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From the Past

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R' Yosef Royzman Blesses Shlome, Leyb Ayzen's Son, at His Bar Mitzvah

 


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Radivil in My Memory…[1]

by Duvid Sheyn

Translated by Tina Lunson

It is with a pounding heart that I go about putting to paper my feelings about the town of my birth, Radivil. For every person, the place where his crib stood is dear, and of course the place becomes almost holy after the passage of decades of time, and certainly more so after our great catastrophe.

I can see Radivil as lively as the town was in my very early years. In our family, they used to joke that I remembered things that happened before I was born. I don't know whether that is true, but the landscape, the environs, the customs permeated me even in my very young years.

It seems to me that in order to have an exact portrait of Radivil, one needs to see it from two points of view: a Radivil as a border town with a lot of customs houses, or tamozshnia as it is called in Russian. In czarist times, there were six first–class tamozshnias, and Radivil was one of them. From Russia toward the west went great exports of agricultural products–of grain, poultry, and eggs. Dozens of families were employed in these lines of business, and they lived a nice life. Various products came from outside, through Brody (or Brod, as Jews called it), and a huge number of people in Radivil worked for the customs agents who collected the customs. This was an extensive production, and many people worked in its service, earning good wages and living a fine life.

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Twice a day–in the morning between 10:00 and 12:00 and in the evening from 6:00 to 8:00–the train station boiled like a kettle, with trains coming and going. There was a huge movement of passengers, and a few Jews were always among them–small–time shipping clerks. There were also a few semi–official jobs, but Jews made a living, and an honorable one. Besides the train, there was also the little border, as we called it: Radivil lay just four kilometers from the Austrian border, and from that border it was five kilometers to Brody. So the distance between Radivil and Brody was only nine kilometers. Jews drew a livelihood from there, too, but a poorer one. A certain number of Jews would come every day with a sad–looking nag, arriving in Radivil from Brody, bringing in a few items of linen and smuggled lace or linen shawl, as they were called, and other goods like that. They took a hen, a few eggs, things like that, back with them. There were no great successes here, of course, but this was their livelihood, and they managed with that. We called these people shegernikes or shergenitses, although no one knew what the word meant.

I must add that because of the border, a border patrol troop and a unit of Cossacks were stationed in Radivil. And, of course, there were contractors, and that was a livelihood for quite a few families. All in all a prosperous town with a quiet business and cultural life.

The second “pillar,” so to say, of Jewish life in Radivil was “Moshe Mendil Ginzburg.” He had justly earned his immortality in the memory of all Radivilers, and he was an important chapter in our book. His usual place of residence was Peterburg (today Leningrad), but his aged mother lived in Radivil, and he was closely bound to her. He also had a brother and his family (Shmuel Mes) there and many friends. Ginzburg, or simply Moshe Mendil, came almost every year to visit his family, and then there was a holiday mood in the town.

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Although his aged mother–Rosye, of blessed memory–used to give to charity with a generous hand, and there were families who literally lived on that support, the donations had an even larger character when Ginzburg was in town. One could really say that he had simply “stood people on their own two feet.”

The abovementioned two factors were practically the foundation of the town's economic life. But it also happened that this not–so–big town had quite a few developed industries. Shmuel Mes (one of Ginzburg's nephews) founded a button factory. There was a chair factory (they were called Viennese chairs) that belonged to Zindel Zaks. Two factories produced lights: Goldgart–Liberman and Stroyman–Brandvayn, and there was a beer brewery.

The outward appearance of the town gave witness to its prosperity. There were fine houses, kept in good order, not only on the main street, Lipove, but scattered throughout the entire town. There were, especially in view of the smallish population, many coaches–or veyezdn, as we called them–with coachmen in beautiful, colorful dress. All this gave the town a local color of prosperity, and we did not have the typical Jewish poverty. Of course, there was still small percentage of paupers.

