[Page 11]

The exact date of the establishment of Khotyn is uncertain. It is believed to have been founded in the sixth century by a Dacian tribal chief, Khotyzon or Chotyzon, for whom the town was likely named. It is also thought that the name Bessarabia originated with Thracian nomads who inhabited the region during the seventh century.

The Romans left Dacia in 278 due to the westward invasion of the Goths. During the time when many groups were migrating, several tribes passed through Bessarabia but left little or no trace of their presence.

The Slavic people living in the north Carpathian Mountains during the seventh century, spread throughout Bessarabia and settled in the area from the northern Black Sea prairies to the Finnish gulf. These territories were covered by forests that reached the banks of the large rivers which served as the main method of transportation and trade in these regions. Kiev became the capital of the Varangian kingdom. The prince of Kiev was the absolute ruler of all the districts. He received payments of taxes in the form of pelts, furs, grain, honey, beeswax and slaves. The town, Khotyn, was once a Slavic stronghold. In the tenth century it became part of the Russian Kiev principality along with the rest of Bessarabia.

The Russians moved northward in the twelfth century because of pressure by invaders, and entered Poland and Lithuania. From there they settled in the areas surrounding Moscow. Novgorod became the main center of northern Russia. With the expansion of the Kiev principality, Khotyn became part of Galicia (Galicia-Volhynia) and was an important center of trade and craftsmanship.

The sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan conquered Kiev in 1240. They pushed the Turks towards Hungary, and the Mongol horsemen reached Italy and the Adriatic Sea in 1241. The Europeans called these invaders Tatars or Tartars. The Tartars invaded Poland, and their southern flank spread to the eastern Muslim world and captured Aleppo, Baghdad and Damascus. However, these cruel Mongol soldiers began to retreat toward the Asian steppe after 1243. The western Mongol kingdom persisted solely in Russia as "the Golden Camp" until the fifteenth century.

In the thirteenth century, Khotyn stood as a well-established fortress city, widely known as the Khotyn Fortress. The construction of the fortress is attributed to the Genoese, who, after conquering the town, transformed it into a thriving trade center along the Dniester shores.

The fortress was used as a defensive position for successive rulers of the city. At the end of the fifteenth century, when Khotyn was annexed to Moldavia, King Stepan the Great expanded the fortress as protection against a Turkish invasion, but the Turks conquered the fortress after his death. The fortress continued to play an important role in the wars between the Poles and the Russians against the Turks throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

John Sobieski launched an attack against the Turks from this fortress and inflicted heavy losses. In the seventeenth century, following the escape of Moldovan prince Dimitrie Cantemir, the Turks returned, recaptured the Khotyn Fortress, and renovated it with the assistance of French engineers. In 1739 Minik conquered the Khotyn fortress during the Russian-Turkish war, but the fortress was returned to the Turks under the terms of the Belgrade treaty. The Russians occupied Khotyn between 1768 and 1774, and returned it to the Turks in 1774 under the terms of the Kotchok-Kinarzhi treaty. Russian-Austrian armies conquered the fortress in 1787 but it remained in Turkish hands following the Yassi treaty of 1791. During the 1806-1812 war, Muhammad Pacha surrendered the Khotyn fortress to the Russians according to the terms of the Bucharest treaty in 1812.

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The strategic importance of the fortress diminished after that, and by 1856 it was merely an historic ruin.

The First World War did not directly influence the town's life and in 1918 it became part of the Romanian kingdom along with all of Bessarabia. Khotyn was a center of the revolt against the Romanians between January 23 and 31,1919. However, the Romanian authorities roughly suppressed the revolt and asserted their dominance.

Khotyn is located in the northern part of Bessarabia between the Prut and Dniester rivers; 283 km from Kishinev and 554 km in a straight line from Bucharest. The nearest train station is 35 km away and provides connections to Yassi, Vassily Lupo, Beltz, Lipkan and Czernowitz.

The fortress served as a defense post along the northern border with Poland and Russia at the time. Soroka lies east of Khotyn, Beltz is southeast, Dorohoi is south, and Czernowitz to the west.

