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I knew him like everyone else, explicitly, explicitly, a rabbi immersed in his world, good-natured, and as is the custom of the rabbis, he devoted himself to his interests that were not of this world, and as is the custom of the rabbis, he dissociated himself from Zionism.

The rabbi leaned to the party line of Agudat Yisrael which rejected Zionism, and hesitated to oppose them, although he himself was in doubt if it was forbidden to leave for Israel before the coming of the Messiah. Officially, his status obligated both, but deep down in his soul, Rabbi Bendas was a passionate Zionist, rejoiced in its victories and felt the pain of its failures. More than once, I thought that in this respect he was more a man of our camp than others who were staunch Zionists. They arrived at the Zionist cause without any difficulties or obstacles in life and it didn't require much from them, but it was not like that for him, any identification on his part with Zionism jeopardized his status and forced him to follow his “deviation” to the end. Who knows how many spiritual struggles this Jew had to go through to reach this ideological position, and how great his struggle with himself was when he was forced to question the official line and take his own line.

And how did I learn about his Zionism and his internal struggle for it, in order to acquire himself for it?

It was on Simchat Torah when the Zionists entrenched themselves in Yefeh 'Einayim Synagogue and started selling [requesting donations for the honor of performing]  Attah Horeta Ladaa'at^[1], Gelila^[2], Hagbah^[3], and the opening and closing of the Holy Ark for the Zionists funds, and he stood and accepted it as a partner in this unbelievable thing. I was young and surprised, almost terrified, that in a moment the rabbi will burst out and protest that they are selling the synagogue's “merchandise” and giving the proceeds to something that deviated from the conventional and traditional. I was almost as tense as I was curious to see how he was handling it, and deep and focused observation of his responses led me to the conclusion that he was in fact a “captured Zionist.” When given the opportunity to break free from the shackles of convention, he immediately returned to himself and to what was close to his heart, to Zionism, to those who do the work for Zionism. I would almost say that when he looked at these young people who dared to say, “let us appoint a leader” and we will return to Israel, he rejoiced and his whole thought was focused on their success, and that his share would be with them.

His Zionism emerged from its conservative position and stood various tests, thus transforming from passive to highly active.

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If the rabbi, and every rabbi in this sense, shaped the face of the community in Bielsk, then the man who gave shape to the city's public and formed it as one body, as one municipal concept, was Mr. Muzicant.

I was a teenager when he served as deputy mayor, and I was far from anything related to the city's management, its personalities and leaders. Nevertheless, the man is etched in my memory for good, and not precisely because of his official and semi-governmental status, but because of his actions outside the scope of his status.

Muzicant was a qualified lawyer and a great expert on agricultural matters and their legislation. The fact that a Jew found an affinity for field and estates matters in Poland, a country that for periods was an agricultural country that ignored its field workers and saw itself as a federation of landowners who oppressed their tenants at will. This fact indicates that there was something about him that distinguished him as a man with cohesive strength. I would say, as an ancient Jewish man who carried with him in a foreign land his longing for his homeland that is also a concept of land and agriculture, and that too has slipped from our hands due to “a field to a field they draw near^[4]” etc. And he, in his Jewish subconscious saw the correction of the distortions of our Jewish image in the Diaspora by getting closer to the land. He studied its laws, corrected the distortions of its agricultural laws, and deepening the ethics of the field and its owner who cultivates it.

I would almost say, a Gordon^[5] Zionist in intuition, who conditions our return to the homeland on our return to the principles of tilling the land and a profound and binding work ethic. And maybe more than that. But the man was not a Zionist, didn't believe in it, didn't belong to it in any part of his life and not in one of his features. On the contrary, being separated from the public in his feelings and distant from his religious, national, and social doubts, it was possible to see him assimilated into all his words and alienated from the Zionist, Jewish, and national cause. Nevertheless, I was able to see through his class shell and discovered a passionate Zionist who, upon escaping from his Zionist consciousness, could not overcome it. His Polish cultural “rape” was revealed at certain moments, revealed only to me, as armor that could not withstand the bullets of conscience from his fiery Zionist soul.

And so it was.

Muzicant was a wealthy Jew. As a renowned estate expert his clients were among the wealthiest estate owners, and his office at home was full of them every day of the week. All his conversations and achievements were with them, and from them he earned his living and from them came his status. He served the city in his spare time. He didn't have more time than that, and he was not required for more. His rich Polish culture, and excellent speaking skills, added such weight to his personality that his spirit hovered over the city even during his absence from it. In fact, the city's affairs were decided by him, and the Poles also accepted his rule by virtue of his Polish superiority over them. Therefore, the Jews also elected him and used him greatly in municipal matters. His contact with the Jews was official and limited to the area of his public activity in the city. He didn't participate in Jew's special meetings, nor did he spend much time with them, meaning, when they

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gathered for community matters. Sometimes it seemed that the matter didn't concern him. As a Jew he devoted his time to them, they thanked him for that, and that was all. If he occasionally attended a Zionist gathering, or some public event, it attracted attention as much as anything that was an exception to the norm. The city liked him, respected him, and understood his avoidance of its affairs as something that was self-evident, given his status, profession, and perhaps even his worldview which no one actually knew what it was.

And once it happened that we, members of Hashomer Hatzair, published advertisements about a public trial that we would hold to “on the Jewish youth.” The man saw the advertising, freed up his time and came to hear and be impressed by what the Jewish youth were going to say about themselves. He arrived on time, blended in with the large crowd that came to this trial, and stood out with his presence. The discussion revolved around the character of youth, about their standing the test of the generation, their complex problems, their readiness for the orders of the times, etc. We all thought that his interest in this evening was limited to the professional procedural side of things, since the hearing was conducted in a legal manner with a defense, prosecution and collecting testimonies. We understood that as a lawyer he was interested in seeing what a trial would look like as a game of clarifying a legal problem, of abstract guilt, that is, how to exploit the rules of the legal game that deals exclusively with crime for needs that are all spirit, ideas and principles.

