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“Trumpeldor” - Bielsk
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[Page 269]
by D. Melamdovitz
Translated by Sara Mages
This youth organization was founded in the city in 1928. I was 15 years old at the time, devoted to scouting, a member of Hashomer Hatzair[2] and dreaming a dream… the dream of the fighting Jewish boy, healthy, proud and preparing himself to remove the shame of the Diaspora from the people. I thought I would find this in Hashomer Hatzair, which has engraved the scouting on its flag without probing in politics, and saw its main role in the recovery of the generation's body and soul. That year Yehudah Gothelf[3] appeared and his words were clear, Hashomer Hatzair cannot be satisfied only with scout activities and instilling truth and honesty in the boy's heart, but the youth of Hashomer Hatzair must direct themselves to a political war in favor of human principles etc., and it was implied from his words that this war is also directed against a part of the Jewish people.
In my opinion it was a strange turn and most of the principles were foreign to me. I was completely absorbed in a highly motivated national treatise, and in weaving a great vision of the small nation I renounced any role of our people in the system of opinion of the great world. And here we were called to give up the national issue, if it is about international principles. This was my first clash with the goals of Hashomer Hatzair.
Then, a crisis occurred and my path was made clear to me. Yeruham Sluhovsky and
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“Trumpeldor” - Bielsk |
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several members older than me, and I among them, decided to establish Betar as a great personal need, through which, and in it, we will be able to continue on a path that seems to us to be the truest of all.
Over time we gathered good, enthusiastic and ready to action youth, and ken[4] Betar in Bielsk became one of the strongest in the area.
When Begin[5] had to carry out an informational and organizing operation in the towns around us, he came to us and from here he departed to the nearby towns. Our ken served him as source of inspiration and enthusiasm that he carried to the region. From time to time I accompanied him and ended his informative evenings with a living example, so to speak, of a representative of a ken that justifies every effort invested in the youth of the generation. Then, ken Betar was a real example for the youth who see themselves completely immersed in the problems of nationality, the exiled people and the return of the homeland.
In 1935 I made aliyah[6] to Israel and by then Betar was already well known in the city. Its members were among the participants in every general Zionist activity in the city, and tried to serve as a symbol of national unity and willingness to act for this unity.
The activities of the ken were among the most constant. Our general meetings also aroused enthusiasm among the “guests” from other youth organizations. The ken became a kind of hothouse for the Zionist soul, and its enthusiasm stood the various tests of times of crisis, which befell the Zionist movements and the aliyah movements. We didn't let go of the great faith, and didn't let the doubt to erode and collapse foundations. It is clear, that the image of Jabotinsky filled our whole being, and by the strength of his warrior vision our spirit was also strengthened. But Betar, in the version of Bielsk, also had something of its own, which was an expression of a deep ideological national unrest.
When it comes to Betar at that time, it is impossible to ignore the mutual enmity that raged in the organized Jewish street. This enmity was in fact a substitute for a war of opinions and a search for a way, and it raged throughout the Zionist camp on all its systems and shades of ideas. But it is known that most of the enmity was always directed at Betar. Which was not the case in Bielsk, here the cooperation between all shades of Zionism and the youth movements was highlighted, and it seems to me that many will agree with me if I say that the Zionist unity in Bielsk was largely preserved thanks to ken Betar in the city. We have shown that we can overcome much vulnerability for the sake of the common national cause. We proved, in practice, that the principle of national unity and love of Israel must be lifted above all principles. This quality was one of the most prominent in our nest, and it can be said that throughout Betar's existence in Bielsk, national brotherhood was maintained as a principle, which members of Betar controlled it, since they saw it as the main point and root of their Jewish national education.
During its operation, the ken established a Hakhshara[7] company in Bielsk, and a dimension of fulfillment was added to its operation. The company demonstrated to the city, to the youth, and to the ken itself, that Zionism has no value if it is not used as a means of advancement, and there is no value to it, if it is not trained for the reality of Israel and a willingness to dedicate years of youth to the needs of the people.
The ken brought a holiday to the life of the city. In its demonstrations, uniforms, in the external appearance of its youth, Betar added content to Judaism and gave it legalization to be proud of itself and its desire to be like all the peoples in its country and in its character.
The activities of the members of Betar for the national funds brought a blessing and increased the
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scope of its results, just as they expanded the circle of true Zionists that commit to fulfillment, to a national appearance and to the full obligations of the generation. Contrary to the Zionism of the declaration, Zionism imposed personal duties on everyone. All the youth movements in the city have done this, and Betar among them, but Betar, as a distinct political movement that opposes practical Zionism, innovated in this act of practical activity also something for the older members of Hatzohar[8], its mother movement.