There were two clubs in town: a social club, “Grozshdanski,” in Mokhan the pharmacist's home, and the Shakhmat Club in Yone Sheyn's home. But these did not exhaust by far the cultural life of the town. Before World War I, there were already, many types of Zionist activity, shekel sales, distribution of shares in the Colonial Bank, distribution of the Zionist press, and foremost, of course, was Hatsefira, but also other publications in Hebrew. One must keep in mind that in Radivil, despite its smallish population, there was a large ratio of Hebrew teachers. There was Sender Sforim, of blessed memory, whom we used to call Sender the Reader, because he was the Torah reader in the Great Synagogue; there was R' Ayzik Shtof, a person with inborn pedagogical abilities; and Katz (I do not remember his first name), who was a more modern teacher; and Binyamin Finkelshteyn, of blessed memory; and Avigdor Melman (who used to be called Avigdor the Writer).

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Group of Teachers and Students from the Elementary School under the Leadership of Avraham Zats

 

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Schoolchildren on a Hike

 

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He mostly taught girls. In later years Avraham–Yehuda Polak came from Berestechko (in Radivil he was known simply as Avraham–Yehuda). Avraham–Yehuda and Binyamin Finkelshteyn conducted pioneering work in the area of spreading the Hebrew language, and they established courses for adults. That was an important part of Zionist work, as it was carried out at that time.

A large number of children were sent to continue their studies in the larger cities nearby–Dubno, Kremenets, Rovno, and so on, but there were many cases when parents sent their children off to more distant cities so that they could study in special Jewish schools. I myself, for example, traveled to Warsaw and studied at the Krinsky business school for gentiles; Moshe Golgard's children studied at Kogan's high school in Vilna.

 

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The Government Jewish School before World War I

 

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After the outbreak of World War I, Kogan's school moved to Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), and I received my diploma there. And there was even an instance when a boy was sent to the Herzl school in Tel Aviv. There was a drive to education as well as to sociopolitical activity. I want to say that the intellectual level of the Radivil population was in general very satisfactory, especially among the youth.

 

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Polish Elementary School

 

If one takes into consideration the relatively small population (… Jewish residents), there were two free government public schools: one for boys and one for girls. Besides the opportunity to study at the general school in town, at the crafts school, and at a private high school for girls operated by its owner, Ms. Svirska, one can certainly say that there was no young person who should not have an elementary school education.

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It gave a further push toward an interest in literature and political–social questions. Then in this little community there were, besides Zionists, also parties for other political directions, like the Bund, Labor Zionists, and others. They were not highly regarded in town–they were called “the black shirts,” but they read and discussed, and if not for their political leaning, they would have kept more backers. There was a curious incident told in town about a Bund follower who had truly devoted herself to the work of the party with heart and soul: in an argument with her “oppositional” mother, she had shouted, “Okh un vey, that [Tsar] Nikolai is my father, and you are my mother!”

I must also mention praise for the teachers in town, who had a definite influence on Radivil children's first steps in life. One can say almost for certain that by far the largest number of youth started with cheder, that is, with an elementary alef–beys teacher.

 

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Elementary School under the Leadership of A. Zats, 1923

 

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There were two–Mikhel the Teacher, of blessed memory (with whom I studied), and Zalman Hirsh (one of his grandchildren is here in this country). After R' Mikhel the Teacher, I and other boys my age went to R' Yisrael–Yone, where we studied the Five Books with Rashi. On the same level also stood Aba the Teacher's cheder, but it was considered more modern–a kind of reformed cheder. After that I went, again with all the others of my age, to Mordekhay Naftali's (the second cantor at the Great Synagogue). With him, we were already studying Bible. Then I went to an advanced teacher, a special teacher, so to speak–a higher–level study situation where one learned the special trope for Talmud. I continued studying with him in the summer months while I was home from Warsaw for the summer break. I may have omitted a name, because I remember best the ones I studied with. But I do remember another two names of respected teachers, and those are R' Aharele, who spent his last years in the poorhouse, the makeshift “hospital” for the poor, and whose former students–more correctly, his former students' families–supported him. I remember him because my older brother Abish was also one of his students, and I used to visit him as a messenger with packages from our home. I also remember the teacher from the higher level, R' Itsik Leyb. He lived near the Great Synagogue, beside the house of Rabbi Itsikel the righteous, of blessed memory.