He was very impressed by this evening. According to him, it was prepared in every detail. He was also impressed with the way I presented the evidence as a witness in this trial. He took the trouble to bring all this to my attention in the note he sent me. This too is a characteristic of a man of noble virtues. In this note he also invited me to come to his office for a conversation.

I came several days later. In the waiting room was a long line of gentiles, among them “men of means,” estate owners. He received me without waiting in line and when he was alone with me, he said:

- I think you have talent for law. If you study, you will be a good lawyer. I think that your movement is an important movement for our youth. If the movement needs any help in the municipality, come to me and I will bring its help to you. By the way, you can come to my office in municipality and enter without waiting in line. See this as an invitation in time of need, take advantage of it when you need me.

When we parted with a warm embrace, the age and status differences between us were forgotten. He spoke to me like a Jewish youth, whose youth was lost somewhere in the depths of the Diaspora and the desire for knowledge, the assimilation of the Jewish intelligentsia. In this one conversation, in his one personality, the hesitations of the wondering Jewish man passed before my eyes, and it became clear that he was not indifferent to the fate of the Jews. I saw that the other side of assimilation, cultural of course, is the aspiration to take our people from their difficult situation, and this aspiration is none other than Zionism itself.

That's how I discovered Muzicant, a confused Zionist with a deep soul and doubts, and a friendship that had no age or social status formed between [dividing] us.

In time, we took advantage of his aforementioned invitation as our deputy mayor. When we decided to organize an orchestra in our ken^[6], I came to him to ask for his financial support. The city council was on vacation at the time, Muzicant hesitated a bit and said:

- Although the council is on vacation, and since such a good thing should not be delayed, so that the idea and initiative are not exploited, we will pass it without a decision and without a meeting.

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He gave a personal order and all the money we needed was given to us by the municipality treasury.

Officially, as noted, Muzicant was not a Zionist, and some said that he was a folkist^[7] in his party affiliation, but something in his soul told him that Zionism was right. He began to come to every public meeting that the Zionists held in Bielsk, if it was about the response to the “White Paper” of the mandate holders on Eretz Yisrael, or about the calls for help and emergency of the World Zionist Organization. And not only did he come he also tried to make his presence prominent at these meetings.

For years I asked myself why he didn't identify with Zionism officially and personally, as a member of the Zionist organization. The fact was clear to me he was a Zionist in his home and folkist when he left. But no explanation has been found for this duplication.

In 1934, I was on a home visit to Poland and our Bielsk. I visited him. Our conversation was as usual without barriers. I was older by then, and even older as a Jew, because I was a Jew who fulfilled his aspiration [to make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael], and things unfolded in such a way that I simply asked him what the meaning of his double behavior was, and he answered me:

- In my opinion, Zionism means making aliyah [immigration to Israel]. I don't subscribe to a Zionism far from Zion, and I am simply incapable of reaching Zion, because I am afraid of ships, and even more so of airplanes.

Here it is. The geographical distance of Eretz Yisrael removed him from it and brought him to a mental distance. A kind of hidden fear that nested in him from paths of water and air and caused him deep shame, and to hide it, he hid in the mists of assimilation and Jewish ideology, the end of which is assimilation.

He always maintained his faith in the idea of Zion, even when it involved risking his official position. I remember that in 1931 we were going to hold a protest meeting against the Passfield decree^[8]. We took it upon ourselves to motivate Jews to close their shops in the middle of the day and participate in the meeting in large numbers. The police arrested us before the meeting. Shlomo Epstein and I were on the list of speakers, and our imprisonment jeopardized the success of the meeting. There were no other speakers. The Polish police considered our action a step of violation of public economic life, which was considered a call for rebellion against the regime. When the matter became known to Muzicant, he ran to the police and secured our immediate release. I still managed to speak at that meeting at Beit HaMidrash Yefeh 'Einayim. I spoke with my eyes fixed on Muzicant's eyes, who more than many at this Zionist meeting had contributed his share in its success. His practical Zionism, which involved personal discomfort, stood out more than any of the many Zionists who attended it.

Muzicant stood out in his personality among the public opinion makers in our city. He was the most tragic among the thirty-six hidden Zionists^[9]. He was prevented from fulfilling a great life dream due to a minor mental disability. An interesting and prominent personality in Bielsk and his memory will never fade from our hearts.

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I have never heard him giving a speech or leading a meeting, although his friends always put him at the head of every public activity for Eretz Yisrael. This detail taught me that he was not a man of words and leadership. I also knew that he didn't know Hebrew, and I never heard him saying something that would indicate his linguistic and literary affinity for it. Still, his words were heard and his response attracted supporters to it. I didn't know what the man's strength was and it was puzzling to me.

I knew one thing, that there were not many like him. A man dedicated to every public matter he dealt with, loyal to his friends in action, and standing the test of personal integrity. In terms of the need of the community and the needs of the individual - the community preceded. With this, the man Apelboim is etched in my heart as a personality of incomparable positive power, and in my memory, a place of honor is reserved for him in the gallery of exemplary people of our city.

Apelboim was poor and made a living from bookkeeping at a bank which barely met all his living needs. Nevertheless, he was entrusted with matters of public finance, and no one raised any suspicion, or a shadow of doubt in his mind regarding his integrity.

Apelboim took care of the needs of his home and family, but he placed Zionism at the forefront of his concerns and devoted himself entirely to strengthening its place in the Jewish public in Bielsk, to make it a matter of concern to every Jew, and its problems - his problems.

