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Cieszanow, that far-flung corner at the edge of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian border, was sealed off, and closed off within itself.

It did not have a railroad station, and its rigorously pious way of life had not changes since time immemorial, and events that caused upheavals in the larger world did not penetrate into its center, even with so much as a faint repercussion.

The worker, storekeeper, merchant, wagon driver or porter – all arose in the morning to go to the house of prayer or the Bet HaMedrash, to slake their spiritual thirst, one with the recitation of the Psalms, another with a page of the Gemara, Mishnah, Eyn Yaakov, yet another with perusal of the sacred Zohar.

The ‘young men’ were the enlisted men of the Bet HaMedrash, the young married men having their sustenance subsidized by their in-laws, while they engaged in study of the Torah and principles of Hasidism.

Hasidism pervaded everything, guided by the hand of the Chief Rabbi, R' Simcha Issachar Halberstam, ז”ל, and by the courtyards of the Rabbinical Leaders from Belz, Czortków, Husyatin, and others. Life revolved about the pivot of faith.

After the outbreak of the First World War in the year 1914, the people of Cieszanow spread out into all ends of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially those that reached the capitol city of Vienna, they were imbued with a new spirit that intermingled with the fundamental religious spirit, and young people opened their eyes and, for the first time, saw that a life existed outside of the four walls of the Bet HaMedrash.

After the war, along with the rest of the populace, these people returned to their homes, which also included a portion of those who had been influenced by the Haskala, and among these, the young generation became especially attached to the new concepts and ideals, and this caused a spiritual revolution in the daily lives of the town. In Cieszanow, from that time forward, they sprouted like mushrooms after a rain, where various political classes were added to the Torah study, and especially the international concept was given foundation, in all its forms: ordinary Zionism, Mizrahi, Poalei Mizrahi, Agudat Yisrael, and Poalei Agudat Yisrael, etc. etc.

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A Facsimile of the Writing of the Chief Rabbi R' Simcha Issachar Halberstam, ז”ל.

Apart from the Great Synagogue, there were additionally many other houses of worship, such as: the kloyz^[1] of Belz, the kloyz of Husyatin, the minyan of the “Skilled in Hand,” the Bet HaMedrash of the Mizrahi and the Zionists, whose customs acted as an addition to politics and social services.

In our town, social institutions functioned, each in its own sphere, such as: The Hevra Gemilut Hasadim^[2], the Hevra Kadisha^[3], the Hevra to provide bread to the poor, etc. From among the political institutions, it is worth remembering the ‘Tze'irei Agudat Yisrael,’ the Bund, and above all of them, ‘Zionist International Histadrut.’

There were also institutions for Torah and education that looked after the study of Torah among the young and the grown up together.

All of this was cut down and destroyed on the accursèd September of the year 1939, when the Nazis, ימ”ש, captured the town, in accordance with the agreement between the two devils, Molotov-Ribbentrop, may the names of the evil rot.

It is worth recollecting the names of a number of people who were scions of our town:

First and foremost, it is my desire to recollect for good, my teacher and Rabbi, the Chief Rabbi of the area, R' Simcha Issachar Halberstam זצ”ל, and his son, the last Rabbi R' Yekhezkiel Schraga, ז”ל, who fell dead after severe and terrible torture in Belzec at the hands of the Nazis, ימ”ש, may his spilled blood be avenged.

As is known, R' Simcha Issachar, of blessed memory, was the Rebbe to thousands of Hasidim who streamed to him from all corners of the land, to seek shelter in the shadow of his wing, to hear the words of Torah from his mouth, and to obtain his good counsel for their various exigencies of life.

On the Sabbath and Festival Days, we would all gather together with hundreds of Hasidim from out of town, to hear his refrains and prayer.

I am not ashamed to confess, that when I go back in spirit and look back at that period, I feel pins and needles

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in my soul; on the one side, I honor and praise the memory of the great Rabbi, ז”ל, and yet, I feel the ache of a pained soul, and ask myself why such a righteous man did not have the privilege of living long enough to personally see, with his own eyes, and to celebrate the great miracle of the establishment of The Nation on the soil of his fathers?

He was a great man in Torah and in good deeds, one of the great men of Jewry in his hour, holy, and pure in body and soul, doing all of his deeds only because of, and for the sake of heaven, and breathed his last on 20 Tevet 5674 [January 14, 1914], at the age of forty-two. May the memory of this righteous man be for a blessing.