I turn now to institutional activities. Social aid in Radivil occupies a separate chapter. All the fine institutions that Ginzburg built had their own budgets, and even if Ginzburg supported them with a certain sum, then an equal burden was laid on the population. Just as the economically secure stratum of the Jewish population–and there were quite a few–was happy to manifest its opportunities, in town they created a style of justice not only in their own homes but also in the sustaining the institutions. I will use the example of the poorhouse. We all know what a poorhouse looked like in Jewish towns, but the Radivil poorhouse was an exception.

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The poor actually did have good oversight, as far as that can be said about a poorhouse.

As a border town, Radivil also had a specific border social question. A heavy stream of emigrants passed through Radivil on their way to America. They stole across the border in Radivil, and from Brody they were free to get to Hamburg or Antwerp. In those towns, there were Jewish aid agencies that helped the emigrants reach their goals. But there were many sick people among them, especially those with eye diseases, and the admitting countries were very meticulous about not letting them in. So quite a few of them were sent back. They would be taken to the border near Brody, and then the Austrian police would bring them to the police in Radivil, and from there they were accompanied by troops back to their places of residence. The older generation understood very well what that meant, “going with the troop.” They used to drive the people from one village to another on foot (wagons were only for the old and sick who were literally unable to walk), and in each village the sheriff turned the group over to the next sheriff, who accompanied them to the next village, and so on to their village.

 

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A Group in Radivil Welcomes Sirota

 

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It was simply a death troop. Especially tragic was the situation of children when they had let the whole family through except for one child who was sent back. The item of social aid therefore was difficult, because we had to have more means. These travelers had to be given money so that they could buy food along the way, and also provided with train tickets. Besides that, they had to sign a written document that they would go back to their hometowns. And here it must be mentioned that that the whole population took part in this activity, and a large part of the aid was provided by ordinary people. They took people in to spend the night, helped them with food supplies, and took them to the train for no fee. I recall that in our house, we kept a little girl of six or eight years for a long time, until correspondence led to a grandfather in the Zhitomir area who could come to take her home.

Also, religious life in Radivil played a large role. Although there were no Hasidim in the real sense of the word, as in the Polish towns and villages, everything with us was done in strict traditional stateliness.

We can begin with the Great Synagogue. According to received reports, it had stood for 104 years; that is, it was built in 1811. In 1915, during World War I, it was blown up on an Austrian officer's order for some strategic reasons. After the war, the synagogue was rebuilt with Ginzburg's support, but it never achieved its former splendor. It was a perfect example of a type of wooden synagogue that was rarely encountered. It was of colossal size, having the height of a four–story building, with a splendid Holy Ark and a large reading platform in the center. Its woodwork was majestic, massive, with colossal brass candelabras. At the sides of the Holy Ark were two seats, closed on the sides and with roofs–we used to call them budkelekh [cabins]. These were the seats of honor.

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In one such budkele sat the government rabbi, the Kazioni Rabbi, and in the other, the “new” rabbi. The synagogue windows were artistically painted with images from the Bible, and the soffit was decorated with the 12 zodiacal signs. It was truly a holy temple. Particularly etched in my memory is the synagogue on holidays, especially the Days of Awe. The solemn quiet of Kol Nidre, the serious faces of the observant Jews, created an atmosphere of dread and trembling, a feeling that one was truly presenting oneself for the Day of Judgment. And then the cantor–Yankel the Zvihiler (he came from Zvihil–Novograd Volynskiy)–slowly ascended the reading platform in his majestic figure with the broad, white beard, around him a significant choir, everything suspenseful, everything tense, and then like thunder the sexton (Shmuel Shames, of blessed memory) clapped with his mallet and one could hear the powerful bass voice of Yankel the cantor–Kol Nidre… .

 

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The cemetery

 

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Of course, in all Jewish towns and villages the Kol Nidre was a solemn moment, but for such a small community as Radivil, it had a greater range and a greater majesty.

