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The following depiction, reproduced here with abbreviations, is by I. Ch. Kontsipolski and describes the former Jewish cloth manufacturing in Bialystok.

To our sorrow and pain, the chapter of the world-famous Bialystok cloth industry has already been consigned to history. It is over. Although Bialystok was not a large city, it was nevertheless a lively and vibrant center of world trade. The city not only produced textiles and cloth, but also leather, iron, and other goods. Our dear relatives and acquaintances lived and worked there. The enemy destroyed them through bloodshed, fire, and smoke, and we don't even know where their graves are.

It is worthwhile to reawaken our memories of our recent past and our beloved, ruined city: “To shed a tear for the city once great among peoples, princess among the provinces.”^[3]

Cloth production in Bialystok began 120 years ago. The German government, which had annexed Bialystok and its surroundings from Russia 150 years ago and briefly controlled it [1795-1807], sent hundreds of families from their overpopulated lands to the Bialystok region, including many weavers and skilled artisans. Gradually, these Germans established and developed the cloth manufacturing.

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The Jews were excellent students who surpassed their German masters. They transformed the city of Bialystok into what would later become the largest manufacturing center in northwestern Russia.

We would also like to share facts and figures from our memory that essentially correspond to the time when we lived, traded, and even participated in Bialystok's manufacturing during the period after 1900.

We can divide Bialystok's manufacturing history into four periods. The first period is from 1840 to 1880, when the first factories opened in the area around Bialystok. These included the Moes factory in Choroszcz, the Buchholtz factory in Supraśl, and then the Commichau blanket factory in Bialystok. Many other factories later opened in the Bialystok area, but not in Bialystok itself because the city had no river^[4]. Finally, complete factories with dyeing and finishing plants require clean water.

Gradually, Jews began engaging in manufacturing. Sender Blokh, the son-in-law of Itshe Zabludovski (also known as Itshke the Wealthy), was the first manufacturer. He died young, and his energetic wife, Malka-Reyzl, took over the factory. Others soon started producing as well, including Nokhem Mints [Nachum Minc], Eliezer Halbershtam, Dodye Zabludovski, Noyekh [Noach]-Dovid Blokh, Dovid-Avraham Kempner, Yaakov Shloyme Barash, Berl Polyak, Leyzer Ber Preysman, Fayvl Blokh, Yeshaya Visotski, Betsalel Novik, and others.

For the first forty years, Jewish manufacturing was primitive. Looms were operated by hand, and manufacturers with insufficient technical expertise did not last long. Most produced thick “palto” [overcoat] cloth and wool or plush blankets.

This period saw the emergence of new manufacturers, including Aharon Surazki, Tevya Slonimski, Elizier Abramovski, Binyamin Amdurski, and Yudl Kronenberg. They were more successful, and their factories lasted longer. Although Jews faced competition from German manufacturers, thanks to their diligence and skill, Jewish manufacturers distributed their goods throughout the vast Russian markets via traveling salesmen.

By 1880, the [significant] Jewish presence in Bialystok's production was evident.

The first strike at Aharon Surazki's Bialystoker factory broke out in the 1880s. Anyway, the approach to this historic first strike in Bialystok was quite characteristic. Aharon Surazki was a Kotsker Chassid. He had a custom of going to the Kotsker Shtibl in the shul-hoyf (synagogue courtyard) early in the morning to pray. There, he would study a portion of the Mishnah, have a little schnapps in good company, then have breakfast at home and drive to his factory in Nowe [Miasto] in his carriage. One day, when he arrived at the factory at 10:00 a.m., he saw all the weavers sitting on the grass in the yard.

“Why are you sitting there not working?”

