[ Page 45 ] intellectual orientation of the Moriah school, which was eventually taken over by the Tarbut [secular culture] movement. These religious families, with assistance from Drohitchin émigrés in America, established an elementary school that was run according to an Orthodox orientation. [Photo:] A group of Young Judea from the Moriah School, with their teacher Rachel Prishkulnick, in 1937. The school emphasized the religious subjects, and of course, the children from this religious elementary school received a balanced elementary education. The administrators of the school were the community rabbi and several distinguished householders in town.         Before the school was established, there was an elementary yeshiva in the Street House of Study, see p. 43. A larger number of Jewish children also studied in the government Polish school called Powszechna. Many Jewish children spent a year studying there after completing their studies at the Moriah School in order to cover Polish subjects.         [Photo:] The Polish government-run Powszechna school, where a large number of Jewish children studied. After completing their education in various schools in Drohitchin, a smaller percentage of Jewish children went on to study in gymnazia high schools, and thereafter in teachers' colleges and universities in Pinsk, Brisk, Vilna, Warsaw and so forth. The majority of Jewish children stayed at home.

[ Page 46 ] 7. PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS Tempestuous Times         At the end of the 19th century, when a wave of rebellion against the Czarist regime spread through Russia, the revolutionary spirit came to Drohitchin too. SS [socialist party] and Bund [Jewish Yiddishists] groups were established; their members referred to each other as 'brother' and 'sister,' and agitated against Czarism. [Photo:] A large demonstration in Drohitchin in honor of the Balfour Declaration, May 14, 1919.         At the same time, the ideas of the Lovers of Zion movement [ Hovevei Zion ] spread to Drohitchin, and later on Herzl's political Zionism came on the scene among the Jewish community. A Zionist movement was started in Drohitchin, and Jewish young people would go door-to-door to sell shekels for the Zionist Congress, stamps for the Jewish National Fund and shares in the Palestine Bank Company. These causes also had their own charity plates in the synagogues on the eve of Yom Kippur. The Balfour Declaration – Excitement and Disappointment          Real Zionist activity first started in 1918. Afterwards, the German occupation authorities was dismantled, and people heard about the Balfour Declaration, which people thought meant that the British were giving Palestine to the Jews. Drohitchin Jews were seized with messianic fervor, and everyone, young and old, were overtaken by enthusiasm for the Land of Israel. Then, after having lived through such a difficult and long war with so much suffering and affliction, people thought they were hearing the footsteps of the Messiah. Large demonstrations were held in honor of the Balfour Declaration, and a young man rode through town on a white horse, symbolizing "messiah on his white donkey." The only thing on everyone's mind was Palestine. Everybody's thoughts and discussions were about going to their own country in Palestine as quickly as possible.

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