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In January 1921 I was delegated to travel to Lutsk by the Washington division of the Lutsker Landsmanschaft [organization of people from the same city or town] for Relief Work in Lutsk and its surroundings. As a result, after an absence of 14 years, I was given [the opportunity] to visit my birth city where my parents, Yankl Grober and Chana Slawa, lived, along with my brother Shmuel Papir and his wife and children, my sister and her family and many uncles and aunts and their many branched families. I lived in deep longing for the beautiful landscape of Lutsk and its surroundings where I had spent many happy satisfied years, despite everything during the time of my 14-year separation from my old and dear home. Baked deeply in my heart were the Lutsk rivers and forests where, in summer, I swam and spent much time on various excursions in the area; and in winter – I skated on the ice, for which I was given slaps and warning by my father, of blessed memory, that I should not do what Hasidic boys were not permitted to do.

On the way to Lutsk, I spent several weeks in Warsaw where I arranged the appropriate formalities that were connected with transferring money that American relatives had sent to their families in Lutsk. This matter was connected with the issue of money and the transfer of dollars into marks – in agreement with the existing financial laws in Poland. A great deal of money designated for the Lutsker victims to cover the transportation expenses for immigrating to America remained in the possession of the Joint [Distribution Committee]. The rest of the money in Polish currency was transferred to the remaining victims in Lutsk. All together, this made a round sum of around a hundred thousand dollars. Around 40,000 dollars were exchanged to Polish currency at 610 marks to the dollar. This money was packed into a large crate, which took up the entire area of the Joint auto. I had to sit on the crate and this drew attention to me from the Jews in the Warsaw streets on which we had to drive on the way to Lutsk. The Nalewker Jews particularly marveled at this picture of an American Jew sitting in an auto and his head reaching heaven. At the last minute I understood the comedy of the situation, exited the auto and traveled to Lutsk by train. Later, it appeared that I should goyml bentshn [a prayer of thanks said after completing a dangerous journey], because outside of Koval, the auto was shot at by bandits, who suspected that there surely had to be a large sum of money in the crate. If I had traveled with the auto, my head surely would have been a good target for the bandits' bullets.

I arrived in Lutsk around 12 o'clock at night. The night was very dark. At the train station I was taken by an izwoszczik [coachman] – a convert [to Christianity] who I knew from my childhood years. He also recognized me. We drove into the city and began looking for the house of my parents. However, the darkness was so great that this was not so easy for us. We drove around the same place many times and were completely unable to find the right place. With luck, my parents heard our voices and they ran out to welcome me. Understandably, the joy of our meeting was very great after such a long time of having not seen each other.

I spent many months in Lutsk, during which I had the opportunity to see the terrible post-war need of the majority of the Jewish population in Lutsk. It demanded an

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extraordinary strength of endurance and much human understanding for the suffering of the Jews in Lutsk.

On the second day, the vehicle with the chest of money also arrived. Because of the need for security, I did not bring the chest into my parents' home because this would have put them in danger of being attacked by bandits and looters, but I took it to the building of the kehile [organized Jewish community] where there was an iron safe. Two nightguards were placed there who watched the money to which the hundreds of Jewish families in Lutsk had turned with hope.

In the course of my three-week stay in Warsaw, the concerned families were informed about the money transfers that I had brought with me. On the first day of my arrival in Lutsk, my parents' house was besieged by hundreds of Jews. There also was great jostling at the kehile building. The payments of money took place under the rigorous supervision of the distinguished Jewish men of the city. Because of the great jostling around the table where the payouts at the kehile took place, the kehile-shamas [community caretaker] began to drive them out of the premises. However, I immediately intervened, calmed the crowd a little and asked them to behave in a way that the payouts could take place in an appropriate atmosphere. The payouts lasted several weeks. But, alas, many remained unsatisfied. As the American saying: “Try to satisfy everyone and you will surely satisfy no one.” Thus it was in this case. Each one of the institutions present in Lutsk claimed leadership and precedence. However, the monies were distributed with impartiality and this was the way the distribution had to take place. Everyone had to be satisfied.

The reason for the dissatisfaction lay in the instability of the Polish currency. Several Jews actually wanted us to distribute dollars, not believing that the Joint, according to the existing law, had exchanged the dollars for marks. Even now, several tens of years after my mission, I want to make use of the opportunity to again assert that I carried out my work perfectly. My conscience has remained clear to this day.

After finishing the payment came the second part of my mission: completing all formalities that were connected with the immigration to America of the Jews from Lutsk and the surrounding areas. All of the Jewish immigrants had to assemble from various small cities and shtetlekh [towns], with their families, of which many children had ringworm on their small heads and they had to be cured. They were sent to the hospital in Warsaw. Much effort and energy was used in preparing the trips and passport formalities in the Polish offices. No less effort was placed with the American consul, who after my profuse sweating in various Polish offices, began a new investigation. He suspected that the money [I brought] for emigration was from a somewhat unclean source and it was connected with a certain intrigue. With great effort, I worked to persuade him that I had been involved in a communal mission and with humanitarian help.

After spending seven months in Lutsk, I succeeded in gathering 50 children from various parents. I rented a special train car for them and transferred them to Warsaw. Their parents traveled on separate trains. Obtaining the visas and passports took a great deal of time and took place accompanied by many bizarre situations. The instructions of the American relatives were such that the monies were designated only for emigration. In a case when someone [decided not to go], the money had to be sent back. Older girls, whose relatives wanted to bring to America, saw it as a suitable opportunity to get married. Matches and weddings actually quickly took place to which I was invited more than once. This caused me great embarrassment.

