Memorial Book of Kamenets
Litovsk, Zastavye, and Colonies

(Kamyanyets, Belarus)

52°24' / 23°49'


Translation of
Sefer Yizkor le-Kehilot Kamenets de-Lita


Edited by: Prof. Shmuel Eisendstadt and Mordechai Gelbart

Published in Tel Aviv, 1970


Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Allen Flusberg

 

Emerita Coordinator: Jenni Buch

 

This is a translation from: Sefer Yizkor le-Kehilot Kamenets de-Lita;
Memorial book of Kamenets Litovsk, Zastavye, and colonies.
Ed. Prof. Shmuel Eisendstadt and Mordechai Gelbart. Tel Aviv, Kaminiec and Zastavye communities in Israel and the U.S.,
1970, “Orli”, Rehov Akiva Eiger 8, Tel Aviv.

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

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


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Hebrew

TOC translated by Yocheved Klausner

The Committee Let Us Remember and Not Forget 8
Simcha Dubiner An Eternal Memorial for Our Town and Our Martyrs 13
  List of Committee Members of Kamenetzers in Israel Since Its Founding 14
Professor Shmuel Eisenstadt Editor's Introduction 15
  Committee Members 18
 
History of our Town
 
Levi Sarid (Laybl Goldberg) Beginnings of the Town Kamenetz–Litowsk and Its Jewish Settlement 21
Yeḥezkel Kotik My Reminiscences 39
 
Torah Istitutions in Kamenets-Litowsk
 
David Hakohen Burstein Rabbi Yehoshua Hakohen Blumenthal z.tz.l. 47
Moshe Rabinowitz My Grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak of Kamenetz-Litowsk 49
Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni Rabbi Reuven David Hakohen Burstein, May God Avenge His Blood 50
Rabbi Reuven David Hakohen Burstein Rabbi Avraham Aharon Hakohen 55
Rabbi Yakov Bobrowski Rabbi Meir-Tzvi Putchinski, z.tz.l. 58
Yeḥiel Belizowski The Yeshiva of Kamenetz-Litowsk 59
Leah Bobrowski-Aloni The “Knesset Beit Yitzhak” Yeshiva 61
Rabbi Yitzhak Edelstein Rabbi Baruch Dov Leibowitz, Head of the Yeshiva of Kamenetz-Litovsk 64
 
Public Life in Kamenets-Litowsk
 
Yehudit Koszczekowicz-Grunt On the Life of the Young People in Kamenetz-Litowsk 71
S. Dubiner HeChalutz (Pioneer Movement) in Kamenetz–Litowsk 73
Chaia Krakovski-Rodnitzki Poalei-Zion (United with Tz.S.) in Kamenetz-Litowsk 74
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki The Gordonia Movement in Kamenetz-Litowsk 77
Bunia Kotik Beitar and HaTzohar [Zionist Revisionist] Movement in Kamenetz-Litowsk 80
 
Memories before the Holocaust
 
Leah Bobrowski-Aloni During the Years of the First World War 83
Yehudit Koscikiewicz-Grunt Kamenetz-Litowsk During the First World War 87
Rabbi Yaakov Bobrowski Some of My Memories 90
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki Memoirs from My Home and from the Town Kamenetz–Litowsk 92
  Shlomo Zelig and His Sons 98
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki Alterke 99
Yakov Kaminski Memories and Yearning 102
Penina Falayev-Bobrowski Kamenetz, Where I Was Born 103
 
Comunal Workers, Writers and Teachers in Kamenets-Litowsk
 
P. Rabi About the Maggid of Kamenetz, Rabbi Ḥaim Zundl Maccoby, of Blessed Memory 107
  - Menachem Mendel of Kamenetz–Litowsk 110
  - R. Yisrael Ashkenazi 113
Leah Aloni-Bobrowski The Writer Moshe Eliyahu Jacques-Zhernensky, of Blessed Memory 116
Zelda Saperstein Falek Zolf, of Blessed Memory 119
Ḥ. K. Baruch Eisner, of Blessed Memory 121
R.V. Yosef Vigutov and Bendet Winograd 122
Professor Shmuel Eisenstadt It Happened in Kamenetz-Litowsk 124
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki Zelig “the Bookbinder” 127
  - Isaac Shostakowski 129
  - Ze'ev (Velvl)-Ḥaim Kirschenbaum 130
  - Asher Saperstein 131
  - Binyamin Bogatin 131
Ḥaya Krakowski-Karabelnik Hershel Zvi Sapirstein 133
Asher Glezer Leibl (Arye) Pomaranchik 135
Asher Glezer R. Nuske the Melamed 135
Baruch Mordechai Kotik Efraim Kotik, Sr. 137
 
