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Translation of Kol yotsai Kremenits baYisrael v’batfutsot, Booklet 11

Edited by: M. Goldenberg, Y. Rokhel, A. Argman, M. Ot-Iker, Yehoshua Golberg

Published in Tel Aviv, 1974

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Ronald D. Doctor

Translations

Elliott Raisen

Donated translations

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Booklet 11

Voices of
Those Who Departed
Kremenets

In Israel and the Diaspora

M. Goldenberg, Y. Rokhel, A. Argman, M. Ot-Iker, Yehoshua Golberg

Editors

[ii]

Voices of those who departed Kremenets

Booklet No. 11

Tel Aviv, May 1974 (Iyar 5734)

Name Index

[Translation Editor’s Note: The Translation Editor has added a Name Index indicating the original pages on which each name appears in the Yizkor Book. The Index follows the last page of the translated book.]

======================================================================

Editors:
M. Goldenberg, Y. Rokhel, A. Argman, M. Ot-Iker, Yehoshua Golberg

Graphics
A. Argman

Translations
M. Gershgal

Price:  In Israel 6 Israel Pounds, abroad $1.50

Editor’s Address:  Organization of Kremenets Emigrants, 67 La Guardia St., Tel Aviv 67221

Representatives Abroad:  Willim Kagan, 6828 Juno St., Forest Hills, N.Y. 113753 USA
                                          Marcos Katz, Ciuded de la Paz, 1465, I.D., Buenos Aires, Argentina

[iv]

Translation Project Editor’s Note

After World War II, the Kremenets Landsmanshaft had active members in Israel, New York, and Argentina. Sometime after the Stein Yizkor book, Pinkas Kremenits was produced in 1954, the Landsmanshaft began publishing a series of booklets. Their purpose was to keep Kremenetsers around the world in touch with one another. The translation you are reading is for Booklet 11, published in 1974, following the Yom Kippur War. In a very real sense, it is a Yizkor Book … not the traditional kind that deals with our ancestral shtetl in Eastern Europe, but one that deals with the lives of those who left Kremenets before, during and after World War II, and their descendants.

Booklet 11 is in two major sections. The first is in Hebrew, beginning on p. [ Intro-4 ]. The Yiddish Section begins on p. 27. An asterisk preceding a page number in the Table of Contents indicates that section has been translated and is included in this document.

JPEG images of photos and line sketches from the Yizkor Book have been inserted on or near the appropriate pages. In addition, we have added several finding aides to the Book to assist readers in locating illustrations and names of people. Thus there is a Table of Figures at the front of the book and a Name Index at the end.

It was not possible to maintain pagination as it appears in the book. However, we have indicated actual book page numbers in square brackets just before the first line of text that appears on each physical page of the book. This should help those who are using search features to jump to the page they seek. In some cases, placement of the page numbers may not be exact because we tried also to maintain continuity of text. So we caution you to examine contiguous pages for the text that you seek.

In translating Yiddish proper names, we have tried to use YIVO standards, although we have spelled place names as they appear in modern usage.  Thus, the proper modern spelling for our shtetl is Kremenets, but the Yizkor Book uses Kremeniec, Krzemienca, and Kremenits in different places. The Yiddish and Hebrew spellings are kof-resh-ayin-mem-ayin-nun-yod-tsadi and kof-resh-mem-nun-yod-tsadi, respectively.

Transliterating personal names from Hebrew and Yiddish to English is beset with difficulties, many of them stemming from the lack of explicit vowels in printed and handwritten materials. The Hebrew letter vav, for example, may be translated as a /v/, or as the vowels /o/ or /u/. Thus the Hebrew name mem-nun-vav-samekh could be Manos or Manus. Which transliteration is “correct” depends on how the letter sounded in the area the person came from, at the time the person lived. Feldblyum indicates that the Manos spelling is found in Baltic and Polish areas, and Manus is found in Lithuania and Volhynia. Since Kremenets was in Volhynia (which was part of Poland in the interwar years) until it became part of modern day Ukraine, Manus is the more likely spelling. We have used similar reasoning, and Feldblyum’s book (Feldblyum, Boris. Russian-Jewish Given Names, Teaneck, N.J.: Avotaynu, 1998) on other names appearing in this translation. Rabbi Gorr’s book (Gorr, Rabbi Shmuel. Jewish Personal Names: Their Origin, Derivation and Diminutive Forms, Teaneck, N.J.: Avotaynu, 1992) was used to supplement Feldblyum.