* * *

A particularly interesting chapter of communal and cultural work took place then. In addition to private money, I had 9,000 dollars that I had to distribute among various institutions.

There then existed in Lutsk various institutions of a diverse character. There were Zionist, Hebraist and Yiddishist institutions that had their specific needs and problems. It really demanded great tact in order to find the correct balance in the appropriate distribution of the 9,000 dollars that were at my disposal. I held many conferences and consultations with the representatives of the interested institutions to analyze the labyrinth of their tasks and their practical needs. Each of the Lutsk institutions claimed authority and merit. However, the money was sent completely impartially and that is how the distribution had to take place. Everyone had to be satisfied.

This was just then erev [the eve of] Passover. The great need because of the war threatened that hundreds of Jewish families would remain without matzos and other requirements for Passover. They demanded that I distribute a certain sum for this purpose. At that time, there were a considerable number of newly rich war-wealthy men who did not excel in the good traits of the pre-war wealthy men. They kept their purses closed under lock and key

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and did not feel any responsibility to their fellow Jewish citizens who found themselves in need. Therefore, I demanded that these rich men should first tax themselves for this purpose and then I would contribute the same sum that they would collect. And thus the Jews were provided with the necessities for Passover.

The Jews who came to the Lutsk Jewish kehile for matzo for Passover made a frightful impression on me. I once knew them as good looking, rich and middleclass people. They were ruined by the war operations and had to stick out their hands for help. These scenes were etched so deep in my memory that I cannot forget them even today.

The city synagogue in Lutsk was found in very sad condition. Because of the war operations in that area, it was severely damaged. The back fence was completely ruined and open, because it actually served for an unclean purpose… I appropriated a certain sum – and the fence was erected, and other necessary repairs around the synagogue, were completed.

The two above-mentioned communal actions took a thousand dollars from me. The remaining 8,000 dollars were divided among the various institutions in Lutsk. Today, I cannot remember exactly how much each institution received. The Kultur-Lige [Culture League] was taken care of with two beautiful houses for its schools. A considerable sum also was distributed for the gymnazie [secular secondary school] and for the Tarbut [Zionist Hebrew language] schools. The pictures of these institutions were given to the museum in Bat Yam during my visit to Israel. I photographed all the Jewish institutions in Lutsk before departing from Lutsk. These pictures, which are found in the museum at Bat Yam, are a memorial of a once ebullient and lively Jewish community in Lutsk, where there is now only the mass grave of our dearest and nearest, annihilated by the Hitlerist beasts.

1959

The year 1920. The war between Poland and the Soviets was in full fervor. Lutsk found itself not far from the front, on the Polish side. On that day, the news reached us about the historic act in San Remo, where the Balfour Declaration was approved by all of the nations of the world. The news created great enthusiasm in the Jewish and, particularly, in the Zionist circles. They kissed each other and the streets resounded with Mazel Tov [literally good luck, but said in congratulations].

We, a group of young, active Zionists, decided to show the joy enveloping the Jewish masses with a large street demonstration. For this purpose, we ordered a meeting to come together of the city Zionist Committee at which it was decided to arrange such a demonstration, if the regime would permit it.

Reb Avraham Lender, of blessed memory, then the chairman of the Zionist organization, who was among the opponents of the demonstration, announced after the adoption of the proposal that he was acquiescing to the majority and accepted the mission of obtaining the permission. With beating hearts, we waited for Avraham Lender in front of the building of the commissar-representative for the eastern areas (the civilian regime then). Finally, he appeared and his face was beaming with satisfaction: the permission had been granted. Feverish work immediately began. The entire Zionist camp, which was then numerous enough, but not yet splintered into separate groups, stood on its feet. We took for our task that the entire city, all the streets, shopfronts, windows and balconies would be appropriately decorated and illuminated.

We carried on an educational campaign from house to house and made the population acquainted with the significance of the historic act in San Remo. After communicating with other organizations, the route, the order and sequence of the different organizations was established.

There was a great deal of work; a separate section took care of every area of the work; the meeting

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of the sections almost never ceased. Every detail was designated in advance.

The demonstration was designated for the 6^th of May (if I am correct, it fell on Lag b'Omer [holiday traditionally celebrating the end of a 2^nd century plague]). That year, the holiday for the Constitution of the 3rd of May was celebrated in Lutsk for the first time and the Polish regime left the decorations that they had prepared for the 3^rd of May holiday. This significantly eased the work for us of decorating the streets. The uncertain weather created great anguish for us. Two days before the demonstration, the sky began to be covered with clouds and a fine rain fell on the night of the 5^th to the 6^th of May, which made a ruin of the decorations here and there.

The rain stopped in the morning, but the sky was very cloudy and the sun [barely] appeared. Despite the unfavorable weather, the demonstration exceeded all expectations. Up to 20,000 people took part in it, in exemplary order, under a forest of flags and banners. When the head of the demonstration, led by the Zionist Committee, reached the distant Wielka, its end was near the Bazilianer Bridge. Dr. Elihu Bronberg, of blessed memory, splendidly made the arrangements.

