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SECTION FOUR: IDEOLOGICAL CURRENTS (H, Y)

Zionism, Political Parties, and Youth

The Left and the Communists

In the Eyes of Visitors

[Pages 471-472]

ZIONISM

Illustrative Numbers

David Vinitsky

Translated by David Goldman

Nationalist Appeals

Yedinitz was one of the most important cities in Bessarabia, and sizzled with nationalism and community life. Yedinitz contributed generously to nationalist funds for the purpose of developing Palestine, and the financial contributions were always greater than the relative number of residents, who were only 2.6% of the total Jewish population of Bessarabia. Due to the lack of complete and consistent archival material, we would like to prepare a detailed table for the entire twenty-year period that the nationalist funds existed in Yedinitz. We have to make due with a composite statistical list that is as much as we could put together. It provides us, however, with a partial idea about the involvement of Yedinitz in developing Palestine.*

[Pages 473-474]

Zionism in Yedinitz

Zionist Youth in Yedinitz in 1904

Return to Photo Index

This is the oldest photograph we have from Yedinitz. This is the oldest “Zionist” photo, and it is possible that it is the first photo of activists and community leaders in Yedinitz. At the bottom of the photo you can read the address in Russian as follows:
[Russian:] The Committee of the Zionist Youth Group in the City of Yedinitz, 8/30/1904.
Behind the photo in Russian are the words: “In eternal memory of the unforgettable founder of the movement in Yedinitz, the extraordinary aristocrat, Dr. Wisotzky, from the members of the Committee of the Zionist Youth Group: Yosef Steinick, Shlomo Rosenberg, Leibush Ludmir and Leibish Gelman.”
We obtained the photo from Aryeh Tsentsifer-Rafaeli, Director of the Russian Zionist Archive in Tel Aviv. After some research we were able to identify the people in the photo:
1. Leibush Ludmir, son of Shmuel, left Yedinitz after marrying a woman from Hutin. He served for some time as the mayor of Hutin, and perished in 1941 in Transdenistra.
2. Leibush Gelman, married Gusta Feingold of Yedinitz in 1919. She was a pharmacist. They left Yedinitz and lived for a period in Hutin and later in Chernovitz. During the war they lived in Soviet central Asia. They returned to Chernovitz in 1946 and then emigrated to Brazil. In 1953 they emigrated to Israel, where Leibush died in 1957 at the age of 72. His wife Gusta died in February 1972 in Tel Aviv.
3. Meir Blank(?).
4. Dr. Wisotzky, a doctor in town.
5. Chalaf, who later was an accountant at the Ezra Bank, and the husband of the famous Midwife. He died in the 1920s.
6. Chalaf's son.

[Pages 475-476]

7. Probably Shlomo Rosenberg.
8. Yosef Steinick, who was later the pharmacist in Lipkan; he was later seen in Chernovitz.
No further information is available. Mrs. Chanatse Ludmir-Fishman, sister of Leibush Ludmir, says that a large copy of the photo hung in her parents' home in Yedinitz.

[Page 476]

Zionist Groups in Yedinitz at the End of the 19^th Century

Zionists activists bid farewell to the teacher Dubrow before his emigration to Palestine [page 477]

Zionists activists bid farewell to the teacher Dubrow before his emigration to Palestine
1. Leib Lerner 2.--- 3. Levi Tsiman 4. Henya Steinwortz 5. Rosa Goichberg-Gurvitz (Brazil) 6. Leib Goichberg (“Odesser”) 7. --- 8. Yosef Shapiro 9. Pinny Grobman 10. Chaim Eppelman 11. Yitzchak Borotstein-Bar-Zion (Tel Aviv) 12. --- 13. Zvi Eidelman 14. --- 15. --- 16. Sarah Fried 17. Masya Shitz 18. --- 19. Matya Zeidman 20. Shmuel Lerner-Warnetchka 21. Yosef Riesman 22. Shimshon Bronstein 23. Moshe Steinwortz 24. Bruria Kutcher (Tel Aviv) 25. Hillel Dubrow 26. Mina Dubrow (Tel Aviv) 27. Yeshayahu Tolfolar 28. --- 29. Moshe Shitz 30. Yitzchak Fuks (Venezuela) 31. Avraham Greenstein 32. Matis Kaufman (Haifa) 33. Mordechai Reicher 34. Esther Rosenberg 35. Zalman Zisselman (Belz) 36. Ita Blank 37. N. Shachar (Netanya) 38. Pua Weissman (Israel).

Return to Photo Index

The Zionist Movement in Yedinitz
Organizations, Events and Activists

Mordechai Reicher

It appears that Zionism and Yedinitz were made for each other. From the dawn of the Zionist movement there were Zionists in Yedinitz. The Jews in town were mostly followers of nationalism and Zionism. There were a few who opposed Zionism at the beginning of the period for religious reasons, and at a later period who did so for supposed revolutionary reasons. These people were overwhelmed, however, by the large majority of the city who belonged to one or another Zionist party or organization. Even the apolitical simple folk were sympathetic to anything involving the Holy Land. They adored every piece of paper or item that had anything to do with Palestine or Zionism (i.e. the Zionist Congress shekel, receipts for contributions to the Jewish National Fund and the Keren Hayesod, etc.).

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