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The entire nation of Jewry, in Israel and the Diaspora, mourns the great and terrifying destruction that befell our brother Jews in all of Europe, and among them our brethren from Tartakov. A sacred responsibility had been placed upon us to eternally preserve the memory of the martyrs and innocents, and to commit to paper all the memories and incidents from the lives of this little community. In our little town no writers or poets emerged who could describe for us everything that the Nazis ימ”ש inflicted upon us. Therefore, there is no choice, and I exert myself in the task and try with my own capabilities to do this by myself, even though I am not skilled enough to do it; it is if an inner eye calls to me from the depths of these martyrs, and I write down everything that I remember of that time, when I first reached the age of awareness, every single detail in the life of the community, whether in an area of collective effort, or the undertaking of a single individual, in order that the memory of the community not be forgotten.

Among the hundreds and thousands of the communities in Europe, Poland and Eastern Galicia, our previously mentioned community also existed. The Great Holocaust did not skip over it. As we are told by survivors, the scions of our town were exterminated in three waves:

During the first wave, on Sunday June 22, 1941, when the Nazis burst into the town, they began with their murderous behavior. In this pogrom they killed about 200 Jews, the elderly, the young, women and children.

The second wave began when the Germans, and those who were their partners in this endeavor, the Ukrainians, created regulations and issued a variety of orders encompassing a variety of aktionen amid the Jews and took out large sections of them (seemingly the non-productive ones) to be sent off to Belzec, whose memory will be an eternal disgrace.

In the third and final wave, they liquidated the community in its entirety and transferred the last of the Jews to the ghetto in Sokal, which was beside Tartakov. There in the ghetto, they were condemned to their final fate like the fate of all Jews: a slow death after a horrible terror until the ghetto was completely liquidated and was free of Jews (Jüdenrein).

The names of the eyewitnesses that saw the abuses of the Nazis and their helpers from the first day of the conquest to the last day of them being driven out by the Soviet Army were: Rosa Oyster, Moshe Fulk^[1], and Zvi Avrass.

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When Was the Community Founded?

I do not have in hand historical documents according to which it would be possible to exactly establish the time of the establishment of our community. I am writing these memories and became very interested in the chronology of the community, and I developed an itch to write. It was not only once that I attempted to do research with the elders of the town who would always be telling stories and legends and various events about the life of the community in early times, but it did not fall to me to reveal anything serious that would bear witness to the community's establishment, so I went out with my late friend Yehuda Grossman, and we walked in the footsteps of our predecessors and we searched among the oldest of the gravestones, and we found one gravestone approximately 300 years old. This was the oldest gravestone we could find. If so, it is possible to establish that the Tartakov [Jewish] community was founded more than 300 years ago. Incidentally, my late friend, the previously mentioned Yehuda Grossman was a Hebrew teacher, and he was murdered along with his first son when the Nazis entered. They were both killed in one day. ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

What those Jews did for a living back then, and how they got there is completely unknown to me. On entering the cemetery, beside the gate, we noticed on a little mound a memorial plaque, and on it was etched in capital letters ‘died in the earthquake,’ and below, a short story written on it, that told of a certain Friday in the year 5534, when they entered the market day [e.g. ‘The Yarid’] that appears to have been always scheduled for a Friday, and all manner of craftsmen, merchants and farmers came there to do business, suddenly an earthquake was heard and a noise ensued, and in this sound a complete family died. It is not known whether they were burned alive or simply died, and because of this, they were buried in one grave, ‘a mass grave,’ placed next to the entrance way, and everyone who entered the cemetery first ran into this marker. Which touched the heart of every visitor who passed by.

Various legends and stories circulated about town concerning the size of the town in olden times. The old people used to tell that there was a time when Tartakov was a big city and their source for this was a Jewish book they found. The name of the writer was on the frontispiece, and in it is written that the City of Sokal was close to Tartakov, and it was from this that they wanted to infer the size of the city. However, this did not convince me, because according to a topographical map, this was not possible, because surrounding all the outside of the town was a swamp, pools of water and mud holes, and it does not make sense that it would be possible to build houses on puddles of water. And, also, I saw no sign of torn down or ancient wrecked buildings that might testify to some sort of settlement in days gone by, all the more since to the north of the town there were several attractive hills outside of where the cemetery was located. This little neighborhood was called ‘Wincia.’ Why? I don't know. Even there, there were no signs of ancient dwellings.

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Where Is Tartakov Found Geographically?

As I have previously indicated, Tartakov can be found not far from Sokal, a center city that was large in all aspects, both in area and population. Tartakov was very small, its entire population consisting of 1,600 people – and among them 1,000 Jews. A wide and paved road led to Sokal, which on two of its sides had deep canals to let water flow down during the rainy season, and beautiful trees that were planted along the length of the way on both sides of the road, as a sort of pretty backbone. And these trees were very tall, and from a distance one could think they were kissing each other. This road also served as a sort of promenade that was called ‘der Sikoler Veg.^[2]’ The people of Tartakov would stroll there in the evenings and nights to get a bit of fresh air that was missing in Jewish homes. On Festival Days, and on the Sabbath, after noon, the young people of Tartakov would go out for a stroll on this road and would engage in political discussions and various other subjects. Around this town there were two towns very close to one another. One was Tartakov, and the other was Tartakoviec, with a rural population that dealt in agriculture and served as a strong economic support to our town. Apart from these close-by towns, there was a large village settlement containing 24 villages, approximately, whose population numbered about 20,000 souls, that were engaged solely in agriculture, and would bring their agricultural surplus into our shtetl for sale in the local market that was owned by the Jews, and then they would provision themselves by buying a variety of their needs in the Jewish stores that they required for their households.

As to the city itself: by contrast to the rundown houses of the Jews, the fortress of the owner of the land who was called ‘Der Poritz^[3],’ stood high and was visible to everyone and from the center, a beautiful palace stood close to the center of the city that belonged to this nobleman Urbanski. This gentile was a very religious Christian, a modest man, kind and of a generous heart. The fortress on his beautiful and magnificent palace covered a gigantic parcel of close to one thousand dunam. It was surrounded by a large fence make of brick and was beautifully whitewashed. It was about 3 meters high, and above it had a roof on both sides made from tin so as not to rust. Apart from this palace there were also a variety of large buildings that served as dwellings for the various servants, and a variety of fruit trees that were brought especially from outside the country that no one ever saw. Around this high wall, whose length was approximately a kilometer, were 2 large and beautiful entry gates. This palace was built by a French architect approximately eighty years before this. This was both a serious and artistic piece of work. The roof edged out and was like a ‘cap’ that slightly covered the top of the roof, and an iron rod was stuck in there and on it a magnetic wire was attached as a guard against thunder and lightning, during the rainy summer days. There were four clocks on each of the sides of the roof, and every hour, the clock would chime and let the hour be known loudly throughout the town. For most of the residents, this clock served as the timepiece of the house, because many houses had no clock at all.

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The parcel of land around which the Jews centered themselves was very small; maybe it was about a half of a square kilometer, and within this tiny parcel, there were 1,000 Jewish souls and the whole town looked like a little ‘ghetto.’ Nevertheless, the configuration of the town was a pretty one, a row of connected houses on all four sides, and in the middle was the ‘marketplace’ also appearing like a fortress. Surrounding it were four gates that were open, and this building was called the ‘Rynek.’ The crowding in these houses was terrible. [There was] no air, insufficient light, and the ceilings were very thick, built from ancient bricks in which each brick weighed approximately 30-40 kg. They were configured in such a way that it was not possible to stand a closet in the middle of such a house. A stranger, coming to the town would wonder at the appearance of the city from the outside, its houses and buildings, and how the local authorities did not do anything to improve the external appearance of the houses. The had a decided indifference about this, and nothing bothered them at all.