The city was magnificently decorated and looked like a holiday celebration unlike any time since then. The “decorations” were heartwarming in the low, poor windows of Synagogue Street (Berka Joselewicza), where they displayed the already old pictures of Dr. Herzl, Moses Montefiore and even a picture of the Vilner Gaon [Vilna Genius] in talis and tefillin [prayer shawl and phylacteries]… Everyone took part with whatever they could. A giant Mogen Dovid [Shield of David, the Jewish star] on the chimney of Sznajger's brewery on Krasna shone [and] could be seen throughout the city. For an entire week, after the holiday, the Krasner Mogen Dovid shone every night over Jewish Lutsk.

However, the holiday was not finished after the street demonstration. A people's meeting was announced for the night hours at the city theater. The crowd, wanting to be in the seats on time, returning from the demonstration, filled the theater. Therefore, the meeting had to start very prematurely. Whoever did not attend the meeting did not see the true enthusiasm. Shortly after the opening, when the Chairman, Reb Avraham Lender, began to speak about Keren Geula [Redemption Fund] (the start of Keren haYesod [Foundation Fund]), the audience began to carry jewelry, valuable items and money to the stage. This was so spontaneous and unexpected that it was a pleasant and deeply moving surprise for all of us that brought tears and joy from many. The meeting was transformed into a great people's celebration. Between one speech and another, the audience was festive with song and did not think about dispersing.

In the late evening hours, three esteemed foreign guests went on the stage: the Ostrer Rabbi Wertheim, Professor Fridlender (who later was murdered in Ukraine, being there as a delegate of the Joint [Distribution Committee]) and Dr. Drolicz. All three Zionists, they came to Lutsk as the ad hoc messengers from the American Committee. However, to whomever of the Lutsk community activists at whose homes they appeared, they found no one at home because everyone was at the theater. So they went there, too. When the chairman announced the arrival of the guests to the audience, a fresh storm of applause broke out and the audience demanded that the guests say something. The guest did not let the requests go on for long. During the speech by the stately looking Rabbi Wertheim, of blessed memory, the electricity suddenly was turned off. Candles were brought immediately and they stuck them on long sticks that had been found behind the wings [of the theater]. The patriarchal appearance of the speaker, his deeply serious style of speaking and the mystical illumination transformed the earlier cheerful mood of the audience into a serious tension. It could be that as a result several ideas from Rabbi Wertheim's speech remain engraved in my memory and I will allow myself to provide one of them here.

In the verse, “Go, my sons, listen to me, I will teach you fear of the Lord” – said the Rabbi Wertheim – one asks, why does it say “Go, listen to me”? If one has something to say to someone, one must say: “Come listen to me,” not “Go.” But, Rabbi Wertheim answered that when one carries a heavy load on one's shoulders and one has something to say to someone, one cannot call one who has a burden on his shoulders to [come to] him, but one must follow him and in the manner of Jewish law, tell him what one has to say. And turning to the young Zionists, Rabbi Wertheim called out, “Go, young men, my children, carry on yourselves a heavy weight of halutziut [pioneering], from building the land, go on your way, but going, 'Go, my sons, listen to me, I will teach you fear of the Lord…'”

The meeting ended late, after midnight, and closed the great Zionist day in Lutsk, which also had a reverberation in the greater Zionist world.

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The Lutsk Jews are publishing a book, a “memorial” for the martyrs. Comrades, friends and acquaintances telephone and ask, demand: Write something about your old memories.

God knows the truth of how difficult this is to do. I took my pen in my hand with a heavy heart to write such a “memorial.”

Avraham Waksman

But perhaps they are, the comrades, that is, nevertheless correct and one must write? Let something remain as a remembrance for coming generations. We all suckle from the old sources and yet, in all generations, after all of the disasters, we have inherited an unextinguished spark that slowly flares up again and again creates a life in difficult exile, that encourages the Jews and plants in the hearts the belief that “the Eternal One of Israel does not lie.”

Thinking this way, I made the decision that Lutsk Jews also had earned [the right] not to be forgotten, not to be erased for the coming generations. Therefore, I would try to write something.

We remember the National [Zionist] Lutsk Jews, those who over the course of generations lived in the bent houses on Krasna [Street], under the shingle-covered roofs of Wielka, Dolina and Nidew, Jewish merchants and artisans in the tall, Kroynsztajn building. We remember the large flour mills: Fridman-Lakric, Pinczuk, Ptic and the small kasha [buckwheat] and groats mills that fed thousands of Jewish families through great effort and work, permitting the education of children and instilling the Zionist love.

If the creation of the Jewish state came as a small consolation to the survivors, what kind of consolation can be found for the thousands of Lutsk Zionist Jews who perished?

We must do the final mitzvah [commandment, commonly translated as good deed] of accompanying them to their eternal rest and perpetuating their memory by describing their lives and activities.

Lutsk was a Zionist city starting in the earlier generations. We can confirm this from the attached document – an account from 1897 about the collection of money for the settlement in Eretz Yisroel that was sent by the Lutsk division of Hovevei Zion [Lovers of Zion] to the central committee in Odesa.

A shiver goes through us when we read the list of the names of our grandfathers (Lender, Meterlin, Kroynsztajn, Fisz, Sznajder, Bursztuk, Leibel Kroyn and so on) whose children, grandchildren are now in Israel, occupy posts in the state offices, the Jewish Agency or are established farmers in Degania, Nahalal and other Jewish villages.

Our grandfathers on the list proposed in 1897 that kopekes – silver rubles – lay a foundation for the Jewish state and that their children, grandchildren (and their families) would be the state officials, the soldiers, officers, tank drivers and pilots,

We must remember that in 1897, during the Tsarist times, being a Zionist was connected to mortal danger, because Zionist activity was illegal. And yet the longing for Zion conquered all difficulties and a Zionist movement for themselves and for the coming generations was created in Lutsk.

