[Page 510]

He was the last of the older generation of the first Maskilim in Poland. He accomplished a great deal in his life, worked a great deal, and exerted himself considerably. He was a friend and a brother to the Maskilim of Zamość – with ERE”Z, the editor of ‘HaMelitz,’ with Yaakov Eichenbaum (in Luakh Akhiasaf of the year 5657 he published a selection of poems by Y. Eichenbaum, which were in his possession). He was one of the students of R' Yaakov Reifman. The community that surrounded him had a very positive influence on him. He strove for a specific goal in life, and the circle of his friends, who were writers, also influences him to become a Hebrew writer as well.

From the day that ‘HaMelitz’ was founded by ERE”Z, in the first years as in the last, David Shifman took part as a permanent partner, writing a great deal under his own name, and sometimes under a pseudonym. He knew the Hebrew language, the old and the new literature. In the last years, he expended a great deal of energy to bring some order to his books, which he had worked on for many years. These are, a commentary on the Ibn Ezra, and a critique of all commentaries that had interpreted the Ibn Ezra.

… the material circumstances of D. Shifman was good enough. In his elderly years, he was not in the same sordid state as was the poet Natan Neta Shapiro, who often went about with an empty stomach, but did he sing…. Or like those Maskilim from those in the shadow of the Torah, where there wasn't even so much as a stool to sit on. D. Shifman was always cheerful and sated. With his passing (28 Shevat 5663, 1903 – in Zamość) Zamość sustained a great loss, especially the young people, the self-educated, for whom his house was open, where he would direct people onto a good path, and would give them books and periodicals to read.

Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter (untitled)

With the death of Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter, the last of an era has passed into eternity, whose inner beauty was poured out onto him. This era is still close to us, but it appears that it has vanished, and will never again return. The deceased was not a man of our generation, who is full of restlessness and wanderlust, with appetites and desires, with pursuit of frivolities without end. With Dr. Geliebter, possibly the last of the romantics of the old type was laid to rest in the grave. He was the romantic up to the last step he took on the earth, loving to people in his bearing and in his deeds.

Several years ago, I made the personal acquaintance of Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter, though I had read about him already years back. I read, and found out about him in the memoirs of I. L. Peretz, where he dedicated many pages to his loyal childhood friend, ‘to my beloved friend, Itzig…’ and at that time I thought, was Geliebter indeed the way the artist Peretz had chosen to portray him? Or perhaps Peretz has given us an idealized portrait, which he had refined, in accordance with his good style?

After I had met Dr. Geliebter face-to-face, and we conversed for long hours and the gates to the soul of this ‘old young man’ opened up, I saw something else: Peretz did not gloss over anything. Dr. Geliebter was truly just like Peretz has apprehended him, and he remained that way until death: a loyal son of Jewish Zamość, from the days of Dr. Shlomo Ettinger, Yaakov Reifman, the brothers Shimshon and Shlomo Bloch, Zederbaum and other activists and writers of that city, whose names light the sky, like stars, in the chronology books of our history.

[Page 511]

Jewish Zamość in that half of the 19^th century was truly wondrous, within whose walls Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter grew up and received his education, that individual who had the privilege of later becoming a ‘Maskil,’ and a community activist. Peretz calls this city, ‘Little Paris,’ and adds: ‘A city of Mitnagdim, with lofty thoughts, a Jewish kingdom, that knows its own worth, the wise and understanding.’ In Zamość, indeed, there never was a religiously fanatical nest at to this day, a special magic hovers over the Jews of that very city.

Only in that fine Zamość, the residence of Graf Zamoyski, where the renaissance architecture buildings rise in their splendor; the city with its reflection from the marketplace and the specific colors – only in such a place, which is ringed with fruit-bearing fields, could this type of a Jew come into being, who in his spiritual wholeness, stood higher than the average Polish Jew. The Jewish mind and the Jewish heart integrated with each other here, and became as one.

I could be said that only here, on the earth of Zamość, could this type of Jew grow up, who simultaneously is a Maskil, and a Hasid. That's how they all were: Dr. Ettinger, Dr. Wolf-Ber Schiff, Yaakov Reifman, Peretz, and in the end, Dr. Geliebter, who died not long ago. Here were Hasidim and Maskilim, who melted these attributes together to a very high degree.

