[Page 476]

The Dzikow Chassidim occupied an important place in Rzeszów.

In Rzeszów there were two Batei-Midrash [prayer and study houses] of the Dzikow Chassidim: a large one, that housed the town's Talmud-Torah on Kazshimiyezsh Street (the trustee was Reb Noach Shapiro of blessed memory, and afterwards, Reb Ya'akov Natan Kanner of blessed memory), and the second and smaller Beit Midrash was situated on Grunvaldski Street (the trustee – Reb Motish Okshtein).

The large Beit Midrash was a Torah center for the Jews of Rzeszów in general, and for the Dzikow Chassidim in particular. Torah melodies emanated from there, day and night. During the day, the Beit Midrash served as the town's Talmud Torah^[1], where hundreds of students studied, and at night, Talmudic lessons were held there for young men. Great scholars also studied there, all the benches and tables were occupied, and the sounds of Torah resonated in the surrounding small streets. Reb Meilech Shochet occupied one table^[2] where he would give a lesson on the six volumes of the Mishnah, to a huge audience. At the second table, Reb Yisroel Zalman Shochet would give a lesson to many older Chassidim, also older young men, among them many who studied there from 5am until late into the night, who were students of the Yeshivah of Reb Yosef Reich of blessed memory.

The initiators of the “lessons” were the young students Reb Avraham Ofen, Reb Chaim Sokker, Reb Moshe Shapiro, Chaim and Yitzchak Bakun, Tzvi Gottlieb and Eliezer Kanlar. In general, they devoted themselves wholly to Chassidism and to the Dzikow Rebbe of blessed memory. They attracted many young boys to Chassidism and to study.

From my youth onwards, until the outbreak of the war in 1939, I spent time in the Beit Midrash, and I remember all the Torah readers there. The reader on the festivals, was Elishe Abramovitz, the circumciser in the town.

The greatest joy for the Dzikow Chassidim was Shabbat Shirah^[3]. It was the custom of the Dzikow Rebbe to come to Rzeszów every year for Shabbat Shirah. Extensive preparations were made weeks before and various written notifications in honor of the Rebbe, informed of his arrival. A couple of hundred Jews would come to the train station to welcome him. Tens of horse-drawn coaches would travel through the Rzeszów streets with the Rebbe, to Reb Yehoshua Shapiro's house, where the Rabbe used to stay. On Saturday night, when Shabbat was over, the Rebbe was escorted home from the Beit Midrash with dancing, and torches that illuminated the whole town and attracted many Rzeszów Jews.

When I visited Rzeszów in 1946, I went to the site of the Dzikow Beit Midrash. The Nazi murderers destroyed the house, and no sign of it all remained.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Talmud Torah – traditionally, a tuition free elementary school maintained by the community for poor children. Back
2. A table – is not specifically a table – it is a section or unit. Back
3. Shabbat Shirah – The Sabbath on which the song that Moses sung after the crossing of the Red Sea is recited, taken from Exodus 16. Back

“Beis Kneses Hachayat” ^[1] is what was written on a small house in Rzeszów that people called the “Tailors' Synagogue”. The Tailors' Synagogue was located next to the Beis Midrash and it was even connected to it with a corridor. My father, Yitzchak Rosenbaum was the gabbai for a long time and I prayed there with my father every day. The synagogue was beautifully painted (by Meilech Platzer and Wolf Silberrman). The Holy Ark was beautifully illuminated. In front of the pulpit was a “shiviti” ^[2] that I had written. Every year during the intermediate days of Passover there was an election to choose three gabaim (synagogue trustees). The majority of those who prayed there were tailors, but there were also some merchants such as Schmelke and Moshe Frankel, Naftali Garber, Pinchas Lifschutz and others. During the Days of Awe the cantors who prayed there were: Mendel Aryehs who was a shamash in the kloiz; his brother Moshe Aryehs, Mechele the Judge, Yechezkel Kraut and others. - Located near the Tailors' synagogue, on Mikoszki Street, was the “Tzanzer Kloiz” where the Hasidim always studied.

The Tailors' Synagogue was an old building and the Rzeszów municipal government always wanted it to be torn down because it obstructed traffic. But my father was successful in protecting the synagogue until the Nazi regime arrived. When I arrived in Rzeszów in 1944, I could not find the synagogue where I had prayed and studied.

The synagogue was also a place of refuge for persecuted melamdim who did not have a charter to teach. My melamed (teacher) was Moshe Sheinman from Sokolow. The Porters' Synagogue near the Woljer school was also a place of refuge.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Chayat in Hebrew is tailor, and the 'ha' is the definite article. Back
2. A sign with the verse 'Shiviti Hashem Lenegdi Tamid' (I place G-d before me at all times), that is often put up as a synagogue decoration, and is often drawn in an artistic fashion. Back

[Page 477]

It was dusk.