Committee members of Kamenetz-Litowsk townspeople organization who passed away in Israel
 
Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni Zahava Gershuni 141
Asher Glezer Yehuda Rappaport 143
Ḥaia Krakovski-Karabelnik Tuvya Savitzki 144
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki Yeshaya Rimon 146
Leah Aloni-Bobrowski Shimon Kotik 147
Dov Aloni Meir Bobrowski 149
Leah Aloni-Bobrowski Yehudit Koscikiewicz 152
Gideon Hausner A Farewell to Leah Aloni, of Blessed Memory 154
Shraga Aloni Leah, My Sister-In-Law—My Sister! 156
M. K. Pinḥas Rabi (Rabinowitz): In His Memory 157
 
In the Holocaust
 
  Map of Routes from Kamenetz-Litovsk to Death Camps 160
Arye Sarid The Prayer (poem) 163
Dora Galperin The Destruction of Kamenetz 165
Dvora Rudnitzky-Singer My Life in the Ghettos and Extermination Camps 174
Yitzhak Portnoy From the Ghettos to the Concentration Camps 183
Leah Aloni-Bobrowski A Tear for the Loss of My Townspeople 189
 
After the Destruction
 
Asher Ben Moshe Kamenets after the Destruction 195
Dov (Bertchik) Shmida A Journey to the Past 200
 
Fallen in the Homeland
 
  Michael Kotik, of Blessed Memory 211
Baruch Mordechai Kotik My Dear Son, Efraim 212
Leah Bobrowski-Aloni and Ḥaya Krakowski-Karabelnik Activities of the Organization of Former Residents of Kamenetz 216
  Commemoration Ceremony for the Community of Kamenetz-Litowsk and Zastavya 225
Meir Bobrowski List of Jews of Kamenetz-Litowsk, Zastavya and the Colonies, Who Perished at the Hands of the Nazis, May Their Memory Be Blotted Out 251
  Memorialization 281
  Necrologies 281

 

Yiddish

TOC translated by Yocheved Klausner

  Kamenets-Litowsk Jews in Israel and in America 342
Yitzhak Katzenelson, may God avenge his blood The poem of the murdered Jewish nation 342
The Committee Let Us Remember and Not Forget 346
 
Introduction
 
Avraham Schudroff A monument for our destroyed hometown 349
Professor Shmuel Eisenstadt Introductory Remarks 353
 
The Past of our Destroyed Home
 
Levi Sarid (Leybl) Goldberg) History of Kamenetz-Litowsk and Its Jewish Settlement 357
Yeḥezkel Kotik Kamenets-Litowsk 376
Sholom Aleichem Letter to Yehezkel Kotik 386
Velvel Kustin The Jewish Agricultural Colonies 389
Falek Zolf The First School in Zastavya 400
 
The Religious life in Kamenets-Litowsk
 
Moshe Rabinowitz Rabbi Moshe Yitzchok Rabinowitz, of Blessed Memory 405
Rabbi Yitzchok Turetz, of Blessed Memory Rabbi Boruch Ber and His Great World-Renowned Yeshiva 408
Ch. Z. Mendelson Rabbi Reuven Burstein, z.tz.l. 409
  Rabbi Shlomo Ḥaim, Head of the Yeshiva 411
Ch. Z. Mendelson Yom Kippur in Our Little Town 412
 
Social Life in Kamenets
 
Chaya Krakowski-Karabelnik Poalei-Zion (United with Tz.S.) in Kamenetz 419
Pinḥas Ravid-Rudnicki The Gordonia Movement in Kamenets-Litowsk 423
 
