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The “Shas Society” and the “Visitors of the Sick Society”

In 1839 a Shas Society [Shas is an acronym that refers to the Talmud] was established in Siedlce. Twelve years later, in 1851, a record book was created for the society. As Y.N. Weintroib^[48] explains, twelve rules were included in the record book. Some typical rules were:

Section 1) Each member is responsible for learning a page of Gemara every day in the beis–hemedresh, early in the morning, “for great is the Talmud that has no limit to it”;

Section 2) No one should learn his page of Talmud alone, but only with the group, together, as the sages say: “an author to his friends”*, and at a table, on the east side and the south side of the Holy Ark;

[[*A note is added here saying that the editors could not locate the source of the quotation and offering alternatives from Ethics of the Fathers and the Talmudic tractate B'rachos]]

Section 3) Every society member must pay, for the good of the society, at the beginning of each month, four groschen, and if he does not pay, he will be expelled from the society;

Section 4) Whoever is prevented from coming to learn even one day shall pay a fine of a groschen, and whoever transgresses two of these rules shall pay a fine of five groschen.

Section 7) New members can only be accepted at the completion of reading the Talmud, once every seven years, or when new officials are chosen, but not more than three and only with the agreement of a majority;

Section 8) The membership fee for new members is not less than eighteen zlotys and pastries for the whole society, and never, never allow scholars to join the society;

Section 9) There should be no relatives among the leaders and trustees of the society;

Section 10) When people celebrate having finished a tractate, they can supply a feast only with the permission of the majority, and for a great celebration

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the leaders must make a feast without asking the group, and each member must give not less than one zloty for the necessities of the feast.

From such a celebration, which occurred on the twenty–second of Adar in 5638 [1878] , we learn the following details:

The entire day, which was a Monday, was counted as a holiday. All the members of the Shas Society wore their Shabbos clothes. At seven in the evening, they all gathered in the town's beis–medresh. Admission was accorded to holders of entrance cards, which were called by the Hebrew term “letters of invitation”; the beis–medresh was nicely decorated with lamps, lights, and silver menorahs. By the entrance and over the windows were inscriptions: Faith–Zera'im, Ethics–Mo'ed, Husband–Nashim, Salvation–Nezikin, Wisdom–Kidddushim, Knowledge–Tehoros. [The Hebrew words are the names of sections of the Talmud.]

At nine in the evening, the governor, Dmitry Moskvik, arrived, accompanied by his retinue: Vice–Governor Petrov, Police Chief Dornovo, and other highly placed guests. The celebration began with the singing of Cantor R. Avraham Chaim Ephron and the choir, and with the playing of R. Leibush with his son Yontsche and their band. Psalm 30 was recited. The governor drank a L'chaim to the czar and then to the whole community, after which people answered the governor's questions about the service of the cantor, that he received 250 rubles a year. The governor asked that the cantor be given 50 rubles more per year. He was happy as he and his retinue left the beis–medresh. The feast went on for the entire night, with the participation of three hundred people. The dozors then were: Shimon Greenberg, Zvi Zebula, Yisroel Dov Liverant. The trustees of the Shas Society: Feivel Boym, Zvi Yosef Tcharnobroda, and Dovid Shimon Hacohen Greenberg.

During the course of the nineteenth century, the Jewish settlement in Siedlce created a whole array of mutual help organizations, charity organizations, and so on. Because of a shortage of source materials, it is difficult to paint a picture of how these organizations operated

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what their activities were and the bases of their existence. For one such organization, the “Visitors of the Sick Society,” which was established in 5604 (1843)–their record book has been preserved. From this record book we get an idea of how Jewish community life appeared at that time.

First of all we must emphasize the name of the organization–“The New Society for Visiting the Sick.” From this we infer that before this society there had already existed a group to visit the sick. Second, it confirms our assumption, stated earlier, that Jewish community life began to form from the working class, which is further attested by the record book of the “Society for Visiting the Sick,” which records in the introduction that this society was formed by shoemakers, who started “The New Society for Visiting the Sick” for mutual aid–to visit individual sick people daily.

The external appearance of the record book: a quarto format with two hundred pages bound in dark green leather. The language is Hebrew in the rabbinic style of the 18^th century, but with many errors. The title page is ornamented and similar to a particular pattern.

In the introduction it is said that the undersigned have taken on the responsibility for the mitzvah of visiting the sick, “which is one of the greatest pillars of the world.” The signatures were sealed on 7 Adar, 5604. (As is well known, 7 Dar is the anniversary of the death of Moshe Rabeinu). The signatures give only the first names and the fathers' names; no family names are mentioned in the record book.

On the second page are listed the following eighteen rules of the society (^[49][although the text incorrectly says 79]):

1. If a member of the society becomes, God forbid, ill, it is required that two men from the Visiting the Sick Society should visit him and stay with him throughout his illness. If one should fail, God forbid, without good reason and not go, he must give the leader a half zloty for the treasury (of the Society) and the leader must send someone to spend the night with the sick person.
2. If a member of the society is ill and, God forbid, has no

money for a cure, the leader must lend him money for a cure, money from the treasury, and when he recovers, he must pay back the money in weekly installments, according to his means.
3. If a member of the Society dies, mercy be upon us, the whole Society must pray for him for thirty days, every evening and morning. If the deceased has no children, one of the members must say Kaddish for him for a whole year.
4. If a member of the Society has a son, he must give 18 groschen for the benefit of the Society, and if he has a daughter, he must give 9 groschen.
5. If a member gets a new suit of clothes made of taffeta, he must donate 18 groschen for the benefit of the Society, and if he gets a new suit of clothes of lesser fabric, he must give 9 groschen.
6. Two members of the Society must go every week to collect money that members of the Society have pledged.
7. Every time a vote must be taken, two shoemakers must be chosen: one a leader and the other a supervisor, to assure that everything is in order
8. A vote must be taken every year on the 18^th of Adar.
9. The person chosen through an election to be a leader can take no other position for three years. If during those three years he fulfills his duties appropriately and later he wants to give for the welfare of the society whatever the monthly leader asks of him, he will be treated like all the other members in regard to places of honor.
10. Every 18^th of Adar, all the members will assemble for a vote. The procedure for the vote is thus: each person will be given a ballot; the monthly leader writes the names and puts the ballots in the ballot box. He takes out six ballots and then replaces them in the ballot box. These six choose the leaders of the Society.
11. The electors can choose four leaders: a treasurer, someone to maintain [Page 49] the record book, three auditors, and three supervisors, who will oversee matters so that the Society will function in an orderly manner, which will be assured by the electors, and they should be certain that everything that is required will be recorded in the record book clearly and distinctly.
12. The electors should not delay the appointment of a note taker for more than three days. But if they want to delay longer, they should not appoint a note taker. They should hold a new election according to the above provisions.
13. If the Society want to write a Sefer Torah (if it is needed, as shown in section 7*) every member is required to contribute what the leaders determine. If one does not wish to donate what the leaders have determined, the leaders and the members should meet to impose a fine.
    (*Editor's note: They see no such provision in section 7)
14. Non–members of the Society who wish to join should notify the monthly leader and he should present this to the membership. After consideration, if he is chosen, he must pay the entry fee and take care of other matters. The entry fee cannot be less than six guilden, aside from cakes and pastries for the members.
15. Everyone who belongs to the Society is required to give the sexton eighteen groschen compensation for calling the Society together.
16. The monthly leader has two votes on every question that will be determined by majority vote. Whether for imposing a fine on a member who violates a rule that is laid out here or because the members will have realized that someone should be fined or if someone has rebelled against the leaders, the fine will be imposed according at the discretion of the