His only son, the last Rabbi, R' Yekhezkiel Schraga ז”ל, followed in his footsteps in regards to Torah, piety, and a commitment of his soul against anything and everything that he thought would compromise tradition, and was renown for his good deeds that knew no bounds.

After having recollected these two Rabbis who led the communities, I wish to provide a short overview on the remainder of the Rabbis up to 150 years ago, approximately, who served with sanctity in our town.

I found an old book, whose name is Responsa “Hessed L'Avraham,” by the Rabbi Gaon of our era, R' Abraham of Zaworow-Buczacz ז”ל^[4], First Edition, Hoshen Mishpat Sign 45-46, where he writes as follows: To R' Yaakov Teomim, נ”י, Chief Rabbi of Cieszanow.

In regards to the issue of the woman, who prior to her death set up in her will for a certain man to recite ‘Kaddish’ for the entire year, for a payment of forty silver Rhenish, and after a number of weeks, this man also passed away, and now the heirs of this man are demanding from the heirs of the woman the entire sum that she had provided, the complaint being that since no condition was set up that if he were not to recite Kaddish – that the previously mentioned sum would not be conveyed to him, what is the law? The Rabbi of Zaworow rules as follows:

The heirs of the man are to be paid only for those days in which he did recite the Kaddish, and one subtracts out the remaining days during which he did not say it.

Zaworow, 29 Nisan 5610 [1850].

The second response that I found is that of the Rabbi of distinguished acuity, Our Teacher, Rabbi Abraham Abba Isserles נ”י, Chief Rabbi of Cieszanow.

In response to the question of the eminent Rabbi in the matter of – a resident of your town who left a will prior to his death, that all of his books are to be given to the Bet HaMedrash of the city, and the relatives influenced the bedridden sick man to retract this will and to will the books to his relatives.

The question is – is it permissible to retract the original bequest? The previously mentioned Rabbi Gaon

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ends and rules as follows: there is nothing substantial here to be taken as a retraction, and his first bequest still stands, and the books therefore belong to the Bet HaMedrash of the Sacred Congregation of Cieszanow.

Signed by Abraham, Chief Rabbi of Zaworow, Menachem Av 5612.

3. Rabbi Dov Berish Meisels, Witness, the Year 5615
4. Rabbi Yitzhak Hurbein, author of ‘Be'er Yitzhak’ former Chief Rabbi of Jaroslaw, Witness, the Year 5621
5. Rabbi Pinchas Teomim, Witness, the Year 5639
6. Rabbi Yaakov Frankel, Witness, the Year 5652
7. Rabbi Simcha Issachar scion of Halberstam from 5653-5674.
8. Rabbi Aryeh Leib Rubin from 5677-5685.
9. Rabbi Yekhezkiel Schraga Halberstam, may his blood be avenged, from 5686-the year of the Shoah, 5699.^[5]

The wealthy people of the community were: R' Hanoch Zilbieger, R' Shlomo Shmukler, R' Moshe Koenigsberg, R' Moshe Koenig, R' Mordechai Glanzer, R' Yehoshua Ziegler, R' Nahum Furman, R' Michal Shargil, ע”ה, who knew how to utilize their money in their good deeds, for the benefit of the poor of the town, and for the benefit of its institutions.

The young married men were: R' Leizl^[6] Margaliot, R' Yehoshua Shmukler, R' Zusha Twersky, R' Zusha Brenner, R' Asher Dieler, R' Chaim Edelman, R' Michal Halberstam, R' David Dieler, R' Eizik Lempel, and others, all of them suffused and replete with Torah, Haskala and good deeds.

It is suitable to recall here, the members of the ‘Bund,’ Abraham Futsher, Hirsch Shmukler, the Goldberg brothers, and others.

Here, I will recall an incident that occurred a few days after the German soldiers entered out town, that reveals the character and the tastes of these people.

If I am not mistaken, the matter occurred on the day of, or a couple of days prior to the Rosh Hashanah of 5639 [1939].

I was then a member of the town council, and on the basis of that, the people of the town burdened me with the task of going to the officer in charge of the town, and to obtain permission to pray in the house of prayer of the town. It is permitted to say, that my thoughts were not comfortable with this agenda, and nor was my line of reasoning. I explained that in accordance with our law, it was forbidden to enter a place that was dangerous, and especially – I thought in my heart, that He who dwells on high, would certainly receive our

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plea and prayers during days of peril even from simple places of dwelling, and not necessarily from houses of prayer, which from the days of their creation, were used by us to pour our discourse before Him.

