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Tchornitzky, who was knowledgeable in the Hebrew language. Later, his replacement was one of the teachers at the “Tarbut” school in the place. In addition to him, the following were active in the Israel National Fund Committee in the early years: Isaac Tkhornitzky served as the secretary and Yaakov Peretz Patushinsky served as the authorized. On every festive occasion such as: wedding, engagement, circumcision, banquet, etc., they would raise money for the Israel National Fund. On holidays, they would organize a Zionist minyan, the proceeds of which were dedicated to the Israel National Fund. Every month, they would publish in all the Beit Midrash a financial report on the activities of the committee.
When A. Tkhornitzky emigrated to the USA, he was replaced as secretary by Aharon Abelov. In fact, all Zionist activity in the town was concentrated in this committee. The centers of the Zionist parties would provide the committee with printed materials.
The committee also established a Zionist club. It was in the home of Mordechai Meirov.
“HeChalutz”
The HeChalutz movement was organized in Ostryn in 1923, its initiators were: A. Abelov and the teachers: L. Novoprotsky, Chazan and Tsiglnitsky. The Zionist club in the Meirov house was placed at the disposal of the HeChalutz. The committee was in close contact with the center in Warsaw, and the committee of the regional council in Vilna, the HeChalutz center, was constantly sending Zionist literature and Israeli newspapers.
Every week, meetings and circles meetings were held. In them, they discussed the problems facing the Working Israel movement and read excerpts from the local newspapers. The Hebrew courses that were organized were popular. All the work was done with the help of local people. Rarely would appear an emissary from the center in Warsaw or from the regional council in Vilna or the regional council in Lida.
All the Zionist activity was concentrated in the HeChalutz movement. The committees' activities for the Israel National Fund and for Keren Hayesod, the activity in favor of the “Tarbut” school in the place, etc. The HeChalutz activists would immigrate to the Land of Israel. The first pioneers to immigrate were: Aharon Abelov and Leib Tuff. A farewell party was arranged in their honor at the home of Duba Tashmovsky. They prepared all kinds of delicacies. All the townspeople accompanied the pioneers immigrating a long distance from the town. The next immigrants were: Shlomo Berezovsky, Nocha Abelov, Idela Zapolinsky and Deborah Schwarzbord. The immigration of pioneers to Israel became a festive event for the youth in the town. The younger generation did not abandon the HeChalutz activities and volunteered to work instead of those who immigrated to Israel. These were the young people: Zvi Wernikov, Aryeh Zlotsky, Shlomo Zatspinsky, Zvi Sigalowitz, Peretz Patushinsky, Aharke Shkalovsky and many more.
The affair of leaving for training began. Many of the members of HeChalutz in Ostryn went for training to Grochów near Warsaw, to the “Shachariya” kibbutzim, etc. An attempt was made to establish a training Kibbutz for forestry work nearby, in the Baranich Forest. Pioneers from Vilna and Ostryn participated in it.
Those who stayed at home also trained themselves for physical labor. They would chop wood, carve ice for the community, and do various other jobs. In 1923, the HeChalutz leased Eliezer Meir' s Garden, sold the garden's crops in the town, and the income was donated to the HeChalutz fund.
“HeChalutz HaTzair”
Next to the Hechalutz in the town was established the “HeChalutz HaTzair” movement in 1928. The “HeChalutz HaTzair” youth began extensive activities in the town: literary balls, various courses, lectures and conversations. Songs and dances. Of course, they were active in all the committees for Zionist action in the town. They also established a public library of the “HeChalutz HaTzair”. The activists of this movement were: A. Zlotsky, Z. Segalowitz, S. Zaczepinski and L. Blicher. Many of the “HeChalutz HaTzair” members immigrated to the Land of Israel.
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“HaShomer Hatzair” next in Ostryn
With the establishment of the “HeChalutz” in the town and the immigration of the first pioneers to the Land of Israel, the pioneer movement encompassed most of the youth in the town. The large “Tarbut” school in the place was responsible for creating a framework for the younger generation. In 1927, a training kibbutz of the “Hashomer Hatzair” was founded in the place. They settled in the house of Hirschel Lifshits. These were young people from the Grodno-Bialystok area who prepared themselves for Aliyah. The A road named after Pilsudski was paved between Grodno and Vilna. In the Azur-Ostryn section, worked the members of “HaShomer”: both boys and girls went out every morning to work on the road, mark out the course for the road, dig trenches, prepare gravel, pave the stone foundation and spread gravel and sand. It was a melodious performance. The walk to work was accompanied by a great singing, the singing of the Land of Israel.
