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The Belica Landsleit in New York during the visit of Mrs. Taib'eh Zlocowsky in the summer of 1966

Esther-Gitt'eh Novogrudsky with Yehuda's daughter Tzid'keh and a grandchild

Yitzhak Novogrudsky

Joseph-Schraga Savitzky		Chaim-Yitzhak Meckel

Minna Deutsch (Stotsky)		Jekuthiel Kaplinsky

During the Bar Mitzvah Celebration of Howard Stotsky (Stone)

During the Bar Mitzvah Celebration of Y. Shimonowicz (Simon)

It was first after Tsin'keh, who considered herself to be an only daughter to her parents, got married at the age of seventeen, did my father allow himself to think about himself. Since he was a young man who was educated, having a command of Hebrew and Yiddish and also Russian and German, he became a teacher with a rich settler in the village of Peskovtsy. There, my father studied Torah with the small boys, the grandchildren of the settler. But the girls of the family would also listen in on his lessons. And from this, it happened that a marriage was arranged for him, with a girl named Faygl, who was a daughter of Yankl Yarmowsky, a well-known Hasid from Slonim.

My father, Maw'sheh, later in life, took up delivering mail from Sjalec, or the Neman Station and lived for his entire seventy-one years in Belica. He passed away like a Tzaddik – expiring while reciting the Shmoneh Esrei in the Bet HaMedrash. It is noteworthy, that my brother Velvel ז”ל, who lived in Atlantic City, also died in synagogue, when he was reciting Kaddish for his wife…

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Maw'sheh and Feiga Kreinowicz raised eight children – five sons and three daughters, The youngest son was my brother Ber'l, or Dr. Bernard Krein – as he was later known in America. My mother ע”ה would say of him, that he is a ‘bright lad’ – that everything he would undertake would always turn our quickly and good.

My brother Ber'l came into the world speedily. He was practically born in the field. This happened while my mother was overseeing the work of village peasants who were digging potatoes in the field, in exchange for manure that we gave them from our stable for their fields. She was barely able to get home, when my younger brother first saw the light of day…

For all his years, Ber'l conducted himself as his mother indicated he should, starting from his childhood. He worked more quickly and better than all of the others of his age, or profession. From his earliest years, he was considered to be the best student by all of his teachers, in whatever he applied himself to. His marks in school were always the highest, and he showed exceptional talent in the subject of mathematics.

When my brother Ber'l was still a very small boy, our mother became severely ill with rheumatism. Pitiably, she had to spend an entire year flat on her back, and two of her children, who were not yet going to Heder, were required to tend her. One of them was Ber'l, and his one desire at that time, was to become a doctor and cure his mother. When our mother died in Belica in 1922, Ber'l had just received his diploma in America as a Doctor of Medicine…

Ber'l came to America when he was sixteen years old. He brought with him a baggage of Torah and knowledge, because he had previously studied at the famous yeshiva in Lida, of Rabbi Reines זצ”ל and excelled there in an outstanding fashion. This young immigrant from Belica completed the entire curriculum of an American high school in less than three years. It did not take him much longer to study at a supplementary school to be able to gain an appointment to attend medical school, which Ber'l finished in one year.

He practiced medicine in Atlantic City for more than twenty-five years, a famous American resort city. It was not only one person, who would say that were it not for the medical care given by Dr. Bernard Krein, who stood out and was loved also for his gentle personality, they would have passed on a long time ago…

My brother Chaim-Mot'keh (Max) was the first member of my family to come to America from Belica. He later brought the rest of us to The United States, one after another: Ber'l and I. My brother Eliezer. My sisters: Breineh and Sarah-Esther (who was a rather pretty blond little girl), remained in Belica.

Chaim-Mot'keh was not happy with New York, and moved to the town of New Britain, where our uncle Asher lived, who was our father's youngest brother (he was like a father to us). After this, we all moved to Hartford (a larger city) where we had better job prospects, and to get an education at the same time (we lived there for five years).

When my brother returned as a military serviceman from Europe, after the Second World War ended, our

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uncle Herschel Yarmow (Yarmowsky), our mother's brother, convinced him to relocate ‘with me’ in Atlantic City. It didn't take long – Velvel became a successful businessman in that city. A bit later, Ber'l came there, who practiced medicine there until he passed away.

My brother Hillel had a business in the same city. all of my brothers participated in community affairs and were greatly loved by the entire populace – Jews and no-Jews alike.