This is a suitable place to recollect the ancient building of the ‘Ratusz^[4],’ that stood in the center of the Rynek. The building was very tall, as much as 30 meters in height. Up to a height of 20 meters were rooms and storage areas that served the residents of those that were public servants, and above these rooms it was empty. The roof was built as a sort of arched cap and at the top of the roof was a small flag that had dates etched into both sides, the date of the last reconstruction, and on the second side, the date of the original construction of the building. I believe that this was in a specified year of the 16^th century. The flag always stirred in response to the forces of the winds that blew.

The elders would tell stories and legends about this large building. What made sense was the stories that this building was erected by the Tartars, who centuries ago, invaded Europe. From what can be seen, they had designated Tartakov as a central point for the military command, and because of this they erected this gigantic, tall building that served them as a watchtower from which they could follow the movements of the army of their enemies from a very long distance.

In its time, this building served as a local jail to implement administrative punishment, such as not keeping the street clean in front of the house, in the yard, or not paying the municipal tax on time, and, for other minimal transgressions. Also, on the election days to the Austrian parliament, and Polish Sejm, after the First World War, the building was used to imprison Jewish youth held guilty of suspicious acts by the rulers who were especially opposed to Jewish nationalism and Zionism, and for the illegal distribution of pamphlets. The building became full of a variety of such lawbreakers in the Jewish street. People who were temporarily visiting this town related that this building was completely knocked down, and all that remained was a pile of stone. Apart from this center, there were several neighborhoods – like the location of the synagogue, Bet HaMedrash, which is here most of the community would gather. This area, which was called ‘Die Schul Gasse,’ or ‘Yeneh Gasse,’ was inhabited by most of the poor whose houses looked like neglected cabins. The public bath and rest rooms were located there, as was the bath house--for use by the members of the community. Even the non-Jews would come there to enjoy the use of the facilities, because there was no municipal bath house, and so they enjoyed this because of the Jews. The bath house was piled with wood every Friday and on the eve of Festival Days.

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Not very far from the prayer houses, there was a small brook that swimmers used after the summer rains, and there was a small bridge across the brook, and on Rosh Hashana the Jews would come out of the various prayer houses, and following them were all the Jewish boys and girls, who went to the bridge to observe the ‘Tashlich^[5]’ ritual as was the custom of the place.

The Hasidim of Czortkow and Husiatyn had the custom of performing the ‘Tashlich’ ceremony the day before Yom Kippur Eve, in an entirely different place.

The Jews made a living from the retail trade, such as market stores, textile and all manner of confections. There were a few high-end stores, but they were rare. Among them were also grain merchants, sellers of flour, horses and cattle and a number of coffee houses, also high end. These coffee houses served as a meeting place for the mass of farmers, laborers, and professional drinkers. In the main it was the Christians that drank. Jews drank very sparingly. As you can infer, there were exceptions to this among the Jews as well.

There were several butcher shops that would sell kosher meat to the Jewish populace, that were under the supervision of the local Rabbi, and unkosher meat to the Christians. Among the families of butchers there were also well-to-do families, but the level of their lives was very low, since these people didn't know how to live, and harbored their money, and were subject to their money as if it were an idol. But the rest of them were very tight with their money and earned their bread with great difficulty.

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There were many families that made a living from labor, from specific Jewish trade in such trades as shoemaking, tailoring, carpentry, tin smithing, installing glass and building. These builders knew all aspects of the building process, from laying foundations to the plastering of the walls, construction, plastering, to the construction of ovens for baking bread, and large pots for purposes of heating and cooking. During the winter, these pots would serve as sources of heat to warm the rooms, because it was very cold in the rooms. There were also seamstresses, women who, for pay, engaged in sewing from morning until night in dark and narrow rooms, whose walls were full of mildew and dampness. There were also small bakeries that would bake a variety of goods such as small challahs, cakes and small rolls. There were also houses where black bread was baked, and they would provide this to the surrounding neighbors for the laborers that worked for them. In general, in Jewish homes, it was the homemaker that baked the challahs, rolls and bread and there the food would be cooked overnight so it would be warm in the morning. On the Sabbath, after prayers, when the men of the household returned from the synagogue, they would bless the wine and take out the warm food for the midday meal. This was our custom, and this was the custom of all Jews in Poland and Galicia.

There were farming families. They would plow the fields and used to work the land and there were those that had farmer's beverages, but these were in the minority. When I left Tartakov, the last of the farmers in the town was my grandfather, Asher Gitter. He, and his sons engaged in agriculture, were the only ones left in the town with horses, cows for milk, and all the necessary equipment, from plows to scythes, etc., etc. He would also hire non-Jewish workers because he could not get all the work related to the agriculture processes done by himself. He did not hire Jewish laborers. First, there weren't any, and secondly, they refused on the basis that the pay was too little, but, essentially, they were unfit for this sort of work. Despite all this, my grandfather was established.

Apart from locally established businesses, there were many traders among the Jews, who traded every day of the week in villages where they would buy the produce of the farmers, in exchange for various things they needed. They would load up on the produce that they were able to buy from the farmers and sell to wholesalers in towns larger than Tartakov. This produce was of a variety of kinds, such as grain, flax linen. There were also Jewish jobbers and forest product merchants. Their situations would rise and fall with market conditions.

There was yet another occupation that was dispersed among Jews – the management of orchards of the local landowners. These Jews were expert at this work, and they would cultivate every fruit produced on trees. It was not a bad occupation. These Jews, along with their families would leave their places and would go out to live in tents out in the orchards for the entire summer, and they would guard the fruit until it was picked over the course of 3-4 months in the summer. If they succeeded, so did their good fortune, and if they were not successful then it was bad for them, and not only once did someone lose an eye and a tooth.

It is worth mentioning a number of other occupations found in our town. These were wagon drivers, called [sic: in Yiddish] ‘balegolehs.’ They would bring merchandise from nearby Sokal for all the retailers, and there were among them Jewish people that merchants trusted them completely, and they were very faithful in keeping their word, and would sell off to them everything that they had to them. There were also places for the handling of skins and shoes. There were also two large warehouses for wood to build with. Similarly, they were businesses for making iron and cement, about 3 in the entire town, but only one of them about which it is possible to say he made a living, while the others were not so solid. There was a respectable group that made a living from making hats and furs, and they would be tailors to the farmers and to the Jews. In later years, there were barbers that came to the town serving men and women. There were also poor milk vendors that used to make a living by delivering milk to houses. Apart from this, there were several dairy operations that provided a variety of milk products to the local populace. They would buy the milk from the landowner, and produce the final product in their home, in their own workplaces. These were all the occupations in which the Jews engaged.

The worst [economic] position was that of melamdim who taught in the Heders. They were extremely poor. They did hard labor during the day and at night, attempted to inculcate Torah to Jewish children without once having a respite of vacation or catching one's breath. Even on the Sabbaths they were involved with these objectives. There were children who came to them in their homes and on the Sabbath in the afternoon to learn ‘Pirkei Avot’ from the Rabbi ‘Melamed’ and in the winter they would come to learn how to read the portion ‘Borkhi Nafshi.’ Apart from this, the

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Melamdim on the Sabbath would walk to the homes of the parents of the children to test the children about their studies of the entire week, in front of their parents, and to see and discuss how much progress the child was making, and the parents would melt out of happiness when they would hear that this miraculous child had mastered a ‘page of the Gemara.’ Who could equal them in their happiness?

Every family, by-and-large, had 8-10 children. There were some exceptional families that was blessed with more than 10 children, and it was these families with so many children that lived under terrible conditions. Largely [they lived] in one room without a separate kitchen and without a place to rest, in poverty, and the absence of everything. Despite this they lived, raised and educated their children, worried about procuring food, clothing and a minimal education and married their children off. It was very difficult for the Jews to marry off their daughters, because it was necessary to provide a dowry, and whoever lacked the resources to do so, had his daughter wait to reach an older age.

