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A list of names of about 100 donors from Riteve, who collected 26.20 roubles for a fund for the hungry in Bessarabia.^[1]

Rabbi Yaffe, M. Itzikowitz, Dr. Linde, Leib Levite, Ze'ev Grod, Issar Hirshberg, A. Saks, l.B. Saks, Nachman Averbuch, Tuvie Devorah, Nachimovitch. M.D. Levite, Meir Hon. M.Z. Friedman. I.B. Hirshowitz, H.I. Mosinson, M.L. Maoschivitz, I.L. Palukst, David Levinson, Yechiel Saks, l.M. Averbuch, M.A. Heiman, Nachman Saks, Ze'ev Kahn. Bendet Groll, Moshe Schwartz, Yosef Scheraz, Zisman Averbuch, D. Talmud, Hinde Tubiles, Keile Saks, Rachel–Leah Schnieder, Yitzhak Gershon Berman. Eliyahu Zinger, Sh. V. Aharonson, Sh. Klugman, M. Garin, Nissan Wein, I.B. Shapira, Zusman Yeroslaiski, Meir Zaks, Rachel–Leah Davidovitch, Sarah–Feige Rudaizky, Sarah Bea, Yechezkel Groll, Aharon Zelker, Itzhak Yabetz, P.I. Yabetz, Baruch Shapira, Sh. R. Shapira, Leah Levite, P. Orwin, Chaya Saks, Neta Levite, Channah Saks, Ester Graf, Moshe Segal, Dov Wolf Biraki, Ya'acov Saks, M.I. Segal, Moshe Averbuch, l.M.Tubiles, Michael Ber Ya'acov, l.D. Milner, P. Pmolei, Leah Miller, Ze'ev Talman, Arieh Leib Krom, Leah Sergei, I.A. Hirschowitz, Simcha Saks, B. Hendler, M Makus, Yitzhak Galvin, Shechna Saks, Mane Wolf, Gitl Abelevitch, Eliezer Meierowitz, Sarah Glugman, Devorah Jankelowitz, Itzhak Gratz, Israel Tietz, Yosef Segal, Beile Kahn, Abba Rabinowitz, H.K. Prisman, Sh. Levite, Avraham Geniss. Lipman Sirat, Meir Lasovski, A.B. Averbuch, Yitzhak Meierowitz, P. Meierowitz, Wolfowitz, Zalman Klevonski, A.G. Mindel, Zvi Fig, Maiete Saks, Bezalel Buchman, Dov Saks. Aharon Saks, P.M. Fishelewitz, Yechiel Baruch, Cohen, P.M. Markus, Chaim Levite, Alte Hering, Eliyahu Dov Markus.

Footnote

1. The Bessarabia region is located between the rivers Prut and Dniester near the Black Sea. It was part of Moldavia until 1812, when it was annexed by the Russians and remained part of the Russian Empire until 1918. Jewish communities were found in Bessarabia is early as the 16^th century. Their numbers increased rapidly after the Russian annexation and, by the end of the 18^th century, there were more than 200,000 Jews living in Bessarabia, most of them in Kishinev and its district. After the early 1880s the economic situation of Bcssarabian Jewry deteriorated. This was a result of the ‘Temporary Laws’, which were published by the Russian cabinet in 1882. The laws prohibited the Jews from living in villages and restricted the limits of their residence to the towns and townlets. As a result, many Jews in Bessarabia were deprived of their livelihood, all the more so in the wake of the agrarian crisis in Russia. The difficult economic situation caused great hunger and many impoverished Jews emigrated overseas. The fact that about 100 households in Riteve donated even a modest sum is additional proof of the feelings of national solidarity that prevailed in Riteve. Return

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These five obituaries, not in order of date of death, were included at the end of the original publication. Not all those concerned were born in Riteve, but were children or grandchildren of people of Riteve who made Aliyah. Their inclusion demonstrated the close ties of their relatives to the shtetl, feeling that these young people ‘belonged’ to Riteve although they had never known it. MR

These are the sacrifices of Riteve Jewry on the altar of the homeland, in the days of the riots and during the War ol Independence.