A weaver named Khayim Leyzer Yashinovker, who was also a Kotsker Chassid, stepped forward and gave Surazki a speech that began with these words:

“Listen, Aharke. The Torah says, ‘vechai achicha imach,’ meaning ‘your brother shall live as you do,’ and ‘ki yimuch achicha ve-hechezakta bo,’ meaning ‘if your brother falls into trouble, you shall raise him up and support him.’ Remember, Aharke, we work for you, and our wives and children are starving. We won't go back to the factory until you give us a raise so we can feed our families!”

This enraged Aharon Surazki.

“What's this all about, Khayim-Leyzer? Why are you calling me Aharke? Do you think you're in the Kotsker Shtibl? Here, I'm called Surazki, the factory owner. I can't accept this. Don't speak to me with such chutzpah!”

In the end, after a short strike, he partially gave in to the strikers (as I learned from one of them).

In the 1880s, improvements were made to Jewish factories. Gradually, steam power replaced pure manual labor in factories. Mechanical looms were introduced and fast, large self-acting mules were used instead of hand-operated machines in spinning mills.

However, only Christian Polish, German, and Russian workers benefited from these improvements because they were monopolized by these groups. Jews had to make do with hand-operated looms.

At that time, Jewish manufacturers produced fabrics such as “drap^[5],” “derbe,” “shtikfarbike,” “dimyen,” “eskimo,” and other “shevyot”^[6] cloth.

Most of the “drap” fabrics were produced by the Lunskis and the Amdurskis in Horodok, as well as in Nezbodke-Mikhalove [Michalowo-Niezbudka?]. There was an economic boom at that time as a result of the Russo-Turkish War because goods tend to sell faster and at higher prices during wartime. Manufacturers turned a profit and expanded their factories.

However, this prosperity was accompanied by frequent crises. Factories had to close due to economic pressure with no way out. Workers went without jobs, and the 8,000 textile workers in Białystok experienced great hardship and suffering. There were no unions or government support, and the workers had no savings. People suffered real hunger and hardship, resulting in bankruptcies and causing merchants and manufacturers to leave the industry .

In 1899, a particularly severe crisis swept through Bialystok. There was a great famine in Russia. People couldn't buy clothes. There was no bread, either. All the merchants in Bialystok who had bought goods on credit were left with their parcels of merchandise. Many of them couldn't pay for them.

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As a result, Bialystok's manufacturers closed their factories. Without money or goods, the city was thrown into a tailspin. One company after another fell victim. Bankruptcies occurred daily, and merchants went bust. Only by the end of the year did the situation improve, and life returned to normal.

By the beginning of the 20^th century, Bialystok was on the road to recovery. New manufacturers arrived and the weaker ones collapsed due to the previous crisis. Only the strong remained. Thus, the Poretski-Gavenskis arrived with new products for Bialystok, such as “burke” [fur capes], “shevyot” for cloth suits, drill fabrics and blankets, and “kastor,” a [cheap] suit fabric.

Bialystok began expanding its industry and mechanizing its machinery vigorously. They also sent energetic merchants to Russia to sell their goods.

The manufacturers examined how they could compete with those in Lodz and Momashov [Tomaszów Mazowiecki?], but most importantly, with the German manufacturers in Bialystok alone. These manufacturers tended to produce expensive goods. The Jewish manufacturers could not do this, so they started making goods for the tandet [cheap goods] tailor. Thus, the Jewish manufacturers could produce an article for two rubles per “arshin” (0.77 yards) while another manufacturer produced the same article for four rubles per arshin; in each case, the cost was purely for materials.

Bialystok produced goods so cheaply that cloth was sold for 70 kopecks per arshin. Moreover, ready-made coats were sold for five to six rubles each.

However, even though the non-Jew only wore his coat to church on Sundays, it was torn beyond repair by the second year.

Bialystoker blankets were also sold far and wide. In addition to Triling, who sold his “Montanyakh”^[7] blankets, Eliezer Abramovski was another major blanket manufacturer. In 1903, he sent a ship full of blankets to China and Manchuria, but Japan confiscated the ship during the Russo-Japanese War. Abramovski sued the Russian government and was subsequently paid.