The happiness accompanying the birth of a male child was accompanied by a variety of special activities. On the eve of the Sabbath, the Shammes of the synagogue went up to the Bima and announced – that the new parents invite the entire congregation to a ‘Shalom Zakhor^[6]’ at their home, and the father had prepared a variety of drinks, for everyone to indulge to their capacity. The day before the ritual circumcision, the school children came to see the newborn in the room set up for this, and they came to the home of the childbearing mother to read the ‘Shema’ and both rolls and candy were distributed to them. At night, which was the night of guarding of the child, several elders came to recite the ‘Shema,’ and the new mother would put a knife in the bed in order to frighten off demons and evil spirits, and in the following morning the members of the father's family would let themselves in, dressed in their Sabbath and Festival Day clothing, and went off to the synagogue to pray. And afterwards the close relatives of the family came and took the child to the synagogue, and the one appointed ‘Sandek^[7],’ would take the boy, and the Shammes would announce ‘Kvatter^[8],’ and the child was then passed from hand-to-hand to all those honored to participate in the ceremony, until finally the Sandek was reached, this being the Rabbi, who would took the boy and sit himself on the Seat of Elijah the Prophet, that was used only for ritual circumcisions. After this ritual was completed, the participants were invited back to the house for a party and mitzvah feast.

When the boy reached the age of 3, the parents wrapped him in a prayer shawl and brought him to the room where the teaching Rebbe taught the very young, and sat the child on the table and he began to teach him the Hebrew alphabet.

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At the age between 4-5 the boy began the study of the Pentateuch in a seat designated for him, beginning with the book of ‘Vayikra^[9]’ and a celebration was set up for the members of the family close and distant, and the children in the Heder in which the boy was being taught. Candy was distributed, and other good things, and the same happened on the occasion of a Bar Mitzvah and a wedding. As is understood, the wedding was conducted with great fanfare in accordance with the means of all the people of the family.

The older people would occasionally tell of a custom in Tartakov, that the entire town and its leaders when the groom came out of the wedding location on the day of his wedding, he and his family would ring the ‘market’ seven times. This custom has been dropped for some time and the actions of the leadership in the wedding ceremony became more limited.

Even a wedding was prepared with attention to every detail. For the most part it would take place beside the synagogue under the open sky, an in the event of rain, indoors in the Bet HaMedrash. The [married] couple were escorted by an orchestra to their home, and guests danced and circled around the couple, and there were couples who excelled at dancing and could excite the remainder of the family into happiness and dance.

Before the wedding ceremony, apart from the immediate family – only the girlfriends of the bride could dance around her. Over by the groom, his friends and family members would sing chapters of The Psalms, and there were young men who would wait for an opportunity or took advantage of one, to prove their skills at singing.

After the wedding ceremony, a ‘Mitzvah Feast’ was arranged for the group, and they then announced the presents that were given to the groom and bride. There was also a custom to invite a jester to amuse the gathering, and in order to inject a spirit of joy into the event.

As I have previously indicated, much of the local population was Jewish, almost 70%. However, control of all the municipal institutions was in the hands of the Christians, because this was the will of the central authorities. If, occasionally, a Jew might be occupying the Chairmanship of the Advisory Council, that had been elected and supported by the general populace, the final decision was not in the hands of the Jews, because the Secretary and other officials of the council were largely Polish Christians. I remember the only Jewish head of the council, the ‘Burgomaster,’ who occupied this position for a number of years. This was R' Aharon Gartl ז”ל, a wealthy man, the owner of much property and a saloon, where he was known and accepted by all the Jewish and Christian populace alike. He was a man of a philanthropic heart, and his hand was open [with donations] to all the needy. The limits of activity of the local council were strictly circumscribed. They looked after filling all of the orders of the central and local institutions. They looked after collection of municipal taxes, the ordering of water-by-water drawers, and their repairs. There was no network to sufficiently satisfy the needs of every household, and every resident used to go alone

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to draw water from the wells using pails, or they would pay individual water-carriers to bring the water to their houses, and these water-carriers would haul the water on a yoke they had on their shoulders. The matter of sanitation by the balebatim was placed with each individual homeowner, who was also responsible for the disposal of garbage and liquid wastes, because, as I have already mentioned, there were no drains and no wells in which to dispose of water waste. The council would give out to all askers a specific report card, regarding identification, honesty, poverty, and the like. The council would make known the requirements for all the orders issued by the central authorities, such as: Active participation in local festivals according to law, and every house was responsible to run up and display the country flags, and those that violated this order were punished. The work of decoration was not from the bottom to the top. The council was elected once every 6 years by the local people. The right to cast a vote was only for balebatim, and whoever did not pay taxes did not have a right to vote. The system of elections was conducted by ancient castes. There were four castes. The first consisted of citizens of a specified amount of means, and spiritual leaders and clergy. I recall that in our caste we had a total of only three merchants, perhaps a fourth. The first was the landowner – Urbanski, the second was the priest, and the third was the Rabbi, and I do not recall the fourth. In the second caste were people of middling means, who paid high taxes of a specified amount. In the third caste were ordinary balebatim, and the fourth were the masses from age 24 and up. Women did not have the right to vote. Each of these castes put up the same number of candidates. What this said was that three citizens in one caste could vote for 6 candidates, like the hundreds of voters in the fourth caste. As is understood, those who were elected always did what was the will of the central and regional authorities. No appointed or elected Jew would dare to cross the will of the regional and central authorities or oppose the word of a senior official of the government.

I can recall elections of this kind [taking place] fifty or more years ago, when there were no political parties, neither in the Jewish nor the Christian communities. By and large the basis was a personal or family one: more accurately in our language we were ‘family clans’ regarding the local elections. The national elections to the Austrian Parliament or the [Polish] Sejm was done politically and with partisanship. I recall that elections to the Austrian Parliament took place in 1911, by which time political candidates appeared, and the struggle in the Jewish and Christian streets took on a distinct political cast. The Jewish candidate that appeared before us, from the Zionist camp, was Shmuel Rapoport, a popular Jewish man, who had a dignified appearance, and had come to expound propaganda for his own benefit. The common people among the Jews were inflamed by him, and his dignified appearance, and his modesty, but many including the Rebbe and the Belz Hasidim who had a considerable influence among the Haredi Jews did not permit him to speak in the Bet HaMedrash, and he was compelled to speak in one of the wrecks of the city, a very ordinary place, and the simple Jews streamed there to hear his speech. He spoke to the Jewish heart and soul, such that a closeness of the heart developed between him and the masses that had come to listen to his speech. There was another candidate that was supported by the Belz Rebbe. This was an assimilated Jew named Tinhaus. He was received respectfully by the Rebbe and his Hasidim, and they opened the gates to the house of prayer for him. He spoke in Polish, a language that most of the crowd did not understand as to his purpose and will. The contest was a sharp one, but there were also not few who voted for ‘redemption by a pretty coin,’ simply, they paid for a ‘voice’ with the provision of food and drink. As it turned out, there was not any movement [to create] a Labor political party all year long, except for a scattering of single Jewish men, here and there, these were people that had an international political and Zionist understanding. These first buds of a political movement began to appear and get organized only after the First World War.

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Initiatives of the Community

In the ambit of the community, it was the Rabbi and the well-to-do leadership that led the work. According to the law that was promulgated by the government in Vienna in 1867, Jewish communities began to organize themselves in every town (that is, where the Jews reached a certain level of population). The ambit of the small communities was very limited, and especially, these constrained their activities in three areas: The rabbi, she synagogue, the cemetery, and, separately, the bath house. The expenses and income of the community were overseen by the regional government. Every year, a senior official would come who would review the budget and special storage facilities were set up for these funds. The community was headed by a President that was elected by secret ballot, during the first sitting after the general elections.

The income of the community was built on levying a tax on kosher slaughter. These revenues barely were able to cover the Rabbi, and the local slaughterers. The franchise for running the bath house was allocated to the community. However, in reality, the franchise was leased to a specific individual for a set salary.