The scope of Betar's activity in Bielsk is evident in the large number of those preparing for aliyah, and in the number of immigrants it brought from Bielsk. It's a pity that various circumstances blocked the waves of aliyah and among them also the immigrants by force of Betar youth of Bielsk. It is a pity that they stayed there and in the mass graves they, and their dreams, were buried together.
The memory of the glorious members of Betar in Bielsk will live forever.
Translator's footnotes
by Yakov Shemesh
Translated by Sara Mages
It is difficult to say that the Jews in Bielsk constituted one close-knit family. In the period before the tragedy of the Holocaust a united Jewish front had not yet formed. Its eight thousand Jews were divided among themselves like all the Jews of the cities, for various political reasons and contradictions. But from a Jewish national point of view, in their attitude towards the gentiles and their active enmity, the residents of Bielsk were united and maintained a single front of national pride and standing up for their dignity.
I entered the movement of Ze'ev Jabotinsky[1] z”l when I was eight years old. At this young age I already had a developed national recognition and a tendency towards political Zionism and, to my great regret, I encountered the phenomenon of a lack of attitude [respect] towards Betar on the part of the people of HeHalutz[2] and the members of Hashomer Hatzair[3]. I saw it in the attitude of these movements towards an important Jewish personality, the lawyer Klemantinovski. Although he was from Bialystok he managed the ken[4] of Betar in our city and commanded it - and the attitude was no different towards his deputy, Mr. Vilin, a photojournalist who was the son-in-law of Mr. Melamdovitz. A despicable personal campaign had been waged against these two men, and when a disaster happened, and one of the members of Betar, who came from the nearby town of Orla, was dragged into the moving belts of a flour mill and killed, in the nearby town there was no visible participation in the grief by the members and activists of Hashomer Hatzair and the people of the anti-Zionist Bund[5]. This matter made me very angry and left a scar in my soul. However, when the anti-Semitic members of Endecja[6] ran amok in the city under the leadership of the priest Stolowski, the young people of Bielsk found courage in their hearts and under the guidance of Betar pushed the rioters and broke their pride to shards.
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The management of the Union of Revisionist Zionists, 1935 |
[Page 273]
In the national movement there were also religious men [in a group] named Brit Hashmonaim – Yeshurun[7]. Once, a delegation of fifty members, dressed in the magnificent uniforms of the Betar movement, came to the District Governor to lobby for something. The anti-Semitic Deputy District Governor told them: by now I was used to seeing frightened yehudonim[8], now I am beginning to better understand your great leader, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. The delegation asked the District Governor for police protection for the Jews who are occasionally harmed by the incited mob, and warned him that if the hooligans interfere with the course of life of the Jews in Bielsk, incite the gentiles against us and the police would not protect the Jews from the hooligans, the trained Betarim would give the anti-Semites the answer they deserve.
The governor Krishlevski lowered his head, pondered and answered: I have no doubt about this warning, I trust you more than the Polish police.
On September 24, 1938, in the early hours of the day, the town's Jews were surprised to see that their shops and workshops were dirty with tar and anti-Semitic slogans, and hooligan guards stood by the shops to prevent non-Jewish shoppers from entering and buying. A whole gang gathered near the shops of the Barchat brothers and the Freodles brothers, and I saw it. I immediately alerted the members of Brit Hahayal[9], Betar and Hatzohar[10], and at half past eight they all appeared in their uniforms with pointed sticks in their hands, and the rioters left. By the Catholic Church, near the train station, shkotzim [young gentiles] distributed an anti-Semitic leaflet to worshipers accompanied by wild incitement against the Jews. The distributors were immediately removed and close to two thousand copies of the leaflet were destroyed. Then, a serious quarrel broke out next to our store on 80 Mickiewic Street, and Vronsky's grocery store near the Town Hall Square. In this skirmish six Poles were injured and a member of Betar named Yochanan Lev (now he is a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces). Next to the place of business of a man named Topoloski, three old Jews, who at the same time were returning from Beit HaMidrash “Yafeh Einayim,” were beaten. The attackers escaped towards 3 Maja Street (Paranda Street) and fled into the pharmacy where they smashed all the windowpanes. We immediately chased after them, dragged the hooligans into the large yard, and a few minutes later they were all wounded and bleeding. Mr. Klementinovski and Mr.Villach immediately appeared and asked for an interview with the station commander, when the commander refused to accept them [i.e., to see Klementinovski and Villach], the members of Brit Hahayal appeared and forcibly released the Betar members, and the police chief, who was known to be a complete idler, swallowed his insult and remained silent.
