Devenishki book; memorial book, Lithuania

Devenishki Book; Memorial Book
(Dieveniškės, Lithuania)
54°12' / 25°37'

Translation of Sefer Divenishok; yad vashem le-ayara yehudit

Edited by: David Shtokfish, Divenishok Societies in Israel and the US, 1977

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Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Our sincere appreciation to David Shtokfish, editor of the Devenishki book,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Sefer Divenishok; yad vashem le-ayara yehudit (Devenishki book; memorial book),
Editors: David Shtokfish, Israel, Divenishok Societies in Israel and the United States, 1977 (H,Y, 536 pages).

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Divenishok

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Hebrew translated by Sara Mages

Yiddish translated by Yocheved Klausner

Book images

The Jewish Town (Introduction to the Devenishki book)	Shmuel Sharon	5
The Jewish Town (Introduction to the Devenishki book) [Y]	Shmuel Sharon	8

A. The Development of the Town		15
Devenishki - From The Founding	Binyamin Dubinski	17
Those days are saved in my memory	Yakov Bloch	28
Under confinement with the Russians, Polish and Germans	Eliyahu Weiner	36
My town and my family	Orit Kaplan	41
“Varte”	Meir Yosef Itzkovitz	45
Divenishok: A Charming Town	Dr. Menachem Weisenfeld	47
I treated Devenishki and its people with fondness	Shlomo Levin	50
I bonded with Devenishki	Fruma Kaplan	52
The social and political life	Sheraga Blacher	55
Institutions and Organizations in Devenishki	Avraham Abir (Rudnik)	62
“Maccabi Tzair”^[1]	Natan Kaplan	70
My road to “Beitar”^[2]	Meir Yosef Itzkovitz	72
Zionist and Cultural activities	Avraham Aloni	81
The Hebrew school in Devenishki	Shmuel Dubkin	85
Memories of a “HeHalutz”^[3] member	Shalom Rozenblum	87
The revival period in Devenishki	Dov Ben Shalom (Popisko)	90
“HeHalutz”^[3] organization in our town	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz)	92
Trivia from our town	Moshe Mintz	97
A delay in the reading of the Torah	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz)	100
In the service of the Jewish homeland	Natan Ben Mordechai and Hasia Kaplan	101
Memories from two World Wars	Arye Olkenitzki	105
The youth was imbued with Zionist consciousness	Ester Gordon	107
The theater in our town	Binyamin Dubinski	108
Revolutionary activity against the Czar	D. Binyamin	111
With love and nostalgia	Chaya Garbi (Chaya Broines)	115
The mitzvah of “Linat Zedek”^[4]	Miriam Herman	118
From Devenishki to Eretz-Yisrael	Henya Harari	119
How I arrived to Israel	Dvora Rachli	121
My contribution to the building of the country	Elimelech Rudnik	123

B. The Holocaust and Fighting		127
We will not forget you!	Yakov Bloch	129
Gloom fell on the town	Teiva Griner	131
In the ghettos and in the forests with the partisans	Tzvi Novoplinski	136
In the claws of the Nazi animal	Kalman Kretchmer	162
I fought the Germens with the partisans	Lusia Rubin	165
In the battle against the Nazi enemy	Zelig Rugul	169
A partisan's story	Eliyahu Blacher	175
Under the German occupation	Sara Hinda Movshovich	186
The forest was our home….	Shalom Bronstein	190
I was left lonely and isolated	Shulamit Fox	194
From a partisan's squadron– to a Palmach^[5] brigade	Michael Dubinski	200
I'm the only one left from my family	Yeshayahu Wolfowitz	215
Where are all of them? Where?....	Tzvi (Hirshel) Kryzovski	217
During the days of suffering and hardship	Tzvi Ahuvy	219
The amputee from Devenishki	Meir Yosef Itzkovitz	225
Our loved ones did not go like sheep to the slaughter	Meir Ben Natan (Itzkovitz)	228
The story of an 11 year old boy	Pinchas Lipkunski	240
I was rewarded to see the picture of the people I loved	Nili Itzkovitz	246