Dovid Dubinski and Nokh were also major manufacturers of blankets.

At that time, strikes were a frequent occurrence. Founded in 1897, the “Bund” dealt with the strikes and dominated the Bialystok working class under its wing. The Polish revolutionary organization P.P.S. [Polska Partia Socjalistyczna] was also characterized by significant activity among Polish workers. So were the Russian S.D. [Russian Social Democratic Labor Party], anarchists, and communists among some workers.

In 1901, the Jewish factory owner Yisroel Mareyn was killed. Later, factory owner Eliezer Hendler was shot. Earlier still, “loynketnik” [small textile entrepreneur] Mendl Kolner was stabbed to death.

It was a turbulent time, and Bialystoker workers played a significant role in the Russian Revolution. Many police officers, high-ranking Russian officials, a police sergeant, and ordinary police officers fell victim in Białystok. In 1905, the government settled the score with Bialystok's Jews by organizing shootings on Surazer Street on “shabbos nakhmu” [Shabbat Nachamu], which resulted in many casualties. The following year, in 1906, the Russian government organized a pogrom in Bialystok. About 100 Jews were killed, and an even greater number were wounded.

A very prosperous period began for Bialystok's cloth manufacturing in 1907, and a large-scale transition to power looms began. Driven by nationalist sentiment, Jewish manufacturers began hiring Jewish workers for the new machines. However, Christian workers often expelled the Jewish workers, arguing that they had long enjoyed a monopoly on using the power machines.

This would often lead to fights until Bagayevski, the Governor-General of Bialystok at the time (who had a Jewish wife), intervened. He reached an agreement with the manufacturers and workers that half of the workers operating the new machines would be Jewish and the other half would be Christian. The “loynketnikes,” however, were excluded from this agreement and could hire whomever they wanted.

The final major milestone of the textile industry's boom was the electrification of Bialystok. In 1909, a Belgian company was granted a concession to build a power plant there. This doubled or even tripled production within five years, leading up to World War I.

Due to low energy costs and the ability to keep looms at home, workers and manufacturers switched to electro-mechanical looms.

Through the Bialystoker agent, one could order as many looms as desired on an installment plan. Foreign looms could be ordered on the condition that they would be paid off over several years. The Bialystoker “Payen Bank” loaned the weaver the first 300 rubles so he could pay the agent some cash.

Thus, the Jewish bank played a major role in Bialystok's manufacturing boom. According to my estimate, there were about 1,500 power looms in factories and about 1,500 looms in “loynketnikes” at that time. Hand-operated looms no longer played a role, and perhaps only a few dozen remained.

The steam-powered looms worked in two shifts. In my opinion, the trade sold goods worth approximately 150 million rubles in one year, 1911-1912. Around 25,000 people, including merchants and workers, lived near the factories at that time. Plans to electrify the tram in Bialystok were already in place by then. The line was to extend to Vashlikove [Wasilków].

However, with the outbreak of the First World War, everything was canceled. At that time, competent commissioners acted as agents in the cloth industry, including Shvartsbart, Aharon Yeshaya Shapiro, Arke Zilbershtam, Atlas, Raskyes, and Y. B. Epshteyn.

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Shvartsbart had two large merchants: the Muscovites Arshinov and Mitropanov. They bought goods for a quarter of a million rubles, paying mostly in cash. They arrived during Passover, when manufacturers were eager for profits, and purchased goods at low prices. Around Shavuos, a Moscow merchant named Madame Gokh used to come to Bialystok with her sons. She was the widow of a Nikolayevsker soldier. She usually bought goods worth 100,000 rubles. When she set the goods aside, they immediately wrote her an invoice with a discount for cash payment. She would then go to a corner, pull packets of “Katerines” and “Petrovkes” (100- and 500-ruble banknotes) from her stockings, and pay immediately.