I happened to go on a mission to the Illinov synagogue on the east-side concerning a book of the Association of Immigrant Jews who were originally from the same region. The evening was terribly hot. The heat was unbearable – it was one of those summer days that New York once had a habit of imposing upon its people.

As I approached the address of the above-mentioned synagogue, all I saw before me, were locks on huge, bolted Beit Midrash doors. I thought that perhaps it was too early – in the summer, the congregation usually gathers later for the afternoon and evening prayers; all that remained for me was to rest on the doorstep of a nearby cellar and wait.

From the doorstep and over my shoulder – I heard at first, the muffled little voices of Jewish children, and I understood that here, behind my back, was certainly a cheder. And the more attention I paid, and the more I listened to their learning, the more familiar it began to sound to me. Something about the teaching made me feel that this was not the American version of chanting the prayers, but rather that old, familiar, sad version, that was forever in my veins.

It would do no harm, I thought, to observe once, what American children look like, when learning in such a cheder, particularly now, on the eve of Shavuot^[1].

A few steps down, I let myself into the open cellar door and sat politely on a side bench. All the little faces of the children were deeply engrossed in their books, bringing out the fiery tune of “Akdamot”^[2] – yes, the same chant, and the same quiver that the teacher Rabbi Shmuel Lebber, taught me in my birthplace.

Meanwhile, the Rabbi did not notice me. He sat with the breadth of his shoulders towards me, occupied with the children. Only when he finished teaching and turned around to me with a face full of red beard, I was astonished to see before me, my own teacher from my Galician birthplace: Rzeszów.

- “Sholem Aleichem to you, a Jew” – he extended his warm hand, and I felt the menacing fleshy hand at which I had trembled so often.

- “Good evening to you Rabbi Shmuel!”.

- “How” – he asked, “do you know my name, young man?”

- “Why, Rabbi Shmuel, do you not recognize me?”

- “There is something familiar” – he said. “Wait, let me gather myself, it will become clear to me”. …

At that moment, Rabbi Shmuel was unable to recall who I was. – “It is I, Berish” – I said to him. He smiled and put his hairy arm on my shoulder: - “You know, Berish, how I recognized you?”

- “By my face?” – I try to guess.

- “No”, he said, “by your voice”.

- “That's all, by my voice!”

- “Yes, by the voice” – he added.

And truly, alas, what else would remain with the teacher, if not the voice, the voice that repeated Chumash-Rashi [the Pentateuch with commentaries by Rashi] so many times to him, Shoftim {Prophets}, Kohelet [Ecclesiastes], the Gemarra, Baba M'Tziah, [the middle section of the order Nezikin in the Mishnah], Baba Batra, [the last section of Nezikin], Gittin [a Talmudic tractate]. All this was said with such fear of disaster from the Rabbi, that one should not wonder why, only the voice remained in his memory.

- “Nu, Reb Shmuel, how are things for you here in America? Again, the cheder eh?”

- “If only I had grasped its true nature. I was destined to come from overseas to bury a daughter; Indeed, I have just completed the 30 days of mourning. You remember Devorah?”

- “Of course, I remember Devorah, Rabbi; you loved her so much. She always sat on your lap and played with the small whip of the “Sarne -Fisl” when you were teaching us”.

I saw how his heavy eyelashes lowered again in mourning, and his whole body remained weak, so I began to ask about the other children to distract him from his misery – “do you at least have pleasure from the rest of your children Rabbi?”

“Reizl”, he said to me, “ has already, with God's help, married, and married well. Firstly, a young man who observes the Sabbath, and earns a living. Meir and Itzik work in a “dry-goods” business and also do not work on the Sabbath. Only Yenkele, things have not worked out well for him in America. He is, poor thing, not a lucky person. He landed in a “shop” and has remained there as a worker. In short, Itzik and Meir will become businessmen but alas, Yenkel will forever remain a shop-assistant. My wife, on the other hand, you know, an old-fashioned woman, toils, and still roams around in Rivington Street, and has no more tears from crying so much about Devorah”.

The evening became darker. In that moment, as the darkness settled over Reb Shmuel, I saw the Rabbi

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more in Rzeszów than in New York. His silence took me back to that summer evening when the children of “Glogover's cheder”, fought with the children in our cheder. Then someone threw a stone, and I fell in a stream of blood. The Rabbi, Reb Shmuel Lebber, ran to me and placed me semiconscious on a bench in the courtyard, washed my forehead with cold compresses, then put a large metal key under the nape of my neck as a remedy, so that the blood would stop as quickly as possible, and that no one at home would God forbid, find out.