C. Images		249
My father the Great Rabbi R' Yosef Rudnik, May the memory of the righteous be of a blessing	Avraham Abir (Rudnik)	251
In memory of the Genius Rabbi Yosef Rudnik, May the memory of the righteous be of a blessing	Sheraga Blacher	259
HaRav Yisrael Movshovich	Yosef Movshovich	259
My father's house	Shmuel Sharon	262
Ben-Zion Schneider	Avraham Aloni	266
The Zionist activist Yudel Stekolszczyk	Avraham Aloni	266
Eulogy for my father Of blessed memory	Meir Yosef Itzkovitz	267
About my father and my family	Shulamit Fox	271
Sandman Dov	(“Memorial” Book)	272
Dov Of blessed memory	Rivka Sandman	273
R' Moshe Ben Zion Chasman		274
The daughters tell about their father	Sara Yoskovitch and Grunia Bronstein	276
HaRav Ben-Zion Chasman	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz)	278
Sara Disha Horowitz – a charitable woman	Henia Harari	278
Hirshel Krizobski	Shlomo Gordon	279
Tzvi (Hirshel) Krizobski	Chaya Rivka and Menucha Krizobski	280
My father Moshe – engaged in public needs	Eliyahu Blacher	282
My father and my grandfather loved to work in the land	Yosef Kaplan	283
In memory of my father Leib Dubin, May he rest in peace	Rachel Zubiski (Dubin)	284
Mordechai Blacher Of blessed memory	Moshe Mintz	285
My family	Hiene Sotzkuber	286
About those who escaped to the Soviet Russia	Rivka Krizobski	287
In memory of our mother Shoshanna (Riesel) Ben-Dov	Amnon and Yafa	287
About one Jewish family	Dina Labizovski	288
R' Leib Aharon Engel - May the memory of the righteous be of a blessing	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz)	288
Eliyahu Chaim Shkolnik	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz)	290
One of the old families	Ester Ala (Blacher)	290
My husband Yosef Levin – a man of many activities	Yehudit Levin	291
Tzvi Rugul	Shulamit	292
About my grandfather and my parents	Shlomo Gordon	293
Yehudah Stekolszczyk Of blessed memory	Shlomo Aviel	296
My father Of blessed memory greatly helped the Jews	Yehudah Katz	296
Our mother Zipora (Rashka) from the Levin family	Shoshanna Yudenfreind	297
In memory of Yita Blacher Of blessed memory	Eliyahu Nataneli (Itzkovitz) and Bella Ashman (Itzkovitz)	299
About my husband and our family	Chaya Ita Kaplan	300
In memory of my parents, brother, sister and family	Bella Ashman	300
A granddaughter and daughters are telling	Sara Hinda Movshovich	305
My mother immigrated to Israel in 1922	Sara Kaplan	305
A family of blacksmiths	Zalman Bronstein	306
A typical Jewish home	Zipora Yudenfreind (Levin)	308
Lines to the image of my friend Avraham Kretzmer	Avraham Aloni	308
Chane	Hanan Ushiski	309
About the family of Tzvi Schmidt	Zalman Dan Kushtolski	311
Our mother Chine daughter of Avraham Eliezer and Miriam Levin	Eliyahu Nataneli	311
They were such	Binyamin Dubinski	312
My grandfather R' Yitzchak (Itza) Binyamin Rudnik Of blessed memory	Yakov Bloch	349
The “Tel-Hainik” M.Y. Itzkovitz	Chaim Lazar	350

Yiddish Section
1. The Town and its Development
Dieveniskes [Divenishok] - The History of a Town	Binyamin Dubinski	363
The Shtetele Divenishok	Meir Yoshke Nathan's (Itzkowitz)	378
A Jewish Life That Is No More …	Motke (Moshe Leizer's) Kartchmer	394
The Social and Party Life	Shraga Blecher	401
Zionist and Cultural Activity	Avraham Aloni	410
How I Remember You, Divenishok...	Khanan Levkovitsh	417
Those Days Are Well Remembered	Yakov Bloch	419
On Communal Life	Lolik Sutskever	429
The “Bien”^[6] and “Wielbig” Organizations	Chaia Rivka Krizovski	437
The Torah Reading was Stopped …	Eliahu Itzkowitz (Netaneli)	439
Jewish “Parnoses” [Livelihoods] in Divenishok		440

2. Destruction and Bravery		443
Only a Name Was Left	Solomon Levine	447
The Murder of the Divenishok Jews in Voronova		447
The One-Handed Man from Divenishok	Meir Yosef Itzkowitz	450
A Dream …	Meir Yosef Itzkowitz	454

3. Figures		457
The Rav and Great Scholar R'Yosef Rudnik	N.	459
Baran Aharon Leib	*	459
R'Moshe Ben-Zion Chasman z”l		460
Krizovski Aharon Yakov		463
Two Poems by Aharon Yakov Krizovski		463
The Poet Aharon Krizovski	Menucha Peik (Krizovski)	464
Our Poet A. Y. Krizovski	Binyamin Dubinski	465
Shtetelech (Poem)	Shlomo Kazjimirovski	468
We Cannot Forget Them	Sara Teibke & Nachum Levine	468
My Shtetl, my Home and my Family	Moshe & Serke Levine Kartchmer	469
In Memory of Father-and-Mother and Family	Sara Tova Gerschowitz-Levi	470
In Memory of My Father	Sara Schklar	471
The Rav Chaim Yehuda Horowitz z”l	Nisan Gordon	472

4. Landsmanshaftn		477
Our Landsmanshaft in Israel	Chana Garbi	479
The American Relief Creates the “Gmilut Chesed”^[7] Fund in Israel	Zvi Ahuvi	481
An Appeal from the Former Divenishok Residents in Israel^[8]	(A Document)	483
A Landsman in Israel tells about the Landsmanshaft in America	Yakov Bloch	485
The 70th Anniversary of the Divenishok Relief in America	Binyamin Dubinski	503
Report from the “Divenishok Ladies Auxilliary”	Nelly Brown	509
The Organization of the Former Divenishok Residents in Israel	Zvi Ahuvi	512

List of martyrs		519

Footnotes “Maccabi Tzair” – Junior (young) Maccabi – a youth sport movement that was formed in Germany in 1926, besides the adult Maccabi movement. Return “Beitar” - the initials of Brit Yosef Trumpeldor- The Covenant of Joseph Trumpeldor, the educational youth movement of the Revisionist Zionist Organization. Return “HeHalutz” – [The Pioneer] was an association of Jewish youth whose aim was to train its members to settle in the land of Israel. Return Linat Zedek - “paupers' hostel” - a society that provided overnight lodgings for poor travelers. Return Palmach – Hebrew acronym for Plugot Machatz - strike force. Return Bien was a youth organization, communist oriented, formally acting as a Scouts movement. Wielbig was the parallel adults organization. Return ”Gmilut Chesed” = Loans without interest. Return Appeal from the Former Divenishok Residents in Israel to the Divenishok Residents in America. Return

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