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The Zamość “Academy,” near the Posziwiszewski-Gasse
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Isolated episodes of the history of Zamość can be found sown and strewn in a variety of places – in diaries, memories and studies. The compilers tell retrospectively, about occurrences that have a relationship to Jewish community life in Zamość, that cannot otherwise be found in the works of our Pinkas. These specific details often round out specific chapters of the Jewish history of our settlement. Many times, they are also illustrated to the details being presented.Once again, we bring here a series of facts and data to [support] the history of the Zamość community, extracted from a variety of sources. A reference is given for each source.
There remains a detailed chronology of eye-witness accounts from the terrifying chain of slaughter of the mid-17th century, which is known in Jewish history as the Decrees of 1648 & 1649, from one individual who was in the midst of these events that transpired, from Rabbi Nathan Neta ben The Holy One, Our Teacher and Rabbi R' Moshe. This chronology, under the title, Yevayn Metzullah,[1] has become one of the most important sources regarding the history of that bloody epoch. It has been shown that the facts, data, and even numbers, that are presented in Yevayn Metzullah, agree with documents from non-Jewish sources. Yevayn Metzullah was first printed in the year 5413 (1663) in Venice (Italy). What this means, is that it appeared in the heat of the moment, when the events were still warm, and had not yet become cooled off by forgetfulness.
We, again, bring here that part of Yevayn Metzullah that has a bearing on Zamość . Therefore, we also include a fragment regarding a settlement from which the invaders came to Zamość.
Our excerpt is from the collected telling, The 1648 Decrees which appeared in 1938 in Vilna, published by the Yiddish Scientific Institute [sic: YIVO]. This collection includes the work of:
And from there, they went off to the sacred community of Narol and besieged the city. Tens of thousands of Jews and thousands of nobles were gathered into that place, and not one of the Greeks[2] were there. And there were three towns there, one next to the other, and Jews wanted to flee from there, but the ruler of the city did not allow them to, and said to them: Let us put up a resistance, let us war against them, as was done against them in other fortified cities. And after the enemy had besieged the city, they sought to make an accommodation with the city residents, and Jews also
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wanted to do so; but the ruler of the city did not permit this, and battle was engaged in for three days continuously, and a large number of the Cossacks were killed. Afterwards, the Oppressor, Chmiel (Chmielnicki)[3], may his name be obliterated, sent a large army, like the sand at the sea shore, and on 17 Heshvan 5409 (1649) the city was captured, and first and foremost, the ruler of the city was executed; his name was Lashch, and he was skinned alive, and all manner of torture known to the world was inflicted upon him; afterwards, Jews were slaughtered in the amount of twelve thousand souls, by all manner of gruesome deaths. A large number were drowned in the water[4], several hundred Jews had locked themselves in the synagogue, so they broke down the doors of the synagogue, and first slaughtered all of the Jews, after which they set fire to the synagogue with all the dead inside. A slaughter of the type that took place in Narol had not happened anywhere else in Poland, and a large number were taken by the Tatars[5] into captivity. They burned the three towns, and turned them into mounds, analogous to Sodom and Gomorrah. A woman told me, who had remained alive among those who were slaughtered, that several hundred women and children had been left alive, and a small number of men. They had no form of food for five days straight, and were forced to eat the flesh of human beings: they would cut off the limbs of the dead, and roast them over a fire and eat it. Fully thousands of the dead were eaten by dogs and swine. After this, the survivors in Narol send representatives to Przemysl with several hundred gulden to bring linens and burial shrouds and then buried the slaughtered dead. May God repay them for their acts.
And the three left that place, the Oppressor, Chmiel, may his name be obliterated, with his entire host, the Tatars and the Greeks, a sizeable army, comparable to the sand at the seashore. And they laid siege to the sacred community at Zamość. And the city is a fortress, like no other, with a double wall and a moat with water all around.' And as soon as the enemy drew near to the city, the residents of the city burned all of the houses that were near the wall, in order to prevent the enemy from concealing themselves there, and they did not permit the enemy to approach the city closer than a distance of a half mile, and that is how it remained for many days. And it was during this time that they spread out through all the neighboring communities and perpetrated enormous slaughter, in Tomaszow, Szczebrzeszyn, Turobin, Hrubieszow, Bilgoraj, Goraj, Krasnik (sic: Lubelski), they butchered thousands and tens of thousands of Jews. Also, in the country of Volhynia, in the communities of Ludomir, Ljuboml', Lutsk, Krzemieniec, and their neighboring communities, they carried out huge slaughtering, and killed thousands of Jews, and in Krzemieniec, one of the enemy took the blade of a Shokhet, and used it to slaughter several hundred Jewish children and asked his companion whether it was Kosher or Trayf. His companion answered: trayf, and he threw one of the corpses to the dogs, and seeing that, he took another slaughtered child, took it to the slaughterhouse, opened up the body and asked the same question. His companion then answered, yes, this is Kosher. He then cut up the body as is usually done with goats and sheep, and he carried it on a spit through the streets of the city and shouted to the crowd in a loud voice: who would like to deal in goats and sheep? May God take revenge for their spilled blood.
In the dense overcrowding near Bikhov, the wild beasts pursued several wagon loads of Jews, and slaughtered everyone. They did the same with other communities, in a manner that it is not even possible to describe in writing, they brought more than seven hundred communities to ruin, all cities and towns up to the River Vistula. And they laid siege to the city of Zamość for many days, but could not capture it, because there, there was a German ruler by the name of Weiur, with a six thousand man army, also Germans, and they shot down from the ramparts with mortars, and killed many of the enemy. However, disease raged within the city walls, and there was a great famine and many thousands of Jews died.
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Seeing as an extended amount of time had passed, the enemy hit upon a stratagem: to create a snake out of fire by means of magic, and to release it into the air, and this would be a sign for them: if the snake turns its head to the city, then they will capture the city at that time; but if the head of the snake turns towards them, then they will have to flee. And it was in the middle of the night, and they perceived the snake in the air, standing for a period of a half an hour, with its head facing the city, and afterwards, it turned towards toe Cossacks and the Tatars, and they understood that this was a bad omen, and a tragedy awaits them. They immediately sent emissaries to the residents of the city, and permitted them to say: is it not better for you to arrive at a compromise with us, similar to the great city of Lvov did, rather than starve to death.
And as soon as the residents of the city heard this, they couples action to what they had heard, and negotiated with the enemy for a sum of twenty thousand gulden. Afterwards, the Tatars and the Greeks drew near to gate, and brought with them a host of prisoners to release. The Jews of the city then rescued several hundred captives. May God pay them back their just desserts.
And from there, the Oppressor Chmiel, may his name be obliterated, went with his host, with his Greeks and Tatars, and turned towards Lublin, of the four large communities of Poland, whose like in Torah scholarship, greatness and charity was not to be found anywhere else in the country. And the residents of the city fled across the River Vistula.
In the historical periodical Zion, which is published in Jerusalem by the Israeli Historical Society, in Volume A-B of 5714 (1954) (19th Year) there is a work by the well-known researcher of the history of the Jews in Germany, Rabbiner Dr. Dov Brieling, about the commercial ties between the Polish Jews, and the Jews of Breslau in the 1690's (Hebrew citation of the same title given – JSB). Among the list of very important and interesting details about the visiting Jewish traders, we also find a detail, that it was permitted to the Jewish traders to bring a Jewish Cook for the Jewish traders.
From a set of documents cited by Dr. Brieling in the work, he illustrates the constraints that were imposed on Jewish traders, and especially just ordinary Jews, in coming to the fairs in Breslau.
The constraints came in connection with a complaint by the Christian traders, that the Jews were in violation of the well-established rules about their circumstances in the city. The city leader of that period, from Holland, ordered that a formal registration be implemented for all Jews that find themselves at the Elizabeth Fair (November) of the year 1896.[6] This very list encompasses 125 Jews who then resided in Breslau. In accordance with the instructions the list showed the following count of Jews sorted into the following five categories:
Category 1 – Jews who live in Breslau on the basis of protection by the government institutions or important people – 26 Families;
Category 2 – Merchants and Moneychangers – 19 Men;
Category 3 – Jobbers – 30 Men;
Category 4 – Jewish-citizens, appointed people, shokhtim, cooks, and others, – 27 Men;
Category 5 – Encompasses a group which is designated as the swindlers and those who do not conduct themselves in an appropriate manner.
The city administration prohibited admission to the women and children from a set of categories, even on the Fair days. Also, any who happened to be found there, were to be driven out. No manner of intervention helped at all, the city administration would reject every request. In the time of the Krutzim Fair (September) of the year 1697, the Jewish leaders came with a request, that at the very least, Jewish lady workers should be admitted, the cooks, who were to cook
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for the guests at the Fair. At that time, the city administration gave the following permission:
… the Jews of Glogau may bring to the Fair their own cook. For all other Jews, the standard was established that of the three cooks, one would be from Zamość or Lissa, one from Zültz and one from Krotoszyn.
Which is what the document says that Dr. Brieling presents:
Original Text in German, which also has the added phrase “…as the Shammes his wife.”
It is to be understood that the cooks were allocated for each of the cities who had their merchants at the Fair, from which it follows that Zamość occupied the single place for Jews that was outside the German sphere.
It would be very interesting to have the list of the visitors from Zamość that attended the Breslau Fairs.
In the Vossische Zeitung, Number 107, 1727, published in Berlin, I found the following notice, which tells a frightening story from Zamość. Because of the rarity of this newspaper, and also because of the historical importance of the fact(s), I render the text here in the original:
Original German Text from the Newspaper
From the text, it is clear that in Zamość, in the first half of August 1727, a Jew and a Christian were sentenced to hanging for robbing a church. Later, the magistrate Zamoyski saw fit, apparently at the pleading of the community, to allow the Jew to be given a Jewish burial. His condition, however, was that they also must take down the Christian from the gallows[7], which they did not do. As punishment, the magistrate ordered that the Eldest Rabbis should be arrested, meaning, perhaps, the community elders, and ordered other Jews to disinter the Jewish grave, and once again hang the body on the gallows. This was carried out.
All sources that have a connection to Zamość are silent with respect to this story. A notice, however, can be found apparently taken from a German periodical, whose name was not given, and which is dated: Lublin, 22 June 1727. That is to say, almost at the same time, about such a matter in Zamość:
On the 19th of this month, in Zamość, five Jews were sentenced to be hung for a theft. Seeing that they had taken on the Catholic religion, they were only decapitated, and buried in the cemetery.
This public notice can be found in Szkice i opowidania historyczne, vol. II Poznan 1863, pp. 212-213 by Jarochowski. It is clear that both of these notices concern themselves with the same terrible incident. Six Jews and one Christian were sentenced for robbing a church. The six Jews were sentenced to death, and five of them hoped, that by converting to Catholicism, they will be able to save their lives. So they were not hung, but only decapitated, but buried in the cemetery. The Jew who did not want to convert, was hung, which was considered to be a shameful punishment.
It would be worth trying to find out more details about this frightful incident, which is nowhere else recalled.
(YIVO Archives, New York, Volume 43, 1952)
In the monumental work of Professor Simcha Assaf, Sources of the History of Education in Israel, in Volume 4, p. 138 (Tel-Aviv, 5708 (1948) ), there is found a document (paragraph 120), which is an excerpt from the Hevra Tzedaka-Gedolah of Zamość. Once again, we bring word for word the text of the original and also the translation into Yiddish.[8]
The officers and Gabbaim of the Hevra Talmud-Torah presented their words to the officers, the Gabbaim of the [Hevra] Tzedaka-Gedolah, in the matter that while the Hevra Talmud-Torah is in alignment that the burden falls upon them to continuously provide students for Torah studies, and that their income is not sufficient to pay for the instruction of the children of the poor, from whom Torah will [indeed] emerge, there is nothing with which to pay the teachers. And so they had a custom, each Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and on the Three Holidays (Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot) to take out a Torah scroll from their synagogue and call the members of the Hevra , and those who were non-members [to an aliyah], in order that through donations and pledges, offered by people who were called to the Torah, monies would be generated from which the previously mentioned purpose could be funded. Also, the Hevra had the custom of calling people to the Torah two times, once when the Torah was read in the Bet HaMedrash, and the second time when it was read in the synagogue. On the first time, the Hevra would conduct the reading under the fordshtibl,[9] of the small Bet HaMedrash. On this day, the Gabbaim of the Talmud-Torah Hevra came to the officers of the [Hevra] Tzedaka-Gedolah, and paid in a substantial sum of money for the privilege of reading the Torah first in their shtibl. They paid the full amount, and from then on, will not be able to be removed from this position, or they will have to pay the prevailing rate every year. In order that this remain as a permanent record, and that the truth [of what took place] not be diminished, we have written this down with a pen and in lead, in the Pinkas of the officers and Gabbaim of the [Hevra] Tzedaka-Gedolah, and we have accepted upon ourselves, and those who will come after us, to fulfill what has been written above, on Friday, the Third Day of Hol HaMoed Passover Sukkot, 5429 (1768).