These people of integrity got stubborn with me, and influenced me, despite my opposition, to fulfill their wish, and without an alternative – I went to the officer full of fear and with a broken heart. However, I set a condition that no matter what would happen – to scrupulously follow the decision of the officer in this matter.

To my great fortune, the officer emerged from his room at this moment, and saved me from the German soldier-dogs, and asked me in what matter could he assist me.

At this moment, I did not know his meaning, And I was almost certain that he was concealing some kind of trap with his genteel behavior. I thought I had come to my end.

I had no illusions, nor did I suspect that he had any attitude toward me that was human, and I did not believe that one righteous man could possible still exist in Sodom. After he heard my strange request, he replied:

I do not want you to think that I am a hater of Jews, and therefore – I do not object to you engaging in communal praying on your holiday as a matter of principle, however, my advice is – and this is for your welfare, is not to provide a possible source of incitement to the soldiers; do not go to the houses of worship, lest trouble befall you.

I thought to myself, here are cunning words from the mouth of the Tzaddik of Sodom. He shakes my hand, and sends me home.

In my room, people who were of our group awaited me, and when they heard the answer, all responded, “Let us do, Let us Harken.”

I was convinced that I succeeded in my mission, and I gave thanks to the Master of the Universe that it was my privilege to guard the lives of these decent people. However, this did not create a [true] respite from the [inevitable] end.

Before dawn, on the first day of the New Month, when I peered through the window that was locked up and shuttered out of great fear – I was able to see how the Jews were going to the houses of prayer – garbed in shtrymels, satin kapotes, wrapped in their prayer shawls, as if nothing had happened, and without taking into account the bitter circumstances that had befallen us, with the capture of the town by the accursèd Nazis.

In the depth of my heart, I prayed to He who dwells on high, that he guard these of our decent brethren, but – it was all in vain. When it became known to the Germans, that the Jews had gathered in the houses of prayer, they fell upon them with an awful barbarity; they beat these unfortunates from the left and the right, and destroyed everything that fell into their unclean hands.

The decent and pure people who went, never to return, and who, in their death, gave us freedom, and even though they ended their days in smoke – in our eyes, ‘They were impervious to the fire of the wicked,’ and their memory will flower as an imperative of life forever and ever.

In the end, I beg forgiveness for all that I have forgotten, or about whom I knew nothing at all, and of those

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that I did remember, perhaps I have not made a proper assessment, and perhaps did not do justice to their spiritual position, and the value of their good deeds. You are the forgiveness.

I wish to offer a recognition of thanks and blessing that is due especially to the members of the committee, my friends:

Zvi Elimelekh Glanzer
Shmuel Zeinvil Tepper
David Langenthal
Shmuel Lieberman
Ben Zion Friedman
Sender Schmid

May they all live to see long and good days – who participated in the work, and helped me in my work, to publish this book.

May the purity of the martyrs who are recalled in this book protect me, and them, that we will be satisfied in all our desires for good and blessing.

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Our town of Cieszanow has been recognized for its Rabbis, Chief Rabbis and Sages for generations.

Our Rabbi, Rabbi Simcha Issachar Halberstam ז”ל, and later his son, R' Yekhezkiel ז”ל, with their Hasidic followers, who brought a rich and substantive Hasidic way of life to our town, were well known in the Hasidic world.

The mutual tolerance, of the various factions of the Jewish populace, was a model for all of the surrounding small towns.

Hasidic balebatim, manual laborers, and merchants, all intermixed under one roof of nationalistic striving, always understood that, in a time of danger, it was necessary to confront an external enemy with united strength.

As is known, our shtetl did not lack for anti-Semites, for when our Lisovskis and Szyewskis attempted to act up, they received a suitable reaction from our young people, without regard for their party affiliation. When it became necessary to defend Jewish honor, or Jewish assets, a unity reigned in our shtetl, would that such unity existed today among Jewish circles.

Our shtetl counted about 500-600 Jewish families, who earned their bread with scrupulous honesty in trade, labor, and in the independent professions. In our community, there were Jewish councilmen. There was a time when a conflict arose between the Polish and Jewish councilmen. The writer of these lines, himself one of the former Jewish councilmen, could write a book about his struggle with the anti-Semitic burgomaster, who only thought about how to compromise the interests of the Jewish citizens of our town.

This is the way we lived both in joy and in distress, until the accursed year of 1939 arrived, and the bands of Germans put an end to our community.

We, those few remaining Jews, who are found in Israel, come together every year, in order to remember this, that which we once possessed.