The district emblem featured a red shield with an engraved fortress close to a river. Two crossed swords rested atop a silver crescent above the fortress. This picture symbolized the Khotyn fortress on the Dniester bank and the wars between Christians and Turks.

The district measured 3782 square kilometers, and was mostly flat with some forests and hills. According to a modern Romanian encyclopedia, the legal and administrative map of Khotyn includes hundreds of villages in the surroundings of Khotyn. Villages included in the Khotyn region include Klemenitz, Klishowitz, Diotz, Lipkan, Sicoran, Solitza, Britchan, Novoslitz, Niporotovo, and Yanotz.

According to the July 1937 census, the Khotyn district was the most populous in Bessarabia, with 425,627 inhabitants, 70% of whom were Romanians, 16.5% Slavic, and 13.5% were Jews. There were 15,287 inhabitants in Khotyn, of which 7,344 were men and 7,943 were women.

With regard to the climate, the average annual temperature is 8 degrees Celsius. In the winter it is a few degrees below zero, and in summer, between 25-28 degrees Celsius. There were no other large rivers in the region besides the Dniester and the Pru rivers. Rain and melting snow were collected in ponds, some of which dried up in the summer.

Agriculture was the main trade and the basis of industry in the region. The populace maintained beehives and fields of grain, vegetables and sugar beets. There were also orchards, vineyards and forests. Herds of livestock filled the pastures, and households bred pigs in their yards. There were three banks in the district which contributed to the economy.

Some people say that Jewish villages existed in eastern Europe and the Balkans during the time of Herod at the end of the second temple period. However, there is no evidence of this assertion. As Khotyn was located on an international trading route along the Dniester River from days in antiquity, it likely attracted many groups seeking to control the whole region.

		According to the 1897 Census			According to the 1930 Census
	6. Khotyn district	General population	Jews	Percentage	General population	Jews	Percentage
1.	Khotyn	18,000	9,227	51.3	15,344	5,786	37.7
2.	Briceni	7,446	7,184	96.5	5,625	5,354	95.2
3.	Edineţi	10,211	7,379	72.3	5.91	5,349	91
4.	Lipcani	6,865	4,410	64.2	5,880	4,698	79.9
5.	Secureni	8,982	5,042	56.2	5,759	4,216	73.2
6.	Suliţa-Târg	5,891	3,898	66.2	4,818	4,154	86.2
7.	Clişcăuţi	7,707	1,000	13	7,184	452	6.3
8.	Edineţi-Sat				5,260	401	7.6
9.	Chelmenţi				4,519	318	7
10.	Janăuţi				3,728	267	7.2
11.	Corjeuţi				4,372	209	4.8
12.	Romăncăuţi				5,671	180	3.2
13.	Cepeleuţi	1,555	163	10.5	2,828	175	6.2
14.	Malinţi					169
15.	Lipcani-Sat					153
16.	Comarova					151
17.	Neprotova	1,631	268	16.4	1,819	135	7.4
18.	Lencăuţi					134
19.	Suliţa-Sat					126
20.	Babin					112
21.	Colencăuţi					103
	Total					32,642
	In the rest of the villages with less than 100 people					3,490
	Total in the district					36,132

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During bloody riots when the Jews were persecuted by the Christians, many documents which may have been able to shed some light on when Jews arrived in this region were lost or destroyed. According to Rozanis' History of Israel in Turgama^[1], the first Jewish settlers arrived in Bulgaria from Hungary twenty years prior to the Turkish invasion. In 1376, Ludwig, the king of Hungary, decreed that Catholicism was the only faith allowed in Hungary. Those Jews living in Hungary who did not want to convert were allowed to leave the country with their belongings. Most of the Jews who left Hungary emigrated to Poland. Some of those continued eastward to Khazar.

It is believed that in 1467, David, a prominent Jewish merchant from Koshta, traveled to Khotyn escorted by his agent, Yosef. However, the earliest documented reference to a Jewish community in Khotyn dates from 1497 in a message from Prince Stepan the Great of Moldavia, to Prince Alexander of Lithuania.