The life of the peaceful town was often disrupted by the quarrels of the Jewish shopkeepers, who fought each other over their poor livelihood. However, in the evening after the businesses and various concerns ended, the ancient and beautiful synagogue, Batei HaMidrash, “Itzale” or Shaare Zion, were filled with ordinary people of all kinds who came to participate in a Mishnayot[11] lesson, or to listen to a biblical chapter in Shulchan Aruch[12]. Radiant was the appearance of HaRav R' Ben Zion zt”l, and his awe-inspiring figure and sincere humility attracted the common people from the leather worker to the carter, and they came, for half an hour, to hear the traditional melody of those studying Mishnayot or the Gemara[13]. I don't remember
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the names of the explainers, but it is hard to forget the interest of the common people to each explanation, and every word, that came out of the mouths of the preachers.
How nice it was to observe how the Jews received the Shabbat in Bielsk. Everyone gathered in Beit HaMidrash in their best clothes, and all the worries of the weekdays seemed to have disappeared from their faces, In Bielsk they really felt the holy Sabbath in their hands.
The worshipers literally fought with each other to receive a guest, or guests for the Sabbath, and no one missed this opportunity - of the mitzvah of “hospitality.”
When the holidays, and the Days of Awe [High Holidays], were approaching, everyone prepared with reverence to stand before the judgment of the Creator of the world, and surpassed themselves on Yom Kippur. The prayer houses were illuminated with an abundance of lights that had a kind of holiday and remembrance, and the shamásh[14], R' Baruch, lit the large candles in the afternoon before Kol Nidre[15], and placed them inside special sandboxes. The city's Jews received the holy day with trembling, awe and fear. No one dared to desecrate the holy day, even indirectly, and on the eve of Kol Nidre prayer, everyone reconciled, forgave each other's transgressions and turned from enemies - to friends.
It seems to me, that Betar absorbed its Jewish values, and its national pride, from this way of life. In this social image, which took shape in Jewish cities in the Diaspora, my movement saw a national achievement worth fighting for and maintaining force brigades for this war of gentiles and Judaism.
Therefore, when I wrote about Betar, I slid to the description of the precious way of life in Bielsk and its dear Jews who, to my sorrow, are no longer.
Translator's footnotes
by Motos Kaplanski
Translated by Sara Mages
We were the first material from which Hashomer Hatzair was founded in Bielsk Podlaski. In fact, besides us, there were several older boys. Two were the founders of Hashomer Hatzair ken[1] in Bielsk, Gedalia Shinberg and Reuven Ozitezky. Between us and them there was another small layer. There were a few other people, but they didn't stay for long. The three who were in the transition layer and remained are Yakov Verona, Yitchak Kaplanski and Shaike Vaser.[2] They are now in Kibbutz Mesilot. In addition, a member who studied in Grodno and later moved with her family to Bielsk, joined us for a transitional period. That was Bat Sheva Levinsky who now lives in Kfar Menahem. This entire layer, the first, arrived in kibbutzim and are still there today. We had another one who came to us from another place - it was Moshe Globovsky, whose family was in Bielsk Podlaski and had a store, but he himself studied in Bialystok. He came to us later and became a teacher and also a counselor at Hashomer Hatzair. We had two more people who arrived from Siemiatycze, also through the same connections, Soknik and Remin. They came as both counselors and teachers to the Tarbut school.
This is the human material that began the creation of the ken in Bielsk. As far as I remember,
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HeHalutz in Bielsk - 1933 |
[Page 276]
we searched for something to do. One of the things that interested us was the involvement in sport. We organized for this purpose, and after the framework was created it became something more cohesive and more practical.
Life inside the ken was very active and lively. It wasn't just a question of extracurricular activity -people were looking for content, looking for an answer to their doubts. Even those who were later busy working for a living were looking for content for their evening. The youth remained alone to the late hours of the evening and looked for a way to alleviate his loneliness, and this he found in the ken among his peers and partners in his doubts. Life in the ken was expressed in all sorts of things. There were conversations that were held in same-sex groups, boys and girls separately, and there were joint conversations. These groups were organized into battalions according to age, and once a week there were joint activities of all the battalions together. Group activities were held two or three times a week, so the members were active. Whoever was in a group and also in a battalion sometimes also had to be a counselor.
Our ken was a lively and warm place, and you could hear random conversations between friends. The members sat calmly and talked and told about books and public activities, about various fundraising and about Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael [Jewish National Fund].
We left for scouting activities and to a certain extent it was a novelty , because we started going out to the forests and all the beautiful places in the area. All these activities were sometimes carried out secretly outside the city because the Poles suspected us of being dangerous leftists. It was always possible to meet groups of Hashomer Hatzair members walking in rows on the road and singing as they left and returned from activities, but we were careful not to sing during the activity.