It is clear from this document, that there was a Pinkas of the designated Tzedaka-Gedolah Hevra. As to what exactly its functions consisted of, we do not know. Here, only its obligation in its relationship to the Hevra Talmud-Torah is discussed. This document has come to light only through the circumstance that it discusses the education of the poor, about which Professor Simcha Assaf was assembling documentation for his monumental work. This excerpt was brought to him from Warsaw, prior to the Holocaust. Who knows what happened to this Pinkas. In any event, the Zamość Pinkas, which is written up by Ephraim Kupperman in our Pinkas (see pp. 103 ff.) Is not the one of the Hevra Tzedaka-Gedolah.
In a footnote to this specific notice, the editor for Professor Simcha Assaf, ע”ה, makes mention that this specific excerpt was send at the time by Dr. Y. Heilperin (today a professor of the University of Jerusalem).
And so, we inquired of Professor Heilperin about this matter. It is appropriate to record his reply here:
… I had the Pinkas of the Hevra [Tzedaka-]Gedolah of Zamość in my hands, in the Tolmaczka Library many years ago, and I no longer remember what it looked like. From what I can remember, it had the Codex Number 105 ( printed as 106 in Assaf's work) and it had approximately more than a hundred pages. Apart from that excerpt that I sent to Assaf (which went into his book, Sources of
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the History of Education in Israel) I made note of a number of other details for my own purposes, that relate to the outlays of this Hevra. Only one detail among those line items noted by me possibly has a local interest, and that is: among the expenditures of the Hevra for the period 20 Sivan to 20 Tammuz 5538 (1778) the following line item is found.:“For the release of captives, those people of our congregation who were imprisoned in the Rathaus, six pieces of gold [sic: gulden].”
In his memoirs[10], Peretz relates that a bound soldier was once found in Zamość, that had stood guard over the strongbox in Polk. The strongbox had been broken open, and the inside box with the money in it had vanished. The soldier, understandably, was arrested, and he declared that Jewish thieves had done this. The Russian commandant demanded that the magistrate provide a full list of professional Jewish thieves in Zamość. Several Jews were arrested, and they were in danger of being sentenced to death. The Jews of Zamość immediately began to exert themselves, to have the innocent released. Peretz does not say how many Jews were arrested at that time.
In a contemporary German-Jewish periodical, there is however a judgement regarding this episode. First of all, we find out that this took place in the year 1870, and the number of those arrested was eight.
Peretz tells, that after all the individual and community pleading didn't help, at one of the gatherings, it was decided to let the outside world know about the libel against the innocent Jews in Zamość.
The outside world at that time, understandably was out of the country, and along with that, it implied notifying those important Jewish personalities that had access to the corridors of power. Such privileged Jews at that time were: [Sir] Moses Montefiore in London, and [Isaac] Adolphe Crémieux in Paris.
The question that stood on the day's agenda of those meetings in Zamość, was how does one reach those prominent ombudsmen, because sending a letter through the postal system was a great danger.
In his own impressionistic fashion, Peretz tells that the community decided on a means, that someone will go in harm's way, by crossing the border in Tomaszow, all of three miles away, and go from there to Lemberg, where there is an Assessor, Löwenstein, and then send a telegram from there to Sir Moses Montefiore in London and to Crémieux in Paris…
Peretz tells further, that such a Jew, and elderly man, was found, who made the dangerous journey to Lemberg, and conveyed the letter to the Assessor Löwenstein, for purposes of causing Montefiore or Crémieux to make the effort on behalf of the hapless Jewish victims of the military libel.
The historical authenticity of Peretz's memory is well established. What is pertinent here, is an analysis of the reason why, that from Zamość, the people specifically chose to go to Lemberg, and specifically to an Assessor by the name of Löwenstein. How is it that, in Zamość, there should even by cognizance that a Rabbiner of this sort is even located there, who was no world figure? Why not [go to] Aharon Jelinek (1820-1893) who since 1865 was the Rabbiner in Vienna, and had a world-recognized name, and was close to the throne of [Kaiser] Franz-Joseph?
First let us see, who this Assessor was, whom Peretz calls Löwenstein. He was named Bernhard Löwenstein. He was
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born in Merzrich (Poldlice) in 1821. In 1862 he was appointed as Rabbiner and Assessor of the German (Progressive) Synagogue in Lemberg, where he passed away in 1889.
It was possible to know of his existence in Zamość, through the local prominent businessman and community leader, Edouard Luxembourg, whose wife Lena, was a sister of the Rabbiner Löwenstein. This very same Luxembourg figures in Peretz's memoirs under the initials E. L.
Peretz tells, that Luxembourg was a German and owned his own building in the city. He even recalls his daughter, who was hunchbacked. This young woman is Rosa Luxembourg, the future-to-be-famous communist.[11] Rosa Luxembourg's grandfather, who was a merchant who dealt in forest products [sic: lumber], had 14 children. Also know to us is Edouard's or Abraham's brother Mottel. Both were enlightened people, and figures who often appeared in the printed lists of exponents of the one-time Hebrew books of the Haskala.
It appears that Edouard Luxembourg organized the risky journey of the old man, to his brother-in-law in Lemberg, and it was from him, in the city, that they became aware of the existence of such a Rabbiner in Lemberg.
That this intervention had an effect, we learn from a notice in the previously mentioned German-Jewish periodical. There, the following is related:
Eight Jews were sentenced to death, because according to eye-witness testimony of several Russian officers, they wanted to rob the military safe. But thanks to the intervention of the Alliance Israélite [Universelle], these eight Jews, who were sentenced to death, were freed and declared innocent.
We learn from the notice that specifically, it was Crémieux who assisted in this matter[12], and that the Rabbiner Löwenstein carried out his mission. The Luxembourgs themselves left Zamość in 1873, and took up residence in Warsaw. In the same year, the Rabbi of Zamość, Rabbi Moshe HaLevi Wohl, passed away, who had also exerted himself considerably to free the arrested Jews. In 1877, Joshua Margolis died, who was Peretz's uncle, who also had intervened in the same issue.
The analysis of this episode, shows again how important and authentic the memories of I. L. Peretz are, as a source for the history of Zamość. It would be worthwhile to bring these memories out with a pro-active historical apparatus.
(YIVO Volumes, New York, Volume 34, 1952)
Footnotes:
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by Dr. Yaakov Shatzky
Before Peretz left his birthplace, the old Zamość Haskala [sic: Enlightenment] was still lodged in the consciousness of individuals. Older Zamość residents had preserved the memory of the names of the fathers of the local Enlightenment. Among these fathers, were a number who went on to fame in Berlin, in the Mecca of the development of reason, and they no longer returned home.
Peretz himself recalls one of them in his memoirs. That was R' Israel ben Moshe Zamość (1700-1772). Peretz is knowledgeable enough to tell, that R' Israel was Mendelssohn's Rebbe, and in his day, it was held in Zamość that it was better not to talk about him at all, neither good nor bad.
This neutral position towards one of the most colorful and representative leaders of the old Zamość Enlightenment is very characteristic. This shows, that even in Peretz's time, there were still living specific sympathetic memories about that Yeshiva-bokhur, who came to Zamość from small shtetl in Eastern Galicia, became a Headmaster of a Yeshiva, and an exceptionally close friend to the teachers of the city. In 1740, he went off to Berlin, where he became friends with the personalities of the emerging Enlightenment movement, became Mendelssohn's Rebbe, became friends with Lessing, and the philosopher Nicholas. Lessing has a very high opinion of Israel Zamość. He wrote that he was a profound and sharp-minded Jew. He carried on an open dialogue in German with Nicholas – a language that he, like many other Eastern-Europeans Autodidactics, quickly mastered. This dialogue, incidentally, was the only one that this member of the Enlightenment carried on in German; his [preferred] language in which to write, was Hebrew.
The Enlightenment of Rabbi Israel Zamość is far from being militant, he expresses himself firstly in opposition to casuistry, and in taking a negative stand toward Hasidism. In this respect, many opponents from the Enlightenment agreed with him, and because of this he was not compelled to specifically declare himself as an explicator. In his interpretations and reviews, which he published in 1773 titled, Nezer HaDema,[1] his anti-Hasidism is brought out prominently. In his other writings, he was careful and sought, in a controlled fashion, to create a bridge between faith and reason.
The two greatest scholars in Zamość gave their approval to his book, Netzakh Yisrael, which was published in Frankfurt-Oder in 1741. He was able to achieve prominence thanks to this book.
About 1745, Rabbi Israel Zamość leaves Berlin, and takes up residence in Brod, which at that time was an important center of scholarship. He died there in 1772.
The first forerunner of the Galician Enlightenment, who lived in Zamość for a specific length of time, is recalled by Peretz with affection. Rabbi Israel put Zamość on the map of the fledgling Haskala leadership. He left the world, not as an outcast from the core foundations of Yiddishkeit, but rather as a harbinger of a new direction, which was received favorably also on the part of many pious Jews of that time.
A little before Rabbi Israel Zamość (in 1732), another local spirit leaves the city, and wanders all the way to Brin (Mern) where he converts and becomes a printer (in the years 1754-1760), and of all things, specifically of Jewish books. As a convert, he is known by the name Franz-Joseph Neumann. His publications played a specific role in the history of Jewish book production, but he personally had no role even in Zamość, and he has been completely forgotten.
There were also pious Jews and scholars among the forerunners of the Enlightenment in Zamość. They saw no danger in worldly education, and fought Hasidism, although they explicitly did not become Maskilim. One such individual was
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the Zamość Rabbi, Israel ben Moshe, who later (1725) died in Salonika on his way to the Holy Land. This Rabbi would attend the Fairs at Leipzig, buy and read German books, and attend concerts. He had an antagonistic posture towards Hasidism, and the members of his generation looked upon him as an Enlightened Mitnaged. His renown Mirkevet HaMishnah (1751) is justly thought of as book that served to clarify, and was vigorously accepted by Maskilim.
The author of Makhaneh Reuven was also from Zamość, a small book with complex logical discussions about the Shas, which was published in 1777 in Livorno. He was called Reuven Zelik ben Eliezer. His father was one of the very wealthy men of the city, and when his businesses went downhill, he, as a young man of 20, decided to move away to Berlin. There, he became an instructor at a Yeshiva of the magnate, Eliyahu Frenkel. It was in his house, that Reuven Zelik wrote the previously mentioned small book, which has in it, something of an Enlightenment approach, even though it is strongly conservative.
People from Zamość, who by chance left their homes, and became partly or fully members of the Haskala movement in the outside world, were rather rare. Remaining at home, these individuals stood up for the right to a general education, and argued that this did not contradict the Jewish faith.
Zamość had a name as a scholarly city, and this was no exaggeration. The Jews of Zamość sought books, bought them and guarded them. The great collection in the Bet HaMedrash of Zamość was indeed a result of generations-long protected collections in the homes of balebatim.
It is necessary to count the Jewish physicians of the city as part of the forerunners of the Enlightenment in Zamość. In 1690, a Jew from Zamość studies medicine in Padua. In the 18th century, several Jews from Zamość study in Frankfurt-Oder. In his application, one of them indicated, that he obtained his preliminary education (in medicine) at the Zamość School. What this might mean, is that he studied with practical physicians [sic: feldschers] which were very popular at that time with their practice, and also with their Hebrew-Yiddish medical folklore. A portion of these physicians even had a continuation in the ir own families, for example, R' Moshe Doctor.