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When I bring his image in my memory, I see him in the synagogue not just once or twice. Everything is bustling. Something is lively, something is turbulent. Here, here, something will break out, a man will rise up against another, the public would be divided into factions. Everyone is afraid and no one dares to bring things up in public; in a roundabout and secretive manner, arguments, ideas, and opinions are brewed. Only Apelboim dares. Suddenly he bursts forward, wrapped in his tallit, he spreads his arms like wings through the tassels and creates storms around him. Immediately everything boils with anger and rage. And the storm had already happened, everything got mixed up. There is no beginning and there is no end, and what will be the end? In the end, everyone succumbed to Apelboim's flurry of emotions and things were decided according to his wishes. If we remember that as a public servant his position could not give him assertiveness, yet he acted assertively in his city and in his Beit Midrash, we will understand that there was something special and personal about him that gave him unquestionable moral validity. The very risk of his economic status in the public, which he always opposed, for the sake of the idea and the view, emphasized this and gave him the impression of spiritual, ideological heroism, which was irresistible, in the face of true passion.

The man was respectable. Accepted by many. He dedicated his days and nights to the Zionist cause, sometimes also at the expense of his livelihood or financial gain. As chairman of the radical Zionist movement in the city, he was ostensibly suspected of being biased, with factionalism that must be resisted. Nevertheless, he inspired confidence among his opponents. They accepted his leadership in every general Zionist matter that took place in the city as if he were not identified with a party affiliation different from theirs.

Apelboim was not among the ordinary men of his generation. Sometimes I think that thanks to people like Apelboim, who identify with their views, the progress of Zionism has reached a historic milestone, and his place of honor in the history of our city and its Zionism is reserved for eternal memory.

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the public was nourished by his words, and from time to time they quoted his words on a social ideological platform.

Years later, I heard him in his various speeches, and was deeply impressed by his great rhetorical talent, from his great power to analyze things logically without resorting to the tricks of passion and pathos of professional or demagogic orators. By virtue of this talent, and together with it, Efraim Melamdovitz also stood out as a man dedicated to his city and a commander who never leaves his positions, and in the place marked by fate, he was a commander and a warrior.

In small towns of Poland there were many “hidden” personalities, and when they appeared they posed a big question mark about themselves: why don't they go far with such talents? Why don't they establish themselves in a prominent position with such talents? And before I knew the true answer, I knew that first and foremost there is a great sacrifice of personal interest for the good of the public, even the smallest public into which this personality got into. For them, anti-careerism has become a kind of moral imperative that cannot be overcome or violated.

He was known for his linguistic talent and knew several languages well, probably from self-study, because I had never heard that Ephraim studied anywhere or graduated from a specific formal education. His strength was especially great in the Polish language, which he spoke and wrote perfectly. For this reason, he was also elected to various representative institutions of the city outside the Zionist movement framework.

Melamdovitz was not a cunning Jew, and at times he even suffered from an excessive naivety that added charm to his character. Nevertheless, he knew how to outwit all the anti-Jewish restrictions he encountered in the city. He always found a way to circumvent the law and not break it, how to stay within its boundaries while deviating from it, its spirit and its script. His wisdom in this field was well known. This virtue placed him at the center of every matter that occurred in the city, everyone turned to his words, and, more than that, to his wisdom. Through his guidance, the “communist” and “politically hostile” (in the eyes of the Poles) Hashomer Hatzair, became a scouting organization whose entire focus was on scouting, and all the ken's activities continued as before despite the closure order issued against it. Meetings, which were banned or thwarted by the authorities by closing a hall or disqualifying it for alleged security reasons, were held outdoors and the wording of Melamdovitz's notice made them immune, and the hands of the haters could not hinder their progress.

We called him Uczony Yevrey (learned Jew), and he was also considered so by the ruling Poles. They were cautious of his legal trickery and the grace of his classical Polish language. His education was complete, meaning if he had to pass a test on its subjects, he would certainly have received recognition and an official certificate, but in our places such things were not done. In our places, life would bestow the educated with the matriculation certificate he deserves. And Melamdovitz was awarded it, and Bielsk relied on his extensive expertise in various fields of knowledge, and his knowledge of the law which was greater than that of a certified lawyer.

The 1920s and early 1930s were the years of legislative anti-Semitism in Poland. The leaders of Poland, who had always been narrow-minded and morally corrupted,

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were still afraid of turning the hatred of the Jews into a political and administrative flag and to use it in the brutal Nazi way, as they later learned to do so from the Nazis. Therefore, their hatred of the Jews and their desire to destroy them, or expel them from Poland, was a hatred that was imprinted in articles of law. They invested all their primitive wisdom in laws whose sting was directed only at the Jewish population, and the best Jewish lawyers stood against this system of the enemies of the Jews. They positioned themselves on the right of the discriminated population and invested all their wisdom in bypassing the insidious laws in order to tear up life decrees that the authorities imposed on the Jews.

In the big cities this was successful, because the Jews had the power to obtain the most expensive lawyer. However, within this ugly discrimination, the Jews of the towns were doubly discriminated against because they were unable to withstand this legal system. To the credit of Bielsko, our city, what the great [lawyers] had done in the country's large cities, Melamdovitz had done in his small city.

Slowly, slowly Ephraim turned his natural talent into a life profession from which he earned a decent living. Jews and gentiles turned to him and sought his legal advice, feeling that his knowledge of Polish jurisprudence was not inferior to that of certified lawyers.

We, as mentioned, came into contact with him when the authorities began to harass our ken and to restrict our activities. But apart from these contacts, we valued the man as a public figure with exceptional qualities, and he had a great influence on us. Melamdovitz was not a man who quarreled with people, he imposed his opinions not through force of argument, but through moderation and words of wisdom, and they made a great impression on us. He didn't know how to control his temper the way Apelboim did, and was wary of them, but when he was allowed to express what was in his heart and soul, there was no one to oppose him.