monthly leader, and also he will collect the fine from the accused. All should be recorded so it will be remembered.
17. When there is an election in the Society, as described in rule 10, there must be added to those who are elected, up to eighteen people, taking care of rule 7. And if the Society should grow and become more prosperous, the electors, at the time of the election, have the right to choose one shoemaker as a leader and one as a supervisor.
18. If a member of the Society becomes, God forbid, ill, the whole Society shall assemble in the beis–medresh and recite Psalms for him so that the blessed Name should take pity on him and send him a complete cure.

After the first minutes, a new rule was added–a nineteenth, which declares: if a new member is enrolled in the Society and he pays the entrance dues, half goes to the treasury and half to the leaders, who have the right to do with it according to their discretion. According to the new rule, an event book should be created, and the treasurer is forbidden to reveal any of its details without an order from the leaders.

The crisis in the Society began in its fourth year. The members began to neglect their duties. On the first of Marheshvan in 5607 (1847), the following remarks were written in the record book:

“Although we established a ‘Visiting the Sick Society’ and each one committed when he joined the Society to give weekly whatever he felt he could and to spend the night with each sick person from the Society, according to the rules in the record book, but now, because of our transgressions, when times are bad, the members of the Society have stopped their donations and there is nothing left with which

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to aid the ailing. whether for cures or whether for other needs, therefore we have undertaken to strengthen the Society anew and to see that each person must give, week by week, that for which he is responsible, according to what was decided at the time of his admission to the Society. There should be no delays, not even a single week. Each one must spend a night with a sick person, when he is summoned by the leader. Otherwise he should pay someone else to spend the night and not find various excuses. But if, during the course of an entire month he should not give what is dues from him or he

will not go to spend the night with a sick person when he is summoned, he will be expelled from the Society. If one regrets that he has not donated or that he has not spent the night with a sick person, he must pay a fine, according to the leader's discretion. When someone is expelled from the Society, he cannot neglect what he had earlier pledged, neither through Jewish law nor through any other method, and no attention should be paid to his pleas.”

In 5612, there is written in the record book a rule that shows that in the life of the Society arguments began to arise on the subject of honor. This rule goes thus:

“We see that there has a arisen a discussion and a conflict among the leaders over who should receive the pastries and brandy on the day of an election and who should oversee the elections. Because such arguments are sinful, in order to forestall disagreements among the leaders and the other members, it is decided that whoever is chosen as the first leader should provide a place for the cakes and brandy and for the election, and if he has no appropriate place in his home, he can choose a place in another member's house, and all the leaders and supervisors are forbidden to complain.”

In the life of this Society there were several other longer pauses, but each time the Society renewed itself. The last time the Society renewed itself was in 5670, at which time it took on new leadership.

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The Appearance of Siedlce in the Nineteenth Century and the Number of its Inhabitants

The already mentioned Prof. Y Mikulski gives an accounting of the growth of the city during the nineteenth century.

Year	Number of Inhabitants	Number of Jews	Percentage of Jews
1821	4441	2908	65.5
1840	6471	4359	67.4
1855	7263	4804	66.1
1878	11931	8156	68.3
1897	15131	10094	66.7

In the thirties of the twentieth century maps of Siedlce from 1811, made by a certain Vattar, were found. They give us an idea of the construction of Siedlce at the beginning of the nineteenth century and of the building out of the eastern section of the town, that is, the area of the old city hall. Another map, from Colonel Winter, from 1829, focuses on the western part of the town, that is, the area of the prison. It seems that these are the oldest maps of Siedlce.

From these maps we can see that Florianski Street was built very badly. On that street there were altogether six wooden houses. Behind these houses

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were the so–called “pig–fields” with a “puddle” in the middle of the street. Sienkiewicza Street did not exist then. At that spot there was a city garden. (Hence its old name–Ogradowa Street–before it was called Sienkiewicza.) There were also no traces of the later hospital on Starawiesch. From the east side up to the shrine of the Countess Ogrinska, was a small garden, and by the shrine was a lake, which lay in the direction of the later gymnasium named after the Hetman Zhulkowski. There also was a broad horse ground that belonged to the palace. On the site of the later Teatralner Street there was a long, wooden, conspicuous theater, and behind that, another lake, which led to Posta Street; a hundred and thirty years later, the location of the lake was private property.

A large lake could also be found on what was called then, and later, Blagia Street. Not far from the spot was the building of the Pawshechner Shul. The length of the lake, which ran the length of the street, extended, according to Moshtow, for several fathoms. I somewhat smaller lake was on the other side of the area, where later on a Folk School was built. Beyond the lake there were city gardens on one side, from the right side until the slaughterhouse, and on the other side–the clayworks.

Of Jotka Street there was a portion–from Dluga to Broworna–that went further toward Prospect, which then had no name but then became known as the co–called “Jewish Brewery,” because of which the street was later called “Broworna.”

On the site of the later city hall (which was destroyed during the Second World War) and the firehouse the neighboring square–the site was then a horse market, so that the street, which before had been called Starynek, was given the name–Kanski–Rynek.

Warsaw Street, later Pilsudski, after the Second World War, during the rule of the Polish People's Democracy–“General

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Swierczewski”–at that time was known by the name of General Ruzhynsky out of gratitude, because he had saved the town from the Russians. The general's later deeds, however, persuaded them to change the name of the street. Brick houses then existed in the city. Between 1811 and 1829 there were nineteen or twenty, naturally not counting the town square with its buildings. The later, well–known tax office, the church, the later home for the priests, the town hall–an old brick house where later there was a club–and then a row of brick houses.

The Warsaw Highway was constructed in 1920.

On a map of the third and last Jewish cemetery–established in 1825–Kierkucki Street was called “The Old Warsaw Road,” from which we can see that there was a road from Siedlce to Warsaw before the highway was built, through Kerkutzki Street. Actually, Warsaw Street went thus: Kerkutzki Street was the direction of the train line up to the village of Piaski. Then the road went to the Jalawitsch Woods, where houses were later built for the foresters, cut across a bridge over the stream and went on to Alt–Igan. From there, it went through the villages of Dombrowski and Tychy–to Warsaw.

