Dedication

To the Children and Grandchildren of the
Kremenetzer “Landsmen” wherever they are.


Dear Ones,

We have come to greet you from the pages of this review and to express here our friendly feelings towards you.

We should like so much to have [you] read our publications and the two books printed in Hebrew and Yiddish. Unfortunately, we have not got the facilities to do it in English. But you may be helped in this by your parents. Do it, please, and you will not regret. You will learn who your folks there were, their way of life and their martyrdom.

All this may help us to establish a contact with you, a thing we have always dreamt of. And it depends upon you only to make it a reality.

We have to see to it together that the memory of our martyrs be not given up to oblivion, with the passing away of the old generation. Can there be something more terrible, more inhuman than such a perspective?

REMEMBER!! There is no doubt that our folks there, on the edge of the blood-flooded trench, waiting for their turn to be shot down, were thinking about us, so far from them.

And alongside with the last groan, they heaved into the ether, fluttered also their hope, that that so tragic end of them would reach our ears. And as it did reach us will we forget them?

So join us and your parents in the effort to keep their sacred memory in our hearts forever, and remember what was done to them.

[Page xi]

Table of Figures

Translation Project Editor's Note

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 peoples names. 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 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" 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 khof 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.

[Page xvii]

Schedule of Additions
to the English Translation

I am indebted to all of them for their devoted work on the Project. 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 February 2004

[Page 1]

Kremenets
General View

The Great Synagogue

[Page 3]

[Page 4]

Kremenets & Surrounding Area
Contour Map

[Page 5]

Kremenets Street Plan

Situation Plan of the Central Section of the City of Kremenets

Legend

1. High School
2. Roman Catholic Church
3. Post-Franciscan Church
4. Reformed Church [unintelligible]
5. Orthodox Church of the Ascension of the Cross
6. Orthodox Church [unintelligible]
7. Synagogue
8. Catholic Cemetery
9. [unintelligible] Cemetery
10. [unintelligible] Cemetery
11. Jewish Cemetery
12. Elders Council
13. Council Hall
14. City Hall
15. Post Office
16. County Police Command
17. County Hospital
18. Self-governing High School
19. Chalk Mine

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Updated 28 Feb 2004 by OR