Ber'l became a doctor thanks to his own abilities, and he worked very hard to attain this goal. During his university years, he would work summers selling brooms and other household items among the same buyers who knew him from his high school period, when he would deliver newspapers. Later on, he worked as an assistant ‘plumber’ for my brother Velvel, earning a lot more, and also had a stipend. The money that he had borrowed from a variety of sources while he was studying medicine, he paid back after he became a doctor, and began to earn a living at it. He married his ‘bashert’ wife, Miriam Siever, when he began his medical practice in Atlantic City.

Ber'l was a prominent member of many Jewish organizations, and was active in the Zionist movement. During the Second World War, he enlisted in the American army, but he was quickly discharged because of his frequent heart attacks. After the war, he devoted himself to his private practice, forgot about his heart ailment, and again got into the full swing of things. But the illness assaulted him quickly again, and in the end, it got him, when he was barely 56 years of age.

Ber'l was very good and approachable, always ready with a good piece of advice, and with everything that he could provide that was helpful to his brothers and sisters. It is not hard to convince one's self that the eradication of those nearest and dearest to him, in Europe, accelerated his heart disease. He fell mortally ill after the nurses gave him a letter, with the sad news that our brother Eliezer, and the two sisters Breineh and Sarah-Esther, were brutally murderers by the Germans.

Thus, along with all of Jewish Belica, the only Jewish doctor from our home town also left his world. Despite the fact that he died in America, the Jewish images of Belica were deeply baked into his heart up till the moment it stopped beating.

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Our little shtetl of Belica always stood out for the modesty and simplicity of its residents. For generations-long, Jewish families derived their sustenance from hard work, and of supporting themselves without any help from external sources. Each family severally, and all jointly, were bound together like a large family. Every individual always helped the other with what he was capable of providing. It was in this way, that a total harmony reigned among the 130 families in the shtetl, who kept themselves together until the great calamity of the extermination.

One of these self-effacing families in the shtetl was the Shimonowicz family, at the head of which stood the father Shmuel (in the shtetl, he was called 'Mul'yeh his wife, Cherna-Baylah with their five children. Everyone in the shtetl knew who 'Mul'yeh was, because he was always engaged with them, joking with them, and played, if he was only free of work from his work at the restaurant on the marketplace. 'Mul'yeh was active in the Fire Fighters Brigade, and the other institutions of the shtetl, as well as offering assistance with what he could to someone in need. He was beloved by everyone for his good character, and also his children, who inherited his good traits.

Moshe, the eldest son, took to learning a trade, and ended up being quite a good locksmith-mechanic. Were it not for the war, he would have certainly become an accomplished mechanical expert, but regrettably, he did not live to accomplish this, being killed by bestial hands in Dvarec. The other members of the Shimonowicz family survived the war, and later emigrated to America to live close to 'Mul'yeh's brother and his family.

The younger son, Hirsch'eh (in America, called Richard) is both a fine and interesting man, who all hold in high regard, and are proud of him. Since the creation of the State of Israel, he is in constant contact with many institutions and societies that convey assistance to our country.

The Shimonowicz family, and especially Hirsch'eh who with all means and opportunities, supported and helped to speed up the realization of this Pinkas, played a great part in realizing this Pinkas Belica, never refusing to do anything needed. All the Belica people in Israel, and especially those on the organization committee, value Hirsch's activity very greatly that of his wife Bracha, and the entire Shimonowicz family. We are very thankful and are proud wit this expression of goodness and dedication which have their roots in our one time small shtetl of Belica.

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The Morgen-Zhurnal

Simon Baker

Photocopy of a Notice in the Morgen-Zhurnal October 14, 1966

A well-known journalist, who is fluent in seven languages, Mr. Baker has visited many parts of the world, where he locally researched the problems and systems in public life. He also performed fundamental research of a variety of municipal offices of the City of New York. His opinions and studies have been published in Der Tog Morgen-Zhurnal, as well as in other publications for whom he is a correspondent.

In commenting on Mr. Baker's appointment, Mayor Lindsay said: ‘I am pleased to have a man with the talents that he has, as a consultant.’

Born in Poland, Mr. Baker emigrated to America in 1952, from France, where he had studied journalism and political science. Before this, he had received higher education in general studies and Yeshiva studies in Europe. e became a naturalized American citizen at the end of 1957.

Mr. Baker lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Roberta, their son Aryeh 8, and two daughters, Breineh 6, and Masha 5 years of age.

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From the right: Shimon Baker (Boczkowsky) and his little son, Aryeh, during his visit in Israel (August 1967) after the Six-Day War; Here they are shown pictured with Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, the Head of the Israeli General Staff, after Sh. Baker had conducted a special interview with him for the New York-based ‘Tog-Morgen-Zhurnal,’ where he has been employed since 1953.