In 1778, a Jew, Aharon ben Shlomo (Slomkovich), becomes the area doctor of Zamość. Two years later, a second Jewish doctor arrives – Bernard. There is little known to us about the role that these Jewish physicians played in the cultural life of Zamość. With the exception of single individuals, who were truly radical Maskilim (for example, Dr. Kalmanson of nearby Hrubieszow), these physicians were not active in the Zamość community.
If Zamość entered the mainstream of the Haskala movement – and not through the incidental deeds of individuals outside of the city – it was thanks to specific political changes. Since 1772, when the first partition of Poland was implemented, Zamość became a part of the new Austrian Province which was given the name Galicia. On July 25, 1772, the fort at Zamość capitulated to the Austrian forces. On August 24, 1772, the Austrian monarch, Josef II the Enlightened Royal, visited Zamość. Regrettably, there are no memories to tell us about this visit, and we do not know whether an Enlightened group came to greet this man of reason, as was done that same year by the Maskilim of Brod. In any event, there were already in Zamość, individuals who sympathized with the royal decree regarding general education for Jews, and probably they participated in the first and last reception that Zamość was compelled to give the Austrian ruler.
In 1788, Naphtali Hertz Homburg (1749-1841) arrives in Zamość, the Great Jewish Inquisitor, whose goal was to open schools for Jewish boys. In Zamość, and in surrounding cities and towns, such as Hrubieszow, Kulikow, Tomaszow, Tarnogrod, etc., such schools were immediately opened, and they had to be supported by Jewish taxes. From what we know, these schools did not survive for any length of time in the Zamość environs, and they were closed well before 1806, at which time they were altogether liquidated.
Another important matter, as it touches upon the spread of German, the language of the Enlightenment, was the colonization sponsored by Josef II of the area around Zamość by Germans, which also included Jews. According to the Patent of March 14, 1784, colonization by German peasants began, partly on private sources, and part based on the
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outlays of the Austrian monarchy. In total, about 231 German families were settled on land, and 78 Jewish (365 souls). German laborers were also brought to Zamość. The daughters of these German colonists became servants in Zamość, and many of them worked in Jewish homes, where German was already spoken, that is, in the houses of the educated. In general, this colonization effort did not take. Part of the colonists did remain, and Peretz [sic: in his time] still recognized them as such, but the larger part of them later emigrated to America. German, however, in this manner, left traces in many Jewish homes.
The Austrian officials were not stingy with their praise for the dynamic role of Zamość Jews in economic development of the newly formed province. If it was possible to obtain something to be sold – they wrote – we can thank the Jewish merchants of Zamość, and other cities. Also many foreign visitors to Zamość are not stingy in their praise of Jews, with whom they could converse – a sign that German had penetrated into many Jewish homes.
In 1823, the Zamość District numbered 18,823 families, out of which, 1,656, that is, 8.8% were Jewish. In 1780, when Zamość became a central city, there were 870 Jewish families in the cities, and 788 in the towns. It is easy to permit one's self the assumption, that most of the 870 families lived in Zamość proper, in view of the fact that the other cities were, in reality, [nothing more than] villages.
During the Austrian Era, an internal migration also took place. Jews from Galicia settled in Zamość, and the opposite. Two essential facts stand out in front one's eyes: Zamość provides valuable people to the cities of Galicia, and even to other countries, as is also the opposite. These valuable people marry with families outside of the city, and in this manner, a migration of the educated element gets underway. Jews from Zamość are found in Frankfurt-am-Main, 11 in Berlin, 12 in Amsterdam. Among the members of the small, fledgling Jewish community in St. Petersburg one finds a Jew from Zamość.
People with means used every opportunity to leave Zamość. Principally, it was the frequent wars, sieges, and plagues, that destroyed Jewish life. Those that could be away from the city for at least part of the time, and even uprooting themselves from the country entirely. Merchants from Zamość, who would often travel to fairs, utilized their effective contacts, and saw their way to settle in those places. There was, however, an element who was connected through their livelihood with the armed forces stationed in the Zamość fortress. Many of them, in fact, settled there because of this. This fact is of great significance, for the reason that Zamość becomes the little Paris, about which Peretz writes as do many non-Jewish memoir writers. Because of this permanent influx and outflow of Jewish livery service people, a part of which were already converted, and their children, especially the daughters, they became linked and bound to the Officer class, causing Zamość to acquire more of a cosmopolitan character. Peretz recalls this in relation to his own era.
A short overview of that dynamic military era in the history of Zamość, as a city in general, and as a fortress in particular, will bring out this moment clearly.
On the eve of the first partition of Poland, Zamość lived through two Russian sieges, in 1768 and 1771. The second one was led by Suvorov[2] himself. The capitulation to the Austrians came later (in 1772). In the year 1809, the war between Austria and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw erupts, which laid siege to the fortress at Zamość, and took it by storm. A plague broke out in the city. Jews were robbed. With the articulation of a strategic need, the Jewish streets were destroyed.
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R' Ze'ev Wolf Baer Schiff (1768-1842), a scion of Zamość, son of the great philanthropist Yeshayahu ben R' Joel Baal-Shem Heilperin, who in 1800 erected a Jewish hospital in Zamość, told about what he lived through during those tragic times, in a book. He was a prince of a Jewish man. On the Eve of Shavuot of the year 5569 (1809), the battles around the fortress began. First, the Jews were driven away, they were apparently considered to be Prussians. The author of the memoir barely got out alive, and like many others from Zamość who saved themselves, never returned to his home. Jews had barely been able to catch their breath from this frightful siege, and plague, when the Polish War of 1812 broke out. Apart from eliciting [the usual] victims of war, this conflict also had political manifestations. The Zamość community was compelled to declare that it stood in solidarity with the demands of the restitution of the former Polish monarchy (this was the political outcome of that war).
When the French and Polish armies drew back from Russia, Zamość played a rather important strategic role in supporting the retreat. Napoleon had given an order that the fortress should not permit the Russian enemy to gain access to Poland. The Russians besieged Zamość for seven months, but in the end the fortress was compelled to surrender. This was on December 22, 1813.
Polish and French military sources tell what the Jews of Zamość lived through during those seven months. The community was severely impoverished. For strategic reasons, once again, the Jewish streets were burned down, after having been recently rebuilt. The mikva was converted into a military hospital. Forceful speech was made that only those who were native-born to Zamość should be allowed to continue residing there.
The war ended, and a completely different set of Jews become residents of Zamość. These were livery service people who had business with both armies, the Polish and the Russian. These were half pious and half non-observant Jews, – actually more like having fallen away from the faith, rather than rationalists. They had no contact with matters that pertained to the Haskala. Largely, this was a conglomeration of people without deep roots in Judaism, lacking a feeling of home, and rarely involving themselves in community affairs. There were, however, exceptions among them, and indeed, there came out of their ranks, a portion of the Maskilim of that generation and general community activists, whom Peretz still recognized.
As in all cities in Poland, the Jews of Zamość lived in a separate quarter, constructed first in 1862, thanks to Wielopolski's act of Jewish emancipation.[3] In 1814, however, five Jews of substantial means were given permission to buy houses in the general streets of the city.
In 1815, the Kingdom of Poland is founded, and Zamość becomes a central city in the Voievode of Lublin. The fortress is enlarged, the garrison strengthened, and military life becomes the foundation of Jewish economic life, and for part of the Jews, even their community life. Many Jews who fled, return to the city. One already can hear many foreign tongues in the streets. Zamość really becomes little Paris. In official circles, one sees many free-thinking Jews. The first of the dramas involving romance between the daughters of Jews, and the surrounding Sons of Mars, start to be played out. For the time being, nothing yet is heard about converting to Christianity – perhaps because it was so vigorously choked off. Jewish life still remains Yiddish-balebatish, and the conflict between the two generations has not yet arrived, which already is so sharp in other cities.
Zamość had a reputation, that after Warsaw, it had the largest number of free-thinking Jews. Polish officers write about this in their letters home. This is also known from [sources in] Warsaw. In 1825, the Jewish Committee is founded in Warsaw, with the goal of reforming Jewish life in Poland. Among its correspondents, can be found the Zamość merchant Leibl Cohn, who had a wine business. Peretz recalls a son of his. That Cohn, was perhaps one of the first of the Jews who could write well in Polish.
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In 1827, the Jewish population of Zamość numbered 2,874 souls, against a general population of 5,414, meaning that at that time, the Jews comprised 54% of the population.
The number of free-thinking Jews grows. From Galicia, young Maskilim come, and become the teachers in the homes of the balebatim. Yet for these Galician Maskilim, Zamość is still a desert, and one flees quickly to home. Local Enlightenment talent feels isolated, and they flee to [other parts of] Galicia. They become teachers in Enlightened schools in Brod, Tarnopol, and Lemberg. Those Zamość Jews, who had decided to give their children a more worldly education, did so privately, and especially went out of their way to hire Polish teachers. German though, is still the cultural language of the free-thinkers, which can be seen from the circle around Dr. Shlomo Ettinger. Only two important Maskilim of that era, are able to express themselves with a good, basic Polish: The community leader from Szczebrzeszyn, Leib ben Shlomo Szper (died in 1849) and R' Hirsch'keh Neimanovich of Zamość (died in 1862), both friends of the priest and Physiocrat,[4] Stanislaw Staszicz, who was extensively involved in settling Jews on land.
The idea of settling on the land struck a responsive chord in Zamość, of all places. In 1820, Leib Szper, thanks to the Zamoyskis, took three tracts under lease-management, and settled Jews there. He himself, personally, conducted a village establishment until 1831 only with Jews.
On the eve of the November revolution of 1830, Neimanovich began to busy himself with settling Zamość Jews on land. However, a new catastrophe appeared, which was no less frightful for the Jewish community than the previous ones of 1809 and 1813.
The patriotic fervor of the populace surrounding Zamość also infected the Jews. In Zamość proper, no big investigations were conducted to determine whether a Jew with side locks and a beard could serve in the town guard, as was the case in Warsaw. They were accepted, and many went voluntarily.
The Russian siege was a difficult one. The city suffered from hunger. The epidemic of cholera laid waste to the city. A native Jew stood at the head of the military hospital, Dr. Philip Lubelski (1778- 1879), a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. He was a native of Zamość, and everyone knew him well. His prestige, to a large extent, wiped away the anti-Semitic tendencies that were on the rise, because of the failures of the revolution, and also because the commandant of the fortress was the Frankist Jan Kryszynski.
The Jewish streets were destroyed and laid waste. When the fortress surrendered to the Russians, the very wealthy Jews went off to Warsaw.
With the end of the Russian-Polish War in 1831, the role of Zamość in the Polish military formations comes to an end. Their place is taken by the Russian army, which stays until 1866, when the fortress is entirely liquidated, because on examination, it appeared to have minimal strategic value. Military historians who served in Zamość in the years 1812-1831 pass through their impressions of Jews by way of their observations. In light of these, often incidental details, one can see that after Warsaw, Zamość had, by count, a meaningful number of Jews, mostly Jewish women, who had the facility to carry on a conversation in a number of languages, French among them. This did not yet make them into Maskilim. They were Hasidim, from the anti-Hasidic movement which at that time had grown stronger. These Jews, however, remained Jews of the Bet HaMedrash, and were privileged to unite the elements of the Enlightenment and Mitnagdim, without many shortcomings. It was in this way, that the adherents of the Haskala in Zamość became very active Maskilim, and stood on the foundation of traditional and scholastic Yiddishkeit. Even part of the physicians of Zamość, from the new generation, largely children from the homes of balebatim, nevertheless followed in the footsteps of their parents.
The mercantile element in Zamość, according to an assessment, was cosmopolitan, in the sense that many merchants
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saw a little of the world because of their business. They dealt with Warsaw, Danzig, Breslau, Vienna, Krakow, Berlin, and Hamburg. They would bring books of the Enlightenment from there, and also the latest news about Jews in other places. In the homes, and in the Bet HaMedrash, they engaged in conversations about Jewish issues. In the city, they were called Germans, even thought they were no less local than the very pious. The city Hevra Shas was a product of their doing. The large library of this Hevra, about which a native son of that generation writes, also included the books of the Haskala, and had a reputation among scholars in the Polish province. Its living spirit was R' Joseph Tzireles (Aleksander Zederbaum's father)and he died in 1832, his house was a true headquarters for sages.
