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The last 25 years of Jewish life in Zagłębie are – in general – rich in various events. All of these events, which occurred in Jewish social and communal life were always echoed throughout Zagłębie. Jewish Zagłębie always reacted – sometimes greater, sometimes weaker – to all the events that we underwent.

Now, with all those years are behind us, it seems that we are looking into a past that has disappeared long ago. The new era that began after the war will not allow the tragic situation from before the war to return. However, in the light of the reality we live in, we see that the numerous problems facing the Jews have not disappeared and that the many burning problems have remained in the same actuality that they existed 25 years ago. It also has become clear to us that since the plight of the Jews repeats itself throughout history, 25 years is quite a relatively short interval in time.

The final years of Czarism were very difficult for the Jews in former Russia. After the freedom movement was stifled during the years 1905 to 1906, a reactionary regime with an iron fist was established. Black money was rampant and being under the gendarme's thumb, where no free thought was permitted, social and cultural work was barred in even the most honorable environments since the Czarist spies saw revolutionary shadows everywhere (“fifth columnists”).

It is self evident that when one writes about Jewish life during the last years of Czarism that a whole complex of Jewish persecution and decrees, that would certainly have been carried out with completely brutal severity and had it not been for the world war, the Czarists were prevented from realizing their murderous plans.

In the year 1913, the Czarist government began invoking an old law according to which Jews were not permitted to live in an area within 21 verst from the border. The Jews from the Zaglembian villages were, because of this, obligated to leave their homes.

With the participation of Rabbi Jekutiel Zalman Graubart, a Będzin memorandum was edited and a telegram sent to the Ministry of the Interior to prevent this fateful decree. In a separate action the Jewish deputy of the “Gosudarstwenaja Duma” [parliament], Dr. Bomasz, had endeavored to contact high levels in St. Petersburg, in addition Baron David Ginsburg was asked to intervene on this behalf.

In a letter dated March 22^nd, 1944, Icchak Grinbaum wrote to Rabbi Graubart about the reaction to this fateful sentence:

“I have received a letter from the Jews living in the villages from the district of Będzin and asked me to reply to Dr. Bomasz and to write a telegram to the minister to expedite the expulsion and to inform you about this matter. Hence, I am informing you that I wrote to Dr. Bomasz today and also added the necessary material. I will have the telegram ready within the next couple of days and will send it to you promptly.”

During the period of the expulsion we were witness to another tragic event that left behind a substantial impact in the Jewish economic structure. This was the boycott that was organized by the “Endecja” against the Jewish population following the election of the Russian parliament in 1912 where, with the help of Jewish votes, the candidate of the PPS, Jagiello, was elected and the “Endecja” candidate, Kuchaszewski, failed.

In this particular “holy” anti-Jewish act, the entire “Endecja” party and press was antagonized. In the Zaglembian communities a complete chain of cooperative stores were opened, which took away a large number of Christian clientele from the Jewish storekeepers. The boycott drove many thousands of Jewish business owners to the brink of economic destruction and they were wiped out.

The “Endecja”, in their Jewish struggle were not alone; they also had the assimilated Jews of Zagłębie come to their aid, who had not remained behind the times in relation to their friends in Warsaw. As we read in the “Endecja” newspaper “Iskra” number 287 from the year 1912: “The assimilated Jews of Sosnowiec sent a telegram to Warsaw protesting against the non-election of Kuchaszewski.” The assimilated Jews of Będzin sent a similar telegram.

The economic destruction in the Jewish community, which came as a result of the Czarist Jewish persecution and from the boycott was a factor behind the beginnings of mass emigration.

Thousands of emigrants passed through Zagłębie which is encircled by borders; apart from legal emigrants a large number of illegal emigrants flooded the borders, and it quite often occurred that poor emigrants from various cities fell into the hands of professional smugglers who simply robbed and abandoned them to the G-d's care in the Czeladz fields. No amount of warnings helped. The total number of victims continued to grow.

At the Sosnowiec railway station there was a D. K. A. employee with a shiny tin badge on his cap, who moved about there but was not able to render much assistance. Large groups of emigrants passed through Zagłębie, through Myslowice, to Galveston, North and South America, Argentina, Brazil and other countries. We saw the “parade” of Jewish poverty for ourselves. The nearer we drew to the world war, the number of emigrants continued to grow (from Poland, Lithuania and Russia).

On its outset, the world war cut off the stream of emigration and returned the Jewish masses to other directions of pain and suffering.

