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[Pages 109-110]
-- Under the Picture
The teachers and students of the Tarbut school in its first year.
From right to left: Teacher Burstein, Principal Kunst, Teacher Rotblatt and Teacher Moshe Koifman.
Study took part at Stesel Waldman's house. It was the hardcore that served as the base of enlarging language studies, and with the help of some activists from town, they established the Tarbut school. At the beginning, they had students from 3rd through 7th grades. The first teachers were: Moshe Koifman, who started this as his mission and contributed greatly to the school's existence, development and standards for many years until the war broke out; also, teachers Rotblatt, Burstein and Chasdai.
The way to get permission from the authorities to establish the school was to get a certified teacher of the Polish language. Therefore, they hired a teacher whose name was Kamerman and the permit was obtained. Teacher Kamerman married a woman from Stepan named DovahWaldman.
Later there arrived in town the school principal by the name Auerbach and the teacher Shnerer. Also they hired local teachers by the name Yeshayahu Neiman and Baruch Kryzer, the son of the butcher and cantor Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Kryzer. The building that housed the school was donated at first by a Jewish man named Berel Nodel and his family who immigrated to the United States. This building was remodeled with a few years to meet the needs of the school.
-- Under the Picture
Tarbut school students and their teachers.
Moshe Koifman, Yeshayahu Neiman, the school principal Auerbach
and his wife, the kindergarten teacher, Pesya.
In the year 1917, the Zionist Histadrut (union) was established and also the JNF (Keren Kayemet).
-- Under the Picture
The Keren Kayemet L'Yisroel council in Stepan.
The Zionist youth movement also organized other public activities. They established a group for Linat Tzedakah: in which volunteers spent days and nights with sick people who could not get up from their beds.
The Zionist activity moved to the next generation and that was how the political party started.
In the early 1920s a young woman arrived in town from the city of Kovel by the name Bracha Shickman. This woman later on married Yitzchak Guz.
Under the umbrella of Hashomer Hatzair, Bracha collected young people from the town. This movement was characterized as the Zionist scouts. Many youngsters were attracted by the impressive uniforms and to the scouts' activity in general. This activity included trips to the countryside, to the fields and to the forests. These activities lasted for almost a year and then stopped for a while. Later on the teacher Chasdai from the Tarbut school restarted the movement Hashomer Hatzair. For most of the youngsters belonging to this movement their main goal was to make aliyah to Israel.
-- Under the Picture
Hashomer Hatzair activists in Stepan.
After a few more years, there were mostly political party activities in town and the Hachalutz and Beitar movements were established. Most of the youngsters left Hashomer Hatzair (which was characterized as a left-political party) and joined Beitar under the leadership of the teacher Yeshayahu Neiman, zl. The Hachalutz and Hashomer Hatzair movements were still active but had a low profile. Some from these movements left town and were active all over Poland and then made aliyah to Israel as part of the Aliyah Bet (second immigration) based on the certificates given to them.
These activities of the young Zionists lasted until the war started in 1939. Right before the war, Beitar' took a few members Motel Rasis and Nunya Hochman and smuggled them through Aliyah Bet.
-- Under the Picture
From the organization Hashomer Hatzair in Stepan.
-- Under the Picture
The Zionist Council in Stepan.
In addition there were all kinds of activities involving the collection of money and the selling of JNF stamps at every holiday or family event. At the beginning of every month, the JNF people walked from house to house in order to empty the blue boxes.
The Zionists had a separate minyan on Simchat Torah and the income from the aliyot was donated to the JNF. Also the income from the drama class was donated to the JNF.
-- Under the Picture
A nature trip by the students of the Tarbut School in Stepan
led by the teacher Shnerer.
-- Headline
Publication about Stepan in the Yiddish newspaper in Wohlyn, The Mentsch, that was written in the 1930s by the local journalist Betzalel Shpritz.
Mr. Betzalel Shpritz, from Stepan, was a writer in the Wohlyn newspapers. Today Betzalel Shpritz and his wife, Rozka-Shoshana, also from Stepan, are living in Tel-Aviv. They both made aliyah in 1935 as Beitar activists.In the Wohlyn-Nayes the establishment of Brit-Yeshurin in Stepan by the Beitar commander is written. In total, 50 members arrived at the beginning. The first speaker was Sender Wolynsky, the Rabbi's son, from the head activists of the Brit. They continued with a very interesting and serious discussion. At the end they elected Tzvi Segal as general manager of the board, Levi Yitzhak Kryzer as president, and Sender Wolynsky as secretary, and the following board members: Yehuda Woschina, Dov Zilberberg, Nechemia Gaz, Yaakov Petashnik, Avraham Zilberberg and Yoel Baruch Becker. This committee was in touch with the headquarters in Poland and they expected a visit from the president of Yeshurin in Poland, Dr. Rabbi Treisman, to Stepan.
A meeting was held in order to increase the number of students in the Tarbut school and to ensure for a proper National-Zionist education to the young generation in town. This meeting took place at the beginning of the school year. Among the participants were the teachers and representatives from all of the Zionist youth movements of any kind. The meeting took two hours in which they established a youth department at Tarbut. The following members were chosen to be members of the department: the teacher Moshe Koifman, Rafael Yukelson, Betzalel Shpritz, Yitzchak Weisman, Shlomo Sheinboim, Chaim Slabotsky and Gershon Krokover.
