad the verse sounded in the rebbe's mouth as he said: “She has no comforter among all her lovers, all her friends have betrayed her, they have become her enemies” [verse 2, chapter1]. We also learned in the Gemara the story of Kamtza and bar Kamtza [the story of Tisha b'Av, a story of how shaming someone caused the destruction of the Temple].

Very differently, about a week later, the words of the prophet Isaiah rang in Reb Pinyele's mouth: “Nachamu, nachamu ami” [“Comfort, oh comfort my people, says your God”]. After the difficult days of the Three Weeks [period of mourning the destruction of the Temple, from beginning of the month of Av until after the 9^th day, Tisha b'Av], a whole new mood reigned in the cheder.

For the holiday of Sukkos, Reb Pinyele would learn Sefer Kohelet [Book of Ecclesiastes]. I remember how he translated for us “dor holech, vedor bo, ve'haaretz leolam omedet” [“one generation passes and another comes, and the earth stands forever”], and “ein kol Chadash tachat hashemesh” [“there is nothing new under the sun”]. And since I could not understand these things at that time, I only understood them in the later years when I would study deeply the thoughts and ideas of this profound text.

Of Pinyele's family, I remember his wife Brocha, a quiet and frail woman, and his son Shiye'le, who appeared to be a genius, and showed an interest to be a philosopher.

I met Reb Pinyele in the first weeks of the Nazi occupation of Ostrowiec. He already had no beard, was embittered and depressed. I remember how he asked me: “So, Meir'she, what will be with us. Will God watch us uncaring, as the evil ones torture us?”

I never saw him again.

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Mordechai Yankel

Reb Mordechai Yankel the teacher, lived on Tylna Street in a small house. The windows looked out onto the street. Just opposite him, lived Hirsh Yitzchak Goldshmidt, and we students, during our breaks, would run out of cheder and go over to Goldshmidt's window to look at the beautiful things that he would make out of gold and silver.

I remember him, Reb Mordechai Yankel, as an average sized Jew, with a fine black beard. His wife, the rebbetzin, I also remember well, and his two daughters with black braids, the older of whom, Malka, later married Leibel Samburg and moved to Brazil. Both [Malka and Leibel], as far as I know, are already deceased, and the younger daughter is unknown to me until this very day.

After all these years, when I remember my teacher Mordechai Yankel, it is impossible not to mention at the same time his “boruch gartel” [“blessed belt”] which he used all the time. He had a hernia, may no Jew ever know of this, and he wore this hernia belt. From time to time, he would remove it and put it on his bed. And when he would go out of the cheder for a few minutes and leave his belt behind, we students would play with it and do all kinds of tricks with it. And when he suddenly opened the door and caught us with the tricks red-handed, he began to scream, with yells that reached the heavens. The rebbetzin [wife] would get involved and try to calm him down, but she was not so successful at this. He really lost his mind and poured all his wrath onto us.

But his nature was actually that he was a kind person, calm, modest and refined, and rarely showed anger. I remember what the winter days and nights were like in the cheder, in the small warm room, with the windows covered in frost. I remember how I was very moved when we learned in parshas vayishlach [Torah portion in Book of Genesis], “And Rachel died, and she was buried on the road to Ephrat, which is Beit Lechem [Bethlehem], and Yakov erected a monument on her grave; that is the tombstone of Rachel until this day.” All of us students took very much to heart the event that Rachel died on the road because of the difficult birth of her son Binyamin. And we deeply mourned the fate of our patriarch Yakov, who lost his loyal life partner on the road, while traveling.

And until this very day, the deeply heartfelt melody of “Ve'ani” which Reb Mordechai Yankel used for Yakov, our patriarch's words, who was lying sick in bed before his death, and his son Josef came to him with the two grandchildren Menashe and Efraim, who were born in Egypt. Yakov, who with age became frail and blind, embraced and kissed the grandchildren, and told Joseph what had happened with his mother Rachel.