His words were always peppered with words of wisdom from Jewish and general sources. His universal education was similar to his Jewish education, and in both, as everyone knew, he felt at home. His broad outlook was nourished by a wealth of information and broad human wisdom. His opponents always knew that despite all his innocence, one must beware of the pitfalls of wisdom hidden in his words that were based on broad education. It should not be forgotten that R' Efraim Melamdovitz was a man of action, and there was no activity in the city in which he didn't participate, nor one in which his share was among the smallest.

With Melamdovitz, Bielsk knew moments of great public service that cannot be achieved without a spirit. Bielsk was blessed with this resident and paid him the respect he deserved. He was its walking encyclopedia, delivered pleasant speeches and provided resourcefulness in time of trouble. His memory will live on forever in the book of Bielsk.

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I knew many personalities in the movement throughout Poland and in the country, just as I knew personalities outside the movement's framework. To this day, when I bring in my memory the image of Menachem Stopnitzki, his stature rises above the accepted standards in Israel and its leaders. Menachem was a leader with a leadership personality, as defined today, with force and assertiveness, who stood his ground and knew how to impose his opinion on his opponents. His organizational talent was unusual. There was nothing, even the most difficult of matters, for which Menachem didn't find the organizational tools to bring it from concept to reality and to achieve its goal. With his talent, he harnessed various forces to his vision, and they worked together and with mutual assistance. He activated a large staff of capable people who made the most of their potential, they worked together as he oversaw the work and directed it toward the desired goal.

Menachem Stopnitzki's speeches were among the most famous. With the passion of his speech, he penetrated deeply and melted indifferent hearts. He shook calm individuals and instilled concern in them and moved them in the desired direction, just as he cooled his opponents' rage with his passion and dulled their desire to fight him. With his incredible power of persuasion, Stopnitzki directed his multitude of listeners to the conclusions of his speech, and made them his partners in action and mission, whether they thought about it or not.

In everyone's opinion, Menachem Stopnitzky was the crowned leader in the city and the conductor of all public affairs. He was everything in the city, in the community and the movement. With Menachem, everything became easy, organized, and doable. With Menachem, there was a feeling that everyone would unite into one force that could break through stone walls.

The magnitude of his leadership personality has always been compared to Greenbaum's leadership. Like him they saw Stopnitzky as decisive, omnipotent, purposeful and inspiring. Like him, they saw him as a warrior, commander and tactician, and like him they saw that he would remain active and not fade or disappear.

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It must not be forgotten that Menachem was a learned man, and his profound ideas were rooted in his broad Jewish education and his rich external wisdom. He was an honest man, always drawn to the Bible and tradition, to the ancient glory of our people and to the most modern concepts.

It is true that despite his search for the meaning of values and tradition with serenity, moderation and serenity, Menachem was all turmoil. His life, as it passes before my eyes, was a succession of episodes and inventions, adventures and vision, revolutions and battles, breaking tradition and maintaining the concept of existence. This fusion of assault and preservation of the present served as a guarantee of intellectual continuity, and the trust that his rivals and friends had in him was as great as the trust of the leader of peace and achievement.

Menachem's name was a guarantee for every adventure whose goal was certain and changed the situation. He was everything in the city, the leader and organizer, the teacher and guide, the commander and the common man, who stands at the gate and leads through obstacles. Menachem was also the city's permanent and eternally crowned representative in municipal and communal institutions.

Overall, he was a merchant who owned a store selling leather, and if he achieved his status in the city, it was thanks to his blessed talents and also because he was involved in public affairs. The impression was that he cultivated his shop for his own needs as a necessity, allowing him to devote several hours a day to it, but his main concern was the public and its needs. He devoted the best of his time and days to them.

He was literally immersed in the matters of “air,” as the Jews called public affairs, and in most of his vision he saw in them the main purpose of his life. Being a wise and intelligent man, blessed with incredible shrewdness and wisdom, everyone understood his spirit, and thanks to him public activity took on a vital significance among them, such was the greatness of the man Menachem Stopnitzki. We will always remember him with blessing.

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In contrast to the aforementioned trio, which dominated the General Zionism, Sara was devoted to the pioneering left-wing Zionism because she wanted to make aliyah [to Eretz Yisrael], because she thought that Zionism meant fulfillment. It was known in the city that Sara admired Menachem Stopnitzki as a leader, but still, she was firm in her opinion, and her independent personality helped her to not be influenced by him.

She was an unusual woman, that kind of woman who gets involved in matters supposedly reserved for men only and stands out among them. She was firm in her views and withstood attacks even from her best friends She was energetic, active, and motivated others to always engage in the Zionist cause, and her main task was to work vigorously to recruit supporters for her ideas. Therefore, she took upon herself the care of the “Tarbut” school, which she saw as the foundation for the new generation. She followed every boy and girl who continued [their studies] at the Polish high school and didn't give up her influence on them so that the tiny part of the people would not lose its destiny.

Her influence at the “Tarbut” school was so great that the students' parents directed their children according to Sara Garmeiza's guidelines. There was such charm about her that every word she said was held by those who came into contact with her, as a verified, unquestionable truth. Her dedication to this school was superhuman. People knew that without a great idea, without a great vision of the revival of the people through their language and culture, a childless woman like Sara could not devote herself to educating children not her own, and if there is something in this school that is above their understanding they can trust her and follow her path.

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Sara took care of all the teachers' needs, and by doing so, she wanted them to connect with the place and see their work as an important mission. Sara was concerned about the school's budget and gathered around her a public body that was as dedicated as she was to taking care of the budget so as, God forbid, not to jeopardize the institution which was important and precious to her.