Here is the story of the father of Dr. Geliebter – R' Feivel Geliebter. The weirdest sorts of legends circulate about him, most of which are quoted in Peretz's memoirs. He was a very rich man, and had a vast amount of property holdings; he was a Maskil who delved deeply into the ‘Guide for the Perplexed’ of the Rambam, who listened to the tones that emanate from the fiddle of that ‘heavenly daughter’ – the Haskala. An ‘apikores,’ about whom it was said in the city, that his lot in The World to Come was not worth the peelings of a garlic clove…. and despite this, he was a Hasid in the most minute of details!

When he was already a man of advanced years, he would travel out of Zamość on his distant journeys, barefoot, hanging his shoes on a walking stick, in the manner of the peasants. An Enlightened peasant, with a high forehead; a peasant that feels himself to be a part of all creation. He used to say: ‘A Jew is obligated to be familiar with the Rambam and be as healthy as a peasant…’

This was the kind of person who was the father of Dr. Yitzhak Geliebter, ע”ה. His son inherited his mind and his heart, the heart of a simple peasant, his wisdom and his health. He was among the first of the young people in Zamość, who entered the Gymnasium after completing studies in the Heder and the Yeshiva. In another city, such an occurrence would cause a ‘revolution,’ and such an individual that would have the temerity to do such a thing, would have been stoned as one who had renounced the essentials of his faith. In Zamość, nobody opened their mouths… that's how different and wonderful it was in Jewish Zamość. Peretz tells: ‘When my friend Itzik'l (meaning Dr. Geliebter) registered in the Gymnasium, there was no uprising that took place against the Haskala. ‘The Heavenly Daughter’ was born here without birth pangs.’

About the year 1874, after he completed his Gymnasium studies, Geliebter came to Warsaw. Here he studied medicine for a number of years at the university.

Afterwards, when he came back to Zamość with a diploma in medicine in hand, he worked for approximately 50 years in his city in medical practice. He was always prepared to hurry with help and give his best energies for the people. His landsleit took great pride in him, and he was their comfort and solace, their help in times of poverty. ‘Our Dr. Geliebter,’ he was called. Yes – Ours!

He was very modest in his life; he would scrimp from penny to penny, as if it was not his own income that he had saved up during the course of his long life, full and splendid. He allocated his money for a purpose… what kind of purpose? From the outset, he, himself, did not know. However, one thing was clear to him, that his money did not belong to him or his heirs. In his old age, the purpose became clear to him. News began to spread about the Land of Israel, which was building itself up. These notices made a strong impression on Dr. Geliebter. – The fatherland is being built! A Jewish peasant! – Meaning, a Maskil and a peasant in one – just like his father, R' Feivel! In this way, he found a goal for his life, his work was not in vain.

[Page 512]

The Jewish doctor from Zamość identifies with this sacred thought immediately. Even before The First World War, (of 1914), he decides to will his entire estate for the purpose of building up the Land. When ‘Keren HaYesod’ is established, Dr. Geliebter travels to Warsaw, not mindful of the fact that such a journey is difficult for an old man such as he. He takes all of his accounting books with him on this trip, where all of the deposits are entered, both from the medical practice and also from his beautiful home, which he had bought in the city of his birth.

Arriving in Warsaw, he presents himself to one of the employees of the ‘Keren HaYesod,’ and asks that they should run a control of his accounting books, so he may donate a tithe…

That was the way of this wonderful man, in the wholeness of his soul, in which he excelled with his great knowledge. He loved the Tanakh and the Land of The Tanakh – The Land of Israel. Year in and year out, he would disburse his assessment and brought his sacrifice to the altar of his great love. He was a Hasid in all manner and all details.

Many great things transpired in the Land of Israel. The lofty concept that the modest doctor dreamed about in the depths of his soul, slowly became a reality: on Mount Scopus, a Hebrew University is built. Very soon, ‘And Learning will Emanate from Jerusalem’ becomes a reality, that knowledge will come from there, and be spread throughout the world. Even before the gates of the research institute on Mount Scopus were opened, Dr. Geliebter began to buy a microscope every year out of his savings. Every year, he gave a new expression to his longing for the realization of his high ideal. When the news of the celebration of the opening of the university in Jerusalem became known in the Jewish world, Geliebter comes to Warsaw to the founder and first Chairman of the ‘Society of Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,’ to the lawyer Stavsky, and conveys to him that he has decided to will his entire estate to the Hebrew University.

After this accomplishment, Geliebter felt, in his youthful energy, that he was a student once again – this time, a student that draws his nourishment from the wellspring of knowledge on Mount Scopus. All of his letters which he would send to the ‘Society of the Friends of the Hebrew Univerity of Jerusalem,’ would be ended with ‘with greetings from the University.’