I started with the Great Synagogue, but there were also many study halls in town, first of all the Spanish Study Hall (near which was an old cemetery that was evidence that Jews had lived in Radivil for hundreds of years and had come here after the expulsions from Spain). Some of the so–called “aristocrats” prayed in the Spanish Study Hall.

The Big Study Hall, the Barani, the Ostrer kloyz, the Tailors' Study Hall, and also a series of study halls with various rabbis. The study hall at Rabbi Chayim the righteous, of blessed memory (the “old” rabbi), at Rabbi Itsikel's, at Rabbi Yosele's, at R' Levi the righteous, of blessed memory. There was also the Rabbi's Study Hall. There was a Trisk kloyz, an Olik, an Ostrer, the Barani Study Hall, the Zamd Study Hall, and also a study hall that was called Zisye Kop's (I do not know where the name comes from). So one can see that there were a large number of study halls in town besides the Great Synagogue, and all were always well attended.

So we must conclude that Radivil was, among the hundreds and hundreds of Jewish small towns, a certain oasis that based itself on a quiet, honorable economic lifestyle, both from shipping, merchandising, artisanry, and the free professions, with a multibranched cultural life. All this is the Radivil from the time up to World War I in 1914, with all the influences and events of that era.


Footnote

  1. This article was found, unfinished, in the estate of Duvid Sheyn, of blessed memory. return


The Radzivil Synagogue and the Ark
That Was Struck by Lightning
[1]

Translated by Tina Lunson

The Great Synagogue in Radzivil was famous throughout all of Ukraine for its extraordinary architecture and rare originality.

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Although a wooden synagogue, it was built very high, with magnificent hand–carved cornices and turned balconies, with spiral steps leading up to the women's synagogue and even higher up to the windows of the four–cornered carved spire at the top of the roof. There was a round “hat” over the spire that looked like a huge satin yarmulke. Inside, the soffit was painted with the 12 zodiacal signs. The walls were adorned with unusual paintings based on verses from the Bible, such as “The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like young sheep,” “Our hands were spread like the eagles of the heavens,” “He made my feet like a doe's feet,” “Horse and rider are thrown into the sea,” and others.

And just like the paintings, the citations themselves were painted in splendid color combinations. The letters were large and beautifully illuminated. It was clear that the anonymous artist loved the graphic arts very much, as was noticeable in the other verses and prayers written in the calligraphy with which he had adorned all four walls of the unique synagogue.

It is written in the Radzivil Jewish community record book that in the time of the righteous R' Itsikel of Radzivil, Velvele of Zbaraz–son of Yechiel–Mikhel of Zloczow–came to Radzivil for a Sabbath and prayed in the Great Synagogue.

 

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The Great Synagogue

 

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He loved the synagogue very much and could not praise it highly enough. After the Sabbath, when he left, while saying his goodbyes, he blessed the town, as was his custom, and also blessed the synagogue that it should never be destroyed and that no fire should ever touch it.

It turned out later that his blessing was fulfilled completely.

It was in 1883, the Sunday beginning the week for the Torah portion Va–etchanan, at ten o'clock in the morning, that a hellish fire broke out. The fire came from a butcher's house, where he was frying chicken fat. The day was sunny and hot, and the flames engulfed almost the whole town. Most of the Radzivil houses were wooden, and some with straw roofs were the first to catch fire. They quickly burned to their foundations. The other houses, those of brick, held out longer before they also caught fire. The fire raged for two whole days. The Radzivil residents, kith and kin, with the few possessions they had been able to save, gathered in the cemetery, which was a distance from the town. The whole town was wiped out then; the fire had destroyed everything except the wooden synagogue. It was not even touched by the fire.

All the other holy places, such as the Husiatyn kloyz, the Trisk kloyz, the Rabbi's Study Hall, the Barani Study Hall, all the study halls that were joined to the Great Synagogue–they were all obliterated by the fire. But by some miracle, the old great wooden synagogue remained whole, untouched. The fire had no power over her.