The franchise for the synagogues and their maintenance was levied on those who worshiped there. The same was true of community institutions that we designated as a ‘Hevra,’ where membership was at the discretion of the individual and not a responsibility. Examples are: ‘Hevrat Bykur Kholim,’ ‘Hevra Lina,’ ‘Hevra Kadisha,’ ‘Hevra Shas-u'Mishnayot,’ and book repair. The sole financial responsibility was the payment by a participating member of a weekly or monthly stipend paid around the year. In general, on Saturday night after the Shabbat of Simchat Torah, all the members of the previously mentioned institutions would come to the home of their respective Gabbai or to the Bet HaMedrash. The Gabbaim in question would provide whiskey for drinking, and a repast for a ‘Melaveh Malkeh.’ And the Head of the Gabbaim would present an accounting over the goblet of the changing year and make public the income and expenses to review by the auditors, after which, a new Committee would be elected for the coming year.

I recall the minutes taken by ‘Hevrat Lina’ brought into being and founded by 1) Meir Glazer, a Jewish carpenter by trade, but thoroughly grounded in Tanakh, Commentaries and Eyn Yaakov. 2) Yaakov Mordechai Krantz, a merchant by trade, a well-respected man, knowledgeable in Writings, Shas and the Poskim.3) Yitzhak Glazer a saloon keeper, and the leader of ‘Teudat Lina’, locally, being thoroughly knowledgeable in Tanakh, knowing it almost by heart. 4) Chaim Back, a baker by trade, one of the simpler of the people, as well. He participated in the ‘Hevra Kadisha’ and was very active as a volunteer. I recall a number of pages from the minutes that were written approximately 80 years ago. According to this writing each member of the Hevra was required to abide by the directions of the Gabbaim. When a member was ordered to go spend the night with an ailing member of the Hevra, no excuses were acceptable such as: Enmity or a place not befitting the dignity of the person asked to go. In exceptional circumstances when he was occupied or not at home, it was possible to pay a specified sum, set by the Gabbaim, and they would then send a man who was paid in his place. And anyone who refused to listen to the modifications of the Gabbaim, after remonstrations and warnings, was automatically dismissed from the Hevra. The Hevra Shas

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consisted of wise [e.g. learned] and God-fearing men, who were focused on inculcating Torah, and the same was true of the ‘Hevra Mishnayot’. The ‘Hevrat Sefarim,’ or the purchase of books, was led by a group of young men who attended the Bet HaMedrash, who would collect a weekly tax from city dwellers earmarked for this purpose. Even on the Eve of Yom Kippur, they would set out platters for donations from all worshipers, and all this income was dedicated to the addition of books to the Bet HaMedrash. The day, on which a Shas set was acquired, was an important event in the life of the community, and a celebration was arranged at the Bet HaMedrash, and the congregation was very happy.

It was the local Rabbi who oversaw education. He would examine the melamdim to whom the children were turned over to study Torah and be educated. Above all, the melamed had to be a very observant Jew, one who observed mitzvot without the indignity of violation, and who was knowledgeable in Torah and knew how to teach. According to his own view, the Rabbi would appoint the Gabbaim of the Talmud Torahs, and they would examine the Hasidim, and would test the children to see if they were receiving the proper education that reflected the spirit that aligned with the spirit of Judaism according to the Torah and Poskim. The community would also concern itself with providing flour for Passover to bake matzot. This activity, as well, was driven by the effort of the Rabbi himself. He would designate the locations where the matzot were to be baked, and he would go to the bakeries to examine if the matzot were being baked in accordance with Torah tradition. The oversight of the ritual laws was very intense. As already said, community life was created out of relationships between the individual and the community within the walls of the Bet HaMedrash. Apart from serving as a house of prayer and a Yeshiva for boys who were learning, it was also a ‘people's house.’ They conducted all community and political issues together. Especially in the winter, when the cold was intense outside, it was hard to move around, and so the Jews knew to come only to the Bet HaMedrash because it was very warm there, and it was possible to meet each one, and whoever came there to study Torah after prayers, found special tables set up for this purpose. An individual engaged in merchandising could also find others touching on this issue, and to engage in mercantile discussions. And, discussions of international Jewish political issues were carried out in this limited space, especially at the time of elections of councils and the Parliament. This house was open all days of the week.

As was passed along from generation to generation, and those that I [personally] remember, these were the exceptional and splendid people of our community. The first was the Rebbe Daniel'tzeh, who was a great Torah scholar, and did not want the benefit of a stipend from the community, and when he occupied the Rabbinical Chai, he made a living with great difficulty. He was a student of the late Rebbe Marufszic ז”ל. He was a poor man and a pauper, who was what you saw, and he inculcated Torah to the children of the local area without charge.

And here are the ones that I knew: Rabbi R' Yitzhak Babad who died before the age of 35, a brother of the Rebbe of Tarnopol, who was renown as a Gaon among the Rabbinate. He would take in a guest at all times. All guests passing through knew the address where they could satisfy their

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hunger…. This was the home of the Rabbi. Even his family continued this tradition after he passed away. He was a Belz Hasid, and was a fanatically religious man, and a sharp foe of Zionism, and even to the Jewish political movements such as ‘Agudat Yisrael.’ But one cannot cast aside his many worthy traits as a Rabbi of the community under his oversight. His wife had a very good personality and love for Israel. R' Nachman Linsker, a very highly respected man, who served as the head of the community for an extended period of time, was knowledgeable in scholarly works, and set time aside for the Torah. He would also share his bread with the poor.

R' Yoss'l Zolkover^[10], a man of a good and generous heart. His hand was open to all. He was very honest and dealt in flour and grain. While not being recognized as a great Torah scholar, he was renown in the town for taking in guests. His wife Bina ז”ל, who spent her day from morning to night feeding those poor that passed through the community. When he passed away, all his books were given to the Bet HaMedrash. He was childless. May his memory be for a blessing.

R' Sholom Grossman was a scholar possessed of a sharp mind who was fluent in Torah, Shas and Poskim. He was a modest man, serving the needs of the community faithfully, who dedicated whole days to Torah and the doing of good deeds. I remember that he and R' Mordechai Rofman, before dawn, would walk among the houses before going to pray, to gather bread for the poor of the shtetl. For carrying the sack of bread there was a Jewish man specifically there to serve that purpose who was called ‘der schmitter treger.’

R' Chaim Moshe'leh Zusman (Chaim Moshe'leh). He belonged to the Czortkow sect of Hasidim. He exuded an excellent and obvious nobility. He proved himself by means of his good deeds and great modesty. A short man, but a big pure Jewish heart resided within him. He was a learned Jew, fluent in Torah, Shas and Poskim. He served as the Rabbi although not appointed to this position. Jews and Christians showed deference to this Jewish man. It would be possible to sat that there was not a grease stain on his clothing and body, a straight and honest man. He separated himself from all matters, celebrations in this world, to dedicate himself to the study of Torah. He was not satisfied with studying Torah by himself, and he set up anyone who wanted to participate solely for the purpose of Torah study. Like all the strictly observant Jews in his time, he objected to every initiative in Jewish life that manifested international Zionist political ideas and aliyah to The Land. It caused him heartache to see many of his students that left, in his view, to a bad culture and were swept into the stream of all manner of movements. I recall that when I parted from him to make aliyah to the Land of Israel, he begged me to give my mother the satisfaction of knowing I put on phylacteries daily. He was daily occupied with the raining of donations to support the poor, and to support those things involved in distributing such charity anonymously. He was the only one amid the Jewish community, before whom the needy that had lost their money, and those who were embarrassed to reveal their difficult situation, it was only him that they trusted. If they didn't, have, or did have something eating at their heart, they would approach R' Chaim Moshe'leh and found an aura in his words, and could pour out the bitterness in their hearts. I was told that when the Germans ימ”ש rounded up the Jews at the time they entered the town, and had them shot to

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death, a German pulled him out of the lineup and did not kill him, saying that it was a pity to kill such a pure Jew. It is understood that he was exterminated with all the Jews in subsequent aktionen.

May his memory be for a blessing eternally.

