Education and Culture
The Kremenets Newspaper

by Yisrael Otiker (Na'an Kibbutz in Israel)

Translated by Steven Wien

We were young at the time, and the time's atmosphere didn't allow us to be enclosed in the beautiful worlds that are part of youth's period; [instead] it required from us action on behalf of the Jewish masses.

The suffering of the Jewish population in Poland in those days was tremendous. The tax system was aimed especially to oppress and force the Jews from their positions, and to destroy their sources of income. There was a very wild hostility accompanied often by attacks and assaults, and it was conducted and took place with support and encouragement of the official institutions of the country. And with all our being we rebelled against the exilic essence and the Diaspora life, but we loved those persecuted and wretched Jews. And we saw ourselves, the youth, as responsible for their fate; and as mandated to support them and encourage them.

[Translator's Note: In the original text, the following quotes from Kremenitser Shtime are in both Yiddish, and Hebrew. The Hebrew quote is in parentheses following the Yiddish.]

“The way of Jewish life is full of obstacles. Desperation and indifference prevail amongst all the people. Many find themselves helpless, and the slope of our life descends and drops very fast. We return to the same position and situation where we stood hundreds of years ago in the darkest of the Middle Ages.

“We, the members of the more enlightened people, without any bias of camp or party, see it as our holy obligation to preserve the correct path of the Jewish masses, and to fight in the war against desperation and degeneration that has spread amongst us.

“Life in the provincial town has its own unique problems. Newspaper publications in the capital cannot depict and describe the various hues and shades of life in provincial towns. Therefore we are coming forth to try to establish a platform [publication] whose role will be to serve as a spokesman, to describe various public, cultural, and economic problems of Jews in our places, a platform that will reflect the life, and that will call for action and for activity.”

[Page 147]

Newspaper clippings from the “Kremenitzer Shtime”

[Page 148]

These lines, which we copied from the opening article by the editorial board from the first edition, relate the various causes and motivating factors that brought us, inexperienced youth, to such an initiation of publishing a local newspaper.

The first attempt to publish the newspaper in our town was done by Moshe Gershtayn, blessed be his memory, who was an activist. He was formerly a Bund member. In February, 1929, he published a newspaper of four pages with the help of Neta Shtern, Leyb Rozental, Yaakov Shafir, and the writer of these lines [Yisrael Otiker].

Afterwards there were repetitive trials and experiments with single publications, dedicated mainly to mutual and social help in the community, and other social institutions. Thus, in April of 1930, a very diverse newspaper was published and included six large pages. It was published with the support and the initiation of the charity fund, Gamilot Chasadim. Another newspaper was published in November, 1930, and was dedicated to abandoned children and the orphanage.

Two editions were published also in 1931, on January 4 and November 11, again with support of the charity fund, Gamilot Chasadim. The same group of people were active in these publications. They also participated regularly in the periodical newspapers that were published in Rovno and in Lutsk. These newspapers used to arrive at the city and were accepted very willingly because they reflected mostly the local life.

But one of those days we had decided that it did not suffice to have only those [newspapers], and [we felt] there was a need for a more permanent platform that would talk directly to our townspeople and would describe specifically local phenomena that required some clarity and reaction. The "deciders" were three young men: Neta Stern, the writer of these lines, and another member who from the beginning opposed and abandoned the whole matter. Since then we have reminded [ourselves] not once that our “final decision hour” was in one of those long nightly trips in the autumn of 1931 to the mountain of Bony, where we would have talked a lot about the life of Jews and their problems. We saw the newspaper as a very important instrument, an opportunity to reach every Jew in the city, and we were very determined to execute this decision even if the older business people in the town might mock our “inventions”.

We approached one of the veteran printer owners in town; his name was Volf Tsvik. He was a very evenly balanced Jewish businessman, and he really took to our ideas and suggestions. As a matter of fact, he expressed his willingness to join our venture as a partner, with the condition that in case of any losses, we would have to carry them evenly with him. We formulated a very detailed contract, and we signed it. We sat in V[olf]'s house [with him in a] very practical and serious [manner], as appropriate for people who were going to open a corporate business. But once we got out [of his house], we both laughed and started yelling; we had a sense that finally we had established a birthstone for the publication of the newspaper.