Sometimes we had to deviate from YIVO and Hebrew standards to bring names closer to common English spelling. And sometimes, the lack of “pointing” or diacritical marks in Hebrew and Yiddish can make an English transliteration ambiguous. Thus using YIVO rules, the name shin (sin)-tet-yod-yod-nun could be transliterated to English in any of four spellings: Shteyn, Shtayn, Steyn, or Stayn.  The problem with this name is two-fold. Is the first letter an /S/ or /Sh/ sound? Is the double yod an /ey/ sound as in ‘grey’, or an /ay/ sound as in ‘sky’? Or, deviating from YIVO rules, but applying common English usage, the name could be spelled Stein, where /ei/ is pronounce like ‘y’ in sky. In this particular case, A.S. Stein is the original Editor of one of our Yizkor Book, and his name is spelled Stein in current English bibliographies. However, in both the Cyrillic and Hebrew vital records for Kremenets, a shin/sin in a proper name like bet-ayin-resh-nun-shin(sin)-tet-yod-yod-nun always represents an /sh/. The vital records also indicate that the double yod (yod-yod)   in such names represents an /ay/ sound. Thus, in the absence of vowel and consonant “pointing”, we transliterate the name bet-ayin-resh-nun-shin(sin)-tet-yod-yod-nun, and similar names, as Bernshtayn.

Some people use the presence of double vav  and double yod in texts as indicators of Yiddish rather than Hebrew text. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Hebrew texts sometimes use double vav and double yod in medial positions in words when the letters are consonants. Thus in Hebrew, a double yod  would have a /ya/, /ye/ or /yo/ pronunciation, but in Yiddish, it would transliterate to either /ey/ or /ay/. We have tried to discern the proper transliteration from context and from the names in Gorr’s and Feldblyum’s books, but the reader should be aware that we might have erred in some cases.

A single yod may be a vowel (short /i/) or a consonant (/y/).  We have transliterated a yod appearing in the middle or at the end of a word, /i/.  However, a yod at the beginning of a word typically is a consonant, /y/.

A vav-yod combination transliterates to the diphthong /oy/.

The double vav also presents a problem. Typically, it represents a /v/ sound. However, in some geographic regions it represents a /w/.  Kremenets is in a border region where either sound may be correct. The Cyrillic and Yiddish/Hebrew vital records for Kremenets clearly indicate that usage at the time the records were created calls for a /v/. Consequently, we have standardized on transliterating double vav as /v/, except where context or common usage requires a /w/. Thus the name vav-vav-aleph-kof-mem-aleph-nun is Vakman, not Wakman.

Other letters also raise difficulties.

• Should the name aleph-vav-tet-yod-kof-resh be spelled Ottiker or Otiker? According to YIVO, consonants should not be doubled, and we have tried to stick to this rule. But for clarity, there are occasional exceptions and the reader should take this into account when examining the spelling of names.

• Another YIVO rule we have tried to apply consistently concerns the letters khet and khaf. The transliteration of these gutteral sounds is /kh/.  Applying YIVO rules to khet-yod-yod-mem, produces Khayim, not the more common Chaim. The exception is that a leading khaf becomes /K/, not /Kh/.

• Similarly, although some common usage transliterates a tsadi as /tz/, YIVO and Hebrew standards say it should be /ts/. We have used the /ts/ standard throughout this Book, except for certain surnames where common English usage requires a /tz/ ending. Thus, we transliterate khaf-tsadi as Katz, not Kats. However, we transliterate the name yod-tsadi-khet-kof as ‘Yitskhak’, and the patronymic ending –vav-vet-yod-tsadi  as ‘-ovits’, not ‘-ovitz’.

• By YIVO standards, the letter combination tet-shin produces a /ch/ sound as in ‘chair’. However in Hebrew, the combination tsadi-apostrophe also represents a /ch/ sound. To differentiate the two possibilities, we have transliterated  tet-shin as /tsh/.

• Standard transliteration for the zayin-shin combination is /zh/ like the /s/ in measure.

• A name like gimel-vav-resh-nun or resh-vav-khaf-lamed may transliterate to Gorn or Goren, Rokhl or Rokhel. YIVO suggests that no vowel should be placed before the final /n/ or /l/. However, common English usage is mixed. In accord with our translators’ preferences we use a vowel before a final /n/ or /l/.  Usually this vowel is an /e/, but sometimes it is an /a/, depending on known English usage.

• Toponymic surnames ending in –samekh-kof-yod may transliterate to /-ski/ or /-sky/ depending on the geographic origin of the name. We have standardized on /-ski/.