Think about this: this wonderful man carries the yoke of more than 70 years of living on his already slightly humped neck – but his spirit is still young, fresh, like the spirit of a young student!

It is necessary to recall that this doctor from Zamość carried about yet another ideal, to which he was bound with extraordinary love. He was one of the advocates of Esperanto, and he would say to me: the way that leads to the hearts of men, and to a permanent peace in the world – is Esperanto. He mastered the language completely, and it was in Esperanto that he wrote his work about the impulses to create capital punishment, about the concept of peace, and the like. He was among the recognized Esperantists in Poland, and would travel to the congresses of the Friends of Esperanto, considering these to be the leading representatives of all mankind.

When it was necessary, Geliebter also knew how to defend justice and honesty in a struggle. In the course of years, he was the Chairman of the Jewish community in Zamość, and was the defendant for Jews against the external world. The image of this old man will never be forgotten from my memory, when, with great difficulty, he would drag himself up onto the platform during the elections for the Sejm, in the year 1922 and later in the year 1928. He would proclaim the Jewish national platform in a high and spirited fashion, as if he were a young man.

That is the way he was, this good doctor – the healer of bodies and of the soul! It was a man like this that Zamość gave us – the city of Ettinger, Zederbaum and Peretz. This is the same Zamość, where the Jews that were driven out of Spain received asylum, which the great Polish Graf beckoned them to.

A refined spirit and a modest man together, a good-hearted person, whose spirit is bound up with the Jewish people. May his memory be for a blessing.

[Page 513]

The following obituary appears in ‘HaTzefira,’ Number 238, of 1892, regarding one of the Maskilim from the Zamość coterie, Aryeh-Leib HaKohen Naimanovich, who died in Warsaw in 1892.

R' Aryeh-Leib Anshel HaKohen Naimanovich passed away on the Second Day of Rosh Hashana, at the age of 59 years. He was a Maskil, a loyal to his spirit. He was among the numbered few who stood between the old and the new generation. He wrote the Holy Tongue perfectly, and had a great knowledge of Russian, German, and Polish. He was a friendly man, and was beloved by the community. Years ago, his heritage became visible, when he was a land tenant in the Zamość vicinity. He was a supporter of those who lost their means of support during hard times. Up to his last day, he dealt honestly and was a bulwark with good advice and efforts for the members of his family and in general for anyone with a soul in sorrow. Those who knew him love him, and respected him, and they assembled in a large crowd to pay him their final respect.

From the Editor:

The Naimanovich family, from around Zamość, owners of land parcels, are mentioned a couple of times in our Pinkas. N the work of Y. Bartis (pp. 376-413) is mentioned, from Zhdanov, that individual to whom the Jews who wanted to settle on the land had to come to (in the year 1833); In the work of Dr. Y. Shatzky ‘Zamość and Peretz’ (pp. 451-457) Hirsch'keh Naimanovich is also to be found, who was one of the most important of the wealthy people who were Maskilim (Footnote 6 on page 453). There isno question that the deceased, Aryeh-Leib Naimanovich, who passed away in 1892 at the age of 59, a member of this family tree, and possibly even a son of this Hirschkeh.

He was born in Zamość in the year 1746. In his youth, he occupied himself with commerce, and in this manner came into contact with Germany.

His book of poetry in German: ‘Gedichte Eines Pölnische Jude,’ which appeared in 1771, attracted the attention of the poets Goethe, Herzer and Wiland. In the Germany of that time, he became known as a poet with great talents. Thanks to R' Israel Zamość, his fellow city scion, he was admitted to Mendelssohn's circle.

He studied medicine in the University of Halle in Königsberg. When he received his title of Doctor of Medicine, he returned to Poland.

He was harassed by the members of his community, because of the thought that he was going to convert. He occupied himself with medicine in Hasenpot (Courland)^[1], from where he moved to Mohilev on the Dneiper.

He died in 1817 in Hasenpot.

Note by the Editors:

The prior biographical notice was translated by us from ‘Zamość in its Glory and Denouement.’ There, the date of his death is incorrect. It needs to be 1817, not 1781.

[Page 514]

In that notice, as in the case of an array of other bio-bibliographic sources, it is reported that he was the victim of harassment from his brethren because of the suspicion that he may convert.