Saks Yizhak, son of Israel and Minna

Born in Riteve in 1926, Saks Yizhak emigrated to Israel with his parents in 1936. He was a student at the Haifa Technicon and active in the Haganah. At the beginning of the battles in 1948, he was mur– dered by the British on the road to Beit Oren, near Haifa.

Born 19^thof Heshvan 5701 – 20.11.1940
Fell 29^th of Av 5722 – 29.8.1962

Yehuda Friedman had a happy and loving childhood, the childhood of a healthy kibbutznik. At the age of 16 he became interested in scientific subjects, which were his special pride. His favourite pastimes were hiking and sport.

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Yehuda belonged to the division of the army which guarded the settlements, folds, roads and borders in the Hulah Valley. He ventured to the highest cliffs of the Golan mountains. He fell in the line of duty in a border incident, not far from his kibbutz. The words of his father, a son of Riteve, read next to the open grave were moving: ‘Yehuda! Young lion!’

A shrubbery named after him fulfils the commandment which guided him: With all your soul and with all your might' – without deviation, you even fulfilled with all ‘your soul’. And gave your body and soul for the sake of our safety.

Born 30 April 1928

Saks Yizhak, son of Israel and Minna

He was killed on 27 May 1951 in Wadi Sarar, a military camp of the Israel Defence Force. He died as a sergeant of the camp, from a fractured skull and brain damage.

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Born 4^th Kisleve 5711 – 13.11.1950
Fell 28^th Sivan 5729 11.6.1969

A light mane of hair, eyes maybe blue, maybe green, maybe gray, looked out of a sunburnt face. This was his appearance – unforgettable. Yaron – his voice like his name was clear and strong, warm and resonant. He held a beautiful tune, his voice warbled in his throat. In his childhood, when he was told a story, he would listen intently and dream and want more – as if stories were all seeds which were sown in his tender soul and which later grew into strong plants.

In the Jordan Valley, a desolate burning place of the pursued and the bereaved, mottled with small mounds of dust along the sides of the road, a place where every green bush spits fire and every crevice in the rock is a refuge and hiding place, in this valley between the olive and carob trees, encircled by a ring of hollowed–out rocks, he fired his last shot. Clutching his machine gun, Yaron fell.

Saks Yizhak, son of Israel and Minna

Mira Birger z”l specialised in helping families with terminal diseases and was recognised at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem as an authority on this painful subject.

As a graduate of the School of Social Work of the Hebrew University, her aim in life was to help her fellow human beings. She worked in the Social Work Department at Hadassah Hospital while continuing her studies. She wrote articles about the mental state of the sick and their difficulties in adapting to their environment, after their release from hospital.

In 1969 Mira was awarded a bursary from Hadassah and travelled to the United

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States where she did her Masters degree. In the first year she was involved mainly with the problems of the elderly who suffered from chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, her humanitarian plan was cut short by hatred. On Friday 28^th Tammuz 5735 – 4.7.1975 – she chanced to be in the vicinity of Zion Square in Jerusalem, where she was critically injured by the explosion of the ‘refrigerator bomb’ planted by terrorists. On Monday 31^st Tammuz 5735 – 7.7.1975 – she was laid to rest in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.

It is thanks to young people such as these that the Israeli nation can dwell securely in their land forever.
That is our consolation – in their departure!
And that the awaited peace shall come!
Their memory will be blessed

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A. The synagogue

Minyan – a prayer quorum, made up of no less than ten Jews who are past their Bar mitzvah and are allowed to read in the Torah.

Bima – the podium in the centre of the synagogue, on which the reading from the Torah, placed on a high table, is performed.

Talit – a prayer shawl.

Mincha and Ma'ariv – the afternoon prayer, called after the afternoon sacrifice in the Temple; and the evening prayer, following sunset, called after the Hebrew word for evening, ‘Erev’.