Beginning in the fifteenth century, Jews utilized the main travel hubs of Serbia - Akerman, Kilia, Rani, Izmil, and Khotyn - to reach more northern areas through the countries surrounding the Black Sea, primarily the trade center of Lemberg (Lvov). During this period, Jews from southeastern Poland (Galicia) attended fairs in Serbia, and this led to the establishment of Jewish settlements in northern and central Serbia. These Jewish villages expanded when refugees fled from the decree of the year 5408 (1648)^[2] and found a safe place in Bessarabia. The Jewish population of Khotyn grew during the sixteenth century as Jews from Poland and Germany settled there. During this period, the Jews of Khotyn paid taxes to the Moldavian governors.

In his book, History of Israel in Turgama, Rozanis provides proof of cooperation between Jews and Turkish soldiers. Jews from Turkey fought in the Turkish wars and contributed significant resources toward the survival of the Turkish Empire in Europe. Under Osman's rule, Jews were allowed the freedom to observe their religion, and the Turkish regime defended the Jews against persecutions. The Jews who served in the army always distinguished themselves in their loyalty to their native land and defended it against enemies.

In 1651, Khmelnitsky, the oppressor of the Jews, destroyed the Jewish settlement in Khotyn. It was only after the Turks returned that the town developed again. The Jewish quarter was located close to the fortress walls which became the old city as time went by. The seventeenth century was not politically stable. The Jews experienced the effects of the frequent government changes, feeling despair and hope with each regime change.

By the early eighteenth century, permanent Jewish settlements had been established in the market towns of Bessarabia. By the end of the century many Jews lived in towns and villages throughout Bessarabia. They had been invited by noblemen who were interested in developing their estates. Like other inhabitants, the Jews were also dependent on their mercy and arbitrariness. In 1726 the Jews of Onitzkan were victims of a blood libel. In general, Jews suffered less when under Turkish rule.

After 1812, when Bessarabia was annexed to Russia, the Jewish population was required, under the 1818 protocol, to register as traders, town inhabitants, or farmers. Usually, they had the same rights and commitments as the other inhabitants, however, they were not allowed to work as civil servants or to purchase land. The old privileges from the Moldavian prince period remained in effect and so Bessarabian Jews enjoyed a special status and were not subject to the various limitations under existing decrees as did the Russian Jews. This situation remained in effect until 1835 when the “Jewish Constitution” that was imposed on the Russian Jews was also applied to the Jews of Bessarabia. It was decreed in 1839 that Jews were forbidden to live in villages located less than 35 kilometers from Russia's western border. Military service was introduced for the Jews of Bessarabia in 1851 similar to the requirements for Russian Jews. (the Hebrew Encyclopedia).

Under the decree imposed by Czar Nicolai, Jewish communities were required to supply a fixed quota of soldiers each year. Even twelve year old boys were taken away from their villages and families, and sent to distant locations to prepare to serve in the Czar's army. Jewish institutions were required to supply the mandated quota of young men imposed upon their communities.

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The fortress tower

In 1848, despite the abolition of many decrees, the Jews of Khotyn did not benefit from “the people spring,” yet the Jewish population grew four or five-fold at this time. The population census of 1847 established that there were 1,067 Jewish families in Khotyn. The families were united in various associations, first and foremost in a mutual aid society. We know about some population details from a document found in Yivo. There were two main centers in Bessarabia: one in Kishinev in the south, and the second in the north near the Dniester River and the Austrian border. The following sets forth the general estimation of the Jewish population in Bessarabia, by percentages in the overall population:

In 1870 the Jews made up 9.09% (98,114 inhabitants) of the overall population of 1,232,082 inhabitants. In the years 1880-1881 Jews constituted 63% of the population of Khotyn. Out of 16,173 inhabitants, 10,229 were Jewish. Similarly in 1880-1881, Jews made up 63% of the total number of inhabitants in the Khotyn vicinity, numbering 13,871 out of 21,258. The Jews in the villages surrounding Khotyn represented 3.5% of the overall population.