It was in these circles, that the old idea of settling Jews on land came to life. Hirsch'keh Neimanovich continued the work, which had been disrupted because of the revolution of 1831. The amendments of 1846, which freed Jewish colonists from military service, gave a new impetus to continue with this work. In that year, Zdanów (5 viorst from Zamość) was founded as a Jewish village. Apart from Dr. Shlomo Ettinger, such Maskilim as Joseph and Hirsch Cohn, David Engelberg, Moshe Hertz, and Yudel Sobel, were deeply involved in this effort. The land was leased from the Zamoyskis for thirty years. In total, 14 Jewish families settled there, but they were unable to sustain themselves for very long, and a little at a time, they left. The interpretive poetry of the two homespun poets, Yehuda Kinderfreund and Feivel Szyfer, which attempted to edify Jewish village life, did not help. From the two unsuccessful attempts (of 1759 and of 1846) nothing remained, except the purely theoretical assumption, that only by working the soil, can the Jewish classes be made productive.[5]
Zamość became a center for the Haskala immediately after the revolution of 1831. The organized Maskilim of Hrubieszow, Kulikow, Jozefów, and even from ardently Hasidic Lublin, would gather in Zamość. Abraham Ber Gotlober visited Zamość in 1836, at the time he was traveling about to collect subscriptions for his collection pf poems, Pirkhei HeAviv,[6] which was published in Jozefów in 1837. Among the names of subscribers from Zamość, we also find the name of Dr. Shlomo Ettinger, he even composed a ‘poem of consent’ in Hebrew, as it happens, the only one to emerge from his pen that was published in his lifetime.
In the years 1832-1863, there is a parallel growth in Zamość in the number of readers of Polish, along with [growth in] competent readers of Hebrew books. Jews are reading Polish periodicals, even if German remains as the principal indicator of the free-thinking Jew. Jews are already writing in the Polish pages about Jewish issues and carry on a discourse about even such delicate questions as Sabbath observance for Jewish students in secular schools. Polish theater troupes that come for guest performances to Zamość, attracts a great deal, especially from the Jewish participant. In 1856, Zamość had a population of 2,475 Jews, and 1,531 non-Jews. Despite the fact, that according to the census of 1827, the number of Jews dropped significantly, it practically doubled, in line with [the growth of] the general population.
Zamość played an important role in the years of Polish-Jewish Brotherhood (1861-1863). The best articles that were written in the province, for the Journal, Jutrzenka (1861-1863) came from Zamość. Among the contributors were Margolis, Altberg, Korngold, and Ephraim Fishelsohn. In their articles, the Maskilim from Zamość not only dealt with local issues, but also questions of Jewish education, economics, and general reforms in Jewish life. There pronouncements exhibited much circumspection and conservativeness.
In 1861, Jews in Zamość collected money for the benefit of poor Christians, and this initiative, a year later, elicited an analogous undertaking of fund-raising by Poles themselves. In city elections and advisory circles in the year 1862, four Jews were selected from the Zamość powiat,[7] among them, Yehoshua Margolis, about whom we will yet have more to say. Peretz documented that period very well, despite the fact that there are not many insights to it. However, he
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correctly underscored that in 1863, the Jews of Zamość felt as if they were ‘ardent Poles.’ ‘We recited verses from the Psalms for the success of the Second Revolution.’
In 1863 the Zamość fortress was made into a prison for political criminals. Hundreds of accused were brought into the city. Among them were also many Jews. A Jewish committee was created to help those who were arrested, especially the younger ones, who were immediately remanded to military service.
Peretz was 14 years old, when the Zamość fort was taken down (1866).
The physiognomy of the city underwent a very severe change. Jewish children, even those from Hasidic homes, began to learn in the Russian pro-gymnasium which was opened in 1867. The older generation of Maskilim lived with the remnants of a former glory, with the intense consultation of Hebrew books, with the free echoes that tied them to those former Zamość townsfolk who went on to fame and fortune in the larger world of Russian Jewry.
The year 1870 marks the end of the early period of the Haskala in Zamość. When Aleksander Zederbaum visited the town of his birth in 1869, he already found a state of decline. He felt an oppressive atmosphere in Zamość, he writes to the editor of Kol Mevaser. The city had too many Hasidim. He comforted himself in that other cities in the Lublin Region it was even worse. There, it was simply a spiritual wasteland. Zamość is still an oasis.
There is more sense about education here than in all of Poland, because in comparison with other cities, there are less wild-eyed Hasidim in Zamość, even though they are quite visible. According to Zederbaum, the Hasid of Zamość, less tied up in [religious] knots, he doesn't regard a work of science as apostasy. One still finds, after all, books of the Enlightenment in the Bet HaMedrash, and they are read, and nobody here looks upon the use of the Holy Tongue as some sort of transgression.
This was two years after Zederbaum printed his Bayn HaMetzarim,[8] an autobiographical tale that conveys many important details about Jewish life in Zamość. He was still hopeful from that (last) visit to the town of his birthplace. In 1883, he printed his Yiddishe Volksblatt, a letter from Zamość, where the correspondent bemoans to himself, that since Zederbaum's visit, the situation has gotten worse. Once – he writes – ‘Zamość was a city that contained all manner of important elements, genuine scholarship, great sages, fine merchants, genteel balebatim, and outstanding free-thinkers. There is no trace of this any longer.’ One cannot say – the writer complains – that a new generation has arrived on today's manner. This is not so, because ‘Hasidim have a large party, and strong ideas,’ and none of the ‘aristocrats’ wants to read Yiddish, and the periodical of the son of the city, the editor, has almost no readership in Zamość.
Who is responsible for this? The writer provides two answers to this. First of all, the railroad destroyed life in Zamość, and secondly, the fortress. ‘At the time that the fortress stood, it was possible for silliness to steal its way into the city. Today, the world is chaos.’ Community activity of the Maskilim has become severely weakened. The Hasidim and the Mitnagdim haven't fought with one another. Broken heartedly, both sides have begun to send their sons to the pro-gymnasium.
In the community, elections practically never took place. It was necessary to ask the police, to have them conduct an election, because nobody wanted to get into a fight with the Rabbi. In 1879, elections of this nature took place, controlled by the police. A private minyan was created in the Bet HaMedrash. New, wealthy people came into the community, who held themselves out as free-thinkers, even though they had no relationship to the old Enlightenment aristocracy. They wanted it to be their order, and their community, but they had no inclination to create any new or reformed institutions. In that same year, Peretz, along with a number of his idealistic friends, founded an elementary school for children. The teachers protested, and the initiators, together with Shimon Khodok, the religious teacher at the pro-gymnasium, pulled back from the undertaking. The first Jewish students at the
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pro-gymnasium did not precipitate any excesses against the Enlightenment. There was, in general, no trace of deep conflict in ‘the city full of sages and scholars.’
In 1896, an Enlightened writer from Zamość, Albert Lederer, gave a sort of overall summary of those years:
Zamość occupies the principal position in the (Polish) province regarding that which pertains to spiritual development among Jews. I will not dwell extensively on the past, and will not recall the teachers and great scholars who were born in the city. I will only deal with the last 25 years. During those years, Zamość also had, apart from that outstanding colloquial author Mr. Peretz, many well-educated Jews who excelled in a variety of fields, as doctors, engineers, technicians, technologists, lawyers, and in general, an intelligent population of young people, even including daughters of our Mitnagdim and Hasidim, who completed their attendance at local schools with distinction.
Now, meaning 1896, the writer of this correspondence complains , there no longer remains a trace of this former cultural-dynamism. The community does not even have its own school, even though there is no lack of funds; there is a lack of initiative. Lederer refreshes the recollection of the story of Peretz's school of 1879, which had no longevity to speak of. He recalls the private two-class school for girls, run by Mrs. Altberg, – and that's it. He appeals to the free-thinking Jews of Zamość, indeed, in the name of that one-time cultural tradition, in which Zamość took such pride, that the community see to it that they open an elementary school with classes for working people.
A second important detail that is brought out in this letter is, that despite the fact that there were many German Jews in Zamość , yet they continue to pray at the general synagogues and [their] minyanim, and make no effort at all to build [even] a small synagogue that would function according to their own tastes. The writer attributes this to the failure of community energy, despite the fact that he demonstrated that Peretz was correct at the time he wrote his memoirs, saying: The Enlightenment, whenever it will manifest itself, will not dress itself in the colors of assimilation. This, in fact, was the very prominent feature of the Haskala in Zamość.
Nahum Sokolov wrote once about Zamość:
When I will have the privilege of writing more about the Poland of our small towns, the Poland of the old ways, with its emphasis on yichus, and about our Rabbis and Maskilim, maybe then, I will really be able to capture the true essence of Zamość
This feeling was prominent in the idealistic atmosphere of a city, where Hasidic Rabbis were not permitted to take up residence, and where contact with a non-Jewish clientele, which Zederbaum makes reference to quite often, led to the combination of a solid Jewish culture and a secular culture. Zamość was not cognizant of those conceptual conflicts, which in their day, brought such unrest to cities and [whole] countries. The free-thinker remained a Jew who was an adherent of the synagogue, Hasidism had no foothold for a long time, one lived within the normal confines of the existing cultural ambience, which embraced both the [religious] scholars, the Maskilim, whom Sokolov had so well characterized.
2. The Writers and The Readers
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The Zamość “Academy,” near the Posziwiszewski-Gasse |
The first Maskilim appeared in Zamość during the time when the city belonged to Austria. Part of them were newcomers, actually from Galicia proper, others came here in order to find relief from the burdensome battle that went on at that time in Eastern Galician cities and towns between the Maskilim and Hasidim. Two things drew them to Zamość: first there were many Haskala sympathizers to be found there, and few Hasidim, and second, the Jewish bourgeoisie would retain private teachers for the children, and in this manner there was an opportunity to take care of one's self by obtaining employment. A portion of these newly arrived Maskilim, who chanced to come here, remained, married, and only later, when it became crowded, began to seek their fortune in the much larger country of Russia, or they returned home.
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In Galicia, Zamość had a reputation as an Enlightened City. R' Joseph Tzireles, or Zederbaum (c. 1772-1832), the watchmaker who gave assistance to Enlightenment authors, conducted a household that was called ‘Tzireles’ Yeshiva for Enlightenment.’ He came from a family of more-or-less modern scholars, who already were ‘addicted’ to the German Haskala. Joseph Tzireles was born in the town of Markeszow, not far from Lublin. His father, R' Abraham Abush HaLevi, settled in Zamość. He was a learned Jew, and wrote poetry in the style of the old poets. He dies at the age of 46. Joseph's mother was the daughter of R' Natan ben Alexander HaKohen (1750-1786), an author of books. In 1780, he was in Berlin, where he became acquainted with Moses Mendelssohn. Alexander Zederbaum (1816-1893), who later became the editor of HaMelitz and of Kol Mevaser, which became the pride of the second generation Maskilim of Zamość , is a scion of this free-thinking, educated family.
Alexander Zederbaum recounts, that his father's house was ‘an educational institution in Zamość.’ One would find all manner of Jews there: pious scholars, and the less-observant, free-thinkers.
‘For us – he writes – my father's house was a university.’ That the son didn't take the mantle from his father, comes from certain evidence by other Maskilim, Zederbaum's fellow city residents. One of them tells, that when Joseph Zederbaum died (in1832), there was a feeling, that a person that had given the city importance had left the world. With is death, the city itself lost ‘the living embodiment of modern civilization, a disciple of the Mendelssohn school,’ and it was really because of this that ‘hypocrisy and indifference’ once again reared their heads. He was referring to the fact that Hasidism on one side, and spiritual decline on the other – reigned in the city. As Alexander Zederbaum tells, his father was to have said before he died: ‘If, in the Other World, I should see the Ibn Ezra, I will say to him that nobody understood the subtle inferences in every one of his words as well as I did.’
Many young Maskilim grew up in Joseph Zederbaum's home, among them were the Bloch brothers, and Yaakov Eichenbaum.