Twenty years passed. In 1917, after the February Revolution, a bright ray of freedom penetrated dark, Jewish life. We believed that a new epoch had arrived of true freedom for all people, including for Jews.

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The First Legal Meeting

I remember the first legal meeting of the Zionist Committee in Lutsk in 1917, which took place in the rented apartment of Yokheved Leibel, of blessed memory. I was an uninvited guest there. Old Zionist activists were present at this meeting: Reb Yehosha Meterlin, Reb Moshe Szajner, Reb Avraham Lender, Reb Yekl Simon, Diamand, Shimkha Milchiger, Avigdor Herlingracht, Motl Waksman and so on. They sat around a long, unfinished table (a sort of synagogue table for the third Shabbos [Sabbath] meal). A kerosine lamp burned in the room (there was not yet any electrical light in Lutsk). They talked about distributing shekels [memberships in the Zionist organization]. Three hundred shekels had been the number determined then for all of Lutsk. This was not a large number and it [the distribution] had to be carried out with the help of a hired person because everyone was very busy with worry about earning a living.

I stood on the side, as if I were a “new recruit” and, as happens with the young, I was a little arrogant. During the meeting, I interrupted and said that we could sell a few thousand shekels and not through a hired emissary, but by attracting comrades and young strength that would do this voluntarily and not for money.

At first, they looked at me a little askance, but they were overcome with their Zionist moral sense and the older ones easily found a common language with the younger ones.

It is notable how 1897 and 1917 spoke to each other: exactly 20 years later (5678), there is for us again an original document from a general meeting of the Lutsk Zionist Organization, at which two delegates were elected to the first Zionist conference in Kiev. This record, written by Yeshosha Berger, of blessed memory, is living evidence of the events then. I have preserved the original conference identification document (delegate card), issued by the central committee in Kiev in 1917. Among other things, we can read the “order of the conference” – reports by M. Sirkin, of blessed memory, Y. Szechtman and others.

One of the two delegates from Lutsk, Borukh Pinczuk, was a soldier in the Russian Army during the First World War, not far from Lutsk. After the

A group of Yekaterinburg halutzim [pioneers] in Lutsk Sitting from the right: M. Szafir, T. Gartibel

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February Revolution, he, still as a soldier, under the hidden name Zachariasz, took part in the Zionist activities in Lutsk. I traveled as the second delegate.

Returning, we gave a report about the conference and the Zionist work expanded. A large youth library was created at Wesola 2, from which cadres of Zionistically-inclined young activists emerged.

Taking part actively in the library were Bela Khosher, Ruch Kac, of blessed memory, Yosl Wajner, yibadel lekhayim [may he be separated for life – used when a live person is mentioned near a deceased person to differentiate the living from the dead], Pinkhas Cukerman (today abroad), and still others. In the meantime, we lived through the war and small wars. Bolsheviks, Petilura-Haidamakas [paramilitary groups of Cossacks under Symon Petilura], with their habit of carrying out pogroms; Poles just themselves freed from the Tsarist yoke, their four-pointed legionnaire hats, heroes at cutting off Jewish beards. Despite all of this, we created the first halutzim [pioneers] groups. The best intelligent young people left their rich homes and prepared to emigrate to Eretz Yisroel. At the same time the Zionist Sports Union arose, a sort of “skeleton rescue” organization.

Refugees, halutzim from Yekaterinoslav arrived in Lutsk. Locations for Hakhsharah [preparation for emigration to Eretz Yisroel] for Jewish woodcutters and porters were created. The immigration from Lutsk to Eretz Yisroel began.

You have certainly noticed the words Kharevim-Shkadanim [Society of Diligent Ones] in the above-mentioned document from sixty some

The First Flower Day for Hehalutz

Presidium of the Keren Kayemet L'Yisroel [Jewish National Fund] 1933

In 1897 a group of diligent ones (shkadanim) who had neglected their businesses and gave their time to collecting money for Eretz Yisroel founded societies. They did this in all ways and at every opportunity: at weddings at Warkowicki, Eliezer Liberman and so on; at a bris at Anshel Waserman's; at a theater performance of Irvia [Hebrew], or from a profit from an arbitration and by collecting money in the synagogues and houses of prayer on the eve of Yom Kippur.

In 1917, 20 years later, the group of diligent comrades (also including societies) existed again, Zionist “lunatics,” among them included: Kheikl Wajc, Yehosha Berger, Avraham Landsberg, A. Bronberg, Kuliner, Peczenik, Motl Szafir, F. Fridman, Nafali Gartibel – may all of their memories be blessed, and long may they live, Cwitman, Gruszewski, Gersznzon, Henya Kimelman, A. Waksman, A. Denwik, Ruchl Gurwicz, and so on, who gave their best time to collecting money for the Eretz Yisroel funds through flower days, weddings, kayres [plates for contributions] in the synagogues on the eve of Yom Kippur and through various opportunities. And if income was needed for Keren Kayemet, we arranged a Zionist minyon [10 men needed for prayer] with our own prayer leader for Kol Nidre [opening Yom Kippur prayer] to Neilah [closing Yom Kippur prayer] and if it was necessary, we became artists and performed Sholem Asch's Yatsah ve-khazar [Left and Returned], or A Doktor [by Sholem Aleichem] (directed by Kolodni), or recited El Hatzipor [To the Bird] by Ch.N. Bialik and Matone [Gift] by Zalman Shneour.