We decided to draft a group of staffers and participants. First joined the brothers, Leybka and Alekhsander Rozental; both of them were veteran writers in other newspapers. Leybka Rozental, who lived in the center of the town, provided a room in his apartment for the newspaper. That room served for a long time as the center, and was always crowded with people who were writing and editing and proofreading, etc., and just with people who always came to find out what's happening with the newspaper.

Meir Goldring, who was the head of the Zionist Histadrut and one of the most outstanding people in town, accepted official responsibility for the newspaper, and helped in its editing and organization. Other permanent participants joined: Yaakov Shafir, Shlomo Fingerut, Leybchik Feldman, Dr. Meir Litvak, Dr. B. Landsberg, and more. A short time later Manus Goldenberg joined and became active in editing and publishing the newspaper; he served in that role until he emigrated to Israel. Together with us on the editorial board and in the administrative section of the newspaper worked my sister, Rakhel Otiker, and Yehudit Rozental (the daughter of L. Rozental, today in Poland married to N. Shtern). Special attention was given to the poems of Hadasah Rubin (today in Poland. Not long ago her poems were published in a Yiddish book called Mein gas iz in Pener [My Street is in Pener]); [she was] a talented poet with promise of a very bright future. She belonged later to a group of young authors called Young Vilna , and her poems were published in various literary publication in Warsaw and Vilna, and received many accolades. But her first publications were in the Kremenitser Shtime.

[Page 149]

The editorial board of the “Kremenitzer Lebn”, 1934

Also, for other youngsters who dealt with literary work or scientific work, the newspaper served as a first [site of] publication. Its various editions contained literary articles, memoirs, documentaries, and historical chapters that pertained to the past, and mainly illustrative articles about common life. A lot of the material that was published in the newspaper was later copied to other publications.

Ideologically the newspaper expressed the working Zionist spirit, and aimed to be a very progressive publication, but its nature was general, and it saw itself as an open platform for anyone's thought and opinion; and anyone who flips through the newspaper will find the words of Communists, Revisionists, religious Jews, etc., and lots of arguments dealing with principal political issues, etc., and that's because it was the sole platform in town.

Our mailbox was always loaded with correspondence, and lots of young and older writers suddenly discovered their writing skills and wanted to be printed and publicized. More than once, people came on foot to the editing center, and demanded their right [to have their voice expressed in the newspaper], and mostly their material was published in [what today is called the "opinion section," in that time it was called] the famous "editorial basket." But oftentimes we also found very interesting expressions, and we were very diligent to publish them.

We didn't lack [for] vain words that distorted more than once the image of the newspaper. We were forced, for example, like other central newspapers, to publish sensational romance serials in order to draw more readers. Our newspaper also started to publish such romance serials; its name was "The Secrets of Mount Bony."

[Page 150]

The content of the romance was local, very complicated and complex, and suspenseful in the way those romances are, and its value like their values. After a short while we decided to stop the publication of the romance in its midst (even though many readers reprimanded us and demanded to know the end of the romance…). And most of the editorial board were of the opinion that such material should not be published. There were other incidents that raised a little bit of argument, but generally the atmosphere in the editorial board was filled with very responsible and serious attitude to the publication of issues and articles. Around the newspaper congealed a group of about ten to fifteen people, and they were really the best of the best in the areas of culture and public, and [they] persevered and cared for the existence of the newspaper.

The newspaper had correspondents in most of the neighboring towns, and it was very common there. (The newspaper appeared usually with 1,000 copies.) Once there was a trial to establish a branch of the newspaper in neighboring Rovno, a town with a large Jewish population. But the experiment didn't succeed, and the newspaper continued to be prevalent mainly in Kremenets and its surroundings.

