Bendery Community Yizkor Book
(Bender, Moldova)

46°50' / 29°27'

Translation of
Kehilat Bendery; Sefer Zikaron

Edited by M. Tamari

Published by Bendery Societies in Israel and the United States


 

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Gloria (Schwartzman) Green

 

This is a translation from Kehilat Bendery; Sefer Zikaron,
(Bendery Community Yizkor Book),
Editors: M. Tamari, Published by Bendery Societies in Israel and the United States,
Tel Aviv 1975 (H,Y,E, 488 pages).

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

Purchase details for a printed copy of this book can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ybip/YBIP_Bender.html


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BENDERY COMMUNITY

YIZKOR BOOK

 

Editor: M. Tamari

 

Published by the Committee of Bendery Immigrants in Israel

With the participation of the Bendery immigrants in the USA, Tel Aviv -1975

 

Editorial Committee

(in alphabetical order)

 

In Israel: Pinchas Bendersky; Attorney Meir Greenberg, z”l;
Zalman Drowetzky; Chanania Walowetz; Abraham Hayat;
Mordechai Sever; Yitzchak Sverdlik; Yoseph Raviv (Rabinowitz)

*

In the USA; Leon Gurfel; David Carmel; Yakov Fein.

*

The Israeli committee, meeting on the 26 December, 1974, expressed its
appreciation and thanks to PINCHAS BENDERSKY for his devoted
work connected with the publication of this book.

*

The material in the book-photos, documents and lists, were collected
from archives, libraries, science and remembrance institutes,and from
individuals in Israel and abroad by Mordechai Sever. The map at the
beginning of the book was redrawn from an old version by
Mordechai Sever.

*

All rights in this book belong to the committees of Immigrants from Bendery in Israel and the USA

 

TOC translated by Shimon Joffe

Town Map 4
M. Tamari: The Book 5
Pinchas Bendersky: Generation to Generation speaks 7
   
HISTORY OF THE CITY (from the encyclopedia) 43
   
Fortress and County Seat 43
At the end of the previous century 44
In the Margins of “Hamelitz” 48
Greeting cards 49
   
BETWEEN TWO WORLD WARS  
   
Bella Shreibman-Rab: Jews between the citadel and the bridge 53
Nachman Lavonsky: Days gone by 55
Shevach (Sioma) Blei: Days of war and revolution 58
Michael Landau: Gone, my beloved brothers 60
Arieh Shreibman: In a sailing boat on a stormy sea 63
Shmuel Giboa: My life in Bendery 65
   
HASSIDISM IN BENDERY  
   
N.Huberman: Bendery in Hassidic literature 75
Yonah Balaban (Hulda): Rabbi Moishele and His Hassidim 77
   
THE SECOND ALIYAH  
   
Rivka Machneimy (Cholodenko): In the days of the Second Aliyah 81
   
THE SHWARTZMAN HIGH SCHOOL  
   
Batia Steiner-Faigenbaum: The Kindergarten in the Schwartzman High School 93
Leah Steiner: The High School day by day and in moments of spiritual uplift 95
Nachman Levonsky: The Tarbut School, which did not survive long 98
   
YOUTH MOVEMENTS  
   
Sonia Etlis: The Maccabi League 101
Yitzhak Sverdlik: Years of Expansion 102
Baruch Kaushansky: Preparation for Aliyah to Eretz Israel 104
Meri Horodetzky: Hashomer Hatzair 105
Pinchas Ben Shaul (Pinko): Hashomer Hatzair Among the First Movements 108
Yonah Balaban: Gordonia Movement 110
Moshe Horovitz And Mordechai Frank: The Beitar Youth Movement 112
   
THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS  
   
Haim Raday: A Branch to Two Trunks 118
Leah Steiner: The Last Survivor of the Holy Man's Family 121
Mordechai Sever: Reminiscences of My Father's House 123
Leah Bat Chaya and Bezalel: A Childhood Affront 130
Leah Bat Chaya and Bezalel: My Father Reb Bezalel, the Cantor and the Talner Synagogue 131
Katya Shay (Fein): Memory Fragments of Days Gone By 133
Abba Sapir (Shaposnick): My Father's House – Open To All 134
Yehiel Efrati: Ordinary Folk Caught in Reality 135
Leah Steiner: Road of Suffering 136
Leah Steiner: My Bendery 137
Leah Steiner: Yehiel the Cobbler Teaches Me Zionism 139
Leah Bat Haya: The Intellectual Gentleman (on D.A.Natanzon) 141
   
IN THE FUROR OF THE SHOAH  
   
Rabbi Shimon Efrati: From The Diary of a Wanderer 145
Zvi (Gersh) Sobol: Testament 156
Mira Geva: The Valley of The Slaughter Near The Fortress 157
Dr. T. Lavi–Levinstein: The Tighina Agreement and the Expulsion to Transnistria 158
Meir Grinberg: Bendery after the destruction 160
Rabbi Shmuel Bronfman: After the Shoah 162
Shmuel Delmetzky: Upon the Graves of Our Ancestors 167
   