Rabbi Shmuel Lebber became impatient because he was being called to the evening prayers. As I went out of the cellar-cheder with him, he turned to me - “And you, Berish, do you believe somewhat in America? I heard something, that you have become an influential person in the press! Do you at least, earn a living from it?” - “oh, nonsense”, I gestured to him,

- “You know of course”, he said, “in America everything is different. Here” he said, “a teacher becomes a prayer leader, a Torah reader, and a beadle, but praise the Lord God, blessed be he for that. May it be good from now on”.

The Rabbi took leave of me, as if forever, and disappeared into the Illinov synagogue for the evening prayers.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Shavuot – meaning “weeks”. A Jewish festival that is celebrated 7 weeks after Passover. It is a festival of the first fruits and also commemorates the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Back
2. Akdamot – an Aramaic poem read on Shavuot. Back

My father, Yitzhak Rosenbaum, was a tailor. Reb Itche, my father, was gabbai (trustee) of the Tailors' Synagogue and president of “Yad Kharutzim”. We lived on Koszciuski Street in Gerson Zinnamon's house. Our apartment consisted of a kitchen and one room. Dr. Teller lived in the same house with his parents Zindel and Sima. Dr. Teller was the city doctor, which was uncommon at that time. Simcha Buchbinder, whose son Mordechai became the founder of Poalei Zion in Rzeszów, also lived in the house.

The Tailors' Synagogue

The above mentioned synagogue was a place of refuge and so it was for a man called “Regale” who came to Rzeszów from some unknown place. He would walk around the entire day, back and forth in front of the synagogue, and talk out loud to himself. Small children would run after him and throw stones. At first nobody knew where he came from or who he was. During the First World War, I accidentally became acquainted with an Austrian writer Yosef Roth. When he found out I was from Rzeszów, he asked me about “Regale”. It turned out that “Regale” was his father. Immediately after World War I, Yosef Roth came to Rzeszów to search for his poor father's grave. Yosef Roth was a well-known writer and his works “Radetzki Marsh”, “Hotel Savoy”, “Oyb” and others are well known to this day.

Together with Moshe Grinbaum (his father Yehuda Grinbaum was a shoemaker on “Tepper Lane”) and other students, we gave evening classes for the members of Poalei Zion in Rzeszów. Once we lectured in Yiddish together with Meir Wald (Yaari). I read from Sholem Aleichem's work and Meir Wald read an extract from Mendele Mocher Sforim's “Dos Klein Mentschele”. A student reading a Yiddish work publicly was quite a sensation!

In 1907, a union for Jewish students was founded in Rzeszów and joined the “Yardenia” union. The first members were: Mendel Fett, Moshe Grinbaum, Benek Gleicher, Shmuel Lobash, Yosef Storch, Chaim Drucker, myself and others. Then we created an opposition to the Student Union “Yarednia” and demanded that people should learn Israeli geography, Zionist history, and Yiddish literature, with the study language being completely in Yiddish. Those belonging to the opposition were Moshe Grinbaum, Mendel Fett and others. We were victorious. Moshe Wald taught Yiddish literature once a week, Benek Gleicher taught Israeli geography, etc. National life in our union was passionate. We opened a library, organized evening classes and founded an amateur theater. One of those evenings that created a stir was with Nachum Sokolow and another Adolf Stand.

A large number of chederim were in Budner's house, in the “Budnerke” as it was called in Rzeszów. The house, that was located near “Tepper Street” was long and had a lot of balconies. Moshe Aryehs the melamed, lived there, with whom the children studied Chumash with Rashi and Gemara. Mendel Fogel also had a cheder there. He was a progressive melamed whom the students called “teacher” rather than “rabbi”. I learned to write Yiddish with him. Behind, on the ground floor, Mendel Shapiro had his “grammar cheder”. (Moshe Mashelik the bodkhen (jester) and Mottel Krebs the Klezmer with his fiddle also lived in that house.)

The other melamdim who were on “Tepper Street” were: Abraham Wasser, Anshel melamed, Chaim'l melamed, and Hirsch Melech. On Wolja in Ruska-Wies there were also a substantial number of melamdim and chederim. These were melamdim who taught in Reb Eliezer's Kloiz and in the Sokolower Kloiz. After grammar cheder one would move up to the higher melamdim who taught the children Gemara and Tanakh. They taught Gymnasia students in the evening. At that time, there were two Gymnasia in Rzeszów, but there were only a few Jewish students studying in them.