In the Yiddish-German ‘Encyclopedia Judaica,’ published by ‘Eshkol,’ Volume 6, Berlin 1930, it is, however, explicitly stated that in the year 1781, he assume the Greek Orthodox faith, and that at the time of his conversion, he took the name ‘Gavril Grigorievich.’ In the same source, it is further related that in the year 1817, he worked as a doctor in the military hospital; in Kamenets-Podolsk.

In all of the sources, it is reported that Issachar Ber Falkensohn was born in Zamość. It is differently reported in the study of the martyr Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum. In his work, ‘List of Jewish Doctors in Poland,’ the birthplace of I. B. Falkensohn is given rather as Salant in Zhmud. That is what is found in his dissertation work, which he submitted in the year 1722^[2] to Halle University, where he received his Doctor's degree.

Incidentally, in the referenced work by Dr. Ringelblum, a Jewish doctor from Zamość, Shlomo Klein is referenced, who studied medicine at Frankfurt am Oder in the year 1762. There also was a R' Moshe Doctor from Zamość in Lublin, who died in the year 5515 - 1806.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The greatest number of Courland Jews lived in Hasenpot, where they carried on a considerable export trade; but at the last division of Poland toward the end of the 18^th century only 896 males among the Jewish inhabitants were registered as citizens. They enjoyed all civil rights and were often chosen to fill honorable positions. Thus in 1797 the Jew Euchel of Hasenpot was elected councilman (‘Rathsherr’). Jewish affairs were governed by a kahal; and the Jews paid a special tax on their synagogue which tax was called Jüdische Capellengelder. Return
2. This must be a misprint, since Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum was born in 1900, and killed by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1944. Very likely the intent was to print 1922, at which time he may have been student submitting a dissertation. Return

Oytzer Hirsch (untitled)

He was very talented. He finished Gymnasium with the best grades, and later completed the course for medicine at Warsaw University and became a doctor.

He was a loyal and committed Bundist. For a number of years before the last Holocaust, he was a doctor in Ludomir. Almost every Festival holiday, he would come to Zamość to his parents. He would utilize these visits to tarry, and give lectures at the I. L. Peretz Library, the Yiddish School Organization, and group gatherings of the Bundists.

He was murdered by the Hitler thugs in the year 1942.

Abraham Gerson (untitled)

Abraham was born to poor parents. His mother was the breadwinner of the family, she had a store that sold salt in the ‘long potchineh.’ This woman did not have any children for many years; those who were born, failed [to survive]. So, she traveled to a ‘Good Jew,’ and he told her – that she will bear a son, give him a name from the Tanakh, and he will have a long life, and that is what happened.

[Page 515]

During his childhood years, the little Avreml demonstrated considerable skill in acquiring knowledge. H did not content himself with the studies in the Heder. He decides to enter the municipal Gymnasium. But this was not easy to accomplish. The observant Jews of Zamość looked considerably askance at those who attend this Gymnasium, they held that this is a way that leads to conversion. Quietly and secretly, the little Abraham went to the Russian Gymnasium every morning, which was located in the building of the former academy. At the home of an acquaintance, that lived close to the Gymnasium, every day he would exchange his traditional Jewish garb and put on the uniformed clothing of the Gymnasium and with bated breath, he would run to the Gymnasium, in order that no one who knew him would recognize him.

Abraham studied in the Gymnasium for a long time. After two years, he was compelled to discontinue his studies for financial reasons. However, these two years were sufficient to lay down a foundation for his own independent education, more comprehensive and fundamental. He was diligent in his studies even then, when the yoke of making a living for his family, which had become larger, fell to him.

He stood for the examination to obtain the title of a lawyer. From that point on, he became the spokesperson for his brethren in regards to the external world. He took no money from the poor regarding his advice concerning inheritance. Abraham Gerson quickly became well-known as a lawyer. Also, the official regime must recognize his exceptional skills and as an indication of this recognition, he receives three gold medals.

Thorough suffused with European education, in constant contact with the Russian and Polish intelligentsia, and in government circles, nevertheless, he is far from assimilation. Strong bonds tied him to his people. He was proud of his Jewishness.

To many of his generation, he was taken to be assimilated, because of his modern bearing, and liberal values. Higher than everything else, he treasured humanity, and the life of a human being was sacred to him.

On one occasion, when it happens that he was in Warsaw, he was a witness having to do with an attack by anti-Semitic hooligans upon a Jewish carriage driver. The policeman took the side of the attackers. Abraham Gerson went to the nearby police station, in order to bear witness for justice. His testimony did not find favor with them – ‘Who are you?’ to which the reply came, – ‘A mensch!’ Which was his proud reply.