The town market, between the prison and the Jewish hospital, was totally missing from both maps. On that spot there was the so–called town trench, which went in a straight line through the streets: Pilsudski, First of May Street, and then linked up with Okopawa Street. Then the trench cut through the location of the later cathedral and the built–up area between the cathedral and the Polish Bank.

Palna Street did not exist, but on the site of the later Glukhi Street there was a winding road that was a continuation of the Kerkutzki Street in the direction of the Old Warsaw Road. This street, or path, as it should be called, began near the second cemetery, on Shenkewitsch Street.

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Jewish Siedlce at the End of the Nineteenth Century

In 1894, Jewish Siedlce took part in an Enlightenment [Haskalah] publication in Yiddish that had the goal of fighting fanaticism in the three towns: Byala–Podolsk, Siedlce, and Janow.

The publication was called “Anti–Fanaticism.” Its creators were: the Hebrew teacher Sholem Ratshin from the nearby town of Byala–Podolsk, together with a group of maskilim from the area, among them a certain Miss Saltzman from Siedlce. The character of the publication can be determined from its name–“Anti–Fanaticism”. It was to conduct the work of enlightenment for the Haskalah and to fight against the fanaticism that flourished on the Jewish street. Although the Haskalah had established positions in Jewish life, the aforementioned journal was not published in Siedlce itself but in the neighboring town of Byala–Poldolsk, But Siedlce played a major role in the publication.

“Anti–Fanaticism” required no print shop, no administrative or technical personnel, because the newspaper was written by hand, by Ratshin himself, who made three copies. It was distributed in the towns of Siedlce, Byala, and Janow–one copy in each town.

The editor, Sholem Ratshin, was a Chekovian character. A zealous maskil, a proponent and enthusiast for Hebrew, whom the Orthodox had persecuted, agitating against him. They, the Orthodox, considered him a heretic and his newspaper a heretical publication. The maskilim, on the other hand, considered it a source of “wisdom”…they would read it with great curiosity and pass it from hand to hand.

Only three issues of “Anti–Fanaticism” appeared, and none of them still exist. Of the contents and existence of this remarkable journal, we know only from memories that appeared in “Polish Life.” Following the example of Chekhov, we should print a poem that appeared

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in the first issue of “Anti–Fanaticism”. The poem is called “Yisrolik”^[51]. This “creation” illustrates the literary level of the periodical.

I have been homeless, And now I am so as well. Whoever has read my story Knows how great is my strength. Many rivers of blood People have drained from me, Yet I know full well How great is my power. How many troubles have I encountered In the course of my life, But I have never been ashamed That the name “Jew” is my due. Bathing in my blood Over the smallest things, Because they can never change My name of Jew–––––[52]

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Siedlce Jewish writer Y. N. Weintroib told his memories of Siedlce's R. Avraham Nusboym, who was a friend of Alexander Tzederboym, the editor of “Ha–Meylets” [“The Tribune”], where Nusboym would publish correspondences. He also wrote for Polish newspapers. Nusboym even translated into Polish the poem “Tzion, halo tishalo” by R. Yehuda Halevi and the “Shemonah Prakim” of the Rambam. Also Yitzchak Lipetz and Kalman Galitzki, two well–known maskilim in Siedlce, wrote correspondences in a variety of papers.

About societal and cultural aspects of Siedlce at the end of the nineteenth century, we get an idea from two articles that were published in “Ha–Meylets,” both in 1900, the first in February and the second in May. In order to provide

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a full picture of the economic and spiritual life of Siedlce's Jews at that time, we present the articles not in their chronological order. Z. Zchuchis in his article from “Ha–Meylets” in July of 1900 describes the economic life of Siedlce:

“Everything depends on luck, even a city! It happens that a secluded shtetl, as big as a person's hand, containing few inhabitants–its name may appear in the papers. It also happens that a large, populated city, known for its commerce, never appears in the list of the cities and is never cited in the papers, neither for good things nor for bad…Among cities with such bad luck must be reckoned Siedlce, one of the governmental centers in Poland. It is not mentioned often in the press, neither for good nor for bad, so I decided to visit there and publish my impressions. According to the census, a number of Jews live in Siedlce, eighteen thousand. Among them are, thank God, some who are wealthy who can do much for existing institutions and also influence their brothers, those who are poor in spirit and in goods. So might suppose the reader who is far away, but things are not so.

Let us just consider the material situation of the population. Lately the material situation of the whole world has gotten worse. Earnings are small, and in Poland there has been a lull in business and industry. So, for example, in the city of Siedlce there is no industry and no business, aside from small merchants and workers that we know from every city and shtetl, who subside on their backbreaking work. Everyone in Siedlce who gets a bit of money opens a little store, lays by a little merchandise and sells it on credit. Understandably, he gets no income thereby. But what should the poor fellow do, since he has no other option? There are in Siedlce more merchants than customers, and there is no building that does not house a business. The battle for existence is awful. If someone walks down the street, a merchant will fall on him and drag him into his shop, and a second into his.

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The pedestrian is astonished. The people with money in their pockets are usurers. And the citizens, having no options, are compelled to pay interest, which leads to interest upon interest.

So it is no wonder that in a short time they are bankrupt, so that they cannot exist.”

Z. Zchuchis, in “Ha–Meylets,” wonders about the more well–to–do Jews, with good resources, why they do not concern themselves with bettering the situation of the less fortunate. They could provide salvation for many destitute families. And they would also profit:

“If they understood, they would start to build factories. There is a broad field and a labor supply for a factory. Thousands of Jews would be able to find work. Is it not to be laughed at that in a governmental center like Siedlce there is not a single factory? Every Jew loves to imitate another. If a single Jew were to try to establish a factory and were to succeed , many Jews would follow suit. Just think of those merchants who sprout like mushrooms after a rainstorm…

…Also the moral situation is no better than the material. Charitable institutions that should moderate the situation of the needy do not exist in the whole city. If there is an organization called “Visiting the Sick” or “Charitable Loans,” they are in disorder. The supervisors give no accounting and no one demands it of them. Is there, then, no such institution as a “G'milus Chasidim,” especially at the present moment when the situation is so bad? Can one believe, as I say, that such institution do not exist? That if one becomes impoverished, he must starve to death. He has no prospect of a loan, except from the bloodsuckers. The truth is, there are a few goodhearted people who open their hands to help, to rescue the fallen and impoverished, but one swallow does not make a summer…How far the rich of Siedlce are from their brothers, their own flesh and blood, whose need does not touch them, we can demonstrate thus:

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Let us consider the published list of donors to the cause of the poor in Bessarabia who suffered from the drought–there we find not a single person from Siedlce! Not a kopek did they give! Why would the people of Siedlce distance themselves in such a way and isolate themselves from the larger world and ignore what was going on under their very noses?”^[53].

Z Zchuchis ends his description with these critical remarks.

A little later there was published in the same paper (“Ha–Meylets,” number 240, 11/2/1900) another critical article about Siedlce. The writer, Mordechai Krosunski, seems to have been a maskil, a Litvak, who visited Siedlce, described in “Ha–Meylets” the educational system that existed in the city at that time. He writes:

“They upheld already outdated customs. They held by the old ways of life and every early custom remained unchanged.

