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In 1922 the Ponevezher Maccabi delegated instructions to Rakishok to organize a Maccabi organization. The youth of Rakishok responded with great joy and friendship to the leaders of the Ponevezher Maccabi and their recommendation to form a Maccabi organization in Rakishok. A committee was formed in which all the factions of the Zionist organization participated: "Ts. S. Hatadut," General Zionists, and "S. T. S." The location was first in Aaron-Jacob, the ritual slaughterer's, house on Kamaier street, and later in Shomer's house. [Translator's note: these acronyms are transliterations from the Yiddish. English has no equivalent letter for the "ts" in Yiddish, which is the first letter in the Yiddish word for "Zionist." The text does not identify what the "S" stands for. The other transliterated words are from Hebrew and stand for various Zionist organizations whose purpose was to raise funds to help build a Jewish homeland in Israel.]

The most active members of the Zionist Party (Ts. S.) demonstrated great effort and enthusiasm for organizing the Maccabi in Rakishok. The Ts. S. had their own meeting place, where almost all of the Rakishok Zionist youth would assemble. The Zionists had a "Lecture Circle" and invited lecturers from Kovno, Ponevezh, and Shavli. Often there were meetings held with speakers and judges of literary work. We also had a Yiddish library and the Zionist party members were represented on all the boards of Zionist organizations that raised funds to build and support Israel ("Keren-Kimes," "Keren Hesud," and "Kehillah V'Kadumeh"). All the Zionist youth immediately joined the Maccabi sports organization, which stimulated other youth to follow their example. The Zionist party gave authority of their library into the hands of the Maccabi.

In the beginning of the Maccabi organization, all the factions worked harmoniously. Everyone was amazed at the success of the Maccabi, which brought inspiration and a new spirit to the youth. It also brought a new psychological awareness to the older Jewish people, who for generations had neglected the individual's physical development. The older generation had believed that sport was not in keeping with Yiddish values and tradition. With great energy and enthusiastic spirit, the young men and women threw themselves into the work of Maccabi when they came back from their evacuation into Russia. We learned to play football, lift weights, perform various athletic and gymnastic exercises and work-outs. We participated in various energetic and fiery parades and demonstrations.

The first friends of the Maccabi, who built the foundation for the Rakishok Maccabi, were as follows: Hillel Eidelson, Libke Itzikman, Sara-Dinah Abramovits, Henye Blum, Hanah Bun, Nison Berkovits, Zelig Gen, Benimke Geltser, Rochel Vingrin, Hanah Zamet, Roza Han, Arkeh Han, Giskeh Levin, Moishe Levin, Ephrim Lang, Shmerke Loibavits, Chaim Loibavits, Yankel Levin, Boruch Leker, Shifreh Loifer, Yoskeh Meyerovits, Heyeh Reizkeh Panevesh, Israel Panevesh, Ezra Tsuckerman, Alser Tsodes, Elya Kopelovits, Itzhak Klingman, Leah Kur, Shaul Kur, Itzhak Kark, Yosif Kark, Abba Rubin, Brider Ribak, Moishe Rozenkavits, Arke Shmuskovits, Feivkeh Shmilg, Ephrim Shwartsberg, Irachmial Shmuskovits, and Moishe Shmilg.

The Maccabi organization grew to more than 100 friends, men, and women of Rakishok.

The relationship between the different parties in the Maccabi organization became strained, because each party sought to win members from the Maccabi into their own party. This became a bone of contention to such an extent that it almost led to a split in the Maccabi organization. An extraordinary meeting was called at which time it was decided that a member of the Maccabi could not belong to a political party. The Zionist members consequently left the Maccabi organization and took their library with them.

The exit of the Zionist members did not result in any visible devisiveness in the Maccabi. In time, new members joined the Maccabi, especially graduates from the Hebrew School System, from the Tarbus School, and from the Tarbus Pro-Gymnasia, who had already received a Nationalistic Hebrew education. The growth of the Maccabi did not slow down, but actually became stronger and grew in membership. A new library was also opened.

