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Yisroel Gindel, Rehovot
Translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund
The political leanings and ideas that reigned in the Jewish streets in Lutsk were an echo of those that took place in all of Poland, as well as outside the borders. One or another idea sooner or later arrived in our small city.
The carriers of the new ideas were the young intellectuals, that is, those young people who [graduated] at home or at the schools and were not satisfied with the grey life in a shop or in their parents' workshop. And although the leanings and beliefs were contradictory, we must emphasize that each idea, for which the young fought, if we agree with it or not, had its importance. We will not present a critique here of this or that idea, but describe the leanings of the young, their spiritual physiognomy and intellectual fortune in order to have an image of the Lutsk Jewish young people in the sea of Ukrainians, Russians and Poles.
Except for the assimilated Jewish young people, who were in the majority, the Jewish young people wore their Jewishness with pride, beginning with those who belonged to the Communist Party and ending with the revolutionary movement. The assimilated young people were concentrated in the Polish schools and would hide their national membership [that they were Jews] when the teachers asked them. The assimilated one, who tried to distance themselves from the Jews, would later, during their mature years, change their opinion and it is an interesting fact that they would even join the national camps and with very extreme views. In a conversation with them, several of them said to me that they had seen assimilation as a solution to the Jewish question [the status of Jews in society], but they were wrong. The Jewish people must achieve their full aspirations and through extreme means. However, in their majority, they did not come to the gates of our land [Eretz Yisroel] and Hitler's sword cut their thread of life or they emigrated to other lands of exile.
We can assert with satisfaction that the young people who sat over books, particularly those who studied in the hochschules [institutions of higher learning; universities], were the idea carriers on the Jewish streets. It was possible for the Jewish intelligentsia to enter universities, particularly after the First World War, when the borders of Poland were opened for them.
In the French and Czech universities, to which young people from Lutsk were particularly drawn, a democratic spirit ruled;
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their position at the Polish universities became even worse, when anti-Semitism led to demonstrations and beatings. At several [university] divisions, particularly the medical, there was a numerus clausus [a fixed number for entrants to an academic institution]. In general, the young people were disposed to studying medicine, law and pedagogy. The girls studied languages, several the profession of pharmacy and pedagogy. I, for example, was an exception to the rule, choosing the forestry course. The Jews did not study in this division because of the difficulty of being accepted there and they also did not see a practical purpose for Jews in this profession.
The brochures from Mr. Josef Wajc, who when in the city stayed with his father, Kheikl Wajc, the father of my friend Zev, first propelled me to this field. I found pictures from Eretz Yisroel in their house that showed its nakedness because of a lack of vegetation and soil.
My four years of study in Warsaw were years of suffering and constant disputes with the Polish young people in that school where the “the jewel” of Polish anti-Semitism was concentrated. There also was one among my fellow students who bragged that he had not once in his life spoken with a Jew. The conditions during the exercises in the forests would be particularly tense.
The Jewish young people at the other universities in Warsaw, Lemberg and Krakow suffered no less. However, one must emphasize with satisfaction that except for the assimilated young people, the Jews wore their Jewish origin with pride and answered the insults and blows with insults and blows.
In the meantime, the situation worsened when [General Józef] Piłsudski died and anti-Semitism raised its head. The boycotts against Jewish shops began and, in the universities separate benches were even designated for the Jewish students. The young Jews decided to study standing up and not to recognize this bizarre “ghetto.” And the behavior of Wanda, Piłsudski's daughter, who stood along with the Jews as an expression of solidarity for their suffering, must be recognized with gratification.
Thus was the life of the studying young people and the social position of the young poor who had to earn their bread. The suffering was doubled in these difficult conditions. So the latter, oppressed both nationally [as Jews] and materially, constantly filled the ranks of the communists until the outbreak of the Second World War.
Those who were witnesses to the most horrible catastrophe, when the thread of life of Lutsk Jewry was severed, will write about the tragic end of these young people.
The Dynamic Era in the Jewish Streets
After the long and repressive era of Hasidus, when the only spiritual food was the Khumish [Torah], Rashi and partly also the Talmud, when the bent-backed old men bowed to the landowner and acted servile, the modern image of life began to be outlined very clearly and the era of Enlightenment arrived.
The socialist leanings that penetrated Russian universities were accepted by the Jewish students whose number were proportionally meager. These students finally organized in the Bundist Party, which arose in 1897. The Jewish Bundists, only intellectuals at the start, acquired many followers among the working masses and because they did not speak Russian, their club settled on the Yiddish language.
In the meantime, the Territorial Zionists organized all the more. In the beginning, this Zionism did not possess any party position and maintained more general national ideas after the publication of Theodor Herzl's book about the Jewish State. Thus discussions between the Bundists and Zionists were especially concentrated in the houses of prayer when religion still reigned in the Jewish street.
