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[Page 128]
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By Yitzhak Levin (Rishon LeZion)
Edited by Dr. Rafael Manory
As in the remaining cities of Eastern Galicia, Sokal was also very active in the various youth organizations. Among the remaining organizations, the youth in Sokal organized a large branch of the “Gordonia” movement, named for A. D. Gordon ז”ל, whose mission was to organize the plain youth into his ranks, to educate and orient them to the realization of a Zionist Halutz (pioneer) objective, that would be properly trained to make aliyah, and to take up a significant role in the building of The Land, in the spirit of the Labor movement in the Land of Israel.
[Page 129]
There was a need for a large number of leaders, to enable the integration of the hundreds of girls and boys that were concentrated in “Gordonia,” and to guide them in an accurate and correct manner. The human resources needed for this role required the drawing of people from the intellectual ranks in Sokal, which was also the case with in the division of the “Hitakhdut” in our city.
Let us remember those leaders who are no longer with us: Tzivia Birnbaum, Hirsch Loifer, the Bach sisters, Chaya Bass, Malka Krantz, and Shoshana Szofrinsky. May the names of those who are still among us in The Land, Benjamin Degani (Kurman), Jonah Beri (Teller), Esther Katz (Linzen), and Yitzhak Levin, be separated for a long life.
There were three sections within the movement:
A – Tzofim (Scouts), B) – Mitorerim (Those who get awake), C) Magshimim (Those who implement), and each section had its leaders.
Thirteen attributes of the movement served as the program of the movement. For example: One of these attributes was the goal of setting aside the means, and not all these means of attaining the goal were legitimate.
At first, the hall of the “Hitakhdut” branch that was used was on Ulica Szlichcika, in the home of Sobel, where each evening all of the groups and their leaders would enter for orientation work. The discussions held were dedicated to various subjects, such as the history of Zionism, the history of the labor movement, literature, and biographies of various personalities such as Herzl, Gordon, Brenner, Borokhov, Nordau and others.
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the “Elisheva” Group, in the first row (right) the two Teller sisters |
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When the discussions were over, group song begun, accompanied by dances of Halutzim, the vibrations of which reached far, far away.
[Page 130]
On Shabbats, the branch broke off to do a stroll outside of the city – to the Wolkowa Forest, and in the forest, in the bosom of nature, the membership used the time to engage in games of their liking.
Here, in the forest, there was an important place for the principles of the “Tzofim,” (Scouts) conducted by the leaders of this youngest section, these being Rivka Grosskopf, Aharon Letzter, Shmuel Luster ז”ל. They tried to imbue in the young girls and boys the principles of the “Tzofim” with the help of games and various tasks involving work. It was in the forest that the general position of the branch was formulated, which had a holiday character, and its impression was substantial among the participants.
The branch stood in contact with the “Gordonia” center in Lvov, from which it drew much inspiration by the visits of central committee members; among those who came to visit were Pinchas Lavon, Yeshayahu Shapiro, Ephraim Heffner, Michael Schwartz and others.
One of the great experiences was the eastern niche that was called the summer settlement, which came into being because of the efforts of the valley committee of Rawa-Ruska under the leadership of the member Gimpel Just. During the prolonged vacation time, hundreds of boys and girls would enter from all the branches in the valley, among them were Tartakiv, Ohnov, Kristianopol, Mosty-Wielki, Radzichov, Kamionka, Witkow-Novy and others.
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[Page 131]
They would go out to one of the villages in the vicinity in order to live and spend a month in the bosom of nature.
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with Joseph Fyvel, Head (sitting on the right) |
The Sokal branch attempted, where possible, to allow tens of children of meager means to leave their impoverished homes for a month, in order to gain some weight. This is what the organized life of the youth was like in Sokal; it was full of substance, hope, even with the noble ideals of making aliyah – to build and be rebuilt themselves, and it is a pity that not all of them were privileged to fulfill the dreams of their youth, and for this we are all sorry.
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[Page 132]
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[Page 133]
By Dr. David Kindler, (Ramat-Gan)
Edited by Dr. Rafael Manory
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For many years, Sokal was a fortress of Hassidism. The community there found itself under the strong influence of orthodox circles, who stood watch over the training of the young generation. This religious education was limited only to the Heder and the Yeshiva, and because of this, the community created the Talmud-Torah as an educational institution for poor children.
Even in the later years, during the attempts of the Austrian King (Franz) Jozef II to form separate schools for Jewish children, orthodox Jewry used all of its power to keep their children out of those schools.
In hindsight, the orthodox leadership in Sokal did not allow any exceptions and therefore made a most strenuous effort to support the Yeshiva in the city as the only and most important educational institution for Jewish youth.