Over time, this too was forbidden to us, and here the leaders of General Zionists came to our aid. We were helped by Menachem Stupnitzki[3] and Yakov Appelboim. That Appelboim, who once caused us trouble and opposed us, was the man with whom I arranged the regulations of Hashomer Hatzair, which made us legal and desirable to the authorities. He was our honorary president, and that's how we received the license for the association that was a little more acceptable to the authorities. By giving him the honor of being our president, he also signed that his son should participate in this activity.
We were immersed in our movement's activity. We were in the same group, we studied together at the Tarbut school, and we met for all kinds of activities together. At the age of thirteen we all fell ill with measles together. I'm in my house and they're in theirs, but it was at the same time.
Our activities at that period in Bielsk seem interesting and important to me. This impression does not weaken when I try to look at this matter from a more distant perspective. I have the impression that we were the main factor in the awakening of Zionist-pioneer life in the city, of Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael and of the activity for the League for Eretz Yisrael HaOvedet [The League for Working Eretz Yisrael]. We were the central nucleus in all these areas together .In fact, this was a development that encompassed whole of Poland. In all places kens were founded as if by chance
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and as if by some command from an inner feeling of the generation. It wasn't something that someone sent counselors and emissaries to organize and no one wanted to come. This was an almost spontaneous phenomenon throughout Poland. Kens were founded in every city and town, and we were also in this stream. And yet, there was something special about us, we didn't believe in organizing. We believed in targeted education, given at a young age, when the boy, or girl, was receptive. The young people didn't believe Hashomer Hatzair in this matter, unless they started at a younger age than other movements.
There was something else special in the ken and in our group. We seriously thought about Zionist education, in other words, not Zionism that says to love Zion from a distance. Since our ideology said fulfillment, there wasn't a member who reached the age 17-18 and didn't leave for Hakhshara[4] and later didn't make aliyah to Israel. All those who joined us at an older age lacked this education and it was felt. They did not receive what was given to youth, and the demands made on them by those responsible for the ken were simply too surprising and concrete. They had to leave their lifestyle and go to a different life. For them the ken was a brief transit station in which they received a kind of geographical-social guidance, but not
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A group of Hashomer Hatzair members |
educational-ideological. They were also not many and didn't have time to leave their mark on the Hashomer Hatzair movement in the city. The movement only solidified its character with the joining of the younger ages, whose upbringing occurred within the ken and whose problems of adolescence were shared by the older educators.
The first fundamental activity took place in 1927, when we left for the first summer colony. It had to be considered that the departure was for a month
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and it wasn't easy to convince the parents to accept that the children would be out of the house for a month. Of course, we had to convince them, and that was no easy task. We demanded from the parents a complete separation for that month. During this period, the parents were not allowed to visit their children so that they could shape their social personalities in a foreign social environment that we created for the sake of this educational experiment. The colony was held not far from home, and it was difficult for the parents to restrain themselves and not to come. The colony was in a village near Siemiatycze. We left together with the Siemiatycze ken to the village of Boromoty where we met for the first time.We were the oldest age group, and a number of younger members joined us. Miriam Tetrkin, who is now in Herzliya, was the youngest member to join us. Among our counselors was also our teacher Moshe Globovsky, and the rest were from Siemiatycze. After that, all the different summer colonies were for all ages. After this year, we established a very close and tight relationship with the ken in Bialystok.
The fact concerning the founding of Tarbut[5] school is interesting. The school was actually founded by Hashomer Hatzair. Our ken took all the students who studied at the Polish school, the Yiddish school and Talmud Torah, and we explained to them the value of Tarbut school and its future. We set a specific day on which we would leave the studies in all these schools and come to the new school, and in this manner Tarbut school was founded. This was in the year 1925-26. Then came the care for Tarbut school which was closely associated with Hashomer Hatzair. We continued to maintain the ken in this school. We knew about the school's financial problems from the teacher Gelman. He once went on strike and stopped teaching because he didn't receive money [presumably his pay]. The students weren't told about it, but we knew that something was going wrong and the school would not continue to exist. We knew there was no money, and if there was no money, there were no teachers. What did we do? We made sure to bring our own teachers, half of whom were volunteers. It was almost a joint operation, since we also participated in the management of Tarbut school and helped run it. The financial sources were from tuition fees. The management of Tarbut also tried to raise funds from the public, and Tarbut center also provided some support. But the school was mainly run on tuition fees, since it was customary to pay tuition fees in all places, except for the government school, and parents were accustomed to paying. Most of the help came to the school from the teachers who made do with little. They were also the teachers and counselors at the ken. At that time there were at least three such teachers and in this way our ken helped to sustain the school more than anything else. Bat Sheva Levinsky, who is now in Kfar Menahem, was both a teacher at school and a member of Hashomer Hatzair. In a sense, one held the other. These teachers worked to a certain extent on a voluntary basis. Officially, they had to receive a salary, but their dedication to both institutions prevented them from striking or creating crises, even if the salary was not received on time, or not in full.