Among the prominent doctors in my time was Dr. Jablonski who also became mayor and director of the Christian hospital. Dr. Jablonski was a good surgeon. Dr. Kepel was popular and well liked, a pediatrician, a man of fine character who did not take any fees from the poor. Just the opposite, he would give them money to purchase medicine. Dr. Strasser (his father was a dentist of the old kind) helped the Jews in World War I. He died during a typhus epidemic. Also well loved was Dr. Dornfest. He had a fat cigar in his mouth and his face was perpetually red.

He belonged to the good, old doctors. He would come to the patients cheerful and lively and always spoke a kind of German Yiddish. He lived on Wolja and therefore he was the “the Wolja's doctor”. Dr. Kornfeld, a small Jew, a good healer, was very active in Hassidic circles. There were other doctors, mainly migrants.

I would like to the mention the Rzeszów market place with its characteristic image, Jewish businesses, extremely busy merchants, and stalls erected on the market days, which were Tuesday and Friday. The female hawkers, the Jewish porters, shippers, clerks and Kosziuszko's monument… all the houses around belong to Jews except Karpinski's house with the pharmacy.

It was not only the merchants' lives that were played out here on the market place. On Shabbes morning or in the evening one would see groups of Jews from different parties standing and discussing the election to the municipal government or the kehilla (community). There I see Abba Apfelbaum with his beard, Chaim Wald, and Naftali Glucksman going back and forth engaging in a long talk about a timely question. And there are the Fett sons with their father Shmuel Fett, with Mendel Neugroschel, a scholarly Jew, who lived on Mukuszke. His wife had a stall that sold dry goods. In other corners are Jewish artisans who rush around and around as in a beehive. Let us also mention the female hawkers at the market. In the winter they would sit and keep warm with warming pans. My mother Fruma would very often bring them a hot cup tea for them and they would shower her with blessings.

The Jewish stalls ran a long way, as far as Matejko Street and lengthwise to Grunwald Street and spread around the square. There were the stalls of the Fashion, soap, dry goods and fruit merchants that were all in Jewish hands. The butcher shops for non-kosher meat were the suppliers for Jewish butchers who supplied the military.

There were a lot of taverns in Rzeszów. One could surmise from this that Rzeszów Jews were drunks, G-d forbid! The Jews simply liked to sample a good glass of beer or mead on Friday evening or Shabbes at their tavern. Given the opportunity, men would sit down and discuss politics or municipal affairs.

The best known tavern with the best mead belonged to Yechiel Tenenbaum whose wife Chana would serve her tasty kigels and cholent to the guests. Also very popular was Yankele's mead tavern. There were also wine taverns (Tuchfeld, Moses, Hirschhorn, and Freund) and Jewish restaurants that were all concentrated in the market place. But there were also Jewish taverns in other parts of the city. On Chmielowka, not far from the train station, there was a tavern at the Wistula where the Rzeszów maskilim such as Wald, Gliksman, the Fetts and others would gather during the summer in the large garden.

It was called “Tepper” Street because Jews sold clay pots. Most of them lived on the hill near Gershon Zinnamon's house, where he also had his soap factory. We cheder youngsters used to use the hill as a slide during the winter, and summer we would run to the Wistula. In “Tepper Street” lived mainly poor people – porters, and their apartments were in the basements. Shmuel Fett's house was on the same street. He was a well-known wealthy merchant. All of his sons: Adolf, Ben-Zion, Hirsch and Mendel were Zionists and played a large role in the Zionist movement in Rzeszów. We held meetings in their fruit garden.

Besides the above-mentioned tailors there were also bakers, metal workers, locksmiths, turners, etc. in Rzeszów.

Metal Workers: Jakob Helfer and Keitelman were specialists in their trade, particularly in new, large houses.

Locksmiths: The Adler brothers, Leib and Pinchus, live on Wolja and were known for their machoism; Zelig Grad (his son is in Israel).

Turners: Shlissel, Klinger and others.

Goldsmiths and Jewellers: Schiff and his son; Naftali Graber; the Erlich brothers who were watchmakers; Zucker.

Carpenters: Chaim and Mordechai Kalfan were specialists in building new houses. Among the Jewish builders, Shragel and Mendel Trink were well known.

Shoemakers: Simcha Buchbinder, Yankel Epstein, Gliklach, Linder.

Droshsky Drivers: Their center was Wolja at Brune: Maltasch, Mantel and many others. In winter they would drive to the station in beautiful sleighs.

Cafes: The “Europaike” on Hieren Street belonged to Glicklach. The meeting of the Jewish intelligentsia and workers was in the peoples' cafe house at Finkel's, where Jewish students would play chess.

[Page 481]

Dr. Aaron Rozenbaum

During the war I was in Russia. I was in the Polish army (as a soldier) with my son until 1947. In that year, I arrived in Israel and am now working in Kupat-Cholim^[2] in Haifa. My son David Rozenbaum, works as an officer in the merchant marines.