A point of change in the way of life of Jews in Sokal came in the year1905, with the Russo-Japanese War, and the revolution outbreak on Russian soil. The wave of anti-Semitic pogroms drove the Russian Jews over the border – into the territories of neighboring Galicia.
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[Page 134]
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In Russia, where the first grains of “BiLu” had fallen, there were already committed “Hovevei Zion” adherents who came to Galicia, all fired-up Hassidim from the Hebrew Language Revival Center and in their new residence, they became the first pioneers in the renewal of Hebrew language and literature. Among these Russian emigrants that came to Sokal was Yitzhak Bloch, who came from Kishinev, a committed member of “Hovevei Zion,” already infused with a fanatic love for the Hebrew language. Indeed, he held it as his personal responsibility to continue the spreading of Hebrew among the Jewish youth. This did not intimidate the opposing factions from the side of the balebatim (landlords) of Sokal, who suspiciously investigated his contacts with the boys from the Yeshiva and Bet HaMedrash. He began giving Hebrew lessons under very difficult circumstances. [He did this] In great secret, so the orthodox leadership would not catch wind of it, he studied with his pupils using a Hebrew textbook that had a Yiddish-Russian dictionary that he had brought along from Russia. In time, the size of his circle of students grew, but the study of Hebrew still carried a private character and only a few energetic individuals dared to exhibit their understanding of the Hebrew language. [Page 135] It was only in 1907, during the elections to the Austrian parliament, that the national awareness was first awakened among Galician Jewish youth, and Zionism had already penetrated the houses of study and even hacked its way through the walls of the Yeshivas. Accordingly, in Sokal, the rays of a national renaissance [started] to burn and spread its influence, penetrating the walls of generations-long resistance from the Jewish Street.
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The first publicly organized circle for the learning of Hebrew in our city consisted of a group of youth, who found themselves under an idealistic influence from “Poalei-Zion.” Step-by-step, this circle took in a growing number of students and by the end of the First World War, a strong “HaShomer HaTzair” (“The Young Guardian”) organization was established in Sokal, and these Shomrim (“Guardians”), mostly gymnasium students, took upon themselves an intensive study of Hebrew.
After the First World War – in the year 1919 – the mood for learning Hebrew was already so strong in our city, that the previously mentioned leader, Joseph Bloch, saw the need to establish a Hebrew School, at which to that point he was the only teacher.
It was not easy to run a Hebrew School in Sokal. Our city, even in the years after the First World War was a fortress of Hassidism, where Zionism was considered unclean, and fought strongly – and to found a Hebrew and Zionist school under these circumstances, would be a very important accomplishment indeed.
It is regrettable that in the first period of the existence of the Hebrew School the teachers clashed, which had an adverse effect on its development. Bloch went off to America and the school was then directed by a certain Lazar, who also left after a short stay, to Argentina, and the school was taken over by the Hebrew teacher Idem from Gorukhow, who then almost immediately transferred to Lemberg (Lvov), where he took over the post of a teacher in the Tarbut School there. Then, our school was taken over by a Zionist activist from Tartakiv, through the Tarbut -authorized teacher Yudl Grossman, who, with genuine love and ardor carried on with leading the school until the Holocaust overtook the Sokal Jewish settlement. In the year 1941 the Germans shot him and his son in Tartakiv.
The Hebrew School in Sokal was sustained by student tuition, as well as subsidies from the local Zionist committee, and the Merchant's Bank. This cultural school of integrity became highly popular in our city, and continued to develop itself. During the final prewar years, a great part of the Sokal Jewish youth spoke Hebrew to one another. The school already had four classes, in which about 80 students studied.
[Page 136]
The management of the school lay for many years in the hands of the committed activist Herman Weniger, after which it was taken over by David Byk. They had to overcome many difficulties, to secure the continuity of the school, the fruit of a multi-year cultural effort from the Zionist organization in Sokal.
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one of the first Halutzim |
The development of this institution in time, demanded broadening of the school administration, and in the last years before the Holocaust, the following people belonged to the administration: Dr. David Kindler, Yitzhak Kiehl, Yitzhak Birnbaum and Janowczinsky.
The “Mizrahi” organization in Sokal also brought in a Hebrew teacher, in order to found a separate Mizrahi school supported by Mizrahi ideology. The efforts of this writer to unify the two schools encountered opposition from the Mizrahi movement. Unfortunately, this school did not last very long, and despite the high-energy efforts on the part of the Mizrahi adherents to achieve this cultural institution, it had to be closed down due to large deficits.
A few years before the war the “Agudat-Yisrael” in Sokal opened the “Bais Yaakov” school, which also did not last very long.
With the annihilation of Sokal Jewry, our Hebrew School was also destroyed, the so-important national Jewish educational institution in our city.
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