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1) A Short Introduction

To write the history of the “Zagłębier Zeitung” [Zagłębie Newspaper] is surely no easy task, if one wants that this work to be accurate and conscientiously done, because a whole era comes into play here, a jubilee where you have to turn back the pages and refresh the memories of 26-27 years ago.

In such moments very variant and colorful memories arise that keep on changing while flashing by, with one memory chasing the other, and we think that we are looking through a kaleidoscope in which we admire a marvelous symphony of colors.

When you take a newspaper in hand and want to acquaint yourself with it, you must first look at the title to see how old it is, for how many years it has been published, and if it has reached a respectable age; only then can it be treated with the respect and acknowledgement that it deserves.

Naturally, as soon as a newspaper has been in existence for a long time, then we have to pay attention to it, even if it is only for the age that it has reached, in the same way that we respect an elder person which we assume has acquired wisdom as well as age over the years.

And a newspaper is indeed like a living being. From the first moment of its inception, it has to be nurtured like a child from birth on.

And there is a lot to endure from this capricious child-newspaper: all of a sudden it has uncovered a secret which has the whole town and its surroundings reeling; another time the same child sends out warnings not to play in the mud from which it could become very difficult to disengage and get clean.

This is, in fact, the mission of a newspaper, i.e. to be alert and like a sensitive seismograph, to detect the differentiated vibrations in the social life of the place.

The coin also has a flip side: the newspaper, from its side, has the obligation to do everything in its power in order to reach a certain required level if it wants to aspire to the moral right to dictate and to deliver decisive opinions which the public should consider.

In order to attain this degree of acceptance, we have to conserve the sanctity of the printed word. Each problem must be handled honestly, with integrity and sincerity. The truth – no matter how terrible or awful it might be – must be the ideal of those that nurture the newspaper, but simultaneously, lies must be uprooted without consideration of whom it might bother or anger.

Did we preserve these axioms? Was this the ideal of the founding fathers? These very important questions should only be answered by the reading body of the newspaper, these very same people who were raised and educated by “The Zagłębie Newspaper.”

On July 21st, 1911, the first edition of the “Zagłębie Newspaper” was published. But in those years, to publish a newspaper was no easy matter for two reasons. First of all, the average person was afraid of approaching the printed word, notwithstanding that this same person might have had a tremendous love for Jewish culture. On the contrary, the stronger the relationship, the greater the appreciation for the printed word; thus the more one felt the responsibility it implied.

Just as a pious scribe would go to the Mikveh to purify himself prior to writing the holy letters of the Torah, thus also the writer felt the words he was to publish as holy script. He, therefore, viewed his work not as a profession, but rather as a higher ideal which he had been granted from the powers up above.

Secondly, in those years – during the reign of the Russian monarchy – it was not easy to get a concession for a newspaper, so that the publication of one was not entirely kosher. Therefore, they couldn't even consider, at that time, to give the “child” the name “The Zagłębie Newspaper.” They had to try to finagle and fool the Tsarist regime by giving the paper the alias “Advertisement Sheet,” which was edited as a free attachment to the Warsaw newspapers. Otherwise, they would never have been able to sneak it in.

Later on, we were allowed to charge for the paper, and from that moment on we were able to assume the role of an independent organism which was spread from Sosnowiec to Piotrków and was, aside from in Łódź, the only Yiddish publication in the Congress-Poland province.

The “Annoncen Blatt“ [Advertisement Paper] quickly started to develop, so much so, that it was soon necessary to open a publication department in Częstochowa. This department was under the leadership of Rafael Federman, with the association of Mosze C. (Checinski is now a publisher in America). The newspaper was also distributed farther in Piotrków, Radomsk, Kielce, Lublin and even in Upper Silesia which at that time was part of Germany.

The fact is that the local Jews were already quite assimilated and did not have any real interest in a Yiddish newspaper, but the fact that Zagłębie and Upper Silesia were bound economically forced the Upper Silesian Jews to remain in contact with us.

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The merchants in Katowice and Bytom [Beuthen], the industrialists, the doctors and others like them, knew how to exploit this newspaper infrastructure and filled it with advertisements at a time when the general public did not understand why they spent so much money on such foolishness.

The advertisement section flourished, but the informative part of the newspaper lagged behind and developed very slowly. For example, the writer of this article started to edit publications in the form of “letters” under the alias “Abraham” – reflections of current social life. Later on, the chronicles of all the cities and towns became richer and more interesting.