My whole family: my parents, five sisters with their husbands and children, my only brother and his wife and children, were killed by the German murderers.

Ticzin, 8 kilometers south of Rzeszów, was an old, small town (there was a time when it was known as ”Reszow near Ticzin”), where 200 Jewish families lived among 3000 residents. The Jewish wagon-drivers were a familiar sight as they drove from Reszow to Ticzin to the Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Leibl, may his righteous memory be blessed. The Ticzin wagon-drivers with their emaciated horses, always stood at the Volye, in Rzeszów. Jewish people travelled to the Rebbe in Ticzin from all over Poland, from Germany and from America – and not only Jews – many non-Jews would also go the Rebbe for advice … The wagon-drivers in Ticzin truly made a good living, until the arrival of the buses.

The Rabbi came to Ticzin from the village of Blendabbe; first he was a teacher and led a sketish life. He was a chassid of the Shiniv Rebbe, who educated him to be a Rebbe, and chassidim of the Shiniv Rebbe began to travel to Ticzin. A crowd would gather at the small house from early morning until late at night. That was the only lively place in Ticzin, where one could observe the circumstances of the Polish Jews. The more the economic situation worsened in Poland, the greater the crowd that sought advice and blessings from the Rebbe. It was very difficult to approach the Rebbe, and people had to wait a few days to see him. I had the honor of visiting him when he became ill. He was a Jew with a Jewish heart, who always lamented the difficult situation of the Jews in Poland; he had a clear mind and logical thought. He died of a lung inflammation, and many Rabbis came to his funeral – I remember that the Rabbi, Dr. Yechezkel Levin, may the Lord avenge his blood, came from Lemberg to Ticzin for the funeral. With the death of the Rebbe, the whole town died. The wagon-drivers remained without sustenance, and many Jewish families who lived near the Rebbe, had to find a means of earning a living elsewhere.

The first Zionist organization, “Beit Yehuda” was established in Ticzin in 1910. It was founded by Goldflus, the son-in-law of Eliyahu Vang of Rzeszów (a well-known Zionist of Rzeszów). However, it only lasted two months because the Ticzin Rabbi and his Chassidim interfered. A Zionist committee was only established in 1918, with Yehoshua Tuchman, Shaya Blaushtein, and Dr. Hakke at its head. Shaya Blaushtein was a teacher, and a learned Jew, who taught the Ticzin Rabbi. In the early days, he was the Rebbe's right hand. Blaushtein's son went to the Land of Israel at age 16, where he was active in the Haganah and a commander in the police force (He changed his name to David ben Yishai), He died at age 48, and according to his wishes, he was buried in the cemetery in Tiberius, where he fought during the War of Liberation. A forest was planted in his name in Tsfat. After the pogrom in Ticzin in 1918, Shaya Blaushtein began to persuade the youth not to be passive, that they needed to organize

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resistance. The Rabbi was a great opponent of Zionism and excommunicated Blaushtein. He did this also because Blaushtein was the first Hebrew teacher and founded the first Hebrew school in Ticzin. However, the opposition from the Rabbi's side was so great, that the parents were afraid to send their children to school, and the school was therefore, forced to close. The struggle was on both sides, and more than once, the issue caused such turmoil, until it reached the courts. A dramatic section was founded, but they had to put an end to their activities. After a time, things settled a little, and Zionists were active in all areas. The library had close to 1000 books, in Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish. Once a month, Dr. Aharon Rozenbaum reported on hygiene and folk medicine. The organization was active until the Second World War.

Dr. Zaltzman, Dr. Shpizer, and Dr. Rozenbaum, actively participated in Jewish matters. The Jewish Advocates remained passive. There were eight Advocates in Ticzin who earned a very good living, because the Gentiles in the surrounding villages liked to litigate. The courts were also an important point for Jews, as they were able to earn something there. The Mayor, Tzibulsky, was a liberal person and the Ticzin Jews had access to him. He used to do favors. The priest did business only with the Jews: he sold the milk to a Jewish widow, he sold fruit to other Jews, but from time to time, he would show his true antisemitic face.

The large synagogue in Ticzin was one of the oldest synagogues in the vicinity, approximately 400 years old. Aside from this synagogue, there was also a Beit Midrash, a small prayer house ministered by the Ticzin Rabbi and by the Ticzin Rebbe.

The Jewish population in Ticzin consisted mostly of the Tuchman families. Therefore, every Tuchman had a nickname so that one would know to whom they were referring. For example, there were three Tuchmans with the name Avraham – so one was called “Tshimek”, the other “Shtshuk” etc, Among the Christians, the name “Mazurek” was popular.