Other merchants gave instructions to come to their hotels, negotiate terms, and submit bills of exchange, which often had a one-year payment term. In the city, this was called “Na Gad G'dud Yagudenu^[8].” During Shavuos and the summer, “tandente gotove-platye” [traveling merchants with ready-made garments] would often come. They were called “gotove-pleyte,” meaning “ready to go bankrupt.”

Once, “prikaztshikes” [merchant clerks] from a well-known company in Berditshev came to buy for themselves.

A factory owner answered them:

“I can't give you anything on credit because you won't pay anyway. As we know, you can only give credit to someone who has money and is honest. No matter how you look at it, though, it comes down to the same thing: either you were employed by someone, were honest, and didn't steal–in which case you can't have any money–or, conversely, you were dishonest and stole. So, if you have money, then you can't be honest, and I can't give you anything on credit…”

And so, Bialystok often suffered from frequent bankruptcies. Some merchants sent goods to Russian markets and trade fairs, or traveled there to sell them. The largest market fairs were usually held in Nizhny Novgorod, Kyiv, and Yarmolinets. After returning from Nizhny Novgorod, the manufacturer Binyamin Amdurski was asked what life was like there. He replied:

“There's as much merchandise there as street dirt and as many merchants as dogs, and I recited the second verse of Shir HaShirim^[9] to them, the bankrupts…”

There was a category of manufacturers who traded with poor customers. If things went well for a few years, they became rich. If not, they became destitute.

“Der Dorf”^[10] –that's what Yudl Kronenberg, his sons Sender, Khayim, Leyb, and Hershl, and his brother Binyamin Amdurski were called. They mostly traded with less wealthy customers. Their factories were located in Horodok and Pestshanik. Many manufacturers had no machinery at all. They would send yarn to be spun on other people's machines, where it was woven and finished. For example, to Velter, Moyshe Krinski, and others.

After getting married, a young man would think about what to do for a living and start producing “kayklekh” [ textile goods]. If the season was good and he made a profit, he continued working. If not, he had cut up his goods for nothing, which meant the end for him!

Manufacturers searched for new items every season. If they were lucky, they made money before the items were widely available. Two major wool merchants at that time were Roznblum and Yerukham Movshovits. The Tshekhonovts merchants used to sell large quantities of wool to Bialystok. Manufacturers also bought a large portion of their wool at the Warsaw Wool Market. Wool produced by Polish landowners from their Merino sheep was brought there from all over Poland. Bialystok also bought wool from Germany that had been sheared and washed from Australian Merino sheep.

In 1911, a new product was introduced: “Dubley” [Dublee]. The inventors were the manufacturers Psakhin and Freydkin. They became very wealthy because, at first, no one knew how to imitate their product. The manufacturers Fink and Feynsod worked their way up through a patent. They posted a sign on their goods that read “free of shatnez,” [meaning free of religiously forbidden mixed fabrics]. They earned a lot from their Polish clientele.

Bialystok was generally a city where you could make good money. Throughout the surrounding area, it was considered a second America. The city expanded year after year, growing with new buildings. The merchant class never considered immigrating to America. Those who left were people who didn't want to serve in the Tsar's army, were bankrupt, or were politically incorrect. This continued until 1914.

During the first year of World War I, factories received large orders from the Russian government. However, as the German armies approached Poland, the manufacturers sent trains of goods deep into Russia. The sale of goods and opening of factories was undertaken by Yerukham Bril in Klintsi, Paretski-Gavenski in the Kyiv area, and Triling near Moscow. Many kept their goods until the end of the war. However, by then, the Bolsheviks had taken over the government and confiscated the goods.

So the factory owners returned to their factories in Poland without capital, they were impoverished and depressed.

Following the peace agreement with Russia in 1919, the reconstruction of the new Poland brought the powerful Polish industry to a standstill. Lodz, with its cotton and vigogne production; Bialystok, with its cloth and blankets; and Tomashov and Zgerzh, known for their fine cloth manufacturing, were left without markets for their goods.