A large youth chorus was organized, led by Yeshayahu Temerlin and, during the later years, directed by Shmulik, the son of the Trisker cantor.

Many comrades took part in the chorus. The main [female] soloists were: Dwoyra Grinsztajn, of blessed memory, yibadel lekhayim [may she be separated for life – used when a live person is mentioned near a deceased person to differentiate the living from the dead], Ita Zarecki, Chana Spektor and so on.

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Larger groups were drawn in through this extensive work. For example, all of the “Jewish gentiles” [assimilated Jews], doctors, dentists, a stratum of people who had been distant from Yidishkeit [Jewish way of life] in general and Zionism in particular, were drawn to the Yamim Noraim [Days of Awe] minyon [10 men needed for prayer].

After the [First World] War, when the general situation stabilized, new young Zionist energy increased. Emissaries, speakers came from the central [office]. Even the present head of [the Israeli] government, Mr. David Ben Gurion, came to Lutsk on the eve of a Zionist Congress and he promoted the Zionist idea. Deliberations, whose purpose was to penetrate the actual communal exile work, took place with his [Ben Gurion's] participation at Wesole 2 and at the residence of the Waksman family. There they discussed such matters as city hall, kehila [organized Jewish community], Sejm and Senat [lower and upper houses of Polish parliament].

Zionist groups, young and old, were drawn in and mobilized in daily political-communal activity of the Zionist organization. Councilmen were elected to the kehila, [to the] city hall, who defended the Zionist approach to our Jewish problem. The large building of the Talmud Torah [primary school for poor children] on the 3rd of May Street was occupied by the Palestine office, library and other Zionist institutions.

The United Committee for Keren Kayamet [Jewish National Fund] in Lutsk

The Keren Hayesod [Foundation Fund – United Israel Appeal] Committee in Lutsk

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Zionists took active part in the voting for parliament. They swallowed more than one portion of mud at the [Zionist] Congress election. One is persuaded of this when one reads through the pamphlet against the general Zionists, written by Naftali Gartibel, of blessed memory, on the subject of “The First Election Blossom.”

The influence of the Zionist movement progressed in Lutsk among all new strata of the Jewish population. The income for the Zionist funds also grew with it. The blue pushka [box] of Keren Kayemet [Jewish National Fund] penetrated the cellar workshops and among the half-assimilated students, doctors, merchants, bankers, who once stood at a distance from Zionism.

Thanks to the initiative of Noakh Cukerman (son-in-law of the Krasna Sznajders from Browar), Dr. Poltarok and so on, a beautifully arranged Zionist club was created for the first time in Lutsk – at the house of Lipa Diner, may he rest in peace. Later, we rented a large room, with office rooms, from the Harochower Rebbe. There Purim and Chanukah celebrations and various literary and humorous evenings, at which kehila [organized Jewish community] and Zionist activists were criticized in a light humorist manner, were arranged.

Two parodies remain in my memory from that time on the mentioned themes, written by us and read during an evening in the club. Almost every Shabbos [Sabbath] evening a modern Melave Malka [Sabbath-ending meal] was celebrated. Rebbe Yoal Charak gave a sermon about the weekly Torah portion, interpreting it with Zionism and everyone sang together Zionist and Hasidic melodies with great enthusiasm. Eliezer Szanker played the true cantorial records.

All of this spoke strongly to one's heart. The warmth among comrades encouraged the shkadanim to expand their Zionist work on behalf of Israel.

It is not superfluous to remember the devotion of young and old despite the party disputes and the splits among right and left, and so on. Everyone worked hand-in-hand, dreamed and awaited the moment of living to see the rise of the Land of Israel.

However, only a small number of them lived to see that end. Thanks to the intensive work of the Palestine office, they and their families traveled to Israel. Another smaller number arrived in the country during recent years. These were those who were lucky to have survived the murderous concentration camps in the east and west.

Lutsk was the only city in Poland that succeeded in carrying out the legalization of a statute for a Palestine office at the wojewodztwo [province] for the entire Volyn

Legalization document of the Palestine office in Kolki

It is interesting that the central Palestine office in Warsaw was not legal but tolerated by the Polish emigration office at the Polish Interior Ministry, which, with hidden satisfaction, watched how they accomplished [sending] Żydzi do Palestyny [Jews to Palestine]!

It happened during the beginning of the emigration that suddenly an order was issued that all emigration offices 50 kilometers from the border must cease their activity. The central office of the Palestine offices in Warsaw used our legalization statute and we opened divisions in all cities and shtetlekh [towns] in Volyn: Rovno [Rivne], Kovel, Dubno, Ludmir [Volodymyr], Kremenic [Kremenets], Horochov [Horokhiv] and so on. These were all places close to the Polish-Russian border. This was in the years after the First World War when large groups of Jewish refugees and young halutzim [pioneers] from Russia began to cross at Zdołbunów [Zdolbuniv]-Szepetówka [Shepetivka]. Our Palestine office was busy with their emigration.

In this area, Lutsk truly was an exception. Only thanks to our difficult effort, iron will and logical motives did we succeed in breaking through the “armored walls” of the party cliques. And it was known that these Palestine offices that dominated and ruled over the distribution of immigration certificates for Zionist and ordinary Jews – these offices truly were not elected by any local Zionist meeting, committees and so on. They were only nominated by

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the party cliques, according to the party list of the Zionist Congress. It is understandable that because of this, everything lay in the hands of the administration, which cared little for the old Zionist guard or

However, thanks to the stubbornness and strong will of five comrades, the ice was broken and in Lutsk a regional conference, the only one in Poland, was called of the Palestine offices for all of Volyn. The elected regional committees then had a colossal influence on the immigration-to-Israel movement in Volyn.