We can learn from the fact that in my room were the seals of most institutions, from Hashomer Hatzair to HeHalutz, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Eretz Yisrael HaOvedet, that all matters were concentrated in our hands. In addition, I served as secretary in these institutions, and this gave me the opportunity to direct the meetings. Regarding our relationship with our parents,
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we, and our parents, had different periods and different crises in this natter. The population in Bielsk was not uniform, there was a large group of Yiddishists[6] who joined from two sources. The Bund and Poalei Zion Smol[7] ran a Yiddish school together. For this reason we had almost no contact with Poalei Zion Smol, even though later in Israel they were the closest to us ideologically. In Bielsk, there was a disconnect between us because of language and we actually had no Zionist connection, we didn't meet or work with them, we were like two rival camps. In contrast, we frequently met with Poalei Zion Yemin[8] mostly in the League for Eretz Yisrael HaOvedet, in the HeHalutz and various activities, and this determined the parents' attitude towards us. There was a part that was devout, and we had certain difficulties with them. The sons had to fight for the right to be in Hashomer Hatzair. I remember, for example, that Mary Ozitezky, who now lives in Tel Aviv, slept at our home because she was kicked out of her home. She was with me until we restored peace to her home, and she was able to return there. The fact is that those who were active, and those who had an interest in activity, proved themselves in other areas and also excelled in their studies. We had almost no problems because the students, members of our ken, were the best at school. My brother, who attended the municipal high school and was among the only Jews, was expelled from school because he was a member of Hashomer Hatzair. Then, they accepted him because he was the best student. He was very active in the ken, gave lessons and taught the Polish language to the city's rabbi. This fact led the parents to identify the student's success with his affiliation with our movement and they were interested in having him become a member of the ken. The parents, who opposed us, slowly came to realize that the children inside the ken behaved better and engaged in all kinds of educational activities for the better. They also proved themselves academically and were the best students .
We also organized a Hebrew class a Bielsk, and we set a goal to also hold meetings in Hebrew and give lectures on certain topics only in Hebrew. There were age groups in the ken who slowly moved to Hebrew. We spoke Hebrew in activities that were previously conducted in Yiddish and within a certain period we tried to transfer all of them to Hebrew. We held a class with other Zionists and Hebrew-speaking people, in which we demanded that they make sure to speak and direct activities in Hebrew. All performances and lectures in the city were in Yiddish, even the emissaries who came from Israel spoke in Yiddish.
The ken's activities gave to the members of Hashomer Hatzair a sense of self-respect and national pride. Although it was not part of the activity plan, the gathering, togetherness, and sense of self-direction made the members of the ken feel that it was possible, even in the diaspora, and at different ages, to improve the situation of Jews. I will give here examples of standing up for honor, a trait that later gave us in Israel the strength to stand as a few against many hostile people in different periods:
Shulamit's family lived across the railroad tracks. When her brother walked to school
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he passed through a mixed neighborhood with several gentile houses. When he passed, especially on market days, the shkotzim[9], who gathered there, threatened to beat him up if he didn't pay them a ransom. There were two shkotzim that he paid with part of the food he took to school. He paid until I once told him: “Come with me, and we will finish this.” We went, and when he wanted to give the food and the sheigetz came to take it, we beat him up properly and solved the problem of the ransom. But this wasn't the only case. Our children, before they entered Hashomer Hatzair, showed great cowardice. After they started to go out to the fields, into the open air, they were freed from various restraints and mental distress and began to respond appropriately to any harm. Our first members of Hashomer Hatzair were afraid to enter their home through the yard when it was dark, but things changed after they joined the ken, the activities in the field, in the forest and at the cemetery.
When I was in Lublin before I made aliyah to Israel I worked for a short time at the district leadership, and there I went to the train station to say farewell to the immigrants to Israel. Two famous Hasidic Rebbes traveled to Eretz Yisrael, the Rebbe of Sasov and the Rebbe of Gur. They traveled in two separate train cars and did not meet each other. A large crowd of young men, students of Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, gathered around them. After the train left, I saw the yeshiva students walking like a herd. Several shkotzim attacked them and started to beat them. I saw how they ran away like cowards and compared it to what we achieved in our education. It wasn't a result of conditions, nor was it a question of age, it was a question of changing the mindset. All those who heard a little about Trumpeldor, about Hashomer[10], and were educated for aliyah, honor, and self-defense, knew how to behave.