The first edition of the Kremenitser Shtime appeared on October 2, 1931. From August, 1932 until February, 1933, two weekly newspapers appeared: the Kremenitser Shtime, and the Kremenitzer Vochenblatt [Kremenets Weekly Newspaper] (with cooperation with the Yiddish newspaper from Rovno). Internal arguments amongst the editors and disagreements caused the appearance of these two newspapers. They split for a short while, but after a few months both newspapers unified, and continud as one local newspaper named Kremenitzer Lebn. The newspaper persisted in appearing weekly until the days of the war. Its place was very prominent in the public and cultural life of the Jewish people in town.

And finally, a friend who is currently working at editing the Kremenitzer book told me that while looking for material about the town he went to the National Library [in Israel], and the librarian was very happy to inform him that he has very interesting material, and handed him several copies of the Kremenitser Shtime. The friend was very excited, and turned and tossed, and studied for a long time those copies that the newspaper people worked so diligently to bring forth to the public library in Israel.

And today, while we are flipping through the archived copies that are with us, a very bitter feeling accompanied us. Did we know then, at the time of editing the newspaper, that among such a lively and vast Jewish community these copies would serve not only as archived material but also as a memorial testimony to the entire Jewish community?

[Page 160]

[Translation Editor's Note: Fol'varki now is known as Strutin. It is located at 49° 47' N / 24° 55' E, 41.7 miles WSW of Kremenets.
Katerburg now is known as Katerinovka. It is at 50° 00' N / 25° 53' E, 10.1 miles SE of Kremenets.]

It was a village like all the other gentile villages in Volhynia, the only difference being that twenty families of Jewish farmers lived there. They were not tenants, nor grain or cattle merchants, but true farmers--owners of farms that they cultivated with their own hands. This was an unusual occurence in the entire area. I do not know when they settled there, or by what right their forefathers settled there in spite of the prohibition against Jews living in villages, but it was a fact that they lived there for many generations. The families had many children--children who associated with the "shkozim" (gentiles) of the village, but kept the Jewish flame alive. Furthermore, the young generation was infected with Zionism, was attracted to the "Khaluts" movement, and many immigrated to Israel. When the "Khaluts" movement spread to Kremenets and its environs, and searched for places for places to train its members (Hakhshara), Fol'varki was chosen as a site for training scores of Khalutsim. They arrived for three to four summer months and were very well received by the local Jews, who felt honored to train Khalutsim for Eretz Israel. The parents also yearned for Zion and many made plans to join their children. But they did not have the heart to abandon their farms and their native villages. When the persecutions came, the axe fell also on the small and innocent community of Fol'varki. Some of the Jews refused to go to the Kremenets Ghetto as ordered, but they were overpowered and were murdered in their homes. The rest, with their women and children, were exiled to the Kremenets Ghetto and were killed with the rest of the local Jews.

I wish to commemorate my father and his family who were murdered in their home village. The older children had joined the 'Khaluts' and spent years in several Kibutsim for training until they immigrated to Israel - my two sisters and me. I remember when I was in the preparatory kibuts in Verba, my father (of blessed memory) came to visit me. After examining the functions of the Kibuts, he expressed his astonishment that I wandered off to Verba to whitewash houses--was not his farm in Fol'varki a more suitable place to train for agricultural work in Eretz Yisrael? Indeed, father was right. But we were attracted to the Khaluts community and the Hakhshara atmosphere. We left our quiet village and went to work in sawmills and quarries. After three of his daughters immigrated to Israel, father decided to immigrate too, along with my mother and the remaining three children. He started the preparations, but was too late.

The gentiles in the village were wary of Avraham Bat, because on past occasions he had shown them his strength. When the end came, he decided to defend himself. In spite of his advanced age, 60, with a rifle in his hand, he and my brother Aharon fought the Ukrainian policemen who came to deport them to the Ghetto in Kremenets. One of the policemen was killed by my father, then, he and my brother Aharon were killed on the spot – their heads cut off. The rest of the family was deported to the Ghetto and killed on the day of the great murder: my mother, Khana-Rakhel nee Akerman, my brother Efraim, and my sister Etya. Blessed be their memory.

If there is a consolation for their deaths, it is that they fought and died in battle, and died a hero's death.

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