A Talmud–Torah building for poor children, such as exists in every town–no such thing, even though there are pushkes on the walls of every shul with the inscription ‘a donation for the Talmud–Torah. ’ Perhaps there is some mystery there…but there is no Talmud–Torah, and the young men grow up, to put it simply, without Torah and without learning.

Governmental schools, elementary and middle schools, are like those in all towns, but Jews have nothing to do with them. For the Jewish students, who make up five percent of the student population, there are only two local schools.

Further on, the writer characterizes the Jewish economy in Siedlce and comes to the conclusion that this is a result of the irrational educational system that existed in Poland at that time. Krasunski continues in his flowery style:

“The writer of these lines visited all sixty of the ‘cheders’ that exist in the city, and in none of them did he find a single student who knew Tanach.

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At the same time, the Lithuanian students in the town learned Tanach, because people engaged with these students. In one ‘cheder’ in which fifteen– and sixteen–year–olds from the wealthier neighborhoods were learning, I saw, to my great joy, the book of Isaiah. In answer to my questions, they said that last summer they had studied only as far as chapter four.–‘And what prophetic books did you study after last summer? ’ I asked. ‘Only this book and nothing else… ’

‘How is that possible?’

“In the first week of the term we studied two chapters and in the last week of the term we studied another chapter…”

The teacher, who was present during this conversation, responded briefly and said that the study of loshon kodesh [Hebrew] had not been undertaken by the parents, and he himself was afraid of studying Tanakh, lest people say that he was a heretic…

Thus the Jews treat education, and that is the basic reason for the lack of responsibility for a good and useful thing. The study of Talmud is widespread, but as long as it lacks order and system, it is aimless. Except for a small portion of students, who excel in Torah, the rest are ignorant of Torah and empty of knowledge. They are faithful to all the traditions of their religion, but they have no deeply rooted examples except for habit…

Comparing this characteristically maskilic critic of Siedlce with the aforementioned judgment and the memories, we see that both articles, which appeared simultaneously, present Siedlce as an industrialized city unwilling to establish economic undertakings. M. Krosinski also discusses why no Talmud Torah building existed in the town and he surveys the prevailing educational system.

About the Talmud Torah building, the critic is correct, because at that time in Siedlce the Talmud Torah was in ruins. P. Dromi, who considered the Talmud Torah of that time when Krosinski published his article, tells us that at 71 Pyenkne Street,

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the same street that contained the Skerniyev Chassidic study house, there was a half–ruined house where there were four teacher who taught children. At that time, such was the Talmud Torah. The names of the teachers were: Yossl Tchetver–he taught the youngest children; the second was Avraham Ratinievitsch, known as “the Bubbe,” because his wife, Esther Masha, was a midwife–he taught elementary Chumash; the third was Baruch Leibl Strussman, who had taught there for thirty–eight years–he taught Beginning Gemara; the fourth was Moyshe Mordechai Kirschenbaum, who was called Moyshe Mordechai with the Eye, because he was blind in one eye–he taught the older students Gemara and Tosafos. Over all, sixty students studied there. These students were poor. The Talmud Torah was supported by the congregations that used to collect a payment of a few kopeks each month. Also on special occasions, like weddings or circumcisions, people made donations. Even so, there was never enough to pay to teachers their poor wages and they often went hungry.

Three years later, after the publication of the articles in “Ha–Melitz,” Siedlce acquired a real Talmud Torah building. The opening of this great building came on Thursday, the third of Elul in 1903. And as we already explained in an earlier chapter, it was supported by money given by the R. Yisroel Greenberg. The building cost 4,000 rubles. The dedication was magnificent. The rabbi of Siedlce, R. Shimon Dov Ber Analak made a speech about current affairs. The chazzan with his choir sang several chapters of Psalms. Later on there was a memorial service for the donor of the building, who had died in the meantime, and who had twenty–five years earlier built a beis–medresh. The widow of R. Yisroel Greenberg, who had financed the completion of the building, was given a “Mi Sheberach.”^[54].

The Talmud Torah building contained about fifteen rooms and was three stories tall. When the Polish government took over school and educational matters, the Talmud Torah was under the supervision of the general school people.

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Thus was the institution obliged to meet all the standards of hygiene and pedagogy. The Talmud Torah contained ten classes. There were times when two or three classrooms were parallel, since there were no more than eight classes, and two were used for community meetings. Thanks to the dozor R. Yisroel Gutgelt, who had ruled that the school should get a large percentage of the taxes on kosher slaughtering, the school could meet its budget.

After the First World War, the site was modernized. Secular studies were incorporated. Students learned the vernacular, Hebrew, arithmetic, drawing, history, geography, natural history, and other subjects. For the first time, there was a charge for tuition. There were about 400 students in the school.

Despite all the reforms, the school was still like an old–time cheder. The students worked from eight in the morning until seven in the evening, with an hour break in the afternoon, summer and winter. There was no summer vacation, nor walks for pleasure or nature walks. In the cheder the rabbi ruled with his whip. And even when secular studies were introduced, they took up only two hours of the day.

The Talmud Torah was managed by a group of trustees who were not elected by secret ballot nor by a council of parents, and were not nominated by the community. Among them were often the aforementioned businessmen Yisroel Gutgelt, Monish Ridel. Moyshe Chaim Levin, Moyshe Zagan, Sender Kantor, Henech Shteynberg (Kalushiger), Shloyme Shmuel Abarbanel, Yehonatan Eiberschutz, Velvel Orlovski, Yishayahu Zelikovitsch, Eliezer Shlifski, Yoysef Tcharnay. N. D. Glicksberg was for many years the chair of the group.

In 1922, Y. Gutgelt financed the opening of a locksmith workshop in the Talmud Torah. The donor's intention was that young men, after they finished the Talmud Torah, should be able to learn locksmithing. Until 1925, the workshop which was led by Yoysef Barg, was associated with the Talmud Torah. However,

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because none of the trustees were concerned about the students having a trade, the workshop stood nearly empty. It only served as a means for the building to make up for its large deficit. Thanks to the efforts of several businessmen, the building committee decided to convert the workshop into an independent institution. From then on, the workshop was occupied, but it existed only a short time until it was closed.

Speaking of the Talmud Torah, one should also mention the yeshiva, to which young men came who had finished the Talmud Torah and whose parents or guardians were interested in allowing their children to learn more Torah. The students in the yeshiva worked under a “supervisor,” who would “declaim” a lesson from the Talmud and translate it. The students would repeat the lesson. Nothing besides Talmud and commentaries was studied in the yeshiva. On Fridays they would “review” the portion of the week. Prophets and Writings were considered not worth studying. Apparently this yeshiva was established in Siedlce in the seventies of the nineteenth century.