The first club in which the Zionist camp was organized was the Zionist Club, created through the initiative of Kheikl Wajc, Bronberg and Avraham Lender. In this club, they lectured, spoke Hebrew and welcomed every [piece of] news from the Eretz Yisroel press and, finally, also began to create plans for actions. The young Zionists began to speak Hebrew even more and, in 1912, there arose a society named, Hovevi Sfat Ever [Society of the Lovers of the Hebrew Language] through the initiative and leadership of an old Zionist, Mr. Temerlin, who would welcome the young people to his house to speak Evrit [modern Hebrew] and create a Zionist way of life. The purpose of the organization was to speak Evrit in the street and a penalty was placed on anyone who did not obey the commitment. The young people would write compositions and in various ways deepen their knowledge of the Hebrew language until the arrival of the First World War with all of its misfortunes and which silenced the spiritual life on the Jewish streets.
The Lutsk Biluim[1]
1918. The First World War neared its end. A face-to-face battle between the Russians and the Poles took place at night and [General Józef] Haller's legionnaires succeeded
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in driving out the Russians from the borders of the city. When we woke up in the morning, we saw the Polish legionnaires going toward the east and several days later the Hallerczikes [followers of the anti–Semitic Polish General Josef Haller] started to cut off Jewish beards.
Bronberg called together a group of young people who belonged to the Zionist Club, explaining the start of emigration to Eretz Yisroel from other places in the world and informed them that time was short and they needed to start on their way immediately.
Twenty young men, the majority from well-to-do houses, raised in the lap of Zionist activity, several young men from yeshivus [religious secondary schools] in Odesa, where they heard Torah from the mouths of [Hayim Nahman] Bialak, Ahad Ha'am [pen name of Asher Zvi Ginzberg] and others – all were harnessed and ready to leave. There were no means of travel and along the borders of the city roamed Polish guards with whom it was better to avoid a meeting.
Thus began the emigration of the Lutsk Biluim and in the spirit of the Eretz Yisroel pioneers – “O House of Jacob: Come let us walk…” Finally, they arrived at the ship and after a great deal of hardship reached Jaffa.
We must emphasize with satisfaction that today, about 40 years later, their majority consists of productive citizens, people from work and education and several of them occupy leading places in the life of society, in literature, pedagogy, economics and in politics.
The Rise of the Halutz Movement
Three young people, Yona Czartorisker, Yerukhem Gindel and Vitya Kac, decided to create the Halutz [pioneer] movement in Lutsk and to be active until their emigration to Eretz Yisroel. They succeeded in acquiring the sympathy of 25 young people, a considerable number of them studying or graduates.
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| A group of halutzim at Hakshore[2] |
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| A group from Hashomer Hatzair[3] |
After organizing, they turned to Avraham Gliklich, a Lutsk property owner, to allocate a piece of property, and although he was distant from Zionism, the three young men persuaded him and he agreed. Over several months, they created a small administration and began to work. They used most of the time for work in the street in order to develop their economic position. Who among us does not remember the strong impression it made on us when we saw “middleclass children” sweeping the main street in the city for the first time? The idealist young men, who had never touched physical work, went from house to house and took on every [kind of] work that they received. They were particularly occupied with chopping wood and many of them returned home full of wounds from the work to which they were unaccustomed. It once happened that two such “woodchoppers,” who could in no manner carry out the work, hired a peasant and, at night, brought their earnings to the organization… After several years, the activity of Hahalutz [the pioneers] stopped after some of them, and including Yerukem Gindel, emigrated. Czartorisker and others moved to the Halutz settlement in Klosow and emigrated from there. Vitya Kac returned to the day-to-day life.
The Youth Movement in Lutsk
While the ideological work of Hapoel Hatzair [The Young Worker – Marxist Zionists] was carried out by the hitachdutnikes [members of Hitachdut – Association, a socialist-Zionist party] at their club, the Hashomer Hatzair movement under the leadership of Uri Gliklich organized even more. The idea of [Robert] Baden-Powell [founder of the Boy Scouts], which won over the young masses in the wider world side by side with the spreading of democratic leanings, also dominated the Jewish young people in the area of Poland.
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It had a great deal of educational influence on the young people of Lutsk. It crystalized new and noble ideas and emotions for Hebrew; the Hashomer Hatzair [the Young Guard – Labor Zionists] youth strove for fulfillment of their intelligence. They looked askance at smoking and a luxurious life, spent a certain time in the lap of nature near campfires and more and more – all of this placed a stamp on the shaping of these young people and the years of their membership in this movement were deeply etched in their hearts for their entire lives.
And how wonderful was the first parade of Hashomer Hatzair in their special clothing with the insignias, with the rucksacks on their back and the sticks in their hands, with an orchestra in front and Uri Gliklich behind, riding on a white horse, leading the brigades of scouts.