Warsaw, with its haberdashery goods, was affected as well.

Poland, with its 30 million inhabitants, only needed two months to restart production in the aforementioned cities' efficient, modern factories. Another textile center also emerged: Bielsko in Lower Silesia.

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President Wilson had separated it from Austria and assigned it to Poland. Bielsko also produced cloth goods and woolen blankets. All of these cities with their machinery and industries had been adapted to the Russian market of 160 million people.

During the German occupation of World War I, Bialystok produced goods on a small scale for the German army. New manufacturers emerged at that time, including Sokol-Zilberfenig and Nokh. They purchased many steam-powered looms and machine accessories, including spinning machinery units and finishing materials, from Lodz. Lodz suffered greatly because the Germans seized the steam mills and destroyed the machinery. The Germans believed that Lodz would certainly remain under their control and intended to destroy its high-quality manufacturing for a long time to come.

However, they weren't afraid of Bialystok because it produced cheap, crude goods that Germany didn't produce. Thus, they spared Bialystok.

While the Bialystok factories suffered no damage, German manufacturers in Bialystok and the surrounding area were forced out of business. This included the prominent Moes of Choroszcz, whose factory was burned by the Russians, as well as Komikhov from Bialystok, Izenbek, and others.

They were all displaced, and their factories passed to Jews. But what were they to do with the factories, since there were no markets for their goods? They worked for two to three months during the season, sold what little they had, and then there was another standstill. Occasionally, they received orders for cloth for uniforms and blankets for the Polish army.

However, the income was low and only for a short time. The Polish government of Paderewski and Grabski viewed Bialystok with suspicion because the entire manufacturing industry was in Jewish hands, and they did not know if Bialystok would remain part of Poland at all.

And when a delegation of Jewish factory owners came to the Polish War Ministry and asked Finance Minister Grabski to award contracts to factories in Bialystok for the army, Grabski replied that Poland was not interested in Bialystok becoming an industrial city. He said the workers would be better off growing and selling potatoes, and that the factories should be closed.

From time to time, however, they obtained orders for uniform cloth and blankets, which was just enough to survive. The factory owners began to organize themselves. The first organization was “Wielki Przemysl” (Great Industry). Large manufacturers such as Novik, Paretski-Gavenski, Triling, Shmuel Zitron (Citron), and Isak Pines joined this association. A second association was founded by medium-sized and large manufacturers such as Sokol, Zilberfenig, Isser Shapiro, Khana Mareyn, Amiel Kulikovski, Itshe Meir Sokol and his son, and others. Even smaller manufacturers organized associations, including a “loynketnikes” association.

These associations were all active in securing orders for their members in the region. They negotiated with professional unions during strikes and sometimes purchased raw materials from abroad. In fact, they competed with each other for government orders, sometimes even paying extra to secure contracts.

Bialystok tried to find markets in the wider world. After a while, the city was selling goods to China, India, and England. However, due to World War I and the Chinese Civil War, trade halted.

Factory owners and their factories began to leave Bialystok. Some, like the Paretski and Nokh brothers, moved their factories to Romania. They did quite well there until World War I. At the beginning of the war, they came to Erets Yisroel. Some factory owners moved their factories to Yugoslavia, Argentina, and Australia. Thus, Bialystok was left bled dry and despondent.

The Noviks sold their factories piece by piece, keeping only their hat factory.

Paretski-Gavinski also sold their factories, keeping only the finishing factory in Vashlikove [Wasilków].

The remaining factory owners stayed in Bialystok, thanks to Jewish stubbornness, and persevered until the outbreak of the World Fire, World War II, which destroyed the 60,000-strong Jewry of Bialystok–our Geonim, lightbearers in spirit and production.

Our dear, famous, beautiful Bialystok no longer exists!

Three factory friends- woman spoolers- in the year 1904 [Edited by Dr. Tomak Wisniewski, The Place].

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