Before the Second World War, the Jewish merchants worked very hard to earn a living, and many eminent merchants became impoverished and travelled to Rzezsow looking to earn a living…

Wagon drivers: I remember Ya'akov Shternlicht with his emaciated horse, and Hershel Zilberberg, who were the greatest enemies and rivals; Avraham Fenniger (he was called “Fommele””),and the old Meir Tzinman, with his white horse. Tailors: Mordechai Shlam, Mendl Tuchman with his Herzl beard, Betsalel Hirshenfeld and others. They barely earned enough for a piece of bread. Shoemakers: Hersh Negger, who lived behind the synagogue, was an important person in the Chevrah Kadisha^[3]. He was called “Hersh Meggi”. and Yenkalle Shuster, who had a large family. We also had a watchmaker in Ticzin. There was a doctor there who used cupping glasses [bankes], leeches, and he also extracted teeth. Apparently, he was a hairdresser. He was popular and played an important role in the town. Teachers: Avraham Richter had a “cheder” behind the synagogue where he taught small children; the teacher Reb Shaul, from Markov, with a wonderfully tall stature, and with fine deportment; the beadle of the synagogue was Mendele Shternlicht, who knocked on the doors every Friday [to remind the people to attend Sabbath prayer services] and a second beadle Shmuel Shammes who assisted at weddings and circumcisions. There was also a town Rabbi Yisroel Durlik. The old Rabbi and his son Ya'akov Yitzchak were murdered by the Germans.

The community council consisted of 24 councilors, and there was a large number of Jewish representatives, but they did not have a majority, and when a Jewish issue arose, they were able to form a majority together with some Christians. Eminent Jewish community leaders belonged to the council, those who had the courage to participate in Jewish matters: Leib Goldman, Ya'akov Aizen, and others. In the small town of Ticzin there were five taverns that belonged to Jews, but recently, a Christian tavern opened. Among the Christian intellectuals, were a few Advocates, the pharmacist, the judge, the manager of the Post, the notary, but they took little interest in the life of the town. They would become intoxicated, particularly in the Jewish taverns where they could buy drinks on credit, and often they remained owing large sums of money. They did not frequent the Gentile tavern because you could not drink brandy on credit there. The Christian teachers generally, did not participate in the social life of the town, except for one teacher, Kutula Frantzishek, who very often came to Jewish events. He sympathized with our movement, and he frequented Jewish circles; for this, he was hated by the Christian intellectuals, especially by the priest.

In the surroundings of Ticzin, there were many villages where Jews lived; in some villages there were even tens of Jewish families residing there, for example, in

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Lobinye. In Chmyelnik there were four families, in Kelnerova, three families, and the same in Strashildi, and in Bodzshibboi. When I travelled to attend to Christians who were ill, I would visit the Jews in the villages. Some dealt in cattle, some in fruit. In general, there was nothing to envy in their lives. From a distance, one could recognize where a Jew lived in the village – the windows were always sealed with shutters. I travelled very often to Jews who were ill, in the distant villages near Blazshev, where I met with the same scene. A village Jew rarely left his place; they were tied to their piece of ground that had belonged to them for centuries.

When I entered Rzeszów in 1944 with the Polish army, I also went to Ticzin. I cannot forget the destruction. The whole town was paved with Jewish gravestones, the small Jewish houses ravaged, and in many stores, there were only Gentiles. Not one Jew remained in the small town.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Gymnasium/gymnasye – Secondary school. Back
2. Kupat-Cholim - Israeli health insurance scheme. Back
3. Chevrah Kadisha – Jewish burial society. Back

The first time I saw lines in the publication “Ha'magid” that were endorsed by a judge, named Moshe Dovid Geshvind from Rzeszów – for me, the cheder boy from Belz, the excitement was so great, like an astronaut when he discovers a new, distant planet – a judge – an intellectual! … With a representative like a judge, the level of enlightenment of a town can be displayed to the world. A judge is not like a beadle, like Elyakim Melzak from Tarnapol [Ternopil], or a teacher like Ya'akov Reifman from Shebershin [Szcebrzeszyn], or the Maimon brothers from Zsholkiev [Zolkiew]… so I was sure, that in Rzeszów, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, were captivated by this “legendary” enlightenment. Soon my thoughts became more valid when I came across in “Ha'shachar” (a trivia – Peretz Smolenskin's “Ha'shachar”), in Boruch Verber's “Ha'Ivri”, and I think, also in Yosef Kohen-Tzedek's “Ha'gesher”, the name Mordechai Salik, of Rzeszów. Afterwards, it was truly a delight for me to discover a group of who took pleasure in acquiring knowledge: Mordechai (Mv”ch), Asher (Av”ch), Yitzchak (from Lantzut) [Lancut], and the young couple Shmuel (Shv”ch) and Devorah. Although I established that Mordechai (Mv”ch) lives in Vienna, Yitzchak in Lantzut, and Shmuel (Shv”ch) and his partner in Dinov [Dynow] (I do not recall where Asher (Av”ch) lived) – I was sure that they were all originally from Rzeszów. Firstly, how could they turn out to be such literate Jews, if not from Rzeszów? Secondly, how far is Lantzut and Dinov, and even Vienna, from Rzeszów? If I still mention the later arrival of Abba Appelbaum to this group – then the Rzeszów enlightenment circle, would be sealed.