Actual evidence of the existence of the yeshiva we have from Fishl Dromi, who was himself a student of the yeshiva around the year 1900. He recounts that on Pienkne Street, in the house of R. Hershl Shlifka, the yeshiva operated under the leadership of R. Yisroel Drogotshiner, who was known by his familiar name of R. Yisroelele, a fanatical Jew who in his day sent out a appeal known as the “Souvenir of Faith,” subscribed to by many rabbis, saying that people should not read newspapers. He would pray with three sets of tefilin–Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam–and at morning and afternoon prayers he would put on Rabbeinu Shimshon tefilin. Interestingly, R. Yisroel Drogoshiner brought from Kovrin a teacher named R. Yitzchak Tenenboym to study Russian with the students, but God forbid, no Hebrew, because that was considered heretical. After that, when the building secretary Chatkes went to Warsaw, Yitzchak Tenenboym took over as secretary. He was replaced as Russian teacher another Lithuanian Jew named Sheplan, a brother of the then popular healer Sheplan.

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R. Yisroel Drogoshiner left Siedlce after the pogrom. He was replaced as head of the yeshiva by R. Dovid Yitzchak Mendzezhenski Chasid. When the Talmud Torah was quartered in its own building, it was above the yeshiva, which had existed as a self–standing institution, until it was decided to convert it into a continuation of the Talmud Torah and it no longer existed as an independent yeshiva.

It is appropriate to note that after the year of revolution–1905–and after the pogrom, the idea arose in Siedlce's Orthodox circle to reform the educational system. This aspiration was expressed in a recommendation given by the then rabbi of Siedlce R. Shimon Dov Analik to a certain R. Leib Hutner in Warsaw. The letter, which can be found in a private archive^[55] recommends: to consolidate the existing schools under the supervisory council that would collect tuition from parents. This council should pay the teachers' salaries and also have pedagogical oversight over both teachers and students, should select the students and assign them to the teachers, and so on. The rabbi made these recommendations several weeks before his death, when he was already ill and he left it as his testament.

He wrote: [the text follows in both Hebrew and Yiddish]

“Many people have long come to the conclusion that it is necessary to create in all cities special committees to oversee teachers and students. These committees should oversight over the schools. Their purpose should be to examine the students and separate them appropriately for the teachers. The parents should pay tuition to the committee, and the committee should pay the teachers. I have learned that the rabbi, the scholar, R. Leib Hutner, may he live long, the son of the great rabbi R. Yoryself Zindel, may he live long, from Warsaw, has the ability to effect these measures, which have long existed successfully in Warsaw. He already does much to promote Torah life, and the need is great. I have known him for a long time, the esteemed Rabbi Leib. He acts as the Torah demands. Therefore it is right to help him in all ways, and this should be made known to the Jews. Parents and teachers will see the benefits that will quickly accrue, and the Jews will be happy. Signed: today, Tuesday, the ninth of Kislev, 4667 [1907], in the holy congregation of Siedlce.

Sh. Ber ben Meir, may his memory be a blessing

In Jewish Siedlce, as in most cities and towns in Poland, people looked with disdain on craftsmen. Handworkers were considered inferior to teachers, who, until marriage, lived at their parents' expense or on the kindness of others.–After marriage they would live at their in–laws' expense. The craftsman was considered inferior to a shopkeeper or to a moneylender. People mocked a craftsman, calling him an “angel keeper” [in Yiddish a pun–craftsman=”bal–melakhah” and angel keeper=”bal–malakh”]. A butcher was called derogatory names. People jokingly said that a butcher attracts two pigs through one hole. [An explanation follows, but since I do not understand the intricacies of butchering, I have no idea what it means.]

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The same attitude applied to tailors. Butchers and tailors were regarded as something less than human. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this attitude changed. Jews recognized that productivity was important. The Zionist and Pioneer movements also helped, because they regarded labor as an ideal in life, as did the Jewish socialists, who put the working class at the head of the table in community life.

We will consider at length the chief labors that occupied the people of Siedlce.

The first trade that Jews adopted in Siedlce was construction and related skills, such as : bricklaying, carpentry, and locksmithing.

These trades developed because Siedlce, as a government city, had a government administration. The bureaucrats required places to live, and houses became a source of income, so people undertook building. The frequent fires, about which we have already written, destroyed houses, which were then rebuilt, thanks to the city's credit bureau, which for this purpose gave credit to every householder, who had only to ask for building credit. The bureau made no distinction between Jews and gentiles. Consequently, Jews built and Jewish master craftsmen, with their children and their laborers, could earn a living. And among these laborers there were always some Poles.

Around 1902, when the Jewish workers began to organize and fight for better working conditions, the Christian workers saw that they should not be completely dependent on the Jewish master craftsmen; they could themselves become masters, take their own orders, and become self–sufficient. They did not join the fight of their Jewish comrades. The Christian building workers organized themselves into a union and began to fight against their former breadwinners–the Jewish builders.

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The Christian union began to take orders and fulfill them. However, thanks to the city–president Dombrowski, who was liberal to the Jewish population, the Christian union did not achieve its goal. Dombrowski summoned to his home several Jewish masters, advised them to go to the government and to remind them about an ordinance from 1816 concerning the rights of unions. The city–president also tried to work on the Christian master craftsmen, so that they would accept into the union the Jewish masters. This intervention had no effect on the Christians. Their union was endangered. According to the rules, a union had to have at least ten members. Since there were not ten members, the Christians found Christian craftsmen from the area around Siedlce, so that they ended up with ten and preserved their union.

The Jewish masters were not organized but acted individually. This lasted for several months, until an answer was received, but meanwhile the Christians replaced the Jewish masters in their accustomed jobs.

In 1912, at the suggestion of the bishop of Chelm, Yevlogi, the government of Siedlce moved to Chelm and the building boom ended. The bureaucrats left their apartments, so that there were now empty apartments and no tenants.

Butchering was the most widespread trade in Siedlce. Even in the nineteenth century, boots from Siedlce were known throughout Russia. Merchants would come to Siedlce from deep inside Russia, stay for a few weeks, and return home with great transports of boots.

The master butchers were divided into two categories: one was called “Urzhendawa,” that is, craftsmen who would work on orders from clients and excel in good work. And “work at home” craftsmen, or “small masters,” who would get their material from large merchants and do their work at home.”

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Before the First World War, there were in Siedlce about 150 of the first type and about 200 of the second, that is, about 350 proficient butchers.

The situation in the trade was satisfactory. All the butchers and their employees were able to sustain themselves honorably. The greatest commotion in the trade came in the winter months. At that time the contracted transports that had been agreed upon in the summer were sent out.

Every butcher felt that he had an economic support under his feet. Even if he had money problems, he could come for help to the office of S. B. Minin and Arzhel. They would give money or discount the coming bills for inventory. So things went until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

This trade was tied up with shoemakers. The fate of the shoemakers was the same as the fate of the leather cutters.

This trade had the same two categories that were mentioned earlier–the “Urzhendawa” and the “commercial,” who worked for export. Around 1910 there were 34 leather–masters and 80 workers. With the outbreak of the First World War, there was a falling off of demand, but the military orders provided work.