And we had a great deal. The Jews of our shtetl, especially our youth, was an unusual host of intelligent, intellectual and nationalistically aware people in which every cultural people could take pride.

And all this, together with the houses of study, libraries, and other cultural institutions, was exterminated and destroyed by the German murder-nation with their Polish and Ukrainian partners.

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The Cieszanow of Three Centuries

As previously said, I had the honor, or dishonor, for a short time, to be the representative of the Jewish populace of our area, or what was once called a ‘Dozor.^[1]’

In this capacity, I had access to community affairs. Among a variety of old, interesting documents, I saw a document that was written in the Old Polish language, the document was dated from the year 1650, meaning, over three hundred years ago.

The following story is told in this document.

In the year 1648, or as I had calculated, to be the well-known sorrowful year of Ta”kh, almost all the Enemies of Jesus' to be found on Polish soil, were either driven out or killed.

Two years later, that is, in 1650, three Jews took up residence in our town of Cieszanow, who were saved from the hands of the Defenders of Jesus, these being Hirsch Shabbos, Mordechai Shia, and Abraham Shmukler, the first tilled the soil, the second sold alcoholic beverages, and Abraham Shmukler was a goldsmith, and seeing as there was a law of the land that forbade the Enemies of Jesus to live in the village, they were driven out at the end of 2 years of residence.

The first two Jews, Shabbos and Shia converted to Christianity, and because of this, they continued to remain in residence in our village.

My personal opinion – all of the Shabosowskis and Shiakowskis are descendants of the two [apostate] outcasts Hirsch Shabbos and Mordechai Shia.

I personally had the good fortune, that my great-grandfather of 300 years ago held onto his Jewish faith, and did not convert, but simply left the town which at that time consisted of only a handful of ramshackle houses, and the Zhukov Gasse, and he took up residence on the free field approximately 3-4 hundred meters away from the town. Later on, that is, as we read from this document – that after R' Abraham Shmukler built his compound, the spot that we knew as the Ringplatz in out town,, and in time, several other Jews took up residence, and it was in this manner that in the fullness of time, with the passage of centuries, that the Jewish settlement in our town developed.

From Cieszanow in Modern Times

I wish to recall, and awaken in the hearts of our landsleit, a feeling of both joy and sorrow.

Our town was known as an exception among all the surrounding towns through the worth of its Rabbinical Seat, and its Hasidic courtyard, which is reckoned to begin in the year 5653 [1893], that is from the well-know Sabbath of the portion of VaYekhi, when the elder Rabbi of Cieszanow, Rabbi Simcha Issachar Halberstam, may he rest in peace, was taken on as the spiritual leader of the community in our town.

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Up to the accursèd month of September 1939, approximately 500-600 Jewish families lived in the shtetl. As was the case in all small towns, the Jews derived their sustenance from trade and labor.

The uniquely Jewish trades, the shoemakers, tailors and bakers, would work for their own private gain, and for the market day which was held evert Tuesday. Peasants from the surrounding villages filled up the large Ringplatz, Jewish merchants buying peasant produce, and the peasants from their side, transacted with the Jews – for clothing, leather, and necessary tools for the fields and wagons. I recollect this today, with mixed emotions, the sound of the iron axes, the ringing of scythes, and of the beer and whiskey glasses broken by the drunken gentiles.

Cieszanow had its Jewish way of life, spiritually rich, and its community social and cultural life was multi-variegated. There were parties from all persuasions, but the Zionist parties had the greatest influence in almost all walks of the community.

The Bund had influence over the Jewish workers, and craftsmen. Merchants had their own special class interests, but when it came to the general welfare of everyone, that means, when the community needed to defend itself against the anti-Semitic citizenry, we Zionists, members of Mizrahi, and other nationalist elements, would confer among ourselves, including our brethren from the Bund, build an iron unity, which the grandchildren of Hirsch Shabbos and Mordechai Shia, all the Shabosowskis and Shiakowskis could not break through with any degree of ease. Who among us does not remember the year of 1924?

It was the time of the resistance, when the shkotzim^[2] of the surrounding villages gathered in the town, and had a mind to live it up a little at the expense of the Jews.

It began with an iron pot that a pogromshchik threw, and indeed, broke the pot on the head of R' Chaim Israel Schreiber, ז”ל.

As if by a secret signal, the entire mass of Jewish young people arose to defend Jewish honor.

If I am not mistaken, I think we laid out 2 pogromshchiks, paying no mind to the weak cries of the young priest ימ”ש, who cried out: ‘Boze-chrzescijanski polska krew sie leje w polskim Cieszanowie.^[3]’

We just kept on dishing it out – because in a time of trouble, we were all like a bar of steel, forgetting all of our political antagonisms in the critical moment [of danger].