When they settled in, they began to develop a cultural activity among the young people. They would appear frequently at the “HeChalutz” club, and under their influence, a group of young people from the “HeChalutz” youth moved to the next of “Hashomer Hatzair”. They were: Yehudit Borishansky, Michal Zapolansky, Sheina Rivka Patushinsky, Dov Krinsky, Yosef Tchornitzky and Yaakov Yellin. They formed the older layer in the nest. The influence of the “nest” was great among the youth studying in “Tarbut” school and in the Polish Folk School. The movement imposed obligations on its members. The Ten Commandments of “HaShomer” were: modest dress, the prohibition of smoking, the prohibition of drinking alcoholic drinks, the prohibition of playing cards, even on Hanukkah, etc. It also imposed on its members the duty of regular Zionist action: for the sake of Israel National Fund and for Kupat Poalei Eretz Israel. The living example of the realists, the members of the training, who worked on the road during the day and sang songs of Israel at night, their fluent Hebrew speech, all of which was a challenge for the young people to continue on their path.
And indeed, the best of the youth moved to “HaShomer Hatzair”. The custom was to go out every summer to a summer camp and after three years, to a camp outside the town for ten consecutive days. The goal was to educate the members for independence and social life. I remember one Shabbat in a summer camp in Kobrovtsa, the home was a farmer's house, the floor was made of clay, the shelves were wooden boards, the light was a kerosene lamp, and we were all sitting
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the long tables, dressed in Shabbat clothes, and suddenly - crying. Crying of longing for the traditional home on Shabbat nights. The society came together and consolidated. They all spoke Hebrew and worked for the benefit of the foundations and developed extensive cultural activities.
When the first graduates of the training - Yaakov Yellin, Yehudit Borishansky, Michal Zapolansky and Dov Krinsky – left, the leadership of the nest was handed over to young people who had matured in the movement's work and there was a continuation. And indeed, there were many “HaShomer Hatzair” trainees who made Aliyah and are in kibbutzim and other settlements in the country.
Translated by Mira Eckhaus
Berl Pretzky
During the Russo-Japanese War, Berl Pretzky emigrated to the United States. In 1911, he returned to Ostryn. When the war broke out in 1914, he was drafted into the Russian army and taken prisoner by the Germans. He was active in the prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. Upon his release from captivity - at the end of World War I - he returned to Ostryn. The hardship was unbearable. He joined the relief work as a member of the various committees that were set up for this purpose. He was one of the initiators of the People's Bank. He was a permanent member of the parents' committee of the “Tarbut” school and worked hard to establish and expand the activities of the “Tarbut” school and to build a special building for it.
He was a gifted orator, and his speeches were convincing with their clear logic. He was beloved and revered by the public.
Yeshayahu Krinsky
One of the largest lumber merchants in town, and a great expert in this profession. He participated in and won all the major tenders
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for the purchase of forests for cutting down for himself or in partnership with lumber trading agencies.
He was very energetic and impulsive. He sought an outlet for the great energy hidden within him in various businesses. Despite his many occupations, he found time for public activity.
For years and years, he was the first collector of the large Beit Midrash. He also served as the president of the “Chevra Kadisha”. For a long time, he headed the town's savings and loan fund.
David Tuff
A patriarchal and pleasant-mannered Jew, a man with large, open eyes, whose gaze was deep and penetrating. A combed “Nordau beard” adorned his cheeks. He had various brushes for combing his beard and mustache. He was elegant in his attire, especially in Shabbat and festive. On Shabbat morning, you could meet him, elegant in his attire, walking leisurely to his Beit Midrash.
Before entering the Beit Midrash, he would stand and look toward the fire department building, the institution he founded and served as its president for many years.
He lacked technical education. But he had skillful hands. Every machine that broke down was given to him and he repaired it perfectly. He was also a designer of building plans.
Yechezkel David Tchornitzky
He was a member of a respected and extended family. He was one of the most important figures in the community in Ostryn. A yeshiva student, well-versed in Shas and Poskim, who was well-educated. He acquired a deep knowledge of languages: Russian, English, and more. He was one of the shapers of the town's progressive social image, active in mutual aid institutions such as the Bank for Loans and Savings, and more, as well as in educational and cultural institutions. Although he did not aspire to leadership in the community, his words were always heard, because he was a man of reason and a man of profound thought.
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He was a man of “the middle ground”. He knew how to blend Jewish tradition with the opinions and thoughts of the new world, unlike those yeshiva students who “denied religious principles” and disdained Jewish tradition.
He tried his luck by immigrating to the United States - before World War I - and returned to the town. He was gentle in his words, modest in his manner, and had a heart-winning smile on his face. He earned his income
from a drug store he opened. With his charming manners, he gained the trust of both his Jewish and Christian rural customers. His concern for human life and his personal integrity established his financial position and everyone would turn to his drug store to buy medicine.