After the war, the number of leather–cutters increased. This happened because unemployed journeymen opened their own shops. Competition grew. Seventy–five percent of leather–cutters were unemployed.

On the eve of the First World War, there were 35 master tailors in Siedlce, in five categories. The first and most prestigious category were the military tailors, who were called “colonels.” Because many military men were quartered in Siedlce, these five tailors

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made a good living, though there was something of a lull in the summer months, when the military men were away on maneuvers.

The second category of tailors–12 Jews and one Christian–worked for Polish landowners and clerks. They also had a good income.

The remaining three categories were: 5 ladies' tailors, 9 old–clothes tailors, and 4 village tailors. The number of tailor employees, both qualified and unqualified, amounted to 65. This number does not include female tailors and sewers.

The status of this trade was good. Not only was there no unemployment but there was a shortage of workers. Consequently Siedlce would get apprentice tailors from the poorer villages.

For the Jews of Siedlce, as it was for most religious Jews in all the cities and shtetls of Poland, the longing for Eretz Yisroel filled their hearts for generations, long before the arrival of Khivas Tzion and the Zionist movement. Already at the end of the seventeenth century Siedlce's R. Yehuda the Chasid arose as the head of a messianic movement that sought through various means to make aliyah to Eretz Yisroel.

The name of R. Yehuda the Chasid, of this remarkable religious personality, was firmly bound up with the city of Siedlce. We have no certain information about his childhood years, and we also do not know whether he was born in Siedlce or whether he settled in the city. Form all of our sources that touch on the life of R. Yehuda the Chasid it is clear that this messianic dreamer lived in Siedlce and from there in 1699 began his journeying to Eretz Yisroel.

Many historians, including Sh. A. Haradetzki, incorrectly hold that R. Yehuda the Chasid was from Shidlowietz rather than from Siedlce^[56]. In the sources his home town is called “Siedlce near Gorodno.” Siedlce, it should be understood, cannot be confused with Shilowietz, which has nothing to do with Grodno (Gorodno). Shidlowietz is in the

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Kielce Woiwodship, and Siedlce is much nearer to Grodno.

That R. Yehuda was from Siedlce is shown also by the fact that he was accompanied by people from the poor shtetls around Siedlce and went with them to Eretz Yisroel. Thus, for example, one of his students was R. Gedaliah from Semyatitch, a shtetl close to Siedlce, about forty kilometers away. In the book “Seek the Peace of Jerusalem”^[57] that R. Gedaliah wrote, he mentions a Chasid named Zalmen Beilar, who was called Bialer, who was apparently from Biala–Podolsk. Biala is near Siedlce. It is therefore beyond any doubt that R. Yehuda the Chasid was from Siedlce. We will therefore in the history of our Siedlce community include the activities of R. Yehuda the Chasid and his pilgrimage to Eretz Yisroel.

His leaving Siedlce and his journey were the result of a messianic movement that began in Poland spread to Germany, Moravia, Austria, Hungary and went as far as Italy. Because of the confusion that followed, this movement also attracted followers of Sabbatai Zvi, led by Chaim Malach. The aim of this movement was to bring redemption by refining the morals, doing penitence, prayer, fasting, and asceticism. We must consider that this movement arose fifty years after the decrees of 1648 and 1649.

R. Yehuda the Chasid left Poland at the end of 1699, together with 120 followers. On the way, as they went through various countries, he gathered more followers. His camp eventually numbered 1500 souls. About 500 died on the journey. The remaining 1000 arrived in Eretz Yisroel. Their camp was called “Chevra Kadisha” (Sacred Fellowship). Some of them had traveled from Poland to Moravia. From there they sent messengers to Germany. R. Yehuda the Chasid himself, together with three companions, came to Frankfort–am–Main and there on Shabbos Ha–Gadol he gave a sermon that caused a great awakening. He also went into the women's section holding a Torah scroll and preached to the women.

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His sermons were full of admonitions to lead a moral life, and he said that the world was ready for redemption. In Frankfort he raised a great deal of money for his expenses. Shmuel Oppenheimer, the advisor to the emperor's court in Vienna, gave much help to the pilgrims–he gave them passports and fitted two ships to take them to Constantinople. Some of the pilgrims, led by R. Yehuda the Chasid, went through Venice. A second group, with Chaim Malach, the follower of Sabbatai Zvi, went through Dniester, on the Black Sea, to Constantinople.

What happened later to the pilgrims has nothing to do with our history. Our only purpose was to show the relationship of R. Yehuda the Chasid with Siedlce.

But R. Yehuda was not the only one; there were cases when Jews from Siedlce left their home town, their source of income, their close relatives, and went far away–to Eretz Yisroel. Older Jews who decided to go to Eretz Yisroel without the assent of their wives, sons, daughters, and grandchildren left their wives, tore apart their family life, but would not let their journey be interrupted.

In the middle of the nineteenth century a learned Jew from Siedlce, a shochet named Avraham Avraham's, went up to Eretz Yisroel. He was born in Siedlce in 1801. When he was 36 years old, he left Siedlce and emigrated to London. There he became a shochet. He wrote several books about the laws of ritual slaughter. His most popular book was “Bris Avraham”–a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch “Yoreh De'ah,” the laws of ritual slaughter. He also published an autobiographical work “Va–yiskor le'Avraham.” In 1879, Avraham's left London and went to Jerusalem, where he built a house, and shortly thereafter he turned the house over to a fellowship called “Mishkenos Yisroel” as a prayer house. Avraham's died in Jerusalem in 1880.

As soon as the Bilu Aliyah began in 1882 [a student movement for agricultural settlements in Palestine that began after the pogroms of 1881], the thought of Jewish settlements in Eretz Yisroel spread in Siedlce and the surrounding communities. A group of Jews from Mezrich in 1883 went to Eretz Yisroel and proceeded to establish there

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the colony Yesod Hamalah, on the west bank a river. The experiences of these pioneers, the hardships they underwent in realizing their dream, the sacrifices they made to fever, hunger, before Baron Rothschild assumed responsibility for the existence of the colony, the shortage of water–all of this reverberated in the hearts of Siedlce's Jews, who thirstily absorbed the news that came from nearby Mezrich.

The dignified Khibas–Tzion movement had already established a foothold in Siedlce. At the movement's first conference, held in Katowice in 1884, the delegates from Siedlce were R Moyshe Goldberg and Yehoshua Goldfarb. In the city there was a chapter of “The Committee for the Support of Jews who Work the Land in Syria and Palestine,” which was also known as the “Odessa Committee,” although in fact it was an affiliate of the Khivas–Tzion, which was officially outlawed in Russia. Gradually the Khivas–Tzion circle grew. To it belonged most of the Chasidic young people, who drew close to it through nationalistic Haskalah writings. In secret meetings, ostensibly engagement parties for a young men and women or weddings, word spread about Khivas–Tzion ideology. They sang the popular song of Levinzon:

[quotes from “The Flower,” which is actually by Eliakum Zunser]

Ahad Ha'am's polemic against the Chovevei Tzion [another Zionist movement] found a good reception in Siedlce. When he founded his secret organization “B'nei Moyshe,” it included several Siedlce Jews.