In 1935, when there were serious riots against the Jews, the Endeks, members of Endecja[11], organized themselves and began to make trouble for the Jews in an organized manner. On market day, they set up guards and told anyone who entered the yard with a cart not to enter a Jewish shop. Later, in the evening, riots broke out in Bielsk. We knew something was about to break out and a defense group was organized. The members of Hashomer Hatzair were also in this group, there were serious beatings, and the rioters fled. Later, one of them had to be taken to a hospital in Warsaw. He was one of the educated gentiles and heroes of the Polish community. When the police arrived, the fighting camps had disappeared and only gentiles who had been beaten remained. After that, there were no more riots in our city.
A note in the margin of M. Kaplanski's article:The sister of Mary Ozitezky z”l asks to correct:
The background of the disagreement between my sister and our parents was not because of her belonging to the ken, or because of her participation in the ken's activities. The disagreement broke out when Mary wanted to leave for the summer
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colony. My father strongly opposed shared accommodation. It didn't seem possible to him that a girl would share a room with a strange boy .Mary was determined in her decision and began to collect money and supplies to set out for the colony matter what. This is where our mother also came into the picture. Both found her money and her clothes and hid them, thinking that it would prevent her from leaving.Mary almost despaired. Nevertheless, she went to Yakov Verona, who was an important counselor in the ken, to consult with him, and he told her to leave and even gave her the necessary money.
When she left for the colony, a fight broke out between her parents. The father said that he wouldn't let her enter the house, and mother opposed, “we don't expel a daughter, part of our flesh and blood, from the house and the family.”
I remember that the entire city was divided into two camps, one who supported my parents and the other who sided with encouraging the youth independence and justified Mary z”l.
The leaders of Hashomer Hatzair, the patrons of the ken, and the city's important people, came several times to father and it was difficult to change his mind. In those days Mary did not live at home. This is the only incident. M. Kaplanski's memory belongs to those days, meaning the fact is true, but it happened on a different occasion.
And why am I correcting this? First of all, for the truth and its accuracy, and secondly, so as not to distort the image of my father z”l. The truth is, my father often welcomed people from Hashomer Hatzair to his home, argued with them in a spirit of understanding, and the mere existence of Hashomer Hatzair, and his daughter's belonging to it, wouldn't have made him lose control.
I would like to hope that Motos will also accept my correction in a spirit of understanding. Any person can omit a certain detail from the distant past. Although the entire memory is correct and logical, the logic of its event is not in doubt.
Translator's footnotes
by M. Kaplanski
Translated by Sara Mages
Kadima [forward] wasn't founded on the ruins of Hashomer Hatzair[1] or at the expense of HeHalutz Hatzair[2]. These movements were active at the same time and continued their activities. The basis for the founding of Kadima, and the ideas that were at the foundation of this movement were desirable to everyone, and the same factors that nurtured the two [movements] also constituted the father of our movement. I mean, that it was impossible to establish a youth movement without the support of some older movement, or some older circle, and this was also the case with Kadima.
I remember that we were sitting at the home of Mrs. Gramayza. She was a distinct Zionist figure and devoted in heart and soul to the Zionist movement in the city. She, the adult, always found interest in the youth, her home was a meeting place for all the Zionist movements, and I always found a common language with here. We sat and talked and made the total account of the youth in Bielsk. It was at the time when Hashomer Hatzair decided that the matriculation certificate was not important. The most important thing is aliyah[3] and the fulfillment of Zionism, that is to say, to leave for a kibbutz and make an aliyah to Israel. As a result, there were many children from the government gymnasium in Bielsk who were not even interested in getting the matriculation certificate. They left their studies in the middle and departed for Hakhshara[4]. However, there were many good youth in Bielsk, close to Zionism, but since they opposed going to a kibbutz and communal life, and also because their parents were not ready to allow them to leave them, these youth would surely have left the existing movements that advocated Hakhshara and aliyah. And there was a danger that we would lose them. We, the members of the youth movements in the city, and especially Mrs. Gramayza, discussed what we should do in order to not lose these youth, some of whom were learning youth who did not want to go to Hakhshara and some wanted to finish their studies and then make an aliyah to Israel. We wanted to find a way out that would keep them within the Zionist framework, and that they would be useful to the Zionist movement in the city. We decided that it was necessary to gather this youth and find a framework of activity for them, such as Keren Kayemet LeYisrael [Jewish National Fund], Keren Hayesod [The Foundation Fund] and Eretz Yisrael Workers' Fund, that they will organize all kinds of traditional celebrations of the Zionist movement so that Tarbut school will not be cut off from Zionism. In this manner the idea of the academic corporation, Kadima, came about.