We, the nationalist youth, had our own location with a sanctuary for prayer, the Bund [had] a Peretz Library, the Hasidic Jew led his own way of life.

The Rabbi's side street, with the Rabbi's yard, the Belzer Hasidim, Husyatiner Hasidim, the Great Bet HaMedrash, was the place where the observant Hasidic way of life was concentrated. The Rabbi, R' Simcha Issachar Ber, ז”ל, and later, his unfortunate [sic: martyred] son, R' Yekhezkiel ז”ל, [each] had their adherents. They would come to spend their Sabbaths and Festival days at the Rabbi's table, from various cities in

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Poland, Galicia, and even from faraway Hungary, simultaneously bringing with them a freshening spirit of life into the shtetl.

I remind myself, that as a young Hasidic boy, of the spiritual and physical joy I felt during the Festivals and Sabbaths that I spent at the [home of] the Old Rabbi, ז”ל.

In his large house, at the time of the Third Meal, it is dark, there is a holy spiritual arousal – literally palpable to the touch, that poured out of the soul like some mighty fountain.

The Purim holidays, the Simchat Torah holidays, the joy and the sense of sanctity, can only be understood by someone who had personally lived a life of this kind.

By the final years before the Second World War, Sabbaths were already filled with culture and with Torah.

The bond with worldly Yiddish culture, and the Jew with Torah and Rabbinical tales, and also sneaking in a dance, forgetting that the morrow brings with it new concerns.

We who were on a nationalist platform, with the study of Hebrew, also did not forget to sneak in a lesson in the Gemara with Tosafot, and a chapter of the Tanakh.

And it was this pure and holy life that was annihilated by the German Satan.

The Organization of the Émigrés of Cieszanow in Israel

The Refined Technology of the German Nation…

During the entire time of the trial, I remained silent and held myself back from taking part in the discussion of the bestial inborn characteristics of this loathsome creature with a human visage, called Eichmann. I thought to myself – so long as this loathsome creature stands before the bar of justice, and the sentence has not yet been pronounced, it is ‘sub-judicia,’ that is to say, to have uttered an opinion and in this manner is to have mixed into the juridical process affecting the sentence, which is forbidden by all legal codes.

However, after the sentence of the court in Jerusalem, when the dog was sentenced to die, and afterwards, when a variety of so-called ‘noble spirits’ with feminine soft-heartedness criticized the severe sentence, I was seized by a shudder in my extremities, in reaction to the Galantzes and Bubers, and their ilk.

And so, I permit myself to take a part in the discussion regarding whether the verdict has a just and moral foundation, despite the critique from individual Jews, and despite the elegant, so-called demonstration from the weak-hearted, who put forth their view against the verdict from Jerusalem, trying to enhance their credibility with the analytic reasoning of a Jesuit, saying that when a Sanhedrin handed down a death sentence once in 70 years, it was called a ‘killer court.’ (Makot, 7).

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Well – the Galantzes and company, I understand very well, they have their own method of reckoning. Were the loathsome creature to remain alive, he would most certainly write his memoirs, and as business people, they would buy his writings, and millions would fall into their pockets, paying no mind to the fact that through this loathsome creature, it is spilled Jewish blood that is making them rich, because business comes before everything else, but when I read the critical concerns from those who hold themselves out as the righteous people of our generation, and reside in the Diaspora, I permit myself to ask of them, as our teachers, to instruct us: a) Why was Our Teacher, Moses, permitted to carry out the judgement against the Scourge of the Jews called ‘Amalek:’ ‘You shall erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.’ And there was no professor or Rabbi to be found that would protest against the just verdict of Our Teacher Moses, even Korah – Moses' greatest protagonist, remained silent. He took a full mouth of water, and quietly consented to the fact that Moses was right. And further – Why was it permissible for the shepherd David to sever the head of that enemy of Israel, Goliath? And at that time, not a single Jew could be found to protest against the judgement that David carried out, and also executed against the Eichmann of that time, on the contrary – the nation was grateful to David, and rewarded him by elevating him to be a king in Israel.

Why was it permissible for the woman, Yael, to deceive the Jew-hater Sisera, and split his skull and through this heroic deed this very woman entered the Jewish folklore history, for all time, even more – she is the recipient of great praise, such as in the Tanakh, as it says (Judges 5:24-26): ‘Blessed above women shall Yael be, … she smote Sisera, she smote through his head, yea, she pierced and struck through his temples.’