The importance of this colorful, educated, circle, was not at all diminished by its detachment from Mordechai Salik. In the history of Enlightenment, this was not a unique event. Many years earlier, in the Eastern Galician center, Ya'akov Shmuel Bin, one of the most refined and important intellectuals became a “Ba'al T'shuvah”.^[1] His departure was without commotion, without hostility, and no one talked of selling themselves to the opposite side. Mordechai Salik's desertion however, excuse the comparison, must be mentioned. He left with a wild, fanatical, slamming of the door, and in his “Machazikei Ha'dat”^[2], for years, he did not cease to spit venom on the intellectuals, and later, on the Zionists. More because of self-flattery, than regret for his past “sins”, over the years, he published announcements in all the Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers, in which he asks Jews to send him, at any price, the pamphlets and papers where his name was mentioned, so that he can burn them.

How distant are my memories as a cheder boy. When I was in my 15^th year and I went to study in the small prayer house, I was already a Zionist, and I continued to maintain my contact with Rzeszów. This time I was already more personable, more important. Soon, Moshe Vizenfeld, may the Lord avenge his blood, with other Rzeszów residents and a few Western-Galician members (Yitzchak Loifban - of Dembitz [Debica], Berish Meller – of Yaslo [Jaslo], Yosef Meir Rozmarin – of Lantzut and others) began to organize “Ha'shachar”. Several youths from Lemberg [German name for Lviv], my Zsholkov friends in particular, with Moshe Elefant at the head, and I, the youngest among them, joined the West Galician members with all the enthusiasm of our young souls. Regarding this organization and its Zionist activity, it seems that I do not need to write about it at length. It still lives in the memories of many of us – and especially since there is living witness in the four issues of the periodical “Ha'shachar”^[3], whose editorial archive is still in the hands of Prof. Dov Sadan.

Finally, I want to mention the first group of “Chalutzim”^[4] that was organized in Rzeszów after the First World War. These magnificent boys and girls, led by Moshe Bierman, worked in my sawmill for approximately two years - until they emigrated to the Land of Israel.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Ba'al T'shuvah – a non-practicing Jew who returns to a life of religious observance. Back
2. Machazikei Ha'dat – those who intensify their religious observance. Back
3. Ha'shachar – means ‘The Dawn’ It is the name of a Hebrew journal published and edited in Vienna by Peretz Smolenskin between 1868 and 1884. Ha'magid, Ha'Ivri and Ha'gesher are also journals/ periodicals of the time. Back
4. Chalutzim – pioneers of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Back

Tzvi Simchah Ledder, who left his small town tens of years earlier, demonstrates in his descriptions of his town that he is bound to that place and that environment with thousands of threads. Tzvi Simchah Ledder describes so sincerely and affectionately the characters, the images and the surroundings of his town, a town that belongs to all of us, that one would think that he had lived there only recently, saw with his own eyes, and felt with his own heart and soul.

One forgets that it is close to 50 years that the abyss of eternity was devoured …

Like all of us, he loved his town, from which he does not seek to escape into the big, wide world, because his town and his surroundings possessed sanctity, beauty, warmth and soul, and he even found these qualities in the tailors' synagogue, among Jewish toilers, ordinary people who made their living from physical labor.

Reisha, or as they used to call it, Rzeszów, is situated in mid-Galicia, and separates West-Galicia from East-Galicia. It was therefore the mid-point of both sectors and the central point of a whole row of small Jewish towns around Reisha. For this reason, it possessed a combination of the enlightened eastern Galicians and religious Chassidim, and at the same time, language assimilated western Galicians. In Reisha there were Chassidic Rebbes, who had a “forechtz^[1]” of all the surrounding small towns. There were also Chassidim of various dynasties, and Chassidic small prayer houses where Chassidic tish^[2] were conducted.

Reisha was however, also an enlightened town, where there were many “Datshn”^[3] – that was what the religious Jews called the Jews who did not have sideburns, and did not wear velvet hats, or round, fur-edged hats on the Sabbath and festivals. In Reisha, at that time, one could then find young Chassidic men who were caught up in this atmosphere, who while studying Gemara, secretly read non-religious books and later left the prayer houses altogether, as did the author himself.