At this time also Bialystok, which was a city close to us, debated the problem of its academic youth, who also has not yet decided to leave for Hakhshara and make an aliyah to Israel. We tasked Shlomo Epstein to be one of the founders of this youth movement, and Joseph Serlin, who was one of the founders of Kadima in Bialystok, would help him.
We brought Serlin to us, we gathered 20-30 teenagers, boys and girls, and he lectured to us about the Zionist movement and its roles, and in this manner Kadima was established in Bielsk on October 9, 1928. A small part of its members made an aliyah to Israel, through the Halutz and Gordonia[5], or Hashomer Hatzair, and since in Kadima it was possible to also be a member of HeHalutz it did not interfere one to the other.
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Unfortunately, the lion's share of the people of Kadima perished in the Holocaust, some of them fled at the outbreak of the war to all countries of the world.
And those are the first founders of Kadima: Anyuta Sinai - she survived and lives in France. Sara Gramayza - perished. Chava Vaksman and her husband Shlomo Epstein perished, and I am the only one of the founders who is in Israel.
The branch in Bielsk was not a big branch and about thirty teenagers belonged to it. This movement existed and has done all the Zionist activities together with the Zionist movement
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Kadima in Bielsk 1928 - the Knesset member, Serlin z”l, in the middle |
in the city under the main leadership of Gramayza and the patronage of Melamdovitz, Stupnitski and Appleboim, who were usually the leaders of the Zionist movement in the city.
The main activity of Kadima, and its leaders, was the support of Tarbut school.
Tarbut school in our city was always in a difficult financial situation and it was always necessary to take care of the teachers' salary. We had no teachers in Bielsk and they were brought from the surrounding area, from Bialystok and other places, and they needed money. The budget of this school was always in deficit. Therefore, the people of Kadima invested a lot of energy and hard work to organize balls, evenings of entertainment with dances and a program, or presentation of plays, and all the income was dedicated to the school. It really was a big part of the school's budget.
In 1936, I visited Poland and was in Bielsk for 4-5 years [the author probably meant days]. Kadima hardly operated in the city at that time. Then, Hashomer Hatzair was the strongest movement in the city, and HeHalutz
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who has done a lot for the idea of fulfillment. Sara Gramayza was still in the leadership of the Zionist movement together with Stupnitski, Melamdovitz and Appleboim. Epstein was from the youth of Bielsk. After his studies abroad, when he returned as a student to Bielsk, he married Vaksman and stayed as the principal of Tarbut school in Bielsk. He then began to engage in full Zionist activity.
Then I realized that Kadima fulfilled an important role in Zionism, if not in its fulfillment in Israel then in its preservation abroad, it formed a framework that fostered Zionist activity and inspired people to this action. And that is its importance.
Translator's footnotes
by Yakov Zahavi- Goldvitz
Translated by Sara Mages
HeHalutz Hatzair[1], as a youth organization, was very active. In my time it was headed by Motke Idelman who passed away here in Jerusalem, and Aharon Reichman who is here in the kibbutz. Later, I was also in its management.
The activity of HeHalutz Hatzair was centered on mobilizing for activities for the building of Eretz Yisrael. The existence of Tarbut[2] school and all the Zionist organizational activities carried out by the adults. HeHalutz Hatzair[3] was also represented in all the Zionist institutions, such as Keren Kayemet LeYisrael [Jewish National Fund], educational institutions, and others. With the crisis in Israel during the meora'ot[4] the pioneering movement weakened and disbanded. That's when the Zionist youth organization, Kadima [forward], was founded. Some of our youth began to move to the communist movement, and to keep them connected to Zionism, the Zionist youth organization, Kadima, was founded. However, we were not satisfied with this and did our best to continue within our framework.
We were helped by the leaders of HeHalutz[5] in our city, Yakov Golomb, Stern and Heschel Kadlvuvski. They took HeHalutz Hatzair under their wing and we did the work. At that time the activists of HeHalutz Hatzair were: Feivel Kremer, myself, Malka Goldvitz, Zevergitzky and Shoshana Kaplanski.
In the late 1920s, the duty of HeHalutz Hatzair was to train its members for pioneering fulfillment. Members on the verge of adulthood left for agricultural training in Grochów[6] near Warsaw. Whoever was a working youth, had a profession or started in his profession, stayed in Bielsk with the consent of our committee and in the knowledge of HeHalutz Hatzair center, and continued his training. Our second role was to instill the Hebrew language to the members. In this role we entered into a special activity in everything related to the existence of Tarbut school.