Why was Mordechai the Righteous permitted to slaughter tens of thousands of enemies and we celebrate to this day, those miracles that enabled us to take revenge on our enemies, answer me, why, in your eyes, is the greatest enemy of the people of Israel in our long history any better than Amalek, Goliath, Sisera or Haman? These, the enumerated enemies wanted to, but did not live to bring us down, so they were beheaded, this evil man, Eichmann, regrettably exterminated a third of our people by the use if a variety of refined methods of execution, why then, do you take pity on him, on this outcast? And if I am not mistaken, there was not a great deal missing before your heads would have fallen at the feet of this Scourge Eichmann, ימ”ש.

We await your reply………

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The Miracle on the Collective Farm

Fear of Eichmann the Scourge, drove me together with my family into Stalin's regime – where I was one among tens of thousands of Polish Jews, who found themselves at hard labor in various of the Russian steppes.

After something less than a half year, of being incarcerated in a camp deep in the jungle^[4] forests beyond the Volga, we were released and each individual fled in whatever direction one's eyes led them. May family and I were flung to a collective farm in Kirghizstan (today: Kyrgyzstan) not far from the three-point border between China, India and Russia.

Living conditions were such, that the best possible outcome was that one could hope to die of hunger. All my efforts to get out of this Hell, met with a categorical refusal both from the N. K. V. D. as well as the Kirghiz director of the collective farm.

For the entire time, they kept an eye on me, as if I were some unusual bargain, so that, God forbid, I should not somehow be uprooted from there. Having no choice, we worked in the Kirghiz rice fields from sunup to evening – for 600 grams of flour.

The 600 grams would have been able to sustain life, but the trouble was, that they were not distributed…day in and day out, we were compelled to work harder and more bitterly, we ate next to nothing, and drank our sweat.

After 6 months of living on the collective farm, my family and I were three-quarters on the way to the next world, but it was then that the great miracle occurred.

After my daily work, every day, I had an added responsibility – to find the Farm Director, and demand the bit of flour that we had earned by our hard labor. However, so that you should not take this incorrectly to mean, or fall into a mistaken belief, I must say to you, that most of the time, I was left demanding from him, and he – was not forthcoming…

And it was in this manner that weeks and months went by. On a certain day, being at the office of the Farm Director in the usual manner, to beg for a bit of flour for my labor, suddenly, a man and a woman appeared in the office with an ‘official order’ from the People's Commissariat in Tashkent, that in the course of 4 weeks time, our collective fam must construct a bathhouse – ‘banya’ in the local language.

Upon hearing this order, the Kirghiz (Farm Director) started to run hot and cold. Out of great fear, he turned to me with the following question: Tovarishch David Isiashevich, do you know if among your Polish people, there is a

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construction engineer who could undertake to build this bathhouse?

There is a saying in the world, that need can turn a dumb person into a cantor, and a cantor can become a construction engineer…that very thing transpired with me in that moment. Not thinking a great deal, I answered the Director that I do know a person among our people, who is a construction engineer, an expert, who had constructed the largest houses and factories in Poland, and that person is to be found among us on the collective farm. Hearing such good news, he regained his normal color, and he became lighter in heart.

All I ask is whether they have brought some sort of a plan with them. At my behest, I receive the required plan, and after a few minutes, I say the following to them: Tovarishchi! I, myself, am that great engineer, to which Poland is indebted for its cities and factories. I am the that very expert among experts, and I take on the burden of constructing the bathhouse in the course of 4 weeks, but only under the condition that those 4 weeks shall only commence after the Director will have provided me with all of the building material.

Hearing words like this, the Director, out of great inspiration and affection, gave me such a pat on the back, that I can feel it to this day…he cemented this with a rich Russian ‘blessing’ and immediately consented to turn over the work to me.

The salary for the work was set at 70 kg of wheat. So it was said, and so it was done.

I took a number of Jewish assistants to me, in order to take possession of 3 portions of wheat, and also arranged for my wife and 6 year-old son to be among them.

We made our own bricks out of clay, drying it under the sun, the roof was covered with 5 mm boards, but there was only one shortfall, according to my calculations the roof required 23 pieces of such board, in which each piece was a square, but I was only given 20 such pieces.

The other three [pieces] were stolen…the Director assured me that in time, I would receive the missing three boards.