She also found time and energy to care for students who attended Polish high schools, so that they would not be alienated to their origins and would remember that this culture was forced upon them without choice. It should serve as a tool for them to acquire pre-academic education but not constitute a form of national human values In this, Sara fulfilled a tremendous mission. She literally saved our good youth and enriched the various movements with fine human material, rich in general education assets and strong in national awareness.

Night after night, meetings were held at her house. She chaired all sorts of foundations, institutions, and ideological bodies, and also directed people's energy into desired channels.

Sara Garmeiza also had an important place in the city, and her influence was immeasurably greater than that of others. Her high education, her fluency in the Polish language, her passion and the firmness of her demands gave her a status that no one dared to challenge or undermine.

Sara appeared in public meetings with great charm. Her speech was fluent, persuasive and forceful. Her responses were definitive and it was clear that she had considered everything she said, and that she knew the subject of her analysis in all its aspects. So it was in the municipality, so in Keren Kayemet, and so also at the League for Working Eretz Yisrael. Everywhere she was the talker, and when she decided to say something, they knew there would be no way out but to accept her words as the end of a verse, in a “unanimous” decision that could not be challenged.

Her deep morality and impeccable honesty greatly influenced all of these. Everything she had to say, she said straight, without any indirection or evasion. Her morality was particularly evident in the fact that for the sake of the public interest she gave up her own livelihood, neglected her clients, and dealt with public needs out of a feeling that she was irreplaceable in the tasks she took on. Things got to the point where she became more famous as a public activist than as a doctor, despite being an excellent dentist who was well-liked by those who needed her.

Her fame extended beyond the borders of Bielsk and reached far and wide. She was sent as a delegate, whose election was very honorable, to the last Zionist Congress.

In addition to all of Sara Garmeiza's multiple missions, she was also the chairwoman of HeHalutz^[10] in Bielsk and fulfilled her role to the fullest extent of her ability. In this role, Sara identified with the idea of HeHalutz, Hakhshara^[11] fulfillment [aliyah], , and lived her ideal life to the fullest. We knew that Sara was preparing to make aliyah to Israel as a pioneer without self-promotion or fuss. But Sara had to pull too many roots to uproot herself from Bielsk to make aliyah, and so it happened that she stayed there along with all our loved ones in our city.

Sara was the only daughter in our public affairs. Unique and distinguished and as such we will always remember her.

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He is also among my personalities. A dear Jew, quiet and humble, didn't talk about Zionism but practiced it, upheld it with all his heart, his soul and without reservation.

He was an uncertified pharmacist, wealthy and financially secure and, as was his custom, his medicine cabinet was well kept and spotless. But all his thoughts were on Zionism, he devoted his time to it, gave it his home and his comforts in it.

When Sprinzak^[12] came to us he stayed for two days in Bielsk. He stayed because one day he delivered [a lecture] to a Hebrew speaking audience, and one day to a Yiddish speaking audience. But the truth is, thanks to the honorable hospitality at Chaim Radilevsky's home, he enjoyed staying with us more than in any other city and longer than planned.

It was evident that Chaim Radilevsky enjoyed the guests who often came to his home He hosted them in his home out of a mental obligation, like someone fulfilling a duty that he normally could not fulfill.

Chaim was not a speaker and didn't participate in debates. He didn't speak Hebrew and didn't make any efforts to acquire it. He didn't need all of this, because he was born with Zionism. For him it was an assumption that didn't need to be proven and was accepted by everyone. He lived his full life in Zionism, and at times it seemed that Chaim Radilevsky belonged to another period, to other landscapes, to a world not here and that all his livelihood and profession were just a training and a passage to what awaits him in his life, there in the country of his dreams.

One clear day, Chaim cut himself off from Bielsk without saying a word, liquidated everything and made aliyah [to Eretz Yisrael]. The man fulfilled the dream that he only had kept to himself.

His perfect image will remain with us forever.

Few in the city liked him, and few of them appreciated him for his worth (there was something repulsive about his outward appearance, which was meticulous to the point of ostentatiousness). He gave the impression of a man given to pettiness and who sees the scope of his world in one center named Yakov Yoel Beilies. People tended to see him as a petty person, meticulous about his personal details and subject to excessive self-esteem, which stemmed from narrow-mindedness and an unimaginative worldview.

But in reality, he was very different from the impression he gave.

Y. Y. Beilis was an educated man who acquired his education in the Hebrew language. He remained loyal to it and valued it as a means of uniting the people, in all the communities of the Diaspora and as the foundation for the renewal of the Jewish culture.

He was a wealthy and well-established merchant, who calculated his commercial path down to the smallest details. Still, he wasn't as dry and materialist as it was possible to think. There was another soul in him, which was entirely Hebrew Zionist culture. He devoted much of his time to the youth, spending many hours with them, inspired them to sing Zionist songs in Hebrew and infused them with the spirit of longing for Zion. His stories about the Eretz Yisrael that he told the youth were engraved

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deeply in the hearts of his young listeners and stirred their imagination and their youthful desires. And when they were told by a wealthy Jew, a wise and elderly merchant, they were received with all the seriousness implied by them. Not as legends whose foundations were not from there, but as a desirable reality whose whereabouts he revealed to them.

His greatness was most evident when one bright morning he liquidated his business in a very planned manner and made aliyah^[13] to Israel.

There were few like him and few who reached this level, to leave a country rich in food and move to a country that does not feed its inhabitants (This is certainly how he would have expressed himself in his eloquent Hebrew). Only a man with a great vision, blessed with a spirit rich of longing, can break the bonds of nationalism and culture.

In any case, how many Zionists were there in his time, and in his status, who dared then to see in aliyah and its fulfillment the essence of the national awakening? With his aliyah everyone saw that the man was a burning bush, burning in the fire of Zionist revelation, and no one knew it. Beilis was not petty. No! He made his decisions as a man who didn't have to work hard to achieve them, who didn't imitate anyone and didn't feed off of the achievements that someone else has achieved. Alone, and in secret, he charted his own path and overcame his crises on his own, with powers that only special individuals were blessed with — forces of profound historical intuition in the history of his people, his greatness, and personal spiritual strengths that he absorbed from his personal world.