Often there were sport competitions with other Maccabi branches from nearby and distant shtetlach. There were also competitions with Lithuanian sport organizations, and with sport organizations from the "Artiker [?] Culture League."

In addition to sports, Maccabi organized various recreational, entertainment, and cultural activities. Maccabi offered evening courses in Hebrew and Jewish history, with classes taught by Shifra Loifer, Kaspi, Yoseh Levits (now a teacher in South Africa), Abigdur Glambatski, Vesterman, and Sudovski. There was also a Literary Section that organized literary readings and literary criticism. The literary criticism events were very popular. I remember the literary critique event about "Bontshe Shweig," a classic story by I.L. Peretz. I was supposed to be the prosecutor, and Israel Panevesh was the defender. Before the event, Israel Panevesh changed places with me, and I became the defender and he the prosecutor.

The literary judgement of "Saul and Samuel" also drew a large audience of a couple hundred people. Twelve men of standing were the judges. Sitting on the platform were Abraham Meyerovits, my father H. Arsch, Abraham Itzhak Meler, Harmits, Yehiel Zamat, Givovski, and others. Hillel Aidelson played the part of Samuel (Shmuel) and I took the part King Saul. Kaspi defended Samuel and the teacher Sudovski defended King Saul. An interesting "trial and judgement" also took place about H. N. Bialik's "Hamasmid."

The organized lectures offered by Maccabi were on various subjects and themes. After the lectures there were always lively discussions.

The dramatic section of the Maccabi was very dedicated. The director of the dramatic section was Israel Panevesh, who was himself a very gifted actor, with a fine voice and great talent in recitation. He directed many plays, with the major actors being: Hannah Pats, Israel Panevesh, Teibe Kiel, Hennach Shneiderman, Loibeh Veger, Leeba Ruch, Gittel Agins, Tuveh Ruch, Berl Ruch, Aaron Nahumovits, and the author of these lines.

In addition to dramatic presentations, the group also put on many musical evenings for the community. The MACCABI had their own orchestra under the conduction of Hyvis Berzon, who was a very talented violinist, and Abraham Kur, who was a fine clarinet player. The members of the orchestra ensemble were: the brothers Yudel and Motel German, who were famous violinists in Lithuania, Judith Shwartzberg, who played the balalaika, and Tsarkeh Levin, who grew up to become one of the outstanding violin artists in the Baltic lands. There were other outstanding musicians, but regretfully I do not remember their names. The income from the drama section's performances were utilized to benefit the Maccabi Library.

Upon my return from Israel in 1920, I took over responsibility for the Maccabi Library in Rakishok and became vice-president of this organization. I became associated with publishing organizations in Kovno and Riga, and published good books. We published books by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, and other writers, as well as French, German, English, and American authors.

In the course of the two years that I was responsible for the affairs of the library, we increased the holdings by several hundred books, and the circle of readers grew larger. The library had its rules and regulations, among which were fees for taking out books. A reader was charged 5 "Lit" for a library card and 1½ "Lit" per month for using the Library.

The Maccabi organization was led by Abba Rubin, a brother of our landsman Shloime Rubin. Shifra Loifer, a strong activist, taught Hebrew to the Maccabi members and inspired them with her fiery Zionist spirit. A beautiful chapter of rearing the youth in the Zionist, nationalist spirit was written and accomplished by the Maccabi organization in Rakishok.

In 1933-34, the Rakishok youth became interested in the "Chalutz" (Zionist Pioneers), and a Zionist youth movement known as "Hanuer-Hatsoini" was started.

Ten score Maccabi friends emigrated, but the dedication to the Maccabi organization did not falter. To this day, though many years have passed, not one of us Maccabi friends will ever forget the Rakishok Maccabi. The Maccabi gave our generation a nationalist, modern upbringing of enormous meaning to us.

When I first saw a young Jewish fellow lift an eighty-pound weight with one hand, it awakened in me a feeling of great pride to perceive that Jews possessed physical strength alongside intellectual acumen. However, I also became jealous of the young man, and resolved to take up bodybuilding so as to be able to exhibit a similar physical prowess. After a short while, I achieved my goal.