It appears that the Jews in Khotyn made up 50% of the overall population as counted in the census of 1897: 9,291 Jews among 18,126 inhabitants. There were 2,984 houses in the town, sixteen schools, three old age houses, two libraries and one hospital. The revolutionary agitators failed to undermine the people's confidence in the Czar. Instead of improving the situation of the oppressed people, to increase their economic and cultural situation, the Czar increased the burdens of the Jews and turned his anger against them.

Despite enduring persecutions, pogroms, and boycotts, the Jews remained confident, influenced by revolutionary propaganda and political Zionism. The young people of Khotyn could not find a place for themselves in town and attempted to migrate to far away places. Many among the youth severed ties with their parents and the town, and went overseas to America and Eretz Israel.

The 1917 revolution brought equal rights to the Jews of Bessarabia. That same year, a national assembly of the people of Bessarabia took place in Kishinev and proclaimed Bessarabia a Moldavian republic within the Russian Federation. The Romanian government annexed Bessarabia, including Khotyn, in 1918. A Jewish community was established in Khotyn in 1917, and officially recognized by the Romanian government in 1929. Jewish life began to develop under this new Romanian regime which remained in charge until 1940.

In 1944 Bessarabia was again incorporated into the Soviet Union, with most of its territory becoming part of the Moldavian republic. The Jewish towns in Bessarabia ceased to exist, remaining only as historical memories.

1931 – A Maccabi branch was established, May 18, 1931.

1932 – The jubilee of the Zionist Federation and the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish National Fund were held in Khotyn. 1935 – The Jewish community began to allocate 30% of their taxes to the Jewish population suffering from hunger in the southern area of Bessarabia.

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1935 – The Lawyer's Democratic Front was established in Khotyn on February 6, 1935, in opposition to the “Numerus Clausius” decision enacted in Bucharest.

1935 – Three lists of candidates were presented for the community elections. The Zionist list won 10 out of 40 seats.

1935 – The Jewish council decided to send an official protest to the government against the antisemitic movement.             A committee was created to draft the statutes of the union of Jewish communities in Bessarabia.

1936 – Assembly of the Cultural League to discuss the problems of the Jewish culture.

Because of the long distance from the main arteries of traffic and the unshakable regime of the Czar, life in Khotyn stagnated. However, during the years 1903-1905, political unrest reached even the most distant areas due to the whirlwind of political and cultural activity. Written and spoken propaganda were very powerful tools used to spread the new emerging theories through speeches and print, and published in widely distributed books, leaflets and newspapers. Propagandists who were emissaries of the radical leftists and right-ring extremists went to the most isolated corners of the country spreading the Black Hundreds Century newspaper Bessarabist. In the streets, light and darkness were all mixed up.

Most of the young men were serving in the army when the Russo-Japanese war began in 1904. The Russian liberal newspapers daringly attacked the government because of the defeat suffered by the Russian army against the Japanese despite the Russian forces outnumbering the Japanese at a ratio of 3 to 1.

Despite being the district's main city, Khotyn struggled economically. Its proximity to Austria and Romania did not result in an economic advantage. It was still far from the main thoroughfares and suffered from poor roads. The city had a meager industrial sector, consisting of beer and alcohol factories and a lumber mill. Both peasants and landlords relied upon loans from other Jews in order to sustain their households.

The Jews faced political and economic discrimination. Although a few Jews did own factories, they did not employ Jews because of the fear of backlash from the gentiles. However, this approach did not help as antisemitic propaganda continued to portray the Jews as fundamentally non-productive, dependent upon others, and not participating in the labor market. Based on these conditions it was not surprising that the Jews were relieved when Russia lost the war with Japan.

The Jews of Khotyn were aware of what was going on in the world, especially with regard to Jewish and Zionist affairs. They followed Dr. Theodor Herzl's meeting with Kaiser Wilhelm in Jerusalem in 1898, his discussions with Sultan Abdul Hamid in 1901–1902, his journey to Petersburg in 1903 to meet Russian Minister Plehve, and his official audience in Rome in 1904 with King Emmanuel, archbishops, and Pope Pius X. The Zionist movement was very active in all areas of public life in Khotyn. The city was able to send its own delegate, Shimon Stefanko, to the sixth Zionist Congress. With regard to the decisive vote on the crucial policy of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel or Uganda, Stefanko abstained when the Uganda proposal was raised.