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In any case, the name of Yehoshua Goldfarb was known as a member of the “B'nei Moyshe.”

At that time the rabbi of Siedlce was the already mentioned R. Shimon Dov Analik, who was noted for his strong opposition to Zionism, just as he was opposed to Chasidism. An ideological struggle broke out among the Jews of Siedlce. In Zionism alone there were three factions: “Khivas–Tzion” “Political Zionism,” and the spiritual center. There was a particular conflict between orthodoxy and Zionism. And opposing all of these movements was the Bund, whose activities in Siedlce began at the same time as Zionism and which regarded Zionism as a bourgeois movement.

There were discussions that more than once ended with fisticuffs. But the Zionist movement sank deep roots in Siedlce. It was an organization whose activities had a wide appeal among the masses. The Colonial Bank spread money and actions around.

In letters in “Ha–Melitz” from that time, signed with the pseudonym “Yehudi,” the Zionists' efforts in Siedlce were criticized.

At that time there also appeared in “Ha–Melitz” letters entitled “Poor Thoughts,” under the pseudonym “Yehudi,” which sharply criticized Zionistic activities in Siedlce and lamented the weak activities of the Colonial Bank. Yehudi also wrote about the sermons that Rabbi Analik delivered against Zionism^[58].

When we compare the letters of Yehudi with the memories of Fishl Dromi, we can come to the conclusion that not everything that appeared in “Ha–Melitz” was absolutely true. It is possible that the widespread actions of the Colonial Bank were feeble, but in Siedlce they were no more feeble than in other cities in Poland. This shows the continuing development of Zionism in Siedlce.

When the Keren Kayemes L'Yisroel was established in 1901, the Zionist movement in Russia was in jeopardy.

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The Keren Kayemes stamps could not be distributed, and funds could not be collected openly. But the Zionist activists risked their freedom and began to distribute Keren–Kayemes pushkes, which were smuggled in from Cologne (Germany), which was then the headquarters of the Keren–Kayemes. The pushkes were smuggled across the Russian border to Bendin, From there, a devoted activist named A. Liver, took the pushkes to Siedlce. One time, a transport that had been sent to Siedlce fell into the hands of the police. It appears that the work that had been done in Siedlce satisfied the central bureau of the Zionist movement, because Dr. Yechiel Tchlenov, the president of Keren Kayemes, sent a letter of appreciation, which was found in the Keren Kayemes office.

The Zionist organization in 1901 established a library, which a couple of years later was given the neutral name of “Ha–Zmir.” This shows that in Siedlce the Zionist movement soon after its beginning had created favorable ground for its activities.

Yitzchak Lipietz's Secular Library

A library existed in Siedlce from the end of the nineteenth century. The owner of this library was Yitzchak Lipietz, a book dealer, who would sit between minchah and ma'ariv in the assembly room and study with the everyday Jews the portion of the week. Lipietz was a maskil, a writer of popular books and commentaries, someone who knew current Haskalah writings, medieval Jewish poetry, and Jewish philosophy. He had collected about a hundred books and lent them to readers for a weekly payment.

At that time in Jewish Siedlce, modern ideas were beginning to circulate. This was a national movement. Already a workers' movement was developing.

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This community movement urged its adherents to read books, so the circle of readers expanded.

Thus was created the foundation for the rise of several libraries, which could not happen for two reasons: the czarist regime regarded libraries and the reading of books as forbidden things that could endanger the foundations of the reactionary, anti–Semitic regime. In order to start a library, according to the law, people had to obtain permission, which they could not get. The second condition that prevented the arrival of libraries was Jewish orthodoxy. The religious sector in Siedlce considered the reading of any books aside from Gemara, books of Halacha, and responsa as heresy. Even the reading of Tanakh was regarded with suspicion. A reader of a secular book was persecuted, and such a thing as a library was an outlandish phenomenon.

So Yitzchak Lipiets would distribute his books in secret.

In 1900, a group of young maskilim, led by Yoysef Rosenvasser, founded a secret community library. It attracted Zionist and nationally inclined elements. This library had to withstand many vexations and had to serve different generations. Its directors had to worry that the government could learn of its existence and confiscate the books. There was also a fear that those involved with the library could be arrested. Nevertheless, the founders nurtured the library with dedication and fidelity. They would purchase books with their own money. The library received a great deal of support in the form of books and money from the already mentioned Russian officer Baron von Kleist. [I remember no such mention.]

On March 15, 1904, the oft–mentioned activist Y. N. Vayntroyb received governmental permission to start a library. The permission was granted to Vayntroyb's son–in–law Mordechai Meir Landoy, who was himself a community and Zionist activist. The library, according to political restrictions, could not be legally considered a community institution. In a brochure that appeared on the library's twenty–fifth anniversary,

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in 1926^[59], was printed the text of the permission, which we offer in Yiddish translation:

Ministry of the Interior
Siedlce Region
Chancellery
March 15, 1904
Number 1631
Siedlce

In the name of the third section, chapter 2, 14^th volume of the codex concerning publication and censorship, the current permission is granted to the citizen of Siedlce, resident of the shtetl of Orleh, quarter of Belz, district of Grodno, Mordechai–Meir Landoy, the right to open and maintain a secular library with Russian, Polish, Yiddish, German, and French works that will be approved by the censor, on the condition that Landoy will take upon himself according to the law the full responsibility for maintaining the stock and he is responsible for following all existing and possibly forthcoming laws and orders regarding book handlers and secular libraries.

In significance thereof we give to Landoy this permission, which is signed and sealed.

Stamp–tax is paid
Governor Voikov
Head of the Chancellery Chveshtshenko

Thus began a new chapter in the developmental history of the library, which was, at that time, the only cultural institution in the city. Gradually the members of the library began to divide themselves into study groups for Jewish history and Tanakh. There was also a secret Zionist group and a drama circle. At that time the library held 1200 books. The library's popularity

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grew, and the founders, themselves Zionists, directed the library in an impartial way.

But because those years were tumultuous and in the Jewish streets there were struggles between two parties–both illegal–the Zionists and the socialists, the socialists sought to gain control of the library. There were a number of struggles, but the library remained neutral.

The czarist government did not lose sight of the library and often sent policemen to conduct searches and to confiscate forbidden books. Such were considered the socialist and Zionist publications. Understandably, when they were informed about such searches, people removed such books until after the danger had passed.

Siedlce, as we have written elsewhere, had no large industrial base. Understandably, then, Siedlce also lacked a large proletarian sector. In hindsight, a change arrived in 1900.