A young man named Shlomo Ze'ev ben Yitzhak Bloch took up residence in Zamość approximately in 1802. He came from the Galician shtetl of Kulikow. He was a Hebrew teacher and also wrote in Hebrew about the natural sciences. His brother Shimshon Bloch (1784-1845) came in 1804, later known as the author of the popular three-volume work on geography, also called Shvilay Olam.[9] He got married in Zamość. He made a living by giving Hebrew lectures. By comparison to the stormy life in the centers of the Enlightenment [elsewhere] in Galicia, life in Zamość was quiet and tranquil. Shimshon Bloch could not abide by this, so he returned once again to Lemberg. Later on he came back. In 1821 he was still in Zamość. In a letter to his one-time ideological friend, Yaakov Shmuel Bick (died in 1831) he complained that he is unhappy in Zamość, that he is torn away from his comrades. Therefore, he left Zamość and went to Vienna. He personally missed the Austrian Enlightenment atmosphere, and the sympathy to Maskilim shown by the monarchy. In Poland, there was no resonance with the Haskala in the surroundings, and the interest in Polish circles was rather much less.
Yaakov Eichenbaum belonged to the same circle as the Blochs. He was born in a small Galician shtetl, Kristinopol, in the year 1796. His real family name was Gelber. His father, Moshe Gelber, settled in Zamość in 1815, and took a parcel of land under lease-management not far from Hrubieszow. In Zamość, Yaakov Eichenbaum wrote poems at various opportunities, but he did not become a poet. He had rather solid ideas in mathematics, and in 1819, he translated Euclid's Geometry [sic: Elements][10] into Hebrew. He married a Zamość girl, and for a long time, he was the teacher of the five sons of the Enlightened wealthy man, Natan Kinderfreund. He left Zamość in 1830. Later (1850) he became an inspector of the Teacher's-school in Zhitomir.
The first substantial Hebrew poet that Zamość produced was Aryeh Leib ben Natan Kinderfreund (1797-1837). Peretz
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mentions this very family, principally a young man, a Maskil, who knew German well, read Mendelssohn in the original, and prayed from a German Siddur. This was the pot's brother, Herman Kinderfreund, and partially his patron at the publication of his first works as an author. In 1814, Aryeh Leib Kinderfreund left for Tarnopol, and became a teacher in the renown Pearl school. He was a very well-educated young man, with profound ideas in many ancient and modern languages. A philosophical work of his, to our everlasting sorrow, has been lost. In 1833, he completed a volume of poems which was later published under the name, Shirim Shonim.[11]
At one time Gotlober waved off these poems because of his pure, formal tastes (they lacked attention to meter), [nevertheless] he wrote many years later, that Kinderfreund was ‘one of the outstanding poets who stood out in Israel during the past generation.’
Both transcended the bar. Kinderfreund was a quiet poet, not producing great poetic innovations, only the collection, HaMeshorer BaKfarim[12] is interesting, which reflects a poetic reaction to the Jewish impact in the Zamość [agricultural] colonies. According to everything that we know, Aryeh Leib Kinderfreund was the first and only poetic talent [who wrote] in Hebrew, that Zamość produced, before the appearance of Yitzhak Leibusz Peretz.
The prolific Hebrew author, Feivel Szyfer (1871-1890), needs to be thought of as a native son of Zamość. He was born in Laszczow, but spent a part of his life in Zamość. He helped Jews by needs and…poems, to settle the land. Szyfer was a good friend of Shlomo Ettinger. Both were the ‘literary powers’ of the colony at Zdanów. He came to Warsaw in 1835, where he opened a private school for Jewish children. Paszkiewicz, the ‘Viceroy’ of Poland drew close to him, and ordered that he be supported from a fund which had been designated for ‘essential’ authors. Szyfer produced five books, one of them, Mata LaShem,[13] (Warsaw, 1843), is set in the climate of Zamość. It is a work of poetic prose, about the idyllic life in Jewish colonies, – a direct product of the author's contact with the tillers of the soil from Zamość. Feivel Szyfer was the darling of the Maskilim of Zamość. Of the hundreds of notables that are enumerated in his works, the largest portion comes from the Jews of Zamość, who took great pride in ‘their’ author.
The importance of the researcher in Jewish history, Yaakov Reifman (1818-1894) was very great in Zamość. He lived his entire life in neighboring Szczebrzeszyn, under frightful material conditions. His father-in-law, Joseph Maimon, was a well-know Maskil. Reifman's name figures prominently among the literary notables of that period. He wanted to be active in the field of Jewish education. This ‘apostate,’ and researcher of Jewish history, whom Peretz recalls with great respect, had to suffer a great deal of trouble from Hasidim, they wanted to have him put under excommunication. This was because, in his very early years, he caused the establishment of the Jewish elementary school in Lublin (in 1833) and later in Chelm (in 1862). The strong Hasidic opposition lead to these schools being closed.
As previously said, Reifman was held in great respect in Zamość. His approach to Jewish education, which attempted to create an alignment between the words of Scripture, and the wisdom of Zionism, appealed strongly to the local Maskilim there. Reifman dreamed of a modern Yeshiva, and in 1862, thanks to the help of Yehoshua Margolis, a close relative of Peretz, it became possible for him to create such an institution. It existed for the sum total of one year, but it became quite the subject of note in the Enlightened circles of the land.
Every Saturday night, the young people would come together, and Reifman would hold a series of well-prepared lectures about scientific subjects. He gave them good definitions about all issues which pertained to Jewish lore, and acquainted them with the newest achievements from the field. He severely criticized the Warsaw Teacher's Seminary for its negative attitude towards the Jewish past. He was greatly embittered by the fact that the Teacher's Seminary did not keep its word. As early as 1854, it had promised to retain him as a teacher of the Talmud. However, for the Warsaw free-thinkers surrounding the Teacher's Seminary, Reifman represented a personage that was too religious, while at
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the same time, in the eyes of the Hasidim, he was considered to be a dangerous ‘apikores [apostate]’. He held the position, that Polish Jewry possessed as powerful a Jewish-intellectual potential, as the Jews of Western Europe. It was only necessary to find a middle way between the chaotic old rote method of teaching, and the modern methods. The objective of a Teacher's Seminary – he explained in his lectures in front of the Zamość students – is not to increase the number of just teachers, or bookkeepers and secretaries for merchant houses, but rather to rear an educated intelligentsia. Wittily, he would playfully quip to his students: ‘תחת קבנים יצאו אבנים, ותחת מורים חמורים’[14] Zamość built a solid circle around Reifman. Thanks to him, the local Hevra Shas had a good library. The very fact that he could give such a serious course, bears witness to the fact that there were scholarly and Enlightened young people in Zamość.
Yehoshua Margolis [who was] Reifman's patron and friend, died in 1877. Therefore, he spent his older years in frightful poverty, lived in a ‘chicken coop,’ as he complained in a letter, and subsisted on handouts, that were collected on his behalf through the Jewish pages. The Zamość Maskilim of the older generation had died out, and not many young and fresh energies had arisen to replace them. Reifman's scholarly work (he was very productive), were largely indeed intended for teachers, because he was no writer, only a researcher. The world of pedagogy was transformed by his innovations. The world around him did little to help him, despite the fact that it took great pride in him. Among his student, the Hebrew writer David Shifman (1828-1906), who was a private Hebrew teacher, and also dealt in books, was the only one who from time-to-time was helpful to his old teacher. For a specific period of time, Shifman was Peretz's secretary. He was the local correspondent of HaMelitz, produced unpublished poems by Yaakov Eichenbaum and did everything that he could to assure that the Enlightenment movement in Zamość would not atrophy.
A. Korngold is also counted among the Reifman's students, who published Ha Shakhar (94., 1, 1869), footnotes and insights to specific text in the Tanakh, [as is] Joseph Mintzer, who published poems in Kokhvei Yitzhak (1865), Ha Boker Or, and other Hebrew Journals; Leibusz Levison (c. 1844-1904), the author of the tale, Neder Yiftakh,[15] (Warsaw, 5630/1869), and of the Yiddish folk-comedy, Veiberisheh Kniplakh,[16] and many others.
Two Yiddish authors from Zamość have yet to be recalled. These are Shlomo Ettinger (c. 1800 - 1856) and Ephraim Fishelsohn. When Ettinger died, Peretz was four years old. Nevertheless, in Zamość, he remained alive in the memory of the city residents, and here is the evidence: In later years, the free-thinking Jews wrote about him, and always recalled him in a positive manner, his community role in Zamość being much greater than it was conventionally thought to be. Ettinger is counted among the major personalities of Haskala books, in the years 1837-1854. In the case of one book, even his son, Yitzhak Ettinger counts [in a significant way]. Shlomo Ettinger was one of the confidantes of Joseph Zederbaum, and played a role in the community similar to that of his father-in-law, Yehuda Leib Gold, who in his time was the head of the community, and in the manner of his brother-in-law who was active later. The Jewish hospital, which was the center of general activity of the Enlightened sector, had much for which to be thankful to Ettinger. With the financial help of Yehoshua Margolis, Ettinger built up the pharmacy. I do not wish to elaborate on his literary accomplishments here. Enough already has been written about them.
Ephraim Fishelsohn, also a writer of the pre-Peretz period, came from a small shtetl, Kruszniewicz. He lived in Zamość for many years. In 1839, he wrote up a satire in the form of a dialogue, Teator f u n Hasidim. He dedicated this work to Shlomo Hertz Mazomoshch, that is, Shlomo Ettinger. Fishelsohn was the only rationalist among the entire group of Maskilim in Zamość. In this respect, he was close to Shlomo Ettinger, who in his epigrams also strongly unmasked the Hasidic movement and the entire system and way of life of the balebatim in the community. Fishelsohn corresponded with Daniel Neufeld, the editor of Jutrzenka, wrote in HaMelitz, and gave much of his time to the research of Medrashim in light of comparative literature. For Neufeld, the conservative Maskil,
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Fishelsohn was too radical, and he did not want to publish him. In 1862, Neufeld sent him back an article written in Polish, declaring, that publishing such an article meant inciting both sides, at a time when religious-demagogic problems do not fit the ‘programs’ of Der Jutrzenka. Fishelsohn was greatly angered by this. He did not want to publish such an article, that criticized the foundations of the Jewish religion, in the general Polish journals, even though they would have published them there.
The Neimanoviches belonged to the popular group of Enlightened families in Zamość . We have already recalled Herschkeh Neimanovich (died 1862), the practical innovator, who dedicates himself to settling Jews on land. He was very popular thanks to his genuine Polish appearance, and Polish speech. Andzhei Zamoyski remembers him often in his memoirs. He knew the priest Staszicz, and through him, Abraham Yaakov Stern. His name figures prominently among the personages having to do with Enlightenment books. We know little about his son, Yitzhak Neimanovich, and for this reason, his grandson, Naphtali Yehuda Neimanovich (HaNetz), was well-known. He was born in Jozefów in 1843 and died in Warsaw in 1898. He was a close comrade of Peretz. He wrote an outstanding Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish (in the Warsaw Jewish Daily) and belonged to the small group of tri-lingual writers of the Haskala of that era.
The Geliebter Family also had three generations of Maskilim. The oldest, Zvi Hirsch Geliebter was a scholarly Maskil. His son Feivel (1808-1888) was a lawyer with a private practice in Zamość, he had the reputation of a genius, who ‘knew the entire Tanakh by heart.’ According to Peretz, he was ‘was self-taught.’ His son, Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter, an ardent Zionist, occupied himself with assembling the folklore of the Zamość Jews, and he made use of Jewish folklorists. His collection was later deposited in the Warsaw Ethnographic Museum.