PERSONAE  
I.L. Toibman [Yonatan]: The Wertheim Dynasty 171
I.L. Toibman [Yonatan]: Reb Yossele Wertheim 178
Dr. Shlomo Bendersky 180
David Abramovich Natanzon 181
Dr. Baruch Nissenboim 182
Rabbi Efraim Drebrimdiker 183
Avraham Alexandrov 183
Baruch Holodenko 184
Dr. Alexander KhainM 185
David Prozhansky 186
Hersh Kogan [Zvi Cohen] 187
Dr. Zvi Schwartzman 189
Zelig Sofer 190
Yaakov Shveidky 192
Avraham Wertheim 192
David Wertheim 193
Aryeh–Leib and Nadia Blank 194
Israel Blank 195
Noah Lifshitz 195
Hanina Krachevsky 196
Haya Glass 198
Yitzhak Reznikov 199
Dr. P. Yaroslavsky  
   
THE THIRD ALIYAH  
   
Yoseph Raviv: Bendery in the Past and Under the Soviet Regime 203
David Weiser: Signposts to Eretz Israel 206
Leah Shteiner: On a New Road 209
Leah Shteiner: The Saga of the Shrybmans–Sweetness out of Bitterness 210
David Carmel: Miracles at Sea 212
   
ROOTS IN THE HOMELAND  
   
Rivka Davidit: Crabgrass 215
Eitan Haber: An Old Fighter in a New Role 216
Mordehai Sever: Echo Sounds 217
D. Ben Yehiel: Our Aunt Leah 218
   
LANDSCAPE AND BEING  
   
Yaakov Fichman: Bessarabia (poem) 221
Mordehai (ben Moshe) Sever: Figures and Shadows Which Have Disappeared 222
Rivka (Riva) Terer–Drobetsky: Recollections From Jerusalem of the 1920s 233
I. Gabbai: Simcha Tzehovel 236
Israel Gur: Tzehovel and His Roles 237
Y.Manik: Deep in Autumn Nights (poem) 238
Dr. Yosef Kruk: The Wertheim Family in the Real World 239
Yosef Shapira: Big Hearted David Wertheim 241
Mordehai Sever: Rabbi Eli the Ritual Slaughterer, Z”L – A Scholar and a Genius 242
Moshe Sever (Sverdlik): The Influence of the Synagogues 245
Moshe Sever (Sverdlik): A Proposal to Fund a Pension Fund Fifty Years Ago 247
The Activities of ORT and OZE 248
Moshe Bik: Aharon Helfand, the famous cantor 442
   
CONTENTS
(in Yiddish)
 
   
REMINISCENCES AND HISTORIC REFLECTIONS  
   
Avraham Hayat: Bendery – My Hometown 253
David Carmel: Our Town 262
Itzik Manger: At The Dniester 272
Leon Garfield: Bendery as Seen in History 273
   
RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE  
   
Prof. Yitzhak Fein: A City of Belief and Conspiracies 279
Leon (Yehuda–Leib) Garfield: In Changing Times 284
Yitzhak Abramovitch: Poem 297
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Wertheim: Memoirs from the Bendery Rabbinate 298
I.L. Yonatan: Bessarabian Zionist Activists Crusade 302
Hanania Volovetz: Ezrat Ani'im Charity 303
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: The Teachers Street 305
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: Diarde's Pay (poem) 306
Leon (Yehuda–Leib) Garfield: Poalei Zion in Bendery 307
Leon (Yehuda–Leib) Garfield: The Cultural League 311
Shmaria Hrushtesh: We Acted In The Theatre? 313
David Carmel: The Writer Rivka Davidit, z”l 315
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: Now It Happens (poem) 315
Yosef Schwartzman z”l: Hazamir 316
Yaakov Fein: The Founding and the Activities of Maccabi 317
Yekhezkel Bronstein: The Poet Yehoshua Manik (Lederman) 319
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: Ben Zion Shochat (poem) 321
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: Father Sings a Folk Tune 322
Israel Rabinovitch: Thoughts For the Fifteenth of Shvat 322
Abraham Hayat: Mother 323
I.Manik (Lederman) z”l: Rabbi Moshe Sever 324
Mordechai Sever: Hear, Brother, Hear… 326
Two Generations in Public Life 327
   
FROM THE JEWISH PRESS  
   
News From Bendery 331
In the Predicament of Need … 335
Memorial Service for the Riot Victims in Eretz Israel 338
   
OCCUPATION AND HOLOCAUST  
 
David Wertheim, Z”L 341
Avraham Wertheim, Z”L 341
Women's Organizations in Bendery 343
“Women's Association” Bendery (Tighina) – 1931 344
Rabbi Israel Bronfman: Bendery After the Shoah 347
B. Levi: In Those Dark Days… 350
Miller David: Testimony of a Witness 351
Y. Manik (Lederman): Deep in the Autumn Night 354
Yehuda–Leib Garfield: In Your Blood Shall You Live 354
Yehuda–Leib, son of David, Halevi: The Bendery Society 357
Bessarabian Jews Intensively Construct a Building in Israel 358
The Progressive Bendery Benevolent Society 359
P.Bendersky: Afterword 361
Memorial Candles 365
List of Martyrs (Names extracted from the “Memorial Candles” section)  
   
English Section
David Carmel: Bendery III
List of Martyrs (Names extracted from the “In Loving Memory” section XXXV


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