R' Moshe Schurtz was a man of marvelously regal appearance that was sufficiently evident from the external physiognomy of his face which caused wonder, and it immediately aroused the sense of an honored Rabbi. It was a wonder how clean and polished a man he was. It was not possible to approach this man for a discussion without both internal and external preparation. He was very strait-laced about his dress, such that it was a pleasure to just look at him. Everyone related to him with feelings of respect and affection. He was the type of man who seemed to have emerged from his mother's womb to serve as a spiritual emissary and leader of the community. He was very sensitive and could not stand the national political movements that lifted the simple man from the pile of ashes and spurred them on to demand equal rights in community institutions. He was a forceful and fanatic opponent against Zionism. Anything that even had a whiff of Zionism was thrown away from him, and he would struggle against it until it was destroyed. But together with all this, one cannot detract from him the responsibility which his good and beautiful deeds compelled everyone to do the right things. First, he was the one who served to lead prayer services in the Bet HaMedrash during Festivals and the High Holy Days, and when he prayed from the podium in front of the ark and let out his pleasant and sweet voice in prayer and melody, everyone forgot about everything and just loved him. He would pray from the depths of his heart and nailed everyone to their place, and everyone sat silently and in awe, and listened to his melodies. In my eyes, it appeared as if this were the High Priest when he entered the hall to pray for himself and the Jewish people as their emissary. He served a long time as the head of the community, and as a Jew and a sage, concerned himself that the youth of Jewry not simply wander out idly, and he inculcated them with Torah. I remember when my late father was drafted into the Austrian army during the War, he invited me to his home, and taught me from morning till night, until he was drafted into the army himself. I remember that as early as 4:00 AM in the morning, when I would come to him in his house, he was already seated and learning.

May his memory be for a blessing.

And, again, finally, most beloved Mordechai Rofman that I previously mentioned, a good-hearted Jew, beloved and loveable. I don't recall ever seeing him get angry at anyone else. He would preface meeting a friend of a Jew in general with the blessing ‘tzafra taba.’ He was poor and a pauper his entire life and despite this he did not complain even once about his sordid condition, and received everything with great love, and was content with his lot. On Rosh Hashana towards evening after the Maariv prayers, he was the first to bless those surrounding him with a wish for a ‘happy holiday’ and a ‘Khatima Tova.’ There was never a time when anyone would manage this blessing ahead of him. He was an enlightened Jewish man who looked after the poor, a good and trustworthy friend, committed without leaving anything out.

His memory is to be blessed.

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Truly I will transgress if I completely skip over the simple people, among whom there could be found good Jews on all days of the year who even though they were not students of the Torah, and not Hasidim of ADMo”Rs of their liking, but they were good-hearted Jews, and possessed a Jewish soul, and were pained by the pain of paupers, and shared their bread with them. Let me call out one Jew amongst them by the name of Moshe Dricker, who himself was impoverished and poor, and suffered from deprivation and want for his whole life, and despite this, he found it necessary to go among the Jewish houses to gather foodstuff to distribute among the poor who were hungry and sick. I remember one winter in 1929, that was a severe and hard winter, intense freezing, this previously mentioned Jew took a winter wagon (sled?) That he had put together himself and went to solicit wood for those poor Jews who were freezing from the cold.

His memory is to be blessed.

Until the outbreak of this war, the Jews in our shtetl were sunk in a sleep. They had no idea what a war was all about, because over the course of decades they did not remember that a war had broken out between Austria and other nations. I remember on the night of Tisha B'Av, August 4, 1914, all the Jews from the ages of 21-42 were drafted, some to guard the borders nearby, and some to the front in Serbia. It was on every one's heart that some major ‘catastrophe’ was drawing near. Suddenly entire families were left without their only wage earner, families of 8-10 children that had no means to support themselves.

About three weeks later, the Russian Army broke through and we suddenly found ourselves to be Russian citizens. The economic situation was generally bad, there being nothing from which to derive sustenance. Already from the time of the invasion, there were incidents of plunder and robbery. I recall that on the second day after the Russian invasion, the senior officer of our general unit who was holed up in a ‘palace.’ The deputy to the head of the council explained to him that there was a prohibition against the sale of strong drink to the soldiers, and that if anyone was caught doing so, he would be hanged. The soldiers did not heed his words and began to infiltrate the cellars of the Jewish saloons and drank themselves drunk and were seized and brought to justice. About 3 weeks after this on 17 Elul, on the day I started to put on phylacteries on the day of Bar-Mitzvah, a clutch of Cossacks began to make merry. The first thing they did which was done to several elderly women that sat on stands and sold fruits nothing, and in their sight, they turned over the boxes and spread [the contents] all over the road and began to plunder. Three Cossacks mounted on their horses reached the Bet HaMedrash, the place where Jews were standing and praying, and began to peer into the Bet HaMedrash, first, a bit apprehensively, but a little bit at a time came in and demanded money, watches, and the Jews began to burst out and jump from the windows to flee. And I, the one in danger, stood on one bench, and out of fright, I cried over the bitter fate that had befallen me, and exactly on my Bar-Mitzvah Day, and I also fled through a window, I jumped and looked around. But before this, I was able to see how one Cossack together with his drawn sword in hand approached the late Aharon Krantz who had found for him a watch that Moshe Shuar Tz had given him, and the Cossack continued to threaten him with his sword, and

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out of excess anger he lowered his sword and stabbed him at the top railing of the bima that stood at the center of the Bet HaMedrash, and the sign of that cut remained to the end [of the war?]. In the afternoon, another number of Cossacks emerged from the ‘palace’ where they had scented themselves with hard liquor and then wandered through the town as drunkards, and every Jew they encountered was struck with mortal blows, after which they took several Jews and stood them in a row to kill them. In the end they fled, and satisfied themselves with the cutting off of beards, and additional beatings, and sent them home. After this, they opened Jewish stores and took out the merchandise from them, and divided them up among the Christians that had gathered in the shtetl to participate in the plunder and ruin, and shared this labor with them, and showed them where the houses of the better-off Jews were, with the goal to plunder them as well, and they did not refrain from sexually assaulting Jewish women. I remember this incident very well, and it will remain etched in my memory to my last day. Let it be noted that one needs to praise those few farmers from the close by villages, who were not Jewish, that gave cover to the Jewish daughters that fled the shtetl and looked for a place in their houses to hide from the Cossacks. But most of them participated in the plunder of the stores of the Jews. The Jews lived beset by panic. They did not know what to do. They presently came to know that their lives were worthless, and there is no one to protect them in a time of trouble. To our good fortune, it appears that the gentiles first seized the poor, who can be plundered freely, because it was frequent that the keepers of the law of the Austrian Office will seize them and throw them in jail and this was the luck of the Jews, because, personally, they feared the Russians. A short number of days after this incident, the local police arrived and restored some order. A local chief was appointed, and order was restored to its normal state. After some time, the Russians began to construct barracks for their troops in close by places and drafted Jews to do this military work, and kept them busy with a variety of jobs, in exchange for a set salary, and the Jews began to sense a return to a normal spirit, if minimally so. There were also Jewish craftsmen who earned handsomely and were able to support themselves respectably. That was true until the Russian troops began to retreat from Galician territory. As a result the large offensive of the Germans and Austrians was stopped, and they returned home. The fighting began beside our shtetl and went on for about two months approximately. Every day the wounded and the dead were brought to us from the front. All public buildings, such as the school and the houses of people uprooted from their place, were refurbished as hospitals. Every day, wounded soldiers died. They were taken by wagon to the Christian cemeteries in hordes.

Many the wounded were bedded down in Jewish homes without medical attention, medicines, and as a result a plague of the sick (?) broke out among the Jews that caused many to fall and die, and this continued until the Austrians entered the shtetl.