Memories from Kamenets Before the Destruction
 
Avrohom Shudroff Longing and Grief for the Town of My Birth 429
Simcha Dubiner (Petah Tikva) Our Shtetl 431
Dvora Dolinski-Panski Kamenetz—As I Remember You 435
Malka Kurtchanski-Polyakevitch My Little Shtetl Kamenetz-Litowsk 444
Sarah Hurwitz Once Upon a Time in My Shtetl Kamenetz 446
Chaya Gurvitz-Goldberg The Szkola Powszechna [Polish Public School] 450
Hatzkel Kagan The years of my youth in Kamenets-Litowsk 452
F. Zolf, of Blessed Memory The Revisor [Auditor] 462
Shifra Mazover-Bobrowski Memories of My Town 471
Yitzchok Sheinfeld Prewar Kamenetz 477
Shashke Visotzky Memories 480
Chaya Sara Binder-Rudnitzki A Religious-Court Hearing at the Rabbi's 482
Rachel Sofer-Renkevitch Memoirs 484
Dobbe Halpern Unpleasant Recollections 487
Zlate Timyansky-Gers Unforgettable 490
Aharon Meir Yoffe The Orchestra 492
Ḥ. Z. Mendelson Our Little Town and Its Livelihoods 495
Yakov Aronowicz Life in Kamenetz 499
Yosef Post Kamenetz-Litowsk, where I've never been 500
 
Persons in Town
 
Ch.Z. Mendelson R. Yosef Vigutov 505
Zalman Reisen Avrohom Hersh Kotik 507
Prof. Shmuel Eisenstadt R. Shepsl Soifer [the Scribe] 509
Leah Aloni-Bobrowski Shlomo Mandelblatt, May God Avenge His Blood 511
N. N. Dr. Ayzik Gorny, May God Avenge His Blood 514
M. Naiman Yankl Zlates 516
 
Destruction and Ruin
 
Dora Galpern The Destruction of Kamenetz at the Beginning of the Second World War 521
Yitzhak Portnoy From the Ghettos to the Concentration Camps 534
Dvora Rudnitzky-Singe What I Lived Through in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps 540
Dora Galpern The Kamenetz Ghetto (A Testimony) 550
Mota Montag, Historical Committee Historical Questions and Answers on Kamenetz-Litowsk 557
 
Kamenets after the Holocaust
 
Ben–Moshe Kamenetz in 1945 561
Dov (Bertchik) Shemida A Journey to the Past 569
  The activity of the Kamenets-Litowsk memorial committee in Israel 579
 
Kamenetser in America
 
Meir Mendel Visotzky The Establishment of the Kamenetz-Litowsk Aid Society in America 587
 
Kamenets-Litowsk Memorial Committee in America
 
Sarah Hurwitz Kamenets-Litowsk Malbush-Arumim aid Society in New-York 591
Chatzkl Kagan Memorial Day on the 20th Yahrzeit, in New York, of the Destruction of Kamenetz-Litowsk: a Report 593
 
Perpetuation Ceremony in Tel Aviv
 
  A letter from the school district supervisor Yaakov Niv 603
  The Ceremony 605

 

English

The Old Home
 
Abraham Schudroff Foreword 9
Leybl Goldberg (Sarid) The Beginning of Jewish Settlement in Kamenetz 12
Leybl Goldberg (Sarid) A Short History of Kamenetz-Litovsk 26
Yehezkel Kotik My Reminiscences 29
  Short Biography of Yehezkel Kotik 38
Sholom Aleichem Letter to Yehezkel Kotik 39
Abraham Shudroff Yearning and Mourning for my Home Town 43
Dvora Dolinsky-Pansky Kamenetz as I Remember You 46
Velvel Kustin The Jewish Agricultural Colonies 56
I. Z. Mendelson The Day of Atonement in our Town 69
Hatzkel Kagan The Years of my Youth in Kamenetz 73
Itzhak Sheinfeld Kamenetz – The Memories of my Youth 85
 
The Holocaust
 
Dora Galperin The Tragedy of Jewish Kamenetz 91
Dvora Rudnitsky-Singer My Life in Ghettos and Concentration Camps 105
  The "Angel of Belsen" 117
 
Kamenetzers in the United States
 
Sarah Hurwitz The Kamenetz Society in America 127
Meir Mendel Visotsky The Establishment of Kamenetz-Litovsk Aid Society in America 130
Charles Raddock The Kamenetzer Yeshivah of America 136
Velvel Kustin The Kokhav Ya'acov Anshey Kamenetz D'Lita Society 143
 
Kamenetzers in Israel
 
  Bialik School in Tel-Aviv Perpetuates the Memory of the Community 149
Dov (Bertschik) Schmidt My Journey to Kamenetz in 1965 175
Samuel Lipchick Our Heritage 182
  To Their Memory 184
 
  Necrology  




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