The Jews of Bessarabia, my home district, were good-natured people and honest landlords. They worked hard and they were dedicated to their families. Among them were educated people and Torah scholars. Just as their homes were once scattered in Bessarabia, they were dispersed around the world. It was a big advantage to be born in Bessarabia. Bessarabia had rich soil, perhaps the best in all Europe, and the lucky Jews enjoyed this good place. Even poor people were able to afford some nice things that were readily available.

Bessarabia was blessed with herds of sheep and bovine livestock. Nearly every household raised chickens, geese and turkeys in their yards. There were apple trees in sloped orchards of excellent quality, whose fragrance wafted far and wide. Thousands of furnaces created dried plums which were then sold all over the world. Nuts harvested in Bessarabia were well known for their quality, and above all, golden fields of grain provided bread for people worldwide.

Who can forget the delicious joy of our watermelon and grape season? Every house was surrounded by a summer time garden, used to grow all kinds of tasty and juicy vegetables. The gardens were also full of big, golden sunflowers, resembling a sunset.

Beyond their beauty, the sunflowers contained edible seeds. Each flower looked like a large pomegranate full of seeds that grew in straight lines like disciplined tin soldiers. Sunflower seeds were used to produce oil, although people preferred to crack and eat them. The Jews were dedicated to this pleasure on Shabbat and festivals, a treat reserved for days of rest, which is why the seeds were called Shabbat fruits. One needed a special skill to gently hold the seed, quickly crack the shell, toss the small seed in the mouth, and savor the taste for a long time. On Shabbat, when Jews did not work, they had free time to experience the pleasure of eating the seeds.

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The fortress – general view

The Jews of Bessarabia were like the sunflowers, a whole family on each stem. The higher flowers were big and delicious with large seeds. The lower flowers were smaller and dwarfed, yet they still had a nice color and a pleasant seed shape. Not all the Jews of Bessarabia excelled in Torah or greatness, but even the average people had a golden nature.

The town, Khotyn, which no longer exists [the Jewish town], lay in the most northern part of Bessarabia. The town was settled during the Middle Ages and was home to many generations of Jewish inhabitants. The town was composed of two parts. The older section, toward the banks of the Dniester River, had narrow streets and old sooted houses like the paintings of Marc Chagall. The houses were usually one storey high, crowded and with a dark and narrow wooden staircase. The rooms were large, partly facing the street and partly facing the backyard. The townswomen used to compete with each other, not only on the type of stew they cooked, but also on the cleanliness of their homes. Polished brass items and sparkling chandeliers were evidence of hardworking hands.

The shops were dim and poorly lit, and contained a mix of all kinds of wares, dry goods and textiles. Upon entering a shop, it was clear to see the shopkeeper's impoverished circumstances in Khotyn, yet even in this dense atmosphere their keen eyes shone, reflecting the light of the Torah. The Jewish community was well informed, following publications like The Jew or Our Time. They mastered the language of literature of the region and stayed current with the main newspaper articles and their authors' arguments. They knew of significant events in Romania and Eretz Israel and of book critics and the controversy between the Bund^[4] and the Zionists. Many Jews in the towns and villages of Bessarabia closely followed the struggles within the Jewish world. Even though published articles reporting on problems among people were certainly neutral, the influence of the article editor's perspectives and conclusions was evident.

This side of the city was meant to provide the poor people with the hope of future plans, if not for them, for their children who were waiting in line to get a certificate to emigrate to Eretz Israel. The other side of the city presented a typical Russian town.

[Page 17]

The streets and the sidewalks were wide, the roads were full of mud in wintertime, shrouded in dust in summertime, with water puddles on the sides. Well to do Jews lived on this side in spacious houses surrounded by gardens full of fruit trees. These houses were usually home to one or two families, typical of the traditional Russian patriarchal lifestyle particularly common in Bessarabia. Beyond a large lounge, used as a dining room, doors led to the rooms of the landlord, his children, the servants, or guests. As was usual in a Russian home, a samovar steamed until late at night; sugar and tea sat on the table for everybody. The open-hearted nature attributed to the Russian people was also prominent among Russian Jews, also known for their exceptional hospitality. They opened their homes to occasional guests, and their children were educated to also behave in this manner.