A periphery of consumers of written works and books, and just plain lovers of the printed word, grew up around these writers, which was substantial already because of the number and traditional continuity. Such a phenomenon was not known in any other city in Poland. It is sufficient to indicate a group of names of families, in Zamość, who systematically appear in any list of prominent personalities, about whom it is possible to set down biographical details with confidence and certainty. The Kinderfreunds, the Luxembourgs, (Mottel, Abraham & Edouard), the Korngolds (Father and several sons), The Peretzes (Meir Peretz, the Levine family on the mother's side), David Steinsberg (from 1835 to 1862), Shlomo Zalman Finkstein (1791-1877), a companion of Zederbaum's, The Schloss Family (Ze'ev Wolf and his son), The Margolis Family (Yehoshua and his four sons), Shlomo Ettinger and his son Yitzhak, The Szpers of Szczebrzeszyn and Zamość (three generations with eight branches of the family), and many others. At the beginning of almost every book of the Enlightenment, written by someone from Zamość, Rabbi Moshe Wohl, whom Peretz described so warmly, figured as a sponsor. He was born in 1797 and died in 1873. Peretz writes of him, that he was a well-to-do son-in-law. His father-in-law was the Rabbi of Zamość, R' Yitzhak ben R' Joseph Hochgelernter (1767-1825), the author of the responsa Zikhron Yitzhak (Lemberg, 5560/1800). He was a merchant in his younger years. After he lost his money, he became the Rabbi of Zamość (in 1834).
An enemy of unjust indulgence – writes Peretz – he occupies his seat already for a jubilee, and does not permit himself to be given a raise. ‘Don't make me a rich individual,’ (he argues). He takes no compensation! Moneys that he receives for adjudication, he distributes among the sitting Dayanim, or arbitrators. He doesn't take anything to eat that is not prepared by his Rebbetzin. At a mitzvah feast, he takes a little nip of something, in order to be able to recite a blessing; eating a dry, olive-sized morsel of the ritually prescribed size, in order to be able to ritually wash and recite a blessing.
It is this ‘little sweet Jewish man, with a little silver beard,Ვ with eyes ‘akin to doves,’ who was the gentlest spiritual leader in a community where Maskilim played so important a role. He was a companion to Yaakov Reifman, the ‘apikores,’ and defended him with vigor. When the movement was afoot to excommunicate that great ascetic of Szczebrzeszyn, R' Moshe Wohl said –and so Peretz tells – that ‘whosoever issues an order to excommunicate without the prior knowledge of the spiritual leader of the city and his court of justice, is himself in mortal peril.’
Alexander Zederbaum writes of him, that he was thoroughly educated, a tolerant man, who wrote a beautiful Hebrew. Apart from several book endorsements, there are, however, no writings that are known to us by this Rabbi of Zamość.
When he died, it proved difficult to find a Rabbi that everyone would agree to. Rabbi Shlomo Zilber was the Rabbi of Zamość for a period of time. In 1879, Rabbi Joseph Shlomo Shabtai ben Yehuda HaLevi Horowitz (born 1861) was selected as Rabbi. At that time, the free-thinkers, largely the children of the one-time Maskilim, took a minimal hand in the
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internal issues of the community.
The central place in the Enlightenment sector of Zamość, was taken by Yehoshua Margolis (1805-1877), who has been mentioned so many times already, the ‘Cold Uncle,’ Y. M. of Peretz's memoirs.
He was a provider of livery services to the military, and managed mills, dealt in grain, had his own buildings in Zamość, and also in Warsaw. He had five sons, one of whom vanished immediately after the 1863 rebellion, and two daughters. These [all] were raised in a scholarly and enlightened atmosphere, taught by private teachers, among them also was Yaakov Reifman. They all knew Hebrew and Polish very well, one of them, Shmuel, was for a time the Zamość correspondent for the Israelita. Margolis's sons count as sponsors for many scholarly works and Enlightened books of that period. One of his daughters (Rukhama) married Yaakov Korngold, a second daughter (Gittl) married Naphtali Pick, also of the Yiddish connection in Zamość. She died in 1877 at the age of 47 years. Her father died in that same year.
Like all the enlightened Jews in Zamość, Yehoshua Margolis was far from breaking new ground. He took part in the general life of the city and took part in Polish events no less than in Jewish community affairs. In the year 1830, he was a member of the city militia. In the years 1861-1863 he took part in the revolutionary events. Together with his relative, Joseph Altberg (1801-1873), an employee of J u t r z e n k a, he took part in the Jewish delegation that went to a Polish patriotic demonstration, collected money for the Christian poor of Zamość (together with the Luxembourgs), as a demonstration of brotherhood. In 1862, he was a member of the City Council. His work, for the benefit of Zamość, was so significant, that in 1854, the city honored him with the title of Honorary Citizen.
Jewish issues were no less close to his heart. He was the greatest donor of charity in Zamość, dedicating himself intensely to the Jewish Hospital, and was the head of the community for many years. The remodeling of the old synagogue was accomplished thanks to him, which had 100 Torah scrolls, as for the founding of the Hevra Shas, and distribution of Reifman's lessons.
Alexander Zederbaum characterized him as the most idealistic Jewish community activist in Zamość. In 1869, he visited him, and at the same time, expressed his awed respect, which that already world-famous Jew had for this Enlightened community leader of his home town.
Until the decade of the 1880's, the Enlightened synthesis of [traditional] scholarship and Haskala developed around patrician families such as Margolis, Altberg, Korngold, Krasnopolsky, Luxembourg and others – an original Zamość style. Peretz absorbed a great deal of this legacy. At that time, it was still dynamic, even though the first signs of stasis and decline were already visible. The Hasidic element in the city became larger, and consequently stronger, and many of the Maskilim, especially their children, left entirely, first from Zamość, and later, part of them entirely abandoned the Jewish people – leaving in a variety of ways that it is possible to separate oneself from a people, religious conversion being among them.
I
A Document About the Zamość Doctor Pinchas Rosenthal
(Original Text in Russian)[17]
The private practitioner, Jewish physician Pinchas Rosenthal, has submitted a petition for obtaining civil/citizenship rights for himself.
The Rights Committee of the Ministry of Interior presented this petition to Council with the consideration of the following circumstances which would be in favor of the petition: that petitioner has been carrying out
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public service for more than ten years, first having the title of surgeon of Tarnogrod and specialist in epidemics, then a doctor in the Zamość region; that during a raging cholera epidemic in the(his?) local area, he provided help with exemplary zeal and unselfishness to sufferers/victims; that he and equally his family wear clothes not different from that of Christians; that he, as a person devoting himself to scientific things, does not engage in profiteering/speculation to which a Jew is restricted by civil rights(law?).
The Council, keeping in view the Imperial will, that a Jew's right to acquire landed property can be considered only as a gift/reward, and only in exceptional cases, did not find sufficient reasons for the (case of) Jew Rosenthal, and decided to reject the petition. February 28/March 8,1836
Article by Erez (Alexander Zederbaum) in Kol Mevaser, 1869, PP. 47,48, & 50.
(The Format Has Been Modernized)
In many travelogues, a feeling is portrayed, that one leaves a specific cities with all of the conveniences, and enters a long, sandy desolation, where a green tree is encountered only rarely, no developed place where to rest, no nourishment, no good water; no populace is to be found of like-minded folk, only rare offensive types, who are like people who have passed from the world, or entirely savage, with whom one fears to even have an encounter; one hears only the shouts and the conflicts among wild beasts, and at every step, one is in danger to be bitten by snakes and serpents. Suddenly, one finds one's self in mid-stride, in an oasis, that is, a parcel of the field covered in green grass, high trees, with beautiful delicious fruit, a well with an abundance of fresh potable water, a number of affectionate hospitable people, with whom one can exchange a word or so. What an overwhelming experience for the traveler! He is refreshed, he rests himself from the stresses of his travel, stretches out, and gathers his strength for his further journey into the wilderness. We experienced that feeling, when we arrived in a tiny place called Zamość, after a journey of a number of weeks from Odessa to there. When one leaves the large, beautiful, commercial city of Odessa, which is so full of life, where it is possible to take advantage of all physical and spiritual amenities, where almost all the residents are practical people, except for the local Hasidim, all deserving of respect, because they are cosmopolitan people in their attitude to the world: active, employed, bold and practical, not identified in their occupation by their dress, demeanor or speech, they understand how to have a discourse with Jews and Christians; one does not see any fanaticism displayed by them, but rather the opposite, they come in contact with all classes and have dealings with freethinkers and extend their trust to them; Of what concern is it what goes on in their thoughts within their place in the Bet HaMedrash, or in their home under their direction? Who asks for anything more, only that it should be possible to meet with all people, in a civil manner, in entrepreneurial undertakings, in a friendly and honest manner. If one leaves, let us say, beloved Odessa, into the desolate provinces, into those cities, whether large or small, and one sees before one, stifling places, and one largely encounters darkly-visaged, single-dimensional frightened people, mostly plodding away in their rut, or being carried away in some higher world in their houses of worship; these are the parties of various classes of Hasidim, where each maligns the others Tzaddik with words that should be forbidden to speak, and if a critic were to assemble all of the opinions, he could make a very lucid attack on the entire chapter. Their dress is half ‘Jukisch’ and half ‘Feivusch,’ what passes for their speech, is some sort of an ‘spectacle’ in Russian Yiddish and German, their mean-spiritedness, together with their lack of respect, as they look upon a stranger, the non-Hasid, and despite this, they will slither before him like vermin; the half-savage masses, who gape at a stranger as if they had never seen a human being in their lives; except for the wealthy, who have already been out in the world, out of the country, and who already feel what good and beautiful is in their hearts, what today's times demand; however, they wear masks, playing the Hasidic role, because it serves their purposes in business. To arranging marriages; The very few freethinkers have to conceal themselves in a mineshaft, and look like rare, single trees out on the steppe, they may be aggressive in intent, but against the Law of the Shulkhan Arukh, they are dead at the starting gate; Who can talk about more, when the only thing that commands attention is the disorder in the community affairs, and one hears only repulsive disputations and debates between the various Hasidic sects, the envious jealousy that lurks under the veneer of balebatishkeit, the absence of a capacity to graciously accept each other's good fortune, the contentious disrespect, the bad-mouthing, and slander, that reigns in all circles; their sad plight in comparison to the indigenous Christian populace; everything is the same, in the shortage of all conveniences of life and forms of sustenance, all appear to the discerning traveler, just arriving on the scene, like a spiritual wasteland. And just like this, when he comes unexpectedly into a town like Zamość, which is situated in the middle of a vast desert, it appears to him like an oasis in the great desolation!
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It is not necessary to suspect that we are captivated (in this matter), because Zamość is our birthplace, the cradle of our youth, the impact that it made on the emotions of childhood years continue to adhere. In contrast, at the time we rode into [the city], the saddest of thoughts came up in mind, we asked ourselves: whom among the living do you still have left to see here? No parents, no in-laws, no close or distant relatives (all died out a long time ago), no friends from youth, either that, or very few, it would appear that from very many different points of view, just about nobody from that unique literary society which sprung into being, and was sustained in the ambit of [my] patriarchal house. Only the cold, weatherbeaten grave stones, the eternally faithful memorial to all the elders from Zamość and its environs. This is the only thing that ties us to Zamość, which we had left 18 years ago, where for 5 years when we lived in Lublin, and visited only once, and since that time, where having lived for 30 years in Odessa, never having set foot back here. Really, we could have discharged our duty by driving straight to the cemetery, pour out our feelings at the graves of our parents with the reverence of a child, and resume our travel. There would not have been any special interest for us, were it not the objective of our trip to investigate the condition of our fellow co-religionists, and it is with such eyes that we observed all of Zamość in an impartial manner.
At the time of entry into the city, towards nightfall, after a 24-hour difficult post ride, a sad feeling overtook us when we saw the torn down walls of the fortress, the wrecked gates to the fortress, and the connecting bridges of the onetime fortress. We didn't long for the fortress, which had no particular value after our attack, because it stood in the middle of flat land, not beside any running water, not by any land prominence, not next to any inherent natural boundary. But we recollected every redoubt, every lair, every point of protection, every gate that was constructed before our very eyes, and grew up along with us; what a cost was involved, how many men worked on it, and this mighty fortress that had been able to survive for so many generations, was shattered in so short a time! We took comfort in one thing, we thought, that this might be a good thing for the residents: trade would become more free, they would be locked up within; but as we subsequently learned, businesses had become very distressed. Having lived for decades in the crowded milieu of people who worked among the workers of the fortress in the garrison, and living off the engineers – a Commandant, a resident Major, with their staff, brought a source of income. – It became difficult for them to motivate themselves to find other sources [of livelihood].