A glance at the agenda of the regional conference (according to the attached delegate certificate of the first conference of the offices in Volyn) convinces us that we were not concerned with the ordinary order of things of the known party fiefdom and empty dogmas, and that everything was suitable to the lively interests of the Zionist movement.

Dr. F. Korngrin, now a national judge in Israel, the leader of the central Palestine office in Warsaw, came to the conference, along with the general secretary, Chaim Barlas, one of the best and most active workers in the area of emigration to Eretz Yisroel in Poland. They recognized our viewpoint, that the emigration problems are much more important than the dry party problems.

The stubborn party donors were perhaps a bit annoyed by this, but, therefore, the emigrants in our area won a great deal. Statisticians can state with certainty that the number of emigrants on one certificate was twice as large in Lutsk than anywhere else. We succeeded many times in arguing that a toiling artisan (a carpenter-bricklayer family with seven or eight children) was no less important than the newly-born six-week halutz who received agricultural training in Klosov and hastily learned physical labor along with the entire Zionist Torah.

Who was correct – we see now. How much satisfaction we have when we meet these “small children” now in Israel, who traveled with their parents on one certificate – as they stroll with a large family [of their own] – may there be no evil eye!

Unwillingly, we thought: who ever could imagine that a certificate is a kind of drawn out Hoshana Rabah [the seventh day of the Feast of the Tabernacles – Sukkous, “The Great Supplication”] petition to God for a long life?

In 1920 the first groups of emigrants to Eretz Yisroel were organized. The best young idealists with body and life, girls with secondary school certificates from Kolinka's gymnazie [secondary school] (that would deliberately give the exams only on Yom Kippur) gathered in groups for emigration to Eretz Yisroel. With the Yom Kippur certificate in their hands, a backpack on their shoulders and diploma (certified in a foreign language) from the Jewish community, signed by Avraham Lender and his secretary, Hershl Kroynsztajn, of blessed memory, they left Lutsk on foot the day after Yom Kippur for Lemberg. They wandered for many months until they arrived in Eretz Yisroel. Here they were not ashamed and went on the paths and worked at breaking stones and building paved roads in Israel. With their sweat and endurance, they built the roadways on which now the beautiful Cadillacs skid with their small people and other people who have become great, who, in general, forget the immigrant idealism, the building and the founding of the “country on the way…”

I am reminded that I would often avoid passing through Yagleonska Street in Lutsk past the businesses of Langer, Glajzer and Gertner and so on who looked at me askance and quietly murmured: “Of course, he is strolling around here, but he has sent our children to “hard labor” – to break stones on the highways!”

You meet the immigrant-idealists from the first collective farms after tens of years, spread all over the country: a number in the agricultural kibbutzim [collective agricultural communities], Degania, Ginosar, Yifat and in moshavim [cooperative agricultural communities], Kfar Vitkin, Nahalal and so on. All of them were worn out farmers, already had married off their children and had grandchildren. Some of them held leading offices in the Jewish State, in the Finance Ministry, at the airport in Lod, in the large economic institutions, in export societies for agricultural products, in the Jewish National Fund and in

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Delegate card with agenda for the Eighth Zionist Conference in Kiev County

When taking care of the usual immigration opportunities, one would encounter difficult problems upon which the fate of the entire family was often dependent.

Although we called this “emigration to Eretz Yisroel” – the image of the eternal wandering Jew with a walking stick in his hand [going from] land to land always stood in front of our eyes. I would always argue to my comrades, for us and in Warsaw, only one who had a warm heart for the needs of the emigrant could take care of such life questions.

Three interesting episodes with Lutsk emigrants among the hundreds of cases in my emigration activity remain in my memory.

Here is one episode:

A Jew named Ajzenberg was going to Eretz Yisroel. He was a Hasidic Jew and he was going with his entire family. With great difficulty we received a visa for him as an artisan with capital of 250 pounds sterling. At that time there were a small number of such certificates.

This did not happen so easily. His trade was as a quilt-maker (quilted and goose-down blankets). The English consul, with his gentile mind, asked a Jewish question: Why does one need a quilt in the hot and dry Israel? However, the Jews did get through the visa-hell. Everything was done: he had sold his shop, his goods, packed the packs. However, it was suddenly apparent that he had two daughters older than 18 in his household and they could not travel on their father's certificate. It is not hard to imagine the tragedy of a religious father who would have to leave two young girls in exile.

In short, they were not lazy, they abandoned their own businesses, traveled to Warsaw to the “Jewish bandits,” there they searched for a paragraph with the name hashlamet hamishpakha [the completion of the family], spoke, demanded, appealed to the pintele Yid [Jewish spark, essential core of Jewishness possessed by a person],

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A group of Lutsk halutzim [pioneers] at the grave of T. Herzl

When I brought him the good news from Warsaw, the Jew beamed and asked me how he could reciprocate for such a mitzvah [good deed] of saving a life? I answered him: with a prayer to God that we would have the merit to meet in Eretz Yisroel. The wish was realized, and possible, because the prayer of this Jew had occurred exactly when the heavens had opened before the heavenly throne…

The relevance of his trade in Israel [became clearer]; in the interval the world became “colder,” the human heart a little “frozen,” and the trade of sewing quilts became a “warmer” income in Israel, too, and as the American alreitnikes [nouveau riche] say – one makes a living…

The song is certainly well-known: A Khazndl oyf Shabes [A Cantor for the Sabbath]… Ruft zikh op dos kovaltshikl [The blacksmith calls out.]…and this is the immigration episode number two.