The first time a young person left the Jewish town to work or study, they typically moved to the capital or at least to a major city, and returned to their family for festivals. They remained connected to the place where they were born and raised. The youth were not attracted by the town because of its limited cultural life and job opportunities. Yet, the town stood firmly for generations despite the desire of many to emigrate to Eretz Israel. It would have carried on, but reached its downfall when its families were exterminated without mercy.

A peasant revolt erupted in northern Bessarabia in 1919 during the week of Christmas. Romanian officers were killed, buildings were set on fire, and soldiers were captured in the Khotyn and Soroka districts. Theft and looting took place on the roads and streets of the region. The Romanian government had not yet recovered from the disaster on the German front and the shock caused by the collapse of the Russian army following the Bolshevik revolution. It now was forced to draft reserve forces and send them to the internal front in northern Bessarabia in this atmosphere of war. The government understood that if it did not swiftly and firmly suppress the revolt, it would spread to other parts of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Several battalions were sent to the region in order to harshly crush the revolt.

From the outside, the revolt by the Ukrainian peasants was viewed as a communist revolt. In reality, it was driven by the peasants' dissatisfaction with the agitators who had come from the right bank of the Dniester.

I was serving as a lieutenant in the 37^th Battalion of the ground forces. I was on leave with my family, so when I returned to my barracks north of Czernowitz, I had to track down my battalion and the small unit that was already on its way to the front. This happened just before Christmas. The temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero, centigrade. The whole district was covered with deep snow and the roads were not passable. Army personnel did not travel in cars, but in carriages pulled by undernourished horses. The equipment for soldiers and officers was insufficient and not suitable for winter. This further limited the soldiers' mobility. At that time machine guns were equipped with a water refrigeration system which froze, and left us without the ability to shoot. The old Mannlicher guns were the only weapons the soldiers could rely on to advance and hold their ground against the insurgents fighting as guerilla soldiers.

Romanian officers set villages on fire and slaughtered any peasants who crossed their path during their advance over the course of a week. Army supplies of chickens, sheep and pigs were obtained through theft.

On a Shabbat morning, an army squadron approached Khotyn, a town with a population of 30,000 people, half of whom were Jewish. Khotyn was a focal point in the army's advance, and its conquest would end the campaign. The commander issued an order to be cautious about the town population, assuming the army would not be attacked. However, if the residents tried to fight, the army would treat them and their belongings in the same brutal way as it dealt with the villages of the district. This marked the beginning of the defense by the Jewish population who were frightened by the atrocities and thefts by insurgents on the one hand, and by the return of the Romanian army, arriving as conquerors who would take cruel revenge against the Jews not participating in the revolt, on the other hand.

The commander's deputy on the front was a Romanian major, Mayur Son, a kind and delicate soul. Thanks to his intervention, before the army entered Khotyn during the confrontation on the plain outside the town, officers were ordered not to harm the quiet Jewish population. Mayur Son knew that the Jews were victims of the rebellion. He warned against provocation from the rebels and advised a tolerant attitude instead of war.

The unit under my command was assigned to look for weapons among a few streets in the Jewish quarter. I befriended the major and later I became his deputy. I established a strong relationship with him and his wife on the basis of our shared friendship and discussions about the political events of this period.

The town of Zhyanitz lies across the Dniester from Khotyn, and the prominent Jewish town of Kaminitz-Podolsk is ten kilometers away. Its fortress, constructed during the Middle Ages, overlooks the route stretching from Ukraine's large plains to the hills of Bessarabia. It was a difficult winter, and as I walked through the streets with my squadron, we sang Romanian marching songs set to the music of the Marseillaise. The Jewish residents knew that it was forbidden to sing the hymn of the French Revolution in Czarist Russia. Since my squadron sang this song, it meant that the commander of the squadron was a Jew.