When the Austrian Army returned and captured our place, they began to draft those remaining home, and the shtetl remained bare except for the elderly, women and children, and those not capable of participating in the military at all. Children remained without education, their fathers were in the army, and there was no one to keep an eye on them and it was not only one that strayed into wrongdoing, but this was also the tail end of the condition that manifested itself in all the areas, beginning with the economic sector and ending with the educational sector. Everyone that did remain at their home worried about himself personally and his family, and the children wandered among the

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soldiers, and as usual it was difficult to get a good education among soldiers The front grew closer to the town, and there were camps of soldiers within in it, and around it. Hospitals were erected in the middle of the town, and the medical staff of the army began to get concerned about cleanliness, since the sanitary conditions largely did not keep up. The head doctor of the Army began to go from house to house and examined whether all the sanitation processes were being followed, and if he saw something that fell below standard, he arranged for a meeting with the prominent members of the community, and also the heads of the general populace in that place, and they discussed the sanitation issues, especially the sanitation conditions of the Jews.

The Russian Revolution, and the dissolution of the rule of the house of Habsburg, both consequences of the First World War, brought fresh troubles for the Jewish people, and on their wings, they brought along powerful changes in their lives.

The Russian Revolution and the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy, in whose wake the rule of the Czar was shaken up and torn down, destroyed the standing of famous Russian Jewry. – It raised the question as whether this Jewish community could survive.

On the second side, after the dissolution of the Austrian monarchy, heavy clouds covered the skies of Galician Jewry. Nations arose on the wreckage of Imperial Austria that wanted to build their own country in its place. At first, the Ukrainians seized a large stretch of Eastern Galicia and set up their government. As is understood, the first victims were the Jews, subjected to endless harassment and pogroms, especially the small cities and towns, and Tartakov was among them. Also, the Poles, who came to drive them out, did not spare the Galician Jews any suffering and harassment – but a spark of hope lit the somber skies, and this was the ‘Balfour Declaration,’ and the strengthening of the Zionist movement.

The following headed the Zionist movement in Tartakov, and spread its ideology, and who committed the entire fire in their hearts: Yehuda Grossman, Israel Friar and Israel Linsker, הי”ד and Yaakov Gartel, separated for long life and found with us in The Land.

The progress of the Zionist movement on the Jewish street ran into strong opposition from the Hasidic side and its Rebbes – nevertheless, little by little the hand of the Zionists was higher.

In those days, various [political] parties were established in Tartakov. ‘HaTekhiya’ was organized and created, with the intention of embracing all the Zionist parties. During this time cells of every movement arose, each party separate. General Zionists, Hitakhdut, HaMizrahi, and a covering organization of all the parties that was called ‘Va'ad Makom^[11]’ that oversaw all the Zionist initiatives, being under their control. Among other things, there was the collection of money for the KK”L, the sale of [lottery] tickets, initiatives for the election to the Congresses and work aimed at culture and education in this location. From time to time, each party would get a visit from the central office in Lvov, a lecturer from each youth group without exception would come to hear

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and discuss various issues. The efforts in community affairs, and the relationship of the party to it, were set down in accordance with decisions of the ‘Local Zionist Council.’ The youth and the community did not limit itself only to their own party concerns, but took a stand also in other areas such as philanthropy, etc. In the years 1921/22 the Jews in America, using the facilities of the ‘Joint,’ sent support to the Jews of Poland in general, and to the Jews of Tartakov. To accomplish this goal, a council was set up that dealt with this aid. They would send various items of help and for this purpose a storage and people's kitchen facility which would distribute meals to the needy. Yaakov Gartel and the late Isaac Guz headed this council. They dealt with these sorts of issues until 1922, and afterwards, this support was discontinued because there was no one to take these gifts. For shame!

In the years 1925-1927 when the condition of the working class among Jews was difficult, and there was no possibility to obtain a loan to continue doing their business, and they didn't have customers to buy things, or craftsmen to retain – even the retail storekeepers, jobbers, and also those who were fruit pickers were in need of loans – it was only then by virtue of the efforts of our comrade Hersch Krantz, Mordechai Waldman, Yehuda Grossman, Israel Linsker, was a committee established, that began to collect money for the purpose of helping the needy, which was called ‘Kupat Halvaot^[12]’ – without any interest to the needy, which were repaid with semi-weekly payments. The ‘Joint’ participated in this, and for every gulden that was collected locally, they would add two gulden. It was in this manner that the institution was established with foundation capital of the first 500 gulden, and the ‘Joint’ added 1000 gulden and the initiative began to gain momentum, and was depended, as you understand, on most of the residents of the community. At the founding meeting, the members who established this timely institution were elected. Hersch Krantz was selected to be Head of the Committee, and Israel Linsker as the director of the institution. Mottl Waldman (who passed away in Brazil) was selected as the Secretary, and Joseph Adler as the Treasurer. The initiatives of the institution were carried out to the will of the entire membership and enlarged its holdings from year to year until it attained capital in excess of 10,000 gulden. As the writer of this memoir, I was privileged to be one of the activists of the outstanding traditional initiatives of this institution. When I was getting ready to leave the town, I was compelled to leave behind my now deceased friend Hersch Krantz who invested so much energy and work to make sure the goals were achieved, and to raise it to a strong and serious level, and was ultimately forced to leave it despite his good will, and the institution was turned over by compromise between the various sides to other trustworthy hands, and because of this, it was agreed that the Member Judah Grossman would take over as Head, and with him, the members Joseph Adler and Abraham Sztumfeller. It is also necessary to note the blessed effort of our member Hersch Krantz in another area, no less important and serious from an economic standpoint. Along with the help of the central Gemilut Hasadim, he exerted himself to create a fund for the purchase of dairy products which were distributed among Jewish retail merchants, whose incomes showed signs of falling, because of the economic ban instituted by certain Ukrainian political parties who began to organize an independent economic initiative. As you can understand, the first of these initiatives was directed against the Jews and the old timeworn

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motto that was publicized (free Ukraine and don't buy from the Jews) was implemented with full force. The Jewish merchants who were used to go to the villages to buy all sorts of village produce, slowly but surely were driven out from the villages, and those Jews who lived in these villages for centuries were forced to leave because of this economic pressure, such that the situation went from bad to worse from day-to-day. It was then that the support institutions began to act with energy, and come to the help of these Jews, and because of the effort of our member Hersch Krantz, dairy products were vigorously purchased , in set amounts, from the local Jews, and they were able to earn something of a living from selling milk, and dairy products, and these people literally opened this issue up, and with small payments began to return the sums for the produce, and in a short amount of time, took possession of these cattle. This was an initiative that was solely the work of Hersch Krantz, may his name be remembered for a blessing.

When I left Tartakov and made aliyah to The Land, I remained in letter correspondence with them, and they would keep me informed of all their undertakings, until the war broke out, and then, as you understand, all these initiatives came to a halt, when the area was first captured by the Russians, and after two years by the Germans. From that time on, I have no clear news regarding the life of the Jews in Tartakov, except for brief glimpses that were relayed to me by survivors of the Holocaust, who related their memories to me separately.

Along with the rest of the people of Israel, I bitterly mourn the great loss when so large a community from the heart of the Jewish people was exterminated, giving their lives in purity and martyrdom.

May their memory be eternally preserved in our hearts, as long as we have a breath of life.

1. Possibly ‘Falik.’ Return
2. The road to Sokal. Return
3. A ‘Poritz’ is the Hebrew word for a nobleman, which was adopted into Yiddish with no alteration. Return
4. The City Hall, or Municipal Building. Return
5. An annual Jewish custom on the Jewish New Year of casting crumbs of bread into the water to ‘wash away sins.’ Return
6. A festive get-together to celebrate a happy occasion. Return
7. The one who holds the baby during circumcision and considered a great honor. Return
8. Equivalent to a Godfather Return
9. The Book of Leviticus (following Genesis and Exodus). Return
10. Indicating that he came from Zolkiew Return
11. The local council. Return
12. The Loan Bank. Return

Dedicated to my Father Yehoshua Linsker
And my Mother Zippora Who Were
Exterminated in the Sokal Ghetto

I left the shtetl where I was born in the year 1925, and from then, by thousands of strands I remain connected to the town where I was educated and spent my childhood years. I will try to probe the source of what occurred during the years of my childhood: details, the experiences of the shtetl's life, the types of people worth viewing, the people that stood out that were the catalysts to the organization of the Zionist ideal. [I will address] the establishment of ‘HeHalutz,’ and its membership and economic life. As was the case in all small towns, the life of the membership centered about the Bet HaMedrash and the Synagogue. The Jews would come to the Bet HaMedrash,

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and apart from prayer, a chapter of the Mishnah and a page of the Gemara, they assessed what was being talked about in the town. They managed during the winter months by meeting behind the large sooty oven. They dealt in commerce, politics, and ordinary matters of minimal concern. I paid special attention to Aharon Hirsch Dricker, a short man, of irregular features, red cheeks, wearing a white beard, and ever happy. He too, was among those who sat behind the oven. God forbid, he did not tell of things that were of minimal concern, rather he recited Tehilim from memory. From time-to time- he would snatch a conversation with an impoverished guest who was passing through. He was one who invited guests, and literally shared his bread with them. R' Aharon Hirsch supported himself through manual labor. He would print lines on linen for the farmers. He would traverse the villages and earned his bread through hard work. He would feed and lodge the poor in his own home which was limited in size.