The building was completed on schedule, and only a hole remained in the ceiling, the size of three boards…

According to the plan, the bath was built deep into the ground, with the roof aligned over the flat earth… I only want to add that the local climate was very agreeable to the native Israeli. That means, that three quarters of the year there was no rain. Well! The building was completed, as previously mentioned, on schedule. Out of great satisfaction, the Director, this time, kept his word, and turned over the previously mentioned 70 kg of wheat.

Now, good gentlemen, imagine our joy: every day, my wife, she should be well and healthy, cooked ‘zacherkehs’ – (kasha) and baked ‘lepyushkas,’ – (pletzl).

It was Simchat Torah in our house all week long, until…a misfortune occurred. In the middle of the night, an intense rain fell. Despite the fact that such a rain, in general, was a totally rare event, and especially at that season, when no rain at all falls. Well, imagine my troubles, when in the morning, I see that nothing more remained of my bathhouse than a pile of clay… in order to catch the fish in the net, I, naturally, immediately ran to the Director and appraised him of this great misfortune, arguing that the bathhouse had ‘disintegrated’ because the three pieces of board were missing in the ceiling, and the water had penetrated within.

Frightened by my words, the Director approaches me with the words: Tovarishch, I am making you cognizant

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of the fact that both of us are in danger of being sent off to the White Bears^[5], for at least 10 years. There is one course of action by which both of us can be rescued from the consequences of this misfortune.

You must flee this place by this evening!

Afterwards, I will lay the entire blame on you, and I will be vindicated in one blow, and you will be designated as a real crackerjack…

The plan immediately appealed to me, and I consented to it on the condition that he, that means the Director himself, with his full authority, will provide me with a horse and wagon, and provisions for the journey…and this, my dear landsleit, is exactly what happened.

At 2:00AM I packed up my bit of wretched possessions and fled to where the Black Pepper grows^[6], together with my family.

The Director remained at the side of his fallen and soaked bathhouse, and I, along with my family, got out of that collective farm ‘Garden of Eden’ where a certain death by starvation surely awaited us.

A hole in the roof of a bathhouse saved an entire Jewish family from going under.

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Personalities & Pictures

Rabbi Yekhezkiel Schraga Halberstam ז”ל

Stalwarts of the High Heavens, and the Entire Heavenly Host say “Holy.”

In order to bolster my claim – I will introduce the tale from the Gemara regarding the decree against the Ten Martyrs of the Kingdom.^[1]

When the evil decree was promulgated against the Ten Sages of Israel to be put to death, they designated Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest to ascend to the heavens, and to discover whether the decree indeed emanates directly from the Holy One, Blessed be He.

It is written that R' Ishmael purified himself, wrapped in his prayer shawl and phylacteries, and he pronounced the Ineffable Name out loud. The wind immediately transported him to the heavens, where he encountered the Archangel Gabriel, of whom he asked whether the decree was sealed, and coming from the Holy One, Blessed be He. Gabriel said to him, by your life – this is exactly what I heard from the other side of the curtain. And so he [R' Ishmael] said, and for what reason is this? And he replied, the Spirit of the Law stands accusing before the Seat of Honor, and daily says:

Have you not written anything in the Torah, that contains one letter that is invalid?

For is it not written in your Torah: He would steals a human being and sells him shall die, and have not the ten tribes sold Joseph, and you have not taken an accounting from them, and it is because of this – the decree was promulgated.

R' Ishmael said to him, to this time, the Holy One, Blessed be He, has not demanded an accounting for the selling of Joseph, and only sees fit to exact this from us? And he said, from the day that Joseph was sold, The Holy One, Blessed be He, has not found such righteous men in one generation as yourselves, and therefore, he is taking an accounting from you.

R' Ishmael immediately descended to earth, and informed his comrades that the decree had been promulgated and sealed. It is written: And while on one side, they bemoaned the fact that the decree was promulgated against them, they also were happy that The Holy One, Blessed Be He, had selected them specifically, to compensate for the sin of selling Joseph.

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And the two fates are equivalent, as was the case then, [so it was] at the time of the Holocaust, it was a decree of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, that our sainted Rabbi should be killed and was designated to be a martyr, and in his death, there would be an expiation of the 'sin' of the generation that had pursued a corrupting ethos, abandoning the Torah of Our Fathers, instead adhering to the lore of the 'Edomites,' that resulted in the ascendance of underlings to the position of sovereignty, and because of whose satanic sovereignty, tens of millions of men, women and children were exterminated in general, and six million of our brothers and sisters in particular.