The same newspaper published an article that had the eulogy of the passing of the great philanthropist Melyah Washtzina at the age of 67. Most of the people of the town took part in her funeral. The widows and orphans who Melyah Washtzina supported with donations during her life were crying and very sad. Of the rest, she also contributed much money to yeshivas in Israel.
The ceremony was organized by Avraham Weitznodel from Rovno and other speakers were: Yitzchak Weisman from Beitar, Zev Washtzina from Hachalutz (The Pioneers), and the very impressive speaker Dr. Gurin. The member Hershel Shpilsher read a protest against the obvious intention of the British not to keep their promise to establish a national Jewish home in Israel.
The ceremony was concluded with the singing of Hatikvah.
From the auditorium of the school you could hear loud and happy singing from the Zionist youth. But suddenly a fight broke out between parties that were restrained by the strong discipline of the Beitar youth who prevented fighting among brothers.
Here is what happened. The youth of Beitar, Group A, happy in celebrating the holiday, started to dance the hora. Immediately, curious people from the town clapped hands and encouraged them. Unfortunately there appeared a number of youth from Hashomer Hatzair who interrupted the singing and dancing with yells and screams. And so it went from words to fighting. Adults from Beitar got involved and succeeded in separating the youth and stopping the fight.
Most of the Jews of the city in attendance protested the provocation by the youth of Hashomer Hatzair. Many of the parents decided to take their children out from this movement.
During the event there were speeches by: Yitzchak Weisman, deputy leader of Beitar, Betzalel Shpritz, and Yaakov Petashnik. The cantor, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Kryzer said the me sheberach prayer for the Zionist prisoners in Zion and Betzalel Shpritz read the decisions that came out of the gathering:
This great general gathering expresses its deepest protest against the British mandate decrees in Israel which reverses the former promises to help establish a national home for the people of Israel in the land of Israel, and calls on the Zionist leadership to act immediately to prevent these drastic consequences.
Among them were Motel Rasis and Nunya Hochman, who turned to Romanian border and after much difficulty made it to the land of Israel. Nunya Hochman, zl, later on died in battle fighting the Germans in the Italian frontier. Meanwhile, Shimon Rosenfeld, Zvi Rosenfeld, Chaim Hochman and Zvi Gorenstein crossed the border from Russia to Lithuania. First they lived in Vilna and then they moved to Panevezys.
Right after Lithuania was captured by the Russians, some immigrants tried to contact the western embassies before they evacuated Lithuania, hoping to get out of Lithuania through their borders. Those who did that were captured by the Soviets and sent to Siberia. Fear of this caused many others to avoid this option. Shimon Rosenfeld tried to contact the British consulate in Moscow and request a visa claiming that he had a certificate from Turkey. But the Soviet authorities caught him and put him on the train to Siberia. This was in 1941 after the war between Russia and Germany had started. This train was bombed and he succeeded in running away but later he was beaten to death by nationalistic Lithuanians.
-- Under the Picture
Activists in the Beitar Organization in Stepan
One day I met Shimon Rosenfeld, a young man who ran away from Stepan in Wohlyn to Lithuania in 1939. I hadn't seen him for more than a year. His pants were torn and his upper body was covered with a worn shirt. He was nearly barefoot and he looked very hungry.
He tells me that a few months earlier the Russians arrested him and suspected him of Zionism. They put him in the Lokisky prison and interrogated him many times. Two days before the war started, they put him on a train with a few dozen other people who were about to be deported to Siberia. They never had the chance to make it there because the Germans started to bomb the town and particularly the train station. Bombs fell from every direction and the prisoners thought that they would die from the bombing.
After two days silence prevailed and the prisoners noticed that there were no guards. They broke out of the train car and escaped for their lives. Shimon was hosted by one of the Jews who was a prisoner with him on the train. He lived on Rechov Hazagagim The Street of Glaziers (Galezer Gaz).
After two days, Shimon Rosenfeld came to me completely wounded. Two days earlier he and some other Jews were captured by the Lithuanians and were brought to Lokisky prison. At the entrance to the prison, they passed between two long lines of Lithuanians armed with iron and rubber sticks, and they hit them brutally with no mercy. Whoever didn't have the strength to withstand until the end, was beaten to death.
They repeated the beatings between the gates and between the inner courtyards. After a basic inspection, they were pushed into a courtyard which was crowded with Jews. It was so crowded that you couldn't move. Anything that you had to do, you did in your place. The suffocation was great.
-- Under the Picture
Shimon Rosenfeld zl
From time to time the Lithuanians opened the gates demanding gold and money from the prisoners and each time they kept beating the prisoners on their heads. The prisoners started to run away but there was no room and they crashed into one another.
The next day they took the prisoners to the main yard and ordered them to climb on trucks that were ready to go away. Shimon was already on a truck when suddenly a fancy car stopped by and a German came out and read names of Jews from a list in his hand. These Jews were separated from the others. When the German called a name that wasn't answered, Shimon decided to answer as it was him. After a few minutes, the German took out his Jews from Lokisky and he sent them to work. Shimon was very happy that he survived a definite death. But the miserable man didn't know that this was a temporary relief.
There is no evidence about the rest of the group of members, except for Zvi Rosenfeld who fled to Russia before the Germans entered Vilna. He survived and lives today with his family in Israel.
-- Under the Picture
The Beitar Group in Stepan during the 1930s
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