A blacksmith came and wanted to travel to Eretz Yisroel. He received a certificate from Hahalutz Hamizrakhi [Mizrachi Pioneers] for himself and his family. His name: Ruwin Klajner from Krasna. He came to me and poured out his bitter heart: He had sold everything, even the old rags, barely gathered together the several groshn and sent it to Hahalutz Hamizrakhi in Warsaw for the travel expenses, as well as a kind of “community meat tax payment” for buying the organization's certificates. “And it is not enough for them.” It seems that he had recently received a newly adjusted account and instead of the 700-800 zlotes that the expenses normally cost, the “party dealer” demanded more than double the amount from him. It is interesting that the account with the “recent

A greeting from the road

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admonition” was not sent directly to Ruwin Klajner but to the secretariat of the Lutsk branch of Hapoel HaMizrakhi [Mizrachi Workers – religious Zionists] with the postscript: “The letter must remain at the secretariat and only those who are interested need to be given its contents.”

As is evident, the parties still feared public opinion. I listened to the Jew and answered that I had to have the original letter. He answered that it was now at the “holy” secretariat and he was like a Chanukah candle to them: only to be seen and not to use… But I persuaded him that he should obtain this letter at least for several minutes.

He brought it and I quickly wrote down a copy. Suddenly, Ruwin Klajner began to tremble like a fish in water; he was afraid that, God forbid, a misfortune would result for him^[1] I consoled him, but it did not help. An hour later, he came to the door; this time with his wife, and both pleaded and cried and kept saying that they were doomed in both worlds. He would not get a certificate here and he had already sold everything and there is no Messiah… They pleaded that I give them the copy of the letter.

As much as possible, I calmed them, adding, “I will not return the copy of the letter”, but I assured them that my name would not be Waksman if they did not go to Eretz Yisroel, and without a “contribution.”

It was truly a pity watching their grief. However, I was sure that I was on the right path… On the same day, I sent the copy with an “ultimatum” letter to the Warsaw Palestine office, with the addendum: If Ruwin Klajner and his family from Lutsk do not go to Eretz Yisroel for the normal payment for the trip, without any additional “contribution” for party intermediaries, then you should know that I, the Zionist Waksman, will publicize the matter of the bad treatment by the Zionist parties' leaders in the secretariat in the press, but not in the Zionist Heint [Today], or the half-Zionist Moment, but, of course, in the Bundist, anti-Zionist Folks-Zeitung [People's Newspaper], so the public will know what is being done under our wings…

The “ultimatum” had an immediate effect and Klajner did emigrate. I met him in Tel Aviv after many years on Halutizm Street at his workshop. With a satisfied smile, he met me opposite the 'Shalom.”

The third emigration episode is a little comical. On a winter evening, a mysterious being slipped into my house; long, tall, wrapped from head to foot in a coarse woolen shawl or quilt. I only saw a pair of clever eyes from under the covering. He placed a frozen hand in mine, “Shalom Alecheim [Hello].” I invited him to sit. It took a long time before he emerged – first a silk cap, then a bit of a face with a long, large beard, a little covered in snow and with dangling icicles. Until, finally, a caftan, in which a thin figure of an old man was wrapped.

The group “Masada” on the day of Rubinsztajn's departure for Israel

It did not take long and it was clear that the Jew was correct. From his “bosom,” with great difficulty, he drew out a “request” with a red stamp, in accordance with law, sent by his father, Meir Tupelis, from Tel Aviv, a Jew already over 100 years old (later died at the age of over 110 years).

“So, do you have the documents to obtain an external passport?” He answered, “I have nothing, but I can obtain a “missing birth certificate”” (that is, find two witnesses who would swear that they remember when he was born).

The child left for Osowa (a small shtetele [town], not far from Lutsk), a place where Jews were blessed with longevity, several Jews found there were nearly 100 years old; they went to the village elder, swore, as it is said in the bible, and the “child” received the birth certificate. We created an external passport for him, created the visa and sent him to his father in Eretz Yisroel.

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Thus was Zionist work carried out in Lutsk, helping every emigrant, avoiding “unjustified hatred,” but on the contrary, creating many friends and respect for the Zionist movement, among those who emigrated to Eretz Yisroel and among those who still remained in exile. We helped not a few, but hundreds of families.

A little while ago, I gave an album with hundreds of photographs of registered Lutsk emigrants to the Palestine office. A number of them had the opportunity to go to Israel. A larger number of them wanted to emigrate and, alas, did not attain this goal. God know in what kind of torment they perished.

In creating the summary of the 20-year Zionist phase – 1917-1937 – in Lutsk, it is my duty to record the consistently warm communal atmosphere, the devoted Zionist work of all of the comrades who always searched for self-sacrifice and the correct path to achieve their purpose; working without money and payment, expressing the idea of Jewish national liberation.