I remember the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 as if I was in a dream. I was eight years-old and was a student in the Heder of the melamed called ‘The Red Aharon’ from Sokal. This Heder was in the ‘Tailor's Synagogue.’ Several of us young boys entered the Bet HaMedrash and pasted up an announcement above the Holy Ark: ‘This banner is for the Land of Israel established by England.’ – On the Sabbath the distinguished members who sat beside the eastern wall, R' Moshe Schurtz, R' Sholom Grossman, the Rabbi and Bet-Din Senior, and each spoke about why this banner should be taken down. An argument ensued, ‘the Zionist’ a nickname given to Yehuda Grossman, Israel Linsker, and Yaakov Gartel filled the Bet HaMedrash with shouting and untowardly noise. Approximately at that same time, a Hebrew school was established, where the guiding spirit again was Grossman ‘The Zionist.’ In stepwise fashion, groups came together from all around to ‘The Zionist,’ from the ranks of the Bet HaMedrash, and this was how the Zionist membership continued to grow.

Here are a few assessments about the character of Yehuda Grossman. He came from the shtetl of Stroyanov, studied Hebrew, and his first steps [in writing] were Volkovysk in style. He learned while in poverty, worked at various trades, and intermittently in the cultivation of gardens. And yet he was able to attract friends, he spoke with passion and knew how to arouse his listeners. He excelled at exceptional dedicated study, and it was in this way he achieved prominence first in Tartakov and afterwards he transferred over to Sokal.

With the spreading of the Zionist ideal, a passion arose among the members of the Bet HaMedrash to learn and become enlightened. Spontaneously, they began to sign Volkovysk letters of praise for [the study of] Hebrew, Polish and German. The one who led the gathering of the signatures was Moshe Lejzor Greidinger, who was knowledgeable and scholarly. They began to study and review the ‘Gemul.’ It was told that they continued to write Volkovysk letters, so in the attic, and other sequestered places, etc. About the same time, the ‘Der Verein^[1]’ club was established. Here, part of the secular young people who had left the Bet HaMedrash would gather, and get involved with the collection of money, the sale of lottery tickets etc.

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The ‘Gordonia’ youth group was established. Lejzor Lantin sunk a lot of energy into this. I followed the nature of the opening and development of the branch outside of our town. The same thing happened with the ‘Akhava’ youth group. As to the ‘Hitakhdut’ branch, there the activities of organization, orientation included almost all the town's youth. Among its people, the member Koppel Kerem stood at the head, and to be separated for long life, Yaakov Gartel and Avraham Rubinstein. The branch excelled in fund-raising, and among others in the Arlozorov initiative. At the beginning of my writing, I mentioned people that stood out in our town, and I will try to recollect them in the areas of Enlightenment, religion, membership and activities, etc. A dear man lived, a neighbor of our daughter, a philanthropist and taking in of guests, R' Joseph Zolkiewer, a childless man with a long white beard, one eye always half closed and a thin smile on his face. He was involved with matters of charity and doing of good deeds. R' Joseph was in the business of selling flour, supported his family honorably, and helped all who were needy. His house was open to all paupers and poor, especially emissaries sent from the Holy Land. I can recall that his wife, Bina, not only once showed me the souvenirs: Hadassah for spices, and pictures: the Western Wall, the Grave of Rachel, and not only once did I put my ear like a receiver, to thirstily drink in the words of the emissaries so sent, and it was from then on that I absorbed a love of the Land of Israel within me.

The second person in this tier was R' Moshe Schurtz. He was a man of dignified appearance, a scholar and knowledgeable. He knew how to wage a strong war against the atheistic ‘Zionists.’ The Rabbi, who was able on the side to write ‘Kol Koreh.^[2]’ was a man of wisdom and opinion. In addition to this, he had both a sweet and very emotional voice. On the High Holy Days, when R' Moshe Schurtz put on his kittl and recited the ‘Hineni’ prayer – the very thresholds trembled. Also, a childless man, he was active in community affairs, and a confidante of the Rabbi who was the Bet-Din Senior.

I bestow a special honor, an honor rooted in admiration on R' Chaim Moshe'leh, who like his predecessors was childless. He would wander alone and go lost in the noise of the Bet HaMedrash, hoping he might find someone from who would know how to reveal the secret to the life of Moshe'leh Chaim. It is not only once that I conjure up the image of Chaim Moshe'leh, a short man, who would wander about the Bet HaMedrash between afternoon and evening prayers and collect money for charitable causes. And who did not respond graciously to Chaim Moshe'leh?

R' Avigdor Freier was an enlightened man from a European school, saturated with German and Polish literature, knowledgeable in Talmud and the ancient writings. He lived for newspapers and books. I can still recall how he stood in his store behind the counter, always immersed in reading a newspaper. Surrounding him were Yehuda Grossman and others. When they were stumped by some foreign word, they would come to ask his advice. Not once did I wonder how this fit in with reading literature, and books of philosophy, especially in the case of being beside the Rabbi and Bet-Din Senior, who prayed passionately during the Shmoneh Esrei, rocking back and forth. Among the Enlightened it made no difference, he was a Jew within your tent, and a man when exiting. Young people admired and timidly honored Avigdor Freier. The Zionists embraced him and thought to him as a supporter of Zionist ideals. The leaders of the community thought of him as a man of advice and wisdom.

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The Linsker Family

I have lauded R' Yitzhak Glazer, for his knowledge of Tanakh, remembering each sentence, knowing most of the sayings uttered in Hebrew. He was a scholarly man, and very perceptive. I can recall when I was a student of R' Eli Melamed, who lived in the same house, not once did he stumble over a word or a difficult sentence in the Book of Isaiah. It was R' Yitzhak Glazer who buttressed him and kept him out of all quandary. Not once did he say: ‘Eli – use only the Rashi commentaries,’ and Eli would reply: ‘He leaves me standing in the middle.’ ‘No problem,’ he would say even Rashi himself says: ‘I do not know what this means.’

I paid special attention to Yuk'ehleh Shokhet's, a man with an open mind with his own thought up front. I was astonished how a person like this could construct worlds, and with only the use of his own mind.

Let me also recollect R' Nathan Koppel's, that sharp mind, and he especially excelled in arguing the laws of the Torah as they regard a person and his counterpart, and in financial matters. It was not only once that I passed the house of the Rabbi and heard the argumentative voice of Nathan Koppel's.

And last, but dearest, is the Rabbi and Bet-Din Senior. A very observant man who follows the

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tradition of the Hasidim of Belz, a Torah scholar and a God-fearing man, these are the measures of his character. It seems to me that he had a leaning to ‘Agudat Israel,’ because periodically he would peek into their newspapers, but the influence of Belz deterred him from taking a political position. He excelled in performing good deeds. He inculcated Torah to the masses, and especially to the youth in the Bet HaMedrash. The door to his home was wide open to all poor and wanting people. The Rebbetzin was a stalwart in the invitation of guests. The Rabbi was surrounded by Hasidim from Belz.