In proportion to the size of Rakishok’s Jewish community, the local Maccabi organization was quite large. Rakishok was fortunate in having many young people in good physical shape who were the building blocks of the Rakishok Maccabi branch, recognized as one of the best in Lithuania. It should be mentioned that all the training exercises, instructions, etc., were conducted entirely in Hebrew.

For a short time there was also an "older group" composed of young married adults, teachers who were on the staffs of the Tarbus school and the Hebrew gymnasia. These proved to be good soccer players and excellent "kickers" to whom a paraphrase of the well-known Biblical verse may be applied: The voice is Jacob’s voice but the feet are the feet of Esau.

Besides the physical aspect, the Maccabi organization offered a rich cultural program consisting of lectures, poetry readings, etc. The town was virtually brimming with physical and cultural energy.

During my three-year residence in Rakishok, the community provided me with a wide variety of activities. I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work rendered by Hillel Idelson who contributed his time and talents to the community on all fronts, and to express my gratitude to Ada Rubin who, as president of Maccabi, was greatly responsible for its success.

Unfortunately, no trace remains of those golden years, and who knows whose cursed feet now tread the turf of the Maccabi athletic field in Rakishok. Our only consolation is that our youth will rebuild our historical homeland, Eretz Yisroel, and provide a secure home and happy future for our nation.

I was delegated to the Rokishok Kibbutz by the Kovno officer. No one in Lithuania had such a person as Hillel Idelson. He greeted us on arrival with a warm "Shalom Alechem!" I remember that he was always dressed poorly, even with torn shoes. He lived in a side street, and he had only a large table and a poor bed in his room. But he was a great and lusty idealist. He gave a lot of his time to our Kibbutz and thanks to him the Kibbutz progressed.

When the Kibbutz became larger, they rented a facility for us at Nachman the Shochet. We opened a kindergarten on our Kibbutz for our locality. The Kibbutz busied itself with cultural work. Through us we spread the "Jewish Voice" of Kovno and other Zionist publications and we were constantly involved in many of the Rokishoker societies.

Each part of the year had its own beauty – the spring flowers, the flower-filled summer, also the cold of autumn and the very sharp cold winters. During the great catastrophe, in the various places where I have been, I was followed by the lonely stillness of the Rokishoker streets, be it in the Kamier main street or be it in the side streets, be it in the city market that used to be lively during the time of the Jews – especially during the winter flax market when flax merchants from the surrounding cities and shtetlag and a multitude of peasants or gentiles from the surrounding area used to come.

I spent from 1922 to 1925 in Rokishok being a teacher in the Hebrew School. The school drew most children from all levels: children of well-to-do homes, children of workers, religions and from certain free Zionist rings.

During the above remembered years there was a revival of Hebrew over the whole of Lithuania. The Jewish youth in the Shtetl studied with zest. One prepared oneself to enter Jewish Colleges. They strived to get into the lists of the "Halutzim" so as to pass a qualification and leave for Israel.

Then I established the Jewish Scout movement of Rokishok. This was even from the land organization which had divisions in cities and Shtetls, the organization did above all include the scholars of the Hebrew School. During this time the Jewish Scholars of the local Lithuanian College and even the scholars of the agricultural school joined us of the working youth, who had no schooling. The students devoted themselves with "life and limb" to this goal. A youth club was organized, where talks, plays and gatherings were arranged.

On Saturdays and yomtovim (holidays) they used to organize collective walks and outings in the area on foot. In summer, during vacation months we arranged summer camps in the forest. We lived collectively, and enjoyed the lap of free nature very much.

Our youth movement during that time was the only Jewish Youth movement in Rokishok. It had a great influence on the children and youth of the town. With Chassidic fervor, and support of Chassidic Chabad it had a great influence on the youth organization which produced an ethical, normal and friendly relationship between one another and normalized a lot of the relationships between children and parents.

My personal influence on the children was great and parents used to threaten disobedient children with "I'm going immediately to Avigdor." The following friends also worked well for the good of the organization: –

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