Our Rabbi was the son of the Sainted Rabbi and Community Spiritual Leader R' Simcha Issachar, ז”ל; despite the fact that he died while still a young man, he was called 'The Old Rabbi' – the grandson and great-grandson of the Rabbinical Leaders of Zanz, Belz, the Gaon of Leipnik^[2], going back to King David, ע”ה.

Rabbi R' Yekhezkiel Schraga ז”ל was endowed with many talents, a Sage, a man of substance, an exponent of law, who engaged in charitable activities, and dedicated his life to goodness, and did not stint so much as an iota on the ideas and views that he had, all of which were focused on strengthening traditional Judaism.

May his benefit, and the benefit of his sainted forbears guard over us and all Israel.

May His Soul Be Bound Up In The Bond Of Life

Rabbi R' Aryeh Rubin ז”ל, the Chief Rabbi of Cieszanow, the son-in-law of the righteous Rabbi and Head of Cieszanow, R' Simcha Issachar of the Halberstam family, זצ”ל

May His Soul Be Bound Up In The Bond Of Life Under The Wing Of The Holy Spirit

The youngest son of R' Leib Sternlicht ז”ל, Yaakov, נ”י who is in Israel		The Great Synagogue, on the left side is the bath and mikva in Cieszanow

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Seven of the good men of the town of Cieszanow, after the First World War. engaged in the repair of the wall around the cemetery From Right to Left: R' Moshe Glanzer, נ”י; R' David Goetz, נ”י; R' Berish Schuster, ע”ה; R' Shi'keh Starkman ע”ה; R' Joseph Tanenbaum ע”ה; R' Koppel Goldberg, ע”ה; R' Shmuel Tepper נ”י

At the Time of the Repair of the Cieszanow Cemetery Standing from Right to Left: R' Moshe Glanzer, נ”י; R' David Goetz, נ”י, r' Abraham Langenthal, נ”י, R' Yehoshua Starkman, ע”ה; and R' Joseph Tanenbaum ע”ה

He is the son of Rabbi R' Aryeh Rubin ז”ל. It appears that the apple does not fall far from the tree.

The son, Rabbi Sholom Yekhezkiel Schraga, שליט”אalso provides the services of clergy in the Diaspora. He is a sharp Torah scholar, and a righteous man, in the tradition of his father, of blessed memory, as well as a talented individual, including the talent of an accomplished Scribe.

The compiler of this Yizkor Book had the honor of visiting this Rabbi, שליט”אat his home in Brooklyn, and I am not ashamed to say that during my visit, I felt a celestial joy in my soul, that in the moment, returned my soul to the days of my youth in Cieszanow, when I still adhered to the Old Rabbi and Leader ז”ל with all my soul, in order to study Torah and Hasidism.

May we be worthy of earning a true peace, peace on all of the people of Israel, and on the State of Israel.

The life story of the deceased is a long list of good deeds and a variety of experiences. The task of documenting this, and eulogizing her, is especially difficult for me, because, after all, she was my mother, and I – apart from the fact that I respected her boundlessly, I also lauded her as a wise woman, enlightened, of good heart, and full of lofty, spiritual and soulful sentiments. She was the daughter of the Rabbi R' Yerakhmiel Hertzberg ז”ל, of Lubaczow. Of which the Rabbi of Belz ז”ל said in his time: there are yet missing nine other Torah Sages to be added to this R' Yerakhmiel, in order that the enabling act be decreed... the coming of The Messiah. This woman who was exterminated in the Holocaust, was a woman of understanding and sympathy, possessed of a clear and strong conviction, a daughter of Hasidism, modest, and held in esteem by all.

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Her son, Shimon, and daughter Chana, were both killed in the city of Volodymyr-Volyns'kyj, being buried alive together with hundreds of their Jewish townsfolk.

May God avenge their blood, and may their pure souls be bound up in the eternal bond of life.

The elder lady, Ethel, was an intelligent woman, sensible, and good-hearted, a scion of the well-known Rapaport Kohanim.

Her youngest son, Pinchas Aryeh, was killed in battle, with the Germans, on the shores of the Volga River.

May Their Memory Be For A Blessing

May God Avenge Their Spilled Blood

With roots deep among the leading families, he was considered to be very important among the people of our town, and he was considered to be among the more gifted minds in the town.

Sitting, from the right: His son, R' Elimelekh and his wife, R' Mordechai and his wife, their daughter Tamara and sister-in-law Faiga.

Standing from the right: The daughter of R' Leibl'eh Zandbank of Lewkow, his son, Moshe, Daughter Brachia, and the daughter of his brother-in-law R' David ז”ל.

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