Olyka, Ukraine {Page 198}

REIZEL AND SHLOMO TEITEL

        The members of the Third Aliyah living in Israel were in the Nordauiya neighborhood in Tel Aviv, and formed the center and point of gravity for all of our town's people. They made their way to that bungalow like Chassidim to a rebbe, and in those difficult days they planted within us hope, setting us on fire to want to go on living. There was something amazing about their personalities. Reizel worried about the needs of each and every person just like a devoted mother, a yiddishe Mama , both in happy and tragic times; she was like a caressing hand.

        They were both born in Olyka, offspring of important and large families. Her mother, Malka Aharon Zlotes, was a woman of valor in the full sense of the word. She was wise and resourceful. Her father, Aharon Zlotes was a wheat merchant, one of the most honest people in town, and an outstanding member of the community.

        "Grandma" Malka had the privilege of moving to the Land of Israel, but illness deprived her of her life. Reizel Shoshana was a chip off the old block, and her parents taught her everything she learned the teachings about opening one's house to all in need.

        Shoshana and Shlomo shared the same ideals. They were together in their pioneer activity, realization, aspirations and labor. For us, they were both a single path to Zion. They paved a road for us, as it were, at a time when they chose to travel on untried roads themselves; a road that wasn't much of a road in the days of crisis and unemployment in Palestine; a road of the difficult struggle of Hebrew labor, until finally they attained some rest and consolation in their small home in the Nachlat Yitzchak neighborhood. Their life stories in Palestine are the stories of the entire population. Their huge family in Palestine was composed of laboring people who they knew well.

        The poor shacks in Nordauiya served us, the emigrés from Olyka, as a palace. We were cramped in the beds and corners, standing crowded and prostrating/bowing with extra room to spare [This motif clearly refers back to the story about the ancient Temple on Yom Kippur, where the crowds were so large there was no room to move, and yet during the bowing ceremony, everyone was able to bow down.] when the sound of singing and hora dancing exploded onto the street, which Shoshana, of course, directed this symphony and added fire and enthusiasm to it.

        They really guided us. They helped anyone in need with loans and grants. We wanted to be around them. Now, righteous Jews in the glorious light of heaven seek their company. Could it be otherwise?

{p. 198}

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