I saw Beilis as he was in his letters to Bielsk. Here he was revealed in all his glory. This wealthy merchant, who found himself in a barren land that barely provided a living for its inhabitants, was happy with his lot and didn't slander the country as others of his kind had done at that time. In his comparison between cursed Poland and the desolate Land of Israel, he drew conclusions in high dimensions of wisdom that are only understandable to people with sublime ideals.

I also continued to appreciate Beilis here in Israel, when the distance between us disappeared and I saw him from a very close proximity. The man was notable for his attitude towards his organization and the individuals of Bielsk in Israel. He was known as a man who kept his vows to his people and his time as vows that should not be broken, and they stand and exist in any situation. His loyalty to our city, and to our people here, shed additional light on his personality. It turns out that his ties with Bielsk were not loose and yet he severed them and made aliyah. It turns out that it was not because of his separation from Bielsk that it was easy for him to move from there, but precisely because of his deep roots in [Israel]. Precisely because he needed a society to integrate in, he decided to make aliyah and to put down roots in solid ground which was all his.

Beilis was an example of fulfilling Zionism, a fulfillment that has courage, and he deserves to be remembered and mentioned in our book.

Chona was a cobbler. He sat all day in a narrow room and hammered nails into shoes and that was his livelihood. People came to him in matters of repairing shoes. For them, Chona was a man created for the purpose of repairing their shoes, and all their relationships with him were focused on his professional business They negotiated the

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price, argued with him for a prutah^[14] and for less than a prutah, and he, a cobbler in the full sense of the word, stood his ground, promising good work and wanting to be paid as he deserved. Everything as usual. But, when he got up from his work stool everything was forgotten, and the attitude towards him had changed from that of a commoner to that of a man of high status, and I didn't know how that could be. How this wonder was renewed every day. How did Chona manage to transform his skin like in a fairy tale to be until this and that hour a slave, the lowest servant, and in the evening, and on the Shabbat, a prince, a ruler over the depths of his soul and the mood of the same person. How he secretly carried in his heart the majesty of greatness and the valor of mutual submission, and the function of one didn't conflict with the other.

I liked him very much and accompanied the wonder of his personality with an interesting observation, as a youth whose eye sails through the extraordinary, and open to the unconventional in human society.

Chona was tall and heavy-limbed like a porter. The type of working man depicted on revolutionary posters of proletarian rebels. He was lonely in his time, serious and spoke little. The impression he always gave was of a narrow-minded man, disappointed by regimes, and closed to the changes of the times to the point of impermeability. His poor understanding and limited education prevented him from realizing their value. However, when he opened his mouth in the meetings, the first impression was forgotten, and your eyes were glued to his words, as if to a person who was introducing you to something new, the depth of which you would not have reached without his help. The breadth of his understanding amazed you every time anew. His comprehensive thought was unfolded before you with surprising breadth. His speech was full of harsh words on social and political situations and other views of thought, like a person working on diverse social research and lecturing on it. In his words, he quoted the greatest philosophers in the socialist world. He especially loved to rely on [Georgi Valentinovich] Plekhanov and was very knowledgeable about his writings. You couldn't even describe him in your imagination as a cobbler mending shoes, and you had to take his words with all seriousness, like those of a professional lecturer and thinker.

Ribono Shel Olam [Master of the Universe]! When did he accumulate all this wisdom? At what hours of his tiring day did he draw his rich, comprehensive, colorful and sublime thoughts? Chona Chashkes understood all the paths of thought of the various social currents in the world. All the names of philosophers in the world were known to him, and there was not one he didn't know how to value, both positively and negatively. From them, and from their teachings, he learned about decrees that are relevant to the situation of our people in turbulent times and on changing values in the world.

His speech was like an architectural building, with foundations and beams, and everything in between them united into a profound logic of fascinating architectural beauty. He was persuasive and informative. No one argued with Chona, everyone listened and learned. His speech was eloquent and passionate, and his legal conclusions were electrifying and compelling. His words flowed one after the other as if they were tied to each other. All of this was in an atmosphere of seriousness and gravity, like a man speaking about his own human suffering, in the term of “and from my flesh I see judgment” [I know this from my own experience] (Job19:26).

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Chona never spoke rudely or said anything foolish, he didn't try to resort to demagogic means or spice up his words with jokes. As serious as the issue, as serious as the situation of the people, the community and the movement, so were serious the words of the man Chona, serious was the man.

The city greatly honored him and valued his personality. I always wondered how he got to this point. After all, there is no prophet in his own city, and even more so, there is no cobbler who is considered a prophet in his city. Chona achieved this feat. He occupied a very important position in the affairs of the city, and many admired him.

Chona belonged to the right-wing of Poalei Zion and was the fourth decision-maker in the leading trio there. While they acted in their movement and their party, he made their movement a tool for the needs of the people. He added to this movement in the city the dimension of intellectual responsibility. This fusion of Zionism and socialism, of class and nation, of proletariat that turns its anger towards the people, towards the exploitative class that loves these people at the same time. This required intelligence, a deep socialist understanding, as well as love of the Jews a great general human side. Chona was able to withstand this logical tangle thanks to his extensive literary, socialist and bureaucratic knowledge, and the treasure of this theoretical concepts and human values, in which he was richer than all others. He acquired and achieved all of this while mending shoes, because his soul was thirsty for many answers and his spirit was subject to deep problems. And what Chona learned to answer to himself, he brought as a great contribution to the oppressed, and grace of help to the insecure. Chona had done this with love, in friendship, without arrogance and without gratitude to himself, and here is another attribute of greatness, the greatest of greatness.