His public integrity was impeccable. Every distressed and sour person knew that they can receive an attentive ear and help from this man. He especially distinguished himself in his fruitful activity at the end of the First World War. The famine during the days of the German occupation depleted the population, the war and the epidemics added a large number of orphaned and bereaved families to the town. When the gates of the wider world opened and help began to flow in from abroad, he devoted himself with all his strength and energy to the work of relief. He consoled, encouraged and supported the bereaved families without prejudice, and all this was warmly and kindly.
He was a lover of the ancient language and managed to pass it on to his sons.
He was among those who rejected life in exile in Eastern Europe. He felt and understood that there was no resurrection for the Israeli nation in this diaspora. He led the youth to leave for the big world beyond the sea. He realized that in the town they were destined to reach both spiritual and economic decline. And indeed, he was privileged, and all the young members of his family left, even before the Holocaust, to countries beyond the sea and thus were saved from the fate of their brothers who remained in Europe. His eyes did not see the Holocaust that befell the town, he died on the eve of World War II. May his memory be blessed!
Reb Avraham Yellin
Reb Avraham Yellin was a multifarious man, an educator of the generation, with deep knowledge in Jewish studies. He was a student of the Volozhin and Vilna yeshivas. He was later captured by the Haskalah and as an “extern” he acquired extensive knowledge in various areas. He deepened his knowledge in various pedagogical courses and became a teacher in Israel. In his youth he wandered from village to village as a teacher until he started a family in Ostryn and there he opened the “Reformatory cheder”.
It was an innovative thing at that time. Defined lessons in various subjects: Hebrew, Tanakh, Russian, arithmetic, geography, and more. It was a real “revolution” in the education of the younger generation. And indeed, new horizons opened up for his young students. As a gifted teacher, he instilled in his students a love of the Hebrew language and a deep knowledge. There was a saying in Ostryn: “Anyone who has not learned Torah from Rabbi Avraham Yellin does not know Hebrew properly”. He loved craft and preached to his students to abandon the common Jewish livelihoods and acquire a productive profession that would honor its owner. Therefore, he was accepted by the working class in the town.
With Yehezkel David Tkhornitzky and Yehiel Bryshansky, he was active in the Committee for Aid to the Needy at the end of World War I. This trio formed a cohesive team that later shared their views on all matters of the community in the town.
When the “Tarbut” school was established in the town, he was one of its teachers and continued teaching all his life, even during the Russian occupation during World War II. He was forced to teach Yiddish, to desecrate the Shabbats and festive, and was forced to teach even on Yom Kippur. His world was destroyed; he was among the first victims during the Holocaust. The Germans took him out to be executed by shooting behind the town and left him on the roadside. Young men risked their lives to drag him from there and bury him in the Jewish cemetery.
May God avenge him.
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Berl Krinsky
Berl Krinsky z”l was a humble and upright man. In his youth, in the town, he devoted himself to action for the benefit of the Zionist foundations: Israel National Fund, Kupat Poalei Eretz Israel and others.
In 1927, when the “HaShomer Hatzair” youth center was founded in the town, he was one of its first members. He immersed the enthusiasm of his youth in the work of the center. He went to the board of directors, returned, and guided and influenced.
He was one of the achievers. In the first opportunity he had, he went to Kibbutz Ludwikowo for training, in the Polesie forests, and from there to Lubetzky and Slonim, until he was able to immigrate to the Land of Israel in the first company of Kibbutz “BaMesila Palenti” in 1932.
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He settled in Rehovot as a construction worker. His responsibility and dedication to work made him the head of a group and responsible for it. This was the case at the Weizmann Institute and later - at Givat Brenner. He considered his work - not only as a place of work and livelihood, but as a calling. Isn't building buildings in the homeland important to you? With each new building that was erected, his heart was wider.
Disaster struck him while he was working at Givat Brenner. His eye was damaged and his vision was impaired. He lay for several months at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Treatments, hopes, illusions, disappointments, doctors, and finally, the painful, fatal certainty - blindness. He is disabled. How will he find a livelihood for his family?
After many hesitations, he was placed in the work at the Safety and Hygiene Committee. He quarreled with the employers. After all, he experienced firsthand the fate of the disabled. He filed lawsuits against those who neglected the health of the workers. He stood up with honor for the rights of the workers. When the first rumors of the Holocaust in our town reached, he set out to erect a monument in memory of the martyrs in the basement of the Holocaust. Once, when he went to work, the disaster struck again and he died.
He was 52 years old when he died. May his memory be blessed.
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