On Saturday nights after the Sabbath, the Rabbi would host a ‘Shaleshudes.’ The Belz custom was to eat a bit, say the size of an olive, and sing songs together, and I was attracted by the sweet voice of R' Sholom Shokhet and his sons. The Rabbi showed deference to his Hasidim, when speaking of Torah. In parallel to the Belz Hasidim, the Hasidim of Husiatyn and Tartakov would arrange for such a repast at Chaim Moshe'leh's. The common folk and plain people would gather in the Bet HaMedrash. The crowd at the Bet HaMedrash would divide itself up in all sorts of groups, and those who wished to partake at a kloyz. One group would deal in commercial matters, a second in politics. The craftsmen and members of the Hevra Kadisha created a group just for themselves. The discussions bubbled all over. Political people and partisans from parties would get excited. This was so until the arrival of R' Avraham Abba, the Shammes, and lit the candle. ‘Gut Vokh!’ ‘A Good Week!’ And the Shammes began to recite a prayer blessing the Almighty. And so all the conversations came to a halt, and all the goings on melted away, and working people began to think, who will travel to the fair, who will go out to the villages, etc.

It is hard to describe the life of the town without Avraham Abba. This was so for happy occasions, like weddings and circumcisions, as well as the solemn occasions like a funeral, memorial services, etc. He was an expert at reciting the ‘Mi SheBerakh’ blessing, and the celebration of a Siyyum was done because of him. Whoever didn't know this would explain: ‘for me and for the Shammes, for Avraham and for Abba.’ Avraham Abba busied himself with the recording of yahrzeits, and it is interesting that he, himself did not know how to write. The actual writing was done by others. This memory was not particularly wondrous.

Various Groups in Our Shtetl. I will not skip over the ordinary folk and all sorts of groups, such as Hevra Lina, Hevra Kadisha. These were dear and dedicated Jews, who did their work thoroughly and without pay, and I think the head of Hevra Lina was R' Israel Schiffenbauer. There was a folio of this group, but I did not have the privilege of seeing it. As to the second group, the Hevra Kadisha it is important to remember Leibusz Byk, a with a talent for writing and then etching gravestones. Once a year, they would put on a ‘Melaveh Malka.’ On Simchat Torah they would make a Kiddush. And this is the way they expressed their group life together.

The Schul Gasse and the Residence of the Poor. I will not tell about the ‘Schul Gasse’ where the laborers and the poor lived. Houses built low, covered in straw roofs, with no flooring. In honor of the Sabbath, the floor would be covered with a sort of granular stone. The food was meager. Lipman the butcher lived there. He was a short man, a clumsily formed face, self-effacing, and hid among the vessels. And when would Lipman appear, when he had a ‘yahrzeit.’ He would then assemble the

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entire community in the recitation of Kaddish. Lipman developed a reputation for relating legendary stories, working people and craftsmen would gather at the ‘Tailor's Little Synagogue.’ The living spirit of that place was R' Hirsch Schuster, a God-fearing Jew, who could constantly be found looking into a book.

The Economic Foundation of the Shtetl. There were few rich people in the town, and the remainder were storekeepers, people who sold from stalls, grain sellers, trading people from the villages, butchers, merchants who dealt with cattle and horses, craftsmen, and the ordinary poor. On the long street, the farmers set up their wagons, who would bring wheat and rye for sale. The merchants worked hard. During the week, they suffered all manner of insults and embarrassments from the gentiles. When Thursday came, they loaded all sorts of bundles onto themselves, on all sides, and faced the town. Whether in swamp or snow that weakened their feet, in the hopes that along the way, some farmer will invite them to ride home. The craftsmen, each to their own expertise did not work any less hard. And this is the way several hundred families lived in Tartakov, until the terrifying Holocaust arrived and erased the town from the face of the earth. The last of the emigrants told, that all the houses in the town were burned down, streets were plowed over, and the headstones from the cemetery were extracted to make sheep pens for the farmers. And we the ‘She'eyrit HaPleyta’ – have to have a prayer in our mouths to remember and eternalize all that was done to us.

1. From the German word for ‘Club.’ Return
2. The Voice that is Calling. Return

Our shtetl Tartakov (the Jews pronounced it Tartakov) was barely 9 kilometers from the central city of Sokal and the train station, and approximately a kilometer from the one-time border between the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Czarist Russia.

The four-sided marketplace stood at the center of the shtetl, a large quadrilateral of stone and cement houses, all the same height and width. Each had an upstairs and a downstairs entrance. The front door led to the street through a store front room, which usually served as a store or a shop. The downstairs door led to the inner part of the marketplace, which at one time had several gates. In our day, those gates were no longer there, but four entrances remained, at a height of a half story, and sufficiently wide, so it would be possible to get through with a mass of merchandise.

In the very middle of the marketplace was the Rathaus with a tall military-like tower, which the residents called ‘the clock,’ even though as it turns out in our day, there was no longer a clock up there. The name is derived from the fact that such a building with a tower had a municipal clock, and it is not out of the question that at one time there was a clock up there.

Very likely, the Rathaus, in the Middle Ages, served as the seat of the municipal authorities, as well as a fort, an arsenal and all in a defense position. This was an approximately 15 meters high made of strong thick brick, which was two stories high. The bottom part, the first story, was neglected,

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with a small, barred window and in our day served as an arrest point. The top part, which appears at one time to have been the seat of the municipal authority, had finally become the residence of the overseer.

You can infer the name of our city, Tartakov, from the fact that there, at one time, existed a large lumber production operation, with much wood cutting facilities (tartakn). There is a legend that Tartakov, at one time was a larger and more important city than Sokal. The elders of our shtetl would tell that they had found old books in the Bet HaMedrash inscribed as follows: ‘This book belongs to the Bet HaMedrash and was bound in Tartakov.’ and as opposed to books from Sokal – where you would find inscriptions such as: ‘This book belongs to the Bet HaMedrash in the sacred congregation in Sokal, close to the bookbinding in Tartakov.’

Our generation came along at a time when bookbinding was in decline, a decline that must have begun many years ago. The nearest city, Sokal, which lay beside the edge of the Bug River (the Jews would say ‘Big’) as well as being close to the train station of the Koval-Lemberg line, grew into a central point of the entire area. It was there, that commerce became concentrated. It was where the weekly fairs took place for the entire ‘powiat.’ That was also the place that became the juridical center for the entire province. Sokal also became the place for the majority of educational institutions such as the 7-class volksschule, a gymnasium, a teachers' seminary, a trade school and the like.

In contrast to this, during the same time, the development of Tartakov went into sharp decline. Apart from the annual market fair (on the 29^th of June), no market fairs took place any longer, because the peasantry of the area sold off its produce in Sokal, and picked up their necessary provisions. The economic condition of our shtetl became continuously worse, therefore, in the final years before the war. The anti-Semitic agitation against the Jews had an equal impact to the declining economy, which was the case among the Polish as well as the Ukrainian residence.

However, despite this difficult material situation, despite the great worries about making a living, and despite the fact that our small shtetl was truly a ‘sidelined city,’ pushed away from every commercial and cultural center, far from a train station, a broadly branched Jewish life pulsed there, with social and cultural institutions, [political] parties and movements from all directions and persuasions just like in the large city.

And at the end, here are several numbers in connection with the number of Jews in Tartakov, as the Polish historian Bronislaw Sokolski documents in his book about the Sokal province, called ‘Powiat Sokal.’

In the year 1880, there were 770 Jews living in Tartakov, which came to 1091 souls. This was 70.6% of the general census of the population. In the year 1890 the number of Jewish souls reached 790, this being 67.5% of the general populace, which in that year reached 1164 people. By contrast, the number of Jews in Tartakov in the year 1900 was 976 souls, being 67.7% of the general census of

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the population, which at the time amounted to 1442 souls.^[1]

1. The use of the word ‘souls’ here is ambiguous, and perhaps should be seen in the case of the smaller numbers as ‘families.’ Return

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