Therefore, we always talked about the natural intelligence of Chona Chashkes. About his intellectual wealth, about his many spiritual needs, about his deep and broad astonishment, and above all we were amazed at his power of self-study. This trait was not so “natural.” His demands on himself were natural, his constant thinking was natural, and his problems, whose solutions gnawed at him and not at many others, were also natural. He acquired his education with strength, diligence, seriousness, and avoidance of the vanities of this world. He developed his cultural tools with great effort because he needed them more than his shoemaking tools.

Many hidden and blessed forces were swallowed up in our small towns there, and the people could not benefit from them for their redemption. Many hidden “persons” disappeared into the deep darkness of the Jewish Pale of Settlement without anyone knowing their greatness, and without their greatness reaching its full expression, and Chona was one of them. An ancient type of Rabbi Yohanan HaSandlar^[15], or Rabbi Yitzhak Nappaha^[16], was Chona Chashkes, and as such we will remember him for honor and glory.

Tzvi came to Bielsk as a successful student and was also successful with the city's girls. At first glance, I saw a complacent young man wallowing in his successes, which was not appropriate for a youth with a stormy temper. He had the freshness of youth and the splendor of youth. And it seemed

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that all of these lulled the stormy forces in the souls of his contemporaries, and he reveled in the blessings of his personality. But the truth is, his easy successes didn't distort his personality or cause him to lose his judgment. He remained a thinking young man, read a lot, and was interested in the heavy-minded literature on socialism. He presented his views to a diverse audience and influenced the youth with his instructive speeches and clear teachings, which were formulated while deepening his view of human society, world governments, and the future of the Jewish people.

It was no small thing for a man to come to a foreign city, whose way of life was foreign to him, or unknown to him, and immediately secure for himself a place of honor bordering on admiration. All this without knowing Yiddish or Hebrew, when all his communication language as a lecturer was Russian, which was not so common among the local people. Tzvi Kadlubovski did it. His lectures in Russian attracted crowds of youth despite the foreign language and their heavy topics. Tzvi often lectured on academic, historical topics and historical materialism, which served as a starting point for his ideas that he disseminated. People sat and listened to him for many with great attention long hours with great attention, absorbing the gravity of his ideas with light thought and passion in listening.

Over time, he mastered the Yiddish language and his contacts with his audience and his fans became closer. He founded the Tzeirei Zion movement in Bielsk, and was its chief spokesman and representative in various institutions and on the community committee. Tzvi Kadlubovski was a counterweight to Menachem Stopnitzki, in the institutions of Eretz Yisrael HaOvedet^[17].

Tzvi's great privilege in Bielsk is that he instilled a new spirit in the adolescent youth and opened up new horizons of thought for them. Following his example, a progressive leftist movement was established, and the diversity of ideas and views in the Bielsk community became richer and broader.

His Zionism was also a new Zionism in the city. It was based on changing the fields of employment of the people. On transforming the people into a creative element capable of making the wilderness flourish and fulfilling national missions without the aid of borrowed forces. In one word, self-fulfillment of each and every one, and adaptation to the demands of the time of each person in practice. These views didn't stem from his living conditions, nor were they adapted to his economic situation and status in the city. Tzvi was a lumber merchant who made a living from a warehouse that he managed and maintained by himself, and by his status he belonged to the city's middle class. Nevertheless, he strove for self-proletarianization in order to adapt himself to Israel, and he instilled his ideas in his daughters, who made aliyah to Israel as chalutzot [pioneers] in the illegal immigration.

The story of Tzvi's Zionist life, which began in our city, is a chapter that illuminates the spirit of the formation of a progressive society in Bielsk, and the progress of those who made aliyah to Israel and continued to live with him here in Israel. Tzvi was part of the progressive social thought landscape of Bielsk, and there is great interest in including his image in our city's book of personalities.

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Moshe was Tzvi Kadlubovski's relative and a partner to his views. The two didn't always live in the same place. Usually, there was a family relationship between people of equal, or near-equal age, that led to different perspectives and an exchange of opinions, which was not the case in the relationship between these two. This detail adds light to the personality of Moshe Stern. He was true to himself and at peace with his morality, and he was also true to Zvi and at peace with his path, and this probably fitted in nicely with his set of qualities.

We didn't measure Moshe by the extent of his knowledge, although when he participated in debates, his speech was orderly and based on knowledge of the subject. His speech was with the passion of a man who cared if incorrect interpretations were given to certain plans that he considered binding on himself and those around him. Although he was an educated man, he was not tested according to the depth and breadth of his education. Moshe was respected for the simplicity of his manners even though he was more educated than others, and because of his natural uprightness and deep roots.

Moshe Stern served as treasurer in various public institutions and as an accountant in charge of large sums of money. Everyone knew that there was no lure in the world that would divert him from his path of honesty or divert him to the path of embezzlement and self- denial for the sake of easy money.

Moshe's role instilled confidence and trust in the company of activists in Bielsk, and it seems to me that this was the reason why debates never descended into the slope of personal moral defamation in Bielsk. Whoever took such a line made himself ridiculous, no one would have believed him or understood him.

Moshe also knew the limits of his personality. He took the liberty of speaking only on subjects in which he was strong and knowledgeable, and therefore his words carried great weight. People respected him because of his extensive experience in managing affairs and his thorough knowledge of his public affairs.

Moshe was the third in the left-wing movement trio in our city and was very much loved in it. He perished together with everyone. May his memory be with us for good.

Simcha was a member of the left-wing Zionist triangle in our city and a very interesting character. From a young age, he engaged in commerce for personal reasons and pleasure. It was almost possible to say that his involvement in commerce was like engaging in a spiritual matter. Trading was a kind of interesting intellectual tension for him, and he worked at his business for hours and hours. Where he found the time to get involved in public affairs, and how he came to identify with Tzeirei Zion, was always a wonder to me.