“As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still a stretch of land to come to Ephrat, and I buried here there on the way to Ephrat, which is Beit Lechem.” [Genesis, Torah portion Vayechi, verse 7]

Soon after Purim, the learning in the cheder became lighter. I remember how Reb Mordechai Yankel would learn Targum Sheini [a collection of homiletical interpretations of biblical texts, books, etc.], about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, who understood the languages of all animals and birds, and was able to communicate with them. This greatly enthralled our childish fantasies. Later, when King Solomon was driven away, and he continually cried: “I am Solomon!” and no one wanted to believe him, this pained us students greatly.

For Pesach [Passover], the rebbe would learn “the song above all songs” [Shir Hashirim] with us. It seems that it is about a love between God and the People of Israel, and not between King Solomon and the beautiful Shulamit – which I first figured out only years later.

We breathed freely after the heavy winter and would play in the streets more often than we would learn in cheder. And if the rebbetzin would prepare herself to whitewash the cheder for Pesach [this was commonly done to prepare/clean the house for Passover], we helped her by carrying out all the things into the street, and later, after the whitewashing was done, we would carry everything back inside. I remember now, after so many years, with how much joy we students would do this work. After whitewashing everything with kalsomine, the matzos arrived to the cheder. The rebbe hung them up on the ceiling with an axe, all wrapped in a white tablecloth. The rebbetzin and her two daughters would make things kosher, would scrub, wash, and clean, all for Pesach.

On a certain day, the rebbe would announce to us: “Children, you don't have to come to cheder until after yom tov [the holiday]. I wish all of you a kosher Pesach.” For us, this opened a new world.

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Reb Mordechai Leizer Avremel's

He was a tall and strong man, with a beautiful face and large beard – he stands as if before my eyes today. The cheder was on the first floor in the marketplace in the “small lane.” And we students would look outside through the small window and watch how the farmers, men and women from the surrounding areas, would gather every Monday and Thursday in the fair in town.

We would go to cheder very early in the morning and return late in the evening. I remember how in the winter, in the pitch-black darkness we would go home with the lanterns in hand, splash in the mud until the ankles, and with that, we would sing a song that is in my mind until this day. This was a kind of song that was a praise to God:

He is beautiful in the above
He is beautiful down below
Both below and above,
We all praise Him,
God is One, His name is One,
God is One, there is no other.

Before Purim when the days were longer and the nights shorter, we stopped learning at night and started to go home earlier. At that time, it was the tradition to organize a festive meal celebrating the fact that we had stopped learning at night. I remember very well that traditional feast in the cheder of my teacher Reb Mordechai Leizer Avremel's, which is deeply etched into my memory.

A few days before that, the rebbe would inform us that on a specific day we would stop learning at night. So, each student must bring from their home a few groshen [pennies] to help with the cost of the feast.

All of us students sat around a beautifully set table. The rebbe sat at the head, dressed in his yom tov [holiday] clothes. We were all excited and the mood was very elevated. We took small cups of wine and wished each other “lechayim.” Then the rebbetzin brought herring to the table along with borscht [“kratz” beet juice made from cooked, scraped beets], and after that the hot groats and beans, a portion of beef for each person, and at the end a little tzimmes [cooked, sweet carrots]. Between one serving and the next, the rebbe recounted all kinds of stories, and we slowly began to sing along with him, because everyone's soul was in a place of joy. It's no small thing – to stop learning at night!

When the beloved summer arrived, we breathed more freely. Particularly deeply etched in my memory are the summer Shabbaths with this teacher. On Shabbath afternoons, we would go to cheder with siddurim [prayer books] in our hands in order to learn Perek [Pirkei Avos, specific prayer recited in the summertime on Shabbath]. The cheder was clean and neat. The table was covered with a beautiful snow-white tablecloth. The mood among us cheder students was an elevated Shabbath one, and even the rebbe and his rebbetzin were not the same as during the weekdays … During the time of learning Perek, we did not feel the rigor and indifference that we felt during the weekdays of our learning.

From time to time, one of us students would get a kettle from the rebbetzin placed into his hands so that he would bring water from the well in the marketplace. I remember how I excitedly ran to the well with the kettle in my hand, connected the chain, and lowered the empty bucket, then turned the lever so long until the bucket came up filled with water. I filled the kettle with water and quickly returned to the cheder with it.