Eyewitnesses related afterward that they had seen with their own eyes how, while the conflagration was flaring all around, crowds of white doves had flown in from every direction. The doves stayed over the whole roof of the synagogue, flapping their wings. and did not allow the fire to come near.

***

The elders in Radzivil know to tell about another remarkable event that took place later, with the same blessed synagogue.

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This happened 10 years after the Great Fire.[2]

Even then Radzivil was rebuilt, with the help of our Jewish brethren–kindhearted people, children of kindhearted people. Jews were again involved in trade and successful in making a living. The community council decided–to memorialize the great miracle of the synagogue being saved from the fire, and also because it was the repository of the Torah scrolls saved from the other holy places that had not been spared–that they should make a new, large Holy Ark that would accommodate all the scrolls.

The heads of the community traveled to Kremenets and brought a famous woodcarver from there who was widely known in all Ukraine as a skilled Jew.

The artist–carver worked for a whole year on the Holy Ark and turned out to be an extraordinarily capable craftsman who created a rare work of art: carved lions and leopards, deer and does, eagles, doves, small and large creatures, and all kinds of flowers. Experts would come from distant towns especially to look at the Holy Ark and to wonder at its structure and the fine carvings.

And the carver, when he had finished his work, etched into the Holy Ark–far underneath–his name: “Ozer son of R' Yechiel, a masterpiece.”

Five months after the Holy Ark was finished, on the first day of Shavuos, at two o'clock in the afternoon, there was a sudden cloudburst of rain, with thunder and lightning. A strike of lightning broke out over the synagogue and split the spire cover on the roof, came into the interior of the synagogue and burned out the name of the carver underneath, including “a masterpiece.”

It happened that a short time later it was learned that the same carver had previously created similar carvings in a Catholic church.

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People saw a kind of desecration of the holy in that, and it became clear why a bolt from heaven had burned out his name along with “a masterpiece.”

During the Expedition's visit to Radzivil, there was already no vestige of the old synagogue. The millionaire Moshe Ginzburg–known by the title Baron, who had been born in Radzivil and became a millionaire during the Russo–Japanese War–generously supported his hometown Radzivil and built a series of buildings for benevolent institutions. At the same time, he also rebuilt the old synagogue and completely “modernized” it, both from the exterior and interior. The old brass candelabras and hanging lamps were discarded, and electric lights were installed in their place. The walls bore no trace of the bygone paintings. And so every trace of the onetime heritage of the old–fashioned beauty and majesty of Radzivil's blessed old synagogue was erased.


Footnotes

  1. Extract from the book Yidishe etnografie un folklor fun Avrom Rekhtman: zikhreynes vegn der etnografisher ekspeditsie, ongefirt fun Sh. Anski [Jewish Ethnography and Folklore by Avrom Rekhtman: memoirs of the ethnographic expedition led by Sh. Anski. return
  2. Because terrible fires happened rather often it was usual in the small towns to number the years according to the number of fires: so many years after the first fire, so many years after the second fire, and so on. return


Comments[1]

by Rachel Gurman

Translated by Tina Lunson

Radivil was not called “Radzivil” but “Radzivilov–Volyn” until World War I. Later, under Polish authority, the town was called “Radziwilow Kolo Brodow,” and Jews called the town simply “Radzivil.” So it is also called in a chapter of Sholem Aleichem's story “Motl, son of Peysi the Cantor.” Among other things is written, “Radzivil is big as a yawn[a], and you could steal across the border there.”

The old synagogue was blown up by the Austrians during World War I, for some strategic aims.

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The synagogue disturbed the military's perspective of this so–called brother folk.

When I went back to Radzivil after World War I, I was told that a certain young man had taken photographs from a hidden location during the war and had photographed the Austrian officer while he was transferring the ordnance to blow up the synagogue. I then sent the photograph to Vilna, to YIVO, and a copy found its way to Mr. Zagoroder. Of course, after the synagogue was blown up with dynamite, there was only an empty place left, and there could not be any semblance of the walls of the synagogue.