In the section of his book “Reisha small synagogue young men”, the author, who studied there, tells us, “a whole new world opened for me. At that time, 20 young men of mixed age levels studied there”. “I”, writes the author further, as he describes his friends in the small synagogue, soon, at the beginning, started to move closer to the red-haired Yossel. He was then 15 years old. He was tall, with a head of red hair, and two long curled sideburns. He had the reputation of being the greatest young genius in Talmudic learning in the town. He had a large head and a sharp mind – a true scholar. He was also a great admirer of Sonz Chassidism. His father Mendele Reich was one of the greatest scholars in the country.

Only 10 years later, the red-haired Yossel was my Rabbi in the newly established Reisha yeshivah that was housed in the synagogue during the day, directly opposite the Rabbi's home, and at night – in the synagogue or in the small synagogue of Linat Ha'tzedek^[4]. And a picture unfolded on a fresh, sunny day. We Yeshivah students from the surrounding small towns, from Lantzut, Sednishev, Ropshitz, Pshevorsk, and Grodzisk, were sitting on the school benches, listening earnestly to the Talmudic lesson that my Rabbi, the red-haired Yossel, was teaching us. “The Mishnah has a law” - that is how he always began, with so much fiery enthusiasm that he carried us all away with him.

Within a minute, the hearty, sweet Gemara tune began to sway like a full-blown symphony that resounded in the street like the most beautiful music. However, it once happened that one of us was innovative and had the courage to interrupt the lesson right in the middle, then our Rabbi – who thought that was a truly novel interpretation of the text – announced to us all: the Grodzisk student says such and such … let us answer him. And a kind of duel began, a conflict. Each one wanted to say something innovative, and the red-haired Yossel sat quietly enjoying himself, waited until everyone expressed their opinions, and like an experienced swimmer, he released himself into a sea of Talmud, unraveled the crux, and resolved each one's questions.

Reisha, as previously mentioned, possessed not only small synagogues, study houses, and a yeshivah, but also, as Tzvi Simchah Ledder tells us, a fine Jewish intelligentsia that even had a regular education. Of the Reisha Jews, 80% were orthodox but not fanatical. The town stood midpoint between the “enlightened” Eastern Galicia Jews and the religious Western Galicia Jews, and although the Enlightenment actually began sooner than in other countries, it had more success in the neighboring countries. When it returned to us, it did not come in the form of Y. L. Gordon's “Be a man in the streets and a Jew at home”, but in the form of a national revival. The residents of Reisha, as well as those of the surrounding small towns, were Zionistically inclined.

[Page 485]

They were actually the sons and daughters of the Chassidim.

As a legacy from their religious fathers and mothers, they assumed the Chassidic fervor, and their children, passionate small synagogue youth and yeshivah students, later grew up to be intellectuals, writers, modern Rabbis, professors and doctors, who settled in the most distant lands, in the largest cities in the world. They brought with them to those places, the beliefs of their parents, the beauty of the soul, the Chassidic fervor, and the uplifting of the human being.

Tzvi Simchah Ledder brings this all out so clearly and vividly in his “Reisha Jews”, even in the later section, when the author turns to his biography and talks about his family history and his experiences in his new home in America. Here you also feel the close connection to his hometown Reisha, where he tries with all his strength, to sever the threads that tied him to that place.

With this, one can say that the author managed to create a comprehensive picture of a Jewish town with its characteristic way of life, with all its personalities and images that possess thousands of charms, a world that has passed and will not return, that left behind, only warm memories mixed with a nagging nostalgia in our hearts. As you read page after page, you catch your breath when you see there, not merely the author's childhood years, his environs, but your own, your environs, your childhood, your small town. The scenes and characters also become familiar to you, because they are not representative of Reisha only, but of the hundreds of burnt, destroyed towns in Galicia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland that were obliterated with blood and fire by the Nazis.

When I finished reading Tzvi Simchah Ledder's book, suddenly, the lyrical verses of the German- Jewish poet Ernst Toller came to mind:

At twilight sisters,
from all those who are yearning in your dark shadows
I stand alone, eyes and ears wide open,
Does someone bring greetings from there …

The yeshivah in Reisha (painted by the artist Naftali Hakahal)

1. Forechtz – a gathering of the pious who would travel to the towns where a Chassidic master teacher lived. Back
2. Tish -means a ‘table’. In Chassidic Judaism a tish is a communal gathering around a table for spiritual upliftment and joy. Back
3. Datsh – from the German word ‘Deutsch’, a German. Refers to a Jew dressed in European clothes or an assimilated Jew. Back
4. Linat Ha'Tzedek – a hostel for the poor. Back

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