We participated in fundraising campaigns held to the balance the budget of this school. We bore the burden of worrying about the teachers' salaries, and were partners in everything the adults, and the parents' committee, had done for this institution. We collected items from the wealthy for the Hanukkah “bazaars,” sold tickets to the various balls held for the benefit of Keren Kayemet LeYisrael and the school, and by this we increased the sources of income for the existence of the school because we saw in it the concentration point of the reserve of the Zionist fulfillers.
In fact, there were other youth organizations that cooperated in all the aforementioned operations, but we did what was assigned to us with serious dedication, the seriousness of working boys who have passed the test of action in life by the necessity of their fate and are used to action.
Hashomer Hatzair[7] was also active with us. But there was a difference between us and Hashomer Hatzair .While it did these things as the main ones and saw the Hachshara[8] as secondary thing, or, at least, non-binding on behalf of the movement, HeHalutz Hatzair devoted itself entirely to Hachshara and aliyah, and did the rest of the activities as required by the main thing, which is the building of Israel by self-fulfillment.
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HeHalutz Hatzair was involved in education, Zionist life, collecting donations, agricultural training, professional training, distribution of certificates[9], in the day-to-day life of its members, while Hashomer Hatzair was not active in those areas. Hashomer Hatzair was then the favorite child of the General Zionists[10] of the faction of Al HaMishmar of Gruenbaum[11] and Sneh[12] (then Klaynboym). They were radical General Zionists, and saw Hashomer Hatzair in Poland as the national intelligentsia of the learning youth. Hashomer Hatzair gathered the youth who attended high school and, the most important thing for Gruenbaum, was to take these youth out of assimilation, move them to the lines of Zionism and include them in activities for the benefit of Keren Kayemet LeYisrael, distributing shekels[13], to cultivate Hebrew culture and the culture schools, and also that they learn Hebrew.
HeHalutz Hatzair gathered within it the children from the middle school that were members of the working class, who actually also studied trades such as carpentry, shoemaking and tailoring. The main activity was to give them a conceptual education about Eretz Yisrael, to interest them in everything that is happening in Eretz Yisrael, what is a kibbutz and what is a moshav[14], the moshava[15], HaKibbutz Ha'artzi [Nationwide Kibbutz]. All these things were taught to them so that they would know the country before they make an aliyah and be able to receive a certificate. Anyone who needed to get a certificate had to take an exam, and know what Israel is and the theory of Zionism. That was the main thing.
In 1924, we divided HeHalutz Hatzair into groups and there were teachers who supervised them once a week, twice a week, and gathered them for meetings of conversation and activity. But it was forbidden, it was illegal in Poland. All these activities were illegal and we had to arrange all this in such houses that the Polish government would not suspect. At the beginning it all was done under Tarbut. I remember that we once held a meeting at Winograd's, the police came and asked “what is this,” and we said it was in relation to the Tarbut schools and a meeting is now taking place here.
In 1924, on the holiday of Shavuot, Reuven Uzisky and I left for Orla, a town eleven kilometers from Bielsk, to found [a branch of] HeHalutz. It was a town of religious people whose occupation was mostly in peddling, and there the communists were strong. There was one there, Chachki, a well-known communist who grew up in his town's background, and was opinionated and active. HeHalutz and Tarbut were not there. Once, Einstein came from the Tarbut center in Warsaw to Orla and was about to speak at the synagogue, what did the communists do? They turned off the lamps and beat him up. Since then we haven't done any activity there. We couldn't ignore it. Therefore, we mobilized on our own free will, and by the strength of our spatial movement awareness, because we felt that if we would be alone in Bielsk, and there were no branches in the vicinity, we would not exist. We concentrated in the forest, because the eyes of the police were open in the city. Immediately, the communists also gathered, started arguing, until it came to beatings. Coincidentally, I had a relative there who knew the police, and when the policemen started to ask - what is going on there? we hear shouts in the forest! I approached that Chachki and said: look, if they will arrest us, there is a Zionist organization and there is Tarbut who will take care of us, but when you fall into the hands of the police they will not release you, and I took him and entered
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the town arm in arm with him to remove the police suspicion from him. And on the same day we convened a meeting of the founders of HeHalutz and established [a branch of] HeHalutz in Orla. Later, a Hebrew school was also founded on our initiative. Since then, the communists stopped bothering us. They knew that we would not be deterred and beatings would not scare us, and if we decide, we would carry it out.
When I made aliyah, I remembered the activity of our HeHalutz Hatzair, in and around Bielsk, with a certain pride because we dared during the crisis period for Zionist fulfillment, we acted and also activated others in Bielsk and its surroundings.
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Translator's footnotes
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