Chazan – the cantor in the synagogue, who leads the public's prayers. The cantors personal variations became the source of various styles of Jewish music.

Shammas – the synagogue's attendant and keeper.

Gabbai – the synagogue's treasurer.

Shema Israel – the beginning of the ‘Hear, Oh Israel, our Lord is G–d, our Lord is one’. It has become the essence of Judaism in one sentence (and is therefore said before death) and a code word for Jews who have forgotten or never known any– thing else, such as Soviet Jewry.

Cheder – was meant for younger boys. The Cheder Metukan was the modern one, where girls too could study, and the door was opened for knowledge in general. Talmud Torah – the study of the Torah and also a kind of elementary school for boys, based on religious studies.

Yeshiva – if the cheder is a sort of beginners' school, and the Talmud Torah is the elementary school, then the yeshiva is the highest school, where the young men study under the supervision and guidance of the great rabbis. The Lithuanian yeshivot flourished continuously from the end of the 18^th century until the Holocaust.

KoIIel – after their marriage, Torah students continue their studies in kollalim.

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Beit Midrash – while the synagogue served for prayers, ceremonies and holidays, the Beit Midrash (‘House of Studies’) was the place of studies for the adults, who spent much of their time there.

Mishnah – commentaries (Midrashim and Agadah) and laws (Halachah), on and of the Torah, as organised around CE 200 by Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi in Galilee, in six orders divided into 60 tractates. It is called in short ‘Shas’, an acronym of Shisha Sedarim, the six orders.

Talmud and Gemara – the Yerushalmi (of Jerusalem) Talmud, composed in the Land of Israel, was sealed in the 4^th century and the Bavli (of Babylon), composed in Bavel (now Iraq), in the 6^th century, the Bavli being the fuller and larger of the two. The Talmuds include in their turn commentaries and laws of and on the Mishnah. Gemara is a wider term that includes the two Talmuds.

Zohar (the Book of Splendour) – the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). The book is a collection of several sections that include short Midrashic statements (rabbinical commentary on a biblical text), homilies and discussion.

Ein Yaacov – a collection of legends and homilies from the Talmud, assembled by Rabbi Ya'akov Ibn Haviv, Halachist and a communal leader in Salonika at the beginning of the 16th century.

Mitzvot – deeds that a Jewish person above 13 has to perform or to refrain from doing. There are 613 Mitzvot, divided into 365 to refrain from and 248 to perform. Their number is equal to the days of the year and to the number of the body's sinews (365) and its organs (248).

Shulchan Aruch – this is the most important book of Halachah (Jewish law), com– posed by Yosef Karo in the 16^th century. Its importance lies in the fact that it divides the vast material into sections and subsections, clearly and concisely Kiddush – the blessing over the cup of wine (or grape juice) on Fridays and the eve of Holidays to mark the entrance of the holy (Kadosh) Sabbath and the Holidays.

Mikveh – a ritual bath, where it is a custom for some men to wash in order to be purified for the Sabbath and Holidays. Women immerse themselves in the Mikveh at the conclusion of their menstrual cycle.

Shabbat Nachamu – the Sabbath following the Ninth of Av, on which the Haftara starts with ‘Nachamu, Nachamu’ (be consoled) from the prophet Yeshayahu, Chapter 40.

Sephirat ha–Omer – counting of the Omer: a Pentateuchal injunction to count 49 days from the first offering of the Omer – a sheaf of corn – in the Temple. The counting starts from the 16^th of Nissan until Shavuot (Pentecost). On each day the

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counting must mention both the number of days and the number of weeks. The days of the Omer ard also characterised by semi–mourning customs. It is a very old tradition, normally associated with the deaths of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva. The solemnisation of marriages as well as haircutting and the playing ol musical instru– ments are prohibited during these days.

Kleizmorim – folk musicians.

Chevra Kadisha – ‘a Holy association’ that took care of burials.

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