In the time of The First World War, when Zamość found itself under the German occupation, he was the City Elder. They did this in a peculiar way. The occupiers sent out staff into the streets that they needed the first, whomever they will meet, to ask: ‘Who is the most honest man in the city?’ The answer given simply was: ‘Abraham Gerson.’ So they came to his house, and proposed that he become the City Elder. He indeed was this, for the entire time of the first German occupation.

In the time of the independence of Poland, the struggle for ‘our and your freedom’ was very quickly forgotten. The anti-Semitic rulers looked for excuses to throw out the Jews from all the prominent positions. They found a rumor, and as a result, Gerson was deprived of his right to appear in court. It was of no matter that he had again taken up giving help and advice for those who needed it. He stood on guard for justice. Masses of people would be attracted to his little office, who were seeking advice against the injustice that grew from year to year.

He became the founder of the Jewish Bank in Zamość, which did a great deal for the benefit of its interested parties, also for many years after his death.

The sorrow in the city was great at the time that he died, his coffin was taken into the Schulhof despite the fact that he was a freethinker. On his gravestone, the following words were carved:

[Page 516]

His entire personality is well expressed in this phrase. A good heart and wisdom – these were the prominent elements of his character.

About these type of people it is said: ‘Woe unto us when we lose them, but we will not forget them.’

Shlomo Luxenbourg (untitled)

– You rotten murderers. You have just about lost the war, and for every Jew, they will shoot 10 of you!

An SS officer walked over to him and shot him on the spot. The following day, this was related in the ghetto, in the Neustadt, by ear. This heroic act made a great impression.

Translator's footnote:

1. As previously noted, the text is silent on whether or not this man was related to Rosa Luxembourg (note slight difference in spelling). This incident is also reported elsewhere in the Pinkas. Return

She was one of the most interesting female personalities in the city. Though she was active in the Bund, she was beloved and respected by all circles that were with us in the city. She was the initiator of all of the activities by us that were cultural activities. She was among the group who took the initiative to establish the Y. Sh. O., where she indeed plays the principal role. Her home is the ‘place for guests’ for everyone who comes as a guest in connection with culture – a speaker, an artist, the first reception was at her place, with a glass of tea.

Her house truly was a sort of club for the Yiddishists and the democratically sympathetic segment of the Zamość Jewish intelligentsia – here politics was discussed, literature, theater, and also Yiddish folk songs were sung. Her husband, Nahum, had a reputation in Zamość for being a good singer.

When the Russians retreated from Zamość, and the Germans came into the city for the second time, she traveled away to Krzemieniec – there, indeed, she is murdered by the Nazis.

Emanuel Zoberman (untitled)

[Page 517]

Fishl Geliebter (untitled)

His religious parents, who had a saloon on the Zamość marketplace, were prominent and beloved in the city as honest good-hearted people. Fishl studied in Heder. When he grew up a bit, he took to secular studies, and had it in mind to prepare himself for the graduate examinations as an extern.

At the beginning of this century, a Bundist organization was established in Zamość. Fishl, in a cut off kapote, no less, was one of the founders, and became a tireless doer. The leaders of the organization were from the intelligentsia, children of the most prominent families. A lively and well-tempered young man, Fishl had an influence on the youth that was sympathetic to the masses. Thanks to him, the strongly conspiratorial organization found a way to access a broader audience. He had a suffix to his name in those years – ‘Women are people too.’ This peculiar suffix was taken from the fact that he would begin his speaking with the words, ‘Khaverim un khavertehs’ – and thereby add deliberately, ‘Women are people too’….

Apart from ‘civilian’ work, the Bundist organization also involved itself in ‘military’ activity – by distributing propaganda among recruits from the Zamość garrison. To this purpose, local gatherings were called for, in which Fishl was strongly active.

In the revolutionary year of 1905 the first open socialist demonstration took place in Zamość – a demonstration of Poles and Jews, organized in partnership with the P. P. S. and the Bund. The Czarist authorities reacted to this with arrests. Afterwards, a number of Bundist activists were arrested. Fishl Geliebter, who was very popular in the city, had to flee. He was later active in the Bundist movement of Lublin, Chelm, Brisk and other cities.

In 1907, he comes to New York. In the first couple of years, he led the hard life of an immigrant that was not yet settled. He did a variety of work, he became impoverished and suffered want. In 1910, Geliebter settles in Pittsburgh, and gets work in the hard, dirty factories of the Westinghouse Company.