Palestine Office in Lutsk 7 July 1921 Number 195 A Thank You Letter The Respected Comrades of Lutsker Relief in New York! Dear Brothers! The Great World War that ruined the entire Jewish population of Eastern Europe did not escape our birth city and, as is already well-known through the press and your esteemed delegates, the situation for the artisans was very bad that entire time. Now, because of rising scarcity for all materials, unemployment has increased greatly and a large number of artisans are looking for a place to emigrate, to be able to earn [a living] and maintain their families. The great national movement to build a Jewish national home in Eretz Yisroel that awoke the hearts of the Jewish youth in Poland also transported a significant part of the Jewish population in Lutsk. The first Lutsk Jewish pioneers were sent by the Lutsk Palestine office. (Among the 100 men) are found artisans who emigrated to Eretz Yisroel. From the letters that have arrived from Eretz Yisroel from these artisans to their relatives, acquaintances and friends, we have learned that they are well settled there. They have at the same time stated that there is a great deal of work for artisans there. This has prompted many unemployed artisans in Lutsk to turn to the Palestine office with the demand that it help them to emigrate to Eretz Yisroel where they hope to improve their critical economic situation and also help to build the large Jewish buildings of a Jewish home in Eretz Yisroel. The Lutsk Palestine office has used all of its power and influence to gather the necessary sum to aid the above-mentioned people on their trips, supporting them morally and materially. Because of the enormously large number of people at that time who turned to the Lutsk Palestine office (until now over 200 families and halutzim [pioneers] have registered for whom the office creates the necessary documents and travel passports), and because of the large catastrophe that befell Russian-Ukrainian Jewry, of whom a number were slaughtered, and the remainder who were completely ruined economically, which transformed the survivors into a large mass of emigrants that escaped with their last strength, naked, hungry and barefoot from the Ukrainian hell, our birth city Lutsk, as one of the nearest border cities in the newly created national borders became one of the legs of the journey for our escaping, unfortunate and impoverished brothers from Ukraine. For all of those on whose shoulders was spilled the entire bitterness of the events in Ukraine and whose tears filled the cups of tears before the Divine Throne, it was clear that the Jewish people no longer could remain. The bitter past must end and a blossoming future in the historical land, Eretz Yizroel, must be created for the people. For the above-mentioned reasons, the situation at the Lutsk Palestine office became catastrophic. Only thanks to the visit of your delegate, Mr. Julius Papir, and the brotherly support distributed by you in the amount of half a million marks was the situation temporarily improved. In the name of the Ukrainian halutzim who are now in Lutsk and in the name of the Lutsk emigrants, artisans for whom it was possible to prepare the most recent trip to Eretz Yisroel, to build a home there for themselves and for the Jewish people – the Palestine office expresses its deepest thanks and sincerest blessing to you brothers overseas. The material support in comparison with the great work that awaits us is very small. Morally, however, it has had a great effect and gives us courage in the great people's work. We are full of hope that your future support will be much greater, given that this would be the most suitable productive help that you could gather for our unfortunate brothers from Eastern Europe. Managing committee: Chairman: H Wajs Secretary: A. Waksman A. Cukerman A. Glajzer

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Comrades! The great good fortune for the Jewish people has arrived. The fortunate hour has finally arrived and the last fortress that was defended by external enemies and internal plotters has fallen. The wide gates have opened to the free fields, which stand ready and ask: Come and work, come and create!! The great hazardous Valley of Tears that weakened our hearts and souls has finally ended with a last and intense call: “L'Shana haba'ah B'Yerushalayim” [Next year in Jerusalem]! And at this earnest moment, when our hearts have in a Yom Kippur-like way cleared away the dirty past, we must feel again our past, dear childish nature and purely and sacredly understand the great ideal and the powerful godly work that now stands before us. We must imagine that Eretz Yisroel needs to become a fact of daily life for each of us and with heartfelt truth, renew the old agreement: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem – let my right hand forget its skill.” In order to accomplish this not with talk, but with deeds, there must come to power an internal realignment of the active strength that is purely interested in the work for Eretz Yisroel. Because only through a new wave, only by changing the current abnormal, hardened system of work, only by discarding the old broken-down ruins and in their place raising new, healthy, useful and normal edifices, only by all of this will we reach our goal and create a normal path in the national movement, in general, and in the work for Eretz Yisroel in particular. And thus we propose: A society must be created (without differences as to party, faction or federation) that will stand on the basis of “Work for Eretz Yisroel” and will place all organizations that have worked in the Eretz Yisroel area (such as Keren Hayesod [Foundation Fund – United Israel Appeal], Keren Kayemet [Jewish National Fund], Eretz Yisroel Bureau, Colonial Bank, Hehalutz [The Pioneer], Bank Hapoalim [The Worker's Bank], Hevrat Hakhsharat ha-Yishuv [Land Development Company] and so on) at an appropriate level and under a morally responsible and very committed communal control. We must begin building from the foundation and create a healthy and organized society. This can be achieved by creating the above-mentioned society. With the aggressive slogan, “Work for Eretz Yisroel,” we go into the Jewish street and wake the hardened hearts. Everyone who is in agreement with this slogan (without regard to party, faction or federation) can become a member of the newly organized society. We, the undersigned comrades of the initiative group, old and young, come to you now for the first time and say: Do not delay this auspicious one-time fortunate moment with which history favors our exiled generation! The serious time pulls us to more serious work and we will and want, have to and must follow! Remember: “Unity Makes Strength!” With Respect and Greetings from Zion: The Initiative Group: Uri Gliklich, B. Kuliner, W. Diment, Moshe Szjaner, Sh. Milchiker, Kh. Wajs, Kohath Kercman, A. Bronberg. B. Grauszewski, Mirmelsztajn, L. Kroynsztajn P.S. We propose a declaration and ask you to carry out. Two comrades will visit you from whom you can receive more precise information. Lutsk, 1921

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