Once the region was peaceful again I focused on becoming acquainted with the Jewish institutions, the community, the Zionist party, the library, and the people of the town with whom I established a strong and long-lasting relationship. Later, I facilitated the arrival of two Hebrew teachers, Aharon Weissberg and Moshe Stern, to Yassi, the main Jewish center. These two, along with Yaacov Botoshanski and Yaacov Sternberg, who had previously come from Russia at the end of the First World War, created the core of the Jewish movement. The schools began to teach

[Page 18]

Hebrew as a living language and not only as the language of prayer or Tanach. Aharon Weissberg, who ran the Maccabi association in Romania, was privileged to emigrate to Israel. He died in Israel a few years ago and Moshe Stern was cruelly murdered in Transnistria.

I was in touch with activists, including the community leaders Misha Shor, Yossef Appelbaum, chairman of the Zionist movement, and with the new generation of leaders, such as Moshe Feldman. Some of these influential people were murdered in the Shoah and others died of natural causes. Only a few remained to tell the stories about this vibrant and magnificent community.

From an early age, my Zionist education inspired me to find ways to help bring Jews from the other side of the border into Bessarabia where we experienced a more decent regime compared to problems in the cities and towns of the infinite plains of Ukraine. As a border guard, a flour mill on the Dniester bank was under my command. Since the river was not too large or deep, Jews were able to make their way to Khotyn, thanks to their sense of direction and their will to live. This happened each night and many of them later emigrated to Eretz Israel.

No young man can forget this kind of period and its enduring impressions even though it was relatively short, lasting only a few months. In order to complete my university studies, I was in contact with this district, with this town and eventually with all Bessarabia, which became a defining factor in my life. Less than a year later, I returned as a founder of a Yiddish newspaper in Kishinev, as a candidate for the elections of the Romanian parliament, as a lecturer on social subjects and literature, and as a friend of the people in the region. These visits strengthened my bonds of friendship with the residents, and allowed me to act upon the Zionist feelings that were part of my spirit. However, I struggled during the election period, witnessing the persecution of the Jews in Yidinetz, the murder of refugees in Soroka, in Oreiv and many other places.

Indeed, the spiritual bond with this population was not one sided. The people of Bessarabia, particularly those from Khotyn and Soroka, including thousands of Jews, placed immense trust in me. Despite living under authoritarian military or civil regimes, the people were not deterred from voting for the Jewish parliamentary candidates. In a democratic country like Israel, it is difficult to understand the significance of elections conducted in an atmosphere of fear and restricted accessibility, while economic interests and their influence on family needs are set aside in order to secure the victory of Jewish candidates.

Khotyn, like other towns with thousands of Jews, is an example of the magnificent past of the diaspora, representing the strong bonds of the Jewish people, of their national aspirations, of the Zionist movement and Eretz Israel. Is it possible for the new generation born or educated in Israel to understand the great fracture that befell the Jewish people? No matter how much is written or taught, can it fully describe the greatness of this Judaism that was almost completely destroyed in the places where it flourished for centuries? Khotyn was among those places, and its memory should never be forgotten.

In the summer of 1914, I was a teacher in a village named Klinkovitch, a town close to the Austrian border where about one hundred families lived. One clear, cloudless morning hundreds of soldiers suddenly appeared in the main street of the village.

The main street (Shtepan view)

[Page 19]

The commotion and the uproar brought the Jews out of their houses to see what was going on. One of the soldiers shouted: Jews, don't be afraid, this will soon blow over! With their sharp instinct, Jews immediately sensed that trouble was imminent and became fearful of their gentile neighbors. Regretfully, their fear was not in vain. Suddenly a loud villager stepped up and called to the mob which had already gathered, shouting: “revenge on the Jew haters of Russia!” His words turned into actions. Grisha, a member of the crowd, approached and struck Sani Morgenshtein, a public figure, on the head with a thick rod. Although Sani was a strong man, the attack caused him to fall to the ground. The neighbors came to help him and brought him to a nearby house. The reckless mob rushed into the Jewish houses and looted all that they could seize.