Hashomer Hatzair was strongest in our city as long as it preserved its non-political content and its humanistic and altruistic strivings.
In the meantime, the Hashomer Hatzair movement strengthened the socialist-Zionist view and the rise of the parties in the Zionist organization created a strong drain from the ranks of the mentioned organization.
I, personally, raised on the literature of Hashomer Hatzair, a devoted follower of A.D. Gordon, could not agree to only pursing territorial activity and after many efforts I succeeded in creating the youth movement, Gordonia [Labor-Zionist youth movement based on the teachings of A.D. Gordon], and organized my friends and acquaintances.
I remember another surprise by an emissary from Israel, sent by the kibbutz [communal settlement] movement to take part at the opening. He quietly looked around and turned to me: “The young people who you have organized do not look to me like suitable halutz [pioneer] material.” His words were correct. The young women were attired in magnificent clothing and the older ones had color on their lips, others were wearing furs; the young men were wearing ties and beautiful suits. This emissary explained to me the halutz strivings of Gordonia and the necessity for halutz accomplishments. In the course of the work, I began even more to organize the young, who truly were seeking to emigrate and with the help of Gordonia in Lodz, at whose head was Pinkhas Lavon, I finally created a pioneer youth movement in the full sense of the word.
In 1929, I went away to Warsaw to study, but the movement continued to exist until the outbreak of the Second World War and was a mobile station for the pioneer young people, an appreciable number of whom emigrated to Eretz Yisroel and many of them
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| The Hashomer in Lutsk |
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| Gordonia colony in Olenivka |
joined the kibbutz movement and today they lead a life of toil and work in blossoming villages in [various] areas of the country.
The Revisionist Youth
At the time when Gordonia, Hashomer Hatzair and the communists bound their political views with social problems, the Revisionist youth [Betar – founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky] organized in a series of political organizations. This movement included young people with a special kind of temperament. These were young people who did not want to accept the real complications of bringing about
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| A Betar group in Lutsk |
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| A Gordonia group with Sh. Cwitman and Y. Szajner in the center |
Zionism, but wanted to act with all means and reach the goal even through blood and fire.
In time, a military spirit penetrated its ranks, with which it wanted to solve the national problem. Their views grew more extreme from year to year and its final expression was in the Etzel [Zionist paramilitary] organizations in the country, some of whose members did not know what fear was. And side-by-side with the murdered English or traitors who were shot in the back, they put at risk their lives in bold actions.
One of these martyrs was our fellow-townsmen, Ben Yosef, who was murdered by the English.
During the writing of these lines, this movement is represented in the Knesset by the Herut [Freedom] Party, also by our fellow-townsman, Shimshon Juniczman.
The Communist Youth
Each of us who was educated and found ourselves in the society of the young who in time joined the communist movement was impressed by the gentility of their spirit, of the beautiful, friendly movement and by the sensitive souls.
– See, Beniamin Fridman said to me while strolling in the city garden in the summer of 1922, pointing to a poor man who was sitting in a corner, his clothes in rags and tatters, barefoot and gnawing on a piece of bread that he held in his hand – see what an injustice reigns in the world. In our houses, they stuff money into sacks. And in the street, beggars who do not have a piece of bread to quiet their hunger, wander our city.
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| A group of young people from Gordonia |
In spirit they were sensitive to the social divisions in human society; the national question [defining their identity, status and rights as Jews] also confronted them. We were witnesses to the scorn on the part of the Polish, Russian and Ukrainian young people, of the insults from their side. The quarrels often led to murderous blows. In particular – the Ukrainian young people, who found themselves under Polish rule, in truth, were not active, but they showed their anti-Semitic feelings at every opportunity.
The above-mentioned factors led the Jewish young people into the communist camp; young people who did not possess the instinct for reality, who believed with their entire body and life in the Communist Revolution, they yearned and, through it, for a life of freedom. Prisons and torture were the daily bread of the boys and girls of 15 years
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| Gymnastic group of girls |
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| The group Kefirot[4] |
and more. One remembers their terrible screams when Zaremba, the secret police agent, tortured them. From the
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| Gymnastic group of boys |
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rich ones, he would extort money and, from time to time, free the arrestees so that he could arrest them again, and again be able to receive money from their parents, when the agents of the Comintern or their emissaries gave them illegal literature and Polish secret police agents stood at a distance to detain them.
There were those, such as Kibrik, who sat in prison for the majority of the years of Polish rule in Lutsk (1918-1939), and there were also those who died from the endless torturing or remained invalids for their entire lives.
However, the tragedy of the Jewish communistic young people began when they came in contact with reality, when the Russian regime exchanged them for Polish arrestees who were in Russia or after the Russians entered Lutsk and they [the young Jews] thought that their salvation had come. Beniamin Fridman was arrested in Russia as a Trotskyite and, according to information that reached us, he died in prison.
1959
Translator's footnotes:
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