Here, we present his writeup about our little shtetl of Belica, first appearing in Tog-Morgen-Zhurnal in the year 1958(Ed.)

Tens of thousands of Jewish settlements were destroyed down to the root in the last war.

No longer do the typical Jewish cities and towns of Poland, Lithuania, Byelorussia, and elsewhere exist – They cut off living source, from which European and World Jewry suckled its nourishment.

The larger, and more compact of the Jewish settlements will in some way be remembered. The names of the large cities themselves, will aid in recollecting the broad and widely-branched settlements, that developed there, and put down deep roots. A worse situation exists with the ‘one time’ Jewish, small towns and hamlets.

And there, in precisely those tiny towns, a full and variegated Jewish life was carried on, and it was a wellspring of Jewish treasures and creativity. The old style Bet HaMedrash would put its own stamp on the way the shtetl developed.

Who will preserve this for posterity?

Belica – this is the name of the shtetl where I was born. It was a small town, which numbered not more than 130 Jewish families with 700 souls, among a population of Christians double that size.

As said – a small town, but how strongly it was shot through and through with Jewish spiritual values. Each Jewish home presented a slice of Jewish life.

The material circumstances of the Jews were never substantial. They undertook primarily small business trade, and there were also craftsmen. The principal source of income was the market, which would come together every Wednesday, and to which the peasants from the surrounding villages would come.

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The sole and solitary Bet HaMedrash would, during the High Holy Days, accommodate all of the Jews, who had come to pray for a good year. Also, the women's house of worship, in the high reaches of the ‘Salkeh’ was occupied by the older women, and young girls, who would come to hear the sounding of the Shofar.

As was the case in all Jewish cities and towns, the time between the afternoon and evening services were used to engage in group study a page of the Gemara, in the Bet HaMedrash.

There was also a Hevra that studied Mishna which would often make a celebration at the conclusion of a volume [sic: a siyyum], accompanied by drink and confections.

The Volksbank was also of great importance, as was the Gemilut-Hasadim Bank under the direction of the old Zionist veteran, Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky ז”ל.

The Jewish personalities of my hometown, where are they today?

Where is old R' Zalman Fleischer, who with such fervor would recite a chapter of the Psalms before the afternoon service on the Sabbath? And where is my uncle, R' Lejzor, who would get up on Saturday before dawn, in order not to be late for the ‘first minyan?’ What happened to the leader of prayer, R' Shfatyahu who for long weeks before the High Holy Days, ‘rehearse’ the melodies of ‘Hineni and U'Nesaneh Tokef?’…

Where are those scholars, who would descend from the Yeshivas in Baranovici, Volozhin, Slonim and Lida, who would get drunk during the Simchat Torah festivities, at the home of that beloved Jewish man, and great scholar, R' Shmuel Joseph Itzkowitz?

And where is my Rebbe, R' Abraham-Zvi, who was the first to begin to learn with me about the disputations between Abaye and Rava? A man who does not declare a loss, has he abdicated his claim to the item, or not?

And where is my father, that great Gaon, known under the rubric of ‘The Genius of Suprasl,’ and from the Yeshiva at Mir, who would learn a page of Gemara with me by the light of a melted candle on the stand, in the silent stillness of the Bet HaMedrash?

And where is the Rabbi, R' Shabtai Fein, that great and wise Torah scholar, who would painstakingly revisit the difficult underlying issue of ‘half slave and half free?’ Also R' Nachman is no longer there, who would repeat the ‘Shema Yisrael’ several times, with feeling.

And what has become of the settlers in the surrounding villages, who would come on the High Holy Days into the shtetl, and pray, while donning a kittl, with such great conviction?

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Where are the town hot-shots, and the just plain ordinary Jews, who would spread out sitting on the ‘lozhanka’ in the Bet HaMedrash, and tell stories about those former times under Czar Nicholas? And where are the Jews who sat to the East, and engaged in political discourse?

Where is R' Pesach with the pointed beard, whom the ‘ruffians’ would bombard with little pin cones on Tisha B'Av? And where is R' Fish'keh the ‘Chinaman’ who, with bated breath, would tell stories about how he was a King in Manchuria?…

Their lives were cut short along with those of the six million martyrs, pure and holy, who were killed by murderous Hitlerism. Together with their lives, my birthplace in Belica was also brought down.

Once Upon a Time There Was a Small Shtetl….

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