At that time a great movement began in Siedlce. It came after a huge fire that wiped out an important portion of the city. The burnt–out householders, after they received their insurance payouts, or, as they were called, their “firecash,” were determined to rebuild their destroyed wooden or brick houses. Thus there arose a social class of contractors, who undertook the labor for the homeowners. The contractors were known as “padryatchkes” (from Russian, meaning “initiators” or “providers”). These people carried out the work with hired laborers, who were called “associates.” The growth of building jobs led to the increase in other trades, such as: masons, locksmiths, carpenters, and housepainters. These tradesmen worked in the city as long as there was work; when the work paused, or when there was a quarrel between contractors,

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the workers went to neighboring towns or big cities: Warsaw, Brisk, Bialystok, and Lodz. They worked there and on holidays they would come home to Siedlce, to their parents and relatives, to celebrate the holiday together. The return to Siedlce after working in other places for some months, encountering other workmen and their impressions that they shared–this was something to experience! On holidays, Siedlce boiled like a kettle.

This is how the life of Jewish workers in Siedlce seemed at the beginning of the 20th century: When parents determined that their child had a “bad head,” and were disappointed that they could not make him a student, that child, who had not yet even had a bar mitzvah, was given to a craftsman as an apprentice. The master received a certain sum of money for teaching his trade and kept the young man with him for four years. Truthfully, though, the young man learned little. The master's wife ruled over him. The poor young man had to carry out the master's bidding, whether it had something to do with his trade or not, such as: carrying water, doing the shopping, rocking the children, and so on. In short, he was a hewer of wood and schlepper of water. At the end of four years, the apprenticeship ended; he was “released from apprenticeship.” The apprentice received a new title, a “year–young man.” As a reward for his work, he received a small sum of money for the year. After that year, the “year young man” became a “season young man”–that is, he would be paid for a half year, and only after working for several “seasons” would he become a “week man.”

The workday for such a worker in summer went from sunrise to sunset, and in winter until late into the night. When Shabbos or a holiday was over, the worker would change from his Shabbos clothing into work clothes and hurriedly go to his work in order to make up the time that he had lost by stopping early on Friday. There was no lunch hour and no rest time–certainly not. Relations between masters and their workers was rough and unpleasant.

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The Bund and the P.P.S. and their Effect on Siedlce's Jewish Workers

At that time, around 1900, there were already activities from the “General Jewish Workers' Alliance of Poland, Russia, and Lithuania” [the Bund]. On the Polish streets the P.P.S. [the Polish Socialist Party] was active, and it also did work among the Jews. Both groups had begun to grow and organize activities in Siedlce, and they led a propaganda campaign against the czarist regime and a battle to improve the living conditions of workers.

The leader of the Bund was Avraham Yablon, a carpenter who had come from a religious family. He was a grandson of Chaim Shloymo Yablon, a well–known grocer in Siedlce. Yablon worked several years in Warsaw and had there joined the “Bund.” He became well–versed in the party's literature and became involved in Warsaw with the propaganda for the Bund and active in the illegal organization. Avraham Yablon was the founder of the Bundist organization in Siedlce.

The leader of the Jewish group in the P.P.S. was Avraham Kadish. In later years he went to America, where he lived until around 1947. In his last years he developed a love for Eretz Yisroel. Part of his possessions he donated for the establishment of a cultural center through the Histadrut [General Organization of Workers] in Acco (Israel), in memory of his home town, Siedlce.

Nest to him was Yudl Mastboym, a young man, barely seventeen years old, the son of Itzl Mastboym, himself a rebellious type. The writer Yoel Mastboym, Yudl's brother, says this about his father the rebel: “My father used to put his hands on the buffet at the tavern and tell himself or listen to the heroic stories of Christians and Jews in the rebellion against the ‘lords,’ hear a curse on the Russian czar from the peasants or curse him himself. He would shock the peasants by informing them

that Moyshe Rabbeinu was a socialist and the “Pan Jesus” was a mentsch”^[60]. The whole Mastboym family, aside from Mrs. Mastboym and her son Yoel, were active in the revolutionary movement.

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Yudl Mastboym's revolutionary activities are described by the lawyer A.M. Hartglass in his introduction to the Hebrew translation of Yoel Mastboym's “The Red Life”:

That must have happened in 1906. The revolutionary himself was not brought to the court proceedings because he was lying ill in jail. His defense, two famous lawyers–Bernzan and Makovsky (the latter was the justice minister in independent Poland before the Second World War) conducted the defense of “Smaluch,” which was the pseudonym of Yudl Mastboym (who, when he was small, would look for buttons in the gutters). Makovsky–Hartglass says–undermined the accusation and repeated that the Russian Empire trembled before “Smaluch.” This provoked laughter from the judge. Then Yudl Mastboym was sentenced to hard labor for life in Siberia^[61]. He was sent away and no one knows how his life ended.

The mood for revolution grew among the Jewish workers in Siedlce. Edelshtat's song “In Conflict” was very popular. Here is how it begins:

We are hated and pursued, We are plagued and followed And all because we love The poor, languishing folk. We would be shot, hanged, We are robbed of our lives, of our rights, Because we long for truth And freedom for poor people…

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they discussed political questions and sought solutions for bettering the lives of the poor.

The P.P.S. also increased propaganda among Siedlce's Jews. Characteristically, the more Polish party included the Chasidic young people, who did not even know any Polish. To the P,P.S. also belonged the slaughterhouse workers and such strong characters. They were impressed that the P.P.S. was not concerned with theories but only with practical terrorist actions. The most active members of the P.P.S. were Moyshe Kalmanovitsch (known as “Gabbai,” because his father was a zealous Chasid and gabbai in the Kotzk prayer house”, Yisroel Zimmerman (“Badchan”) Michael Agresboym, Moyshe Chasid (“Chasid”), Mendel Radzinski, Avraham Federman (“Schnitzer”), Asher Levita, Yosl Schloss, Chaim Serkhei (known as “Ketsche”). They all worked under the leadership of Avraham Kadish.

The activities of the Bund were led by Eliyahu Vira, Tuvia Kagan, Shaul Zubrovitsch (known as “Vyetrok” because his home was full of talk [This involves a Russian pun.], Shloyme Stolovy, a student in the fourth level of the gymnasium, Moyshe Lies, Yakov Ratinyevitsch, Zalmen Burshteyn, and Yakov Liverant.

Both parties–the Bund and the P.P.S.–conducted their activities conspiratorially. When the number of associates had greatly increased, they began to gather in the “People's Tearoom,” which was located in a big house at the edge of the market. The “People's Tearoom” was “project” of the local czarist government and was established in 1902. This was supposed to be a kind of “cultural center” for the czarist functionaries and also a place to divert the masses from the secret revolutionary movements. There one could get hot water, also known as “kipiotek,” and, on request, flavorings. Sugar one had to purchase. There one could read the official Russian–government newspapers, play dominoes, engage in conversations, and so on.

So the czarist “cultural house” became a meeting spot for the members of the Bund, who gathered there and held discussions and conversations. The situation, however, became known to the police, who spied on the place and conducted searches and made arrests.

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