The following morning, we went out into the street; it is noteworthy that I recognized all men and women of old acquaintance that I encountered, even though they had not changed by any small amount over the course of thirty years, but also in this vein, by contrast, no one recognized me. Firstly, we went to visit the magnificently simple synagogue with its outstanding iron balustrade, which represents a crown of branches. It is indeed sweet, and illustrates the beautiful taste and the vitality of the Zamość community of that time, along with its distinguished citizens. Only one thing took us aback – that at this time in Zamość, drawing of animal figures on the walls had been permitted, as if it was a menagerie! We were literally ashamed, and hope that our friends in that locale will not give heed to the fact that this art work had cost a great deal of money, and that they will show some faith with themselves, and a little to our taste, and will permit, starting all over again, for the walls to be painted either entirely in white or in a light grey, so that traveling visitors will not make sport of our hometown, or believe that in current times that Zamość has entirely changed; But it is false that, just because there are perhaps not such outstanding scholars, that the old spirit does not generally continue to hold sway there as before, and there is an awareness of education there that is greater than that of all Poland. One encounters few wild-eyed Hasidim there, even though the Yozhuveh[18] has, to our great misfortune, expanded there quite sufficiently, but, the Hasid himself there, seems to be somewhat more refined, less fanatic, or rigidly bound up, less addled; he learns, he does not regard a work of science as apostasy, because these can be found in the Bet HaMedrash, and he reads or studies it. It is also no transgression to use Hebrew, quite the opposite, since it is counted as a favorable attribute. That is why we wish, from our heart, that what we see as the external appearance is in fact an expression of the inner, olden spirit and taste.
From the synagogue we went up to the Bet HaMedrash. Certainly a pleasure: in larger cities one rarely encounters such a large, roomy Bet HaMedrash, with such a respectable library. There are books to be found there from every branch
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of Jewish literature: from complete sets of the Shas, Mishnahyot, Commentaries, Sifri, Safra, Tosefta, Mekhilta, Alfasi, Rambam, and responsa, old and new, [these] go without saying.[19] But apart from these, one finds Mikraot Gedolot with Twenty Four, and other commentaries on the Tanakh, and research books, astronomical and mathematical works in Hebrew, naturally of an older variety. It would even be proper to acquire newer works as well. We were happy to see, that the library is kept in the highest state of order, the Hevra Tikkun Sforim[20] looks after this. One can barely conceive of the grandeur of most of our old comrades and acquaintances. Every corner, where we once studied has an attraction to us, and remains resonant in the memory of our youth.
In the Bet HaMedrash, we stopped the Shammes of the Hevra Kadisha, and our first trip was a filial visit to at least see the small mounds of earth, the cold stones that for us, cover the sacred final resting place of our beloved parents. We were accompanied by one of our elderly friends.
Even here, in this place of eternal rest, we recognized the Old Zamość. How many times, can we recall the instances when the gate was torn down, and the grave stones laid low, because in the resistance to the siege, there was fear that the enemy might penetrate here and entrench themselves. His also occurred during the last uprising. The city suffered in general, even though a new gate has been erected here, and the headstones are in order. Further: everything is registered. By consulting an alphabetical listing in a book, the Shammes immediately found the row and number of the graves of our father and mother and grandmothers.
What we felt there, I think, was quite different from what is minimally rooted withing the typical Jew. True, we recited the requisite prayers, in order not to deviate from Jewish custom, but what we felt in our heart, and thought of in our minds – the writer of the traditional prayers never dreamed of. We did not come to beg our parents that they should serve to intercede on our behalf in the heavens, that we should be forgiven for our sins, and that our good fortune be secured. That is nonsense: If parents can have any impact in the Other World, then they will do these things without being asked by their children, especially in the Other World, where they have no concerns about themselves. If remembering them without them even caused them to smile, a thought which is an insult to intelligence, it would appear that until death, no child ever forgets his parents, which is the least obligation we can take upon ourselves! Our mother has been dead for 42 years, and our father for 33, but despite this, it is as if they stand before my eyes, and were we artistically gifted, I am certain that it would be easy, and a sacred obligation to render a portrait of them that would not be deficient in a single detail. We remember them always, and here by their graves we did not (?) remember them any less. To offer a prayer for their souls doesn't seem to be appropriate either, we don't have to say Kaddish for more than 11 months, and we can reckon that our parents are both in the Garden of Eden [in the hereafter], and here we come, people who are sinners, to do them favors, and to become their ombudsmen. Yes, with good deeds, with intellectual education, a child can do credit to his parents in this world, possibly in the other, but not with screams over a grave, with banging on the headstone. Nevertheless, at this appointed place we wept with great feeling, but with a different kind of tears. In the blink of an eye, our entire life flew by us. We recalled what had transpired with us from the time of our earliest childhood up to this very day. We recalled our father, whose house was an educational institution in Zamość; all manner of the more refined type of people would gather there, scholars and enlightened people, R' Shimshon and R' Shlomo Wolf Bloch, and other such types of personalities that understood the world; It was there, under the oversight of my precious father, that the world famous Eichenbaum ע”ה, received his education. We would sit nearby, when this group would gather in the middle of the day, to entertain a variety of subjects and speak about them. In the winter nights to speeches. We reckoned that even though we didn't have any teachers (except for melamdim), and didn't participate in any school explicitly, that our father's house was a university for us. Even while playing, we heard the most profound dealings in the most necessary practical world events, which later was of great use to us. As children, we were placed in a higher sphere, among instructed and educated people, who developed our intellect and character. In our mind's eye, we saw the image of our father's illness, how all of his indebted friends and the entire city waited on him, and how all served as guardians during his illness. How he single-handedly began and
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finished his own will, and dictated the rest to one of his friends. How he bade farewell to those who clung to him, the references that he recalled and cited, the force with which he awaited his own death, his words: if I should happen to see the Ibn Ezra in the Other World, I will say to him that no one understood the subtlety of his inferences in every word better than I. How he blessed us before he died, and even though we were awash in tears since the first day of his illness, didn't sleep and didn't eat, and felt the terrifying loss, nevertheless, as a child, we still had the inner strength to say of our father after the final parting while crying bitter tears: ‘Let my mouth speak for both of us, with your spirit upon me.’ We knew that in him we were losing an educator, quite apart from a provider. We recognized our plight, that we are remaining alone in the world, a weak child without direction, without broad understanding, we reminded ourselves of what we had already gone through, our five years in Lublin, our travel to Odessa, our struggle to get something of an education, and to look for some sort of a living. All of this flew by our eyes like a speeding wraith, and caused us to mourn the fact that we had been orphaned at such a young age, [because] parents would have certainly cared for us much better; but what pained us even more, was the fact that my parents struggled so hard, and did not live to see even a small morsel of nachas from their one and only child in this world. Maybe they would have derived some satisfaction from the position that we achieved for ourselves in the world. Parents feel pleasantly rewarded and it looks bigger and better in their eyes than the reality. Whether we feel fortunate in our current position of not, as a proper child we are watchful before our parents, certainly secretive, but for the while revealed, and, that makes a parent happy. This undertaking, which was so specially sacred to us, on this hallowed place, also arouse deeper thoughts and disturbed feelings. The trees, that had grown up by themselves on the graves, and continue to draw their nourishment from the corporeal remains of the parents, made an impression on us that we too have to thank them for our existence, our corporeal and spiritual development, those dear parents, and we asked ourselves, do we conduct ourselves in the same decent manner as the trees provided by nature, whose roots, the source, faithfully, and in equal measure, divide up the sap drawn from those parental remains, among all the branches, and is that is why they are all covered in green leaves, and bear their fruit? If we also have the religious and Jewish national spirit, that we suckled with our mother's milk, from the education of that highly revered father, and planted it into our children, did they do it entirely faithfully with the spirit of their parents? It is with this thought that we left a little stone behind.
This is the place where one should not fool one's self. In the first glance, we thought, that we were strongly taken, impressed by their program. They had not altered even a hair on the quotes and minutiae of their parents and ancestors of generations gone by. They also sent us into a similar room where they studied, where everyone is drawn, as they indicated. By contrast, we educate our children in schools, in a more worldly fashion; Have we discharged our obligation? Only after a genuine consideration, were our thought processes appeased. We reckoned that it was not our great-great-grandparents who were culpable for the fact that their children had to be educated in the Heder system, but rather because, at that time, it was forbidden for Jews to attend a real school, and all of the worldly knowledge [taught there] was of no use to the Jew in the world. They were only(?) a source of misfortune to him, he was able to feel his exile more palpably, the limitations, the prohibitions that he suffered, among the peoples where he lived, but kept isolated. It occurred to us that at least we have to blame ourselves already, our grandfathers had a feel for education. Both were accomplished grammarians, masters of the Tanakh, wrote excellent Hebrew, were thinkers, they had studied all of the Yiddish philosophical works. One of them, R' Nathan ז”ל, (mother's father), was a good mathematician, a capable astronomer, and also understood German and Latin. It is true, that in addition to this, they were substantial [religious] scholars, outstandingly thorough in their knowledge of Torah. Our precious father was a formidable Yiddish scholar, also read German and Polish, understood mathematics, had expertise in mechanics, and permitted all of us children to learn the native language, and German also, geography, history, which shows what he felt the spirit of the times required. He undertook to endow us with a specific practical skill, a trade to learn. Were he alive to see the remarkable strides that the world has made in the past 36 years, how the circumstance of the Jew has changed for the better; what the times now demand of each person, that he may enjoy the rights of a citizen, and secure his own existence; he would most certainly take it as an egregious sin, that the best of one's young years be spent only with such studies that not every child can bring to completion, and only very few remain with them and try to sustain themselves from it.
The one-sided exclusively religious education has truly infused the child with religious structure, but rarely deep convictions, self-awareness, pride in his nationality, and for his respected pure faith. But, for as long as a worldly life was closed to him, he made his way withing his limited ambit from birth to the grayness of old age; his needs, his
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activities, did not stand in opposition to his view of life, to his struggles, and he was not put to the test (being proved). Today, God forbid, such an education can be dangerous, and neglected youth barely is able to perceive the need, and they throw themselves against the wishes of their parents for them to engage in practical studies (and in today's times, this cannot be prevented, the education steals its way into the orthodox homes that try to lock it out), and they take revenge against their faith, and disobey their parents, thinking of them as enemies, as Agents of Darkness. It is better, from childhood on, to guide a child in the spirit of the times, and thereby instill great pride in him for his nation, which has been able to hold on for thousands of years, weathering all of the most terrifying assaults, and with its patience made it to the point, that all other nations must recognize it. It is better to clearly and specifically explain the purity of his beliefs, of our Torah, that he should feel fortunate to be a child of this people, that has – pave the way for almost the entire world's religions. By so doing, he will become a Jew in his heart, and he will be willing to suffer disappointments that may come some day because he is a Jew, in the conviction that whoever chooses to either insult or circumscribe the rights of a Jew, is not a person of any worth, in the spirit of the civilized world, and that one has no need to feel distressed by that type of person. Such an education is entirely harmonious with the spirit of the parents, much as leaves of a tree [harmonize] with its ripe fruit. Such real thoughts and feelings arose within us at the graves of the parents and a stream of hot childish tears lightened our heart. With a longing heart, we left, who knows if we will again in this lifetime be in a position to fulfil this sacred ritual; only the hope that we will unite with their spirits when we meet in a better world strengthened us, and in our hearts we thought: ‘we shall meet again, my dear parents.’