Panic spread and the Jews fled, leaving their possessions, the fruits of a lifetime of labor. Former neighbors turned away and ignored their pleas for help. Those who resisted were brutally beaten.

The commander of the Russian army, the great prince Nikolai Nikolayevitch, and his high commander the general Yanoshvitch, viewed the Jews as enemies of the state. The Jewish language of Yiddish was close to German, the language of Russia's enemy. The government ordered the deportation of all Jews living close to the border, and this deportation order was carried out in 24 hours. During the months of August to September 1914, whole communities were deported and forced to leave their homes.

We walked all day, from morning to evening, including men, women and children, and reached Klishkovitch, a few kilometers away from Klinkovitch. We sheltered in a barn until the next day. The local Jewish residents came to help and even the Khotyn Jews welcomed us into their homes.

Refugees who had relatives in Khotyn were taken in by them. Others received assistance from the Help Committee, which assisted the refugees in establishing a sense of normalcy. I returned to my parents' home and my father Reb Zussia, a public activist, tried to find a place for me to work. The 1914-1918 war started with a catastrophe against Jews in which the fate of many communities was doomed.

Khotyn is an historic town with deep ties to Romania's past. It also holds a prominent place in Romanian philately with a remarkable collection of stamps issued in the town.

In 1857, most eastern European countries, including Russia, issued their first stamps. At that time, Khotyn was under Russian rule. In 1858 a post office was established in Khotyn, like other towns in the region. Initially the town was assigned a number, as at that time Russian stamps were numbered, each town with its own number. As time passed, instead of numbers, stamps were named according to their post of origin, thus Khotyn's stamps were named Khotyn.

The postal service was disrupted by the First World War, the civil war, and the invasion of various armies over the years. Until Romania took over Khotyn, there was no regular postal service except for transient service by messengers, mostly Jewish coachmen. The Romanians reopened the post office to run like others in the mainland country. To commemorate the ten year union of Romania and Bessarabia in 1928, a series of seven stamps with three different denominations were issued. These stamps featured a picture of the Khotyn fortress.

Grivitza street

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[Stamp with the Khotyn fortress]

In 1940, Bessarabia once again was under control by the Russian regime, this time the Soviet Union. Khotyn was part of the Czernowitz district in the Ukraine republic, and stamps were Russian issued. A series of five propaganda stamps were issued by the Soviets to illustrate the liberation of western Ukraine, White Russia, Bessarabia, Bukovina, etc. These stamps were sold at the Khotyn post office along with other Soviet stamps.

Bessarabia was seized by fascist Romania in 1941. On July 16th 1941, a series of stamps were issued to commemorate King Karol I. These postage stamps, which featured the image of the Khotyn fortress and imprinted with the phrase, “Khotyn is ours” were sold in the military post office in Khotyn. Later, a new series of stamps called “the sacred war against the Bolsheviks” was issued. One stamp in this series had a two part design. One half showed the Khotyn fortress and the other part, the Akerman fortress. This series also included the inscription “Odessa October 16^th 1941.” That same year, two series of twenty-five stamps were released to commemorate the reunification. Five of these stamps featured the Khotyn fortress.

In 1942 a series of three stamps was issued featuring portraits of King Michael, Marshall Antonescu, and the former king of Moldavia, Stefan the Great, with the Khotyn fortress pictured in the background. In 1944 Bessarabia was again annexed by the Soviet Union and Khotyn became part of the Czernowitz district in the Ukrainian Republic. Until this day the Soviet Union has not issued a stamp with the Khotyn fortress.

[Postcard featuring the Khotyn fortress titled: Khotyn fortress and the Dniester]

1. Turgama: Biblical character, son of Yaphet, represents the people living in Anatolia, Caucasia, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. Return
2. Decree of the year 5408 (1648): the riots of Khmelnitsky in 1648 in Poland and Ukraine. Return
3. Pamienikes: Seems that the word has a typo, the nearest Yiddish existing word is Pamienitikes meaning monuments Return
4. Bund: a secular Jewish socialist party initially formed in the Russian Empire and active between 1897 and 1920. Return

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