By coincidence, he met the engineer, Joseph Baskin in the factory, also an active Bundist from back home. After work, both of them would go to meetings of the Workmen's Circle, and of the Socialist Party. From that time on, a strong friendship set in between the engineer and the common laborer, as well as a close relationship of common effort for many years.

Both later returned to New York. Baskin became the General Secretary of the Workmen's Circle, Geliebter, who worked for a bit of time at HIAS, and ‘Die Zukunft’ – took on a responsible position in the Workmen's Circle, and here, like his friend Baskin, he remained for the rest of his days.

Geliebter was active in the Jewish Socialist Federation even while he was still in Pittsburgh, and later became one of its most prominent doers, and belonged to its central leadership (executive). The Bolshevist Revolution in Russia made a strong impression on him, and he found himself among the first who attempted to plant the seeds of communist planting on American soil. In 1919 he becomes the co-editor of the newly-created communist periodical, ‘Der Kampf’ and in the same year, he participates in the first schism of the Jewish Socialist Federation.

After a certain period of time, Geliebter perceived his fatal error, and returned to the Socialist movement. He joins the Jewish Socialist Farband and is active there as a member of the editorial board of ‘Der Vekker,’ and is a member of the National Executive Committee.

[Page 518]

At the time that the Socialist Party split from the Farband, in the middle of the thirties, Geliebter went, together with militants (a majority from the Socialist Party, and a minority from the Farband).

From 1915 to 1926 Geliebter occupied the position of Executive Secretary of the Workmen's Circle and from 1926 until his death (1935) he was the Educational Director. He has much to his credit in putting the Yiddish school of the Workmen's Circle on a solid foundation. As an editor of the workmen's Circle press – ‘Der Freind,’ and ‘Unser Schule’ – he wrote a great deal and had much influence, so that the organization of the workers should further broaden its activity, especially in the area of culture.

Geliebter remained an ardent socialist up to the last minute, with a strong interest for a broad community life. In all of the actions on behalf of the Jewish working class on that side of the ocean, was all because of his active part. The boundless loyalty to the Bund, that he brought with him from Zamość, stayed with him to his last breath.

This list of references contains twenty items. The interested reader is referred to the original text for details.

My father was called ‘Elyeh Kopf’ by the Jews of Zamość, because he had the reputation in the city for being a clever Jewish man. He was beloved by all the Jews and Christians.

He was active in an array of municipal philanthropic institutions, and societies of mutual assistance. However, he did not involve himself in community affairs.

During periods of distress, they would come to him for advice, and often, really, for some sort of financial assistance – truly a boon, without interest.

Until the last minute of his life, he was full of certainly, even at the most difficult times of the Nazi occupation.

He lived a little more than a year's time in the Neustadt in the ghetto. Until the Judenrat handed him over to the Gestapo, and he was shot by the Nazis on May 26, 1942, on the Szczebrzeszyn Place near the ‘Rotunda.’

Mordechai Zwillich (untitled)

[Page 519]

Chaim Zwillich (untitled)

Ben-Zion Lubliner For a certain period, he was the Chairman of the Jewish community in Zamość and an active society doer. Murdered in Izbica (or taken from there to Belzeć) in the year 1942.		Shlomo Wohl One of the known and respected community activists in Zamość. He was a good scholar, and could speak and write Polish also. For a number of years, he was a councilman in the Zamość City Council. Killed by the Nazi murderers in Lemberg on November 5, 1941.
Yossel Finkman Brother of Mendel and Lejzor. Fell in the year 1939 at the defense of Warsaw against Hitler's armies.		Aharon Geliebter For many years, leader of the Old Age Home in Zamość. Killed in the year 1942 in Belzeć.

Rabbi Joseph Shlomo Shabtai Hurwitz (untitled)

Rabbi Y. Sh. Sh. Hurwitz was born in Woldowo in the year 5621 (1861). His father, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi was the Rabbi there, a descendant from a family of distinguished pedigree, from the ‘Seer’ of Lublin, and also the של”#1492;.

He was retained as Rabbi in Zamość in the year 5649 (1889), that means at the age of 29 years.

He passed away on the first day of Hanukkah 5703 (1943) (according to the information from his grandson Yehuda HaLevi Hurwitz, who published this in ‘Zamość in its Glory and Denouement.’).

[Page 520]

Jonah Szper (untitled)

(Zalman Reisen – ‘Lexicon of Jewish Literature, Press and Philology’ – Fourth Volume, pp. 871-872)

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