We had barely returned to the city, when everyone already knew of our arrival. Everyone seemed very happy, and smiled at the fact that I had thought to visit my birthplace after 30 years. The first visit that we made, was to the old, venerable Rabbi Moshe Wohl, the pride of our Zamość. This is our aristocratic son, the son of the Turobiner Rabbi, in whose house Torah, wisdom, lineage, wealth and cosmopolitan advice-giving were all unified (the Rabbi, R' Yitzhak's daughter ז”ל, the author of Zikhron Yitzhak). He lived as a merchant in Zamość, and somewhat more than 35 years, was Rabbi in the city where he was born. Apart from his scholarly knowledge, he is a completely accomplished scholar, expressing the prevailing spirit of Zamość, writes Hebrew beautifully, and along with his genuine piety, he is very tolerant. He earns the absolutely highest level of respect. It is natural that both of us were very happy to see each other again. We then visited that refined wealthy man, R' Yehoshua Margolis, and also one of the oldest friends of the house of our precious father, R' Zalman Finkstein. Afterwards, we went to the pro-gymnasium, which has been in existence for a number of years now, and had Jewish students from the beginning, whose numbers grow every year; to the point where a Hasid also sends his child to the gymnasium. Under 90 students are in the 4 classes, of which 31 are Jewish, of which 13 have received commendations on their examinations, even though they do not attend on Shabbat, and at the time of the opening, the District Inspector, Mr. Szerszeniewicz, permitted Jewish student to go to synagogue, and released them from school attendance. They also have one religion teacher, who is appointed and paid by the government, and is a graduate of the Vilna Teacher's Seminary. – Well, the dignitaries complained, that the Inspector (there was no director there), proposed and decided in the teacher's committee, that Jewish students must attend gymnasium on Shabbat, and if not, they will be charged with an absence, through which they can be expelled. – After the inspector had given us a tour of the classes, and we had evaluated the lessons, and assessed the entire local structure, we set to conversing with him, asking what he wants to compel the Jews, in particular, to attend class on the Sabbath, after it had been established up until now, that they were permitted to observe their Sabbath, and not penalizing them for it. He had answers in abundance, but we concluded from all of this, that he cannot on his own volition, make the decision, he has first to present this to the director of the classical gymnasium in Chelm, to whom he is subordinate, and that person must present this to the Senior Teaching Administrator in Warsaw. We promised the gathering that we would speak to the Curator about this matter. It became possible for us, during the first few days after our arrival in Warsaw, to discuss this matter during our first audience with the Senior Administrator. We recalled the approval of His Excellency, Mr. Szerszeniewicz, our good (friend) and acquaintance, who has given us permission to offer support in this matter. The Senior Administrator, and his assistant, Mr. Micniewicz, promised us, that when this proposal will come up, they will act not only for Zamość, but will write up a circular for all of Poland, [indicating] that Jews may, with the permission of their parents, refrain from attending on the Sabbath, and not have to attend at all, or should they decide not to miss the lectures, they may be released from any requirement to write or underline. We hope that they will keep their word.
After noon, we visited the Jewish hospital. This is the same location where a private individual, R' Sender'l the Doctor's
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[son] (R' Berish ז”ל) had built even before we were born, significantly restored, and a great deal added to it. It is well managed and is maintained in the best of order. We will cover more details in our Hebrew brochure, which, with God's help, we are thinking to publish about our thoughts during these travels.
We had no other obvious institutions to visit. The guest-house which was in operation during our time, that is to say, one local building, which wasn't very large, even though it was a refuge for transient poor people, with a controller, it no longer exists. A Talmud Torah no longer exists. There is a Heder located in one place, not worth visiting. It is true that Zamość has suffered for a great many years, but despite this, we are saddened that such an important institution should be so neglected there. It would be proper if a few energetic people would apply themselves to this matter, and install a Talmud Torah of the type demanded by the times, [to teach] Tanakh, Hebrew, Mishnah, even some Gemara, Shulkhan Arukh, specifically desirable translated items, and alongside this, Russian and arithmetic. For sure they will find the means, even though the construct just implemented is being absorbed with great difficulty. – The remaining active community Hevras from prior years remain in place.
In general, Zamość made a very good impression on us, even more so after seeing out brethren in Krasnystaw, Lublin, and other cities, until Warsaw, and even in Warsaw itself, we came to the conclusion that Zamość stood higher than all of these communities in Minor Poland. Foremost, we were struck by the wild thoughts and the disarrayed appearance of our Jewish kinsmen with whom we hadn't lived with for a long time already, and during the week's delay before reaching Warsaw, and then in Warsaw itself, could find no way out of it. It would seem that Jews use the equality granted to them by the government only a few years ago, solely to pick the spodeks and the shtrymels off the ground and put them back on their heads again. Yes, it appears that the dead have arisen, and they crown their heads once again with shaved heads and long side locks which is frightful to behold (not curled, they reach down to the shoulder). A part of them let some of their side locks get into noodle soup, or get stiffened from beer, and look like waterlogged pipes; others hang curls straight down, giving the appearance of pigs tails; and yet others have spread out hair, curled or not, like a forest. One does not need to take a microscope to these animals that are found there. You can understand that the rather full yarmulke can be seen sticking out from under the shopworn out little spodek. The old, long outer coats with the tightly wound gartels, with the knot in front have been given a new life. Shoes and stockings, with worn out heels, are very much in style. We have thought about the side locks already, and if those local Jews have not gotten a wink from up above, since the Master of the Universe does demand from Jews in general a certain measure of sideburns; it is as if in our times, among our many sins, shaving of the sideburns had come among the Germans, so through their command, they want to establish this, and earn the entire reward. – It is true that the women don't wear veils, but only the rough homespun or pile of cloth, so it would be worthwhile for the head of all Parisian couturiers to use this as a model, and perhaps the French Empress Eugénie might dress like this, an this style would then catch on throughout all of Europe. In that event, the Polish [sic: Jewish] women might find something else to wear, so as, God forbid, not to look like the gentile women. Sort of a heap with a sash around it, ribbons, running colors, pearls, whether wax or glass. After all, how does one send a Jewish daughter out without jewelry. These young adolescent girls are a torture to the heart. One sees grandly, a plain hair for band (for the elderly), braided with hair band curls; wigs made from raw silk, and the hair of gentile women, of half so. A portion of the younger women wear ornaments, and have their wigs dyed black, and under that is the residue, the natural part of their shytel. And their own hair is mixed with and braided into the foreign hair that is put on top. It would not be decorous to describe the appearance of this chignon. – For sure they have Christian freedoms in Poland! We didn't see anything like this anywhere in Russia during our trip, until we set foot across the Polish border in Hrubieszów. Feh, feh, it is not for this that we are Jews! – Zamość earns a compliment, there one sees quite a bit less of this type of wild figures, only the women will have to forgive us, since even if less so, they are strange with their hair decoration. Of course, there is much yet to be improved in Zamość, but in Poland, Zamość can still be taken for a progressive place. We hope that time itself will accomplish this, and when the regime stopped forcing the Jews to wear European style clothing, the spirit of the times itself will hold up a mirror to them, so that they can look at themselves and recognize how ludicrous their appearance really is.
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In 1874 in Warsaw, a small book was published, comprised of 86 pages containing 12 fables, under the title: Couples or The Conversations. To drive away the idle time. The author of the book was a Maskil from Zamość, Zalman Sobel. From the Hebrew introduction, written by Gabriel-Yehuda Lichtenfeld (Gi”L), the father-in-law of I. L. Peretz, one learns that Sobel was a teacher, a father of six children, and a great pauper. The introduction itself is written more to help the author sell books than to provide an endorsement. Lichtenfeld takes on the defense of the Yiddish language, and argues that it is precisely such a dialect… like the German dialects, where there is a literature, whether it does, or does not follow in the direction of the canonical direction of German literature. The author of the introduction translated one of the fables into Hebrew, and placed it right after his own introductory remarks.
The point of why Lichtenfeld's introduction was written (he assures the reader that his intent is to assist a Maskil who wanted to write in the ‘vernacular;’ that he was not paid to do so: that the author is a pauper, and ‘doesn't have the means with which to pay’ is entirely characteristic [of him]. He, himself wrote poetry, but only in Hebrew; his introduction to a small Yiddish book is offered with warnings that indicate this to be a matter done out of pity rather than a matter of according any literary respect for Sobel's fables.
The 12 fables, however, do earn the interest of a Yiddish literary historian. They are important and interesting paradigms of the literary style, which apart from Shlomo Ettinger, has no real precedent in 19th century Yiddish literature.
In his ‘History of Yiddish Literature,’ Leo Weiner presents the first view of Sobel's fables. He correctly appreciated their strong idiomatic language. To our regret, he did not go further than this appreciation. Zalman Reisen, in his Lexicon (II, p. 590), repeated Weiner's view, but added only that a prior work of Sobel's existed, called Dorot Olamim, Warsaw 1865, which is a sort of chronology of important events ‘from the time of creation to current times.’ Noah Prilutsky, in his book, The Struggle (Warsaw, 1923, p.114) cites a greater portion of Sobel's fable ‘The Shtrymel and the Spodek.’ Nobody gave an assessment of these fables in their text.
The essential fact that Sobel was from Zamość, and that Peretz's father-in-law wrote the introduction to his fables, raises the level of importance of this book from a literary and cultural-historical point of view.
The 12 fables are dialogues between Shtrymel and Spodek, a wristwatch and a wall clock, a tablecloth and a prayer shawl, a mirror and a window pane, etc. This style of poetry, done in the form of a dialogue, is well-known in the Yiddish literature. It suffices to take note of the poets of Brod, and the epigogual period of the Lithuanian comedians. This style, over time, became so imbedded into the folklore, that it was no longer possible to know who influenced whom [in regard to style].
In this respect, Sobel is the exception. There are many images of the human condition in his fables, primarily of Hasidic life in Zamość, and despite the fact that his tendency to be anti-Hasidic is very prominent, one feels the authenticity of the ambience about which he writes.
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Sobel is a democratic Maskil. He criticizes the feasts held by the rich Jews, who forget that a mass of paupers writhes around them. He is not a major spokesperson for the masses – he calls them: ‘ever-present everybody,’ but in him, compassion stands higher that everything else. The Bet HaMedrash (probably the one in Zamość) was to him ‘an archive of sacred books, precious Gemaras, and Pentateuchs.’ Sobel did not hold by the theory that was at that time very popular in Poland, that by saving, one can become very wealthy. He is ironic about this when he writes, that such a view is a good response on the part of the rich not to be concerned for the poor. ‘Let your brother also have a life, let him also have a piece of bread,’ he writes.
He mocks the external trappings of the Haskala, which express themselves by their abandonment of traditional Jewish modes of dress, and in changing of names. ‘There is respect shown for shortened garb, which is intentionally given, only because it has no Yiddish name.’
In many of the fables, similarity in images, and metaphors sparkly. The Shtrymel, for example, ‘with points all around the brim, is the mirror of Yiddishkeit with the gilded rim.’
In the fable, ‘The fireplace and the oven,’ the fireplace says: ‘what is your lineage, seeing as pure pearls fall from your mouth,’ and it is for this reason that people stroke the oven. And the fireplace itself has a ‘manner as coarse as flax.’
The pot (in another fable) has ‘a belly full of grain, meat up to the craw,’ and is ‘a major character so long as the fire burns, and heats it,’ but when there is no longer any fire, the pot loses its status, and becomes like a lump of clay.
The onion, which takes so much pride in itself, and is impressed because the khrayn and radishes are its best friends.
In the fable, ‘the prayer shawl and the tablecloth,’ the tablecloth expresses pride that the ‘whole world of women become enthralled with it on the Sabbath eve.’ The prayer shawl answers that the table cloth has only one thing in mind: ‘stuffing its face and swilling,’ but when one goes off to the Other World, one takes along only the prayer shawl.
In the fable, ‘Two Sides,’ there is a debate between a rich and a poor person. The pauper asks:
Is it possible that the Angel of Death would overlook
One who has eaten the best in his life, and lived in salons?
And then says that
A man without means, down on his luck
Can also have a bit of Nachas.
The pauper laughs at the approaching wealthy people for whom ‘in order to eat, there has to be a silver fork.’
The hearts of the rich are ‘filled with hard quartz stone.’
One finds interesting words and wordplay in Sobel's work, which are rarely encountered. When he writes about young people that love to dance, he writes: ‘Na'aronim[22] Tanzen.’ A mother-in-law that feeds her son-in-law only soup is described as ‘a mother-in-law that ‘soups him ’at mealtime.’
It is appropriate to cite two instances of the old-fashioned Yiddish expressions used in Poland:
‘I was born to shayneh familianten,’ that is, from a prominent family, and the ‘rayenteh ksubeh,’ a wedding contract that was signed at a notary (regent in Polish).
The fables of Zalman Sobel's, the Maskil from Zamość, are a continuation of the tradition of Shlomo Ettinger.
Footnotes:
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