Thereafter, we were joined by Lajbl Goldsztajn, who worked intensively writing theater reviews and also some light articles.

At the same time Jeszaja Lewkowicz appeared who began, more or less, to take part in the newspaper.

Later on he was joined by Maks Aronowicz, who took part in the newspaper with enormous sacrifice making the effort to give the newspaper a fitting tone and form.

Szlomo Abramson, living in Będzin, also contributed to the economic articles, which were written with a business sense, and the reader felt that he is being addressed by a knowing intelligent person from whom there was much to learn.

The following people began to contribute individually with polemic articles: J. Wygodzki, Goldmer, Jewic, J. M. Wajnryb, B. Preger, etc.

Kielce, that played a major role as a state capital, awarded us the then still very young poet Fiszel Bimko who, today, occupies a very important place in the Yiddish literary family of America.

This was a first period of the Yiddish published word in Zagłębie.

It should be stressed that all of the co-workers, aside from myself, did not know at the time that the newspaper was illegal and that we were threatened at any moment to be arrested. Notwithstanding all that, we persisted until we were finally granted a concession from the Piotrkówer governor for our newspaper, and at which time it began to be called “Unzer Telefon” [Our Telephone].

If we had already progressed, making the “Annoncen Blatt” [Advertisement Paper] into an independent paper that cost money which had, at the time, an immense importance – the fact that we received this concession meant that we had broken through a tremendous barrier, permitting us to work legally.

For this unbelievably difficult pioneering work, I, who am penning this article, must thank my father who stopped for no one and at nothing until he was able to realize this concession for the paper.

Prior to this moment, we had to print our newspaper in Szlomo Belchatowski's printing shop in Piotrków, which, I must say, was not an easy task. Having received the concession for “Unzer Telefon” [Our Telephone], we started to look around for a printing shop in the Będzin area. In order to achieve this we linked up with Efraim Zajdner, who, in those years, possessed the largest printing shop in Będzin, and on November 1913, the first edition of “Our Telephone” appeared as a totally legal newspaper. This date is most important with relevance to the affairs of the Yiddish press in Zagłębie.

Just after 2 editions of the legal newspaper had been published, we received, from Breslau [Wrocław] the sad news that the Będziner Rav, Reb Issachar Graubart z”l had passed on. We then printed an extra edition which was distributed in thousands of copies, not only in our city, but also in the surrounding area and in cities farther away. The interest in the newspaper became so big that we had to start printing daily, at least until after the eminent Rabbi's funeral and his burial.

As time went on, the newspaper invested more and more resources in itself and gathered around it the cream of Yiddish-speaking Zagłębie.

As an impartial organism, our newspaper tried to function on a very high level and thus battled for a better existence and a more beautiful future. Our articles which were logically written drew respect and interest and thus also attracted a continuous stream of contributing co-workers such as J. Pejsachson, M. Halpern, G. Stawski, B. Tencer, M. Fajnkind, etc.

But in the middle of the development of our newspaper, in its most glorious and sparkling period, lightning struck and the fires of Hell descended as World War I broke out in 1914.

Friday, July 31^st, 1914 the newspaper appeared, and the next day, on Saturday, the Russian militia, Natshalstoveh, and the governmental police administrators fled to Warsaw in a tumult.

Sunday, Zagłębie was already occupied by a German military division. The fear was unimaginable because the Germans declared war and imposed occupation conditions, first of all, requisitioning all food products.

We were immediately cut off from Warsaw and Łódź and had no communication so that we found ourselves in a box, closed in, without being able to catch our breath. Then, at the same time we found ourselves also in an indecisive position. What should we do? Publish the newspaper? Contact the Germans, who theoretically are those that have to supply us with the information? And then present the newspaper to the censor?

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That was surely dangerous because everyone was sure that any day the Russians were going to return, and then all of us who had any contact with the enemy would be sent off directly to freezing Siberia. On the other hand, to stand by on the sidelines and not publish the newspaper at such a critical moment in history, when more than in any normal time we have to take upon ourselves this responsibility, didn't suit us either. After a lot of tribulations, we decided to publish the newspaper anyhow, and because of the explosive current events, we also decided to transform it into a daily for the time being.

Not having any other Yiddish newspaper, we simply swallowed all the expenses ourselves. One should not forget that at that time the newspaper served as a guide. The newspaper printed and informed the public of everything that had to be publicized and all the changes made by the German commanders, and thus the readers were informed when they are allowed to be in the streets, (curfew), what is not allowed in the house without special permission, etc… Our task was also to warn the inhabitants that they should listen to the orders of the civilian militia, even if they are fellow Jews or even acquaintances. The daily newspaper then became an important factor in our daily lives.