His membership in the Tzeirei Zion movement was very active and his leftist views were not in direct conflict with his trade. Following the famous socialist saying it was possible to say: his consciousness didn't stem from his being, but for some reason it didn't stand in contradiction to it. His analytical talent allowed him to create a very graceful synthesis from these two contradictions

Simcha was an excellent speaker, simple, young and bright, and his commercial wit

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was reflected in a kind of witty humor in his speech. He was very dynamic, controlled his time and arranged things with astonishing agility, both in commerce and in public affairs.

This synthesis of trade as livelihood, bread, and food for the body, and a proletarian worldview for the regulation of inter-class justice as spiritual food, was both an intellectual and educational synthesis.

Simcha was greatly blessed by them.

He wanted to leave commerce, to make aliyah and to integrate in Israel as a man of work and fulfillment. Therefore, he joined the Halutz [pioneer] Organization and prepared himself for aliyah wholeheartedly, but he didn't succeed. The Holocaust also caught him. His place is reserved within us for honor, for affection and for appreciation.

Shlomo was exceptional among the youth of Bielsk, the only one of us who graduated from a Hebrew high school in Bialystok and traveled to finish his studies in Switzerland. There was a personal uniqueness in this, and an even greater uniqueness since Shlomo didn't cut himself off from Bielsk and from time to time came to it on his vacations. His higher education served a specific purpose, but was not used as means of condescension, assimilation or separation from his origins. In Switzerland, his Zionist personality intensified. He devoted most of his time there to the HaNoar HaLomed [Studying Youth] organization and drew them, through public academic activity, into the ranks of Zionism and Jewish youth.

During his visits to Bielsk he invested his time in the organization of HaNoar HaLomed in Bielsk and the surrounding area, and the expansion of the ranks of Zionist youth. This was extremely essential, because most of the studying youth drifted in their studies towards the paths of assimilation, or at best, towards social passivity when all their time was devoted to studies, homework and concern for an academic career.

Shlomo Epshtein was a tireless orator and lecturer, and the city loved his speeches and highly regarded them. From complete instinct, and uncompromising logic, Shlomo arrived at the idea of self-fulfillment in Zionism. He often spoke about the fact that without fulfillment and aliyah [to Eretz Yisrael], the longing for Zion would last for thousands of years, and Herzl's vision would remain a fleeting vision in Jewish history, like the other revival movements that arose in Judaism and passed without results.

His personal tragedy is deepened by the fact that, despite this awareness, he was trapped in a long stay in Poland and was swallowed up in the Holocaust storm along with everyone else.

Shlomo Epshtein was the future leader of the Bielsk community that arose from youth circles, and he would certainly have achieved greatness with his organizational and explanatory talent.

In the last years of our city he was the central man among the adolescent youth. His high education, and full command of the Hebrew language contributed greatly to raising the level of activity among the active stratum of the city and the youth. He was the representative of the successor generation in Bielsk and a very respected a representative.

As I have been told, Shlomo had the very tragic privilege of being the chairman of the Judenrat in the Bielsk Ghetto and he perished together with his holy community.

May the memory of the righteous in his generation be a blessing.

1. Attah Horeta Ladaa'at [Unto thee (Israel) was shown] is the first of a series of versicles, seventeen in number, chanted on Simchat Torah before the scrolls are taken from the Ark to be carried in a procession in the synagogue. Return
2. Gelila is a ceremony in which the Torah scroll is rolled up, bound with a strip of cloth, covered with its cloak and returned to its place in the Holy Ark. Return
3. Hagbah is the ritual lifting of the Torah scroll to show it to the community. Return
4. “Woe to those who join a house to a house; a field to a field they draw near; until there is no place, and you will be settled alone in the midst of the land”(Isaiah 5:8). Return
5. Aaron David Gordon was Labor Zionist thinker and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism. Return
6. Ken (lit. “Nest”) the term for a local branch of a movement that suggested the intimacy of a family. Return
7. Folkist - a member of a political or cultural movement that emphasizes Jewish nationalism based on the Yiddish language and culture. Return
8. The Passfield White Paper, issuedion 20 October1930 by colonial secretary Lord Passfield, was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine and limited official Jewish immigration to a much greater degree. Return
9. The reference is to the Lamed Vav Tzadikim Nistarim (36 hidden righteous ones) whose anonymous acts in every generation sustain the world, and if even one were missing, humanity would perish. Their power depends on remaining unknown, even to themselves.  Return
10. HeHalutz (lit. “The Pioneer”) was a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in Eretz Yisrael. Return
11. Hakhshara (lit. “Preparation”) refers to the collectively organized vocational training in agriculture and manual trades for young Jewish men and women with the goal of immigrating to Eretz Yisrael. Return
12. Yosef Sprinzak was a leading Zionist activist in the first half of the 20^th century. Return
13. Aliyah (lit. “Ascent”) is the immigration of Jews from the Diaspora to Eretz Yisrael. Return
14. The prutah was a low-value coin used for everyday transactions, comparable to modern small-denomination coins. Return
15. Rabbi Yohanan HaSandlar, lit. “Yohanan the Showmaker” (c.100 - c.150), was one of the rabbinic sages whose teachings are quoted in the Mishnah. Return
16. Rabbi Yitzhak Nappaha (lit. “Yitzhak the Smith”) was a leading Jewish sage of the Talmudic period. Return
17. Eretz Yisrael HaOvedet (lit. “Working Land of Israel”) was a political and social concept within the Zionist movement, referring to the vision of a Jewish state built on socialist-inspired labor, pioneering agriculture, and the working class. Return

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