The rebbetzin placed small cups on the table. The first cup, understandably, was taken by the rebbe, and he loudly recited the “shehakol” [blessing said over water]. Later, he gave the rebbetzin a cup of water, and after that each of us students received a cup of water.

Many decades have passed since then, and until today I can feel the sweet taste of that cold, refreshing water that I drank on Shabbath afternoon during the Perek learning time in cheder with Reb Mordechai Leizer Avremel's in Ostrowiec.

Chaim Dovid was a teacher of the youngest children. I remember him as a broad-shouldered Jew of medium size, with a golden beard. He lived on Zatylna Street, not far from the Beis Midrash [Study Hall], and there, in a small room, was the cheder. During winter, we would sit

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on the floor, and play with buttons, and would wait until the rebbe or his assistant would call one of us to the table to learn the difficult “ivri” [Hebrew].

Early on, when it was still dark outside, the assistant would go around the town and collect all the children for cheder. I remember how I was still lying in bed with sleepy eyes and I did not feel like leaving my warm bed when outside the bitter cold was crackling. My mother, may she rest in peace, would give me the best of the best that she had for me to take to school: crackers, bagels with butter, and some cookies that were left from Shabbath. They would bring us lunch to school in small bowls. In the evenings, the assistant would collect us again and bring each of us back home.

During the summer, the studies for us were much easier than in the winter. We did not have to sit all day in a small and damp room and absorb all the dust. We would play outside in front of the cheder. I remember how we used to sit by the gutters on both sides of the street, where, without stopping, the pump's water flowed, which gave off a terrible stench for about a distance of one kilometer. But this did not bother us. On the contrary, we were so empowered with that, because we would toss in pieces of paper and watch with great pleasure how the stream would carry these down with the flow towards the Beis Midrash.

When the blackberries appeared, you could know that by the look on our faces. We were smeared and messy from the snacking on the berries that our mothers gave us to take to cheder. The farmers would bring the berries at dawn in large baskets from the surrounding forests, and in town, the Jews would bake currant cakes with the berries, which tasted like the Garden of Eden.

From this cheder, I remember the ruler and the strap, which the rebbe would use during the learning sessions. Very likely, more than once my own little trousers were pulled down and my bare skin was “whipped,” as was the tradition at that time in the cheders across all the Jewish cities and towns in Poland. But I cannot remember it specifically happening to me.

Chaim Dovid was my first teacher in Ostrowiec, who made me familiar with the twenty-two known letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which I use until this very day. And only now, as I am aged, am I beginning to understand and feel how many tears and sobs lie in these letters….

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There came a wild water and it extinguished the illustrious Torah–filled town Ostrovtse, which had been called by the name of the teacher, rabbi and genius Rebi Mayer Yekhiel Haleyvi may his holy memory be for a blessing. Ostrovtse was full of geniuses of Torah, teachers, instructors and judges, and even plain Jews, householders, were experts and astute in Talmud and its commentators. There came a wild water and it extinguished the town… and all at once it was all exterminated…

There were twenty–some Hasidic shtiblekh [prayer rooms] where people prayed as a community three times a day, studied a page of Talmud with commentaries and the “page of the day”; people there were engaged in piety: every shabes they made a kidush, drank a l'khaym toast, celebrated the third meal together, and observing the end of the sabbath; observed the yortsayts of various rabbis, sang zmiros and songs of joy. The congregation of the Hasidic shtibl was like one family. One helped the other with monetary support, arranging a loan.

There were two yeshives in town. The first was the Novorodok yeshive “Beys yosef” with its more than 200 pupils whom the town maintained with “eating days”. The older boys ate in their own kitchen and slept at various families' homes. That yeshive used the new bes–medresh and the two small study–houses of Rov Yekhezkel Shener and Rov Shleyme Tsheshler. The old bes–medresh was free for the town's bes–medresh boys. The yeshive boys were mostly

The “Yavne” library of the “Mizrakhi”

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from the surrounding towns, and each family was happy to maintain a boy by giving food one day a week or a shabes. Those who were not able to offer food one day, because they themselves were hungry, took in a boy to sleep, just to have the mitsve.