The longer the Germans stayed in Poland, the more they began to boss the people around, especially so in the Zagłębie area, where - because of its strategic position - they felt more secure and comfortable. It went so far that they confiscated one of the editions of “Our Telephone” and ordered the newspaper to stop printing. But the question was not solved therewith. One fine day, a committee presented itself with the editor-in-chief of the German Press Representation at its head which requisitioned our editing office, demanding the private telephone communications with the Russian army from which we receive our information for the news in “Our Telephone”. (They thought we had a type of Red Phone linked to the government.) When we explained that the name alone of the newspaper refers to the word 'telephone' and it doesn't mean that there is virtually a telephone in use, nor do we have any such communication, they didn't believe us, and they started searching all over the office and the printing room for such an underground telephone. Of course, even in the printing room they found no such telephone or apparatus. But the end was that they did not allow us to continue publishing the newspaper. We were written off by them…

Edited by Lisa Newman

Early on Monday, November 11, 1918, we in Zagłębie began to gradually sense there would soon be a breakthrough in the world order. Over the next several hours, the German military and civilians fled; they simply disappeared from Zagłębie with lightning speed, and customary German orderliness and punctuality. By the time we inhabitants began to understand the historical events occurring around us, there was not a single German left in sight.

A new civil militia was immediately established to maintain order; many Zagłębie citizens took part, and we even received weapons in order to achieve this objective.

At the same time our newspaper “Our Telephone” (which had strongly opposed the Germans) reappeared, only to be discontinued again by the Polish government on June 28^th1919, till the whole issue of “Our Telephone” could be cleared up.

In order not to lose momentum during this important historic time, we republished our earlier issues: on July 4^th 1919 there we published “Friday” and on July 11^th “Shabbat Eve”. But in the absence of specific explanations about the closing of “Our Telephone” we didn't dare risk publishing further issues without approval, and so on July 18^th 1919 we began publishing instead “The Zagłębie Newspaper”, which exists until today.

With the rebirth of an independent Polish government, Polish citizens were freed from the yoke of slavery and a new life pulsated. Together with the Polish people, we Jews, also contributed bricks and mortar to the immense rebuilding process of an independent Poland. At this historic moment our social life began to take form too: the newspaper became a living factor, the roadmap for the citizens who undertook their responsibility towards the newly established government.

We were very careful to maintain a “clean” newspaper, not to dirty or degrade the written word. We avoided dealing with personal polemics, nor did we allow individuals to carry out, in the name of the newspaper, things that would be to their benefit alone. We did, however, show the utmost recognition and gratitude to honest and devoted social representatives who acted for the good of the whole. More than anything else, we hated false flattery, and felt no obligation in that regard, as might have been the case in other provincial newspapers.

In fact, many individuals have tried to take revenge on us whenever possible, but we do not concern ourselves with that at all. From the first day the newspaper appeared until today, we never sought favors or advertisements from any company or large industrialist, nor did we pursue any demands or favors via the newspaper.

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Indeed, we refused to celebrate the newspaper's 25^th anniversary with a jubilee issue (as would have been appropriate to a newspaper of our standing) as friends locally and abroad suggested, simply because publishing such an issue would have entailed great expense and required subsidies from outside which we did not want.

The newspaper refused to favor one side or another; we always served the interest of the people and fought for the good of all, no matter their political allegiance.

The newspaper's faithful readers are found not only in Zagłębie, but also among our Zagłębie brethren abroad, in Israel, America, or anywhere else in the world; wherever they are, they seek in “The Zagłębie Newspaper”, “the haymish, warm regards from the old home that they once knew”.

Our in-house permanent editorial staff includes R. Let, S. Lewkowicz (Ben Amotz), Selekt, Eles, and Dr. Papori, and the following regular contributors: J. Oberzanek, P. Blumenkranc, Ch. Zieloni, S. Rotenberg, Dr. Weinziher, Dr. Rechtman, Juda Jafet, J. Wygodzki, Z. Haber, L. Goldsztajn, Rosa Jakubowicz, L. Tenenbaum, and N. Szternberg.

Important work, worthy of mention, was carried out by the following co-workers: M. Fajnkind, in 1934, wrote, among others, in-depth dissertations on subjects, such as “The Będziner Community in the Second Half of the 19^th Century” and later “The First Epoch of the Sosnowiecer Community”. Aside from that, for every holiday there was an historical account in accordance with the holiday on hand.