It is not correct either that “they discarded the old candelabras and hanging lamps,” as the author of the book, H. Rekhtman, would have it. It is not his fault; he did not receive the correct information, but again my own family said that after the blowing up of the synagogue, the candelabras and hanging lamps still remained. However, Zelig Fershtut–who was in Radzivil during the entire Austrian occupation–told me that the Christian residents constantly stole into the place of the former synagogue because they believed that the Jews had buried their fortunes there. Of course, any remains of the melted and broken hanging lamps or other valuable objects were probably repurposed.

And the history of the building of the new synagogue is a little disjointed. The truth looks entirely different. When the first families returned to Radzivil and looked at the empty place, they first thought about putting up some kind of temporary synagogue. Then my father–Moshe Sheyn, of blessed memory–went to Antonovitsh, the mayor (he was a colonel in the border patrol, before the war), to persuade him that in case there were any town barracks remaining from the former military hospital, to give them to them for a synagogue.

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Antonovitsh was opposed to the request, and I have full right to say that my father and Zelig Fershtut, of blessed memory, hammered together the wooden barrack for a synagogue.

Sometime later, when life had normalized a little, a committee was created (it seems that Shmuel Fidel, of blessed memory, was the head), and with a little community money and the $10,000 that M. Ginzburg, of blessed memory, had sent, they erected the new synagogue; but there was no means with which to furnish any decorations. And not because anyone, heaven forbid, wanted to “do away with its previous splendor.”

Footnotes

  1. At the request of Mr. Ts. Zagoroder I have rewritten the chapter of the book Yidish etnografie … by Rekhtman, where Radzivil's Great Synagogue was discussed. return

Translator's note

  1. “Yawn” and “border” sound similar in Yiddish. return


My Town, Radzivilov, in the Past[a]

by Leyb Ayzen

Translated by Tina Lunson

Radzivilov was a former border town for Russia, in Galicia. It was nine kilometers away from the well–known city of Brody.

It was a town like all the little towns in Volhynia, with its assorted Zionist organizations: Pioneer, Youth Guard, Gordonia, Betar, General Zionists, and others. There were philanthropic organizations, an orphans' committee, an old–age home, a guest house, a food bank, and others. It is worth mentioning and recognizing some of those who devotedly educated our youth in the Zionist spirit. Without undue words of praise, our town possessed an educated and conscious youth in the full sense of the word, and by 1912 the first pioneers from our town had already immigrated to the Land of Israel.

I would like to recognize and mention those who stood at the head of those devoted Zionist leaders in our town at that time:

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Home for Invalids

 

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Bathhouse

 

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Chayim Kremen

They used to call him “the fiery Zionist.” Back when many of our youth did not understand the task of Zionism, he literally fought against all the opponents who were waiting in the Diaspora for the Messiah…. He himself did not seek to come here and see with his own eyes that the struggle was not in vain. His followers and students built the Land in the way he used to present it in his lectures at Zionist gatherings in our town.

 

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Chayim Kremen, his wife, Rive, his son, Zalmen, and his daughter, Golde

 

Dovid'ke Sheyn

He dedicated his best years to seeing a better and more educated Zionist youth in our town. Heart and soul, he did not forget his townspeople until his last breath. Already in Israel, he was the initiator of the creation of a memorial book for the tragically murdered martyrs of our town.

His sudden death took him away from us before his time.

 

The Zagoroder Family

Everyone knew the first Zionist family in our town.

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Menashe Zagoroder's door was open to all the various messengers from the Land of Israel and to representatives from headquarters in Warsaw, the first gathering of the funds: the Jewish National Fund and the Foundation Fund. He also gave several lectures to spread Zionist thought among the Radzivilov residents. In addition, he was the representative of all the Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers that appeared in Poland and abroad.

 

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Group of Zionist Activists

Standing (right to left): Teacher Ginzburg, Tsvi Zagoroder, Dvore Lebov, Fronye Goldgart, Sore Balaban
Seated (right to left): Roze Sitner, Zlate Kagan, Roze Lizak, Bronye Balaban, Tsvi Goldgart.