The kheyder “Or Torah” of the “Mizrakhi”

The laborers of Ostrovtse never had enough to eat but every day before dawn they hurried to pray together in the bes–medresh and often they took time to add a few chapters of psalms. The same thing happened in the evening, after freezing a whole day in the market, trying to earn a few groshen. These were men such as the wagon driver, porter, water carrier, or even the tailor, shoemaker and other craftsmen after a day of work went to the bes–medresh for the afternoon and evening prayers. Afterward to sat a the tables where they studied “Ayn yakov”, “Orekh Khayim” or even the page of the day. Each one had his group and each group had its table where they studied together every evening.

When a magid [itinerant preacher] came to town to give a lecture in the old bes–medresh or the big shul, everyone came to hear the sermon and everyone

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scraped together their last few groshen to toss into the plate for the speaker, who stood by the door. Often the laborers did not have money to buy a piece of bread or a few rolls and milk for the children. But they told themselves, “God will provide tomorrow”.

Shabes morning all the study–houses, and the big shul were stuffed with laborers and craftsmen who had thrown off the weekday–ness and were now free to pray were reciting psalms with enthusiasm. Beyond the study houses and the big shul the Hasidic prayer rooms were overflowing.

Poor children studied in the big Talmud–Torah for free. Yellow Osher from Bodzekhov was a teacher there. The children there also learned to read and write Yiddish and Polish, and arithmetic. The Talmud–Torah was in the middle of town, by the market, in the Vakhnes bes–medresh, so that it would be close to the poor Jewish children. The headmaster of the Talmud–Torah was R' Meshele Orenshteyn (R' Meyshe Henekh's) and the assistant headmaster was R' Yisroel Guterman) Marme Beylis). The teachers were misters Elieyzer, Shimeon Mordkhay, Leybl the yellow, Khayim Binyumin and Itshe Mayer.

The Talmud–Torah began by teaching the alphabet with the elementary teachers and went up to Talmud with commentaries. When one graduated from the Talmud–Torah one generally went to the yeshive “Bes yosef”, which consisted of a small yeshive and a larger one. Besides that, there were another dozen kheydorim in town with very good teachers who studied privately with students from families of means.

Pity the beauty that lies buried in the ground, pity those who are lost and will never be found.

After the Russian revolution of 1917, numerous yeshivot that existed in Soviet regions, were placed in a difficult position, because the government forbad any religious activity in areas under their jurisdiction. The leaders of religious Judaism therefore decided to move the yeshivot and the thousands of young male students who studied there, to Poland, where the yeshivot would then be relocated, and where the greatest concentration of Jews in the world existed.

The first yeshiva that was moved to Poland was that of the moralists, and was situated in Novordok, Polisyah, on the border of the USSR. The yeshiva was called “Bet Yosef”, named after the lauded head of the yeshivah, Rabbi Yosef Yivyazil. After this trial, that succeeded beyond expectations, many branches of this yeshiva were opened in various Jewish centres in Poland, first in areas of Lithuania and Polisyah and afterwards in congressional Poland, as far as Warsaw, the capital.

One day, a group of about 20 young men from a yeshiva in Russia arrived in Ostrovtzah, and at their head, were two young students - Reb Yisrael Rozenberg and Reb Mordechai Simanovitz. As soon as they arrived, the people of the town ran to the courtyard of the prayer house, where the group of yeshiva students were located, to see the “strange” guests. They had never seen anyone like them. What captured the attention, mainly, was their attire, that looked more like the attire of a Russian farmer, than the traditional dress of the Jews of Poland. Instead of the “Jewish hat” that was a sign known to all the Jews of congressional Poland, the young men who were visiting, wore Polish hats, with long peaks, or brimmed hats, that were regarded among the Jews of Poland, as Gentile clothing. Instead of the long “Kapotte” [long coat traditionally worn by religious men] of the Jews of Poland, the men wore short coats, from which protruded the four long tassels of their undergarment, that all reached to their knees.