Eliezer Rubinlicht (The chairman of the community committee)		Abram Liwer (Vice chairman of the community committee)
Szlomo Jicchak Rinski (The chairman of the community board)		Nuta Londner (Vice chairman of the community board)

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J. Wygodzki had to prepare an article for each holiday based on the books of our sages z”l. He returned to their past when Jews were still an independent nation in their own country with their own language, culture and tradition, and beautifully entwined the past into the future. Such studious research that is simultaneously apropos to current life could only issue from the pen of one who possesses so much knowledge and intelligence as our friend Wygodzki.

S. Lewkowicz (Ben Amotz) is co-editor and directs the Zagłębie chronicles. He also puts together the satirical and humorous “Koch-Leffel” [wooden spoon] and writes vividly under the generic name of “Heard and Seen”. He also worked on the editorial correspondence of “Our Panorama”.

S. Rotenberg at first wrote articles about current events, later covering problems of the times under the heading “Remarks”. As well, he gave details about professional events in art and reviewed art exhibits and musical and theatrical performances. When Rotenberg returned from Vilna where he studied in 1932-1933, he publicized concerning the differences in our newspapers and this in a series of articles entitled “The Lithuanian Jerusalem”, wherein he came to express the general life in Jewish Vilna, and in specific the activity of the important Jewish culture in Vilna and its social institutions. For his work, Rotenberg was rewarded with a collective letter of gratitude/appreciation from the presidents of all these institutions. This letter was forwarded to us and published in “The Zagłębie Newspaper” September 1, 1933.

P. Blumenkranc reflected on the most sensitive and disturbing issues of the times, as well as writing serious articles about various subjects both Jewish and secular. Blumenkranc also painted beautifully and wrote fine theatrical reviews and critiques.

G. Stawski wrote for us reports and character sketches about modern leaders of national thought such as N. Sokolow and Ch. N. Bialik, whom he still remembered from the time that he was a teacher in Sosnowiec. Stawski also wrote about the differences within the newspapers. In 1936 he wrote a larger interesting dissertation entitled “Memoirs of the First Zionists in Zagłębie”.

In the largest capitals abroad we were represented by the following correspondents: Z. Haber (Vienna), Dr. Imerglik (New York), S. Wajs and Motek Hampel (Israel). Dr. Froman covered the rest of America, Africa and other countries.

As you know, we have several editorial friends, who write under aliases without revealing themselves, nor do they allow the editors to reveal their identities. Readers and friends of the newspapers have a hard time accepting that they should read weekly articles written by “X” or “Y” without knowing who the person is behind them.

This happened years ago. In Sosnowiec, all the readers were certain, just as two plus two equals four, that Dr. Papori is no other than Dr. Perlman. And as many times as we might have declared to our readers that it is not so, they believed neither our nor Dr. Perlman's denials, and he therefore often bore the brunt of their dissatisfaction. But he had an opportunity to prove to his followers and opponents that Dr. Papori of the newspaper was not himself, when one of our colleagues published an article that presented the problems of the community in a manner that did not correspond to Dr. Perlman's opinion, which was known as he was a community representative. Yet still there were those who remained in doubt, and only when Dr. Perlman passed away and Dr. Papori continued to write, were they convinced that his declaration and ours were the truth.

Another episode with one of our pseudonyms happened in Będzin, several years ago. A delegation of three well-known and respected people in the city came into the editorial office and requested to know the identity of our colleague who penned under the name of R. Let. He had apparently offended the pride of their association for which they suffered a material loss and since they didn't want to have a run-in with the editorial staff, they only wanted to sue the author himself. Of course we responded that we were not allowed such a thing without the author's approval. But they declared that they knew anyhow who the culprit was, that everyone knows that the author is in reality Rubinlicht. They were convinced that that R. Let stood for Ru-Benlicht.

Such incidents arose because we allowed writers to keep secretive pseudonyms.

Since 1933, we have also published for Kielce and surroundings an altered edition of our newspaper, called the “Kielcer Zagłębie Newspaper”.

The reader who eagerly takes up the newspaper surely doesn't realize how difficult it is to edit a newspaper that is responsible towards the public, and keeps to an adopted line of thought; reading the finished product, he doesn't see the difficulties and sacrifices involved in producing it.

Thus we made an attempt at a short characterization, an overview of the publication of “The Zagłębie Newspaper” in all its stages.

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