 

He was a loyal and devoted Zionist. He also taught his children, who grew up in the Zionist spirit in the full sense of the word, and all immigrated to Israel. His son Tsvi is to this day an active, faithful Zionist, a dedicated leader of the Radzivilov Emigrants Organization. Few of our fellow townspeople appreciate the value of his assignment–taking stubbornly on himself and seeing through of the production of our yizkor book–the only commemoration of our martyrs.

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Pioneer Chapter

Standing (right to left): Duvid Fik, Gutman, Malakh, Gun Gutman, Kurtsmer, Nudler
Seated (right to left): Kupershteyn, Ginzburg, Marder, Krasnopoler, Kurtsmer, Varshevski, Bregovski

 

Dovid'ke Goldgart (Zahavi)

As I remember him, he was one of the best leaders and teachers of Pioneer youth in our town. He gave away his youth, time, and energy to be a guide and teacher for conscious and Zionist youth who would be ready to immigrate to the Land of Israel.

At the same time, I will also list from memory all the Zionist families and leaders of the Zionist organizations in our town:

Zagoroder family Yoel Lerner family
Moshe Goldgart family Gelman family
Balaban family Beyrish Goldgart family
Mekhil Korin family Soybel family
Moshe Tesler family Yozik Zaks family

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Shumker family Binyamin Sirota family
Kitayksher family Yitschak Mikhel family
Sigan Veltsye family Vayl family
Royzman family Chait family
Manis Kiperman family Stroyman family
Chayim Kremen family Yechiel–David Grobshteyn family
Vaynshteyn family Avraham Zats family
Grobshteyn (Sley) family Yankel Daniuk family
Fishel Margolis family Poltorak family
Feldman (Gilboa) family Landis family
Nachman Margolis family Zeylik–Hersh Fishman family and others

Translation editor's note

  1. For an English translation of the text, see “Workers for Zion” on page 111 of the Hebrew section of this book. return


Study Halls in Radzivilov

Translated by Tina Lunson

The Great Synagogue (Ostra kloyz)
Rabbi Levi's Study Hall (the Great Study Hall)
Rabbi Itsikel's Study Hall
Rabbi Chayim's Study Hall (the Spanish Study Hall)
Rabbi Dudel's Study Hall
Uliki Study Hall (the Trisk kloyz)
Barani Study Hall (the Little Synagogue)
Magid's Study Hall
Zamd Study Hall
Zisye Kopf's Study Hall
Tailors' Study Hall
R' Eli Vitels' Study Hall


Primary Teachers in Radzivilov

R' Moshe Roytman
R' Asher the Teacher
R' Mikhel the Teacher
R' Zalman Hersh the Teacher
R' Eli Brizgal (Bak)
R' Shmuel Sinerekhes
R' Beyrel the Teacher
R' Tovye the Teacher
R' Motsel the Teacher


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Elementary Talmud Teachers

Shaul the Teacher
Itsik Leyb the Teacher
Aba the Teacher
Duvid Marder
Dudye the Teacher
Moshe Tarnopoler
Avraham Lerner
Yoel Lerner
Yisrael the Teacher


Members of the Radzivil Drama Circle until 1928

Shmuel Sher Nachman Nudel
Eli Chomut Yankel Shrayer
Boske Brandvayn Mikhel Shpizel
Sluve Kremer Rivele Mandel
Boris Koltun Monike Stirt
Chave Ayzen Feyge Faktor
Zeyde Fershtut Matis Tsukerman
Feyge Grinboym Tovye Yakira
Leyeke Polem Avraham Koyfman
Melekh Shtern Royze Ayzen

 

Members of the Newly Created Drama Circle

Shmuel Fershtut Rochele Fik
Meyshe Grinblat Yechezkel Royzman
Leyb Ayzen Esterke Groysman
Hersh Poms Nekhe Tsinayder
Avrahamm Groysman Yoske Stirt
Yitschak Furman Chane Polem
Shertsel Zats Leyzer Groysman
Manes Kiperman Serke Treybitsh
Leyb Zays Yosel Karant
Itsikel Nudler Boris Kaltun

 

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