There are no guarantees that the ‘rules’ we have applied in this translation are ‘correct’, but we have tried to be consistent in applying them, and we have tried to apply them in a way that allows the reader to work backwards to the original Hebrew or Yiddish (whoops, make that Yidish) spelling.  As Editor, I take full responsibility for changes I have made to our translators’ work. And, I welcome any comments, criticism, and suggestions for improving this work.

If you identify any errors in the translation, or if you take issue with the way we have transliterated specific surnames please advise me of them so that we can get them corrected. You can contact me at rondoctor@qwest.net.

Ronald D. Doctor
Editor, Kremenets Yizkor Book Translation Project
Co-coordinator, Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP
Portland, Oregon USA

[ vii ]

Translation Acknowledgements

As I write this, there are 81 people on the e-mail distribution list of the Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP. Of those, 14 are actively involved as volunteer translators for the Kremenets Yizkor Book Translation Project. I want to especially thank Elliott Raisen, the volunteer translator who has worked on Booklet #11.  And, I want to acknowledge the assistance he received from participants on the e-mail discussion list Mendele . They provided invaluable help on particularly difficult Yiddish words and phrases. More information about Mendele is available at: http://ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html.

I take full responsibility for changes I have made, and any damage I have done, to the work of our translators. Please keep in mind that this is an ongoing project. Additions and revisions to this translation will be made available as they are completed.

Ronald D. Doctor
Editor, Kremenets Yizkor Book Translation Project
Co-coordinator, Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP/JRI-Poland
Portland, Oregon USA

[ Intro 4 ]

Editorial Matters

After a break of almost a year and a half we are presenting Booklet #11 to the Kremenetsers in Israel and in the Diaspora, and we hope that conditions in the future will allow us to publish regularly.

We start this issue with a section “Four who fell in the war”. We all mourn them, but such sacrifices are a part of building Israel. We who witnessed the loss of 14,000 victims in Kremenets will have the courage to go on.

The delay in publication of this pamphlet was caused by the dark mood after the Yom Kippur war, by fatigue of the workers, by members who can contribute but are not helping, and by delay in receipt of payments. Due to this delay some news will be outdated but is included to maintain continuity. Meanwhile a lot of material that is accumulated will be put in Issue #12, including memories from the Kremenets Ghetto by Ruth Klug from Haifa; discussion of the book by Yisrael Otiker, Z”L, “A khalutz (pioneer) from Poland, 1932-1935”; a biography of Prof. Aryeih Shinberg, Dean of School of Medicine – Tel Aviv; and a biography of Yuri Pikhovits. Some articles from Argentina will also be included in number 12.

[Translation Editor’s Note: Some intermediate material here has not yet been translated.]

We hope that the next issue will be published on time.

The Editors

P.S.

The price will be 6 Israeli Pds. instead of 5—please pay as soon as possible and include past due balances.

[Translation Editor’s Note: The remainder of this page has not yet been translated.]

Name Index

Argman, A., iii
Bangold Gindes, Fanya (see Gindes, Fanya Bangold)
Bernshtayn, Bella, 42
Ben-Nun, Bona, 46-47
Biberman, Haim, 49
Fishman, Haim, 50
Fisherman, Menukha Frida, 43-44,
     photo of, 43
Gershgal, M., iii
Gindes, Fanya Bangold, 45,
     photo of, 45
Goldberg, Yehoshua, 55
Goldenberg, Manus, iii, 1-12, 27-31, 36, 37-39, 40-45
Golberg, Yehoshua, iii, 22
Guterman, Risya, 50
Hapshtayn, Fayga, 49
Haral, Pinkhas (see Lemberg, Pintsi)
Kagan, Willim, iii
Katz, Marcos, iii
Katz, Mara, 21, 52
Kazalavski, Yulian, 46-47
     photo of, 46
Kremenitski, Yaakov, 50
Kremenitski, Yitskhak, 50
Lemberg, Pintsi, 18, 40-41
Levinzon, Rabbi Yitskhak Ber, 17, 23, 52
Markavetski, Rivka Rapaport (see Rapaport-Markavetski, Rivka)
Nudel, Mr., 24
Otiker, Yisrael, iv
Ot-Iker, M., iii
Pak, Moshe, 21, 50
Pikhovits, Yuri, iv
Rapaport, Duvid, 34-35, 48
Rapaport-Markavetski, Rivka, 48
Rokhel, Khanokh, 13-15
Rokhel, Yitskhak, iii, 1-12, 13-15, 16, 19-24, 32-33, 49-54
Schnayder, Shmuel, 23, 52
Shinberg, Aryeih, iv
Tsaytag-Terasova, Alexander, 24
Vakman, Y., 1-12