The group consisted of exceptional students but most remarkable among them were three who proved to have great expertise in the Talmud and as a Beit Din. They were: Tzvi Charsonar, Isser Zvanker and Yitzchak “with a scar on his face”. These three students were called the “eternal triangle” by the people of the town. They took an active part in the administration of the yeshiva and were regarded as central to it. They also excelled in their powers of persuasion, and their talent of sermonizing from the pulpit in the synagogue, brought the Jews of the town in their masses, to listen to their sermons from

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The preparatory class of Yeshiva “Bet Yosef”

The integration of the yeshiva into the lives of the residents of the town was perfect. The manner in which the yeshiva students recited psalms and taught ethics, aroused enthusiasm among them all, and with their passion, they stole the hearts of the many Jews who were present in that place. Very soon, the yeshiva turned into the centre of religious life in the town. If there was a person among the Jews in the town who was seriously ill, and needed prayer from God, they turned to the yeshiva, donated sums of money for charity, and lit candles - and all the students of the yeshiva ceased to study and began to recite Psalms, ending with a “mi sheberach” for the sick person. After reciting these psalms, that were said with exceptional fervour, so much so that they became entranced, and everyone was convinced that if salvation would come to the sick person, behold, it would not come from Avremtshe the male nurse, and not even from the doctor, Dr. Vachudler, but from Hershl Charsonar and the students of his yeshiva.

In the early period, the leading members of the community found it difficult to maintain the yeshiva, where more than half of its students came from the surrounding areas. The First World War that had recently ended, had impoverished the Jews of the town, who, even before that, were not particularly wealthy, but despite that, they made an enormous effort to satisfy the students with food and clothing. The special committee that was established for this need, imposed the idea upon the more established members of the community, to “adopt” for themselves, young men from the yeshiva, and to provide them at least, with lodging. The women of the town, mainly from the middle class, undertook the responsibility of laundering and repairing the clothes of the students. They wanted to contribute their share to the combined effort of the Jews of the town, to sustain the yeshiva that brought glory to the name of the town, in the entire vicinity. After a few years, when industry developed in the area, and the factory in the town increased the number of workers, and began to work in three shifts, the situation of the Jews of the town improved, and as a result, the situation of the students of the yeshiva, improved as well. The established members of the community invited them to have meals at their tables and sometimes, particularly on the Sabbath, the demand for the young men who were in need, increased, and the Jews of the town fought for the privilege of taking a yeshiva student home as a guest for the Sabbath meal.

In fact, there was also another reason that the Jews

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After a few years, a dispute broke out between the two heads of the yeshiva – Reb Yisrael Rozenberg and Reb Mordechai Simanovitz, regarding the method of administering the yeshiva. Reb Yisrael was opposed to the system that was founded by Rabbi Yisrael from Salant, that was based on challenging existing laws without resolve and “climbing the walls” [in search of solutions]. He wanted to adopt the system used in the yeshivot of Lithuania, such as the yeshivot of Radin and Mir, that were more humanitarian, more practical, and less disconnected from normal life. In this dispute, Reb Yisrael was at a disadvantage and was compelled to leave the yeshiva of “Bet Yosef” and move to the nearby village of “Stashuv”, where he founded a new yeshivah together with one of the young men of the “eternal triangle” – Yitzchak “with the scar on his face”. Over time, Reb Yisrael was appointed Rabbi of Stashuv and Reb Yitzchak became leader of the yeshiva, in his place.

After the departure of Rabbi Yisrael, Reb Mordechai remained the only leader of the “Bet Yosef” yeshiva in Ostrovtzah. He carried out his task faithfully, for as long as the yeshiva existed, until the destruction in the days of the Nazis.

At the time of the first deportation of the Jews of Ostrovtzah by the Nazis, Reb Mordechai, who had been childless for 10 years, hid together with his only daughter in the attic of Henye's house in Drildzsh street. The Germans discovered his hiding place. They separated adults who were fit for work, from the children who were destined to be sent to Treblinka. Reb Mordechai did not want to hand over his daughter to the German murderers and hid her under his coat. The S.S. people who found her, were compelled to remove her by force from his hands and murdered her in front of her father. Rabbi Mordechai spat into the face of the murderers and cursed them. In retaliation, the Nazi animals shot him, and he was killed on the spot.

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